The Miracle of Israel

A story is told about a European emperor who asked a Christian missionary to summarize the Bible in one word. "Your Majesty, you want me to summarize the 66 books of the Bible in one word?" the missionary asked. "Yes," the emperor answered. "Then, give me three days to fast and pray." Three days later the missionary came back to the Emperor. "Your Majesty, the Bible could be summarized in one word: Israel."

"Elaborate," the emperor requested. "In the book of Genesis we read about the beginning of Israel. In Exodus we read about the redemption of Israel. In Leviticus we read about the ordinances God gave to Israel. In the prophets, we read prophecies concerning Israel. When we come to the New Testament we read about the Jewish Messiah, the Savior of mankind. Coming to the final book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, we read about the one hundred and forty four thousand sealed from the twelve tribes of Israel. Your Majesty, from Genesis to Revelation, Israel is the focal point," the Christian missionary said.

The emperor, being a man with a great knowledge of the Bible, said, "You are perfectly right; you have passed the test." I would probably have one exception or disagreement with one statement. From Genesis to Revelation, Jesus is the focal point.

But it is true that the nation of Israel is seen from Genesis to Revelation, in a consistent continuum of God's plan for the Jewish people.

At the end of the 40-year wilderness wanderings, the Israelites are on the eastern bank of the Jordan river, just north of where it enters the Dead Sea (Deuteronomy 1:5). Moses has been forbidden by God to enter the promised land. So, before he leaves them in the hands of Joshua, he reiterates the law their parents heard at Mt. Sinai. This is no short farewell. His words take up the first 32 chapters of Deuteronomy. His audience is made up of those whom Joshua will lead into the Promised Land. Very few of them were alive when the Israelites left Egypt 40 years earlier.

As most of you know, the word "Deuteronomy" means "second law." Twice in the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses is used by the Lord to give a prophecy of Israel's future. The first prophetic outline is given in 7 short verses in Deuteronomy 4:25-31. The second is an expanded view, found in Chapters 28 - 32. This book is like a road map for where Israel's history was headed, even before the trip got underway. What Moses says covers the whole history of Israel for more than the next three thousand years in advance. Moses provides an outline of what will happen to this nation once it crosses over the Jordan River and settles in the promised land. In Deuteronomy 28, we have a very interesting Passage of Scripture.

You have heard of the Beatitudes. They are found in Matthew 5. But Deuteronomy 28 has a set of beatitudes as well.

Deuteronomy 28:2-6 NKJV

2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God:
3 "Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country.
4 "Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.
5 "Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
6 "Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.

I didn't read verse 1. It tells us these blessing are conditional.

Deuteronomy 28:1 NKJV

6 "Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the earth.

Beginning in Verse 15, we read the other side of the condition. There is a listing of what will happen if they do NOT "obey the voice of the LORD." And somewhere in the middle of this chapter, Moses becomes prophetic. In Verse 36, Moses writes, "The LORD will drive you and the king you have set over you to a nation unknown to you and your father." Moses is speaking several hundred years prior to Israel having a king.

What Moses prophesies is that the Israelites will indeed not obey the voice of the LORD. And, in the verses that follow, he prophesies a nation will sweep down through their cities. Then, near the end of the chapter, we read:

Deuteronomy 28:64-66 NKJV

64 "Then the LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other,…
65 And among those nations you shall find no rest, nor shall the sole of your foot have a resting place; but there the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and anguish of soul.
66 Your life shall hang in doubt before you; you shall fear day and night, and have no assurance of life.

These words have come to pass to the very letter since 70 AD. For most of the last 2,000 years, the Jews have been scattered into nearly every country on earth. The words, "your life will hang in doubt before you," has been fulfilled in every country to which they were scattered. Even though its people were dispersed to the four corners of the earth, God has not permitted any power to exterminate them entirely. Throughout history, several attempts to annihilate the Jews ended in utter failure, defeat, and humiliation.

The first attempt was during their 400 years sojourn as strangers in the land of ancient Egypt: In Egypt, a king arose that did not know about Joseph and the Israelites. But when he saw the Israelites were growing in number, in his paranoia, he feared they would get large enough to over take him. So he sets over them hard taskmasters to afflict them. But the more he afflicts them, the more they grew. You can read about it in Exodus 1.

When that didn't work, the Pharaoh decreed all the Jewish sons born from that day thrown into the river. But, the nation that threw every Jewish baby boy into the river had its own first born die in the 10th plague, and their army thrown into the Red Sea when Moses brought the Israelites out.

Another attempt to wipe out the Jews is recorded in the book of Esther during the reign of King Ahasuerus. Haman decided to do away with them, but instead he was hanged on the gallows which he had prepared for Mordecai the Jew (see Esther 7:10). The Romans on two occasions tried to silence forever the voice of the Jews. Two million of them were killed, starved to death, or sold into a slavery worse than death in A.D. 70. More than half a million more were slaughtered by the Romans sixty-two years later, in what is called the Bar Kochba revolt.

More recently, during the second World War, Hitler attempted to annihilate the Jews and he declared to the world that he would resolve what he called the "Jewish problem." He murdered six million Jews in concentration camps. He ended the war with total defeat to his nation. Germany was divided and he committed suicide.

On the other hand, at almost the same time, Israel was reborn, and God's people were preserved. Almost twenty years later in 1967, Gamal Abdel-Nasser, Egypt's president, along with the Syrians and Jordanians, mustered a strong Arab army for the sole purpose of "throwing Israel into the sea." The outcome once again was a humiliating defeat for the Arabs and a return of all of Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Israel. I will say more about that battle later. Truly the words of Leviticus 26:33 have literally come to pass, for they read: "I will scatter you...and draw out a sword after you."

The Jews today have what is called the Haggadah. Haggadah means "The Telling." The Haggadah is the order of the Passover Seder. At some point in the Seder, the following is recited:

"And this is what has stood by our ancestors and by us, that not only one time have they (the enemies of Israel) opposed us and tried to destroy us, but in each and every generation they oppose us and try to destroy us, but The Holy One, Blessed Be He, has saved us from their hands."

We come to the 20th century and you would never have expected Israel to gain her land back again. The reason for saying that is that no people who had ever been out of their land for several hundred years had ever regain it -- Never in human history.

But, down through history, over the past 2,000 years, many Bible scholars consistently insisted, on the authority of God's Word, that Israel would be restored back to her land. I like to read old books about Bible prophecy, old enough not to be influenced by the present political state of the world, before Israel became a nation - even before even thinking about a nation. I want to see what they say about the nation of Israel, even before its restoration was planned.

I have a book - a commentary on the book of Revelation - by Dr. J.A. Seiss - written in 1865. He takes a very firm position that Israel would have to be reestablished as a nation again. Many Bible Scholars, in centuries past, have maintained that a countdown to the End of the Age could not actually begin until national Israel was reestablished.

Against all historic odds, Israel was reborn in one day, in May, 1948. Never before has a nation ceased to exist for so long a time, and then returned to become a nation again. And this is exactly what God has done in the nation of Israel after almost 2,000 years in exile. The rebirth of Israel in 1948 was truly an historically unprecedented miracle of God.

Just as Ezekiel prophesied, the dry bones began coming back to life (read Ezekiel 37). Even many unbelievers understood the prophetic implications of May 14, 1948.

One such person was the former Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. In a speech given in Washington DC, to the American Jewish Community, he said: "As you all know, I am not a religious man. But you don't have to be religious to see that the Jewish state is a fulfillment of prophecy."

The story is told regarding the acquisition of the first tracts of land upon which the city of Netanya was founded. Netanya is a city on the Mediterranean Sea about 20 miles north of Tel Aviv. When Jewish pioneers approached an Arab landowner proposing to buy his stretch of barren, undeveloped coastal sand dune, the Arab replied, "God forbid I should sell you what is rightfully yours by the word of God. I do not own this land, but rather my father and my father's fathers were merely custodians over it during your absence. I am entitled to compensation for keeping the land, but I cannot sell you what is already yours."

In the weeks prior to May of 1948, meetings took place in Tel Aviv. Ben Gurion and the leaders of the Jewish Agency and the Haganah ("defense") debated the wisdom of declaring independence. By the beginning of May, the Palestinians and Arab states were already fully mobilized for war to insure the new Jewish state would be stillborn.

Part of the miracle of Israel is that it became a country without much of a standing army and no air force. All they had was a militia called the Haganah ("Defense") It would be attacked by five of its neighbors, whose armies were 10-times larger, and yet, they would survive. While the Arabs were acquiring arms from every corner of the world, no one would sell the Jews in Palestine rifles or bullets. Israel was forced to smuggle weapons - principally from Czechoslovakia.

When Israel declared independence on May 14, the army did not have a single canon or tank. They could put to use 9 obsolete airplanes. The Haganah militia actually had 60,000 members, but only 18,900 were fully mobilized. On the eve of the war, chief of operations, Yigael Yadin told David Ben Gurion, "The best be can hope for is a 50/50 chance."

1948 - War of Independence

Let me share with you some of the miracles of the Israeli War of Independence. Some might consider them coincidental or lucky events. But I think many of you will see in them a similarity to the Old Testament battles. We must also keep in our minds what is written in the Old Testament about future battles.

The victory of the 1948 War was a big miracle composed of a series of little miracles. Over 2,500 years ago, the Prophet Isaiah made a remarkable prophecy concerning Israel after they had been re-gathered into their own land.

In Isaiah 41:9 tells of the LORD taking the Jews "from the ends of the earth….from its farthest region." And then in verses 12 & 13, we read: "Those who wage war against you will be as nothing at all……for I will help you."

A Syrian column of 200 armored vehicles-including 45 tanks-attacked Degania, the oldest kibbutz in Israel. This kibbutz is located next to where the Jordan River leaves the Sea of Galilee. Without artillery, Jewish forces were helpless to block the Syrian advance. Until then the only heavy weapons available in all Israel were four howitzers of the type used by the French army in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Two of these ancient fieldpieces were promptly dismantled and rushed to Degania.

The local commander, Lieutenant Colonel Moshe Dayan, had them reassembled at the very moment the first Syrian tanks rumbled through the kibbutz perimeter, and Israelis scored a hit on the advance tank. Had the Syrians known that these two obsolete weapons represented half the arsenal of field guns in all Israel, they would have pressed the attack. Instead, the armored vehicles swung around in their tracks and clattered back up the mountain road. This must have been extra special for Moshe Dayan, because he was born in this very kibbutz in 1915.

The Jews here had very few weapon and 2 obsolete howitzers, but they turned aside an army of 200 armored vehicles and 45 tanks. But didn't God say "their enemies would be as nothing."

Let me now take you to the city of Safed, north of the Sea of Galilee. Last week, I showed you that this city was the one mentioned by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, when He said, in Matthew 5:14, "a city on a hill cannot be hid."

There was a very small unit of Israeli defenders who were holding off a thousand Arabs. All they had beyond their rifles was one mortar launcher. A sudden tropical storm broke loose. The Israelis in desperation took their remaining gasoline, poured it over 50 empty drums, set them afire and rolled them down the hill. The flaming barrels flying down the slopes, the rumble of hollow barrels striking rocks-together with the tropical storm- created such an illusion that the bewildered Arabs, imagining some sort of secret weapon, took to their heel and fled. God has often used the tactic of causing confusion amongst the enemy's troops

In December of 1948, the Egyptians were harassing Israeli settlements in the Negev while advanced columns were moving north. Yigael Yadin used the Bible for strategy. It mentioned an ancient road forgotten for centuries, which ran almost directly to Mushrafa, the Egyptians' central garrison. Heavy boulders were pushed aside with bulldozers. Soldiers in armored vehicles, jeeps and supply trucks sped under cover of darkness along the ancient road and surprised the Egyptians. Taking this garrison destroyed the Egyptian defense system and ended the war 14 days later.

Let me relate the story of an Israeli Tank commander, who found himself and his men in the middle of a mine field. One of his men prayed for divine guidance, and immediately there was an unprecedented wind that blew away nearly a foot of topsoil, then suddenly stopping, revealing the hiding places of thousands of mines, so the soldiers could escape unharmed.

