If we are willing to consider a literal interpretation of Bible prophecies for the End Times, the most direct reading of numerous Old Testament scriptures will surely lead to the conclusion that Israel is destined eventually to be set up as a nation under God during a Millennial reign of the Lord, when they will be treated as His "signet ring", a chosen nation to proclaim His truth and glory to all of the surrounding nations. Of course, we speak here of a literal period known as the "Millennium".

However, the record of over 4000 years of history since the time of that patriarch Abraham, who was given the first of those promises, now makes it clear that Abraham's descendants through the line of Jacob have had many ups and downs along that roller coaster ride to their Kingdom promise. The following prophetic scriptures will follow that trail by showing that Israel would first see times of defeat, and even abandonment by God, before that promise would be finally fulfilled.

(Deuteronomy 28:1-6)
28:1 "Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the earth.
2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God:
3 Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country.
4 Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.
5 Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
6 Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.

NKJV

It is an unfortunate truth that ancient Israel was an unmitigated failure in their quest to obtain those earthly Kingdom promises, since they mistakenly thought that they could realize them simply by obedience to the Law, for we now understand from the New Testament that the Law was never given to them for that purpose, just as obedience to the Law is not the means for us during the Church Age to obtain our Heavenly reward. Indeed, the Bible teaches that a right relation with God and the reward of an eternal inheritance, whether under the old or the new Covenants, can only be achieved by faith in what God is able to accomplish. During the Covenant of Law, those ancient Hebrews were to look to the future by faith for the coming of the promised One who would secure their earthly inheritance. Likewise, during the Church Age we were to look back by faith to the coming of the One whose finished work on the cross has secured our eternal Heavenly inheritance. Ancient Israel failed to grasp that essential truth, and were eventually expelled from the Land. You may review ancient Israel's history more fully in Eretz Israel, and God's Redemptive Plan.

At the very same time when Moses admonished the Hebrews in the previous verses, as they stood at the doorway into the Promised Land, He also prophesied that they would be removed from the Land because of their failure to obey God.

(Deuteronomy 28:15-37)
15 "But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
16 Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country.
17 Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
18 Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.
19 Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.
20 "The LORD will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken Me.
21 The LORD will make the plague cling to you until He has consumed you from the land which you are going to possess.
22 The LORD will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with severe burning fever, with the sword, with scorching, and with mildew; they shall pursue you until you perish.
23 And your heavens which are over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you shall be iron.
24 The LORD will change the rain of your land to powder and dust; from the heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.
25 The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them; and you shall become troublesome to all the kingdoms of the earth.
26 Your carcasses shall be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and no one shall frighten them away.
27 The LORD will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, with the scab, and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed.
28 The LORD will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart.
29 And you shall grope at noonday, as a blind man gropes in darkness; you shall not prosper in your ways; you shall be only oppressed and plundered continually, and no one shall save you.
30 You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall lie with her; you shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it; you shall plant a vineyard, but shall not gather its grapes.
31 Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it; your donkey shall be violently taken away from before you, and shall not be restored to you; your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you shall have no one to rescue them.
32 Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, and your eyes shall look and fail with longing for them all day long; and there shall be no strength in your hand.
33 A nation whom you have not known shall eat the fruit of your land and the produce of your labor, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually.
34 So you shall be driven mad because of the sight which your eyes see.
35 The LORD will strike you in the knees and on the legs with severe boils which cannot be healed, and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.
36 The LORD will bring you and the king whom you set over you to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods--wood and stone.
37 And you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations where the LORD will drive you.

NKJV

These verses predicted the future sufferings of the Hebrew people centuries after Moses recorded them at the end of their 40 year wilderness sojourn, just prior to their 1405 BC entrance into the Land. Their fulfillment did not begin to occur for almost 800 years until the Assyrians destroyed the Northern kingdom of Israel in 723 BC, scattering them among the regions then under their control. God's judgement upon Old Testament Israel was completed later when the Babylonians first invaded the Southern kingdom of Judah in 605 BC, taking many Hebrews into captivity, then destroying Jerusalem in 586 BC. Although the Babylonian exile lasted for only 70 years, those invasions brought ancient Israel under the rule of a succession of Gentile empires until the time of the Romans during New Testament times. Of course, we have already reviewed the Roman destruction of the nation in AD 70 in our prophetic study of the Olivet Discourse in the New Testament Gospels.

