Just as Joseph was hated and rejected by his brothers (Gen. 37:4), so Jesus was "despised and rejected of men" (Isa. 53:3; John 15:25). "He came unto his own, and his own received him not" (John 1:11). "He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart" (John 12:40). "Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in" (Rom. 11:25) "Until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the old testamant; which veil is done away in Christ" (2 Cor. 3:14).
The Talmud refers to Jesus Christ as a "fool" (Shab. 104b) and "Illegitimate" (Kallah 1b (18b)). Jews cried out "His blood be upon us and on our children" (Matt.27:25). However, only several hundred people (at best) could fit inside Pilate's praetorium and less than that wrote the Talmud. Would it be fair to say that the United States was pro-homosexual because 30,000 homosexuals marched in Washington D.C.? What about the 200 million other Americans? John 7:31 says that many of the multitude (of Jews) believed in Him" (NAS). Many of the (Jewish) rulers also believed in him (John 12:42-43). The whole world is responsible for the death of Messiah (1 John 2:2) -- not just the Jews.
SCATTERED, PERSECUTED And INSULTED
"I will cause them (Judah -- 14:19) to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth" (Jer. 15:4). "I will scatter them (Judah -- 9:11) also among the heathen ... and I will send a sword after them" (Jer. 9:16). "And I will persecute them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be removed to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse, and an astonishment, and an hissing, and a reproach, among all the nations to which I have driven them" (Jer.29:18). They are "the dispersed of Judah" (Isa.11:12). "They shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations; and Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the gentiles, until the times of the gentiles be fulfilled" (Luke 21:24). See also Matt. 27:25; 1 Th. 2:14-16; Isa. 65:15; Deut. 28:37,65; Ez.5:12-17; 36:16-19). The words "byword" in Deut. 28:37 and "taunt" in Jer. 24:9 are both a translation of the same Hebrew word "sheninah" and we find Jews called "sheeni" as an insult. This is where the word "shenanigans" meaning "mischief" came from. People say "I got Jewed" when they pay too much.
After the Battle of Carchemish and the accession of Nebuchadnezzar in 604 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonian army took Jehoiakim captive in 604 B.C. In 586 the temple was destroyed and Zedekiah was taken captive. Then came Persian Haman in 362 B.C., Syrian Antiochus Epiphanes in 167 B.C., the Roman Titus in 69 A.D. and the Bar Kochba Revolt in 133 A.D. Justinian closed all synagogues in 535 A.D.; there were forced conversions in the Byzantine Empire in 722 A.D. The First Crusade of Pope Urban II massacred Jews in 1096 A.D. The Second Crusade of Pope Eugene III occurred in 1147 A.D. The Third Crusade against Jews occurred in 1190 A.D. Jews were continuously falsely accused of desecrating the host beginning in 1243 A.D. Jews were blamed for the Black Death in 1349 A.D. In 1485 A.D. came the Spanish Inquisition; Poland Massacred Jews in 1648 A.D.; 1905 A.D. began Russian pogroms against Jews and lastly the Nazi Holocaust of 1933-1945 A.D. But the "times of the Gentiles" ended in 1917 -- 2520 lunar years after 604 B.C. -- when Jews began returning to Palestine. In 1935 -- 2520 lunar years after 586 B.C. -- many German Jews began emigrating to Palestine. In 1948 -- 2520 solar years after 536 B.C.when most Jews refused to return-- Israel became a state May 14th. (That is 2520 x 360 / 365.25 = 2483.8. Then 536.4 - 2483.8 = 1947.4 +1 = 1948.4). But God says, "I am very sore displeased with the nations ... for I was but a little displeased with my people, but the nations afflicted them far beyond my intentions" (Zech. 1:15, Tay). "He will avenge the blood of his servants" (Deut. 32:43).
REGATHERED
Zecharia 10:10 says, "I will bring them again out of Egypt and gather them from Assyria." "I will ...gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land" (Ez. 34:11-13). "I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south , Keep not back" (Isa. 43:5-6). "I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land" (Ez. 36:24; see also Deut. 30:3-4; Isa. 11:11-12; Jer. 23:7-8; Ez. 37:21; Ez. 34:25-27).
The Zionist Movement caused Jews in Israel to increase in numbers from 25,000 in 1880 to 713,000 in 1948 to 2,500,000 in 1967 chiefly through immigration from 100 countries. In 1995 the population was 5,480,400. Israel is the only nation with immigration open to the old, infirm, halt, blind and maim (Jer. 31:8).
