The Fall and Rise of Israel, Part 10 - The Reason Why

Israel's return to the land wasn't just for the heck of it.  Perhaps you are wondering, what is the ultimate purpose of that return?

Let's jump in.  But we need to go back briefly to the very beginning.

There is a very special word that God uses on day four of creation.  Genesis 1:14 says, And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night.  And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years...

The word for seasons is moedim, which literally means appointed times.  God has set up appointments with His people that were built into the very fabric of creation and the biblical calendar.

These appointments are explained in detail in Leviticus 23.  The first is a weekly appointment known as the Sabbath, commemorating the day that God rested after creating the world.  Then, the chapter continues and describes seven annual appointments that are to take place - four in the spring and three in the fall.  People often refer to them as the Biblical Feasts, but the word is moedim. (Moe eh DEEM). Appointments.

For thousands of years, the Jews have celebrated these appointed times.  The bible often translates the observance of these appointments as convocations, or dress rehearsals.  Dress rehearsals for what?

As the biblical narrative unfolds, we see an awesome promise to Abraham.  Genesis 17:7-8 tells us, And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.  And I will give to you and to our offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.

My favorite depiction of YHVH's promise to Abraham

The story continues to unfold, and God makes a covenant with His people at Mt. Sinai after He delivered them from slavery in Egypt.  Unlike the unconditional Abrahamic Covenant, this Sinai Covenant required obedience.  Israel was told what would happen if they did not follow its precepts.  They would be booted out of the land (see Deuteronomy 28:63-64). The ownership of the land was never taken away because of the everlasting Abrahamic covenant, but the right to live in it was temporarily taken away. 

And indeed, failure to obey the Sinai Covenant caused the Israelites to be carried off to Babylon, where they remained for 70 years. But since God had an appointment to keep with His people, they had to return to the land of promise for that appointment - and miraculously, they did.

Several hundred years after Israel's return to the land, the LORD in His perfect timing sent the Messiah, Yeshua, to earth to take on the sin of the world as the Passover Lamb.  Yeshua perfectly kept the Sinai Covenant, yet He was killed, even though He did not owe the death penalty for sin like the rest of us do.  In doing so, He took on our sin Himself and paid the penalty for us.  Through His self-sacrifice, He instituted the New Covenant that had been prophesied to Israel in Jeremiah 31:31-33.

Passover Lamb

And even though the first New Covenant believers were all Jewish, most Jews missed the time of Messiah's first visitation.  They were looking for deliverance from Rome, not from their own sin.

Yeshua said in Luke 19:43-44, He said, For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you.  And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.

This was fulfilled in 70 AD, when Rome destroyed Jerusalem and the Jews were scattered to the ends of the earth.

The second exile lasted much longer than the 70 years in Babylon.  I believe it is because the scope of the New Covenant is much larger and more far-reaching than the Sinai Covenant, which itself pointed to (and was fulfilled by) the Messiah.

But now, Israel is back.  The Messiah, the suffering servant, son of Joseph, perfectly fulfilled the four spring appointed times when He came 2000 years ago.  Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, and Shavuot saw the precise and perfect fulfillment of His death, burial, resurrection, and indwelling of His Holy Spirit.

The fall feasts have yet to have their ultimate fulfillment.  When Messiah returns as the Son of David and the Conquering King, He will perfectly complete the fall appointed times.  Israel is back in the land so that the Lord can keep this appointment with them and reveal Himself to them.  

Psalm 118 says, 

The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
This is the LORD's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.
This is the day that LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Save us, we pray, O LORD! O LORD, we pray, give us success!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of LORD!

(Reminder:  every time you see the word LORD in the Hebrew scriptures, it is -  a representation of the tetragrammaton the name of God, YHVH)

In Matthew 23:38, Yeshua quoted Psalm 118 when he said to the Jewish leaders, "You will not see me again until you say blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD."  Yeshua is reminding His people that He WILL keep His appointment with them when they finally recognize and call out to Him.

Zechariah 12:10 says, “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.

Romans 11 tells us, And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written,
“The Deliverer will come from Zion,
he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”;
“and this will be my covenant with them
when I take away their sins.”

The story doesn't end with the redemption of Israel. The glorious return of the Messiah and the redemption of Israel signals the beginning of a new age, the world to come. Yeshua will come to Jerusalem for the purpose of setting up His kingdom on earth, where He will rule and reign with His redeemed people - those of Israel and those of the nations that are grafted into the commonwealth of Israel.  God is preparing to keep an appointment with Israel, in the land of Israel.

