![\"Desert-Desolation\"](\"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/desert.jpg\")
<\/a>Desert-Desolation<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cA desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over
\nwholly to weeds\u2026 A silent mournful desolation is here that not even
\nimagination can grace with the pomp of life and action\u2026hardly a tree
\nor shrub anywhere.\u00a0 Even the olive tree and the cactus, those fast friends
\nof a worthless soil, had almost deserted the country\u2026Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes.\u00a0 Over it broods the spell of a curse that has withered the fields and fettered its energies\u2026and renowned Jerusalem, itself the stateliest name in history, has lost its ancient grandeur and is become a pauper village.\u201d\u00a0 He saw no hope of it blooming again.<\/p>\n
But the God of Israel had other thoughts on the matter, promises that were waiting to be fulfilled:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them,
\nAnd the desert shall rejoice and blossom as a rose;
\nIt shall blossom abundantly and rejoice\u2026
\nThey shall see the glory of the Lord,
\nThe excellency of our God\u2026
\nFor waters shall burst forth in the wilderness
\nAnd streams in the desert,
\nThe parched ground shall become a pool,
\nAnd the thirsty land springs of water\u201d\u2026Isaiah 35:1-2; 6-7<\/p>\n
For a modern day example of God\u2019s literal fulfillment of His word to Israel, I\u2019ll quote from an article in the Jerusalem Post by Meital Sharabi concerning a river in the Negev desert.\u00a0 \u201cDespite the infinitesimal amount of rainfall in the area, Nahal Habesor is full of water, and the views of the hills are gorgeous.\u00a0 It is one of the longest rivers in the Negev, and attracts huge numbers of Israelis during the holiday and festival seasons.\u00a0 People flock to this region to enjoy the green landscape and beautiful views.\u00a0 \u2026It\u2019s amazing to see how successful farmers have been recently in engaging in brackish water agriculture\u2026.In the last few weeks the fields have been covered in pink and purple anemones and vibrant desert colours\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOn that day I will raise up the Tabernacle of David, which has fallen down, and repair its damages, I will raise up its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old. \u201c
\n\u201cBehold, the days are coming,\u201d says the Lord, \u201cwhen the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him who sows seed (which indicates several crops each year). The mountains shall drip with sweet wine, and all the hills will flow with it. \u201cAmos 9:11, 13<\/p>\n
\u201cThen you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers;
\nYou shall be My people; and I will be your God.
\nAnd I will deliver you from all your uncleanesses,
\nI will call for the grain and multiply it, and bring no famine upon you\u201d.
\nEzekiel 36: 28-29
\n\u201cIsrael shall blossom and bud and fill the face of the earth with fruit.\u201d
\nIsaiah 27:6<\/p>\n
In so many ways, Biblical prophecies are being fulfilled before our very eyes since Israel has become a nation once again. It wasn\u2019t that long ago that this land truly was desolate and bereft of life.\u00a0 And now? Every year, Israel not only grows enough for national consumption, we export annually more than 2 billion dollars worth of produce to the markets of the world. And as if that weren\u2019t enough, Israel also exports millions of flowers!\u00a0 On Valentine\u2019s Day, for example, Israel exported 60 million flowers to the markets of Europe\u2014the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and England! We are able to grow flowers year-round, which helps fill international demand for flowers in all seasons.
\nNot only that, everything grows beautifully.\u00a0 To quote Israel 21c org\/environment, \u201cEvery year Israel exports more than $2 billion worth of produce\u2014tomatoes are its fourth-largest commodity\u2014and is among the world\u2019s top developers of better-tasting, better-looking, disease-resistant and more nutritious varieties.\u201d<\/p>\n
When I was only four years old, we lived in a house in the countryside near Grafton, Massachusetts, that had a huge vegetable garden in the back yard.\u00a0 As a child with a vivid imagination, the garden enthralled me.\u00a0 It felt magical.\u00a0 And from then on, I\u2019ve always had a child\u2019s wonder at God\u2019s creation.<\/p>\n
When my granddaughters were still living in \/England (before the family returned to Israel), I was visiting them there.\u00a0 One day I went to an Italian market and purchased a great variety of produce\u2014one of each\u2014and put them all in a large brown paper bag.\u00a0 And then, during the day, every once in a while I would have each\u00a0 of them pick an item out of the bag.\u00a0 We would study the detail, the texture, the taste, marvelling at God\u2019s incredible imagination as He invented these items that were meant to fill us with delight. It was a fun day!<\/p>\n
The details, the variety, the perfection of each thing in this world that He created still fills me with awe.\u00a0 And so even now, in Jerusalem, all these years later, I love walking down the produce filled lanes of the Mahane Yehuda outdoor market. Everything imaginable is grown in Israel now.\u00a0 Because of varied climates even in such a small land, we can grow everything.\u00a0 And since Israelis invented the drip irrigation system etc. it makes up for the scant rainfall each year. And so the market is even more magical than that little childhood garden I remember so well! And not only that, every single thing in it is the fulfillment of the Lord\u2019s promise to us in the Scriptures.\u00a0 So I leave the market each time with a bag full of goodies and a heart full of praise! We serve an amazing God. And we live in an amazing time in the history of the world! Wouldn\u2019t you agree?!<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/div><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Esther Korson When Mark Twain visited Israel in 1867 he later published his impressions of the country in his book, Innocents Abroad. Believe it or not, this is what he saw and this is what he wrote: \u201cA desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds\u2026 A silent more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1450,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[525],"tags":[75,625,201,631,125,202],"class_list":{"0":"post-1448","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-editors-choice","8":"tag-israel","9":"tag-israeli-news","10":"tag-israeli-agriculture","11":"tag-israeli-life","12":"tag-news-from-jerusalem","13":"tag-the-land-of-israel","14":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1448"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1448\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2660,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1448\/revisions\/2660"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}