LEND MONEY
"Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies" (Gen.49:8). "Thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow" (Deut.15:6). "But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth" (Deut.8:18). In your seed shall all nations be blessed" (Gen.18:18).
Moneylending was perhaps the most important contribution by the Jews to medieval Europe. They were not allowed in any other profession due to persecution. But lending money was forbidden to Christians since it was considered "usury." The Jews therefore became indispensable. Kuhn, Loeb, Goldman, Sachs and Seligman are famous investment and banking names. But foremost among them were the Rothschilds. Kings and rulers came to the Rothschilds for money. Fifty banking houses in New York City are controlled by Jews. After centuries of having their wealth confiscated wrongly by the nations, it was fitting that they should reap the wealth of the nations through interest.
KEEP The LAW
"Judah is my lawgiver" (Ps.60:7; 108:8). "Ephraim compasseth me about with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit, but Judah yet ruleth with God, and is faithful with the saints" (Hos. 11:12). "He showeth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation; and as for his judgments, they (other nations) have not known them" (Ps.147:19-20).
"This people have I formed for myself; they shall show forth my praise" (Isa.43:21). "Ye are my witnesses, saith the Eternal, that I am God" (Isa. 43:12). "My words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Eternal, from henceforth and forever" (Isa.59:21). "If ye will obey my voice ... ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and an holy nation" (Ex.19:5-6). Many Jews are faithful to the Old Testament law. Most Christians assume that Jesus abolished the law. But Jesus was a Jew himself (John 4:9; Heb. 7:14; Rev. 5:5) and said, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law" (Matt. 5:17). The Jews faithfully preserved the scriptures and obey them as Jesus illustrated in his parable of two sons (Luke 15:29).
HELPFUL To MANKIND
God told Abraham that "Thou shalt be a blessing" (Gen. 12:2). " All the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him" (Gen.18:18). In thee and in thy seed shall all families of the earth be blessed" (Gen.28:14). "And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people like dew from the Eternal, like the showers upon the grass" (Micah 5:7). "They shall show forth my praise" (Isa. 43:21).
Christopher Columbus, the discoverer of America, had Jewish blood in his veins. Spinoza of Amsterdam, descended from Portuguese Jews, was a philosopher of vast intellect. Moses Mendelssohn translated the Old Testament into German. His grandson was the great Jewish musician and composer. Benjamin Disraeli, leader of the conservative party in England, was a Jew. Earl Reading, Lord Chief Justice of England and Viceroy of India, was a Jew. Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, was a Jew. Siegfreid Marcus, a Jew, built the first internal combustion automobile, which is preserved in the Industrial Museum of Vienna. Ludwig Taube, who discovered the use of digitalis in heart disease, was a Jew. Bernard Baruch the American financier; Irving Berlin, the American composer and Jack Benny the comedian were all Jews. The British ran short of minerals to manufacture high explosives in World War One. Dr. Chaim Weizmann offered his discovery of synthetic acetone as a substitute. He asked for a homeland for the Jews in return. Some people think this Jewish chemist thereby won the war for the allies. Americans were aided in World War Two by the Jewish mathematician Albert Einstein who discovered that E =m(c)2 which was the formula that made the atom bomb possible.
IRRIGATE DESERTS
Israel was to colonize the "waste places" of the earth (Deut. 32:7-9, 29; Isa. 58:12) and restore ancient places (Isa. 58:12; 61:4). Isaiah 49:8 says Israel would "inherit desolate heritages." Numbers 24:7 says Israel will "pour the water out of his buckets." Isaiah 35:1 says "the wilderness ... shall be glad ... and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom like the rose" and Ezekiel 36:34 says, "the desolate land shall be tilled." Israel "fills the world with fruit" (Isa.27:6) by making the land productive. Isaiah 41:18-19 says, "I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water."
The Yarkon-Negev water pipeline from the Sea of Galilee aids farming in the northern Negev. The Negev Desert is blossoming. Water coming to Beersheba has made it a thriving metropolis of 152,600 people (1995). Production of citrus fruit in 1995 was 942,300 tons. The Dead Sea is 25% mineral salts. It contains enough potash to supply the world for 1000 years. Jewish farmers receive
valuable nitrates evaporated in pans from Dead Sea water to fertilize their fields.
Israel's Potash production in 1995 was 2,214,000 tons.
