Episode 95: One Miraculous Country

Israel is unlike any other country in human history. No other country has been completely destroyed and its people dispersed and persecuted for 1,900 years, and then become a country again with its same language and customs. Todd and Stu discuss the miracle of Israel and how their existence is proof of providence and prophecy fulfilled.

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Transcript

Welcome to the Truth Wins podcast, where the truth hurts sometimes, but it can save your life. Our heart on this podcast is for you to know why you believe, what you believe, and to be able to give a defense for it. This is episode 95 called One Miraculous Country. We're gonna kinda leave 'em hanging there for a little bit.

We're not gonna tell 'em which country. Is the miracle country we're talking about till a little bit later. But in the meantime, I'd like to welcome my friend Stu. Say Hey, Stu. Hey Stu. Good to have you back. Good to see you. Thank you. Thank you for coming back. Thank you for believing in me enough to come back and join me and join us.

Us on the Truth Wins podcast. Yeah, that's good to be here. Yeah, I like it. Well, good. Even if you don't mean it, I appreciate it, . My name's Todd. I'm your host as always, and yeah, we're gonna be talking about one miraculous country in a little bit, but before we do that, I would like for us to take time to do what we call time to stump stew.

All right, Stu. Um, this one is from, uh, quite a while back, but I just thought it might be good to throw this one out there. It's an episode we did, um, with your friend. No, Ian is your friend, right, Jessie? Yeah, so Ian knew Jesse. She came, we had a great one on, uh, her ministry. Her organization helps victims of sexual exploitation.

So what is it called? refine.org. refine.org. So go back and listen to that one. I think it was the spring we had her on or early summer. Um, great. Great interview, great time with her. But Rick thought he'd chime in on that whole thing. And he says, uh, talking about sexual exploitation, does this include sexual exploitation?

Uh, at the hands of clergy? Okay. Excuse the pun. Yeah, I know. I saw that. Um, that was his pawn, not mine. So, and I don't, I don't think he meant to do that. Um, but anyhow, I think Rick brings up a, a valid point that sexual exploitation can happen everywhere. Even so-called, you know, people who are people of the cloth or whatever, uh, they can do it too.

And that's one of the things that you recognize about Christianity is that it says yes. Uh, you guys are not perfect either. Followers of Jesus are not perfect and we do wrong things, and uh, but they aren't following what Jesus taught when they do that. And so, yes, that can be something that needs to be dealt with.

That's true. And that's the key. We, we gotta deal with it. Right. You know, when it's been. You know, you know, brushed under the rug right? Then that's not a good thing and none of us support that. But that's the great thing about truth is it's a respecter of no individuals. And so if somebody does something wrong, we need to be the first to say this is wrong and there are consequences to that, and especially hurting a child, so, Right.

I would agree with you, Rick, that um, it does include, or it should include. Anyone, especially somebody who is in a position of authority. Authority, like a clergymen, a teacher, things like that, that's, um, I think that should be the stiffest penalties. So I think in our culture, if we had stiff penalties for a pedophilia, it would go drastically down.

You know, I think that should be a death penalty cuz you mess up that kid and maybe that kid's, kids, if they have kids. And so it's a, it's a big deal. If Rick is coming from outside a Christian perspective, which he might be, then that's a difficult issue to say that anything is wrong. If you're in that perspective, If you're a pure materialist, then nothing's wrong.

You get to do whatever you want, so sure. Something to think about. Yeah. We wouldn't even call it wrong if there were no Right. There was no moral code that we're following. Right, right. Well, thank you. Time to stump stew.

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So go there and check 'em out. All right. Talking about a miraculous country, a country unlike any other. Stu, I know your first guess was Greenland, but No, that is incorrect. We're not talking about we New Zealand. That was my other. New Zealand. New Zealand. New Zealand. I've heard great things about. I'd love to get to, Have you ever been to New Zealand?

No, I haven't. Yeah, You ever been to Australia? Any of our listeners would like to send Todd and I to New Zealand? Yes, we're well willing to do a truth conference in museum. Yes. Joey, did you get over to New Zealand very often growing up in Australia in a couple times. So, I mean, obviously you're Australian, so Australia, I'm assuming you think is.

They like the little brother. Yeah. Okay. I like the little brother. So they're a little brother. Little brother. You like him in small doses and then when they get annoying, you just go back to your own thing, right? Is that, is that a good? Very much. Okay. Oh, he says we loved him very much. Such a, You always say the good Christian.

