Following Israel’s commemoration of their fallen, the mood will shift at sundown today, marking the celebration of Israel’s 75th birthday! “But wait,” you say, “I thought Israel was reborn on May 14.”

You are correct. Israel indeed gained her independence on May 14, 1948…of the Gregorian calendar. But Israel chooses to use the lunar calendar in setting their holidays and feast days. Because the lunar calendar has only 360 days (with an occasional “leap month” to keep seasons aligned), Independence Day in Israel does not fall on the same Gregorian calendar day each year.

It is truly a modern miracle that Israel exists today. The prophet Isaiah predicted that Israel would be born in a single day:

⁷ “Before the birth pains even begin,
    Jerusalem gives birth to a son.
⁸ Who has ever seen anything as strange as this?
    Who ever heard of such a thing?
Has a nation ever been born in a single day?
    Has a country ever come forth in a mere moment?
But by the time Jerusalem’s birth pains begin,
    her children will be born.

~Isaiah 66:7-8 (NLT)

That is exactly what happened as the British Mandate was lifted and Israel’s great forefather, David Ben Gurion, and others realized they had to act quickly in order for the land not to be gobbled up by others. Hastily, those Zionist leaders got to work hammering out the Declaration of Independence, and before it was even officially inscribed and signed, Ben Gurion stood to announce Israel’s independence.

The very next day Israel was attacked by 5 Arab nations, wishing to fulfill Psalm 83:

83 Do not keep silent, O God!
Do not hold Your peace,
And do not be still, O God!
² For behold, Your enemies make a tumult;
And those who hate You have lifted up their head.
³ They have taken crafty counsel against Your people,
And consulted together against Your sheltered ones.
⁴ They have said, “Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation,
That the name of Israel may be remembered no more.”

Just as a newborn baby cannot go to battle successfully versus bigger brothers, so the newborn nation seemingly had no chance of survival against the likes of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon. Yet, God was on her side! (Psalm 124:1-5) Miraculously, Israel did survive. In fact, time-after-time there have been attempts to wipe Israel off the face of the earth, yet God’s faithfulness never allows it. (See Israel’s Miraculous War History)

Today’s war on Israel seems as much internal as external, as woke forces within Israel have risen to threaten the very existence and fiber of the Jewish state. But God’s faithfulness remains! The tiny nation (the size of New Jersey) continues to stand strong and miraculously reaches its 75th birthday today!

I am reminded of God’s promise given through another prophet, Jeremiah:

³⁵ Thus says the Lord,
Who gives the sun for a light by day,
The ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night,
Who disturbs the sea,
And its waves roar
(The Lord of hosts is His name):
³⁶ “If those ordinances depart
From before Me, says the Lord,
Then the seed of Israel shall also cease
From being a nation before Me forever.”
³⁷ Thus says the Lord:
“If heaven above can be measured,
And the foundations of the earth searched out beneath,
I will also cast off all the seed of Israel
For all that they have done, says the Lord.

~Jeremiah 31:35-37

Indeed, despite Israel’s rebellion, as long as the sun, moon and stars give their light, Israel will exist as a nation! Someone should tell Israel’s enemies they are aiming their weapons the wrong direction! Try shooting down the sun, moon and stars!

So, Happy Birthday, Israel! May you stand strong and prosperous as a testimony to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Israel’s divine protector!