Israel or Palestine: What is Correct?🧐#Israel #Palestine #Hamas #viral

Well, I’m sure that I don’t have to review  what has happened recently in the past,   and also what is going on in the present  in the Middle East. But let me take a   few moments to frame my message. As  you know, on Saturday, October 7th,  

Israel was violently attacked. 1,500 Hamas  terrorists penetrated the security fence   around Gaza and entered into Israel. They  entered Israel on motorcycles, on jeeps,   and paragliders through the skies. They brutally,  barbarically killed all sorts of individuals,   who were just enjoying the day at a music  festival. They abducted and attacked these  

Jewish individuals in the worst mass murder of  Jewish people since the Holocaust. And then these   same people went through the local kibbutzim.  They raided the area along the Gaza border. Now, the thing to keep in mind is that these  terrorists, these Hamas terrorists, really did  

Not care who it was that they were killing. They  indiscriminately came into the area and picked   off whoever they could. They indiscriminately  killed all sorts of victims. It didn’t matter   to them if they were killing off-duty soldiers  or if they were killing mothers or grandmothers  

Or even babies. The latest count is over 1,400  Israelis were slaughtered in cold blood. They were   shot. They were knifed. They were burnt alive.  They were beheaded. You have heard the stories;   I don’t need to repeat them and all the  gruesome details that are part of that,  

But they were brutal. They were barbaric;  and, the only words really that can describe   what they carried out is pure evil.  Evil. That’s exactly what it was. Now, people these days are going around and  they are saying that this was Israel’s 9/11.  

But this is often what is not being said: the  population of Israel is approximately 7 million   Jews, and the population of the United States  has around 330 million Americans. Based on that,   when we take into account the number of Jewish  people who were slaughtered on their 9/11 in  

Comparison to the people who were killed on  our soil here in the United States on 9/11,   the damage was 30 times greater in  proportion in terms of the number   of people who died. 30 times! Let  that sink in for just a few moments.

Well, after this vicious attack by Hamas  terrorists, how did Israel respond? For the   very first time in 50 years, since the 1973  Yom Kippur War, Israel officially declared   war. Of course, many people really don’t  want to check in on the news these days;  

It’s depressing, it’s heartbreaking, it’s  difficult, it wears on us all—the pain   and the suffering and violence that are  going on. But let me tell you something:   it’s imperative that we keep our eyes on  Israel. You say, “Why is that so essential?  

Why is that important?” Well, it’s important  for many reasons. Think about this with me. We need to keep our eyes on Israel because  Israel is God’s prophetic time clock. If you   want an idea, if you want to have a sense, if  you want to learn what is going on in terms of  

Where we are on God’s timeline during these end  times, then you have no need to look any further   than God’s prophetic timepiece—the epicenter of  prophecy. Israel is God’s prophetic time clock. Why else is it important for us to keep our  eyes on Israel? Well, very simply stated,  

Because Israel is inseparably linked to the  Bible. That’s right. The holy place points us   to the holy book—the Bible. When you stop to  think about it, it is really a book all about   Israel. The scripture records historical events  in Israel, and the scripture records prophetic  

Events that will take place in Israel. So, it’s  all going to be going down in the Holy Land. There’s another reason why it’s so important  for us to keep our eyes on Israel, and that   is because Israel is the homeland of the Messiah.  It’s the homeland of the Messiah himself. You see,  

God sent the Messiah to Israel. His name is  Jesus, Yeshua. Jesus was born in Israel. He   lived in Israel. He taught in Israel. He carried  out miracles in Israel. Jesus died in Israel. He   was raised from the dead in Israel. It was from  Israel that He ascended to the Father, and it is  

Back to Israel that Jesus is coming; and, He will  set up His earthly Kingdom in Israel. And so, we   cannot separate the fact that this precious real  estate is the homeland of the Messiah Himself. And I want you to think about this: God sent a  Jewish savior to the world. That’s right. Not  

Only is our savior Jewish, but the prophets  were Jewish. The Apostles were Jewish. The   Bible was recorded by Jewish people. They were  entrusted with the oracles of God. Romans 3:2   tells us that. No wonder Jesus Himself says  that “salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22).

