Jul 27, 2009

The Beauty of Israel

Jim Fletcher
By Jim Fletcher

I woke up early this morning and was pleasantly surprised to see that it was raining — one of those rains that will definitely last all day.

Taking a cup of coffee out onto the porch, I acknowledged our lazy cats, then moved to a table and chairs. I noticed our garden spot, getting some nice nourishment from the heavens. We live in the country, and everything is green. I love rainy days.

The thing that caught my eye most, though, was a flower-bed in the yard. I’m not a green-thumb, and don’t really know the names of flowers. I just know they’re beautiful.

Just like the life God has given us.

I just stared at those flowers. I stared because, clearly, there is much ugliness in the world. There are burdens so heavy out there, I do wonder if the globe is sagging under the weight. Actually, the Bible basically tells us that that is the case; our planet groans under the agony of sin and decay.

So when you find something beautiful, you’d better cherish it. A sunset. Babies. Beautiful church music. A flower-bed.

I mention all this because as our world teeters on the edge of chaos, we must be mindful of what Paul instructed, we must concentrate on that which is good.

Israel, the miracle of the modern state, is just such a “good.”

This past week, I reviewed two books for WorldNetDaily (“Diversions” section): Six Days of War, and Power, Faith, and Fantasy. Both were written by Michael Oren, now Israel’s ambassador to the United States. Both are riveting, spell-binding, and — though not intentional by the author — very clear indications that God is acting in our world today.

Before I get into that, here’s the point I want you to take away this week: your burdens, which I know for many of you are crippling, are miracles-in-waiting for the great Creator God. Israel is one way we can see tangible proof of this. Please get this, especially if you are about to collapse under the weight of financial, emotional, physical, and mental stress.

God is alive and listening and watching. He loves you personally.

You simply must get Oren’s books, but let me give you a few examples of what are clear miracles in Israel’s story:

During the Six Day War, which Oren details in Six Days of War, Israel’s air force chief Ezer Weizman had been working on a plan, codenamed “Focus,” in which the turnaround time for refueling and rearming fighter jets was reduced to eight…minutes. Do you know the turnaround time for Egypt’s air force? Eight hours.

By the time Israel’s pilots headed out over the Mediterranean and then turned sharply back to the east, to the exposed Egyptian airfields, there was no wind resistance, and the skies were clear. Half of the Egyptian air force was destroyed within 30 minutes, and the war’s conclusion was already sealed.

With the conclusion of that war, Israel was again in possession of her ancestral lands, and within a decade, Jewish communities dotted the land, just as the Bible foretold.

The same week, Israel virtually pleaded with Jordan’s King Hussein not to attack, at the same time the Jewish state was engaged with Egyptian and Syrian forces. Hussein, infected with the same irrational, emotional instability as his cousin-neighbors, such as Egypt’s Nasser, attacked.

In so doing, he forever lost to Israel the biblical heartland, the so-called “West Bank.” After being rebuffed in negotiations afterwards, the Israelis began to settle the area, thus bringing to flower a most remarkable, ancient prediction that a nation would rebuild itself, in full view of a disbelieving world.

Right at this moment, the whole world rages against the government of Benjamin Netanyahu, and condemns it for building buildings there. The international community, of course, is the enemy of God, and loathes the idea of Jews living in the Middle East.

Yet King Hussein was used by the Lord to fulfill prophecy.

Stay with me on this next one. In Power, Faith, and Fantasy, which chronicles American involvement in the Middle East, from our Revolution up to now, there are powerful proofs that God has worked in the life of the Jewish nation, to restore it.

During the spring of 1948, as Jewish leaders in Palestine contemplated declaring statehood, per the previous winter’s UN resolution, pressure mounted on U.S. President Harry Truman. Powerful forces both pro and con met with him concerning statehood for the Jews.

Secretary of State George Marshall — much to his lasting, great shame, and I don’t care who knows it — strongly urged the president not to recognize a Jewish state. Arabists in the State Department urged the same thing. Middle East regimes made veiled and clear threats.

Yet Truman said this:
“God has created us and brought us to our present position of power…for some great purpose.”
At 6:11 p.m., Washington time on May 14, an administration spokesman read for the press the president’s statement:
“This government has been informed that a Jewish state has been proclaimed in Palestine and that recognition has been requested by the provisional government thereof. The United States recognizes the provisional government as the de facto authority of the State of Israel.”
I have a great deal of emotion surging through me as I type this, because the Lord of history, rejected and despised by so many, revealed Himself through this act.

The fact that Israel exists in our world today — reporters report from there, passenger jets fly in and out, people walk up and down in the land — is more than enough evidence that for all the ugliness on our planet today…God is with us.

If you are so burdened right now that you wonder if you can make it through the day, please take heart. The God of Israel also loves you, and if He can provide for a whole nation, in the midst of so many enemies, He can and will certainly take care of you. He knows where you are, who you are, and what your troubles are.

If you can’t do anything else right now, just talk to Him and let Him know what’s on your heart. You are certainly on His heart.

Knowing this, hang on, and let your faith flower like a garden receiving a gentle rain.

Israel is alive.