The Jews and the Palestinians have been fighting for many years over which one of them is the rightful owner of the land the Bible refers to as Canaan (modern-day Israel). When you look to Scripture you quickly learn that God promised the land to Abraham and his descendants. It seems pretty straightforward but here’s the rub. The Arabs and the Jews both descend from Abraham (the Arabs through Ishmael and the Jews through Isaac). So which group does the land truly belong to? That is the question I aim to answer in this post. Follow my line of reasoning…
1) GOD CREATED THE EARTH
Genesis 1:1 NLT, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
2) GOD CREATED ALL THE LAND ON THE EARTH
Genesis 1:9-10 NLT, Then God said, “Let the waters beneath the sky flow together into one place, so dry ground may appear.” And that is what happened. 10 God called the dry ground “land” and the waters “seas.” And God saw that it was good.
3) SINCE GOD MADE IT, GOD OWNS IT
Psalm 24:1, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him. 2 For he laid the earth’s foundation on the seas and built it on the ocean depths.”
4) GOD GAVE THE LAND TO ABRAHAM AND HIS DESCENDANTS
Genesis 12:5-7 NLT, When they arrived in Canaan, 6 Abram traveled through the land as far as Shechem. There he set up camp beside the oak of Moreh. At that time, the area was inhabited by Canaanites. 7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your descendants.”
Genesis 13:12-17 NLT, So Abram settled in the land of Canaan, and Lot moved his tents to a place near Sodom and settled among the cities of the plain. 13 But the people of this area were extremely wicked and constantly sinned against the Lord. 14 After Lot had gone, the Lord said to Abram, “Look as far as you can see in every direction—north and south, east and west. 15 I am giving all this land, as far as you can see, to you and your descendants as a permanent possession. 16 And I will give you so many descendants that, like the dust of the earth, they cannot be counted! 17 Go and walk through the land in every direction, for I am giving it to you.”
Genesis 15:7 NLT, Then the Lord told him, “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land [the land of Canaan] as your possession.”
Genesis 17:8 NLT, And I will give the entire land of Canaan, where you now live as a foreigner, to you and your descendants. It will be their possession forever, and I will be their God.”
5) GOD GAVE THE LAND SPECIFICALLY TO THE DESCENDANTS OF ABRAHAM THROUGH THE LINE OF ISAAC
God said to Abram in Genesis 17:15-16 NLT, “…Sarai, your wife—her name will no longer be Sarai. From now on her name will be Sarah. 16 And I will bless her and give you a son from her! Yes, I will bless her richly, and she will become the mother of many nations. Kings of nations will be among her descendants.”
God is letting Abraham know that Hagar wasn’t part of His plan. God’s plan involved Abraham and Sarah (the mother of Isaac) not Abraham and Hagar (the mother of Ishmael).
Now for Abraham and Sarah, they had in their mind for 13 years that Ishmael was the beginning of the fulfillment of God’s promise (that a great nation would come from Abraham) and God has now thrown them a huge curveball that they’re having trouble accepting, which is why Abram said to God in Genesis 17:18 NLT “May Ishmael live under your special blessing!”
But God replied in Genesis 17:19-21 NLT, “No—Sarah, your wife, will give birth to a son for you. You will name him Isaac, and I will confirm my covenant with him and his descendants as an everlasting covenant. 20 As for Ishmael, I will bless him also, just as you have asked. I will make him extremely fruitful and multiply his descendants. He will become the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. 21 But my covenant will be confirmed with Isaac, who will be born to you and Sarah about this time next year.”
Genesis 21:12 NLT, “…Isaac [not Ishmael] is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.”
God’s covenant was that He would turn Abraham into a great nation, give that nation a great big chunk of land, and then one day provide a Savior from the nation that would be born in the land God had given them (the land of Canaan). And Scripture could not be more clear that the land belongs to the descendants of Abraham through the line of Isaac (the Jews), not to the descendants of Abraham through the line of Ishmael (the Arabs). So the modern-day land of Israel truly does belong to the Jews, not the Palestinians. God created the land so He owns it, and He has given what’s His (Psalm 24:1) to the Jewish people forever.
So informative…thank you for this clear teaching!