Making a Differencewith Pastor Phil Erickson

Feb 28th, 2024 The Land Belongs to Israel

Today’s Passage – Numbers 34 – 36 (Click on the references to listen to the audio – Click here to view the passage from Blue Letter Bible)

(Second Milers also read – 1 Corinthians 5 – 8;  Proverbs 28; Psalms 141 – 145

Listen to this morning’s Scripture song – Psalm 89

Read a previous post from this passage – “The City of Refuge,” and “Taking Care of the Preachers.“

Read the “Evening and Morning” devotion for today, by the late Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

“1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2 Command the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land of Canaan; (this is the land that shall fall unto you for an inheritance, even the land of Canaan with the coasts thereof:)” (Numbers 34:1-2)

The map in the image above shows the original land distribution for the tribes of Judah as they entered into the land of Canaan after wandering through the wilderness of Sinai for forty years. Each of the colors on the map represent the various tribes of Israel, including the two half-tribes of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim. The sizes of the land portions was determined by the number of people within the tribe, which was determined by the census taken back in Numbers 26:

“53 Unto these the land shall be divided for an inheritance according to the number of names. 54 To many thou shalt give the more inheritance, and to few thou shalt give the less inheritance: to every one shall his inheritance be given according to those that were numbered of him. 55 Notwithstanding the land shall be divided by lot: according to the names of the tribes of their fathers they shall inherit. 56 According to the lot shall the possession thereof be divided between many and few.” (Numbers 26:53-56)

The only tribe of Israel that did not receive land was the tribe of Levi, which was the tribe that serve the nation as priests and ministers within the Tabernacle. They did receive forty-eight cities to live in, however, that were scattered throughout all of Israel within the land borders of the other tribes. See Numbers 35:2 – 3, and our previous devotion, Taking Care of the Preachers, for more information regarding the cities given to the Levites.

Compare the map above to the current land distribution within Israel in the map below. You will notice that much of the original land given to Israel by God now belongs to eh Palestinians. Israel has also lost all of the land to the east of the Jordan River. The Palestinians within Israel, along with the nations that surround Israel, are all Muslim nations, and many of them are Israel’s bitter enemies. Some of them do not recognize Israel’s right to exist at all and if they could they would wipe Israel off of the map completely. God’s sovereign protection and the support of Israel’s few allies, including the United States, are the only things that are preventing that from happening.

Though I have compassion for the Palestinians and other nations who all have a long history within and around the land of Israel and also have claims of their own regarding their right to be there, I will never take a side against Israel. God has promised a blessing to those who are a friend to Israel. When God gave His covenant to Abraham, which included both a seed (children), and the land, He stated:

“3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” (Genesis 12:3)

By the way, the covenant that God made with Abraham passed specifically to his son Isaac (not Ishmael), and through Isaac to Jacob, and then through Jacob to his twelve sons, the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel.

God has also made it very clear that He is not finished with Israel. Those of us who are dispensationalists believe that God will someday fulfill all of the past kingdom promises that He made to Israel. As a nation, Israel will someday realize that they were wrong about the the Lord Jesus Christ, their Messiah, who came to redeem them:

“10 And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.” (Zechariah 12:10)

“7 Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.” (Revelation 1:7)

“25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. 26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:” (Romans 11:25-26)

In the future Millennial Kingdom, Christ will rule from Jerusalem and the borders of Israel will extend even further beyond what was described here in the Book of Numbers (see Ezekiel 47:13 – 20 and the map below).