To liberate the airport at Lydda the tactics of Gideon were employed. Seven thousand Arab troops were ready to attack. Sixteen Israelis dressed as Arabs infiltrated into the city of Lydda. Like Gideon's band of 300 they made such a commotion during the night that the Arabs, totally confused, fired upon each other. Finally the majority fled back across the border.

The Syrian Army had regrouped near Galilee. A Jewish column of 24 homemade armored trucks and cars, on their way to relieve a besieged Kibbutz, took the wrong road and crossed the border into Lebanon. Before they discovered their mistake, they ran head-on into a column of supplies for the Syrian Army in Galilee. It included dozens of trucks of ammunition, a string of light artillery and 20 brand new armored cars. The Israelis fired point blank at the first truck-a tanker loaded with gasoline. It exploded and set on fire the following truckload of hand grenades. Rapid repeating explosions were heard for miles around. Terrified, the Syrians abandoned their cargo. The Israelis scarcely had enough men to drive the captured supply train back into Galilee. Finally they reached the beleaguered Kibbutz, only to learn that the Arab besiegers heard rumors that the Jewish army had invaded Lebanon, therefore, the Arabs fled Israel.

Egypt was the first to sign an armistice, on February 24, 1949. Syria was the last, on July 20, 1949.

Israel begins to build

The population of Israel in 1948 was about 640,000. Jews began returning to their homeland. I reread Israel's Declaration of Independence this past week. Here is one statement within it: "The State of Israel will be open for Jewish immigration and for the ingathering of the exiles."

It reminds me of Isaiah 43:5-6 NIV

5 ...I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west.
6 I will say to the north, 'Give them up!' and to the south, 'Do not hold them back.' Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth -

Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion, was an ardent student of the Bible. He trusted it to be an accurate history of Israel and its land. He dispatched engineers, horticulturists, botanists, etc., with the Bible in one hand and research tools in the other. And miracles happened.

Following Bible clues, copper and iron mines were established. One mining engineer, Abraham Dor, observed at the richest veins of copper, "When we come upon the slag and furnaces of ancient Israel, we often get the feeling that someone has just left."

Deuteronomy 8:7-9 was often framed on the walls of mining offices. It reads:

For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land,... a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper.

Even as war still raged and the little State faced possible destruction or bankruptcy, the newcomers poured in. During the first three years of statehood, the average reached 18,000 a month and in some months the figure exceeded 30,000. Between May 15, 1948, and June 30, 1953, the Jewish population of the country doubled. By the end of 1956, Israel's population had nearly tripled, reaching 1,667,000. Imagine the economic shock of absorbing this many new people!

The ability of a nation to handle this much growth is truly a miracle. After Hurricane Katrina, many from New Orleans left for Houston, Texas. We heard about those who were housed in the Astrodome. The population of Houston grew instantly by 5%, and you heard news reports of the difficulty of Houston to assimilate that number.

Israel's population grew also by about 5% in the first two months following independence. But it didn't end - the population grew continuously for years at an even greater rate. A six-year study by over 250 scientists and experts predicts that by the year 2020, the population of Israel will exceed 8.1 million, making Israel by far the most densely populated developed country in the world. Israel will be more than 2.5 times more densely populated than Japan or the Netherlands.

Facts about Israel

Let me share with you some facts about Israel today. From dozens of interesting things about Israel, I have chosen 15 to share with you.

1. Israel's $100 Billion economy is larger than all of its immediate neighbors combined.

2. Israel has the highest ratio of university degrees to the population in the world.

3. According to industry officials, Israel designed the airline industry's most impenetrable flight security. U.S. officials now look to Israel for advice on how to handle airborne security threats.

4. More than 85% of Israel's solid waste is treated in an environmentally sound manner.

5. With more than 3,000 high-tech companies and start-ups, Israel has the highest concentration of high-tech companies in the world - apart from Silicon Valley in California.

6. Israel leads the world in the number of scientists and engineers per capita than any other country - with 145 per 10,000, compared to 85 in the U.S, over 70 in Japan and less than 60 in Germany.

7. The cell phone was developed in Israel by Motorola, which has its largest development center in Israel.

8. Voice mail technology was developed in Israel.

9. Both Microsoft and Cisco built their only Research and Development center outside the US in Israel.

10. A team of Israeli and US researchers has designed a watermelon picking robot endowed with artificial vision to do the job of harvesting.

11. Israel's Given Imaging developed the first ingestible video camera, so small it fits inside a pill. Over 65,000 patients have swallowed the M2A capsule, which allows doctors to take pictures and diagnose the inside of the colon for cancer and other digestive disorders.

12. Israel was the first nation in the world to adopt the Kimberly process, an international standard that certifies diamonds as "conflict free."

13. The first PC antivirus software was developed in Israel in 1979.

14. Israeli scientists are developing a nose drop that will provide a five-year flu vaccine.

15. Israel has the highest percentage in the world of home computers per capita.

While on the business environment in Israel, let me make an additional statement - or observation - to the rapid expansion of industry. Most of you are probably aware of the bird called a Crane. The word "crane" is also used for other objects. Avi Shemesh - our guide in Israel, told us that the economy and building is growing so rapidly, that they jokingly call the building cranes the official bird of Israel.

The 6-Day War - 1967

Let's jump now to the six-day war to look at a few more miracles. 131 hours and 50 minutes. That's all it took for tiny Israel to devastate the armies of Egypt, Jordan and Syria between June 5 and June 10, 1967. In just 6 days, Israel changed the course of Middle East history and politics. I don't know if it is original with me, but I like to say, "Israel fought for 6 days and rested on the 7th."

I am going to give you some of the details of the battle, but I don't want you to lose sight of the overall picture. So let me give you some information of the big picture. You have probably heard of the battle strategy of "divide and conquer." It is every general's nightmare to find themselves between two enemies, coming at you from two fronts. In that kind of battle, you cannot put all your resources in one area, thus reducing your ability to fight the most efficient battle. But the 6-Day War was a battle on at least three fronts. Egypt, Jordan and Syria - Possibly a fourth, in Lebanon. Not only that, but the Israeli military was outnumbered on every front and in all services.

