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.
4 – Israel has been protected by our supernatural God!
Israel has fought 7 wars (1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982, 2014, 2024-25) since their birth as a nation. In the first three, they were vastly outnumbered and out-gunned. If the modern state of Israel were a work of men and not God, the Lord had 7 different opportunities to bring it all to naught. Yet, instead, He gave Israel victory every time, often in dramatic fashion! Isaiah 41:11 says this:
“Behold, all who are incensed against you shall be put to shame and confounded; those who strive against you shall be as nothing and shall perish” (Is. 41:11).
5 – Israel has made the desert bloom as a rose!
Although one of the smallest countries on the planet, Israel has become the 10th largest exporter of flowers in the world! “Desert agriculture in Israel is one of the country’s greatest successes, and something at which Israel leads the world. The Negev Desert, which covers over 60% of the country, has actually shrunk in size over the past century as agricultural activity has turned sand into green fields, the opposite to the desertification trend which much of the rest of the world is battling to prevent.”
https://www.touristisrael.com/israels-desert-agriculture/10334/
“The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose” (Is. 35:1).
6 – Israel is back in their land to stay!
Israel has indeed rebuilt the ruined cities, planted vineyards, gardens, and orchards! They also have achieved “double-harvesting” due to their agricultural advances, best described in the words of Amos himself below…
“The days are coming, declares the Lord, when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills, and I will bring my people Israel back from exile. They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,” says the Lord your God (Amos 9:14-15).
Israel illustrates God’s faithfulness in ways that should encourage every Gentile believer! Here are some quotes from Dr. Reagan’s article posted on RR last week:
“Because God can never renege on His covenants with Israel and David, we can know with certainty that He will bring all those He declares to be righteous to glory. His word guarantees both outcomes with absolute certainty.”
“God’s continuing mercy toward the nation of Israel despite its past and, I might add, their current state of unbelief and waywardness, also speaks to the depths of His amazing mercy toward us as New Testament saints.
“Our security in Christ is never about us; it’s always about Him and solely because of Him. Likewise, the future of the Jewish people is not about them or their behavior. As the Lord proclaimed in Ezekiel 36:22-38, the restoration of a kingdom for Israel is all about Him and defending His Holy Name.”
“The God who can never change His mind about His promise of a kingdom to the nation of Israel is the same One who can never change His mind about those whom He declares to be forever righteous in His sight. Both unalterable outcomes flow from His great mercy and love.”
So Christian, wherever you are on Wednesday, May 14th, lift up a grateful prayer of thanks to God for using Israel to illustrate His faithfulness to you! Despite their faults and failures, God’s firstborn son (Ex. 4:22) has received what God had promised them through the patriarchs, and this is just a small fraction of what God will yet do for His chosen people in the Millennial Age to come! Despite all of our faults and failures, Christians will also receive all that God has promised us through Christ, both here and on into eternity! Praise our God for His faithfulness!
“If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself” (2 Timothy 2:13).