The Land of God
“Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, and to his people.”- Deuteronomy 32:43
By Mike Wingfield
No piece of property has caused more division or conflict than the land of Israel. The ancient superpowers of Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Greece, and Rome all attacked Israel and occupied this land. Islam has been in conflict with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob over the land of God for 1,300 years. The international community, which totals 7 billion, is currently pressuring 6 million Jews living in Israel to surrender the heart of their divinely promised land to an enemy that is sworn to Israel’s destruction. Several sources in the Israeli media are reporting that U.S. President Obama recently called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the Israeli election. During the 30-minute conversation described as “difficult,” our president informed Netanyahu that the United States would no longer support Israel at the United Nations with regard to the creation of a Palestinian State. This means that the U.S. administration will support a possible international demand for an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank (Biblical Judea and Samaria) to the pre-1967 borders, including the ancient Biblical city of Jerusalem. In other words, we are about to watch the United Nations attempt to force a peace treaty upon Israel. As we watch these developments unfold, we must be reminded that this is a fulfillment of the prophecies revealed to the ancient prophets of Israel by the Lord more than 2,500 years ago.
This little land has a unique place in the heart, will, mind, and eternal plans of God. It is the divine stage of the story of God that is designed to display His sovereign power and divine nature. In this newsletter, I would like to help us examine three divine features of the Holy Land.
Its Divine Source
The Bible begins with these words: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) The testimony of God’s revelation proclaims that everything that takes place on this planet is a part of God’s divine plan, formulated in the mind of God before the foundation of the world. (Revelation 13:8) The Lord Jesus created everything to fulfill His eternal purposes. (Isaiah 14:24, 26-27) At the center of that plan, for the glory of God, is the revelation of God’s Son. Long before there was an earth, the Lord decided to create a planet and select a small portion of land mass to become the stage upon which He would unfold the greatest story ever told! An examination of the prophecies of the Old Testament, and their divine fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ in the
Gospels, makes it clear that God chose the little land of Israel as the divine stage for His revelation and redemption.
Before the nation of Israel would occupy their land for the first time, God revealed to Moses that He had created that land for His chosen people and the divine purposes for which He had selected them. Deuteronomy 32:8 declares: “When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.” This simply means that the size of this land was determined by the number of Jewish people throughout the ages. The land of Israel is about the size of the state of New Jersey. It is tiny because the Jewish people, when compared to other ethnic people groups, are relatively few in number. The Lord also reminded Moses of this as well: “The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people.” (Deuteronomy 7:7) Today, the world Jewish population is approximately 15 million, which is about .3 percent of the global population.
Israel is a very densely populated nation. Almost one-half of the global Jewish population is currently living in their ancient homeland. The time will come, at the beginning of the Kingdom, when all living Jews will return to Israel. Speaking of this day, Ezekiel wrote: “As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men: and they shall know that I am the LORD.” (Ezekiel 36:38)
When the Lord created the Holy Land, He also strategically placed it at the center of all the nations. (Ezekiel 5:5) The land of Israel is a natural land bridge that connects three continents: Asia, Europe, and Africa. During the days of the Old Testament, Israel was always at the center of the political power structure of the world, with Egypt to the south and Assyria, Babylon, and Persia to the north. So, God’s chosen people occupied the most significant piece of property among the powers of the ancient world. Because of Israel’s strategic location, these ancient superpowers always wanted to occupy and control the Holy Land for their political and commercial purposes. Militarily, Israel found itself at the center of the war between these superpowers, many of them choosing to meet their enemy in the Valley of Armageddon, rather than conducting their wars in one of their own countries. Hence, by default, Israel was always at the center of the struggle for power in the ancient world.
It is extremely significant to note that the Lord chose to send out His divine revelation to the world from the center of the globe. The eternal Son of God came to the center of His creation and fulfilled the eternal mission of His Father. Then, He sent His apostles from the heart of the world into all nations with His message of redemption. (Acts 1:8) When Jesus returns to the earth to establish His earthly kingdom, He will return to the hub of the earth and rule from the center of the world over all nations for 1,000 years. (Isaiah 2:1-4) Jerusalem will become the political, religious, economic, and educational capital of the world.
The exact location of the Promised Land is clearly outlined in the Scriptures. (Genesis 15:18-21; Joshua 1:3-4)
Looking at the current map of the Middle East, the land promised to Israel includes all of modern-day Israel (including the “West Bank” and “Gaza”), all of Lebanon, all of Jordan, and parts of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Syria, and Turkey. Israel has never occupied or possessed all of this land, but will acquire it all during the Millennial Kingdom of her Messiah, Jesus Christ.
