july 20 , 2006

Morning in Metulla

Metulla is one of Israel’s most beautiful towns.  It’s located on Israel’s northern border, so far north in fact that you can’t go any farther and still be in Israel.  Lebanon is next.  Our host at the bed and breakfast we’re staying at said it’s like Switzerland.  And it sure looks and feels like it.  It’s got clean air, picturesque scenery, but it’s certainly not the neutral land of the Swiss.  Instead, it’s in the middle of one of the most important battles in Israel’s history.  The sounds of war surround this tiny, quaint town.  Above you hear the roar of jets and the sound of drones monitoring the battlefield.  In the distance you can hear the rolling thunder of artillery. 

On the hill overlooking Metulla this morning we could see the signs everywhere of the conflict.  We saw explosions rock a Hezbollah position just two hills away.  Below in the Hula Valley the fields hit by Katusha rockets still burned and sent plumes of smoke hundreds of feet in the air.  

The sights and sounds though are just the visible signs of an extraordinary struggle going on.  It’s a struggle deeper than politics.  What’s at stake here is the spiritual future of this region and the peoples who populate it.  Will a radical Islamic group be allowed to terrorize and dominate a sovereign state and threaten the only Jewish state on earth?  Many people in this region are praying fervently for innocent life to be spared at this time. 

Yet, the question lingers in the air:  will the “international community” abort the military action before Israel can complete the job of defeating Hezbollah?  Will it remain and rise again to once again threaten this region?  And many believers see this conflict as a spiritual battle between the forces who would want to thwart God’s plan – clearly expressed in the Bible – and those who want to make this region an Islamic Caliphate. 

This part of Israel juts like a peninsula into Lebanon.  At one time Christian ministries used this area as a platform for the Gospel throughout the Middle East.  “High Adventure”, a Christian radio ministry transmitted from a hill just behind the border town and just a few miles inside Lebanon, CBN’s own Middle East Television broadcast the Good News to a spiritually dry and thirsty land.  Now, the ideology of radical Islam spews forth from this region.  Yet, the hope for many believers here is that sometime in the future, that Lebanon will one day become as the Bible says – “a fruitful field.”

 

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