Palestine, Palestinians and Prophecy; Israel’s dilemma

Lev. 25:38: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.”

Israel was delivered from bondage in Egypt to be given their own land. The land is Israel’s, who is able to prove her claim to the land by a 3,500 year old contract in writing.

Long before the printing press, newspapers and the internet, Moses was told after he left Egypt with a freed people where to go and whom the land will belong to.

But lies originating with the Palestinians have been spread that there is absolutely no evidence that Israel had existed and that Jews lived there. The western wall, the archeological digs do not exist according to those bigoted revisionists.

Israel is continually condemned by the nations for defending herself against terrorism and suicide bombers. Hundreds of Israeli lives have been lost, which include women and children. Israel's only alternative for protection was to build a barrier that would halt the attackers from entering her homeland. The World Court ruled 14-1 that construction must cease immediately and everything be dismantled, with compensation given to the Palestinians. The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution on July 20, 2004, 150-6, calling on Israel to respect the World Court ruling. Only the United States, Australia, Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and Palau voted against the resolution. Israel proceeded with construction of the barrier that is still not completed, however it has cut off the infiltration of terrorists nearly 100%.

It should be obvious to all that Israel is in a war for her existence. But no arguing for sanity or safety in a war against terrorists could have prevented the Goldstone Report from approval at United Nations Human Rights Council session in Geneva. They want to accuse Israel of committing war crimes in Gaza. The U.N. report, authored by South African judge Richard Goldstone equates Israel, which worked to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza. Terrorists such as Hamas, that utilize civilians (children) as human shields and fire rockets at populated centers of Jews from Palestinian hospitals and apartment buildings are overlooked. They want to Israel not to have the right to defend herself against enemies that want to kill her people. What nation has ever had this kind of pressure to be defenseless by other nations in history? The answer is none.

When the promise of the Land was stated to Abraham, it was stated in the future tense as being for the Patriarchs and their seed. In Genesis 15, God also specified the timing of that future event to be after the Jews are released from Egypt. The Exodus and the time of the conquest is when God actually gave the whole Land to Israel for their possession. To this day the nation has never enjoyed all of the Promised Land. There is a distinction between the divine contract of ownership of the Land by a title deed given to its first recipient and the actual enjoyment of the Land which fulfills the promise. Her ownership was unconditional based on the Abrahamic Covenant and was reaffirmed by the Palestinian or Land Covenant. This came fully into effect once the Jews entered the Promised Land under Joshua. Their actual enjoyment of the Land is based upon their obedience, according to the Mosaic Covenant ( which is a conditional covenant). For that reason, to this day the Jews have never enjoyed all of the Promised Land, and even at the present time are withdrawing from territories they've held since 1967. They will not enjoy all of the Land until they become a saved nation, which will only come about when the Messiah returns and gives the land to them.  Until this takes place they can gain land or lose land according to their obedience.

Josh 1:2-3: “Moses My servant is dead. Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them-- the children of Israel.” Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses.”

This makes it clear that Israel are those whom Moses led out as the congregation from Egypt.

The PLO had declared, “The struggle with the Zionist enemy is not a struggle about Israel's borders, but about Israel's existence.” This is a one way street - not to peace but conflict and war. Hamas has taken up the slack - insisting on having no Jewish state exist among the Islamic states, Israel which consists of more than five million Jews is surrounded by Five hundred million Arabs.

There is joke that illustrates the absurdity of it all. “The Prime Minister of Israel sits down with Chairman Arafat at the beginning of negotiations regarding the resolution of the conflict. The Prime Minister requests that he be allowed to begin with a story. Arafat replies, “Of course.”

The Prime Minister begins his story: “Years before the Israelites came to the Promised Land and settled here, Moses led them for 40 years through the desert. The Israelites began complaining that they were thirsty and, lo and behold, a miracle occurred and a stream appeared before them. They drank their fill and then decided to take advantage of the stream to do some bathing -- including Moses. When Moses came out of the water, he found that all his clothing was missing.

