Scripture defines the land God has marked out. Historian Arnold Toynbee has written these penetrating remarks, “As for long life, the Jews live on, as the same peculiar people. Today, it has been long ages since the Phoe nicians and the Philistines lost their national identity. Their ancient Syri ac neighbors have gone into the melt ing pot and have been reminted with new images and superscriptions while Israel has proved impervious to this alchemy performed by history in the crucibles of universal fate to which we Gentiles all in turn suc cumb.” What remarkable things have hap pened in the Holy Land in these re cent years! In Ezekiel 36:34 we have the statement, “And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay deso late in the sight of all who passed by.” Do you know, that the Arabs had a tax levied on every tree and in order to avoid paying taxes, land owners cut down every tree they could find? Over the years the area became little more than a desolate, barren desert. Since Israel returned in 1948, several millions of trees have been planted. There are immense forests around Gaza. Space does not permit more than a
broad outline of Israel’s history, be ginning with Abraham and continu ing down through the centuries. In Genesis 14 we read of the victory of Abraham over the Syrian kings when he met Melchizedek, king of Salem. That’s interesting for in Hebrew the word zedek means righteousness. Salem, of course, is peace. This in teresting Bible personality was a type of Christ in that he combined both the offices of king and priest. Four hundred years after Abraham, the law was given to the children of Israel on Mount Sinai. Through the years, the Jews wandered through the wilderness. They clamored for a king and God gave them their choice in Saul. David followed him with his mighty victories. Next came Solo mon under whose reign the beauti ful temple in Jerusalem was built. This replaced the tabernacle the Is raelites had used in their 40 years’ march. In the later years of his rule, Solo mon began to exert more and more pressures upon the people. His urban development program required that there be increased taxa tion . Al though the people at that time didn’t revolt, the seeds for trouble and in surrection had been sown. Upon his demise, Solomon’s son Rehoboam as cended to the throne. Instead of be ing gracious and showing leniency, he applied even more demands until the northern ten tribes rebelled. They chose Jeroboam to be their king and were known all together as Israel. The southern kingdom, which really was comprised only of Judah and a part of Benjamin, became known simply as Judah. From this word we get our familiar term Jew. These tribes in the northern and southern kingdom fought back and forth for 150 years following this division. Then, in 721 B.C., the Assyrians swept in, carrying away to captivity the 10 tribes of Israelite people. Up to this point, it had been more or less usual for a conquered people to
With 75 acres to patrol and located in the heart of a busy residential area. Biota maintains strict security control on its grounds and facilities. Pic tured above is Gary B. Gates one of the school's employees.
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