Israel: A Light To The Nations
ICEJ Australia
Gentiles Shall Walk By Your Light
The nation of Israel was called and set aside to be the channel of Redemption. From her came the Word of God and the Jewish Messiah who is the light to the nations. Israel’s mission has been to reflect that light. The extraordinary benefits the world has received from this small and embattled nation confirms Isaiah 6o:3, “Gentiles shall walk by your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising.” Israel is 0.11% of the world population but its contributions outweigh its numbers.
Out Of Israel With Love
In their short 76 years Israelis have not just been fighting wars of self-defence and dealing with terror attacks, but developing agricultural, health, technology benefits.
There is a verse in the book of Ruth which has a prophetic nuance. “At mealtime Boaz called to her, “Come over here, and help yourself to some food. You can dip your bread in the sour wine. So, she sat with his harvesters, and Boaz gave her some roasted grain to eat. She ate all she wanted and still had some left over.” Boaz the Jew, provided generously for the gentile stranger who was gleaning behind the harvesters according to the Biblical laws that supported the poor.
Agriculture Breakthroughs
This groundbreaking technology invented in 1965, delivers precise drops of water and nutrients directly to the plant’s roots rather than the surrounding soil. Due to its precision, drip technology significantly saves on both water and land resources, while increasing crop quantity and quality.
Speaking of agricultural breakthroughs, the cherry tomato bred in 1973 was a convenient boon for snack boxes of Israelis who love their tomatoes and they soon became a favourite of all.
By the holiday of Shavuot 2024, a festival that celebrates agriculture, the Central Statistical Bureau (CSB) published data on milk production and sale in the country for 2023. It turned out that Israel has the highest milk yield per cow in the world, far ahead of its closest competitors – Denmark, Estonia and the Netherlands. 12,265 kg per cow per year. But it does not keep milk producing secrets to itself. Israeli Dairy Farming School, trains specialists from all over the world in innovative Israeli agricultural technologies and farming methods.
Israel is the only country living in the same land, speaking the same language, with the same faith and the same name that they had 3000 years ago. And the fact none of that existed for 2000 years, but was reestablished only in 1948, should be mind boggling.
Environment
There’s only one country in the world that has more trees today than it had 100 years ago, and that is Israel. They actually have 450 million more trees than 100 years ago. In 21st-century Israel, tree planting has become a hi-tech operation that utilizes the most up-to-date research and technology
“The further we went, the hotter the sun got – and the more rocky and bare, repulsive and dreary the landscape became… There was hardly a tree or a shrub anywhere. Even the olive and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil, had almost deserted the country.” In 1867, Mark Twain wrote the above description, part of the chronicle of his visit to the Holy Land, from his best-selling travel book, The Innocents Abroad.
In the 1930s British scientists came to Israel and said there’s enough water resources to provide for two million people maximum. Those same water resources today are providing for 12 million people in Israel and the Gaza Strip, even while they are exporting water to their neighbours. Over 80% of Israel’s water is reused. They recycle and reuse more water than any country in the world by a huge margin. Spain is in second place at 40%. Israel desalinate far more water than any other country in the world, as today 90% of the water in the taps anywhere in Israel is from desalinated water.
Health
‘Babysense’ is the original Breathing Movement Monitor, invented in Israel by an electrical engineer and a technical development manager. It offers peace of mind to parents while their baby sleeps. It constantly monitors baby’s breathing micro movements through the mattress during sleep and gives an alert if breathing stops or becomes irregularly slow. All derivations on the market today are a result of this breakthrough in development. Babysense breathing movement monitor is highly effective and has helped protecting over 1 million babies from SIDS around the world.
ReWalk is a battery-powered exoskeleton that has been developed to help paraplegic patients walk again. It’s Israeli inventor, Dr. Amit Goffer, devised the system after being left paralysed due to a tragic accident. The exoskeleton is operated using a wristwatch and allows patients to recover the ability to walk, stand up and climb stairs. It has been available to the public since 2014 and has even made appearances in the London Marathon and Paralympics.
The PillCam is a camera device designed to be swallowed. It was developed in 2001 to help diagnose and treat infections, such as intestinal disorders, and digestive system cancers. Data is transmitted from the camera to an external receiver and it is revolutionizing medicine. The camera is digestible and disposable and able to access areas of the digestive system that are typically out of range during a conventional procedure.
- The flexible stent, EluNIR, has saved millions of lives, since it was first developed in 1996. This tube-shaped device is used to open up arteries to help treat coronary heart disease.