Now, for these reasons and other reasons, as a  church, we wholeheartedly and unequivocally are   standing with Israel and the Jewish people.  We don’t apologize for that. We are taking   a stand for Israel, for the chosen people of  God, the apple of God’s eye. Having said that,  

It’s important for me also to say that this  does not mean that we agree with everything   that is conducted in Israel or by its leaders.  We don’t necessarily agree with everything that   is carried out by their government. Just like  all governments, there are flawed individuals,  

Who are at the helm; and they, at times,  make mistakes—sometimes significant mistakes. I also want to say that just as there  were some sensible Germans during the   1930s and 1940s who opposed Adolf Hitler  and the Nazis, so it is that there are  

Some sensible Palestinians who oppose Hamas  and terrorism. And to these Palestinians,   we say to you, “We stand with you also; and,  we pray for you. You’re not the enemy.” And   so our prayers are for these individuals  who are trapped by Hamas in that area.

Now, in case you’re not standing with  Israel, my prayer, my strong earnest   desire for you would be that would be  your conviction before the end of today,   that you would adopt the conviction that Israel,  in fact, has a right to defend herself against  

These unspeakable atrocities that have  been perpetrated against her. We should   support Israel. We ought to support the Jews not  because of politics, but because of prophecy.   It’s not that we’re trying to be political;  it’s that we need to be biblical. And so,  

We want to take a stand where God takes a stand,  and He takes a stand for Israel in His word. By the way, did you know that Israel is  mentioned over 2,000 times in the Hebrew Bible,   and over 70 times in the New Testament? The  Old Testament tells us that Israel was chosen  

By God. Israel is the apple of God’s eye; they  are to be God’s representatives to the world.   They are God’s chosen people; they are God’s  instrument to represent God to all the nations. Now, with this background in mind, I  invite you to open your Bible to the  

Very first book of the Torah, also known  as the Pentateuch, the Law of Moses,   the Book of Books—the Bible. So if you would  turn to Genesis 1, I don’t want you to take   my word for the fact that we ought to be  taking a stand for Israel and the Jewish  

People. I want you to see for yourself with  your own eyes what God says about His people. The current crisis that we’re considering  today goes back a long, long time. Yeah,   we’re in the Book of Genesis, the first book  of the Bible. It goes all the way back 4,000  

Years. We know that God handpicked one particular  individual from the entire world at the time. His   name was Abram; later, he was renamed Abraham.  God chose him out of all the nations in Genesis   Chapter 12. I’d like for us to do a little survey  of several passages in the Book of Genesis alone.

In Genesis 12, the first two verses, we’re  told the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go forth from   your country and from your relatives and from  your father’s house to the land which I will   show you. And I’ll make you a great nation,  and I will bless you and make your name great,  

And so you will be a blessing.’ There we discover  that there’s this unique blessing of God’s hand   upon this particular individual. He is going to  bless Abraham; he is going to cause, through his   seed, the world to be populated with a special  blessing that’s going to take place through him.

Then if you were to skip over to three  chapters later in Genesis Chapter 15,   we discover not the Abrahamic blessing, but the  Abrahamic Covenant. God establishes an eternal   unconditional covenant with Abraham in Genesis  Chapter 15. He gives Abraham and his descendants  

The title deed to the land. This is what we  can call a land grant. The land of Israel,   as you can see based on our map here, is  significantly showing a geography that is   much larger than present-day Israel. It  actually extends from the Great River in  

Egypt all the way to the Euphrates River. This is  a massive area that God has promised His people,   yet to be entered into in terms  of their enjoyment of the land. From Genesis Chapter 15 and the  covenant that is established there,  

I’d like you to turn over to the  next two chapters, to Chapter 17.   That’s significant because God chooses to  extend this covenant not through Ishmael,   his firstborn, but through Isaac. You can  read it for yourself in Genesis 17:19-21. So,  

This covenant that God gave to Abraham was now  passed along to Isaac. From there, if you would   turn to Genesis Chapter 22, as we are surveying  how God has handpicked a man, this man’s son,   and then we see this further development take  place in Genesis Chapter 22, where it teaches  

Us that Abraham went up to Mount Moriah to offer  up his son Isaac. And God gives promises to Isaac   and then to Jacob. God can see Abraham’s faith,  the father of faith, and he says, ‘Hold off;  

I see your faith and know that you are willing  to even not withhold your son from Me.’ And so,   God blesses Abraham and his faith because he did  not even hold back that which was precious to him.

In this passage, God gives promises not just to  Isaac, but then to Jacob. But we’ll get there in   just a few moments. Now, in a case of historical  revisionism, Islam comes along and says,   ‘No. It was not Isaac who Abraham sought to  offer up on Mount Moriah; it was Ishmael, and  

The Jewish people have it all wrong. Ishmael was  the one who was offered up there.’ Now think about   this for a few moments. Moses penned the Torah,  including Genesis, in approximately 1400 BC. Okay,   now Muhammad comes along 2,000 years later in  600 AD and he says, ‘No, no, no. It wasn’t Isaac,  

Who was offered up there on Mount Moriah. It  was Ishmael.’ But that was 2,000 years after   the fact. Wouldn’t you think that is not the most  reliable way of understanding what took place? Listen, the origin of the conflict goes way  back in time between the descendants of Isaac,  

The Jewish people, and the descendants of  Ishmael, the Arab people. And since then,   there’s been ongoing conflict. Would you turn to  Genesis Chapter 26? We see this reestablishment   once again of this covenant with Isaac. Just so  there’s no confusion, God says to Isaac in Genesis  

26, starting in verse 3, He says, ‘So turn in this  land, and I will be with you and bless you. For   to you and to your descendants, I will give all  these lands. Who does the land belong to? It tells  

Us right here—from Abraham to Isaac. This is  where the covenant is established. He says,   ‘And I will establish the oath which I swore  to your father Abraham. Verse 4 says ‘I will   multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven  and will give your descendants all these lands.’

In the previous chapter, Genesis Chapter 25,  Jacob receives Esau’s birthright. He received   it through trickery, but nevertheless, he was a  recipient of the birthright, and the birthright   was an honor that gave the heir the right to  the inheritance of the land and the privileges  

Associated with the father’s estate. Now look  at Genesis Chapter 28. We’re just surveying   this one book where we find the answers to the  question: who does the land belong to biblically? In Genesis 28:3,4, Isaac is blessing Jacob,  and we’re told, ‘May God Almighty bless you  

And make you fruitful and multiply you, that  you may become a company of peoples. May   He also give you the blessing of Abraham  to you and to your descendants with you,   that you may possess the land of your  sojournings which God gave to Abraham.’ See,  

There’s really no confusion that  needs to be there in terms of who   God has given this land to; it’s clear . .  . through Abraham, Isaac, and then Jacob. While you’re still in Genesis Chapter 28,  notice with me verse 13. God says to Jacob,  

‘I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham  and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie,   I will give it to you.’ Who’s God talking to?  To Jacob. ‘I’m not just going to give it to  

You,’ He says in Genesis 28:13. ‘I will  give it to you and to your descendants.’ Do you remember in Genesis Chapter 32, there  is a wrestling match? What an interesting   wrestling match that had to have been, where  the angel of the Lord is wrestling with Jacob,  

And Jacob is relentless. And God touches his  hip socket, and he develops a limp from that   day forward. And we’re told that God gives Jacob  a name change. The name change is not a small   thing that we just give a passing look at; it’s  something that we need to consider. Could that  

Weigh in on the importance of Israel belonging  to the Jewish peoples? Look at Genesis 32:28.   God says, ‘Your name shall no longer be Jacob.’  And then, if you will turn to Genesis Chapter 35,   and starting in verse 10, we’re told God said  to him, that is to Jacob, ‘Your name is Jacob;  

You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel  shall be your name.’ So, He called him Israel.   Verse 12: ‘And the land,’ don’t miss that,  ‘the land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac,   I will give to you, and I will give the  land to your descendants after you.’ And  

A great cross-reference to this would be 48:4.  Now, when you put all these verses together,   it should be abundantly obvious to all  of us that God gave the land to Abraham,   then to Isaac, then to Jacob, and to the  Jewish descendants that would come after Jacob.

But there’s more. Before we even leave the  Book of Genesis, we need to understand that   Jacob had a whole lot of children. He had many  sons, and before he passed out of this life,   he blessed his sons. I’d like you to check out one  of the particular sons whom Jacob blessed greatly.  

This was not like any other blessing which God,  through Jacob, blessed this individual. It’s   the greatest blessing of royalty that was given  to this one particular son. Genesis chapter 49,   look there if you would, In Genesis 49:8, Jacob  is blessing his son Judah. It says, “As for you,  

Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand  shall be on the neck of your enemies. Don’t miss   this. Your father’s sons, in other words, your  brothers, shall bow down to you.” What this   tells us is that Judah was given the place of  greatest prominence, superiority, even over his  

Other brothers, the most important inheritance and  place in the family. Then in verse 10, it says,   “The scepter will not depart from Judah nor from  the ruler’s staff from between his feet until   Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience  of the peoples.” Now, notice if you will, the word  

“scepter” and “ruler’s staff”. Those items are  symbolic; they symbolize royal command. And it was   through Judah that King David eventually would be  born. It was through Judah that King Solomon would   eventually be born. And it was through Judah  that the King of Kings would be born. And so,  

