Five Fulfilled Prophecies about Israel

In our generation, God is fulfilling what He promised long ago

No other book in the world can come close to predicting the future in advance like the Bible has. God’s version of events, as shared in Scripture, is our only sure picture about what will happen in the future.

In fact, one of the primary reasons for the credibility of the Bible is the accuracy of these predictions. Over and over again, we have seen God fulfill what the Bible foretells, giving us concrete, measurable proof that the Bible and its prophecies are true.

Five of the most clear fulfilled prophecies have to do with the end times. Specifically, they are about Israel. I have written before that Israel will be the epicenter of the last days. Jerusalem is the frontline of biblical prophecy and Israel serves as God’s prophetic super-sign.

Here are five ancient prophecies about Israel we have seen fulfilled in recent decades:

Israel is regathered twice

The Old Testament tells how the nation of Israel was exiled in Babylon before finally returning to Jerusalem, a process that started in 586 B.C. After another 70 years, the Temple in Jerusalem had been rebuilt.

The Jewish people were then scattered again in 70 A.D. when the armies of the Roman Empire destroyed the rebuilt Temple. But God said they would be regathered again. The first time happened after the Babylonian captivity. The second time happened just a few decades ago.

“And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse,
Who shall stand as a banner to the people;
For the Gentiles shall seek Him,
And His resting place shall be glorious.”

11 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.

12 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.”—Isaiah 11:10-12

Israel suffered in Babylon as a result of her idolatry and rejection of God, but God did not allow His chosen people to stay there forever. He brought them back to their land.

After His people were dispersed all over the globe in the centuries after the destruction of Israel in 70 A.D., God fulfilled His promise to “set His hand again the second time” with the founding of the modern nation of Israel in 1948. Despite years of extreme persecution under the Nazis, this miraculous regathering into the Jewish homeland fulfilled this startling prophecy.

Israel is born in a single day

The British “Mandate for Palestine” expired on May 14, 1948. Prior to this day, the British had announced it would withdraw its armed forces. As they released the territory, fighting then broke out between Jews and Arabs, and invading armies began to attack Israel. But President Harry Truman and the United States gave word that the U.S. recognized the Jewish state. At midnight, David Ben-Gurion, head of the Jewish Agency, announced the establishment of the State of Israel.

Other nations were slower to follow Truman’s lead, but that day in 1948 is recognized as the birthdate of the State of Israel—and fulfilled the words of the Lord as prophesied in Isaiah:

“Who has heard such a thing?
Who has seen such things?
Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day?
Or shall a nation be born at once?
For as soon as Zion was in labor,
She gave birth to her children.”—Isaiah 66:8

The rebirth of Israel just a few years after the Holocaust ended—when the Jewish people were still reeling from the horrors of that genocide—was considered miraculous at the time. So was this return of the Jews to their homeland after many, many centuries of exile.

Israel was regathered from the north

Once Israel became an independent state, Jewish people from all over the world began to flock to their homeland. Many of them were from the United States, but a vast number came from Europe and even Russia—locations immediately north of Israel.

This reflected another prophecy, this one from Jeremiah. It had been written 2,500 years earlier:

“Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “that it shall no more be said, ‘The Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ 15 but, ‘The Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had driven them.’ For I will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers.”—Jeremiah 16:14-15

The Chosen People returned to the land God had promised them from “all the lands” of earth, including “the land of the north.” In fact, after Mikhail Gorbachev pulled back the Iron Curtain in 1989 and opened the borders of Soviet Russia, 1.1 million Russian Jews immigrated to Israel over the next few years.

As of today, a total of 1.5 million Jews now make their home in Israel after coming from Russia or the Ukraine—which are located directly north of Israel. Another 450,000 come from other northern nations like Romania and Poland.

Jerusalem is retaken by the Jews

For me, the Jews’ regaining of control over Jerusalem in 1967 represents the most significant prophetic event in my lifetime. This dramatically fulfills a process that began in 70 A.D. when the Roman general Titus destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple.

Decades earlier, however, Jesus had predicted that Israel would be recaptured by the Jewish people:

“But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. 21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her. 22 For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. 23 But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people. 24 And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”—Luke 21:20-24

For approximately 1,900 years after the siege of Jerusalem, the Jews remained scattered throughout the world. They began to return to their homeland in 1948, but Jerusalem itself remained out of their control.

But during the Arab-Israeli Six-Day War, Israel seized Jerusalem—and some of its holiest sites—on June 10, 1967, and the ancient city remains in her hands today.

Wikipedia notes that “Throughout its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed at least twice, besieged 23 times, captured and recaptured 44 times, and attacked 52 times.” That it ended up in the control of the Jewish people is a testament to God’s plan and a miraculous fulfillment of prophecy.

Israel remains divided

Despite the establishment of Israel, the regathering of its people and the recapturing of Jerusalem, the land of Israel is still divided. This fulfills a prophecy in the book of Joel:

“For behold, in those days and at that time,
When I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem,
2 I will also gather all nations,
And bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat;
And I will enter into judgment with them there
On account of My people, My heritage Israel,
Whom they have scattered among the nations;
They have also divided up My land.”—Joel 3:1-2

Pressured by the United Nations over the years, Israel has been forced to relinquish control of parts of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula. Increasing international pressure calls for her to concede East Jerusalem to the Palestinians.

However, each concession of land to the Palestinians has led to renewed aggression from them, and puts hostile Palestinians in closer proximity to Israeli cities.

What God predicts in Joel’s prophecy is happening in the current day, and the Biden administration may still be working to force Israel into a two-state solution with the Palestinians. However, the land belongs to God. He has promised it to Israel.

But like the Bible says, this tiny piece of land in the Middle East remains divided.

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God’s plan for the end times began in earnest on May 14, 1948, and set in motion a variety of fulfilled Bible prophecies about Israel and the Jewish people. I write more about these prophecies and Israel in my book, Tipping Point, which you can order here.

These are fascinating and exciting days. In our generation, God is fulfilling what He promised long ago.