From : "ANS Story"
Date : Tue, 9 Apr 2002 09:40:10 -0700
ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 2126, Garden Grove, CA 92842-2126 USA
Tuesday, April 9, 2002
WHOSE IS THE PALESTINE DEED?
By Ron Brackin
DALLAS, TX (ANS) -- For the most part, the Western media is clueless about Israel. That’s partly because the Fourth Estate is essentially a socio-political being that is unable to comprehend the things of the Spirit.
“The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14).
Nevertheless, the key to understanding both the current and historical conflict in Israel and the biblical response begins in Scripture – at its source, in the book of Deuteronomy.
Moses had assembled all the Israelites and reminded them of the decrees that God had given them at Sinai (Deut. 5). When he had finished, he warned them:
“Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey,’ just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, promised you” (6:3).
Then he said,
“When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations – Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you – and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy” (7:1-2).
“This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire” (v.5).
Why such harsh treatment, such absolute devastation?
Look at verse 5 again. “altars,” “sacred stones,” “Asherah poles,” “idols.” God was judging them because they were idol worshippers and using Israel as his instrument of judgment. At the same time, he was giving their land to Israel as a permanent possession.
“You must destroy all the peoples the Lord your God gives over to you,” Moses emphasized. “Do not look on them with pity and do not serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you” (v.16).
Nevertheless, Israel disobeyed.
“They did not destroy the peoples as the Lord had commanded them, but they mingled with the nations and adopted their customs. They worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them. They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons. They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was desecrated by their blood. They defiled themselves by what they did; by their deeds they prostituted themselves.
“Therefore, the Lord was angry with his people and abhorred his inheritance. He handed them over to the nations, and their foes ruled over them. Their enemies oppressed them and subjected them to their power. Many times he delivered them, but they were bent on rebellion and they wasted away in their sin” (Psalm 106:34-43).
These few verses are a sobering snapshot of Israel’s history from Deuteronomy to the present. They also explain the continuing conflict in the Middle East.
Israel is still oppressed by the spiritual – and in some cases, natural – descendants of the nations they were commanded by God to destroy.
Has God, therefore, washed his hands of Israel? Has Israel blown it forever?
Theologians in the so-called “Replacement” camp would shout a resounding “Yes!” The Church has now replaced Israel, they claim. But this claim contradicts Scripture.
They cite Paul’s words in Romans 2:28-29: “A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code,” and they claim this as proof that Christians are the new Chosen People and have replaced the Jews.
But read further.
“Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious” (11:11).
“Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again” (vv.22-23).
“I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: ‘The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.’
“As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable” (vv.25-29).
Those who teach that the Church has replaced Israel as God’s inheritance would do well to hearken back to the prophet Jeremiah through whom God said:
“Have you not noticed that these people are saying, ‘The Lord has rejected the two kingdoms he chose’? So they despise my people and no longer regard them as a nation. This is what the Lord says: ‘If I have not established my covenant with day and night and the fixed laws of heaven and earth, then I will reject the descendants of Jacob and David my servant and will not choose one of his sons to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. For I will restore their fortunes and have compassion on them.’ ” (Jeremiah 33:24-26).
And God reminds us through the prophet Malachi: “I the Lord do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you” (3:6-7).
A Thumbnail History of Palestine
What, then, is all the hubbub about Palestine? And just what, or where, is Palestine? And what does it have to do with what we knew in the Bible and recognize today as Israel?
Palestine, historians tell us, is an area of about 10,434 square miles on the Mediterranean Sea between Egypt and Syria – a little larger than the state of Vermont.
The Canaanites lived there around 3000 B.C. Abraham and his entourage arrived in the 1900s B.C. During an area drought, the Hebrews migrated to Egypt where the Nation of Israel was born. It is generally agreed that the exodus from Egypt took place in 1441 B.C. during the reign of Amenhotep II, although a few historians favor a later date of 1290 in the reign of Rameses II.
Israel became a monarchy under Saul and continued through kings David and Solomon. After Solomon’s death, the monarchy divided into two kingdoms: the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah.
Israel was conquered by Assyria in 722 B.C., and Judah was conquered a century and a half later by Babylon. The Judean exiles returned to Jerusalem 50 years later and rebuilt the temple.
Israel was conquered by Syria about 170 B.C., revolted, and set up an independent dynasty under Judas Maccabeus. In 63 B.C., Rome conquered Israel, destroying Jerusalem seven years later.
Muslims seized Israel around 600 A.D. and held it for four centuries, when it fell to the Seljuk Turks, who in turn lost it to a European conglomerate through the Crusades. The Mamelukes of Egypt drove out the Crusaders, and the Ottoman Turks took over the region in 1517.
The battles over this strategic piece of real estate continued, decimating the cities and turning its rich soil to a wasteland. Throughout this season, the population was predominantly Arab. The first group of Jews came from Europe in 1882, launching the Zionist movement that ultimately resulted in the establishment of Eretz Israel, the State of Israel, in May 1948.
The “Occupation” Myth
To understand the events that have unfolded over the past several decades, it is imperative to understand that Israel does not “occupy” anyone’s land but its own.
