make gardens and eat fruit from them. 6
“So the prophecy foretold what would happen to the land that had for ages been barren desolation. Those who would return from exile would plant the barren land. It would blossom and bear fruit.”
“Amazingly accurate.”
“Yes,” said the Oracle, “but there’s more to the mystery. In the declaration that Ben-Gurion read on May 14, 1948, are the words ‘Sabbath eve.’ 7 That’s when the declaration was read.”
“So it happened on a Friday.”
“The declaration went forth on Friday, late afternoon, at the approach of the Sabbath. And then at the stroke of midnight the British occupation came to an end and the nation was born. The Sabbath begins at sundown Friday night and lasts until sundown Saturday. Israel came into existence in that exact space of time, as Friday night turned into Saturday. The nation was born on the Sabbath.”
“So then there was a Scripture appointed for the day of its birth.”
“Yes, it came from the haftarah scroll.”
“What’s that?”
“The scroll of the prophets. Its appointed word consists of much shorter passages, most often just a handful of verses. On the day Israel was reborn, there was a word from the prophets appointed from ages past to be proclaimed at that very moment, from sundown Friday night to sundown the next day, the very space of time in which the ancient nation was raised back to life.”
“So what was the word appointed for May 14, 1948?”
“It was this:
On that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down.” 8
“The appointed word was the very Scripture that speaks of what took place on that exact day! The appointed word on May 14, 1948, the day the tabernacle of David was raised up, was the word that speaks of the day that the tabernacle of David would be raised up!”
“Yes,” said the Oracle, “Israel’s birth took place on the day appointed for the prophecy of Israel’s birth . . . the fingerprints of God.”
“So as Ben-Gurion was announcing the raising up of the ancient nation, the appointed word was that which spoke of the raising up of the nation of Israel.”
“Yes. And the appointed word would foretell not only what would happen to Israel but what would be proclaimed to the world that day.
“The ancient word appointed for that day prophesied,
I will bring my people Israel back from exile. 9
“So the declaration proclaimed that Israel would be open for . . .
. . . the Ingathering of the Exiles. 10
“The ancient word appointed for that day had prophesied,
They shall build the waste cities and inhabit them.11
“So the declaration of that day proclaimed that the exiles had . . .
. . . built villages and towns, and created a thriving community. 12
“The appointed word prophesied the exiles would plant the land that had been a barren devastation and make it blossom:
They shall plant vineyards . . . they shall also make gardens. 13
“So the declaration spoke of the planting of the land by the returning exiles:
They made deserts bloom . . . 14
“And note,” said the Oracle, “when Israel’s birth was announced to the world, there was by no means any assurance that it would survive. On the following day, when the surrounding Arab nations launched the war intended to uproot the Jewish nation at the moment of its birth, many doubted that there would still be an Israel at the war’s end. But the last words of the prophecy appointed for that day contained a promise:
“I will plant them in their land, and no longer shall they be pulled up from the land I have given them,” says the LORD your God. 15
“All these things were contained in that one prophecy, the raising up of the fallen tabernacle, the rebuilding of the ruins, the restoring of the cities, the planting of the land, the survival of the nation, and the ending of the exile . . . and all of them were appointed for the day that Israel’s exile would come to an end.”
“At the end of my vision five white flowers blossomed in front of the rebuilt tabernacle. What did that mean?”
“In Hebrew the word iyar means blossom. May 14, 1948, was the fifth day of the Hebrew month of Iyar.”
“Who decided that Israel would be born on that particular Sabbath?”
“It just happened to be the day set for the British to depart from the land. You see, even empires must follow His purposes.
“And so on the day of Israel’s resurrection, all around