It is also important to note that the Holy Land was not the choice of the Jewish patriarchs. God chose the land (Genesis 12:1) and gave it to them in an eternal (Genesis 13:15) and unconditional covenant. (Genesis 15:7-21) Because this was an unconditional covenant, God cannot revoke His promise. After their first divine judgment, in which they were cast out of the land, the Lord continued to declare that the land belonged to Israel. As a remnant of Jews were returning to the land after the Babylonian Captivity, the Lord spoke through the prophet Zechariah (475 B.C.) and proclaimed: “Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the LORD. … And the LORD shall inherit Judah his portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again.” (Zechariah 2:10, 12)
Its Divine Stewardship
While the entire earth belongs to the Lord (Psalm 24:1), in a very unique sense, the Lord has repeatedly declared that the Holy Land belongs to Him! In Leviticus 25:23, He distinctly affirmed: “the land is mine.” Throughout the Bible, the Lord repeatedly refers to this land as “my land.” (Isaiah 14:25; Ezekiel 36:5, Joel 3:2)
The Bible is emphatic that the Creator and Ruler of the earth has chosen the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to be the tenants that have the sole right to occupy the land of God. In Leviticus 25:23, He said to Israel: “The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine, for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.” More than 100 times in the Old Testament, the Lord declared He would “give” His land to His people, Israel. (Genesis 13:15; 15:18) Therefore, as He spoke to the Jewish people, He referred to the Holy Land as “your own land.” (Ezekiel 36:24)
There has never been a group of people who have been so attached to a piece of property like the Jewish people have been passionately devoted to the Holy Land. The Lord has given them an unusual and binding love for this land. The Bible compares the love the Jewish people have for Jerusalem and the Holy Land to a love relationship and covenant that exists between a young man and his virgin bride who are passionately in love with each other. (Isaiah 62:4-5)
The Jewish people are the divinely appointed stewards of
God’s property. In spite of their failures, God has not changed His plans. He gave them this land to fulfill His divine purposes upon this unique stage for all the world to see. They are actors on God’s stage to send God’s message to the entire world. According to Biblical prophecy, the final act has not yet taken place and is in progress at this very moment.
Its Divine Strategy
In all of this, we must be reminded that the sovereign Creator of the universe has entrusted His stewardship of His land to His people for His glory. (Isaiah 46:9-13) To accomplish this, the Lord has chosen to reveal His divine strategy for all of this to come to pass, as He designed before the world was created. A study of Biblical history and prophecy helps us to read the script for God’s story that has been and will be acted out on His divine stage – the Holy Land.
As we read the Bible, we discover that God has chosen to reveal some of the details of His eternal plan. For example, we know that the Lord knew He would need to provide a plan of reconciliation for mankind before He created the earth and placed Adam and Eve in the Garden and gave them instructions to not disobey Him. God’s plan of redemption was in place before He spoke the creation into existence. The Bible speaks of Jesus Christ as “the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.” (Revelation13:8) While God has sent His divine judgment upon the wicked in the past, this has not altered His eternal plans for the redemption of a remnant of mankind to dwell with Him in heaven for all of eternity.
Likewise, the Lord has not forsaken or altered His plans for His people and His land! He has declared: “For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” (Malachi 3:6) The Bible gives us insight into the unique plans the Lord has for Israel. He spoke to Abraham and told him that his descendants would live in Egypt and then after about 400 years would return as a nation to occupy the Promised Land. (Genesis 15:12-21) The record of the amazing fulfillment of this promise is recorded in the Bible. (Genesis 46- Deuteronomy 34)
Before the Jewish nation would occupy the Promised Land the first time, the Lord revealed to Moses that Israel would eventually forsake the Lord and be driven out of their land by divine judgment. (Deuteronomy 28:63-67; 30:3-5) The beginning of the fulfillment of this prophecy began many years later when the Lord used the Assyrians in 722 B.C. to defeat and disperse the 10 tribes of northern Israel into many nations in the ancient world. About 125 years later, the Lord used the Babylonians to fulfill His plan by defeating the remaining two Jewish tribes in southern Judah, allowing the enemy to destroy Jerusalem and its temple. A Jewish remnant was carried away as captives to Babylon.
If a person did not read the divine prophecies about Israel’s future, and the rest of God’s story recorded in the Bible, he might think that God’s plan for Israel was finished. However, we know from Scripture, that this was not the case. The Lord revealed to the ancient prophet Jeremiah that the Babylonian captivity would last only 70 years. (Jeremiah 25:12) After that, a remnant of Jews would return to Israel to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple, and to occupy the land once again. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah chronicle for us God’s story of the beginning of the first international re-gathering of the Jewish people to their ancient homeland. This return of a remnant of Jewish people from Babylon and the nations of the ancient world to Israel began in 539 B.C. and continued until the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the Romans in 70 A.D. With this defeat, the Jewish people were once again scattered among the nations of the world. In 135 A.D.,
the Romans changed the name of Israel to Palestine, hoping to defeat the passionate plans for a return of the Jewish people to their beloved land called Israel.
