Anthony Reynolds has a new perspective on whose land Israel is. With Middle Eastern tensions running at an all-time high, Anthony sees a peaceful solution that has always been there, but no one appears to notice.
Category
🦄
CreativityTranscript
00:00Whose land? It's been very interesting looking at this. It's always fun coming here because
00:09you sit at home and you pray for the message, don't you, and see what comes. And I first
00:15thought of this theme in March. I sat down and made seven pages of scriptures because
00:21they just came to mind one after the other. So I put them down on the computer, but I
00:26thought that's too difficult. I'll leave that to someone more mature. And then I got
00:32an email from, I think it's Hugh Kitson. Have you ever heard of Hugh Kitson? He's done some
00:38films on Whose Land, and an email came through titled Whose Land. I thought I'd better print
00:45that and read it. And I got one scripture I'd missed on from that. At the very beginning,
00:49Isaiah 60 verse 12 was quoted by the late Derek Prince, who died in 2003. And he taught
00:59Isaiah 60 verse 12. The nation and kingdom which will not serve you, Israel, shall perish,
01:09and those nations shall be utterly ruined. Well, that's applicable to every nation in
01:15the world. And then he goes on about prayer partners and support and the need for Britain
01:22to repent and bless the Jews. But that applies to all the nations. He talked about Whose
01:31Land Part 1, a film, and they're making Whose Land Part 2, which will come out in September.
01:40There's much chatter in the United Nations, the International Court of so-called Justice,
01:47the ICJ, the media. The Archbishop of Canterbury has suggested that Israel should not occupy
01:55the land. Does he mean they should leave Israel? What does occupy mean? Well, you occupy your
02:04house. You bought the land. One of the Jews who was speaking recently about the situation
02:11declared up to 1947, every single Jew who came to Israel purchased his land from the
02:20people who were there. Who was there? Who was occupying it? The first census was carried
02:27out by the British Consulate in Israel in 1864. And the numbers I found were 8,000 Jews
02:37and 7,000 non-Jews in Israel in 1864. The population was tiny. In AD 70, at the time
02:49of Jesus, there were more like 70,000 Jews. But remember that in 135 AD the land was said
02:57to be ploughed to a depth of six feet. It was almost uninhabitable. So there were few
03:03Jews when Mark Twain went to Israel in single-storey dwellings. The land was covered in swamps
03:09and there were very few trees because the Romans cut them all down. At the time of Jesus
03:16there might have been 4 to 5 million in Israel, 10% in the towns and 90% on the land. So there's
03:25the picture of Israel up to 1947. Today, more recently, one of the Arabs living in the north
03:34of Israel was interviewed on a YouTube and he said, when the Jews came in in 1948, they came
03:43to my grandfather's house and said, would you like to stay or leave? You're free to do either.
03:49They said, we'll stay because they trusted the Jews more than their own Arabs and they've been
03:55prosperous ever since. And that's why there's 2 million Muslims in Israel who have good jobs,
04:02education, serve even in the Nesset and they are treated as equals. That doesn't happen in any of
04:10the Muslim countries around. They're better off under Israel and they can recognise it.
04:14So did Son of Hamas. You might have read the book Son of Hamas. It's very moving. The young
04:20man, his father was one of the five founders of Hamas. The young man was being trained to spy
04:25for Hamas and he saw that the Israelis treated people better than his own people. And he was
04:32taught from the age of 3 to say, death to Israel, death to America. And he saw that was wrong and he
04:39accepted Christ and got baptised in the Mediterranean and then he had to flee for
04:43his life to California. Son of Hamas. So what's going on here? There's so much discussion. So
04:53you talk to Jesus. What's your answer? Whose land? And I realise Jesus has two types of answer.
04:59Either he says it is written and he picks out the most perfect scripture. Have you noticed that?
05:05It's always the most perfect scripture of all the Bible. He'll give you a one-liner. It is written
05:10and that's the answer. That will do. Or he'll ask a question in return to make you think. And I
05:16thought he asked me the question, why are you asking? Why have you got to ask whose land? Do
05:22you ask whose land England is or whose land your house is? Isn't it fairly obvious who is occupying
05:30a plot of land? Why are you asking? Because the world is taking sides one way or the other. Well
05:38there's a little organisation that spoke at Chesham a couple of years ago called Solutions
05:43Not Sides. Sides is not going to bring peace. Two states won't bring peace. There are different
05:52states around since the carving up of 1922. But it didn't solve the problem of those who want all
06:00the land for themselves. The Jews would like a bit of it for their own homeland.
