On May 14, 1948, Israel was reborn as a modern nation, setting the stage for end-time events that continue to unfold today. What an interesting time to live in! The truth is that Israel Independence Day is a powerful testimony about Jewish resilience in the face of crisis and God’s faithfulness in a hopeless world. To shed some light on where we are and how we got there, let’s go back 138 years.
In 1897, Theodore Herzl attended the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, as he had just witnessed the hatred, injustice and violent antisemitism displayed during the trial of Jewish officer Alfred Dreyfus (later known as the “Dreyfus Affair”). Herzl made a profound statement, which he probably had no idea would become such a reality. He said, “Were I to sum up the Basel Congress in a word… it would be this: At Basel, I founded the Jewish State. If I said this out loud today, I would be answered by universal laughter. Perhaps in five years, certainly in fifty, everyone will know it.”
If you add fifty years to 1897, you arrive at 1947, the year the United Nations adopted Resolution 181, also known as the “Partition Plan for Palestine.” Within six months, Ben-Gurion was declaring the birth of the independent modern state of Eretz Yisrael, setting in motion a geopolitical series of events that we are still witnessing today. The United States was one of the first countries to recognize Israel at that time. Those were the days when the United Nations still had integrity.
If my people felt uneasy after the Dreyfus Affair, things got a whole lot worse during the Holocaust. The birth of modern Israel was necessary to give the Jewish people a place they could call home and return to, as promised in Scripture. Beyond a geopolitical event, it was the fulfillment of many biblical promises.
The best slap in Hitler’s face happened immediately after World War II, when Jewish people started to make aliyah back to Israel and decided to have babies to counterbalance the loss of the six million. Incidentally, 80 years later, the global Jewish population has grown back, although it has yet to reach its pre-World War II numbers (16 million out of the original 18 million). You can try to kill us, but God had other plans.
It took a while, but Israel started to thrive geographically, economically and technologically. Innovations and inventions keep coming out of Israel, as if to bless a world that often seems to want to curse us. The world is truly a better place because of the Jews (Genesis 12:1-3). We will never know how much better the world could have been if Hitler had not taken six million of us, and by extension, if Hamas had not taken 1,200 Israelis, but we must press on!
Modern Israel is about to celebrate its 77th anniversary, once again proving to the world that we are here to stay (Jeremiah 31:35-37). The Jewish people are resilient indeed. We have been through more crises than anyone else in human history, and yet we are still standing, and standing firm, I might add!
They will continue to try to kill us because it is at the core of Satan’s agenda of hatred for God and His chosen people. Despite the unavoidable casualties ( Zechariah 13:8-9), God will continue to miraculously protect us, as promised in His Covenants. Israel Independence Day is a testament to the Jewish people’s resilience, but it is also a time for us to acknowledge that we exist today only by the grace of God. As independent as Israel claims to be, Jewish people depend 100% on God’s grace and mercy, even if they don’t acknowledge it or claim not to believe in God.
Ironically, the very existence of Israel–a mostly secular state– is one of the strongest proofs for the existence of God. Join me in wishing Israel a happy Yom Ha-Aztmaut on May 1st, 2025, and in praying that many in Israel would see the hand of God in their country and seek it in their own lives.
Am Yisrael Chai! (The People of Israel Live!)
