Commentary: 'Ready to Perform My Word'

JERUSALEM, Israel -- In the mountains surrounding Jerusalem, the almond trees are in bloom, their delicate, fragrant flowers a delight to the senses.
 
It's a time of the year when a sunny day beckons many families to hike and picnic among the flowering trees.
 
Millennia ago, when God called Jeremiah, the son of a Levite, as a "prophet to the nations," He used "a branch of an almond tree" to tell the youth, "I am watching over My word to perform it."
 
So it is every year when blossoming almond trees dot the landscape, many are reminded of this eternal promise.
 
Jeremiah was called "the weeping prophet" because he was born during what today we'd call times of political upheaval.
 
"Behold I have put My words in your mouth. See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant," the Word of the Lord told the young Israelite.
 
Just 15 years into the 21st century, there's also a great deal of trouble brewing in many places around the world, and the Jewish people are once again the target of inexplicable hatred.
 
There's no shortage of historical material detailing the persecution of Jews in Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere. It's certainly not a new phenomenon, but there seems to be an increasingly vitriolic dimension to 21st century anti-Semitic rhetoric.
 
What seems to be almost diabolical hatred makes God's promises ever more meaningful, ever more hopeful.
 
The Jewish people can take heart in what God said more than 2,500 years ago to the prophet Jeremiah.
 
God is still watching over His word to perform it. His covenant with Israel is an eternal covenant. He will do what He promised through the prophets for this nation and this people.
 
A big part of that promise is the re-gathering of Jews to their historic homeland, a biblical phenomenon that's caused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu no small amount of grief.
 
Netanyahu's proposal last fall to declare Israel the nation-state of the Jewish people and his recent declaration to beleaguered French and Ukrainian Jews that they'll be welcomed with open arms in Israel was more than some could deal with.
 
The backlash doesn't change the facts. Israel is the Jewish homeland, Jerusalem its eternal capital and many agree with Netanyahu's assessment that it's time to come home. Here, God will fulfill all His promises to the stubborn, stiff-necked people He lovingly calls His own.
 
"I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people." (Lev. 26:12)