Israel is the only nation in history of the world that was created by a sovereign act of God. But that didn’t happen in 1948. It took place nearly 4000 years before, when God spoke to Abraham and made an everlasting covenant with him and his descendants.
The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob very clearly included both the Jewish people and the land of Israel in His covenant. “I will make you extremely fruitful. Your descendants will become many nations, and kings will be among them! “I will confirm my covenant with you and your descendants after you, from generation to generation. This is the everlasting covenant: I will always be your God and the God of your descendants after you. And I will give the entire land of Canaan, where you now live as a foreigner, to you and your descendants. It will be their possession forever, and I will be their God.” (Genesis 17:6-8)
“Remember the wonders he has performed, his miracles, and the rulings he has given, you children of his servant Abraham, you descendants of Jacob, his chosen ones. He is the Lord our God. His justice is seen throughout the land. He always stands by his covenant—the commitment he made to a thousand generations. This is the covenant he made with Abraham and the oath he swore to Isaac. He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree, and to the people of Israel as a never-ending covenant: “I will give you the land of Canaan as your special possession.” (Psalm 105:5-11) When God gave Abraham, and his descendants through Isaac, the title deed to the land of Israel, it was never revoked. But through the centuries that followed, the Jewish people were driven from their land and scattered among nations of the world. Yet despite the fact that many of the Jews were forced into exile through the centuries by the Assyrians in 722 BC, the Babylonians in 605 BC, and the Romans in the year 70 AD, they always maintained a presence in their historic homeland.
During thousands of years of exile and suffering, Abraham’s descendants never lost hope of returning home. And they clung to God’s promises, given to the Hebrew prophets, that one day the children of Israel would be restored to Zion and reclaim their inheritance. Today we see them returning to their homeland. This is one of the signs that the return of Jesus is getting closer.