"WHAT IS THE GREAT MIRACLE OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE?" BY DR DONALD REAGAN.

What is the Great Miracle of the Jewish People? By Dr. David R. Reagan Founder & Director, Lamb & Lion Ministries In approximately 1440 BC, Moses led the Jewish people out of Egypt, beginning a journey to the land God had promised them in Canaan.1 The journey should have taken 11 days (Deuteronomy 1:2). But, instead, it took them 40 years! The extended length of the journey was due to the people's lack of faith that ultimately motivated some of them to rebel against Moses (Numbers 14:1-4 and Psalm 78:17-42). This behavior prompted God to decide that the generation that departed from Egypt would have to die in the wilderness before their descendants would be allowed to enter the Promised Land (Numbers 14:26-38). Accordingly, it was about 1400 BC when the children of Israel were finally poised to cross the Jordan River and enter the land they had been promised. On that auspicious occasion, Moses paused their journey to summarize God's Law for them (Deuteronomy 5-27). He also used the occasion to provide them with a detailed warning (Deuteronomy 28-29). The Land Use Covenant God had already given the descendants of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob the title deed to the land of Canaan (Genesis 12:1-3; 17:1-8; 26:1-5; and 28:13-14). Now, through Moses, He was going to make another covenant with them that would be related to their use of the land. Basically, what Moses told them was that even though they had an everlasting title to the land, their use and enjoyment of it would depend upon their obedience to God's Laws which had been revealed to them during their wilderness wanderings. Moses proclaimed that if the people were obedient to God, He would shower them with blessings (Deuteronomy 28:1-14). Their children, their crops and their animals would be blessed (28:4). Their enemies would be defeated and they would "abound in prosperity" and be established as "a holy people whom the rest of the world would fear" (28:7-11). Moses proceeded to sternly warn them that if they were disobedient to God, He would place curses on them. Their children would rebel, their crops would fail and their animals would not reproduce (Deuteronomy 28:16-19). They would also suffer from diseases, drought, and foreign domination (28:21,24,33). Moses further warned that if they did not respond in repentance to these remedial judgments, the Lord would intensify them: "...then the LORD will bring extraordinary plagues on you and your descendants, even severe and lasting plagues, and miserable and chronic sicknesses... all the diseases of Egypt of which you were afraid..." (28:39-60). Moses then declared that if these extreme measures did not produce repentance, God would subject them to the worst possible punishment — exile from their homeland:"Moreover, the LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth; and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone, which you or your fathers have not known" (Deuteronomy 28:64). Moses had already briefly mentioned this ultimate punishment of God in the survey of the Law which He had presented in the book of Leviticus. After listing many possible remedial judgments (Leviticus 26:14-31), just as in Deuteronomy, Moses warned that God's ultimate judgment would be their "scattering among the nations" (26:33). The Unfaithfulness of the Jewish People At the conclusion of Moses's warning recorded in Deuteronomy, the children of Israel crossed the Jordan River and entered the Promised Land. And they proceeded to violate God's commands. They failed to annihilate the wicked Canaanite people, and they began to intermarry with them. This led the Jewish people into the worst sin of all — the practice of idolatry. Just as He had warned through Moses, God responded to Israel's persistent rebellion by sending remedial judgments and raising up prophetic voices to call the people to repentance. Read what the Prophets had to say... The Destruction of Israel All these appeals and warnings fell on deaf ears. The result was the destruction of the kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians in 722 BC. The kingdom had lasted 208 years. There had been 19 kings, and not a single one had been considered righteous in the eyes of God. The Assyrian conquest of the kingdom of Israel marked the beginning of the dispersion of the Jewish people in accordance with the prophecy of Deuteronomy 28:63-64. The ten Jewish tribes of that kingdom ultimately ended up being scattered all across the Eurasian continent, from Assyria to