God's Disputed Israeli Borders

The second point that needs to be addressed is the timeframe for the restoration of Israel’s borders. To get some perspective on this issue we can look at the timeframe for the establishment of Israel’s borders when they first inherited their Promised Land. Under Joshua’s leadership Israel began the invasion of their Promised Land in approximately the year 1400 BC. Nevertheless, it was only under King David’s leadership that Israel finally achieved full control of their God given borders in approximately in the year 1000 BC. And so we see that it took Israel almost 400 years to achieve full control of their borders when they first inherited their Promised Land.

Similarly we see that the restoration of Israel’s borders is also taking time, for the process began in 1948 and almost 80 years later their borders have still not been fully restored. Nevertheless, this time it will not take Israel 400 years to have their borders fully restored. So how do we know that? When we examine the map shown previously, we see that approximately 73% of Israel’s borders have already been fully restored and approximately 20% of its borders have been partially restored, leaving just 7% still to be added. And so we see that it is not impossible, in fact it is very likely, that all of Israel’s borders could be fully restored within the next few years.

The third point that needs to be addressed is the nature of the State of Israel; i.e. is Israel a secular state? In answering that question, in the earlier-quoted passage of scripture the Lord tells us He has given the land to the twelve tribes of Israel and no one else. In other words the state of Israel is synonymous with the religion of Judaism, which essentially means that Israel is a theocratic state, not secular.

Until now however, the Jews have attempted to make Israel a democratic state, allowing peoples of other ethnic groups living within their borders to become Israeli citizens. Because Israel has adopted a policy contrary to the Lord’s counsel, however, it is now encountering the problem of the non-Jewish population beginning to outnumber its current population of 7.3 million Jews. Approximately 2 million Palestinians already have Israeli citizenship, and if combined with the 5.5 million Palestinians living within the occupied territories, the Palestinians have the majority. In a normal secular state all 7.5 million Palestinians would qualify for Israeli citizenship, thus allowing them to vote for a government of their choice. The obvious result would be a change in government, i.e. a Palestinian government replacing the current Jewish government.

And so an increasing number of Jews are slowly coming to terms with the realization that Israel will never be viable as a democratic state. The only alternative is to embrace God’s plan for Israel, i.e. become a theocratic state where only practitioners of Judaism can become citizens. If Israel were to eventually adopt such a policy, it would impact directly on the future restoration of Israel’s borders, necessitating the expulsion (ethnic cleansing) of the indigenous populations of any new territories added.

As an aside, had Israel adopted such a policy from the outset, they would not be experiencing the current problem with the Palestinian population living within their borders. The obvious solution is for Israel to allow the Palestinians living within their borders to have their own state, something Israel has consistently refused to do. Instead, Israel has attempted to pressurise the United States to work on their behalf to find a location outside of Israel to which its population of 7.5 million Palestinians can be forcefully deported. Such a solution will not materialise however, and Israel will eventually be forced to concede territory to the Palestinians for the establishment of their own state, a point which we will discuss in a later section.

Deuteronomy 9:4-6 "Do not think in your heart, after the Lord your God has cast them out before you, saying, 'Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land'; but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out from before you. (5) It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God drives them out from before you, and that He may fulfil the word which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. (6) Therefore understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.

The fourth point that needs to be addressed is God's use of war as an instrument of judgment. When a nation reaches a stage of wickedness God deems necessary to judge, He raises up a belligerent nation to go to war against them. However, the fact that God uses one nation to judge another, does not mean that the nation being judged is wicked while the belligerent nation is righteous; for God views both as being wicked. It simply means that in that instance, God is using the belligerent nation as His instrument of judgment.

In the above-quoted passage of scripture the Lord explains this concept to us, when He tells the Israelites that it wasn't because of their righteousness that He drove out the nations before them, but rather because of the wickedness of those nations and because of the fulfilment of His word. In fact God reminded the Jews of their own wickedness, referring to them as a stiff-necked people. Therefore we see that God is restoring Israel's borders at this time, not because of the righteousness of the Israeli nation, for they remain a stiff-necked people to this day, but rather because of the fulfilment of His word and the wickedness of the nations being dispossessed of their land.

Michael E.B. Maher

The Last Days

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