06:07So my pages come to ten pages of scriptures and it's very hard to condense. Let's see where we
06:14get to. I shall only quote a little of it, don't worry, won't be here till midnight.
06:18But I think Jesus might have homed in for his one-liner on Leviticus 25, 23 when he said,
06:28or the Lord said, through Moses in Leviticus 25, 23, the land shall not be sold permanently for
06:37the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me. So there's your answer,
06:44the land is the Lord's. Well of course the whole earth is his. The whole earth. In fact he says
06:51somewhere the land and the sea is mine. I can't find the reference, never mind.
06:59Then Leviticus 26 is the blessings and the curses. If you obey, you have the blessings.
07:10But if, it's always worth underlining but if, isn't it? There's a but if after every promise.
07:15Leviticus 26, 32. When you disobey, I will lay waste the land. We thought that the Babylonians
07:23laid waste to the land but the Bible says, I will lay waste the land. God takes full responsibility
07:30for laying waste the land. Leviticus 26, 40. But if they will confess their sins and the sins of
07:40their fathers. The prophets knew these scriptures and understood them so well. They are the heroes,
07:47aren't they, of the Old Testament. And Peter said to the unbelieving Jews, you are heirs of the
07:54prophets and of the promises. We are heirs of the prophets. We can read as they did and understand
08:00these words. Daniel 9. Daniel confessed his sins and the sins of his fathers. He recognised the
08:08exile was because they had disobeyed. And for disobedience, you'd be exiled. But I searched
08:15exile. I found the word there 76 times. The Jews were very slow to heed the warning of the prophets.
08:21They didn't heed the warnings. So Habakkuk, Isaiah, Jeremiah went on warning. Repent or exile.
08:30Repent or exile. But they didn't listen. And then Leviticus 26, 42. God promises, I will remember
08:43my covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and I will remember the land. God hasn't forgotten the
08:50land. Where shall I go next? I think I'll jump to some interesting comments I found by people of
09:03the past. John Owen, 1649. I think he was one of Cromwell's men, that period. 1649, just before
09:13Isaac Watts was born. He wrote, the bringing home of his ancient people to be one fold with the
09:23fullness of the Gentiles is the prophecy. The bringing home of his ancient people. He saw in 1649
09:31that these dispersed Jews around the world were going back to their own land. That's just before
09:37that census when there were so few people there. Israel was so empty. Reminds me of a joke actually.
09:46Three and a half thousand years ago, Moses was there waiting to go into the land. And a Jew,
09:53an Israeli, told this at a conference with Muslims, and I think it was a UN meeting.
09:59He said, the story goes that Moses, when he got the water out of the rock, was able to wash his
10:04clothes. And he put them down on the bank of the water. When he got out, an Arab was next to him.
10:13Some people laughed, but the Muslim president was furious. He said, we weren't even there then.
10:21To which the Israelis said, now that we've agreed on that, I think it's very clever.
10:26They were there first by some 2,000 years. Not that that means anything today, because, well,
10:35we keep turning these things over in our minds as we try to get something out of it.
10:39John Wesley, 1700s, 100 years later, John Wesley wrote, so many prophecies refer to this grand
10:47event, the restoration of Israel, that it is surprising any Christian can doubt it.
10:54And these are greatly confirmed by the wonderful preservation of the Jews as a distinct people
11:01to this day. When it is accomplished, it will be so strong a demonstration of both the Old and
11:08the New Testaments and their revelations, as will doubtless convince many thousands of deists,
11:15God-believers, in countries nominally Christian. John Wesley.
11:23In about 18, shortly before 1815, Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon heard Jews in Paris
11:33saying, next year in Jerusalem. He asked, what are they talking about? How long ago did they
11:39leave Jerusalem? 1,800 years. And Napoleon said, in that case, surely they will return,
11:47because of their faith in returning. I didn't know Napoleon was a prophet.
11:54Charles Spurgeon, 1864, four years before that census, preached on the restoration and conversion
12:03of the Jews. Spurgeon. There will be a native government again. There will be the form of a
12:11body politic. A state shall be incorporated, and a king shall reign. Well, that's still future,
12:18isn't it, when Jesus returns? Israel has now become alienated from her own land.
12:26Her sons, though they can never forget the sacred dust of Palestine, yet die at a hopeless distance
12:33from her consecrated shores. But it shall not be so forever, for her sons shall again rejoice in
12:40her. Her land shall be called Beulah, which means married. Isaiah 62, 4. For as a young man marries
12:49a virgin, so shall her sons marry her. Quotes, I will place you in your own land, is God's promise
12:57to them. Straight from the Bible. God bless him, Charles Spurgeon. And finally, Bishop J.C. Ryle,
13:06in 1868. He preached on scattered Israel to be regathered. Quotes, however great the difficulties
13:16surrounding many parts of unfulfilled prophecy, two points appear to my own mind to stand out
13:24as plainly as if written by a sunbeam. One of these points is the second personal advent,
13:30or the second coming, of our Lord Jesus Christ before the millennium.
