Chapter 2
Who Are The Palestinians?
In this chapter,
we'll look at proof that Palestinians are descendents of the
ancient Israelites. As we do, we must remember that simply
because their
ancestry can be traced back to the Holy Land in no way and
at no time supports
wicked acts committed by Palestinians and for that matter,
wicked acts committed
by Israeli Jews. Physical
ancestry simply establishes the fundamental rights of both
peoples to live side by side in the Holy Land. Once that’s
established, laws in both
the Bible and Qur'an direct both peoples on how to live
peacefully together.
The Bible also instructs Christians to help the process by
being even-handed in
their support of both factions of Israelites.
Before
providing
proof
Palestinians
are
Israelites,
it's
important
we
understand
why proof is necessary at all. Aren't we supposed to separate Church and State?
Perhaps in domestic matters, but not international. Religions
shape the way large
groups of people think and act. If we fail to take that into
account in our dealings
with other nations, we'll not only be perceived as arrogant,
culturally insensitive
imperialists, we'll also be ineffective in attaining peace.
In the case of the Holy
Land, the Bible's Old Testament is used to convince
many Jews and Christians it's sacred behavior to deprive
Palestinians of land
rights, commit genocide against them, and to support their
governments in
carrying out these policies. The only peaceful alternatives to
change this are
1) convince believers to abandon their religions, or 2) outvote
members of these
religions and so make them irrelevant in making policy, or 3)
demonstrate with
their own sacred books that these should be read in a manner
that doesn't
promote genocide or land theft. Anything else ends in violence.
Option 1 isn't likely
to work and Option 2 has yet to be successful. This article
follows Option 3. There's a saying that "the truth will set
us free". Learning the
truth, that Palestinians are Israelites along with Israeli Jews,
will free millions
of Christians and Jews to change their political stance to one
requiring their
governments to support the rights of both parties evenhandedly.
These believers'
change of direction may well be the deciding difference in how
elections in the
United States and in the Holy Land turn out.
Now, let's look at
some Old Testament passages that are used to pattern the
minds of Jews and Christians to the point they'll support
killing Palestinians
and/or deny them land rights in the Holy Land. This will give us
an idea of the
scope of the problem. We'll start with two passages from
Genesis…
Genesis 12:1-3;
1 The LORD had said to Abram [a.k.a. "Abraham"],
"Leave your country, your people and your father's
household
and go to the land [what's today Palestine/Israel] I will show you.
2 "I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you, and
whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."
By itself, the promise given to Abram in
Genesis 12:1-3 would serve Arabs
equally well as Jewish
Israelites, as Arabs are also descendents of Abram
(through his son,
Ishmael). However, a passage in Genesis 17 changes all that…
Genesis 17:19-21;
19 Then God said,
"Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a
son, and you will call him Isaac.
I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting
covenant
for his descendants [including Jacob, father of
the Israelites]
after him.
20 And as for Ishmael [son of Abram and father of Arabs], I have heard you:
I will surely bless him;
I will make him fruitful and will
greatly increase his numbers.
He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation.
21 But my covenant I
will establish with Isaac [Jacob's
father]…"
Genesis 12 and 17 together
appear to provide God’s sanction for Jews to deny
Palestinian land rights and for Christians to give one-sided support to
Israel—
because Palestinians are perceived to be Arabs, not Israelites. However,
according
to Genesis 12:3, if Palestinians are Israelites, whenever a U.S.-made
bomb kills a
Palestinian on land granted him by God's covenant with Abraham, America
is cursed
by God. Looking at the state of our nation, perhaps the curse is real.
And the next
one, too… Zechariah 2:8-9, the Lord Almighty;
8 "…for whoever touches you [Israelites] touches
the apple of his eye--
9 I will surely raise my hand against them…
Then you will know that the LORD Almighty has sent me."
Then, we come to Genesis 15, which is as problematic as Genesis
12 and 17…
Genesis 15:18-21;
18 On that day the LORD made a covenant
with Abram and said,
"To your descendants I give this land,
from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates--
19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites,
Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites,
Rephaites,
21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and
Jebusites."
Genesis 15 is the basis upon which radical
"Zionists" lay claim to
virtually the
entire Middle East. In Genesis 15 it appears God granted
Jewish Israelis rights
to Jordan, Saudi Arabia,
Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, as well as the Holy Land.
