Possessing the Land

Scott Diffenderfer in his recent article, "A Better Solution To Mid-East Dispute," opened with the observation:

Caleb understood that when you walk in the will of the Father all things are possible. There are no odds that are too long and no enemies too great when the Lord of Hosts is on your side. When man teams with the God of Israel, to fulfill His perfect will, great things happen.

Occupied territory. West Bank. Palestinians. Roadmap to peace. These are all phrases that have no grounding in truth. These contrived words promote an agenda that is not of YHWH.

What is the Father’s will concerning the Land of Israel? It is simply to have His people, Israel occupy the Land and be a light to the nations from that set apart place. Current events tell us that this is impossible. His Word tells us that all things are possible. Which one do you believe?

Scott is right when he says all things are possible to those that believe. When we are walking in the faithful footsteps of Joshua and Caleb, we are able to possess the Promised Land in our generation. In considering how the Father would use our generation however, let us learn from the lessons of history. Keep in mind that while Joshua and Caleb gave a good report to the people of Israel, their generation did not enter the Land. Of the 603,550 men of their generation who were over the age of twenty when they left Egypt, only Joshua and Caleb crossed over the Jordan river. The Father said of the 603,548 men who died in the wilderness,

They are a perverse generation, sons in whom there is no faithfulness... they tried me, even though they had seen my work. For forty years I loathed that generation, and said they are a people who err in their heart, and they do not know my ways. Therefore I swore in my anger, truly they shall not enter into my rest (Deu 32:20; Psalm 95:9-11).

The Father says, "they are a perverse generation." The word "are" is present tense. The Hebrew word is achariyth, which means "the last" or "end," hence "the future" as well as "posterity." In other words, they were, are, and will always be a perverse generation. We truly need to understand that the Father’s judgments reward both evil and good and that they have eternal consequences. Faithfulness will always be rewarded. While it took some forty years, Joshua and Caleb did enter into and dwell in the Promised Land. We who are faithful will at some point in the future enter into and dwell in the Promised Land.

What will the Father’s judgment be of our generation? The Exodus generation got into trouble because they did not believe they could take the land. Our generation has the land, but the majority don’t believe we can keep it. Further, the Joshuas and Calebs of our generation, we who believe that we can possess the land, have (in one way) a far greater challenge than Joshua and Caleb did. They were delivering a good report to people who understood that they had left Egypt with the goal of going to a land flowing with milk and honey. The land promised to their forefathers. On the other hand, we are faced with taking a good report to lost sheep who are for the most part caught up in the cares of this world. When they look to the future they see their goal as a kingdom in heaven, rather than helping to establish the Messianic kingdom on earth.

So the first step is to have the ugly duckling realize that it is a swan. One who sees himself as an ugly duck, even though he may be a swan, will never be able to help to accomplish the multiplication of, and the dominion of the swans, as long as he is swimming with the ducks. Likewise, the lost sheep need to become found sheep. They must recognize their heritage and their destiny, and heed the Father calling them back to their own soil (Jer 23:1-8).

For the lost sheep of Israel to become found sheep, they need a herald or messenger to bring them the good news that they are citizens of the Commonwealth of Israel and to remind them that Moses's charge to them is to choose life:

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the YHVH your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the YHVH swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them (Deu 30:19-20).

For those forerunners, who feel that the Ruach haKodesh is encouraging them to be a messenger (with beautiful feet!) bringing good news of good things to the lost sheep will find helpful guidance in the following articles:

"The Challenge of Fulfilling Our Eternal Destiny"
"Incredible Opportunities"

There is an important element that goes along with finding lost sheep and that is the number we find. Jeremiah tells us that when we do bring all the lost sheep back to their own soil we will no longer say,

"As the Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt," but, "As the Lord lives, who brought up and led back the descendants of the household of Israel from the north land and from all the countries where I had driven them." Then they will live on their own soil (Jer 23:7-8).

Why are Numbers Important?

Winning a territorial war requires the unquestionable possession of the land. This requires not only lawful ownership of the land, but the physical possession of the land, which is attested by visible power and control of the land and its population.

In addition to its biblical deed to the land, Israel since 1967 has in essence had defacto ownership of the lands of the ancient kingdoms of Judea and Samaria, or as most refer to these lands today, the West Bank, but they have not physically possessed them!

Why have they failed to take full possession?

For the same reason that Jacob failed to retain possession of his land in the city of Shechem, "my men being few in number." Even though Jacob had bought the land from Hamor, for one hundred pieces of money, and had there pitched his tents and erected an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel, he was forced to flee to Bethel, because of my men being few in number (Gen 34:19-35:7).

Following are the current population numbers, which show that Israel today has the same problem of "men being to few in numbers:"

It is easy to see if Israel were to opt for the one state solution and annex the West Bank, they need another two million Jews just to even the numbers, if they add the Gaza Strip they need another million and a half, again just to even the sides.

There is good and bad news regarding population growth. The bad news is the Arab birth rate continues to outstrip that of the Jews, and the Arabs have a virtually zero abortion rate. The good news is that Israel’s Interior Ministry recently released figures show that by their standards the West Bank Jewish population was exploding. Over the past year alone, more than 10,000 additional Israelis have been born in, or moved to, the biblical territories that are the focus of the Middle East land-for-peace process and efforts to birth another Arab Muslim state. More than 280,000 Israelis call Judea and Samaria home, with more than 80 percent of them living in several large settlement blocs.

The remark made by Sagiv Assulin, a member of Israel’s Likud party, and the Knesset Leader of the Young, which was reported in the recent article
"Are Numbers Really Important?" sums up the challenge we face, "We have six million Jews in Israel, and six million Jews in the rest of the world. We don’t have enough Jews!"

Our brothers in the Land need our help! Several excellent opportunities of how you can help are outlined in "The Stimulus Campaign."