Arutz-Sheva News out of Israel recently ran an article exhibiting an open letter from various leaders within the government and population requesting PM Netanyahu to make sure the world knows Israel is NOT an occupier.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/178061#.UxUwW4Uf5Yk
Well, what’s the Word say ?
Genesis 12:1 Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors or ignores you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be gathered.” 4 So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. 8 From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the LORD and called upon the name of the LORD. (As a side note, the area described above is located in what today is referred to as the ‘west bank’.)
This is the beginning of the ‘Promise of the Land’ to the descendants of Abram – whom YHWH GOD would rename Abraham. But not just any descendants . . .
Genesis 21:1 “The LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did to Sarah as he had promised. 2 And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. 3 Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac. 4 And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. 5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. 6 And Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.” 7 And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”
8 And the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. 9 But Sarah saw (Ishmael) the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing. 10 So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.”
11 And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son. 12 But God said to Abraham, “Be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for through Isaac shall your offspring be named.
Heb 11:17 “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, 18 of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 19 He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. 20 By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau.”
So the Promised Land is to be handed down through Isaac – not Ishmael – to Jacob and to his descendants as an everlasting covenant. Why not through Esau ? Because Esau despised the GOD-given honor of being the first born (Gen. 25:34) showing himself to be a Godless man . . . and GOD hated him for it. (Malachi 1:1-5)
Therefore the Promise of the Land is passed to the descendants of Jacob – the man whom YHWH GOD renamed Israel.
We say this word to the Church. If you claim to be a ‘born-again believer’ covered by the ‘Blood of the Lamb’ and you claim the Word of God as the final authority on all matters prophetic and eternal, there should be NO room for discussion . . . The Land we know as Israel – the boundaries which are outlined in the Word of God – belongs to the descendants of Jacob.
Neither the descendants of Ishmael, Esau nor Keturah have any legitimate claim to this Land.
What about the Palestinians ? Don’t they have a claim to the land ? No, they do not, according to the Word of God. Did you know the English word ‘palestinian’ is transliterated from an Arabic word which is pronounced ‘philistine’. Is it any coincidence that the land disputed by those calling themselves ‘palestinians’ are the same areas referred to in Word as the ‘land of the philistines’.
So who are these ‘philistines’ ? Let’s see if we can trace their journey through the Word. According to the tenth chapter of Genesis, Mitzrayim (Egypt) is a son of Nimrod and the progenitor of the Phylistiim or the philistines. The word ‘philistine’ means ‘immigrant’ and comes from a word meaning ‘to sojourn’ and to ‘roll’. History implies that these ‘sojourners’ traveled from the coasts of Egypt to Caphtor ( Crete ? ) and then to the Mediterranean coasts of what we know as Israel.
Do they have a claim to the land ? Not according to YHWH GOD and His word. And remember, HE has the right . . . – “A Psalm of David. The earth is the LORD’s, and all it contains, The world, and those who dwell in it. Psalm 24:1
So, is Israel an occupier ? YES, but only of the Land given them by our Father. Shalom
“ I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors or ignores you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” ( blessed – Heb. – mingled or gathered in )
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