JERUSALEM (FR) – Day and night planes are landing in Jerusalem filled with Russian Jews. Israeli experts are predicting the arrival of at least one million Jewish immigrants in the next few years. It is truly a modern day Exodus with biblical significance.

For years Jews and Christians around the world have worked and prayed for the fulfillment of God’s promise to bring back the people of Israel to their land of promise. Isaiah 43:5,6 speaks of this event: “Do not fear for I am with you,” says the Lord, “I will bring your offspring from the east, and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’ Bring My sons from afar and My daughters from the ends of the earth.”

Jeremiah 16:14,15 predicts: “Therefore behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when it will no longer be said, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ but, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of the north and from all the countries where he had banished them.’ For I will restore them to their own land which I gave to their fathers.”

Since 1967, the modern Exodus of Jews from the Soviet Union began. The numbers rose sharply in the 1970s but fell off in the early 1980s as Soviet leaders came and went. Under Mikhail Gorbachev the numbers rose to astonishing levels. The number of Soviet Jews coming to Israel this year is expected to reach 150 thousand.

To physically absorb this many people, presents a unique challenge. Israel’s population could increase 25% within the next few years from its present number of 4 million. More Russian Jews are coming to Israel than ever before. However, most Israelis are displaying a feeling of brotherhood to the new Jewish immigrants.

In October, thousands of Russian Jews arrived during the Feast of Tabernacles, and were met by Israeli Jews with open arms. The festivities of the moment, the singing and dancing, were a welcome relief from the years of persecution they received in the Soviet Union. More Jews than ever before are expected to come to Israel as both Christians and Jews have donated 1.5 million dollars to the airlifts bringing in the Russian Jews.

As Jewish worshipers celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles in early October, they were joined by thousands of newly arrived Russian Jews. More significantly, it marked the end of the Year of Jubillee, a Jewish tradition which, in biblical times, mandated the release of slaves. Hope for a glorious future for the state of Israel is as strong as ever.