13:36The other of these points is the future literal gathering of the Jewish nation and their
13:42restoration to their own land. Out of the 16 prophets of the Old Testament, there are at least
13:4910 in which the gathering and restoration of the Jews in the latter days are expressly mentioned.
13:57Did you get that? At least 10 of the prophets clearly predict the return of the Jews.
14:02And this went on to quote 10 quotes from those 10 of the 16 prophets, concluding,
14:10I believe there is one common remark that applies to them all. They all point to a time which is
14:16yet future. They all predict the final gathering of the Jewish nation from the four quarters of
14:23the globe and their restoration to their own land. I ask you then to settle it firmly in your mind
14:31that when God says a thing shall be done, we ought to believe it. Brilliant, J.C. Ryle.
14:38And, of course, it's been fulfilled in our own land, in our own lifetime. For those of us who
14:43were born before 1948, I was born in 45. So there's a number of relevant scriptures
14:52and there's a lot about the land. So sometimes it's quite interesting to take the first.
14:58The first reference is often very significant. I saw something I hadn't seen before. Maybe you
15:03all have, but I hadn't seen how big this was. Genesis 12 is the famous promise to Abraham,
15:14which you know, I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you I will curse or destroy
15:21and all peoples will be blessed through you. All peoples, all nations.
15:27And at that time, the Canaanites were in the land
15:30and the Lord appeared to Abraham and said, Genesis 12, 6,
15:35to your offspring, I give this land to your descendants. Now, just hold on to that phrase.
15:42That's once. Genesis 13,
15:48verse 15, for all the land which you see, I give to you and your descendants forever.
15:56Got that? You and your descendants. That's the second time. That's Genesis 13.
16:01Five years later, Genesis 15, I think it's five years later, when the Lord makes the covenant
16:07with Abraham saying to your descendants, I have given this land from the river of Egypt to the
16:14great river, the Euphrates. Got that? From the river of Egypt, the Nile to the Euphrates. That's
16:21big. That's the third time. And it comes again in Genesis 17,
16:33verse 8, the whole land of Canaan, which is defined as from Euphrates to the Nile,
16:41where you are now an alien, I will give you as an everlasting possession to you and your
16:46descendants after you, and I will be their God. Now, we all know it goes on to promise the land
16:52to the descendants of Isaac and Jacob. But hold on, we've missed something.
16:59Who are the descendants of Abraham? Who was his first child? Ishmael. Well, yes, so what?
17:08But at that very moment, I was finishing a book, The Grace Outpouring, about the place in
17:14Pembrokeshire, that's a Christian retreat that's been a blessing to many for the last 20 or 30
17:19years. I thought it's following on from that wonderful intercessor, Rhys Howells, who was an
17:26intercessor during the war. And the last page of the book, he's giving thanks to the Lord for the
17:32Jews being able to get back to their land, continue to pray for them. And he says, and pray for the
17:39Arabs, because the locals there were not being invaded, but there was an influx of people,
17:45rather less than we've had in the last 20 years, I might add, but an invasion of people. And so he
17:52said, and pray for them too. Well, the Lord looks down and sees lost Jews and lost Muslims who don't
17:57know him. And we've been going through Ezekiel 70 times, then they will know, then you will know.
18:04God is concerned for the Jews and the non-Jews, we're all his creation.
18:10And we know we've left out the Arabs, the Muslims in all this.
18:15And then when I've been talking to Muslims twice or three times, I've shared with Muslim men,
18:21Genesis 17, because they didn't know it. They didn't know the blessing in the Bible for their
18:26Ishmael. They don't know what it says, but Genesis 17 has this piece, if I can find it,
18:34here we are, Genesis 17, 18. This is where God said to Abraham, because you see, Abraham clearly
18:43loved Ishmael, his firstborn son, clearly loved him. And so when the blessing is made to him and
18:50down to Isaac, Abraham said to God, Genesis 17, 18, if only Ishmael might live under your blessing,
19:00because he loves Ishmael. And what does God say?
19:04Verse 20, as for Ishmael, I have heard you. I will surely bless him. I will make him fruitful
19:12and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of 12 rulers,
19:17and I will make him into a great nation. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac,
19:24whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.
19:29When he had finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him.
