God’s Blessing On Israel Fulfills Prophecy

In 1960, only twelve years after Israel was reinstated as a nation, I was fortunate to make a trip to the Middle East, visiting Egypt, Jordan and Israel. I wrote in a journal after I returned, “If Egypt is poor and Jordan pathetic, Israel is a virtual paradise.” It was amazing to note that the terrain on the Jordanian side of the Israeli border appeared unfruitful and infertile and had a distinct brown and barren color. Inside the borders of Israel the ground was a lush garden green of agriculture growth.

In recent history the area called Palestine included the territories of present day Israel and Jordan, the area located between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. The term “Palestine” has never been the name of a nation or state. It is a geographical term used to designate the region at those times in history when there was no nation or state there.

After World War I and the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, this area was controlled by the British Empire. The Balfour Declaration issued in 1917 designated the area for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”. In 1922 the British allocated nearly 80% of the area to Transjordan. By this action Transjordan then included the majority of Arabs who lived in the area. It became the Arab portion of the Palestine region. The Balfour Declaration is said to have laid the foundation for the formation of the state of Israel, which happened thirty-one years later in 1948.

After the country of Israel was re-established in 1948, even more Jews re-inhabited their historic homeland of Judea and Samaria and made great strides in creating a land where they could grow crops and sustain their population. This “rebirth” of Israel resulted in economic prosperity to the region. When Mark Twain visited the area in 1867 he described the area in his book, Innocents Abroad, as a “desolate country - devoid of vegetation and human population.” Yet less than one hundred years later Israel had transformed its land into a “paradise”.

Today Israel is one of the tiniest nations on the face of the earth, totaling about 8,000 square miles (a little larger than the state of New Jersey). It is 260 miles at its longest distance, sixty miles at its widest, and between three and nine miles at its narrowest!

As written by theologian and author, John F. Walvoord, “The restoration of Israel to its ancient land and its establishment as a political government is without parallel in the history of the world. Never before has an ancient people, scattered for so many centuries, been able to return to their ancient land and re-establish themselves with such success and such swift progress as is witnessed in the state of Israel.”

Walvoord continues, “Probably the most astounding aspect of the restoration of Israel is the rapid reclamation of the eroded land and wasted resources which for centuries have characterized the area which Israel now occupies. Travelers who visit Syria and Jordan first before coming to Israel are immediately impressed with the dramatic difference. Everywhere there is evidence of astounding progress in Israel.”

ISRAEL IS IN BLOOM! Such was prophesied in the Books of Isaiah and Ezekiel:

“The wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus,

it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for

joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor

of Carmel and Sharon; they will see the glory of the Lord,

the splendor of our God.” Isaiah 35:1-2 NIV

“The fields that used to lie empty and desolate in plain view

of everyone will again be farmed. And when I bring you back,

people will say, ‘This former wasteland is now like the Garden

of Eden!’…’’ Ezekiel 36:34-35 NLT

Many people today think of Israel only as a place where Bible stories took place with many ruins that are thousands of years old. So, what has happened to this wasteland described by Mark Twain? As you will read, Israel is much more than that today. It is the place where In one of GOD’S OTHER WAYS© He has and is fulfilling prophecies and preparing the world for the return of Jesus Christ.

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Israel has become a world leader in agricultural innovations and how to use water. Today the Negev desert, almost devoid of water a few years ago, is now forested with millions of trees in the Yatir forest that sits on the edge of the Negev desert. How does a forest that needs a lot of water grow trees there?

The leaves on the trees open only a few pores which reduces evaporation. At the same time the pores also absorb greenhouse gases and carbon dioxide that trees need for photosynthesis. Israeli farmers then use drip irrigation to provide the trees with additional moisture. They pioneered the process that catches dew and mist in plastic trays.

Because fresh water is so scarce for much of Israel, the county has also turned its attention to recycling. Israel recycles nearly 86% of its water. In comparison, the next closest country is Spain, which recycles just 19% of its water. Desalination is the major water recycling process that has eased Israel’s problems with drought. They are pioneers in the removal of salt and other chemicals from their water supply. Israel’s desalination plants will soon be capable of producing 50%-60% of the country’s freshwater. A process called Seawater Reverse Osmosis removes salt and waste from the Mediterranean’s water before water enters Israel’s water pipes.

in addition, half the water for Israel’s farms comes from treated sewage water. Sewage-munching microbes do the cleaning. Pumps churn air into the storage cleaning ponds to aid in the process and resulting methane sludge gases become the energy (electricity) to supply the power to the facilities. Constant research is done to improve and expand the recycling procedures.

Israeli scientists are also fishing in the desert! At the Ben-Gurion Center for Desert Aquaculture at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev they have discovered ways to use the brackish (slightly salty) water found in an underground “ocean” beneath the desert floor. This now makes it possible to farm fish, shrimp and crustaceans in the desert of Negev.

