In the very first chapters of the Bible, YHVH the God of Israel plucks Abraham out his father’s community and ‘parachuted’ him into the Promised Land. When he arrived in that land, he found various peoples living there:
- Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. Now the Canaanites were in the land at that time. And YHVH appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to YHVH who had appeared to him (Genesis 12:6-7)
Taking a Gallup Poll from Canaanites and Philistines
If modern mainstream media had been around in the days of Abraham, reporters might well have gone out to take a survey as to how the Canaanites or Philistines felt about Abraham’s arrival. But to the Canaanites, Abraham’s ‘stealth’ appearance in that land would have felt like an insignificant event. Nevertheless, history was being decisively changed with each and every step that Abraham’s sandaled feet took, according to the declaration of YHVH: “Arise, walk about in the land through its length and width – for I will give it to you” (Genesis 13:17).
Four hundred years later, Israel invaded and conquered the Promised Land, obeying the express command of YHVH (see Deuteronomy 6:10-14). It can be safely assumed that Goliath’s people would not have supported Israel’s entrance into the territories promised to them in the Abrahamic Covenant (see Genesis 15:17-19).
The Great People-Mover
The Hebrew prophet speaks the very thoughts of YHVH in Amos 9:7-8 when he describes the God of Jacob as the ‘Great People-Mover’:
- “Are you not as the sons of Ethiopia to Me, you sons of Israel? declares YHVH. Have I not brought up Israel from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir? Behold, the eyes of ADONAI YHVH are on the sinful kingdom, and I will eliminate it from the face of the earth. Nevertheless, I will not totally eliminate the House of Jacob, declares YHVH.”
Although the Jewish people may sometimes feel that they are currently stuck in the Exile somewhere – whether Egypt, Babylon, Europe or America – the God of Jacob reminds us that He is the One who rescued Israel from Egypt in the days of Moses. And He moved us in the days of Joshua back into the Land promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
YHVH has moved other peoples around the Middle East as well. The Arameans of Damascus had been moved by YHVH from Kir (located somewhere between Armenia, Iraq and Iran), while the Greek-speaking Philistines had been moved by the God of Jacob from Caphtor (possibly Crete or Cyprus) towards Gaza, where they conquered the Avim (a people living in Gaza prior to the Philistine conquest) and established a five-city confederacy or pentapolis (Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath and Ekron).
But the God of Jacob emphasizes a huge distinction here: Israel’s destiny will not be the same as that of the other peoples He moves around. YHVH declares that He will eventually judge every nation and eliminate every sinful kingdom, but that He will never eliminate the Jewish people even if their hearts temporarily turn away from Him. God will judge Israel; He will even exile Israel; but He will never remove Israel from being His beloved and chosen priority nation. As Hosea 11:7-10 declares:
- “So My people are determined to turn from Me. Though they call them to the One on high, none at all exalts Him. How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I surrender you, Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboi’im? My heart is turned over within Me, All My compassions are kindled. I will not carry out My fierce anger; I will not destroy Ephraim again. For I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, And I will not come in wrath. They will walk after YHVH! He will roar like a lion; Indeed He will roar, and His sons will come trembling from the west.”
People-moving can be an unpopular move
In our day, the world opposes the return of the Jewish people to their Promised Land – just as Canaanites or Philistines back in the day opposed the return of Jacob’s people to the Promised Land. At that time Israel was led by the sword of Moses, Joshua and Samuel, or by the strength of Samson:
- “For behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son, and no razor shall come upon his head, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb. And he will begin to save Israel from the hands of the Philistines” (Judges 13:5)
- Then Samson called to YHVH and said, “ADONAI YHVH, please remember me and please strengthen me just this time, O God, that I may at once take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes.” Then Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and braced himself against them, the one with his right hand and the other with his left. And Samson said, “Let my soul die with the Philistines!” And he pushed outwards powerfully, so that the house fell on the governors and all the people who were in it. And the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he killed during his lifetime (Judges 16:28-30)
Opposing the Return to Zion
The original Zionists had dreams and visions of a Jewish return to Zion – to the plains of Sharon, to the Valley of Jezreel, to the hills of Galilee and Samaria, and to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The empires which occupied God’s land –
First, the Ottoman Empire Turkey in the 19th century and then the Britain Empire in the early 20th century – opposed full Jewish return. In the second half of the 20th century, America, the European Union and the Arab League opposed the Jewish people’s full return to the Promised Land.
