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FYI, here is my summary of the complex, contextual history of Palestine, as related to Israel. Fasten your seat belts, and hold on, as I begin with a startling bottom line -- the root reason for the current war in Gaza, and all previous wars and conflicts across Palestine since the establishment of Israel in May 1948:
Hebrew ex-slaves from Egypt, and their Jewish descendants for many, many generations, failed to obey Jesus, The Lord God, Who, through Moses and Joshua, commanded them and their successive generations:
(a), to capture the entirety of the promise land, a large stretch of land, the borders of which are between the Nile River in Egypt, and the Euphrates River that traverses much of western Asia
(Genesis 15:18), 1 and
(b), to obey His righteous lifestyle commands, thus ensuring He would protect and keep them in the land.
Let’s dig in…
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Sometime after introducing Abram, whose name was changed to Abraham, to the promise land, The Lord, in a vision, informed him that (some of) His descendants would be away from that land for 400 years, and would return in their 4th generation. While most people may know that point, most may not know the reason The Lord gave…in the same sentence:
…because the iniquity (sinfulness, wickedness)
of the Amorites is not yet full.
My interpretation: ‘I am not yet ready to judge their sinfulness, but will extend to them 400 more years of My Grace.’
The first of the above-noted commands, was to be The Lord’s significantly delayed, harsh judgment on all the tribes occupying the land of Canaan, not just on the Amorites. 2 Therefore, all the other 9 tribes in Canaan, apparently benefited from The Lord’s Grace extended to just one tribe – the Amorites! To you, is that somewhat curious??
That is similar to what The Lord agreed to, during Abraham’s bargaining against the Lord’s planned destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham succeeded in getting The Lord to agree to not destroy those twin, sinful cities, if only 10 righteous people could be found therein. We all know …the rest of the story. 3
Historically, the above-noted, 400+ years of Abraham’s descendants’ absence from the promise land, only applied to the lineage of one of Abraham’s grandsons, namely Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel. During a harsh famine in Canaan, he and his family migrated to Egypt. Over the centuries, Egypt enslaved the rapidly growing Hebrew population, out of fear they would out-number the Egyptians, and rebel. After 430 years, The Lord dispatched Moses to Egypt to trigger the exodus. One clear purpose was for the former Hebrew slaves, descendants of Israel, to form a nation and a massive army, to slaughter all the tribes occupying the land of Canaan, and to begin the protracted process of capturing ALL the promise land.
The Lord effectively called for a massive, multi-tribe genocide, and a massive land transfer! Those were to be His severe, due, and just judgments on those grossly wicked peoples spread across that humungous area! He warned all of Israel not, NOT to mingle or take on the practices of those tribes, but to be separate (i.e., holy, set aside) from them as Israel, over successive generations, would capture more of the promise land. He also repeatedly advised and warned them to remain faithful to His righteous lifestyle commands.
Initially, Israel began to have many successes on both of The Lord’s commands. But over the centuries, many Jews began to mix with those tribes, and true to form, they became just like them. That started a centuries-long process of The Lord’s passionate warnings that, unless they repented and lived more righteously, they would suffer the same judgment He had pronounced on the Canaanites. Over the ensuing centuries, Israel significantly yo-yo’ed in its obedience, and even slaughtered many prophets The Lord had dispatched with His warnings. Later, Israel split into 2 nations: 10 northern tribes, Israel, and 2 southern tribes, Judah.
In response to Israel’s increasing sinfulness, as The Lord had long predicted, He eventually dispatched the Assyrian army to wipe out the 10 tribes, and to take a remnant to Assyria as slaves. Over time, descendants of this remnant group became known as the 10 lost tribes of Israel. Their descendants became a mixed people, spread across the world. About a century after the Assyrian invasion, The Lord, in response to Judah’s overwhelming sinfulness (then worse than Israel’s sinfulness), dispatched the Babylonian army to invade Judah, destroy Jerusalem and the temple, and capture a remnant to be slaves in Babylon. But, through the prophet, Jeremiah, He predicted, after 70 years, a remnant group would return from Persia to Judea. Much earlier, through the prophet, Isaiah, The Lord had predicted Persia would invade Babylon, and a future king named Cyrus, would allow this remnant to return to Judea, to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple, and to repopulate Judah, and rekindle Jewish cultural, political and religious traditions in Palestine. NB: The Lord’s ability to predict the future, affirms both His Deity and His immortality. 4
History confirms that’s exactly what happened. A remnant from Judah returned to Palestine about 500 BC; rebuilt the temple and Jerusalem, with the aid of King Cyrus; repopulated Judah; and rekindled Jewish cultural, political and religious traditions in Palestine. Unknowingly, a key reason for their return, was to prepare the people, nation, and land, for the pending birth of Jesus, The Lord God, as a man, and their Messiah. (Talk about perfect strategic planning!) The 4 centuries before His birth, are called the, Intertestamental period of silence, between the Old and New Testaments of The Bible, during which prophecies from The Lord ceased.
