Jews have wandered in diaspora for nearly 2,000 years. That was clearly God’s judgment upon
them. Jesus spoke of that judgment to
come: “now as He (Jesus) drew near,
He saw the city (Jerusalem) and wept
over it, saying, ‘If you had known even you, especially in this your day, the
things that make for your peace! But now
they are hidden from your eyes. For the
days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you,
surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children
within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon
another, because you did not know the time of your visitation’”
(Luke 19:42-44). This happened exactly
in 70 A.D.
That judgment was of the severest sort, but their sin in
rejecting Jesus as their Messiah was the most severe in all Israel’s history
and can never be exceeded.
Does God relent in His judgment? Yes.
Listen to what Israel’s “Prince of Prophets”, Isaiah, says: “Comfort,
yes, comfort My people!” ‘Says your God.’ “Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry
out to her, that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she
has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins” (Isaiah 40:1,2).
The most comfortable thing that can be spoken to the Jew in
diaspora is, “Go home! There you will be accepted, comforted and loved.” Many in the world are attempting to persuade
the Jews to do this in a most negative way with the rise of anti-Semitism
particularly in Europe. The same folly
that kept many Jews in Hitler’s Germany until there was no getting out, is at
work in many places in Europe—they see themselves as part of the culture in
which they are hosted, but they are not—they are Jews and must go to the one
place God has designed for their comfort and protection, the land of Israel.
Here is what will happen, first, the general order of God’s
invitation and then specific pressure.
This sentiment is expressed by the prophet Jeremiah, “Therefore behold, the days are coming,”says
the Lord, “That it shall no more be said, ‘The Lord lives who brought up the
children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ “but, ‘The Lord lives who brought
up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands
where He had driven them.’ For I will
bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers. [And here is how God will do it.] “Behold, I will send for many fishermen,”
says the Lord, “and they shall fish them; and afterward I will send for many
hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out
of the holes of the rocks (Jeremiah 16:14-16).
Note: “fishermen”
draw their prey with enticing bait; “hunters” drive their prey with fear. In both instances the objective is to get the
Jews back into the land. It must be
understood in every place that a Jew living outside the land of Israel is a
contradiction and a sign of judgment.
God wants them back home.
Whatever pressure it takes to get them back, God will apply it.
Once back, there God will deal with them. Those dealings will be harsh because the
Jews, historically, are a very stubborn people, but ultimately they will be
“refined” and come forth, in God’s sight, as “purest gold”
Gentiles need to be as supportive of this process as love
dictates, because the Messiah for whom both Jews and Christians (with a
Biblical world-view) long cannot and will not return until the Jews are in the
land.
