Genesis to Esther Series –
LESSON 18
Subject: The Land Of Israel
We move from the book of Exodus to the
book of Joshua. We are going from
Genesis to Esther; and we are going to go from the book of Exodus (where we
have been) to the book of Joshua. The rest of Exodus, through Deuteronomy has to do with Israel
under the leadership of Moses during
their forty years in the wilderness. But what we are following here is the history of the land. Israel
moved from Canaan to Egypt. Then from Egypt to the wilderness. And now, under
Joshua, they come back into the Promised Land.
I. Joshua Led The Nation Of Israel
Out Of The Wilderness Into The
Land
Joshua is the one who led the nation of Israel
out of the wilderness into the Land.
The last time
we were in Israel, we went walking around the wall of Jerusalem. We came out
the door of our hotel, and looking over at the wall, we read these verses of
Scripture. I may refer to them more than once, but I want you to read them.
Deuteronomy 11:11-12
(11) But the land
From here on,
when the Old Testament talks about the land,
there is no question what it is talking about. It’s talking about the land of Israel.
But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of
hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven:
(12) A land which the Lord thy God careth for:
I find things
like that very important. It is not a statement that says “The land that the
Lord cared for. It is not past tense, it’s the ever present tense. It’s a land the Lord careth
for. I can testify that every time I have been in the land, and especially in
the city of Jerusalem, there are times that we have wakened, at two-thirty in
the morning and look out over the city of Jerusalem, and have rather a strange feeling come over us. I’m not given to being too much taken
with feelings and emotions. I thank the Lord I have
them; but I can confess you feel something when you are there. And for a
long time, I couldn’t explain it, until I read this. And when I read this, it
started to make sense. I should expect
something.
The eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the
beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.
The eyes of the
Lord are always upon it, from the beginning of the year
unto the end of the year. There is a good New Year’s text! From the beginning
to the end of the year, the Lord cares
for it. And I know the eyes of the Lord are over every man, and over the whole world, but there is a special sense. As the eyes of the Lord are over the believer, in a way they are not over the unsaved man; so the
eyes of the Lord are over the land of Israel,
in a way that they are not over Vancouver, or Surrey or wherever we
are at.
1. God Gave The Land To Israel
There are
things happening in the world today. They are still
fighting as to whom the Land belongs to, but God
gave it to Israel.
a. The Earth Is The Lord’s
God owns everything. Are you persuaded that that is true? Here is the Sovereignty of God again.
God owns everything!
The same
principle is in all of the doctrines that I have been pointing out to you. When you find a doctrine in one place; if it
is a Bible Doctrine, you are going to find it in a
dozen places.
Exodus 19:5
(5) Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep
my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for
all the earth is mine:
We are going to
confine our study to this earth, and the possessions
in it. God says all the earth belongs to Him.
Psalm 50:10-12
(10) For every beast of the forest is mine, and
the cattle upon a thousand hills.
(11) I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild
beasts of the field are mine.
(12) If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world
is mine, and the fullness thereof.
That is God’s
statement. The world is mine, and the fullness. Everything that is in
it belongs to God. That’s a principle
upon which we deal with the subject of Israel coming into the land.
Acts 17:24-26
(24) God that made the world and all things
therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth
not in temples made with hands;
(25) Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he
needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;
(26) And hath made of one blood all nations
of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times
before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
It is God who has drawn out the borderlines for nations. God has determined.
Deuteronomy 10:14
(14) Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens if the
Lord’s thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is.
It is the same Word that we have read elsewhere.
1 Corinthians 10:26
(26) For the earth is the Lord’s, and
the fullness thereof.
This is a
direct quotation from Psalm 50.
I’ve given you
five different passages that tell you the same
– that the earth is the Lord’s. God owns everything.
Before we begin any section of study, we need to acknowledge the Sovereignty of God. When you talk about Creation, it doesn’t
matter what you need to acknowledge the Sovereignty of God. The Bible begins “in the
beginning, God Created.”
God is supreme. And that
has to do with this subject of the land of Israel, and God giving a land. The land is God’s
to give.
Regarding the Sovereignty of God, that does not offend my head, nor my heart.
That is how it is logically, and that is how it is in experience. When any kind of religion tends to separate us from reality (that is the reality of experience) then it is not good. There is more in that statement than I have time to
unravel. But there are some people today that are trying to have a Christianity
or religion in which that you ignore
experience. You cannot ignore
experience. The real
thing and experience go together.
b. Everything We Have, Therefore, Is On Loan From Him
If the Lord
owns everything, and in the Sovereignty of God we have to accept that, everything we have therefore, is on loan from Him. God owns everything.
Everything is on loan.
Psalm 115:16
(16) The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s: but the
earth hath he given to the children of men.
God owns it, but He has given it over to men.
2 Chronicles 1:11-12
(11) And God said to Solomon, Because this was in thine
heart, and thou hast not asked riches, wealth, or honour, nor the life of thine
enemies, neither yet hast asked long life; but hast asked wisdom and knowledge
for thyself, that thou mayest judge my people, over whom I have made thee king:
(12) Wisdom and knowledge is granted unto thee; and I will
give thee riches, and wealth, and honour, such as none of the kings have had
that have been before thee, neither shall there any after thee have the like.
Job 1:21
(21) Job said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and
naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and
the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.
It is the Lord
that gave, and it is the Lord that taketh away. When it comes to things, they come from the Lord.
Deuteronomy 8:11-17
A reminder, the
Word in Deuteronomy is “Remember.” Over and over again – REMEMBER.
Moses, just before
he died, is giving instruction to the children of Israel who are going to come
into what is called “The Promised Land.” And he is warning them of what might
happen.
(11) Beware that thou forget not the
Lord thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his
statues, which I command thee this day.
That is always a danger. You would wonder at the children of Israel
who had seen such mighty wonders and deeds! When I read that, I have to wonder
at them, and then I start wondering about my of my own heart. How could they forget that
the Lord had opened the Red Sea? How could they forget the waters that stood up
like a wall? How could they forget that for forty years they ate Manna in the
wilderness? How could they forget that water came out of the rock? And yet, he
said, You be careful, when you come into the Land
and you don’t have to be quite so dependent
on God day by day; you may forget.
(12) Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built
goodly houses, and dwelt therein;
This certainly
has to do with people. The warning is put up, not when everything is empty. The warning is here when
you are full, and you have a good house, and you have
everything.
(13) And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy
silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied;
(14) Then thine heart be lifted up, and
thou forget the Lord thy God, which brought thee forth
out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage;
I’m glad I have
these things in the Bible, because they really come home to my heart. You are
not nearly in as much danger when you are asking God daily for your
bread, as you are when you don’t
have to do that! And
God is warning the children of Israel.
(15) Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness,
wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no
water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint;
(16) Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy
fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to
do thee good at thy latter end;
(17) And thou say in thine heart, My power
and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.
That is a human problem to this day.
I preached a
sermon years ago in Moose Jaw, and I talked about this very passage of
Scripture – that all that we have is given to us by God. And a dear brother who was not physically well,
invited us home for dinner. He took me around his lovely home, and said, look
at this, and look at this, and he said, “Preacher, I want to tell you that my
wife and I milked cows to get everything we have. We milk cows with our hands. God didn’t
hand anything out to us. We worked for everything we have.” He was
disturbed by my sermon.
It was only a
few days later that I came down with measles of all things! I’m not a young
fellow either, and I got a child’s disease. And with red measles, I had lots of
time to think.
I had gone
through the training school south of Moose Jaw. Doctor Betty Beddy was
the name of the man who gave me a private, personal tour of the whole setup. I
went though that training home where, if I remember correctly, at that time,
there were at least four thousand people.
I went from
different ward to ward. I went into one ward and I couldn’t tell you how many
beds were in there, but all it was, was
a ward full of babies with these large heads – twenty-four beds, and everybody in there the same.
I went to
another ward, and I have forgotten how many beds, but all the orderly nurses
did was start at bed one and change the diapers, and go right up the line, and
down the line. They would just get finished, and would have to start all over
again. Some of those babies in those beds were seventy-five years old.
I went from one
ward to another to see some of the conditions
of humanity in the province of Saskatchewan. And when I had measles, I could
see those every time I shut my eyes. They wouldn’t let me read. I couldn’t read
my Bible, and I couldn’t read a book. They had the blinds down. And when I shut
my eyes I’d see what I had seen. And then I thought of this man who said, “You
know I did all of this with my hands.”
Coming back to
the text. I think I have prepared you for this now.
(17) And thou say in thine heart, My power
and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.
(18) But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he
that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his
covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.
Did that sink
in? You see, this man said “We milked cows.” I had seen hundreds of
people who couldn’t milk cows. They were there in that
training school. They couldn’t milk a cow if they wanted to. And this man brags about it, but he didn’t realize it was the Lord who
gave him strength to milk his cows.
About that same
time, I went to a Youth for Christ meeting. It was in the West End Gospel
Mission. Dr. Henry Hildebrand, principle of the Caronport Bible Institute, was
the speaker. It was back in the days when the mosquitoes were biting a lot of
people on the prairies, and giving them Sleeping Sickness. Do you remember
that? I remember him telling us something about a young man that went to
Caronport. Brother Hildebrand told the story something like this:
There was a young man who came to school (and by the way, I’m not telling you this
to scare anybody, I’m simply getting a point across) He said, This
young man came to school and between his first and second year, he went out in
Gospel ministry at a rough time. He didn’t get very much money. He came back
after his second year out in the field.
I remember
brother Marshall telling about his days when he
started out in the ministry back in the 30’s. He said, for weeks he would put a
letter up in the window to his mother, and he couldn’t get enough money for
three cents to buy a stamp to send it. A lot of people don’t know anything
about those kind of things.
This fellow
didn’t make very much out in the ministry, so he went into the office of Brother
Hildebrand and he said, “I’m through, I’m quitting. I’m giving up any
idea of going into any ministry. I’m quitting school. I’m tired of living on
charity. I’ve made up my mind, I’m not going to live on charity. I have a good
brain, and I have good hands, and I’m going to go out and work and support
myself.”
Brother
Hildebrand paused and said, Do you know where that young man is today? He’s
in one of our Saskatchewan institutions. He is not even feeding himself.
Somebody is feeding him. Somebody is dressing him. Somebody is looking after
him. What happened to him? A mosquito bit him. That’s all. And in one second of
time all of his abilities were gone.
Now when you
stop and think of what we have read, I think it is time we always remember that it is God
who giveth us the ability to work. You have brains? Who gave them to you? God. And He can take them away very quickly too. Your
brains are on loan to you. Your health is on loan to you. Your wealth is on loan to you. There is nothing
you have that is not on loan to you. Everything.!
1 Corinthians 4:7
Paul uses the
same argument.
(7) For who maketh
thee to differ from another?
That’s a good
question. And the answer to that is – God
has. When it is God Who is the One who does so much for us,
then it is time we quit
complaining about the
way God has made us!
and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if thou
didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not
received it?
Those are good
questions.
1 Timothy 6:6-7
I remind you of
these things, that they are in the Bible.
(6) But godliness with contentment is
great gain.
(7) For we brought nothing into
this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.
Because the
whole thing belongs to God!
c. We Will Give Account To Him
It is because
everything belongs to God, and
therefore, everything is on loan to us, and we are going to give an account to God.
Romans 14:12
(12) So then every one of us (no exceptions) shall
give account of himself to God.
We shall give
an account (not of our neighbour, not of what the other fellow does) but we will
give an account of ourselves to God. So often we are like Peter. We are
always looking at what the other fellow does, and what the other fellow
says. And Jesus said, Peter what is that
to thee? You are not going to have to give an account for anybody else, but you
are for yourself.
We are going to
have to give an account of what talents
God has given. You can see that would lead you into the parable of the talents.
It’s not the number of talents that really count with God. The
one fellow had one. He was as responsible as the fellow who had five or ten.
And God is going to hold each of us accountable for our talents, for our time,
and for our treasures. I am talking there about more than talking merely about money here.
I look upon my family as being the treasures of my life. We are going to
give an account regarding the treasures God has given us. How have we treated
our wife? How have we treated our children? How have we treated those people
that God has brought our way? They are treasures
that you can’t replace.
And then tithes.
That has to do with money. We are going to give an account of our tithing. We
are going to give an account of our tongues.
Every idle word is going to come up says the Bible. Oh my, what a day of
judgment that is going to be. And then our testimony. What about our testimony?
1 Peter 4:5
(5) Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the
quick and the dead.
2. The Lord Can Give Land To Whomsoever He Wills
Going back,
looking at the Sovereignty of God, God owns all the land, and therefore, if someone owns something,
if you own a lawnmower, if it is yours,
do you not have the right to lend it to anybody? The one who owns it has the right to lend it. God owns land and God
can lend it. If you own something, you can give it. God can give land to whomsoever He wills.
Deuteronomy 32:8
We read from
Acts that it is God who sets the boundaries.
(8) When the Most High divided to the nations their
inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the
bounds of the people according to the number of the children of
Israel.
He did this
when there wasn’t one. Israel hadn’t even been born yet. God allocated a piece
of land in His plan for Israel, long before
the nation existed. And then He set the bounds of the other nations according to the children of Israel.
Genesis 14:18-19
The story of
Abraham. I won’t spend time here with it, but just notice that it was the Most High who divided to the nations.
(18) Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine:
and he was the priest of the most high God.
(19) And he blessed him, and said, Blessed by Abram of the
most high God, possessor of heaven and earth:
Possessor. It
is the possessor Who is able to give land.
I brought to
your attention Acts 17:25,32. God sets the boundaries. Now in Jeremiah, I want
to use it by way of illustration.
Jeremiah 27:4-76
(4) And command them to say unto their masters, Thus saith
the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Thus shall ye say unto your masters;
(5) I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are
upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given
it unto whom it seemed meet unto me.
God said, I’ve made the whole thing, and I have given it to whomsoever I have chosen. And now He goes on and makes a practical
application.
(6) And now have I given all these lands into the hand of
Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field
have I given him also to serve him.
