Was the Promise Land just promised to the Jews temporarily?

Question

Don't want anti-anyone answers for this. But the ongoing conflict is just heartbreaking. Old Testament. Ezekiel 47:21-23 seems to announce that the land of Israel would no longer be the exclusive property of the Jews. "You are to distribute this land among yourselves to the tribes of Israel. You are to allot it as an inheritance for your and for the aliens (non-Israelites) who have settle among you and who have children. You are to consider them as native born Israelites; along with you they are to alotted an interitance among the tribes of Israel.....[goes on] (Ezekial is a long book and prophetical and the time this is suppose to happen is not known by me, but this sounds like a command to share the land with non-Jews on an equal footing. While God originally allowed Israel to take the land by force against huge odds, in the future (or the present) he has new instructions.

Should Israel rethink their hold on the land? Both religions believe God owns the land, not people.

I am looking for scriptural as well as political feedback. I've been taught since middle school, that what we help Israel do to get back their land in 1947 was a good guy thing. And U.S. has alway sided with Israel when it comes to the conflict. Some say it is Biblically justified. "those who help Israel will be blessed" (don't know what verse) Is it really Biblically justified? Is there any owning up to do? Have we (Americans) done the Palestinians a great injustice? What if you and your family was living in the beautiful SF Bay Area for several generations and the President with the UN comes and said the Flying Spaghettians are moving in, And we are moving you to Los Banos. How long would you be mad?

Answer 1

God's wants all mankind to come into a relationship with him. He long ago....as soon as Adam turned his back on the creator....began a process to return mankind to his original purpose for the earth. That process involved a "special" relationship with a family for several reasons, (one was to provide a messianic King to take charge of returning the earth back to order). That family was Abraham's family and turned out to be the nation of Israel. It was a 2 way agreement. The Israelites many times violated their end of the agreement and not once did God violate his end of the agreement. Once that "special" relationship produced a messiah, Jehovah God no longer needed to place the Israelites in an special position. Now anyone can approach God through a relationship with the Messiah, (Jesus) and come into a "special" relationship with God. The special news of this was first preached to the Israelites, then later opened up to all people. In this way God is not partial to anyone. He provides the information so that anyone can approach him and serve him. You could say now, (as does the Bible) that there is a spiritual Israel made up of "every tribe and tongue". The Messiah, (Jesus) himself officially stated that the special relationship with Israel had ended and even accurately foretold the absolute destruction of Jewish Jerusalem. It occured in 70CE. All records were destroyed then. The few inhabitants of Jerusalem who were not killed were scattered all over the then known world. The "nation" which exists today does not represent the Kingdom of God. It has no temple. It was put there by man, not by God. The Christian restoration prophecies are in regard to a new covenant or agreement between God and a loyal Spiritual Israel and results in a heavenly kingdom or government which will restore the earth.

NOTE: It is a serious mistake to think that the secular nation of Israel today is favored by God over any other people or that they have a God- given right to their land in Palestine forever. Any restoration prophecies which apply to literal Israel apply to the "kingdom" of Israel and were fulfilled long ago when they were restored from captivity to Babylon. Today we see "Christian Zionists" meddling in poilitcal affairs and adding to the Chaos in the middle east which will backfire in a large way.

Answer 2

I don't know. It's not something Jews talk about or are taught on a regular basis. The idea is that someday this will come to pass. It is NOT what Israel is based on at all. Israel is based on being a safe place for Jews, and homeland. It's set in the place we came because that was natural. An orthodox Jew who's studied Torah will know what the Torah says about the original bountries in more detail, along with details of every last thing in there on all sorts of topics. However, I'm sure there's plenty of disagreement amoungst them about exactly what they were because everything gets interpreted. (There are at least five different brands of seals of kosher certification I can think of off the top of my head, because of disagreements on the interpretations.) There is no intention to expand Israel to those borders from the past. If you are religious and believe God promised it to the Jews, then you believe...that someday it will come to pass - NOT that we need nor should do anything to make it happen. Period. It's amazing how much this has been taken out of context over the years to suit the political angles of Israel's protractors. It's also unsettling to know how much it resembles the older anti-semitic ideas that "Jews are overly ambitious and indeed to control and take over everything." Even amoungst religious Jews, this is so NOT a significant part of the religion. Judaism is about a guideline for living day to day life now. Not the furturist goals that fill Christian spirituality, and to some extent Islamic.

Answer 3

This is a good question. The first verse on the topic, however, is very clear that is is for the people, perhaps not to misunderstand "aliens." I've never studied Ezekiel but perhaps it refers to the reorganizing of Israel for the Jews in the days of the Messiah for there will be converts who have no tribe and thus inherited share of the land (even though no one knowns whose land is whose today anyhow). The term for "alien" is "ger", convert. It is used convert and righteous gentile. But as I stated it seems clear it is only talking about Jews, as well. Prophecies can't contradict the Bible, Israel is an eternal inheritance.

About "both religions" if it so important to the Arabs, why isn't it in the Quran?

Answer 4

The story is an Old Testament prefigurement of what is to come.

Today, God's "Chosen People" include everyone who is a Christian. We are sons and daughters through "adoption". We have been "grafted into the vine". Every nation, tongue and race over the entire world are now God's Chosen.

National borders and governments and race actually mean very little today. A lot of people mistakenly believe that it does.

St Augustine said, The New Testament is hidden in the Old, and the Old Testament is revealed in the New. A lot of the Old Testament is prefigurements of what comes later in the New.

The True Promised Land is the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus said there are many rooms on my Father's house. I go to prepare a place for you. People cannot think or percieve "outside the box".

Answer 5

I don't think the problem is so much over the land as it is over the religion. See both religions were born of Abraham. One out of his sin of not believing that God could give him a son through his wife Sarah so he took his wife hand maid Haggar and had a son Ishmael with her. Then of course Sarah had a son Issac. Gen 17:20-21 says that Ishmael would be a great nation but the blessing would go to Issac. I believe the dispute lies with vs 21 saying the blessing would go to Issac. They believe it should have gone to Ishmael as he was the first born. That is why both peoples believe the land should be rightfully theirs.

As to whether or not they should share it... probably, but unfortunately they don't see it that way.

Answer 6

God fulfilled all the commitments he made to Israel when he conducted them into the promised land.

He fulfilled all the promises he made to Abraham when Jesus founded the new covenant church.

It was Israel's infidelity and sin that resulted in calamities, captivities, occupations, and finally, national destruction.

The largely apostate modern nation of Israel bears no resemblance, either theologically or politically, to the Israel of old.

Salvation is now equally available to Jew and Gentile alike, through God's grace, and through faith in Jesus Christ.

Failure to recognize this very pertinent fact may someday lead once again, to Israel's destruction.

Answer 7

It was promised. It was given. It was lost. This is what the time line says. What's the dilemma? The rest is politics.