On May 14, 1948 the State of Israel was proclaimed. The Proclamation of the Establishment of the State of Israel stated: “The State of Israel will be open for Jewish immigration and the ingathering of the exiles; it will foster the development of the country for all it’s inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice, and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel;..”
What did the prophets of Israel have to say about this ingathering? Ezekiel was one of those prophets and he wrote these words about 2600 years ago as he was moved by the Holy Spirit of God.
[Thus says the Lord God; I will even gather you from the people, and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.] [Ezekiel 11:17]
Later, Ezekiel writes that this vision was a long time off, many days in the future:
[Son of Man, behold, they of the house of Israel say, the vision that he sees is for many days to come, and that he prophesies of the times that are far off.] [Ezekiel 12:27] The date was May 14,1948 to be exact. Although the nation of Israel is mentioned many times in prophesies from the Old Testament, 1948 was the first time in history that this land was officially called Israel. In Moses and Abraham’s time this land was called Canaan, and in the time of Jesus the land was called by it’s three subdivisions; Judea, Samaria, and Galilee.
Jeremiah was also a prophet of Israel who was moved by the Holy Spirit to write these words: [Behold, I will gather them out of all countries, where I have driven them in My anger, and in My fury, and in great wrath, and I will bring them again to this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely.] [Jeremiah 32:37]
The Proclamation of 1948 was followed in 1950 by the Law of Return, which granted every Jew around the world the automatic right to return to Israel. By 1951 the population of Israel more than doubled. The Jewish immigrants included Holocaust survivors from the death camps in Germany. They also came from Austria, Italy, Bulgaria and Poland. Nearly all of the Jewish communities of Iraq, Libya and Yemen also returned to their rightful homeland. Starting in 1973, the United States government provided Israel with nearly $450 million in grant money to help with the resettlement of Jewish immigrants.
Then in 1991, with the breakup of the Soviet Union and the easing of restrictions a group of Christians founded an organization called Operation Tarshish. The group got it’s name from this verse; [Surely the Isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring your sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, to the Holy One of Israel.] [Isaiah 60:9] And also from this verse; [Behold I will lift up My hand to the Gentiles, and set up My standard to the people; and they shall bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.] [Isaiah 49:22] In 1991 the first ship arrived at the port of Haifa in Israel. It was a 60-foot schooner named the Christian Venturer, on it’s way to Odessa, Ukraine to pick up Soviet Jews and bring them to Israel. Many ships large and small, plus airplanes brought the Jews from the Soviet Union back to Israel. Many of the Jews were sick or disabled and literally had to be carried aboard the ships and planes.
From 1989 to 1996, more than 700,000 Jews had returned to Israel from Russia and the former countries of the Soviet Union. Many of the returning Jews were desperately poor, some living on as little as $27 per month. Many could not afford the government paperwork fees, let alone the cost of travel back to Israel. The cost per person was about $300 for each returning Jew. That’s where Operation Tarshish came in, raising money from Christians and Jews, mostly American, to pay for the paper work and the travel costs.
The United States government also stepped up, increasing resettlement grants to Israel from $29.9 million in 1990, to $80 million in 1992 including $40 million to Operation Tarshish. The U.S. maintained the level of $80 million annually in resettlement grants, from 1992 thru 1998, when emigration slowed. Since 1998 thru 2007, the resettlement grants from the U.S. have continued and currently stands at $40 million annually. These resettlement grants from the U.S. have totaled more than $1.5 billion dollars. The United States and the American people, continue to bless Israel and it’s people.
I think we can now identify the country God refers to as the Isles. The country, the Isles, is America. If you replace the word Isles with the name of any other country, it just does not fit. Okay, let’s take the verse;[Surely America will wait for Me] now try to insert the name of any other country into that verse. Does [Surely Venezuela will wait for Me] make sense? No. Try France, Canada, Mexico, Great Britain, Italy, China, or any country. The only country that fits is America.
[My righteousness is near, and My arms shall judge the people; the Isles shall wait upon me, and on My arm shall they trust.] [Isaiah 51:5]
Only Christian believers are awaiting Christ’s return, and only Christians have trust in His righteousness and Judgment. In the U.S., 78% of the population profess to be Christian, of those, 40% are Evangelical Christians who are anxiously awaiting Christ’s return. None of those awaiting Christ’s imminent return will be disappointed or ashamed.
[..For they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.] [Isaiah 49:23]
These are the names of the Christian organizations involved with Operation Tarshish; Bridges for Peace, Christian Friends of Israel, the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, and The Wings of Doves Ministry. Because of widespread anti-Semitism in the former Soviet Union, many Jewish people have disguised their identity, which has made it difficult to find some of them. Wings of Doves Ministry still has branches of it’s organization in Russia and other countries trying to locate them. You can e-mail them at; operation@tarshish.org.il.
