JERUSALEM, Israel — A visitor to Israel hears the greeting everywhere this week on the streets of Jerusalem: “Shana Tova,” or “good year.” Sunday evening at sunset marks Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of the Jewish year 5777, and for a country besieged by threats of destruction and worldwide anti-Semitism at a scale perhaps not seen since World War II, some might think it a stretch to believe the coming year will be a good one.
But as the autumn sun radiates a still warm glow on the city, Israelis count their blessings.
The nation just laid to rest Shimon Peres, the last of Israel’s original founders, who died last week at age 93. Leaders across the country’s political spectrum joined officials from more than 70 nations in paying tribute to Peres, despite deep differences here over his plan to concede land in biblical Judea and Samaria for promises of peace through a Palestinian state.
Peres is best known for his pursuit of peace through the Oslo process, but he also began Israel’s nuclear industry and was a visionary in the area of science, technology and entrepreneurship.
World media outlets love to look at Israel through a sharply political lens, as an “occupier” or even as an “Apartheid state.”
Not true.
But they give short shrift to dramatic ways Israel is blessing the world — including, many times, its enemies — through agriculture (drip irrigation), water conservation (desalination), technology (countless developments in computers and cell phones), and medicine (a robotic exoskeleton that enables paraplegics to run).
Israeli columnist Isi Liebler wrote in the Sunday edition of The Jerusalem Post, “The reality is that few of us appreciate that we live in an age of miracles no less dramatic than our Exodus from Egypt. We must be grateful that within the relatively short span of 68 years, we have not merely resurrected ourselves as a state and grown tenfold, but achieved one of the greatest success stories in recorded history.”
The success story was, of course, foretold in the Bible.
Repeatedly, the Lord promised to bring His people back to the land He calls “My land.” His intention was not only to bless them, but to make them a blessing to the gentiles as well. “It is too small a thing that you should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give you as a light to the gentiles that You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.” (Isaiah 49:6-7, NKJV)
In that sense it is fitting that Christians in nearly 200 countries are praying Sunday for the peace of Jerusalem in an annual event organized by Eagles’ Wings Ministries.
As someone who has lived for a time in Israel and is making 32nd or 33rd trip here (to tell the truth, I’ve lost count), I challenge you to come see the place for yourself. And if you can’t come, find a way to be a blessing to the people of Israel. Shana Tova!
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