Asher Mandel
On May 14th, the modern-day state of Israel will commemorate its 77th birthday.
Dr. David Reagan (ChristinProphecy.com) and many others have stated that this reality is God’s greatest sign to this final generation. In this article, I would like to examine 6 prophecies which were all fulfilled on that momentous day in 1948 and help Christians to understand why we should be celebrating as well!
1 – Israel was regathered as predicted!
“Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you. I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold: bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth…” (Isaiah 43:5-6).
This prophecy appears twice more in Isaiah, 4 times in Ezekiel, and 6 more times in Jeremiah! Notice that the prophet is not talking about the return from Babylonian exile. Babylon was north of Israel, but this second return is from all directions on the compass! The Jewish people living in the Holy Land today represent over 130 different countries of origin!
2 – Israel was “born in a day”!
On November 29, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly voted 33 to 13 in favor of the partition plan designed to give a certain small amount of land for the creation of a modern-day state of Israel. On that day, Israel achieved statehood, and on May 14, 1948, Israel declared its independence!
“Who has ever heard of such things? Who has ever seen things like this?
Can a country be born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment?
Yet no sooner is Zion in labor than she gives birth to her children” (Is. 66:8-9).
3 – Israel was brought back in unbelief!
Many Christians dismiss Israel as being a biblical fulfillment of prophecy because the people living there are almost all unbelievers. They compare this reality with the picture of the Israel of the Millennial kingdom, populated with a great majority of Jewish believers serving Christ, and they conclude that today’s Israel could not be a miraculous work of God. I can only conclude that such folks (even pastors and teachers) have not studied what scripture says about this topic. Consider the prophecy given in Ezekiel 36:24-28…
“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. Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.”
The sequence of events foretold in this passage is clear – – the return predates the conversion! First, the people are returned to their land; then they are “sprinkled” and restored to proper faith in their ancient God and His Son, the Lord Jesus, their Messiah!
We are now living in the time between those two events. It is the Tribulation, the “time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jer. 30:7) that will awaken the Jewish people from the deadly slumber of their unbelief.
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