November 6, 2010
They Parted My Land
Joel 3
By: Pastor Bill Randles
I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land. And they have cast lots for my people; and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink. (Joel 3:2-3)
Joel the prophet predicted that in the last days God would bring all nations into judgment, listing the complete four count indictment against the nations. We discussed in our last article the first of the four, the charge that the nations scattered His people among the nations.
Only as of the late 1940′s with the return of the Jews to the Holy Land, and the rise of the first universal conference of all nations,the UN, have the conditions been right for the fulfillment of this ancient prophecy.
The second indictment against the nations of the world is that they have participated in the partition of God’s land.This will bring judgment to the World.
* Israel isn’t the property of the UN, the Vatican, the European Union nor the Arabs. neither is it the property of Israel, for it belongs to God himself.
‘The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with Me. (Leviticus 25:23)
Therefore for the nations of the world to deliberate at the UN, or in Rome or Washington or Cairo as to the disposal of the Holy Land and it’s borders, as if it were their’s to dispose of is arrogant presumption.
Not even the Jews have the right to trade land for peace, although the leadership of Israel being for the most part secular in their outlook,would desperately love to do so if it would bring peace.
* British were given the mandate over the Holy Land after defeating the Ottoman Turks in Jerusalem in the First World War.The Turks had taken the losing side in the War, thus to the winners went the Middle Eastern spoils.
Interestingly the Turks fled Jerusalem after learning of the name of the British General who besieged it, which was “Allenby”. The reason they fled was because they heard the name Allenby- as “Alla Nabi” which means “Allah’s prophet” in Arabic.(God does indeed have sense of humor!).
The British had promised a Jewish chemist, Chaim Weissman, a homeland for the Jews in the traditional borders, after the war, in exchange for the invention of a synthetic gunpowder.
These traditional borders included much on the eastern side of the Jordan river, in the area now known as the kingdom of Jordan.
The problem arose because the British had also promised the same area east of the Jordan river (The Trans-Jordan) to the royal Hashemite family of Arabs, who had been displaced out of Arabia by the clan of Ibn Saud, with the help of the British.
The British parted the land to appease the Arabs, and the sun has been setting on the British Empire ever since! Israel was given only a sliver of the land that they were promised.
Currently this prophecy is being fulfilled by the insistence of the UN that Israel return to its pre 1967 borders (rendering it indefensible), as well as the pressure everted to cede the Gaza, and the so-called “West Bank” territory, which is biblically named “Judea and Samaria”.
The United States under the Obama administration, has been insisting upon a “No Natural Growth” policy for Judea, which means that the number of Jewish settlers there is to be “capped”, allowing for no further growth in population. This would effectively strangle the existing population, forcing the remaining Jews to leave.
While Arab leaders, International statesmen, “Human Rights”champions of every stripe, the Pope, the presidents of the free world, UN delegates, and a host of other parliamentarians the world over heatedly debate the “status” of Jerusalem and the “legitimate” borders of Israel, the Holy God of the Bible observes.
It would be well to remember the Words of the prophet Ezekiel in his prophecy to the “west Bank”, that is the mountains of Judea,
Also, thou son of man, prophesy unto the mountains of Israel, and say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the LORD:Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because the enemy hath said against you, Aha, even the ancient high places are ours in possession:Therefore prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because they have made you desolate, and swallowed you up on every side, that ye might be a possession unto the residue of the heathen, and ye are taken up in the lips of talkers, and are an infamy of the people:
Therefore, ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD; Thus saith the Lord GOD to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys, to the desolate wastes, and to the cities that are forsaken, which became a prey and derision to the residue of the heathen that are round about;
5Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Surely in the fire of my jealousy have I spoken against the residue of the heathen, and against all Idumea, which have appointed my land into their possession with the joy of all their heart, with despiteful minds, to cast it out for a prey.
Prophesy therefore concerning the land of Israel, and say unto the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I have spoken in my jealousy and in my fury, because ye have borne the shame of the heathen:Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; I have lifted up mine hand, Surely the heathen that are about you, they shall bear their shame.
But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to come.For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled and sown:And I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it: and the cities shall be inhabited, and the wastes shall be builded:
