BIRTH PANG NUMBER 32
Chapter 34 – God Fills His Breadbasket
January 18, 2002
You may review all Birth Pangs, from number 1 to the
present, by clicking on the indicated line at the top of this page. By continuing this process on each Birth
Pang, you will be able to go backwards all the way to the first ever
issued. In reality, Birth Pangs 1
through 34 are the completion of a book I wrote some 33 years ago. Since I believe the things written in this
book are likely to come on this earth before 2008, I wanted to make it
available free to anyone who wanted to download it.
All the Figures used in the book may be viewed by
clicking on the second line at the top of this page.
Lord willing, for the next several Birth Pangs, I
will cover some things prophesied by Jesus during His Olivet discourse.
Joel 3:18-21
[18] And it shall come to pass in that day, that the
mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all
the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of
the house of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim.
[19] Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for
the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent
blood in their land. [20] But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from
generation to generation. [21] For I will cleanse their blood that I have not
cleansed: for the Lord dwelleth in Zion.
Verse eighteen describes the great abundance of
liquids that will be produced, directly and indirectly, by the vegetation in
the mountains and hills of Judah. It
also predicts the increase of water throughout Judea. It even describes Ezekiel’s millennial Temple
spring and, even more astonishing, it forecasts that it will flow through the new
millennial river system (described by Zechariah, Isaiah, and Amos) to pour
fresh water into the valley of Shittim. I tell you that, without question, it is
impossible for the word of God not to be
inspired. These writers, writing at
different times, and in different locations, literally had to be controlled by
a single Spiritual Being to have come to such specific, matching descriptions
of the vast geologic and hydrologic changes prophesied to occur during the
tribulation period. That Spirit was, and
is, and always shall be, the Holy Spirit of God.
Please note that Joel, in verse nineteen, also
confirms the closing of the Suez Canal, and the ripping apart of Edom (Idumea) over the Arabah
Fault. Both these geologic changes were
described in previous Birth Pangs.
Verses twenty and twenty-one again paint a beautiful
picture of what all the Old Testament prophets knew by faith would one day
arrive, that is, God dwelling with them in a material millennial kingdom for
one thousand years on this present earth, then eternally in a spiritual kingdom
consisting of a new heaven and a new earth.
The prophesied fertility of Israel’s millennial land is mentioned over
and over again by numerous prophets of the Old Testament. There can be little doubt that Israel will
become the world’s millennial breadbasket.
Amos speaks of the land’s great productivity during the time of
Messiah’s reign on this planet.
Amos 9:13-15
[13] Behold, the days come, saith
the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth
seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.
[14] And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they
shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards,
and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of
them. [15] And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be
pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith
the Lord thy God.
Verse thirteen describes how the arid desert land of
the Judean and Negev deserts will become so productive in the new hydrological
pattern, formed by the tribulation period geologic upheavals, that the
following figurative illustration is presented as reality:
(1)
The crops will grow so fast that before one can be fully harvested it
will be time to plant another.
(2)
The number of new vineyards being planted will be constantly increasing
to meet the ever growing demand for the fruit of the vine.
(3)
The mountains will be terraced to drop down from above a multiplicity
of fruits, such that were the juices from them to run over the terraces, the
resultant gully erosion would erode the terraces.
The same type of figurative language is used in the
book of Leviticus to describe fertility of the land given as a blessing from
God.
Leviticus 26:5
[5] And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage,
and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and ye shall eat your bread
to the full, and dwell in your land safely.
Verse fourteen describes the great rebuilding of a
nation devastated during the geologic upheavals experienced in the period of
great tribulation. I once was pastor to
a deacon who taught the adult morning class.
One day, while he was teaching about these millennial blessings God will
pour out on Israel, he briefly paused, and cried,
Oh My! If I
knew how to get there right now, I would start out afoot! I feel the same way he did. Praise God, I wish the kingdom was already
here, and I was standing and looking at this beautiful picture painted by Amos
and the numerous other Old Testament prophets, such as Jeremiah, Isaiah, and
Ezekiel.
Isaiah 61:4
[4] And they shall build the old wastes, they shall
raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the
desolations of many generations.
Ezekiel 34:23-28
[23] And I will set up one shepherd over them, and
he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be
their shepherd. [24] And I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David a
prince among them; I the Lord have spoken it. [25] And I will make with them a
covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and
they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods. [26] And I
will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause
the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing. [27]
And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her
increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am the
Lord, when I have broken the bands of their yoke, and delivered them out of the
hand of those that served themselves of them. [28] And they shall no more be a
prey to the heathen, neither shall the beast of the land devour them; but they
shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid.
Verse fifteen is the completed fulfillment of God to
Israel. For one thousand years the world
population will grow and God will extend mankind’s horizons. With Messiah spiritually controlling the
world from the rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem (Ezekiel 40 through 43) through his
saints and angels in the spiritual kingdom, and through his nation Israel in
the material kingdom, man will rise to heights he has never known. Israel, the breadbasket of the world, will
rule over this earth as nation of nations under the Messiah, the king of Kings,
the Son of God and of David, Jesus Christ.
Ezekiel 36:24-38
[24] For I will take you from among the heathen, and
gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. [25]
Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your
filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. [26] A new heart also
will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away
the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. [27]
And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and
ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. [28] And ye shall dwell in the land
that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.
[29] I will also save you from all your uncleannesses:
and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you.
[30] And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field,
that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen. [31] Then
shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and
shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for your
iniquities and for your abominations. [32] Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto you: be ashamed and
confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel. [33] Thus saith
the Lord God; In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your
iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall
be builded. [34] And the desolate land shall be
tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by. [35] And
they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden;
and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are
inhabited. [36] Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that
I the Lord build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate: I the
Lord have spoken it, and I will do it. [37] Thus saith
the Lord God; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do
it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock. [38] As the holy
flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so shall the waste
cities be filled with flocks of men: and they shall know that I am the Lord.
Jeremiah 32:37-41
[37] Behold, I will gather them out of all
countries, whither I have driven them in mine anger, and in my fury, and in great
wrath; and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to
dwell safely: [38] And they shall be my people, and I will be their God: [39]
And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever,
for the good of them, and of their children after them: [40] And I will make an
everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them
good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from
me. [41] Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them
in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.