“Who took my clothes?” Moses asked those around him.

“It was the Palestinians,” replied the Israelites--

“Wait a minute,” immediately Arafat stood up and loudly objected, that is absurd how can you blame this on them, “there were no Palestinians during the time of Moses!”

“All right,” replied the Prime Minister, “Now that we've got that settled, let's begin our negotiations.”

Unfortunately it is is not so evident. The Palestinians and Muslims all insist there can be no Jewish state  among the Islamic states, this little piece of real state the size of Rhode Island is a upsetting testimony of God to them. God can disturb those who deny Him in history and personally in their lives.

The one true God has said Ps. 129:5: “Let all those who hate Zion be put to shame and turned back.”

The hatred against Jews by Muslims is in obedience to Muhammad and the Qur’an but the love of Israel and the Jews is in obedience to Jesus and the Bible (both Old and New Testament). Eventually all the people will have to decide which side they take on Israel's land and her people.

God has spoken; 2 Chr. 6:6-7: “Yet I have chosen Jerusalem, that My name may be there; and I have chosen David to be over My people Israel.” 1 Chr. 23:25: For David said, “The LORD God of Israel has given rest to His people, that they may dwell in Jerusalem forever.”

Islam refuses to recognize Jerusalem as the city of the Jewish people. It was King David who founded the city of Jerusalem and the Jews lived there. The Muslims built their mosque over 1,000 years later in 687 AD. But who was there before then? The Jews, Roman history records this.

Mohammed never traveled to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is not mentioned once in Qur’an (but is is mentioned nearly 2,500 times in the Bible) yet more than a billion Muslims believe Mohammed ascended to heaven from Jerusalem from where the dome of the Rock is built, on the Jewish temple mount. Clearly this is in competition to Christianity, where it is written in the Bible that Christ Jesus ascended to heaven from the Mount of Olives and will return to that same location.

The land has always been Israel's. History records that Assyria conquered northern Israel in 722 BC and took them captive from the land. In 585 BC the Babylonians conquered the southern portion. 70 years later Israel was released from Babylon to go back into their homeland. No one protested their “occupation.” The Selucid Greeks temporarily took over the temple in 167 BC under Antiochus Epiphanes, approximately 6 years later the Maccabees freed Israel under their occupation.

The name “Palestine” is not found in the Bible. It has had a variety of meanings. Nelson's Bible Dictionary tells us how the word was first used:
“The word itself originally identified the region as “the land of the Philistines,” a war-like tribe that inhabited much of the region alongside the Hebrew people. But the older name for Palestine was CANAAN, the term most frequently used in the Old Testament.

“The term Palestine as a name for the entire land of Canaan, beyond the coastal plains of the Phoenicians, was first used by the fifth century B. C. historian Herodotus. After the Jewish revolt of A. D. 135, the Romans replaced the Latin name Judea with the Latin Palaestina as their name for this province.”

The name was used as an insult to the Jewish people, denying the name Israel for their homeland, and naming after the Philistines, there enemy. The Romans called it Provincia Palestina. Those living there became known as Palestinians. But the majority of people were the Jews who lived there, they were the first (so called) “Palestinians.”

Israel was an occupied Roman territory in the first century.  When the Romans lead by Titus' army in 70 AD destroyed Jerusalem and her temple, it resulted in Israel being taken captive in their own country. The survivors left in the land went into slavery while others were dispersed according to the promise of Moses (Deut.30). Jesus had foretold this 70 AD event in Luke's gospel. It was after the diaspora they adopted this name (Palestinians) to forget who the land was given to. It wasn't until the 1950's Arabs began to call themselves “Palestinians” in order to focus the world's sympathy for their falsified refugee status and justify their acts of war and eventually terrorism.

