Whose Land?
The Bible Answer to the Palestinian Question
A TINY strip of land, sandwiched between the sea and the desert at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, is probably the most disputed piece of territory on earth. For thousands of years, it has been fought over; in the last fifty years or so, it has been the focus of international attention as rival peoples have claimed their rights to the area. Amazingly, in very recent years, there have been moves towards reconciliation, and bitter enemies have signed treaties of peace and security - and yet the tension continues to surface. What is behind the so-called ‘Palestinian Question'? How can the Bible have an answer?
The land in question has, for almost 2,000 years, been known as "Palestine" -though you may not find the name on maps published since 1948. Today, for "Palestine" read "Israel". Jews all over the world believe they have had the rights to this territory for 4,000 years, even though many of them do not choose to live there. Those 4.5 million Jews who do live there call themselves "Israelis", citizens of the modern State of Israel.
The setting up of that state in May 1948, and the dislodging of Palestinian Arabs to make way for returning Jews, is what has led to bitter tension and several wars in the last half century.
Palestinian Historical Claims
A very large number of Arabs, some of whom live in Israel, and others in the 'Occupied Territories' or in neighboring states, have adopted the Palestinian name and claim the land is theirs because they have been there for so long. Since Israel became an internationally recognised nation, the Palestinians have dedicated themselves to ridding the land of all Jews. From 1968 their political activities were organised under a new umbrella name: the "Palestine Liberation Organisation" (PLO). Their cause has been supported actively or covertly by the Arab states which surround Israel. To complicate matters, many Islamic countries of the Middle East and North Africa, whose objective is to make Jerusalem their holy city, have given support to the Arab cause in opposing the Jews.
As soon as we mention "holy city" we are of course introducing a religious dimension into the Arab-Israeli question. This is indeed a political conflict with deep and ancient religious overtones. Arabs and Jews have been at enmity for 3,500 years; the problem did not start in 1948 or 1968. Jews and Arabs have a common ancestry; and their ancestors worshipped the same God. Over the centuries, however, each has gone its own way: the Jews (if they were religious) followed Judaism, and the Arabs developed the religion of Islam. Conflicting beliefs are at the root of the enmity that has reached its climax this century.
Peace Negotiations
Hopes have been raised in recent years by moves to exchange land for peace; and we have seen former enemies join hands to find a solution to their intractable problems. Yet in spite of such moves, there are many Jews who protest that Israel has already given away part of God's land (Israel's peace-seeking Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in 1995 by one of these); and there are also many Arabs who will go to any length to stop the peace process. One such group, Hamas, founded in 1987, is based on the Islamic philosophy that all of Palestine belongs to Muslims, and that a hajj or 'holy war' against the Jews is ordained by God. Its charter quotes a saying of Muhammad that "the Judgement Day will not come until Muslims will fight Jews and kill them".
What, then, is happening in this ancient land? Where will it all lead? The only meaningful answers are to be found by acknowledging the ancient origins of the situation, and by turning to the only book in which those origins are recorded - the Bible. These events will determine the future of the human race and will change the world for ever.
God is in Control
The first thing to remember is that the Creator is in control of the situation, and the destiny of the nations is in His hands. The Apostle Paul told the philosophers of his day that:
"God, who made the world ... has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation." (Acts 17:24-26)
Though Arabs and Jews both claim the land of Palestine, it is actually God who owns it. He views it as something very special to Him, and only He has the right to determine who will control it. As Moses, the Jewish leader declared, it is "a land for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year" (Deuteronomy 11:12). What is more, God has put it, with its capital city Jerusalem, in the middle of the earth.
That means that Palestine is inevitably the focus of events in the Middle East -and the world. Canaan was the land-bridge of the ancient world, joining Europe and Asia to Africa. Whoever could control this territory could (so it was thought) dominate the world.