There was a
point in mind; at that particular time, God took the
land of Israel out of the hand of Israel, ’s hands and
gave it to another nation. God can do that. He has been doing it all
through history. God can take any piece of land and give it to anyone that He desires.
In Daniel, two
kings had to learn something about this. It all is the same principle that we are following.
Daniel 4:17,25,31
(17) This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the
demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know
that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth
it to whomsoever he will, and sitteth up over it
the basest of men.
The Will of God
is involved with nations having land.
(25) That they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling
shall be with the beasts of the field, and they shall make thee to eat grass as
oxen, and they shall wet thee with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall
pass over thee, till thou know that
the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he
will.
God said
through Daniel to the king Peres;of Babylon.
Daniel 5:28,31
(28) Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and
Persians.
(31) And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about
three-score and two years old.
The king of
Babylon was slain. God made the statement, I am going to take the land out of your hand, I’m going to give it to somebody else.
3. The Lord Gives Riches
2 Chronicles 32:29-31
(29) Moreover he provided him cities, and possessions of
flocks and herds in abundance: for God had
given him substance very much.
(30) This same Hezekiah also stopped the upper watercourse
of Gihon, and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David.
And Hezekiah prospered in all his works.
(31) Howbeit in the business of the ambassadors of the
princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to inquire of the wonder that was done in
the land, God left him, to try him, that he might know all that was in his
heart.
Ecclesiastes 6:2
(2) A man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honour,
so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth
him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it:
this is vanity, and it is an evil disease.
Riches are not
given because one has special faith, or because one is very Spiritual.
1 Timothy 6:5
(5) Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and
destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw
thyself.
Timothy tells
you that you are not to equate godliness with prosperity.
Riches are often given to test
or manifest our Spiritual condition.
Deuteronomy 8:2
(2) And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy
God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove
thee, to know what was in thine heart,
whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.
1 Timothy 6:17-19
(17) Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not
high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in
the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy;
(18) That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready
to distribute, willing to communicate;
(19) Laying up in store for themselves a good
foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold
on eternal life.
Proverbs 30:8-9
(8) Remove far from me vanity and
lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me:
(9) Lest I be full, and deny thee,
and say, Who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my
God in vain.
4. Although The Earth Is The Lord’s,
He Has A Double Claim On The Land Of Israel.
Getting back to
the statement that the Lord owns all the land, and the Lord can give any piece He likes. The Lord who owns it all gave a piece to Israel. Although the earth is the
Lord’s, He has a double claim on the land of Israel.
In each one of
these following passages, it will say practically the same thing.
I’ve made the
statement, and it almost looks like a contradiction. I’ve made the statement
that God has given the land of Israel to the Jewish people, and yet in
Leviticus 25 we have this statement:
Leviticus 25:23
(23) The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is
mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.
Now, I thought
I said that God gave it to Israel. Yes He did, but just hold a
minute. God still says “It is
Mine.”
Ezekiel 38:16
(16) And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as
a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring
thee against my land, that the heathen may know me,
when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.
Joel 3:2
(2) I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down
into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people
and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and
parted my land.
How can God
give it and say “It’s Mine?” If God gave
the land to Israel, why does He still call it “My land?” Here is my answer”
There is are other
Scriptures
relative to this. God made a covenant with the people of Israel. And He said “I married them.” In that Marriage Covenant, He gave them something.
I’m a married
man, and in our marriage covenant we don’t
draw a line and put on one side “That belongs to Anne, and this side belongs to
Lorne.” We don’t do that. In our marriage covenant, what is mine is hers, and
what is hers is mine. We share everything. We can
talk about our car, or she can call it her car, or I can call it mine --
because it is mine, it is mine and hers, and because it is hers it is still hers.
Have you got it? God gave the land to Israel, but it is still His. Why? It is on a Marriage Relationship. He has made
Covenant, and so that which is theirs is also that
which is God’s.
The following
are some more Scriptures regarding this.
2 Chronicles 7:20
(20) Then will I pluck them up by the roots out of my land
which I have given them;
Jeremiah 2:7
(7) And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the
fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; but when ye entered, ye defiled my land,
and made mine heritage an abomination.
Jeremiah 16:18
(18) And first I will recompense their iniquity and their
sin double; because they have defiled my land
Ezekiel 36:5
(5) Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Surely in the fire of
my jealousy have I spoken against the residue of the heathen, and against all
Idumea which have appointed my land
into their possession with the joy of all their heart, with despiteful minds,
to cast it out for a prey.
II. The Lord Gave A Portion Of Land To The Jews,
Who Later Became The Nation Of
Israel.
The Lord gave a
portion of land to the Jews, who later, became known as the Nation of
Israel. I am trying to
phrase my language that will fit later Bible.
1. Land Promised To Abraham
It was
promised, first of all, to Abraham. In the Old Testament, few issues are as important as that of the promise of the land to the patriarchs
of the children of Israel. The land of Israel cannot be reduced, so it is a
sort of mystical land, defined by some as a new Spiritual reality. The Bible is most insistent on the fact that the
land was promised to the patriarchs as a gift,
where their descendants would reside and rule as a nation. God had marked out a
specific, geographical destination for Abraham.
So solemn was the covenant with the gift of
the land, that in Genesis 15 it depicts God alone moving between the halves of
the sacrifices. He obligated
Himself, and only Himself to fulfill the terms of this oath. I add, the
fulfillment of the Promise, in finality, did not and does not depend on what
Abraham or what his seed did, does, or will do. It depends totally on what God said God would do.
Genesis 12:1, 7, 10
(1) Now the Lord has said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy
country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will
show thee:
(7) And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy
seed will I give this land:
May I insert,
He was not talking about Heaven. He is talking about a land where Abraham was walking at the time.
(10) And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down
into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land.
Now, what does
that verse reveal? That reveals how close
the land was to Egypt, and it also
makes it very earthly. The land is in conjunction with Egypt; and Abraham went
from the land to Egypt.
Genesis 13:7, 9, 12, 15-17
(7) And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram’s
cattle and the herdmen of Lot’s cattle: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite
dwelled then in the land.
When Abram came
into the land, back out of Egypt, he wasn’t possessing it yet; there were Canaanites dwelling in the land.
(9) Is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself, I
pray thee, from me:
(12) Abram dwelled in the land of
Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward
Sodom.
(15) The Lord is talking.
For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it,
and to thy seed for ever.
Now, remember
the background of all of this. The earth is the Lord’s.
And, because the earth is the Lord’s, the Lord can give land to whomsoever He will. We are reading in the
Word of God that God said, “There is a piece of land Abram, I am not only going
to give it to you, but I am going to give it to your seed.
(16) And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so
that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be
numbered.
(17) Arise, walk through the land in the
length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto
thee.
I don’t know
how language can be plainer than that!
Here is a
passage of Scripture that draws out the borders. You will notice that the Lord
gave a portion of land; and here we have the boundaries
drawn out so specifically that there is no mistake.
Genesis 15:18-21
(18) In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram,
It was on the
basis of covenant relationship. And because it is covenant relationship, what
belongs to Abram belongs to God, and what belongs to God, belongs to Abram.
Sayingsaying,
Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great
river, the river Euphrates:
(19) The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites,
(20) And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims,
(21) And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the
Girgashites, and the Jebusites.
So, if you look
up where they dwelled, you know exactly
where it was. It was a positive, positive,
piece of land.
Genesis 17:8
(8) And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee,
the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an
everlasting possession, and I will be their God.
Why was it
called Canaan? We have so much spiritualized the word
“Canaan” from its original meaning, that most of us have forgotten its original meaning. What was it? It was the land of the
Canaanites. And because of the Canaanites, it was called the land of Canaan.
Some people try and make it Heaven. Please, it is not a picture of Heaven. There will not be any giants to fight in Heaven. Praise the Lord for that.
Hebrews 11:9
(9) By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a
strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with
him of the same promise:
The only time
in the Bible you will find this. It has to do with the man Abraham. And so,
bringing from the Old Testament to the New Testament, it says “By faith he
sojourned in the land of promise.” At that point it was not a land of possession. In the days of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, it was
still the land of promise.
2. Land Was Promised To Isaac
It was
promised, not only to Abraham, but it was promised to Isaac.
Genesis 26:1-3
(1) And there was a famine in the land, beside the first
famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went
unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar.
(2) And the Lord appeared unto him, and said, Go not down
into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of:
(3) Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will
bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will
give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto
Abraham thy father;
And so, you
have a promise made to Abraham, and there it is, renewed to Isaac.
3. Land Was Promised To Jacob
In these two
chapters you have such tremendous revelation regarding this man Jacob
Jacob is asleep
and he is having a dream.
Genesis 28:13
(13) And, behold, the Lord stood above it (the ladder) and
said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac; the land
whereon thou liest,
He certainly wasn’t in Heaven when this happened.
to thee will I give
it, and to thy seed;
There is so
much of it; I think God intended us to pay attention.
Genesis 35:11-12
(11) And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful
and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings
shall come out of thy loins;
(12) And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I
will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.
It is a specific piece of land that God has promised.
4. See Also: Lev 26:42
God said the
day will come, and I believe it has been repeated over and over again in
history.
Leviticus 26:42
(42) Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and
also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I
remember; and I will remember the land.
Don’t miss
that. When God made covenant with Abraham, it had to do with a piece of land. When God made covenant with Isaac, it had to do with
the same piece of land. When God made covenant with
Jacob, it had to do with that piece
of land where all the
wars are being fought, and they are continuing
to fight. There is only one nation in all of the globe that has its title deed to its property.
Canadians do not have a title to Canada. God holds the deed. Americans do not have the title to America. God holds the deed. All the other nations are mere tenants. Israel is the only nation that is a land lord. Now I know, when I say that, there would
be some people who would like to cut my head off, but I will say it anyway; God gave the title deed. The land title’s office is not in Vancouver. The land title office is not in Regina or Winnipeg or Washington. The land title
office is in Heaven. The God of Heaven has signed the title deed of a portion of land, and the heathen nations are raging and fighting. Why? They don’t want Israel
to have what God says He has given to them. The last war is going to be fought
over this, and the people are going to find out, after all, when God makes a Covenant, He keeps
a Covenant. And when God says “I give,” He gives. And wWhen
He says I am going to give a land, He does exactly
what He says.
Review
We have
introduced the subject of the land of Israel. Joshua led the nation of Israel
out of the wilderness into the Land. That introduced us to this subject of the
land in the Old Testament.
Then we saw
that the Lord gave a portion of land to the Jews, who later became the nation
of Israel. And that land was promised to Abraham. It was promised to Isaac, and
then it was promised to Jacob.
Regarding this
land, there is something that I think I read before from a theological
quarterly that I receive. I want to read that as I start on this subject again
of the land of Israel.
In the Old Testament few issues
are as important as that of the promise of the land of
Canaan to the patriarchs and the nation of Israel. The land of Israel cannot be
reduced to a sort of mystical land defined as a new Spiritual reality. The
Bible is most insistent on the fact that the land was promised to the
patriarchs as a gift, where their descendants would
reside and rule as a nation. God had marked out a specific,
geographical destination for Abraham. So solemn was the Covenant with its gift
of the land that back in Genesis 15:7-21 it depicts God alone
moving between the halves of the sacrifices. And in that, God obligated
Himself, and only Himself, to fulfill the terms of the Oath
He had made.
Now, I add
this: the fulfillment of the Promise in its finality regarding
the land given to Israel, did not, does not, depend
upon what Abraham or what his seed did, or does, or will do. It totally depends
on what God said He would do. And so, what we face
when we come to the subject of the land in the Old Testament is this question:
Is God able to keep His Word? When God makes a Promise, will God do it? I think it rather interesting that as we concluded one year
and started another, you couldn’t get away from the fact that the world still
has to hear about the people of Israel, and the land of Israel. Are you
noticing all of the headlines that move in that direction? It is a very live
subject today.
Now we go back
to where we left off. All of these Scriptures basically tell us the same thing.
When God repeats Himself I am of the opinion that we should
pay special attention to that which is repeated.
There is one
purpose I have in mind in these Scriptures.
Leviticus 26:42
(42) Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also
my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and
I will remember the land.
What is the purpose of reading this verse? The Covenant was not only made
with Abraham, but it was made with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. And because
Leviticus is written after Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, it goes back
through it. You see, when the history was fulfilled, it is Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob. But in this verse it backs through. I made a Covenant with Jacob. I made
a Covenant with his father Isaac, and I made a Covenant with his father
Abraham. And will you notice further in the verse, then will I remember the land. The Covenant that was made in this passage, is in
relationship to land given to Israel.
There is an
additional statement that is made here regarding the Covenant of the land.
Jeremiah 7:7
(7) Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the
land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.
It is not a Covenant that is ever going to be broken. God said
He gave a piece of land to the fathers of Israel.
Jeremiah 25:5
I want you to
observe that the statement is the same that we have been reading.
(5) They said, Turn ye again now every one from his evil
way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the Lord hath
given unto you and to your fathers for ever and ever.
It is a
Covenant that God has made and therefore, because it is of God, it is eternal.
Ezekiel 36:28
Speaking
prophetically. Nothing that has happened prior to Ezekiel’s day
is the fulfillment of this:
(28) And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your
fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.
Here is
reference to them dwelling in a land that was given to their fathers.
Ezekiel 37:25-28
(25) And they shall dwell in the land that I have given to
Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell
therein, even they, and their children, and their children’s children for ever: and my
servant David shall be their prince for ever.
(26) Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it
shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will
place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for
evermore.
(27) My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be
their God, and they shall be my people.
(28) And the heathen (the Gentiles) shall know that I the
Lord do sanctify Israel, when
my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.
And so the
Promise regarding the land has to do with the purposes of God.
5. Some Titles Of The Land As Given In The Old Testament
Zechariah 2:12
There is a
title given to this land which is very significant.
(12) And the Lord shall inherit Judah his portion in the holy land,
and shall choose Jerusalem again.
I like to
insist and tell students, that when you see or hear or read of the Holy Land,
that is not my invention. That is not a human invention. The Bible calls one piece of land Holy.
