5. WAS CANAAN REALLY THE LAND OF MILK AND HONEY? (If it was, what changed it?)
The book by Andrew Collins, From The Ashes of Angels, has given me an answer to this question which used to pester me a lot. It made it clear to me why Canaan was said to be the land of milk and honey. The book states that the regions of the Middle East once had very good summer rains. Chapter 15, from The Ashes of Angels, under the sub- heading The Hero Gilgamesh reads thus:
“Palaeo-climatological research has shown that… forests replaced the cold tundra and sparse grasslands that had covered the lower valley regions of the Kurdish highlands after the final retreat of the Ice Age, somewhere around 8500 BC. The appearance of powerful Asian Monsoons in northern Mesopotamia and north-west Iran around this time had brought about dramatic changes in the climatic conditions of the Kurdish highlands, creating vast inland lakes as well as the proliferation of lush vegetation during the spring and summer months. Thick forests of deciduous trees, including cedars, began to grow in the valleys and on mountain slopes, while the higher elevations turned into lush grasslands, ideal for cultivation.
“Yet then, sometime between 3000 and 2000 BC, these Asian Monsoons slowly retreated, leaving the region devoid of its essential spring and summer rains. As a consequence, the lower valleys suffered most, with a reduction in the variety of vegetation, and a slow desiccation of the neighbouring lowland regions, a process that continues to this day.”
Now read Deuteronomy 11:10-14 “For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden; but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven, a land for which the Lord your God cares; the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year. And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain...” (NKJV)
That land, Canaan, which is part of the Middle East regions no longer enjoys those good rains. The rains Andrew Collins says, once transformed the Middle East into a place of thick forests and lush vegetation which was seasonally watered by powerful Asian Monsoons.
Is this not also the fulfillment of the prophesy by Jeremiah the prophet which was directed to Babylon as he says in chapter 50:12-13 “Behold, the least of the nations shall be a wilderness, a dry land and a desert.” (NKJV) This prophecy also tells us that regions of Babylon which is now Iraq, were once not a desert, they are these days. Jeremiah could not say of Babylon which was already a desert it would be a desert. That would not make sense.
Moreover it seems the Almighty God was not only referring to the city of Babylon but also to all areas under Babylonian rule which was the whole of the Middle East. With all those prophetic words warning them, people continued transgressing against God Almighty, by worshipping Him and at the same time praying to idols and evil spirits referring to them as God Almighty equals. Eventually they stopped altogether to worship God Almighty. God could not take it any longer. Then as if it was created hostile, the whole of the Middle East lost its summer rains and was turned into the desert it is.
Here is EKR warning. If the majority of people in the whole world could go dualistic in their worship of God Almighty, or forsake Him altogether and worship other gods, the whole world will be turned into a desert or will become uninhabitable with catastrophic consequences to humanity and all living things. So it is up to us individually to decide our relationship with our Almighty God. Emmanuel K Revelation has also this to say: Countries whose governments and the majority of their citizens forsake God Almighty or tolerate or engage themselves in evil practices which God Almighty abhors, will be the first to be totally destroyed by natural forces.