Why We Cry Out for the Jews

It’s been nearly two years since Hamas terrorists attacked Israel and brutally murdered over 1,200 people on October 7, 2023. Since then, Israel has had to expand its fight to more fronts, and is being threatened from all sides. That’s why it’s time to stand up and cry out for the Jews just as Dietrich Bonhoeffer did, who said, “Only he who cries out for the Jews is permitted to sing Gregorian chant.”

I’d like to preface my own thoughts with these words: “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins” (Isa 40:1-2).

Even though Israel’s very right to exist is being attacked and questioned today, God has promised His people a glorious future: redemption and salvation! We read of this in Ezekiel 36:24-30: “I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. And I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you. I will make the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field abundant, that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations.”

I am comforted, encouraged, and strengthened every time I read this. It makes it clear to me that God stands by His Word. This applies to me personally as well as to His covenant people Israel, despite every enemy and despite all resistance.

Yes, it helps me recognize that Israel’s enemies don’t have the final say. The devil won’t prevail. The Holocaust isn’t the end of the line. October 7, 2023 isn’t the last word, nor is the current state of the Middle East, or what takes place in the future. To the contrary! Above all is God’s faithfulness to His people and land of Israel, to His promises, and to His Word. God even allowed Israel’s enemy Balaam, who was sent to curse Israel on Balak’s behalf, to say, “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?” (Num 23:19).

No matter what comes or what is happening, God is still in charge. He is still holding the reins. Nothing and no one escapes His control—not even you! And certainly not your life if you are His child. God is in the process of redeeming His people Israel. Ezekiel 36 clearly and articulately presents the order of Israel’s redemption:

• Return

• Cleansing

• Rebirth

• Finally, home—in God’s presence.

RETURN

Israel’s return has already taken place, and is still taking place. It’s noteworthy that this return is occurring while the people are yet in a state of unbelief. We read, “I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land” (Ezek 36:24).

God Himself is bringing His people back. He is doing it. The people’s return to the land He promised them is His doing.

The first to return were mostly secular Jews, who were neither particularly religious nor committed to the faith of their fathers. Rather, they brought with them a socialist ideology, which was also reflected in the kibbutzim and moshavim they established. Even today, it’s an objective fact that a very large part of the Israeli population is godless. For example, Tel Aviv is a hotspot for the LGBTQ movement. Many young Israelis have a drug problem. And crime is also not insignificant in Israel. It is neither a “holy land” nor a “holy people.” And dealing with Israelis isn’t necessarily easy. But Israel nonetheless remains God’s first love!

Despite this unredeemed condition, stubbornness, and sin, the Lord God says about His people, “I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land.”

Israel is back. It is made up of an impressive mixture of people with European, Arab, Asian, and African backgrounds. Today, Jews from over 140 different nations and all parts of the world live in Israel. You can hear any language there. Items in shops aren’t just labeled in Hebrew, but also in Arabic and Russian. Russian-speaking Jews now form the largest immigrant group in Israel—over a million people.

God’s first repatriation (Aliyah) was from Russia, and took place in 1881. Tsar Alexander II was murdered on March 1st, and rumors spread that the Jews were responsible. This led to severe pogroms against the Jewish population. And so, the first large wave of Jewish immigration back to their ancestral homeland began that year.

The accuracy of God’s Word is fascinating. Around 700 BC, the prophet Isaiah wrote, “I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth” (Isa 43:6).

This verse explicitly mentions the north, and the first wave of immigration actually came from Russia, to the north. God once again used world history to fulfill His thoughts and purposes.

Ezekiel 37 does an impressive job of describing the circumstances of the return: “The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry” (vv. 1-2).

A vast field full of dead bones. A valley is a low plain that is often bordered by hills or mountains. It is an image of all the Jews who have been murdered around the world. The history of the Jewish people is one of hardship, misery, displacement, dispossession, ostracism, and murder.

This history began in Egypt, where Pharaoh had their newborn boys drowned. And it continued under the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Romans. The Jews were also ostracized and killed under the Roman and Byzantine Empires. Popes persecuted them, and the Spanish drove them out of the Iberian Peninsula. They were herded into ghettos, oppressed by pogroms, and decimated in the Holocaust.

Wherever Jews have gone in their 2,000-year history, they have been hated, persecuted, and killed, their bodies left in countless unmarked graves. The valley of dead bones culminated in the murder of 6 million Jews under the Third Reich. And the hatred continues today in the actions of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran, whose professed goal is Israel’s destruction.

“And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry” (Ezek 37:2).