19:36So there's a blessing on Ishmael, which, as I said, Muslims don't know, nor do they know
19:43in chapter 25, Genesis 25, you've got this little phrase throughout Genesis. This is the account of
19:5110 times. This is the account of Ishmael, and it lists the names of his 12 sons.
19:59And it says his descendants settled in the area from Hevelah to Shur,
20:03which is down near the border of Egypt, which is why the Amalekites, who were his descendants,
20:10were the first tribe to oppose the Jews in the Exodus when they left Egypt.
20:16It then says, and they lived in hostility towards all their brothers,
20:22but they're not supposed to, lived in hostility. And then I thought, yes, brothers tend to do that,
20:31Cain and Abel. It's happened since the beginning. But we're told, love the Lord your God and love
20:37your neighbour, and of course your brother. If you have something against your brother,
20:40sort it out. And so you look at the place today and you think, well, that's very interesting.
20:48God's left it to both of them. And they were quite close to one another. When Abraham died,
20:57Ishmael and Isaac buried Abraham. They weren't far apart, but they were in hostility to one another.
21:03The King James Version says that he will live in the presence of his brothers.
21:10I can't find the scripture. I've got too many. But that'll do. He lives in their presence.
21:17And they're in the presence of their brothers now, but they're still at war with each other.
21:21Isn't that interesting? So is there a two-state solution in the Bible? We're all to be one.
21:28Now, we learned this wonderfully at Mount Carmel. We went there for a two-week course
21:34in 2006. And there were four pastors at the Mount Carmel Assembly. You might have heard of it.
21:41Or Carmel, the Light of Carmel. It was a congregation of about 400,
21:46of lots of nationalities, founded by David Davis, American, and his co-pastor Peter Sukihira,
21:54who was a Japanese-American-Israeli, who both have Jewish-American wives, so they made Aliyah.
22:01And they started a rehab place at Mount Carmel that became the church.
22:06Two of their first converts, disciples, were Pastor Yusuf Dakhwa, a local Arab guitarist,
22:15musician, and Pastor Denis Sayegh. He had a lovely story, how he got converted. He was a
22:22Jew of the Jews. His parents were expelled from North Africa, along with 850 exiles from North
22:30Africa who went to America or Israel in 1948. And this young man was doing his national service,
22:37and he saw an attractive American blonde and said, come for a drink. She said, no.
22:43He saw her the next night and said, come for a drink. She said, no, I have to get up early
22:46tomorrow to pray. Good night. And he saw her a third time and said, why did you say no to me?
22:53I thought he thought he was cool. And she said, because you don't read your scriptures,
22:58go and read your Psalm 22 and your Isaiah 53 and come back to me. He went home and read them,
23:06found the girl again and said, I found my Messiah. She said, come to Bible study.
23:11And he became a pastor. He told that story to us, a group of about 100. And then the
23:18local guitarist, Arab man, Yusuf Dakwa, told his story. His mother was a Roman Catholic
23:25of sorts. Father was nothing. He loved music. He played the guitar. He wanted to join a group,
23:30and he found a group of Jews, young men. And after some months, he discovered they believed
23:35in Yeshua. Well, he didn't, because in 1948, his parents left their farm. The local Arabians,
23:45local Palestinian Arabs, told him, you leave your farm. We'll drive out the Jews. You'll get
23:49it back. So they left their farm, and they didn't get it back. So he didn't like Jews,
23:54but he liked music. And he came to believe. So now they've got a congregation that speaks
24:00local Arabic and speaks the local Hebrew, as well as English and the Russian language.
24:04That's Mount Carmel. So these men then quoted Ephesians 2. One new man out of the two.
24:10This is the answer for Israel. It is the only answer that will bring peace,
24:15when the Orthodox and the Druze, not so much them as the other Muslims, come to Christ.
24:21They said, we see hope, because Jacob and Esau, two brothers who were choosing to live apart like
24:29in two states, they came back together. God brought them together. God told Jacob to go back,
24:37didn't he? And he met up with Esau, and they embraced one another. So the Jews in Mount
24:44Carmel said, we think that could be prophetic. We see Muslims coming to Jesus more quickly
24:52than the Orthodox Jews, who will often campaign outside a free church and throw stones at the
24:58windows during their meetings on the Shabbat. So it goes on. Whose land? The answer is,
25:05it's the Lord's. How are we to live? Jesus clearly wants one state, all under him. And
25:12until we are all under him, we won't have peace. A two-state solution is a nonsense. It's been
25:18proposed five times at least. The Arabs always say no, because their Quran doesn't allow them
25:24to say yes. So when it comes to the crunch, they all refuse every two-state solution,
25:30and probably always will. So why any Westerner backs it? Because they're ignorant of the
25:35scriptures and don't understand the Lord's will is that brothers learn to dwell together in unity.
