Village Schools of the Bible

Part 2 of The Roots of The Middle East Conflict
The Biblical Roots

The biblical roots center around the promises God made concerning the land. Our study begins with the promises God made to Abraham, the first being recorded in Genesis 12:6-7. Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. The Canaanites were then in the land, but the Lord appeared to Abram and said, "To your offspring I will give this land." So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him. At this point in time this promise is rather nebulous because Abram has no descendants. So, it could be interpreted as pertaining to any or all of his yet unborn children, including Ishmael, Isaac, and those born to him after the death of Sarah. The second promise also has the same interpretation. Genesis 13:14-17 states: The Lord said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, "Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west. All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you."

The third promise concerning the land is found in Genesis 15:12-16, 18-21. As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. Then the Lord said to him, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure." On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites. With this promise we have the term -descendants- further defined. They are those who would be enslaved for four hundred years. This is an important concept if we wish to fully understand those to whom the promises of the land are given. We must ask ourselves, 'Was there anytime in the history of the Jews when they were enslaved four hundred years?' Was there any time that the Palestinians were enslaved in a foreign land for four hundred years? How we answer those questions helps us to greatly understand the biblical solution to the land question.

The fourth promise concerning the land does present some interesting dilemmas. It is found in Genesis 17:8. The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God. First, let us notice that the land of Canaan was given to be an everlasting possession. How long is everlasting? Did everlasting end in 70 AD when the anger of the Roman armies was vented against the Jews? Or does everlasting still have meaning in the 21st century? Second, at the time this promise is given, Abram does have a child. His name is Ishmael. Is he the descendant given this promise of the everlasting possession of the land? Before we make a quick answer, we must examine the remainder of this chapter. In verse 21 we read these words "But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year." Now we know the descendant of Abraham receiving these promises from God. It is not Ishmael, but Isaac. It is not the people of Arab descent, but those of Jewish descent.

God reiterates His promises concerning the land to Isaac (Genesis 26:3-5) and to Jacob (Genesis 28:13-15). In Genesis 35:12, God makes this promise to Jacob: The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you. So we can see how God has narrowed His definition of descendants, from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob and finally to Jacob's family which would become the nation of Israel.

We know that Abraham had two sons: Ishmael and Isaac. But, in the eyes of God, Abraham had only one son - Isaac. Let me share with you from Genesis 22:2, 12, 16. Then God said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you abou ".Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son. The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, "I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore" . Is this fact important? Yes, it is. The biblical record makes it very clear that any inheritance of the land of Canaan is given to the descendants of Isaac only. He was Abraham's only son.

But, you may ask, did not God give any blessing to Ishmael? Was he excluded from God's gifts? Our answer is found in two verses. Genesis 17:20 reads, And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. Then, Genesis 21:13 " I will make the son of the maidservant into a nation also, because he is your offspring." What is missing from these promises of God to Ishmael? There is no promise of any land. The land was promised to Isaac.

This relationship of Israel and the land of Canaan is reiterated to both Moses (Exodus 3:8) and to Joshua, as he waited upon the eastern shores of the Jordan River (Joshua 1:2-6). And, throughout the Old Testament there is the blessing of the land that is ever before the nation of Israel.

With all these verses, are there any principles that we can cull from them? First, the land was a gift from God to Israel. That tells me that the land belonged to God, for someone can only give a gift if that gift belonged to him in the first place. The Canaanites and others held this land as an act of conquest, but only to Israel was it given as a gift. Second, the land was a gift by the eternal covenant of God. Men may break their covenants made with God, but God never breaks His covenant made with men. Nothing has happened that has caused God to break this promise of the land. Third, the land could be forfeited by sin, but the promise of the land could never be forfeited.

In 70 AD, after the Roman legions under Titus had destroyed the city of Jerusalem, the people of Israel were scattered literally to the four-corners of the world. They have been a people without a home, yet always with that promise of the land residing within their dreams. Whenever the Passover was observed, they would close with these words, "next year in Jerusalem." It was not until 1948 that this prayer was answered and the nation of Israel was reborn out of the ashes of the Nazi holocaust. Its birthing was not an easy process, yet it survived and has grown into one of the major nations in the world.

This thought of Israel's return brings us to the second point of this article, a focus upon the prophetic roots of the Middle East conflict.