Today many nations forbid the Jewish people from settling in Gaza, East Jerusalem, or the Jewish heartland in Judea and Samaria. But they stress how generous they are in allowing Jewish people to settle in Tel Aviv or West Jerusalem. In doing so, they ignore and violate God’s prophetic promises that He will return His people to the entire Land of Israel. And today’s world empires are trying to whittle away major territories of the Promised Land, endeavoring to establish Judenrein enclaves where jihadi terrorists plot Israel’s destruction.
- Today’s international consortium, adamantly opposed to Jewish return to their own Promised Land, is spiritually joined at the hip to the Canaanites and Philistines of olden days. Who will save Israel from the hand of these modern-day Philistines?
Jeremiah’s consolation
The prophet Jeremiah in his chapter 31 waxes rhapsodic over Israel’s full return to the Promised Land. The sword of the enemy in the land of the enemy will not block YHVH’s great restoration of the Jewish people to the fullness of their homeland:
- At that time, declares YHVH, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people. This is what YHVH says: The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness – Israel, when it went to find its rest . . . YHVH appeared to him long ago, saying, “I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore, I have drawn you out with kindness. I will build you again and you will be rebuilt, Virgin of Israel! You will take up your tambourines again, and go out to the dances of the revelers. You will plant vineyards again on the hills of Samaria. The planters will plant and will enjoy the fruit . . . For this is what YHVH says: “Behold, I am bringing them from the north country, and I will gather them from the remote parts of the earth . . . They will return here as a great assembly” . . . Hear the word of YHVH, you nations, and declare it in the coastlands far away, and say, “He who scattered Israel will gather him, and He will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.” For YHVH has ransomed Jacob and redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he. They will come and shout for joy on the height of Zion, and they will be radiant over the bounty of YHVH” . . . This is what YHVH says: “Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears . . . And they will return from the land of the enemy . . . and your children will return to their own territory . . . This is what YHVH of armies, the God of Israel says: “Once again they will speak this word in the land of Judah and in its cities when I restore their fortunes.”
“But YHVH hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not listen (Exodus 9:12)”
YHVH hardened Pharaoh’s heart in the days of Moses. The greatest empire in the world watched as its firstborn sons’ bodies corroded in the harsh Egyptian sun, and as the corpses of its top military charioteers were washed up onto the shoreline of the Red Sea. In our day, the superpowers and the jihadi terrorists of the world are arrogantly violating God’s divine principles regarding the inviolability of the Promised Land or the divine protection overshadowing the Jewish people. These solemn truths are scorned and belittled by the nations, who are about to receive the crushing hand of YHVH’s judgment. The global plans of the nations and their anti-Israel strategies will soon receive their divine come-uppance.
- As the nations oppose the Return of Israel to their land, they are also opposing YHVH, the God of Israel who is actively bringing His people back home again (see Ezekiel 37:9-14). Those who militarily oppose the returning Jewish people will be militarily opposed by the God of Israel at His return.
How should we then pray?
- Pray for divine revelation and courage to be given to pastors, teachers and world leaders to discern God’s hand in the Return of Israel to their Promised Land
- Pray for the physical rescue of the approximately 33 living Israeli hostages (including babies) kidnapped by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and PFLP/PLO. At this moment some of these hostages are being tortured, raped and starved (this based on testimonies of recently released hostages). Sadly, over 100 of all Israeli hostages are dead; Hamas is holding on to their corpses as cold storage bargaining chips
- Pray for Hamas’ cruel terror dictatorship in Gaza to be decisively shattered and for all chains broken off the Palestinians living there, and for Iran’s role in jihadi deception, dissimulation and anti-Semitism to be exposed and opposed by world leaders
- Pray for the raising up of Ezekiel’s prophetic Jewish army throughout the earth
Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.
In Messiah Yeshua,
Avner Boskey
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