Fortunately, the primarily Arabic people living in these
countries are virtually
all technically Israelites, too. (We'll see how this
happened later in the chapter.)
Consequently, since these lands are already occupied by
"Israelites", there's no
reason to support conquest by one Israelite faction over
another faction. Nothing
in the Bible remotely suggests outsiders are to take sides
in an Israelite civil war.
And now we come to
Bible passages that appear to support genocide against
Palestinians. These passages appear to be horrific, and are
well worth further
examination to see whether they can be reconciled with the
archaeological record
and the goal of peaceful co-existence between Ashkenazi and
Palestinian. We'll do
that in-depth in a later book. Right now, it's important you
know such passages
exist and that you see how crucial it can be for peace that
Palestinians are seen
as being Israelites,
not outsiders. Here's two examples of genocidal passages…
Deuteronomy 25:19;
When the LORD your God gives you rest from all the enemies around you
in the land he is giving you to possess as an inheritance,
you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.
Do not forget!"
A literal reading
certainly appears to support genocide against Amalekites.
Since some Jews refer to Palestinians as Amalekites, one can
readily see the
danger of genocide associated with this passage. Here's
another passage…
Deuteronomy 20:10-18;
10 When you march up to attack a
city, make its people an offer of peace.
11 If they accept and open their
gates, all the people in it shall be subject
to forced labor and shall work
for you. 12 If they refuse to make peace
and
they engage you in battle, lay
siege to that city. 13 When the LORD
your God
delivers it into your hand, put
to the sword all the men in it. 14 As
for the
women, the children, the
livestock and everything else in the city, you may
take these as plunder for
yourselves. And you may use the plunder the LORD
your God gives you from your
enemies. 15 This is how you are to treat
all the
cities that are at a distance from you
and do not belong to the nations nearby.
16 However, in the cities of the nations the LORD your God is
giving you as an
inheritance,
do not leave alive anything that breathes.
17 Completely destroy them--the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites--as the LORD your God has commanded you. 18 Otherwise,
they
will teach you to follow all the detestable things [i.e., human sacrifice]
they
do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the LORD your God."
Like them or not, these and like
passages, when read and applied literally,
provide religious sanction for genocide--if Palestinians
aren't Israelites. Now, we
have a clearer understanding of the value of proving
Palestinians are Israelites.
Without that, the sacred books will continue to be used to
keep millions of Jews
and Christians on a path leading to mass death and misery in
the Middle East and
elsewhere. We can't wish away the sacred books or the
negative effect they've
played in shaping genocidal attitudes in millions of people.
We can either concede
how they're used to demagogues and have them continually
used to promote war,
or we can see if their message (and followers) can be
redirected to a path of
peaceful coexistence. Fortunately, this is possible, it's
just a matter of choice.
In this instance,
there are two ways to redirect problematic Bible passages
towards peace. The first method is very direct and easy to
do: simply prove that
Palestinians are Israelites. Since none of the problematic
passages are directed
against Israelites, proving Palestinians are Israelites
effectively removes them
as targets of Biblical wrath of any form. Since virtually
everyone in the area
today is officially an "Israelite", this method
directs the negative message and
its effects against only people of the past. That's what
we'll do in this chapter.
The other way to
detoxify the Bible's account is to reconcile it with science,
i.e., archaeology. By doing this, we can determine whether
genocidal passages are
meant literally or allegorically. Seriously. If offending
passages are allegorical,
not literal, they can be "disarmed". Here's two
examples of this principle:
Proverbs 25:21-22;
21 If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat;
if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.
22 In doing this,
you will heap burning coals on his head,
and the LORD will reward
you."
Hosea 6:5-6;
5 Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets,
I killed you with the words of my mouth;
my judgments flashed like lightning upon you.
6 For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings."
Obviously,
"burning coals" is meant allegorically as "shame" or a
"burning"
conscience. In Hosea 6, God "kills" with words
because "He" desires "mercy, not
sacrifice" of humankind. In general, the archaeological
record doesn't match a
literal reading of the Old Testament's "genocide".
What appears more historically
correct is a gradual assimilation by Israelites of prior
cultures—allegorical
"genocide", i.e., removing one's enemies by
befriending them. Which interpretation
makes more sense? One that reconciles with science or one
that doesn't?