Israel had another issue—unwanted rats, mice and other rodents, which destroyed about 35% of Israel’s crops. Instead of using poisons that would contaminate the environment, the Israelis devised a way to use the natural enemy of the rodents, the barn owl. Each owl can consume from two thousand to six thousand rats and mice per year. As the rodent problem was resolved, the owls then flew away next door to the country of Jordan! The Jordanian farmers would shoot or poison the owls because they considered them to be bad luck. The Israeli farmers shared their success with the Jordanian farmers and showed them how they could better use the barn owls to also solve their rodent problems.

Swamps along the Mediterranean coast were infested with mosquitoes. Again the Israelis used their ingenuity to tackle the problem. They found a way to sterilize the mosquitoes and Mediterranean fruit-flies so they could not reproduce. As a result, the disease of malaria has disappeared in that area! Israeli farmers began growing tomatoes in green houses instead of in open fields. They used bees to do the pollination, resulting in a 25% increase in tomato production.

Agriculture is just one of the ways that Israel is “blooming”. Israel is also “blooming” in the medical field. Israeli research has come up with medical innovations like the ReWalk, a robotic (Ironman like) suit with motion sensors, a computer system and rechargeable batteries. The ReWalk is designed to allow paralyzed people to stand, walk, and even climb stairs! In one of the most amazing tests of ReWalk, a young woman named Claire Lomas used the device in the 2012 London Marathon. She walked the twenty-six miles in seventeen days and earned the name “bionic woman”. Medical research in Israel is also taking place to develop vaccines that would eliminate cancer, Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis.

Another medical innovation that Israel has developed is the PillCam©. (Personal note: Israel’s innovations have made it to America. I had an occasion to use a PillCam© a few years ago.) The device contains two miniature cameras. The patient swallows the “pill”, which then starts its journey through the stomach and colon. The PillCam© takes pictures at a rate up to thirty-five frames per second for the next ten hours. The images produced are then transmitted electronically to a technician for reading and reporting. Many of these kinds of tests can replace less accurate medical tests and be done at a fraction of the cost.

Dogs have long been known for their extraordinary sense of smell. Israeli researchers have created an artificial nose that can diagnose cancer. The device was developed by Professor Hossam Haik and his team at the Israel Institute of Technology. It is called the Nanoscale Artificial Nose (NA-NOSE). The device uses five advanced sensors and software that detects chemical compounds that appear in the breath of people with head, neck and lung cancer. It works by “smelling” microscopic particles produced by tumorous cells and detecting changes in blood chemistry and metabolic activity. In clinical trials it has been extremely successful. Detection of other diseases like Alzheimers, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis and bowel cancer are also being studied.

In 1829 Braille was introduced that made it possible for the blind to “read”. Today a device called the Or-Cam is helping the nearly-blind to see. It consists of a computer connected to a small camera clipped to a nearly-blind person’s glasses. It allows the individual to see! For the totally blind there is a specialized smart-phone called Project Ray that allows users to send text messages, surf the web, etc. One company is researching a “bionic eye” that would repair the retina. A company called Nano Retina is doing research to develop an implant that will restore at least grayscale vision to those who have become blind because of macular degeneration.

Medical break-throughs like these are constantly being developed and produced in Israel by people who “think out of the box.”

Israelites have developed a cardboard bicycle which weighs only twenty pounds but can support a rider who weighs up to five hundred pounds This is only the beginning of this planned cardboard revolution. There are plans for a developments of a cardboard wheelchair, baby stroller, furniture, and other things that are normally made of wood.

The “blossoming” of oil and gas discoveries was detailed in my first book, Miracles, Prophecy and God’s Other Ways©. In addition, Israel has an almost unlimited supply of solar energy. The country has the most solar-powered water heaters in the world.

Consider this amazing statistic: the total global Jewish population in the world today is only .02% of the total population of the world’s some seven billion people! They wield world-wide influence and have bettered the world far beyond their numbers.

The Nobel Prize is an annual award that was established in 1895 by Swedish inventor, Alfred Nobel. It is actually several awards bestowed annually upon individuals in recognition of cultural and/or scientific advances in six categories: Literature, Chemistry, Economics, Physics, World Peace, and Medicine. Over the years at least 20% of the Nobel Prize winners have been Jewish, and they have won the Nobel Prize in every category! In contrast, the global Islamic population of the world is approximately one hundred times larger than the Jewish. Yet over the same period, in which 855 awards have been given, there have been only a dozen Arab/Islamic Nobel prize winners.

Since Israel is sharing their new technologies with the world, it is hard to understand why some countries want to “wipe Israel off the face of the earth.”

In the book of Genesis God made this promise to Abraham:

Go forth from your country, and from your relatives

And from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you;

And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you,

And make your name great;

And so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you,

And the one who curses you I will curse.

And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

Genesis 12:1-3 NASB