By Van Yandell
Matthew 27: 24-25 “When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person. Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.”
There seems to be a great deal of confusion in the world concerning Israel. Around five billion of the world’s population is dead set against Israel but appear to be mostly ill-informed, brainwashed or intentionally filled with hatred.
Extensive evidence exists for the reality of a Savior (Jesus) being God in the flesh, here on earth. John 1: 1 states He was God in the beginning and is God alive today in the flesh and spirit. Of course this is where the belief system called faith comes in.
Israel and her existence, history and future totally hinge on the reality of Savior Jesus. The Old Testament prophesies are a sequential and perfectly choreographed God-plan leading up to Him.
God removed Jacob and his family from Canaan to Egypt to get them away from the Canaanites, kept them there 430, years then moved them back to the Promised Land. They had to be in Israel, specifically Jerusalem and Bethlehem, for the scriptures to be fulfilled and a Savior be born and die for the sins of the world.
If the Bible is a fairy tale, the writers are the best speculators and the luckiest that ever lived. There is no way under the sun that anyone between 1900 and 3500 years ago could have predicted the future events as accurately as the Holy Bible writers.
If the Judeo-Christian belief that the Bible is written by men and inspired by God is correct, the only explanation possible for the accuracy of the foretelling of future events is before us. Only a Supreme spiritual being (God) could know the future with such exactitude.
We can examine the Jewish history throughout the Old Testament and clearly see those predictions that have actually happened. Several prophesies such as Daniel 12: 4b “even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased,” are also happening before us.
We can also examine the New Testament predictions of Jesus in the Mount of Olives conversation with the twelve disciples and see on the evening news the accuracy of those predictions.
Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21 consistently foretell of future events we see in real-time on our TV sets. Because of the finding of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947, we know for an absolute fact the New Testament was written in the first century.
Scientists working with carbon dating insist on the accuracy and consistency of that time determining process. Carbon depletion from once living cells lessens at a consistent rate and can be measured to determine the time of death of once living cells.
The Israel sequence must also address the series of events of the last 2000 years (AD-Anno-Domini, year of our Lord).
Jesus told the disciples, the Jerusalem Temple would be destroyed (Matthew 24: 2). Then the Jews that rejected Him became so insistent to Roman Governor Pilate, our perfect Savior Jesus (1Peter 2: 22) was nailed to a cross (Matthew 27: 35).
As Jesus predicted, thirty-seven years later (70 AD) the temple was destroyed. The Jews were driven from their homeland (Ezekiel 36: 19); the land God had promised them.
Genesis 13: 15 “For all the land which thou sees, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever.” Judeo Christians should know and promote that the original Promised Land was much larger than the 8300 square mile Israel of today (1/7 the size of Florida).
In Numbers 34 and Ezekiel 47, the borders are given of the land promised by God to Israel. The promise of God to the Hebrews was a land of over 300,000 square miles or ten percent larger than the state of Texas.
The Jews were expelled from Israel in 70 AD. Would this be because of their promoting the crucifixion of Jesus and their statement “Let His blood be on our hands and on children (Matthew 27: 25)?” This writer believes it was.
The Jews were persecuted for many of those nearly 1900 years in which they were banished from their land. Acts 18 gives a case in which Jews were expelled from Rome. The Crusaders’ killed Jews on their way to Jerusalem to rid the Holy City of the Muslims. The Crusades began in 1095 AD.
England’s Edict of Expulsion (1296) and the Spanish Inquisition (1478-1835) are other examples of Jewish persecution.
And of course the Holocaust in which the Nazis murdered six million Jews must never be forgotten. Often missed from history lessons are the thirty-five million deaths resulting from the Communist rule of Lenin and Stalin in Russia. Many of the deaths were Jews.
We are approaching the two-thousand year mark of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. If our calendar is accurate (which it’s probably not but close) 2033 will mark 2000 years since our Savior’s resurrection.
Will God manifest Himself in 2033 as this generation has never seen? I’m thinking “yes.” God has a plan for the world and it without doubt includes a sequential series of events centering on the existence of His chosen people.
The Jews were chosen by God to provide the world with a Savior and that they did. Unknowingly and unwittingly they were used by God for a specific purpose. Even though our precious Savior was born, died, resurrected and ascended, the Jews are still His chosen people.
We must keep our eyes and ears open and be alert and mindful for God’s actions in our immediate future. Watch and learn, Christians and non-believers, it’s not over until God says it’s over. Van Yandell is a retired Industrial Arts teacher, an ordained gospel evangelist and commissioned missionary.