he modern State of Israel was reborn in 1948—what a miracle of history! (Ezekiel 37:1-11; Luke 21:29, 30). Never before has a nation been destroyed, its’ people dispersed to the ends of the earth, and then, nearly two thousand years later, re-gathered to their homeland and re-established as a nation. Due to the current events in Israel and the growing world-wide antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment it is good to review the events that led up to these miraculous developments for the Jewish people.
When Israel declared itself an independent State on May 14, 1948, still another miracle occurred. The armies of seven Arab nations marched on the newborn State, boasting that they would “push the Jews into the sea.” Outnumbered 100 to 1, Israel not only repelled the invaders but acquired more land in Palestine than was granted in the UN partition plan. Yigael Yadin, Israel’s commander of operations in that war, had a terse explanation of Israel’s victory. “It was a miracle!”
Five Examples of Miracles
A Syrian column of 200 armored vehicles—including 45 tanks— attacked Degania, the oldest kibbutz in Israel. What a psychological blow this defeat would be! Without artillery, Jewish forces were helpless to block the Syrian advance. Until then, the only heavy weapons available in all Israel were four howitzers of the type used by the French army in the Franco- Prussian War of 1870. Two of these ancient fieldpieces were promptly dismantled and rushed to Degania. The local commander, Lieutenant Colonel Moshe Dayan, had them reassembled at the very moment the first Syrian tanks rumbled through the kibbutz perimeter. They fired and scored a hit on the advance tank. Had the Syrians known that these two obsolete weapons represented half the arsenal of field guns in all Israel, they would have pressed the attack. Instead, the armored vehicles swung around in their tracks and clattered back up the mountain road!
At Safed, near the Sea of Galilee, a small unit of Israeli defenders were holding off a thousand Arabs. A sudden tropical storm broke loose. The Israelis in desperation took their remaining gasoline, poured it over 50 empty drums, set them afire and rolled them down the hill. The flaming barrels flying down the slopes, the rumble of hollow barrels striking rocks—together with the tropical storm—created such an incredible illusion of attack, that the bewildered Arabs fled, imagining some sort of secret weapon!
In December 1948, the Egyptians were harassing Israeli settlements in the Negev while advanced columns were moving north. Yadin used the Bible for strategy. It mentioned an ancient road forgotten for centuries, which ran almost directly to Mushrafa, the Egyptians’ central garrison. Heavy boulders were pushed aside with bulldozers. Soldiers in armored vehicles, jeeps and supply trucks sped under cover of darkness along the ancient road and surprised the Egyptians. Taking this garrison destroyed the Egyptian defense system and ended the war only 14 days later.
To liberate the airport at Lydda the tactics of Israel’s ancient judge Gideon, were employed. Seven thousand Arab troops were ready to attack. Sixteen Israelis dressed as Arabs infiltrated into the city of Lydda. Like Gideon’s band of 300 they made such a commotion during the night that the Arabs, totally confused, fired upon each other. Finally the majority fled back across the border.
The Syrian Army had regrouped east of the Galilee. A Jewish column of 24 homemade armored trucks and cars, on the way to relieve a besieged Kibbutz, took the wrong road and crossed the border into Lebanon. Before they discovered their mistake, they ran head-on into a column of supplies for the Syrian Army in Galilee—dozens of trucks of ammunition, a string of light artillery and 20 new armored cars. The Israelis fired point blank at the first truck—a tanker loaded with gasoline. It exploded and set on fire the following truckload of hand grenades. Rapid repeating explosions were heard for miles around. Terrified, the Syrians abandoned their cargo. The Israelis scarcely had enough men to drive the captured supply train back into Galilee. Finally they reached the beleaguered Kibbutz, only to learn that the Arab besiegers had heard rumors that the Jewish army had invaded Lebanon so they fled Israel.