Such a good ambassador for. Australia there, The oss are very kind. No, they're not. They say whatever's on their mind. They'll, Australians I've known through the years. That's one thing I respect about 'em. It's like most Australians like, Ah, get outta the way. You know, that's not a knife. , that's not a Sheila in today's date, age, we need some undies.

That's not a Sheila. That teacher over there. Well, Ian was just talking about that guy who's like dressing like a woman has the fake, you know, You know whats that? Are just incredibly disgustingly big and stuff. But he's actually, Was it a shop teacher? Cause I saw some, a picture of with a saw. Yeah. We're living in bizarre.

I've got my, uh, make Orwell fiction again t-shirt on today. And that's where we're living, man. This is like nine, this is worse than 1984. Cause you got the freaks and the nine and the, and the government. Yeah. But anyways, if you're still listening after that little ranch I know. Wow. And aside, the country that we're talking about is not New Zealand, it's not Greenland.

It is. Um, it's the, it's the country that God choses, the center of the earth, the focal point of his plan for redemption. The United States of America. No, no. Remember the what thing that's coming back down. Uh, In Revelation, it says, you know that there's gonna be, when God remakes everything, there's gonna be a city called the new Provo, New York, Provo, New Washington, DC No.

All right. Enough anticipation. The new Jerusalem, Deborah. All right, we're talking about Israel today. Um, King, uh, Frederick. The Great of Prussia back in the 18th century, I believe ish. Uh, he asked one of his advisors if he could offer him one single irrefutable proof of God and his advisors. Advisors said, Yes, your Majesty, the Jews.

Now, this was before Israel became a nation again, and even then he's like the Jews. Are at proof of God's existence. Why would he say something like that? Because there's no reason that they should still be here. Uh, if you look around today, you're not gonna find any Amalekites. Has anybody ever had an amalekite neighbor?

I dated a malachite in high school. . She was a good cook. Little homely , so it didn't work out. So yes, I have. But you have not, haven't? No, because there aren't any. Okay. . All right. I did, yes, I did date a mobi for a while, , and she, Ruth was her name, of course. And she is, She's nice to, You're so bad. Okay, Keep going.

Sorry. Okay. Yes, there are many peoples who have, you know, splashed across the timeline of human history. Mm-hmm.  and are gone. Uh, there's no more Babylonians, there's no more ancient Egypt. Uh, they're gone. Mm-hmm. , uh, the people who live there today are the Arab peoples. Uh, there's, which is different than ancient Egyptians, right?

Right. Uh, so there's, um, lots of people that aren't here anymore, but as the advisor to Frederick the Great said, there's one people that still is because God said they're gonna be. Yeah. And that would be the Jews. Okay. So let's just do a 30,000 foot real, real quick. We go back to Abraham and God told him he is gonna start a.

Through him, and they're gonna be called Israel the Nation is, and that was around 2000 bc. So then, then we fast forward about 600 year or 400 years or so, four 50 to Moses. Finally, they get out of Egypt and they go up to the promised land. Of course, that generation was step next, so none of them made it.

So 40 years later, Joshua and the gang, they finally come in and Israel finally becomes a nation in the promised land that God promised them back in Genesis 17. So what did, What did God promise?  Abraham back in Genesis 17. What did he say to him? So when God makes a covenant and it's, you don't make a covenant, you cut a covenant, and we talked about that in one of our episodes.

The animals cut in half and walking through that blood path. Mm-hmm.  and how serious that was because you're saying basically, May this be done to me if I don't live up to what I'm saying I'm gonna do. Yeah. Uh, and so when God makes that covenant with Abraham in Genesis 17, seven and eight it says, I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations.

For an everlasting covenant, it's a Bri aam. AAM is to the vanishing point. As far as you can see. It means it's never gonna end to be God to you and to your descendants. After you, I will give you.  to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your So journeys, all the land of canan for an everlasting possession.

And I will be their God. Mm-hmm. . So that pretty much answers. Whose land is it? It's Abraham and his descendants. And specifically there's a question that comes up, Well, what about Ishmail? Remember we talked about him in our, one of our previous episodes? Uh, but God, God says no. It will be through your own wife that you will have a son, not Hagar's son.

It'll be through Isaac and then through Isaac to Jacob. And Jacob is the one who, God first names Israel. Mm-hmm. . Israel didn't pick their name. God picked it. Remember? He renames him? Yeah. Yes. Royal. Because you wrestled with God. Mm-hmm.  and you survived. And I will give you this. Yeah. I'm a blessing. That's what Israel has been doing in just humankind in general.

It's not just them, but uh, you know, America's history too. We. People wrestle with God because he blesses 'em. He, he gives him promises or covenants, and God never goes back on his promises, but people do all the time. And so you see throughout Israel's history, this rise and fall where they're, they're, they're on their knees.

