Israel, the Nation Born in a Day
“Who has ever seen anything as strange as this? Who ever heard of such a thing? Has a nation ever been born in a single day? Has a country ever come forth in a mere moment? But by the time Jerusalem’s birth pains begin, her children will be born. Would I ever bring this nation to the point of birth and then not deliver it?” asks the LORD. “No! I would never keep this nation from being born,” says your God. – Isaiah 66:8-9, NLT
These words were spoken by Isaiah, a prophet of the LORD, in the 8th century BC shortly after the Northern kingdom of Israel had fallen to the Assyrians in 722 BC, removing them as a nation, and about a hundred years before the Southern kingdom of Israel would begin to fall to the Babylonians in 605 BC, and finally removing that nation from the earth in 586BC as well. Israel would eventually be reborn again, as a future king of Persia named Cyrus would make the decree (also foretold from God’s Word through the mouth of His prophet Isaiah; see Isaiah 44:28 and 45:13) that all who wish to return to the land that used to be Israel may do so, and over the course of about a hundred years, Israel became a nation again. Israel would eventually be conquered by the Romans, and although allowed to continue for a time as an occupied country, they were removed as a nation for what looked like to be the last time in 70AD when Jerusalem fell and the temple was destroyed.
However, this prophecy from Isaiah is not referring to that time when Israel became a nation again after returning from exile in Babylon, for that process took almost a hundred years, and this prophecy says the nation would be born in a single day. No, this prophecy is talking about a much more recent time, when the nation of Israel was reborn again in a single day, on May 14th, 1948. What an incredible fulfillment of an amazing prophecy from God’s Word given more than 2700 years ago! What’s more, most people have no idea how important the role of the United States of America was in the fulfillment of this prophecy.
When Israel declared themselves a sovereign nation on May 14th, 1948, the president of the United States was Harry S. Truman, and it took him only 11 minutes to issue this proclamation –
“This government has been informed that a Jewish state has been proclaimed in Palestine, and recognition has been requested by the provisional government thereof.”
“The United States recognizes the provisional government as the de facto authority of the state of Israel.”
Truman did this despite his entire cabinet and top military advisor, George Marshall, telling him not to because it would create a firestorm in the Middle East; and it most certainly did. Israel was attacked the very next day by Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. They were outnumbered 40 to 1 in military personnel and by an even larger margin in military equipment, including guns, ammunition, tanks and airplanes.
Yet by the hand of God, promised from this same prophecy over 2700 years ago that He would not only bring Israel to the point of being reborn in a single day, but He would also deliver them from whomever may try to stop them, God did just that. Not only by fighting for Israel in many of the same ways we read in the Bible when He fought for ancient Israel, but by also putting the right leaders in the right places, including two presidents of the United States, to make sure that Israel would become a nation again and fulfill this incredible prophecy of God.
When Truman was asked if he knew of the story in the Bible of king Cyrus who conquered Babylon in 538BC and in that same year issued his decree that the people of Israel could return from their captivity in Babylon, Truman knew the story and replied, “I am Cyrus.” He knew the story, and amazing prophecy of God, because earlier in his life he was a business partner with a Jewish man, Eddie Jacobson, and they worked together at their clothing store in Kansas City. Eddie would tell the future president of the United States the promises of God for Israel, foretold in the prophecies in the Bible, and for President Truman to reply the way he did, he most certainly was used by God to fulfill His prophecy in Isaiah 66 that the country of Israel would be reestablished in a single day.
There is more to the story though, as God would also use another president of the United States in 1973 to preserve Israel when the country was almost destroyed by another attack from many of the same nations that had attacked Israel in 1948. On October 6th, while the Jewish people were observing Yom Kippur, several nations led by Egypt Syria attacked them with an overwhelming force of more than a half a million soldiers and several thousand tanks. It seemed like this time the attackers were going to achieve their goal of destroying the nation of Israel, but God had another president that He had raised up to be a protector of His people. When the prime minister of Israel Golda Meir called President Richard Nixon at 3am in the morning, she said if Israel did not have the military supplies they needed in twenty four hours they were going to lose their country.
When Nixon was a boy, his mother would read to him the stories and prophecies of God from the Bible, and in a documentary about these events she had been reported to tell the young boy, “Richard, the Jews are the chosen people of God. I really feel like there will come a day in your life where you can help the Jewish people. Do all that is within your power to help them.” President Nixon did just that, he promised Golda Meir the supplies would be there within twenty-four hours, despite all his military advisors telling him not to do it. Nixon would later say as he sat on his bed in the middle of the night after receiving that call, that he realized why he had become president; to be an instrument of God to help save Israel.
The military aid Israel needed was delivered within twenty-four hours and Israel fought off the attack and saved their country. Since that time, the United States has, for the most part, supported Israel and there is no doubt God has blessed this nation because of it. He has promised he would bless any nation that blesses Israel in His words from way back at the beginning of the Bible, before Israel was even a nation He made this promise -
“Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation (Israel), and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” – Genesis 12:1-3, ESV, word in parenthesis added for clarification
God does not change and there will never be a time in this present world where these words are not true. So, if the United States continues to be a blessing to Israel, God promises He will continue to bless this nation. Let us hope and pray that our leaders will continue to support Israel so that God will continue to bless the United States of America.