Now, on to proof
Palestinians are Israelites. No one can rightly deny that the
genetic heritage of Canaanites, Philistines, and Arabs is
present in the Palestinian
gene pool alongside that of many other ancient peoples of
the area. However, in
many cases, Israelite blood from the tribes of Ephraim and
Manasseh is included
in this genetic mix. Consequently, according to the Bible
and Qur'an, Palestinians
have equal rights in the Holy Land with Ashkenazi Jews. In
addition, even those
Palestinians without direct Israelite heritage are supposed
to be recognized as
full Israelites, according to both sacred books. In other
words, Israeli Jews who
say "God gave this land to us, not Palestinians"
have no justification from the
Torah and Prophets unless the "us" includes
Palestinians--with equal rights--too.
It's
time for some history. Jacob (a.k.a. "Israel") is father of the
Israelites".
He had twelve sons; six by Leah (his first
wife), two by Rachel (his second wife),
two by Bilhah (Rachel's handmaiden) and two by Zilpah (Leah's handmaiden)
(Genesis 35:22-26). Each of his
sons became head of a tribe of "Israelites".
The sons of Leah, Bilhah and Zilpah were jealous of their brother Joseph (who was
Rachel's eldest son). Following Judah's (Leah's fourth son) advice, rather than
kill Joseph, they sold him to a band of merchants (Genesis 37:12-28). Joseph was
taken to Egypt, where he married an Egyptian named Asenath (Genesis 41:45, 50).
She bore him two sons, "Manasseh" first, then "Ephraim". Arabs are descended
from Abraham and Hagar, who was Egyptian, also (Genesis 16;1 & 15,
25:9-18).
Because both Asenath and Hagar were Egyptian,
Joseph's descendents are the
same genetic mix as Arabs. That's why Joseph's Israelite descendents
(Palestinians) are often mistaken for Arabs.
Jacob accepted Joseph's sons
into his family (Genesis 48:5-20). Joseph's
sons were each given a separate inheritance in Canaan (Deuteronomy
33:13-17,
Joshua 14:1-5, 16:1-17:17, Ezekiel 48:5-6), making the Israelites essentially
thirteen tribes. Moses, God’s representative, authorized Joshua to set
tribal
boundaries (Deuteronomy 31:7-13). Boundaries are one form of Bible
"covenant".
Joseph’s portion lay in the central region and ran from the Jordan River west to
the Mediterranean Sea and from the southern edge of the Sea of Galilee to just
north of Jerusalem (Joshua 16:1-9, 17:10-11).
Eventually, the Israelites united as a kingdom, "Israel",
under King Saul,
who was followed by kings David and Solomon. After Solomon
died, "Israel"
split into two kingdoms, "Judah" in the south and
"Israel" in the north.
From this point on, the name "Israel"
refers to the northern kingdom only,
an area half the size of Solomon's
"Israel". "Judah" was comprised of the
tribes Judah, Benjamin, and Simeon.
"Israel" (the northern kingdom) was
comprised of the tribes Ephraim
and Manasseh (hereafter collectively called
"Ephraim"), Reuben, Asher, Naphtali,
Zebulun, Issachar, Dan, and Gad.
Since all the prophets (other than Moses or the Psalmist) lived after the split,
whenever reference is made to "Israel" as either the region or its inhabitants,
Ephraim must be included.
However, sometimes other tribes aren't included as
"Israel". Examples of this are found in Isaiah and Jeremiah, where separate
messages are directed to the "House of Israel" and "House of Judah".
In 722 B.C., the Assyrian (Iraqi) Empire
conquered the northern kingdom of
Israel. Afterwards, they renamed Ephraim and
Manasseh's land, "Samaria".
The Ephraimite ruling
class was exiled, but most common people were not.
This is a crucial
distinction and source of much misunderstanding regarding
whether Palestinians are
Israelites. 2 Kings 17 apparently says every last
Ephraimite was exiled by
the Assyrians. If so, then Palestinians are outsiders,
not Israelites, and
subject to all the negative passages you read earlier.
2 Kings 17:5-6, 23-24;
5 The king of Assyria invaded
the entire land [Israel],
marched against Samaria
and…6 …captured Samaria
and deported the Israelites to Assyria…
23 So the people of Israel were taken from
their homeland
into exile in Assyria, and they are still there.
