"You were shown these things so that you would know that the LORD is God;
there is no other besides Him."
(Deuteronomy 4:35)
There are three cities in modern Palestine that are vying with one another
in rapid growth and public interest: Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv, and Haifa.
Jerusalem is the ancient city, filled with a thousand sacred associations,
that has in these latter days put off her garments of desolation and put
on the new raiment of restoration. Tel-Aviv, the all-Jewish city of
modern Palestine, was a few years ago a mere strip of ocean beach,
and now it has become the most populous city in the land.
Haifa is the industrial center of Palestine, and curiously enough it is
this commercial metropolis that is rapidly becoming one of the
most beautiful cities in the East.
Haifa was formerly a sleepy seaport city lying sluggish and dormant
like the rest of Palestine. Since the World War* the city has awakened
to new life. It is growing with unprecedented rapidity, and is destined to
become one of the great gateways between the Occident* and the Orient.
It is connected by rail to Egypt, and through the Suez Canal with the trade
routes to India and the East. It is linked by trans-motor with Arabia and Iraq,
ancient Assyria. It is connected by steamer with Mediterranean ports, Great
Britain, and America. In short, it is a city of almost unlimited possibilities.
The coast of Palestine contains no natural harbor. Several years ago the
government decided to construct an artificial harbor at either Jaffa or Haifa.
The latter city was finally chosen as the most suitable one for the construction
of the harbor, and it was built at the cost of more than $5,000,000.
Two years ago the harbor was opened, and already Haifa has become one of
the most important sea ports of the Mediterranean. A year ago international
interest in Haifa was still further increased by the opening of the great petroleum
pipe line that carries oil nearly a thousand miles from Mesopotamia to the
Mediterranean. Haifa is one of the two terminals of the pipe line, and is
the headquarters of the Iraq Petroleum Company that has built
this modern method of transporting oil.
We had been in Palestine for several weeks before we visited Haifa.
One June morning we left Jerusalem by motor car for Haifa and
the northern section of the country including the Sea of Galilee.
Shortly after noon we reached Jacob's Well. We had brought our
lunch and were allowed to eat it inside the compound built about the
ancient well, where tables have been provided for the use of visitors.
We had completed our lunch and were just ready to go to the well
itself-which is within a stone enclosure-when we saw four
British soldiers approaching. They had also come to visit
the well, so we all went in together.
in Balata, a suburb of the Palestinian-controlled city of Nablus
in the disputed land known as the West Bank.
Image courtesy/Israel Photos III
The well certainly gives every evidence of being the one which has
born Jacob's name throughout the centuries. A native woman living in
the compound came to draw up the water for us. The well was very
deep and dark. The attendant let down a bucket with a windlass.
A candle was attached to the rope above the bucket
to enable us to see the depth of the well.
With craned necks we bent over the well, watching the lighted candle
as it went lower and lower until at last the bucket touched the water.
Then began the long winding to bring the water to the mouth of the well.
It recalled vividly the words of the woman of Samaria to the Savior
at the noon hour so many centuries ago:
"The well is deep: from whence than hast thou that living water?"
After we all drank of the water it was suggested that the story of the
Lord's interview with the woman of Samaria be read aloud. This was
done, and the comment was made that it was in His talk with the woman
at the well, as recorded in the fourth chapter of St. John's Gospel, that
Jesus of Nazareth declared definitely that He was the Messiah of Israel:
"The woman saith unto Him, I know that Messiah cometh, which is
call Christ: when He is come, He will tell us all things..
Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am He."
The little meeting concluded with the singing of a hymn, and we all
went on our way refreshed, feeling that the Lord had again
been present in Spirit in our midst.
It was late afternoon when we reached Haifa. The city is built on the
shore of the Mediterranean sea and on the slopes of famous Mount Carmel.
It was on this mountain that Elijah slew the prophets of Baal, and where
his prayers prevailed to break the three years of drought of Samaria.
We had made reservation at the Evangelical Mission-Heim which is
located at the top of the mount. Higher and higher the car climbed
through the winding roadways of the city. I was amazed to see how
marvelously the city had grown since my previous visit four years ago.
