An Ancient Prophecy Being Fulfilled Today
By Sheri Schofield
The events happening in Israel today are amazing. While there is tragedy, there is also great hope promised to Israel by the prophet Ezekiel. Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, is very familiar with this prophecy, as are many others who still believe in God.
Ezekiel prophesied that God would scatter Israel throughout the nations because of their disobedience to him. In Ezekiel’s day, the people of Israel were not obeying God, and there was much wickedness. Murders and idol worship were common. (See Ezekiel 36:13-19) Though Ezekiel didn’t know how the details would play out, God saw their future rejection of Jesus, the Messiah. He would scatter the nation because of that.
At Jesus’s trial before Pilate, the Jews were crying out, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” They wanted Jesus tortured and nailed to the cross, the most painful death available at the time. It would not only kill him, but it would humiliate him and send a message to his disciples that the same could be done to them if they continued following Jesus.
Pilate, reluctant to crucify Jesus, whom he saw as innocent, did not want Jesus’s blood on his hands. He sent for a bowl of water and symbolically washed his hands. He said, “I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. You see to it.”
And all the people answered and said, ‘His blood be on us and on our children’” Matthew 27:24, 25 (NKJV).
A few years later, the Roman emperor Vespasian sent his son Titus to conquer Jerusalem. On September 8, 70 A.D., Jerusalem fell. The inhabitants of the city were butchered in one of the most brutal destructions of the Roman Empire. The Temple was burned and torn apart. The remaining Jewish people living in the area fled in many directions. The northern Israeli tribes had already been scattered. This fulfilled the first part of the prophecy God gave Ezekiel:
God spoke through Ezekiel saying, “…I poured out my fury on them. I scattered them to many lands to punish them for the evil way they had lived” Ezekiel 36:18, 19 (NLT).
But God didn’t leave Israel without hope. He told of a return to the land:
“But when they were scattered among the nations, they brought shame on my holy name. For the nations said, ‘These are the people of the Lord, but he couldn’t keep them safe in his own land!’ Then I was concerned for my holy name, on which my people brought shame among the nations. Therefore, give the people of Israel this message from the Sovereign Lord: I am bringing you back, but not because you deserve it. I am doing it to protect my holy name, on which you brought shame while you were scattered among the nations…I will gather you up from all the nations and bring you home again to your land. Then I will sprinkle water on you, and you will be clean….I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you….” Ezekiel 36:20-26 (NLT).
Israel began returning to the land of their ancestors before the first World War. Their return to Israel became a mighty flood during and after World War II, when the Nazi Germans and their allies tried to destroy all the Jews.
The Balfour Declaration was issued by the British government during World War I, supporting the idea of a Jewish homeland being re-established in Israel. The Jews responded to that declaration. At the time, the land was called Palestine, a name given to the region by the Romans. It is a variation of the name Philistine, the people who inhabited the land before God, through Moses, brought Israel from slavery in Egypt back to their original homeland. The Romans later called the land Palestine in an attempt to erase all connection between the Jews and the land.
When the Jews returned, they had to fight the Arab inhabitants to stay alive, for the Arabs refused to let them live in peace. During World War II, a large number of the Arabs fought against Israel for the Nazis as well as for their own purposes. In 1948, the world agreed that the Jews should have a homeland because of the horrible destruction the Jews had faced during World War II. The United Nations voted on it, and the world chose to recognize the Jewish homeland. The Jews called their nation “Israel.” The Arabs who wished to live in peace, were accepted by the Israelis. They live in the area today. Those who would not live in peace were expelled.
This massive return to the land of Israel fulfilled the prophecy of Ezekiel 36:16-38.
Those who do not wish to live in peace are still at war with Israel. This includes those living in Gaza. The nations around Israel have never let the Jews live in peace. The latest war against Israel was started by Hamas out of Gaza on October 7, 2023. Iran, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, and the Houthis in Yemen (all Muslim nations) have been bombing Israel tirelessly since that day.
The prophecy of Ezekiel 36 is seen by many as a sign of Jesus’ return because of the next few chapters of Ezekiel, which I will talk about in my next blog. Ezekiel 37 covers more details of the prophecy in chapter 36. Chapters 38-39 take us into the future events expected to happen in Israel.