BIRTH PANG NUMBER 32
June 17, 2010
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
Birth Pangs 1 through 32 are the completion of a book I wrote some 33 years ago.
Chapter 34 – God
Fills His Breadbasket
January 18, 2002
Joel 3:18-21 – 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 l
and. [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 – 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 demands.
(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 – 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 pas tor
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 – 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 – 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 – 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 – 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.