The Fall and Rise of Israel, Part 7 - A New National Anthem, Language, and Military; Cyrus vs. Truman, Ben Gurion

Now that the declaration of the Jewish state had been made by the nations of the world in November of 1947, there was a short waiting period before the declaration would be activated.

Generally, nations follow the course of nature.  They are born, they grow, they become more complex, and eventually they become ill and wither.  Even a brief glance at the United States of America and its history makes this cycle apparent.  (I need to remind myself that most of human history to date has occurred without the presence of relatively-new-on-the-scene America).

But in the case of Israel, what happened was not natural.  It appeared to be a birth, but in reality it was a rebirth.  A resurrection.  To disintegrate is natural.  To come back together is not.

Ezekiel 37 gives us a prophetic picture of dry bones coming back to life - a resurrection, so to speak.  You can read the entire passage here.

In a birth, one develops into maturity.  In a resurrection, one becomes what they once had been.  So it has been with Israel.

Let's look at some examples.

Nations are born and they they establish a national anthem.  In Israel's case, the national anthem was established when the nation was nothing more than a dream.  An eastern European Jewish man named Naftali Imber wrote the poem Hatikvah (The Hope)  in 1878.  He immigrated to the Holy Land in 1882 and read his poem to the pioneers of early Jewish villages.  In 1887, Samuel Cohen put the poem to music, and the song spread rapidly in the land.  Here is the English translation of the lyrics:

As long as in the heart, within,
The soul of a Jew still yearns,
And onward, towards the ends of the east
an eye still gazes toward Zion

Our hope is not yet lost,
The two-thousand-year-old hope,
To be a free nation in our land,
The land of Zion and Jerusalem

This lovely poem became the national anthem of the modern state of Israel. Click here to hear a beautiful recording of it.

The next example is language.  In the world, languages develop over time.  But with Israel, its native language of Hebrew had been dead for ages.  Then, a young Jewish man from eastern Europe made it his life's mission to resurrect the language.  Eliezar Ben Yehuda nearly single-handedly re-established the Hebrew language, writing a full dictionary for it and teaching it to the people.   Long story short, Hebrew is the main language of the state of Israel.  Just for fun, see Zephaniah 3:9, which says “For at that time I will change the speech of the peoples to a pure language, that all of them may call upon the name of the Lord and serve him with one accord.  The verse just before that gives us a hint as to what language was indicated.  Zephaniah 3:8 is the only verse in the whole Bible where all 22 of the Hebrew letters and all five Hebrew sofits (special word-ending letters) appear together.

A third example:  the land itself, which had lain desolate for centuries and centuries. It was resurrected, as vineyards, olive groves, forests, and grain fields were re-established in the same places where they once were.  Again I will mention the book Exodus, which gives such a clear account of the agricultural revival in the land.

Another example:  Soldiers.  The last Israeli soldiers died in battle against the Roman Empire at the fortress of Masada in the year 73 AD and vanished from the earth.  But after nearly 2000 years, Israeli soldiers once again appeared on earth to protect the nation that had likewise died and reappeared on the earth.  Often, Israeli soldiers are sworn in on top of Masada.

Israeli soldiers on Masada

Nations come to exist, and then are spoken of.  But the reborn Israel was dreamed about and prophesied for thousands of years before its modern existence.  One of many biblical examples is Jeremiah 30:3, which says, For behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will restore the fortunes of my people, Israel and Judah, says the Lord, and I will bring them back to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall take possession of it.

When the Jews were restored to the land from Babylon in the 538 BC, it was initiated and sanctioned by a decree from Cyrus, king of Persia.  The second return from exile was sanctioned by another world leader - Harry S Truman.  We have already looked at his role in the establishment of modern Israel. Now let's look at some interesting parallels between Truman and Cyrus.

King Cyrus spent 30 years in government.  Truman entered his first governmental office in January of 1923, and his presidency ended 30 years later, in January of 1953.

Cyrus became king just as Persia was becoming the world's superpower.  He was sixty years old.  Truman's age as he assumed the presidency was - yep, 60 - just as the United States was rising to a place of superpower in the world.

And of course, both of them made decrees that opened the doors for the Jewish people to return home and rebuild their nation.

Cyrus issued his decree to allow the rebuilding of the Jewish nation after a period of 70 years (which was prophesied by Daniel).  

Modern Israel's restoration began in the late 1878 with the first Jewish settlements in the land.  Fast forward 70 years to Truman's presidency, and the rebirth of Israel which officially took place on May 14, 1948.  In 1945, Truman had written a letter to the British prime minister Atlee, calling for Jewish Holocaust refugees to be allowed to return to their homeland.  

This letter was made public on August 31, 1945, just as the Sabbath was beginning.  The Torah portion for that day included Deuteronomy 30:3-5.  These words were being declared in synagogues all over the world:  The Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will take you.  And the Lord your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. 

Cyrus and Truman each made their declarations in their first year as world leader.

For further reading on this subject, check out this book.

Interestingly, when Truman was wrestling over whether to support the rebirth of the Jewish nation, his decision was sealed by the words of a quote he kept in his office at the White House:  Always do right.  This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.  It was a quote of the stranger - mentioned in the very first post of this series - Mark Twain.

Before wrapping up this post, I want to look at one more example of reversal.

Before the Jewish nation was destroyed in 70 AD, a provisional government was formed of its leaders to guide the nation against Rome.  It would be the last unified government before its destruction.  Its leader was a man named Joseph Ben Gurion.

Israel's first prime minister is known as David Ben Gurion.  But he was born in Poland with the name David Grün. He was inspired to immigrate to the Holy Land after Theodor Herzl visited his hometown of Plonsk, Poland.  He became a journalist and chose his pen name, David Ben Gurion.  It is interesting that his middle name, given at birth, was Joseph.  David Joseph Ben Gurion.

David Ben Gurion
First Prime Minister of Israel

The ancient provisional government, led by Joseph Ben Gurion, proclaimed the existence of a sovereign Jewish state to Rome, which led to its disappearance.  The modern provisional government, led by David Joseph Ben Gurion, proclaimed the existence of a sovereign Jewish state to the world, which led to its rebirth.

On May 14, 1948, David Ben Gurion announced the rebirth of the state of Israel to the world.  It was a Friday, and the Sabbath was about to begin.  Was there an appropriate scripture reading in the synagogues to mark this moment?  Of course there was.

The haftorah portion for that week included Amos 9:11-15. On the day of Israel's resurrection, it was being chanted all over the world.  Check it out:

“In that day I will raise up
the booth of David that is fallen
and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins
and rebuild it as in the days of old, 

that they may possess the remnant of Edom
and all the nations who are called by my name,”
declares the Lord who does this.

“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“when the plowman shall overtake the reaper
and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed;
the mountains shall drip sweet wine,
and all the hills shall flow with it.

I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel,
and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them;
they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine,
and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit.

I will plant them on their land,
and they shall never again be uprooted
out of the land that I have given them,”
says the Lord your God.

If you would like to continue this series, click here.