China and even into the Indian subcontinent.3 The Destruction of Judah It was up and down after that with regard to Judah's kings, but overall, there was a steady descent of the society into spiritual darkness. It is a tragic story because no other nation had ever been blessed as much as Judah. God prospered its people and gave them many righteous kings. More important, His Shekinah Glory resided in their Temple in Jerusalem. But the people of Judah took their eyes off the Lord and began to wallow in pride, which led them into a multiplicity of sins. Not only did the prophet Jeremiah specify that the nation would be destroyed by Babylon and that the people would be carried away to captivity, he also specified that this exile would last exactly 70 years (25:11-12). But all the warnings fell on deaf ears. Here's how the response is described in Jeremiah 17:23 — "Yet they did not listen or incline their ears, but stiffened their neck in order not to listen or take correction." So, God sent the Babylonians as His "war club" (51:20), and they destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple. Most of the residents of Jerusalem were either killed or captured and sent into exile. Many others, who were able to escape or who were left behind, decided to flee to Egypt (43:1-6). The Widespread Dispersion of the Jews Shortly before the time of Jesus, in the late First Century BC, a Greek geographer named Strabo stated that you could not go anywhere in the civilized world without encountering a Jew.5 By the time of Jesus in the First Century AD, scholars estimate that the majority of the Jewish people (more than 5 million) were living in the Diaspora.6 The Egyptian city of Alexandria was 40% Jewish, amounting to approximately one million Jews.7 The widespread dispersion of the Jews at the beginning of the First Century AD is attested to in the New Testament. On the Day of Pentecost in about 30 AD, when the Apostle Peter preached the first Gospel sermon, a great multitude of Jews from the Diaspora had gathered in Jerusalem for the Feast Days (Acts 2:9-11): Also in the New Testament you can find a reference to "the Diaspora among the Greeks" in John 7:35. The book of James is addressed "to the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad..."(James 1:1). Likewise, Peter's first epistle is addressed to "those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia..." (1 Peter 1:1). The Destruction by the Romans In 63 BC, Judah became a protectorate of Rome, and in 6 AD, the kingdom was reorganized as a Roman province.8 "Ultimately, the combination of financial exploitation, Rome's unbridled contempt for Judaism, and the unabashed favoritism that the Romans extended to Gentiles" brought about a revolt in 66 AD.10 The revolt led to a siege of Jerusalem by Roman troops in 70 AD. After a stand-off of almost six months, the Romans finally breached the walls and then systematically destroyed the city and its temple. In the process, they slaughtered tens of thousands of its inhabitants. But this great tragedy failed to quell the rebellious spirit of the Jews. Fifty-two years later, they rose up in rebellion once again in a well-organized guerilla campaign that lasted three years (132-135 AD). This revolt proved to be the last straw for the Romans. Hadrian, the Roman Emperor, responded brutally. According to Roman historian Cassius Dio (c. 150-235 AD), 580,000 Jews were killed, and 50 fortified towns and 985 villages were razed to the ground.11 Those who were not killed were sold into slavery. Worldwide Dispersion The ultimate result of the destruction of the kingdom of Judah was the worldwide dispersion of the remaining Jewish people. Yes, there were small pockets of Jews who remained in their homeland, settling mainly in the Galilee and in the city of Tiberias. But the vast majority were scattered to foreign nations — all of which was in fulfillment of very specific warnings God had supplied through His prophets over a thousand years before. The Jewish historian, Josephus, writing near the end of the First Century AD, stated: "There is no city, no tribe, whether Greek or barbarian, in which Jewish law and Jewish customs have not taken root."14 By the end of the Middle Ages (400 to 1400 AD), there were four identifiable groups of Jews in the Diaspora: The Ashkenazi Jews of Central and Eastern Europe.15 The Sephardic Jews of the Iberian Peninsula (Portugal and Spain).16 The Mizrahi Jews of Persia.17 The Anusim Jews which consisted of those who were compelled to convert to either Christianity or Islam.18They were sometimes referred to as "Crypto-Jews." Each of