It is by no mistake that this blessing is going  through Abraham, through Isaac, through Jacob,   and then through Judah. By the way, the shortened  form for the word “Judah,” take a wild guess, is   what? It’s “Jew”. And throughout time, people have  wondered, “Well, who was the first Jew?” Well,  

If by Jew, you mean the tribe of Judah,  then Judah was the first Jew. If by Jew,   you are referring to someone who is a Hebrew, then  Abraham was the first Jew. If you say, “By Jew,  

We have to refer to people who are first referred  to as Jews in the Bible,” then you would have to   look at Second Kings to discover that there are  all of these unnamed individuals who are called  

Jews. But the point that I want to make here is  this: because God has given the land to the Jewish   people, because they are to be the owners of the  land, they are not the occupiers. That’s a phrase  

We keep hearing in connection with the Jewish  people. “They are the occupiers. They don’t belong   there”. But they’re not the occupiers. They’re the  owners of the land. And if you know your history,   you’re aware of the fact that the Jewish people  are the indigenous people of this particular land,  

The Holy Land. They were living in this land 2,000  years before anyone was ever called or referred to   as a Palestinian. They were in the land thousands  of years before Islam was ever a religion. Now, for those who don’t embrace the Bible,  for those who don’t perceive the Bible as the  

Word of God, as a historical record of the fact  that the Jews were living in the land thousands   of years before the Palestinians were recognized,  before there was a person called a Palestinian,   or thousands of years before Islam, then at  least look at the archaeological evidence. We  

Know historically and archaeologically that  there is what is known as an Egyptian stele.   An Egyptian stele is an ancient stone slab which  has markings on it. You could hop online and do a   check on Google, and you would discover that there  are many different images of Egyptian stelae,  

Ancient stones with markings on them. The  ancient Egyptian stele goes all the way back to   approximately the 13th century BC; and, it speaks  of the name “Israel” by name as the land. Also,   there is an ancient Canaanite stele from the 9th  century BC, which refers by name to King David as  

The king of the land of Israel. So, if you don’t  want to believe the Bible, at least believe the   historical evidence, the archaeological evidence  that has been made available to us. Regardless   of what your faith happens to be, for thousands of  years, it has been a well-documented fact that the  

Jews lived in this land that God gave to them.  They’re not the occupiers; they’re the owners. Now, there are some people who  would come along and say, “Yeah,   but we need to understand this goes back pretty  far. We need to understand that “This is our  

Land because dating all the way back to 586  BC, during the time of the Babylonian exile,   when the Jewish people were exiled from the  Holy Land, they were besieged until 1948, which   is when the Jews asserted the right to the land.  Between those two time frames, 586 BC to 1948 AD,  

In that large span of time, those 2500 years, the  Jewish people were in the land. And that’s true;   they were scattered, especially after the Romans  came along and they destroyed the temple in   Jerusalem in 70 AD. The Jewish population was  scattered from the land; they were dispersed  

Throughout the world and persecuted. And so,  that argument is true that between 586 to 1948,   the Jewish people, by and large, were not the main  people who lived in the land. The Jews who managed   to stay alive in their homeland were dominated by  other world empires, and here’s the list of them:  

“the Babylonians, then came the Persians, then  the Greeks, then the Romans, then the Byzantines,   then the Arab Islamic Empire, then the Catholic  Crusaders, then the Mamluks, then the Ottomans,   and then the British Empire.” And so, as a result  of all these various world empires coming on the  

Scene and dispersing the Jewish people throughout  the world, these people groups would say,   “It’s not their land; it is our land”, and they  would claim the land for themselves. But again,   we have to look back at history and realize  that the Jews were there before any of them.

It’s true that the Jews have not always occupied  the land. Why is that? Because there were times   when the people of Israel, the Jewish people,  were in rebellion; they were disobedient,   and God disciplined them. He is the  one that allowed them to scatter;  

He put them out of their own land. But even  though they haven’t continually occupied the   land, they’ve always had ownership of that  location. They have ownership of the land of   Israel because of an inalienable, eternal promise  that God gave to Abraham and to his descendants.

