Repatriation

 •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 11
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In recent years there has been a movement by a maritime nation or nations friendly to Israel, (England or the United States), to repatriate her land, causing a steady stream of Jews, some prosperous, to return to Palestine.
Jehovah has had no part in this premature effort but takes His rest as an Observer, not interfering until man's plans have been consummated.
During the present period of repatriation a prosperous civilization patterned after the nations, not after the instruction of Jehovah, is being formed and is flourishing in Judah, but all efforts will end in tragic sorrow because Jehovah is left out and forgotten. Judah is entirely indifferent to Jehovah's merciful invitation to repent and "reason together" with Him. "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow."
Isa. 17:1-141The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap. 2The cities of Aroer are forsaken: they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid. 3The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria: they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, saith the Lord of hosts. 4And in that day it shall come to pass, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean. 5And it shall be as when the harvestman gathereth the corn, and reapeth the ears with his arm; and it shall be as he that gathereth ears in the valley of Rephaim. 6Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it, as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost fruitful branches thereof, saith the Lord God of Israel. 7At that day shall a man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel. 8And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall respect that which his fingers have made, either the groves, or the images. 9In that day shall his strong cities be as a forsaken bough, and an uppermost branch, which they left because of the children of Israel: and there shall be desolation. 10Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength, therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants, and shalt set it with strange slips: 11In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow. 12Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters! 13The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind. 14And behold at eveningtide trouble; and before the morning he is not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us. (Isaiah 17:1‑14) Isa. 1:1818Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. (Isaiah 1:18)
Therefore, during the period called "Jacob's Trouble",* the land will be desolated by the political power of great nations and by envious neighbors, Edom taking the lead. The prophets describe this devastation, first, "the beginning of sorrows," the second stage as "the great tribulation," and the last, "consumption," all followed by the glorious deliverance of Israel.
(* In the days of his wanderings Israel was known as Jacob.)
Isaiah's appraisal of Judah for the present day is that, in ignoring Jehovah, she is not as intelligent as the ox who knows his owner and the ass that eats from his master's crib. He tells us that there is no soundness in Judah from the sole of the foot to the head, and the wounds have not been bound up. It is the inner man which is corrupt.