24 The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah,
Avva, Hamath and Sepharvaim
and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites.
They took over Samaria and lived in its towns."
Taken
literally, 2 Kings 17:5-6, 23 appears to say every Ephraimite was carried
off into exile, leaving not a single soul behind. This has virtually no historical
precedent for a country the size of Israel, especially when the
conquerors were
limited to foot soldiers and cavalry. Also, exiling everyone wasn't advantageous to
the conquerors. The usual practice was to destroy the ruling class for control and
to scare potential adversaries, yet leave the poor behind for slaves and profit.
That's what we see in the following example of Judah's exile by the
Babylonians…
2 Kings 25:21, 11-12;
21 So Judah went into captivity, away from her land."
11 Nebuzaradan the commander of the [Babylonian] guard carried into exile
the people who remained in [Jerusalem], along with the rest of the populace
and
those who had gone over to the king of Babylon.
12 But the commander left behind some of the poorest
people of the land
to
work the vineyards and fields."
While verse 11 says all Jews were
exiled, verse 12 qualifies that, saying poor
people
remained to work the fields. The Assyrians
did the same thing with the Ephraimites. Definitive proof of that follows…
2 Chronicles 30:1,
6;
1 Hezekiah sent word to all
Israel and Judah and also wrote letters to
Ephraim and Manasseh,
inviting them to come to the temple of the LORD
in Jerusalem and celebrate
the Passover to the LORD, the God of Israel.
6 At the king's [Hezekiah] command,
couriers went throughout Israel
and Judah with letters from
the king and from his officials, which read:
"People of Israel, return to the LORD,
the God of Abraham, Isaac and
Israel,
that he may return to you who
are left,
who have escaped from the hand
of the kings of Assyria.”
7 Do not be
like your fathers and brothers,
who were unfaithful to the
LORD, the God of their fathers,
so that he made them an object
of horror, as you see.”
King Hezekiah ruled
the southern kingdom of Judah at the time the Assyrian
Empire destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel.
2 Chronicles 34:9
9
They went to Hilkiah the high priest and
gave him the money that had been brought into the temple of God,
which the Levites who were the
doorkeepers had collected from
the people of Manasseh, Ephraim and the
entire remnant of Israel and from all the people of Judah and
Benjamin and the inhabitants
of Jerusalem."
The "Holman Bible Atlas" (page 139) states,
"Though Sargon II (722-705 B.C.), successor to Shalmaneser V,
claims
credit for the capture of Samaria,
the Bible implies that Shalmaneser was
primarily responsible for the final
destruction of the Northern Kingdom Israel
(2 Kings 17:5). During Sargon’s
early reign many Israelites were deported and
resettled in the upper Habor Valley
(Gozan), near Nineveh at Halah, and as
far away as Media (2 Kgs 17:6; 1
Chr. 5:26). Sargon’s inscriptions mention
27,290 captives taken from
Israel…Some Israelites fled southward, seeking
refuge in Jerusalem, but most
had to suffer the indignity of Assyrian
occupation in the newly formed
Assyrian province of Samaria."
Ephraimites remaining in Samaria mixed with foreigners the Assyrians resettled
from the "nations", as it is written…
Hosea 7:8, God; "Ephraim mixes with the nations;
Ephraim is a flat cake not turned over."
The Assyrian Empire fell in 612 B.C. In
its place, the
Second Babylonian Empire
arose. In 586 B.C., the Babylonians defeated and exiled the
populace of Judah,
the southern kingdom. Samaritans then violated the borders, occupying vacant land
belonging to Judah, breaking the Covenant (see Jeremiah 31:31-32). However, as a
consequence of Judah’s unfaithfulness (1 Chronicles 9:1-3), God gave land
rights
as Israelites to the
Samaritans who moved into the vacated areas during the
Babylonian captivity…
Ezekiel 47:21-23, God;
21 "You are to
distribute this land among yourselves
according to the
tribes of Israel.
22 You are to allot
it as an inheritance for yourselves
and for the
aliens who have settled among you and who have children.
You are to
consider them as native-born Israelites;
along with you they are to be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel.
23 In whatever tribe the alien settles,
there you are to give him his inheritance,”
declares the
Sovereign LORD."
