No people have ever been as plagued, pursued, pressured, and persecuted throughout history than the Jewish people. Many attempts at annihilation have been made, dating all the way back to Pharaoh in Egypt, but none have succeeded. That is because God has made an eternal promise which can never be broken. The Jewish people will always exist. The nation of Israel is the fulfillment of Bible prophecy. No scheme of man or human decree can undo what God has promised. The miraculous rebirth of the Jewish state is the greatest miracle of the modern age.
On May 14, 1948, the day on which the British Mandate expired, the Jewish People’s Council gathered at the Tel Aviv Museum and approved a proclamation declaring establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Yisrael, to be known as the State of Israel. In an official cablegram from the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States to the UN Secretary-General on May 15, 1948, the Arabs stated publicly that various Arab Governments were “compelled to intervene for the sole purpose of restoring peace and security and establishing law and order in Palestine.”
That same day, Arab regular army forces from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq joined smaller units from Saudi Arabia and Yemen to fight against the Jewish forces. They were in many cases trained and equipped by the British. Very few countries would have anything to do with support of Israel. One of the few that sold military equipment to the fledgling state was Czechoslovakia. Though they were fighting with antiquated equipment and often against superior numerical opponents, the men and women of the Israel Defense Forces were fighting for more than their lives…they were fighting for their homeland and their people.
The rebirth of Israel was far more than just an unprecedented political event. It was also a long-prophesied spiritual event. More than 2,000 years before Israel was reborn, God came and spoke to the prophet Ezekiel. Ezekiel found himself standing before a valley filled with dry bones…human bones…As the prophet gazed upon the scene, God asked him if these bones could live…to which Ezekiel wisely replied, “O Lord God, YOU know!” What happened then must have been quite a sight to behold.
God told Ezekiel this vision was the future of the House of Israel. Just as these dry, dead bones had been restored to life, so Israel would be restored. God would bring the children of Israel from among the nations in which they had been scattered. He would gather them from the four corners of the earth and restore them into their own land. He did exactly as He promised. Though century after century passed and the cause seemed hopeless, the dream refused to die—both in the hearts of Jewish people and in Bible-believers who understood the prophetic Scriptures.
And when the time was right in May of 1948, the nation of Israel was “born in a day” just as God’s Word had foretold. This month we celebrate Israel’s 78th birthday and renew our commitment to stand with and for the Jewish state and the Jewish people.
