Psalm 78:54

Psalm 78:54

His Holy Land

There is a lot of confusion about the ownership of the land of Israel. Even its names cause confusion, I’m astonished to look at the maps at the rear of many Bibles and often find one called, “Palestine at the time of Christ.” Israel has never been called Palestine in the Scriptures, it is the name conjured up by the Romans, a name of insult that is rooted in the word Philistinia – the Philistines! It was not renamed Palestine again until after the 1st World War when the Ottoman Empire broke up and the area came under the British mandate. 

What we must always remember is that this small tract of land, on the eastern borders of the Mediterranean Sea is God’s Land. He owns it and He allowed His Chosen People to occupy it, that is why the Psalm refers to it as “His Holy Land.” The Covenant made with Abraham has only one signatory by which the Lord God gave the land to Abraham and his descendants forever. Genesis 12:6-7, Genesis 15:18-21. 

What is interesting is that it was God who brought the people to the boundary of this land and it was the right hand of God that took it for them. That is why it was called “His Holy Land” and not the Holy Land! Holy means “set apart” or sanctified. The land belongs to God and it was always designated for the Israelites, and it has remained so to this very day. When they left it, after 70 AD, much remained desolate until their return and the re-establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.  I love the way Psalm 44:3 describes the process of the conquest of the land: - “It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory; it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face, for you loved them.”

As to the future? Read Zechariah 2:10-13 and the whole of Zechariah 14. Hallelujah!

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