these groups, in their isolation from each other over the years, developed distinctive forms of dress, worship and language.19 With regard to language, Hebrew became the language of the synagogue. It ceased to be spoken in daily conversation. Among the Ashkenazim, they combined German with Hebrew to produce a language called Yiddish.20 The Sephardim, on the other hand, combined Spanish with Hebrew to produce Ladino.21 In 1492, when the Jews were expelled from Spain, the Sephardic communities migrated to North Africa and throughout the Ottoman Empire. Later, some of them even went to the newly discovered Latin America. This subsequent dispersion into the Ottoman Empire resulted in the growth of Mizrahi Jews, because that term came to be applied to those who ended up living in areas dominated by Muslims. As would be expected, they developed a mixed language called Judeo-Arabic.22 For 600 years, Babylon was the center of the Diaspora, from the 5th to the 11th Centuries. During the 11th Century, Jewish migration shifted the center of the Diaspora population to Spain, France and the Rhineland, where it remained until the 15th Century. At that point, expulsions and offers of refuge led the Jews either to Poland or the Ottoman Empire. Those two regions remained the principal centers of Jewish life until the 19th Century. During the 19th Century, the Jews in the Diaspora began to migrate in significant numbers to the Western Hemisphere, including South America. Between 1840 and 1939, the Jewish population of North and South America increased from 1.1% of the world's Jews to 33.1%.23 During that same time period, worldwide Jewry increased from 4.5 million to 16.7 million.24 Jewish Demographics The Nazi Holocaust resulted in the deaths of 6 million Jews, including 1.5 million children. This reduced the worldwide population of Jews to approximately 10 million. Since that time, the population has grown to 14 million, with 6 million now residing in the re-established state of Israel.25 According to Roman records, there were about 8 to 10 million Jews in the First Century. Since that time, the population of China has grown from 30 million to over one billion. Based on growth statistics like this, demographers estimate that there should be 500 million Jews alive in the world today.26 Instead, there are only about 4 million more Jews today than 2,000 years ago. This fact is the fulfillment of a prophecy found in Deuteronomy 4:27 —"And the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you shall be left few in number among the nations, where the LORD shall drive you." That prophecy was delivered by Moses over 3,400 years ago! Prophecies Fulfilled The Jewish people have been dispersed all over the world, just as God warned they would be if they were not faithful to Him. They have been severely persecuted everywhere they have gone — again, in fulfillment of a prophecy delivered by Moses (Deuteronomy 28:65-67). The great miracle of the Diaspora is that the Jewish people have survived to this day — again, in fulfillment of Bible prophecy (Jeremiah 30:11): "For I am with you," declares the LORD, "to save you; for I will destroy completely all the nations where I have scattered you, only I will not destroy you completely. But I will chasten you justly and will by no means leave you unpunished." A Warning to America Let me conclude by emphasizing a point that I have made many times, particularly in my book, America the Beautiful?27 It is the fact that I am convinced that ancient Judah is a prophetic type of the United States. Just like Judah, God has blessed us with great leaders, freedom and prosperity. More important, just like Judah, our nation was founded upon God's Word. And just as God blessed Judah with His spiritual presence in the nation's temple, He has given America the great spiritual blessing of spreading the Gospel all over the world. Yet, despite our blessings, we have responded just like Judah with pride, apostasy and rebellion. And just as with Judah, God has been calling us to repentance and warning us of impending destruction through remedial judgments like 9/11 and through prophetic voices like Dave Wilkerson. And just as the people of Judah laughed at the warnings and said, "God dwells in our temple and would never allow an enemy to destroy our nation," the people of America are saying, "God sits on His throne wrapped in an American flag and will never allow us to be destroyed." We need to remember the words of the prophet Nahum: The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, and the LORD will by no means leave the guilty unpunished... (Nahum 1:3).