Isaiah 46:13  “My salvation shall not delay. I will place salvation in Zion, for Israel My glory.”

God’s work of salvation in Israel has 2 promises: #1 – physical deliverance from their enemies and #2 – spiritual deliverance from their sin. Their need for promise #2 is in verse 12: “Listen to Me, you stubborn-hearted, who are far from righteousness.” God is speaking directly to His chosen people – the Jews.

Isaiah 49:3 repeats promise #2: “You are My servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” God explains promise #2’s fulfillment in verse 6. “Is it too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel? I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, that You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.”  YHWH’s Servant is Jesus Christ (John 8:12).

But it is promise #1 right now that has the world siding with Mark Twain: “Jews are ¼ of 1% of humanity. It suggests a dim puff of star dust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. The Jew ought hardly be heard of; but he has always been heard of. His contributions to the world’s great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine and learning are way out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers.

The Egyptians, Babylonians and Persians rose, filled the planet with splendor, then passed away; the Greek and Roman followed, made a vast noise, and were gone. The Jew saw and survived them all. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of their immortality?”

Charles Krauthammer gives an even more direct truth: “Israel is the only nation on Earth that inhabits the same land, bears the same name, speaks the same language, and worships the same God it did 3,000 years ago.”  If the world has learned anything, it is that Israel is not going anywhere because God said so.

After the October 7^th Hamas terrorist attack, people argue over who has the right to exist as a nation state – Palestinians or Jews. There has only ever been a Jewish state. Let’s go backwards in history to prove it.

1917-1948AD: Before today’s state of Israel was the British Mandate, not a Palestinian state. As the 1923 British Mandate Preamble says: “Establish in Palestine a national home for the Jewish people.”

1882-1914AD: Before the British Mandate was the Zionist Immigration, not a Palestinian state. 35,000 Jews immigrated in the “First Aliyah”. 40,000 more Jews immigrated in the “Second Aliyah.”

630-1914AD: Before the Zionist Immigration was the Muslim Arab Empire, not a Palestinian state.

330-536AD: Before the Muslim Arab Empire was the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem, not a Palestinian state. Emperor Constantine I converted to Christianity, making it the official religion of Palestine.

37BC-211AD: Before the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem was the Roman Empire, not a Palestinian state. Roman general Titus sacked Jerusalem and destroyed Israel’s Second Temple, leaving the Western Wall.

140-37BC: Before the Roman Empire was the Hasmonean Dynasty, not a Palestinian state.

333BC: Before the Hasmonean Dynasty was the Greek Empire through Alexander the Great (and then, after his death, the Ptolemaic and Seleucid Empires), not a Palestinian state.

538BC: Before the Greek Empire was the Persian Empire, not a Palestinian state. Persia allowed the Jews to return to their homeland and build the Second Temple in Jerusalem.

586BC: Before the Persian Empire was the Babylonian Empire, not a Palestinian state. The Babylonians conquered the southern kingdom of Judah and Jerusalem, destroying the Jews’ First Temple.

1020-1000BC: Before the Babylonian Empire were the Kingdoms of Israel and Judea, not a Palestinian state. Saul was Israel’s first King. Jerusalem was King David’s capital. King Solomon builds First Temple.

1200-1020BC: Before the Kingdoms of Israel and Judea was the Kingdom of Israel, not a Palestinian state. Israel was centered in Jerusalem over an area approximating today’s land of Israel.

1400-1200BC: Before the Kingdom of Israel were the 12 tribes of Israel under the theocracy of YHWH, not a Palestinian state. And before these 12 tribes was the state of Canaan, not a Palestinian state.

As Charles Krauthammer said, Israel’s right to their homeland was determined over 3,000 years ago. This is God’s first promise to the Jews. He continues today to miraculously defend Israel from their enemies.

“The Evidence of Faith’s Substance” _ Article #577