Israel could mobilize an army of 264,000 maximum. But more than 50% of those normally filled industry position every day. So an extended battle would cripple the economy because of a lack of workforce.

Facing them were 525,000 Arab soldiers - 240,000 of which was in Egypt. There were 2,424 tanks in the hands of the Arabs, which outnumbered the Israelis 3 or 4 to one. The Israeli air force could field 350 aircraft, to 939 by the Arabs.

With that overview, let me give you some of what I would call miracles. Look at Egypt first. This was the largest of Israel's foes, with nearly half the Arab soldiers and half of their aircraft. After asking the UN forces to leave the Sinai, and the UN doing what was asked, Egypt immediately lined up 80,000 troops on the Sinai border with Israel. This was 3 weeks prior to the beginning of the war. The other Arab neighbors did the same - Syria - 40,000 and Jordan - 40,000. Egypt had another 180,000 troops throughout the Sinai and the Nile Delta.

Two weeks before the war started (May 22nd), the Egyptians blockaded the Straits of Tiran, not allowing any ships in or out of Israel's southern seaport - Eilat. They had earlier denied access of Israeli ship to the Suez Canal.

Three weeks prior to the war, Egypt issued a postage stamp depicting Nasser and, to his right, a map of the middle east, showing Israel in flames. Before the war began, the radio in Cairo announced: "Our people have been waiting 20 years for this battle. Now they will teach Israel the lesson of death!" Nasser went on the radio to say that any war with Israel "will be total, and the objective will be to destroy Israel." A Syrian army commander predicted Israel's destruction in 4 days.

Egypt had installed 180 Soviet SAM-2 missile sites, plus 240 SAM-3 missile sites. Historical records show that Russia provided the radar coverage, and 12,000 troops to help man the missile and radar sites. They also provided 50 new MIG-21.

On our recent trip, whenever it was possible, I sat down with our guide Avi, one on one. I wanted to learn more about some of the stories he had alluded to in open conversation. I was only afforded two such opportunities. Once at a rest stop, while others were shopping or looking around. Once was at the dining hall after everyone else had finished and left. After returning from the trip, I tried to document his stories with other sources. And there really is no end to documented stories about what I am going to share with you.

1. How about the Egyptian tank commander in the Sinai Desert, who surrendered to a vastly inferior Israeli force on the second day of the war.

When asked, he said he surrendered because he saw hundreds of tanks in the desert heading his direction. What he saw was either a mirage or God put an image in front of him. There were actually less than a dozen tanks in the Israeli regiment.

2. Another incident over the Sinai peninsula.

A few Jewish tanks were surrounded by a number of Egyptian tanks. The Jews were sure they were going to die. But strangely enough, the Egyptians surrendered. When later asked, they reported they heard what sounded like hundreds of aircraft heading their way, and they realized they were the ones who were outnumbered. But the Israelis say there were no aircraft in that area at or near that time. Somehow, every single Egyptian hallucinated the sound of warplanes above them.

3. Yisrael, an Israeli cab driver, was drafted to fight in the 6-Day War as part of the paratroop unit.

Their assignment was to conquer the Straits of Tiran. The Straits of Tiran is located near the southern end of the Sinai Peninsula, about 15 miles from Sharm-el Sheikh. At that place in the Red Sea is an Island, with the Straits of Tiran between it and shore.

Yisrael reports after he returned from battle this story.

"The Israeli soldiers didn't have to parachute out of the airplane which took them to the Tiran Straits. They landed like spoiled tourists in the airport, because the Egyptian regiment which was on guard there fled before Israeli troops were even visible on the horizon. After landing, I was sent with another reserves soldier, an electrician to patrol the area. When we had distanced ourselves about two kilometers, an Egyptian half track appeared before us filled with soldiers and mounted with machine guns on every side. We had only light weapons with a few bullets that couldn't stop the half track for a second. We couldn't turn back, so we stood there in despair, waited for the first shot, and for lack of a better idea, we aimed our guns at them. But the shots didn't come. The half track came to a halt, and we decided to cautiously approach it. We found 18 soldiers inside sitting with guns in hand, with a petrified look on each of their faces. They looked at us with great fear as though begging for mercy. I shouted "Hands up!" As we were marching them and I had returned to a state of calm, I asked the Egyptian sergeant next to me, "Tell, me, why didn't you shoot at us?" He answered, "I don't know. My arms froze - they became paralyzed. My whole body was paralyzed, and I don't know why."

The Israeli cab driver goes on to add, "How can anyone say that God didn't help us?"

4. Within a few hours after this war began, Israel had destroyed two-thirds of the Egyptian air force.

And most of the air fields were destroyed.

IDF Director of Operations, Major General Ezer Weizmann was asked by Mr. Levanon, the father of a fallen pilot, "……how he could explain the fact that for 3 straight hours, Israel's Air Force planes flew from one Egyptian airstrip to another destroying the enemy planes and airfields, yet the Egyptians did not even radio ahead to inform their own forces of the oncoming Israeli attack." Ezer Weizmann, a man who later served as President of Israel, was silent for a moment. He then lifted his head and exclaimed, it was "The finger of God."

By the end of the first day:

o 2/3 of Egyptian air force was destroyed.

o 2/3 of Syrian air force was destroyed.

o Nearly all Royal Jordanian air forces was destroyed

o Israel had captured:

o El-Arish - the largest city in the Sinai. Its population today is 115,000.

o Rafah - largest Gaza city - on the Gaza-Egyptian border - population today: 130,000. It has the only airstrip in Gaza.

This gave Israel supremacy in the air in this arena. This caused the Egyptian field units on the ground to begin retreat, because they knew the Israeli ground forces would soon be headed their direction.

During the Israeli air missions, alerts were sounded in Cairo after the missions were over and Israeli planes had returned home. On several other occasions, the "all clear" was given while Israeli aircraft were approaching their targets

5. Egyptian ground retreat.

The ground forces were told to destroy their bases and retreat toward the Suez Canal.

Egyptian officer, Abd al-Hafiz, said afterward:

"I cannot describe to you what we felt during the retreat from Sahrm el-Sheikh. We nearly cried, for we could not believe what was happening. We never saw one Israeli soldier."

