Israel, A Nation of Miracles…
The recent threats by the
President of Iran to wipe Israel off the world map have caused much alarm
throughout the world. Reactions from world leaders are still pouring in. It is
certain that the stage is being set for future conflict in the middle east at
every level. Is it likely that Iran or any other nation will succeed in ever
wiping Israel off the map of the world? Not only is it not likely, IT IS
IMPOSSIBLE. The God of the universe has promised: “I will bring back my exiled
people Israel; they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will
plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their
fruit. I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from
the land I have given them, says the LORD your God.” Amos 9:14, 15
The new born state of Israel was 50 years old in 1998. What a 50 years! To start with—the rebirth of the state of Israel in 1948 was a miracle of history (Ezek. 37:1-11; Luke 21:29, 30). Never before has a nation been destroyed, its people dispersed to the ends of the earth, and then, nearly two thousand years later, regathered to their homeland and re- established as a nation.
When Israel declared itself
an independent state on May 14, 1948, another miracle occurred. The armies of
seven Arab nations marched on the newborn State, boasting that they would push
the Jews into the sea. Outnumbered 100 to 1, Israel not only repelled the
invaders but acquired more of Palestine than was granted in the UN partition plan.
Yigael Yadin, Israel’s commander of operations in that war, had a terse
explanation of Israel’s victory. "It was a miracle!"
Three Examples of
Miracles
A Syrian column of 200
armored vehicles, including 45 tanks attacked Degania, the oldest kibbutz in
Israel. What a psychological blow this defeat would be! Without artillery,
Jewish forces were helpless to block the Syrian advance. Until then the only
heavy weapons available in all Israel were four howitzers of the type used by
the French army in the Franco- Prussian War of 1870. Two of these ancient
fieldpieces were promptly dismantled and rushed to Degania. The local
commander, Lieutenant Colonel Moshe Dayan, had them reassembled at the very
moment the first Syrian tanks rumbled through the kibbutz perimeter, and they
scored a hit on the advance tank. Had the Syrians known that these two obsolete
weapons represented half the arsenal of field-guns in all Israel, they would
have pressed the attack. Instead, the armored vehicles swung around in their tracks
and clattered back up the mountain road.
In December 1948, the
Egyptians were harassing Israeli settlements in the Negev. Yadin used the Bible
for strategy. It mentioned an ancient road forgotten for centuries, which ran
almost directly to Mushrafa, the Egyptians’ central garrison. Heavy boulders
were pushed aside with bulldozers and soldiers in armored vehicles, jeeps and
supply trucks sped under cover of darkness along the ancient road and surprised
the Egyptians. Taking this garrison destroyed the Egyptian defense system and
ended the war 14 days later.
The Syrian Army had
regrouped east of the Galilee. A Jewish column of 24 homeland armored trucks
and cars, on the way to relieve a besieged Kibbutz, took the wrong road and
crossed the border into Lebanon. Before they discovered their mistake, they ran
head on into a column of supplies for the Syrian Army in Galilee — dozens of
trucks of ammunition, a string of light artillery and 20 new armored cars. The
Israelis fired point blank at the first truck — a tanker loaded with gasoline.
It exploded and set on fire the following truckload of hand grenades. Rapid
repeating explosions were heard for miles around. Terrified, the Syrians
abandoned their cargo and the Israelis scarcely had enough men to drive the captured
supply train back into Galilee. Finally they reached the beleaguered Kibbutz,
only to learn that the Arab besiegers heard rumors that the Jewish army had
invaded Lebanon and fled Israel.
The Bible Helped Build
Israel
David Ben Gurion, Israel’s
dynamic first Prime Minister, was an ardent student of the Bible as an accurate
history of Israel and its land. He dispatched engineers, horticulturists,
botanists, etc., with the Bible in one hand and research tools in the other.
Miracles happened!
Following Bible clues,
copper and iron mines were established. One mining engineer, Abraham Dor,
observed that at the richest veins of copper — "we come upon the slag and
furnaces of ancient Israel. We often get the feeling that someone has just
left." Deuteronomy 8:7-9 was often framed on the walls of mining offices:
"For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land; a land whose stones
are iron and out of whose hills thou mayest dig copper."
Reclaiming the Wasteland
Barren land transformed to
the fertility of ancient Israel is a miracle predicted in Scripture (Amos
9:14-15; Ezek. 36:34-35). It was long assumed that most of Palestine was
wasteland, irreclaimable for agriculture. But archaeologists discovered the
presence of more than 70 ancient settlement sites in one 65-mile stretch of the
Jordan Valley alone, each with its own well for water. Lot, then, was not
exaggerating when he "lifted up his eyes, and he saw all the plain of
Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere, . . . even as the garden of the Lord"
(Gen. 13:10). New agricultural settlements, from Dan to Beersheba, have risen
beside ancient sites re-identified by Biblical archaeologists. Concrete pumping
stations were set over ancient springs or wells. A well from Abraham’s day now
supplies water for residents on the outskirts of Beersheba. One of the basic
necessities in that arid country is reforestation. Ever since Jews began
returning, they have been planting forests, naming them in honor of such
leaders and friends of Israel as Chaim Weizmann, Lord Balfour, George V and
scores of others. The Bible has helped them decide what kind of trees to plant
and where to plant them. Debating whether a certain barren hillside would be a
suitable location for Israel’s immense "Forest of Martyrs," Israelis
found the answer in Joshua, which proved that a forest had existed there.