So maybe you’re wondering to yourself, where  did the Palestinians come from? Because that   seems to be really where the battle is. Does  the land belong to the Jewish people or to   the Palestinians? Should it be Israel? Should it  be Palestine? So let me give you some additional  

History. In 135 AD, the Jewish people were in  rebellion against the Roman Empire. They were   having it up to here with the oppression that was  being meted out to them. And so during that time,  

The Roman Emperor of the land was a man by the  name of Hadrian. Hadrian hated the Jews; he got   sick and tired of their rebellion, and he wanted  to put down the rebellion once and for all. And  

So he had the Jewish people dispersed in 135 AD.  You can look back through the historical records   and discover that is the case. Not only did he  have the Jewish people scattered away from the   promised land, but he also renamed Israel with a  Latin name, “Palestina”. And that word, Palestina,  

Is linked to the Philistines. And the reason why  Hadrian renamed this land Palestina or Palestine   is because he knew that the Philistines were the  archenemies of the Jews. Just to stick it to the   Jewish population, just to agitate them, and to  try to cause them to be a memory of the past,  

He renamed Israel “Palestine.” Now, even  though in the Bible, it’s called “Israel,”   the land was known as “Palestine,” which is  a false name that Hadrian gave to the region,   again, to agitate the Jews and to try to blot  out their memory. That’s where the name comes  

From. Arabs living in the land were known as  Palestinians. And so the land of Palestine,   from 135 AD all the way up until 1948 AD, that  land was called “Palestine.” And then in 1948,   the Jews come along; they take back the land  and they give it its rightful name, Israel.

Now, there are some Palestinians today who will  tell you, “Oh, this goes back even before all   the stuff about the Roman Emperor Hadrian.  This goes back, it predates even Abraham.”   There are some Palestinians who will say that  they are descendants of the Canaanites. Now,  

That’s not true. But even if it were  true, God put out the Canaanites and   had the Jewish people be the new residents of  the land. So they’re wrong in neither account. Listen, the Palestinians, while we can certainly  pray for them and love them, and we ought to,  

We should have no anger, no animosity, no hatred  in our heart toward Palestinians. That said,   the Palestinians may make historical or political  arguments in terms of why they should be there,   but they have no biblical right to the  land. The title deed was given to Israel,  

To the Jewish people; the land was given  to them by God. The land is theirs. And so, that’s one reason why we support Israel  and why we support the Jewish people. God made   promises that He never revoked. These are  irrevocable promises that are not to be  

Broken. You say, “But Jeff, what about a two-state  solution? That seems like a good way to resolve   this. Just allow both parties to come together,  sit down, and come out with a two-state solution.   That will take care of all of this.” Listen, that  was already tried in 1947. The United Nations came  

Up with a partition plan by which Israel would be  considered part Israel, part Palestine. That was   the plan, and the land was partitioned between  those, who were living in the land at the time,   as well as the Jews, who came back to the  land out of the ashes of the Holocaust. Well,  

The Jews accepted the plan, but the Arab at the  time rejected it. The reason the Arabs rejected   it is because the issue had nothing to do with  the size of the land that would be given to them,  

Or the size of the land that would be given  to Israel. The issue had to do with the   existence of Israel at all. They didn’t  believe that there should be an Israel;   they opposed the very existence of Israel.  And so, in their thinking, you can shrink it  

Down as much as you would like, but you can’t  really shrink it down small enough for them. Now, I want you to think about this: the Arab  nations, and there are quite a few of them,   possess more than 300 times the land compared  to the size of Israel. They have 40 times the  

Population that Israel possesses. And yet, so many  within the Arab nations do not want to recognize   Israel’s right to exist, and they believe they  should be wiped off the face of the earth.   Not only do they believe that Israel should be  non-existent, but they don’t think Jewish people,  

Whether they’re in Israel or anywhere, should  exist. They think that whether it be Hamas or   someone else, the job of exterminating  the Jews needs to still take place. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to discover  that we are living in a day and age in which  

Anti-Semitism is burgeoning; it’s growing; it’s  mushrooming. It’s perhaps the worst that people   have seen since the days of the Holocaust itself.  People all around the world are maintaining the   belief that Jewish people, not only do they not  have a right to Israel, but they don’t even have a  

Right to exist, and that the job of exterminating  the Jewish people, which Hitler tried to carry   out, needs to be finished. Now, where is all  this anti-Semitism coming from? Why is there   so much Jew hatred out there? Well, that’s a big  question, and for that, you’ll need to come back  

Next time. We’ll just hold off until then. But  in the meantime, let me just say in closing,   God has a special plan for Israel. He has a  special love and plan for the Jewish people.   And I want to make sure I’m not misunderstood.  God loves Palestinians. God even loves people who  

Are part of Hamas. He hates what they’re doing,  but the Lord sent His Jewish Messiah to die for   Jews and Gentiles. Yes, we need to pray for the  peace of Jerusalem. We also need to pray that  

The Prince of Peace will enter into the hearts  and lives of those who have not met Him yet.

source