It is most remarkable that the “Isaiah manuscript 2” was purchased by Yigal Yadin’s father, Eleazar L. Sukenik, professor of archaeology at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, on the very day the UN voted on the establishment of a Jewish state – an important event that led to the declaration of independence in 1948.
Eleazar had purchased it that morning from a Bethlehem antiquities dealer. Maybe there is some significance in the fact that the scrolls were purchased by Israel in the “bet,” or house, of “lechem,” bread. He returned to Jerusalem, and that evening, as his other son Mati was listening to the debate and vote at the UN on the radio, Eleazar was engrossed in the scrolls.
Is it not incredible that as Eleazar was reading the divine road map for Israel outlining its destiny, 6,000 miles away the nations of the world were debating that same future? As Isaiahthe prophet said in chapter 43:9, “Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this, and show us former things? Let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified: or let them hear, and say, It is truth.”
Could those nations show the future as that scroll could? The words that were read before the UN were also found in the scroll of Isaiah that Eleazar was reading. In New York previous to these events, Chaim Weizmann was preparing his address to the United Nations with painstaking care. Abba Eban recalled the event in his diary:
“Worked on draft for four steady hours. After each sentence was written in huge letters and agreed, he would go to lamp-stand and bring the text right to his eyes, endeavoring to learn it by heart. By the end of the session his eyes were watering as if in tears. Finally he said: “We’ll make this do – but how about a posuk (biblical verse) for the ending?” We looked for a Bible and eventually found one supplied by the hotel in the bedside table. Spent a half-hour on Isaiah, looking for “Return to Zion” passages. Finally his mind was caught by the prophecy of “an ensign for the nations.” As I left he said: “Well, this is it. Over the top for the last time!” “
So on October 16, 1947 in the lead-up to the vote, Chaim Weizmann concluded his speech with that verse from Isaiah: “The Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnants of His people. And He shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.”
Eleazar Sukenik would purchase the “Isaiah 2” scroll on the day of the vote. His son Yigal Yadin, the late renowned lecturer in archaeology at Hebrew University, recognized in his book The Message of the Scrolls that there was some significance to the timing of these events:
“I cannot avoid the feeling that there is something symbolic in the discovery of the scrolls and their acquisition at the moment of the creation of the state of Israel. It is as if these manuscripts had been waiting in caves for two thousand years, ever since the destruction of Israel’s independence, until the people of Israel had returned to their home and regained their freedom. This symbolism is heightened by the fact that the first three scrolls were bought by my father for Israel on 29th November, 1947, the very day on which the United Nations votedfor the re-creation of the Jewish state in Israel after two thousand years.”
Yes, there is significance. It is the beginning of the redemption and the existence of the state of Israel today proves that G-d’s hand is at work to establish His kingdom to bring world righteousness and peace. From the same Isaiah scroll:
“He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit” (Isaiah 27:6).
This discovery proved the accurate transmission and authenticity of Isaiah’s message and prophecy of the return. In the same book quoted above Yadin says:
“…it is easy to appreciate the great importance of two Isaiah texts discovered among the Qumran Scrolls. These texts are about a thousand years older than the oldest Hebrew text known to us, and about five hundred years older than the earliest Greek version of the Septuagint… the Isaiah scrolls found in Qumran were being copied only about six hundred years after the words were uttered by the prophet himself… What is astonishing is that despite their antiquity and the fact that the scrolls belong to the pre-standardization period, they are on the whole almost identical with the Masoretic text known to us.”
Can it be a coincidence that a nation was reborn after 2,000 years according to prophecy? Not only that they returned but the way they returned: “Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together: a great company shall returnthither” (Jeremiah 31:8).
If you have ever seen some of the footage of the return from the late 1940’s you will know how true this is. Why is it so hard to believe? In this Hebrew month of Iyar, the month of Israel Independence Day, recognize the hand of the Almighty.
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