Israel, “Past, Present and Future”

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May they prosper who love you.” (Psalm 122:6, MKJV)

The Greek word, “apokalypsis,” is understood to mean, “disclosure, unveiling, or revelation,” and is the basis for the English word, “apocalypse.” There are many people whom are looking for an end of times destruction of all mankind, to include all of our world. “Apocalypse” is the name that is often used to identity such an “end of world event.” However, such a belief is far from the truth of the matter. The purpose of this “Revealing Israel” series of blog posts is to provide credible data that will provide comfort of thought as it relates to the end of times discussion. Through the “photoworks of time studies” of times “past, present and future,” this study will reveal that there is no “end of times apocalypse” that will bring an end to our world or mankind. The role that Israel plays in end of times studies is often neglected, overlooked and attacked in our world’s political arenas, universities, and even in places of worship. Those, whom will seriously study this “Revealing Israel” series of posts and pages, will gain an understanding of the importance and events of “Israel in eschatology” that will exceed that of most of their peers, to include those on a professional level. Information that is contained in the Apocalypse And Beyond Blog precedes that which is contained in the Revealing Israel Blog.

Israel, A Look Within, From Without

The nation of Israel is rich in culture and history. No one can deny the contributions to our world that have come from such a small nation, having such a small citizenry. Please consider the value to society that the nation of Israel has provided, in spite of the many obstacles that have been placed in its way. The opening video shows a major obstacle that the Jewish people have had to overcome. The Jewish children in Germany, in the 1930s, are seen singing Hatikvah, which would become the national anthem of the nation of Israel. Many of the children, if not all of them, would be murdered in the Nazi death camps during the Holocaust.

The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. Holocaust is a word of Greek origin meaning “sacrifice by fire.” The Nazis, who came to power in Germany in January 1933, believed that Germans were “racially superior” and that the Jews, deemed “inferior,” were an alien threat to the so-called German racial community.

The Jews are a people of great pride for their nation of today, as well as for their history. It is impossible to discuss Jews, or the nation of Israel, without making reference to the documents that relate to their understanding of God, the law and the prophets of Israel.

This study of Israel is not “religious.” The term religion has been shown to relate to groups of people whom are attempting to gain favor with their gods. They attempt to attain grace with their particular god, so that they might spend their after-life in a state for which they have no knowledge, but which they believe to be an eternity of Paradise. These groups of people do not have an assurance of that which is required of them to find their eternity in such a place of bliss. To the contrary, Jews base their eternal state to be with God, based on a relationship with God, whom they know as Elohim, YHWH (Yahweh), Adonai, Adonai Yahweh, Yahweh Saboath, El Shaddai, which are Hebrew translations for God.

As with most non-Jews, my view and perception of Israel is “from without.” As a gentile (not Jewish), having grown up in a city having a large Jewish population and influence, I have come to love the Jewish people, whether they are naturalized citizens from other countries, or if they are home-grown in my nation, The United States Of America. There are many people residing in other nations, as well as in America, that do not share my love or appreciation for Israel and its people. In this, and in following posts, I will attempt to paint a “prettier face” on a people whom are, all too often, shown as having an “ugly face”in our world’s community of nations. The history of the Jews shows that the nation of Israel has often come under great oppression, from many other nations and people, with many deaths taking place. Israel is the only democratically run nation in its region of the world. A variety of sources of information will be used to show Israel in the light that I see that nation, and its people. In my own country, the nation of Israel was treated by our government with great a great lack of respect during the years of 2009-2016.

Click onto the following links to learn more about the Holocaust. Much of the free world remained silent as the Holocaust continued with the murders of more than six million Jews being the result.

https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/media_fi.php?ModuleId=10005143&MediaId=183
https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005143
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/the-holocaust

Consider some of the notes that were placed on You Tube.

דער שטעטל: ילדי הגימנסיה העברית בעיירה מונקאטש שבהרי הקרפטים שרים “התקווה” שנות ה’תר”צ המוקדמות, בין שתי מלחמות העולם.