An Egyptian reserve officer, Dr. Abd al-Fattah al Tarki said:

"Everyone lost their heads. The army on the roads was in a state of complete collapse. It was a massacre, a disaster. Israel never would have achieved a quarter of its victory if not for the confusion and chaos."

That sounds like several of the battle the Israelites had in the Old Testament.

One Egyptian Colonel whose vehicle broke down was ignored by army drivers when he tried to flag down alternative transport. The Jerusalem Post newspaper reported:

"Two thousand million dollars of Russian military equipment, consisting of tanks, small arms and ammunition, by the tons scattered all over the Sinai Peninsula is being gathered and assembled for the use of Israel."

In fact, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) was so quick and successful, that it stopped taking prisoners, except for officers. The rest were told to run for the Suez or into the desert with no shoes. The Israeli army was hampered by the retreating Egyptian soldiers, because their advance was faster than their retreat.

Here are a few more miracles.

6. Egyptian military blunders.

A few days before the war, the Commander of Egyptian forces in the Sinai was ordered to change commanders in most of his brigades, putting in charge officers who didn't know the terrain of their forces. On the same morning as the attack, Egyptian officers at a radar station in northern Jordan picked up the scrambling Israeli aircrafts, and sent an alert message to Cairo. The sergeant in the decoding room of the supreme command in Egypt tried to decipher the message, but he failed because he used the codes from the previous day.

The night before the battle began, Egypt's Commander in Chief and most of his top officers attended a party at an air force base in the northern delta area. Early the next morning, he took off for the Sinai, not for battle, but asked his major officers to attend a meeting with he and a delegation from Iraq. When the Israeli strike happened, not one senior officer was at his post.

A German journalist summarized the war on the Egyptian front.

"Nothing like this has happened in history. A force including a thousand tanks, hundreds of artillery cannons, many rockets and fighter jets, and a hundred thousand soldiers armed from head to toe was destroyed in two days in an area covering hundreds of kilometers filled with reinforced outposts and installations. … No military logic or natural cause can explain this monumental occurrence."

That is a correct statement. No military or natural cause - but it can with supernatural help.

Let's look at other military fronts in this war.

Jordan

To begin with, let me say that Jordan probably would have set out this war if it had not been for a lie from Egypt. Egypt sent a communiqué to Jordan saying Egypt had been victorious on the first day of battle. This led Jordan to believe that Israel was there for the picking. Jordan controlled the West Bank and most of Jerusalem at that time. Had they not entered the war, they probably would not have lost so much.

There is an incident where the Jordanian forces actually welcomed the Israeli tanks under the command of Israeli Colonel Uri Benari, as it moved into Shechem. The colonel gives his eyewitness account: "At the entrance to Shechem stood thousands of Arabs who waved white handkerchiefs and clapped their hands. In our naivete, we returned greetings and smiles. We entered the town and wondered: We are advancing and there is no disorder, no panic, the local armed guards stand by with rifles in their hands keeping order, and the crowds are cheering. Suddenly something happened which changed the entire picture in a moment. One of our officers wanted to disarm an Arab guard. When the latter refused, our officer fired a shot in the air. At that moment, all the crowds disappeared and streets emptied out. The Arabs began to shoot. I didn't comprehend what had transpired. Only later, did I understand. The residents of Shechem thought that we were the Iraqi forces who were due to arrive from the direction of Jordan. The numerous enemy tanks were situated on the west side of Shechem. They woke up to their error but too late."

The Jordanians and the Arabs in the West Bank were surprised and awed by this one incident. At the beginning of the war, Hebron, Shechem, Jenin and Jericho were heavily armed. Every small Arab village had much arms. But from that point on, they hid their weapons, not considering to use them and flew white flags of surrender from every house and window.

The fear of God fell on hundreds of thousands of proud Arabs, who were filled with hatred and loathing for Israel. Only the day before had they sworn to fight until their last drop of blood. By the third day, there was international pressure on Israel to accept a cease fire proposed by King Hussein of Jordan. At the last minute, this ceasefire was nixed by the unwillingness of King Hussein to comply with the terms of the ceasefire he had initiated. Indeed, "the hearts of rulers and kings are in the hand of God."

None of Israel's accomplishments was as important to the Jews as the capture of East Jerusalem. Late in the evening one day, an IDF truck loaded with arms and shells parked next to a Jerusalem building. Its mission was to bring a fresh supply of ammunition to the front line outposts. The element of danger was great in that if the truck were hit by enemy fire, the subsequent explosion of all the ammo would bring down all the building in the area. Suddenly the whistling of an approaching enemy shell was heard, and the shell, indeed, scored a direct hit on the vehicle. But the Arab shell did not explode. It remained perched atop the pile of Israeli shells in the truck.

What makes this conquest of Jerusalem so remarkable is that Israel didn't even plan to take Jerusalem at the beginning of the war.

Here is another Jerusalem incident. There was a battle for what was called "ammunition hill," located in northern Jerusalem, about one mile from the Temple Mount, and several hundred yards west of Mt. Scopus, where Jerusalem University is located today. At that time, Ammunition Hill was in Jordanian territory. It was captured by an Israeli scout, totally by accident. The scout was doing what he was supposed to do - he was scouting out the enemy positions. It was a moonless night, and as he walked, he accidentally fell through into a Jordanian trench.

Getting his composure back, he just started firing his rifle from the hip. The result was the capture of "ammunition hill." This became very instrumental in taking over the rest of Jerusalem 30 hours later. Today there is a museum and reconstructed trenches for visitor to see.

By the end of day 2, Israel had control of the Old City of Jerusalem. Here is a picture of some of the senior military men, walking through the Lion's Gate. This gave the Jews access to the Western Wall of the Temple Mount. When they saw the wall, Soldiers broke out in singing and prayers. Here is a picture of Rabbi Shlomo Goren at the Western Wall. And here is a picture of the senior military men approaching the wall.

At that time, some of the generals knew God had directed the battle and were not afraid to admit it. Commander Rafael Eytan, who led the paratroopers of the 35th brigade, said: "Apparently someone in heaven was watching over us. Every unintended action they (their enemy) took and every unintended action we took always turned to our advantage."

