07 Nov Israel Is a sign
A sign points to something beyond itself.
Israel is a sign pointing to God, pointing to another King and another kingdom, whose authority originates beyond the earth, ruling and overruling in the affairs of men. The God of the Jewish people, the God of the Bible, has resurrected Israel as a sign pointing to Himself–The One Who says what He will do and then does it. He said the land would belong to the descendants of Abraham, and since 1867, after 2,000 years of relative silence, there has been a steady stream of orchestrated events bringing what He has said to pass.
FDR did not support the creation of Israel … At the time almost no one knew the story. It was not until much later that the secret correspondence between Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Saudi King surfaced. But now we know what transpired behind the scene that would surely have derailed recognition of Israel as a member state of the United Nations – and we can once again stand in awe of the mysterious ways in which God plays a role in directing the turning points of history. (1)
On April 5, 1945, FDR responded to the Saudi King’s concern over the possible statehood of Israel, giving the king a firm commitment. “Your Majesty will doubtless recall that on previous occasions I communicated to you that I would take no action in my capacity as chief of the executive branch of this government which might prove hostile to the Arab people.” As long as he was President, the dream of the Jewish people to return to their homeland would not be fulfilled. Those were his words. On April 12, a mere seven days after his commitment to the Saudi King, FDR passed away.
Harry S Truman found himself in the unique position of being able to make the state of Israel possible, which his predecessor pledged to never allow. This was not the first time that a government or a leader opposed to the return of the Jews to the land would fall.
In December 1916 the government of the British prime minister H. H. Asquith collapsed. He was succeeded by David Lloyd George, who appointed Arthur Balfour as his foreign secretary, Both men were in favor of a Jewish homeland, and found themselves suddenly lifted to world power at a critical moment on God’s calendar. Asquith was hostile to the idea of a Jewish homeland.
God’s calendar moves from Jubilee to Jubilee. The Jubilee was given to the Jewish people by Moses, as part of the law they were to live by. Every 50th year marked the Jubilee, when every man would return to his land, and the land would be restored to him by whoever had gained possession of it in the intervening years. It was a law designed to keep the poor from getting poorer and the rich from getting richer. But the Jubilee was lost in the 2,000 year history of the Jewish exile. . . until 1867, when it was resurrected, in a series of orchestrated events that took on a life of their own.
In 1867 Mark Twain fulfilled Moses’ prophecy of a stranger who would come from a far place to witness to the utter desolation of the land. At the end of Moses’ life, he warned his people of the great distress that would come upon them. But he told them that the stranger would come, just before God would regather them to the land. (2) In 1867 The Ottoman Land Code began to release land to Jews in Europe and America, as an unintended consequence of their debt to European banks from the Crimean War. (3) And in 1867, Charles Warren, an archaeologist was commissioned by Great Britain to uncover the foundation of the walls of Jerusalem, establishing the connection of the Jewish people with the land going back thousands of years. He inadvertently found the city of David, which lay outside of Jerusalem’s walls, literally resurrecting it out of the sand. But all of these things were merely signs pointing beyond themselves to the One who was orchestrating the events bringing in the coming Jubilee.
1867 plus 50 brings us to the year 1917, the next Jubilee.
This was the year for which David Lloyd George and Arthur Balfour were brought to power. Both men were knowledgable of the Bible and predisposed to believe in the return of the Jews to the land. But it was a Jewish scientist, named Weizmann, who would heavily influence Lloyd George. During The First World War, Weismann was appointed to the British Admiralty laboratories and made an adviser to the Ministry of Munitions, the head of which was David Lloyd George. At the time of Weizmann’s appointment, British and Allied forces found themselves in the midst of a crisis over the shortage of acetone, a chemical vital for the war effort. Weizmann developed a process of producing acetone in mass quantities. This would prove key to the Allies’ victory. Lloyd George realized that Great Britain owed a great debt to Weizmann, who dreamed of a homeland for his people to return to. (4)
1917 was the year the British Empire would be in the position of determining the future of the land of Palestine.
As the year of Jubilee began, members of the British government held a conference concerning Palestine. By the middle of the year Balfour called for a draft to be made for a public declaration . . . By autumn the British Cabinet . . . determined that the plan wouldn’t proceed unless it had the support of the American president. On October 16, 1917, the British government was informed that the president, Woodrow Wilson, was in favor of the declaration. On October 31 the declaration was approved by the British War Cabinet. Two days later, on November 2, it went forth in the form of a letter penned by the foreign secretary, which included a single sentence that would come to be known as the Balfour Declaration. . . “His Majesty’s Government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object…” (5)
When the Balfour Declaration was made, it was violently refuted by many. But it held. That was over a hundred years ago. As I write this today, the news is saturated with images of those who revile the return of the Jewish people to the land. Pro-Palestinian marches rage everywhere.
I wouldn’t be able to make the connection of current events with The Jubilee, if I hadn’t just finished The Oracle the day the war in Israel broke out. God put that book into my hand so that I would have a rock to stand on. In that book, Jonathan Cahn lays out the extensive evidence of God orchestrating events in conjunction with the Hebrew calendar and the Hebrew Scriptures appointed from ancient days to be read on those Sabbaths. All of it serving as signs used by God to point to Himself as The Other King who is ruling in the affairs of men to bring about His purposes. The Sabbath right before the Balfour Declaration, do you know what Scripture was appointed to be chanted all around the world in every synagogue?
Then the LORD said to Abram, “Leave your country, your kindred, and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. . . Genesis 12:1
What I’ve noticed is that God is taking what once belonged to just Israel, and He is making it global. The LORD’s call to Abram was now being made to every one of his descendants around the earth as The Balfour Declaration went forth. The Passover was experienced by just Israel, until Covid came, and every family on earth sheltered in place as the plague passed through. The Jubilee was the law in Israel, until it became the law of global history, bringing down men and empires, raising up leaders, determining wars and their outcomes. God is bringing in a global Jubilee.
If The Jubilee marks the return of every man and woman to their inheritance, to restore them to what was once theirs, how do we understand this globally? The Bible tells us of our lost inheritance in the garden. If God is bringing the world into His Jubilee, it means that not just the Jews will return to Israel, but every man and woman on earth is being given the chance to return to what they lost, to have what is rightly theirs restored to them. In the Jubilee, the one who has gained legal possession of our inheritance is forced to release it to us. This is what is being enacted for us on a global scale.
Each of us knows what we have lost, what has been taken from us, what has been ruined, what has been stolen or forfeited. In the Jubilee each of us can return to what he has lost. What was once just for Israel is waiting for all who will abandon their rebellion, turning to The One Who . . . Israel, in the land, is a sign, pointing to.
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(1) https://aish.com/israel-fdrs-secret-correspondence-with-the-saudi-king/
Rabbi Benjamin Blech, a Professor of Talmud at Yeshiva University and an internationally recognized educator, religious leader, and lecturer.
(2) https://thedivinedialogue.com/2023/10/17/recognize-my-hand/
(3) https://thedivinedialogue.com/2023/10/23/what-is-what-has-been-and-what-is-yet-to-be/
(4) a paraphrasing of Jonathan Cahn’s wording in The Oracle
(5) directly quoting Jonathan Cahn in The Oracle