What is the significance of Israel becoming a nation again in 1948?
Answered from the commentary of Michael Hardt, Leslie M. Grant, An Outline of Sound Words and 10 others
The significance, in these commentaries, is that Israel’s becoming a nation again in 1948 is a beginning and an anticipation of the promised return to the land, not the complete fulfilment of those prophecies. It shows that Israel’s return is no longer regarded as impossible, and that God’s promised purposes for His ancient people remain to be fulfilled.
The return is described as partial and in unbelief, without the repentance and recognition of the Messiah that the authors associate with full restoration. They differ on whether this present national resurgence should itself be called a fulfilment of prophecy: some call it the beginning or partial fulfilment, while others say it is only an anticipation or preparation, and not prophecy’s fulfilment. The fuller restoration, they say, will come with Israel’s repentance, the Messiah’s return, and blessing in the land; until then, the nation’s renewed existence points toward that future and, for some, signals that the end is drawing near.
The above is AI generated summary based on the writers below.
What the commentators say
The passages the answer is drawn from, the most direct first, with the words that bear on the question marked.
The Bible has been telling us, for the best part of the last two millennia, that the people of Israel will return to that land (refs…). For almost 1,900 years (since the Jews were defeated by the Romans in AD 70 and dispersed across the globe), the fulfilment of this prediction seemed to be a pure impossibility. That changed in 1948 when the world saw the foundation of the state of Israel in the Middle East. This event is not the final fulfilment of these prophecies, but it shows us that this is far less improbable than was always thought. Bible scholars have often predicted this event, the return of the Jews to Palestine – even before 1948.
No matter how far from their land they have been driven, the Lord Himself will gather them back to the land of promise, and in that land will prosper and multiply the nation again (vs.4-5). In fact, we have already seen the beginning of such a work of God in the establishing of Israel as a nation again in her own land, though as yet only a small number comparatively have returned, and have done so in a state of unbelief so far as Christ their Messiah is concerned.
3) ‘I will turn the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel, and will build them, as at the beginning … it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and a glory before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear of all the good that I do unto them; and they shall fear and tremble for all the good and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it’ (33:7, 9). Is this true of modern Israel? Not at all! It has fought four wars with its neighbours and continues to be a target for terrorism, trade embargoes and negative media reporting. It survives by a blend of clever diplomacy, cutting edge technology, and military skill and ingenuity, as well as a security wall that straddles its territory.
So the answer is ‘no’. Israel today is the result of man’s efforts to achieve his ends though there is little doubt God has allowed it in a providential way for the working out of His own perfect will.
These verses are a call of attention to the whole world. "See ye," "Hear ye." It was an event of momentous significance when this protecting nation moved to establish the Jews in their own land again as an independent nation. It was an important step preparatory to the fulfillment of hundreds of prophecies that speak of the Great Tribulation period and the coming of the Lord in power and glory. No period of time in the world's history is so full of significance for the world as that which immediately follows the restoration of a national home for the Jews in Palestine.
Whatever our attitude to the Jew may be, we cannot withhold our admiration, when we see how their strong national feeling has drawn them to the land of their forefathers in their hundreds of thousands from every part of the globe, where for many centuries, as aliens, they have been scattered. Bible students see in this wonderful movement an anticipation of the fulfilment of their Old Testament prophecy, when God said, "I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the LORD: and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive" (Jer. 29 :14).
We must be careful not to interpret Scripture by historic events; it is just the other way round. It is the prophetic word which explains what is happening. For example, many Christians have tried to prove that this or that person was Antichrist, but Paul says simply, Antichrist cannot come now. If you do not apply the prophetic word properly, you come to fantasy. Second Thessalonians 2 says clearly that Antichrist cannot come till after the rapture of the saints. In spite of this simple testimony, I think there are not a few who saw Antichrist in the past or even now. They have not used the prophetic word rightly as a lamp, which shines in a dark place.
We could add more examples. Take the return of Israel after more than two thousand years of non-existence as an independent nation. There have always been Jews in the country of Israel, but as an independent nation, they had ceased to exist long ago. However, God had announced they would return to their country, and much more, which has not yet been fulfilled. We should be careful not to be dragged into an 'Israel-o-mania', which is quite out of place. But that Israel should return to their old country as a people has been announced by God even before they ever entered the country for the first time (Deut.28-30). He said that He would lead them into this country, but that they would be unfaithful and would be dispelled from Canaan, but in the end He would bring them back. But He adds they should have to repent (Deut.30:1-3), and that is what is lacking until now. Ezekiel speaks of this in chapter 37, where the prophet is seeing a valley full of dead bones, which come together, covered by flesh and skin, but there is no breath in them. This state is also described in Isaiah 18, where God is seen sitting back as it were, looking at the people who are coming back from all parts of the world, but then the tribulation comes.
