Whose land is it? The conflict over Gaza

 Whose land is it? The conflict over Gaza 

During my whole lifetime there have been wars and violence in the area in and around Israel. This modern phenomena began in May 1948 when the UN gave the Israelie people land on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea, that borders Egypt in the south, Jordan on the south east, Lebanon to the North and Syria on the north east. The U.N. declared Israel a nation on May 14, 1948, and on May 15,  1948, 5 Arab nations (Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon) invaded Israel, with Israel fighting them off. It has been that way just about ever since. Israel is attacked and they rightfully defend themselves, either from an Arab nation or from radical groups of terrorists, and it is no different in this recent escalation. In 2005 the Bush Administration pressured israel to evict every Jew from Gaza and forced them to hand it over to the palestian Authority, in the name of peace. In 2006 elections were held in Gaza and Hamas won the majority and ever since then they have on and off been firing rockets into Israel. In 2006 an escalation of rockets rained down on Israel from Gaza and Israel went into Gaza to stop it. Israel is going into Gaza again to protect their people and stop Hamas from firing rockets into Israel. 

But deeper into this issue is a battle over the real owners of the land. Mixed in with the erroneous islamic-Arab philosophy is a hatred of the Jewish people that goes back 4000 years, all the way to Abraham. Abraham, if you are not aware of it is the natural and spiritual ancestor to jews through isaac, the natural ancestor to Arabs through Ismael and the spiritual ancestor to Christians through Christ.

A crucial element of this debate for the Bible believing Christian is that the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights as they are know today are part of a land area given to Abraham and his seed by God in an eternal Covenant in Genesis 15. The seed in this Covenant is later identified in Genesis 17:19 as isaac another ancestor of the jewish people.

According to scripture, from the time when Lot and Abraham separated until after God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham lived on the plain of Mamre, which is present day Hebron in the West Bank. The events of Genesis 15 of the cutting of the covenant and the giving of the land occurred at that very place. In these scriptures we see the elements of the ancient Middle Eastern covenant. In Genesis 15:9, the animals are chosen, in verse 10 they are divided and laid against one another and in verses 17 and 18 the participants pass through the divided animals. The purpose for this according to Unger’s Bible Dictionary was to confirm the covenant, “…by slaughtering and cutting the victim into halves, between which the parties passed, to intimate that if either of them broke the covenant it would fare with him as with the slain and divided beast.” The element not mentioned in the Genesis passage but most definitely took place at that time was an oath taken by God, and described in Ezekiel 47:14 (NIV) where God, “…swore with an uplifted hand”, to give the land to Israel. We get that impression from Jeremiah 34:14, which says the LORD will punish those, “…which have not performed the words of the covenant which they made before me, when they cut the calf in twain, and passed between the parts thereof.” The picture we see when all these elements are included is when the LORD was passing through those pieces, He was swearing with an uplifted hand He was going to give Israel the land.

According to Isaiah 62:4, God is married to Israel and the land. The New American Standard Version says, “It well no longer be said to you, “Forsaken” Nor to your land will it any longer be said, “Desolate”; But you will be called, “My delight is in her,” and your land, “Married.” It is no wonder then that the first three verses of Ezekiel 36, which deals with the mountains of Israel, i.e. the West Bank, are laced with a very stern warning from God in the spirit of a jealous husband. Ezekiel 36:5 says the LORD is speaking, “…in the fire of my jealously…against the rest of the nations…who appropriated my land for themselves as a possession with wholehearted joy and scorn of soul.” The LORD God in Jeremiah 12:14 (NIV) calls those nations “wicked neighbors” who would “seize the inheritance I gave my people Israel.” We must also realize that God in Scripture or the present day nation of Israel is not against muslims or any non Jew living in Israel, as long as they live in peace, and obey the laws of the land.

All these world leaders want to take the West Bank, the “mountains of Israel”, and give it to the Palestinian people. 

The scene of the present eruption of violence, the strip of land called Gaza, was turned over to the so called Palestinians in 2005. Most Christians are ignorant of the fact that Gaza was included in the land that was given to Israel, in particular to the tribe of Judah: Joshua 15:20-47 (47). 

This is the land that Almighty God swore with an uplifted hand to give to the Jewish people. The world is demanding and applauding this attempt of a Palestinian state. All the while, unbeknownst to them, a jealous husband watches while his bride is being defiled, and the emotion of rage is building in Him. It is a clear truth in Scripture that one of the reasons Armageddon will occur is the LORD responding to the world’s attempt to steal Israel’s land from Him. Confirmation of this is Joel 3:2. “I will gather all nations and will bring them down into the valley of Jehosophat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.”

This information has caused me to look at Armageddon in a totally different light. There has never been anything approaching the amount of blood letting that will occur during this battle. In Revelation 14:20 it says, “And the winepress was trodden without the city, and the blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.” Harper’s Bible Dictionary says a Biblical furlong is 1/10 of a mile, hence 160 miles. The New American Standard Version gives 200 miles as the distance. Saints, that is a lot of blood. It is a river of blood 5 or 6 feet deep and anywhere between 160 and 200 miles long.

Though these figures sound incredible, a passage in Zechariah 14:12 encourages me to believe it to be literal. “And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem, their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.” The Hebrew word for “consume” is ‘naqaq’ and it means “to melt, to flow, to consume away, to dissolve”. There will be hundreds of millions of soldiers gathered for battle against Jerusalem. The multitude will be so great it appears to stretch from Megiddo almost 60 miles to the north, down to Jerusalem. How much blood would there be if the flesh and blood of all those soldiers melted off their bones?

A verse giving a look at the emotion behind this judgment is Isaiah 63:3, where the wine press is again mentioned. “I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and will trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment.” What is so striking about this passage is the anger and zeal with which the LORD performs His work. He stomps the grapes or people with anger and zeal so fierce, the juice or blood completely stains his garment. He is angry because of His jealously. Zephaniah 3:8 quotes the LORD saying, “…for my determination is to gather the nations that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealously.” And He is jealous because the heathen are stealing His land. “Surely in the fire of my jealously have I spoken against the heathen, which have appropriated my land into their possession…Ezekiel 36:5.

I must point out also, that Mount Hermon, geographically in the Golan Heights above the Sea of Galilee are among the “mountains of Israel”. They also are part of the so called occupied territory though they are about 60 miles north. The Golan Heights were part of the original inheritance given to Israel, in particular, the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh (Joshua 12:4-6).

Folks, all this fighting against Israel will eventually lead to Armageddon, and God will win. What you must understand is that none of these verses about Israel could have been fulfilled until Israel became a nation on that day in 1948. When that happened the countdown to the return of Christ started.

Jesus is coming soon.