Gospel Prism

I was reading in Joshua 18-19 Israel’s allotment of land from the Lord. Of course, previous to this is Joshua’s conquest of the land, a removal of those who inhabited that land before the Israelites. The concept of land ownership is an indelible theme throughout the Bible, especially in regard to Israel. Moreover, this theme continues even to today, at least the modern nation of Israel believes so.

In light of today’s escalation of skirmishes to now virtually full-on battles, and then reading this text in Joshua, I can’t help but feel the imminent domain of biblical Israel to be the main impetus for Israel’s recent push into Lebanon. I know that Israel’s claim is that they are acting in self-defense, especially after the recent incursion by Hezbollah into Israel to capture two Israeli soldiers. But is this under the pretext of finally doing away with Israeli neighbors that hold parts of the Promised Land? Only Israel knows the answer to that one. But my hope is that the Christian postmillennialists will not all climb out of the woodwork to support Israel’s battles solely on the basis of faulty theological hermeneutics in dealing with modern-day Israel. It is a sheer exegetical fallacy when today’s Christians assumes modern Israel is the same as biblical Israel. Paul lets us know that not all Israelites and Israelis are true Israelites, when he says in Romans 9:6-8: “For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, 7and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 8This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.â€?