Much later, before Jesus was crucified, He predicted Jerusalem and the rebuilt temple, would be destroyed. That happened in AD 70 when Roman soldiers attacked Jewish rebels in the province of Judea, tore down the Jewish temple, and killed many people. Since Jerusalem, the temple, and religious/political traditions, were the center of Jewish lifestyle, once they were destroyed, Judeans scattered across the world. They became a mixed people, just as the descendants of the 10 northern tribes had done much earlier. That happened EXACTLY as The Lord, for several millennia, had warned their ancestors, first through Moses, and subsequently through an exceptionally long line of other prophets, many of whom were slaughtered. Talk about killing the messengers!!
Over the centuries after the exodus from Egypt, Israel had only sustainably captured a small part of Palestine, which is a very small part of the much bigger promise land. When the 10 northern tribes were wiped out, and a small remnant became slaves across Assyria, the king of Assyria sent Assyrians to reside in the land he had conquered. Click here to see the unusual scenario of how that happened.
When Judeans left Palestine in/after AD 70, other mixed peoples settled in Judea, and across Palestine. Their descendants may or may not be some of the peoples who were displaced in 1948, when The Lord initiated His long-standing promise to, one day, regather ALL Jews from across the world, to a GREATLY EXPANDED Israel, presumably from the Nile-to the-Euphrates rivers. He started that protracted regathering process in May 1948, and it continues today. Many Jews today are exhibiting the same or similar sinful traits that resulted in their ancestors being ‘vomited out of the land’, just as Moses had predicted in Deuteronomy 32! They proudly and forcefully claim the land is theirs, even as they flaunt The Lord’s preconditions for remaining in the land. In Zephaniah 3, The Lord promises to deal with this evil.
Most Jews, and the world generally, might not know His re-gathering process, is predicted to reach two, pending crescendos:
1. A hasty flight of large numbers of Jews to Israel from across the world, sometime before the 5th age of our history, The Millennial Reign age. Get this: They are predicted to spill over into Lebanon and Gilead, in northern Jordan. See: Zechariah 10:6-to-12. See also: The Coming Lame Blame (Poem), Human History Ages (Series), and Israel (Series).
2. A globally-enabled gathering of every remaining Jew to a greatly expanded Israel, in which Jerusalem will be raised very high – likely a result of several, GREAT (i.e., global) earthquakes during the pending, 42-month apocalypse in the last half of the 4th age of our history – the tribulation age. According to Zephaniah 3:8-to-13, especially verse 11, that will not be a beneficial event for some Jews. 5
Conclusion
Over the millennia, Palestine has been settled and resettled by an untold number of people groups, including Jews. But because of the narrow apertures through which we perceive history, we don’t think of Jews …as ‘Palestinians’. This is similar to our errant use of the term, anti-Semitic, to apply, only to Jews. 6
So very unfortunately, our narrow apertures, also prevent us from perceiving The Lord’s Hand operating, and His Will unfolding in the affairs of man. Through David and Haggai, He has said: The Earth and world are Mine, and all their fullness …the land, souls, silver, gold, beasts, etc. (See: Psalm 24:1, and Haggai 2:8.) Through Daniel, He revealed, ‘The Most High rules in the kingdoms of men, gives them to whomever He wills or pleases, and sets over them, the lowest of men.’ (See: Daniel 4:17, 25 & 32.) See also: The Seat of Wickedness (Part 4). Moreover, He iteratively used armies of sinfully wicked peoples to achieve His designated judgments, and ‘land re-assignments’. Of course, that doesn’t mean every land-grab in history is of Him. Apart from what He has promised in His Word, The Bible, we simply cannot tell. That’s one reason He inspired, preserved, and catalyzed His Word to be widely published, so we could intuit, and then ‘connect His strategic dots’.
Endnote:
Friends, hundreds of other predictions across The Bible, have become historical facts, many in our lifetime. That’s why I am convinced, in many respects,
Biblical prophecies
‘seed’ human history!’
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1 The Bible includes two, distinct geographic definitions of the promise land, the largest of which is from the Nile-to the-Euphrates rivers. See: Biblical Boundaries of the Land of Israel. Either way you cut it, the promise land is so much BIGGER than Palestine, especially the sliver of Palestine ancient Jews unsustainably captured from its various, previous occupants.
2 The Amorites were one of 10 tribes occupying the land of Canaan. There’s no telling how long The Lord’s Grace to these tribes had lasted altogether. They reportedly were grossly sinful, even sacrificing their children in fires to demons and such. Here’s the obvious question: Why did The Lord only flag the Amorites? Might their sinfulness possibly have been the worse of the lot?
See: What’s Really Going On (…Inside), and Jeremiah 9:23-to-24 to understand The Lord’s 3-point strategic pattern in dealing with humans.
3 See: Genesis 18.
In Ezekiel 14:12-to-23, The Lord reveals His 4 judgment instruments against persistent human sinfulness. Caveat -- Famine is first on His ‘judgments ramping-up’ list. See: Four Judgment Henchmen Explained.
4 See: Did Isaiah’s prophecy occur before Cyrus defeated Babylon?
5 See: Isaiah 60, a prophecy, not to Jews, as many may think, but to Mount Zion and the expanded Jerusalem in the Millennial Reign age. Note the reference to flying like a cloud and doves, mentioned in verse 8. Might that have been a prophecy and prediction about …future air travel??
6 In a quality dictionary, look up the real meaning of ‘Semitic’.
