Friday, September 29, 2006

Israel: Crossroads of the World

This morning I am staggered by a realization. I browse absent-mindedly over a world map on the wall in my classroom just after all the students have left. My eyes come to rest on the location of Israel.

Look at this world map. Notice where Israel is, in the little tip of land right between the African continent and Europe/Asia.

This map shows it well. You will have to scroll up and down and to the right. You can see, looking back and forth at the maps, that this relatively tiny little finger of land is the only place where that entire half of the world connects. Those continents are not tied together by land anywhere else.

In effect, this 1581 German (?) map shows the true relationship between Israel and the rest of that half of the world, although it isn’t, of course, an accurate representation of the land masses.

The thing that boggles my mind is how perfect God’s planning was in sending the ancient Hebrews to their promised land. It was truly the crossroads of the world. Anyone traveling from Egypt, or anywhere else in Africa, to anywhere north had to go through Israel. That made it the perfect headquarters for the sending of his Word to the world.

I know and fully believe that God is all powerful. Then why does it amaze me so when I become aware of something he has done?

5 comments:

Barb said...

I'm constantly amazed at how God works. It's mind-boggling, He's so big.

I'm dropping by to thank you for visiting A Chelsea Morning and leaving a sweet comment on my post about my sister's visit next week. She and I are truly best friends and are lucky if we see each other every two or three years. She's in Pneesylvania and I'm in Colorado. I'm beyond excited that she'll be here in five days. Thank you again for stopping by.

Tyson said...

Funny how we get surprised by the vastness of history, this universe, and, of course, God's plan for it all! I am at the library right now and stopped by to browse through a volunteer book sale ... it was amazing to see things written by Plato and other ancients available for me to read today (in translation, of course)! Truly, we are small beings.

John said...

What a clever idea! I've never thought about how God may have used geography for his ultimate plans for Israel.

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed reading your blog very much. Thanks for taking the time to keep it going.
Shane
Great Health

Tyson said...

Ok, see ... this "Shane" commenter is a good example of comment spam. I haven't visited his website, but with a url like www.greatfitnesshealth.info, I have a good idea it's not a good idea to do so.

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