The final result of God's judgements against ancient Israel left the Jewish people scattered throughout the Gentile nations of the world (verse 37), where they remained until the 20th century.

Though many of those prophecies concerning Israel's future were fulfilled during Biblical times, Ezekiel supplied great detail concerning God's intentions for Israel during the End Times.

(Ezekiel 36:17-28)
17 "Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own ways and deeds; to Me their way was like the uncleanness of a woman in her customary impurity.
18 Therefore I poured out My fury on them for the blood they had shed on the land, and for their idols with which they had defiled it.
19 So I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed throughout the countries; I judged them according to their ways and their deeds.
20 When they came to the nations, wherever they went, they profaned My holy name--when they said of them, 'These are the people of the LORD, and yet they have gone out of His land.'
21 "But I had concern for My holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations wherever they went.
22 "Therefore say to the house of Israel, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: "I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for My holy name's sake, which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went.
23 And I will sanctify My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst; and the nations shall know that I am the LORD," says the Lord GOD, "when I am hallowed in you before their eyes.
24 For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land.
25 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.
26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.
28 Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God.

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Ezekiel penned this at the time of the Babylonian Exile, but it speaks of a dispersion greater than the one that occurred at the time of the Babylonians. The text indicates why they were taken from the Land and precisely why they will be returned to it. They will be brought back so that the Lord may use them to hallow Himself before the Gentile nations. He will accomplish this by first placing them back in their Land in an unsaved state (verse 24), then He will enact their salvation by placing His Spirit within them (verses 25-27), so that they will fulfill His promises given to Abraham and the other patriarchs (verse 28).

Kenneth Symes of "The Friends of Israel" refers to various prophetic texts in the Old Testament to conclude that the Israel now in the Land is the one that will become Millennial Kingdom Israel.

"The Bible clearly teaches two distinct dispersions and two subsequent regatherings of the nation of Israel. The first dispersion was prophesied in (Deuteronomy 28.36-37) and occurred in two phases. The first phase took place about 721 BC, when the northern kingdom (Israel) was carried away into Assyria (II Kings 17.6). The second phase began around 608 BC when Judah, the southern kingdom, was carried captive into Babylon (II Kings 24.11-16, 25.8-11). Jeremiah prophesied that the latter dispersion would last 70 years (Jeremiah 25.11). There was a partial return during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, around 538 BC.

The second dispersion was prophesied in (Deuteronomy 28.25, 63-67). Note that this second dispersion was not into a single nation but "into all the kingdoms of the earth" (verse 25), and "among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other" (verse 64). Thus, this was to be a worldwide dispersion, and it was fulfilled in AD 70 when Israel rebelled against Rome. Under Titus, Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed by the Roman army, and the Jews were driven from the Land. This dispersion was completed in AD 135 under the Roman Emperor Hadrian, and the Jews were scattered worldwide.

The second regathering is prophesied in (Deuteronomy 30.1-6) and (Isaiah 41.8-20). Again, notice the phrases "among all the nations" (Deuteronomy 30.1) and "Abraham---whom I have taken from the ends of the earth" (Isaiah 41.8-9). This is clearly a worldwide regathering for ultimate millennial blessing! Therefore, the second regathering must immediately precede the Messiah's Second coming.

Kenneth Symes, The Friends of Israel, April/May 1991

These Bible prophecies provide a complete panorama of Israel's history from their first entrance into the Land, through their dispersions at the hands of the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Romans, to the forecast of their future regathering and national redemption. As indicated above, many Bible scholars believe that the modern-day State of Israel is the one forecast in Old Testament prophecies to become Millennial Kingdom Israel.

Now we are fortunate to live in these days following Israel's return to the Land, so we are in a unique position to capture the essence of those major historic events of the 20th century that brought about the rebirth of the State of Israel, and to examine them from their prophetic dimension. Certainly we do not lack for historic evidence, for all of the details, both before and after the State of Israel's May 14, 1948 declaration of independence, are available for our review. Therefore, the next step in this prophetic treatment of the End Times is to spend some time studying what actually happened to bring about the present State of Israel, in order to better understand how it might be related to the prophecies just presented.