Once again, if a person is not aware of the unconditional promises God made to Israel and the prophecies of how this would come to pass, he might conclude that God is done with Israel. As a matter of fact, many pastors and Christians have arrived at this conclusion. They believe that God is finished with Israel and all of the divine promises given to Israel have now been transferred to the church. For many Biblical reasons, this is totally impossible!
According to the script of God’s story recorded in the Scriptures, the Jewish people would “abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice. … Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days.” (Hosea 3:4-5) This simply means that after many years of international dispersion, the Jewish people would eventually seek the Lord and begin a process of returning to the land of Israel once again in the last days. The return of the Jewish people to their land in the last days is a divine process. (Jeremiah 30:3; Ezekiel 36:24) In the midst of this process, a time of great trouble will come upon the Jewish people. (Jeremiah 30:4-7; Matthew 24:15-22) This time of great distress and anguish will surpass anything that they or any other nation have experienced in all of human history. (Daniel 12:1; Matthew 24:21) However, the Scriptures repeatedly assert that God’s story will be completed as He has declared. A believing Jewish remnant in the land will survive the Tribulation Period and be joined by all of the remaining believing Jews scattered among the nations in their final re-gathering to their land. Shortly after the kingdom begins, all Jews will return to Israel. The entire living nation of Israel will be saved (Zechariah 13:10-13:9; Romans 11:26) and join their Messiah for His reign in the Holy Land. The Lord has promised that this will take place. He told Ezekiel: “Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name; After that they have borne their shame, and all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against me, when they dwelt safely in their land, and none made them afraid. When I have brought them again from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations; Then shall they know that I am the LORD their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them into the own land, and have left none of them any more there. Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.” (Ezekiel 39:25-29)
This entire process of the return of the Jewish people to Israel in the last days is known in the Bible as the second international re-gathering to their land. (Deuteronomy 30:1-10; Isaiah 11:11-12) Please notice that the Bible demands that there will be two international re-gatherings of the Jewish people to the Holy Land. The first international re-gathering began in 539 B.C. and ended in 70 A.D. This second and final return of the Jewish people began during the 20th century and will be finalized at the beginning of the Millennial Kingdom.
According to the Bible, once this second international process of the return of Israel begins, they will never be forced out of the land again. In Amos 9:14-15, the Lord declared: “And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them, and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God.”
We are witnessing this process at this time. Israel is in the midst of their second international re-gathering and there will not be another one! The same prophetic Scriptures foretell how the nations will oppose the return of the Jewish people to their homeland in the last days. It will begin with a regional opposition to the Jews in their land (Ezekiel 36:2-7), leading to a global rejection of the Jewish occupation of the land of Israel. (Joel 3:2) This is exactly what we are witnessing at this hour. Israel is opposed by a global Muslim population of 1.6 billion. This enemy of Israel is being supported by the vast majority of the remaining global population. In essence, 6 million Jews are facing an overwhelming opposition of all nations, numbering 7 billion!
However, according to the Biblical script of God’s story, the God of Israel will protect and defend His people and His land by supernatural means. The last seven years of human government’s control on this planet with be a horrific struggle as Satan manipulates the nations to follow His messiah, the Antichrist, in his desperate attempt to destroy Israel and defeat the Lord. At the center of this whirlwind is the land of Israel. Speaking about the divine response of Satan and man’s rebellion at the end of this age, Isaiah declared: “For it is the day of the LORD’s vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion.” (Isaiah 34:8)
God’s script about how all of this will end is clear. Israel will win this war, by divine enablement. They eventually will occupy all of the land of Israel. Each person and nation must decide if they will stand with God and Israel, or the world and Satan. When the nations gather against God in Israel at the battle of Armageddon, they will join the “multitudes in the valley of decision.” (Joel 3:14) All who join them will die a sudden and horrific death as commanded from the mouth of the King of Kings when He returns to this earth to fight for Israel. (Zechariah 14:3; Revelation 19:15)
The Lord’s program for His people in His land is a divine test for the nations of the world. About 4,000 years ago, the Lord clearly stated this when He declared to the great patriarch of the Jewish people, Abraham: “And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” (Genesis 12:3) History demonstrates that God has kept His Word. As nations unite to force Israel to give up the land that God has given to them, they are inviting the global judgment of God. It is coming. It is only a matter of time.
