PALESTINIAN COVENANT
The Palestinian Covenant refers to God promising a geographical area of land to Israel. This covenant is an unconditional Covenant.1 Many Bible educators call this Covenant
the Land Covenant because the
Bible does not address the land by name. We know however, that the Bible is
speaking of the land of Israel. We know this because God made this covenant
with Abraham and his descendents.2 This Covenant allocates to Israel ultimate possession of the land by
means of God’s promise to Abraham. Palestine is the area of land located on the
eastern end of the Mediterranean where the Nation of Israel resides today.3
The name Palestine speaks of
the part of the world that Abraham saw as the Promised Land.
The original Palestinian people are the Jews. God gave this land to Abraham by Covenant promise after the Canaanites were driven out of it.4
The hill country of Sier was given to the descendents of Esau, which are the Arabs.5 It wasn’t until 1947 that Arabs took the term
Palestinian. Before that time Arabs were never referred to by that name. The
term Palestinian was a historical change that was made to portray Arabs as
home-grown in the land. Mark Twain took a tour of Palestine in 1867 and he
described the land as a desolate country whose soil is rich enough but is given
over wholly to weeds. It is a silent, mournful expanse. We never saw a human.
Arab settlers took on the name Palestinians from an ancient Mediterranean tribe
and the name Philistine means invaders in Hebrew.
This land did not flourish until the
Jews came and drained the swamplands developing the desert into a blossoming,
prosperous land. After which Arabs followed seeking employment, freedom, and
prosperity. They came in large numbers and began to fall off almost 3000 years
ago. There is no recorded connection between the ancient Mediterranean tribe,
and modern day Arabs. The Romans were the initiators of this change that was
done to conceal their anger with rebellious regions; changing the references to
Judea and Samaria renaming them Palestine. In 1922, there was an illegal
separation of Trans-Jordan; the Jews were forbidden to settle on one third of Palestine and the Arab
settlement was unrestricted.
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Iraq,
Syria and the borders of Jordan were established between the years 1913 to 1961
and none existed as a country prior to this time. This land was divinely
designated to the Jews but was later given to the Arabs by the British. The
original land Covenant was made between God, Abraham and his descendents; it is
often referred to as the Title of the
Palestinian Covenant. The promises associated with this land were given
to the offspring of Abraham.6 In 1947,
the Jewish state was crowded together on eighteen percent of the land. The
Arabs rejected this and seven Arab states immediately declared war against
Israel. In 1948 Arab refugees were encouraged to leave Israel by their leaders
with the promise to purge the land of Jews. From 1948 when Israel became a
state until 1967 Arabs made no attempt to create a Palestinian state.
Arabs began identifying themselves as
part of a Palestinian people in 1964 initiated by the Egyptian-born Yasser
Arafat. The idea became popular after Israel re-captured Judea, Samaria and
Gaza in the 6-Day War of 1967. God mandated this area of land to Abraham
spreading as far as his eyes could see. This land was located between the
Mediterranean and the Jordan River, and at a future time, Christ Jesus will set
up His earthly Kingdom in this
land. At that time, this land will extend all the way out to the Euphrates
River.7
Ø
The
first Covenant of Law was given
to Moses at Mount Sinai/Horeb
Ø
This
is the second Covenant God is making to Israel
In
the first Covenant, God gave the decedents of Abraham the Law:
Ø
The
Moral Law
Ø
The
Ecclesiastical Law, and
Ø
The
Civil Law
Now God is giving them a third
Covenant.8 He gives them a homeland and sets the
stage for Israel to go and take over the land of Canaan.9
The Canaanites had cultivated this land for 430 years unaware that they were
getting it ready for Israel.10 In
unbelief, Israel rejected the land so they repeated the cycle in the wilderness
for forty years until that generation died off.11 Moses brought them around on the east side of
the Dead Sea to come into the land of Canaan.12
God promised that He Himself would take the nation of Israel into their Land of Promise and after a period
of time, He would come in the Person
of God the Son, the Messiah of
Israel, and rule and reign from Jerusalem.13
Another prophetic promise concerning the Children of Israel was that they would
be uprooted out of this Promised Land.
This prophecy was
fulfilled twice:
Ø
The
first time was when Nebuchadnezzar came from Babylon and overran the city of
Jerusalem destroying the city and the Temple. He burned it to the ground and
took the nation of Israel captive. Seventy years later, a small remnant
returned
Ø
The
second time was by the Romans in 70 A.D. Rome besieged the city of Jerusalem
crashing the gates, destroying the Temple, uprooting the Jews taking them out
of the city and out of the land.
