Israel is in the news and I pay attention with concern. I pray for their leadership. I remember what the Bible tells us about Israel.
The book of Deuteronomy records a promise to the people. Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours. Your territory shall be from the wilderness to the Lebanon and from the River, the river Euphrates, to the western sea. Deuteronomy 11:24
When Israel rebelled against God’s instruction, He sent them into captivity for 70 years, first under Babylon and then under Persia. After 70 years the Jews were given both permission and support to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple, as prophesied by Jeremiah.
“For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.” Jeremiah 29: 10-14
The temple was rebuilt and Jews were living in Jerusalem when the book of Esther begins. The King of Persia ruled an empire that included Jerusalem. Now in the days of Ahasuerus, the Ahasuerus who reigned from India to Ethiopia over 127 provinces . . . Esther 1:1
During Ahasuerus reign an edict was sent to all the provinces of the empire. Letters were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces with instructions to destroy, to kill and to annihilate all Jews, young and old, women and children, in one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods. A copy of the document was to be issued as a decree in every province by proclamation to all the peoples to be ready for that day. Esther 3:13-14
Haman had devised the edict. Did it happen? No, God intervened through Mordecai, a man of faith, and his adopted daughter, Esther. Purim commemorates the Jewish victory over an evil edict.
Like Haman, Adolf Hitler planned for the annihilation of the Jewish people. Instead, as a result of WWII, the land of Israel was returned to the Jews.
We are once again in a cycle of anti-semitism. Protesters scream, “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”. Do the mobs understand what they are saying? Do they know what the Bible says?
Please pray for Israel, for the Jewish people.
The photo is a view of Jerusalem. My husband and I visited Israel in 2012.