In past ages Israel was threatened by surrounding empires; in our own era she has been similarly threatened by some of her immediate neighbours: Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt; and also, further afield, Iran, Libya, Algeria and Tunisia. Not many years ago, with united voice, some of Israel's neighbours were threatening the annihilation of the Jews in Palestine. Psalm 83's prophecy about Israel's enemies was surely being fulfilled:
"Your enemies ... those who hate you ... have taken crafty counsel against your people, and consulted against your sheltered ones. They have said, 'Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be remembered no more'. They have consulted together with one consent." (Psalm 83:2-5)
The battle was joined -- in bloody fighting, in international terrorism and in a war of words that provided daily copy for the world's newspapers.
Competing Claims for the Land
If the right to the land of Palestine is God's to dispose, whose claim has His approval: the Jews' or the Arabs'? The Jews say it is theirs, for the land was promised to their father Abraham by the LORD God 4,000 years ago. Arabs argue that it is theirs, for they also descend from Abraham! They point out, furthermore, that they, and not the Jews, have lived in the area since Roman times, while the Jews were largely absent until the Zionist movement began at the end of the 19th century and the British Government, in the Balfour Declaration of 1917, offered the Jews a national home in Palestine. The modern Palestinians continued the name "Palestine" after the British left in 1948 and the State of Israel was set up.
Children of Abraham
Both Arabs and Jews share Abraham as their forefather. They are Semitic peoples, that is to say, descended from Shem, the eldest son of Noah. After the great Flood, the God-fearing family of Noah degenerated into paganism as they migrated back to Chaldea and built the tower in Babel ('confusion') -- to "make themselves a name" instead of honouring God's name. The consequence of Babel was the confusion of languages and the curse of families being dispersed into all parts of the earth. It was from moon-worshipping Chaldea that the LORD God called Abraham, his wife Sarah and his orphaned nephew Lot to live in Canaan, a territory south of the Euphrates river and stretching down to Egypt. It was a territory then inhabited by Canaanites, Philistines (from whom the Palestinians get their name), and other godless tribes. Faithful Abraham was promised that the curse of Babel would one day be reversed and,
"I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great ... and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." (Genesis 12:2,3)
A remarkable promise indeed! But when Abraham reached Shechem (present-day Nablus in the West Bank) -- the first time he had set foot in the disputed territory of Canaan -- God added: 'To your seed I will give this land" (Genesis 12:7). Later, from the hills north of Jerusalem, God commanded him:
"Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are -- northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see, I give to you and your seed for ever. (Genesis 13:14,15)
As was usual in real estate agreements in those days, he was invited to "Arise, walk in the land, through its length and its width, for I give it to you". The extent of it was marked out in Genesis 15:18-21: "From the river of Egypt (in the south) to the great river, the River Euphrates" (in today's Syria).
But there was a problem. The land was promised to his seed, yet Abraham and Sarah were old and had no children. Aged 85, Abraham took Hagar, Sarah's Egyptian maid, as his wile. Hagar received an angelic message that her son should be "Ishmael", an Egyptian name meaning 'God hears'. A promise of a great family was made concerning Ishmael:
"I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count ... He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers." (Genesis 16:10-12, NIV)
The Arab Heritage
That was a very revealing forecast! Ishmael was to be the father of the bedoum Arabs, desert dwellers in Arabia. The situation was later confirmed to Abraham when, still having no son by Sarah, he pleaded with God that Ishmael might be his heir:
"Then God said: 'No. Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish my covenant with him ... As for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation'." (Genesis 17:19,20)
History confirms the existence of the twelve branches of Ishmael's family. Isaac in due time received confirmation of the promises through him; and, in turn, they were repeated to his son Jacob:
"God give you of the dew of heaven, of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine. Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you." (27:28,29)
On the contrary, the future for Esau, Jacob's twin, was:
"Behold, away from the fatness of the earth shall your dwelling be ... by your sword shall you live" (Genesis 27:39,40, RSV)
So Esau set up home in the dry, red deserts of Edom, down by the Dead Sea. Abraham and Isaac settled in the land of promise and he sent his other sons "eastward ... to the country of the east" (Genesis 25:6). Midian's children became desert caravanners, and Sheba and Dedan occupied southern Arabia. From Abraham's nephew Lot, came the Ammonites and Moabites who inhabited the land east of the river.