I love the remark made by an American West Point general. He said that "though the US Military Academy studies wars fought throughout the world, they do not study the Six Day War - because what concerns West Point is strategy and tactics, not the miraculous."

Never before in the history of warfare has there ever been such a lightning victory by so few against so many. At least, not since the battle fought by Gideon and his 300 men.

I don't know if you are familiar with the Haretz daily newspaper in Israel. It is a very liberal newspaper - at least from my personal point of reference. But, after the 6-Day War, they printed: "Even a non-religious person must admit this war was fought with the help from heaven." Indeed, there were many miracles during the 6-Day War.

David Ben Gurion made this statement: "In Israel, in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles." Here is another statement that probably most you have heard. I believe it was Ben Gurion that said this: "The difficult we do immediately. The impossible takes a little longer."

The Miracle of the Land

Now, I want to examine the Land of Israel. There has been a number of miracles concerning the land. They should not surprise us, because the Bible told us in advance what would happen.

In the broad program of prophecy relating to Israel, few factors are more important than the promise to Abraham of the perpetual possession of the land. It is not only constantly reiterated in Old Testament prophecies over a long span of time, but it is an integral part of the call God gave to Abraham, which begins the timeline. According to Genesis 12:1, God said to Abraham: "Get out of your country, from your famil,y and from your father's house, to the land I will show you."

It is almost impossible to avoid the plain implication that the term "the land" was a geographical designation and that Abraham understood it in this way.

Israel is known by a number of names. It has been called Canaan, Eretz Yisrael, Zion, or simply ha-eretz, meaning "the land." Ha-eretz is a sign of its belovedness and significance to the Jew. It is the Holy Land, par excellence.

For the Jew, Judaism encompasses three core ideas: God (Yahweh), the Torah, and Eretz (the Land). The Land of Israel is a very special place. To the Jew it is the only place on earth where they can achieve their mission.

Deuteronomy 11:10-12 (NKJV) says:

For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden; but.... It is a land for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it (eyes on the land), from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year.

We are told here that there is a definite difference between this land and the land they came from.

The Promised Land is called a "good land" some sixteen times in the Old Testament. It is further describes as a "land flowing with milk and honey" another 23 times. Indeed, there is something very special about this land. But it isn't so special without the legitimate inhabitants.

The Jews were only given the land because of their mission which was given to them by God. If they abandon the mission, they lose the land. Living outside of Israel is viewed as an unnatural state for a Jew. For the Jewish person, the world outside of Israel is referred to by the Hebrew word, GALUT or its root GALAH (Gaw-law'). It is meant to be a disgraceful term, referring to their EXILE or CAPTIVITY. Today we usually use the term Diaspora, meaning "dispersion."

The Old Testament is largely a story of the people's relationship with the land. At the core is "the Promised Land." And the action of the story largely concerns either a moving towards or away from this land. The people are either wandering aliens longing for this land, or possessors of the land scheming to maintain possession of it.

One thing that makes the Land of Israel and the Jew different from all other place is this. Virtually every nation in the world bases its claim to its land on conquest. "Might makes right" is the historical claim of almost all nations in history. To the victor goes the spoils, including the land. However, the Jewish people base their claim on God's promise. God promised Abraham that he and his descendants would inherit the land of Israel as an eternal possession.

In the words of the Bible, Genesis 15:18 reads: On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying: 'To your descendants I have given this land…'

I find it interesting that the Hebrew verb used in the Scriptures is NATATI. Natati means "I have given" - past tense. That implies that God had already given the land to the Jews at some earlier time. The Bible, however, gives no earlier promise than that given to Abraham. Many commentaries, especially those of rabbinic origin, suggest that God had set aside the land of Israel for His people already at the time of Creation. I'm not sure yet how strongly supportable that statement may be, but it certainly was in the mind of God at the time of creation, since God lives in an ever-continuous present tense.

My intention this morning is not so much to establish the fact that this land belongs to Israel, but rather to look at what God said about the physical land during the time the Jews were scattered, and what would happen to it when they returned.

First, let's look at what God said about the land during the time when its people would be in exile.

Leviticus 26:32-33 NKJV

32 I will bring the land to desolation, and your enemies who dwell in it shall be astonished at it.
33 I will scatter you among the nations and draw out a sword after you; your land shall be desolate and your cities waste.

Leviticus 26:32 (NIV) puts verse 32 this way:

32 I will lay waste the land, so that your enemies who live there will be appalled.

Notice a few things here.

1. This is the work of God - "I will lay waste the land" - "I will scatter you among the nations." God says that when He scatters the Jews, the land will become desolate and waste.

2. The land will be inhabited by Israel's enemies in their absence. And those who live in it will be astonished - appalled - because they can't grow anything.

If you examine historical records, you will find that the land of Israel was populous and fertile up to the time of the destruction of the Temple in AD 70. Back in the time of Moses, the land of Canaan was described as a land "flowing with milk and honey." 20 times in the Old Testament, it is so described.

Even up to the time of Flavius Josephus, a 1st century historian, the land was still very prosperous and fertile. I quote him from Book 3 of The Jewish Wars.

"For the whole area is excellent for crops and pasturage and rich in trees of every kind, so that by its fertility it invites even those least inclined to work on the land. In fact, every inch of it has been cultivated by the inhabitants and not a parcel goes to waste. It is thickly covered with towns, and thanks to the natural abundance of the soil, the many villages are so densely populated that the smallest of them has more than fifteen thousand inhabitants."

After the Diaspora, the scattering of the Jews, beginning in AD 70, the land became desolate, unable to grow much of anything. During the two thousand years of Israel's exile from its land, numerous empires have conquered the Land, and countless wars were fought for its possession. And yet, astonishingly, no conqueror ever succeeded in permanently settling the Land. Neither have they been able to cause it to bloom.

Mark Twain visited Israel in 1867. (His Book - Innocents Abroad) I want to quote three observations he made about the land.

