A new agreement between Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority to create a pipeline of moving water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea echoes the predictions of the prophet Isaiah that God would “open up streams on the bare hills” and turn “arid lands into springs of water.”
The $10 billion plan, approved last month, calls for a 220 kilometer (137 mile) pipeline to transfer water from the Red Sea, a seawater inlet lying between Africa and Asia, to the Dead Sea in Israel in order to bring large amounts of potable water to some of the world’s driest regions. Rabbi Pinchas Winston, an expert on Bible prophecy, immediately saw prophetic significance in the project.
“A prophecy about water in the desert cannot be ignored, especially as we see how significant water has become at this stage in history,” Rabbi Winston told Breaking Israel News.
A water technology superpower, Israel has long been making the desert bloom. But the new agreement takes desert irrigation to new heights. The new pipeline will help replenish the dwindling Dead Sea, generate electricity as the water runs down some 400m from sea level to the Dead Sea, the lowest place on Earth, and produce large amounts of potable water by way of a planned desalination plant in Aqaba, Jordan.
The pipeline will pump seawater 230 meters (755 feet) uphill from the Red Sea’s Gulf of Aqaba through the Arava desert valley in southern Israel. The water will then flow down gravitationally through multiple pipelines to the Dead Sea, which lies about 420m below sea level.
The project to create new streams of water flowing through the desert has Biblical roots. It was foreseen by Isaiah, who described these exact events.
I will open up streams on the bare hills And fountains amid the valleys; I will turn the desert into ponds, The arid land into springs of water….That men may see and know, Consider and comprehend That Hashem’s hand has done this, That the Holy One of Yisrael has wrought it. Isaiah 41:18-20
The wild beasts shall honor Me, Jackals and ostriches, For I provide water in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert, To give drink to My chosen people. (Isaiah 43:20)
Though the project is man-made, Rabbi Winston believes there is no question who is really behind it. “God has his ways of disguising things so that believers will see it and rejoice and non-believers will say it doesn’t count,” he explained to Breaking Israel News.
The water level in the Dead Sea has been shrinking at a rate of more than one meter per year. This is largely due to the diversion of over 90 percent of the water of the Jordan River.
Some fifty years ago, the Jordan brought some 1.5 billion cubic meters of water every year from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea. But since then Israel, Jordan and Syria have built dams, canals, and pumping stations that divert most of the water for crops and drinking. This has reduced water flow to the Dead Sea to about 100 million cubic meters a year and reduced its size by about 30 percent.
However, this sequence of events, leading to the future pipeline, may all have been part of the prophetic plan. Rabbi Winston pointed out that many prophecy fulfillments only become clear looking backwards.
“Since the year 2000 we have begun to see more and more events fitting in with the End-of-Days scenario. Sometimes it is difficult to confirm whether a specific prophecy has been fulfilled or not. Often only in retrospect can we understand things,” he said.
