Introduction Examine the newspapers or view the liberal television networks around the globe and you will find hordes of articles and accounts that constantly condemn the Jewish race. Sadly this is life for the Jews since they were first given their homeland by God, when they first entered their Promised Land. The formal word for this intense hatred is “ anti-semitism ” emerged in around 1860 and is defined as “ hatred, hostility and prejudice of people of Jewish descent ”. To make matters worse, this inbred culture of hatred for the Jews has made its way into some churches where it is even preached from the pulpits. The Bible provides the reasons for this hatred and at the heart of it are deceptive and destructive forces at work. If you are one of these Jewish bashes, I invite you to brush your prejudices aside and examine why their mere existence in the Middle East, should cause you to raise your eyebrows in anticipation of events that were prophesied. The Biblical Foundation The entire ‘Old Testament’ of the Christian Bible is dedicated to the history of the Israelites, (”the Jews”) and their dealings with God. Embedded in the Old Testament is an enormous volume of prophecy concerning events that were fulfilled years later. Although, there are today relatively few Christians that study the ‘Old Testament’, there are still vast amounts of outstanding prophecies concerning the world, the land of Israel and the role of the Jewish race in God’s plan to redeem man from destruction. From the opening book of Genesis and man’s fall from God’s governance in Genesis, a promise is made of a coming ‘offspring’ that would restore the relationship between God, the Creator and mankind, (Gen. 3:15) . The Bible then focused on the lives of the early Jewish and Christian Patriarch’s which included the lineage of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob down to the twelve sons of Jacob. God established a ‘Covenant’, (”an agreement of Promise”), that through this family, the entire world would be blessed. Their offspring would be owners of land situated then in Canaan, modern day Israel.

The Covenant Agreement A covenant is nothing more than an agreement between two or more parties. Throughout the Bible, God established ‘covenants’ with men. Man had no choice as to the rules of the ‘agreement’, man could only accept or reject the “contract”. A conditional ‘Covenant’ was one where if either party breaks the terms of the agreement, the agreement is considered ‘invalid’ and no-one was entitled to the fruits or the blessings of the covenant. On the other side of the spectrum, was the unconditional covenant, where nothing man could do would alter God’s promise. A typical early example of an ‘unconditional covenant’ between God and man, was recorded in Genesis after the great flood of Noah. God said that “ never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood, never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth ”, (Gn. 9:15) . While many are extremely concerned with the effects of global warming on the ice poles, God has told us unconditionally that He will never allow the earth to ever be destroyed by water again. A second covenant we are given early in the Biblical account is an unconditional covenant He made with Abraham. He told Abraham that He would make him “ a great nation ”, that He would “ bless him ” and “ make his name great ”. He further added that He would “ bless those who bless you and whoever curses you I will curse ”. As a result of this covenant “ all the nations of the earth will be blessed ” through Abraham, (Gn. 12:1-3) . Whether nations of the world like this or not, these are all unconditional non negotiable covenants God had established. In reality, for the Jewish people and nation, this problem secures them eternally. It is prudent to ask the question that since the Jews have not been blessed in abundance over the years and have been driven out of their homelands, has the covenant been set aside? After all, God did provide conditions for the Jews to be secure in their homeland. He stressed that should they “ abandon me ”, “ disobey the laws and commandments they were given ”, He will not only uproot them from the land He had given them, but would “ reject the Temple I have set apart to honour my name ”, making the land “ a spectacle of contempt ” amongst all the nations, (2 Chr. 7:19-20) . The Jews were not oblivious to these laws. The Ten Commandments, which were written upon by the hand of God, was placed in a special chest known as the Ark of the Covenant. The blessings and curses were also read aloud and recorded in both the books of Leviticus, (chapter 26) and Deuteronomy, (chapter 28).

The fulfillment of the first Jewish Diaspora As the prophets had prophesied, the full effects of the curse became a reality, where after the initial invasion by King Nebuchadnezzar in 606 BC, the beautiful temple of the Jews and the entire city of Jerusalem, was besieged and obliterated twenty years later. All Jews were taken captive to Babylon, with only a handful of shepherds left in the countryside. Their first dispersal was limited, per the prophecies of Jeremiah to seventy years. Finally, when Babylon fell into the hands of the Persians, in 536 BC, the Jews were afforded the opportunity to return to their homeland. Jeremiah would serve as a witness to the downfall of the first diaspora, but would not see their prophesied return. While King Cyrus issued the decree, many of the Jewish folk in Babylon remained in their sin, refusing to give up their idolatry. The stubborn nature of this nation resulted in those who decided to return to only being occupiers of their land from this time forward, with only a limited period of national independence. For the next four centuries, they were ruled by the Babylonians, followed by the Persians, then by the Ptolemaic Empire and finally the Seleucid Empire.

