The first portion of the text we read this weekend has to do with the teaching that Moses gave to the leaders of the tribes about the taking of oaths. “When a man makes an vow to the Lord, or takes an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not break his word but must do everything he said.” (Numbers 30:2) It is clear from the text of the Bible that we who believe in God are to be people who are “true to our word.”
And this principle is no less the case for Moslem people, for whom the word Islam means “surrender.” The concept behind this word is that the “believer” surrenders to the will of Allah. The problem today (within radical Islam) is that the leaders of certain radical groups are promoting the murder of Israelis and are also teaching that the land of Israel belongs to the Moslems (as a Wafq, or Islamic trust) and does not belong to the Jewish people. So there’s a rejection of the Hebrew holy writings as an accurate reflection of true history and the continuity that is described as to which people group was given this land (by God) and will end up having it as an heirloom forever (from God).
According to the Bible, there was a land given by God to the descendants of Lot – even though that piece of property had been inhabited originally by a people called the Emites (see Deut. 2:9) – and this land of Moab is called Jordan today. The children of Esau were given the land of Mount Seir (which today is the southern part of Jordan), even though that property used to belong to a people called the Horites. (see Deut 2:12).
In like manner, the land of Canaan, originally given to the seven tribes which lived in that land, was later given to the Israelites who only drove out the people engaged in idolatry and allowed to remain those who agreed to abide by the universal moral code given to all of mankind, called the Laws of Noah. There was never a wholesale slaughter of the people of Canaan, as some unlearned folks teach, since each time a city was surrounded by Joshua and his men it was only surrounded on three sides. This left the fourth side as a means of escape for those individuals wanting to sue for peace and who wanted to leave the land alive or stay in the land as Noahides (i.e., loyal to the nation of Israel and their God). The Torah teaches no less than 42 times the proper ethical treatment of strangers in the land of Israel and the Jewish people are not allowed (by their religion) to oppress a minority population in their God-given land.
The same was true in 1948-49: There was never any wholesale slaughter of masses of the Palestinian Moslem people – they had been invited to stay and make up a part of the newly reconstituted state of Israel. This was the plan, so long as the Moslem population was going to be loyal to Israel as a Jewish state. Jews have had to live as a minority population in Arab/Moslem lands, why can’t Moslems live as a loyal minority population within a Jewish homeland? Same thing is true with the “disputed territories” today! Why do some of the Palestinians have to insist on making that territory “Judenrein” (empty of Jews) and make that a requirement for peace with Israel when the portion inhabited today by Jews is a small percentage of that territory and Arab Moslems are still allowed to live within the Green Line as Israeli citizens? Must there be a “population exchange” for there to be peace between Moslems and Jews?
The real issue is a lack of acceptance by murderous radicals of certain portions of the Hebrew Bible as true statements of the will of God (or Allah). And this argument itself, as to who owns the land of Judea and Samaria, was itself prophesied in Ezekiel Chapter 39:21-29 wherein God says:
I will set My glory among the nations; and all the nations shall see My judgment that I have executed and My hand that I have laid upon them. So the House of Israel shall know that I am Y_H_V_H their God, from that day forward. And the nations shall know that the House of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity; because they trespassed against Me, and I hid My face from them; so I gave them into the hands of their adversaries; and they fell all of them by the sword. According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions did I unto them; and I hid My face from them. Therefore thus saith the Lord Y_H_V_H: now I will bring back the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole House of Israel; and I will be jealous for My holy name.
And they shall bear their shame, and all of their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against Me, when they shall dwell securely in their land, and none shall make them afraid; when I have brought them back from the peoples, and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations. And they shall know that I am Y_H_V_H their God, in that I caused them to go into captivity among the nations and have gathered them unto their own land; and I will leave none of them any more there; neither will I hide My face any more from them; for I have poured out My Spirit upon the House of Israel, saith the Lord Y_H_V_H.
So, if this word (prophecy) is true, then the war that is coming will be used by God to spur more of the Jewish people (and their supporters, the righteous among the nations) to support the Jewish state and to have more Jews making aliyah (immigration) to their eternal God-given homeland. All things will end up working together for the good, for those who love God and are “the called” according to His purposes.
