Reflections on “Born of the Wilderness” (1954) by Ritchie Calder

A years ago, Ritchie Calder, C.B.E.,  Science Editor of the News Chronicle, at the request of Unesco,² made his “Men Against the Desert” expedition from the Western Sahara, across the deserts of North Africa and the Middle East, to the Salt Desert of Persia, His exciting investigation into desert development convinced him that this region, in which fifteen civilizations, empires, or cultures had flourished and perished in their own dust, could be made capable of contributing to the support of the world’s swiftly multiplying population,

Bible lovers long have known that in association with the coming of the ran­somed of the Lord with singing unto Zion,

“in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert; and the parched, ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water; and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.”³

But perhaps many of them, like the present reviewer, whilst fully persuaded of the certainty of the Almighty’s accomplishing His every word (for as Gabriel said, No word from God shall be void of power “), never­theless (like Mary when faced with another seeming impossibility), have wondered, “How shall this be?”⁴ This special adviser to the U.N,O, has brought to light much of the manner in which this wonderful result will be achieved. The French scientists, for example, are endeavouring to “bring life to a howling desert” by creating oases by tapping the Albienne Nappe in the Sahara—the great fresh water subterranean ” sea,”. literally a layer of aquiferous nodular sand­stone, thousands of feet thick—a source of artesian waters. The Iraquis, too, have new ambitious plans for ” ploughing back “the oil royalties” into the lands of Mesopotamia and restoring Babylonia,⁵ the granary of the ancient world.

The matter of greatest interest, however, to Testimony readers, is that when making the above investigation Mr. Calder noted that ” it was obvious that the place where, in great variety and intensity, the lessons of desert recovery would be most urgently applied was in the Negev of Israel. “Obvious,” because this desert is half the State of Israel, and if Israel is going to feed its present population, or provide for an eventual population of four million, the Negev must be cultivated to its utmost extent. This urgency, and the fact that Israel possesses so many highly qualified and purposeful scientists, is the driving force of desert recovery, We who can see that this ” driving force ” is the natural means by which unbelieving Israel is rough-hewing the beginnings of a Millennial matter, the ends of which Divinity will shape ere long, are especially glad that when, after four years, it was decided that Mr. Calder should go back and ” have a look at the desert,” it was to the Negev of Israel he went, and that what he saw he set down in the seven very interesting sections of the booklet before us.

The Land has lengthened by 80%. Its limits may no longer be bracketed by the old phrase, “From Dan to Beersheba,” for the Negev⁶ has added a territorial wedge extending southward for 120 miles, the point of which touches Elath on the Gulf of Akaba.

The change effected when the Jewish armies swept southward⁷ from Beersheba, after the proclamation of the State of Israel, may be better grasped by remarking that Beersheba is now approximately the centre of Israel, and Jerusalem is 55 miles nearer to the northern extremity than it is to the southern!

Whilst it is with the wonders being worked in this wedge of wilderness that this member of the Council of the British Association is concerned in this publication, it is with the water-logged swamp of Lake Huleh⁸ in the far north, above the Sea of Galilee, that he com­mences his enquiry. But the anomaly is but apparent, for a future (very real) connection between the two is visualised by the Israelis, who, Mr, Calder assures us, “are deter­mined people,” His glance at a colony in the north, which is communal (not Com­munist), sharing everything, possessing no money except when travelling on colony business, is very interesting. The hub of the settlement was a group of British Jews trained in Britain for landwork and reach­ing the Land by devious ways,

“including the coffin-ships which ran the gauntlet of the British embargo.”

The Zionist dedica­tion accepts all hardships and

“makes shift­ing boulders and mucking byres almost ritualistic. That is the spirit which has turned the stones of Galilee into bread and brought grapes from thorns.”

That same spirit is aiming at transforming the desert Southland. It is thrilling to read of the wizardry of Weizmann, whose dis­covery of acetone won the Balfour Declara­tion, and of butadiene: the support of the U.S. and, incidentally, whose food-yeasts for “blitz-broth” helped feed thousands be­leagured in the East End.

The Weizmann Institute, one of the finest research centres in the world, is working miracles in the desert, helping seeds to breathe and roots to spread; salt water to become fresh; plants to grow to a fixed height for convenient harvesting, and by man-made earthquakes to find oil. From Gideon’s fleece, the discovery of ancient water-tanks, cisterns, dams and terraces, and the fascinating use of “dew mounds,” we learn of the age-long struggle for water in these thirsty lands, There are spots where rain may fall once only in the year, but will sweep down in a violent wall of water 18 feet high, only to disappear swiftly —unless carefully tackled and controlled, But nothing is impossible to these lovers of the Land, The Hebrew University and the Haifa College of Technology, also, will ensure that everything possible is done to adapt the findings of every branch of science to the immediate and pressing needs of this nationally resurrected people. To create “absorptive capacity” Weizmann focussed his microscope on bacteria, A gold ball can differentiate between types of rocks below ground; and (nothing now surprises us) a plant is used which works in reverse, taking in moisture through its leaves and storing it through its roots!

The deserts of centuries are being nursed back to healthy life; tonics, and clothing by 500 different types of grasses from six con­tinents; the anchoring of vast moving sand-dunes; the planting of trees by (literal) children of Israel from the very ends of the earth—all combine in preparing the way for the Word of the Lord to be fulfilled, “and the wilderness become a fruitful field.”⁹

One may travel to the tip of the territorial wedge by air, or (soon) by air-conditioned coach along the excellent road built by the military. Eight miles north of Elath are King Solomon’s Mines. The black slag-heaps from the copper smelting of King Solomon’s time are among the striking sights. Mr. Calder tells of the metals, etc., so far found in Israel; and of wind-generated elec­tricity; and of how Israelis are struggling hard to make practicable the use of the sun’s energy. He also remarks upon the desperate position of this country destitute of fuel (surrounded by Arab countries saturated with oil!) and of how the difficult extraction of oil from the shale-fields near the Dead Sea was being proposed by the Israeli experts. There were fears that oil may have been drained out of Israel by geological convul­sions; but the conviction of an American oil-geologist who said to him, “There MUST be oil !” has been fully justified since the pamphlet was written, and Israel danced through the night,

The last section of this stirring record touches the epic of the man who came from Poland to Palestine to work as a farm-labourer; the man who first announced the State of Israel and for five years was its Prime Minister; and who at 67 years of age resigned the premiership to settle in the Fields of the Cattlemen (forgotten for 1500 years) saying, “Do not weep! Follow!” “We will create a cattle ranch.” “We will have cattle.”¹⁰

There are 15 illustrations and a map. Live book-stewards will see that a pile of these pamphlets stands side by side on the ecclesial bookstall with the ,booklets on prophecy—the approaching fulfilment of which this independent scientific observer has seen and has shown how the infant State of Israel is waging ” a battle in which a land flowing with milk and honey can be born of the wilderness,”