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The Rebirth of Israel
The prophet Ezekiel was given an equally specific mathematical revelation concerning the time that Israel would be reborn as a nation. This one also works out to a precise date in history. Ezekiel was told that he would sleep on one side of his body for a given number of days, then he would lie on the opposite side of his body for a different number of days. These would correspond to years in the history of Israel.
"This will be a sign to the house of Israel. Then lie on your left side and put the sin of the house of Israel upon yourself. You are to bear their sin for the number of days you lie on your side. I have assigned you the same number of days as the years of their sin. So for 390 days you will bear the sin of the house of Israel. After you have finished this, lie down again, this time on your right side, and bear the sin of the house of Judah. I have assigned you 40 days, a day for each year."
(Ezekiel 4:4-6)
Since each day stood for one year, this prophecy represented the number of years that the Jews would be punished for their sin, a combined total of 430 biblical years. Judah was to face a lesser penalty because it had sinned less than Israel, with many more godly kings and years.
70 years of captivity
The penalties for sin would begin with the capture of the Jews by Nebuchadnezzar in the month of Nisan, 606BC. Jeremiah had already predicted a 70-year captivity of the Jews in Babylon.
"This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years."
(Jeremiah 25:11)
Why 70 years? When God handed down to the Israelites His commands for their conduct, He included a specific command to let the land rest for one year out of every seven. Even today, farmers recognize that this is healthy for the land, but God's rule was also designed to ensure that the Israelites honored the seventh year in memory of God's seventh day of rest. During this year they were not to plow fields or plant seeds, so that the land could recover and remain productive.
"But in the seventh year the land is to have a sabbath of rest, a sabbath to the LORD. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest."
(Leviticus 25:4-5)
They were allowed to eat what grew naturally during that year, but not to "manage" or harvest the land. God specified that if they did not keep this commandment, they would be taken captive until the land could have the rest that was due:
"I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out my sword and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste, and your cities will lie in ruins. Then the land will enjoy its sabbath years all the time that it lies desolate and you are in the country of your enemies; then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths. All the time that it lies desolate, the land will have the rest it did not have during the sabbaths you lived in it."
(Leviticus 26:33-35)
For 490 years, the Jews did not obey the command regarding the sabbath year. As a result, God decreed that they would be taken captive for exactly 70 years, so that the land could have the rest that it should have received earlier.
This 70-year penalty was fulfilled in the month of Nisan, 536BC. King Cyrus of Persia freed the Jews in a sudden and startling change of heart. 70 years of the total 430 years given in the message to Ezekiel were now complete.
However, that still left 360 years of punishment according to Ezekiel's prophecy. Those 360 years should have ended in 176BC. But that isn't a time of historical significance. Why not? Was Ezekiel wrong?
The punishment multiplied
It is significant that only a small trickle of Jews left their homes in Babylon to return to Jerusalem. The vast majority were quite content to remain in the pagan culture they had grown used to. Even though the culture was thoroughly repugnant to the Jewish faith, the people were not lining up for tickets home. They were obviously still being rebellious towards God, for had they repented there is no doubt that a majority would have sought out the land of Israel in vast numbers.
God had revealed to Moses that the punishments handed out to Israel for sin (including ignoring the sabbath year) would be multiplied by seven if the people did not repent of their disobedience.
"I will bring the sword upon you to avenge the breaking of the covenant... you will be given into enemy hands... If in spite of this you still do not listen to me but continue to be hostile toward me, then in my anger I will be hostile toward you, and I myself will punish you for your sins seven times over."
(Leviticus 26:25-28) see also 26:21, 23-24
Since Israel refused to repent after the Babylonian captivity ended, the 360-year period of further punishment announced by the prophet Ezekiel would now be multiplied seven times, to 2,520 biblical years! This totals 907,200 days. That calculates precisely to May 15, 1948.
Israel reborn
On the afternoon of May 14, 1948, an old Rabbi blew on a ram's horn and the Jewish people began to celebrate an astonishing feat. Their worldwide dispersion and terrible persecution under the Nazi regime was over. With help from the United Nations, Israel would once again fly a flag of its own. It was the first time in history that a nation that had ceased to exist would again be called by its name.
At midnight on May 15, 1948, the British mandate ended and Israel became an independent nation.
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