We speak of Israel today and call it the Holy Land. It is just another name for the land where the chosen people of the Lord dwell. Those words are more accurate than we imagine. The land is indeed Holy, because the Lord considers it very important. “It is a land the Lord your God cares for; the eyes of the Lord your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.” (Deuteronomy 11:12)

In fact, the Lord says that it is His land. The Hebrews were not to sell it, because it was not theirs to sell. (Leviticus 25:23) In giving the law regarding the Sabbatical Year, the Lord emphasized that the year was for the land to rest. (Leviticus 25:4) The purpose of the seventy years of the Babylonian Captivity was to allow the land to have its Sabbath rests. (Second Chronicles 36:21) Apparently, the Jews had not observed the Sabbatical Year for 490 years!*

Asaph the psalmist called for the Lord to take action against those who have said, “Let us take possession of the pasturelands of God.” Asaph called for curses upon these men because Asaph knew who owns the land. (Psalm 83)

The Prophet Daniel described the “willful king” who we assume to be the Anti-Christ. Daniel foretells how the king will “divide the land for gain.” (Daniel 11:39) When you start fooling with the Lord’s land, you are treading on dangerous ground (pardon the pun). The “willful king” should take note of the importance to the Lord of the land and of Zion. “Whoever touches you (Zion) touches the apple of His eye.” (Zechariah 2:8)

Israel is constantly in the news. The Arabs desire to eliminate the Jewish people in order to possess their land. But it is not the Jews’ land. It is the Lord’s. And the root cause of the desire to possess the land is Satan, who said, “I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain.” (Isaiah 14:13b) Satan desires to be the king, enthroned on the Lord’s sacred mountain, Zion. This helps explain the actions of the United Nations, the European Union and even the United States, that we see in the news every day. Satan is the ruler of this world (Ephesians 6:12), and this world is trying to kick the people Israel out of the land of Israel.

It will not happen. Praise God, because He is in control!

* (70 years x 7 Sabbatical years = 490 years)