Comfort my People

Posted on 05 December 2012 by Elze Erwteman
 
Israel had fought. First the Holocaust had broken her, and then she had fought for the country which God has promised her for such a long time. It is an amazing miracle that Israel who has been scattered for so long, finally came home to where she belongs. From all over the world people made aliyah (immigrated to Israel) and fulfilled the promise that God would collect His people from all over the earth.

Some months before Palestine begot her name Israel in 1948, a Bedouin boy discovered ancient Hebrew scrolls in the Judean desert. These so-called Dead Sea scrolls had been hidden for approximately 1900 years in caves near the ruins of Qumran. The boy was grazing his goats, and when one of them wandered off, the boy looked for him. While searching the boy threw a little stone in a dark cave and heard the sound of something breaking. As the curious boy entered the cave, he found several clay jars covered with ceramic lids. The jars contained fragments of old parchments covered in linen cloths.

At first the worth of these scrolls was underestimated. Salesmen wanted to use these historical documents for practical purposes such as making campfires; yet soon enough the Bedouins knew that they had found a priceless biblical treasure which could bring them a fortune.

Many people believe that the Dead Sea scrolls were written by the sect of the Essenes, who inhabited the place Qumran. The Essenes had left Jerusalem, because of the corruption which the priests had brought to God’s temple. These Jews felt they needed to separate themselves and live a life ordained to God in purity. In order to reach this purity they cleansed them selves ritually in the mikweh, studied God’s Word and copied Bible scrolls.

In the time of the destruction of Jerusalem the Romans killed many Jews, under which the inhabitants of Qumran. Before this tragedy had happened faithful scroll writers hid the scrolls they had copied in order to secure the scrolls’ existence. One of the scrolls that have been found by this Bedouin boy was the total scroll of Jesaia. Until that discovery, only much younger scrolls had been found.

After the horrors of the Holocaust, the world still consists of believers who yearn to see God’s promises to be fulfilled in their lives. Through giving the land of Israel to the people of Israel, God encourages Israel. He shows that He will always be the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Many big rulers have come and gone: Egyptians, Romans and Greeks. None of their kingdoms have survived; yet the word of God was kept safe till it would comfort Israel and show the world that God’s promises are alive!

“Comfort, o comfort My people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem;
and call out to her, that her warfare had ended, That her iniquity has been removed,
that she has received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” Isaiah 40:1-2

Let’s always be ready for Yeshua, our Salvation, and let’s keep standing on God’s promises.

The grass withers, the flower fades, Because the breath of the LORD blows upon it; Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.” Isaiah 40:7-8