The whole time the Jews no matter what country they were in still spoke Hebrew their nations language, after 4,000 years they kept their cultural identity intact like no other nation. Now they are being brought back into their homeland as prophecy has foretold, they are rediscovering their connection.

Israel, specifically Jerusalem has been the coveted land throughout history. The Muslims in 800 ad the crusades followed then Saladin and the Turks took it (Ottoman empire) and held it until 1917 when the British took it. It was then given back to the Hebrew people in 1948, after the holocaust God gave them mercy.  Jerusalem came under Israel’s control after the Arab attack in 1967.

President Barack Obama's address to the UN assembly”

In his speech to the U.N. General Assembly, Obama used strong language to call for the creation of a “viable, independent Palestinian state with contiguous territory that ends the occupation that began in 1967.” The term “occupation” is used by the Palestinians as a specific reference to the lands Israel captured after the Six Day War of 1967. This encompasses the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem, and the Temple Mount.

The temple mount is continually the focus, the question is why? The answer is simple, there is to be a rebuilt temple for the tribulation period. The longer this can be held off prophecy of the end times delayed. But God is in control and nothing man or Devil can stop it from going forward.

Never in history have we had a president take this type stance against Israel. Obama's speech is the most anti-Israel message ever delivered by a president of the United States. In fact, 5 minutes after Israel was declared an independent nation President Harry S. Truman signed official document recognizing Israel as a sovereign nation. The president has access to historical expertise and intelligence that many do not have, corroborates the Jewish position, not the Arab one. How is this any different than the holocaust being denied by another president, Achmadenijab of Iran?

President Obama saying “America does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements,” does not speak for all of America. The polices implemented cause Israel to lose property and put them in jeopardy many of Americans do not share or agree with.

The League of Nations' resolution creating the Palestine Mandate stated: “Whereas recognition has thereby been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country.” No such recognition of Arab rights in Palestine was granted.   In 1945, the United Nations took over the League of Nations - and assumed its obligations.  Article 80 of the UN Charter states: “Nothing in this Chapter shall be construed, in or of itself, to alter in any manner the rights whatsoever of any states or any peoples or the terms of existing international instruments to which Members of the United Nations may respectively be parties.”

In 1947 the General Assembly of the UN passed Resolution 181, called “the partition of the land.” It designated Jerusalem as an international territory never to be under the sovereignty of the Jews. It violated the League of Nations' Mandate for Palestine granting political rights to the Arabs in western Palestine. It divided Israel, giving 87 percent to the Arabs and 13 percent to the Jews, even though the League of Nations' 1922 Declaration of Principles had said that all of “Palestine” belonged to the Jews.

The UN established the City of Jerusalem as a separate entity under a special international regime, administered by the United Nations. The regime was to come into effect by October 1948, and remain for a period of ten years, unless the UN's Council decided otherwise.  After the ten years, the residents of Jerusalem “shall be then free to express by means of a referendum their wishes as to possible modifications of regime of the City.”

But the resolution never took effect. In 1948 the UN created two states Jewish and Palestinians under Jordan They based they own people in a camp so they would be safe from the attack, these became the refugee camps. Jordan controlled eastern Jerusalem after the 1948 War of Independence and did not follow its provisions. 

After the Six Day War in 1967, Israel took control of East Jerusalem (which includes the Old City, Jerusalem and other land west of Jordan.) It took control of Judea and Samaria on the west bank of the Jordan River from Jordan, the Golan Heights from Syria, and had control of the Gaza Strip and Sinai Desert from Egypt.

Israel did not take Judea and Samaria from a sovereign nation who had control of it. The 1949 Armistice Lines separating Israel's armies from Jordan's armies were temporary at Jordan's insistence. From 1948 to 1967 Jordan DID illegally occupy this piece of real estate.