Ezekiel 47
technically covers any non-Israelite in the Holy Land today and
also has tremendous redemptive value for the people of the
entire Middle East.
One covenant that appears impossible to resolve peacefully
is…
Genesis 15:18-21;
18 On that day the LORD made a covenant
with Abram and said,
"To your descendants I give this land,
from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates--
19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites,
Kadmonites,
20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21
Amorites,
Canaanites,
Girgashites and Jebusites."
Some believe Genesis 15 gives Jewish Israelis
rights to Jordan, Saudi Arabia,
Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, as well as the Holy Land. However, we
must remember at
least
30,000 Ephraimites were resettled all over Iraq over two thousand years ago.
By being
exiled and spreading their seed for the next 2000 years, the Israelites
"took possession" of all the lands eastward and
northward to the Euphrates.
By mixing, the sons of Ishmael and Isaac became one! Ezekiel
47 provides legal
recognition to mixed-bloods and aliens as Israelites. Since people of mixed
Arab/Israelite blood already
live there, Genesis 15's promise is fulfilled by the
region's current
inhabitants, with no need for Jewish Israelites to dispossess
other Israelites. This helps
explain how the following prophecy comes to pass…
Isaiah 19:23-25;
23 In that day
there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria.
The Assyrians will go to Egypt and
the Egyptians to Assyria.
The Egyptians and Assyrians will
worship together.
24 In that day
Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria,
a blessing on the earth.
25 The LORD
Almighty will bless them, saying,
"Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork,
and Israel my inheritance."
It's likely
Ephraim's seed spread from Assyria to other parts of the world, too.
What's important as far as peace in the Holy Land is
concerned is that Ephraim is
also in Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, and throughout the
Middle East.
In 66 A.D., the
Jews of Judea and Galilee revolted against Rome, which led to
the siege of Jerusalem and destruction of the Temple in 70
A.D. Sixty two years
later,
in 132 A.D., the Jewish tribes of Judea and
Galilee again revolted against the
Romans in the "Bar Kochba" rebellion. This was put down in 135 A.D., after which
the tribes
associated with Judah were expelled from both Galilee and Judea.
The Samaritans never revolted, so they weren't exiled. They
remained in Samaria
(later to become "Palestine") as the "stump in the land" in
the next prophecy…
Isaiah 6:13, God;
And though a tenth remains in the land [during the Babylonian captivity],
it will again be laid waste [by the Romans].
But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down,
so the holy seed [Ephraim—the Samaritans] will be the
stump in the land."…
…where "stump" means the remaining Israelites (Samaritans)
after the rest of
the family tree (Judah and associated tribes) was cut down. After the
Romans
drove out the Jewish Israelites, their Samaritan half-brothers moved in,
along
with Edomites and later, Arabs. Centuries later, the descendents of the
early
Samaritan converts were the Christians in the Holy Land whom the
crusaders
were supposedly coming to save. Centuries later the land was called
"Palestine"
and the people first known as Ephraimites, then Samaritans, now became
known
as "Palestinians". Same people, name change only.
Next, let's look at
prophecies which
indicate Palestinians are descendents of
Ephraim and Manasseh and the salvation God promises them.
Please note the
lands from which the refugees return. By precisely pointing
out in ancient
prophecies specific lands where Palestinian exiles live
today, we know God is
present here, today, watching us, perhaps even testing us to
see how believers
choose to receive Divine counsel.
Zechariah 10:6-8, God;
6 "I
will strengthen the house of Judah [Ashkenazi
Jews]
and
save the house of Joseph [Palestinians].
I
will restore them because I have compassion on them.
They
will be as though I had not rejected them,
for
I am the LORD their God and I will answer them.
7
The Ephraimites [Palestinians]
will become like mighty men,
and
their hearts will be glad as with wine.
Their children will see it and be joyful; their hearts will
rejoice in the LORD.
8 I
will signal for them and gather them in.
Surely
I will redeem them;
they
will be as numerous as before."
So,
God promises salvation for both Palestinians and Jews.
Not
one or the other--both groups of Israelites.
Isaiah 11:10-13;
10 In
that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples;
the
nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious."
11 In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second
time
to reclaim the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria [northern Iraq],
from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush [Sudan],
from Elam [Iran], from
Babylonia [southern
Iraq], from Hamath [Syria]
and
from the islands of the sea [expatriate
Palestinians worldwide]."
[ Note that the lands from where the exiles return are
predominantly Muslim--the places Palestinians fled to after 1948, 1967, etc.]
12 He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the
exiles of Israel;
he will assemble the scattered people of Judah
from the four quarters of the earth.
13 Ephraim's jealousy will vanish, and Judah's enemies will
be cut off;
Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah, nor Judah hostile toward
Ephraim."
Note the ongoing
dissension among the Israelite tribes Judah and Ephraim,
i.e., Israeli Jews and Palestinians. God reached out his
hand the first time by
bringing Judah's descendents home after WWII and the Jewish
Holocaust.
The phrase "second time" refers to Palestinians and their
Holocaust, or "Nakba".
If verse 11 applied to Jewish Israelites, the refugees would return from Europe,
not the places Palestinians fled to after 1948. This
indicates God is bringing
Palestinians home this "second time".
Jeremiah 31:6, 8-9, God;
6
There will be a day when watchmen cry out on the hills of Ephraim,
'Come,
let us go up to Zion, to the LORD our God.' "
8 See, I will bring them from the land of the north
and gather them from the ends of the earth.
Among them will be the blind and the lame, expectant mothers
and women in labor; a great
throng will return.
9 They will come with weeping; they will pray as I bring them
back.
I will lead them beside streams of water
on a level path where they will not stumble,
because I am Israel’s father, and Ephraim is my firstborn son."
Zechariah 10:9-10, God;
9 Though
I scatter them among the peoples,
yet
in distant lands they will remember me.
They
and their children will survive,
and
they will return.
10 I
will bring them back from Egypt
and
gather them from Assyria [whose
territory encompassed Iraq & Syria].
I
will bring them to Gilead [Jordan's
"East Bank"] and Lebanon,
and
there will not be room enough for them."
Ephraim returns
from "distant lands" and from Muslim countries like Egypt,
Syria, and Iraq. Please note many exiles return to Jordan
and Lebanon, primarily
Muslim countries where Jews would be unlikely to settle, but
where Palestinians
who'd received compensation for their land would happily
settle. Now, two more
prophecies regarding salvation for Palestinians from the
Bible…
Hosea 11:8-12;
8 "How
can I give you up, Ephraim?
How
can I hand you over, Israel?
How
can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboiim?
My
heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused.
9 I
will not carry out my fierce anger,
nor
will I turn and devastate Ephraim.
For
I am God, and not man--the Holy One among you.
I
will not come in wrath."
Not “come in
wrath”? According to Jeremiah, Isaiah, Hosea, and Zechariah,
God loves "Ephraim" (that is, Palestinian
Israelites) and promised them salvation
alongside the Ashkenazi. Obedience is what’s necessary, not
nuclear devastation.
Hosea 11:8-12, cont.;
10 They will follow the LORD [by following God’s statutes];
he
will roar like a lion. When he roars,
his
children will come trembling from the west.
11 They
will come trembling like birds from Egypt,
like
doves from Assyria.
I
will settle them in their homes," declares the LORD.
12
Ephraim has surrounded me with lies, the house of Israel with deceit…"
In verse 12 above
and elsewhere, scripture says Ephraim backslid and would
pay the cost with exile. But Palestinians are not alone in
backsliding. Consider the
continual expansion of Israeli settlements into the West
Bank as you read this…
Hosea 5:10; Judah's leaders are like those who move boundary stones…"
However, the prophecies indicate God's will is for both Palestinians and
Ashkenazi
Israeli Jews to receive forgiveness and salvation. That's
the subject of the next
two prophecies.
Ezekiel 37:16-22, God;
16 "Son of man, take a stick of wood and write on it,
'Belonging to Judah and the Israelites associated with
him.'
Then take another stick of wood, and write on it,
'Ephraim's stick, belonging to Joseph
and all the house of Israel associated with him.'
17 Join them together into one stick so that they will become one in your hand."
18 "When your countrymen ask you,
'Won't you tell us what you mean by this?'
19
say to them, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says:
I
am going to take the stick of Joseph--which is in Ephraim's hand--
and
of the Israelite tribes associated with him,
and
join it to Judah's stick, making them a single stick of wood,
and
they will become one in my hand.'"
[It
looks like God supports a "One State/Two Sub-State" solution.]
20
Hold before their eyes the sticks you have written on
21
and say to them, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says:
I
will take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone.
I
will gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land.
22 I
will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel.
There
will be one king over all of them
and
they will never again be two nations or be divided into two kingdoms."
[It's interesting to note the "Road
Map" proposed by George Bush contradicts
verse
22 and by so doing separates the tribes and creates permanent enmity.]
Jeremiah 31:31, 33-34, God;
31 "The time is coming," declares the LORD,
"when I will make a new covenant with the house of
Israel [Ephraim/Palestinians] and with the house of Judah [Ashkenazi Jews].”
33 "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,"
declares the LORD.
"I will put my law in their minds and write it on their
hearts.
I will be their God, and they will be my people.
34 …For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."
There's more prophecies on the same
theme, but for brevity's sake, we'll
move on to the final witness on behalf of the Palestinian
people, Jesus Christ.
We'll travel next to the New Testament account of Jesus and
the Samaritan
woman at Jacob's well in John 4…
John 4:9-13;
9 The Samaritan woman said to him [Jesus],
"You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?"
(For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered
her,
"If you knew the gift of God and
who it is that asks you for a drink,
you would have asked him and he would
have given you living water."
11 "Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep.
Where can you get this living water?
12 Are you greater than our father Jacob,
who gave us the well and drank
from it himself,
as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"
13 Jesus answered,
"Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,
14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never
thirst."
By referring to Jacob as the
Samaritans’ "father", the woman announced her
Israelite heritage. No one but an Israelite is descended
from Jacob, and Jesus
didn't correct her on that point. If, as some believe,
Samaritans are full-blooded
Gentiles put there hundreds of years earlier by the
Assyrians after every last
Israelite was exiled, then Jacob (or his heirs) could not
have given the well to the
Samaritans. The Samaritans would have taken possession of a
deserted town and
their "father" would have been the king of
Assyria, not Jacob. In verses 17-18
Jesus told the woman details about her past no one but God
or a prophet could
have known. Jesus accepted the Samaritan woman's claim to
Israelite heritage by
listening to her testimony and not correcting her. This is
no accident. John 4 is
Jesus' testimony that Palestinians are Israelites,
descendents of Joseph's sons
Ephraim and Manasseh. The account in John 4 continues with
the Samaritan woman
telling her friends about Jesus and with many of them accepting him as the Messiah…
John 4:39-42;
39
Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him [Jesus]
because
of the woman's testimony, "He told me
everything I ever did."
40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them,
and he stayed two
days.
41 And because of his words many more became believers.
42 They said to the woman,
"We
no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard
for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world."
Many Samaritans
became believers in Christ, which explains why Jesus said
what he did as he sent the apostles out on their missions…
Matthew 10:5-6, Jesus;
5
"Do not go among the
Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans.
6 Go rather to the
lost sheep of Israel."
If Samaritans were
strictly Gentiles, Jesus would have included them with
other Gentiles and just said "Gentiles". By making
them a separate category,
Jesus indicated they were Israelites other than the Jewish
tribes. Since the
Samaritans were accepting his gospel, they weren't
"lost". Instead,
Jesus sent
the apostles to the Israelites who hadn't accepted him, the
tribes associated
with Judah. Then, in John 8, Jesus was accused by some
"Jews" of being a
Samaritan, even though his family tree indicated ancestry
through King David.
How could this be unless the "Jews" in John 8
didn't know his genealogy or
that they knew Samaritans were their half brothers?
John 8:48;
The Jews answered him [Jesus],
"Aren't we right in saying that you are a Samaritan
and demon-possessed?"
It's unlikely they
didn’t know his genealogy, but if they didn’t, then they would
have said what they did because Jesus was on very good terms
with Samaritans,
who accepted him. This theme is carried forward into the
apostles' ministries…
Acts 8:25;
When they had testified and
proclaimed the word of the Lord, Peter and John
returned to Jerusalem,
preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages."
So, we can see that
most Palestinians are genetically descended from the
Israelite tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, and those who
aren’t are de facto
members of the Israelites, anyway, according to Ezekiel
47:21-23. Next,
we’ll find out who the descendents of Judah are.
