Harry Shepherd Prophecy 10

The tenth installment of my grandfather Shepherd's 1960 prophecy book, copied here without comment.
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From the setting up of the New Israeli Nation it was declared that the State would be open to the immigration of Jews from all countries of the world, although the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) did not pass the Law of the Return till June, 1950. The door was now open for the second great exodus of Israel. The first was out of Egypt under Moses. This we have seen since World War II which it seems to me is a fulfillment lacking the spiritual return of Israel, or a token fulfillment of the following Bible passages: Jeremiah 16:14-19, Chapter 30:18-24, Chapter 31:1-14, Ezekiel 37:1-14 and Isaiah 43:5-7. Possibly the fishers of the first passage was the Zionist agitation following World War I and the hunters may have partly been the terrible, brutal work of the Nazi under Mr. Hitler, the butcher. Chapters thirty and thirty-one were to be connected with a return in the latter days. The four points in the return of Ezekiel thirty-seven seem to have been fulfilled except point 4 which now seems to be in a process of preparation. The four points are (1) Regathering, (2) Rehabilitation, (3) Restoration (as a nation) and (4) Rebirth Spiritually. The First Prime Minister of the new Israeli State, David Ben Gurion, has said: "Ezekiel thirty-seven has been fulfilled and the nation of Israel is hearing the footsteps of the Messiah." If an unsaved Jew feels that way about the Jewish situation how should we feel? In my view Isaiah 43:5-7* is included in fulfillment in this extensive, mass exodus we have seen since Israel was recognized as a new State among the Nations—1945. In these verses God states and promises that He will regather Israel from the four points of the compass. In each case the Hebrew verb is different with a different meaning. In connection with Jews in the East God said, "I will bring thy seed." This gathering then was to be sweeping, free and without opposition. And it happened that way. Thousands came by ship or airplane from China. Others came from Malaya, Burma, India, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq. About the West God said, "and gather thee from the west." The Hebrew translated "gather" means collect, assemble, gather. Here the idea is take some but leave others. Jews have returned from Egypt, Libya, Tunia, Algeria, Morocco, Argentine, United States, Canada and other American nations but not like from the East. About five million are yet in U. S. A. In speaking of the gathering from the North God said, "I will say to the North 'give up' or 'give me.'" And they have returned to Palestine from Italy, France, Holland, Great Britain, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Poland, Esthonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Rumania, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Syria and Lebanon but not from Russia where about two million Jews yet live. Should a large influx from here occur it would seem to have special prophetic significance as pointing to the end of our age. Concerning the fourth group God, according to the Hebrew, mentions a country and not a direction, and yet that country would show the direction. He says, "I will say to Teman" the Hebrew name for the land "Yemen" or "I will say to Yemen keep not back or do not restrain or hold back." God's hand is seen in this very interesting regathering for an Arab king of Yemen permitted them to go freely after a 3,000 years stay in that Arabian country, and at a time (1949) when all of the Arab nations wanted to destroy the Israeli nation. Also a sudden, spontaneous urge to leave Yemen spring up within them and from above eight hundred different localities they started to go toward Aden on the south shore of the Arabian peninsula in the country, Hadhramaut. All they knew was that there was an Israeli state with a David (David Ben-Gurion) as ruler. The urge then must have been from Jehovah. When the Jewish nation learned of their exodus it brought them from Aden by an airlift into Israel. Something over 48,000 were flown in. The urge came in 1949 and by September 1950 Yemen was without Jews. When the old men would get out of the planes they would stoop, kiss the ground and say, "Where is he?" Evidently meaning the Messiah. Certainly God was fulfilling Isaiah 43:6 and working toward his promises to Abraham.

In this great exodus of Israel, the saddest phase is to be seen in the case of 200,000 Austrian Jews who had been in the Nazi death camps and gas chambers. Their cremated bodies were brought in June 1949 in thirty jars in a large glass casket for burial in Israel like Joseph's bones in the First Great Exodus. The prophetic meaning of this great modern exodus of Jews is that God has been and still will be carrying out His Four Promises to Abraham up to the coming of the Jewish Messiah, Jesus Christ, Who will then take over the completion of those promises in the Millennium and probably in the New Heaven and New Earth.

There is still another angle of truth which stems from this Jewish return. It is found in Ezekiel Chapters thirty-eight and thirty-nine verse 10. Mentioned here is an economic condition among these returned Jews which throws some light on where the world is as to the coming of the Lord. This Scripture informs us that in the latter years and latter days (verses 8 and 16), after this modern exodus the returning ones would be living restfully, safely (verses 8, 11, 14) and prosperously (verse 12). They were to be prosperous enough to have spoil and a prey of silver, gold, cattle and goods. Also they were to be living in towns without walls and gates. When Ezekiel penned this 2500 years ago, the towns usually had walls " and there was no spoil or prey to take". Also there were no forests because of God's curse on the land on account of Israel's failure to obey him. Now there are no villages which have walls and the spoil and the prey are there, including the stupendous mineral wealth of the Dead Sea. As the Zionists have planted millions of trees, the forests are there or are now growing. Three years ago (1957) a man called Carl Alpert wrote of conditions in the Israeli nation and he found that the people were dwelling not only prosperously, restfully, and safely but also confidently. The Hebrew word translated "safely" may be translated also "confidently." While there was some tension and awareness of danger from Arab hostility yet there was among men on the street the feeling of confidence that the splendidly-trained and well-equipped Jewish army simply could not lose in case of an Arab war. Hence, if we have eyes to see, we behold the Jewish economic condition today following the groove Ezekiel said it would take in the latter days when Russia (Magog with leader Gog) would bring a great war machine upon the mountains of Israel. The Palestinian stage seems fully set for this foretold invasion shortly before the return of Christ the second time. This economic condition is God's modern work on the Third Promise to Abraham that he would bless him and one way to do that would be to restore productiveness to and in the land.

*Truth about the mass exodus of the Jews suggested in Isaiah 43:5-7 with meaning of Hebrew verbs obtained from "The Fall and Rise of Israel" by Wm. L. Hull, and from same author's book, "Israel, Key to Prophecy" both published by Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, pages 345-349 and (Key) pages 11, 14, 15, 18, 22, and 23.