Israel is celebrating her 70th birthday this year. What Israel has achieved and in 70 years is nothing short of astounding. Incredible. MIRACULOUS!
That’s not a word I use much, but I use it regularly when I talk about Israel. As we celebrate Israel’s 70th birthday, remember to honour God for keeping His promises to His people and for fulfilling His Word.
Many are aware of the passage in Isaiah about a nation being born in day.
“Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a land be born in one day? Can a nation be brought forth all at once? As soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons.” – Isaiah 66:8
We read that and cheer loudly; “Yes, a land was born in one day! Yes, Israel was born on May 14, 1948. Praise God!” This is a correct response, the rebirth of the Sovereign State of Israel in May, 1948 was indeed the fulfilment of Isaiah 66:8, but I want to dig a little deeper to show you something even more astounding, even more miraculous—if that’s even possible.
Isaiah 66:7-8, “Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she gave birth to a boy. Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a land be born in one day? Can a nation be brought forth all at once? As soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons.”
First, let me ask you a basic biology question…what is the process for a pregnant woman to give birth? First, her labour pains begin, as time progresses they increase in intensity and frequency until the baby is born and then the labour pains cease. That’s the natural progression of childbirth.
But when you read again Isaiah 66:7, you read the opposite progression.
Isaiah 66:7-8, “Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she gave birth to a boy.”
In this verse, Isaiah the Prophet is saying of this particular woman that BEFORE she experienced labour pain, she gave birth to her son. This is against natural biology… what does this even mean? In fact, Isaiah goes on in verse 8 to say, “Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things?” What is he talking about?
Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things?
Everywhere the Jewish people have lived in the Diaspora, they’ve been targeted for persecution and harassment, and while their Jewishness gave them a unified identity, they were not a sovereign national nation and they hadn’t been since they were invaded and led into captivity by the Babylonians.
After returning home, their land remained under successive occupying forces:
- Babylon – 586 BC;
- Persian – 538 BC;
- Greek (Hellenistic) – 332 BC;
- Roman – 63 BC;
- Byzantine – 324 AD;
- Early Muslim – 638 AD;
- Crusader – 1099 AD;
- Mamluk – 1260 AD;
- Ottoman – 1517 AD;
- British Mandate – 1917;
- Israel – 1948.
From the time of the Babylon occupation to the time of the British occupation, Israel was not a sovereign nation in her own right; the Jewish people were distinct throughout the world, but not a sovereign nation. They suffered in their own circumstances throughout the Diaspora, but they were not a sovereign nation and they hadn’t been for 2,500 years!
So Isaiah used the imagery of childbirth to describe the birth of the nation of Israel, not the plight of the Jewish people, and if we look at the modern history of the State of Israel we can see that Isaiah was incredibly accurate.
Under the British Mandate and upon the authority of the League of Nations and the Balfour Declaration, Israel, in the region then known as Palestine, was sanctioned to become once again the national home for the Jewish people. The Muslim nations around about objected, but nonetheless, Israel was ready to be born.
After a great deal of supposed secrecy on the part of the Jewish leadership, on the day after the British removed themselves from Palestine, David Ben Gurion (Israel’s first Prime Minister) gathered together with other Jewish leaders, in Independence Hall in Tel Aviv, they wrote their Declaration of Independence, and in a one hour live broadcast, David Ben Gurion announced to the world that the State of Israel was born. Then they all went home.
Jews all around the world sang, danced, rejoiced and cried because they had lived to see the day their beloved homeland was living once again. The land had been born in one day, and the nation had been brought forth at once. Jews from around the world were planning on returning home and to this day, approximately 5 million of Israel’s children have made Aliyah to Israel, they’ve returned home.
However, the next day, five Muslim nations attacked Israel. Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon attacked but eventually Israel survived. Let me list for you the conflicts Israel has experienced since she was reborn.*
- War of Independence – 1948-49
- Suez Canal Campaign – 1956
- Six Day War – 1967
- War of Attrition – 1967-70
- Operation Isotope – 1972
- Operation Spring of Youth – 1973
- Yom Kippur War – 1973
- PLO Insurgence into Lebanon: 1971-82
- Entebbe Rescue – 1976
- Operation Opera – 1981
- Lebanon War – 1982
- South Lebanon Conflict – 1985-2000
- First Intifada – 1987-93
- Second Intifada – 2000-05
- Operation Defensive Shield – 2002
- Second Lebanon War – 2006
- Operation Cast Lead – 2008-09
- Operation Pillar of Defence – 2012
- Operation Protective Edge – 2014
These conflicts don’t include random terror attacks, terror tunnels, home invasions, kidnappings, stabbings and car ramming attacks that are ongoing.
Reread the prophecy of Isaiah once again in full. The land of Israel was born in one day, the nation was brought forth at once and then labour pain began, then the travailing, the fighting, the wars began and these travails have been increasing in intensity and frequency for the past 70 years.
What is it all leading to? The return of Messiah. We know He’s coming because God always keeps His Word.
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