return here . . . ” 9
“But there was another piece to the puzzle, without which the ancient prophecies would never have been fulfilled.”
“And that was the Oracle’s next revelation?”
“Yes, after the next vision.”
“A vision of . . . ?”
“A place where water flows in the middle of the desert, a land of seven wells.”
Chapter 20
THE LAND OF SEVEN WELLS
I FOUND THE Oracle sitting by the waterfall, right at the point where it poured into the pool of water. I joined him there.”
“The wells that I saw in the desert . . . what was that about?”
“Have you ever heard of a place called Beersheba?” he asked.
“It sounds familiar. But I don’t know anything about it.”
“When the Bible speaks of Israel’s borders, it uses the phrase ‘from Dan to Beersheba.’ Beersheba was Israel’s southernmost border, where the nation began . . . in space as well as time.”
“In time?”
“Beersheba was central to Israel’s beginning. The nation began when Abraham had a son, Isaac. Isaac grew up in Beersheba. And Abraham was instrumental in Beersheba’s founding. Abraham was the one responsible for its name.”
“How?” I asked.
“It was there that Abraham dug a well.”
“The wells of the vision. And the little girl called it ‘our father’s wells.’ Abraham was the father of the Jewish people.”
“In Genesis 21 it’s recorded that men of the Philistine king Abimelech took possession of Abraham’s well. Abraham approached the king to contend for its return. And Abimelech returned it. So the two made a covenant concerning the land. And the place was called the Well of the Oath. In Hebrew the word for well is beer, and the word for oath is sheva. So together it becomes Beersheva, or Beersheba. In your vision how many wells did you see?”
“I counted seven.”
“Do you know what the Hebrew word for seven is? Sheva, the same word that means oath. So Beersheba is also known as the Land of the Seven Wells.”
“So my vision was about Beersheba. Why?”
“The Jubilee,” he said. “Beersheba is about Abraham losing his property and then having it returned to him. The very name comes from its loss and return . . . the essence of the Jubilee. Beersheba is also the first place in the Promised Land to which Abraham laid claim, the first possession, the first loss, the first appeal for return, and the first restoration. After the giving of God’s promise, it was the well, the covenant, and the name Beersheba itself that constituted Israel’s first legal right and title in the Promised Land.”
“But what does all this have to do with the Jubilee of 1917?”
“We left off with the issuing of the Balfour Declaration. But there was one problem. The British Empire didn’t have the land to give. It was in the hands of the Ottoman Empire. So according to the mystery, something else would have to take place.
“The chain of events triggered by the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand had drawn the two empires into opposite sides of the same war. In the Middle East, British forces were stationed in Egypt. From Egypt the British military hoped to launch a campaign against the Ottoman Empire in Palestine. But after two attempts to take the city of Gaza and two resulting defeats, that hope was looking less and less likely to be fulfilled. But that would soon change.
“A boy was born into a devout Christian home. From childhood he was immersed in the stories of the Bible and in particular the accounts of the Hebrew Scriptures that his father used to read to him each morning. He learned of the Promised Land, of its heroes, Joshua, David, Elijah. He would remain an avid student of the Bible his entire life. Though he never desired it, because of closed doors and less-than-ideal circumstances he ended up in the army. 1 He would later be known as General Edmund Allenby, another instrument in the outworking of the mystery.
“In the summer of 1917 Allenby was chosen to replace General Archibald Murray as commander of the British-led forces in Egypt. He spent the remainder of that summer preparing his troops and strategizing for the coming campaign. While Murray had focused on Gaza, Allenby placed his focus on a different city: Beersheba.
“So in the autumn of that year, British forces began heading to Beersheba with the Australian Light Horsemen. It appeared to be a battle against the odds. But all these things happen against the odds. By that evening the British-led forces had gained Beersheba. News of the