By the way, the idea of a "West Bank" is a joke! That is the west side and even the core of the land, the very guts of the promised land deeded to Abraham. It is a significant part of the Holy Land given to Abraham and his descendants through Jacob—the twelve tribes of Israel. God is bringing the Jews, the descendants from the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom, back home, from their scattering to all the nations of the earth. They have returned to the land, restored their ancient nation, resurrected their language, and are there in preparation someday for the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ!
Many more each day are flowing back to what the Bible calls The Promised Land! At present, they are in the land in unbelief but God has begun to work in their hearts! It is now estimated that there are upwards of 15,000 believing Jews in Israel. The Spirit of God has begun to work! What dispensationalists have said all along is now coming to pass. Those who hold to Replacement Theology (the church has replaced the nation of Israel) are out in the cold.
(When I first began to travel to Israel thirty-eight years ago, the best estimate of people living there could only count on one hand the number of believers in the Lord!)
In plain language the Word of God prophesies of the return of the Jews. "In that day," declares the Lord, "I will assemble the lame, and gather the outcasts, even those whom I afflicted. I will make the lame a remnant, and the outcasts a strong nation, and the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion from [then] on and forever" (Micah 4:6-7).
Unger writes:
Israel is to be regathered into the Kingdom, when the events that are a necessary prelude to Israel’s establishment in the millennial Kingdom will transpire. … He has afflicted [the Jews for their sins], restoring a remnant that will be saved by passing through the Great Tribulation and be preserved for Kingdom blessing.
"The Lord shall reign" is of course a reference to the historic rule of Jesus when He returns to earth to sit on David’s throne in Jerusalem. Even the amillennial guy Ellicott gets the point and is honest about the passage. He writes here about Micah’s words: "The promise immediately refers to the return when God would re-establish the Jews, and eventually comes Himself to the restored Temple." But then Ellicott goes goofy and says: "His promise sanctions the words of Micah as to the abiding character of that legacy which He left to the Church." How can Ellicott jump from the literal promises to Israel and then to the Church? The Church is not Israel, and Israel is not the Church, though both have in common the salvation that comes through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross!
The Ownership of the Land belongs to the Jews, not the Palestinians
The Palestinians, and the immediate Arabs nearest the land of Israel, do not own the Holy Land. The title deed to the land was given to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (the father of the twelve tribes). The land is not given to the descendants of Ishmael, Esau, the sons of Abraham’s second wife Keturah, or to the sons of his concubines (Gen. 25:1-11). The sons of Keturah became the children of Medan, Midian, Sheba, and Dedan (vv. 1-4). These are Arabic peoples who do not own any part of the Holy Land. The sons of Abraham’s concubines were given gifts "and sent away from [Abraham’s] son Isaac eastward to the land of the east" (v. 6). "Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac" (v. 5). The sons of Hagar through Ishmael "settled from Havilah to Shur which is east of Egypt as one goes toward Assyria" (vv. 16-18).
Isaac passed the blessing of the covenant God made with Abraham to his son Jacob. He said "May [God] 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" (28:4).
The Return to the Land Certain – Deuteronomy 30:1-10
Deuteronomy makes the return to the Holy Land certain:
- After the blessing and the curse, you shall call them to mind among all the nations, where the Lord your God has driven you.
- You shall return to the Lord your God and obey His voice.
- The Lord your God will have compassion upon you, and will gather you again from all the nations, where He has scattered you.
- Where yours are dispersed, the Lord your God will gather you, and from there will He bring you.
- The Lord your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed and you shall possess it.
- The Lord your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your children to love the Lord you God.
- The Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in the land.
These words are to the Jews as they enter the Kingdom dispensation. This is not about the Church age!
The Jewish rabbis say: "If Israel seeks God, Israel will find mercy at the hands of the Lord, and be brought back to the Land of his fathers." Pray that with the present turmoil in the Land that God will open the eyes of the Jewish people and bring them to the feet of their Messiah, Savior, and King!
If you have anti-Semitism in your heart, you are being seduced by Satan to despise the Lord’s people. Remember Romans 11:26-28.
Thus all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, "The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob (the twelve tribes)." "And this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins." From the standpoint of the gospel they (the Jewish people) are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God’s choice they (the Jewish people) are beloved (in God’s eyes) for the sake of the fathers (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob)."
--Dr. Mal Couch
