InShiloh International

Our first group trip to Israel in 2010 was amazing. Lover of Israel, Jew and Gentile believers blessed Israel. I love this bunch standing on the Mount of Olives with Old City in the background. Dean is now an Associate Rabbi with his wife April. Joy has gone on to glory ahead of us and we miss her daily, she was an inspiration and joy to know. So much has happened in these last almost 10 years!

Joy, April and Dean

Aliyah, Bible Prophecy, and the Restoration of Israel

“My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the Land of Israel.…” (Ezekiel 37:12–14)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood before the international community on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Germany’s biggest extermination and death camp, and declared that the end-time prophecy of Ezekiel 37 had been fulfilled in the State of Israel:

“[After the Holocaust,]… the Jewish people rose from ashes and destruction, from a terrible pain that can never be healed. Armed with the Jewish spirit, the justice of man, and the vision of the prophets, we sprouted new branches and grew deep roots. Dry bones became covered with flesh, a spirit filled them, and they lived and stood on their own feet.

“As Ezekiel prophesied:

“Then He said to me, ‘Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say, ‘Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!’ Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘thus says the Lord God, Behold, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves and bring you into the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up from your graves.’” (Ezekiel 37:11–14)

“He will raise a flag among the nations and assemble the exiles of Israel. He will gather the scattered people of Judah from the ends of the earth.” (Isaiah 11:12)

Aliyah: A Modern-day Miracle

The Lord, in fulfillment of Bible prophecy, continues today to draw His people home to the Holy Land (Jeremiah 31:3).

Every year, Jewish people around the world are making Aliyah (returning to their biblical homeland).

Back when it was recreated in 1948, there were 806,000 residents living in the Holy Land. About 82% or 661,000 were Jewish.

The State of Israel is now 70 years old and has an estimated population of nearly 8.8 million. Almost 75% or about 6,556,000 are Jews. (Israel Central Bureau of Statistics)

Nearly half of the world’s estimated 15 million Jews live in Israel.

“Once more a remnant of the kingdom of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above.” (Isaiah 37:31 and 2 Kings 19:30)

“I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.” (Genesis 22:16–18)

Moreover, almost 27,000 made aliyah (Jewish immigration) to Israel last year in fulfillment of God’s many promises.

Sometimes they come because anti-Semitism is on the rise in the land they are leaving, but always they come because God is moving in their hearts.

“I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you back the land of Israel again.” (Ezekiel 11:17)

Thirty-eight-year-old Ariel Silver, a Jewish Believer in Yeshua (Jesus) who emigrated to Israel from the United States, said adjusting to Israel was fairly easy.

“What makes it worth it is that as a stranger, I’m welcome here,” he said. “In the States, I was a puzzle piece that never quite fit in the right way; I was always a little bit jagged. Here, I’m like the puzzle piece that fits snug on all sides.”

He considers this “miraculous in the sense” that many people in the US struggle to find employment in the field they love.

In Genesis 15:5, God promised Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars. (see also Jeremiah 33:22 and Nehemiah 9:23)

Aliyah: Hearing His Voice

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.” (Ezekiel 36:26–28)

“New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills, and I will bring my people Israel back from exile. They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,’ says the Lord your God.” (Amos 9:13–15)

“For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land.” (Ezekiel 36:24)

A great number of Bible verses prophesy that in the latter days, Israel will be restored both physically and spiritually.

We have seen, and continue to see, the miraculous physical restoration of Israel in our day.

We feel so blessed to be a part of this Scriptural fulfillment, and we look forward to the time when all Israel will be saved (Romans 11:26; Isaiah 45:17; Jeremiah 24:7, etc.).