10 Prophecies Fulfilled in 1948
Last Updated:
06/03/2012 00:14
|
These 10 Bible prophecies were fulfilled in
1948 when Israel became an independent, united nation for the second time in
history, and for the first time in 2,900 years.
©
100
Prophecies
Jacob’s descendants would regain
control of Israel
Bible passage:
Amos
9:14-15
Written: about 750 BC
Fulfilled: Since 1948
In
Amos
9:14-15, the prophet said that there would come a time when the exiles of
Israel would again have Israel as their own land and that they would never be
uprooted again. Amos lived about 2700 years ago, during a time when the people
of Israel were being forced out of their homeland by a succession of foreign
invasions. Despite many centuries of exile, many Jews returned to Israel and
reclaimed sovereignty over a portion of their ancient homeland. This declaration
of independence, in 1948, triggered a war with the surrounding countries, which
objected to the presence of a Jewish state. On May 15, 1948, the day that armies
from the surrounding countries invaded, Azzam Pasha, the Secretary General of
the Arab League, said “This will be a war of extermination and a momentous
massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the
Crusades.” Similar quotes were uttered by others during the war of 1948-49
and during the two major wars that followed. Despite its tiny size, Israel
prevailed in these wars, preventing its people from being uprooted again, as
they had been in ancient times.
Amos 9:14-15
I will bring back my exiled people Israel; 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.
Israel would be brought
back to life
Bible passage:
Ezekiel 37:10-14
Written: between 593-571 BC
Fulfilled: 1948
In
Ezekiel
37:10-14, the prophet receives a vision in which Israel was seen as a
scattering of dried-up bones. In this vision, God tells Ezekiel that the bones
(Israel) would be brought back to life. Just as Ezekiel had prophesized about
2600 years ago, the Jews were brought back to the land, and the country of
Israel was brought back to life. Israel re-established sovereignty in 1948, a
mere three years after the end of the Holocaust, during which the Nazis killed
about one-third of the world’s Jewish population.
Ezekiel 37:10-14
So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them;
they came to life and stood up on their feet--a vast army. Then
he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of
Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is
gone; we are cut off.’ Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This
is what the Sovereign Lord says: O my people, I am going to open
your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to
the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the
Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will
put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in
your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken,
and I have done it, declares the Lord.’”
Isaiah spoke of a Israel
being reborn in one day
Bible passage:
Isaiah
66:7-8
Written: perhaps between 701-681 BC
Fulfilled: 1948
In
Isaiah
66:7-8, the prophet foreshadowed the re-birth of Israel in 1948. Isaiah
describes a woman giving birth before going into labor, and he speaks of a
country being born in one day. This accurately describes what happened on May
14, 1948 - when the Jews declared independence for Israel as a united and
sovereign nation for the first time in 2900 years.
During that same day, the United States issued a statement recognizing Israel’s
sovereignty. And, only hours beforehand, a United Nations mandate expired,
ending British control of the land. During a 24-hour span of time, foreign
control of the land of Israel had formally ceased, and Israel had declared its
independence, and its independence was acknowledged by other nations. Modern
Israel was literally was born in a single day.
Isaiah said the birth would take place before there would be labor pains. And
that too is precisely what happened. A movement called Zionism began in the
1800s to encourage Jews worldwide to move to Israel, which at that time was
called Palestine. Within hours of the declaration of independence in 1948,
Israel was attacked by the surrounding countries of Egypt, Jordan, Syria,
Lebanon, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
When reading
Isaiah
66:7-8, keep in mind that Israel’s status as a sovereign nation was
established and reaffirmed during the course of a single day, and that it was
born of a movement called Zionism, and that its declaration of independence was
not the result of a war but rather the cause of one.
Isaiah 66:7-8
“Before she goes into labor, she gives birth; before the pains
come upon her, she delivers a son. Who has ever heard of such a
thing? Who has ever seen such things? 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.”
Israel would be
re-established as a united nation
Bible passage:
Ezekiel
37:21-22
Written: between 593-571 BC
Fulfilled: 1948
In
Ezekiel
37:21-22, the prophet said that God would one day bring the people of Israel
back to Israel, as a united nation. This might have been a shock for Ezekiel. He
lived about 2600 years ago. At that time, the people of Israel had already
divided themselves into two separate kingdoms. And, both kingdoms had been
conquered by foreign invaders, who forced many of the people, including Ezekiel,
into exile. But, when Jews reclaimed sovereignty in 1948, they did so as a
united people, creating one nation - Israel.
Ezekiel 37:21-22
and say to them,
‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will take the
Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from
all around and bring them back into their own land. I will make them one
nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. There will be one king over
all of them and they will never again be two nations or be divided into two
kingdoms.
The second Israel would
be more impressive than the first
Bible passage:
Jeremiah
16:14-15
Written: sometime from 626 to about 586 BC
Fulfilled: 1948
In
Jeremiah
16:14-15, the prophet said the second Israel would be more impressive than
the first. In many regards, it is. The first time that Israel was established as
a country was after Moses led the descendants of Jacob (typically referred to
today as Jews) out of Egypt, where they had been enslaved for 400 years. They
then conquered Canaan and established Israel about 3400 years ago. But the
second time that Israel was established was after the Jews had been scattered
far and wide for a few thousand years. This time the Jews had to return from as
far away as the United States, China, Russia and South Africa.
Jeremiah 16:14-15
“However, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when men
will no longer say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites
up out of Egypt,’ but they will say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought
the Israelites up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries
where he had banished them.’ For I will restore them to the land I gave their
forefathers.