"We traversed some miles of desolate country whose soil is rich enough but is given wholly to weeds - a silent mournful expanse… A desolation is here that not even imagination can grace with the pomp of life and action. The further we went the hotter the sun got and the more rocky and bare. Repulsive and dreary the landscape became."

In describing the territory around the Sea of Galilee, he called it a "blistering, naked, treeless land." He spoke of the villages as "ugly, cramped, squalid, uncomfortable and filthy."

He adds, the villages are a "solitude to make one dreary….unpeopled deserts….rusty mounds of barrenness, that never, never, never do shake the glare from their harsh outlines…this stupid village of Tiberias, slumbering under its six funereal plumes of palms; yonder desolate declivity where the swine of the miracle ran down into the sea, and doubtless thought it was better to swallow a devil or two and get drowned in the bargain than have to live longer in such a place."

Here is another quote of Mark Twain from the same book. He looks at a barren Judean hills in Israel, and writes:

"Close to is was a stream and on its banks a great heard of curious looking Syrian sheep and the sheep were gratefully eating gravel. I do not state this as a petrified fact - I only suppose they were eating gravel because there did not appear to be anything else for them to eat."

Alfon de Lamartine said in 1845, in his book, "Recollections from the East":

"Outside the walls of Jerusalem however we saw no living being, heard no living voice. We encountered that desolation and that deadly silence which we would have expected to find at the ruined gates of Pompey….A total eternal dread spell envelopes the city, the highways and the villages..."

Professor Sir John William Dosson, in his book, "Modern Science in Bible Lands" (1888), said:

"Until today no people has succeeded in establishing national dominion in the land of Israel….No national unity or spirit of nationalism has acquired any hold there. The mixed multitude of itinerant tribes that managed to settle there did so on lease, as temporary residents. It seems that they await the return of the permanent residents of the land."

God said the land will stubbornly "refuse" to bear fruit, unless the Jews - its legitimate caretaker - lived on and cultivated it. It will blossom only for its rightful owner.

For nearly two thousand years, much of the Land of Israel had become desert and swamps. Then the Jews began to come - slowly at first - in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. In 1905, the Prime Minister of the Netherlands observed: "The Jews have come in vain. Only God can check the blight of the inrushing desert." How true his statement was for the miracle that happened in Israel.

When the Jews began returning to the Land, only then did the Land blossom and give forth its produce. There were several areas that were malaria-infested swamps. One of those was the Huleh Valley, north of the Sea of Galilee. If you were to look at an old map of Israel, you would see a small lake, 15 miles north of the Sea of Galilee. This is lake Huleh. Many maps today do not show that lake. In 1951, Israel drained the swamp, ridding all malaria.

The Huleh Valley has become a very rich land growing multitudes of crops. Let me show you some pictures of the area today.

Isaiah 51:3 NKJV

3 For the LORD will comfort Zion, He will comfort all her waste places; He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; Joy and gladness will be found in it, thanksgiving and the voice of melody.

Let me show you some of the areas that have become very fertile. Here are some pictures of the Valley of Megiddo - also called valley of Jezreel, or Ezdraelon. I have already shown you some of the areas near the Sea of Galilee and Golan Heights.

The Cattle

Let me briefly note yet another thing that is a stark contrast between this land today and what was happening there decades ago. A study conducted in 1937, assessed cattle and milk production in the lands around the Mediterranean Sea.

The study showed the Palestinian Arab cow produced between 400 and 800 kilograms of milk each year. There was not organized methods to increase its delivery. In the areas that were close neighbors to Palestine, found that in: Lebanon, cows were generating 2000 to 3000 kilograms, and from Damascus, it could reach 3,500 kg. In the years that followed, these numbers did not change appreciably.

Compare that with 2003 data where Israeli cows on kibbutzim were providing 8,520 kg - the highest national rate in the world.

Let me talk to you about another absolute miracle with regard to the waste areas becoming fertile.

Early and Latter Rains

Deuteronomy 11:14 speaks of God's promise to bless the Israelites by sending what He calls the "early rain and the latter rain." With these rainy seasons, the land would flourish and the people blessed. Proverbs 16:15 refers to God's favor as being like the "latter rain." But Jeremiah 3:3 says that because of Israel's unfaithfulness, God would withhold the "latter rain."

One source I have used says that for the last many centuries, the "early rain" has been minimal, while the "latter rain" and dew had disappeared. But since 1878, the "latter rain" slowly began to fall again. And since 1948, the rainfall has increased dramatically. And the rainfall has spiraled in the appropriate areas just as prophesied. The rains have returned as the rightful owners of the land have begun returning.

Joel 2:21,23-24 NKJV

21 Fear not, O land; Be glad and rejoice, For the LORD has done marvelous things!
23 Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God; For He has given you the former rain faithfully, and He will cause the rain to come down for you - The former rain, and the latter rain in the first month.
24 The threshing floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil.

The Land Sabbath

Another thing we must notice is that God not only establishes a Sabbath for the people of the land, but also requires the land to have its Sabbath as well. This fact adds to what we have already established, namely, the Eretz and the Jews are strongly linked together.

Let's look at what the Bible says about observing a Sabbath for the land with regard to what is happening in Israel today.

Leviticus 25:2-7 NKJV

2 Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: 'When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a sabbath to the LORD.
3 Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather its fruit;
4 but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the LORD. You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard.
5 What grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine, for it is a year of rest for the land.
6 And the sabbath produce of the land shall be food for you: for you, your male and female servants, your hired man, and the stranger who dwells with you,
7 for your livestock and the beasts that are in your land - all its produce shall be for food.

In Leviticus 25, God delineates the responsibilities of the people with regard to the land's Sabbath. In Chapter 26, God lists His responsibilities if the people obeyed.

o The Lord promised that the land will receive rain in due season (26:4).

o The threshing will overtake the vintage (vs. 5)

o The vintage will last till the time of sowing (vs. 5)

These last two indicate that the crops would be so plenteous, that there will be a never-ending cycle of planting and reaping.

o Dangerous animals will be removed (vs. 6)

o The land will be secure from attack (vss 6-8)

Chief among the blessings is the manifest presence of the Lord. "And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people."

The Jews did not always obey this command. And the resultant punishment was very serious.