And that piece is the land that He gave to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and I
think we are all intelligent to know where it is. The Holy land is not in Rome,
and the Holy land is not in America. The Holy land is in the land of Israel.
Daniel 11:41
All of these
suggestions that I am showing you in this lesson, bear on future lessons. It is called a Holy land. I want to make reference
to why it is.
(41) He shall enter also into the glorious land
This land that
is a Holy land, is also called, in the Bible, a Glorious land. I am almost tempted to step aside to half a
dozen Scriptures, but the day is going to come when the earth is going to shine
with Glory. And it is going to shine with Glory from
the Holy land. When the Glorious Lord comes back to
the Holy land, the world is going to find out where the Glory really is. It is going to be a Glorious land. Glory dwelleth in Emmanuel’s land.
Ezekiel 36:6
(6) Prophesy therefore concerning the land of Israel,
If you read the
Old Testament, there shouldn’t be any problem with all of this. What is the
land of Israel? According to the Bible, the land of Israel is the Holy land. According to the Bible it is a Glorious land.
And I like
Hosea, perhaps best of all.
Hosea 9:3
(3) They shall not dwell in the Lord’s land;
It is called
the Holy land. It is called a Glorious Land. And it is called Israel’s land. And here it is called the LORD’S land. Do you remember our studies on that. “LORD, ,” when it is
capitalized, is the Old Testament word for “JEHOVAH.” And
when you come to the New Testament, the word is “JESUS.” And so here, in interpreting Hosea
9:3, I learn that the Holy land is really Jesus’
land. It belongs to Him like no other piece of land on this globe.
Genesis 12:5
(5) And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s
son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they
had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and
into the land of Canaan they came.
The land is
called CANAAN.
Hebrews 11:9
(9) By faith he sojourned in the land of promise
It is called
the PROMISED LAND.
6. God Did Not Give The Land To Israel Because Of Their “Goodness.”
There is a practical aspect that comes out of the truth of this that maybe
we should talk a little bit about. We are all tabbed with the brush that thinks
we get things when we deserve them. And we don’t get anything when we don’t deserve it. God doesn’t
deal with us that way. Aren’t you glad that you don’t get your deserves. If you got what you deserved, you
wouldn’t have very much.
Deuteronomy 7:1-2
(1) When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land
whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee,
the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and
the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations
greater and mightier than thou;
When Israel
came into the land in the days of Joshua,
there were seven nations that declared war against Israel. Why do I
bring that to your attention? When Israel came into the same land in 1948 there were seven nations that declared war against Israel. And so, history has a way of
repeating itself. More about that later on. I simply want you to see that when Joshua brought Israel into this literal land, seven nations were there to fight against them.
(2) And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before
thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no
covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them:
That was God’s instruction to Israel.
Deuteronomy 9:1-7
(1) Hear, O Israel: Thou art to pass over Jordan this day,
to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and
fenced up to heaven,
(2) A people great and tall, the children of the Anakims,
whom thou knowest, and of whom thou hast heard say, Who can stand before the
children of Anak!
(3) Understand therefore this day, that the Lord thy God is
he which goeth over before thee; as a consuming fire he shall
destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face: so shalt thou drive
them out, and destroy them quickly, as the Lord hath said unto thee.
(4) Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the Lord thy
God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the Lord
hath brought me in to possess this land: but for the
wickedness of these nations the Lord doth drive them out from
before thee.
(5) Not for thy righteousness, or for
the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the
wickedness of these nations the Lord thy God doth drive them
out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the Lord sware
unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
(6) Understand therefore, that the Lord thy God giveth thee not this
good land to possess it for thy
righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people.
(7) Remember, and forget not, how
thou provokedst the Lord thy God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that
thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt, until ye came unto this place, ye
have been rebellious against the Lord.
In spite of the fact that they didn’t deserve anything, God had made a Promise. God had made a
Covenant. God had made a Covenant with Abraham, and with Isaac, and with Jacob.
And because of that Promise, he gave the land to the children of Israel. If we
could only see the principle of that, we would start rejoicing in the
principle of the Gospel.
You
don’t get anything because you deserve it in yourself. You get what you get
because of the Covenant between God the Father, and Jesus Christ the Son. And
it is for Jesus’ sake you possess your possessions. And so we
have the principle in the Old Testament that is everywhere
in the Bible.
7. Moses Led Israel Out Of Egypt.
He Was Not Allowed To Bring Israel Into The Land.
Moses led Israel out
of Egypt. But he was not
allowed to bring Israel
into the land. I’m touching on the high points of the history of the Old Testament. It was Joshua who brought Israel in.
Moses brought them out
of Egypt.
But Moses couldn’t take
them into the land.
Deuteronomy 32:52
God talking to
Moses.
(52) Yet thou shalt see the land before thee; but thou shalt not
go thither unto the land which I give the children of
Israel.
Deuteronomy 34:1, 4
(1) And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the
mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And the Lord
showed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan,
If the Lord
allows you before He comes, to go to the land, you can still do that. You can go to this very geography. I have been right at this point and I have viewed
across the Jordan at Jericho, looking into the land from where Moses was.
(4) And the Lord said unto him, This is the land which I
sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy
seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over
thither.
I think that,
even in the Scriptures I have read in this one lesson, there are sufficient
references to the fact that God made a Covenant with Abraham, and Isaac, and
Jacob, that we ought to pay
attention to. God
brought Moses right up to the land, but He wouldn’t let him go in.
The following
just shows you the wonder of the weaving together of these wonderful stories in the Bible. You can’t
start studying one story and not find that there is a principle regarding that elsewhere.
The more you study Scripture, the more care you begin to take, the more care you are going to take. If you are sloppy, you are not going to
care, but the more care you take, the more careful you are going to be. It’s
like a geologist going down to dig in what he calls a “dig.” When he starts
digging, after a while, he sets aside his big
shovel, and he picks up a teaspoon. If you watch some of these archeologists,
they are very careful. That’s
the way we come at the Scriptures. We become very careful,
when we once start to observe things like this. One soon discovers that God
always has a reason for what He says. Do you believe that? And God always has a reason for
what He does.
In these
lessons, I am touching literal
things that pertain to the regarding the children of Israel.
Perhaps people don’t get blessed when I start talking about these things that
are so down to earth, but when I read a statement like that – that God always has a reason for what He says,
and God always has a reason for what He does,
and I start applying that to myself, I get blessed in my spirit.
God does some
things in my life that I can’t explain. And God sets me up against the wall
every once-in-a-while, but the more I study the
Bible, and the more careful I am to study the Bible, the more I observe
that God always has a reason for everything He does. Isn’t that
blessed! Now, if that is true in the Bible, it’s true in my life. If that is true in these stories, it’s
true in your life. And, what God does in Bible history,
seems to always foreshadow what He plans to do in the future. We have the saying that history repeats
itself. Nothing is more true when you study the Bible.
Getting back to
illustrate those statements: Moses had failed when back in the book of Numbers
he smote the rock the second time. The first time God told him to “smite” it. The second time God says, “speak” to it. And Moses, in his anger, smote the rock. It
was at that point in the history that God said to Moses, he would not be able
to lead Israel out of the wilderness into Canaan. In numbers 20 we have the
story.
Psalm 106:32
(32) They angered him also at the waters of strife, so that
it went ill with Moses for their sakes:
Moses did what
he did because he was angry. Now, isn’t that something to read in the
Bible – about one of the great heroes of faith,
one of the great men! I’m always glad when I read the Bible, that the whole of my life isn’t written out for everybody to read. Don’t you feel that
way once-in-a-while? Isn’t God more gracious to you
than you thought He could have been? These men had it all spelled out, and God
said, Moses did what he did, and he was unwise in what he did, because his anger got away on him. If your anger has never gotten away on you, then you criticize Moses. But if
there is once in your life when you found yourself doing something foolish
because of your anger, well then you thank God it’s in the Bible that great men
before you got angry too.
Psalm 76:10
(10) Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the
remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.
It is so very
instructive. It says, Surely the wrath of man will praise thee. The wrath
of man praises God. Now, isn’t that something! And then the
rest of the verse, the remainder of wrath will God restrain. God will allow a believer to let go with
his wrath, but it will never go beyond
that which God will work out for His Glory.
Now, you try and figure that out! And when you get that figured out, you will
have gone a long ways in understanding the ways
of God. But isn’t that precious! God will make the wrath of men to
praise Him.
Although,
because of his action, and as a result of his wrath, Moses could not lead
Israel on out of the wilderness, God makes the wrath
of Moses to praise Him. In other words, God used it. Can God use my wrath?
Can God use my foolishness? He did in this
case.
Moses could not
bring Israel into Canaan, and here is the reason: because it was Moses who
brought in the Law. And the Law is not liberty, the Law is bonding.
John 1:17
(17) For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth
came by Jesus Christ.
The Law was given by Moses. And the lawgiver could not deliver Israel out of the bondage of the wilderness.
And here is the wonderful thing” what Moses couldn’t
do Joshua did. AndWhat what is is the New Testament
name for Joshua? – Jesus. And so wWe are being taught from this Old Testament story. I; it
is not the Law of Moses that brings us out of
bondage into liberty. When people are not living right, they don’t need more
Law, they need the Grace of
Jesus Christ. It is Jesus who brings us into Canaan’s land. Joshua brought them
IN. Moses brought them OUT.
I don’t begin
to understand all the ways of God in this story. We are going to
discover later on in the book of Joshua, that before they did any battle in the
land of Canaan, Joshua sent out two spies down into Jericho. Do you remember
that story? He sent those two spies before
he came in. Joshua who typified Jesus, sent two spies ahead before he came
into the land. I repeat, the New Testament word for Joshua is Jesus. Thus we know what Joshua did is only a type of what Jesus not only has done for us, but it also foreshadows
what Jesus is going to do one day in the land of Israel. Let me tell
you positively, Jesus is not through with Israel yet!
What Jesus will
yet do will outshine
all prior history. But, before Jesus returns to fight in Israel, He is going to
send two men to the land of Israel. Already in the New Testament we have the
record that goes beyond the type and shadow and I refer to Matthew
17, and Luke 9 where you have the story of the transfiguration.
When Jesus was
transfigured, don’t forget, He was in the land of Israel. And when He was in
the land of Israel, who appeared with Him in the land? Moses.
Moses had not been in the land before. When Moses died,
he was still in Jordan. But now,
he has got into the land by Jesus.
And with Moses
is Elijah. You remember when Moses was here on earth
for his lifespan of 120 years, he was not
allowed to enter the promised land. Someone has said that God thought so highly
of Moses He would not allow him to enter into the land of Israel with these
unbelieving, rebellious Israelites. I don’t know whether that is true or not.
But he didn’t have to bring them in. In Matthew 17, 1500 years after his death, Moses enters the land of Canaan. Moses
could not bring himself into Canaan; but what he could not do, the greater one than Joshua, the Son of God, did.
Furthermore,
Peter tells that the transfiguration is but a pre-picture of the Second Coming
of Jesus Christ. The Second Coming is described in the book of Revelation. I
haven’t time in this lesson to read from the book of Revelation, but in the
book of Revelation, chapter eleven, you have the prediction of two witnesses
coming from Heaven into the land of Israel. I’m sure you have read about it. Two witnesses! Two spies were sent by
Joshua before Joshua entered the land of Canaan.
Now, are you seeing what I am getting at? Before Jesus Comes, the next time into the land of Israel, the two witnesses are going to precede His Coming. I believe that the
witnesses in Revelation are none other than Moses and Elijah. When Moses was in Egypt the first time, 3500 years
ago, he sure shook things up, didn’t he! He disturbed the land of Egypt. And if
you have read the story of when Elijah was here, a few hundred years ago, he
sure stirred up things in the days of Jezebel and Ahab.
Can you imagine
that day when he called fire down from Heaven on 400 prophets of Baal, and with
his sword, slew them all? That was quite a thing! Moses and Elijah’s coming is
really going to disturb the world. They disturbed the world when
they were here the last time, and they are going to do it again. The world will
then know that the God of Israel is still
Israel’s God. What has happened in the past is going to happen in type again. God is going to bring Israel back into this
land. It is no wonder that Paul writes:
Romans 11:33
(33) O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and
knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding
out!
You can see the
history that is in the Old Testament is foreshadowed
of the prophecy that is in the Bible. The whole thing is linked together. We can reverently spiritualize what is in the Old
Testament, but we never take away from the literalness of the story.
III. The Book Of Joshua Tells
The Story Of Israel Moving Into Their Land.
The book of
Joshua tells us the story of Israel moving into their land. Throughout the
book, the word to note is the fact that it was a “gift.”
1. Throughout The Book Of Joshua Note:
Joshua 1:2
(2) Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over
this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to
them, even to the children of Israel.
It was promised
to the children of Israel, and now Joshua
is taking them into the land which is given.
Joshua 1:11
(11) Pass through the host, and command the people, saying,
Prepare you victuals; for within three days ye shall pass over this Jordan, to
go in to possess the land, which the Lord your God
giveth you to possess it.
Joshua 1:13
(13) Remember the word which Moses the servant of the Lord
commanded you saying, The Lord your God hath given you rest, and hath
given you this land.
Joshua 2:9
(9) And she said unto the men, I know that the Lord hath
given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and
that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you.
Joshua 2:24
(24) And they said unto Joshua, Truly the Lord hath
delivered into our hands all the land; for
even all the inhabitants of the country do faint because of us.
Joshua 21:43
(43) And the Lord gave unto
Israel all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers; and they possessed it, and
dwelt therein.
Joshua 24:13
(13) And I have given you a land for
which ye did not labour, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them;
of the vineyards and olive yards ye planted not do ye eat.
2. Under Joshua They Extended Entered The Land
1. Under Joshua they conquered the land.
2. Under Joshua they possessed the land.
3. Under Joshua they divided the land.
All of that
history is wonderful in its typology.
3. All This is First Historical And Literal
All this, right
from Genesis is first historical and literal. All is typical and Spiritual. But the Spiritual does not nullify the literal. Will you always remember that. I want to
impress that upon you. Because something in the Bible is Spiritual, that does not
take away from the literal.
