MIRACULOUS TIMES
Leviticus 20:22: “‘Keep My decrees and laws and follow them, so that the land I am giving you to live may not vomit you out.’”
Mark Twain visited Israel on a trip to the Holy Land in the year 1867. Here is how he described Israel: “A desolate country given over wholly to weeds … a silent mournful expanse … a desolation … we never saw a human being on the whole route … hardly a tree or shrub anywhere. Even the olive tree and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil, had almost deserted the country.”
The Hebrews’ absence from Canaan, the land God promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (who God renamed Israel), began with Joseph around 1200 B.C. Joseph was sold by his brothers to a traveling caravan. The caravan sold Joseph to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials. Joseph made such a great impression on Egyptian officials—both in and out of jail—that Pharaoh placed him in charge of all of Egypt.
The Israelites—including Joseph’s family—fled Canaan for Egypt during a famine around 1250 B.C. The Egyptian timeline is found in Genesis 37:25-Exodus 13:17. 430 years after Joseph, God sent Moses to convince Pharaoh to free the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. God, Himself, led them back to Canaan.
While Israeli slavery in Egypt began as a choice, Israeli exile to Babylon happened from disobedience to God. Around 720-450 B.C., the Hebrew nation was hauled off to Babylon. Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Daniel tell an awesome, often heartbreaking story of captivity in Babylon.
What that famous writer saw and wrote about so many years ago appears exactly what the opening Scripture predicted. The land did, in fact, vomit the inhabitants out! It was only a matter of time when the people disobeyed God’s laws before the land spat them out!
Mark Twain’s visit to Israel in 1867 was about eighty years before Israel became a nation on May 14, 1948. After the United Nations recognized Israel as an independent, sovereign country in the Middle East, Arab countries of Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria attacked Israel.
Take Home Nugget
Amos 9:14-15 predicted in the 8th century B.C.: “‘I will bring back my exiled people to Israel; they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will plant 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.”
Today, we’re wide-eyed on Israel watching miraculous times—biblical prophecies come true.
Holy LORD, Mark Twain described Israel as a “silent mournful expanse.” Thank You for transforming her to an abundant garden today!
Adapted from devotion “Living Prophecies” from Holy Land Moments.com. Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein. May 5, 2017.
J.D. Griffith
The latest Christmas eBook by J.D. Griffith:
Here’s another eBook by J.D. Griffith:
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment