A selection of verses showing that in the Bible, God has foretold Jewish history.
The Jews are descendants of Abraham to whom God made several promises, among which was the promise to develop his descendants into a great nation:
1 Now the LORD said to Abram, “Leave your country, and your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. You will be a blessing.
God promised that this great nation was to be located in the land of Canaan in which Abraham was living although he did not possess any of it:
14 The LORD said to Abram, after Lot was separated from him, “Now, lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, 15 for I will give all the land which you see to you and to your offspring forever. 16 I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can count the dust of the earth, then your offspring may also be counted. 17 Arise, walk through the land in its length and in its width; for I will give it to you.”
When the nation of Israel came out of Egypt, God predicted through Moses what their destiny would be. It depended on whether they kept God’s commandments or not:
1 It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to the LORD your God’s voice, to observe to do all his commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. 2 All these blessings will come upon you, and overtake you, if you listen to the LORD your God’s voice.
However the nation largely disobeyed God and was punished:
11 Yes, all Israel have transgressed your law, turning aside, that they should not obey your voice.
“Therefore the curse and the oath written in the law of Moses the servant of God has been poured out on us; for we have sinned against him. 12 He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us, and against our judges who judged us, by bringing on us a great evil; for under the whole sky, such has not been done as has been done to Jerusalem.
So the Jews have suffered the curses predicted in Deuteronomy. This has included suffering terrible persecution whilst being scattered from their homeland:
64 The LORD will scatter you amongst all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth. There you will serve other gods which you have not known, you nor your fathers, even wood and stone. 65 Amongst these nations you will find no ease, and there will be no rest for the sole of your foot; but the LORD will give you there a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and pining of soul.
The prophet Micah predicted the time when Jerusalem would be ploughed as a field. This occurred in AD 135 when Hadrian had the temple site in Jerusalem ploughed:
12 Therefore Zion for your sake will be ploughed like a field,
and Jerusalem will become heaps of rubble,
and the mountain of the temple like the high places of a forest.
Jesus said that Jerusalem would be trodden down by non-Jews for a limited time. The Jews gained access to more parts of Jerusalem during the six-day war in 1967:
23 Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who nurse infants in those days! For there will be great distress in the land, and wrath to this people. 24 They will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
Jeremiah assured the nation that they would not be destroyed. Despite suffering persecution while being out of their homeland for over 1900 years, they still exist as an identifiable nation:
11 For I am with you, says the LORD, to save you;
for I will make a full end of all the nations where I have scattered you,
but I will not make a full end of you;
but I will correct you in measure,
and will in no way leave you unpunished.”
A greater destiny awaits the nation when Jesus returns as king, for Jerusalem will be the centre of his world government as God promised through Micah the prophet:
1 But in the latter days,
it will happen that the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established on the top of the mountains,
and it will be exalted above the hills;
and peoples will stream to it.
2 Many nations will go and say,
“Come! Let’s go up to the mountain of the LORD,
and to the house of the God of Jacob;
and he will teach us of his ways,
and we will walk in his paths.”
For the law will go out of Zion,
and the LORD’s word from Jerusalem;
3 and he will judge between many peoples,
and will decide concerning strong nations afar off.
They will beat their swords into ploughshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not lift up sword against nation,
neither will they learn war any more.
See more accurate predictions about the Jews in the Accurate Predictions 2 video on the Compilation DVD available from the Free Information page
These chapters have links to this theme: