Proclaim it in all the world ... He who scattered Israel will gather them
~ Jeremiah 31:10
Israel regathered
There has never been anything to compare with the history of Israel. The Jews are unique. They were scattered to every country in the world and, in our day, they are being regathered to the Promised Land. And (this is remarkable) thousands of years ago the Bible predicted these events.
God warned Israel when He imposed the Law: “Disobey and I will scatter you.”
“After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time – if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God and provoking Him to anger, I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live there long but will certainly be destroyed. The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the Lord will drive you.”
~ Deuteronomy 4:25-27
... they did not believe His promise ... and did not obey the Lord. So He swore to them with uplifted hand that He would ... scatter them throughout the lands.
~ Psalms 106:24-27
(See also Leviticus 26:14-33; Deuteronomy 28:58-67)
Israel did disobey and God did scatter them.
This is how it happened:
- ca 1460 BCThe Exodus from Egypt and the giving of the Law
The warnings were followed by promises. God would scatter Israel, but God would regather the people in the future.
Over the following hundreds of years the nation failed to live up to the Law. God sent prophets to warn them, but they continued to fail.
- 727 BCThe Assyrians conquered Naphtali and the Israelite tribes east of the Jordan River.
The scattering of the Jewish people began.
- 722 BCThe Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom of Israel.
The survivors of the ten tribes of Israel were exiled.
- 586 BCThe Babylonians conquered the southern kingdom of Judah
The Jews went into exile.
- 539 BCThe Persians conquered Babylon
They allowed tens of thousands of Jews to return to Israel under Ezra. The Temple was rebuilt in Jerusalem. Most Jews remained in exile in Babylon.
- 70 ADThe Romans destroyed Jerusalem during the First Jewish Revolt
The Second Temple was destroyed. Many Jews fled the land.
- 135 ADThe Bar Kochba revolt.
The Jews rebelled a second time. The Romans desolated Israel. The Jews were banished from Jerusalem. Hardly any remained in the land.
However, God had promised that He would bring the Israelites back to the Promised Land in the future.
“...if they will confess their sins and the sins of their fathers – their treachery against Me and their hostility toward Me, which made Me hostile toward them so that I sent them into the land of their enemies ” then when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they pay for their sin, I will remember My covenant with Jacob and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. For the land will be deserted by them and will enjoy its sabbaths while it lies desolate without them. They will pay for their sins because they rejected My laws and abhorred My decrees. Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them or abhor them so as to destroy them completely, breaking My covenant with them. I am the Lord their God. 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.”
~ Leviticus 26:40-45
“But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find Him if you look for Him with all your heart and with all your soul.
When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the Lord your God and obey Him. For the Lord your God is a merciful God; He will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your forefathers, which He confirmed to them by oath.”
~ Deuteronomy 4:29-31
“Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’ Bring My sons from afar and My daughters from the ends of the earth ...”
~ Isaiah 43:5-6
(see also Hosea 3:4-5; Amos 9:14-15; Isaiah 54:7; Jeremiah 30:3; Ezekiel 37:21; Zechariah 8:7-8)
God is regathering Israel – as He promised
- 1881Pogroms in Russia
Jewish communities in Russia were attacked. It prompted a trickle of migration of Jews from eastern Europe to the Promised Land.
- 1888Start of the First Aliyah
Jews from eastern Europe began to move to the Promised Land in significant numbers. (Aliyah is a Hebrew word that means ‘going up’ and is used to describe Jews returning to the land of Israel.)
- 1895The Dreyfus Affair in France
A scandal involving a Jewish officer in the French army brought out anti-Semitism in Europe. This stirred Theodor Herzl to promote the cause of a Jewish State.
- 1897The first Zionist Congress held in Switzerland.
Influential Jews from around the world agreed on the imperative to create a homeland for their people.
- 1904Start of the Second Aliyah
A second wave of Jews, mainly from Russia and Poland, returned to the Promised Land. Persecutions drove them there.
- 1920Start of the Third Aliyah
A third wave of Jews, mainly from Russia, returned to the land. They came as impoverished refugees.
- 1924-1932Fourth Aliyah
The fourth wave of Jews to return were mainly from Poland.
- 1939-1945World War II – the Holocaust
Six million Jews perished in the Nazi death camps. After the War tens of thousands of Jewish survivors headed for the Holy Land.
- 1948The State of Israel was proclaimed
The State of Israel was proclaimed by David Ben Gurion on 14 May [Isaiah 66:8]
The next day Israel was invaded by five Arab armies. The first Arab-Israeli war began.
Arrival of 120,000 Jewish immigrants, in spite of the war.
- 1948-1952Mass migration of Jews
With the formation of the State, large numbers of Jews migrated to Israel from Europe and Arab countries.
- 1970Start of mass migration of Jews from the USSR
Tens of thousands of Jews took the opportunity to leave but Russia quickly closed the door.
- 1989The collapse of Communism in the USSR and Eastern Europe
The door opened a second time for Jews to leave for Israel. One million made aliyah in the next 10 years. They came as economic refugees.
- 1991The Gulf War
Jewish migrants from around the world continued to arrive even as Iraq launched scud missiles at Israel.
- Israel rescued Jews from Ethiopia
In a 36-hour airlift called ‘Operation Solomon’ 14,300 black Jews from Ethiopia were brought to Israel.
- 1993-2010Israel staggers through an on-again off-again peace process with the Palestinians
While the USA, the EU and the UN press Israel to give up land for a Palestinian state, efforts to reach this peace accord are continuously derailed by hostilities, including waves of suicide bombings. Throughout this time the economy of Israel grows, as does its military, and there is a steady stream of migrants to the land from all the nations of the world.
| 1880 | 24,000 |
| 1914 | 90,000 |
| 1931 | 174,000 |
| 1939 | 450,000 |
| 1948 | 650,000 |
| 1950 | 1,200,000 |
| 1958 | 1,800,000 |
| 1992 | 4,250,000 |
| 2000 | 5,150,000 |
| 2006 | 5,314,000 |
| 2009 | 5,661,000 |
An open-minded observer of Israel’s history would have to acknowledge the reality of God’s hand on the Jewish people.