It is a big deal.  The biggest deal since the beginning of time, for all who will trust in Him as Redeemer, Lord, and King.

In Isaiah 49:6, YHVH says about the Messiah:

“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant

to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to bring back the preserved of Israel;
I will make you as a light for the nations,
that my salvation (Yeshua - Messiah's name, which means salvation) 

may reach to the end of the earth.”

And Revelation 11:5 says, Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he shall reign forever and ever.”

Week after week, the Jews continue to celebrate the appointed time of the Sabbath.  Every week, the Jews partake of bread and wine.  Week after week, they celebrate an incredible dress rehearsal for that which is about to come.

For six days YHVH created the world, and then He rested.  For six thousand years of human history, the world has been in travail.  We are at the dawn of the seventh (and Sabbath) millenium, the thousand years of peace and rule under the coming kingdom of the Messiah (see Revelation 20). The pattern is unmistakable. He is coming again soon.  Have you made Him your king yet?  Will you trust in Him and receive Him?

The Fall and Rise of Israel, Part 9 - Jerusalem the Capital, The Trump Sounds, The Numbers Speak

Now that Jerusalem had been restored to the Jewish people, it would become the focal point of global controversy.

The years following 1967 saw the return of more Jews than ever to the land.  

And remember, the enemy of our souls knows his time is short.  And he knows that the return of Jerusalem to the Jews, along with more Jews flooding to the land, is a smoking gun of biblical prophecy.  So biblically speaking, there is absolutely no surprise that he would freak out and stir up the hearts of the world against Jerusalem.

Israel declared its capital to be Jerusalem in 1967.  But they were the only ones making this declaration... the rest of the world refused to recognize it.  Not only did the world refuse to recognize it, but the nations of the world would gather together again and again (via the United Nations) to condemn the return and to declare it illegal.

To date, the UN has issued more condemnations against Israel than they had ever issued against all the nations of the world, combined.  For example, look at this chart, which outlines the condemnations by the UNHRC (United Nations "Human Rights Council") during the years of 2006 to 2015:

Israel 62, North Korea 8??
Who are they kidding?

In spite of all this, something incredible happened, on the jubilee that followed 1967, which had followed the jubilee of 1917.

Let's look at the progression.

On June 5, 1917, the British War Cabinet decided that General Allenby should be appointed as Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in Egypt.  That appointment set in motion the liberation of Jerusalem from the Ottomans and the Balfour Declaration.  

On June 5, 1967, the Six Day War began, which set in motion the liberation of Jerusalem from Jordanian control, restoring control to the Jews for the first time in 2000 years.

On June 5, 2017, the US senate initiated Jerusalem's fiftieth year with this declaration:

Resolved that the Senate recognizes the 50th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem... reaffirms the Jerusalem Embassy Act... as United States law, and calls upon the President and all United States officials to abide by its provisions.   

What is this Jerusalem Embassy Act referred to by the Senate?  It was a declaration by congress in November of 1995, calling on the US President to declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel and move the embassy to Jerusalem.  You can read it here if you'd like.

The act has a built-in waiver, which allows the president to temporarily postpone the move on grounds of “national security,” and has been repeatedly invoked by successive US presidents, from Bill Clinton to George W. Bush and Barack Obama, meaning the law has never taken effect.

After he was elected, Trump signed the waiver as well.  I was disappointed, as during his campaign he had promised to move the embassy to Jerusalem.

But in hindsight, I see that God's timing is perfect.  On December 6, 2017, Donald Trump officially recognized Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel, and announced plans to move the embassy to Jerusalem.  This pronouncement took place one hundred years after Jerusalem was liberated from the Ottomans, in the very same week.

You can read Trump's declaration in its entirety here.  But for me, this is the highlight of his speech:

"However, through all of these years, presidents representing the United States have declined to officially recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. In fact, we have declined to acknowledge any Israeli capital at all.

But today, we finally acknowledge the obvious: that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. This is nothing more, or less, than a recognition of reality. It is also the right thing to do. It’s something that has to be done."

Preparations began immediately.  The embassy move to Jerusalem was completed on May 14, 2018.  Its televised inauguration took place seventy years to the day that Israel became a nation, and seventy years to the day that Israel had been recognized as a legitimate nation by a world leader:  Harry Truman.

People had predicted World War 3 if the declaration and subsequnt embassy move were to take place.  But WW3 didn't happen.

