God’s Great Witness – Israel 

Foundations of Faith – God’s Great Witness – Israel

In order to properly understand the Bible, we first should answer the question, “Why Israel?”

Most people have never really took the time to pause in the frenzy of this life to consider and meditate upon the AMAZING PROOF this nation brings to the heart.  This proof is a blessing to all who are sincerely searching and are wanting to know who God truly is and wanting to know if the Bible truly is His inspired Word!

Abraham shows up in human history around 2000 years after the creation of Adam.  At this point mankind has become distant to God and confused as to who the Lord God of creation really is.  As a result of this, man was worshiping idols of wood and stone carved from his own hands.   These were creations of mankind’s own evil and deceiving imaginations. 

It was then that God called out a great witness to show and prove to mankind who really is the one true God.  He did this desiring mankind to observe, reason, and believe so that they would forsake all idols and false gods and return to the true Heavenly Father.  God created this powerful witness in such a way so that it would become a POWERFUL FOUNDATION to our faith.  This will eliminate all doubt within any honest and sincere mind.  This ensures us that we are trusting in the very one God of creation.  For all those that have been longing and searching and took this witness to heart, they have finally found the end of their search.  They gained the sweet peace and assurance that the God whom they now believe in, is the one true God.  That there is no other!

We are about to study powerful historical moments which are stitched together with miracle after miracle.  This created a great witness of God and foundation to our faith to remove all doubts!

1. The Miraculous Birth of a Nation – Abraham and Sarah

(Genesis 12:1-5), “Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Then Abram took Sarai his wife …”

No other nation has ever been given birth like the nation of Israel.  It began with just a husband and his wife.  When you really think about it, this is one of history’s most miraculous moments.  And to add to this, it is the only nation that could claim that it was God Himself who ordered the birth of it.  No other nation can make this claim!

2. The Miraculous Safe Journey through a Wicked Land

(Genesis 12:5-17). “Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan. Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land… So Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South. Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land. And it came to pass, when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “Indeed I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance. Therefore it will happen, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. Please say you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you.” So it was, when Abram came into Egypt, that the Egyptians saw the woman, that she was very beautiful. The princes of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken to Pharaoh’s house…. But the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.”

To travel from Abraham’s home town Haran (what we consider today as Iraq) all the way to the land of Canaan, one would have to travel through treacherous conditions filled with thieves and murders along with harsh climate conditions.  Also, they were only a handful of folks.  They were powerless against the much larger groups of evil men that waited to raid and destroy any small groups that passed through this area.

• They traveled through the land of the Canaanites who were noted as a wicked people.
• They also faced the harsh conditions of the famine that was then robbing them of the precious water that was much needed for their journey.
• And Abraham also was in danger of being murdered by the Egyptians because his wife Sarah was attractive. It took the divine intervention of God Himself to protect and sustain them in all these perils throughout their journey. If anyone doubts that it took a miracle, have them TODAY try traveling the same route on foot and see if they make it alive.

3. The Miraculous Growth of Their Numbers – In Slavery!!!

(Exodus 1:7-12), “But the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them. Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, “Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we; come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pithom and Raamses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were in dread of the children of Israel.”

No other nation in the history of mankind grew to millions in population while in slavery!

STOP RIGHT NOW AND REALLY TAKE A MOMENT TO CONSIDER THIS!

4. Their Miraculous Release from Egypt after Becoming the Backbone of Egypt’s Economy!

(Exodus 12:29-33), “And it came to pass at midnight that the Lord struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of livestock. So Pharaoh rose in the night, he, all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead. Then he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, “Rise, go out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel. And go, serve the Lord as you have said. Also take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone; and bless me also.” And the Egyptians urged the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste. For they said, “We shall all be dead.”

As we have seen in our last point, the Hebrew slaves became the backbone of the Egyptian economy. They were building cities for Pharaoh and Egypt which increased their economic and military might.  What could have possibly convinced Pharaoh and all of Egypt to free about three million Hebrew slaves knowing it would be the end of their greatness and might?!  It is history’s greatest phenomenon and one that all have to reckon with. 

If one doubts that this exodus ever happened, ask them this;  why have the Israelites celebrated Passover EVERY YEAR, for the past 3,500 YEARS?!!!!!

