For over 3,500 years, the Jewish people have gathered around tables to recount a singular, definitive moment in their history: the Passover, celebrated this year from April 5 to April 9. Passover remembers the nation of Israel’s deliverance from the crushing weight of Egyptian slavery to the expansive freedom of a promised future—their miraculous transition from death into life, when God gave them a hope and a future. It is the Jewish people’s watershed moment, a divine intervention so significant that God commanded it be remembered throughout all generations.
Yet, as foundational as the Exodus from Egypt is to the Jewish people’s identity, the Hebrew prophets spoke of a future event that would be so massive, so statistically improbable, and so undeniably God-orchestrated that it would overshadow the miracle of the Red Sea.
Prophecy of a Greater Exodus
Consider Jeremiah 23:7–8:
“Therefore, behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “that they shall no longer say, ‘As the Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ but, ‘As the Lord lives who brought up and led the descendants of the house of Israel from the north country and from all the countries where I had driven them.’ And they shall dwell in their own land.”
Here, Jeremiah recalls Israel’s deliverance from Egypt. However, notice how he first identifies God as “the Lord . . . who brought the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,” but then says a day is coming when the Lord will be the God who “brought up and led [back]”—specifically from the north and all the countries to which they had been exiled.
Jeremiah was looking forward to a time when God would bring His people home from the whole earth. It would be such a miracle that it would eclipse Israel’s deliverance from Egypt.
He then extolls a promise: Israel will dwell in their own land. This echoes God’s promise to Abraham back in Genesis 12:7, “to your descendants I will give this land,” which is then repeated in Genesis 13:14: “All the land which you [Abraham] see I give to you and your descendants forever.” Later, God ratified this land promise by covenant in Genesis 15:
I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it. . . . To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates. (vv. 7, 18)
This covenant ensures that the future gathering of His people will be an even greater testament to His faithfulness than the original deliverance from Egypt.
Modern Fulfillment
Incredibly, this is happening in our very day. The Jewish people have come home to their promised homeland. No other people group has been in exile, scattered throughout the world, and maintained a national identity—much less after 2,000 years—and then returned to their ancient homeland, reestablished sovereignty, and even resurrected their “dead” liturgical language, Hebrew, into a living national tongue. It is a miracle story like no other.
Notice also that Jeremiah specifically mentions the land of the north. In our day, over one million Jews have made their way out of the “land of the north”—out of Russia—to make their way to Israel. It is nothing short of miraculous, considering that not too long ago, in the 1980s, the Jews were not allowed to leave, much less practice their religion or learn about Israel. Many of those who did, called refuseniks, were in prisons for just expressing their desire to leave.
As the plight of the refuseniks became known, a cry for justice arose. God stirred Christians around the world who prayed fervently for their release. These faithful people clung to God’s ancient prophetic promises and trusted His Word that they would happen. Yet they did not know whether it would be in peace or as a result of persecution.
After the Iron Curtain collapsed in 1989–1990, the doors opened—as if an unseen hand unbolted the gates. Hundreds of thousands of Jewish individuals and families were able to leave the former Soviet Union, now Russia, and come to Israel. Today, the Russian community in Israel is thriving, contributes greatly to Israeli society, and is evidence that God’s Word never returns void.
Today, as we watch antisemitism surge around the world and lies about the Jewish people resurfacing, not unlike pre-Holocaust times, it could cause one to think God’s eye is not on His people. Yet the opposite is true. The One who “watches over Israel” and promises to “neither slumber nor sleep” (Psalm 121:4–6 NIV) is working even amid war and persecution. Like no other time in history, because of rising antisemitism, countless Jewish people are making plans to immigrate to Israel, knowing it is the only place they will truly be protected.
We may be witnessing the day Jeremiah spoke of, where the Exodus from Egypt will pale in comparison to what God will do when He brings His people home, not just from one nation, Egypt or Babylon, but from the countries around the world. It’s a day many prophets of old spoke of, like Ezekiel, who looked forward to a day when God would “take [Israel] from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land.” Isaiah echoed this in 43:5–6:
Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your descendants from the east, and gather you from the west; I will say to the north, “Give them up!” And to the south, “Do not keep them back!” Bring My sons from afar, and My daughters from the ends of the earth.
Conclusion
What a mighty God we serve! He is sovereign in history and Lord over time and geopolitics; what He speaks will come to pass. No miracles are too big for Him.
If God can move nations—if He can preserve a nation that has been so intensely persecuted for thousands of years, allow them to be scattered throughout the world, and then bring them back to the land promised to them 4,000 years ago, just as He said would happen—no personal miracle is too big. Israel’s story encourages us all and gives us great faith for “What is impossible with man is possible with God” (Luke 18:27).
