Israel…God’s chosen land and God’s chosen people!  The Lord has a very special and very specific plan for His chosen ones, and it is laid out in Bible prophecy.  Through the hundreds of prophecies already fulfilled, we are given assurance that God will be just as faithful to fulfill prophecies to come.  By studying fulfilled prophecies of the past we get some idea of how future prophecies will play out in history.

I’m excited about this week’s study and I have prayed that the time we spend in study this week will further ignite our excitement about God’s promises, not only to His chosen people…the Jews, but also to those of us He has “grafted in” to partake of His precious promises as well.  (If you are new to this blog, or just happened to find this page, we are in the midst of a study called Looking for the Blessed Hope.  You are welcome to follow along with us.)

This week’s Individual Study will culminate with Ezekiel’s fascinating prophecy concerning the re-birth of Israel.  However, before we can understand the re-birth of Israel, we need to understand the original birth of Israel!  Yesterday we took the 30,000’ bird’s eye view, so now that we’re back on the ground, we’ll seek out the real treasure!

During the week we will examine God’s promise to Abraham (the very beginning of Jewish history), the reaffirmation of God’s covenant with Isaac and Jacob, and the how’s and why’s related to the divided kingdom of Israel during the days of kings and judges.  All this sets the stage for the climax of this week’s study: the re-birth of Israel!  We’ll even hear a testimony from what Ezekiel calls the “valley of dry bones.”  In my mind, there is perhaps no more significantly fulfilled prophecy than that of Israel’s re-birth!  (Of course, that could be said of many other prophecies…this one just happens to be one of my favorites!)

It’s a fascinating week of study, so I hope you will follow along!

Meanwhile, we also continue to build upon our habit of praying for the peace of Jerusalem, as commanded in Scripture.  (Psalm 122)  This week’s prayer emphasis is found in Ezekiel 37:26-28:

I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will place them and multiply them, and will set My sanctuary in their midst forever. My dwelling place also will be with them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people. And the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forever.

Let’s pray that God’s covenant of peace will engulf Israel, that they will have eyes to see and hearts to believe, and that all in Israel will soon come to recognize the Messiah…the Prince of Peace!  (By the way, Romans 11: 26 says that all of Israel will be saved!  Thus, we are praying according to God’s will!  However, we also know that will happen in fullness during the tribulation.  Therefore, we are praying in anxious expectation of the coming of Jesus…which happens prior to the tribulation!)