And if this amazing supernatural event did not occur, WHY HAS NO PERSON, POLITICIAN, GOVERNMENT, KING OR NATION NEVER DARED TO STEP FORWARD AND DECLARE THAT THE JEWISH PEOPLE ARE TOTALLY INSANE FOR CELEBRATING PASSOVER THAT PROCLAIMS ALL THE ABOVE THINGS WE JUST REVIEWED?!!!

The reason “why” is because IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED!!!!  

Then why is today’s world population so NUMB to the amazing reality that the God of the Bible, the God of Israel, is truly God?  Why are they constantly taking His holy name in vain and breaking His commandments INSTEAD OF FEARING AND TREMBLING AT THE VERY THOUGHT OF HIM?!!!

The answer is, the blinding POWER of the darkness of this world is far more deceiving than many people realize;

(2 Corinthians 4:4), “whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”

5. Their Miraculous Wandering in the Desert and Wilderness for 40 Years!

(Deuteronomy 8:2-4), “And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years.”

• Can you even imagine three million people wandering together in a wilderness for 40 years?
• On top of that, where did they get enough food to feed three million people each day? Do you realize how much food it would take on a daily basis to accomplish such a task?
• On top of that, they were in a dry desert area where there was nowhere near enough water to keep alive such a large multitude.

It took God to rain manna from Heaven and water to miraculously gush out of a rock.

(Exodus 16:1-18) (Numbers 20:1-11)

6. Their Civil, Ceremonial, Priesthood and Temple Laws

(The Books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy)

It is impossible to imagine that a nation of people could come up with such strict, peculiar, complex, detailed and numerous laws just for the sake of it.  The creation of all these laws had to come from a source that the people of Israel greatly feared and highly respected.  Even the numerous symbolic representations found in all these laws are far beyond the creation ability of mere human reasoning.  From the priesthood garments to the Temple construction and furniture pieces, it makes no sense for a nation of people to comply with all these if it were not given by God Himself for a very specific purpose!

7. Their Dispersion and Their Miraculous Return! 

(Jeremiah 9:13-16), “And the Lord said, “Because they have forsaken My law which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice, nor walked according to it, but they have walked according to the dictates of their own hearts and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them,”… I will scatter them also among the Gentiles, whom neither they nor their fathers have known…”

(Jeremiah 30:3), “For behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord, ‘that I will bring back from captivity My people Israel and Judah,’ says the Lord. ‘And I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.”

The dispersion happened around 600 BC by God using King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.  At that moment in history Israel ceased to be a nation.

• They were scattered worldwide
• They were weak with no political or military power
• They were the most hated and persecuted people 

And yet with all this, in 1948 AD the impossible happened.  After 2,600 long years Israel became a nation once again to continue to be that witness to us even today JUST AS THE BIBLE PREDICTED IT WOULD HAPPEN!!!!   The God of Abraham, the God of the Bible, that same God that has formed Israel and sustained her, He is the one true God and the Bible is His one true Word! 

Our Heavenly Father laid this foundation to our faith that is forever unmovable!  There has never been, nor ever will be anyone who will be able to prove that any of these true historical and well documented facts never occurred.   There is so much more to say about this great witness that proves to us today that the Bible is indeed the Word of God like the account of the Book of Esther.  It would be absolutely insane to deny that the account of the Book of Esther actually occurred. Do you know why?

Because to this very day, for the past 2500 years, the people of Israel each year have been celebrating the holiday PURIM which commemorates the defeat of Haman’s plot to massacre the Jews as recorded in the Book of Esther!!! 

So, the next time someone asks you, “How do you know you have the right God and His Word?”

          Just simply say, “Israel!”

The next time doubt starts to creep in;

          Just simply say, “Israel!”

God’s Great Witness – Israel!

BUILDING A FOUNDATION THAT WILL NEVER CRACK!

God’s Great Witness = Israel

The Miraculous Safe Journey through a Wicked Land

Their Miraculous Release from Egypt after Becoming the Backbone of Egypt’s Economy!

Their Civil, Ceremonial, Priesthood and Temple Laws

Their Miraculous Return 2550 Years Later!!!!!!

So, the next time someone asks you, “How do you know you have the right God and His Word?” or doubt starts to creep in, just simply say, “Israel!”

The Miracle of Israel, God’s Great Witness to the World!!!!!