Children from the Hebrew Gymnasium Singing “Hatikvah” in Munkács, the early 1930’s

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1 year ago
IM crying. They sing the first version of “Hatikvah” the “religious” one. They have a heavy European accent. They were all killed in the Holocaust. I’m in tears and crying.

View all 5 replies
Tobías Leon
Tobías Leon
1 year ago
think 90% of these kids died before 15
REPLY
13

View reply
Merobel luis
Merobel luis
2 years ago
INNOCENT LITTLE ANGELS SAYING HATIKVAH.
REPLY
12

View reply
Roger Hudson
Roger Hudson
8 months ago
The most moving version of Hatikva on youtube, evidence that nazism but be total smashed. I pray for all their souls.
REPLY
8

Tongsat Haokip
Tongsat Haokip
8 months ago
jews being God ‘s own people have been subjected to all kinds of exploitations. I really like Hatikvah it reminds me of their captivity to Babylon , the Roman invasion in 70 AD ,the Holocaust ,the Anne’s diary . i pledge for them a happy,peaceful and harmonius life forgetting their sufferings of almost 2,000 years.May God bless Israel.Amen.
REPLY
8

Introduction

As with most non-Jews, my view and perception of Israel is “from without.” As a gentile (not Jewish), having grown up in a city having a large Jewish population and influence, I have come to love the Jewish people, whether they are naturalized citizens from other countries, or if they are home-grown in my nation, The United States Of America. There are many people who live in other nations, as well as in America, who do not share my love or appreciation for Israel and its people. In this, and in following posts, I will attempt to paint a “prettier face” on a people who are, all too often, shown as having an “ugly face”in our world’s community of nations. The history of the Jews shows that the nation of Israel has often come under great oppression, from many other nations and people, with many deaths taking place. Israel is the only democratically run nation in its region of the world. A variety of sources of information will be used to show Israel in the light that I see that nation, and its people.

The nation of Israel has appx 8.6 million people, with appx 6.5 million being Jews.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/latest-population-statistics-for-israel
The size of Israel is about the same size as that of the state of New Jersey.
http://iris.org.il/sizemaps/new_jersey.htm
Of 350 million people living in the middle east, Jews make up only about 6.5 million of the 350 million.
http://www.cotf.edu/earthinfo/meast/mepeo.html.

Consider a look at Israel, “from within.”

Israeli Arts, Culture And Literature, Culture In Israel, by Asher Weill

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/culture-in-israel

A review of any country’s cultural history over the last fifty years would show enormous changes – undoubtedly a quantum leap – and certainly more changes than in any other fifty year period in history. How much more so in Israel, where that same period was marked by a series of cataclysmic events which had – and are still having – an effect on the very nature and cultural character of this young but old nation.

Israel in 1948: a country of 640,000 Jews; just three years after the annihilation of six million Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe. A country on the eve of invasion by five neighboring Arab nations intent on wiping it out, or, in the words of one Arab leader, “driving the Jews into the sea.” A country in the throes of absorbing the remnant of decimated European Jewry – despoiled of all their worldly goods and brutally severed from their cultural and linguistic roots, but intent on surviving and creating a new life in the one piece of land that was prepared to accept them.

Each of the decades that followed was marked by yet more social and political convulsions. The fifties were the years of the mass immigration of Jews from Arab lands: from Morocco, from the Yemen, from Iraq; and of tens of thousands of Jews from some 70 countries worldwide, all of whom had brought with them their own language, national heritage and cultural baggage.

The sixties were, above all, marked by the military victory in the Six-Day War of 1967, when a whole new national mythos and sense of euphoria engulfed not only the Jewish population of Israel, but indeed the entire Jewish Diaspora – only to be shattered to a large extent by the Yom Kippur War of 1973 and its aftermath, some of the effects of which are still very much with us nearly three decades later. The seventies and the eighties saw the first tentative bridges to peace with the Arab world, beginning with the historic visit to Israel of President Anwar al-Sadat of Egypt in 1977.

