Who Owns the Land?

a one hour flyover of the Middle East. Our host, Old Testament scholar and author Doctor Charlie Dyer. And I'm John Gager. Boy, Israel has been in the news just entirely throughout the week and in fact, throughout the past year. And as we know, Charlie, the Bible is jam packed with end times prophecies about epic world events, the regathering of the Jewish people to their ancient homeland, and of course, Jesus return. Seems to me it's crucial for us as believers, though,

to have a proper understanding of Bible prophecy. So our view of the future is shaped by Scripture, not just today's headlines. Right?

the scriptures say about these issues. Now, if you're interested in learning more about what God has in store, visit Life in Messiah. Org and click on the Moody Radio button there to find out how you can receive your copy of God, Israel and Bible Prophecy. That's life in messiah.org.

the country? And perhaps more importantly, what happens next?

Israel's new high tech missile alert system was used for the very first time. it's sophisticated enough to send a specific message to an individual cell phone in an area that's being targeted by one of these missiles. Now, some missiles landed at Israeli air bases, hitting office buildings and maintenance areas, but no aircraft or major infrastructure was damaged. Following the attack, Prime Minister Netanyahu said Iran made a big mistake by launching it and will pay the price.

And U.S. officials also said there would be severe consequences for Iran's attack and that the U.S. would work with Israel to make that happen. The question now is what exactly will that response look like, and how long might it take before it's launched?

It did. But from the exploding pagers to the exploding walkie talkies to the elimination of an entire senior level of Hezbollah's leaders at one time to the destruction of Hezbollah's main underground headquarters, where Nasrallah was present, show a level of intelligence gathering sophistication and dedicated, detailed planning that

has frightened Israel's enemies. That secret bunker was thought to be bomb proof, and it was completely wiped out, along with five apartment buildings under which it had been constructed. No one in the headquarters survived. Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini was rushed to an undisclosed location in Tehran following the news of the strike, apparently fearing a similar strike against him. Now, in spite of many in the West calling for a

cease fire, Israel has continued to press its offensive. Several additional regional commanders were eliminated, along with numerous storage facilities holding missiles and launchers. Hezbollah has tried to respond, but so far the response has been limited and uncoordinated because of the damage done to their system of command and control, and because of the number of rockets and launchers that

have already been eliminated. The war against Hezbollah has entered a new phase, as Israel launched a ground offensive in Lebanon, with the apparent goal of clearing Hezbollah's forces and infrastructure from along their northern border. The one thing Israel doesn't want to do right now, though, is get involved in a protracted ground war in Lebanon. That happened twice before, and that's not a good thing for Israel.

This time, they attacked another port where the Iran backed group was receiving arms and oil. The message to Yemen, which was also intended for Iran, by the way, is that Israel has the ability to conduct major strikes at any distance near or far against those threatening them. And as long as we're looking at the area. Fighting has also continued in the West Bank. Last Sunday night, a firefight in Nablus injured four Israeli soldiers while killing one

terrorist and wounding another. And then on Tuesday, two terrorists from Hebron attacked civilians in Jaffa with a rifle and a knife, killing seven before they themselves were killed by a security guard and by armed civilians. Iran is still the puppet master that's encouraged all these groups to attack. They've been shamed by Israel, which has demonstrated its ability to attack their allies at will. And Iran is hoping to use their missiles, as well as those supplied to

their allies, to force Israel to back down. But if that's the message they're trying to send, Israel doesn't appear to be listening.

overall population increased by over 118,000 during the year. Of those who made Aliya or who emigrated into Israel, the largest number came from Russia, the United States, Canada and France, and a third of the new immigrants were young people between the ages of 18 and 35. Worldwide, the total Jewish population is estimated to now stand at 15.8 million, so almost half of the world's Jews are in Israel.

