Aliyah – For Our Good, For God’s Glory

My eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them. I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord. They will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with all their heart. (Jeremiah 24:6,7)

What a marvelous picture of God’s Eternal Covenant (Ezekiel 16:60) with His people! How much love and grace and mercy are packed in this one section of promise! Let’s look:

*I will set my eyes on them for good—for us to have the favor of His glance, His concentrated viewing—not for condemnation or for guilt but for our good! How amazing that He is focused on us to do us good.

*What is that ‘good’? To bring us back to the Land of our inheritance. The Galut (diaspora)by traditional definition is referred to as the ‘grave’ for the Jewish people. God will ‘resurrect’ the Dry Bones (Ezekiel 37:1-14) on an individual basis and do good to us- show us his favor- by bringing us back to His covenant promise- Israel.

* What will happen to us when we come? HE will build us. Enlarge us. Bless us. Not tear us down but add to us. Build up that which was broken down. HE will plant us in the Land. While He is doing us good- and rejoicing in it- HE will plant us ‘with all His heart and soul’ (Jeremiah 32:41) WHAT A PICTURE! The perfect place will be found for each person where the Creator of the Universe- the Master Gardner- will hew out a place and put us there with His own hands. Tenderly planting us where we can put down roots and flourish.

All of these are positive blessings. But that is not all. There is a greater purpose to our return and this favor of the Lord

* HE will give us a heart to know Him. He knows us well. On our own, we would not nurture our hearts to know Him. Our hearts can turn in every direction but towards Him. What an act of chesed (grace) that He bestows on us the gift of a heart to know Him. And to know that HE is the Lord. Not lesser gods. Not anyone or anything we may have leaned on before. To know HIM. ONLY HIM!

* Then we will know that we are His people. A peculiar treasure. The Segulah. (Exodus 19:5) And we will acknowledge that He is our God. In the end- we not only return physically to the Land but more significantly- we return to God. And not in a small, temporal way. We return with our whole, cleansed heart. And this return, which leads to intimacy with the Creator, is the whole purpose of the Aliyah. (H.L. – Author made Aliyah from the USA in 1989.)