Day Five: Wasteland Brought to Life

Deuteronomy 29:23–24 prophesies that the land of Israel would become a desolate and barren wasteland after God drove his people from it.  The destruction will be so catastrophic that “all the nations will ask: ‘Why has the LORD done this to this land? Why this fierce, burning anger?’”

And in fact, that is a remarkably accurate description of the land as it was in 1948, when Israel was reborn. Mark Twain, who traveled to the Holy Land in 1867, described it like this in his book The Innocents Abroad:

• “It is a blistering, naked, treeless land.”
• “Of all the lands there are for dismal scenery, I think Palestine must be the prince.”
• “It is a hopeless, dreary, heart-broken land.”
• “Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes . . .”

But the Bible also promised that once God’s people returned to the land, He would turn it from a wasteland into a garden. Ezekiel 36:34–35 says that one of the signs that the regathering would be an act of God is that “the desolate land will be cultivated instead of lying desolate” and promises the people who witness it will say, “This land that was laid waste has become like the garden of Eden.” Likewise, Isaiah 27:6 promises, “In days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit.”

Today those prophecies are being fulfilled. If you’ve traveled to Israel, you know that while parts of the country are arid, much of it is now a rich, fertile agricultural garden. Israel has today become a major source of agricultural innovation and is now a major exporter of food including fresh fruit. Truly, “This land that was laid waste has become like the garden of Eden.”