In 1896, Theodore Herzl, the father of modern political Zionism, published The Jewish State, a pamphlet in which he shared his vision for a Jewish homeland.
As a correspondent for a Viennese newspaper, he had witnessed the Dreyfus affair in France. A Jewish officer, Alfred Dreyfus, was falsely accused of giving French military secrets to the Germans. This affair ignited in the heart of Theodore Herzl a desire to see the Jewish state restored.
Before the Dreyfus affair, he was convinced that Anti-Semitism was a social problem that could be cured through assimilation. Still, after the Dreyfus affair, he became convinced that the only solution for Anti-Semitism was a Jewish state.
Since the Jewish people were sacked from Jerusalem in 70 AD by the Roman general Titus, they had roamed the earth, settling in different nations across the world. Often subjected to persecution from their neighbors, the Zionist dream for a homeland had always been in the heart of many Jews. For centuries, Orthodox Jews invoked a return to Jerusalem in their daily prayers.
Thus, when Theodore Herzl convened the First Zionist Conference in 1897 in Basel, Switzerland, the dream of a Jewish State was a possibility for the first time in a long time.
In 1898, Herzl made his first visit to Jerusalem. He made several diplomatic visits around the world before he died in 1904, 44 years before the establishment of the state of Israel.
The Balfour Declaration, issued by the British government in 1917,declared its support for establishing “a national home for the Jewish people in” Palestine. This declaration written by British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour was achieved, thanks, in no small measure, to the efforts of Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann, who had told Arthur Balfour some years before that the English are to London as the Jews are to Jerusalem.
The question of a national home for the Jewish people became a subject of worldwide interest after the Holocaust. Theodore Herzl had contemplated a Jewish home in Uganda before his death. Still,Jews worldwide, some of whom had already made Aliyahto Palestine, had their eyes fixed on Jerusalem, the ancient city of David.
In 1948, the United Nations proposed a two-state solution: dividing Palestine into an Arab and a Jewish state. Jewish leader David Ben Gurion accepted this solution, but the Arabs refused. For a while, it seemed as if the dream of a Jewish State was a dream that would never be fulfilled, but God had a plan.
Prophecies fulfilled
US President Harry Truman, who had served as a captain during World War I, was friends with a member of his former battalion, a Jewish man named Eddie Jacobson. As the dream of a Jewish State hung in the balance, it was Eddie Jacobson who convinced Harry Truman to meet with Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann.
Weizmann, using all the tools he could muster from his diplomatic arsenal, was able to convince Truman to support the establishment of a Jewish State in Palestine. He advised the American president: “You have the opportunity of the ages. If you will stay strong now, you’ll go down in history for all eternity.”
Truman, who had grown up in a Christian home and had read the entire Bible twice by age 12, could barely have known that at that moment, he was given one of the most significant assignments in history, the third exodus of the Jewish people:
I will bring my people Israel back from exile. They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them, says the Lord your God. (Amos Chapter 9, verses 14-15)
Truman quickly affirmed his support for the establishment of a Jewish State in Palestine. Thus, Israel officially became a nation on May 15, 1948.
During a visit to the New York Jewish Theological Seminary, Harry Truman famously stated, “I am Cyrus. I am Cyrus.” As the Persian king, Cyrus helped the Jewish people return to the land of Israel many centuries before, so did God use a gentile to restore the Jewish people to the promised land.
The parable of the fig tree
The Jewish people could finally return home after being in exile for about 2000 years. The fig tree in the Bible is often used as a metaphor for Israel:
“When I found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the desert; when I saw your ancestors, it was like seeing the early fruit on the fig tree.”(Hosea Chapter 9 verse 10).
Thus, when Jesus spoke of the parable of the fig tree in Mathew Chapter 24, verses 32-33. He was talking about Israel:
“Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near.Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door.”
The restoration of a national home for the Jewish people was probably the greatest miracle of the 20th century,provingthat the word of God remains true. The prophetic words given by Jesus, our messiah, came to pass andbegan a crucial timeline in end-time events.
Jerusalem is God’s end-time clock. The fig tree has bloomed and has kept blooming. A divinely inspired dream ignited in the heart of Theodore Herzl was brought to life by Chaim Weizmann, Harry Truman, and others. Little did they all know they were actors in God’s eternal drama. Though mere mortals, they were playing their roles in the fulfillment of an ancient prophetic word spoken centuries before their birth.
What role are you playing today in God’s eternal drama? We may never be as popular as Theodore Herzel or Harry Trumann, but we do have a role to play in this exciting eternal drama. One day, you will look back in time, maybe from heaven’s perspective, and see how glorious your role was in the scheme of God’s beautiful story.