10/27/2023
Israel Must Live!
https://yalestandard.com/spiritual-issues/israel-must-live/
Israel must live! The cry that was rung out by young Jews everywhere after the Six Day War: Israel must live! Israel has a character of its own, a permanence that has endured persecutions of the worst sort and nineteen hundred years of displacement to be gathered again into the promised land of Palestine.
It is an amazing fact that the Jews have neither been destroyed by persecution nor assimilated by other societies. Time after time men have arisen determined to extinguish the Jewish race. Yet still the Jews survived, and the remnant was even more tightly bound in unity by that persecution.
On the other hand, centuries of separation from Israel have not severed the bond between the Jews and Israel.
Israel is the Center of God’s Plan
There is great significance in Israel: it is the center of God’s plan. Jerusalem is once again occupied by the Jews and is a focal point of spiritual significance. God is gathering His chosen people to Israel as a preliminary step to the coming of the Messiah to reign from Jerusalem.
The prophets of the Old Testament spoke about two different aspects of the Messiah. On the one hand He was to be the Suffering Servant of Israel, and on the other, He is to reign from Jerusalem as King.
Isaiah spoke of the Suffering Servant who would bear the iniquities of mankind when he foretold that “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief…. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities.… By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many…. Because he hath poured out his soul unto death.” (Isaiah 53)
In the twenty-second psalm David prophesied the Messiah’s sufferings. “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax.… They pierced my hands and my feet. They look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.” (Psalm 22)
However, “Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely.” (Jeremiah 23)
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https://yalestandard.com/spiritual-issues/israel-must-live/