The prophesied events of the second Jewish Diaspora Just as the first dispersal was prophesied by Moses and followed by numerous warnings from many other prophets, so was the nature of the second dispersal. Looking back upon history, one can observe a second dispersal within the framework of the curses recorded by Moses. There are three key words recorded in the next scriptural extract which requires a further breakdown.

More than 1400 years after Moses had recorded these words, the second dispersal occurred in 70AD. The Jews were rebelling against their occupation by the Romans and the Roman Empire drew the line. The Romans, as the words of Moses predicted, were from far away and they spoke a language which in Moses time was completely different to what they had heard before. The Jews spoke Hebrew, which was a semitic language which had its roots in Asia and African languages. In comparison, this was vastly different to the language of the Romans, who spoke Latin. Since the Roman Empire was known as the “iron kingdom” so the words of Moses emphasized that “ an iron yoke ” would be placed around their necks. The Romans were merciless and devoured complete nations through their vast military powers, their sieging capability and their scorched earth policies. Yet again, while Moses described them “ as an eagle swooping down ” on its prey, so the Romans would rapidly defeat any opposition in its way, paving the way for them becoming the largest empire the world has ever known. It is no surprise that the emblem of Rome was the “silver eagle” . Remarkably, the curses described by Moses of this iron nation would describe events of desolation of Jerusalem during the first century. All the cities in the lands of Israel with Jewish residents were besieged and destroyed. Moses recorded how all their cities would be laid siege and even many Jews would eat their own children for survival. Severe and lingering illnesses would be rampant and their population would become few in number, (Deu. 28:58-63) . It is noted in Deuteronomy, that many Jews would be sent back to Egypt to serve as slaves, but would not be purchased as they would be abhorred by the nations. Exactly as foretold by Moses, Rome in 70AD, laid siege to all the cities in the land of Israel. It was a prolonged campaign where the Romans torched the land, and encamped outside the cities for long periods of time. The Israelites ran out of food and Josephus Flavius, a first century Historian, recorded how the Israelites then began to feed on their own children. The Jews with lack of clean water and fresh produce were stricken with all types of diseases and festering boils. The few Jews who survived the ruthless Romans, were taken into captivity and spread throughout the empire. Wherever they were taken, they were scorned and ridiculed. Both these prophesied dispersals were also attested to by many other prophets and Jesus even described the coming destruction of the Jewish temple, (Mt. 24:1-2) .

Not all is doom and gloom You may be reading this pondering for the reasons for all this doom and gloom. Just as first man was cursed and received the death sentence for sinning against a righteous God, so every human being has an appointment with death. The Israelites were chosen out by the Creator as being a banner amongst the nations. The curses were invoked as they completely withdrew themselves from God. As there sins piled up towards heaven, so their judgments intensified. All nations who turn their backs on God ultimately have the same destiny. Just as God waited four hundred years, before He brought judgment on the Canaanites, by Jewish hands, He constantly warned the Jews through the prophets of their impending destruction. This is the first of many reasons why Anti-semitism is on the increase. While these periods of destruction illustrate the power of God’s word and that He does what He says, there are also beautiful promises which likewise are simply overpowering and amazing. There is nothing that the Lord did, without informing His prophets. God will never be done with the Jewish race. Just as there are prophecies of their desolation, there are also beautiful prophecies of their return to God, where one day they will inherit their eternal promises.

Homeward Bound There are multitudes of prophecies in Ezekiel which balance this gloom with prophecies of elation. He dedicates the last part of his book to the awesome sights of the Jewish Temple, with God being within their midst. In one of his earlier accounts, he is told to “ lie on your left side ” which will be symbolic of the entire “ house of Israel’s iniquity ”, (Ez. 4:4) . The word iniquity means “immoral” or “unfair” behaviour and is also associated with the words wickedness and foul. He actually did this for 390 days, as the Lord declared “ I have laid on you the years of the inequity ”. You can imagine the people walking past him during this period. The simplicity of the scripture is that each day he lay on his side, would be the equivalent of a year. He is also told that after this period, he is to lay on his right side for another 40 days. This would illustrate the inequity held by Judah. In both accounts, he was demonstrating the time period for which the Jews would be subject to extreme judgment for their iniquities. The account is confirmed where the Lord said: “ I have laid on you a day for each year ”, (Ez. 4:6) . We all have these rosy pictures of life as a prophet, but besides from them regularly being mocked, beaten and some even killed, this is proof why there were so few of them. Imagine laying on your side for 430 days, (390 + 40)?

