Israel Independence Day

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(This is an edited repost from last year.)

Happy Independence Day! Israel Independence Day, that is. In Hebrew you’d hear Yom Ha’atzmaut. It is celebrated on Tuesday, May 6 this year, although yesterday was the real date: Iyar 5 on the Hebrew calendar. (It shifts about on the Gregorian calendar.) The day before, Iyar 4, was Yom Hazikaron, or Israel Remembrance Day. These two days were observed one day later this year because Israel readjusts its national holidays if they fall on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.

In 1948, the year Palestine became the independent state of Israel, Iyar 5 was May 14 when the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel was made. Here is a link to the text. Yom Hazikaron was placed on the previous day, beginning in 1951, to remind citizens of the soldiers who died so that Israel could be free and remain free.

Yom Ha’atzmaut is significant because Israel’s modern reestablishment was a huge, neon sign in the fulfillment of biblical prophecies about Israel’s return to the land that God promised them. The soil of the land called Palestine once again became Israel’s possession:

“And I shall turn back the captivity of My people Israel. And they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them. And they shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them, and shall make gardens and eat their fruit. And I shall plant them on their own soil, and not uproot them any more from their own soil I have given them,” said the Lord your God. (Amos 9:14-15)

This is exactly what has happened! Before the Jews returned to their land, it was a desert. But since their return, they have “made the deserts bloom” as the Declaration says. When the land became their own again, a timeline began that will culminate in Yeshua/Jesus’ return! The Jews who live there now are only the beginning of the complete fulfillment of return. Isaiah 11 describes how Yeshua is instrumental in the return of all the people to their ancestral heritage. He will be their King, and the King of all the world, at long last.

“And so all Israel shall be saved, as it has been written, ‘The Deliverer shall come out of Zion, and He shall turn away wickedness from Jacob, and this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.’” (Romans 11:26-27, quoting Isaiah 59:20-21)

Israel’s return to the land they were torn from millennia ago is a sign that God exists and is still involved in the world. It’s a sign that He keeps His promises. It’s a sign that we will someday see Yeshua/Jesus face to face!