But God has other plans. The prophet Ezekiel continued, “So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone” (v. 7).

This prophecy has been historically fulfilled. When World War I broke out in 1914, it was an unprecedented catastrophe, resulting in 17 million deaths. But even these terrible circumstances served God’s plan: The Jewish people were promised a homeland in the Balfour Declaration. World War II began on September 1, 1939—an unparalleled horror resulting in 60 million deaths, including the murder of six million Jews. It was this exact shock which led to the United Nations agreeing to the establishment of a Jewish state.

On May 14, 1948, the nation of Israel was born.

Consider this detail: When the disciples asked Jesus when He would establish His kingdom, he replied, “And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet” (Matt 24:6).

Some things go without saying today: Messages can be sent and received from every corner of the earth within seconds, even in the deepest jungle. But Jesus was speaking at a time when worldwide communication was impossible. The first wireless message wasn’t transmitted until 1897. And an American military radio station sent war reports to the whole world for the first time in 1917.

Here too, God’s Word is fulfilled, down to the smallest detail!

Since the Jews returned to their land, beginning in 1882, there has been a worldwide increase in epidemics, famines, earthquakes, and wars. Jesus said, “There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences…” (Luke 21:11).

There have always been epidemics, and they will continue to occur. But the first global epidemic didn’t take place until the Jews began to return to their land. Some examples: The first pandemic took place as a result of World War I. The Spanish flu (1918–1920) claimed the lives of around 50 million people. Compare this to AIDS, which first appeared in 1981. To date, around 40 million people have died from it, and over 38 million people are living with the disease. We’ve largely left Covid-19 behind us, but we have no way of knowing what comes next. Increasing drug resistance and a lack of effective treatments are also a concern.

All of this goes to show that God’s Word is being fulfilled!

CLEANSING

We’re all familiar with the story of the prodigal son from Luke 15, how he goes out into the world and squanders his inheritance, returning destitute after a long time. Isn’t Israel also one such prodigal son? It spent 2,000 years in a foreign land, figuratively speaking, at the pig troughs of the nations. In the process, it lost its dignity and the nobility of its calling. It became the “wandering Jew.” But the prodigal son has returned home, and Israel has become a nation once again—just as dirty, unwashed, and uncleansed as the prodigal son was.

How did the father in that story receive his son? Israel too is back: dirty, unwashed, and bearing the traces of its 2,000-year odyssey. Yet the moment will come when Israel will be washed like the prodigal son: “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you” (Ezek 36:25).

Incidentally, isn’t that also our story? Remember how our conversions took place. Wasn’t it God who drew us to Himself while we were still in our sins? Didn’t He pursue us in the midst of our filth? He accepted us, dirty and impure, and welcomed us while we were still sinners. He cleansed us, dressed us in new clothes, and welcomed us into His family.

God will behave the same way with His people Israel.

First, Israel must return: to the house of its forefathers, to Eretz Israel, to the land that God promised. Then the purification predicted by the prophet Ezekiel will take place: “I will sprinkle clean water on you.”

Water has profound significance in the Bible, as well as multiple meanings. It is a means of purification. In the Old Testament, a ritually unclean person had to wash themselves with water to become clean again. Before the three major pilgrimage festivals (Passover/Easter, Shavuot/Pentecost, and Sukkot/the Feast of Shelters), the Jews would also ritually bathe in the mikveh. Only then would they be permitted to enter the temple area and participate in the festivals.

Water is a source of life. It also represents refreshment and strength. Think of Psalm 23: “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul” (vv. 1-2).

Water is a symbol of judgment. Remember the Flood, when God judged a godless humanity. Or think of the Egyptians, who persecuted the people of Israel. They ultimately perished in the Red Sea.

After returning to the land of their ancestors, Israel will be cleansed through judgment. The prophet Ezekiel describes it this way: “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you” (Ezek 36:25).

This is the judgment proclaimed multiple times in the Old Testament. Jesus also speaks of it: “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be” (Matt 24:21).

The Bible refers to this time of judgment by various terms, such as the Great Tribulation, Jacob’s trouble, the Day of the Lord, the wrath of the Lamb, etc. As difficult as it may be to accept, God Himself is going to purify His people Israel through the waters of the Great Tribulation.

It fills me with fear and trembling to reflect on what is yet to come upon God’s people. I think of the Holocaust or October 7th with horror, and yet the Bible describes an even greater trial that will come. “The sinners in Zion are afraid; trembling has seized the godless: ‘Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?’” (Isa 33:14).