A STRONG MILITARY
"Judah ... thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies ... Judah is a lion's whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up" (Gen. 49:8-9). Israel "shall eat up the nations his enemies, and shall break their bones" (Num.24:8-9). "All the people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Eternal,and they shall be afraid of thee" (Deut.28:10). "He increased his people Israel greatly, and made them stronger than their enemies" (Ps. 105:24). "They that strive with thee shall perish ... they that war against thee shall be as nothing" (Isa.41:12). "The nations shall see and be confounded at all their (Judah's) might" (Micah 7:16). "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Eternal" (Isa.54:17). "And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight" (Lev.26:8). "I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee" (Ex.23:27).
In the First Palestinian War (1947-1949), Israel fought against Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria and won about 1,930 square miles. In the Suez- Sinai War on October 29, 1956, Israeli forces reached the eastern bank of the Suez Canal in about 100 hours seizing the Gaza Strip and nearly all the Sinai Peninsula. The UN forced a withdrawal. The Six-Day War began on June 4, 1967. With 50,000 troops in sixty-one hours, Israel put to rout Nasser's 80,000 Egyptian troops and 900 tanks, pursuing them to the Suez Canal, inflicting 20,000 casualties (cf. Isa. 19:16-17). Egypt lost 197 planes, 600 tanks destroyed, 100 tanks captured. Egypt also lost her Sinai oil fields, which had supplied nearly 80% of her oil requirements. Egypt lost revenue from canal shipping since -- with Israel occupying the east bank -- no ship would pass through the canal until Israel permitted it. Israel's losses were 26 planes, 61 tanks, 275 dead, and 800 wounded. Israeli tanks and infantry also scaled the Golan Heights where artillery fire had harrassed Jewish settlements for years. They not only destroyed the gun emplacements but also pushed the Syrian forces back twenty-two miles to within thirty miles of Damascus. Israeli troops occupied the old city of Jerusalem with a loss of only 189 killed. They also occupied the west bank of the Jordan. Jordan's casualties in the war were 8,000 killed and wounded. Another 203 Arab planes were destroyed on these fronts. Egypt and Syria attacked Israel on October 6, 1973 -- Yom Kippur. Israel seized a bridgehead on the west bank of the Suez and drove a foothold a few miles west of Damascus. After 18 days of fighting, the Arabs lost about 2,000 tanks and more than 500 planes. The Israelis lost 804 tanks and 114 planes. The Jews don't possess great wealth or a large population; their nation is not isolated geographically; they don't have a large fleet of ships; a sacred stone; a royal throne in Palestine; nor are they blind to their identity, etcetera, because they are not the Kingdom of Israel. Remember that the birthright is Joseph's (1 Chr. 5:1) and the scepter is Judah's (Gen.49:10). Nevertheless, with British and American help, the prophecies relating to the tribe of Judah have been fulfilled. "In that day I will make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the peoples round about on the right hand and on the left" (Zech. 12:6). "And they shall no more be pulled up out of their land" (Amos 9:15). "If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us; Then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us ... Blessed be the Lord, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth" (Ps. 124:2-6).
MODERN HISTORICAL DATES FORETOLD
In 1517 Jerusalem was conquered by the Ottoman Turks.
1517 plus 400 years:
Gen. 15:13-14 says, "And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them FOUR HUNDRED YEARS; And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall THEY COME OUT".
The Israelites came out of Egypt at the Exodus and entered the promised land anciently. In modern times, they have come out of many countries and gone into the promised land. Amazingly, after 400 years, in 1917, Jerusalem was freed from the Ottoman Turks. That is a modern fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy that was fulfilled long ago. Do some other prophecies have a dual fulfillment? Definitely.
1517 plus 430 years:
Ex. 12:40-41 says, "Now the sojourning (in Canaan and in Egypt) of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was FOUR HUNDRED AND THIRTY YEARS. And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that ALL THE HOSTS OF THE LORD WENT OUT from the land of Egypt." The 430 years began to be counted when Ishmael was born.
Is there a parallel in modern times? Yes. 1517 + 430 yrs = 1948. Israel became a nation in 1948, but Jerusalem was divided.
1517 plus 450 years:
Acts 13:20 says, "And after that he gave unto them judges about the space of four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet." These were theocratic years.
Do modern times parallel these 450 years? Yes. 1517 + 450 yrs = 1967. The Six-Day War started on June 5, 1967. By June 7, all of Jerusalem, including the temple area, was in Israel's hands.
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