“Our ultimate goal is the achievement of full normalization in the Middle East [and] the establishment of a Palestinian state," said Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov.
Dear Russia, I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but by supporting the Palestinians, you are butting heads with YHVH, who is the God of gods and the father of Christ Jesus. Allow me to show you what God's Word has to say about the identity and destiny of the Palestinians.
Arab Squatters
Simply put, there is no unique, indigenous people-group called "Palestinians." Modern Palestinians are a mixed group of Arabs, Egyptians, and a smattering of other Middle Easterners, most of whose families were not occupying the desert-like land of Canaan before the Jews returned during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1897, Mark Twain described the country as desolate, given over to weeds, and nearly devoid of human beings.
So where did all the so-called Palestinians come from?
Palestinian leaders can't get their origin stories straight. Some, like Yasser Arafat, have claimed descent from the Jebusites, an ancient Canaanite people. Others have claimed descent from the Philistines. Mahmoud Abbas even claimed seven thousand (!) years of ownership of Canaan, which I suppose would mean that his ancient ancestors somehow survived Noah's Flood despite not being on the ark.
Unfortunately, archeology and historical records don't back up any of those claims. In fact, recent DNA testing on Philistine remains reveal that they came from Europe and have no ancestral link to the current occupants of the Levant. Likewise, scholars have found no Palestinian connection to the Jebusites, explaining instead that the Palestinians are more closely related to the inhabitants of the Arabian peninsula (Cline, Jerusalem Besieged, pp. 33-5).
The first 1964 PLO Charter states that “Palestine is an Arab homeland bound by strong Arab national ties to the rest of the Arab Countries and which together form the great Arab homeland.”
A scholar named Joan Peters calculated through rigorous historical research that only 141,000 Muslims inhabited Canaan in 1882. By the time that the PLO was founded, Palestinian Muslims numbered in the millions—but due to migration, not natural population growth. Regular, compounding population growth would have resulted in less than a million inhabitants. It was the return of Jewish families and Jewish wealth to the region, that drew the Arab migrants.
Those few Arabs who were settled in Canaan during the 1800s nevertheless did not have a legitimate claim to the land, because, as we will see from ancient scripture, God had already given the Levant to the descendants of Seth.
So where did all the so-called Palestinians come from?
Palestinian leaders can't get their origin stories straight. Some, like Yasser Arafat, have claimed descent from the Jebusites, an ancient Canaanite people. Others have claimed descent from the Philistines. Mahmoud Abbas even claimed seven thousand (!) years of ownership of Canaan, which I suppose would mean that his ancient ancestors somehow survived Noah's Flood despite not being on the ark.
Unfortunately, archeology and historical records don't back up any of those claims. In fact, recent DNA testing on Philistine remains reveal that they came from Europe and have no ancestral link to the current occupants of the Levant. Likewise, scholars have found no Palestinian connection to the Jebusites, explaining instead that the Palestinians are more closely related to the inhabitants of the Arabian peninsula (Cline, Jerusalem Besieged, pp. 33-5).
The first 1964 PLO Charter states that “Palestine is an Arab homeland bound by strong Arab national ties to the rest of the Arab Countries and which together form the great Arab homeland.”
A scholar named Joan Peters calculated through rigorous historical research that only 141,000 Muslims inhabited Canaan in 1882. By the time that the PLO was founded, Palestinian Muslims numbered in the millions—but due to migration, not natural population growth. Regular, compounding population growth would have resulted in less than a million inhabitants. It was the return of Jewish families and Jewish wealth to the region, that drew the Arab migrants.
Those few Arabs who were settled in Canaan during the 1800s nevertheless did not have a legitimate claim to the land, because, as we will see from ancient scripture, God had already given the Levant to the descendants of Seth.
Progenitors
Hebrew scriptures provide the origin stories of most of the people-groups that dwelt throughout the Arabian peninsula. The population can be divided into three major groups: The descendants of Ishmael, the descendants of Joktan, and the descendants of Esau.
