Part Two of Three – Dividing Up the Land of Israel: What Does The Bible Say?
Across the globe the spiritual electronic chatter is picking up right now. Subtle changes are taking place in society, in the spirit and in spiritual warfare. World events are unfolding quickly, revealing wicked plans which target the land of Israel and the Jewish people.
Islamist jihadi goals are many, and they include wiping out all opposition to Islam, weakening and destroying the West and Christianity, and annihilating Israel’s land and people. Multinational power players closely tied to oil are interested in consolidating and increasing their hold on the world’s reserves. They are playing poker with world resources. They are playing chess, using world leaders and recalcitrant countries as pawns. Sometimes even the foreign policies and military forces of major powers are being redirected and manipulated for power and profit.
This is part two of our three part October newsletter. In this newsletter we will quickly run through biblical perspectives regarding the biblical borders of Israel (from Abraham to the Second Coming), and what God thinks about moving or adjusting those borders. In our third newsletter we will focus on what the USA and the international community are planning and doing regarding dividing up the land; how the Annapolis conference fits into this flow; and why Israel’s main leader is going along for the ride.
Borders in the Book
The Scriptures teach that all international borders of all countries are overseen and established by God. These in turn are subservient to God’s heart and plan for the Jewish people:
“When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He divided all mankind, He set up boundaries for the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel. For YHVH’s portion is His people, Jacob His allotted inheritance. In a desert land He found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; He guarded him as the apple of His eye” (Deut. 32:8-10). It is the nations’ borders that are to be delineated based on the priority of Israel, and not vice versa. From the Bible’s perspective, altering Israel’s borders is an expression of rebellion against the God who established those borders.
YHVH promised a land to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – one with specific borders (Gen. 12:1; 13:14-17; 15:7-21; 17:8; 26:4; 35:11-12). At the end of time, God promises the Jewish people that they will return from exile to that very same land and to those very same borders:
“This is what YHVH says: ‘Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for your work will be rewarded, declares YHVH. They will return from the land of the enemy. So there is hope for your future, declares YHVH. Your children will return to their own borders’” (Jer. 31:16-17; see also Num. 33-35; Josh. 13-21).
God informs Israel that He has established borders for other neighboring nations, and that the Jewish people need to honor these borders (Deut. 2:4-12, 19-23). However other warlike tribes who fought against Israel (and who had no promise from God regarding the lands they had squatted on) were fair game, and their land eventually became part of Israel’s inheritance (Deut. 2:24-37).
At the End of Days YHVH clearly delineates the future borders of Israel while promising to return the Jewish people to their own land (Ezek. 47-48).
Bordering on Disaster
The Scriptures declare that God is in favor of just borders. YHVH does not take matters lightly when a neighbor’s boundaries are ignored, or when bullies steal land from weaker elements of society. “Do not move an ancient boundary stone set up by your forefathers” (Prov. 22:28). “Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless, for their Defender is strong; He will take up their case against you” (Prov. 23:10-11).
The Scriptures point out that some nations scorn and reject the right of God to delineate the borders of His land of Israel. These nations claim the land of Israel as their own and, in doing so, end up opposing the God of the Bible.
O God, do not keep silent; be not quiet, O God, be not still. See how Your enemies are astir, how Your foes rear their heads. With cunning they conspire against Your people; they plot against those You cherish. “Come,” they say, “let us destroy them as a nation, that the name of Israel be remembered no more.” With one mind they plot together; they form an alliance against You. . . Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna, who said, “Let us take possession of the pasturelands of God.” (Psa. 83:1-5, 11-12).
But all who devour you will be devoured; all your enemies will go into exile. Those who plunder you will be plundered; all who make spoil of you I will despoil. But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds, declares YHVH, because you are called an outcast, “Zion for whom no-one cares”. This is what YHVH says: I will restore the fortunes of Jacob’s tents and have compassion on his dwellings; the city will be rebuilt on her ruins, and the palace will stand in its proper place. . . Their children will be as in days of old, and their community will be established before Me; I will punish all who oppress them. (Jer. 30:16-20)
Plundering The Land
God gets even more specific and points a finger at the descendants of Esau or Edom (southern Jordan) who invaded Israel in 605 B.C and settled in the Hebron hills south of Jerusalem (part of today’s “West Bank”). Ezekiel says that these Arab attempts to take over the biblical land of Israel create anger and jealousy within the breast of Israel’s God. This prophecy helps us to understand the context of Obadiah 1:9,18 and Malachi 1:2-5.
