DOES the Land of Israel truly belong to the Jews? PT 5
In His prophetic Word, YAHWEH Elohim (God) calls this restored Land "Israel" - NOT "Palestine":
"I will open up your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people; and I will bring you into the Land of Israel" (Ezekiel 37:12).
The name "Palestine" comes from the Philistines, the ancient enemies of the Jewish people. "Palestine" was the derogatory name given to the Land of Israel by the Romans after they conquered them. But throughout the Word of YAHWEH (BIBLE), this Land is always called Israel - NEVER Palestine.
- YAHWEH, speaking to us through the prophet Ezekiel, informs us that this Land is specifically reserved for the Jewish people:
"You O mountains of Israel, you will put forth your branches and bear your fruit for My people Israel; for they will soon come. For behold, I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you will be cultivated and sown. I will multiply men on you, all the house of Israel, all of it; and the cities will be inhabited, and the waste places will be rebuilt" (Ezekiel 36:8-10).
2,500 years ago, Ezekiel told us that in the Last Days the Jewish people would be restored to their Land.
The Land would begin to prosper, and the Jewish population would greatly increase. In the past century these prophetic words have been coming to pass. The Land of Israel, which lay barren for centuries, has seen increasing numbers of the sons of Israel returning to their ancient homeland, repopulating the cities and cultivating the Land.
- 2,500 years ago YAHWEH also told us that the Jewish return to the Land would provoke a reaction from Israel's neighbors:
"Because the enemy has spoken against you 'Aha' and 'The everlasting heights have become our possession' ... Surely in the fire of My jealousy I have spoken against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom, who appropriated My Land for themselves as a possession with wholehearted joy and scorn of soul, to drive it out as a prey" (Ezekiel 36:2-5).
Even though the nations surrounding Israel would claim possession of the Land of Israel for themselves, and try to drive out its rightful Jewish inhabitants, YAHWEH repudiates the claims of these nations. Even though the majority of the Jewish people were exiled from their Land (there always was a remnant of Jewish people who remained within Israel), that doesn't give anyone else the right to claim the Land of Israel for themselves.
If a landlord has some bad tenants that he evicts from his property, he does not expect anyone else to enter his vacant property and claim it for their own. Due to their sins, the Landlord of Israel evicted most of them from the Land, but that didn't give the Romans, the Byzantines, the Crusaders, the Ottomans or the Arabs the right to claim YAHWEH’S holy Land for themselves.
. . . TO BE CONTINUED. . .
