There will be a highway for the remnant of his people that is left from Assyria, as there was for Israel when they came up from Egypt. – Isaiah 11:16

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 5, 2017): Isaiah 11

Maybe something good can come out of any situation – even World War II. It is hard to imagine something that could be considered good emerging from the reign of a megalomaniac who destroyed a people (the Jews) and a good nation (Germany). How can good come out of the murder of thousands of innocents? The Second World War stole much from us. From the lives of people like Dietrich Bonhoeffer to young imaginative writers like Anne Frank – list of too many valuable lives that were extinguished. Our planet would have been a much better place if they had lived.

Yet, the Second World War also provided the world with a reason to attempt to re-establish the nation of Israel. I am not saying that the re-establishment of Israel was not a priority for the Jews – it was. But the much of the world began to understand the need for a Jewish State following the atrocities of World War II, and they were willing to make it a priority. Finally, there would be a place where Jews were welcome, with absolutely no population limits or immigration requirements. A Jewish State in Palestine would exist that had not existed for almost 1900 years. The reality is that without World War II, the reimagining of Israel still might not have happened.

In 1948, because of the dream that began in the final days of World War II and the world’s discovery of the unthinkable – the concentration camps where countless Jews had been murdered, a highway was built for the remnant of the people back home in Palestine. All the obstacles to residency in the Holy Land had been removed. There would be no more population limits placed on Jewish immigration. The Jews were welcomed home once again.

I am not saying that this was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. But it was possibly a forerunner of the event of which Isaiah was speaking. Isaiah saw a time when all of the Israelites, and not just the Jews who are primarily the descendants of the Southern Kingdom of Judah, would be welcomed home. In that day, all of the obstacles would be removed, and all the tribes of Israel would be reunited in their homeland. A hundred years ago the reuniting of Israel might have seemed impossible. But now we have the model sitting in front of us, and we can see exactly how that highway might be built.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah 12