“…and say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land. I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. There will be one king over all of them and they will NEVER AGAIN (capitals mine) be two nations or be divided into two kingdoms.”
Ezekiel 37:21-22
Over the past few years the world, the media, the United Nations and many others have been obsessed with the notion that the only way to achieve a lasting peace in the Middle East is for Israel to trade their land for peace; to go back to pre-1967 borders; and, to stop building settlements in the West Bank. Recently President Trump said he would move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem which the Jews feel is their God promised capital city. Trump was not the first President to proclaim this goal! Former President’s Clinton, Bush and Obama ALL said they were going to do the same thing but never did, instead issuing temporary holds every 6 months citing potential security issues. Obviously, if President Trump does what he says he is going to do, there may be tremendous upheaval around the world which might possibly then lead to eventual fulfillment of the prophecies regarding the Psalm 83 War or even the War of Gog and Magog (Ezekiel 38 & 39).
The one thing we can be assured of through the study of Biblical prophesy? Israel WILL NOT be divided!
Why is this very small country that represents only .0014% of the world’s land mass (only 8,019 square miles compared to the entire world’s 57,505,693 square miles) so important? It is smaller than the state of New Jersey! Why is this country that houses only 7.99 million people (75% of which are Jewish; 21% are Arabs and the rest are “other”) while the entire world has 7.4 billion so important? This means that the Israelis represent only 1 hundredth of 1% of the world’s population. Why is this country in the news every day and why is the world against them?
In numerous places in the Bible God proclaimed via the Abrahamic Covenant that the Jews are His chosen people from whom a Savior would be born who would die for all of our sins allowing us, if we accept that sacrifice and ask for forgiveness, to be with the Lord for eternity in Heaven. Of course Satan has other ideas. If he can disprove the Promise of God to the Jews (and others) then his pride and long ago rebellion against the perfect rule of God can be vindicated. This may be why the Jews have been the most persecuted people in the history of the world. Now that the Jews have returned to their Promised Land (officially May 14, 1948), those things prophesied to happen in the last days have begun. With that in mind, does the Bible proclaim that in the last days Israel will be divided? No! Instead God said to Abraham…
“As for me, this is my covenant with you; You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant as an EVERLASTING (capitals mine) covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan (Israel), where you are now alien, I will give as an EVERLASTING (capitals mine) possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”
Genesis 17:4-8
Abraham and his wife Sarah were promised by God that from them many nations would come. But when this Promise was made, they were childless and very old. His wife, feeling that she could not conceive a child at her age had Abraham “sleep” with her handmaiden Hagar who gave birth to a son Ishmael when Abraham was 86 and Sarah was 76. But this was not God’s plan and when Abraham was 100 years old and his wife Sarah was 90 years old, she gave birth to his God promised son Isaac and God said “I will establish my covenant with HIM (capitals mine) as an everlasting covenant for his disciples after him.” Genesis 17:19. In those days, the first born son inherited his father’s estate. But God did not recognize Ishmael as His gift to Abraham. While God did promise to Bless Ishmael and have many nations come from him, Ishmael DID NOT inherit THE Promise God made to Abraham. While Arabs and Jews alike today recognize Abraham as their beginning father, only the Jews were give the land of Canaan (Israel) and that out of them a Savior would be born.
As you can imagine, this did not to this day sit well with the Arab people (today primarily Muslims). Abraham was their father and they felt they were entitled to the gift of being his first born people. God disagrees with that premise and instead selected the son Isaac as His gift to Abraham and Sarah. Later, when the Jews were trying to rebuild Jerusalem that “…lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire.” Nehemiah 2:17 they were ridiculed:
“But when Sanballat the Horonite. Tobiah the Ammonite official and Geshem the Arab heard about it, they mocked and ridiculed us “What is this you are doing” they asked. Are you rebelling against the king?’ I answered them by saying, “The God of heaven will give us success. We His servants will start rebuilding, BUT AS FOR YOU, YOU HAVE NO SHARE IN JERUSALEM OR ANY CLAIM OR HISTORIC RIGHT TO IT. (capitals mine).
Nehemiah 2:19-21
To this day much of the animosity that surrounds the Muslim and Jewish issues boil down to who has the first born right and therefore who controls Jerusalem. Couple that with Satan’s plan to disprove God’s Plan and you can see where the turmoil comes from. While the name Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in the Bible, it is not mentioned once in the Quran! The nations of Ishmael have one goal and that is to destroy the promise that God made to Isaac!
The question could be asked, “So what are the boundaries of Israel? What land was given to them by God?” Check out Numbers 34:3-12 and Ezekiel 47:13-20 you will see that the land given by God to Moses is substantially bigger than what we see as Israel today. The Promise’s of God are perfect. If he says one thing, you can take it to the bank! No matter what the world will want Israel to do, we are reminded that God warned us
“They must not sell or exchange any of it. This is the best of the land and must not pass into other hands, because it is holy to the Lord.”
