Hi friends…and welcome back!  Today we’re taking a look at prophecies concerning Israel’s re-birth, so it is important to understand historical context.  As we noted in Tishah B’Av and the Destruction of Jerusalem, Jerusalem was totally destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, and Jews were scattered throughout the world.  Israel ceased to exist as a nation.

However, long ago, in Ezekiel’s time (roughly 580 BC), God gave Ezekiel a prophecy, promising that the land of Israel would be restored.  That seemed impossible throughout the ages that followed, as the land became utterly desolate and was filled with swamps, sand dunes and uninhabitable land.  However, Jews gradually began returning to the land and God blessed their efforts to restore the land.  Examine this passage from Ezekiel 36:3, 8-11:

Thus says the Lord God, “For good reason they have made you desolate and crushed you from every side…But you, O mountains of Israel, you will put forth your branches and bear your fruit for My people Israel; for they will soon come. For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you will be cultivated and sown. I will multiply men on you, all the house of Israel, all of it; and the cities will be inhabited and the waste places will be rebuilt. I will multiply on you man and beast; and they will increase and be fruitful; and I will cause you to be inhabited as you were formerly and will treat you better than at the first. Thus you will know that I am the Lord.”

The re-birth of Israel as a land and as a nation is certainly miraculous, and God planned it from the very beginning!  In fact, let’s examine a few Bible prophecies, then view a video that brings these passages to life!

But you will chase your enemies and they will fall before you by the sword; five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall before you by the sword. So I will turn toward you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will confirm My covenant with you.  ~Leviticus 26:7-9

The Lord your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back. The Lord your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers.  ~Deuteronomy 30:3-5

“Also I will restore the captivity of My people Israel,
And they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them;
They will also plant vineyards and drink their wine,
And make gardens and eat their fruit.
I will also plant them on their land,
And they will not again be rooted out from their land
Which I have given them,”
Says the Lord your God.
~Amos 9:14-15

Old men and old women will again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each man with his staff in his hand because of age. And the streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls playing in its streets.  ~Zechariah 9:4-5

“I will open rivers on the bare heights
And springs in the midst of the valleys;
I will make the wilderness a pool of water
And the dry land fountains of water.
~Isaiah 41:18

We often think of the re-birth of Israel from the perspective of Ezekiel 37…the re-birth of the nation.  But the LAND was restored as well, and this video illustrates the restoration of both the land and the people.  Click and enjoy!