For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God.
Chapter 34
This prediction was fulfilled dramatically in 1948 only THREE years after the horrors of the holocaust and the attempts to wipe the Jews out as a people. Such a turnaround is depicted graphically in the famous words of Ezekiel 37 where a valley full of dry bones is the scene of an incredible resurrection. No wonder the witness of the Jewish people has long been seen as proof of God's hand in the world He created. There is a famous story in which the Kaiser asks Bismarck, “Can you prove the existence of God?” Bismarck replies, “The Jews, your majesty. The Jews.”
But the point of this post is to think about how this happened. Ezekiel describes God as a Shepherd but it is impossible to show exactly where God acted. There must have been millions of seemingly random decisions and actions by politicians and people throughout the centuries that brought us to 1948. Nowhere can we say, 'This is where God did it!' It is impossible, yet the fact is that it happened. God shepherded the Jews back to their own land. His hand was unseen, yet its effect is undeniable. God is a potter, shaping the lives of his people.
Posts
Regathering? I wonder.
ReplyDeleteSome people say ... it's an occupation. After eighteen hundred and sixteen years, from the Bar Kokhva Revolt in 132 to the Arab-Israeli War in 1948, the land was no longer the Jews' to retrieve like a lost hat. The Jews' claim to the land ended in the second century. If it were any other people invading any other land, it would have provoked a war to protect the rights of the invaded (cf. World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War). An occupation isn't something to be proud of.
Was Ezekiel really describing an "end times" regathering? Does it count as a regathering when nearly 70% of world Jewry live in the USA?
I am grateful for this blog because because I am not slammed when I make a counter position. I appreciate that - thank you.
Fred.
Hi Fred,
ReplyDeleteI understand the politics of the Middle East but as the Bible unfolds, from Genesis 13 onwards, the view emerges that God gave that land to the children of Abr(ah)am. That inheritance then passed on to Isaac & Jacob (Israel).
I would argue that the Jews lost their hat much earlier than 132. I think it was around 588BC that the Jerusalem fell & the Hebrew people had to wait until 1948/69 to own the land again. But the *claim* to the territory goes back as far as Abram.
The regathering is, as you say, incomplete - but it is still remarkable. Extermination camps to a sovereign nation in 3 years? That's quite a resurrection!
Your comments are always thought provoking Fred, please keep them coming as and when you feel moved!
Regards
Charles