The Jews In Prophecy

The most important signs of the end times are the ones that relate to Israel because Yahuwah uses the Jews throughout the Scriptures as His prophetic time clock. By this, I mean that very often, when Yahuwah reveals a critical event that will take place in the future, He will point to the Jewish people and state that when a sure thing happens to them, the important event will also occur. The Jews, therefore, are one of the vital focal points of Bible prophecy.

The Scriptures reveal the Jews as "the apple of Yahuwah’s eye" (Zechariah 2:8). Their land is described as "holy" (Zechariah 2:12). Their city of Jerusalem is termed the "center of the nations" (Ezekiel 5:5). They are pictured as the wayward wife of Yahuwah (see Ezekiel 16 and the book of Hosea). And the Bible clarifies that they will be the object of both Yahuwah’s wrath (Jeremiah 30:7) and His grace (Zechariah 13:1) in the end times.

The panorama of prophecy that relates to the Jews is breathtaking. It applies to the past, the present, and the future. It demonstrates Yahuwah’s love, and grace as nothing else does except the Cross itself. Paul was so overwhelmed by Yahuwah’s patient determination to bring a remnant of the Jews to salvation that he cried out in ecstasy: "Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of Yahuwah! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!" (Romans 11:33).

Let’s look at the incredible prophecies that pertain to the Jewish people, and let’s begin with the prophecies that have already been fulfilled.

Fulfilled Prophecies

1) Dispersion – The Jews were repeatedly warned that they would be dispersed worldwide if they were not faithful to their covenant with Yahuwah. Consider the words of Moses: "Yahuwah will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other..." (Deuteronomy 28:64; see also Leviticus 26:33).

2) Persecution – Yahuwah warned the Jews that they would be persecuted wherever they went. Again, the words of Moses are graphic in this regard: "And among those nations, you shall find no rest, and there shall be no resting place for the sole of your foot; but there Yahuwah will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul" (Deuteronomy 28:65).

3) Desolation – Yahuwah promised that after their dispersion, their land would become "desolate" and their cities would become "waste" (Leviticus 26:33). Moses put it more graphically when he said, "the foreigner who comes from a distant land...will say, ‘All its land is brimstone and salt, a burning waste, unsown and unproductive, and no grass grows in it’" (Deuteronomy 29:22-23).

4) Preservation – But Yahuwah, in His marvelous grace, promised He would preserve the Jews as a separate people during their worldwide wanderings (see Isaiah 66:22; Jeremiah 30:11; 31:35-37). Isaiah puts it colorfully. He says Yahuwah could no more forget Israel than a mother could forget her nursing child (Isaiah 49:15). He then adds that Yahuwah cannot forget Israel because He has them engraved on the palms of His hands! (Isaiah 49:16).

Yahuwah has fulfilled all four of these prophecies during the past 2,000 years. In 70 A.D., the Romans destroyed the city of Jerusalem and took the Jewish nation into captivity, desolating the land and scattering the Jewish people across the face of the earth. As prophesied, they were persecuted everywhere they went, culminating in the Nazi Holocaust of World War II.

But Yahuwah also preserved the Jews, and the fulfillment of this prophecy has been one of the most remarkable miracles of history. No other people have ever been so dispersed and yet been able to retain their identity as a nation.

Current Prophecies

We are privileged to live in an age when Yahuwah is fulfilling many promises to the Jews. What a testimony this is to the fact that Yahuwah is alive and well, that Yahuwah is on His throne and in control, and that Yahuwah is faithful to His promises.

1) Regathering – The Old Testament prophets repeatedly promise that the day will come when Yahuwah will regather the Jews to Palestine (see Isaiah 11:10-12 and Ezekiel 36:22-28). This remarkable regathering of the Jews from the four corners of the earth has occurred in our lifetime. World War I prepared the land for the people as the control of Palestine was transferred from a nation that hated the Jews (the Turks) to a nation that was sympathetic to their return (Britain). The Holocaust of World War II prepared the people for the land by motivating them to return.

2) Nationhood – The prophets stated that when the people were regathered, the nation of Israel would be re-established. This occurred on May 14, 1948 (see Isaiah 66:7-8; Zechariah 12:3-6). This is the cornerstone prophetic event of our age. It is an event that prophetic scholars have pointed to for 400 years amid much scoffing and ridicule by those who did not believe that Israel would ever exist again as a nation.

