Taking The Land

February 21, 2001



The land that is the object of contention between the Israelis and the Palestinians, Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, has already been allocated by God to Israel. The Holy Scriptures, where God has specifically communicated His wishes, are unmistakably and distinctly clear about this. What the people of Israel need to realize is that the source of the current difficulties is not because they have relinquished too little to the Palestinians, but because they have agreed to surrender any land at all!

When Barak offered Arafat over 90% of the West Bank at Camp David, and offered unthinkable concessions regarding Jerusalem, Arafat refused them. Shortly thereafter, Barak's government crumbled. There is a direct cause and effect relationship here, because any leader of Israel that is willing to contradict God's intentions regarding the land will not stand. It was not because of the violence and anxiety that Barak lost his position, though those were the symptoms. It was because he had the audacity to even think of surrendering any portion or authority over God's holy hill.

Israel exists now because God said "I will bring them back and restore them to this place." If Israel is back in the land after centuries of exile, it is back only because of God's decree. But the same decree that allows Israelis to now live in Haifa, Tel-Aviv, and Ashkelon also specified that Israelis would permanently possess Shechem (Nablus), Hebron, Ramallah, and Gaza, as well as Gilead (east bank of Jordan), the Golan Heights, and southern Lebanon! If God can do one, He can do the other.

But Israel has insisted on the road of appeasement. The Oslo "peace process" was based on faulty premises. The premises that the Palestinians have a right to any portion of the land of Israel, that the Palestinians are genuinely interested in peaceful coexistence, and that any kind of final status agreement could be reached that would satisfy all parties - all these premises are false. From a Biblical perspective, the false premise is this: that God is not able to complete what He has started. He restored Israel to the land in an incredible, unprecedented feat, but somehow He is not able to carry out the remainder of His intentions regarding the land.

The Oslo agreement was merely an interim agreement, pending the eventual final status agreement that would supposedly resolve all issues. As an interim agreement, all of the measures, stipulations, and actions taken under it are not permanent, and they are not binding if either party has failed to fulfill its obligations. Though the Palestinians would now assert that any lands to which they have been granted "authority" cannot be retaken by Israel, this has no basis in fact. The fact is that because the Palestinians have failed to live up to their side of the interim agreements, then Israel's side of the interim agreements is no longer binding.

This is assuming that the agreements ever had any validity whatsoever, which they did not. Only the owner of land can decide what he wants to do with it. The question of to whom the land belongs, and on what basis, is the essential question. The world community would respond that the answer is based upon international law and the relevant UN resolutions. But God, who describes His credentials as the one "who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the spirit of man within him" has declared in no uncertain terms that land is His. And He has declared in no uncertain terms His intentions for it.

In Leviticus 25:23, God declares, "The land is mine." In Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Joel, He calls it "My land." Because it's His, He can dole it out to whomever He wishes. And long ago, beginning with Abraham, He proclaimed to whom He had determined it would belong. But it's not only God's promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that is important and applicable. God also indicates that this very issue, the ownership of the land, is one that He will use to prove to Israel in the last days who He is and that He has not stopped caring for them!

Examine these unequivocal, explicit, unambiguous declarations of the Lord:

'I will accept you as fragrant incense when I bring you out from the nations and gather you from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will show myself holy among you in the sight of the nations. Then you will know that I am the LORD, when I bring you into the land of Israel, the land I had sworn with uplifted hand to give to your fathers.' (Ezekiel 20:41-42 NIV)

'"I will bless them and the places surrounding my hill. I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing. The trees of the field will yield their fruit and the ground will yield its crops; the people will be secure in their land. They will know that I am the LORD, when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hands of those who enslaved them....Then they will know that I, the LORD their God, am with them and that they, the house of Israel, are my people," declares the Sovereign LORD.' (Ezekiel 34:26-27,30 NIV)

'"I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it," declares the LORD.' (Ezekiel 37:14 NIV)

'When I have brought them back from the nations and have gathered them from the countries of their enemies, I will show myself holy through them in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the LORD their God, for though I sent them into exile among the nations, I will gather them to their own land, not leaving any behind.' (Ezekiel 39:27-28 NIV)

In the verses cited, God says "I will" seven times to Israel in declaring His decisions to them. But the point is not only that He is going to do it, but the reason, frequently repeated: "Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I have accomplished these things."

In the Bible, Israel was frequently rebuked by the prophets for refusing to believe what the Lord had declared. Often, the prophets referred back to what had already happened: "Look, remember the miraculous way He delivered you many times in the past - why won't you believe that He will do it now?" And today, the prophets of Scripture say the same thing to them: In 1948, the inconceivably improbable happened - if God can do that, why cannot He give you the rest of the land? And He will.

He will do it, despite the Palestinians' recalcitrant avowal that the land is theirs. It is now a common refrain among the Palestinian leaders to assert that in 1993, Arafat was incredibly gracious to Israel by agreeing in principle to give up 78% of "historical Palestine." They still regard the entire land of Israel as rightfully theirs, but say they are relinquishing most of it for "peace." But their concept of peace is only as a "strategic option," a term they frequently use. What this really means, as defined by their "phased plan" to gain all of the land of Israel, is that this "peace" is only a strategic move to ultimately weaken Israel in preparation for the final Arab conquest of every piece of the land.

This has been validated by the way events have played out. The more land Israel has conceded, the more hatred and violence the Palestinians have inflicted on them. When will Israel finally come to realize that acknowledging God's promises is the best way to proceed?

Israel needn't worry - the Lord's promises to them will not fail. Though the Arabs still exhibit the "ancient hostility" that Ezekiel foresaw for this time period, God will thwart their plans. He was good enough to disclose these events to us ahead of time. As noted earlier, His reason for disclosing them ahead of time was so that when they happen, everyone in the world would know the He is the one who did them!

It's time for Israel to recapture the land that is theirs. This attitude is not anti-Arab, it's the fulfillment of God's will. If squatters have taken up residence on your property, then evicting them is not an act of hostility, but merely asserting your legal rights. This is inevitable.

The Arabs have 1000 times more land in their possession than Israel does - let them live freely on that. But sadly, the prophets has foreseen that the Arabs will not willingly do that, and that only a devastating war will accomplish God's purposes for this land.

For the Christians who are reading this and squirming a bit because it doesn't fit into your theology, relax. Make your theology fit the Scriptures, not the Scriptures your theology. God does not contradict Himself. Yes, He's a God of love, just as He was when Joshua was originally instructed to take the promised land. The outcome for those who opposed God's will then was not pretty either. I'm sure that most of you who believe the Bible are convinced that God was at work in 1948 when He established Israel as a nation once again (through war), and was at work in 1967 when He caused Jerusalem to again fall in Jewish hands (through war). Well, He's about to go to work again, through war.

This stance is not inconsistent with the gospel, for any Arab who believes in Jesus is a child of God, loved by the Father, and is our brother or sister. We would certainly wish them no harm, and hope they would heed the Scriptures. We must differentiate between God's dealing with groups and with individuals. Any group of people who interferes with His declared purposes is going to suffer for it. And the Arab peoples, as a group, have defiantly set themselves in opposition to His declared purposes. Any Arab who has put his faith in the Lord will hopefully be wise and prudent enough to realize what is about to take place, and act accordingly.

Trumpet Sounds 2/21/01