Our room had a balcony overlooking the city and the sea. Never will we forget
the wonderful panorama of mountain and plain and sea that presented itself
before our eyes. The sun was almost setting. It cast a glow over the calm waters
of the bay and flashed against the hundreds of new buildings in the city below,
that had sprung up as by magic wand during the past few years.
We stood almost enthralled with the beauty and wonder of the scene.
A few hours later we witnessed another picture scarcely less enchanting
as the moon rose slowly over the slopes of the mountains and flooded the
city and sea and plain with its silvery rays.
The next morning from our balcony we could see clearly the new harbor
that has been built, and several ships lying safely within it. There was one
steamer that interested us greatly. It was an oil tanker, only a little way
out from the shore, receiving oil from a large hose-oil that had been
pumped through the desert all the way from Mesopotamia,
almost a thousand miles distant.
The following day we visited the headquarters of the oil company
and were given an album containing pictures and facts about the
remarkable pipe line. The Iraq Petroleum Company is an
international enterprise. American, British, French, and Persian
oil interests are represented in the consolidated corporation.
It was in July, 1934 that the first oil was pumped through the long pipe line
from Kirkuk to Haifa, but it was only in January, 1935, that the vast enterprise
was officially opened. As the oil flows onward on its journey of nearly a
thousand miles from Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean, it is carried
through twelve inch steel pipes electrically welded together.
The oil that arrives in Haifa through the pipes in a single
day amounts to 5500 tons or 2,000,000 tons in a year.
This means about a million gallons of oil in a day!
The completion of the pipe line and its carrying such quantities of oil
to Haifa marks the astonishing fulfillment of an ancient Bible prophecy
uttered 1500 years before Christ. Shortly before his death, Moses, the
man of God, by divine inspiration, looked down the long corridors of
time and foretold the future of the various tribes of Israel. And
remember that this prediction was spoken before the children of
Israel had entered the land of Canaan.
In speaking of the tribe of Asher, Moses said in Deuteronomy 33:24,
"Let Asher be blessed with children; let him be acceptable to his
brethren, and let him dip his foot in oil."
After the conquest of Canaan under Joshua, the land was divided by
lot among the twelve tribes. The portion that fell to Asher lay along the
coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It stretched northward beyond Tyre
and southward beyond Haifa.
Curiously enough, the strip of land assigned to Asher is somewhat in the form of
a human limb, ending at the south in a foot. Haifa is in the foot of the territory.
Now see with amazing accuracy this ancient prediction of Moses has been fulfilled.
The petroleum pipe line begins at Kirkuk, Iraq and runs to Haditha on the
river Euphrates. At Haditha, the line branches into two sections. One section,
the French part, runs to a place called Tripoli in Syria. The other section of
the pipe line traverses the desert and crosses the Jordan river into Palestine,
south of the Sea of Galilee.
It then runs right through the "foot" of Asher into the city of Haifa.
Moses predicted that Asher would "dip his foot in oil".
It is being fulfilled? Yes, at the rate of about a million gallons daily!
How little did the engineers who built the pipe line dream that they
were fulfilling prophecy when they made their plans for its construction
and laid the pipes through the foot of Asher, into the city of Haifa!
Here is prophecy fulfilled in our own day, right before our eyes,
with such marvelous precision and so abundantly beyond the power of
imagination to conceive, that it makes one gasp with astonishment at
the greatness and majesty of our wonder working God.
The Lord opened the eyes of Moses to view the land of Canaan before
his death; and opened his lips to tell what would happen in the land
of Canaan thirty-five centuries after his death!
"I am God and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning,
and from ancient times the things that are not yet done."
(Isaiah 46:9-10)
"Haifa The Beautiful"
An excerpt from the book,
"Rebuilding Palestine According To Prophecy"
(1935)
By George T.B. Davis
The Million Testaments Campaign
1505 Race Street
Philadelphia, PA
Printed in the United States of America
* The author is speaking here of World War I
*The countries of the West, especially Europe and America
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