Yahushua singled out this event as the one that would signal His soon return. His prophecy is contained in the fig tree parable (Matthew 24:32-35), which He presented in His Olivet Discourse. The day before He delivered this speech, He had cursed a barren fig tree, causing it to wither (Matthew 21:18-22). This was a symbolic prophecy that Yahuwah would soon pour out His wrath upon the Jewish people because of their spiritual barrenness in rejecting His Son.

The next day Yahushua reminded His disciples of the fig tree. He said to watch for it to bloom again. In other words, He said to watch for the rebirth of Israel. He indicated that when the fig tree blooms again, He would be at the gates of Heaven, ready to return (Matthew 24:33).

Equally significant, He added an interesting observation: "Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place" (Matthew 24:34). What generation? The generation that sees the fig tree blossom.

We are that generation. The fig tree has blossomed. Yahushua is at the gates.

3) Reclamation – Yahuwah promised that with the re-establishment of the nation, the land would bloom again (Isaiah 35:1-7; Joel 2:21-26). As Ezekiel put it, people would one day exclaim: "This desolate land has become like the garden of Eden!" (Ezekiel 36:35). That is precisely what people exclaim today when they visit Israel, for it is once again a land of milk and honey. Over 300 million trees have been planted. Rainfall has increased. The former malaria-infested swamps have been converted into cultivated land. Water from the Sea of Galilee has been channeled to the deserts, causing them to bloom.

4) Language – When the Jews were scattered worldwide in the first century, they ceased speaking the Hebrew language. The Jews who settled in Europe developed a language called Yiddish (a combination of Hebrew and German). The Jews in the Mediterranean basin mixed Hebrew with Spanish to produce a language called Ladino. The prophet Zephaniah implied that a time would come when the Hebrew language would be revived (Zephaniah 3:9). It has been. Today the Israelis speak Biblical Hebrew. It is the only example in history of the resurrection of a dead language. The man Yahuwah used to revive the language was Eliezer Ben Yehuda (1858 – 1922).

5) Jerusalem – Yahushua said that one of the surest signs of His imminent return would be the re-occupation of Jerusalem by the Jews: "[The Jews] will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled" (Luke 21:24).

The first half of this prophecy was fulfilled in 70 A.D., forty years after Yahushua spoke the words. That year, the Romans under Titus conquered Jerusalem and dispersed the Jews among the nations. Jerusalem remained under Gentile occupation for 1,897 years until June 7, 1967, when Israel won the city back during the Six-Day War.

The Jewish re-occupation of Jerusalem proves that we live in the season of Yahushua’s return. Yahushua said it would mark the end of the Gentile Age.

6) Military Strength – Zechariah prophesied that when the Jews were re-established in the land, their military strength would be overwhelming – like "a flaming torch among sheaves" – and that they would "consume" all the peoples around them (Zechariah 12:6). Need anything to be said about the fulfillment of this prophecy?

7) Focal Point – Israel is always pictured as the focal point of world politics in the end times (Zechariah 12:3; 14:1-9). It is undoubtedly true that Israel is playing a prominent role in world politics today!

Yahuwah’s Infinite Love

Although Yahuwah set the Jews aside and put them under discipline because of their disobedience, He did not cut them off from His grace. A remnant of the Jews will "look upon Him whom they have pierced" and accept Him as Lord and Savior (Zechariah 12:10; Romans 11:1-6, 25-29).

He intends to bring His wayward wife home: "For the sons of Israel will remain without king or prince for many days... Afterward, the sons of Israel will return and seek Yahuwah their God... and they will come trembling to Yahuwah and His goodness in the last days" (Hosea 3:4-5).

The lovingkindness and faithfulness of Yahuwah in keeping His promises to the Jewish people should be a source of encouragement to all Christians. As we watch Yahuwah fulfill promises He made to the Jewish people thousands of years ago, we can be confident that He will be faithful to fulfill all the promises He has made to the Church.

This is a non-WLC article by David R. Reagan.

We have taken out from the original article all pagan names and titles of the Father and Son, and have replaced them with the original given names. Furthermore, we have restored in the Scriptures quoted the names of the Father and Son, as they were originally written by the inspired authors of the Bible. -WLC Team