They confess, they follow God, they follow 'em closely. And that lasted generation usually maybe two at the most. And then they fall away from God. And so, God says, All right, your will be done to the people. And they end up becoming, you know, uh, far away from God. And these foreign nations come and take control of him.

So, you know, they come into the Promised Land around 1400 bc. David of course, is. Kind of the pinnacle of their history. It's the golden age with David and Solomon around a thousand bc. Well then after that, it's a ton of bad kings. In fact, all bad kings in Israel to the north after they divide, cuz after Solomon, the kingdoms divided.

But then in the south it's like 50 50. Some good kings that hearts are for God and some bad kings that aren't. And. Israel has this, All right, we're with God and then no, we're still there. Or a lot of times they had a foot in both worlds. Kind of like a lot of Christians say they do, like I follow Jesus, but they still go sleep around and do what the world does.

Cuz it's like, Yeah, I can do both. Right? But God's not fooled by that. And same with Israel. When they would do both, their hearts wouldn't be with them, then it would go poorly for Israel. And so they didn't last very long. So let me, let me throw one other biblical piece that ties in with this before we get to that.

Yep. Part of history, but this is going back to when. The Israelites are in Egypt and they don't have their homeland. And Moses says, You're gonna let us go? And Ferris says, No, I'm not. And they have the 10 plagues. He says, Yes you are. And ex in Exodus 4 22, God says, Then you shall say to Pharaoh, thus says the Lord.

Israel is my son. My first born. Mess with my son, you know, cuz to the Egyptians, the firstborn was really important because he could touch the mouth to open the mouth ceremony so that they could get into the afterlife when they died. Yeah. At the, At the funeral basically. Yeah. So basically when that plague, the last one of taking out the firstborn, now nobody gets into the afterlife.

Mm-hmm. , it's all over. But God is saying, Don't mess with my son Israel. You know the people. Yep. I chose them. They're my. And as a little aside, you know, I, I've always been pro-Israel. I've always, you know, even had sermons before I ever met you on why the church should be with Israel. But you really threw the most logs on that fire to understand why is it such a big deal?

Cause it's in your top three. And I was like, well, it was probably in my top 10 things, but it wasn't three. But then it was like, okay. Basically you go back to this covenant and God says, you know, whoever blesses Israel will be blessed, and whoever curses will be curse. Genesis is 12. You wanna be on the right side on this one because they're the apple of his eye.

Now there's still a kid and the kid needs to be disciplined and Israel has a long history of being disciplined, right? Their hearts have been hardened as we read about in Romans 10 right now. That right, you know. Now many Jews, if not most, are like, Yeah, God, we, we can do our own thing and, and they don't accept Jesus as the Messiah.

but there's still the apple of his eye and God's covenant to Abraham, he's still going to fulfill, even though there's been decades or centuries of rebellion. Right? And you look at history and you think, Wow, why would he pick them? You know? And it says in Deuteronomy, it says that, you know, I didn't pick you because you were the biggest nation, or the strongest, or the.

I picked you because I picked you, I chose you out of all the nations because you're mine. Mm-hmm. , it's, it's, it's that part that we forget about as humans. Uh, that we have, We have choice. God chooses Israel and who are we to say that he can't do that. Yeah. Um, and so one of the things that, uh, is. Kind of important about back in Genesis time is that God has this special covenant relationship with Israel that he has with no other nation, but through them he's gonna bless all the other exactly that Messiah who's gonna come is gonna be that Savior and he is gonna feed the Jew and feed the Gentile.

And before. Jesus ever comes to, He's using Israel, so some people, you can look at the same coin from different sides, right? It's like, well, that's not fair that God has a favorite child. It's like, No. Israel was to be the light in a dark, dark world. The light to the geni, the light to the gen. And so he will bless all these nations.

That, and so when Israel came into the Promised Land, all these nations who were much stronger, they were giants, Israelites were puny, they were coming outta slavery, they were emaciated, uh, all that stuff in God's, they were fearful because they had already heard about what God had done through this, this rag, raggedy muffin band of.

Bringing them out of the most powerful nation in the world at the time of Egypt into this land saying it's their land. So they all knew the privacy. And so God revealed who he was through Israel, even before Christ. And so people had a chance to say, I wanna follow that God. Like Rayhab the prostitute said.

Everybody's scared in here, right? Because we know what your God did way, you know, thousands of miles away or however far away it was. And that was way before there was, You could look on your phone for news that day. Tra you know, word traveled fast and so God. In his mercy showed who he was in his power and his grace and his love through the nation of Israel.

