Karmiel means in Hebrew “God’s vineyard” and is a modern city located in the centre of Galilee. This city was built just 50 years ago on a barren and rocky piece of land in the middle of the neighboring Arab villages. Today it is a beautiful and thriving place of life with about 50000 citizens with majority of them are Jewish newcomers from all over the world (most of them from the Russian speaking countries)
This city is just among many other amazing signs of the fulfillment of the biblical prophesies about the restoration of the Land and people of Israel. In front of our eyes we could see how the ancient words of prophets become a reality! The abandoned and empty land is again inhabited by the physical descendants of Abraham.
And I will bring back the captivity of my people Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be plucked up out of their land which I have given them, saith Lord thy God.
(Am.9:14,15)
But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people Israel; for they are at hand to come. For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled and sown; and I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it; and the cities shall be inhabited, and the waste places shall be builded;
(Ez.36:8-10)
And the land that was desolate shall be tilled, whereas it was a desolation in the sight of all that passed by. And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are fortified and inhabited.
(Ez.36:34,35)
The return of the Jewish people to the land of their fathers is a testimony of the faithfulness of God to His covenant, to His word and to His promises. If there is no God then the claim of Israel to the land is void. If God does not remember, or cannot fulfill His promise, then He cannot be trusted. If He can change His mind about His promises then He is unreliable. But if He is real and if His word is reliable and His promises trustworthy then the people of Israel and their presence in the land today are a testimony to the reality of God and His ability to govern the universe according to His word even in the face of the resistance of nations.
However it is more than just the restoration of the land and ingathering of the people! God has promised not just to bring us back but to do a much more important thing: He promised to pour out His spirit and to open our eyes to the great salvation that He has prepared to us in His Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus). Prophet Ezekiel described this order very well with the first physical restoration (dry bones should be gathered together) and later the spiritual restoration to follow
And I beheld, and, lo, there were sinews upon them, and flesh came up, and skin covered them above; but there was no breath in them. Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.And ye shall know that I am Jehovah, when I have opened your graves, and caused you to come up out of your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I will place you in your own land: and ye shall know that I, Lord, have spoken it and performed it, saith the Lord
(Ez.37:1-14)
This spirit will cleanse us from our sins and give us a new heart to worship the Lord in spirit and truth as promises in his previous chapter:
24 For I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all the countries, and will bring you into your own land. And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep mine ordinances, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.
(Ez.36:24-28)
The name of our congregation is Living Israel and is derived from this prophecy. We believe to experience in our own life the full power of these prophetic words. Lord broke the graves (Communism and atheistic education), brought us from the north to this land, (countries of the Soviet Union) and here in this land opened our eyes to know Yeshua ( Jesus) as our Lord and Messiah. He cleansed us from our sins with His blood and we received the Holy Spirit and became the real Living Israel!
This is just a beginning. The Messianic Jewish movement in Karmiel and Israel is still young but we believe it is a beginning of the great restoration and the promise to the whole people of Israel. The number of the Messianic Jewish congregations in the entire country is growing. More and more Jewish people discover the truth about Yeshua ( Jesus). So our task is to continue to work and to spread the good news of our Messiah Yeshua to all people of Israel so the entire nation may welcome our Messiah and Lord as He has promised when He said “I say unto you, You shall not see me, until you shall say, Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord”(Lk.13:35).