4. Since 606 B.C. The Land Has Been “Trodden-Down”
As we shall
see, since 606 B.C. this land has been “trodden-down” and oppressed by the Gentiles.
Luke 21:24
(24) And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall
be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of
the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
5. The Major Purposes In The Land
Why did God choose
this land – merely for these unbelieving Israelites? No. Here is the major
purpose:
A place for the
Messiah to come to (the first
time). Jesus’ entire
life was here. Here He was born. He lived, He died, He arose, and He ascended. But
you see, that’s not the end. There has to be a place for Messiah to return to. He came the first
time to the land of Israel, and He is going to come back
to it.
Zechariah 2:12
(12) And the Lord shall inherit Judah his portion in the holy land, and
shall choose Jerusalem again.
Nehemiah 11:1
(1) And the rulers of the people dwelt at Jerusalem: the
rest of the people also cast lots, to bring one of ten to dwell in Jerusalem
the holy city, and
nine parts to dwell in other cities.
1 Kings 11:36
(36) And unto his son will I give one tribe, that David my
servant may have a light always before me in Jerusalem, the city which I
have chosen me to
put my name there.
Zechariah 14:1-9
(1) Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall
be divided in the midst of thee.
(2) For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to
battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women
ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue
of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
(3) Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those
nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
(4) And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of
Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall
cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there
shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the
north, and half of it toward the south.
(5) And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains, for
the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as
ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the
Lord my God shall come and all the saints with thee.
(6) And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light
shall not be clear, nor dark:
(7) But it shall be one day which shall be known to the
Lord, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it
shall be light.
(8) And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go
out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward
the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.
(9) And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that
day shall there be one Lord, and his name one.
We shall now look at this land in history.
IV. The
Land Of Israel Between 1917-1948
We have been
looking back in the Old Testament, now we are going to come right up to date
and start looking at the same land. It is the same
land that you are reading about in the Bible that you are reading about in the
newspaper. Don’t ever forget that.
We now come to current history regarding the land of Israel. We have talked about
some of the Old Testament history, but now the land of Israel, first of all the
years between 1917 to 1948. Remember, the Jews are the people
of the Book. The land of Israel is the land of the Book.
1. 1917
In 1917
Jerusalem was taken from the Turks. It is rather interesting history, that for
400 years – from the year 1517 to the year 1917 – the Turks had been in the
land of Palestine then. We talk about the land of Israel so freely, and I think we forget there is a
generation of people still
living who think of it
as being the land of Palestine; because for hundreds of years it was called the land of Palestine.
Here follows is some
of the history of that wonderful day in 1917. In 1917 General Allenby captured
Jerusalem without firing a
shot. The Arabs heard a
rumor that Allah was coming, so they didn’t put up any resistance to the
troops.
When I was in
Israel two years ago, and when we were up in Safford House, we had some
first-hand information, (much of it perhaps not published), about what happened
in the year 1917. When there had been fighting prior to that and the Turks
finally went home, if I remember correctly, the lady at Safford House said, “They
were left with 4000 Turkish soldiers to look after because they were left
behind by the Turkish government to die, but these people looked after them and
got many of them through.”(That is through death.)
Allenby was a Christian, according to all of the records. When he came to the
Japheth Joffa Gate
in Jerusalem, he said, “When Jesus was here he rode into Jerusalem, and I have no right to enter as Jesus
did.” So he got off his horse and walked
into the city. I have pictures in my history books of this great General walking into the city of Jerusalem. I find that interesting,
but I’m not suggesting there is any great significance.
1917 Jerusalem
was taken. Thirty years later, almost to the day, in 1947 the land of Israel
was partitioned. I’m going to share more about that in this study. And then
thirty years later, almost to the day, in 1977, Sadat walked into Jerusalem.
Now, I don’t know the significance. I’m not saying it is tremendously
significant, but to me, when I start seeing things happen I take note.
I have
suggested to you before about the destruction of Solomon’s Temple. It was burnt
on the 9th day of August, 600 years before Christ., to be exact, 856. The
second Temple was burnt on the 9th day of August in AD70 – the same day. When I read
that in connection with history, I am persuaded that we should pay
attention to little things like this. We may not know the significance at the time, but some day we may.
Going back, it
was in 1917 Allenby went in. And in 1947 the United Nations voted to partition Palestine, which resulted in dividing Jerusalem into two cities. On the west side was Jerusalem Israel. And on the east Jerusalem Jordan.
I had the
privilege of being there in 1952 and I can visualize the whole thing as I talk
to you. 1977 President Sadat of Egypt made his electrifying
entrance into Jerusalem. He took up residence (and I think this must have some
significance) in King David’s Hotel in Jerusalem. I don’t know if you have
heard this fact or not, but they had given one whole floor of that beautiful
hotel for Sadat and party.
I never stay
there, it is too expensive, but we usually visit and walk through to have a
look at the beautiful place. They cleared out a whole floor for Sadat and those
who came with him. And they put the Koran in the rooms. But when Sadat got
there, he said, “Please, we want Bibles.” So they placed Bibles in all the
rooms of for the
Egyptians who came to Jerusalem in 1977. That happened in your lifetime. There must be something of significance in some of these things.
Someone has
written that the coming of Sadat – this Egyptian who had a hard time learning
to even love Israel, was but the dress rehearsal of the coming of the anti-Christ
who most surely will come to Jerusalem just a short time before Jesus comes. I
really wonder if he was a true friend, but he went into King David’s
Hotel. I am not trying to make too much of it, but that is some of the history of things that have happened there.
So 1917
Jerusalem was taken by this man Allenby. He was the leader.
2. 1917 The Balfour Declaration
The same year,
1917, the Balfour Declaration came into being. I don’t know how much of this
history you know, but the Balfour Declaration was a direct result of World War I, which was a fulfillment of a promise given by Lloyd George to C. Weisman.
Maybe I should
fill you in on that in case you have not heard the story. You may want to read
a little bit of that Declaration. In World War I, in the years 1914 to 1918,
the British allies were losing the war. When you stop and read about the
second World War, there were some pretty dark days too. Mr. Weisman was
a Jewish scientist. He invented and gave to the allies what we know as TNT. And
as a result of this explosive, things in the war turned around; it wasn’t very
long until the war was over.
David Lloyd
George, a little fiery Welshman, was the Prime Minister of Britain at the time.
I’m glad to read in history, that so many of these men
were Christians. David Lloyd George went to Mr. Weisman
who later became the President of Israel, in fact he died in November of 1952
while I was in the land of Israel. Mr. Weisman, the Jew, said to David Lloyd
George, “I don’t want anything for myself, but if you will do something for my
people, that is all I want.” As a direct result of that request, the Balfour
Declaration by Lloyd Balfour was drawn up and supported by the British
government. Here is what it said in part:
His Majesty’s government view
with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national homeland for the Jewish
people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this
object – it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice
the civil and religious rights of the existing non-Jewish communities in
Palestine, or of the right and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other
country.
I have the whole context of that, but I can’t take
time to read it. But in one simple statement the Balfour Declaration was an
agreement of the British and the allies that they would make in the land of
Palestine, a home for the Jewish people. That takes you back to 1917.
In Isaiah there
is something, I think, that bears on all of this history.
Isaiah 43:1-4
(1) But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob,
and he that formed thee, O Israel.
I would that we
would always remember when we are reading about Israel and
Jacob, you know who it is talking about.
Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by
thy name; thou art mine.
That is a positive statement. Israel belongs to God.
(2) When thou passest through the waters, I will be with
thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest
through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon
thee.
(3) For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy
Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee.
(4) Since thou wast precious in my sight,
Now again, to
learn a practical lesson: if God could look at those
rebellious backsliding Israelites and say, “You are precious to Me,” doesn’t
that encourage you? You can get encouragement out of the Old
Testament. Don’t think yourself better than they, because you know yourself that you are not. But how wonderful – You are precious. As Israel was precious, so are you. But let’s keep
it with Israel. Don’t steal anything from Israel.
Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been
honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and
people for thy life.
Two World Wars!
All I suggest is both World Wars were strangely connected with
the Jews. Read history.
December 9,
1917 when General Allenby entered Jerusalem, it wasn’t long until the war was
over.
In 1946 the
second World War ended when the Jews had suffered greatly. And, in fact, it was
just when the Americans and the British forces were going into the camps to
find out how the Jews had suffered, the war came to an end. God said, “Israel,
because you are precious, I’m going to allow men to die for your
sake.” You see, if it hadn’t been for the second
World War, the land of Israel would never
had been born. There is some history. The First World War, Britain made a promise.
3. 1922 The League Of Nations
In 1933 1922 the
League Of Nations was born. This union of the world’s nations, gave Great
Britain, the mandate to govern Palestine. It was still the land of Palestine. Stop and think of the wonder
of this, the nations of the world gave Britain permission to fulfill the Balfour Declaration. I’m not talking about
something that I’m imagining. This is not
something that I have invented. This is real history. The nations agree
that Israel can become a nation in
Palestine, with the help of Britain.
Genesis 12:2-3
I believe there
is a principle in this verse that is all through the
Bible. It is because it is so interlocked with other Bible history that I can’t go into. When
God made a Covenant to Abraham regarding the land:
(2) And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless
thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
(3) And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him
that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
If you want to
get into trouble, step on the Jew. History proves that!
I remember
reading or hearing a story about a Jew who had lectured. After his lecture,
somebody got up and in distain, talked about the other religions of the world.
I can’t remember the story well enough to put together the flowers, but he
likened Christianity to some beautiful flower. And then he likened the Muslim
religion and so on down the line. But he said, Judaism is only a foreign thorn bush. He had spoken of one of the religions as
being a Pansy. The Jew listened all the way through, and then he said, “Sir, I
have yet to see anybody who sits on a Pansy get hurt.
And I’ve never seen anybody sit on a foreign thorn bush that doesn’t get the worst of it.”
I tell you, if
you sit on the Jew, you have God to deal with; because God made a statement
and He is going to be true to that. What has happened in history to
every nation that has stepped on the Jewish people? Read history.
Every time I do
this, it hurts me because I think I am patriotic and I thank God for our Canada
and I thank God for our British heritage. I make no apology for saying that. I
still want to stand up when they start playing “God Save The Queen.”
I don’t know if you feel like that. There are so few people that feel that way any more. I feel as though
I am almost out of step with all of humanity. Like the soldier who was in line
and he looked around and he said “Everybody is out of step but me.”
Britain failed the Jew. I am going back over history. Britain failed
the Jew. She had promised that she would fulfill
the Balfour Declaration, but in the years that followed 1922, Britain didn’t do it. And you know the history, Britain is no longer Great! She was Great Britain
for most of my years. But I don’t have to argue, even with an Englishman
sitting looking at me. Where is her greatness
today?
When I was in
London in 1952 with a rich Canadian farmer, we had stayed behind to go down to
Canada House to get some points in order to buy a chocolate bar. We went into a
café (remember, this is almost six years after the war) to have some breakfast. We said we would
have bacon and eggs, and Brother Johnston said to the waitress “I will have
my eggs fried and turned over easy.” The girl looked at him and laughed and
said “Where are you from?”
In 1952 you
couldn’t get a boiled egg in a café in London. They were still feeding powdered eggs. If you wanted eggs, you had to have scrambled powder eggs. I wondered, as I sat there, who won the
war anyway! You go to West Germany today and see how it is built up, and then
you see how long it has taken Britain, and you start wondering just what’s in
here. If you look at it as a man, you haven’t got an answer, but if you
look at it from the standpoint of the Bible you have!
In 1952 I saw
how they had suffered in the war. Every place was battered down because of
bombs. And do you know what I saw? 100,000 people going to the dog races. I like to use it as an illustration. Britain has really gone to the dogs since the war! I think you know it. You can read about it. What is the last
statistic? Less than ½ of 1% in that Great British Isle go to church. Nobody goes to church there any more. Where there used to be a church every five miles in Whales, now they are
all closed down and they are pubs. I have seen
churches that have been turned into pubs
in that country. I want to tell you,
Great Britain is not GREAT. Why not? I will bless them that bless thee, and I will curse
them that curses thee.
4. 1933- 1947 The Jewish Fund
In 1933 to 1947
the Jewish Fund came into being. With the collection of money all over the
world, some Jews went back to Palestine. And with their money they purchased
235,000 acres of unwanted land. Some of the Kabootz Kibbutz that
are in Israel today are built in places where the Arabs sold the land to the Jews and laughed when they sold
it; because it was infested with disease and mosquitoes and swamps. They went
in and cleaned it out and started planting crops.
Jeremiah 32:42-43
These are
little details of history, and you find Scriptures that seem to have a bearing on what is here.
(42) For thus saith the Lord; Like as I have brought all
this great evil upon this people,
Between the
book of Joshua and the book of Jeremiah, there is some very horrible history of the nation of Israel. God certainly
brought evil upon them. But it doesn’t stop there.
so will I bring upon them all the good that I
have promised them.
Look at this
amazing statement.
(43) And fields shall be bought in this land,
Jeremiah wrote
that. After all the evil would come upon the children of Israel, they would buy
acreage in Israel. And that is exactly what happened in the years 1933
to 1947. The modern Arab/Jew conflict really began
after these purchases. Some of you may have seen some pictures from the land.
I have pictures
just outside of Nazareth, of an Arab with his plow thirty years ago. It is a
wooden plow being pulled with oxen, and they are still plowing that way.
When I was up
at Magetto,Megiddo
looking down on the valley of Sharon, I took a picture of a Jew. At the same time, the Arab was plowing with the oxen,
and here was a Jew farming his land with an International
Harvester Caterpillar - with modern machinery from America. I don’t think you
need to be much of a mathematician to know who is getting ahead the faster. You see, the only way to make an enemy is do better than he does. And so, it doesn’t matter where the
Jews go, they are going ahead by leaps and bounds, and the Arabs are
trying to maintain their past and they are having conflict as a result of it.
