Title Deed to Israel

Genesis 13:15, "for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever."

As we are introduced to Abraham(Abram) in Genesis chapter 12, we see the initial promise given to this friend of God, and it involves a land which he and his descendants will possess(Genesis 12:1). Later in scripture we learn that the promise of the land is limited to Abraham's descendants through Issac and Jacob(the Jewish people) and that this is a covenant that is in effect, "forever." It is an "everlasting" covenant.(Genesis 13:14-17,15:18, 17:8, 35:12, 48:4, Exodus 6:8, 2 Chronicles 20:7, Acts 7:5) So, how long is "forever?" How long is "everlasting?"

According to most today "forever" and "everlasting" ended at some point in the last 60 years. When Israel was re-established as a nation in 1948, they returned to the land God had given to them. But today, even as the conflict in Israel has slipped to the back pages overshadowed by oil spills and college football realignment, the battle rages over whose land this really is.

The world today says it's the Palestinian peoples land. They were the one's displaced by Israel's return 62 years ago. But 62 years ago, their were no Palestinians. In 1948, they were Jordanians, Syrians, Egyptians and Lebanese. Only when the world re-established the Jewish people in their traditional homeland in 1948 after the horror of the holocaust did the debate over whose land this is erupt. You see, in 1948, it was not a question in most of the world where the Jewish people's traditional home was. The world did not choose Germany, Poland, Russia or the United States as the Jewish homeland as disgraced former White House correspondent Helen Thomas suggested was where these descendants of Abraham were from. They chose the land of Canaan, where the bible says God established His people.

But today, the bible, which has been shown to be extraordinarily accurate historically, is no basis for establishing whose land this is. Today, squatters rights prevail. So the question is, who holds the original title deed to this land. Well, common sense dictates that the one who originally gave the land is the actual possessor of the land. And that would be Jehovah God. In Genesis 13:14-17 we read it was God who gave the land to Abraham and his descendants through Issac and Jacob. The original owner determined long ago whose land this is, and He said it was theirs "forever."

Now clearly Israel has been in and out of their land over thousands of years. They were scattered by God in the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities between 600-500 BC, but they returned. They were scattered again by God in 70 AD when Titus of Rome destroyed Jerusalem, yet again God had them back in the land in 1948. But this land covenant made between God and Israel has no statute of limitations. God said it was "everlasting," that it was "forever." Nothing that happens here on earth, whether now or in the future will prevent God's word from being fulfilled. This promise of an "everlasting" dwelling place for Israel had no preconditions placed upon it when originally given to Abraham. To bad, the bible, the word of God, is not good enough for the world anymore to determine whose land this really is.