The bottom line is that Israel has continued to experience population growth in spite of political unrest and war, and that has to be an encouragement to them.

coming to the rescue in the nick of time. A company called Celeste Bio has developed a process to cultivate cocoa in the laboratory that's indistinguishable from farmed cocoa. The lab cocoa is grown from just a couple beans and can be repeatedly produced. There are other companies working on similar processes, but Celeste Bio is the first to produce

chocolate grade cocoa butter in just seven days. They can take cells from 1 or 2 cocoa beans and mature them so that the butter can be harvested, and at no stage does the process involve genetic modification. The bioreactor becomes the forest, if you will, for growing the beans. The process also eliminates any vulnerability to pests and disease. Celeste Bio is currently focusing on expanding this operation, and when that happens, I'm sure all of us chocoholics will

rejoice at the innovation coming from amazing Israel. Well, that's.

are the most important takeaways from this conflict? More importantly, is there any light at the end of this very dark tunnel? And since we're asking questions, who owns the land, the land where Israel sits today? Some believers offer unwavering but sometimes uninformed support for Israel. Other Christians say the Palestinians are being treated unfairly. Just what is the history of this conflict? We'll dig into all of that next. Hey, welcome to segment two of The Land and the book.

Before we crank up the heat on today's conversation, let's enjoy an encouraging idea about sharing Christ with a Jewish friend. As a believer in Jesus, do you celebrate Rosh Hashanah? Why not? If your answer is no? Well, let's ask Roy Schwarz of Chosen People Ministries. Roy.

have a rest, a memorial by blowing of trumpets. And what greater reminder of the fact that what we as Christians are waiting for is a rest that remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, and that ultimate rest will be the rapture of the church, when the trump of God shall blow and the dead in Messiah shall rise, and we shall be alive with the Lord evermore. So Rosh Hashanah is a great time. Well, give me a.

our host, Doctor Charlie Dyer. You know and love him as the host of our weekly broadcast, The Land and the book. And he's written extensively about the Middle East. In fact, Charlie literally helped write the book on this issue at stake. Today, he has updated Stanley Ellison's Moody Publishers release, Who Owns the Land? Well, thanks for sitting down with us today. We need your perspectives, Charlie. Hey.

why it's so hard to solve. And and frankly, that leads to the second point, which is the reason the West has had such a difficult time trying to get a handle on this is we view things from a secular perspective. And when you view the Middle East, especially this conflict, you've got to view it with religious eyes.

there is no short term solution to this. There are winners and there are losers, but there's no way for compromise, at least in the short term.

very clear he's the ultimate owner of the land. Now in terms of what God did with that land in Genesis 12. God spoke to Abraham and he said to your offspring, I will give this land. Uh, the next chapter he says the same thing again. He says, walk through the land. I'm giving it to you. Two chapters later, Genesis 15, God cuts a covenant. He signs on the

bottom line, if you will, of an agreement. And he says, there on that day the Lord made a covenant with Abraham and says to your descendants, I give this land. Now Abraham had Ishmael, and then later he has Isaac. So which one gets the land? Well, in Genesis 17, God says, I'm going to bless Ishmael. I'll make him fruitful. I'll greatly increase his numbers. But my covenant I'll establish with Isaac. Later in Genesis 28, God says to Jacob, I'm with you, and I'm going to give you and

your descendants the land. So the land promise from God was to Abraham and his descendants. But then it's limited by God to Isaac, to Jacob, who of course became Israel and the 12 tribes of Israel.

because God's gift and his call are irrevocable. In essence, Paul saying, God made a promise and he doesn't go back on his word. So this 2000 year development of a promise and it constantly says exactly the same thing.

later by the Romans. But even then a remnant always remained in the land. And so while they were scattered, the focus was always on returning to their homeland. In fact, they would say next year in Jerusalem, as part of their ritual for Passover and the Day of Atonement. So they're not foreign occupiers. They're returning to the land of their ancestors, a land promised to them by God, and a land where a remnant has lived for all those years.

I guess if someone lives in Virginia, they're called Virginians. Genetically, the Palestinians, as we think of them today, are a mixture of every group who came through that land through history. The Romans were there, and the Arabs, the Jewish remnant who were there. In fact, the Jewish newspaper today called the Jerusalem Post up until the 1900s was the Palestine Post because it was in the land of Palestine. But the Palestinian people are really a mixture ethnically, of all

the groups who came through during that time. But that's why we have to understand Palestine and Palestinian referred not to the people, but to a land area. Up until very recently.