Ishmael was the eldest son of Israel's patriarch, Abraham. Whereas Isaac was Abraham's son through the holy promise of God, Ishmael was the product of profane human will. After the birth of Isaac, Abraham's wife, Sarah, had Ishmael and his mother sent away from them. Thereafter, Ishmael dwelt in the wilderness of Paran (Gen. 21:20-21), which is in western Arabia.
Ishmael had twelve sons who all proliferated and became the heads of twelve tribes (Gen. 25:12-16). (These are said to include the Aneza, Ruwalla, Feedan, Sinai, Bani, and Howietat tribes.) No doubt those sons were told about God's grace towards Ishmael when Adonai rescued him from death in the wilderness. No doubt they also inherited the bitterness of Ishmael at being exiled and losing his birthright.
After Sarah's death, Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah, and she bore him several sons (Gen. 25:1-4). Eventually, the offspring of Abraham occupied the entirety of northern Arabia, as recorded in the Book of Jubilees:
Ishmael was the eldest son of Israel's patriarch, Abraham. Whereas Isaac was Abraham's son through the holy promise of God, Ishmael was the product of profane human will. After the birth of Isaac, Abraham's wife, Sarah, had Ishmael and his mother sent away from them. Thereafter, Ishmael dwelt in the wilderness of Paran (Gen. 21:20-21), which is in western Arabia.
Ishmael had twelve sons who all proliferated and became the heads of twelve tribes (Gen. 25:12-16). (These are said to include the Aneza, Ruwalla, Feedan, Sinai, Bani, and Howietat tribes.) No doubt those sons were told about God's grace towards Ishmael when Adonai rescued him from death in the wilderness. No doubt they also inherited the bitterness of Ishmael at being exiled and losing his birthright.
After Sarah's death, Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah, and she bore him several sons (Gen. 25:1-4). Eventually, the offspring of Abraham occupied the entirety of northern Arabia, as recorded in the Book of Jubilees:
And Ishmael and his sons, and the sons of Keturah and their sons, went together and dwelt from Paran to the entering in of Babylon in all the land which is towards the East facing the desert. And these mingled with each other, and their name was called Arabs, and Ishmaelites. (Jubilees 20:12-13)
Leaping backwards through history from the time of Abraham, we find that Joktan, son of Eber (from whence we get 'Hebrew'), fathered a gaggle of sons whose offspring spread out across all of southern Arabia:
Joktan became the father of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, Obal, Abimael, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were the sons of Joktan. Their dwelling extended from Mesha, as you go toward Sephar, the mountain of the east. (Genesis 10:26-30)
Last, and definitely least, are the sons of Esau, the brother of Jacob/Israel. He married foreign woman, even wicked Canaanites (Jub. 25:1), and raised his family in the region of Mt. Seir, north of Paran:
Esau lived in the hill country of Seir. Esau is Edom. This is the history of the generations of Esau the father of the Edomites in the hill country of Seir. (Gen. 36:8-9)
Seir sits near the northwestern corner of Arabia
Esau also married a granddaughter of Ishmael (Gen. 28:9).
Esau became known as Edom, which means "red," because he sold his birthright for a bowl of red lentil stew. Soon thereafter, Esau also lost the patriarchal blessing to Jacob. His father Isaac then prophesied over Esau that his progeny would dwell in the desert and serve the offspring of Jacob until some distant future time, when they would rebel and throw off the yoke of servitude (Gen. 27:39-40).
The subjection of Esau by Jacob occurred after Esau's family gathered an army and attacked Jacob's family at Hebron (see Jubilees chapters 37-38). As a result of the war, Esau was slain and his sons were put under tribute. Thus, the bad blood between Esau and Israel goes back thousands of years.
Esau became known as Edom, which means "red," because he sold his birthright for a bowl of red lentil stew. Soon thereafter, Esau also lost the patriarchal blessing to Jacob. His father Isaac then prophesied over Esau that his progeny would dwell in the desert and serve the offspring of Jacob until some distant future time, when they would rebel and throw off the yoke of servitude (Gen. 27:39-40).
The subjection of Esau by Jacob occurred after Esau's family gathered an army and attacked Jacob's family at Hebron (see Jubilees chapters 37-38). As a result of the war, Esau was slain and his sons were put under tribute. Thus, the bad blood between Esau and Israel goes back thousands of years.
