WATCH! It all started with just 25 “seeds”
- Ron Cantor
- Sep 8
- 2 min read
When Israel became a nation again in 1948, there were only 25 documented Messianic Jews—Jews that believe in Jesus—in Israel. Actually, there were 29, but according to a close friend of mine, the government offered all of them visas to go to other nations. They wanted them out. Four took advantage of the offer and 25 said no, we are staying.
You see the promise in Ezekiel 36 wasn’t just that the Jewish people would return to their Land, but that they would experience salvation.
“‘For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.’” (Ez 36:24-27)
Ezekiel and Jeremiah both saw these “seeds” of Messianic believers in Israel and envisioned the “fruit” that would come one day.
Those seeds of 25 believers 70 years ago have blossomed to somewhere between 15,000 to 18,000 Jewish believers all over Israel. We have gone from no Messianic congregations in 1948, to well over 100.
It is not revival, but we are seeing more and more Israelis come to faith.
Our longing is to see the full restoration that Ezekiel spoke of. Paul says in Romans 11:25-26 that after the fullness of the Gentiles, which I believe means the gospel touching every nation, “all Israel will be saved!” That is the dream.
My prayer is that more Christians who "stand with Israel" would pray for, and support, the evangelisation of Israelis. This task needs to be recognised in parallel with the great commission to make disciples of all nations. The gospel is first for the Jew, but most Jews seem to have a very inadequate understanding of it. I came to this conclusion after hearing testimonies of Jewish believers on One for Israel and street interviews by Jews for Jesus.
Hasn't the Word already gone forth to all the nations, and there will be new people being born as well as many dying, this is hard for me to wrap my mind around.