And as long as Israel was walking with him, he continued to do that. Right. Now the problem is when the megaphone went sour, then people didn't hear it as much because Israel started doing what everybody else was doing. So how can God be a light when Israel's in the darkness like all the other nations, all around her?

Does that make sense? Yes. And one of the things that's, uh, somewhat prevalent in our time is. Have started to go, Well, Israel was the Old Testament. Mm-hmm. , the church is the New Testament. God's done with Israel. He's, he's finished with them because, you know, they crucified Jesus. It was their fault. They had their shot and they blew it.

So they blew it. So now the church has replaced, and we call this replacement theology. The church has replaced Israel, and now the church is, Well, I've always noticed that they are always those people who follow that theology. Are always quick to take all the blessings that God gives to Israel, but none of the cursings that God gives to Israel, you know, that was to them

Well, the blessings. No, that's to us, it's like, oh, so you get to pick and choose here. And that's the danger to me of those kind of theologies because you're, you're picking and choosing which things you want to believe and which things you think. You don't get to do that with God. God is who he is. He chose Israel.

They're still his covenant people. Yeah, he's, They're not done yet. They haven't finished the course. There's things coming but. Yeah, and I think Paul does a great job of summarizing that in Romans 10. He's like, Here's why their hearts have been hardened for season, and they'll come back. So I would encourage you to read that.

Like if you grew up in, you know, more of a reformed background, you're gonna probably say, Yeah, that's just what it is. In fact, you got someone very close to you. It was like in that background is like, Yeah, that's just what I was taught. But read through Romans 10 over and over again. Say, Okay, how Paul explains why.

Uh, but back to the task at hand, it's like, You have to agree. Looking at, at Israel, it was again just Ragamuffin nation of slaves came and took over the Promised Land. Then they had their golden age with David and Solomon. Then it was divided. Then the northern kingdom was taken off into, um, you know, basically taken off into exile back in 7 22 BC, right?

Yes, sir. And then the north, the southern one, which at least was like 50 50, kind of following God through the Kings. Finally, their final destruction was in five. Six BC and they're taken off into Babylon. And so you have Israel, the nation. Most of the people being taken off, at least the best and the brightest.

The rest were killed. And then there was just some people who hidden caves and stuff left in Israel for a good 70 years there, and it was desolate until they come back in around 5 37 bcs when many, many of them come back into Israel again. Then it becomes a nation again. Uh, then we come along with Jesus.

And so the Romans still are controlling 'em. They're not like they're, they're an autonomous country. They're war autonomous. No, in fact, they were just like given the rights and that's where a lot of that tension was with Jesus. It's like, we're not back to where we were with David, uh, because Rome controls us and nobody liked that there.

Uh, but then after Jesus, Jesus even prophesied about what was to come after his crucifixion. Did he not? Yeah. He said there was coming a time when not one stone was gonna stand on top of another. You see this beautiful temple that hero built, it's gonna come a time when it's thrown over the side. Yeah.

And we've been there and we've seen that path where those huge boulders. Yeah, Huge dense. Yeah. In the street there's a huge dense, They have boulder, like you think of boulders or stones to build a building. You think either bricks or maybe a decent size stone. We're talking stones, the size of buses, some of these, right?

And when they were throwing these over the temple, when they destroyed the temple and then throwing things over the temple mount. These, these left huge. Gas or dents in the road there on the west side of the temple. And you can go there today and see those dents. Yeah. And you start to realize that when God tells you something, you better listen.

Mm-hmm. , that's, it's always good to avoid the punishment. Yeah. If you can. Yep. Um, don't. Don't reject truth. Always take truth in, Yeah. But God wasn't taken by surprise. Obviously Jesus wasn't, Cause he prophesied it. You know, it was about 40 years after the crucifixion that the Romans finally just had, had enough.

They destroyed Jerusalem, just the Jews were dispersed. Finally, you know, several decades later, it was the final, you know, battle that they're like, Okay, we're done with 'em. They made it into a deserted wasteland and this stuff is all prophesy. In the Old Testament. And so AD 70 is kind of the final, That's the one of the big, big ones where Yeah, Jerusalems are destroyed in, in AD 70 J Jerusalem is taken down.

Mm-hmm. , but that's during the time of the first Jewish rebellion against the Romans. And then, uh, basically most of them are gone, but there's still a few there. Mm-hmm. , they come back a little bit in 1 35 a. And this guy steps up and says, I'm the Messiah, uh, Simone Bar Kova, son of the Star, the Barco Rebellion.