Ezekiel 48:14
TruthorFiction.com does a great job of explaining what has happened in the past when the U.S. or others tried to get Israel to trade land for peace:
TEN MAJOR EVENTS (Relating to Israel’s Covenant Land)
1. October 30, 1991: The Perfect Storm—As President George H. W. Bush is opening the Madrid (Spain) Conference to consider “land for peace” in Israel’s Middle East role, the
“perfect storm” develops in the North Atlantic, creating the largest waves ever recorded in that region. The storm travels 1000 miles from “east to west” instead of the normal “west to east” pattern and crashes into the New England Coast. Thirty-five foot waves crash into the Kennebunkport home of President Bush.
2. August 23, 1992: Hurricane Andrew—When the Madrid Conference moves to Washington DC and the peace talks resume, Hurricane Andrew, the worst natural disaster ever to hit America, comes ashore and produces an estimated $30 billion in damage and leaving 180,000 homeless in Florida.
3. January 16, 1994: Northridge Earthquake—President Bill Clinton meets with Syria’s President Hafez el-Assad in Geneva. They talk about a peace agreement with Israel that includes giving up the Golan Heights. Within 24 hours, a powerful 6.9 earthquake rocks Southern California, This quake, centered in Northridge, becomes the second most destructive natural disaster to hit the United States, behind Hurricane Andrew,
4. January 21, 1998: Lewinsky Scandal—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with President Clinton at the White House and is coldly received. Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright refuse to have lunch with him. Shortly afterwards on that day, the Monica Lewinsky scandal breaks into the mass media and begins to occupy a major portion of
Clinton’s time.
5. September 28, 1998: Hurricane George—As Secretary of State Albright works on the final details of an agreement in which Israel would give up 13 percent of Yesha (Judah and Samaria), Hurricane George slams into the United States Gulf Coast with 110 mph winds and gusts up to 175 mph. The hurricane hits the coast and stalled. On September 28, Clinton meets with Yasser Arafat and Netanyahu at the White House to finalize this land deal. Later, Arafat addresses the United Nations about declaring an independent Palestinian
state by May 1999, as Hurricane George pounds the Gulf Coast, causing $1 billion in damage. At the exact time that Arafat departs the country, the storm begins to dissipate.
6. October 15-22, 1998: Texas Flooded—On October 15, 1998, Arafat and Netanyahu meet at the Wye River Plantation in Maryland. The talks are scheduled to last five days with the focus on Israel giving up 13 percent of Yesha. The talks are extended and conclude on October 23. On October 17, awesome rains and tornadoes hit southern Texas. The San Antonio area is deluged with rain. The rain and flooding in Texas continue until October 22 and then subside. The floods ravage 25 percent of Texas and leave over one billion dollars in damage. On October 21, Clinton declares this section of Texas a major disaster area.
7. November 30, 1998: Market Capitalization Evaporates—Arafat comes to Washington again to meet with President Clinton to raise money for a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as the capital. A total of 42 other nations were represented in Washington. All the nations agreed to give Arafat $3 billion in aid. Clinton promised $400 million, and the European nations $1.7 billion. On the same day, the Dow Jones average drops 216 points, and on December 1, the European Market had its third worst day in history. Hundreds of billions of market capitalization
were wiped out in the U.S. and Europe.
8. December 12, 1998: Clinton is Impeached—As Clinton lands in the Palestinian-controlled section of Israel to discuss the “land for peace” process, the House of Representatives votes four articles of impeachment against him.
9. May 3, 1999: The Powerful Super Tornado—On the day that Yasser Arafat is scheduled to declare a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as the capital, the most powerful tornado storm system ever to hit the United States sweeps across Oklahoma and Kansas. The winds are clocked at 316 mph the fastest wind speed ever recorded. The declaration is postponed to
December 1999 at the request of President Clinton, whose letter to Arafat encourages him in his “aspirations for his own land.” He also writes that the Palestinians have a right to “determine their own future on their own land” and that they deserve to “live free, today, tomorrow and forever.”
10. Week of October 11: Hurricane, Earthquake and Dow Collapse—As Jewish settlers in 15 West Bank (Israel) settlements are evicted from the covenant land in Israel, the Dow-Jones financial averages lose 5.7 percent in the worst week since October 1989. On October 15 the Dow lost 266 points, and a hurricane slams into North Carolina. On the next morning, October 16, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake rocks the southwest in the fifth most powerful earthquake in 20th Century. The earthquake was centered in the California desert and did little damage but was felt in three states.
If I was to add one more it might be the recent UN vote that the U.S. abstained from vetoing which condemned the Israelis from building settlements in their land. The Democratic Party, under the leadership of a President that had exhibited very anti-Israel, pro-Arab bias, had an embarrassing loss to a Republican billionaire businessman who promised to support Israel and move the embassy to Jerusalem. Coincidence? I doubt it. The Bible is very clear in its’ prophecies and if the people of Israel were supposed to trade their God-given land for peace, the Bible would tell them to do exactly that!
One thing we should always keep in mind regarding Israel and our leader’s push to have them trade land for peace is what God told Abraham…
“I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you. I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I WILL BLESS THOSE WHO BLESS YOU, AND WHOEVER CURSES YOU I WILL CURSE (capitals mine) and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
Genesis 12:2-3
Comforting? “Therefore, comfort one another with these words.”