Cannot Give Up the Land

	On the 24th of May 2006, the Prime Minister of Israel
stood before the U.S. Congress and spoke of the
ancient dream of the Jewish people. That dream is that
they might finally come into the inheritance of land
promised to them by God recorded in the Old Testament.
At no time in all the ancient history of Israel did
they ever possess all that was promised. Then he said
a heart-wrenching thing. Just slightly over
fifty-eight years since little Israel once again
became a nation among nations Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert said he was prepared to sacrifice dreams for
peace!
	This is an impossible thing that no one who believes
God’s Word could ever see as probable. And there are
some theologians who suspect former Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon, who after struggling a lifetime for the
Promised Land, now lies in a coma because he conceived
such an idea and forced Jews off the land. They think
God smote him for being willing to abandon the hope of
a soon fulfillment of God’s promise to Israel!
	When the Hebrew people came into the Promised Land
under the leadership of Joshua, the land was divided
first among the tribes, then further among the
families to hold forever. But the land always remained
God’s. In His provision for Israel, God required that
on the Jubilee Years land lost to another must be
returned to the original family in Israel. Even when
God allowed the people to be driven from the land
because of sin, eventual restoration was always
promised. In the dispersion of Jews throughout the
world, the Gentile nations often denied Jewish people
the right to own land, further ingraining the promise
made by God of the Land of Promise where they might
one day find rest!
	In the great faith chapter of the Bible, Hebrews 11,
the promise of homeland is in sight throughout. It
recalls the great heroes of the faith we study in our
Old Testament. And in that chapter the contrast is
made between the promise of a land and a better
vision: “But now they desire a better country, that
is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be
called their God: for He hath prepared for them a
city.” (16) Could we ever abandon that hope of the
promised heavenly city? No more than a Child of Israel
may abandon the God given earthly promise of this
land!