The question still persists. Are the people who formed the modern nation of Israel still God’s Chosen People? Is Israel a legitimate nation? Do they indeed have the right to the Land?
Today we’ll begin to go deeper from a biblical perspective, seeking to see God’s point of view. Let’s start by looking at the nature of God. First of all, He is unchanging. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8) “Your word, Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens.” (Psalm 119:89) So, if His word is eternal, we ought to check out His word. “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” (Romans 11:29) Just keep that in mind. We’ll start from there. God’s word is unbreakable!
First there is the original covenant. Genesis 12:1-3. “Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” So, there is the creation and the blessing of the Hebrew nation – but not yet the promise of permanence. That comes a couple of chapters later in Genesis – (Of course, there were no chapters in the original manuscripts.) Next, check this out. Genesis 15:7-12 – & 18-21And he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him….. 18On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.’”
OK, then you’ve got to add in God’s promise of permanence found in Genesis 17:8. “Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in[f] which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” God then confirmed this to Abraham’s son Isaac. “Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 26:3-4)
God reaffirmed the promise to David, the second king of Israel. “Moreover I will appoint a place for My people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own and move no more; nor shall the sons of wickedness oppress them anymore, as previously, since the time that I commanded judges to be over My people Israel, and have caused you to rest from all your enemies. Also the Lord tells you that He will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.” (2Samuel 7:10-12)
Now, much of the criticism aimed at Israel and the Jews is packaged as an attack on Zionism. If you go to Wikipedia, you see that Zionism has been defined as “an ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in late 19th-century Europe which primarily seeks to establish and support a Jewish homeland through the colonization of Palestine, a region which roughly corresponds to the Land of Israel in Judaism—itself central to Jewish history. Zionists wanted to create a Jewish state in Palestine with as much land, as many Jews, and as few Palestinian Arabs as possible. The Zionist claim to Palestine was based on the notion that the Jews’ historical right to the land outweighed that of the Arabs.” That is what we are supposed to believe.
Psalm 132:13 & 17 – “For the Lord has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His dwelling place,,,, There I will make the horn of David grow.” Psalm 13:4 AMP – “For the Lord has chosen [the descendants of] Jacob for Himself, Israel for His own special treasure and possession. Jeremiah 31:1 & 3-4 – “At the same time,” says the Lord, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people…. he Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you. Again I will build you, and you shall be rebuilt, O virgin of Israel!”
God even talks about the return in the Last Days, well before the events of or our lives. This was prophesied long before Israel returned the first time from the Babylonian captivity. Isaiah 11:11-12 – “Then it will happen on that day that the Lord Will again recover the second time with His hand The remnant of His people, who will remain, From Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, And from the islands of the sea. And He will lift up a standard for the nations And assemble the banished ones of Israel, And will gather the dispersed of JudahFrom the four corners of the earth.” J
And God has promised that He will bring back His People in the Last Days. “Then I Myself will gather the remnant of My flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and bring them back to their pasture, and they will be fruitful and multiply.” (Jeremiah 23:3)
If we read Jeremiah 37, we can understand that Israel will come back into the Land as a people of unbelief. But their ‘dry bones’ will be resurrected. “Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say, ‘Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!’ Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up from your graves. I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed it,” says the Lord.’” (Jeremiah 37:11-14}
The promise gets even then, more specific. “Then say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they have gone, and will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king over them all; they shall no longer be two nations, nor shall they ever be divided into two kingdoms again. They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; but I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. Then they shall be My people, and I will be their God.” (Ezekiel 37:21-23}
The history of Israel – ancient to modern – as well as the prophecies of the End Times necessitate the return and existence of Israel in the Last Days. Here is some of the evidence.
- Jews must be in the Land because they will build a Temple. This will afterward become the Temple of the Antichrist, setting off the Endgame of the Tribulation. (2Thessalonians 2)
- The Scripture tells us Jesus is returning to Jerusalem / Zion.
- 144K – Jewish witness – from all 12 tribes of Israel (Revelation 7:4 & following)
- There are Geographic Promises of a Greater Israel – Large parts of the Middle East – Into Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, to the Euphrates
- There was a Jewish Presence in Land for 4,000 years. Even after being kicked out by the Romans, a remnant always remained.
- The Arabs came centuries later. The Holy Land was conquered by Islam during the 700s.
- Gaza is part of Promised Land – Joshua 15:47 & Numbers 34
- Judea & Samaria are part of the Promised Land. – (West Bank) – & Parts of Jordan – Genesis 15:21 & Deuteronomy 2:31
- Had to be Geographic because Israel will be attacked from North & South
- Israel has to be there to sign the Covenant with the Antichrist as prophesied in Daniel 9.
- Israel, not the Church, is the center of a Last Days war as laid out in Zechariah 12:1-3. “The burden of the word of the Lord against Israel. Thus says the Lord, who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him: “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples, when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it.
- Talking about the Last Days – Zechariah 8:22-23 – Yes, many peoples and strong nations Shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, And to pray before the Lord.’ “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘In those days ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”
- Then there is the salvation of Israel. It comes when they recognize Yeshua as Mashiach – Zechariah 12:10-11 – “And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning at Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo.
Next week we’ll look at what Paul argued in Romans.
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