Why is the nation of Israel so important to those who believe the Bible? Because it was prophesied in the Bible that it would become a nation again. This is the only ancient civilization to ever come back. A blast from the past you might say!
Let's look at one such passage, Isaiah 11:11-16. Verse 11 states:
It shall come to pass in that day
That the Lord shall set His hand again the second time
To recover the remnant of His people who are left,
From Assyria and Egypt,
From Pathros and Cush,
From Elam and Shinar,
From Hamath and the islands of the sea. -11
Sometime after Isaiah wrote these words, Israel was to be regathered to its homeland. The reference to a "second time" as well as the places from which they would return suggests that this is not the return from the Babylonian exile.
He will set up a banner for the nations,
And will assemble the outcasts of Israel,
And gather together the dispersed of Judah
From the four corners of the earth.-12
Also the envy of Ephraim shall depart,
And the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off;
Ephraim shall not envy Judah,
And Judah shall not harass Ephraim.-13
But they shall fly down upon the shoulder of the Philistines toward the west;
Together they shall plunder the people of the East;
They shall lay their hand on Edom and Moab;
And the people of Ammon shall obey them. -14
The LORD will utterly destroy the tongue of the Sea of Egypt;
With His mighty wind He will shake His fist over the River,
And strike it in the seven streams,
And make men cross over dryshod.-15
There will be a highway for the remnant of His people
Who will be left from Assyria,
As it was for Israel
In the day that he came up from the land of Egypt. -16
According to the whole passage, several significant features will characterize this return. First, verse 13 suggests that Israel will no longer be two nations as it was during Solomon's time. Second, Israel will fight the surrounding nations, such as the Philistines, the Edomites, The Moabites, the Ammonites, and the Egyptians as a part of this return (v. 14-15). Third, something spectacular will happen to dry up the "tongue of the sea of Egypt" and the "River," presumably the Euphrates (v.15). Fourth, the places from which the return will take place are explicitly named, except for the general phrase "islands" of the sea" (v.11).
Of these four items, three have already occurred in the return of Jews to Israel in our own generation; only the third has not yet taken place.
The return of Jews to Palestine and the formation of a state of their own is amazing in itself, given that just a century ago the territory was controlled by the Muslim Turks who hated the Jews. Yet a world Zionist movement was formed; the land came under the control of Britain at the end of World War I; Britain allowed the Jews to have a homeland; the Nazi holocaust drove Jews to Palestine who otherwise would have stayed in Europe; the United Nations agreed to partition Palestine into an Arab and a Jewish state; and the Jews were able to defeat a coalition of Arab states bent on their destruction.
The Israeli Declaration of Independence, made on 14 May 1948, the day the British Mandate expired, was the official announcement that the new Jewish state named the State of Israel had been formally established in parts of what was known as the British Mandate for Palestine and on land where, in antiquity, the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah had once been.
In Israel the event is celebrated annually with the national holiday Yom Ha'atzmaut (Hebrew: יום העצמאות, lit. Independence Day), the timing of which is based on the Hebrew calendar date of the declaration. Palestinians commemorate the event as Nakba Day (Catastrophe Day) on 15 May every year.
The Jewish state formed in 1948 in Palestine included persons descended from both the northern and southern tribes. The enmity of the divided kingdoms that existed at Isaiah's time has, in fact, been healed.
Israel has already fought with all the surrounding nations, in 1948, 1956, 1967, and 1973. Though the Philistines, Edomites, and such are no longer identifiable as separate peoples, the Arab nations occupying their lands (and most likely including some of their descendants) are Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, and Syria. These were the nations Israel fought and dispossessed to regain its territory.
Happy Birthday Israel! Has it been 61 years already? Did all this happen by chance? Was it just one big coincidence? Well I guess that is for you to decide.
Taken from [Wikipedia Israel] and "Israel's History Written in Advance"
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