The UN Security Council passed Resolution 242 authorizing Israel to remain in possession of all the land until it had “secure and recognized boundaries.”  The resolution said nothing on Jerusalem, but referred to the “necessity for achieving a just settlement of the refugee problem,” with no distinction made between Jewish and Arab refugees. As a policy Israel has always embraced non-Jews within its borders, extending to them full citizenship rights but they are not regarded this same courtesy from their neighbors.

As the UN developed its own doctrine Israel was being punished for her existence. From 1967 to the late 80’s onward out of 865 resolutions in the Security Council and General Assembly of the UN, 526 were against Israel. There were over 321 UN General Assembly resolutions and 49 UN Security Council resolutions condemning Israel. Altogether 370 condemnations but not once have Arab nations been condemned for their vows to exterminate Israel, or terrorism against Israel?

Threats from Arab nations and the Muslim religion continued to be declared. Egyptian Foreign Minister Muhammad Salah al-Din explained, “The Arab people...declare: We shall not be satisfied except by the final obliteration of Israel....” Egyptian President Nasser added, “...we demand vengeance, and vengeance is Israel’s death.”  80,000 Egyptians participated in a sneak attack in October 1973 that overwhelmed 500 Israeli defenders along the Suez. 1,400 Syrian tanks came by the Golan with only one Israeli tank in service to oppose them because most of Israel's armed forces were on holiday. Nine other Arab states joined in the hopeful conquest, Israel completely outnumbered but the Arab invaders still lost to a small army. No question, this is about whose god is God. God will fight for Israel, not against her (Isa 45:16-17).

Jerusalem was never the capital of any Arab or Muslim nation or group in history, even when they conquered it. The Temple Mount controlled by the Muslims,  Jews are forbidden to enter. The Muslim authorities who have control over the Temple Mount say that the area is an Islamic shrine, and only Muslims may pray there.

President Obama has openly rejected the Jewish right to their own land that was given to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob and Jacob's descendants; the nation was planted here nearly 4000 years ago and developed in the land. Before the Israelis won the land in war, Gaza was owned by Egypt, and there were no “Palestinians.” The Arabs (Palestinian) have no national history in this land. The actual “Palestinians” (if we use the term) are Jews that have always lived in the land proven from history and archeology.

The (Arab) Palestinians deny that there was a Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. But even the Qur’an in Sura 17:7 mentions the destruction of the First Temple by Babylon and the Second Temple by Rome, and Mohammed never contests the Bible's claim that the Temples were in Jerusalem. This is only place a temple is mentioned in the Qur'an: “ So when the second of the warnings came to pass, (We permitted your enemies) to disfigure your faces, and to enter your Temple as they had entered it before, and to visit with destruction all that fell into their power.”

Furthermore the Qur'an in Sura 5:22-23 states “Remember Moses said to his people: "O my people! Call in remembrance the favour of God unto you, when He produced prophets among you, made you kings, and gave you what He had not given to any other among the peoples. “O my people! Enter the holy land which God hath assigned unto you, and turn not back ignominiously, for then will ye be overthrown, to your own ruin”  The prophet Moses and all the Jewish prophets give testimony to the land being Israel's land in the Muslim's own book by their prophet.

The creation of an Arab state in the historical Jewish homeland insisted on by the UN is land theft but they care not. The Land of Israel is to the Jews: See Genesis 15:7-8, 13-16; 17:8; Deut. 28-30; Jer.. 30-31; Ezek. 36. The boundaries of the land given to Israel extend from the “River of Egypt” to the Euphrates: from eastern Egypt, all the way into western Iraq. Genesis 15:1-21; Exodus 23:2~31; Numbers 34:1-14; Joshua 1:3; Ezek. 47:1 which are written as a record thousands of years before.

But the bible always said that Israel would be at the center of events at the end of the world -Zech 8, Dan. 9, Ezek. 36, 37,just to name a few. Until 1948 out of the holocaust a nation was born in one day before the whole world to see that the Bible is true and God is the God of Israel. Her physical birth will precede her spiritual birth. Isaiah 66:8: “Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children.” This is also typology, as Israel will be born physically then she will be born spiritually (the physical birth always comes before the Spiritual birth).