So which God really is God? And that's at the heart of the conflict.

if they would drive out the Turks. The British were given the mandate to bring it all about, and the first thing they did was carved out the modern country of Jordan, which was originally part of the Promised Land. So they did give a country to the Arabs, and that's the country we know today as Jordan. Then in 1947, the UN voted to partition the remaining land into two more countries, one for Israel and one for the Palestinians. Now it was far less than what had been promised

to Israel, but they reluctantly accepted the vote. But the Arab countries and the Palestinians rejected it, refusing to accept any state of Israel. Well, After that fighting was over in 1948, Israel ended up with its country, but Jordan annexed the West Bank and made it part of their country, and Egypt took over Gaza. So the Palestinians ended up with no country, only because of the war that came when they opposed Israel having its own country.

the difference between the two. Israel took in those Jewish refugees and helped them rebuild their lives. But the Palestinian refugees, the Arab refugees who fled the land, were not given the same kind of treatment by their Arab host neighbors. They were put into refugee camps, really squalid slums, and forced to live there. They weren't given citizenship or weren't allowed to integrate with those society. And that's where the problem of Palestinian refugees comes from today. So there was

almost equal numbers of refugees on both sides. You can't unscramble an egg. The real question is what do you do with those people after that problem has formed and Israel took the time to integrate their refugees? The Arab countries did not.

find a place where they could find safety. They originally hoped to live in harmony with their Arab neighbors until that proved untenable. But in reality, they're not occupiers. They're people returning to their land where they had been ethnically cleansed before.

God's Word. You know, in second Timothy 215 he says, present yourself to God as workers who don't need to be ashamed, who correctly handled the word of truth. In chapter three says, All Scripture is God breathed and profitable for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. And then in chapter four he says, in light of Christ's return, proclaim the word whether it's convenient or not. But the point is, the key way to handle error is to

focus on truth. And so to the extent that you're not paying attention to the Word of God, you're being duped. You're being led astray. Focus on the Bible now. Don't accept what I'm saying at face value. Go to the Bible to see if what I'm saying matches up.

good guys and bad guys and they're clearly identified. It's a story about God, his plans and his promises, and what he has to say about the present and future for this slice of real estate where he's working.

is jam packed with end times prophecies. Epic world events, the regathering of the Jewish people to their ancient homeland, and Jesus return. It is crucial for us, though, as believers, to have a proper understanding of Bible prophecy. So our view of the future is shaped by Scripture and not just today's headlines. Right, Charlie?

scriptures say about these issues. Now, if you're interested in learning more about what God has in store, visit Life in Messiah. Org and click on the Moody Radio button there to find out how you can receive your copy of God, Israel and Bible Prophecy. That's life in Dot org.

in that capacity. Here's where I'd say that. First Corinthians nine one Paul writes, am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? That second question really is answering the first. He was an apostle, in part because he had physically seen Jesus following his resurrection. In Galatians one one, Paul even makes it more direct. He says his apostleship originated not from men, nor by a man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised

him from the dead. So it was a direct call to be an apostle by God the Father and Jesus. Now I also have a problem with their belief in the gift of prophecy being active for today. You know, the gifts like prophecy were present in the early church. But when the Bible was completed, those gifts passed away. And in first Corinthians 13, Paul says, we know in part, we prophesy in part. But when completeness literally when that which is perfect or mature comes, that which is in

part will disappear. And he says that in verse eight, there where there are prophecies, they will cease. And in the early church, about the time the church was formed, the canon of Scripture was completed. Prophecy did die out at the end of the first century. Now, even apart from all that, here's the other issue. If someone says today I have the gift of prophecy, See, I would say to them, okay, let me grant that with you. Will you grant me one thing? Will you follow what

God says about a prophet? And in Deuteronomy chapter 18, God said, A prophet who presumes to speak in my name. Anything I have not commanded is to be put to death. You're to say to yourselves, how can we know a message that has not been spoken by the Lord? Well, if a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord something that doesn't take place or come true, this is a message the Lord hasn't spoken. So God basically said, if you're a prophet or if you're claiming to be

a prophet, you have to be 100% accurate or be killed. Well, that's a pretty high bar, and I don't think those claiming prophecy today are willing to go to that high bar that God himself established.

God providing the manna for Israel in the wilderness. But before performing the miracle, Jesus wanted to make sure the disciples understood that feeding so many was beyond their human ability.

book of Genesis. In Genesis 17, God told Abraham he would possess the whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, God says in verse eight. But when Sarah died, Abraham went to the Hittites to purchase land to bury her. And he began by saying, I'm an alien and a stranger among you. He was acknowledging his lack of standing. He didn't even own a place where he could bury his wife. It was a humble acknowledgement that he was asking a request and not a demand.

