By Pr Samuel Namatiiti
As believers, we look forward to the Second Coming of our Lord, Jesus Christ, as He promised in John 14:1-3:
“In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”
We are reminded that Jesus will be seen in His second coming, the same way He was seen ascending (Acts 1:10).
One of the signs of the second coming is wars and instability like what we are witnessing in the world today.
What we are currently seeing happening in the land of Israel and Palestine, and surrounding areas is an intensified historical war that physically began manifesting itself during the days of Esau and Jacob, twin sons of Isaac, son of Abraham.
The Patriarchs of Israel
God called Abram to leave his father’s home in Haran, to go to where He needed him to be (Genesis 12:1). God’s declaration in the above verse, did not sound good to the ears of Satan.
Because Satan who is our enemy had contained mankind in his grip at that time. And he would not expect mankind to ever get out of his grip.
So, he was determined to set up all kinds of traps and hindrances, trying to stop God’s declaration from happening.
Also, Satan declared war against the fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham.
That is where the war we are now witnessing begins to intensify. So, from that time nations and tribes came into existence. By the wrath of God in the days of Noah, people began owning pieces of land according to their languages.
And they continued settling into tribes and nations where Satan decided to use humans advising them to build a city and tower with a top reaching into Heaven.
God came down and confounded their only one language and scattered them abroad (Genesis 11).
God, out of His grace decided to begin another and only one nation, through which to restore people that would be willing to receive pardon from Him.
Therefore, God, through His Grace called Abraham to begin the Hebrew Nation. Abraham obeyed God and he moved to the promised land–Canaan.
While there, God confirmed His intentions by making another strong promise to him, regarding that land (Genesis 13:14-17).
The promised Son
The first obstacle Abraham faced was that his wife, Sarah was barren and relatively too old to be able to bear children.
To God, such an obstacle was set for Abraham to deliberately choose and trust God for total ownership of his future.
However, to Satan, it was an opportunity to block Abraham to advance into his calling; to bless all people.
Therefore, because Abraham and Sarah were time-bound, badly in need of a son to inherit their possessions, Satan used the same complication to entice Sarah to convince Abraham to lay with her servant – Hagar bear to Abraham a child that in the end would frustrate God’s plan.
God had told Abraham that Sarah was the one to bear him the promised child but Abraham’s first son Ishmael was born by Hagar.
Later, Sarah also finally had Isaac – the son of promise, through whom God was going to fulfil His promise.
Isaac through Rebekah got twins-Esau and Jacob. Of the twins, God loved and chose Jacob, but God rejected Esau.
Esau and Jacob battled for the inheritance right from the womb and after being born, they had different views about the inheritance.
Due to the continual wrangles between the two, their parents decided to separate them. Therefore, Jacob was sent to his uncle Laban, to marry a wife from there.
When Esau saw that Jacob was sent to Laban to get a wife, he decided to join with their uncle Ishmael to see whether he could also get a wife from there.
The name Israel
While with his uncle Laban, God told Jacob to go back to the Promised Land.
On his way back, with a lot of riches, wives, sons, a daughter, and many servants, God confronted him and changed his name from Jacob (twister or Supplanter) to Israel (Prince with God ).
From that time, the children of Jacob became the children of Israel and made up the twelve tribes of Israel.
On his way toward his calling, Jacob and his whole family bumped into the Hivites, whose prince seized and defiled Dinah – Daughter of Israel.
Satan tried enticing Israel into settling down and be dissolved amongst the people of the area: “Make marriage with us. Give your daughters to us and take our daughters for yourselves.
“You shall dwell with us, and the land will be open to you. Dwell and trade in it and get property in it” (Genesis 34:9-10).
If Jacob and his sons had listened and obeyed the suggestion, it would have hindered them walking into God’s promises.
However, two of the sons of Israel–Simeon and Levi invaded and destroyed the inhabitants of that area; they rescued their sister – Dinah and spoiled the area.
And Israel had only one healthy option and that was to vacate the area and move on to Bethel where God directed him to go.
After settling in Bethel for a while, Israel and his whole family, due to severe famine, migrated to Egypt, called by his son Joseph, then Prime Minister of the land.
When Jacob was about to die while in Egypt, he charged his sons to go back to their ancestral land.
The above Biblical facts are undeniable and are strong proof that the land of Israel where current Jews are, was not only given to them by God, but also by their ancestral pillars- Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob, and Leah, and Racheal as well. By that time, we see no mention of the Philistines.
From Egypt to Israel
The children of Israel spent four hundred years in Egypt, working as slaves without pay.
Then finally God visited them and with a miraculous mighty hand pulled them out of the grip of Pharaoh. The Bible describes that event as Israel spoiling or plundering Egypt.
Pharaoh decided to pursue the children of Israel, but he and his chosen soldiers were drowned in the sea.
But why all that? One would ask. The answer is: because God had decided to take the children of Israel back to their ancestral promised land which is the current land of Israel.
In Exodus 6:6-8, God said to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that he would claim them as His people and would give them that land as their possession.
God refers to the land of Israel as His Land! In Joel 3:2, He also refers to the children of Israel as His people and heritage.
On their way, the children of Israel, from the land of bondage (Egypt) to the land of promise (Canaan/Israel), the Amalekite (great-grandchildren of Esau) were the first ones to try hindering Israel from advancing to his promised land. God was not pleased with that kind of behavior.
He denounced Amalek and up to now, no Amalekite or the name Amalek can be currently traced.
Inter-testamental days
When Israel regained, took over and settled into their God-given land – Israel, there always have been invasions from neighbouring countries, not believing that the land belongs to the Jews.
However, God has always been rescuing Israel from their surrounding enemies.
There are times when God Himself scattered the Jews into other nations, and then brought them back into their promised land/Israel at will as He chose to do so.
Whenever God chose to punish His People (Israel) and had them taken into captivity, He always made sure that there remains a remnant in the land.
Again, He always brought them back at will as and when He wanted.
There was a time when He gave them away to Babylon for 70 years and He brought them back, to be there when Jesus was about to come.
Rome invaded and colonised Israel and demoted her down to the point of turning that land into Palestine.
Rome forged that name from the Philistines, who had a potion there and were always battling with the Jews, godly legal owners of the land.
Philistines were deliberately left there by God, as a thorn to straighten Israel whenever they strayed. That land belongs to God with Jews as custodians of the same.
The inevitable Israel
God chose the land of Israel to be His earthly place for His functional activities of man’s redemption.
Without the physical land of Israel, there remains no physical evidence of God’s physical functional and tangible place.
- Jesus our Lord and Savior was born in Bethlehem-Judah in the Land of Israel.
- The Bible we cherish so much was written by Jews.
- The first missionaries, Jesus gave the Great Commission, were Jews.
- The eminent Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is focused on the Mount of Olives, which is in Israel.
- Jerusalem is the sample city of the heavenly Jerusalem; the former is situated in current Israel and the latter is aimed to base her Headquarters in Israel.
No person or nation will ever be able to uproot the Jews from their God-given land-Israel.
When the Jews were scattered in many nations, the United Nations came up with the idea of bringing them to Uganda, but they totally refuted that offer saying that they only longed to go back to their God-given land- current Israel.
So, in 1948, Israel was declared and again became a nation in just one day. The Land of Israel with the Jews in it, is going to remain until Jesus comes back to set His Kingdom headquarters, where He will rule the nations from.