5. 1936 Lord Peel Was Sent OnA Royal Commission To Palestine.
In 1936 Britain
still has the mandate that they haven’t done anything about. Lord Peel was sent
on a Royal Commission to Palestine. Isn’t this interesting?
Whenever there is trouble you call a committee.
Somebody says, “When you don’t know what to do, form a committee and they will
tell you nothing can be done.” Well, that’s
about the size of it. They had a Royal Commission, and Lord Peel came back to
the British government in 1936 and he recommended that they partition the land,
put up a wall, put the Arabs on one side, and the Jews on the other. That’s the
only way to get rid of the trouble – partition the land.
6. 1939 World War II Began
How well I
remember 1939. World War II, within 25 years of World War I. My
father was a much bigger man than I. He was a big man. And I can still see
him. In the month of August, 1939 he was operating a Saskatchewan Federal
Elevator – a grain Elevator. He walked out of the office as I went in to meet
him, my and he dawas
crying. I didn’t see him do that too often, but he cried that day. He had just
heard the news that Britain had declared war on Germany. He had three boys at
the time, all at the age to go to war. You see, my father had two brothers that
went across to Britain in the first World War and they never came back. All
the families in that area, had already come through one war, and now another
one begins!
If you can
think back to 1939, the allies and Britain needed Arab oil. The oil fields were
in the Middle East. I have a copy of the White Paper and the mass of Jews that
protested that White Paper that was drawn up by the British government in 1939.
Among other things, the White Paper said, “No Jews could return to Palestine.”
That was when Hitler started his slaughter
of the Jewish people. Britain
did that. We look at
it. Politics is involved of course, but they were going
to fight a war. I want to say this, Britain suffered more because of what she did with the White Paper,
than if she would have stood true to what she had promised to do. She closed the door
so that the Jews could not leave Europe.
I have here a
picture of the boat Exodus. I’m not going to ask you if you have read
the book - the story of the boat Exodus. Here it is packed with Jews, and here
are a few notes I wrote regarding it:
This boat departed from France with 4500 refugees from
German camps. When it left with these destitute people going to Palestine,
British destroyers followed and escorted the Exodus right to the shores of Palestine. (Twenty-two miles off of the coast of Palestine.) And
remember, these are defenseless people in this boat. It is horrible history to have to report. Britain attacked these people with machine guns. They would not let the boat dock. They took them off
the ship, took them to Haifa, reloaded them in ships and sent them back to be slaughtered by Hitler in Germany. I’m sorry that that story is true.
Two years ago,
the historian raps the war-refugee stand. This is out of the Vancouver Sun
February 13th 1984. And it begins:
The Canadian government turned its back on European
Jews seeking refuge from Hitler’s persecution. And French Canada has still not
come to terms with this inhumanity says a Toronto historian. Canada has the worst record
of any country of the Western World in providing salvation to Jewish people in
their time of need.
Now that is history. And I want to say this: If we have not
yet suffered for what our leaders have done, mark my word well, God keeps His Word. The millstones of God grind exceedingly slow, but
they grind exceedingly fine. It is only a few days ago, and maybe some
of you saw the Journal devote itself to a whole program on the earthquake that they are predicting to hit the west coast. I
thought as I looked at it, there are a lot of people who likely didn’t sleep
that night.
As I talked to
my wife afterwards, if a preacher got up and dared to say what the scientists are saying regarding this area, they would say they
are a bunch of fanatics. But it is alright if a scientist says it;
and of course some of them say that within 200 years it could happen.
One scientist
from across the line in Washington was brave enough to say, “You mark my word,
it is going to happen within the next ten years.” But the question I have
regarding it is, “How many people are going to change
their ways?” Not very many! Listen, judgment has
to come. Judgment has come upon Britain,
and judgment has to come upon us
because of the way, as a nation, we have treated the Jewish people.
7. 1939-1946 War Years
The years 1939
to 1946, the war years, you can see how trouble was piling up in the Middle
East. Britain who had been hated by both Arabs and Jews, haven’t gotten rid
of the Arab’s hatred. And now they have the Jews to hate them. And so, she began to suffer from both sides. She lost soldiers, in fact so many, that Britain requested to give up the Mandate. She
went to the United Nations organization.
8. Nov. 29, 1947 – U.N. Voted To Partition The Land.
November 29,
1947 – the United Nations Organizations voted to partition or divide the land of Palestine.
Joel 3:1-2
The third
chapter is filled with prophesy, most of which, is still in the future. I want you to notice the context of the text.
(1) For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I
shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,
Not when He
brings them back the first time, but when He does it again, a second time.
(2) I will also gather all
nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, (that is outside of Jerusalem) and
will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they
have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.
There it is in prophesy, that in the time when God would bring Israel back to the land, the Gentile nations (not one nation, but the nations
would have partitioned the land.) And so, that prophecy had to be fulfilled.
I have a
picture here of Gomeko who was then
Russia’s representative at the United Nations in New York. I have a picture of the table around
which the representatives sat. And then here I have the account, nation by
nation, of the day they voted for partition. They had placed the resolution
that the land of Israel be partitioned before the nations. And this account
says: “A solemn quiet fell over that great hall.” I’ll tell you, they were
doing business that was beyond them. They didn’t know what they were doing.
From A to Z you
can see, I can’t go over the whole list.
Afghanistan
votes against.
Argentina wishes
to abstain.
Australia votes
in favor of partition.
Belgium votes for partition.
Brazil favors partition.
The unison of
the Jews breathed a sigh of relief. The Slovak block was going to come in. The
signs were bright.
Lester Pearson
rose and spoke firmly, Canada votes for partition.
Down I go.
China abstains.
Egypt votes against.
The Republic of
France votes for partition.
Iraq votes against, “and we will never
recognize the Jews.”
New Zealand
votes for.
Norway votes for.
Poland votes in favor of partition.
The Union of
South Africa for.
The United
Soviet Republic - Uzinsky got to his
feet. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republic votes for partition.
The United
States of America for
partition.
The British
United Kingdom votes for.
When Russia
voted for partition, it was the only time in history
that the United States and Russia had agreed
on a major issue.
When I go through
all the names, I can feel the tenseness of the Jews sitting back, “Are we going
to get a home? Aren’t we going to get a home?” God made, in my opinion, the greatest enemy of Israel to vote for
Israel. Now you figure that out! That’s what happened on
November 29, 1946. Israel, as a result, became a nation.
Review
Our theme has
been the land of Israel. We have followed, first of all,
a land promised to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. And
then, according to the Bible, a land that was given
to this earthly people – the descendants of Abraham, by a Covenant made by God Himself.
And under the man Joshua these descendants of Abraham entered the
land that had been promised. They conquered
the land. They divided the
land after they had possessed it.
During the
years that followed, the nation of Israel was driven out of their land, and for
hundreds of years, dispersed among the Gentile nations. We skipped over the history from
the days of Joshua up to 1917. We were talking about events in the land
of Israel, or associated with it from the year 1917.
Then we talked
about November 29, 1947. On that date, the United Nations Organization voted to
partition or divide the land which was then called Palestine. And that day was
the most exciting day for the Jews of the world for many a century. They went
wild when the vote went in
favor of partition.
When the land
was divided, as a result of that vote, in 1947, the city of Jerusalem was
divided in half. That becomes very significant
in the light of what the Bible says later on. The partition went right through
the city and divided the west part and called it Jerusalem Israel, and the east part was Jerusalem Trans Jordan. And that is the way the city was when I
visited it for the first time in 1952. We went to Jordan first, because in those days if you went to Israel and had a stamp in your
passport that you had been to Israel, no Arab country would let you go into their country. And so you had to go to Israel last.
We came up to
what is called in history The Mandlebum Gate. I don’t know where the name came
from, but there was a place called “No mans Land” in the city of Jerusalem. This
gate, was the only place that you could cross from East Jerusalem to West
Jerusalem. It is very vivid in my mind; because I walked up to that
gate and the Arabs carried my suitcases and put them down. And then the Jews couldn’t come over and get
them. I had to carry my suitcases across “No mans
Land” through the Mandlebum Gate. I got hugged and kissed by the Jews when I
got through the gate, but that is the way it was from 1947 until 1967.
9. May 15, 1948 – Three Events
The next thing
we are going to talk about is a very important date, May 15, 1948. It was
perhaps another great day in the history of the nation of Israel. When
they had voted for partition back in November, they set a date when the mandate
would be given over to the United Nations from the British Empire. On the 15th
of May the British forces, moved out of Israel. I have here a picture of
General Alan Cunningham, the British High Commissioner, who is leaving from the
port of Haifa and making his way back to Britain. That was on the 15th
day of May. It was the first thing that happened on that day,
Some of the
things regarding that day are rather sad
history, and as I said in my last class, I’m sorry to have to revive some of this history because it is not so good - especially when you are British. The British, for some reason, and I cannot explain it, at that
time in history were pro-Arab and they were anti-Jewish. They left their guns and they left their ammunition,
not in the hands of the Jews, but when they moved out they left everything in the
hands of the Arabs who were going to become the enemies of the Jews.
The second thing on May 15, 1948 Israel raised her flag. You see, it was through partition the state of
Israel came into being, and this becomes very important
history for anybody who is interested in the Bible.
Isaiah 5:25-26
(25) Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against his
people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten
them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcasses were torn in the midst of
the streets. For all this his anger is not
turned away, but his hand is stretched
out still.
(26) And he will lift up an ensign (flag) to the
nations from far, and will hiss unto
them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed
swiftly.
I have been
told that the word “hiss” means “whistle.”
This is the passage where the Lord whistles for the Jews to come home.
When God raises
the flag, Isaiah says He is going to whistle
to His people, and suddenly there is going to be a lot of them come home.
Isaiah 11:10-12
(10) And in that day there shall be a
root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the
Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.
(11) And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord
shall set his hand again the second time to
recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria and from
Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and
from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
(12) And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and
shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of
Judah from the four corners of the earth.
When you read
that verse, you know it is not talking about the return from Babylon;
because when they went back from Babylon they did not go back from the four
corners of the earth. It is only in our
day they have done this. And so, from the four corners of the earth, Isaiah said “they are going to come back.”
In 1935 or
1936, I wouldn’t be sure now, but I went to a prophetic conference, and I heard
a preacher stand up and tell me four things that I have never forgotten. I wish
that my students, 50 years after, would remember four things that I told them. But I remember well.
Remember now,
the date – no later than 1936. I think it was 1935. He said, “Watch
for the re-establishment of the nation of Israel.” He took his Bible and read from it. When
that man said that, the whole world where I was, thought he
was crazy. They thought it couldn’t happen. He also said, “Russia would become the leading
nation when Israel would become a nation.” He talked about “a ten confederacy in Europe.” And he talked about “a rise
in an Ecumenical church”
– way back in 1936 – all out of prophetic Scripture.
I can never go
on with history without re-living it. I was preaching one year after that. I
started preaching in 1938, and so, I am re-echoing what really doesn’t mean so much to me;
because it was only passed on to me by another preacher, but I believed
it. I saw it from the Bible – Israel is going to be a nation again. I accepted that. From 1938 right through to 1948, for
ten years, I had been preaching it, and for twelve years I’d been believing it. And suddenly it happens.
I constantly
say, “Students today cannot feel with me as I talk about this;” because when
I got the Saskatoon Star Phoenix, and in
large red letters across the front page:
After 2500 Years Israel Is A Nation Again - I almost flipped!
It was almost too much for me to take. I’d been preaching it, and I had been looking
for it, and now, here it is blasted in the newspapers. The
excitement I cannot explain.
It is rather
interesting. This is history that goes back. This paper was published in 1897.
And this fellow Herzl made the statement in 1897 in the month of September, “Within
50 years there will be a Jewish state.” I don’t know how much Bible he had read, and I
don’t know how he came to this conclusion, but he was less than six months out in his prediction. He had predicted that Israel would become a state again.
At the same
time another man is writing, some years later, but others are saying things
like this: “There will never be a national restoration of
the Jews” (The book
was published 1946). And so, this one fellow is stating there is going to be a state. And there are books are being published “It will never happen again.” The only problem with this book is, it was
published too soon, that’s all. For here he is saying: It
will never happen. He said, the destruction of the
Jews back in AD 70 was so complete that there was more chance of something else being resurrected than the Jews. Whether they said it
could happen or not, it has
happened.
I have a picture of the very day, the 5th
of May, 1948, when the Jewish flag was raised. What the nation said, and what
the preachers said couldn’t happen, happened. And the reason it happened was because God said it would happen.
And so there they have the raising
of the flag.
And then I have
some other papers. Here is a picture of David Ben-Gurion standing under a
picture of Herzl, and reading the document. I have a copy of that document –
the Document of the Proclamation of Independence of the Nation of Israel. They
read the document on the same day that the British went home. Have you got
that? On the 15th day of May, 1948, Ben-Gurion stood up and declared
that Israel was a brand new
nation among the
nations again.
I have some
very good friends who are now retired, and they live in Great Britain. We were
over to see them a couple of years ago. This dear brother and his wife wrote a
little booklet. He talks about “I saw the birth of Israel.” He wasn’t in Canada
as I was, he was right in the state, and he talks almost as I am talking. His
mother had taught him years before he went to Palestine that the day would come
when Israel would be a nation again, and what a thrill he had. He explains the thrill when that thing came to pass,
and Israel was a nation.
On
that same date in 1948, I repeat the three great things that happened.
1. Britain moved out.
2. Israel raised its flag,
3. Seven Arab nations declared war on Israel immediately – the same day.
I suggested to
you, when we started this study, that it is interesting to go back to
Deuteronomy.
Deuteronomy 7:1
I am persuaded
that what is in the book of Joshua, although it is history, it is typical
prophecy. God repeats
Himself. In Deuteronomy 7 before Joshua brings Israel into their land, here is
what we read:
(1) When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land
whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee,
the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and
the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven
nations greater and mightier than thou;
When Joshua
came into the land, he had to fight seven nations. And in 1948 when Israel came back
to their land, they had seven
Arab nations that
declared war on them. Those nations were all greater
than Israel; every one of them. When Israel was born, she didn’t amount to much.
