PROPHECY FEATURE
EDITOR: Charles L. Feinberg, Th .D ., Ph.D.
WILL ISRAEL INHERIT THE PROMISED LAND? by Edgar C. James, Th.D.
Here in these chapters of Genesis, God told Abra ham to get out of his country, to leave his relatives, and to get out of his father’s house, and God would make with him an unconditional covenant (Gen. 12:1). In the day in which we live it is hard for us to realize exactly what this meant to such a wealthy man as Abraham. We do not know much about this man’s life before Genesis 12, but from what archaeologists tell us, likely he was an international businessman with territory from Haran to Egypt. However, Abraham did obey God, and God did make a covenant with him. When we examine this Abrahamic covenant, we see that there are three main areas in which God promises something: there are the promises to Abraham, what we might call the personal prom ises of the covenant; there is the promise to all the families of the earth, the universal promise of the covenant; and finally, there are the promises to the nation Israel, the national promises of the covenant. Genesis 12:2 gives the personal promises of the covenant: “And I will make of thee a great na tion, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing.” In looking at these promises that God gave Abraham, we can see that God has literally fulfilled all of them. Indeed, He has made from Abraham a great nation, the nation of Israel. He heaped great blessing upon this man for although he was wealthy be fore, yet now he possessed both physical and spir itual wealth. He made his name great for today the Mohammedan, Jew, and the Christian realize something of the significance of this name. Be cause of this, he was indeed a great blessing. The universal promise to all the families of the earth is simply that they would be blessed (Gen. 12:3). This promise of general blessing has like wise been fulfilled for great blessing has come from this man and this nation. Not only did Israel hold forth the oracles of God which have been a great blessing to the families of the earth, but it was through this nation that Christ came (Rom. 9 :5 ). The national promises to the nation Israel were twofold: (1) to be a great nation (Gen. 12:2), and (2) to possess the land (Gen. 12:7). It is
O n e o f t h e g r e a t e s t problems world leaders face today is the Arab-Israeli dispute over the land of Palestine. A few years ago thirteen members of the Arab world met together, dismissed their staffs and assistants from the room, and dis cussed what they would do when Israel began irri gating her land with the Jordan river. A few months ago, Israeli planes bombed and strafed trucks and tractors eight miles inside Syria, then wheeled 2,000 feet over Galilee in a brisk, jet-paced dogfight with Syrian MIG-2Is. A few weeks ago, in reprisal for raids by Arab terrorists, Israel sent an armored force into Jordan and destroyed a Jor danian town. The United Nations Security Council censured Israel for such action but sporadic fight ing continued along Israel’s borders. This tinderbox situation became further confused when Jordan accused Syria of sending saboteurs into Jordan. Syria then countered by accusing Hussein’s army of shooting Jordanian revolutionaries fleeing into Syria. In view of all of this, what will happen in this strategic and oil-rich Middle East? Indeed, there have been and will continue to be many in cidents between these sons of Ishmael and sons of Isaac, any one o f which could easily erupt into a major world war. Added to this touchy situation is the present small size of the nation Israel. If we were to com pare a modem map of this nation with one during Bible times, we would immediately see that Israel today controls a very small portion o f what she controlled during biblical times and a vastly small er portion than what God originally promised. In the light of this constant conflict between the Arab and the Jew and the fact that Israel to day owns such a small portion of what God origi nally promised, many are asking: “Whose land is this?” and, “Will Israel ever possess all the land God promised her?” What are we to say? In order to understand the present-day situa tion, we must understand the promise God origi nally gave to Israel. It is contained in one o f the major biblical covenants o f the Old Testament, that of the Abrahamic covenant (Gen. 12, 13, 15, 17). T h e P r o m i s e o f T h e P a s t
THE KING'S BUSINESS
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