Daily Devotionals

Adonai your God will bring you back into the land your ancestors possessed, and you will possess it (Deuteronomy 30:5).

I was brought to Eretz Yisra'el (the Land of Israel) when I was just a baby. I was raised in Yerushalayim (Jerusalem). As a youth, I learned to know and to love this Land through my feet. I walked with the Zionist youth movement all over the Land. We walked from Sea to Sea; that is, from the Mediterranean to the Sea of Galilee. We walked over the hills of Yerushalayim and the Negev desert. We walked and learned the biblical stories on the sites where they had taken place.

Eretz Yisra'el is God's real estate. He has chosen it and calls it "My Land." It is the only land in which the Shekhinah (Glory of God) dwelled for over five hundred years. Eretz Yisra'el is the stage where our history has been played out.

Today, Eretz Yisra'el is the gathering place for our people from all corners of the world. For thousands of years, Jews have been looking forward to the events that we are currently witnessing. Our people are coming home to Israel. They are returning because of their deep love for this Land. The love for the Land is rooted in a love for what God has promised to do here, and what he is doing here now. Have you been to Eretz Yisra'el?

...be open to the possibility that the "you" in the above Scripture refers to me.

JS