Thirty-five hundred years ago G-d sealed a covenant with a man, and proclaimed to him that the nation that would proceed from his loins would be a blessing to the other nations of the world.
The passage of time has confirmed that declaration, despite their failings and rebelliousness. It was through Israel that the sublime revelation of the Bible came, that the Judeo-Christian ethic was transmitted to a darkened world lost in paganism, from which the Messiah came, and by whom the Christian faith was launched upon the world.
Today, as G-d, true to His word, sovereignly regathers the exiles to His Holy Land, we are beginning to see the flowering of that nation, established in a day, in the heart of a region seized with turmoil and violence. Despite the sworn intention and daily efforts by its neighbors to snuff out its life and the indifference or hostility of much of the rest of mankind, this nation has not only endured, has not only reclaimed and cultivated the wastelands that marked Israel under the rule of its Muslim conquerors, but has filled the earth with beautiful fruit of every venue.
From the early days of prime minister David ben Gurion, Israel has had the national policy of reaching out to the newly independent nations with assistance and technology, even when the official stance of their governments was less than friendly. Today, when so much of the third world is threatened with ecologic crises, Israel has brought breaking advances in agriculture and breeding, water desalinization and drip irrigation, which has caused a revolution in agriculture.
When natural disasters and terrorist attacks have occurred, Israel has come to the aid, often the first responders, with medical teams and technology to locate and rescue survivors. She has provided aid for more than 140 countries, including Haiti, Rwanda, Turkey, India, and El Salvador. In the Syrian quagmire with countries and militias decimating the population, it is Israel whose notable contribution has not been military intervention, but rather humanitarian aid, treating nearly two thousand wounded despite their parochial hatred of Israel. Mashav, the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s Center for International Cooperation, has trained over 200,000 international aid workers that have traveled to dozens of countries to help with medicine, agriculture, disaster relief, and many other issues. Through Save a Child’s Heart, children from around the world, including from Arab nations, have received free life-saving heart operations. Since the organization first began 2,300 children have been treated, and almost half are from the PA, Jordan, and Iraq.
To the world at large, the Jewish people have been in the vanguard of culture and civilization, and 0.2% of the world’s population has produced 22 percent of its Nobel laureates. Israeli scientists have made major advances in mathematics, physics, chemistry, robotics, optics, medicine, biotechnology, computer science, agriculture and breeding, energy resources, security, consumer goods and appliances, food products, and renewable energy that have revolutionized and blessed the world. To mention but a few: The cell phone, voice mail, and Waze GPS were invented in Israel, along with several Windows operating systems, the first PC microprocessor, the first computer anti-virus program, the first USB flash drive, and even the grocery scanner. Israeli scientists developed the first fully computerized, no-radiation diagnostic instrumentation for breast cancer, cutting-edge anti-cancer modalities, the first ingestible camera for detecting tumors and disorders of the digestive tract, Azilect for the treatment of Parkinson’s Disease, and Copaxone for Multiple Sclerosis. The airline industry’s most impenetrable flight security as well as technology to protect civilian aircraft from missile attack are courtesy of Israel.
But the best is yet to come. As the Apostle Paul penned in Romans 11:15:
“For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?”
Israel has a glorious calling as a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, and a light to the Gentiles, which we must all uphold and encourage her to fulfill her destiny.
Source: First Fruits of Zion