Israel’s great and miraculous victory in the 1948 War was actually due to many “little” miracles. But how was this possible? The prophet Isaiah over 2,500 years ago explains how—“. . . Those who wage war against you will be as nothing at all. For I am the LORD your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.” Isaiah 41:12, 13.
The Bible Helped Build Israel
The miracles continued. Trees, fruits and vegetables are now grown over what was once sandy wastes or malaria swamps. New industries fringe historic cities. Highways and pipelines stretch across an energetic nation that had slept for centuries.
David Ben Gurion, Israel’s dynamic first Prime Minister, was an ardent student of the Bible and considered it an accurate history of Israel and its land. He dispatched engineers, horticulturists, botanists, etc., with the Bible in one hand and research tools in the other. Miracles happened!
Following Bible clues, copper and iron mines were established. One mining engineer, Abraham Dor, observed that at the richest veins of copper—“we come upon the slag and furnaces of ancient Israel. We often get the feeling that someone has just left.” Deuteronomy 8:7-9 was often framed on the walls of mining offices:
“For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land; a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills thou mayest dig copper.”
Reclaiming the Wasteland
Barren land transformed to the fertility of ancient Israel is a miracle predicted in Scripture: “The desolate land will be cultivated instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass through it. They will say, ‘this land that was laid waste has become like the garden of Eden, the cities that were lying in ruins, desolate and destroyed, are now fortified and inhabited.’ ” Ezekiel 36:34, 35. See also Amos 9:14, 15. It was long assumed that most of Palestine was wasteland, irreclaimable for agriculture. But archaeologists discovered the presence of more than 70 ancient settlement sites in one 65-mile stretch of the Jordan Valley alone, each with its own well for water. Lot, over 3,000 years ago, was not exaggerating when he “lifted up his eyes, and he saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere, even as the garden of the Lord” (Genesis13:10).
New agricultural settlements—from Dan to Beersheba—have risen beside ancient sites reidentified by Biblical archaeologists. Concrete pumping stations were set over ancient springs or wells. A well from Abraham’s day now supplies water for residents on the outskirts of modern day Beersheba.
One of the basic necessities in that arid country is reforestation. Ever since Jews began returning, they have been planting forests, naming them in honor of such leaders and friends of Israel as Chaim Weizmann, Lord Balfour, George V and scores of others.
The Bible has helped them decide what kind of trees to plant and where to plant them. Debating whether a certain barren hillside would be a suitable location for Israel’s immense “Forest of Martyrs,” Israelis found the answer in Joshua, which proved that a forest had existed there. “Knowing that trees grow more easily where trees have flourished before,” explained Professor Zohary of Hebrew University, “we rely on the Good Book.”
“The first tree Abraham put in the soil of Beersheba was a tamarisk,” said Israel’s outstanding authority on reforestation, Dr. Joseph Weitz. “Following his lead, we put out two million in the same area. Abraham was right. The tamarisk is one of the few trees we have found that thrives in the south where yearly rainfall is less than six inches.”
The Boyko Family pioneered in the development of Biblical principles of agriculture that helped the Aravah and the Negev blossom as a rose. The Bible contributed in making Israel the agricultural giant it is today, exporting its products worldwide. Yet it took another miracle to make this possible – the miracle of what the immigrants brought.
The Miracle of Immigration
Jews from around the world determined to return to their ancestral homeland, just as Scripture stated in Isaiah 43:5, 6: “Do not be afraid, for I am with you, I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. I will say to the north ‘Give them up!’ and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’ Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth.” In Israel’s Declaration of Independence it is stated that Israel “will be open to the immigration of Jews from all countries of their dispersion.”
Even as war still raged and the little State faced possible destruction or bankruptcy, the newcomers poured in. During the first three years of statehood, the average influx reached 18,000 a month and in some months the figure exceeded 30,000. Between May 15, 1948, and June 30, 1953, the Jewish population of the country doubled. By the end of 1956, Israel’s population had nearly tripled, reaching 1,667,000. Imagine the economic shock of having to absorb all these immigrants!
