Happy birthday, Israel
Modern Israel has just celebrated its national birthday with a Day of Remembrance (Yom HaZikaron). On November 29, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the establishment of a Jewish State. On May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurin, head of the Jewish Agency proclaimed the founding of Israel.
In 70 AD, Rome crushed Israel and destroyed the Temple, thus ending the nation of Israel. All the Romans left standing was the external supporting wall on the Temple Mount. It became known as the Western or Wailing Wall. For years, Jordan controlled the area. Jews were forbidden to enter the Old City of Jerusalem and go to the Western Wall.
Article VIII of the 1949 Armistice Agreement provided access to the Western Wall for Israeli Jews. However, for the following 19 years, despite numerous requests by Israeli officials and Jewish groups to the
United Nations and other international bodies to attempt to enforce the armistice agreement, Jordan refused to abide by this clause.
Near the end of the Six-Day War on June 7, 1967, Brigadier General Shlomo Goren led a contingency of Israeli paratroopers through the Lion’s Gate of the Old City to the Western Wall. A shofar was blown and an empty chair was raised, symbolizing the seat of Elijah — a new nation blossomed. Thus, after centuries, the Jews once more controlled the Western Wall, which garnered the name Wailing Wall because of the mass of paratroopers who gathered there that June day weeping in joy.
Bible scholars who know prophecy are aware of the Scripture that speaks of a nation being born in a day (Isaiah 66:8). They equate the fulfillment of that prophecy with May 14, 1948. Thus, the birth of modern Israel is considered a miracle. The fulfillment of that prophecy along with several other prophecies is regarding as validating Scripture as being divinely inspired.
We have visited the land 44 times, enough for me to have written a new book entitled “The Fifth Gospel: The Land, the Language and the Lore Constitute the Fifth Gospel.” We have seen it evolve from governance by a failed form of socialism to a democracy, from a nation defended by World War II surplus to one of the most sophisticated defense forces in the world, from a land with a primitive infrastructure to one with the best road system American money can buy, from a sparsely populated land to a nation with numerous burgeoning cities, from a land with vast arid deserts to a land where the desert blooms as prophesied (Isaiah 35:1).
As with all wars, the wars won by Israel when outnumbered 80 to 1 have a dark side. Displaced Arabs living alongside the expanding Jewish population causes perpetual conflict. Even at that, the relations are maintained as best as possible.
To the advantage of Jews and Christians alike, the Bible sites have been well preserved, resulting in a vast tourist trade. A visitor will find lots of 4- or 5-star hotels available. The food is different, but abundant and very good. American tourists have been fed a diet of fear and foreboding. In reality, tourists are safer there than in an American city. Go with confidence.
My new book quotes Deuteronomy 11:12, which represents Israel as “...a land for which the Lord your God cares; the eyes of the Lord are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year.”
The Rev. Nelson Price is pastor emeritus of Roswell Street Baptist Church in Marietta.