Ezekiel predicted when
Israel would be re-established
Bible passage:
Ezekiel
4:3-6
Written: between 593-571 BC
Fulfilled: 1948
In
Ezekiel
4:3-6, the prophet said the Jews, who had lost control of their homeland,
would be punished for 430 years. This prophecy, according to Bible scholar Grant
Jeffrey, pinpointed the 1948 rebirth of Israel. Here’s a summary of Jeffrey’s
theory:
1. Ezekiel said the Jews were to be punished for 430 years because they
had turned away from God. As part of the punishment, the Jews lost control of
their homeland to Babylon. Many Jews were taken as captives to Babylon.
2. Babylon was later conquered by Cyrus in 539 BC. Cyrus allowed the Jews
to leave Babylon and to return to their homeland. But, only a small number
returned. The return had taken place sometime around 536 BC, about 70 years
after Judah lost independence to Babylon.
3. Because most of the exiles chose to stay in pagan Babylon rather than
return to the Holy Land, the remaining 360 years of their punishment was
multiplied by 7. The reason is explained in Bible’s book of Leviticus. (Leviticus
26:18,
Leviticus 26:21,
Leviticus 26:24
and Leviticus 26:28).
In Leviticus, it says that if the people did not repent while being punished,
the punishment would be multiplied by 7. And, by staying in pagan Babylon, most
exiles were refusing to repent.
4. So, if you take the remaining 360 years of punishment and multiply by
7, you get 2,520 years. But, Jeffrey says those years are based on an ancient
360-day lunar calendar. If those years are adjusted to the modern solar
calendar, the result is 2,484 years.
5. And, there were exactly 2,484 years from 536 BC to 1948, which is the
year that Israel regained independence.
(In this Bible passage, Ezekiel is asked by God to symbolically act out
the 430 years of punishment)
Ezekiel 4:3-6
... Then take an iron pan, place it as an iron wall
between you and the city and turn your face toward it. It will be under siege,
and you shall besiege it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel.
“Then lie on your left side and put the sin of the house of Israel upon
yourself. You are to bear their sin for the number of days you lie on your
side. I have assigned you the same number of days as the years of their sin.
So for 390 days you will bear the sin of the house of Israel. “After you
have finished this, lie down again, this time on your right side, and bear the
sin of the house of Judah. I have assigned you 40 days, a day for each year.
The people of Israel would return to “their own land”
Bible passage:
Ezekiel
34:13
Written: between 593-571 BC
Fulfilled: after May 14, 1948
In
Ezekiel
34:13, the prophet said that God would gather the people of Israel scattered
throughout the world and bring them back to “their own land.” After
many centuries of dispersion, hundreds of thousands of Jews returned to their
ancient homeland beginning in the late 1800s. But, millions more returned after
Israel declared independence in 1948. In other words, millions of exiles
returned to their ancient homeland which was now truly “their own
land” in the sense that it was now a sovereign Jewish state.
Ezekiel 34:13
I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries,
and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the
mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land.
God would watch over the
people of Israel
Bible passage:
Jeremiah
31:10
Written: sometime from 626 to about 586 BC
Fulfilled: 1948, etc.
In
Jeremiah
31:10, the prophet said that God would one day gather the Jews back to
Israel and that He would watch over them like a shepherd. Believe what you wish,
but there is evidence that God indeed has watched over the re-established nation
of Israel. Hours after Israel declared independence in 1948, the surrounding
countries attacked, hoping to replace the Jewish state with an Arab state. These
countries are much larger than Israel. But tiny Israel prevailed in that war and
was able to capture additional land, increasing the land size of Israel by 50
percent. Israel also prevailed in the two other major wars that followed.
Jeremiah 31:10
“Hear the word of the Lord, O nations; proclaim it in distant
coastlands: ‘He who scattered Israel will gather them and
will watch over his flock like a shepherd.’
Israel’s army would be
disproportionately powerful
Bible passage:
Leviticus
26:3, 7-8
Written: perhaps around 1400 BC
Fulfilled: 1948-49, 1967, etc.
In
Leviticus
26:3, 7-8, the Bible says that the army of Israel would have a supernatural
power to prevail during times of conflict, if the people are obedient to the
Lord. This Bible passage says that 5 people would be able to chase away 100
people, and that 100 would be able to chase away 10,000. Is there any proof to
this incredible claim? Judge for yourself:
Example 1: Within hours of Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948,
Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded Israel. The combined population
of those countries was at least 20 million at that time. Israel had fewer than 1
million Jews. Even so, the Jews won the war and expanded the size of Israel by
50 percent.
Example 2: During the War of 1967, Israel attacked the air force bases of
the surrounding countries and took control of Jerusalem for the first time in
about 2000 years. They also seized additional territory. That war lasted a mere
6 days.
Example 3: On Oct. 6, 1973, Israel was attacked by Egypt and Syria. Other
countries later joined the attack. But the Jews were able to push back the
attacking armies and occupy land outside of Israel’s borders.
Leviticus 26:3, 7-8
“If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands,
... You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the
sword before you. Five of you will chase a hundred, and a
hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will
fall by the sword before you.”
The fortunes of the people
of Israel would be restored
Bible passage:
Deuteronomy
30:3-5
Written: perhaps 1400 BC
Fulfilled: 1948, etc.
In
Deuteronomy
30:3-5, the Bible said the Jews would be scattered worldwide and that they
later would return to their homeland and have their fortunes restored. This
prophecy began to be fulfilled in modern times during the late 1800s when many
Jews returned to Israel, from as far away as China and the United States, Russia
and South Africa. Israel declared independence in 1948. Today, Israel is among
the world’s most prosperous countries. In 1999, for example, Israel’s per capita
Gross Domestic Product was twice as prosperous than the neighboring countries.
Deuteronomy 30:3-5
then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on
you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you. Even if
you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there
the Lord your God will gather you and bring you back. He will bring you to the
land that belonged to your fathers, and you will take possession of it. He
will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers.
|
