“The Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills: a land of wheat, and barley, and vines and fig trees and pomegranates: a land of oil olive and honey: a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack anything in it.”1
“Glancing at the country from the windows of a rapidly moving train or car, casual visitors of today consider as normal the rocky, semi-arid run-down condition of much of Palestine . . . The present desolation of Palestine is due to the plunder, exploitation and neglect of recent centuries.”2
The above comparison emphasises what all students of Scripture already know, how that the once prosperous land of Palestine has become sterile and unproductive. The Land of Promise is not unique in its degeneration. Wherever man abuses the soil on which he lives, desolation inevitably follows. Amongst the major problems of America,3 Asia, Africa, and Australia soil conservation looms large. Many thousands of square miles of rich earth have been lost irretrievably through the greed or thoughtlessness of man.
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Author: D. A. B. Owen
Keywords: desolate, land desolate, desolate land, land left desolate, infertile, erosion, geology, agriculture, rainfall, soil erosion, trees, agricultural, soil, barren land
Bible reference(s): Exodus 23:29, Leviticus 26:33-35, Leviticus 26:43, 2 Chronicles 36:21, Isaiah 1:7, Isaiah 13:9, , Isaiah 49:19, Isaiah 62:4, Jeremiah 4:7, Jeremiah 4:27, Jeremiah 6:8, Jeremiah 7:34, Jeremiah 12:11, Jeremiah 18:16, Jeremiah 25:38, Jeremiah 32:43, Jeremiah 50:3, Jer 52:16, Ezekiel 6:14, Ezekiel 12:20, Ezekiel 14:16, Ezekiel 15:8, Ezekiel 19:7, Ezekiel 33:28, Ezekiel 33:29, Ezek. 34:26-27, Ezekiel 36:34, Ezekiel 36:35, Ezekiel 38:12, Micah 7:13, Zechariah 7:14, Tobit 14:4, Baruch 2:23, Matthew 23:38, Luke 13:35, Luke 21:24
Source: “Your Land Shall Be Desolate,” The Testimony, Vol. 18, No. 211, July 1948, pp. 235-9.
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