LEBANON
TO BE A FRUITFUL FIELD
In 1830, there were very few Jews in
Palestine, and the country itself was desolate. The restoration of the Jews
involves more than people. It involves the land also.
An old encyclopedia gives us the
situation in Palestine in the early part of the eighteenth century.
Eighteen centuries of war, ruin, and
neglect have passed over it. Its valleys have been cropped for ages without the
least attempt at fertilization. Its terraced walls have been allowed to crumble,
and its soil has washed down its ravines, leaving the hillsides rocky and sterile.
Its trees have been cut down and never replaced. Its fields have been desolate.
Its structures pillaged and all its improvements ruthlessly destroyed. A land
of ruins without man or beast. Everywhere, on plain or mountain, in rocky
desert, or on beetling cliff the spoiler’s hand has rested.—McClintock and
Strong’s Encyclopedia, Article on Palestine.
The twenty-ninth chapter of Isaiah
prophesies of a book to come forth. This is followed by this significant declaration:
It is not yet a very little while, and
Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field; and the fruitful field shall be
esteemed as a forest?
And in that day shall the deaf hear
the words of the book.—Isaiah 29:17, 18.
Both the Book of Mormon (II Nephi
12:79-87 [LDS: 2 Nephi 30:3-8]) and the Bible (twenty-ninth chapter of
Isaiah) agree that the restoration of Israel is to follow the coming forth of a
book. The Book of Mormon goes a little further than the Bible and identifies
itself as being the book whose coming forth is to precede and herald the restoration
of Israel (II Nephi 12:79-87).
When the Book of Mormon was published
in 1830, Palestine was an unproductive wilderness.
In a book published in 1935, Mr.
George T. B. Davis says:
The change that has taken place in
Palestine . . . it almost unbelievable, and well nigh beggars description.
Swamp lands have been reclaimed, and have given place to waving fields of
grain. Sandy waters have been turned into beautiful orange groves. Desert
places have been turned into a veritable garden of Eden. Indeed it is quite
probable that such a sudden change from a waste wilderness to a land blossoming
as the rose has never before been witnessed in the history of the world. (George
T. B. Davis, Rebuilding Palestine According to Prophecy, page 16)
Our Good Neighbor
magazine for October, 1952, contains
some interesting information about Palestine.
Israel is planning 66,000 farm units
by the end of 1954 with the rural population to be doubled within three years
to reach 600,000 people living and working in farm areas or about 30 per cent
of the population. More than 950,000 acres, which is almost 18 per cent of the
territory of the state and well over one third of the total cultivable land in
the country, is now under cultivation in Israel.
In addition to its agricultural wealth
recent surveys indicate there may be rich oil deposits in Palestine. Its
phosphate deposits are fabulous. There are also rich manganese deposits as well
as other valuable minerals. (Roy Weldon, Other Sheep: Book of Mormon
Evidences [Independence, Miss.: Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day Saints and Herald Publishing House, 1958], 80-81)
Further
Reading: