Misconception #5

Israel has a biblical entitlement and permanent right to possess all their land in the Middle East, and this transcends all else.

Not any more. That changed in the 1st century A.D. when the covenant upon which this land right was based became “obsolete” (Heb. 8:13). New Testament Christians need to accept this obsolescence. But we should also note that unbelieving Jews never had a claim upon Old Covenant benefits, including the land promise. Only those who exercised faith and obedient received its benefits.

Furthermore, the Promised Land of Canaan was a temporary type and shadow as were all the physical components peculiar to the Mosaic Law system. They all pointed to the “coming good things” of the New Covenant age (Heb. 8:5; 9:9, 11, 23, 24; 10:1). These types and shadows were “not the realities themselves” (Heb. 10:1; also 8:5; 9:10; Col. 2:16, 17; John 5:39). When the New Covenant fully superseded the old in A.D. 70, the Jews were physically removed from that geographic patch of land and their covenant-determined “right” to it ceased and became moot.

This same fulfillment destiny holds true for every element and physical institution of the Old Covenant, Judaic system: the Temple, the city, the priesthood, sacrifices, ceremonies, feast days, circumcision, everything, as well as the physical, Promised Land itself. Of course, the God-given land promised to Abraham and his descendants was an “everlasting possession/inheritance” and unconditional (Gen. 12:7; 13:15; 15:7, 18; 17:8; 48:4; Rom. 4:13-17). Only in Solomon’s empire were its farthest boundaries ever physically realized—from the River of Egypt to the River Euphrates (1 Ki. 4:12, 24; 2 Chron. 9:26; Jos. 21:43-45). But from a purely logistical standpoint today, it’s questionable whether this patch of real estate is capable of physically holding all the 12-15 million or so Jews (depending on how one defines a Jew)—let alone “all families of the earth” who were and are to receive this Abrahamic land promise and blessing, unconditionally (Gen. 12:3).

Re-applying this Middle East land promise is a classic example of a common materialistic error—making the type be the fulfillment of itself. What’s missed is that the land promise, as well as the total Abrahamic inheritance, was fulfilled and established in a greater, higher, better, and expanded way in Christ (Heb. 9:15; Rom. 4:13,16; Gal. 3:29). This is why Jesus “de-territorialized” or universalized Psalm 37:11 from “But the meek will inherit the land . . .” to “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5; also see Psa. 2:8; 46:10; 67:2-7; Amos 9:15; Luke 24:47; Dan. 7:14). The true fulfillment of the land promise is only realized in the New Covenant reality of the new Israel, and not in the old, type and shadow system. It’s part of the essence of the New Covenant in which Jews and Gentiles are fused into one body by the work of Christ (Eph. 2:14; 3:6). No longer do God’s people all over the world need to dwell in a special and restricted territory—in “the whole land of Canaan” (Gen. 17:8) which meant so much to Old Testament Israel. Instead, we are to dwell in its ultimate and unrestricted fulfillment “in Christ.” This is the “better country – a heavenly one” for which Abraham longed. Even he did not see the literal, earthly, real estate as the fulfillment of the promise (Heb. 11:16).

Again, the land promise has been “de-territorialized” just as Jesus said it would be (John 4:20-24). That’s also why no other return-to-the-land prophecy or promise was given in the Bible after the Jews returned to Palestine from Babylonian captivity. Likewise, this ultimate fulfillment and expansion into better substance explains why God’s people never again would be “uprooted from the land” (Amos 9:15). Even though the Jewish nation was removed from their “type” and “shadow” earthly land by the Roman armies circa A.D. 70, God’s people in Christ can never be removed from this land’s antitype.

Seen under the light of this past fulfillment, the modern-day nation of Israel, which was created by the United Nations, has no more and no less special entitlement or divine right to their land than do any other nations whose boundaries were similarly drawn by human agency. The Bible long ago told all peoples everywhere that all land is the Lord’s (Lev. 25:23; Psa. 24:1). This certainly includes the land of every nation in the volatile Middle East. Thus, there is no biblical reason why Arabs and others are not equally entitled to and cannot live in the land of Palestine along with the Jews, just like they did in ancient times. God loves and cares about all these people.

Source:

1 The Israel Illusion (future book – est. 2016) by John Noe