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- A unique Israeli nuclear imaging system, now used in major international hospitals, shortens procedures significantly while delivering more accurate and clearer images. A bone scan that conventionally takes 45 minutes now takes just 12 minutes which makes for calmer patients, especially children.
The Digital World
Babylon is a computer dictionary and translation program developed by the Israeli company Babylon Software Ltd. It provides in-house proprietary dictionaries, community-created dictionaries, and glossaries. Babylon is used for translation, currency conversion, measurements, time, and other contextual information. The program also features a text-to-speech agent for proper pronunciation.
Waze was developed in 2006 under another name. It is a navigation app that provides real-time driving directions based on live traffic updates. It offers information on roadblocks, police locations, and traffic alerts. It helps millions of drivers get to their destinations safely.
- Gett is an App developed in 2009 creating one of the most sophisticated platforms for ground transportation. It connects between customers and taxi drivers using its proprietary GPS system.
High Tech
The USB flash drive was invented by Dov Moran, son of Holocaust survivors, who formed M-Systems in 1989 and is a pioneer in the flash data storage market. He also invented the FlashDisk as well as several other innovative flash data storage devices.
- Intel Israel changed the face of the computing world with the 8088 processor (the “brain” of the first PC), MMX and Centrino mobile technology. Israeli engineers at Intel in the 1990s had to convince sceptical bosses to take a chance on MMX technology, an innovation designed to improve computer processing.
Creative Thinking
Israeli 15-years-olds are among the world’s most creative thinkers, according to an international study released June 2024. A study of students in 63 countries puts Israel in 11th place.
In science and culture, Israel has the highest ratio of university degrees per capita of any nation in the world, the highest number of engineers and PhDs per capita by a large margin, the highest rate of entrepreneurship among women.
They have more museums per capita than any country in the world, more orchestras, they publish more books per capita by a large margin. Beersheva has the largest number of chess grandmasters per capita of any city in the world.
Israel’s economy has the largest number of start-up companies per capita in the world, more than 2,600 start-up companies.
In a 2024 study conducted by Ilya Strebulaev, a Russian-American financial economist, researcher and professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, five Israeli universities were ranked among the world’s best institutions for producing graduates who went on to found United States-based unicorn startups (i.e. startups valued at over $1 billion). For example, world-famous British universities of Cambridge and Oxford came in eighth and eleventh respectively, surprisingly falling behind their Israeli counterparts. The study excluded US-based educational institutions.
Other Technology With Jewish Heritage And Influence
Google is a household word and possibly used every day by much of the population. It was created by two Jewish colleagues. Their invention has shaped the world, and the billion-dollar company is at the forefront of modern-day innovation. The two Jewish men, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, developed the search engine while they attended Stanford University. “Don’t be evil” became their motto and is still embodied by the company.
While not everyone is on board with genetically modified foods, genetic engineering is gaining popularity as a means of developing a cancer treatment. Furthermore, organisms that are genetically modified are being used to develop insulin and prevent diseases from affecting crops. These important benefits were made possible by Paul Berg, a Jewish scientist, in 1972. He created the first recombinant DNA molecules. These molecules form the basis of modern genetic engineering, making its advancements possible.
And in 2011: A new technology that enables the introduction of genetic materials into seeds without modifying their DNA, has been developed by Hebrew University scientists.
Direct Assistance To Developing Countries
Israel has provided humanitarian assistance to developing countries in Asia, Africa, South America, Oceania, and Central Europe through the activities of Mashav, the Israeli Centre for International Cooperation, created in 1958, with the goal to give developing countries the knowledge, tools, and expertise that Israel gained in its own development, and its ability to “make the desert flourish”. This centre trains course participants from approximately 140 countries on healthcare, as well as emergency and disaster medicine, and has participated in dozens of projects worldwide in economic fields such as agriculture, education, development, employment, and healthcare, as well as humanitarian fields such as disaster relief, reconstruction, and refugee absorption. [Source: Wikepedia]
“Then David said, ‘ I will show kindness to Hanun the son of Nahash [Ammonite Kings], as his father showed kindness to me.’ So David sent by the hand of his servants to comfort him concerning his father.” 2 Samuel 10:2.
However David’s kindness was misunderstood and was repaid by humiliating his servants. Israel’s kindness, the inventions and research that has benefited the world, even saved many lives, is too often repaid by abandonment at times of crisis, just when sympathy and support is needed.
