A football stadium in Jerusalem
“And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the sky, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”
Genesis, chapter 1, verse 28
In Genesis 1:28, God gives His blessing to the first man and woman, who had just been created in His image. God also gives His instructions within the passage: to have children, encourage future generations to have children, populate the earth, and have dominion over all other earthly creatures.
Through the many generations that have come since, mankind has worked towards the fulfillment of His wishes. We have indeed populated the earth and ruled over all other creatures in the animal kingdom. Yet, there are times, as we’ve seen most recently in the COVID era, in which life as we know it stands still. Our efforts to populate the earth are temporarily halted.
The picture that accompanies this quote shows a modern gathering in a Jerusalem football stadium. As of late, such gatherings have been on hold. To congregate in such a way puts our most vulnerable individuals at risk, since, as we well know by now, the novel coronavirus is both deadly and highly contagious. Yet, prior to the virus, massive gatherings as the one depicted here were in full swing, and this leads us to a very interesting supposition: the images may be different from biblical times, but has anything really changed ?
In those ancient times there were massive gatherings—some good, and some bad. For instance, the Hebrews had to “gather” to get to the Red Sea before crossing it, which was made possible by Moses holding out his staff and parting the waters. On the other hand, later on in the journey a more sinister gathering took place, as the Israelites betrayed Moses, after his voyage to Mt. Sinai, and upon his return with the Ten Commandments. They were busy worshipping the golden calf!
Of course, today’s “Israelites” gather (as do people all across the globe) both for joyous and more somber occasions. Now, however, with lockdowns still in effect throughout many places in the world, COVID-19 has enforced a temporary pause on gatherings. It has taken many lives, and even affected the way we populate. Birth rates are falling despite initial projections that we’d see a post-COVID baby boom.
We have been social creatures for thousands of years, and while this period in history is proving challenging to endure, we must put our faith in a future where the threat of this terrible virus has subsided, and gatherings are safe once again. It is then that we’ll be able to gather, as both the modern Israelites and those during biblical times once did and populate the earth as in God’s vision.
This depiction of the Jerusalem football stadium is just one of the incredible parallels we can draw between The Holy Land as it is now and how it existed during biblical times. See the first ten examples of these intriguing parallels with the past at https://testaments-of-israel.com.
