Israel is described at least 100 times throughout the bible as a land flowing with milk and honey. This is a beautiful picture of of what Israel represents. God describes Israel “as the promised land” which it is without a shadow of a doubt. This is a beautiful description of a land that is extremely rich from an agricultural perspective. God brought His people out of slavery in Egypt to a prosperous land of freedom and blessing and the knowledge of The Lord. This is still true of Israel today despite the endless wars against Her! One of the many verses below describing Israel “As a land flowing with milk and honey” is
Exodus 3:8
8 So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.
Israel as a nation that is constantly under attack and has been for almost a year now. Just another three weeks to go before the one year anniversary of 7th October 2023 when the war against Israel; an all out war against God’s land; and an all war against God’s people which started as stated above. We only need to see throughout God’s Word the prophetic evidence of events that have been and are still continuing to unfold when it comes to this beautiful nation; when it comes to this nation that is:
“The Apple Of God’s Eye”
Zechariah 2:8
8 For thus says the Lord of hosts: “He sent Me after glory, to the nations which plunder you; for he who touches you touches the apple of His eye.
There is a crystal clear warning here in the above verse. A warning where basically God says “watch out – anyone who harms Israel will suffer the consequences” and boy is this not happening now! Has this not been going on for as I mentioned earlier, almost a year to the date. As we are all well aware and whether many choose to believe this or not, the consequences of the nations coming against Israel, God is dealing with loud and clear. This we will delve into another section on the subject of Israel and what is going on right now; right here today….
A short Biology Lesson Here!
First of all as the title states, we are going to have a short biology lesson! so, are you sitting comfortably – let’s go!
If you look at the eye in general, what is the most sensitive; the most delicate intricate part of your eye; what is the most important part? Have you figured this out yet? It is the pupil – why? This part of the eye is essential for vision – for you to see, hence this is the most precious part of your eye! The pupil lets light into your eye as the muscle of your iris changes shape. The lens in your eye focuses light that passes through your pupil. Light then goes to the back of your eye and hits your retina. Your retina turns light into electric signals.
The pupil of your eye is the black hole in the middle of your iris. Your iris is the coloured part of your eye. Muscles in your eye control how big the pupil is. Usually, this happens as a result of how much light is available. This makes the pupil an important part of your vision system.
The Cornea has protection. The cornea is a clear dome over the eye that covers the pupil and provides this protection. Another layer of tissue called the conjunctiva also protects the pupil and the eye as a whole! By the way the word “apple” was used to refer to the pupil of the eye since sight is a vital sense and again this well known phrase which is a metaphor for something that is treasured the most – same principle; same concept!
Because the cornea is as smooth and clear as glass it is however, strong and durable which helps in two ways. First of all the cornea helps to shield the rest of the eye from germs, dust and other other harmful matter. The cornea shares this protective task with the eyelid, the eye socket, tears, as well as the sclera, or white part of the eye. The cornea acts as the eye’s outermost lens. It functions like a window that controls and focuses the entry of light into the eye. The cornea contributes between 65 – 75% of the eye’s total focusing power.
When light strikes the cornea, it bends–or refracts–the incoming light onto the lens. The lens further refocuses that light onto the retina, a layer of light-sensing cells lining the back of the eye that starts the translation of light into vision. For you to see clearly, light rays must be focused by the cornea and lens to fall precisely on the retina. The retina converts the light rays into impulses that are sent through the optic nerve to the brain, which interprets them as images.
The cornea copes very well with minor injuries or abrasions. If the highly sensitive cornea is scratched, healthy cells slide over quickly and patch the injury before infection occurs and vision is affected. If the scratch penetrates the cornea more deeply, however, the healing process will take longer, at times resulting in greater pain, blurred vision, tearing, redness, and extreme sensitivity to light.
So, with this short biology lesson here as to the inner workings of our eyes that enables us to see. The phrase “The apple of one’s eye” is an idiom that means someone or something is cherished above everything else – in this case we are talking about God; About how God both sees and views Israel. Also, just so you know, this phrase originated from the idea that the pupil is round and apple shaped. The eyes in Old English mean that our eyes are extremely precious. So, to wrap this short biology lesson up. The apple of one’s eye is a very sensitive area; in other words very protected. If we think about our own eyes for a second, what happens if something flies in or towards it – you have a reflex action where you eyelids automatically close plus also you place your hand in a position over your eye to protect and ward off any threat. As our eyesight is so very precious and valuable; Our body’s instinct is to protect this vulnerable spot to prevent both harm and injury.
