How to interpret events in Israel
Do you ever wonder what is going on in the world? Why is Jerusalem such a problem for so many people? This is one reason to read the Bible. The Bible tells the story of the Jewish people and helps to make sense of what is going on in the world today and gives us evidence for believing that there is a God supervising and directing.
1. God chose the Jews as His people in order to keep a promise made to their fathers.
For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. (Deuteronomy 7:6-8)
2. God said that those who blessed the Jews would be blessed, those who cursed them would be cursed, and that salvation would come from them.
I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. (Genesis 12:3)
3. God said that the Jews would be witnesses to Him of His existence and their continued existence despite the hardships and anti-Semitism they face seems to support this.
You are my witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. (Isaiah 43:10)
4. God has said that He plays a part in world events.
The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, to the end that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men. (Daniel 4:17)
5. God has said that Jerusalem would be a source of conflict and all nations would gather around it.
On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. All who lift it will surely hurt themselves. And all the nations of the earth will gather against it. (Zechariah 12:3)
6. But Jerusalem also has words of hope and peace written about it’s future.
It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. (Isaiah 2:2-3)
Read more about the history and the part that Israel plays in the world today here: Israel: God’s People, God’s Land.
Sign up at www.thisisyourbible.com for a free correspondence course that will take you through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and get to know the history of this city and people. Or try out the video course that will assist you to read the Bible more effectively and help you make sense of world events.
Article by Julie. Photograph by David Rodrigo (unsplash.com).