History of Israel, Its Diaspora and Return, 722 B.C., forward

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-diaspora

Ancient Jewish History: The Diaspora

The Jewish state comes to an end in 70 AD, when the Romans begin to actively drive Jews from the home they had lived in for over a millennium. But the Jewish Diaspora (“diaspora” =”dispersion, scattering”) had begun long before the Romans had even dreamed of Judaea. When the Assyrians conquered Israel in 722, the Hebrew inhabitants were scattered all over the Middle East; these early victims of the dispersion disappeared utterly from the pages of history. However, when Nebuchadnezzar deported the Judaeans in 597 and 586 BC, he allowed them to remain in a unified community in Babylon. Another group of Judaeans fled to Egypt, where they settled in the Nile delta. So from 597 onwards, there were three distinct groups of Hebrews: a group in Babylon and other parts of the Middle East, a group in Judaea, and another group in Egypt. Thus, 597 is considered the beginning date of the Jewish Diaspora. While Cyrus the Persian allowed the Judaeans to return to their homeland in 538 BC, most chose to remain in Babylon. A large number of Jews in Egypt became mercenaries in Upper Egypt on an island called the Elephantine. All of these Jews retained their religion, identity, and social customs; both under the Persians and the Greeks, they were allowed to run their lives under their own laws. Some converted to other religions; still others combined the Yahweh cult with local cults; but the majority clung to the Hebraic religion and its new-found core document, the Torah.

In 63 BC, Judaea became a protectorate of Rome. Coming under the administration of a governor, Judaea was allowed a king; the governor’s business was to regulate trade and maximize tax revenue. While the Jews despised the Greeks, the Romans were a nightmare. Governorships were bought at high prices; the governors would attempt to squeeze as much revenue as possible from their regions and pocket as much as they could. Even with a Jewish king, the Judaeans revolted in 70 AD, a desperate revolt that ended tragically. In 73 AD, the last of the revolutionaries were holed up in a mountain fort called Masada; the Romans had besieged the fort for two years, and the 1,000 men, women, and children inside were beginning to starve. In desperation, the Jewish revolutionaries killed themselves rather than surrender to the Romans. The Romans then destroyed Jerusalem, annexed Judaea as a Roman province, and systematically drove the Jews from Palestine. After 73 AD, Hebrew history would only be the history of the Diaspora as the Jews and their world view spread over Africa, Asia, and Europe. Sources: The Hebrews: A Learning Module from Washington State University

The most direct way of discussing the diaspora of the Jews is to use the Complete Jewish Bible, which was translated into English by Dr. David H. Stern, who was born a Jew, and lives in Israel. As you can see, a bible is a book; it is a book that is regarded as being one of authority. The Jewish writings have been maintained by the Jews; the original languages were Hebrew and Aramaic. In approximately 405 A.D., those writings were translated into Latin by Jerome.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome
http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/issues/issue-28/405-jerome-completes-vulgate.html
http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/301-600/jeromes-bible-legacy-11629678.html

Comments in this article will be made relative to the situations in which the Jewish people found themselves during their diaspora. There may be different views and understandings of the Jewish writings but, one thing is certain; they were written by Jews, and from a Jewish point of understanding and perspective.

Consider the following comments on the word, “bible.”

Bible – definition of Bible in English | Oxford Dictionaries

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/bible

Consider the following uses of “bible.”

A book regarded as authoritative in a particular sphere.

The Jewish scriptures, consisting of the Torah or Law, the Prophets, and the Hagiographa or Writings.

‘A cooking bible can be so helpful when it comes to unusual ingredients, and cooking techniques.’
‘But I was also obsessed with the possibility of the future turning out to be horrible – so I carried around 1984, Farenheit 451 and Brave New World like they were my Bibles.’
‘This is the bible of cooking as simple or as complicated as you care to get.’
‘The book became the bible of the democracy movement, and the city a place of pilgrimage for human rights activists.’
‘My bible is Mastering The Art Of French Cooking, a two-volume cookery book I was given at 25.’