And then that is put down by the Roman Emperor Hadrian. And then Hadrian is so tired of these Jews, revolting. He says, Uh, We're gonna change the name of this country. It's not gonna be Israel anymore. We're gonna call it Syria Palest. And that's where the term Palestine comes in. Mm-hmm. , it's actually a derogatory thing based on the Philistines who are the enemies of the Jews.

Mm-hmm. . And if you know anything about Arabic, you know, there's no such thing as a P in Arabic. Uh, it would be Palestine or something like that. But, uh, so this idea that there's been a Palestinian thing is, is a creation. Yeah. When they're fighting over who gets that land in the original, it's just, it's all fabricated there.

Right. So most, or pretty much all the Jews, at least after the, the second century, are dispersed around the world. Yeah. And. Name all the other nations where the people, where the country's been conquered, all the people have been dispersed around the world and put into exile. And then that country became a country again where they picked up its old rules.

Its old feast, its old festivals language. It's old language. Yeah. Hebrew language. Uh, how many other countries are we talking about that have done that throughout human history? Well, Todd, there actually exists zero other countries that that has happened to zero. There's only one that has done that. And it's the one we're talking about.

Yeah. And it's not like it's a, a crazy big world power at the time when it was destroyed either. Right? It was small, insignificant country. That was a headache to the Romans at the time. Little did they know what God, you know, they didn't believe that the promise of the Bible. Right. And you start to realize that God has a purpose for Israel.

Mm-hmm. , there's a reason he's kept them all the way through this. Mm-hmm.  because he never goes back on his word. But also that Israel is gonna be back in the land, and then there's gonna be this one last seven year period where God's gonna deal with. And say, I need you to come back to the knowledge of who is our Messiah.

Yeah. Because Israel is the only nation that had the promise of a Messiah. There was no promised Czech Messiah or Canadian Messiah. I think there might have been an Australian, New Zealand, New Zealand, maybe New Zealand, but, but no other country. You know, it's, it's, it's unique in the whole history of the world in so many different ways.

Uh, small place, but God, And one of the things that you come across in history is you start to realize that here's the Jews who were viewed as less than regular people by the Nazis. They are driven out of Germany or killed, but in the death camps mm-hmm. , they end up coming to the United States. And brightest philosopher, philosophers, scientists, physicists of of the time.

Mm-hmm. , they come to the us, they end up building the weapon that helps us win the war. . So don't, Well, they've been kicked out of countries throughout the d the centuries too. You look at, England had their Spain. Spain in 14 90, 14, 92. Yeah. Spain's like, We don't want these Jews anymore. Yeah. And so, and there is, there's, I don't know if you watched that.

Um, Blood red, the blood moon thingy, uh, with Hagi years, you know, seven years ago when is out. But they talked about some key times in history when the blood moon and when the Jews were expelled, things went bad for that country. Got rid of s he goes downhill. He was the world power at that time. It was the dominant world Power had the biggest Navy.

Mm-hmm. , the Spanish Armada. Then in 1588 goes to take out England. And what happens? Storms come up sink. The Spanish Armada 188. 50,000 troops that they sent to take out England and gone, It's gone. Uh, and so the, the British actually printed a coin that set on it. Deus FLT God blue. You know, he, and there goes, they are my, That's right.

You know, all he needs is just like, whew. And they're gone. Huh? Well, it's, um, yeah. You look at the, the history over just the last 1900 years, it's, this is a people group that was dispersed. All around the world, they, they kept their language. They, now they learn German and Russian and all these different things, right?

But they also kept Hebrew. They also still kept these festivals and feast, and it actually was a big reason why they were rejected, at least throughout Europe, if not around the world, is because there's always those people there. They, they keep their own stuff. They don't assimilate like the rest of us did.

And so there was always that hatred, but even deeper than, The hatred came from the enemy of God because Satan hates God and he hates God's people, whether it's the Jews or Christians, you know, do everything to try to destroy them. And so you see that playing out ultimately to its fruition in World War II and the Holocaust, where, you know, a third of the Jews are killed in that.

Yeah. And, and then you know, the allies win the war and there's a lot of miracles in there. But then what happens right after World War II with Israel or with the. Yeah, they're, they're, they don't have a homeland. They're still looking around. They're trying to find anywhere in the world that they can go to because they have no country.

Yeah. You know, they're the only people group from that long ago that's still. Around what was the country, uh, like the proposal to the Zionist movement earlier in the 19 theater, Herzl, or the late 19 hundreds early, or the late 18th hundreds, early 19 hundreds. They, when the British owned it, you know, the British mandate, um, they had thrown out like, Well, we don't wanna give you Israel because all these Arab nations will be met.