This photo ran in the Jerusalem Post...
and it may or may not have been photoshopped.
While there was no World War 3,
the Arabs were not happy with the move. 
I've met this camel guy.
I can't imagine that he was thrilled.

The embassy moved to an area in Jerusalem known as Arnona, which is located right on the imaginary green armistice line of 1948. There is a fascinating back story to this area, and you can click here to read it. Trust me, it's a worthwhile bunny trail.

In post 6, I made a comparison to Truman and Cyrus. Can we now throw another guy into the mix?

During Truman's presidency, a little boy was born on June 14, 1946.  Seventy years later, this little boy would be elected president of the United States.  And just as Truman sounded the trumpet of Israel's statehood, this US president sounded the trumpet of Jerusalem's restoration.  It is interesting that their names both start with tru.  Even the man's name reflected his mission... Trump.  And the meaning of the name Donald?  World leader.

Listen to this speech by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the opening of the US Embassy Jerusalem on May 14, 2018:

Exactly 70 years ago today, President Truman became the first world leader to recognize the newborn Jewish state.  Last December, President Trump became the first world leader to recognize Jerusalem as our capital.  And today, the United States of America is opening its embassy right here in Jerusalem.

This pattern of 70 years heralds back to King Cyrus, who made his declaration for the return of the Jews to the Holy Land after seventy years of exile in Babylon.

Do you suppose that there would be a relevant scripture reading from the Torah portion for the week of May 14, 2018?

You'd suppose right. 

Part of the reading that week included Leviticus 25:9-10, which says this:
...you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan.

The fall of Jerusalem began with a Roman invasion in 67 AD.  Counting 36 jubilee cycles of 50 years each from that year, we are taken to 1867, the year the restoration kicked off with the work of Mark Twain and Charles Warren.  Each subsequent jubilee had restoration significance:

1917 - Jerusalem liberated from the Ottomans during World War 1

1967 - Jerusalem reunified and given back to Jewish Control

2017 - Jerusalem declared by a world leader to be Israel's capital

Thirty-nine jubilee cycles.  Hmm.  It makes me wonder if any kind of big event will take place upon the completion of the 40th jubilee in 2067.  This is not a prophecy or a prediction... it's just me wondering, because forty is also a big number in the scriptures.  It generally signifies a time of testing.

Through all these number patterns, God has woven a beautiful pattern of Israel's restoration.  No mortal man could possibly come up with all these coincidences.  It's all very cool and interesting, but the question remains... why?  Why is Israel back in her land?  Why is Jerusalem back under Israel's control?

One more post! You can click here to read it.

The Fall and Rise of Israel, Part 8 - Masada to Jerusalem, A New Song, and a Priestly Declaration

1948 saw the official restoration of the Jews to the land. But something was missing.

The day after Israel was declared a nation, enemy forces from five Arab nations attacked the newborn state, each in an effort to grab land. The Jews were driven from the biblical heartland and from the Old City of Jerusalem.

Even today, the large kidney-shaped area of the biblical heartland is called the “West Bank” because it fell under control of Jordan to the east... and they called it the "west bank" of Jordan.  Syria grabbed the Golan Heights. Egypt grabbed Gaza. For these attacking nations, it was a free-for-all. The Jews were left with a long skinny area from north to south of the land that excluded the old city of Jerusalem.

For 19 years, this is how the tiny nation of Israel existed. But something amazing happened to change all that.

In the 1960s, excavation began of the ancient desert fortress of Masada, located next to the Dead Sea. Masada was the place of the Jews’ last stand in the year 73 AD. The man who led the return to Masada was named Yigael Yadin. He was a military commander who had been a general in Israel’s war of Independence in 1948.

Yadin’s original last name was Sukenik. His father was the one who uncovered the Dead Sea Scrolls.

As Yadin led the expedition to open that ancient grave of Masada, an ancient synagogue was found. Parchments of scripture were discovered, the most notable being from Ezekiel 37:1, which read The hand of the LORD… set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. And He said to me, Son of man, can these bones live? So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and suddenly a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to bone…and flesh came upon them… And breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army. Then He said to me, ‘Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel… Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.

Masada - an ancient and amazing desert fortress next to the Dead Sea,
built by King Herod more than two thousand years ago

God had embedded His promise into the sands of that ancient grave. And just as the loss of Jerusalem led to the loss of Masada in the first century, the return to Masada would lead to… the return to Jerusalem.

