God, the creator of the universe, calls Himself “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob”. He is a covenant God, so His promises are in the context of His covenants. God’s covenants are not negotiated between equals (=) God and man, but are the type of agreement as sovereign to subject.
Psalm 105:6-11 is one of numerous references to this covenant, including the Land of promise:
“O seed of Abraham His servant, you children of Jacob, His chosen ones! He is the Lord our God; His judgments are in all the earth. He remembers His covenant forever, the word which He commanded, for a thousand generations, the covenant which He made with Abraham, and His oath to Isaac, and confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant, saying, ‘To you I will give the land of Canaan as the allotment of your inheritance’.”
The promises and blessings to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Israel) and their descendants are eternal and unconditional. God promised Abraham, “I will give to you, and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojourning, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession.” God also gave a promise to Ishmael, regarded as the father of the Arab people. However, that promise was for him to be a great nation in a different land. The land of Israel was promised exclusively to Abraham’s son Isaac.
God made it very clear that Isaac was the Son of the Promise:
“But God replied, No, but your wife Sarah will give birth to your son, and you are to name him Isaac. I will confirm my covenant with him as an eternal covenant for his descendants. (Gen. 17:19)
Just as the Lord had said, a year later Sarah gave birth to Isaac. God told Abraham to send Ishmael away to Arabia (where he settled in Paran), and that He would make him a great nation also:
“God said to Abraham, “Do not be grievous because of the boy (Ishmael) and because of your slave woman…For from Isaac will your seed be called.”
The Land of Israel was not just a Divine promise; it was the home of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their wives, Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel and Leah, and their descendants – the people of Israel.
The Promises
To Abraham:
“Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you,” God told Abram. “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. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse, and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:1)
“For all the land which you see, to you will I give it, and to your seed forever.” (Gen: 13:14-15)
“On the same day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying: ‘To your descendants I have given this land…”‘ (Genesis 15:18).
To Isaac:
“And the LORD appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I shall tell you. Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father.” (Gen. 26:2-3)
Isaac had twins by his wife Rebecca. God revealed to her while pregnant:
“The Lord said to her, ‘Two nations are in your body. Two tribes that are now inside you will be separated. One nation will be stronger than the other. The older son will serve the younger one.’” (Genesis 25:23)
Esau crossed over the river Jordan to Edom, (today Jordan) and became a great nation there, but to Jacob God reaffirmed the promises He gave to Abraham and Isaac.
To Jacob:
“The land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give it to you, And I will give the land to your descendants after you.” (Gen. 35:12)
God is always faithful in His promises. God began His unique relationship with the people of Israel and the planning of their destiny with His covenant relationship with Abram. Later God changed the name to Abraham, meaning “father of many nations”. (Genesis 17:4)
As God had promised him:
“I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:3)
God later passed these promises on to Abraham’s son Isaac, his grandson Jacob and then to Jacob’s 12 sons—from whom came the 12 tribes of Israel.
With the passage of time, God’s people did wrong in His sight and even broke the covenant.
“The earth is also defiled under its inhabitants, because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.” (Isaiah 24:5)
However, because Israel is His firstborn of the nations, to whom he said: “I have loved you with an everlasting love,” His punishment and discipline of His beloved children would be temporary. He said in His word that foreigners would invade the land and Israel would be their slaves. Eventually, they would even be expelled from the land and be dispersed throughout the nations of the world, but at some point in time, their punishment would be over and He would bring them back to the land He promised to their forefathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob as an everlasting possession.
The Invaders Who Conquered the Land of Israel
In 332 BCE the Macedonian Greeks under Alexander the Great conquered Israel, starting a long religious struggle that split the Jewish population into traditional religious Jews and Hellenized secular Jews.
In 165 BCE after the religious Maccabean Revolt, the independent Hasmonean Kingdom was established for a short period of time.
In 64 BCE the Romans conquered Israel, turning it into a Roman province. Although various empires ruled Israel and a variety of ethnicities lived in the land, the land of Israel was predominantly Jewish until the Jewish–Roman wars of 66–136 CE.
In 70 CE Roman emperors Vespasian and Titus crushed the Jewish revolt and conquered Judea and Jerusalem. The Romans destroyed the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and confiscated the Menorah and other Temple artifacts and brought them to Rome.
In 131 CE Emperor Hadrian named Jerusalem Aelia Capitolina and constructed a Temple of Jupiter on the former site of the Jewish temple. Jews were banned from Jerusalem and Roman Judaea was renamed Syria Palaestina, from which derived “Palestine” in English (from then on it was called Palestine until Israel became a nation in 1948).
In 132–136 CE the Simon Bar-Kochba revolt was crushed by Romans Julius Severus and Emperor Hadrian. The Romans expelled most of the Jews from the area and replaced it with the Roman province of Palestine. This was the beginning of the Jewish Diaspora.
Byzantine Period (324–638 CE)
Early in the 4th century, the Roman Empire was split and Constantinople (today Istanbul, Turkey) became the capital of the Byzantine Empire. Under the Byzantines, Christianity, dominated by the Greek Orthodox Church was the official religion. Judea was ruled by the Byzantine Empire and Jerusalem became a Christian city and Jews were banned from living there.
In 638 CE the Islamic Empire conquered Israel (Palestine).
In 691 CE the Muslims constructed the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount, and in 705 CE they constructed the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The Muslims established the Temple Mount as an Islamic holy site. The dome enshrined the Foundation Stone, the holiest site for Jews. Before Omar Abd al-Aziz died in 720 CE, he banned the Jews from worshipping on the Temple Mount.
In 1517 the Turkish Ottoman Empire conquered Palestine along with Egypt, parts of Arabia, parts of N. Africa, and in 1534, Mesopotamia (today’s Iraq) was added.
In 1917 the British conquered the area and ruled it under the British Mandate until 1948 when the Jewish State of Israel was established.
Under the foreign rulers, the land of Israel did not prosper. In 1264, after the Mongolians from the Crusaders conquered the land, most of the land was desolate, neglected and ravaged. Also in the 18th century, with the decline of the Ottoman Empire, the land of Palestine was in a state of widespread neglect. By the end of the 18th century, much of the land was owned by absentee landlords and leased to impoverished tenant farmers, and taxation was crippling. The land was plagued by swamps, sand and rocky places.
None of those foreign rulers stayed in the land to establish a nation. Arabs and Bedouin lived in the land. They lived in Palestine for about 1,300 years mainly as peasants but never became an independent nation in the land. This is in fulfillment of the prophecy in Leviticus 26:32:
“And I will make the land desolate so that your enemies who settle in it shall be desolate over there.”
The Lord fulfilled His Word and brought His people back from all corners of the world to the Land of Promise. In 1948 the state of Israel was established, and the land was called in the name He chose – Israel. It is prospering once more, according to His prophecy, and the desert is blooming. Today there are Jews in Israel from many countries of the world where they have been dispersed for over 2000 years. God is true to His word.
[Next: Read about Roman Rule in Israel]