How about you take this, uh, it, was it Uganda, I think? Yeah. That was thrown out him somewhere else. Yes. Yeah. I think it was part of Uganda that like, and there were several of 'em, like, well, at least it's a home. But then the true Zionist are like, No, it's Israel or nothing. Right. But, uh, because that's what the Bible says.

Yeah. And, and God wouldn't allowed it anyways cuz he knew they needed to come back in the land for the end times. Events like you referred to earlier. But I thought it was interesting. It's like some people are like, At least we have some property. Let's, let's at least kick around Uganda guys. And they're like, Nope, it's Israel.

So, okay. So we get through World War ii, finally, the whole world seeing just the, the evil of the Holocaust. Finally, United Nations at least throws it up out there to say, well maybe we can. Israel, some of that, some of that land they say is theirs. Yeah. And there's so much crazy political machinations and things going on in the back rooms.

And you start to realize that Truman and there had to be some kind of thing that God did in this. Oh, for sure. Uh, because they're finally, like we said before, the British mandate area called Palestine. Divided up. 77% goes to Jordan and only 23% goes to the Jews. They have this little tiny piece of what God promised them, but at least it's something.

Yeah, so they'll take. Anything and they happily take it. And David Urian in May 14th, 1948. And why don't you tell them the thing about the years? Yeah, but what, um, they didn't even get Jerusalem as far as that original, did they? Yeah. Not all of it. No, I didn't. I thought that, Oh, they got like part of it.

Yeah, they had a little place and then it was the sixth day war in the sixties when they got all of Jeru Jerusalem. Yep. They held the temple mount for a few days and then they're like, Okay, we'll give you the temple mount cuz you say the dome and the rockish. You're third holies. We talked about that a couple episodes ago.

Yeah. And so they again, Israel, since they've been in there, Right. We'll do make due. They get attacked. They win in the war. More land. Double the size. Triple the size, quadruplet and. Months or years later, like, All right, we'll give it back. As long as you leave us alone, we'll sign this little peace treaty.

We'll give you back to Sinai Peninsula. Just leave us alone. But it never is enough. The Gaza, the go on heights, the Jor, you know, the, the, the Jordan, uh, the, the West Bank, um, all those areas, parts of Jerusalem, it's like it's never enough until it's all of it, right? There was a really cool billboard the first time I went to Jerusalem that.

Ask me about Land for Peace, , and it's an American Indian . Yeah. You know, it's like, see how this works? No. They're just gonna keep taking more and more, more. They don't care. They want all of it. Yeah. It's the goal to drive the Jews into the sea. Yeah. Well it's, there's so many things in this that's, God is, Providence had to orchestrate it.

I mean, it's 1947, you know, just months before the U United Nations voted. They find the Dead Sea Scrolls when everybody's saying, Well, right. The Jews were never really there. It's all made up in their own Hebrew Bible, but we don't believe any of it. It's like, nope. We found some scrolls from a thousand years ago in a cave here in Israel by the Dead Sea.

Um, you have, uh, these, these nations voting on it, and it was a close call too, even at that, right? Even after the Holocaust, it was still just barely, They got enough votes to become a nation. They get into the land within. What, four or five nations? Five Egypt, Jordan. Yeah. Leading the charge. Attack 'em.

They're just getting off the boat. They're emaciated. And that's even prophesied, just these skinny people who made it through the Holocaust coming in off the boats. Right. That's prophesied in the Old Testament too. And Ezekiel 37, the prophecy of the valley of the dry bones. And he's, he sees this vision where these dead bones are coming together and then flesh grows on 'em and.

He says, Can these bones live? And you know, he says, Only you know Lord. And he says, These are my people, Israel. I'm gonna bring them back from the dead. They're coming back. And they are, you know, it's like you can't stop God. Mm-hmm. , to me, that's one of the most powerful proofs that God's there and keeps his word.

Yeah. When I was there the first time in 2010, we went to a Messianic Jewish church. This guy named V was there. He. He made it through the Holocaust in Poland and he was a part of the Special Forces. He would actually be like the secret agent during the War of Independence in 48. And so it, I would highly recommend it.

We'll have a link to it on our Facebook page and it's there. It's called this V and I don't know the subtitles to it. A book? Yeah. Yeah. But it's a great story about him coming to. Who this Jesus was cuz he wasn't a believer in Jesus as the Messiah. He was just a Jew who made it through the Polish, you know, Baggetto and made it to Israel.