A Divided Family
Thus we get an overall picture of a divided family -- on the one hand, Isaac, Jacob and the twelve tribes of Israel (the Jews) eventually being established in the promised territory and, on the other, the Arab sons and families moving eastward and southward away from the "promised land". God's intentions were clear: the Jews through whom the promises were channelled lived in the land and received the blessings of a fertile territory.
The Bible, therefore, is very clear that the Jews were the divinely appointed inhabitants of the Land, and there can be no doubt that God delivered the children of Israel from Egyptian slavery, and led them to inhabit the Land.
A Magnet for the Nations
A feature of Old Testament history was the challenge that this prosperous "land of milk and honey" and its people, and their all-powerful LORD God, offered to the pagan empires to the north and east. From about 750 BC the Assyrians invaded the northern kingdom of Israel and the Babylonians took the southern kingdom of Judea and plundered the city and the temple in Jerusalem. Then as now, Jerusalem, with its "holy" status, was the prime target. The king of Babylon, turning his desires on the land and its capital city, said:
"I will ascend into heaven ... I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High." (Isaiah 14:13,14)
The prophets speak out on behalf of Israel’s God against the gods of Babylon. Their futures are contrasted: the latter will disappear, but Israel's God will endure. Such prophecies hint at a renewal of religious zeal against Israel in the "later days", and today we watch as it unfolds.
A Disobedient Family
One major factor which, despite their favoured position, brought the Jewish nation to its knees, was their disobedience of God's command and their compromise with the gods and practices of their neighbours. History records that they discounted their privileges, compromised with their enemies and finished up by the "rivers of Babylon", where they bemoaned their fate and recalled how their Arab half-brothers had cried against Jerusalem: "Raze it, raze it, to its very foundation!" (Psalm 137:7). Even when some of them had returned from Babylon through the mercy of God, their descendants were shouting for the murder of the Messiah whom God had provided for their salvation. "His blood be upon our heads," they cried to the Roman governor -- and it truly has been ever since. The Roman armies plundered their city and sold the Jews into the slave markets of the world.
This disaster for the Jewish nation occurred because of their failure to recognise that Jesus was the promised Messiah. In one of his parables, Jesus spoke of their blindness despite God's constant care and continual reminders of His promises. He spoke of a householder (God) who let out His vineyard (the land of Canaan) to husbandmen (the Jews). He sent servants (the prophets), and finally His Son (Jesus) to obtain the produce of His vineyard: "But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance'." (Matthew 21:38).
According to Jesus, therefore, he is the heir, and the Jews have been God's appointed tenants. For a long time the Land was let out to others, just as the parable foretold.
Has God Forgotten His Promises?
Had God cast away the Jews? God has not forgotten! The centuries of bitter persecution have come and gone: the pogroms of Europe brought indescribable terror upon Jewish communities in their day: the unspeakable holocaust of the Second World War is something mankind may never erase from its memory. But God has not forgotten! Did He not say:
"I will ... deliver you into the hands of strangers, and execute judgements on you." Yet, "Although I have cast them far off among the Gentiles, and although I have scattered them among the countries .. I will gather you from the peoples, assemble you from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel" (Ezekiel 11:9-17)
The Old Testament is full of such quotations. It is abundantly clear that the Jew, despite his disobedience and his terrible tribulations, has survived. We know why! The Jew has been God's witness among the nations. He survives not through any merits of his own, but as a testimony that God keeps His promises and will fulfil what He said to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Isaiah records why Israel survived:
"But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, and he who formed you, O Israel: 'Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are mine . . . You are my witnesses,' says the LORD, 'that I am God'." (Isaiah 43:1,12)
So far as the promises are concerned, the Apostle Paul in the New Testament explains that the Lord Jesus Christ is the promised seed of Abraham: "Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, 'And to seeds, as of many, but as of one, 'And to your Seed,' who is Christ" (Galatians 3:16). As Jesus' own parable about the vineyard showed, he will return to the earth to inherit and fulfil God's promises to Abraham. At that time, the whole of the land, from the Euphrates to Egypt, not just parts of it as today, will be occupied by the remnants of a Jewish nation who will recognise their Messiah.
The return of Jesus may be very near indeed. But he has not yet come, and the struggle between Jew and Arab is not yet over.
The "Holy" Power Struggle
As we have seen, the conflict in the Middle East has not only been about political boundaries, but it has been about a so-called "holy" land and a "holy" city, Jerusalem. Christians in the Middle Ages waged their Crusades for the deliverance of the "holy places" from those who controlled them at that time. Today, Catholic, Russian Orthodox and many other churches of Christendom challenge each other for space on the most revered sites in the city and throughout the land. At festivals and feasts, the streets of Jerusalem are crowded with Jewish, Christian and Islamic worshippers.
With such deeply-rooted conflicting claims, no wonder the Middle East problem has proved so difficult to resolve!
Building up to the Climax
Let us here summarise some of the significant events since the modern State of Israel was established.
| 1948 | (May 14) British forces leave. The State of Israel is established. The War of Independence starts, involving five Arab states. Jerusalem and the land is divided. Jordan administers the "West Bank". 700,000 Arabs living in Israel move into refugee camps across the border. Some Arab groups dedicate themselves to the "liberation" of Palestine. |
| 1967 | The Six-Day War. Egypt, Jordan and Syria invade Israel. The Jews retake East Jerusalem and occupy the Golan Heights, the West Bank and the Egyptian Sinai and Gaza Strip. |
| 1968 | PLO and "Palestinian" identity emerges. |
| 1973 | On Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), Israel is attacked. The Syrian army is forced back to Damascus; the Egyptian army almost to Cairo. |
| 1979 | Egypt and Israel conclude a peace treaty. Israel relinquishes the Sinai desert despite having built many settlements there. |
| 1982 | Israel enters Lebanon to oust PLO bases which are threatening the Jews. PLO forced to leave and set up headquarters in Tunisia. |
| 1988 | Beginning of Intifada -- Palestinian uprising in Gaza and West Bank. |
| 1989 | Arafat elected President of "State of Palestine" -- government in exile. |
| 1991 | The Gulf War. Iraq directs Scud missiles against Israel. |
| 1993 | "Peace process" is initiated. PLO and Israeli leaders shake hands. |
| 1994 | Palestinian Authority takes over administration of Gaza Strip and Jericho. King Hussein of Jordan signs a peace treaty with Israel. Syria discusses peace. |
| 1998 | 50th anniversary of the State of Israel. |
Bible observers believe that before Jesus Christ returns to the earth there will be a semblance of peaceful stability in the area. At a time when Israel is secure and prosperous, the prophet Ezekiel sees a coalition of nations, with "Gog" as their leader, invading Jerusalem from the north, "in the latter days". Persia (Iran) and Libya will be involved –- and the wrath of both these nations against Israel has already been made very clear. Gog will say:
" 'I will go to a peaceful people, who dwell safely' ... to stretch out your hand against the waste places that are again inhabited, and against a people gathered from the nations ... who dwell in the midst of the land (at the centre of the earth, RSV)." (Ezekiel 38:11,12)
"On that day when my people Israel are dwelling securely, you will bestir yourself ... you will come up against my people Israel, like a cloud covering the land. In the latter days I will bring you against my land, that the nations may know me when, through you, I vindicate my holiness before their eyes." (Ezekiel 38:14-16. RSV)
How can Israel "dwell securely" unless they have peace treaties with their neighbours? Is this the reason for the surprising initiatives in recent times? Bible readers know that any such peace will be short-lived. For Ezekiel went on to forecast that, by divine intervention, there will be a world-shattering earthquake and the enemies will be destroyed. "Then they shall know that I am the LORD" (Ezekiel 38:23).
