The Good Shepherd’s Table

I have never seen Israel so lovely.

In the 30 years that this land has been my home, there have been devastating droughts, and some average-to-regular rainfall years.

But this year, something quite out of the ordinary happened between the Feast of Tabernacles 2018 and Passover 2019.  In the language of the prophets, Israel experienced the former rains and the latter rains, in their season.

First the early drizzles primed the soil, then driving rains swept in – often in electric storms that split the sky and shook the wadis. Their water went root-deep and deeper, bringing healing and restoration after six parched years.

 

Way into April, after reports back in December that three times the normal snowfall had already been recorded on Mount Hermon, the white stuff was still falling.  From the north to the Negev, again and again, hail and rain-barrages drenched the land.

 

 

As spring nudged winter aside I thrilled, guiding groups through different parts of the countryside, from Hermon’s powdered peaks on the Lebanon and Syrian frontiers, across the Golan above the Hula Valley through which wended a suddenly resurgent River Jordan to pour its waters into the rapidly rising, blue-green, harp-shaped jewel of the Kinneret.

 

Beginning in January, through into May, everywhere became a sumptuous feast for the senses.

From crest to dale – right through the Biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria – from craggy ridge to fertile plain to normally-arid wilderness, a tablecloth in every shade of verdant green was spread, arms flung wide, across the land, shot through at every turn with extravagant splashes of wildflower: fields of blood-red corn poppies and turban buttercups; scarlet pimpernels; the tiny white and yellow common chamomile; lavender-blue hyacinth; pink Egyptian campion-carpeted almond groves; prickly Syrian thistles; and, keeping watch over it all, tall lines of swaying, heavy-headed hollyhocks.

We see this dressing of the land every year, to some extent, after the rains, and the list I’ve described is a fraction of the variety annually on show, but this year the flower feast and the lush green carpet have been truly exceptional.

 

 

Israel’s Good Shepherd

“Do you know what we are witnessing?”

With a smile I put the question to my Christian visitors, pretty sure that they don’t, and pulling out my Bible we go to the Psalms.

NB: to be correctly comprehended in their context and purpose, the Psalms must first and foremost be read with the understanding of who they were written by (Israelite psalmists) and for whom they were written (for and about the nation of Israel).  That is to say, where the Psalmist speaks in the first person (“I”, “we”, “us” and “our”) he is a Hebrew speaking to, and about, his fellow Hebrews – Israel the nation.

It’s simple fact – the Psalms were not written by, to, or about, Gentiles/Christians/“the Church” even if, as Gentiles, we believe we may apply and embrace them.

 

 

 

And this is also true: the Hebrew Bible (the one Jesus and His disciples read; which we –  misguidedly, I believe – call the “Old Testament”*) comprises the Torah, the Prophets and the Writings in which we find the Psalms. The Psalms themselves overflow with prophecies; prophecies about Messiah and about the nation of Israel.  Many have been fulfilled.  Many pertaining to the restoration of national Israel are being fulfilled before our eyes.

Understanding this, I say, read Psalm 23 with me:

 

 

A PSALM of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.  He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters.

He restores my soul: He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies: Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runs over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

Travelling through little Israel, the people on my bus have seen the eruption of progression and development – from cities like Beersheba, Modi’in, Netanya and Afula that appear to be instantaneously doubling in size, to the ultra-modern upgrading of national infrastructure, with superhighways, soaring bridges and high-speed trainlines crisscrossing the land, and the large new international airport opening a gateway in the South.

This mushrooming of urban growth may not sit as prettily in the landscape as the flourishing outdoors (although Jerusalem’s limestone in its soft shades of white, yellow and pink is very beautiful) but it tells us just as clearly that Israel is booming.

 

 

“What we are seeing,” I explain with unconcealed excitement, “is how God is ‘preparing a table’ for Israel in the presence of all her enemies.”  As gentile nations weather increasingly severe natural disasters caused by ‘climate change’, together with the almost unrestricted immigration that is erasing national cultures and identities, and the furthering of their distance from once Judeo-Christian beliefs, Israel is experiencing, it seems, a ‘climate correction’ that speaks to the numerous ways in which this nation is on the road to spiritual straightening and blessing.

 

Now consider these truths:

1. The LORD is the Shepherd of Israel. (Gen 49:24; Psalm 80:1)

2. Israel is His flock.

3. He raised up David to shepherd this flock (1 Chronicles 11:2; Psalm 78:71), and established David’s dynasty forever. (2 Samuel 7:12-16)

4. Jesus saw the people of Israel as sheep without a shepherd and was moved with compassion for them. (Matthew 9:36)

5. He foretold how, after God would strike Him – the Son of David, Israel’s Shepherd – His sheep – the people of Israel – would be scattered. (Mark 14:27)

6. Moses had foretold the same: that after God had scattered the people of Israel and they had wandered, hated and persecuted wherever they went “even to the farthest corners under heaven”, He would have compassion on them and gather them back into their own land, where they would be restored to their Shepherd. (Deuteronomy 30:3-5)

7. God did indeed give them up “like food” and scattered them among the nations as sheep to the slaughter, but they called on Him, and He is restoring them. (Psalm 44:11-26)

8. God pledged to Himself to search for and deliver His scattered flock, Israel. (Ezekiel 34:11-12)

 

 

And then there is this verse – an exhortation to the Gentiles: “Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him as a shepherd does his flock.’”(Jeremiah 31:10)

Since 1882 – with the first wave of Aliyah (immigration to Israel) – the Shepherd of Israel has been seeking out and regathering His scattered flock, and bringing them back into their own land.  Seventy-one years ago, the nation-state of the Jewish people was resurrected and, today, nearly seven million Jews call Israel home.

The Gentile nations – which despised and persecuted the wandering sheep of Israel for 2000 years, and still do – are on their way down – descending into darkness.  Because they have cursed the Seed of Abraham, it is they who are now being cursed.

Here in Israel the light has come, blessing is being bestowed, and the glory of the LORD is set to rise upon this nation once again.  Israel’s loving Shepherd has turned His face back to the Land and People of Israel, and is lifting up His countenance upon them.