There were three Captivities of Israel in their history:

1. Four-hundred and Thirty years in Egypt.

2. Seventy years in Babylon

3. And a worldwide dispersion that lasted two-thousand years

The rebirth of the nation of Israel on May 15, 1948 was foretold by the prophet Ezekiel 2,500 centuries before it occurred. In Genesis 15:13-14 God prophecies to Abraham Israel’s first captivity:

"And God said to Abram, Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve; and afterward they will come out with many possessions."

As a result of Joseph’s deliverance of Egypt during a time of famine, Israel did come to live in a foreign land and eventually became slaves of Egypt. Moses writes in Exodus 12:40-41:

"Now the time that the sons of Israel lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. And it came about at the end of four hundred and thirty years, to the very day, that all the hosts of Yehovah went out from the land of Egypt."

Jeremiah predicted Israel’s second captivity would last 70 years for every year they had not observed the Sabbath year rest of the land. "And this whole land shall be a desolation and a horror, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years." (Jer 25:11) The Babylonian army conquered Israel in the spring of 606 B.C. Confirmed by history as well as the Bible, Israel’s captivity in Babylon ended exactly 70 years later in the spring of 536 B.C., in the Jewish month Nisan. As was predicted, the Persian King Cyrus freed the Jews to return to their land (Ezra 1:3).

Daniel, Jeremiah and Ezekiel were major Jewish Prophets and lived at the same time. Ezekiel knew of Jeremiah’s prophecy of a 70 year captivity, but along with this prophecy, God gave Ezekiel a further prophecy which is recorded in Ezekiel 4:3-6 which revealed when Israel would become a sovereign nation again:

"Then get yourself an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city, and set your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This is a sign to the house of Israel. As for you, lie down on your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it; you shall bear their iniquity for the number of days that you lie on it. For I have assigned you a number of days corresponding to the years of their iniquity, three hundred and ninety days; thus you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. When you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah; I have assigned it to you for forty days, a day for each year."

First God tells Ezekiel that this prophecy will be a sign to the house of Israel and that each day represents one biblical year. A Biblical year is a solar year of 360 days compared to our calendar year which is 365 ¼ days. The prophecy predicted that Israel would be punished for 390 plus 40 equaling 430 solar years.

The beginning point of Israel’ world captivity started at the end of their 70 years of captivity in Babylon which was in the month of Nisan, 536 B.C. During this time, though, only a small remnant of Jews left their homes in Babylon. The majority stayed in the Persian Empire. At this point Israel had paid 70 years of its punishment leaving 360 more years of punishment.

At the end of this 360 years, Israel did not return to the land Yehovah had given them and rebuild. Neither did they repent of their sins which led to this punishment in the first place. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah tell us that the fifty-thousand who did return, returned with little faith. The majority, 95%, refused to return home and chose instead to remain in what is now known as Iran-Iraq.

This appears to be a contradiction to the prophecy that they would return to the land in 430 years. It would be except for something Yehovah said to Moses in Leviticus 26:18: "If also after these things, you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins." God tells Israel that if after his allotted punishment over a matter they still do not repent of their sins, that He will punish them seven times more. At the end of Israel’s captivity in Babylon they did not repent. As a result their punishment was increased by 7 times the remaining 360 years which equals 2,520 biblical years from 536 B.C. which equals 2,483.8 calendar years. 2,483.8 years minus 536.4 B.C. years equals 1,947.4 years A.D. There was no zero year from 1 B.C. to 1 A.D., so you add one more year which brings it to May 14, 1948. On May 14, 1948 the Jews proclaimed their independence and the rebirth of the nation of Israel.^288/165-169 The Judeo-Christian Bible is absolutely the Word of God and is absolutely literal in all it says, teaches, promises and commands.

Never in the history of man has a nation been destroyed and then thousands of years later in one day been rebirthed. Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 66:8:

"Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a land be born in one day? Can a nation be brought forth all at once? As soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons."

