God is the owner of His creation and all the lands belong to Him.
The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains, the world, and those who dwell in it. Psalm 24:1
The terms ‘My land’ or ‘His land’ or the ‘Lord’s land’ are also used in Is 14:25, Jer 2:7, Ezek 38:16, Joel 2:18, 3:2, Hos 9:3, Ps 10:16 and Ps 85:1. He has assigned different lands to different people groups.
From these the coastlands of the nations were separated into their lands, every one according to his language, according to their families, into their nations. Genesis 10:5
When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel. Deuteronomy 32:8
and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation Acts 17:26
As owner, He then has the right to decide who lives on it. We are all given the responsibility as caretakers and temporary residents on His property.
The land [Canaan], moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are but aliens and sojourners with Me. Leviticus 25:23
He has given the land of Canaan to the Jewish people as their inheritance in an eternal covenant.
On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, ‘To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt [Nile] as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.’ Genesis 15:18
Since God has already stated His case on the matter and His Word will stand, no matter what the United Nations or any other authority decides, those who come against Israel, come not against the nation but against the landowner. We need to stand with God on His side of the debate and put current political opinions and agendas aside.
Therefore thus says the Lord God, ‘Surely in the fire of My jealousy I have spoken against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom, who appropriated My land [Israel] for themselves as a possession with wholehearted joy and with scorn of soul, to drive it out for a prey.’ Ezekiel 36:5
As explained in Biblical Foundations – Replacement Theology, the land of Israel was covenanted by God to Abraham in Genesis 17:7-8 as an eternal covenant. God stated that the covenant was to be established with Isaac, not Ishmael, although He would bless and multiply Ishmael (Gen 18:15-21). The covenant of the land was repeated with Isaac in Genesis 26:1-6 and Genesis 28:10-17, as an everlasting possession (Gen 48:4). The promise of the land was also given to Jacob, not Esau, in Genesis 35:12.
In Numbers 34 smaller borders are mentioned. This corresponds to the area between the Brook of Egypt, which is Wadi El Arish in the Sinai, and Lebo Hamath (entrance to Hamath – today called Hama) in Syria today, just north of the current northern border of Lebanon. This is the largest area that Israel ever ruled during the reigns of David and Solomon.
These are the places where the ANZACs liberated.
When Israel first entered the Holy Land, the twelve tribes were unable to drive out the Philistines in the coastal plains but were mostly able to drive out the tribes in the mountains of Israel.
The land conquered by Joshua’s generation corresponds almost exactly with the area called the ‘West Bank’ today.
These borders of the land became known as ‘from Dan to Beersheva’, the major northern and southern cities in the land (1 Sam 3:20, 2 Sam 3:10, 2 Sam 24:2, 1 Kg 4:25, 1 Chron 21:2, 2 Chron 30:5).
These are the very cities and sites that the ANZACs conquered.
The Mountains of Israel
Even more specifically, the Jewish returnees were to be gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel.
After many days you will be summoned; in the latter years you will come into the land that is restored from the sword, whose inhabitants have been gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel which had been a continual waste; but its people were brought out from the nations, and they are living securely, all of them. Ezekiel 38:8. (emphasis added)
It is to these very mountains that Ezekiel prophesied that Israel would return. This is the same land that the Palestinians today are claiming ‘as their own possession’ (Ezek 36:5) to birth a Palestinian state. This is in contradiction to the Word of God.
This battle is not over lost inheritance but over control and possession of the land that God has promised in His Word to the Jews returning from the nations. I am sure the people do not understand what is happening, but Satan does, and he is using the Palestinians to try to thwart the purposes of God. The battle is spiritual. Satan will not give up until he controls Temple Mount and sets up the anti-Christ there to reign on the ‘mountain of the Lord’. This is his plan for the land. The book of Revelation reveals this plan in chapters 11-13. Another part of the devil’s plan is to wipe out the Jewish people, so there will be no Jews to welcome the Lord, which must happen before He returns, as prophesied by Jesus in Matthew 23:38-39. So we can begin to see why the nations are so fixated on Jerusalem. It is so good to read to the end of the book of Revelation and see that the Lord deals with Satan and his minions, destroys his plan and takes His rightful place as the King of kings.
Pictures:
4. B. Ridley – Shaded part is the mountains area.