All of these Arab nations out-number her, can out-maneuver her. They are mightier than she is.
Imagine that
partition line. Draw a line in your mind and think of the Western side, as now being declared to be Israel. The other side of the line is Trans-Jordan. On the Israel side there are still Arabs that are living there. But the Arab nations that
surround Israel have them hemmed right in by the Mediterranean Sea. The Arab
nations said to the Arabs in the Israel section after 1948, “Give us four weeks
and we will drive all the Jews into the Mediterranean Sea.” We will do it in a month!
I’ve been back
time after time and they haven’t done it yet. But you see, when war was
breaking out, the Arabs in their intelligence, were so sure that the Jews could not
last, that they said to their Arab friends and neighbors, “Move out, why stay in there while we slaughter the Jews? You move over
to Jordan. You go out. You will only be on a holiday
for four weeks, and in four weeks you will be back again.”
Of those
million Arabs that moved out of what is now Israel, most of them have never gone back again. In 1948, May 15th, the
Arabs are running scared into Trans-Jordan, and they are leaving their homes
behind, and David Ben Gurion gets on world radio, May 1948 and declared Israel
has a land. Israel is a country. And he says to all the destitute, broken Jews in
their poverty and their suffering in Europe and all over the world, “Come on home. We have a home for you now.”
The thing was
done suddenly. I have often thought as I think about
what Ben Gurion did when he got on the radio and asked the Jews to come home,
and a million did almost immediately. What kind of a mess would you
be in if all of the relatives you’ve invited to come visit you suddenly came at once. Can you see the picture? Here they come
in and they have no place to put them, but the neighbors
have moved out. What would you do if the neighbors have moved out and left empty houses and too many relatives come home?
They moved in
to the Arab homes, and the Arabs are still boiling
about it, but they can’t do a thing about it, because these destitute Jews that
came in moved in – a million of them under the invitation
from David Ben Gurion.
I have a little
note that I want to keep rubbing in.
Genesis 12:3
(3) And I will bless them
that bless thee, and curse him
that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of
the earth be blessed.
I have an illustration.
Do you remember
the name Harry S. Truman, the little man from Missouri, who was President of
the United States in 1948? In the spring, he had become President; because
Roosevelt had died in office. So, as a Vice-President he stepped up into the Presidency.
He was kind of a rough character. He believed he was a man of destiny, and I believe, in a sense, he was.
Eight minutes
after Ben Gurion had announced to the world that Israel was a nation, little Harry S. Truman got on radio and announced to
the world that the United States would immediately recognize Israel, and an Ambassador from the United States is on his
way. Dean Atchison was then the Minister of Foreign Affairs (I don’t know the
exact title) and he said “Truman you are a fool
to do such a thing.” Against all advice, he took his stand for the Jews, regardless of what is going to happen to him. You
know how the years go; every four years there is a Presidential election in the
United States. There was an election on November 1948.
I was living in
a little village called Pangman, and I remember how I was caught by
a joke on the
morning of November 6, 1948 by Elmer Powers who was the uncle of Stan Powers.
Some of you know him. When I went down into his little garage, Elmer said to
me, “Did you hear the news this morning?” And I said, “What is the news?” “Well,”
he said “Mr. Truman broke his arm.” “Oh did he? I hadn’t heard that.” “Yes, he
stumbled over Mr. Dewey’s suitcases at the White House.” That was a standing joke.
What we have to
go back and tell you is, all of the polls in the United States said, “Mr. Dewey
was going to be elected by a shoo-in.” Even some of the Encyclopedias had gone
to press before that election and they had put it in print
that Dewey was elected; because they were 100% sure
that Harry S. Truman couldn’t make it. But do you know what happened ?–
every Jew from Texas to Missouri, every Jew from the
East coast to the West coast, all got out and voted for Truman. But more than that, God had said “I will bless them that bless thee.”
All the polls
and posters were made a fool of on the morning of the 6th of
November 1948; for Truman was
in and Dewey was out,
even though he had moved his suitcases into the White House!
Thank the Lord,
God is still the Lord of history. And it is
thrilling history to re-live.
10. Israel’s First President
Israel’s first President was C. Weizman, the science Jew that gave T.N.T. to
the allies that we talked about in the last lesson. And the first Prime Minister was David Ben Gurion. Both, of course, are now removed
by death.
V. Some Events Since 1948
We move on now
to the time since 1948 -- The last section from 1917-1948.
During that period of time the Jews are desperately endeavoring to become a nation. Now they are a
nation. We are talking about the Jews relative to the land. Since 1948 the Jews have fought and won five major wars. You stop and think, 1948 and add 40 years.
That brings them to 1988. That is within forty years.
Approximately every seven years, that little nation has gone to war. But the amazing thing, they are the only
nation in all of history who has not only fought
wars, but won wars. I’m going to show you how they have
been the winner.
1. The Jews Have Fought And Won Five Major Wars
a. 1948-1949
War Of Independence
1948-1949 – It
is called “The War Of Independence.” I will come back to that in a moment. The first war that they fought was “The War Of Independence.” It was like a baby born, and they had to struggle
for their existence.
b. 1956
– The War Of The Suez Canal
The second war was 1956 – “The War of the Suez Canal.” So you know it has to do with Egypt.
c. 1967
– The Miracle War
The third was “The Miracle War.”
There is a lot of material on that.
d. 1973
– The Yom Kippur War
And then the fourth war in 1973 – “The Yom Kippur War,” or “The Day Of Atonement War.” The month of October
war.
e. 1982
– War In Lebanon
Then in 1982
they fought another War in
Lebanon. So count them
up. They are major wars. Israel has fought five major wars since her birth.
_____________________________________________________________________
Now, going back:
a. 1948-1949 War Of Independence
It is called “The War Of Independence.” During the years that they had been back
in the land trying to establish the land, they had formed the “Haganah” which
was the Jewish Defense Organization. And
then the Stern Gang had come into being. It was mostly teen-aged Jews and they
were called “The Offense
Organization.” These
were the freedom fighters. I’m not much of a sportsman, but whenever I go over
this material, immediately I think of football. On a football field you send
out the “Defense,” and then you pull them off and you send out the “Offense.”
If you want to do some reading regarding some exciting history, you read what
is written about these days of this war. It’s the most amazing story that has been written. I have wondered why
Hollywood hasn’t taken it up and made some major movie out of it. I think they
could have!
Just look at a
few things I have put in here. At the War’s beginning
the Jews, thanks to the British, had ammunition for three days. It is pretty
hard to fight a war with ammunition for only three days.
After some
fighting, the Old City of Jerusalem fell to Trans-Jordan. I have, again,
pictures of those days when the City of Jerusalem, inside the wall, finally fell. Every Jewish Synagogue inside Old Jerusalem was
leveled to the ground.
It was in four
quarters, one quarter was the Jewish quarter, which I would think to be more or
less in the south-east section of the city. When the Arabs went in and took the
old city in 1947- 1948 any Jew that didn’t
escape didn’t die; but any Jew that put up resistance, died; and Jerusalem was left a Jew-less city. Every Jew was
driven out of the old city from 1948 to 1967.
Their most
sacred spot of the Jews inside of the old city was the “Wailing Wall.” You have heard, or seen pictures of it. In
order to desecrate the place, and in order to make the Jews angry, the Arabs set up public toilets and urinals along the wall. The most Sacred wall of the Jews
became a place for men to urinate. It is no wonder that there was a hatred
built up between the two!
The Jews won the war. You just think, they were just born, and their government is just formed, and they really
don’t have an army. They just have these gangs. I have read some of the
stories, and of course, there are stories in war that are not very nice; It is
true, this Stern Gang did some things that were horrible.
They would go into Arab villages at night with dynamite and blow the whole
village up. They would go in and blow up the wells. But they also did something
so many things that were so unusual, you can only see the Hand of God in preserving the people.
They ran out of
ammunition, and so in one book it tells me that they didn’t know what they were
going to do, but they had to scare the Arabs some way. And so they got empty
drums, gasoline drums, 45 gallon barrels, and they put rocks inside of the
drums. After midnight outside of an Arab village, they would start rolling
these drums down the hill, making a terrible racket; and a rumor went out among
the Arabs that the Israelites had found a new weapon,
and they literally ran away. They ran across into Jordan. There was nothing that they had to defend themselves with, and yet they
won the war.
It is a miraculous thing. It is one of those miraculous stories that I
suggest if you want to be a student about it, go ahead and study what you can.
Find all the books you can on the subject.
b. 1956 – The War Of The Suez Canal
The second war
that they had to fight was in 1956. It is of course, “The War of the Suez Canal.” A war relative to Egypt. It wasn’t very
long until the Jews were winning. As long as the Arabs were beating down the Jews, I’m sorry to say, the
nations didn’t say anything. But the moment the Jews got on top! At that time Anthony Eden was the British
Prime Minister, and General Eisenhower was the President of the United States. Eisenhower
and Eden, with the leader of France, all got together and they demanded a “Cease Fire.” “You have to stop
your fighting.” The reason was, they were afraid of what might happen with the
involvement of Russia. And because they were afraid of a third world war, they stopped
the war. So really not too much came out of it, but the Jews had already won.
c. 1967 – The Miracle War
In 1967 came
what is best described as the Miracle
War.
Isaiah 19:1-3, 14
Perhaps this is
a pre-fulfillment. I am not sure that it is a fulfillment.
And by pre-fulfillment, I mean there is still more
fulfillment to come. You will note the first verse so we won’t go wrong in
identifying what is here.
(1) The burden of Egypt.
It is talking
about Egypt. And it makes some tremendous statements about the Egyptians.
The burden of Egypt. Behold, the Lord rideth upon a swift
cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his
presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.
They are going
to lose their heart.
(2) And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians:
Now, a pre-fulfillment. I find that most intriguing
and they shall fight every one against his neighbour; city
against city, and kingdom against kingdom.
They are not
that stupid are they – that they would do such a thing? But here it is.
(3) And the spirit of Egypt
shall fail in the midst thereof;
(14) The Lord hath mingled a perverse
spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in
every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit.
I think I can give you one illustration in passing, that happened in 1967 when they got down
again to the Suez. Don’t forget, they are moving down on their way toward Cairo.
The Israelite forces have come down and the Egyptians have been supplied with Russian hand grenades. All
of their equipment was supplied by Russia.
And now they have come.
The Egyptians are on one side of the Canal and the
Israelites on the other side of the Canal. I know from experience, and I don’t
think this is saying anything down against the people, but the Egyptians are
very excitable people. Of course you meet some people
like that in this country, but as a nation, they are very excitable. And you know when you get too excited, you forget to do
certain things.
Well, they had hand grenades made by the Russians. The Egyptians took the
hand grenades and threw them across the canal at the Israelites and forgot to pull the pins. The Israelites
picked the Russian-made hand grenades that had been thrown into
their lap by the Egyptians, and they pulled the pins and threw them back
and destroyed the Egyptians with their own ammunition!
Now, if that
isn’t a story that sounds like out of the Old Testament! God said He would make
the Egyptians err. And when God makes them err, a lot of
things can happen.
Isaiah 19:16-17
(16) In that day shall Egypt be like unto women” and it
shall be afraid and fear because of the shaking of the hand of the Lord of
hosts, which he shaketh over it.
(17) And the land of Judah shall be a terror unto
Egypt, every one that maketh mention thereof shall be afraid in himself,
because of the counsel of the Lord of hosts, which he hath determined against
it.
God says, I’ll
turn things around so that the moment you talk
about a Jew, you will make an Egyptian afraid. You read history and they are
almost at that stage.
I have a scrap
book I put together in 1967 out of the Regina Leader Post. I was in Regina at
the time, and I will show you some of the history connected with the 1967 war.
Articles From Magazines & Newspapers
Re: 1967 War
This first
caption, May 27th
WAR OF ANNIHILATION.
That is back in
1967, and Nassar is the head of Egypt. He is bragging that when they start this war, they will not fail.
They failed in 1956, and they failed in 1948. Mr. Nassar said, “But when we
start this war we are going to annihilate the Jews.
And then on
June 1st I cut this out of the paper.
TIME RUNNING OUT.
And, of course,
the article means for Israel, not for the Egyptians, but for Israel. This time, repeated twice, says President Nassar, “His
tanks on the Israeli border are ready. This
time there will be no element of surprise.” You will pardon me for chuckling,
but everything he said came to naught.
“There will be
no surprise. The Egyptian Air Force is in tact.” This time, Nassar has
strengthened and cemented his power in the Arab world. Israel is virtually
surrounded by her enemies. All have pledged to join in the attack. It appears that without help, Israel won’t
survive this time. That was on June 1st.
June 2nd
the man who led Britain into the Suez crisis in 1956 said, “Britain must do her
share to prevent an Arab Holy war, to exterminate the unfortunate Israeli
people.” Now, that’s how it looked to the world. The whole world says that Israel has had it this time.
The main cause of the crisis, they said was the refugees, the Arabs that had gone across that I have talked
about in other lessons -- before the war. I read an article June 3, 1956. I read an article May 27th,
then June 1st, June 2nd and now June 3rd.
THE
ARABS ARE STRONGER TODAY.
“The Arabs are more united than they were
in 1956” - the whole world is being told. And then this statement: and if they
hadn’t printed it on June 3rd, they couldn’t print it on the 7th.
Here is what
they said:
THE
ARABS ARE NO LONGER THE PUSHOVERS THEY WERE A DECADE AGO.
Nobody is going
to push them over. Well, the next day war in the Middle East! That’s the next day! And the next day Israelites within eighty miles
of the Suez have gone a way down and they are almost back into Egypt again, and
the war has just started.
ISRAEL
CLAIMING THE DEFEAT OF EGYPT, and we are up to June 7th.
Back on June 3rd
they were not the pushovers. And in four days
PRESIDENT
NASSAR RESIGNS AS PRESIDENT OF EGYPT.
