. . . Soon Jewish villages were springing up all over, and the towns of Jerusalem, Tiberias, Safed and Haifa started to grow. In 1909 they founded the first modern Jewish city, Tel Aviv. Life was still tough, although disease wasn't so much the problem. Attacks by some Arab neighbours increased, even though, through the efforts of these Jewish pioneers, life for all in the land was improving - including the Arab neighbours.

The motivation for this new zeal for the land was the very secular and political movement called Zionism, which shows us that God doesn't just use Bible-bashers to achieve His ends. He can also use Theodore Herzl, a Jewish atheist working as a journalist in France. Appalled at the anti-semitism that he observed as the result of the Alfred Dreyfus case, he realized that, even in the civilized countries of France and Germany, Jews were still viewed with suspicion. He wrote a book called Der Judenstaat - the Jewish State - as an expression of his political Zionism, his desire to see a modern Jewish state, with a country, a flag and an identity. And, of course, there could be only one place for the realization of this dream, Palestine, the historical Land of Israel (even though Uganda was offered to him!)

It is difficult for us, with our imperfect mortal minds, to understand that God would still remember the Jews after so long. After all, thanks to the actions of the Christian establishment over the previous 13 centuries, their existence had been so precarious. As sad as it may seem, the fact remains that God was going to have His way despite the actions of the Church. He was going to honour His covenant with the descendants of Abraham. Let us remind ourselves what it involved. We read in Genesis 13:14-15, "The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, 'Lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see I will give to you and to your descendants for ever.'" And now, after centuries of exile, they had returned to start to see the fulfilment of this ancient promise.

Just as He had ensured the existence of Judah, when Israel had been absorbed into the Gentile Assyrian world, He was not going to abandon His people now. He worked in the way He always works, for His Name's sake, as an expression of His holiness. He is a consistent, honourable God. If He makes a promise, then He will make sure He keeps it, despite the actions of others, even those who claim to be His followers.

It is worth remembering here the words of Jeremiah the prophet, in Chapter 31, verses 35-37, "Thus says the LORD, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar--the LORD of hosts is his name: If this fixed order departs from before me, says the LORD, then shall the descendants of Israel cease from being a nation before me for ever." Thus says the LORD: "If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth below can be explored, then I will cast off all the descendants of Israel for all that they have done, says the LORD."

How clear can you get! The sun, moon and stars would cease functioning before God would give up on His people, the Jews. Every inch of the heavens and the earth would be explored and measured before His people are cast away! So the Jews were kept intact not only through the hostile Empires of Bible times - the Babylonians, Greeks and Romans - but also during the 13 centuries of State Christianity, surviving marginalisations, expulsions, massacres and pogroms. But survive they did, despite the actions of the "Church". During the years that State Christianity held sway, Jews were never actually allowed to integrate, to assimilate, instead they were either killed or held up to show "what happens when a people turn against God". It is tempting to say that what they saw in the Jews, God saw in them, the "Christian establishment" - a flawed people.