Elisha Vision – Commentary

View from Yad Vashem today

“So they will say, ‘This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden;” Ezekiel 36:35

Doreen and I first visited Israel 35 years ago in 1984. My memory of the Jerusalem hills is that they were rocky and quite barren. The picture below is from that trip. You can see the horizon, beyond the sculpture. It is clear that there are relatively few trees. The above picture is close to the same area today! (Yad Vashem – The World Holocaust Remembrance Center)

Yad Vashem view in 1984

Am I saying that Israel is the garden of Eden? I really don’t know where it was, but the promise is clear. People will “say” that it is like the garden of Eden. That is my point. The contrast from just the last 35 years is stark. Imagine the changes since Jew first started returning to the land 150 years ago! More than 250 million trees have been planted since 1900. The Jewish National Fund plants 3 million trees as year!

Thus says the Lord Yehovah: “On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will also enable you to dwell in the cities, and the ruins shall be rebuilt. The desolate land shall be tilled instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass by. So they will say, ‘This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden; and the wasted, desolate, and ruined cities are now fortified and inhabited.’ Then the nations which are left all around you shall know that I, Yehovah, have rebuilt the ruined places and planted what was desolate. I, Yehovah, have spoken it, and I will do it.” Ezekiel 36:33-36

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem and pray for rain.

Les Lawrence, Voice of Christian Zionists                (Read more)