Will ALL the Israelites Come back to the Promised Land?
Brit-Am Editorial Comment: We understand that in the End Tmes a very large number (perhaps all) of the Israelites, descendants of Judah and the Ten Tribes, will return to the Promised Lands whose borders extend from the Nile to the Euphrates. Whether at that time or at a later date the Israelites will ALSO possess the lands they presently are lving in. How this come about we do not know. At all events other opinions exist. Alexander Zephyr in the Article below argues that, according to Biblical Texts, all the Israelties will return, end of story. This opinion is worth keeping in mind when other possibilities are consdiered.
Hello Yair,
Your reader ‘Lynxx’ in Brit-Am Now no. 3103, September 2, 2020 raised a question, "With there being well-over a billion descendants of Yisrael today, and the Holy Land being unable to house that many people safely or hygienically, how in the world could we be called to return to our original homeland?"
Part I
Since you welcome discussions on this and various other matters and say, “This subject requires a series of articles to discuss in more depth the various sources,” here is my comment. First of all, I do not think that the number of Israelites in the word is “well-over a billion.” I may admit that this number is approximately somewhere of 450-500 million, which also includes the maximum of 20 million Jews.There are still a huge number of people, and therefore a question of possibility to settle them in the Land of Israel is totally legitimate. As we all are aware, the reunification and ingathering of the Twelve Tribes of Jacob in the Land are events of the future and certainly connected with the arrival of the Messiah. The geographical borders of Israel will dramatically increase according to the word of God, which confirm the maps and descriptions of Biblical Israel by Yair Davidiy. There is an opinion that the entire population of the world could be placed in the State of Texas, which consists of 268,820 square miles or 696,244 square kilometers. By comparison, the Biblical Land of Israel is not ‘tiny’ at all. Its borders will include the Eastern part of Egypt, Sinai, Lebanon, Jordan, the Island of Cyprus, Kuwait and Syria, parts of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Turkey. It is estimated that the Promised Land is eight times the size of Texas – more than enough territory to settle all Israelites. Especially, as the prophets say, all the Arab and Muslim enemy-nations surrounding Israel will have been defeated and expelled out of the Land by the IDF. “Those who laid you waste depart from you. They that swallowed thee up shall be far away” (Isaiah 49:17, 19). “They shall devour all the people roundabout, on the right hand and on the left” (Zechariah 12:6). “Those who harass Judah shall be cut off” (Isaiah 11:12). The expanded Land of Greater Israel from Nile to Euphrates has enough territory to settle all the Israelites together with the strangers among them!
Part II
There are some rabbis who have suggested that in the Messianic Era a large chunk of the Israelites will remain in the countries of their present dwellings and not return to the Promised Land. They have motivated this by an idea that some lands of Western Europe and the British Isles, North America, Australia, and other places, where the Israelites live in exile, will become as holy as the Land of Israel with all its blessings and godliness, therefore, no need for Israelites to return to the land of their forefathers and they can comfortably stay where they are, because the Land of Israel will greatly expand and cover the countries of their exiles. The problem with those rabbis’ opinions is that the Hebrew Bible does not support such a position and totally refutes it. There are dozens upon dozens of prophecies in Tanach that confirm this point. Judge for yourself: “Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, where they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own Land; and I will make them one nation upon the Mountains of Israel” (Ezekiel 37:21-22). Ezekiel speaks of “their own Land of Israel,” which is located “upon the Mountains of Israel.”
If it is not enough, listen to this verse: “Then shall they know that I am the Lord their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own Land, and have left none of them anymore there” (Ezekiel 39:28). Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (1040-1105, France), better known by the acronym Rashi, the “father” of all commentaries, said that, according to Ezekiel 39:28, “No one will be left in the Exile!” The Almighty indisputably and unquestionably stated that He “Gathered Israelites into their own Land and no one will be left in the Exile.”
Another famous commentator R. Chaim Dov Rabinovitz (1909-2001, Lithuania), "Daat Sofrim," said: “This is the most explicit promise concerning the ingathering of all the outcast of Israel.” The Almighty finalizes the answer: “I will multiply people on you (Mountains of Israel), all the house of Israel, all of it” (Ezekiel 36:10). Make no mistake, said the Lord, I will gather all My people from their countries in exile, and will have left none of them anymore there. This is explicitly clear and understandable. The next passage from Scripture perfectly illustrates what I just said: “For on My holy mountain, on the high mountain of Israel,” declares the Lord GOD, “there the whole house of Israel, all of them in the land, will serve Me” (Ezekiel 20:40). Every word of God in Scripture has its own place, meaning and importance. If the Almighty did not want to say that all the House of Jacob will return to the Promised Land, He would have said so. Meanwhile, by using imperatively such words and expressions as “all the House of Israel”, “all of them in the land”, “I have left none of them anymore there”, God has left no room for doubt and guessing that He will have gathered all the Twelve Tribes of His people to the Holy Land. “If any of thine that are dispersed be in the uttermost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God will bring thee into the Land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shall possess it” (Deuteronomy 30:3-5).
Again and again God emphasizes the fact that all His people will return, and He will have left none of them any more in the foreign countries of exile. “Behold, I am with you, and will keep you in all places whither you go, and will bring you again into this Land; for I will not leave you, until I have done that which I have spoken to you of” (Genesis 28:15). It is amazing how God, His prophets, and famous commentators of the Holy Bible have stressed out specific truth that in the Messianic Time the whole House of Jacob will return to Israel, an ancient Land of their fathers.
Alexander Zephyr