It's interesting that David uses that same phrase in Psalm 39, verse 12, where he comes to God and pleads for God's gracious help. He says, for I dwell with you as an alien, a stranger as all my fathers were. Now putting all that together, what I see David's prayer there in in first Chronicles 29 doing is, is a praise for God's graciousness to people who in and of

themselves had no right to demand anything. All that God had provided was an extension of his kindness to those who had as much right to demand anything as a foreigner did when appearing before a king in a foreign land. God poured out his blessing on David and the people, and David felt overwhelmed by God's graciousness.

overall context. The Septuagint translation there suggests, I think, how the verb should be understood as a simple indicative statement. That is where Jeremiah is saying I remember. So he's not asking God to remember. He's saying this is what he remembers. And in that case, I think the NIV translation based on the Septuagint understanding is probably more accurate.

In verses 1 to 18, Jeremiah lamented his personal struggles as God judged Judah and Jerusalem for its sin, and in essence, he describes it in a way that Jerusalem could say, hey, Jeremiah, we understand what you're saying. We've experienced the same thing in verses 19 to 21. He undergoes a transformation. So in verses 19 to 20, he describes his focus on his problems and says how they caused him to bow down inside. It's almost as if he's saying that looking at his circumstances caused him to

feel hopeless. But then he makes this dramatic change. He says, yet this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope. And what turned him from despondency to hope was a renewed focus on the faithfulness of God. So in the next two verses, he then moves from the singular I and me and my, describing his own experiences to apply the truth to the remnant. Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.

They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. Anyway, I take remember in verse 19, not as an imperative, a request that's spoken by Jeremiah to God, but but as an indicative statement where he's continuing to describe himself.

and took seats in the middle gate after Jerusalem had fallen. Later, Jeremiah predicted Nebuchadnezzar would defeat Egypt and set his throne over. These stones I've buried right here in chapter 43 says that by using the imagery in chapter 49, Jeremiah is saying, God will bring his forces against Elam and will personally be there to supervise their destruction. Your second question, though,

related to when this was or might be fulfilled. And while there's some evidence that Nebuchadnezzar defeated the Elamites, I don't see that being totally fulfilling this prophecy. So I do agree. I think it has somewhat of an end time fulfillment. At the same time, I don't see this destruction being total or final. Since God ends by saying, in the last days I will restore the fortunes of Elam.

And that's in verse 39 there. So God used almost those same words earlier when predicting the future destruction and restoration of Moab in chapter 48 and Ammon in chapter 49. So I do see in that sense that it is a bit of a future looking prophecy.

God is going to give that dead sea. He's going to turn it from death to life as an image of what he's going to do for the nation of Israel.

very timely, if not sobering word from you, Charlie. Give us a hint about what we're talking about today.

coming up there. And what Israel had to deal with and, and I just, I just tingled. And hearing the actual artillery in the backfield, the Syrian revolution going on and then meeting the Israeli patrol earlier and then talking to him. And then one of them was from Maryland. He came over from born and raised in Maryland and came over to join the Israeli army just because he thought he

that was part of his duty. I just caused me to, you know, I can't explain it, but I tingled when I when I watched and looked at all that and just added so much to all I'd been reading.

anchored the southwestern edge of the kingdom. Follow me up the ramp to the gate complex that was the main entrance into the city. Okay, we're now standing in the courtyard between the dual gates that guarded the entrance to Lachish. I suspect many of you don't even recall reading about Lachish in the Bible, in spite of its prominent history. The king of Lachish was one of the five kings who attacked Gibeon at the time of Joshua. Following his victory over the kings there, Lachish was one of the

cities attacked and destroyed by Joshua. After the death of Solomon, King Rehoboam fortified Lachish to help defend his kingdom. Later, Judah's king Amaziah fled from Jerusalem to Lachish to avoid an assassination attempt, but his enemies chased him down and killed him there. Perhaps the two most troubling events at Lakish were the attacks on the city by King Sennacherib

of Assyria and King Nebuchadnezzar of Judah. And today I want you to imagine what the city was like at the time of King Hezekiah, the time when it was attacked by King Sennacherib. I have a purpose for bringing you here today. This coming week is the one year anniversary of Hamas's brutal attack on Israel, just a few miles from where you're now standing. The horrors inflicted on Israel by Hamas a year ago parallel Sennacherib's attack on

