Israeli's Land Rights Biblical

  Israel’s Biblical Rights to the Land

Israel’s Biblical Rights to the Land With the breaking up of the Turkish Empire at the end of World War 1, both Jews and Arabs requested independent states. The world powers were generous in the extreme to the Arabs by granting them twenty-two independent Arabs states— encompassing 5,414,000 square miles. The Jews asked for less than one percent of that vast territory. The Allies agreed to this request. In 1921 England reneged, lopped off 77 percent of the Land promised in the Balfour Declaration and set up the Arab Emirate of Transjordan. Then in 1922 the League of Nations further qualified the Jewish National Home be established in only 23 percent of Palestine, including Samaria, Judea, Gaza, Golan Heights and Eastern Jerusalem. (See Map I and Map II.) Also many Christians believe “Replacement Theology.” That is, the Jewish people because of unfaithfulness have forfeited any right to the Land of Israel. What Do the Scriptures Say? Many Scriptures promise the permanent restoration of the Jewish State as verified in one of the most awesome and irrefutable promises in the Bible.

Jeremiah 31:31-37 NASB Verse 31 — “Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, Verse 32 — Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. Verse 33 — “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Verse 34 — “And they shall not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” Verse 35 — Thus says the LORD, Who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; The LORD of hosts is His name: Verse 36 — “If this fixed order departs from before Me,” declares the LORD, “Then the offspring of Israel also will cease from being a nation before Me forever.” Verse 37 — Thus says the LORD, “If the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out below, then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done,” declares the LORD.

This prophecy together with its parallel in Jeremiah 33:25-26 devastate “Replacement Theology.” Only when the divinely fixed orbiting of the sun, moon and stars of our solar system cease to orbit according to God’s astronomical laws of the Universe, then and only then, would Israel ever cease to exist as God’s People. Even though Israel was unfaithful and was taken captive to Babylon while the land was desolate for 70 years, the sun, moon, and stars continued to orbit according to God’s symmetrical ordinances of the Universe. Therefore, Israel was still in God’s favor and was restored to its Land after 70 years. But, Israel continued to sin and finally in CE 70 and CE 135 their polity was destroyed. Over a million were killed at the hands of the vengeful Romans. Many were banished from their sacred Land, while Jerusalem was ploughed over and renamed Aelia Capitolina. However, some managed to escape to the north and south of the Land. Into whatever countries they fled, they tended to dwell in their own little Jewish communities. Many kept the weekly Sabbath and worshipped together and then, as now, at the close of the Sabbath they watched the setting of the sun, the emergence of the moon, and the sparkling stars roving the heavens in celestial glory. No matter how distant from their Promised Land, with tears in their eyes and hope in their hearts, they knew some day, somehow, they or their children, or their children’s children would yet return to Eretz Israel. Why??? The celestial bodies of the heavens were still in dazzling beauty and were orbiting according to God’s laws of the Universe. Only when there is chaos in the heavens, then and only then would Israel cease to be God’s People. Of course, that will never happen and that is just the point of this promise in Jeremiah 31:35-37. Israel as a nation will never be cast off from God’s favor. Then Jeremiah shows, that after their final regathering “the city [Old Jerusalem] shall be built to the Lord” by the Jews and, furthermore, “It shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down

any more forever” (Jeremiah 31:38-40). Despite the efforts of the US and world powers, the descendants of Israel (Jacob)—not Ishmael or Esau—will receive the city of Jerusalem (including East Jerusalem) forever. The Prophet Zechariah lived after the return of the 70 years’ desolation and during the building of the Second Temple. He prophesied that Israel would again prove waywar d and again be punished with a second dispersion. As noted above, the armies of the Roman Empire destroyed the Second Temple and scattered the Jewish People to the four corners of the earth. But Zechariah also prophesied a final regathering from which Israel would never again be separated from its Land. All the prophecies, both those written before and after the first dispersion from the Land, predicted a final regathering of the Jewish people to their homeland that would culminate in Jerusalem becoming the capital of God’s Kingdom on earth. Yes, Israel would be cast out of her land as a punishment. But there would be an end-time regathering which we now see.


“No More Pulled Up” 


The Scriptures, furthermore, speak of this final regathering as culminating in joy and blessing that will never end.


Jeremiah 31:10-12 Verse 10 — Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock. Verse 11 — For the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.

Verse 12 — Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the LORD, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.


This time is yet future when Israel, restored to its Land, will experience an eternity of joy.


Amos 9:14-15 Verse 14 — And I will bring again the captivity [return from exile] 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. Verse 15 — 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

Such prophecies as these cannot be logically interpreted in any symbolical sense. Israel is to be literally planted again “upon their own land,” the Land of their fathers—Canaan. God had given them the Land by divine promise to Abraham and his seed—an “everlasting possession.” This promise is from God Himself and must eventually be fulfilled.

The original promise to Abraham stands forever

Genesis 13:14,15,17; 17:8 Verse 13:14 — Lift up now thine eyes and look from the place where thou art, northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: Verse 13:15 — For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever, ... Verse 13:17 — Arise, walk through the land, in the length of it, and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee.... Verse 17:8 — I will give it unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession.”

“No more pulled up”… “give the Land forever”…“an everlastin g possession” — these phrases speak of Israel’s future and eternal possession of the Land. There are many thrilling prophetic details pertaining to the conditions and circumstances connected with the regathering of Israel. But our subject is Israel’s land rights. However, we will briefly mention several. Remember 4-7 million Jews were slaughtered or expelled from the Land of Israel over a period of time. Much of the land became an uninhabited barren wilderness. Yet prophecies like Ezekiel 36 and Amos 9:14-15 predicted how Israel would and has excelled in agricultural technology to the point that Israel is sending agricultural experts to assist third world countries. God foreknew the anti-Semitism that would develop in the hearts of the Gentiles. Consequently, Jeremiah 16:14-16 describes the anti-Semitic hunters who would drive the Jewish people to their Land, and the “fishers,” as the Zionist Movement

who would use the bait of Nationalism, a Jewish Homeland, to “allure” them Hosea 2:14,15. Wars with the Arab nations have repeatedly plagued the fledgling Jewish State as prophesied in Psalm 83. Also, Israel’s ultimate victory over her Arab neighbors was anticipated in Isaiah 11:14 and Zephaniah 2:4-10. The rocket map across from the Table of Contents reveals the precarious situation of Israel if it is forced to give the so-called West Bank (Judea and Samaria) to the Palestinians. A discussion of Israel’s Biblical land rights would not be complete without mentioning the Lord's ultimate purpose for Israel in her Land, which is dramatically declared in Isaiah 2:2-4 ASV

Isaiah 2:2-4 ASV Verse 2 — And it shall come to pass in the latter days, that the mountain of Jehovah’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. Verse 3 — And many peoples shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. Verse 4 — And he will judge between the nations, and will decide concerning many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.


 keep on reading Israeli's Land Rights Historical and Legal in next Articles