Therefore, remembering His covenant with Abraham, God will yet "comfort Zion," and bring about rich earthly blessing. At the present time the diligent work of returned Jews is producing in the land fertility where barrenness has prevailed for many centuries, but there are forebodings and distress and a voice of anxiety rather than of melody. At present it is but a national and purely human movement.
Are there any signs that the fig tree is shooting forth leaves? In other words, are there signs of fresh life in connection with the Jewish nation? We answer, there are assuredly many and manifest signs. Within living memory the fig tree has indeed been putting on leaves. A change most remarkable and startling has taken place. After nearly two thousand years of wandering here and there among the nations, a hunger for Palestine has arisen in the hearts of God’s ancient people. Zionism, as a movement to meet this hunger, is very striking. Hundreds of thousands of Jews have again entered that downtrodden and stricken land. This is the fulfilment of prophecies lying scattered on the Old Testament page. See Ezekiel 11:17; 28:25; Amos 9:14-15, etc., etc. Under the British Mandate a new phase of prosperity was entered upon. Latterly circumstances led the British to give up the Mandate, and leave Palestine. The day before this took place, the Jews without asking support from any, with immense courage, proclaimed a sovereign Jewish State. If anyone had prophesied fifty years ago that Palestine would become a sovereign state, he would have been written off as prophesying the impossible. The impossible of fifty years ago is a fact today.
Israel, the people of God, have long been trodden down and even become accustomed to it, like Issacher, who bowed his shoulder to bear and was a tributary servant. But now they are awakening as from the dead and coming into view as a nation, making their presence felt throughout the civilized world. (The careful reader will not need to be reminded here that this is a sure indication that the translation of the Church to her place in heaven is near at hand). The following words from a leading Zionist are worthy of our consideration, spoken about a quarter of a century ago. "It seemed as if we were witnessing a miracle which affected ourselves and all around us. We felt ourselves part and parcel of a fairy tale, in which we saw our brethren, thousands of years buried, again become flesh and blood. We wanted, in the joy of this reunion, to rehearse the sad history of the hundreds of years in which we have been dead and in our tomb, in a grave which lacked the peace of the grave." This raising up of Israel it will be recalled, connects with the feast of trumpets, which shows that we are in the feasts of the seventh month. In Leviticus 23., we are shown that after the feasts of the first and third months there is a long period elapses till we come to the feast of trumpets in the seventh month and the rising of the new Moon for the resurrection of Israel is in view of her taking her place on earth to reflect the glories of the Sun of righteousness, her glorious Messiah. Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed on our solemn feast days (Psalm 80:3). The prophet Joel should be read with this, particularly Joel 2, as showing the intervention of the King at a time when the peoples are saying, where is their God.
But before taking the place of blessing she has yet to pass through the fire. The common saying that the darkest hour of all the night is just the hour before daylight is clearly seen here, for the Israel of the Ishmael type comes into evidence with every desire to assert herself by taking her place among the nations, but without her King. "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt" (Dan. 12:2). How clearly this and many other Scriptures are being fulfilled before our eyes. A nation is springing into existence as it were which has been terrible from its beginning, hitherto a nation meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled, with all the marks of youth, energy and virility, and with a determination characteristic only of that people, to play her part in the progress of civilization and in the perfecting of the race. The re-peopling of Palestine by the Jews, the assertion of their national rights, Zionism, which means the claims of the ancient people, her schools and universities, and the proposal to rebuild the temple, all this and much more and unbelief which refused the King is still at work also, and it. is impossible that they can be right without their King. The movement is clearly national and political, the effort being to bring about what Scripture speaks of in man's way without Christ. How solemn to see, as taught of God, beneath all the present activity with all its promise and apparent success the beginning of a work which, in its full-blown results, will be the most daring and God-defying combination that has ever been upon the earth.
Israel as a nation will be brought back to the land, rising as from the dead, from their graves among the nations in which they were scattered in the judgment of God. Already we have seen a partial revival of Israel, not the work of God, but the fulfilment of the prophecy in Isaiah 18, where they are brought back under the protection of the “land shadowing with wings.” When God brings back His people it will be to deliver them from the hands of all their foes, and to establish them in the kingdom of Messiah. Before that blessed recovery Israel will have to pass through much sorrow.