Exceptionality of Israel

G. Thomas Sharp • January 27, 2020

I was recently reading the book of Amos, which contains a prophetic statement concerning the Jews and the land of Israel that is presented in Amos 9:14-15. Though I have read this passage numerous times, it took on a special significance during this reading that I heretofore had never noticed!

We need to refresh our memory about these verses before I go on with the article: “And I will bring the captivity of {i.e. I will release from captivity, Amp. Ver.} my people Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; and they shall make gardens and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, says the LORD thy God.” (Amos 9:14-15)

The personal pronoun “I” is meaningfully used in these two verses three times, so that there can be no confusion concerning who it is that is making these declarations. The last five words of the passage settles any unnecessary confusion about His identity: “says the LORD thy God.” In fact, the word “LORD” in all caps is repeated 15 times in Jeremiah chapter 30, and this chapter has only 24 verses. This repetition plainly emphasizes that this divine actor is no one other than the Great Jehovah God, the Creator and Sustainer of all things!

He says that He will again bring His people Israel to their land, so they can rebuild its cities, farms and lifestyle that was enjoyed during their rich past. Moreover, He makes it unambiguously clear that they will never again be “pulled out of their land.” And I personally believe that this transition began in the latter part of the 19th century and continues now and will not terminate until it is totally complete!

Of Scriptural importance to this aspect of Israelite prophecy are such passages as Deuteronomy 30:1-6, Ezekiel 36:28 and Jeremiah 30:1-24. I also found it interesting that the land mass of modern Israel is approximately 1/19,700th of the total land mass of the earth; by comparison the USA has a land mass about 3.8 million square miles, which means the USA is 473 times larger than Israel. Additionally, Israel is 5.2 times the size of Rhode Island and 1.5 times larger than Connecticut, about 8.3% smaller than New Jersey and 24.3% smaller than Massachusetts, etc.

So, what’s the point? There are several casual observations: 1. Israel has overcome overwhelming difficulties, wars and constant bombings, yet she is incredibly successful in all matters of life. Israel has a significantly large air force; in many points of comparison her air force is second only to the USA. 2. She has a thriving economy based in agriculture and science, in the top 5 to 10 of world leaders. 3. She has a significant number of Nobel prize winners. 4. She houses the location of the birth of the Savior, as well as His return; and she provided the people to which He came, from which He is racially associated. 5. To only Israel is the great Creator called the “God of Israel”. Never have you read that God is the God of America, or of Canada, or of England, etc, 6. She is responsible for the authorship of the holy Scripture, and the location of the descending of the Holy Spirit. These descriptions can go on and on, but my page is full…These divine endowments, holy accomplishments and eternal purposes, all provide a level of exceptionality that makes Israel (including her God, her history, her people and her land and her future) incredibly superb – the people of God!

NS-29 Launch
By Matt Miles May 22, 2025
As many of you may know, I appreciate space. Not space around me, although the older I get the more I appreciate that as well. The things in the heavens fascinate me and have for a large chunk of my life. I love working with our telescopes, allowing people to see for themselves objects that the Lord made on the 4th day of history. When I was younger I followed our Space Shuttle program, and over the years I have had the opportunity to see a couple of those shuttles around the country. Now it is great to see all the interest in exploring the heavenly creation. I know most of it is for the wrong reasons, yet over and over again something is discovered that points to the trustworthiness of God’s Word. After all, we are to study His creation as Genesis 1:28 states. On a recent trip to El Paso, TX it occurred to me that Blue Origin’s launch facility is in west Texas somewhere. After some quick searching I realized we were within an hour and half of it, and there was a rescheduled launch window during the time of our meeting. So, with some persuading of my colleagues, we arose early one morning to make the launch. We made it to the launch with just minutes to spare. It was spectacular! The whole launch to just beyond the Karman Line (space boundary, 62 miles/100km) and return of the rocket and capsule is about ten minutes total. This NS-29 launch was purely experimental with a payload of instruments to measure simulated lunar gravity. (New Shepherd is the rocket that carries paying customers to space and back with the biggest windows ever in a capsule.) Even though it was not a Saturn V, Space Shuttle, Starship or Falcon launch, it was great to hear and feel a launch for the first time, from blast off to the sonic boom return. It has piqued my desire to see a bigger launch now. As I began to reflect on what I experienced, the Lord reminded me of His design. Earth, our home planet, is so well designed for life. There is literally nowhere in all the universe like it. Yet He gave us the ability to discover creation beyond it. The only reason we can launch rockets and do space exploration is because He set it up in an orderly way. Physics works because He established it to work in a predictable fashion. As much as we may never understand everything in the universe from our position here, it works on an ordered reality that is reinforced by God’s Word. This is what drove Sir Isaac Newton in his understanding of physics. He wrote, “The motions which the planets now have could not spring from any natural cause alone but were by an intelligent Agent.” Evolutionists may come up with theories about the origin of things in the heavens, but over and over again they are being shown, through experimentation and observation, to be wrong. The Lord set the order of everything in the beginning and sustains it by His Word (Hebrews 1:3). So as you look to the heavens tonight, gaze into the depths of space and observe the different facets the Lord placed up there for our eyes (Genesis 1:17). Peer through a telescope at the lesser light of the moon with marvel and anticipation of further human study in the coming years. Check out the amazing observations being made by the James Webb telescope from deep in space. All of these place a perspective of how awesome our Creator is and how much we depend on Him. Our design becomes more and more obvious with every discovery, yet in our universe we appear so minuscule and fragile. Thanks be to God that His infinite focus has, is and always will be here on us! Blessings.
By Ryan Cox May 22, 2025
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