And then again, can you imagine making it through all that? Then you become a nation and within hours you're at war again. And then you're, the rest of your life, you're still looking over your shoulder. Cuz at any moment there could be missiles coming or tanks coming around the, the hill and a ho hospital convoy, uh, from, uh, I forget which city in.

But it's attacked by herbs. It's blown up. Uh, all these things are going wrong. They don't have food. They're not gonna make it. Suddenly, miraculously in Jerusalem, this crop grows up and it's something they can eat. It's, and they don't know. I forget what it was called, but it was. An interesting time of God's intervention in saving, like he provided manana in the wilderness.

Yeah. For his people to eat. Yeah. Or oil. The Maccabean revolt or, Yeah. You know, all these things that God's providence comes in saying, Yes, these are my people, and. The Old Testament points to that is Ziel 37. You talked about the dry bones coming in. What else you got there? And in the Isaiah 27, 6, it says, In the days to come, Jacob will take root, Israel will blossom and sprout, and they will fill the whole world with fruit.

Mm-hmm. ? Yeah. And Amos 9, 8, 9. It talks about, When they come back in, the days are coming declares Lord, when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planner, by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills, and I will bring my people Israel back from exile.

When was Amos? Probably like four, 500 years before Uhhuh. , Jesus. Yeah. So we're talking 2,500 years before there, or at least 2,400 years before. Uh, 1948. Yeah. And Isaiah's 740 BC that he's writing this, that's gonna happen. He says they will rebuild the ruin cities and live in them. Mark Twain went there in the late 18 hundreds and says, Why are they fighting over this?

It's terrible. It's a swampland. It was a malaria field that the Arabs, when they had control of that, They cut down all the trees cuz they were taxed on the trees, right? So they cut down all the trees so they weren't taxed. Well, the problem is without the trees, it became a swamp land and then the malaria came over.

So then everybody just abandoned. It was a wasteland, like very few. There were some farmers, some Zionist, some Jews that were farming the land trying to get it ready. They were attacked all the time too. I mean, just talk about tough people, but. When the Jews came back in, they're like, Well, Eucalyptus, that'll soak up this water.

And God gave them wisdom to know how to make this a fertile land again, because it was a desert. And now Israel's the number eight. Exporter of fruits in 2020. The Tiny Israel exported 354 million in tropical fruits, making it the eighth ranked country in the world size of New Jersey. It's ranked number eight in the whole world, and I would go on to say the size of New Jersey with a lot of the terrain of.

Or New Mexico parts of it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah, up north by Galilee there's some good land, right? But still the technology behind their farming to be able to maximize the small amount of acreage that they have that's actually decent soil and has a water source to it, it's, it's amazing. Again, God has just blessed them beyond what could be just human intelligence and that's that Isaiah, I will make the desert blossom, and that's what they've done.

They've invent. Desertification, they, they've anti desertification, you know, like taking things that were desert and making them.  fruitful. Even the Dead Sea has like the, the lotions and stuff that they send all over the world from there. Yeah. Ava. Yeah. The company that makes all these cool skin products.

Yeah. And things like that. Cause the people want to go and use, you know, it's good, good for the skin. Well, I, I came across something and studying for this. It's, uh, it's a Jewish website. Uh, I don't think they were like Messianic Jews believe in Jesus Messiah, but they were talking about 1940. Actually being predicted in the Bible.

So you have an Ezekiel chapter four, verses four through eight. God has Ezekiel do these crazy, you know, illustrations. He doesn't do four different illustrations, but this one, basically the gist of it is that Israel was going to be in exile for 430 years. Jeremiah chapter 25 verses eight through 12, talk about 70 years, but that 70 years was fulfilled, and so you subtract the four 30 minus the 70, and you have 360 years starting from.

5 37 BC when, remember we talked about them going to exile and 5 86 to Babylon. I know I'm throwing a lot of numbers at you, but just trust me on these people or just play this over and over again and write it down. But 5 37, you start the clock, but it's not just the 360. Uh, in Leviticus 26 versus 14 to 43, he says over and over again seven times.

And so they did the math with the Jewish calendar, which is Lunar, not like our goer. Gregorian calendar. It's 60 days. Yeah, 360 days versus 365. You do the math, the seven times, the 360, and again with the lunar calendar, and you land on from 5 37 BC 1948 Now. Could it be, Could they be tweaking the numbers?

Sure. But we've seen that when we've talked about Jesus and knowing the time when he entered Jerusalem from the Daniel Prophecy, and that was on the day. If you'd only known the day, Jesus says, So God does that over and over again and it, those are just like down the road layers to God's providence because you should have just enough that's right in front of you.