The Covenant Almighty God made with Abraham and reinstated with Moses has the assurance that God will give the land to Israel -Gen. 15:18
The Dimensions of the land - Num. 34:1-15
The land is given to the descendents of Abraham - Gen. 12:7; 13:15; 15:18
This is an unconditional covenant - Gen. 17:7-8; Ps. 89:30-37; Deut. 7:7-9
The land was not given to Ishmael - Gen. 17:18-19 “But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year” (Gen. 17:19-21). God is speaking to Abraham regarding the future of his sons, Isaac and Ishmael. One from Sarah the other from his handmaiden, Arabs trace their lineage back to Ishmael, the Jewish people to Isaac. Notice that the covenant promise was bestowed to Isaac and his heirs, not to Ishmael. This is why Muslims change the historical record to make it Ishmael so they are connected to the land, but they know better.

The Jews' returning from 19 centuries of exile is actually found in Islamic writing which mimics the Bible prophecy. Sura 17:104 says that “when the promise of the Hereafter comes to pass, We [Allah] shall bring you as a crowd gathered out of various nations.”

Yet today, Islamic leaders insist that Israel has no legitimate claim to the land. attempt to convince the world that the ancient Jews had nothing to do with the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. But, in spite of such exercises to obfuscate the truth from the historically illiterate, archaeology and an abundance of documentation confirm Jewry's historic, moral, and legal rights in the land of Israel.

The Land of Israel actually belongs to God: “The Earth is the Lord's and all it contains, the world and those who dwell in it” (Psalm 24:1; Lev.25:23). The entire world belongs to God and He has the right to apportion the land to whomever He chooses. He specifically gave the nations their lands based on the Jewish people's right to the Land of Israel! “When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel. For the Lord's portion is His people; Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance” (Deuteronomy 32:8-9). The Land of Israel was given by God to the descendants of Abraham as an everlasting possession: “The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this Land'“ (Genesis 12:7).

Israel's borders are God given and recorded in the Bible: “The Lord said to Abram after Lot had separated from him, “Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever... Arise, walk about the land through its length and breadth; for I will give it to you'“ (Genesis 13:14-17). Islam tries to connect their right to the land by stating they are of Abraham who they deny is a Jew, and call him a Muslim. God did not just say Abraham but to his descendents. The Bible's promise was written over 1,000 years before there was an Islamic religion. “He has remembered His covenant forever, the word which He commanded to a thousand generations, the covenant which He made with Abraham, and His oath to Isaac. Then He confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant, saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan as the portion of your inheritance'“ (Psalm 105:8- 11).

“I will fix your boundary from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River Euphrates” (Exodus 23:31). Therefore we must conclude that the entire Land of Israel, including Judea and Samaria (West Bank), Gaza, the Golan Heights, and all of Jerusalem.

Neh. 1:8-9: “Remember, I pray, the word that You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, 'If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, 'but if you return to Me, and keep My commandments and do them, though some of you were cast out to the farthest part of the heavens, yet I will gather them from there, and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for My name.'

Scripture is clear that Israel's final reestablishment in the land will occur in close connection with the Messiah’s return (though the majority of Jews at this time do not acknowledge this as the second time). The Messiah's Coming is tied to the second regathering of Israel into her land (Isa.11:10-12), when “the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people” (v. 11), “from the four corners of the earth” (v. 12).

“bring back the captives of My people Israel; They shall build the cities and inhabit them;...I will plant them on their land, and no longer shall they be pulled up from the land I have given them,' says the Lord your God” (Amos 9:14,15).

There were always a remnant of Jewish people who remained in the Land of Israel. In the 1880's, the prophesied regathering of Jewish people to Israel gained momentum with Zionism (meaning returning to their homeland), there was always the hope of the nation of Israel, with its capital being Jerusalem. Now there is nearing 5.5 million Jewish people regathered from over 70 countries (along with others that live there).