When we think of the Jews, we usually think of sheep as Christ Jesus referred to them. Sheep of Scripture do
not only refer to Israel, but to both Israel and Gentiles as a unity of oneness
pointing one way to Christ
Jesus as the only way to the Father.14
Which is why He not only laid His life down for the sheep, but He also picked
it back up again for all men.15
Gentiles are the sheep that were not
of the fold that Christ refers to in the Book of John. In this passage,
He is speaking of all those outside of Judaism.16
Christ never specifies the route by which the Gentiles will be included into
the fold back then. Not having the answer to this question is what led up to
the controversy surrounding whether a Gentile should be converted to Judaism in
order to become a part of the flock. Two things the Jews did not know:
Ø
That
there would be a Grace Age extending for an unspecified amount of time and
(Ephesians 32: 8-9)
Ø
That
Gentiles already belonged to God (John 6: 37, 3: 16)
Gentiles know that Christ Jesus is the Door to God the Father and most of Israel does not understand this Truth.17 When Christ makes His claim as Shepherd, He is indeed claiming that
the Messiah has come to
shepherd His people.18 The Apostle
Paul in the New Testament
never refers to Gentiles as sheep. He refers to believers as the Body of Christ. He refers to Christ Jesus
as our Shepherd, and He is all
of this as well as:
Ø
The
Door
Ø
The
Gate
Ø
The
Way
Ø
The
Truth and
Ø
The
Life
Every man, woman, boy, and girl that
desire to go to Heaven must go
through the Door to obtain Eternal Life in Him.19 Giving Life is the purpose
of Christ Jesus’ coming. When a
person receives this life it is in abundance because we have eternal purpose.20
Every one that enters in through the Gate, through the Door finds Life.21 No one wants to be an outsider with
men, so what do you think being an outsider of God will be like. The truth is;
we are all outsiders until we entered in through the Blood of Christ Jesus. Our
Lord made His demise from this earth a sin and guilt offering so that mankind
could receive Life through His death. Christ gave up His life
for the sheep promising that if
He were lifted up from the earth, He would draw all men unto Himself.22
When one enters in the Gate through Christ, he has freedom
to go and come into the presence of God as he or she pleases.23 Christ Jesus is the Way that was sent
by God for man to choose for them self life or death.24 No one took His life from Him, He
willing and readily laid it down for the purpose of allowing sinful man a
pardon from God the Father with the benefit of being freed from death’s
punishment.25 The Bible lets us know
that Christ is the Head of the Body and the chief Shepherd of all Creation, as
the Truth He alone brings Life.26 Christ Jesus is everything to every
man, they just don’t know it. He is not an intruder in the lives of men; He is
gracious and will not ingratiate Himself in one’s life. He will come only if
invited.
Every man and woman must want what He
has to offer them. When one is truly
born of the Spirit he is able to see the Divine Beauty and Love of the Father in the death of His only Son.27 This visualization is at the heart of true
worship for all believers.28 The
Covenant promises between God and Israel leads up to Christ’s Second Coming, when He will establish a Heavenly Kingdom on earth. It will be
during that time that Israel will come into the fulfillment of all of the Old
Testament promises.29 God
will make a Covenant of peace with
a remnant of Israel. It will be
an Everlasting Covenant that
continues on into the New Heaven and
the New Earth.30 According to the Word of God, Israel holds the title deed to its home land of Israel. This title has been theirs since the Covenant was made
with Abraham, and has not been rescinded; therefore, it is still in effect
today.31
1(Deuteronomy 30: 1-10)
2(Genesis
27: 41)
3(Exodus 15: 14; Isaiah 14: 29, 31;
Joel 3: 4)
4(Numbers 13: 30)
5(Joshua 24: 4; Genesis 25: 24)
6(Genesis 12: 1-3)
7(Numbers 22: 5)
10(Deuteronomy 29: 2-8)
11(Numbers 14: 32-35)
12(Deuteronomy 29: 9-13)
13(Numbers 13: 1-2; Romans 15: 8)
14(John 14: 6)
15(John 10: 17)
16(John 10: 16)
17(John 10: 1-3, 7-17)
18(John 10: 22-39)
19(John 6: 47)
20(John 3: 5, 6: 27, 8: 12)
21(John 5: 24)
22(Isaiah 12: 32; John 10: 11-18, 12:
32)
23(Numbers 27: 15-17; John 10: 18)
24(John 10: 10b; I John 5: 20)
25(John 10: 19-21)
26(Ezekiel 34: 11-20; John 14: 6)
27(John 3: 16)
28(Philippians 2: 6-8)
29(Ezekiel 34: 24-26)
30(Ezekiel 35: 1-5; 36: 1–6, 24, 37:
10-19, 26-28, 38: 2-9, 21-23; Acts 2: 36)
31(Deuteronomy 29: 10-15, 30: 11-20)
No comments:
Post a Comment