25:41Psalm 133. How wonderful it is when brothers learn from Jesus to dwell together in unity.
25:49But it's interesting that actually Ishmael has also promised this land, and they do have that
25:54land from the Euphrates to the Nile. And how much of it have the Jews got? And they're supposed to
26:00be sharing it. And if they could learn to live together, everybody would. So the Lord has fulfilled
26:06it. That land is in the hands of the descendants of Abraham. I find that fascinating. But they're
26:13brothers who are supposed to live together, and they haven't learned to do so. We have this
26:18saying in Psalm 122, I think, verse 6, pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
26:24But we all do that, but where's the peace? Actually, Jerusalem is quite peaceful. It's
26:29the rest of Israel that's under attack. But anyway, you know, there's the scripture,
26:33pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Well, yes, I think prayers were led by the Spirit.
26:39I'm sorry. I believe I'm right in saying that Israel is the only country in the whole of the
26:46world that actually has God in its name. El Salvador appears to, but the El in El Salvador
26:55means something else. Like The Salvador or something, yes. That's the thought. Israel,
26:59yes. El being God. So when you see the size of that land, 300 million Muslims around little
27:08tiny Israel, and few of them are Christians, it's a miracle they've survived these wars.
27:15You just watch and pray. Well, I also went a bit further on the phrase, all the nations.
27:21Most nations are against Israel. I think I thought on October the 7th, they should have sent in
27:28Bibles and bread and not bombs to say, here's what's doing good, you're doing bad. And the
27:34world might have seen the difference between the Israelis and the Palestinians and Hamas.
27:39Instead, they're killing each other and the world is turning against Israel. Oh,
27:43those poor Arabs, they've got nothing. Yeah, that's their fault. Because they had a prosperous
27:47land when it was given to them in 2005. Gaza was prosperous and they've ruined it. And we're
27:54sending money there all the time. And what do they use it for? It's such a catastrophe,
27:58the way the UN has behaved. But so this phrase, all the nations, it's in seven places at the
28:04end of Zechariah, when all the nations turn against Israel. It hasn't happened yet. You
28:11look at the scriptures that are precisely to be fulfilled before Jesus returns. And that's one,
28:16all the nations will turn against them. And then there'll be a mark of the beast,
28:20that which you can't buy and sell. There'll be a hundred pound hailstones. There are a number
28:25of things to come before Jesus returns and the 1000 years of peace begins. Until then,
28:30you'll have trouble. Now, I thought I'd end it with Luke chapter 21.
28:35Because it's in Matthew, Mark and Luke, as you know, these end time words.
28:40And it says so much when you get to the words of Jesus to sum it up. Luke 21, verse eight,
28:47watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name claiming I am he,
28:53and the time is near. Do not follow them. When you hear of wars and revolutions,
29:00do not be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away.
29:06Then he said to them, nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will
29:12be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences, COVID-19, in various places and fearful events
29:21and great signs from heaven. So Jesus is not surprised. He said it's going to happen.
29:29Why are we surprised when what Jesus said would happen does happen? Wars will continue until the
29:35end. How sad that we are to just, well, he says later in that chapter, when you see these things
29:43beginning to happen, lift up your heads because your salvation is drawing near. So we have some
29:49joy, not in this life, but in what we see beyond it. And that connects with Hebrews 12, 2, where
29:57Jesus, no, the writer of the Hebrews says that Jesus, for the joy set before him, endured the
30:05cross in shame. It said he endured the cross in shame and got right back up to work again
30:10after three days. So if Jesus could endure the cross in shame because of the hope beyond the
30:17grave, we should have our joy, not in this life. It's difficult, but in what's beyond,
30:24what's beyond the resurrection, beyond this life. And that's where our joy should come from.
30:29It's wonderful how some of these persecuted Christians around the world radiate such joy.
30:34They're not expecting an easy life. They're looking forward to the next. And we should
30:39look forward to that. The older we get, Barry. We should do, shouldn't we? We should wish I did.
30:45But no, we're so fixed on this life. That's poor little me. So lift up your heads because your
30:51salvation is drawing now. So Lord, we thank you for this time together. Thank you very much. Thank
30:56you for your holy word, your holy spirit, your holy servant, Jesus, and everything, everything
31:05about you that is so good and precious. And now we ask you to give us your grace and peace and
31:13lead us by your spirit this coming week and help us to abide in fellowship with you and to remember
31:19you morning, noon, and night as our Lord, saviour, and friend. Amen.