Joseph's Branches

I recently read Max Boot’s “War Made New” as background for a Beyond Today telecast called “And Wars Shall Increase”. The book is a survey of five hundred years of military technology. Near the end Boot makes a statement about the impact of American naval technology and power projection that clicked with a Biblical prophecy.

On page 471 Boot challenges conventional wisdom among some that military strength is unimportant in a global economy. “On the contrary, there can be no long-term prosperity without security. The entire world today depends, no matter how begrudgingly or unwittingly, on the protection provided by the United States, whose armed forces keep open air and sea lanes, safeguard energy supplies, and deter most cross-border aggression.”

That in a nutshell, at least a physical nutshell, is what holds it all together. Plain old military muscle provided by Uncle Sam–particularly the U.S. Navy. Watch any show on the History Channel or PBS about American carriers and you see the level of expertise built through generations of naval activity that go into the sophisticated technological wonders that ply the seas. No other country today can come close to duplicating that technology. China is trying but they are years away from launching a carrier strike force to compete with any fielded by America. Boot is correct in his assessment. Despite the current global economic problems, much of which originated in America, it is America’s military power that is the glue that keeps it together.

In Genesis 49:22 is a prophecy we refer to often. It tells of the overall benefit nations garner through the God-given blessings of Joseph. “Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a well; his branches run over the wall.” We give plenty of detail of how this has occurred in our booklet, The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy.

For the forseeable future this power, like “branches”, will provide cover for the global economy. Until something else arises, in God’s time.