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Nov 25, 2024 18:00pm

Israel Firsthand: Vineyards

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In 2023, my family was blessed to travel to Israel. It’s hard to put in words just how incredible the experience was for us, but I’m going to try over a few articles. Yes, we took our kids, and it was one of the best decisions we have ever made. I’ve spent nine years of school between college and seminary focused on studying the Bible and have spent my whole vocational life in the Word and teaching it, yet the Bible came to life in a way I couldn’t have imagined. Even though I’ve spent all of that time studying the Bible and studying about it, I had no idea the level of archaeological evidence that has been unearthed. Everywhere the tour bus passed and stopped the Bible was confirmed in undeniable ways. Our trip also focused on what God has been doing over the past century in Israel and is currently doing. Before this past month, I thought I knew prophecy was unfolding before our eyes, but I had no idea just how much.

I wanted to start this series with my youngest daughter’s favorite site which so happened to be our first stop. It was actually the least appealing site we visited, but it captured her. Throughout the trip we had interactive activities for the kids like wading through Hezekiah’s Tunnel, floating in the Dead Sea, riding a camel in the desert, sleeping in a Bedouin tent, and a boat ride across Galilee. I list those to show how odd my daughter’s choice is.

Our first stop was in Bethel, where Jacob had his dream of the angels ascending and descending from Heaven. It was also in this area where bears mauled kids who made fun of Elisha’s bald head. That is a crazy story by the way.

Bethel is in the hills of Samaria. There once was a forest in which those bears lived. Over years of foreign occupation, the hillsides were barren, yet the hill we stood on was no longer barren. In the late 90’s a Messianic Jewish couple made Aliyah from the United States to help rebuild Israel. They purchased the land and planted a vineyard. Their whole hillside was covered with vines full of grapes. An old watchtower stood in the center of the vineyard, and it dated back to before the time of Jesus.

As we stood in the vineyard and looked out at the barren rocky hillsides across the valley, the vineyard owner opened her Bible and read Jeremiah 31:5,

“Again you will plant vineyards on the hills of Samaria” – Jeremiah 31:5

The context of this passage is that in the last days the Lord will gather the Jewish people who have been scattered all over the earth and bring them back to the land. The land that has been ravaged will again produce fruit. Ultimately this is completely fulfilled in the Millennial Kingdom, but it is being fulfilled right before our eyes.

Very few Jews remained in the land of Israel before the early 1900s. After Rome destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 AD Jews were scattered across the world. As they were scattered, they constantly faced persecution which culminated in the Holocaust during World War II. Following the war, Jews began to return to the land. In 1948, Israel became an official Jewish nation. In 1967, Israel won back Jerusalem, but even until today conflict remains. God promised through nearly every Old Testament prophet this diaspora would happen and before the establishment of the Messiah’s kingdom Jews would return. And it’s been happening right before our eyes.

In 2005, for the first time there were more Jews in the land of Israel than any other one nation in the world.

Along with the return of Jews, the land is coming alive as Scripture says it will. We were stunned to pass fields and fields of produce and orchard after orchard of fruit. We saw firsthand many prophecies fulfilled.

The most impactful was to stand in the very hills of Samaria in a vineyard and hear those words from Jeremiah.

That was it. That was that first stop. It was the least exciting of the trip, but when we got back on the bus, I sat by nine-year-old daughter and asked what she thought. She recounted the passage from Jeremiah. She followed it with, “Daddy, if we could get everyone who doesn’t believe in Jesus to come here and read that prophecy—they will all believe.”

I wish it was that simple.

Ten days later we returned home, her grandparents asked her what her favorite thing in Israel was and without missing a beat she tells of the prophecy in Jeremiah and the vineyard.

We sit on this side of the world and speculate that prophecy might be being fulfilled, but there are actually places where you can steal a grape from vineyards God said would reappear in the last days.

This is a Stand Firm Parents article from Stand Firm Ministries and first appeared on www.standfirmministries.com.