The Role of The Modern State of Israel in the Fulfillment of Biblical Prophecy

When President Donald Trump moved the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem many people of faith quickly recognized the biblical significance of such a move. Trump, like King Cyrus before him, fulfilled biblical prophecy, by recognizing that Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish state and that the Jewish people deserve a righteous, free and sovereign Israel.

However, this was not the first time in the modern State of Israel's short 70 years that it has played a role in the fulfillment of biblical prophecy. Many of the miracles we are witnessing in Israel today were promised in the Bible long ago.

The Ingathering of the Jewish Exiles from the Four Corners of the World

It says in Ezekiel 34:13, "And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them."

This month, for the first time Israel has overtaken America to become the world's largest Jewish population center. The surge in the Jewish community is thought to have been fueled by returning members of the diaspora.

In addition, the total Jewish population has reached six million, which carries added significance as this was the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust.

Spiritual Partnership Between Jews and Christians

The State of Israel, however, was not born through Jewish toil alone. Rather, as prophesied in Ezra 6:14 – "And according to the decree of Koresh, and Daryavesh, and Artachshasta king of Paras" – the State of Israel was birthed out of a spiritual partnership between Jews and non-Jews.

In biblical times, it was Cyrus' edict that allowed the people of Israel to return to the land of Israel and rebuild the Temple. In 1917, it was the British government's Balfour Declaration that turned the tide for the Jews in exile. Similarly, in 1948, when U.S. President Harry Truman recognized the State of Israel, he said, "I am Cyrus." In the cases of Cyrus, Balfour, Truman and now Trump, it was non-Jews serving as God's agents who facilitated the return of the Jewish people to their land.

We read in Isaiah 49:22, that the Lord will "beckon to the Nations, I will lift up my banner to the Peoples. They will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their hips." This prophecy is being fulfilled by the unprecedented number of non-Jews who visit, support and pray for Israel.

The Revitalization of the Hebrew Language

The prophet Zephaniah describes how in the end of days all the nations of the world will have "purity of speech." "For then I will make the peoples pure of speech, so that they all invoke Hashem by name and serve Him with one accord" (Zephaniah 3:9). We understand from Zephaniah that all the nations of the world will study Hebrew to call out the name of God together in His holy language.

Thanks in large parts to the efforts of Eliezer Ben Yehuda (1858-1922), who decided that "in order to have our own land and political life it is also necessary that we have our own language to hold us together," Hebrew is the official language of the State of Israel.

In recent years, there has been growing interest by Christian Zionists to learn Hebrew, which is likely a step toward the redemption described by Zephaniah. Moreover, there has been an outpouring of interest by Christians to learn Torah from Jews.

Isaiah chapter 2 describes that in the end of days, the nations will stream up to Jerusalem for Torah "shall come forth from Zion, The word of Hashem from Yerushalayim" (Isaiah 2:3). Since the founding of the State of Israel — and even more so in the last decade — the Bible is being used as a source of unity between Jews and Christians, beginning to fulfill Isaiah's vision and the Jews' historic mandate to be a light unto the nations. That's one of the reasons I created The Israel Bible, so both Jews and non-Jews could study the Bible, read study notes from leading Jewish Bible scholars, and see the vital connection between the people of Israel and the land of Israel.

Rebirth of the Physical Land of Israel

For nearly two millennia, while the land of Israel switched hands between various foreign powers, including the Romans, the Muslims and the Ottomans, the land lay utterly desolate. But just as the prophet Isaiah predicted, "He hath comforted all her waste places, and hath made her wilderness like Eden" (51:3).

The modern rebirth of the Jewish state in 1948 has brought with it an astounding development of the land, to the point where once again the Jewish people can claim a flourishing country all their own. The desert is literally blooming and growing. And in the realms of technology and culture, Israel ranks among the most advanced countries of the world.

Indeed, we are witnessing the Lord comfort "all her waste places."