Tuesday 1 June 2010

Israel - Gods chosen nation

JERUSALEM












The Flag of Israel







ISRAEL
a
VERY HEAVY ROCK

Jerusalem is a small Jebusite city in the time of Abraham some 4000 years ago. It was established as the capital of Israel by King David, over 3000 years ago. Though many a times it had been captured by other nations it wasn’t been capital to any of those conquered nations. During 1947 United Nations voted and decided to partition – West Palestine, and the resolution was called for Jerusalem to be placed under UN administration. But the Arab nations rejected the UN resolution and launched a war against the newly declared state of Israel in 1948. The Jordanian army drove the Jews out of eastern Jerusalem – old city – city of David, the Jews moved to the western sectors. Though the Arabs or the Jordanians controlled most part of the Samaria – Judea which they called – The West Bank, for almost 19 years but couldn’t establish an Arab state or set up a capital in Jerusalem. But in the six day war of 1967, Jerusalem and the west bank were liberated from the Jordanians, and Jews returned to all parts of Jerusalem and since then none were able move it again.


The Eastern and Western sector's



‘The message of the word of YHWH concerning Israel - YHWH who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him, declares: Look! IAM going to make Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling to all people around. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. And on that day, when all nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem a very heavy rock for all the nations. All who try to remove it will be severely injured. (Zech 12:2-3)

Jerusalem, the capital of ancient and modern Israel, is surrounded by the enemies who are demanding that Israel divide the city, so that eastern sector can become the capital of a Palestinian state.
Who are these Palestinians?
The truth is that there has been never a Palestinian nation, race or currency or any government related to them. People living in Palestine or Palestrina (including Jews) were called Palestinians, making majority being now Muslims. In Bible the word is ‘Plesheth’ which is translated in English as ‘Philistine’, generally meaning rolling or migratory. The actual philistines were neither Arabs nor Semites, but most closely related to the Greeks originating from Asia Minor and Greek localities. They spoke not Arabic and had no connection, ethnic, linguistic or historical with Arabia or Arabs. The philistines reached the southern coast of Israel in several waves, of that one group arrived in the pre-patriarchal period and settled in south of Beersheba in Gerar, where they came into conflict with Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael.


Another group from Crete - which was repulsed from an invasion attempt of Egypt by Rameses III in 1194 BCE seized the southern coastal area, where they found five settlements – Gaza, Escalon, Ashdod, Ekron and Gat.


And during the Persian and Greek periods, foreign settlers – chiefly from the Mediterranean islands, overran the philistine districts. After the king Herodotus, during the 5th century BC, Greeks called the eastern coast of the Mediterranean ‘the Philistine Syria’. Later in AD 135, after the ‘Bar Kochba revolt’ - the second major Jewish revolt against Rome, the then emperor Hadrian wanted to blot out the name of the Roman ‘Provincea Judea’ and so renamed it ‘Provincia Syria Palaestina’ (Latin version of Greek name), which later was shortened to Palaestina, and in modern period anglicized as Palestine. This was the situation till the time of Persian and Muslim conquests during the 7th century. Later the Christian crusaders (seven crusades) ruled many including this region, after their downfall, the Ottoman Turks, who were non-Arabs but religious Muslims, ruled this area for almost 400 years (1517-1917). Ottoman attached the Palestine region to Damascus and ruled from Istanbul, but never made it a separate nation. But, during the World War I the Ottoman Empire came to an end, and the region came under the British Mandate for Palestine, till 1948. After the freedom of Israel from the British rule, and now the Palestine’s are nothing but still refugees.

Long time back God had a territorial solution to the descendants of Abraham, through Isaac and Jacob, in giving the land of Canaan:

‘On that day YHWH made a covenant with Abram, saying- to your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. (Gen 15:18)
To the descendants of Abraham through Ishmael, He gave the lands of Egypt and most of the Middle East – ‘’ And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Watch! I will bless him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall become father of twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation. But My covenant I will establish with Isaac.’’ (Gen 17: 20-21)

The Muslim world has a religious capital – Mecca, and when Muslims in any part of the world pray, they bow down facing Mecca.


Whereas in Jerusalem being the religious capital of Jewish world, prays facing towards Jerusalem’s western wall of the temple mount.


The word ‘Jerusalem’ is found in the Hebrew Bible around 800 times, but not even being mentioned once in Koran.

YHWH the LORD calls Zion also known as Jerusalem His holy mountain saying:

Why do the nations rage and the people devise a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers take counsel together against YHWH and against His anointed – His Messiah- let us break their chains, they say, and throw off their fetter! He who is seated in the heavens laughs. The Lord scoffs at them. Then He rebukes then in His anger and terrifies them in His fury, saying, I, yes, I have installed my king on Zion, My holy mountain. (Psalm 2:1-6).

But today the nations care little for what God has said, rather listening to those voices of rationalism and expediencies. Arabic-Persian-Turkic nations could easily be understood as their intentions are clearer as predicted in their holy book. And Europe is in advanced stage from 1620 (when some Christians fled due to political pressure against protestant’s) and is now into a post Christian era – Bible does not count much. And USA – what could be said, having elected a new president who is among the top and most anti-Israel president since 1948, has openly declares that ‘US is no longer a Christian country, and nobody should be concerned with a few obscure Bible verses’.