For nearly 2000 years, the Jews had yearned for a return to Jerusalem. This song of yearning is found in Psalm 137, written during the exile in Babylon... If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill…

Psalm 137 was the song of the first exile.

Tiny rabbit trail... A few years ago, I attended a Jewish wedding in Jerusalem, on a hillside overlooking the city. This psalm was included in the wedding ceremony. Later, I asked our host about it. He said that a wedding is considered one of the highest joys, yet Psalm 137 commands that Jerusalem be their chief joy. Therefore, it is declared at a wedding to be an even higher joy than the wedding. 

A joyful Jewish wedding celebration overlooking Jerusalem

In May of 1967, a modern song of Jerusalem was written by a young Israeli named Naomi Shemer, and it was sung for the first time in public at the annual Israeli Music Festival. The song was called Yerushalayim Shel Zahav, or Jerusalem of Gold. The song gave a modern voice to the ancient Jewish yearning for Jerusalem.

When it was sung at the music festival, the audience was transfixed. The song spread like wildfire throughout the nation because it struck a chord in the heart of Jews, both religious and secular.  Here are the lyrics of that first performance, translated into English:

Verse 1

The mountain air is clear as wine
And the scent of pines
Is carried on the breeze of twilight
With the sound of bells.

And in the slumber of tree and stone
Captured in her dream
The city that sits solitary
And in its midst is a wall.

Chorus:
Jerusalem of gold
And of copper, and of light
Behold I am a violin for all your songs.

Verse 2
How the cisterns have dried
The market-place is empty
And no one frequents the Temple Mount
In the Old City.

And in the caves in the mountain
Winds are howling
And no one descends to the Dead Sea
By way of Jericho.

Verse 3
But as I come to sing to you today,
And to adorn crowns to you
I am the smallest of the youngest of your children 
And of the last poet.

For your name scorches the lips
Like the kiss of a seraph
If I forget thee, Jerusalem,
Which is all gold... 

Just for fun, here is a link to a recording of that very first performance, if you are interested.

On the very day that the song was first performed, enemy troops were moving across the desert toward Israel’s borders. 

The reason they were preparing to attack Israel was because of a false report from the Soviet Union to Egypt - the report that Israel was intending to launch an invasion against them. Anticipating war, the UN peacekeeping troops withdrew from the Sinai peninsula on May 16.  By June, over 200,000 troops were gathered along Israel’s borders. Israel was outnumbered. Threats of annihilation were real.  Egyptian leader Nasser declared, "Our basic objective will be the destruction of Israel."

On June 3, a secret meeting of Israel’s leaders took place to determine what to do. The decision was made to launch a surprise attack. One of the men in that meeting was Yigael Yadin, the man who uncovered Masada.

Interestingly, this meeting took place as the Sabbath came to a close.  Included in that week's Torah portion are the first four chapters of the book of Numbers, in which Israel was numbering and assembling men eligible to go to war, as well as numbering the Levites who were ordained as priests and tabernacle servants.

On June 5, the Israeli air force made surprising attacks on neighboring Arab countries and destroyed their air forces.  They fought Syria in the north and Egypt in the south.  But it was Jordan that occupied Jerusalem.  The Israeli government pleaded with Jordan to stay out of the war.  Israel was fighting for its life, not for Jerusalem.

Israeli troops were not even focused on the old city.  The fighting centered on a mountain overlooking Jerusalem - Mount Scopus, Israel's sole possession east of the old city.  Located on that mountain were an Israeli hospital, an Israeli university... and Israeli army personnel.  

Mount Scopus had been the headquarters of Roman General Titus in 70 AD.  Just as Jerusalem's destruction was staged from Mount Scopus, so too would be Jerusalem's liberation.

On June 7, 1967, Israeli soldiers swept down from Mount Scopus on the north into the old city and to the Temple Mount.  The commander of the 55th Brigade, Motta Gur, radioed words that would be heard all over the nation:  "The Temple Mount is in our hands."

Iconic photo of soldiers at the Western Wall of the Temple Mount.
Photo by David Rubinger, who died in 2017 at age 92

The soldiers who liberated Jerusalem found themselves on the Temple Mount and spontaneously began singing Naomi Shemer's song that had swept the land just three weeks prior.  When Naomi heard of Jerusalem's liberation, she added a verse.  The song of longing became a song of rejoicing.  Here is the English translation:

We have returned to the cisterns
To the market and to the market-place
A ram's horn calls out on the Temple Mount
In the Old City.

