For nearly 2,000 years, the Jewish people lived primarily outside the land of Israel. They survived expulsions, persecution, pogroms and eventually the Holocaust, scattered across virtually every corner of the world. Now that extraordinary pattern of history is moving rapidly in the opposite direction.
New figures released by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics estimate the worldwide Jewish population at approximately 15.9 million. About 46 percent of them now live in Israel.
And according to one of the world’s leading Jewish demographers, Israel could cross an astonishing threshold within the next decade: for the first time in the modern era, a majority of the world’s Jews could be living in the land of Israel. Professor Sergio DellaPergola has projected that the symbolic 50 percent threshold could be crossed as early as 2035.
Something is happening to the Jewish people that the prophets described thousands of years ago. Consider how dramatically the picture has changed. At the end of World War II, only about 5 percent of the world’s Jewish population lived in Israel. By 2023, that number had climbed to approximately 45 percent.
The prophets repeatedly said such a gathering would happen.
Ezekiel recorded God’s declaration to Israel:
“I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.” — Ezekiel 36:24
Jeremiah described the same remarkable future:
“He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.” — Jeremiah 31:10
Isaiah spoke of the Lord gathering “the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.” Ezekiel’s famous vision of the dry bones portrayed Israel being restored from what appeared to be national death.
For most of Christian history, there was no Jewish state. Jerusalem was controlled by successive foreign powers. Jews were scattered throughout Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and eventually the Americas.
Then came 1948. Israel returned to the map. And the gathering continued. Even more striking is when they are coming. Israel has endured the October 7 massacre, years of war, missile attacks and direct conflict with Iran. War normally sends people fleeing in the opposite direction. Yet thousands of Jews are still packing their belongings and moving toward Israel.
For students of prophecy, that development is impossible to ignore. Many passages concerning the last days assume something remarkable: Israel exists, Jews inhabit the land, and Jerusalem occupies the center of world attention.
Zechariah describes Jerusalem becoming “a burdensome stone for all people” and eventually portrays the nations gathering against Jerusalem.
Previous generations of Christians read Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah and Revelation and believed these things by faith. They could see little evidence around them suggesting how literally such circumstances might someday emerge.
We have the opposite problem.
We can become so accustomed to Israel being on the evening news that we forget how extraordinary its very existence is. How many prophetic pieces must fall into place before we recognize the larger picture.
The God who said He would scatter Israel also said He would gather Israel.
And before our eyes, the scattered people are coming home.