This judgment will awaken sinners, shaking them to the core. They will cry out for God, their Savior. Israel will cry out for the Messiah—for Jesus Christ. It will experience what Paul did on the road to Damascus: collapse. It will become conscious of its guilt and ask, “Who are you, Lord?”

Then Ezekiel’s prophecy will come to pass: “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.”

REBIRTH

God will lead Israel to repentance, and then its rebirth will take place. We read in Ezekiel: “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules” (Ezek 36:26-27).

The time will come when Israel will have no choice but to cry out to God. Its entire army and all its military technology won’t be able to help, and no ally will stand by its side. Israel will be completely alone and abandoned by all, even the United States. So, the moment will come when Israel will seem doomed and all nations will turn against it, making God their last resort—the eternal, almighty God of Israel. In the midst of this plight, they will call upon the Lord and seek Him: “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the LORD” (Jer 29:12-14a).

This is how Israel will recognize its Messiah—and then, the greatest revival of all time will break out. The Bible says of this event: “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn” (Zech 12:10).

Israel will leave every shameful deed behind them, hate every sin, and remove every idol: “On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness. And on that day, declares the LORD of hosts, I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, so that they shall be remembered no more. And also I will remove from the land the prophets and the spirit of uncleanness” (Zech 13:1-2).

ISRAEL REACHES THE GOAL

Then Israel will finally be in its spiritual home, reconciled with God and glorifying Him again. The honor God receives through Israel will be immense. This fulfills Ezekiel’s prophetic Word: “You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God” (Ezek 36:28).

This is still yet to come, since Israel’s rebirth and renewal have not taken place. But God is relentlessly pursuing His pathway for His people. So, where are we on the timeline now?

Since October 7th, Israel has been deeply shaken. It’s in a massive fight against Hamas and Hezbollah, and is now in direct conflict with Iran as well. What next? What will happen tomorrow? We can’t know, but I have the following impression:

If the Islamic terrorism emanating from Iran can be contained and brought to an end by immobilizing Iran and its proxies (Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis, etc.), much like how Saddam Hussein was brought down in Iraq, then the world will be ready for peace. Interestingly, more and more of the Arab world is realizing that peace with Israel is essential. No wonder the United Arab Emirates joined the USA and Israel in signing the Abraham Accords in 2020, mediated by President Donald Trump during his first term in office.

More and more people in the moderate Arab world are now arriving at the idea that we all belong together, just as we are in the West. After all, isn’t Abraham our collective spiritual forefather? Don’t Jews, Muslims, and Christians all worship the same God? This sentiment found its expression in the Abrahamic Family House in Abu Dhabi, created to “deepen understanding of our common humanity,” and foster peace and equality between nations and religions. But what’s missing?

A strong man is missing … someone to solve the problems and bring unity, peace, and security: Israel’s Messiah, Redeemer, and Savior. Jesus says, “I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him” (John 5:43). We know that this coming strong man will appear in the form of the Antichrist: the great imitator, copycat, and liar, who has no relationship with God and no divine identity.

It is said of him, “And the beast that I saw […] to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority” (Rev 13:2). He appears “like a lamb and […] spoke like a dragon” (v. 11).

One thing should be clear to Christians: The Rapture is just around the corner! All of these developments show us that we can expect it at any moment. Jesus is coming—it could be today!

The following is worth noting: A movement is underway in Israel (despite or precisely because of the bad situation there). It’s characterized by deep longing for the Messiah. Many are turning to the true Messiah, Jesus Christ.

In Matthew 23:37-39, we read: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

Israel’s house was desolate for 2,000 years, trampled by the nations. But now the people have returned, on the way to meet their Messiah. There were only a handful of Messianic Jews when the State of Israel was founded in 1948. There wasn’t a single Messianic congregation with a Jewish leader. But today, there are over 300 Messianic congregations in Israel, with more than 30,000 registered members.

God’s Word is being fulfilled before our eyes!

The work of a Messianic organization called One for Israel is also thriving. It has founded Israel College of the Bible, which offers numerous online courses and other evangelistic resources in Hebrew and English. Their videos have already been viewed over 50 million times. Every month, the entire Bible is downloaded in Hebrew more than 20,000 times. On average, someone in Israel is calling to find out more about the Messiah Jesus Christ every 12 minutes.

The bright and morning star is rising!

“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you” (Isa 60:1-2).

Let us be wise, like the wise men from the East. Let’s recognize the signs of His Second Coming, because it could be today. Let’s lift up our heads: Jesus is coming! Maranatha; amen; come, Lord Jesus!