And yet, Jews kept pouring into Israel over the following decades. In 1984-1985 and again in 1991 harrowing airlifts brought Ethiopian Jews from utter despair to a Land of hope. Finally, the long-expected prophetic fulfillment of Jews from Russia began in 1991. By 1998 over 800,000 had returned from the former Soviet Republics (CIS) and they are still coming. Over a million are expected. Israel’s Jewish population increased from 650,000 in 1948 to over 7,000,000 today! The miracle of absorption continues.
What The Immigrants Brought
The Jews came to Palestine with nothing or almost nothing. But they believed in hard work and imagination. The land was infertile and had little water. Yet, as they toiled, their spirit of innovation manifested itself in ways too numerous to state here. They not only provided for themselves but were happy to share both their bounty and their know-how with other peoples.
As they discovered the wonderful results of drip-irrigation, they then learned how to implement drip-fertilization, drip-nutrients and drip-herbicides.
Their ability to use reclaimed water for agricultural irrigation grew to 86% compared to Singapore’s 34%, Australia’s 18% and the USA’s 9%.
Israel is a pioneer in precision agriculture, which involves using sensors, drones, and other technologies to monitor crops and optimize their growth. This approach allows farmers to make data-driven decisions about planting, irrigation, and pest control. Israeli AgTech companies are developing AI and machine learning tools to help farmers These technologies can analyze large amounts of data and make predictions about crop yields, disease outbreaks, and weather patterns.
A Hi-Tech Leader
Ezekiel 38:12, 13 predicts that Israel will become an economic envy of the nations. The immigration of Russian Jews is literally paying off. Israel has witnessed an explosion in both hi-tech developments and the number of contracts Israeli hi-tech companies have signed with manufacturers worldwide. It has been said, “The failure of Soviet communism to capitalize on the outstanding R & D skills of the Russian Jews was a stroke of good fortune for Israel.”
This has put Israel on the cutting edge of technology. The NASDAQ lists 135 Israeli companies. At one point Bloomberg marked Israel as #5 with technology and R & D patents. In fact, the preference for the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) is largely because foreign research centers, implanted in Israel, are primarily owned by US firms such as IBM, Intel, Sandisk, Microsoft, Applied Materials, Qualcomm, Motorola, Google or Hewlett–Packard. The inventions of these companies are attributed to Israel as the inventor of the patent but not as the owner (applicant or assignee).
Israel counts 140 scientists and technicians per 10,000 employees, one of the highest ratios in the world. In comparison, there are 85 per 10,000 in the United States and 85 per 10,000 in Japan. As stated in the critically acclaimed book “Start up Nation”, it is the miracle of immigration that enabled all the following miracles that the nation needed first, and then gave to the world: water reclamation, desalination, drip irrigation, and other agri-tech inventions and innovations for food and water. In addition are many more scientific inventions as well as numerous medical inventions.
The Miracle of the ’67 War
The Arabs boasted that they would destroy Israel. However, in six days Israel overran the combined forces of Syria, Jordan, Egypt and took the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem, the West Bank (Samaria and Judea), and the Sinai—one of the greatest military feats in history. To many Orthodox Jews worldwide, especially in the United States, it was a wake-up call from God. Thousands poured into Israel and settled in Samaria and Judea to stake Israel’s eternal claim to the so-called West Bank—the heartland of Israel. They are certain the Messianic Age is near at hand. As Biblical Zionists, they oppose any give-away of land in the peace process.
The 1948 Anniversary
Actually the modern State of Israel’s miracles began in 1878 with the regathering of the Jewish people to their Land. Statehood was recognized by the United Nations in 1948. However, the Palestinians have their own name for this anniversary. It is “The Catastrophe.” Two people claim the one land is theirs. Who is right? Who are the Palestinians?
“Do not be afraid, for I am with you, I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. I will say to the north ‘Give them up!’ and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’ Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth.” —Isaiah 43:5, 6