Israel

Happy Sunday. Today we're not going to look at The Sermon on the Mount. Recent events and history will have me interrupt that study for a while. On October the 7th, almost a month ago, Israel was attacked by Hamas. Thousands of rockets were fired into Israel, 1,400 people were killed, others were taken hostage. There's a war.

If this would have happened to any other country in the world, it would have been bad, but Israel? When things happened there, we had immediately think about scripture and prophecy and end times. Over the next few weeks, I want to answer several questions. I've taken a pretty deep dive into this topic over the past month. I'm by no means an expert in biblical prophecy; however, I'm amazed at how accurate the Bible is concerning Israel.

I remember when coid hit, people would ask me if this had anything to do with Biblical prophecy and the end of time. I would often say God's clock for coming back does not Center on the United States of America and what happens here, and I would go on to say, keep your eyes on Israel. Our eyes are on Israel. Have your antennas been up as a result of what is going on? I bet they have.

So in the next few weeks, I want to answer several questions: Who has the right to the land called Israel? Who are the Palestinians? Who is Hamas? Why is there such hatred of the Jews? Are we living in the end times? And what should we be doing?

Today we'll look at the question: who has the right to the land called Israel? I think that you would agree that Israel is the most disputed piece of real estate on planet Earth. Who has the right to the land? We go to the Bible for that.

Genesis 12 1:3: "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. 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. I'll bless those who bless you and curse the one who curses you, and in you all the families of the Earth shall be blessed."

In Genesis 13, beginning at verse 40 14, Abram separates from lot, and "the Lord again said to Abram after lot had gone away, raise your eyes now and look from the place where you are, northward, Southward, Eastward, and Westward, for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your Offspring forever. I will make your Offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your Offspring also can be counted. Rise up, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I will give it to you."

In Genesis 158: "On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, to your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the Great River, the river Euphrates."

In Genesis 17, beginning at verse 5, God says, "No longer shall your your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of Nations. I'll make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and Kings shall come from you. And I will establish my Covenant between me and you and your Offspring after you throughout their generations for an Everlasting Covenant, to be God to you and to your Offspring after you. And I'll give to you and to your Offspring after you the land we are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a Perpetual holding, and I will be their God."

We hear these words of God to Isaac, Abraham's son, in Genesis 26, beginning at verse two: "The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, do not go down to Egypt. Settle in the land that I shall show you. Reside in this land as an alien, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will fulfill the oath that I swore to your father Abraham. I will make your Offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven, and will give to your Offspring all these lands, and all the nations of the Earth shall gain blessing for themselves through your Offspring."

Now later, God tells this to Jacob, I, Isaac's son, in Genesis 28, beginning at verse 13: "The Lord Stood Beside him and said, I am the Lord, the god of Abraham your father and the god of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your Offspring, and your Offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west, east, north, and to the South, and all the families of the Earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring."

I know I'm reading a lot from Genesis, but it's necessary if we're going to know whose land it is. In chapter 32 of Genesis, Jacob wrestles with an angel, and he asks for a blessing, and his name is changed from Jacob to Israel. The name Israel means one who struggles with God, or may God Prevail, or some say one who fights victoriously with God.

Back to the question we began with: who has the right to the land called Israel? Well, we just read: the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whose name changed to Israel. I'm going to skip a lot of history here. Abraham settled in the promised land, in Israel, around 1900 BC, and God gives him a word of Prophecy in Genesis 15, beginning at verse 13: "Then the Lord said to Abram, know this for certain, that your Offspring shall be alien in a land that is not theirs, and shall be slaves there, and they shall be oppressed for 400 years. But I'll bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions."

Now, if you remember Genesis, Joseph was Jacob's son, the one with a coat of many colors, and he was sold into slavery into Egypt by his brothers, his jealous Brothers. As a result of Joseph being in Egypt, and because of a famine, and because of Joseph's ability to interpret dreams, all of Joseph's family ended up in Egypt and out of Israel. Joseph was a very powerful man in Egypt. That's how Genesis ends, and that's how Exodus begins.

I read from the eth verse of Exodus 1: "Now a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. He said to his people, look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, are they increase and, in the event of War, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land. Therefore they set task Masters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built Supply cities, pitham and rames, to Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread." The promise is coming true. "So that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. The Egyptians subjected the Israelites to hard servitude and made their lives bitter with hard servitude in mortar and bricks and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the task that they imposed on them."

So now Israel is a captive, and is captive in Egypt, and the Covenant continues. God uses Moses, and you can read of all the Miracles in Exodus. Now, that happened around, 1400 BC. Israel returned to the promised land, and throughout the centuries following Israel, um, being back in their land, they were invaded over and over and over again. Here's a partial list of the Invaders: the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greek, the Romans, the byzantines, the Crusaders, the Ottomans, and then British rule.

God gave Israel a wonderful promise in Deuteronomy chapter 30, beginning at verse 4: "Even if you are exiled to the ends of the world, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will take you back. The Lord your God will bring you into the land that your ancestors possessed, and you will possess it. He'll make you more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors." And it happened, as you know. In 1948, Israel was given back a small part of their land by the British. The belonged to Israel; it has for 4,000 years. God gave it to them, not the British.

Outside of the Bible, archaeology confirms that there was an Israel long, long ago. So many things have been found. So who has the right to the land called Israel? The Jews, the people of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Israel is called the occupier, and they are not. Israel is a tiny country against 22 Arab countries and 53 53 Muslim countries.

Back to 1948. It seems a perfect fit for Ezekiel 37, where we read, "The hand of the Lord Came Upon me, and he brought me out of the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley. It was full of Bones. He led me all around them. There were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. He said to me, mortal, can these bones live?" Ezekiel says, "I answered, oh Lord, you know. Then he said to me, prophesy to these bones, and say to them, oh Dry Bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay Senus on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and to cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.

"So I prophesized as I had been commanded, and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. I looked, and there were Senus on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them, but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath, thus says the Lord God: come from the Four Winds, o breath, and breathe upon the slain, that they may live."

Ezekiel says, "I prophesized as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, a vast multitude. And then he said to be, mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, our bones are dried up, our hope is lost, we are cut off completely." Imagine, that's how they felt after so many were killed in World War II. Therefore, verse 12: "Prophesy and say to them, thus says the Lord: I'm going to open your Graves and bring you up from your Graves, oh my people, and I'll bring you back to the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open up your Graves and bring you up from your Graves, oh my people. I'll put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil. Then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act, says the Lord."

You know, the fact that Israel even exist list today is a miracle. Some of you remember 1948, when that Miracle occurred. It's a small country today. I live in Georgia; seven israels would fit fit inside of Georgia. Israel's 8,630 square miles, and Metro Atlanta is 8,376 square miles.

Pray for Israel. If you're a believer in the Bible, you can come to no other conclusion: the promised land of Israel was given given by God to the Jewish people. It is theirs, and it always will be.

Pray with me. God, we live in a crazy world. We thank you for your word that gives us the truth, and we realize not many, or there's many in this world that don't believe your word. They need you. We need you. This world needs you. So God, as we look at the weeks ahead, head guide us in wisdom and help us to pray for Israel. In Jesus name, amen.

God bless you. Thanks so much for joining me. See you next week.