The Signs of Israel's Rebirth
Lesson 2: Prophecies of Jewish Restoration to Palestine during the End Times

As we have shown, Jesus' prophecy in the Olivet Discourse that the fig tree would someday leaf out again refers to Israel. But exactly what event in the history of Israel does the rebudding of the fig tree represent? Our first supposition might be that it pictures the regathering of Jews in the land of their fathers. If it does, then Jesus' prophecy has already been fulfilled. Although for long ages after A.D. 70 the Jews lived as a despised people wandering in exile far from their homeland, there now exists in this homeland a Jewish state. The Jews have returned.

Jewish reoccupation of Palestine has been the goal of the Zionist movement ever since it originated about a hundred years ago. With the support of powerful sympathizers, Zionists soon opened the way for many people of Jewish descent to migrate to Palestine. By the time World War I began, almost 80,000 Jews lived there (1). At the outbreak of World War II, the Jewish population of the land had swollen to 450,000 (2). Then in 1948, when the number of Jewish settlers had reached nearly a million, the nation of Israel was reborn as a political entity (3). But has the fig tree come alive again?

There is no doubt that Jewish migration to Palestine during the modern era has been in fulfillment of prophecy. When the Old Testament describes the future Messianic age, it clearly anticipates a prior return of Jews to their homeland. Of particular interest is an oracle of Isaiah.

Isaiah 11:10-12

The "root of Jesse" is Christ. The prediction that the gentiles will seek Christ (v. 10) implies a period of worldwide evangelism after His coming. This oracle is therefore one of the few Old Testament texts that speak of the Church Age. In the next verse (v. 11), the prophet foresees a day when the Lord will accomplish a "second" recovery of His people from exile in remote places. Most commentators suppose that Isaiah is treating Israel's deliverance from Egypt as the first. But the Israelites who escaped from Egypt were not a remnant. They were the whole nation in its infancy, when population was surging to new heights. Nor did they come from any nation but Egypt. Thus, as some commentators recognize, the first recovery by Isaiah's reckoning must be the return from Babylonian captivity (4). The placement of verse 11 after verse 10 suggests that the "second" will occur only after Christ has come and His gospel has been preached to the gentiles.

In fact, Isaiah envisions a third recovery of Jews to the land. The second (v. 11) will be partial, mainly from the nations listed. The third (v. 12) will be complete, from the four corners of the earth. The second will come about through the secret, Providential working of the Lord's hand. The third will happen in response to a public summons from the person of Christ Himself, the "ensign" in verse 12 as in verse 10. The following text describes the third recovery:

Isaiah 66:19-22

Once enthroned, Christ will sift the whole world for any remaining descendants of the twelve tribes and bring them to their ancient homeland. This final regathering is the third recovery foreseen in prophecy. When will the previous recovery occur—the one Isaiah designates as the Lord setting His hand again the second time to recover His people? The answer is given by Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 30:3-9

The prophet affirms that before the time of Jacob's trouble, many Jews will return to the land of their fathers. Students of prophecy equate the time of Jacob's trouble with the Tribulation. Thus, the regathering that Jeremiah foresees will follow by long ages the return of Israel from Babylonian captivity in ancient times and also precede Christ's regathering of Jews after His coming. It must therefore be the recovery that Isaiah designates as the second. Undoubtedly it is the same recovery that has taken place during the last two hundred years of the modern era, as Jews in multiplied thousands have flowed back to Palestine. Yet this historically recent migration of Jews is not in itself the sign that, according to the Olivet Discourse, would announce the end of the world. It is not the rebudding of the fig tree.

One result of the Jews going back to Palestine has been the formation of a Jewish state. This development has also fulfilled prophecy.

In the dream of Nebuchadnezzar which the Lord enabled Daniel to interpret, the king saw a succession of five gentile kingdoms (Dan. 2:41-43). The first four represented kingdoms with authority over an existing state of Israel. The fifth, which is still future, must therefore also refer to a gentile kingdom ascendant over a nation of Jews.

Zechariah is more explicit. He says that when the gentile world mounts its final assault on the land of Judah (an assault preliminary to the great battle known as the Battle of Armageddon), Jews will be living there under the rule of their own governors.

Zechariah 12:3-6

But, just as the modern return of Jews to Palestine is not the rebudding of the fig tree, neither is the new Jewish state that they have established. To what then does the sign refer? Has the sign been fulfilled?

Footnotes
  1. Fred J. Khouri, The Arab-Israeli Dilemma (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1968), 4.
  2. Ibid., 18.
  3. Ibid., 377.
  4. H. A. Ironside, Lectures on Daniel the Prophet, 2d ed. (New Jersey: Loizeaux Bros., 1920), 109; Harry Bultema, Commentary on Isaiah, trans. by Cornelius Lambregtse (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Kregel Publications, 1981), 149.