But when you add all those layers on top of it, God's saying, I'm here. I keep my promises and I'm bringing these people back from, from all around the. And he talks about that a lot in Ezekiel for my purpose and my plans. And that's why they get to rebuild the third temple hopefully in our lifetime, if not really, really soon, because that's a key part of that end time stuff, which we talked about in Joel chapter three.

He says in verse one, For behold, in those days, and at that time when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Joos. Which means Yahweh, judges says, Then I will enter into judgment with them there on behalf of my people and my inheritance Israel.

So God's gonna judge the nations of the world on how they treat his people. How did you do on that? Whom they have scattered among the nations and they have divided up my land. Mm-hmm. . It's like that's something that holds a lot. Ominous fear. You should not want to enter into God's judgment because if you treated Israel and they were his people that way, what do you think God's gonna do?

I don't think this is gonna be a good time. And as you and I have talked about before, that time is coming, when that last seven year period hanging out there is gonna start, The clock's gonna start again. Mm-hmm.  and God's gonna turn his attention back to Israel. Yeah. And that's why he has 144,000 witnesses in Yep.

That are Jews. Mm-hmm.  at that time. He's gonna wake them up to, they're gonna realize the true Messiah and they're gonna be the witnesses to the world about Jesus being the Messiah. So the miracle of God taking these scattered, persecuted people for centuries, bringing 'em back to a nation who went through stuff that no nation should be able to survive in, to get to a place where prophecy, speaking about this third temple being rebuilt cuz they built the original one, what they, or it was Solomon and then they, you know, rebuilt it in the sixth century BC.

Yeah, Hero did some upgrades to it made a little bit better with the Temple Mountain that, but then it was destroyed in 80, 70. So this third temple, which is a key part of prophecy, and you and I believe it has to be there. There has to be a temple there where the Anna Christ goes in and signs the treaty, but then makes the sacrifice halfway through, had to be there.

So it couldn't have been Jesus return. At least night after 1948, but now we're even closer. I mean, obviously cuz every day we're closer, but all the stuff going on in the world, they have everything they need to build the temple, Both the stones and the stuff that goes in it. We've both been to the Temple Institute.

You see all the, the, the articles of clothing and the articles, you know, for, for the, the sacrifices and, and the incense and all that. It's ready to go and it's scripture being fulfilled in our generat. There's nothing more exciting to me than that. It's like we see it being fulfilled in front of us.

We're now, Yes, and people are flocking. Jews are flocking to Israel like never before. Right now from all over the world, and it's just become the largest Jewish population in the world is now in Israel. It used to be. United States for a, a while. Like New York. Yeah. But now Israel is Wow. The largest population of Jews in the world.

So you have Jews from Europe, Jews from Africa. Jews from Russia, America. Yeah. All over. Yeah. Yeah. Well, there's a lot more to it. I would encourage you to study on any, uh, what would you say is like a good website where they can go and learn more on, on just the miracle of Israel or a book? Um, you can.

Google the Miracle of Israel. There's some, some videos, but one of my favorite books on this is called The Mountains of Israel by Norma Archbold. Uh, and it's really good in terms of all the prophetic things that it fulfills. And hes equal 36 and 37 that it talks about. That was Valley of the Dry Bones.

What's the author's name? Norma Archbold. A r c h B O L D, Norma Archbold. It's a good old school name right there. Yeah. But yeah, you, There's tons to it. And if this is like lighting a again, that's what we try to do in this podcast is to hopefully help throw a few logs or help ignite a fire. If this is new to you, there's plenty to dig in to do cuz there's tons of scripture, there's tons of history that supports just the miracle of this country, Israel.

It's pretty amazing stuff. Yeah. There was a passage in Zeph and I at two seven that talked about. , Um, because of the recent, not recent now, probably about 40 years ago, in 89 when the Soviet Union collapses, that came back so many Jews that there weren't places to put 'em all. And God's word said in Zeph and I at two seven, that he's gonna make these fallen like Philistine cities of like chelon and Gath, uh, place, uh, where my people are gonna come and.

And they actually did have to put the people in those places because they were still good because of the way they had the breezes coming off the Mediterranean and they had these. Houses that were, you know, old Stone ruins that they could just put a roof on in the Gaza to basically, Yeah, to down in Gaza.

Let these guys come back. Oh, wow. So they had a place to stay. Yeah. Even that layer, I don't, I don't know if I've heard that one before. That's cool. Well do some digging. Uh, don't just take our word for it. There's plenty in the word and out there to do some digging on that. Encourage you to just see how amazing God is with his promises and his people.

So with all that, um, this is Todd from a Good Friend Stew. We'll see at the next episode.