"Knowing that trees grow more easily where trees have flourished
before," explained Professor Zohary of Hebrew University, "we rely on
the Good Book."
"The first tree
Abraham put in the soil of Beersheba was a tamarisk," said Israel’s
outstanding authority on reforestation, Dr. Joseph Weitz. "Following his
lead, we put out two million in the same area. Abraham was right. The tamarisk
is one of the few trees we have found that thrives in the south where yearly
rainfall is less than six inches."
The writer personally knew
the Boyko Family who pioneered in developing Biblical principles of agriculture
that helped the Aravah and the Negev blossom as a rose. The Bible made Israel
the agricultural giant it is today exporting its products worldwide. It took
another miracle to make this possible. In Bible times there were two copious
rainy seasons in Palestine — the "early and the latter rain." But for
the past many centuries the "early rain" has been minimal while the
"latter rain" and dew have disappeared completely. Since 1878, the
"latter rain" is falling again. The precipitation of both has
spiraled over the decades (Joel 2:23, 24).
The Miracle of
Immigration
Jews from the four points
of the compass heard the call to come home (Isa. 43:5, 6). Israel’s Declaration
of Independence stated that Israel "will be open to the immigration of
Jews from all countries of their dispersion."
Even as war still raged and
the little State faced possible destruction or bankruptcy, the newcomers poured
in. During the first three years of statehood, the average reached 18,000 a
month and in some months the figure exceeded 30,000. Between May 15, 1948, and
June 30, 1953, the Jewish population of the country doubled. By the end of
1956, Israel’s population had nearly tripled, reaching 1,667,000. Imagine the
economic shock of absorption!
Jews kept pouring into
Israel over the decades. In 1984-1985 and again in 1991 harrowing airlifts
brought Ethiopian Jews from utter despair to a Land of hope. Finally the
long-expected prophetic fulfillment of Jews from Russia began in 1991. By 1998
over 800,000 have returned from the former Soviet Republics (CIS) and they are
still coming. Over a million are expected. Israel’s population increased from
650,000 in 1948 to over 6,000,000 Jews in 1998. The miracle of absorption
continues.
The Miracle of the ‘67
War
The Arabs boasted that they
would destroy Israel. However, in six days Israel overran the combined forces
of Syria, Jordan, Egypt and took the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem, the West
Bank (Samaria and Judea), and the Sinai—one of the greatest military feats in
history. To many Orthodox Jews worldwide, especially in the United States, it
was a wake-up call from God. Thousands poured into Israel and settled in
Samaria and Judea to stake Israel’s eternal claim to the so-called West
Bank—the heartland of Israel. They are certain the Messianic Age is near at
hand. As Biblical Zionists, they oppose any give-away of land in the peace
process.
A Hi-Tech Leader
Ezekiel 38 predicts that
Israel will become an economic envy of the nations. The immigration of Russian
Jews is literally paying off. This year has witnessed an explosion in both
hi-tech developments and the number of contracts Israeli hi-tech companies have
signed with manufacturers worldwide. Prime Minister Netanyahu said, "The
failure of Soviet communism to capitalize on the outstanding R & D skills
of the Russian Jews was a stroke of good fortune for Israel. We now have the
highest per capita of scientists in the world. This has put Israel on the
cutting edge of technology." The New York Stock Exchange lists more
hi-tech companies from Israel than any other nation.
Room for Expansion
A six-year study by over
250 scientists and experts predicts that by the year 2020 the population of
Israel will exceed 8,100,000, making Israel by far the most densely populated
developed country in the world. Israel will be more than 2.5 times more densely
populated than Japan and the Netherlands, and there will be a serious shortage
of land for residential construction.
Actually Scriptures (Isaiah
11 & Zechariah 10) indicate another large immigration of Jews from the CIS
and a massive exodus from the U. S. even before 2020. But there will be no land
shortage. A final Arab-Israeli war will precede this massive immigration.
Israel’s borders will be expanded to include all of the Golan Heights, much or
all of the sparsely inhabited nation of Jordan and Southern Lebanon (Isa.
11:14; Zeph. 2:8-9; Micah 7:11,14; Obad. 18-20). All of this territory was
promised Israel in the Balfour Declaration
back in 1917. God will finally give to Israel even more than the nations
promised.
The God of Israel is a God
of miracles—and He has only begun His miracles in achieving Israel’s ultimate
destiny...
Send for our free booklet,
"The Israeli-Arab Peace Process and Bible Prophecy" to learn more
about the ultimate destiny God has in store for Israel, as well as for all the
nations of earth.