Another interesting tidbit for you!
The Hebrew word translation for Apple is Ishon. The whole phrase put together again translated from Hebrew means “the little man of the eye”. Another twist on this idiom is basically “a mirror of one’s self!” Interesting – right? Yep so, to put this another way and relating this to God is quite simple in that Israel is a mirror image of Himself. This is such an incredible beautiful statement. You may at this point, however possibly throw your hands up in horror or upset stating “How dare God view Himself as a mirror image of Israel” or perhaps you may think “How conceited God is” – well, no, neither of these statements are true hence are totally false
A little Bible history for you on this!
Allow me to explain further. If you go back to the very beginning of the Book of Genesis in The Old Testament (The Tanakh). What did God do? He created man in His own image – which was Abraham – right! In creating Abraham from that time on, God told Abraham that He would make Abraham a great nation, which is what He did! At this time, Israel as a nation was non-existent – right! Look at God’s promise to Abraham below:
Genesis 12:2
2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing.
Are you following me so far – great, so let us continue on. So, this was the start of an incredible journey and a promise; A promise as to what God would do through Abraham. And then look at what God says next in verse three of this same chapter.
3 I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Look at the promise God gave to Abraham and continuing on, see what God says will happen if anyone curses Abraham. Now moving on still and by the way this is all so very incredibly exciting seeing how all of this unfolds and how God’s plan from the very beginning relates to Israel. Not only this but God’s promises for Israel are still the same today as they were yesterday and this always will be the case. So, where people get the ridiculous notion that God has replaced Israel with the church is absolute heresy. There is no way to sugar coat this; This is fact – pure and simple!
I am going to shorten this next part for sake of the length of this blog post so far – So, in a nutshell:
For those of you who know (and there is no doubt those that don’t know) Abraham had a son named Isaac. Isaac had a son called Jacob. Jacob found favour in God’s eyes because of this fact. Jacob a man who was chosen by God before his birth, even before the foundation of the world. Jacob’s mother was called Rebecca who was expecting twins – Jacob and Esau; please see below:
Genesis 25:22 – 23
22 But the children struggled together within her; and she said, “If all is well, why am I like this?” So she went to inquire of the Lord.
23 And the Lord said to her:
“Two nations are in your womb, Two peoples shall be separated from your body; One people shall be stronger than the other, And the older shall serve the younger.”
To read the full account, I urge you to go read the entire Book of Genesis to get the full picture. However, as stated already for time’s sake, I am condensing this big time. So, moving on – It was God’s desire to transform Jacob in to His (His meaning God’s) image; to deal with Jacob until God changed Jacob’s name to Israel:
Genesis 32:28
28 And He said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.”
God’s Amazing Love For Us!
God loved Jacob more than Esau, again if you have read this; do read again the account of the births of both Jacob and Esau – if you remember Esau sold his birthright to Jacob and Jacob inherited his brother’s birth right. Throughout all the cricks, twists and turns; throughout all the highs and lows; throughout all the blessings God gave to Jacob – God had chosen Jacob to become His special nation on earth. Despite the Israelites rebelliousness along with their stiff-necked upper stance especially when they were in the wilderness – they were the most loved and cherished nation – this is still the case and will never, never change – are you hearing me here! I repeat this will never change – not now; not tomorrow; NOT EVER. Yes, I am aware I am shouting but this needs to be heard; this needs to sink in LOUD AND CLEAR!
You see, God holds His children so very dear; his protection over His people is as easy as our eyelids protect our pupils. By the way. His children also mean us because of His incredible; amazing love for us through His Son Jesus Christ.
God is our Heavenly Father; His immense love for us is unchanging; indescribable; incomprehensible; so amazing; so divine; incredibly and undeniably precious. Guess what – this is noted throughout – wait for it! THE ENTIRETY OF SCRIPTURE – WHICH IS THE HOLY BIBLE AND IS HIS ABSOLUTE WRITTEN WORD
FINALLY THE ABOVE IS 100% FACT
This is to be continued into another blog post and I have no doubt that the subject of Israel will be ongoing for quite some time to come – so, on this note – watch this space!!
Hi there and welcome to Graceful Simplicity. My name is Page and I reside in The U.K..
I am a Believer in Jesus Christ and my faith is of paramount importance as you will see when you take a meander through the various pages on this website.
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