And in the caves in the mountain
Thousands of suns shine -
We will once again descend to the Dead Sea
By way of Jericho!

Going back to the Torah portion for that week, from the book of Numbers, there were two chapters numbering the men for war, and two chapters speaking of the duties of the priests.  

It was the duty of the priests to mark, herald, and proclaim the Jubilean year to the rest of the nation.

And something amazing was taking place as the Temple Mount was being liberated.  One of the first Israelis to enter the Old City was Rabbi Shlomo Goren, the chief chaplain of the Israeli army.  As he stood on the ancient site, his mind turned to his father-in-law, another rabbi, who was known for his deep yearning for Jerusalem's restoration.  Goren sent his assistant through enemy fire to bring his father-in-law, Rabbi David HaCohen, back to the Holy City.  

Rabbi Goren sounds the shofar at the Temple Mount

Rabbi HaCohen was so overcome with emotion that he left his house without putting shoes on.  The driver stopped to pick up another rabbi, Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda HaCohen Kook, who also was passionate about Jerusalem's restoration.  Three weeks earlier, Rabbi Kook had shocked his hearers when he cried out in pained longing for the restoration of the nation's holy places that were currently separated from them.

Both of these Rabbis were descendents of Aaron - in other words, priests.  Just as the first people marching into the promised land under Joshua were priests, so too were the priests present at the moment of return to Jerusalem.

Interestingly, the soldier who drove the Jeep that brought the two priests to the Holy City was also of a priestly line - his name was Menachem HaCohen, which means the comfort of the priest.  (Cohen means priest).

What a day that was! June 7, 1967 (or 28 Iyyar if you are looking at the Hebrew calendar).  The next post is now available here.

Note:  There are many more details that are associated with the return of Jerusalem in 1967.  I highly recommend the book The Oracle by Jonathan Cahn, in which you can read all of them.

The Fall and Rise of Israel, Part 7 - A New National Anthem, Language, and Military; Cyrus vs. Truman, Ben Gurion

Now that the declaration of the Jewish state had been made by the nations of the world in November of 1947, there was a short waiting period before the declaration would be activated.

Generally, nations follow the course of nature.  They are born, they grow, they become more complex, and eventually they become ill and wither.  Even a brief glance at the United States of America and its history makes this cycle apparent.  (I need to remind myself that most of human history to date has occurred without the presence of relatively-new-on-the-scene America).

But in the case of Israel, what happened was not natural.  It appeared to be a birth, but in reality it was a rebirth.  A resurrection.  To disintegrate is natural.  To come back together is not.

Ezekiel 37 gives us a prophetic picture of dry bones coming back to life - a resurrection, so to speak.  You can read the entire passage here.

In a birth, one develops into maturity.  In a resurrection, one becomes what they once had been.  So it has been with Israel.

Let's look at some examples.

Nations are born and they they establish a national anthem.  In Israel's case, the national anthem was established when the nation was nothing more than a dream.  An eastern European Jewish man named Naftali Imber wrote the poem Hatikvah (The Hope)  in 1878.  He immigrated to the Holy Land in 1882 and read his poem to the pioneers of early Jewish villages.  In 1887, Samuel Cohen put the poem to music, and the song spread rapidly in the land.  Here is the English translation of the lyrics:

As long as in the heart, within,
The soul of a Jew still yearns,
And onward, towards the ends of the east
an eye still gazes toward Zion

Our hope is not yet lost,
The two-thousand-year-old hope,
To be a free nation in our land,
The land of Zion and Jerusalem

This lovely poem became the national anthem of the modern state of Israel. Click here to hear a beautiful recording of it.

The next example is language.  In the world, languages develop over time.  But with Israel, its native language of Hebrew had been dead for ages.  Then, a young Jewish man from eastern Europe made it his life's mission to resurrect the language.  Eliezar Ben Yehuda nearly single-handedly re-established the Hebrew language, writing a full dictionary for it and teaching it to the people.   Long story short, Hebrew is the main language of the state of Israel.  Just for fun, see Zephaniah 3:9, which says “For at that time I will change the speech of the peoples to a pure language, that all of them may call upon the name of the Lord and serve him with one accord.  The verse just before that gives us a hint as to what language was indicated.  Zephaniah 3:8 is the only verse in the whole Bible where all 22 of the Hebrew letters and all five Hebrew sofits (special word-ending letters) appear together.