We are coming closer to the time of the Great Tribulation, referred to in Jeremiah 30:7 as “the time of Jacob's trouble.” This will be the time period Israel as a nation will be buffered by God and eventually turn to the Lord. Zech 13:9: “I will bring the one-third through the fire, will refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, 'This is My people'; and each one will say, 'The LORD is my God.” Israel needs to be brought back into the land in unbelief before they come to belief in the land.

Mt.25 and the judgment is about how others treated the brethren as God brought his prophecy to fulfillment. Isaiah 40:1-2: “Comfort, yes, comfort My people!” says your God. “Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her, that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.”

All of Israel will be saved (as written in Romans 9) but not all Israel will survive through the tribulation. All the nations will be affected, as God says that man will become more rare than fine gold. God will severely judge any nation who divides up any part of HIS LAND: “In those days and at that time when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat. Then I will enter into judgment with them there on behalf of My people and My inheritance Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; and they have divided up My Land” (Joel 3:1-2). Zechariah 12:9: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.” All the nations surrounding Israel will from a alliance against her. We have not seen this throughout history. The surrounding nations have never been united together in anything but have fought one another but they are already united against Israel because of Islam and its teachings, unknowingly headed toward fulfilling the prophecies.

Isa 46:12-13: “Listen to Me, you stubborn-hearted, who are far from righteousness: I bring My righteousness near, it shall not be far off; my salvation shall not linger. And I will place salvation in Zion, for Israel My glory.”

Isa 54:6-10: “For the LORD has called you like a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, like a youthful wife when you were refused,” says your God.” For a mere moment I have forsaken you, but with great mercies I will gather you. With a little wrath I hid My face from you for a moment; but with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you,” says the LORD, your Redeemer.” For this is like the waters of Noah to Me; for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be angry with you, nor rebuke you. For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but My kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall My covenant of peace be removed,” says the LORD, who has mercy on you.”

The nation of Israel existing at the present time with the Jewish people returning is a testimony to how God controls all things according to His will and He will fulfill His own word. It is during this future time the Latter Rain will take place starting in Israel where His people “shall look upon [Him] whom they have pierced” (Zech.12:10), and they shall turn to Him and call upon him. The Messiah will come again, and His feet shall stand upon the Mount of Olives (Zech.14:4), the very place He left when he went to heaven.

Ps 33:12 “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people He has chosen as His own inheritance.”

One day all of Israel will acknowledge the Lord and the name of Jerusalem becomes its nature; City of Peace, city of the great King. Jerusalem “shall be rebuilt for the Lord ...  it shall not be plucked up, or overthrown any more forever” (Jer.31:38-40).

Satan knows many prophecies depend on Israel being in the land, this is why he wants them removed and brings confusion to the church who is obligated to support Israel and the Jews. We should not forget the church is grafted into the root and should not boast as Paul warns in Romans 11. It is the word of God that is our final say on matters like these. As we see the last days unfolding we should not forget the main thing - God is not finished with Israel. How the Church relates to Israel is key to her being blessed or judged.

There are leaders out of ignorance or even intentionally want the church to forsake Israel, teaching the church has replaced Israel. We need to make up our minds now, not tomorrow where we stand. The church will be judged on what they do with Israel (Gen.12 and Mt.25).  

As a Christian you need to stand by Israel, and support Israel as much as possible (Mt.25). God's ancient promise in Genesis 12:3 is still very much in effect: “I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse.” God keeps his promises and will not break His covenant with his people. Ps 129:5: “Let all those who hate Zion be put to shame and turned back.” The Lord is coming back to rescue and restore Israel and put in order the nations.

If you do not accept God’s word on Israel you make yourself an enemy of God, God is for his people Israel and He wants his church to be blessed by supporting them as a nation and individually.