Photo by Ariella Bracha Waldinger
It is a very unique chapter in the Bible, one where God is not speaking to a person, a people, or a nation. He is actually speaking to mountains, to the land, and saying, “I will treat you better than you have ever been treated before. And they will know that I am the Lord.” Do you know that there are 2600 year old prophecies that lay dormant until our lifetime?
All too often we make the Scriptures more difficult than they were intended to be. It is an anomaly that a people on a designated land for many years be deported for 70 years, return and live there for another 650 years and then be deported all over the world, only to return to the same land again 1800 years later. Same language, same Scripture, same people. There is nothing like this in any other facet of human history.
“Also, thou son of man, prophesy unto the mountains of Israel, and say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord.” (Ezekiel 36:1) I encourage you to read this chapter in entirety. It is here that God is not speaking to “you” or “them”, but to the mountains, the Land of Israel. He promises that the Land would come under Jewish possession again and that this time it would be treated better than ever before (verse 11). God says that after having been trod for centuries by Gentiles that the Land would be transformed from waste and desolation to a new period of fruitfulness. When will this occur? In verses 19-24 after Israel was dispersed throughout the world, God says He will “gather you (Israel) out of all countries” and bring them back to “your own land.” The Assyrian and Babylonian captivities did not result in worldwide dispersal, so this did not occur then. Only after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. and Emperor Hadrian’s crushing defeat of the final Jewish revolt in 135 A.D. led by Simon bar Kochba did the 1800-year “Diaspora” begin. This prophecy has been and is continuing to be fulfilled today.
“Therefore, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord God; Because they have made you (the Land) desolate, and swallowed you up on every side….” (Ezekiel 36:3)
So, what happened to the Land? There are documented quotes about the land of Israel from virtually every century since the fall of Jerusalem and they describe a land of desolation, for when the “people” are out of the land, the land lies desolate. Flavius Josephus wrote, “what was once a garden, is now a desert.” The historian Carl Voss said, “after the Arab conquest in the 7th century and for the next twelve centuries, the region was laid waste.” Under the Ottoman Empire (1517-1917) the Land was denuded of forest land due primarily to a unique tax whereby inhabitants were taxed for each tree that was owned. Solution? They chopped down all their trees to avoid the tax. In fact, the Ottomans referred to it as “a cursed land.” During the 1700s most of the land was owned by absentee landlords leaving impoverished tenants, land poorly cultivated and widely neglected. It became a malaria-infested swamp and a wasted land that grew nothing.
In 1867 Mark Twain visited the Land and wrote that it was “a desolate country whose soil is rich but is wholly given over to weeds. A silent, mournful expanse, we never saw a human being on the whole route. There was hardly a tree or a shrub anywhere. Even the olive and cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil, have almost deserted the country.”
“But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to come.” (Ezekiel 36:8)
Trees and water changes everything. When the first trickle of Jews began returning in the 1880s, they began to drain the marshes, introduced fish to eat the mosquito larvae, and they planted eucalyptus trees to absorb the swamp water. But many still died from malaria as they began toiling the land.
And then they began to plant trees. When trees return, animals return, weather patterns change, moisture increases, and the topsoil comes back. Over the last 100 years the Jewish National Fund estimates that 250 million trees have been replanted in Israel. Most of their trees are not more than 50 years old but the revival of the land began with trees putting forth their branches, just as God spoke it, just as God promised it. It’s as if the Land responds to Jewish sovereignty and ownership, ironically that is what the Bible says.
“And I will multiply men upon you , all the house of Israel, even all of it: and the cities shall be inhabited, and the wastes shall be builded.” (verse 1)
In 1909 some 60 Jewish families began building the settlement of Tel Aviv (Jaffa) on a barren beach overlooking the Yarkon River and the Mediterranean Sea. Mule trains can be seen in old pictures bringing supplies across the sands to the settlers. The population of Tel Aviv is now 444,000 and the city today is the number 1 high tech startup capital of the world. It is renowned for computer sciences, electronics, genetics, optics, biotechnology, medical electronics, solar energy, electric cars and water technology. Apple, Samsung, Google, Intel and Microsoft have major R&D centers located in Tel Aviv. The population of Israel edged over 9 million for the first time this year.
“In days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit.” (Isaiah 27:6)
What was once dead, brown and dusty is now fertile and green. The land is reviving and producing like never before, even the desert of Israel is blooming with orchards and vineyards today.
Israel is one of the primary exporters of fruits and vegetables to the entire world and with the entry of refrigeration, this prophecy is now being fulfilled. In 1980 Israel’s exports totaled $6 billion, in 2000 $31 billion, in 2015 $63 billion and this year it will surpass $110 billion.
Israeli agricultural and water technology is cutting edge. Israel has pioneered desalination plants that can convert sea water to drinking water in just 45 minutes. There are 4 desalination plants today that supply 40% of Israel’s water needs and it is estimated to provide 70% by 2050. They have engineered precision agriculture, irrigation systems, ozone-oxygen processes, and water technology that is enabling Israel to becoming the first “drought-proof” nation of the world. “And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the nations.” (verse 30)
Although I have never met nor corresponded with him, Doug Hershey has authored a book entitled Israel Rising, which I would encourage you to search online. He has compiled a photographic summary of “Israel then, Israel now” pictures over the last century that capture this transformation in an extraordinarily beautiful way.
Many profound things are happening today in Israel. It is nothing short of a miracle what has happened to the mountains and the land of Israel over the last 100 years. Why is it happening?
Your Bible scriptures are coming to pass just as God said it would. Israel is a signpost in many respects. God has made promises to these people that will come to pass in tangible ways that we can clearly see.
Since the year of Israel’s rebirth in 1948 approximately 55 Biblical prophecies have been fulfilled. I use the word “approximately” because some are in the process or are only partially fulfilled at this time. If God is fulfilling Ezekiel 36 in our lifetime, why would all of His other prophecies not continue to be fulfilled?
Do you recognize the season?
“Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.” (Isaiah 46:10)
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A Carpenter’s View is part of Carpenter Ministries, Inc. a fully organized 501(c)3 non-profit organization operating in the state of Virginia.