Almost all the Old Testament prophets foretell this catastrophic event, coinciding with "the Day of the Lord", when the Kingdom of God will be set up on the earth. Zechariah, for instance, makes it clear that at the time of the earthquake there will be a massive invasion against Jerusalem by surrounding enemies from many nations. The city will be destroyed and the invaders repulsed by the returned Jesus:
"The day of the LORD is coming . . . For I will gather all nations to battle against Jerusalem; the city shall be taken . . . Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations . . . And in that day his feet (the Lord Jesus, see Acts 1:11) will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, from east to west ... Thus the LORD my God will come, and all the saints with you . . . And the LORD shall be King over all the earth. In that day it shall be – ‘The LORD is one,' and his name one." (Zechariah 14:1-9)
A Wonderful Preview of Events to Come
Those who set themselves up to attack the holy city or God's land are ultimately doomed to failure. Jesus will re-establish the land of Israel, from Syria to Egypt, on both sides of the Jordan River. The prophet Ezekiel had a clear vision of the land divided among the twelve tribes of Israel, with a re-built Jerusalem as the world capital of Christ's new kingdom, and a new temple as the centre of worship for the whole world. Isaiah too saw the prospect of a sanctuary which would be "a house of prayer for all nations" (Isaiah 56:7) and a rallying point for religious education and world peace which will benetit all peoples.
Today's Israelis, for the most part, are not God-fearing. But those Jews who have a change of heart when they meet the Messiah will be privileged to live in the cleansed land of Israel. They will be "the head of the nations, and not the tail" (Deuteronomy 28:13). God will fulfil His promises to Abraham and through him and his descendants the world will receive abundant blessings:
"Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the LORD . . . 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'." (Zechariah 8:22,23)
What about Ishmael and the Arabs?
Will God ignore Ishmael? "I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful . . . and I will make him a great nation." Much of this has happened already because, although the promises were not made to Ishmael in the first place, the Arabs have become a great multitude of peoples - often divided, falling out with each other, yet contributing much to world culture. But is there nothing for them in the future?
If they acknowledge the God of Israel and the Lord Jesus Christ they will live alongside the descendants of Isaac and Jacob, bringing their treasures into Jerusalem, helping to rebuild the economy of the area, benefiting from the blossoming of their deserts and sharing in the Middle East's prosperity. Isaiah, for example, pictures Arabs and others flowing into Jerusalem and giving their services to the land. He describes it like this:
"The multitude of camels shall cover your land, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come . . . Also the sons of those who afflicted you shall come bowing to you, and all those who despised you shall fall prostrate at the soles of your feet; and they shall call you, The City of the Lord, Zion of the Holy One of Israel." (Isaiah 60:6-14)
Prosperity in the Middle East
This is assured, when inhabitants of Syria, Israel and Egypt have accepted Christ as king:
"The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose." (Isaiah 35:1)
"In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria . . . Israel will be one of three with Egypt and Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land, whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, 'Blessed is Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance'." (Isaiah 19:23-25)
Harmony and peace will, at last, come to the family of Abraham. The Middle East will be gloriously transformed.
Salvation through Jesus Christ
This is something personal and vital to every one of us, of whatever nationality, if we wish to be part of the divine plans for the future. God promised Abraham that he would be the "father of many nations . . . and kings shall come from you" (Genesis 17:5,6). These kings involved the royal line, from men like David and Solomon to Jesus Christ himself. Jesus, the "King of the Jews", is to be the ruler of the world from Jerusalem.
Jesus is the Son of God, as well as being the "son of David, the son of Abraham" (Matthew 1:1). He is the Saviour of men and women from every race, language and creed on earth if they truly believe in him. God "gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).
Here is the answer to human mortality and man’s need for future salvation. For it is through –
"the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead . . . Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:10-12)
No one will be excluded, who changes his life to be a follower of Jesus. God's plan is a world-wide plan of salvation. For it is through Abraham that "all families of the earth" are to be blessed. That includes Gentiles and Jews. If they wish to become the immortal heirs of Abraham, to rule with Jesus, Abraham and David in the coming kingdom on earth, and to bring its blessings to the whole world, then they must be baptized into the family of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul was a converted and baptized Jew and he wrote these words to his baptized Gentile colleagues:
"As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ ... And it you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." (Galatians 3:27-29)
We are, therefore, all caught up in the exciting affairs of the Middle East and the changes that will come to the whole world. We cannot predict exactly what will take place before the final onslaught on Jerusalem, but the evidence is all around us that we are not far from the end.
Think about these things now, and take the necessary steps to join yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ. There may not be much time left!
STANLEY OWEN
Bible quotations are from the New King James Version except where otherwise indicated
