The Jerusalem Post reported on 30 May 2013 that Israelis
are among the happiest and most optimistic people in the Western world.
This has been born
out in repeated surveys. One such study conducted by Gallup ranked Israel in
the Top 10 countries on the 'happiness' list, alongside New Zealand!
An elderly Jewish lady celebrates her 101st birthday |
How can this
possibly be? No nation on earth is more threatened daily than Israel. Tiny
Israel, only 7 million strong, is surrounded by 300 million hateful, vile Arabs
who want the Jews dead just as badly as did the descendants of Esau over 3,000
years ago. Jews are bombarded with vicious propaganda that urges all Muslims to
kill any Jew wherever they find them. In fact, the Koran urges Muslims to do
this. You would think this horrific threat to daily life, limb and pursuit of
happiness so wear down the average Jew and that they would leave Israel.
The disconnect is
most telling when one compares the sense of vibrancy and passion of Israelis on
the street with the regularly depressing headlines of the newspapers, or the
downbeat analysis of Israeli experts and talking heads about the regional
predicament. It is hard, especially for visitors to Israel, to reconcile the
dangers Israelis face with the mood on a Tel Aviv beach on any given day.
Israeli Jews stay
positive not because the present story of Israel is overflowing with good news,
but because the story is not complete ... the biblical imperative of being a
kingdom of priests and a holy people. Exodus
19:6 compels one not only to ask how can I be better tomorrow than I was today,
but also to believe that constant improvement is possible.
In other words, the Jewish people are being constantly filled with
an inexplicable sense of their Old Testament position as God's Chosen People
and their destiny of seeing Messiah rise to deliver them from the enemy and to
rule and reign all nations from Jerusalem. I am sure the average Israeli does
not reason matters out like this, but the Holy Spirit sweeping Israel at this
late epoch in her national history is providing a supernatural feeling of
well-being, even in the face of a malicious enemy.
Listen to God's
promises about pouring out His spirit at the End of the Age, also known as the
"Times of Jacob’s Troubles". "And afterward I will pour out My
Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your
old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. Even upon the
menservants and upon the maidservants in those days will I pour out My Spirit
... And whoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered and
saved, for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as
the Lord has said, and among the remnant shall be those whom the Lord calls.
(Joel 2:28-32) "The Lord will thunder and roar from Zion and utter His
voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shall shake; but the Lord
will be a refuge for His people and a stronghold to the children of Israel ...
So shall you know, understand, and realize that I am the Lord your God,
dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain ... in that day, the mountains shall drip
with fresh juice [of the grape] and the hills shall flow with milk; and all the
brooks and riverbeds of Judah shall flow with water, and a fountain shall come
forth from the house of the Lord and shall water the Valley of Shittim ... But
Judah shall remain and be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem from generation to
generation ... for the Lord dwells in Zion." (Joel 3:16-21).
Israel, and the world, are so close to the Time of Jacob’s Trouble
that the Holy Spirit is already pouring out upon the Jews in Israel!
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