Historical Israel stretched “from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates” (Genesis 15:18).
Its more precise biblical boundaries are found in Numbers 34:1-12:
The Lord said to Moses, “Command the Israelites and say to them: `When you enter Canaan, the land that will be allotted to you as an inheritance will have these boundaries: `Your southern side will include some of the Desert of Zin along the border of Edom. On the east, your southern boundary will start from the end of the Salt Sea, cross south of Scorpion Pass, continue on to Zin and go south of Kadesh Barnea. Then it will go to Hazar Addar and over to Azmon, where it will turn, join the Wadi of Egypt and end at the Sea.
`Your western boundary will be the coast of the Great Sea. This will be your boundary on the west.
`For your northern boundary, run a line from the Great Sea to Mount Hor and from Mount Hor to Lebo Hamath. Then the boundary will go to Zedad, continue to Ziphron and end at Hazar Enan. This will be your boundary on the north.
`For your eastern boundary, run a line from Hazar Enan to Shepham. The boundary will go down from Shepham to Riblah on the east side of Ain and continue along the slopes east of the Sea of Kinnereth. Then the boundary will go down along the Jordan and end at the Salt Sea. This will be your land, with its boundaries on every side.’ ”
While there are varying opinions as to how the biblical boundaries translate into modern borders, it runs something like this:
The western border is the Mediterranean Sea from the River of Egypt in the south (about 20 miles below Gaza) to a point somewhere about 40 miles north of Sidon in modern Lebanon. The boundary then runs east about 100 miles and then south about 120 miles, taking in most of Lebanon and a significant chunk of Syria. Then it moves west to the Jordan River, below the Sea of Galilee. It travels south on the east side of the Jordan River to the bottom of the Dead Sea. From there, it moves about 80 miles southwest and then northwest back up to the River of Egypt.
This real estate does not belong to Israel by right of occupation. It belongs to Israel by the sovereign will of God. Nor can one square inch be taken from Israel or given away, as Moses wrote in Genesis 17:3,8:
“God said to him . . . ‘The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.’ ”
The Hebrew word translated as “everlasting” is “olam,” meaning “time beyond sight, time concealed out of mind, eternity, always, a continuance, perpetual, without end.”
Simply put, Israel’s deed to the land God gave them is signed, sealed and witnessed, divine, eternal and irrevocable.
The terms of the deed appear again in Psalm 105:8-15:
“He remembers his covenant forever, the word he commanded, for a thousand generations, the covenant he made with Abraham, the oath he swore to Isaac. He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree, to Israel as an everlasting covenant: ‘To you I will give the land of Canaan as the portion you will inherit.’ ”
Clear terms. No small print.
The deal was cut way back in Genesis 13:14-15, when God said to Abram, “Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west. All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever.”
“The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien,” God says again in 17:8, “I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”
And to those who maintain that God is finished with Israel and has revoked his covenant with them, he declares through the prophet Jeremiah (16:14-15):
“The days are coming when men will no longer say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,’ but they will say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.’ For I will restore them to the land I gave their forefathers.”
But the Lord gives us an even more powerful testament in Jeremiah 33. He tells the prophet that, because of the continual and abominable sins of his people, he is going to hand over Judah to the Babylonian army which is currently besieging Jerusalem. In the same breath, the Lord commands Jeremiah to buy a field from his uncle.
What an irrational thing to do just before a massive military defeat. But God explains that Jeremiah’s land deal symbolizes his pledge to restore the land to his people:
“Fields will be bought for silver, and deeds will be signed, sealed and witnessed in the territory of Benjamin, in the villages around Jerusalem, in the towns of Judah and in the towns of the hill country, of the western foothills and of the Negev, because I will restore their fortunes,” declares the Lord (v.44).
Our Biblical Response
What then should our attitude, as Bible-believing Christians, be toward Israel today?
Our model is the apostle Paul – a Christian and a Jew – who wrote:
“I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen” (Romans 9:2-5).
How should Christians respond to current events in the Middle East?
In the Spirit-inspired words of the psalmist, we must fervently and continually
“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.”
“Brothers,” Paul wrote to the church in Rome, “my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved” (Romans 10:1).
Pray that unbelieving Jews would repent and embrace their promised Messiah. Pray for safety for the Jewish remnant living in Israel – Jews who have already given their lives to Yeshua, Jesus. And pray for peace – true peace. Not land for peace, but the peace that comes only through and from the Prince of Peace.
Pray also for the descendants of Abraham through Ishmael, the Arabs – that the Lord would expose the lies and darkness of Islam and that they too would encounter Jesus Christ, the only “way, the truth, and the life.”
To : "AssistUS"
Subject : WHOSE IS THE PALESTINE DEED?
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E-mail: assistcomm@cs.com, Web Site: www.assist-ministries.com
Special Correspondent, ASSIST News Service
“May those who love you be secure.
May there be peace within your walls
and security within your citadels.
For the sake of my brothers and friends,
I will say, "Peace be within you.
For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,
I will seek your prosperity” (Psalm 122:6-9).