A third example:  the land itself, which had lain desolate for centuries and centuries. It was resurrected, as vineyards, olive groves, forests, and grain fields were re-established in the same places where they once were.  Again I will mention the book Exodus, which gives such a clear account of the agricultural revival in the land.

Another example:  Soldiers.  The last Israeli soldiers died in battle against the Roman Empire at the fortress of Masada in the year 73 AD and vanished from the earth.  But after nearly 2000 years, Israeli soldiers once again appeared on earth to protect the nation that had likewise died and reappeared on the earth.  Often, Israeli soldiers are sworn in on top of Masada.

Israeli soldiers on Masada

Nations come to exist, and then are spoken of.  But the reborn Israel was dreamed about and prophesied for thousands of years before its modern existence.  One of many biblical examples is Jeremiah 30:3, which says, For behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will restore the fortunes of my people, Israel and Judah, says the Lord, and I will bring them back to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall take possession of it.

When the Jews were restored to the land from Babylon in the 538 BC, it was initiated and sanctioned by a decree from Cyrus, king of Persia.  The second return from exile was sanctioned by another world leader - Harry S Truman.  We have already looked at his role in the establishment of modern Israel. Now let's look at some interesting parallels between Truman and Cyrus.

King Cyrus spent 30 years in government.  Truman entered his first governmental office in January of 1923, and his presidency ended 30 years later, in January of 1953.

Cyrus became king just as Persia was becoming the world's superpower.  He was sixty years old.  Truman's age as he assumed the presidency was - yep, 60 - just as the United States was rising to a place of superpower in the world.

And of course, both of them made decrees that opened the doors for the Jewish people to return home and rebuild their nation.

Cyrus issued his decree to allow the rebuilding of the Jewish nation after a period of 70 years (which was prophesied by Daniel).  

Modern Israel's restoration began in the late 1878 with the first Jewish settlements in the land.  Fast forward 70 years to Truman's presidency, and the rebirth of Israel which officially took place on May 14, 1948.  In 1945, Truman had written a letter to the British prime minister Atlee, calling for Jewish Holocaust refugees to be allowed to return to their homeland.  

This letter was made public on August 31, 1945, just as the Sabbath was beginning.  The Torah portion for that day included Deuteronomy 30:3-5.  These words were being declared in synagogues all over the world:  The Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will take you.  And the Lord your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. 

Cyrus and Truman each made their declarations in their first year as world leader.

For further reading on this subject, check out this book.

Interestingly, when Truman was wrestling over whether to support the rebirth of the Jewish nation, his decision was sealed by the words of a quote he kept in his office at the White House:  Always do right.  This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.  It was a quote of the stranger - mentioned in the very first post of this series - Mark Twain.

Before wrapping up this post, I want to look at one more example of reversal.

Before the Jewish nation was destroyed in 70 AD, a provisional government was formed of its leaders to guide the nation against Rome.  It would be the last unified government before its destruction.  Its leader was a man named Joseph Ben Gurion.

Israel's first prime minister is known as David Ben Gurion.  But he was born in Poland with the name David Grün. He was inspired to immigrate to the Holy Land after Theodor Herzl visited his hometown of Plonsk, Poland.  He became a journalist and chose his pen name, David Ben Gurion.  It is interesting that his middle name, given at birth, was Joseph.  David Joseph Ben Gurion.

David Ben Gurion
First Prime Minister of Israel

The ancient provisional government, led by Joseph Ben Gurion, proclaimed the existence of a sovereign Jewish state to Rome, which led to its disappearance.  The modern provisional government, led by David Joseph Ben Gurion, proclaimed the existence of a sovereign Jewish state to the world, which led to its rebirth.

On May 14, 1948, David Ben Gurion announced the rebirth of the state of Israel to the world.  It was a Friday, and the Sabbath was about to begin.  Was there an appropriate scripture reading in the synagogues to mark this moment?  Of course there was.

The haftorah portion for that week included Amos 9:11-15. On the day of Israel's resurrection, it was being chanted all over the world.  Check it out:

“In that day I will raise up
the booth of David that is fallen
and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins
and rebuild it as in the days of old, 

that they may possess the remnant of Edom
and all the nations who are called by my name,”
declares the Lord who does this.

“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“when the plowman shall overtake the reaper
and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed;
the mountains shall drip sweet wine,
and all the hills shall flow with it.

I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel,
and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them;
they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine,
and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit.

I will plant them on their land,
and they shall never again be uprooted
out of the land that I have given them,”
says the Lord your God.

If you would like to continue this series, click here.