INFORMATION ON THE COMPLETE JEWISH BIBLE

Translated by Dr. David H. Stern

Version Information

Presenting the Word of God as a unified Jewish book, the Complete Jewish Bible (CJB) is a translation for Jews and non-Jews alike. It connects readers with the Jewishness of the Messiah. Names and key terms are returned to their original Hebrew and presented in easy-to-understand transliterations, enabling the reader to say them the way Yeshua (Jesus) did.

The CJB is a translation of the Bible into English by Dr. David H. Stern. It consists of Dr. Stern’s revised translation of the Old Testament (Tanakh) plus his original Jewish New Testament (B’rit Hadashah) translation in one volume. It was published in its entirety in 1998 by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc.

The Old Testament translation is a paraphrase of the public domain 1917 Jewish Publication Society version. The New Testament section is Dr. Stern’s original translation from the ancient Greek.

Dr. Stern’s purpose for producing the Complete Jewish Bible was “to restore God’s Word to its original Jewish context and culture as well as be in easily read modern English.”

The CJB follows the order and the names of the Old Testament books in the Jewish Bible, rather than those of typical Christian Bibles. It uses Hebrew names for people and places, such as Eliyahu for “Elijah”, and Sha’ul for “Saul.” The work also incorporates Hebrew and Yiddish expressions, such as matzah for “unleavened bread” and mikveh for “ritual immersion pool”.

The calendar begins.

722 B.C. Assyrians deported 27,290 inhabitants of Israel to distant locations, from which many of them have remained until this day.

“In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Ashur captured Shomron. He carried Isra’el away captive to Ashur, resettling them in Halach, in Havor on the Gozan River and in the cities of the Medes.” (2 Kings 17:6)

17:6 king of Assyria. Sargon II (see note on 17:3). carried Israel away. The capture of Samaria marked the end of the northern kingdom. According to Assyrian records, the Assyrians deported 27,290 inhabitants of Israel to distant locations. The relocation of populations was characteristic of Assyrian policy during that era. The Israelites were resettled in the upper Tigris-Euphrates Valley and never returned to the Promised Land. “Halah” was a city NE of Nineveh. The “Habor” River was a northern tributary of the Euphrates. The “cities of the Medes” were NE of Nineveh. Samaria was resettled with foreigners (v. 24). God did what He said He would do in Deut. 28. The Jews were carried as far E as Susa, where the book of Esther later took place. (The author of 2 Kings was the prophet Jeremiah, ca. 550 B.C., per Dr. Charles C. Ryrie, Dallas Theological Seminary, deceased.)

The buildup to the deportation of the Jews starts with the death of King Solomon, ca. 931 B.C., 1 Kings 11:43. At that time, there were twelve tribes of Israel, with all of them living in, or around Jerusalem, in Israel; they were a unified kingdom. Soon, thereafter, they became a divided kingdom. Rehoboam and Jeroboam were both kings reigning in Israel’s divided kingdom. Rehoboam was one of Solomon’s sons and king of Judah in the south (1 Kings 11:43). Jeroboam was one of Solomon’s former officials, an Ephraimite, and king of Israel in the north (1 Kings 11:26). The two southern tribes, Judah and Benjamin, remained at Jerusalem, and were called “Judah.” The northern tribes became known as “Israel,” and settled in Samaria. (1 Kings 12:16-20; 1 Kings 14:21-24). Jeroboam reigned until his death in 910 B.C., 1 Kings 14:20. Rehoboam reigned until his death in 913 B.C., 1 Kings 14:31. From that point in time, forward, other kings assumed leadership of the northern and southern tribes, with a splintering of each group taking place, and the first deportation of Jews taking place in 722 B.C., with the ten northern tribes being removed from their land, per 2 Kings 17:6. The splintering of the two southern tribes was taking place, too. The next post will discuss the effects of that dysfunction.

Food for thought.

“Jeroboam” and his ten tribes “jumped” north to Samaria. “Rehoboam” and his two tribes”remained” in Jerusalem.

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https://equippingblog.wordpress.com/

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