God’s divine strategy for His land will be fulfilled. Satan is once again promoting lies and orchestrating hatred on a global scale toward the Jewish people and their occupation of the Holy Land. As we witness the growth of anti-Semitism around the world, we know the end of the story. It is our obligation and privilege to tell God’s story and rescue a remnant from the wrath of God that will be poured out upon all nations during the Tribulation Period. We need to remind them of God’s commandment in Deuteronomy 32:43: “Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, and to his people.”
Get ready for the shout! It is closer than ever before!
Lies against Israel
I would like to caution all of our readers about the lies being perpetrated by the global media about Israel. Other than Washington D.C., more journalists live in and report out of Jerusalem than any other city in the world. Given the relatively small size of Israel and the city of Jerusalem, this is an astounding fact. This proves two things: First, Israel is near the top of the list concerning global attention. Second, the world is determined to promote lies about Israel based upon their hatred for the Jewish people in general and the nation of Israel in particular.
For example, in March, Gaza was experiencing flooding conditions. The flooding was due to above-average rain- fall this winter. Since Gaza is a low lying area, it always has a tendency to flood with large amounts of rain in the region. However, the media began to spread a rumor that Israel was purposely opening their dams in the Negev area of southern Israel and flooding Gaza. This rumor was reported around the world. The journalists who reported this as fact did not check the facts to note that Israel does not have a dam in the Negev. It is a desert! When the media began to retract their statement, it was too late. The damage was done. The world did not notice the retraction, but continued to support the lie perpetrated against Israel.
When the 45 members of the Commission on the Status of Women convened at UN Headquarters in New York in March, they released a report condemning Israel for the abuse of the rights of Palestinian women. The report stated: “the Israeli occupation continues to be the main obstacle to Palestinian women in relation to their advancement, independence and integration in the development of their society.” (www.timesofisrael.com, March 23, 2015)
Those of us who have studied the developments in the Middle East know this report is a farce. The Palestinian sympathizers singled out Israel and made no comment about the rights of Arab women being violated in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, or other Muslim dominated countries where Sharia law is binding.
Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor, gave the following response to their report: “If anyone has ever doubted that the UN is biased against Israel, today we got further proof. Of the 193 member states in this institution, dozens slaughter innocent civilians and impose discriminatory laws that marginalize women and yet they all get a free pass. The Commission on the Status of Women itself includes some of the worst violators of human rights, such as Iran and Sudan. … Honor killings in the Palestinian Authority are a matter of daily occurrence, and employment of women stands at only 17%,’ he pointed out. ‘It is time for the Palestinians to finally take responsibility for something. Their mistreatment of women is a chance to start taking responsibility. It’s not enough for the Palestinians to cynically exploit this institution; they’ve now made it their mission to turn the Commission on the Status of Women into a politically charged forum.’” (www.timesofisrael.com, March 23, 2015
The above stories are only the tip of the iceberg of recent lies perpetrated against Israel by the global media and the U.N. During the recent Israeli election campaign, Israelis knew that many foreign sources, including the efforts of the current American administration, were investing large sums of money to unseat Benjamin Netanyahu as the next prime minister of Israel. It was perceived by the international community that if the more liberal left-wing politicians could be voted into power in Israel, they would be fair game for the manipulation of the international will to force Israel into a deadly agreement with the Palestinians. We can be thankful that the majority of the Israelis were wise to these attempts to destroy their country and voted to place in office those they perceived would provide the greatest security for their nation.
It is hard for most of us to comprehend how this could take place in Israel and around the world. However, we have a perfect historical comparison in the New Testament in Luke 23. Remember that during the trial of Jesus before the Roman governor, Pilate, the Jewish leadership was so spiritually blind and filled with hate, that they chose for a dangerous murderer, Barabbas, to be released rather than Jesus. This simply illustrates that hatred can so blinding that people will chose a path of death rather than life. The liberal political left in Israel and around the world hated Netanyahu so much that they were blinded because of the political right’s support for the Biblical mandate to retain the land that the Lord promised to the Jewish people.
Some very difficult days lie ahead for Israel. They are losing the support of their greatest ally, the United States, while Iran is moving ever closer to manufacturing a nuclear bomb. The U.N. is poised to force Israel to withdraw to borders that will make them even more vulnerable to the Islamic enemies that are sworn to their destruction. Those of us who know the God of Abraham, know that while the world abandons Israel, He will not forsake them. The stage is set for the greatest display of the sovereign power of God on earth as He moves to protect His land and His people. Then, the entire world will know that He is the Lord God of Israel! Praise the Lord!