32.2 Spring
A Blessing in the Midst of the Earth
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IMAGINE A SUPERHIGHWAY starting in Aswan in southern Egypt and following the Nile, running across the Sinai, up past southern Jordan, crossing the river and then up through Israel, the West Bank, into Lebanon, crossing northern Iraq, past Aleppo in Syria, into Iran, and ending in Turkey. That’s what the prophet Isaiah envisioned for the future when he wrote:On that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. On that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my heritage.” (Isaiah 19:23–25)This vision in which God declares “Blessed be Egypt my people” and “Assyria the work of my hands” is so unrealistic from a political perspective that it seems more like wishful thinking than prophecy. It’s hard to reconcile this vision with the current situation where Egypt and Jordan are the only Muslim nations that recognize Israel’s legal right to exist. In 1998, while on a Compassionate Listening tour of Israel, West Bank, and Gaza, I was fortunate to meet the late Rabbi Menachem Froman, chief rabbi of the settlement of Tekoa, who taught that we should live as if our dreams of peace really can come true.