The Nations Are Back

Over two years ago, our volunteer operations in Israel came to a sudden halt when COVID-19 struck and Israel closed its doors to international travel. For many months, about half of our staff team was stuck in the United States and we had no way of bringing them or any volunteers to Israel. 

On March 1st of this year, after two years of waiting, praying, and hoping, Israel finally opened its borders. We expected thousands of  people to immediately begin flooding into Israel and the nations to start pouring in, but that didn’t happen at first. I think it was difficult for people to believe that Israel was actually open. When we went up to Jerusalem for Passover in April, the streets seemed empty and quiet, especially for a high holiday.  Around the time of Jerusalem Day, however, something changed. People from all over the world started pouring into Israel and the streets of Jerusalem were crowded with those celebrating Jerusalem’s reunification. Registration for HaYovel’s volunteer programs began filling up with people eager to come and take part in biblical prophecies. 

Just this week, 70 volunteers arrived here on the Mt. of Blessing from nine different countries around the world. It’s amazing to see so many people coming together in Israel for the same purpose: to bless and serve the nation of Israel. Genesis 12:3 says, “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” 

These volunteers are not only blessing the nation of Israel, but they are fulfilling 3,000-year-old prophecies at the same time. They are literally living out the words of Isaiah the prophet when he said, “Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the foreigner shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers.” (Isaiah 61:5) 

Just this morning, we visited Elon Moreh, the place where God appeared to Abraham and promised to give the whole land of Israel to him and his descendants forever. “Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. The Lord appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your offspring I will give this land.’ So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.” (Genesis 12:6-7)

As I stood on the mountain and watched the same sunrise that Abram would have seen thousands of years ago,  I was reminded of God’s faithfulness and of the promises He made to Abraham thousands of years ago. When God makes a promise, He doesn’t change His mind. The promise made to Abraham is still valid today and the whole land of Israel belongs to his descendants, the Jewish people.

The volunteers who came here to serve the nation of Israel are all reaffirming these promises in standing with and serving the people of Israel. They are truly living out the words of Psalm 102 where it says, “For Your servants take pleasure in her stones, and show favor to her dust.”