During this Sabbath year, there was to be no pruning or planting. There was no attempt to kill the insects, or otherwise interfere with natural processes in the field. The fruit that would grow during that year was to remain in the field, except for what passerby, servants and the poor would pluck and eat. No real harvesting was permitted, only eating.

By allowing the soil to rest, it is restored and revitalized. By allowing the field to go to weeds, the weeds of the field are given the opportunity to bring to the topsoil minerals from below and the revitalize the soil. The fruits which falls and rots again contributes to the soil. It is interesting that using this method greatly reduces the need for pesticides and herbicides.

A moment ago, I mention the serious consequences to the Jews for not allowing the land to have its Sabbath. It is specifically listed as one of the sins that cause their removal from the land.

In Leviticus 26:28, God says he "will chastise them (the Jews) seven times for your sins."

Five verses later, he says:

"I will scatter you among the nations and draw out a sword after you; your land will be desolate and your cities waste.
"Then the land will enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate and you are in your enemies' land. Then the land shall rest and enjoy its Sabbaths.
"As long as it lies desolate it shall rest - for the time it did not rest on your Sabbaths when you dwelt in it."

Let me give you an example on how exact God's punishment was.

2 Chronicles 36:16-21 NKJV

16 ...the wrath of the LORD arose against His people, till there was no remedy.
17 Therefore He brought against them the king of the Babylonians (Nebuchadnezzar),... He gave them all into his hand.

20 And those who escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon, where they became servants to him and his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia,

21 to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths. As long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.

That says that during the time between the Exodus and the Babylonian captivity, the land Sabbath had been disregarded 70 times

Having said all this about the land Sabbath, I want to take note that the nation of Israel has, since 1948, begun obeying the commandments of God, allowing the land its sabbath. That doesn't mean they let all crops and fields lay undisturbed every seventh year. They have divided the country into 7 sections, where one section lays free of harvest each year.

The Desert will Blossom

Isaiah 35:1-2 NKJV adds:

1 The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose;
2 It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the excellence of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the LORD, the excellency of our God.

It is natural for a desert to expand as sand blows and impedes growth in the areas surrounding the desert. But who has seen the desert actually turned into a beautiful garden?

In Israel today, if you see a tree, it was most likely planted by someone in the last 100 years. One author in the 1800's counted the trees in Palestine and reported there were less than a thousand. In a land with seemingly insurmountable problems the Israelis have planted more than 250 million trees,.

Every since Jews began returning, they have been planting forests. Some of the larger planting of forest areas have been named in honor of friends of Israel. They have actually planted 280 forests that cover more than 275,000 acres. Every year, they plant an additional 5,000 acres in the desert areas where the annual rainfall is as little as 3½ inches.

There was a conscious and concerted effort by the Jews to plant trees. Today, half of their trees are forest trees - half are fruit trees. Currently, Israel exports about 80% of its fruit harvest. As good as it is in the land today, during the Millennium it will be increased dramatically.

Isaiah 41:18-20 (NIV) speaks specifically of the land of Israel.

18 I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys. I will turn the desert into pools of water, and the parched ground into springs.
19 I will put in the desert the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive. I will set pines in the wasteland, the fir and the cypress together,
20 so that people may see and know, may consider and understand, that the hand of the LORD has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it.

There are a number of familiar Passages in the Bible that speak about trees. Certainly, chief among them is the tree upon which Jesus died. Then there are the two trees in the Garden of Eden:

o The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

o The Tree of Life.

o Zacchaeus and the Sycamore Tree he climbed.

Then there is the tree mentioned in Psalm 1. The Psalmist describes the righteous person as being like... "like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaves will not wither."

WHAT KIND OF TREE IS THE PSALMIST DESCRIBING?

I may never have thought of asking this question had I not made a trip to the Holy Land. First of all, this is a tree whose leave do not wither and fall to the ground. That means this tree is an evergreen. Further, this is an evergreen that bears fruit - and does so in its season. Additionally, this is an evergreen tree that bears fruit, and is planted by the streams of water.

The Olive Tree is an evergreen tree that bears fruit. But they don't need a lot of water - so are rarely planted along streams. Maybe it is referring to a Date Palm. We can't be sure of what kind of tree, and that is not the emphasis of the verse. But when we study the Word, let's not be so quick to pass over what it says.

Bible prophecy is coming true before our very eyes. And they are coming true in very literal ways. Ezekiel 27:6 says, "In days to come Jacob (Israel) shall take root. Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots and fill the whole world with fruit."

It took about 2,500 years from the time Isaiah wrote this prophecy, but the nation of Israel today is the third largest exporter of fruit and flowers.

Conclusion

The nation of Israel was reborn on May 14, 1948. It was a miracle of the first kind - a very great sign. It may be of interest that Isaiah predicted that the people of Israel would return to their homeland in airplanes.

Isaiah 60:8 NIV

8 "Who are these that fly along like clouds, like doves to their nests?

Isaiah also predicted they would return by ship. Isaiah 60:9 NIV

9 Surely the islands look to me; in the lead are the ships of Tarshish, a bringing your sons from afar, with their silver and gold, to the honor of the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has endowed you with splendor.

The Jews in Israel make up less than one-tenth of one percent of the population of the world - an irrelevant spark in the light of the Milky Way. Normally speaking, the Jews should hardly be heard of, and yet we have heard and hear of them again and again in the news of the world. They can rival any people on earth in fame, and their significance in economy and trade are in no ration to their population.

They have done extremely well in this world, with their hands tied behind their backs. They could rightly be proud of themselves, except it is only for God's name's sake they even continue to exist.

The Egyptians, Babylonians and Persians came into power, filled the earth with their glory - put they perished. The Greeks and Romans followed, made a lot of noise, and then they also disappeared. Other nations rose up, their torches burned for a while, and then they were extinguished and have completely disappeared.

The Jews saw all of this. They have outlasted them all. And today, they are almost as they always were, showing no aging, no weakening, no blunting of their wide-awake dynamic spirit. Her immortality would be a mystery except for the Bible.

Last Updated: Wednesday September 07 2011
©2001 John's Notes