Why? Because the Jews are in Jerusalem. And
there is a picture of David Ben Gurion standing at the Wailing Wall. The
Israeli troops who have gone in have not only taken Jordan, but they have taken
Jerusalem, all within four days.
Now, one or two
cartoons in here: I love the cartoons that the papers used to publish, and I
wish they were still doing the news as they used to. But here is an item. There
is Mr. Nassar on his belly. You see, before he started the war back in May 27th
the United Nations troops were down there keeping the peace. And Mr. Nassar
told the U.N. troops “Go home, because we are going to annihilate Israel. We
can’t do it with you around here.” And now four days later, the
cartoonist pictures Mr. Nassar on his belly, and over the sign U.N. Go Home, he has crossed out Go Home
– and put the words U.N. Come
Back. I think it
captured it, because now Israel
has won the war.
One more
cartoon, and it came about the 7th day of June. You all know that
the Sphinx is Egypt. I don’t know if you are aware of the fact
that the nose is off of the Sphinx, and the wonderful thing about this history is Russia had supplied her best armaments to the Egyptians. They couldn’t get any
better equipment. And here with the best
equipment, the little nation of Israel wipes them off of the map in four days. And so the cartoonist has Mr. Kosygin
standing there, who was the head of Russia, and he is pointing at the Sphinx,
the Egyptians: YOU MADE ME LOOSE FACE. Did you get that? The Egyptians made the Russians loose face, because their best equipment was no good in that war.
In addition to
that, I have some papers that I have collected out of two major sources. These
first three I think, are not out of the same magazine as the following was.
You have all
heard perhaps of Mr. Mitchener who has written a lot of books. He writes about Israel. This is just before the 1967 war. A NATION TOO YOUNG TO DIE.
It was only
born in 1948, and now it is 1967, and he writes about it, and he says that the
Arabs are out to destroy the Jews. The same
magazine put this in:
IF
EGYPT IS GOING TO FIGHT ISRAEL, WHO IS GOING TO WIN?
I cannot take
time to tell you all that is there, but these seven circles adds up the number
of men and armaments that came against the Jews in 1967. Here it is all listed.
And the big thing is, if these seven nations come
in against this little nation, who is going to win? It is very
evident according to them, it is not
going to be the Jews. And then our basic aim. They give a whole
page of gathering together the statements that had been made.
Our basic aim
will be to destroy Israel said Nassar. In here I have underscored
“We intend to wipe Israel off of the face of the earth.” Now, that is in the Bible too! But this is in 1967. “We’re going to wipe this
nation off of the earth.” They had the plans.
“The 28th of May we intend to open a general assault against Israel.
This will be total war. We are going to destroy Israel.” It was in every paper!
Life Magazine
special edition July 1967. On the cover is an Israeli soldier, capturing Life,
and the whole thing had to do with the war. I have two of these magazines, but
the one I have mutilated to show you what I am going to show you, and the other
I have kept in tact. Let me show you six amazing days. The war only lasted for six days.
On the first
morning. I had read that President Nassar had said that the Air Force of Egypt
was in tact. On the first morning, the Israelites went in and knocked out the Egyptian Air Force on the ground.
Somebody says, “How in the world could
that happen?” They blasted their planes before they got off. By the way, the
Israeli planes went in to Egypt and destroyed their Air Force and the Israelies
didn’t lose a plane.
The Arabs had
set all of their anti-aircraft guns in the sands of the desert. And they had
pointed them to the north and to the west; because if Israel is going to come,
she has to come from the north and the west. And so they have these guns
immobile. Have you got it? Pointing toward Israel.
The Israelies left a little earlier in the morning, and went all the way around
to the south, and came in from the south. And because
they came in from the south, the Egyptians couldn’t get their guns around fast
enough to shoot anybody.
And then
another thing:
At eight
o’clock that morning the head of the Egyptian Air Force went out to inspect the
air fields of the Egyptians for his last round before they started the war with
Israel. And if you can believe this, all had been given the command “No
incoming planes are to be fired on by anti-aircraft or missiles this morning.” The Egyptians had sent out an order “Don’t
fire on anybody because our leader is out there and he might get hit. The Lord
caused them to err in all of their works. Imagine that kind of order, “Don’t shoot at anybody.”
And while the order is going out, the Air Force planes of Israel are flying in
south of Egypt to come in from the south
and not from the north.
The magazine
said God fought for Israel. And a full page spread of Life Magazine:
THE GREATEST TANK
BATTLE IN
HISTORY.
It showed how
the tanks first knocked out the air planes, and then out in the Sinai, they
knocked out all of those Russian-built tanks in just two
days. And I have a picture here, of them taking the Egyptians. This one is out
of Life Magazine, and it shows them taking in the Egyptians and piling up their
belts.
This next one
if not out of Life Magazine, but it tells the story that Life didn’t put in
such big letters.
THE EGYPTIAN PRISONERS
HERDED INTO TRUCKS IN THEIR UNDERWEAR WERE MOVED TOWARD THE CAMPS.
This is so the
Egyptians wouldn’t be able to run. And don’t forget, the Egyptians outnumber the Israelites by hundreds to one. And how is one man going to look after all of these prisoners? –
Make them take their belts off, so they have to hold up their pants. So, the
Israeli soldiers made them take their belts off and they pile up their belts.
When the Egyptians start to run, they lose their pants. So, the Israelies take
them away in their underwear as prisoners. That is history recorded in Life Magazine.
Now, another
story out of Life Magazine. This fellow in his uniform was an artist, and in
May or June 1967, he had come over to Montreal to sell his art. They sent him word “War is inevitable. We are
going to have to fight a war with Egypt. Come on home.” And he tells the story.
It is all recorded here.
When he got to
Tel Aviv to the airport, they didn’t take him home; they gave him his uniform.
He was the head of a company of 125 men, and they were all, as you know, in
reserve units. He went home to take charge of his men. It shows the picture of
those men lined up afterwards.
He was going on
his Jeep, leading these 125 men when orders had come – “Go to a cross-section
of a road and take it at all costs.” Remember, this is 1967. He said,
“My men were in 1948 tanks. Me and four others were in a
jeep ahead of those rumbling tanks, and we went too fast. The
tanks couldn’t catch up to us. We came over a little knoll, and who should be in front of us, but the crack soldiers
of the Trans-Jordan army -- the best soldiers, trained by a British General!
Here we are facing these soldiers from Trans-Jordan, and I
looked back and my tanks were two miles behind. Here
I am without my men and my tanks – four men in a jeep. We started to yell, each
man like twenty men. We don’t know what happened, but those soldiers of
Trans-Jordan all got scared, and they turned and they started to run and
some of them got bullets in their behinds.”
It is right in
here. Do you know what the Lord said in the Old Testament? One Jew would chase a thousand.
And here we have it happening in 1967.
It goes on to say, the drifting sands cover up the magnitude of the defeat. I said, “They not only fought
the war, but they won the war.
These pictures
are out of Life Magazine. I’m not sure it was the same edition. It might have
been a later edition. It almost had to be. But it shows the tanks that had been
made by the Russians. The paint had not been burnt off of the
motors, and the Jews went in and took home all
of these tanks, built by the Russians, given to the Egyptians, not
paid for by the
Egyptians, but now in the hands of the Israelies.
Here is another
picture. I saw some of this from the bus. They wouldn’t let me get off and go
in, but I saw some of this in the orange groves, just outside of Tel Aviv. The
Israelies had these tanks that were all Russian made, and a brother sent me
this article:
ISRAEL
SOVIET ARMS SALE.
That was the
caption. This was the next year, 1968.
Romania and
Yugoslavia are buying Russian-made tanks and spare parts from Israel from the bounty that they took booty from the 1967
war. So if you can see the humor of that. I always say, “Bring a Jew into your
constituency, and he can be your hired hand. And do you know what he will go
into when he has been there for a while? – the junk business. You watch him; he will make
money out of somebody else’s junk. And give him two more years, and he will be president of the bank. You
watch it!”
Well, here they
are internationally. And here is the record – not in the Bible – but it is
taken out of Time and Life Magazine. Israel is selling parts from Russian-made
equipment that Russian hasn’t been paid for yet. If you can’t see the Hand of God in that! And if you can’t believe that that is a way to
win a war, I guess I don’t know anything. Israel was richer after the 1967 war, in material that she carried
home, that Russia had put down there.
I have more
pictures. Russia had put in these missiles.
Of course, they are 1967 models, but they were the best that they had. The Egyptians didn’t get a chance to blow any of them off. And Israel went in and
carted them all home. And the best equipment that their biggest enemy had made
is now in the hands of Israel. Do you know why America has to be a friend of
Israel? It is the only way they can keep up on Russian-made
equipment. That was intended to be a joke,
but that’s about the size of it.
This picture, out
of that same issue of Time Magazine is a picture of those Jews who went in and
captured Jerusalem. I told you that in 1948 the Arabs took the city from the
Jews. I want to mention this again. I went to Jerusalem the first time in 1952.
I am not sure now which Gate it was. It may have been Zion or the Dung
Gate. I think it was Zion’s Gate. And, of course, in 1952 Jerusalem, inside the
wall, belonged to the Arabs, and so we have an Arab Guide.
The Arab Guide leads us to the Gate, and outside (that is four years after the 1948 war,) the barbed wire is still standing
twenty feet high -- the wire that they had put there to keep away the enemy.
This Arab
inside the city said, “Do you know after
we had fought and taken this city, the Jews came back, and they came right up
to that barbed wire; and we don’t know why
they turned around, because our defenses were gone and they could have taken
the city again. But they didn’t. They stopped at the barbed wire and went back
across to their home. What they didn’t
do in 1948, they did in 1967.
In 1948 they didn’t recapture Old Jerusalem. And what is the answer? I
have only one answer. It wasn’t
God’s time yet. God has
this all timed. In 1967, after
they had slaughtered the Egyptians, and after
they had slaughtered the Trans-Jordians, those Jewish boys who had prayed from
day one, “Next year in Jerusalem,” God gave the victory. You have to keep that
in mind. All of these Jews had said, “Next year in Jerusalem.” They went into
the city, and they took the city, and there they are standing with their faces
looking up on the Wailing Wall – captured by the photographer of Life Magazine.
That day, David
Ben-Gurion went in and met those soldiers, and one soldier said, and repeated
by a Rabbi, “We felt as if today we had come to build the third Temple.” And
the tears flowed by those boys. That Magazine concludes with this:
Here the
picture is, on the one side is Mr. Kosygin of Russian. On the other side is Mr.
Abba Eban of Israel. Here is the Israeli at the United Nations when they are
talking about the war. At the end of the war, eight days after the war, they
are having a debate at the United Nations. But do you see the caption that is
on there? The caption that is put on by the Magazine.
AT
THE U.N., RUSSIA VERSUS ISRAEL.
Not Egypt. Did you get that? Not Trans-Jordan, not
the Arabs, but Russia
The 1967 war
was really a victory of the Jews over the best
that the Russians had to offer. David and Goliath. Can’t you see it? It was another victory for little David over big Goliath.
One or two more
I will show you, and then we will move on. This cartoon. It is a picture of Mr.
Kosygin working on Mr. Nasser. Russia working on the beaten Arab and the
caption is:
NEVER
MIND, I’LL SOON HAVE YOU BACK IN ACTION.
See, after
he is beaten to the ground, Russia went right back in and put them back in
action.
And then, I
thought this the most humorous of all. The news item was that Arabs were
packing up and to try and get away from the Jews, they are going to come to
Canada. Arabs are coming to Canada. And so, when they arrived in Canada, and
they are looking for a suite to rent, they go down to the rental agent Goldberg,
Cohen and Katz. They went all the way around the world to get away from the Jews, and rented a flat from the people they
are trying to escape!
I want to tell
you, you can’t get away from these people. It doesn’t matter where you go. They are everywhere.
I think you
believe I have given you enough. All I did that for was to show it was a
Miracle War. Absolutely a
Miracle War.
d. 1973 - Yom Kippur War
In 1973 the Yom Kippur War – The Day of Atonement. We were in Israel in 1977. We
went to Kibbutz Lavi and we asked for the same guide
that we had had in 1970 and 1972. He said, “call me C.B.K.” That was not his
name, but he gave us an English name, and we can remember him by that. I
recorded this, and I have it on record. As we stood outside the Synagogue at Kibbutz
Lavi, that man recorded for us the story of the 1973 war. And anybody who was
there said, “We never felt more like we were in church than we were that day.”
Here is a Jew
telling us what happened in 1973. It was Israel’s 25th Anniversary Gift.
The Day of Atonement is their biggest holiday. And when everybody was out at
the beach they were attacked. That was a surprise. And all the records are “It
was two wars.”
The first part
of the 1973 war, Israel was beaten to the ground. CBK told us all about it, and
then he said,
“After the 1967 war we thought we were pretty good
fighters, and we went in to fight this war on our own, but
when we were almost beaten we started to call out to God.”
Here is an ungodly Jew, as far as I am concerned. I don’t know that the man
knows the Lord. But he said,
“The nation started to call on God, and I can’t tell you
what happened, but everything turned
around.”
Everything
turned around, and once more, when the Jews
were about to turn in the winning
blow, the United
Nations stopped the war. They didn’t say one thing until the Jews were winning.
Now from that war, they won
again.
I have one item
here that states, in the 1973 war Israel took home 2,100 Russian tanks. They got them all home, and all of
those tanks were made in Russia. It tells about how many of the Iraqians died
in the 1973 war. And I have forgotten the figure. But less people had died than
had been killed on the highways in that year. The Hand of God!
e. 1982 – War In Lebanon
It is now known
that Russia had supplied enough equipment to field an army of one-million men.
But Israel won the battle. And in that case, they lost the diplomatic war. You remember how the world seemed to turn
against them.
I have written
down a few quotes that I have taken from the Vancouver Sun. Vancouver Province
1982. I have this at home in my library. After the 1982 war, when Israel went
into Lebanon and they knew that they had built up this tremendous amount of
men, the Israelis have hauled tons of captured PLO weapons and ammunition
across the border. One-thousand men with 150 trucks worked around the clock for
several weeks to take home the loot that had been put into Lebanon to destroy
Israel. Isn’t that amazing! They were richer
after the 1967 war than before. They were richer
after the 1973 war. And once more, at the expense of the Russians, they are richer again.
