Returning Arrays in Java

It is returning the array, but all returning something (including an Array) does is just what it sounds like: returns the value. In your case, you are getting the value of numbers(), which happens to be an array (it could be anything and you would still have this issue), and just letting it sit there.

When a function returns anything, it is essentially replacing the line in which it is called (in your case: numbers();) with the return value. So, what your main method is really executing is essentially the following:

public static void main(String[] args) {
    {1,2,3};
}

Which, of course, will appear to do nothing. If you wanted to do something with the return value, you could do something like this:

public static void main(String[] args){
    int[] result = numbers();
    for (int i=0; i<result.length; i++) {
        System.out.print(result[i]+" ");
    }
}