As this prophecy is clearly stated as a year for a day, many people believed that it related to 430 years of the Jews being ousted from their homeland. The only problem is nowhere do we find this period in Biblical history. The late Grant Jeffrey’s realized the reason for this unsolved riddle. He was reading the curses assigned in Leviticus, where Moses recorded God’s words on the curses where He said: “ If after all this you will not listen to me, I will punish you for your sins seven times over ”, (Lev. 26:18) . As the number seven is a number assigned with perfection and completion and often involves judgment, it is used generally in the scriptures as evidence of God’s hand in the process. In others words, because Israel ignored God’s constant corrections and harsh rebukes, their entire period of captivity would last for 2,520 years, (490 x 7 years). At the time of the order of King Cyrus, the Jews had already incurred 70 years of captivity. This means that of the 430 years prophesied, 360 years remained . Of course, as mentioned before, when the decree was issued, the Jews remained stubborn, subjecting themselves to God’s Word, which activated the prophecy of Leviticus. When looking back in history, it is with remarkable accuracy that the Jews returned to their homeland in 1948. Since prophecy in the Bible, always assumes a Jewish 360 day year, (twelve months of thirty days each), as opposed to our gentile calendar which is 365 ¼ days, the riddle is not only solved, but absolutely mesmerizing. Mathematics may not be your strong point, but if we take the 360 years remaining at 536BC, and multiply by seven according to Leviticus then by 12 months of 30 days each, we get to the equivalent gentile years of 2,484. When we deduct the date on which the decree was issued of 536 (BC), their punishment for iniquity expired in 1948 .

Since the Jews not only returned to their homeland and officially became an independent state on 14 May 1948 , this serves as a sign that they are in their homeland with reason. With the details of Bible prophecy it is to complex to be by co-incidence or by mistake. The odds of it being this is just ridiculous. If we consider that they were scattered amongst the nations of the world, for more than eighteen centuries, their return to the ancestral lands, is a miracle in itself.

Consider the Evidence If we stand back and consider the nature of these prophecies, it is with overwhelming confirmation that God has predestined the Jews to return to their homeland according to preset criteria. Their absence from their homeland is not a sign that God has forgotten His promises, as their return emphasizes that He is still in control of their destiny. The Covenant with Abraham was unconditional. The Covenant of land with the Jewish race, however, was conditional according to their obedience. Both the books of Deuteronomy and Leviticus assists us in understanding the tragic curses which the Jews have endured. All prophecies concerning the Jews dispersal and their re-emergence should strike a warning in the hearts of those who mock, persecute and abhor the Jewish race. He concluded the curses given to the Jewish race at Mount Sinai, emphasizing that “ in spite of ” all the things prophesied, He will “ not reject them or abhor them so as to completely destroy them ”. God assured them even 3,500 years ago that He will not “break His covenant with them”. Moses ended the curses recorded in Leviticus confirming that even the land covenant with the Jews is eternal: “ But for their sake I will remember the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am the Lord .’ “ , (Lev. 26:44-45) . Anyone who tells you that the Jews should give up their land to the Palestinian Arabs, or that the Jews will be wiped off the earth are in for a big surprise. There are so many prophecies in relation to the end times, where the Jewish race, Jerusalem and the lands of Israel have a prominent role. The Bible is as relevant today as the Pentateuch was in the days of Moses. The Jews return to their homeland sets the stage for a world on a prophetic precipice. The message of God echoes across the generations and serves as a warning for nations that payback is coming: “ For thus says the Lord of hosts: He sent Me after glory, to the nations which plunder you; for he who touches you touches the apple of His eye ”, (Zec. 2:8) .

From the twelve sons of Jacob, the Jewish nation emerged. The account in Genesis closed with there being about seventy people which formed the base of the Jewish nation. Due to famine in the Middle East, they moved to Egypt where after a short period, became slaves to the Egyptians. They had no land and only a promise of a future inheritance. The book of Exodus continued the plight of this family lineage and revealed the emergence of a man, who would eventually become one of the most important prophets in the Jewish race. Moses, a descendant of Jacob’s son Levi, would become the instrument which God used to deliver the Israelites from their oppression and lead them to the borders of the Promised Land. The book of Exodus speaks of this delivery where God was actively involved in providing both signs and wonders. There inheritance of their land would be delayed by another forty years, where before their wanderings in the wilderness, God gave them His covenant laws at Mount Sinai. This event not only provided the Jews with a blueprint of the specifications for their first religious building, the Tent of the Tabernacle, but also clearly outlined Gods’ law in the ten commandments. The journey to the Promised Land and the historical backdrop of the laws, obligations and rites were clearly outlined in the books of Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.