I usually never make promises to others because I’m always afraid that I’ll fail to keep whatever it is or, even worse, forget I made a promise. So that word in either its noun or verb form, is absent from my lexicon. Of course, jokingly,I might use it with another person, but never would I ask someone to commit a future date with me or vice versa. Oh, I know, someone’s going to say, What about marriage? Well, okay, there’s once when making a future promise is okay, but in that case, it’s both people making the promise, not just one. In the bible, god made promises to the Israelites after Moses led them out of Egypt. He told Moses the land they were to inherit would be flowing with milk and honey (Ex 3:8,17 Deut 26:9, 27:3) with the Deuteronomy passages affirming the promise as they were entering the land. did god ever keep that promise?
Well, yes, according to the bible, god in fact did keep his promise to Israel and in Joshua 21:43-45 declares:
43 So the Lord gave Israel all the land he had sworn to give their ancestors, and they took possession of it and settled there. 44 The Lord gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their ancestors. Not one of their enemieswithstood them; the Lord gave all their enemies into their hands. 45 Not one of all the Lord’s good promises to Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.
And a map:
So why is it that the Israel of today doesn’t look like the the map of the promise made? Well, it didn’t take long for Israel to fall away from god (it’s in their own book) and so god punished them, again and again, eventually, dispersing them from the “promised land”. A miracle (ahem!) occurred in 1948 though where the world decided the Jews needed their own country and since the bible indicated this land was in the British protectorate known as Palestine, that’s where the Jews should have their homeland. From then on Israel has had to fight to keep their country and in fact, with the help of the United States, has been able to extends that territory a little.
But none of what occurred in 1948 had anything to do with a promise of god. Why? God already kept his promise way back in Joshua. How many times does god have to keep a promise before some people feel assured that indeed, the promise has been kept? Does every time the Israelis have an issue with a neighbor do we, the U.S. have to step in t help god keep his promise to them? Think about how silly that sounds. It did as I was writing it.
The promise was kept. The people the promise was made to broke their covenant with the promise-giver. The god of the Israelites does not owe these people anything more than what he already provided. We, (the west) certainly do not owe anything to these people as they cannot seem to even want to get along with the majority of their neighbors without the stick of the United States. Could modern Israel continue to exist without our help. One would believe that after nearly 80 years, they could stand on their own. It’s time for someone to tell them, no more.