God through David three thousand years ago predicted that right after Israel became a nation again that they would be surrounded by enemies including Arab nations of Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Syria:

"O Elohim, do not remain quiet; do not be silent and, O El, do not be still. For, behold, Your enemies make an uproar; and those who hate You have exalted themselves. They make shrewd plans against Your people, and conspire together against Your treasured ones. They have said, ‘Come, and let us wipe them out as a nation, that the name of Israel be remembered no more.’ For they have conspired together with one mind; against You do they make a covenant: the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites; Moab, and the Hagrites; Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre; Assyria also has joined with them; they have become a help to the children of Lot." (Psalm 83:2-8; see also Ezek 38-39, Zechariah 14)

The Hebrew language, long before Christ’s time, had ceased to be the common language of the Jews. Concerning this the prophet Zephaniah prophesied: "For then I will change to the peoples a clear speech, to call all of them by the name of Yehovah, to serve Him with one shoulder" (Zephaniah 3:9). Never has a nation lost it language, thousands of years later become a nation again and restore its original language. A Jewish Scholar, Eliazar ben Yehuda, earlier in this century revived the 7,000 word Hebrew language and invented thousands of new words for modern terms like airplane, pen, etc. When the Jews from seventy different nations came pouring back into the promised land in 1948, the government and army went to work bringing the people together by teaching all of them their ancient tongue of Hebrew. Today it is again the spoken language of Israel.

Zephaniah and Isaiah (Zephaniah 3:10, Isaiah 43:6) prophesied the return of the Ethiopian Jews to Israel. During the days of King Solomon a group of Jews from each of the twelve tribes immigrated to Ethiopia with Prince Menelik, the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.^288/187 Isaiah predicted that the Jews would return from both Russia, the north, and from Ethiopia, the south. Late in the 1980s and especially in 1991 over eighty-five thousand black Jews returned home to Israel from Ethiopia.

Isaiah in Isaiah 27:6 prophesied: "In the days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will blossom and sprout; and they will fill the whole world with fruit." Due to modern means of cultivation and the ability to bring in water, modern Israel has transformed the previously deserted and desolate land into the most agriculturally efficient land on earth according to the United Nations. Israel now supplies over 90% of the citrus fruit consumed by Europeans.

The prophet Joel predicted that in the last days that the rain in Israel would increase. He prophesied in Joel 2:23: "Be glad then, sons of Zion, and rejoice in Yehovah your God; for He has given you the former rain according to righteousness, and He will cause the rain to come down for you, the former rain and the latter rain in the first month." The rain in Israel increased by ten percent every decade of the last century. Since the Jews have returned they have planted over two hundred million trees and completely changed the land of Israel.

Ezekiel in Ezekiel 38:11 predicted that Israel would dwell without walls in the last days: "And you shall say, ‘I will go up to the land of open spaces; I will go to those at ease, who live securely, all of them living with no walls; and there are no bars and gates to them.’" Ezekiel had no way of knowing 2,500 years ago that modern warfare would with bombs, missals and jets make walls and gates useless for defense in the last days.

The odds of just ten of these prophecies being fulfilled in our generation is 1 chance in 97.5 zillion. The Bible is the Word of God Absolutely! Jesus said "But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near" (Luke 21:28). Jesus said that the beginning of the fulfillment of these prophecies means He is coming very very soon in our generation.

1. Jeffrey, Grant R. The Signature of God. Toronto: Frontier Research Publications, Inc., 1996.
2. Lockyer, Herbert. All the Messianic Prophecies of the Bible. Grand Rapids: Herbert Lockyer, 1973.
3. McDowell, Josh. Evidence That Demands a Verdict. Vol 1. San Bernardino: Heres Life Pub., 1979.
4. Rambsel, Yacov A. Yeshua: The Names of Jesus Revealed in the Old Testament. San Antonio: Messianic Ministries, Inc., 1998.