There is something
else that is in this story that I asked a Jew who was in the Cabinet in Israel,
I said, “Since 1982 is it true that since the war in Lebanon, Russia has put as
much or more equipment in Syria that she had in Lebanon?” And the man in the
Cabinet said, “Yes, that is absolutely true.” Russia is building up the
equipment this time, not in Lebanon, but in Syria. Now why did God allow the Israelis to win in 1967? It wasn’t time for Russia to come yet. Why did God allow the Israelis
to win in 1982? It is not time for Russia to come yet. But as sure as we
are sitting here, the Prophets predict that Russia
is going to come down into Israel. It is not time yet,
but she is going to come.
Matthew 24:5-8
They had asked
Jesus for the signs of His coming.
(5) For many shall come in my name, saying I am Christ; and
shall deceive many.
(6) And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see
that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to
pass, but the end is not yet.
(7) For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom
against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes,
in divers places.
(8) All these are the beginning of
sorrows.
All I want to
bring to this lesson, is the first statement in verse six. What did Jesus say
when they asked about the signs of His Coming? He said Wars! And if you follow the context, it had to be in
conjunction with the Middle East. Jesus said WARS
in the Middle East. He didn’t say how many. Nor did He say
how severe. So somebody asks “Could there be another war?” Yes there could be. “Could
there be two more wars?” Yes there cold be. It all depends on the time element of the Coming of the Lord. But wars are going to mark
as they get closer to the end of the age. And so these wars are certainly significant.
2. The Population In The Land
The population
in the land of Israel since 1948. In May 1948 when Israel was born, there were
only 650,000 Jews in Israel -- just a little over ½ million. December 1948
there had already come home those to make it 879,000 Jews.
I have a list
here that I will read. Let me let you look at the land from 1827 up to the
figure I have given you here. Then I will give you the most recent figure that you can add.
In 1827 there
were only 500 Jews in the land of Palestine. God said they would become few,
and that is few when you think of a nation. In 1845 that number had increased to 12,000 that had
gone back to Palestine. By 1881 that had doubled to 25,000 Jews.
In 1914 there
were 80,000 Jews in Palestine. And in 1936, 400,000. And as I have given you –
at the end of 1948 there were 879,000. 1952, when I was there the first time,
the Jewish population had increased to 1,629,519. In 1960, in less than ten
years, it had gone up to 2,150,400. In 1964, 2,525,000. In 1968, right after
the Miracle War, 2,841,000. In 1976 it reached the magical figure of
three-million.
The Western
Jewish News, in December 1985, told us the population of Israel is now
4,255,000 of which 82.5% are Jews. In other words, they are getting nearer to
four million Jews in Israel. And they have gone in 150 years, from 500 to that
number.
Micah 7:15-16
When we had
studied the history, I made mention of this. But now that we are studying the
prophecy and current history, it pays to go back and look at it again. I had
told you that my estimation, when Israel came out of Egypt the first time, over
three-million came.
(15) According to the days of thy coming out of the land of
Egypt
The population
is getting up to what it was when they came out of Egypt. Are you seeing what I
am saying?
According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt
will I show unto him marvelous things.
And doesn’t
verse 16 fit in to what I have been showing you in this lesson?
(16) The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might:
Who’s might? Israel’s might. And isn’t that so? They are wondering “Where
is this little nation getting all of its power?”
That is exactly what they did when they came out of Egypt the first
time. And that is exactly what the nation is doing now. Where do they get their
might?
I think that I
mentioned this once before, but it bears mentioning again. To this day I think
the statistic is still the same. If you were to ask me who was the most powerful nation in the world, I guess I would have to say Russia. But think of the billions
who live in Russia. The next nation, the United States, but they have a population of 220 million people.
The next would be China with a quarter of the earth’s population.
The next is Israel. And Israel has just a little over the
population of British Columbia. Put British Columbia and ½ of Alberta together,
and you have the population of Israel, and Israel stands fourth in the nations of the world. It is no wonder that we
are believing our Bibles. The nations are confounded
at all their might.
3. Planting Of Trees
Another amazing
thing about the land since 1948 is the planting of trees. And
it is amazing because of the Scripture. I am going to show you what the
Scriptures say. Between 1948 when Israel became a nation, and 1968 – ( in
twenty years,) they planted 50 million trees. The next period from 1968 to
1980 they planted 200 million trees.
Now, to me, it is amazing how the Lord works things out.
Have I told you that I plant
trees in Israel? -- a silly Gentile saved by the Grace of God. But when I went over and
found that they have a Canada forest over there, where you can plant trees for
$5.00; when my grandson was born eight years ago, I sent $5.00 to plant a tree
in Israel in the name of my grandson. Then when my granddaughter was born, I
sent $5.00 to plant a tree in the name of my granddaughter. And I have all the
letters to prove it, and I have all the records to prove it. Now for eight
years I planted eight trees for my grandson and six trees for my granddaughter.
I planted fourteen trees in Israel. It doesn’t mean very many, but if all
the silly Gentiles do it, it will soon add up to a lot won’t it! I said that
was silly. What would make a fellow like me do it? It just came into my heart
it is a good thing to do – planting trees in Israel.
The hand of the Lord is in it: I’m going to show you how the Hand of the Lord is in it.
Review
We have been
studying that one cannot study these books of the Bible without paying
attention to a certain people, namely the children of Israel. Nor can one
consider Genesis to Esther and leave out a consideration of the land of Israel. Two subjects, the people and the land.
We will briefly review our consideration of that subject, that is, the land of Israel
to date.
First, in
Genesis God promised a specific piece of land to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and to
their seed according to the flesh. It was not merely to those three men, but it
was made to their seed. Jacob’s name became Israel, and his
family, in the book of Genesis are identified as the children of Israel. And
although Abraham and Isaac and Jacob were in the Promised Land, and lived
there, the book of Genesis concludes with those people moving down to Egypt.
They stayed there for 430 years.
Then the book
of Exodus follows. It tells us about this same people miraculously being
brought out of the land of Egypt. They are brought out
under the leadership of the man Moses. Moses led the children of Israel out of
Egypt into the wilderness where they continued for a period of 40 years. The
books of Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy have to do with the history of
the years in the wilderness. And then, after that, Joshua appears.
In the book of
Joshua we are told that Joshua leads the children of Israel across the Jordan River
and into the land of Canaan. The Canaanites were in the land, and God told Joshua to utterly destroy the Canaanites; and so he fought and conquered the
land. He possessed the land, he divided the land, and gave the land to the
twelve tribes of Israel. As we shall see later, Israel was driven from that
land; because of their sin and their idolatry. And for hundreds of years the
land of Israel has been trodden down by the Gentiles. But after these hundreds
of years, World War I took place in history, and as a result of that period,
something started to happen in the land of Israel. So we first considered the
history of the land from 1917 (at the end of the first World War) until 1948.
We started to
consider the history of the land since 1948. We looked at the first major events. The Jews
have fought and won five wars. We looked at their major wars in the land of Israel since 1948.
We then said something about the population. Since
1948 the population in Israel was roughly 650,000 Jews. But the latest
statistic of this year, there are now 4 million in the land of Israel. And so,
the population has gone from just a little over ½ a million to 4 million in
these forty years.
Now we go back to Planting of Trees.
Somebody says,
”What does this have to do with the Bible?” I have given you a fact there;
between 1948 and 1968, 50 million trees were planted in the land of Israel.
Between 1968 and 1980, 200 million trees had been planted. What is the
significance?
There are four
passages:
Isaiah the
prophet, writing roughly 700 years before the coming of Christ.
Isaiah 41: 14, 17-20
I want you to
notice verse 14, and then we will go down to the latter part of verse 17. The
reason I read verse 14 is so there should be no possible reason why anybody
should stumble over the identification.
(14) Fear not, thou worm Jacob.
I like that –
that God looked upon Israel and called them “worms,” and as far as I am
concerned, that is His title for all of us.
Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will
help thee, saith
the Lord, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
Now, that is a
good Promise. But don’t take it all to yourself, it first has to do with
Jacob/Israel.
Now look at the
latter part of verse 17.
(17b) I the God
of Israel will not forsake them.
There
should not be any problem; God is going to help Israel, and God pledges that He will not forsake them.
In the Galilee,
apples have been a significant fruit in this part of the
world since the beginning of time. But now Israel is producing bigger, juicier, better
tasting, redder, longer-lasting apples, and at peek yields.
Apple orchards
in the rolling, grassy valleys of the Galilee were 80% of Israel’s crop. It has taken on a new appearance in the last eight years. Planted with
more than twice the number of trees, one finds a normal growing
space. In Israel they are putting 440 trees per acre instead of the usual 200
in other countries. More than double the amount of trees on an acre!
The orchards
are filled with unpruned trees that are literally bending to the ground. They are tied to horizontal
wires which stretch to periodically placed metal poles. Bending the branches of the trees have many benefits. A wall of fruit is formed that holds more evenly-distributed
apples. More sun hits the apples when they are more-evenly
distributed. It sweetens and paints it to a dark
red color which demands a higher price. Pruning is eliminated, and the fruit is, of course, much easier to harvest at the lower height. You don’t have to
climb up and break down the trees.
With the
system, six-year-old trees are giving the same amount of
apples that a sixteen-year-old tree would normally produce. They brought
it down from sixteen to six years. When the Israeli trees are six-years-old, it is not unusual to see peek yields of 200 to 280 tons per acre, as opposed to
70 tons in ordinary orchards.
I’m not telling you something that is out-dated. That is right up-to-date in the
land of Israel. I think we have something to be exited about.
I found this in a book that I have on my shelf.
This comparison was made a number of years ago, and I am persuaded, if they
made the comparison now, it would be better than this:
Israel leads all countries in Agriculture.
Cotton can be
grown almost anywhere in Israel.
An Arab cow produces 1,540 pounds of milk per year, while an Israeli cow is producing 8,800 pounds. Did you know that they are exporting cattle from Israel to the United States; because the best cattle in the world are in Israel. They are producing
8800 pounds. If you know anything about farming just think about it -- from 1,500
to 8,800 pounds per year!
An Arab sheep 88 pounds of milk per year, while an Israeli sheep is producing 330 pounds per year. An Arab goat produces 612 pounds, and an Israeli goat 1,575. And even the hens are doing better.
Do I dare tell
a joke? It is about this old deaf Post Office employee on the prairies. In the
days when some of you may remember, the Post Office took deposits. My children
did that, and I remember that was the first deposit they made, like a bank, in
the Post Office. I don’t know if you can do it any more; but the lady of the Ladies
Aid Society had gathered some money and went to deposit it in the Post Office. The
Post Office employee was hard of hearing. The lady said, “This is “Aid” money,” and he heard “Egg” money. And so, when he heard “Egg” money, he said, “My,
the old hens are sure doing well these days!”
Well, I apply
that to the story of Israel; – the old hens in Israel are doing twice as good as the Arab hens. – 70 to 150. And they get little eggs from the Arab
hens, and they get big ones from the Israeli hens. The more
I read on these subjects, the more they are increasing
their ways.
I have pictures
of how they are growing plants. They haven’t too much water, and so they have
systems under plastic where they drip-feed
the roots of tomatoes and so on. Just a drop at a time. It has only taken a
little bit of water, and they have the best tomatoes in the world, and the best apples in the world, the best grapefruit in the world, It is happening before our eyes, and we
are not paying any attention to it.
I want to tell
you, the land of Israel becomes an exciting
place. I am so excited about the land of Israel. I have had the privilege of
being there many times; and if I were able, I would go again. I’d go again, because every
time I go, I see something new and exciting. The Hand of God is on this land. You’ve got to believe it when you read the Scripture; You will see God is talking. God says you will see, and you will know,
and you will consider, and you will understand the Hand of God has done this.
Isaiah 41:19-20
(19) I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah
tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree,
and the pine, and the box tree together:
(20) That they may see, and know, and consider, and
understand together, that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One
of Israel hath created it.
4. Since 1967 Israel Enlarged Her Borders
Since 1967
Israel has enlarged her borders. Every time she had a war,
that is what she did. When the United Nations divided the land, at one point
there was only 15 miles from Mediterranean to partition. With tThe 19 67
war, they pushed that border right back to the Jordan River. And now she has a
straight border from the Galilee to the Jordan, to the Dead Sea. It is all
Israel.
And then in the
south, you have heard of the Gaza Strip -- .a A little piece that
was left to Egypt back in the days of partition, back in
1948. And through another war they pushed the Egyptians out of that and took
the Gaza Strip. And then to another war, they pushed them out of the Golden
Heights in the north. They have been pushing, and of course, they have a bad reputation
for doing it; but she has enlarged her borders.
In July 1980,
Israel declared Jerusalem to be her Capital City. That is that recent! You see, they had been meeting in Tel
Aviv, and now they moved into Jerusalem in 1980 and said, “This is going to
become our Capital.” Do you know what happened the very day they did that? All the Arabs
declared a Holy
War
against the Jews. Another war was declared, “Jihad,” a Holy War. And if you
remember your history back in 1979, and that short-lived government of
Prime Minister Clark he e was put into
office, and what did he promise before the election? He said “The first thing I’m
going to do when I become Prime Minister is move the Canadian Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. It hasn’t been done yet! That was the first thing he had to back down on. He had made
the boast he was going to do it, and he couldn’t do it. Do you know why? The
prophet said, “I will make Jerusalem a stumbling stone to all
nations.”
Zechariah
12:2-3
(2) Behold, I
will make Jerusalem (Israel) a cup of trembling unto all the people round
about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against
Jerusalem.
(3) And in that
day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all
people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people
of the earth be gathered together against it.
That is a very important passage, but I simply want
you to get this point: Jerusalem is the trouble spot of the world. Or if you will, Israel is. For
some reason, they can’t leave it alone. 1985 ended with Israel in the news. And 1986 began
with Israel in the news. There will always be something that will trouble the
nations.