this city 2700 years earlier. Now, as you can see, the foundations of this massive gate complex still dominate the site. Look at the artist's drawing of the gate over there to your left. But as impressive as the drawing is, the gate itself would have looked even more imposing to

any army coming to attack. Walk with me through the inner portion of the gate, and then look at the massive stone foundation Near the top of the site, you're looking at the base of a palace, the home of the regional governor, appointed by the King of Judah to oversee the area. In Micah one, the prophet mentions teams of horses at Lachish, likely referring to a division of chariots based here the ancient forerunners of today's mobile armor. You, who live in Lachish, harness the team of horses to

the chariot. Micah cries out. The king of Assyria had a room in his palace at Nineveh, decorated with a carved relief showing his capture of the city of Lachish. One panel shows soldiers pulling a captured chariot out of the city, filled with looted spoils of war. At the bottom of the hill, Sennacherib himself directed the attack on Lachish.

The carved relief shows the king seated on his throne near the city, and part of the inscription next to the throne identifies the one seated there as Sennacherib, king of the world, king of Assyria. In second Kings 1814 14. King Hezekiah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish I have done wrong. Withdraw from me, and I will pay you whatever you demand of me. Sennacherib took the payment from Hezekiah, but then continued his attack,

finally capturing Lachish. But how does Sennacherib's destruction of this ancient city offer insights into last year's attack by Hamas? Well, let me share several parallels. First, Hamas took Israel by surprise, overrunning a defensive barrier completed by Israel less than two years before. Israel's iron wall, with all its sensors, was designed to stop Hamas from tunneling underneath the barrier, but

Hamas instead went through it in a mass assault. In the same way the gate and walls of Lachish were designed to be impregnable. But the Assyrians built a massive ramp and used siege engines to breach the top of the wall. Hamas used GoPro cameras to record their assault, while the Assyrians decorated a room in the king's palace

in Nineveh to memorialize their attack. Hamas boasted of its vicious brutality, recording the murder, rape and torture of civilians and soldiers alike, and in doing so, they mirrored the actions of the Assyrians. Assyrians pictured captives begging for their lives, only to be beheaded. Other captives were tortured to death, their bodies gruesomely displayed for all to see. Not everyone was killed. Many were carried away into captivity. Sennacherib left

several written records of his conquest. He boasted that he attacked Hezekiah, king of Judah, and took 46 of his strong walled cities, walled forts, and countless small villages. I carried away captive 200,150 people, young and old, male and female horses, mules, donkeys, camels, and oxen. Beyond counting among the more than 200,000 people taken captive were those from Lachish. Hamas abducted around 250 hostages to take back into Gaza.

The only difference between the Assyrians and Hamas is that the Assyrians were able to attack the entire country, rather than just the small communities along the Gaza border. So how brutal was Hamas's attack last year? Some compare them to ISIS because of their savagery wrapped in Islamic fundamentalism, and that's a fair comparison. But to truly understand the impact of what Hamas wanted to do to Israel, I believe you need to go back to the Assyrians. Both

were arrogant and boastful. Both were brutal and vicious. Both looked for new ways to torture, maim and kill. Both sought to wipe out the Jewish people, and both eventually discovered what God meant when he said, I will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you, I will curse. Hamas didn't learn the lesson. Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Or we might say what goes around comes around. The Assyrians are ancient history. Hamas attack is more recent history,

but both are still history. So what lesson can we take away from our visit here at Lakish? How about this? We must never forget there is a God. He cares for his people. And he will hold accountable those who seek to harm them. That's true for the Jewish people today, because God's covenant with Abraham is still in effect. And it's also true for followers of Jesus, because we've been grafted into a place of blessing through Christ's death on

our behalf. He won't allow life's troubles to overwhelm you. In 1855, Joseph Scriven wrote a poem to encourage his ailing mother that became the hymn What a Friend We Have in Jesus. If you're discouraged and downhearted today, listen to the final stanza of his poem. Are we weak and heavy laden, encumbered with a load of care? Precious Savior, still our refuge. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Do thy friends despise. Forsake thee? Take it to the

Lord in prayer. In his arms he'll take and shield thee. Thou wilt find a solace there. The bottom line when you face trouble, don't depend on your own strength, ability, or resources. The only sure source of protection is the eternal Rock of ages.

And on that note, we'll say so long, but want to thank our producer, Dan Anderson, our host, Charlie Dyer, and the management at the station for carving out airtime for the land and the book. A production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.