The word of YHVH came to me: “Son of man, set your face against Mount Seir; prophesy against it and say: ‘This is what YHVH says: I am against you, Mount Seir, and I will stretch out My hand against you and make you a desolate waste. . .Because you harbored an ancient hostility and delivered the Israelites over to the sword at the time of their calamity …therefore as surely as I live, declares YHVH, I will give you over to bloodshed and it will pursue you . . . Because you have said, “These two nations and countries will be ours and we will take possession of them,” even though I YHVH was there, therefore as surely as I live, declares YHVH, I will treat you in accordance with the anger and jealousy you showed in your hatred of them and I will make Myself known among them when I judge you. Then you will know that I YHVH have heard all the contemptible things you have said against the mountains of Israel. You said, “They have been laid waste and have been given over to us to devour.” You boasted against Me and spoke against Me without restraint, and I heard it. This is what YHVH says: While the whole earth rejoices, I will make you desolate. Because you rejoiced when the inheritance of the house of Israel became desolate, that is how I will treat you. You will be desolate, O Mount Seir, you and all of Edom. Then they will know that I am YHVH.’” (Ezek. 35:1-15)
In Ezekiel 36 God says that many nations (and not only some Arabs) have designs on the land of Israel. But the Lord’s response to those designs will always be burning anger and scorn.
Son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel and say, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of YHVH. This is what YHVH says: The enemy said of you, “Aha! The ancient heights have become our possession.”‘ Therefore prophesy and say, This is what YHVH says: Because they ravaged and hounded you from every side so that you became the possession of the rest of the nations and the object of people’s malicious talk and slander, therefore, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of YHVH: This is what YHVH says to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys, to the desolate ruins and the deserted towns that have been plundered and ridiculed by the rest of the nations around you – this is what YHVH says: In My burning zeal I have spoken against the rest of the nations, and against Edom, for with glee and with malice in their hearts they made My land their own possession so that they might plunder its pastureland. Therefore prophesy concerning the land of Israel and say to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys: ‘This is what YHVH says: I speak in My jealous wrath because you have suffered the scorn of the nations. Therefore this is what YHVH says: I swear with uplifted hand that the nations around you will also suffer scorn. But you, O mountains of Israel, will produce branches and fruit for My people Israel, for they will soon come home. (Ezek. 36:1-8)
Having a Hernia on the Day of the Lord
The ancient Hebrew prophets describe a future event – an international invasion and conquest of the land of Israel. When the nations of the earth come to divide Israel and Jerusalem, God Himself will cause the Jewish people to become like an immoveable rock. Any nation who tries to move this boundary stone will suffer an instant and painful hernia.
This is the word of YHVH concerning Israel. YHVH, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the spirit of man within him, declares: I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves. On that day I will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness, declares YHVH. I will keep a watchful eye over the house of Judah, but I will blind all the horses of the nations (Zech. 12:1-4).
When Messiah Yeshua returns, He will judge all nations for the part they will all have had in dividing up the land of Israel. “In those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will enter into judgment against them concerning My inheritance, My people Israel, for they scattered My people among the nations and divided up My land” (Joel 3:1-2).
The Scriptures actually teach that when the nations invade the land of Israel and divide up Jerusalem, this will be the main trigger that causes Yeshua to return to earth:
A day of YHVH is coming when …I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city. Then YHVH will go out and fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle. On that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south (Zech. 14:1-4)
Dividing up the land of Israel is serious stuff. It is definitely not a neutral issue from God’s perspective.
We live in amazing, awesome days, when biblical issues are daily transformed into screaming headlines. How we need the fear of the Lord to fall on us all in a new and ardent way, as we see these events unfold.
Pray for the leaders of your nation and for the leaders of Israel who do not yet understand God’s heart and strategies as revealed in these abovementioned Scriptures; that God would grant revelation, repentance and divine counter-strategies which honor Him, His word and His people.
Coming soon – the third newsletter in this series, which will clarify what the USA and the international community are planning and doing regarding dividing up the land; how the Annapolis conference fits into this flow; and why Israel’s main leader is going along for the ride.
In Messiah Yeshua’s love,
Avner Boskey
Donations can be sent to:
FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES
BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA
Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal) through: www.davidstent.org