Israel has just declared their energy independence from the world for the next decade!
Reported by YNetNews.com in their January 18, 2009, article titled "Large Quantities of Natural Gas Found off Haifa Coast," Israel has found the mother lode of natural gas deposits. Noble Energy and a consortium of exploration and drilling companies have after 5 years of drilling at the Tamar site 56 miles west of the northern port of Haifa discovered an estimated 3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The gas could be pumped out and sold as early as 2013.
"We are witnessing an historic moment in Israel's energy market… we are talking about the biggest find in Israel's history," National Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer is quoted in a statement reported by Reuters.com in their January 18, 2009 article "Israel Eyes Gas Bonanza From Large Offshore Find" by Steven Scheer.
Israel has been receiving their natural gas from Egypt, a country more often than not openly hostile towards them. Now, Petroleum Commissioner Yaakov Mimran has said that if early findings are validated the site would meet Israel's demand for 15 years. Yitzhak Tshuva, who controls one of the discovery consortiums, proclaimed "It could solve the country's gas problems for many years and generations to come. We now won't be dependent on others for gas, and we'll even be able to make exports." Along with 30 billion cubic meters of gas being pumped out of Israel's southern coast, Israel will no longer be dependent on any other nation for its natural gas needs.
What will this amazing predicament mean in the unfolding scheme of Bible prophecy?
Israel is now an even hotter commodity than it already has been. Besides the world wanting control of Jerusalem for its religious importance (a fulfillment of Zechariah 12:1-3) and their hostile Arab neighbors coveting the financial importance of Israel's newly restored and agriculturally bountiful land, now this $26 billion find will indeed make Israel a very rich country.
Israel's wealth as recorded in Ezekiel 38:7-13 is the main motivator for the armies of God and Magog, known today as Russia and Iran, to invade Israel in its desire to seize their wealth.
"'Get ready; be prepared, you and all the hordes gathered about you, and take command of them. After many days you will be called to arms. In future years you will invade a land that has recovered from war, whose people were gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate. They had been brought out from the nations, and now all of them live in safety. You and all your troops and the many nations with you will go up, advancing like a storm; you will be like a cloud covering the land.
This is what the Sovereign LORD says: On that day thoughts will come into your mind and you will devise an evil scheme. You will say, "I will invade a land of unwalled villages; I will attack a peaceful and unsuspecting people—all of them living without walls and without gates and bars. I will plunder and loot and turn my hand against the resettled ruins and the people gathered from the nations, rich in livestock and goods, living at the center of the land." Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish and all her villages will say to you, "Have you come to plunder? Have you gathered your hordes to loot, to carry off silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods and to seize much plunder?'"
Israel has just gotten a whole lot more valuable to the world, and it won't be too long before some nations try to take that value for themselves. As Ezekiel 38:17-23 prophesies, God has other more final plans for the invaders.