The place where the curtain of history for the nation of Israel was raised was in the land of Mesopotamia
along the Tigris and Euphrates River valley.

The person by whom Israel would spring to life was a man named Abraham.
He was a pagan destined to become Israel’s greatest patriarch and personage. In short, Abraham gained this notoriety because the God of glory appeared to him and gave him PROMISES (Acts 7:2).  A personal encounter with the God of glory is always a life changing event!

The People of Promise
There were many promises given to Abraham and his descendants. So many, in fact, that Israel became known as the PEOPLE OF PROMISE. They were a nation and people that lived on promises. The Apostle Paul asked in Romans 9:4…”Who are the Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the PROMISES;” 

The real cash and capital of promises, however, depends on who is giving them.  These promises came from the God of glory who cannot lie. Throughout Israel’s history from their patriarch’s to the present God has been and is still making good on His promises to His chosen people.

Three notable promises that God designed to form the destiny of this nation stand out…  

1) A Promised Lad.  God promised Abraham, against all odds, that his wife would have a child even though she was far beyond child bearing age. Someone observed that God brought a child to life from a barren womb and brought Christ to life from a borrowed tomb!  Hebrews 11: 11 “through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.”  With this coming child that brought laughter to this old couple God would keep his promise to make of Abraham a great nation (Gen 12:2). 

2) A Promised Land.  In Genesis 3:15 and 17:7-8 God promised to Israel a land. It was a weighty promise that carried with it the term “everlasting”. It was an everlasting promise that God covenanted to Abram and Israel that would come to be known as the Abrahamic covenant. God is still making good on that covenant promise at this present moment. For many years this promise seemed to go unfulfilled. As a result many bible teachers in centuries gone by thought these promises were spiritual promises that were relevant only to the church. Amillennialism was birthed as a result.  Today, at this very moment, God has fulfilled in thrilling power His promise to give Israel a land…their land. Many call it the SUPER SIGN of the Second Coming.   

After a long decline and dispersion the Jews have come back to Palestine and Jerusalem and acquisitioned their land of promise. They have returned to Zion.  They stand in their own right as a full fledged recognized nation with a formidable army. Their tenacious army coupled with the power and promises of God tackled and conquered amassed armies of allied nations that sought to destroy them in 1948, 1967, & 1973.  This tiny nation is as a small sandbar in a sea of Islam. The Jews are surrounded by hateful enemies who contend with and oppose them in regards to their claim to the land… but still they thrive and survive because of the PROMISES of God that are everlasting.

Four things among many have contributed to their home gathering: Sovereignty . . . the Person of God Himself.   Scriptures . . . the promises contained in God’s word     Shame . . . many of the nations of the world were ashamed that they did not come to the help of the Jews when Adolf Hitler committed such heinous genocide against this chosen people. When the concentration camp atrocities came to light after WWII the more civil world leaders wanted to atone for their great blunder. They did so by making formal declarations in favor of nationhood status for Israel.   Silver . . . the Zionist movement was bankrolled by such family names as the Rothschilds and many others who had done well in their countries of dispersion.

3) A Promised Lord.  Israel, from birth until today , has been marked by marvelous manifestations  of the miraculous. One writer said, “The plan of redemption for Israel and the world focuses around two epochal events — the first and second comings of the Messiah Jesus Christ. In both advents, Christ has and will personally come again directly to Israel.”   Although this promised Lord and Messiah has not yet come the second time, He will. In this brief writing, the passages of promise concerning His Second Coming are too numerous to mention, but they will come to pass just as surely as the promise of the lad and the land have literally been fulfilled. (Revelation 22:12)