The Common Denominator
What do all three of these aforementioned people-groups have in common? They are all Semitic (i.e., descended from Shem).
According to the Book of Jubilees, Shem's family was given the land of Canaan by divine providence.
According to the Book of Jubilees, Shem's family was given the land of Canaan by divine providence.
The Assignment of Territories
Following the Flood, after some time had passed and the earth had recovered, the sons of Noah decided to divvy up between themselves the inhabitable regions of the earth. They did so by casting lots: Noah held the strips of material whereupon the portions were written, and the sons each randomly took a lot from him. This method left the decision up to Noah's God.
Noah was pleased with the results, as Shem ended up with the region that would later be known as the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey:
Noah was pleased with the results, as Shem ended up with the region that would later be known as the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey:
And Noah rejoiced that this portion came forth for Shem and for his sons, and he remembered all that he had spoken with his mouth in prophecy; for he had said: "Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and may the Lord dwell in the dwelling of Shem." (Jub. 8:18)
Due to the blessing of Noah, Shem had received the choicest portion of the earth, which included Mt. Zion, the earthly shadow of YHVH God's heavenly dwelling-place. Unfortunately, the Semites were deprived of their "happily ever after" by Canaan, son of Ham.
Canaan's territory was supposed to be in Africa, but that assignment displeased him. Instead of bowing to Adonai's will, he rebelled and took his family to live in the Levant:
Canaan's territory was supposed to be in Africa, but that assignment displeased him. Instead of bowing to Adonai's will, he rebelled and took his family to live in the Levant:
And Canaan saw the land of Lebanon to the river of Egypt that it was very good, and he went not into the land of his inheritance to the west—that is, to the sea—and he [instead] dwelt in the land of Lebanon, eastward and westward from the border of Jordan and from the border of the sea.
And Ham, his father, and Cush, and Mizraim, his brothers, said unto him: "Thou hast settled in a land which. is not thine, and which did not fall to us by lot: do not do so; for if thou dost do so, thou and thy sons will fall in the land and be accursed through sedition; for by sedition ye have settled, and by sedition will thy children fall, and thou shalt be rooted out for ever. Dwell not in the dwelling of Shem; for to Shem and to his sons did it come by their lot. Cursed art thou, and cursed shalt thou be beyond all the sons of Noah, by the curse by which we bound ourselves by an oath in the presence of the holy judge, and in the presence of Noah our father." But he did not hearken unto them, and dwelt in the land of Lebanon from Hamath to the entering of Egypt, he and his sons until this day. And for this reason that land is named Canaan. (Jub. 10:29-34)
This was no small problem for the sons of Shem. They would not be able to simply kick the Canaanites off their land, because many of Canaan's offspring were giants. The recessive genes for giantism survived the Flood through Ham's wife, and were passed to his son Canaan, thereafter to manifest among some of the Amalekites, Amorites, Anakim, Avvim, Emim, Horites, Zuzim, and others. It would have taken an act of Almighty God to remove these giant-led clans from the Levant.
Here's the point: even though Joktan, Ishmael, and Esau were all Semites, and thus heirs to the Levant, they were completely impotent to possess it. Thus, the Land never really belonged to them.
Here's the point: even though Joktan, Ishmael, and Esau were all Semites, and thus heirs to the Levant, they were completely impotent to possess it. Thus, the Land never really belonged to them.
God's Land
Through Noah, on the day when Ham sinned against his father, God proclaimed a prophetic curse against Canaan and a prophetic blessing upon Shem. It is written:
And he blessed Shem, and said: "Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and God shall dwell in the dwelling of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant." (Jub. 7:11-12; cf. Gen. 9:26-27)
Did you catch that? Noah proclaimed that God would dwell in Shem's homeland. Since God later sovereignly chose which portion of the earth went to Shem, it became clear that the entire middle of the earth was God's land (see 2 Chr. 7:20; Jer. 2:7; Ezek. 38:16; et al.). It is YHVH's right to give any of his land to whomever he so choses among the sons of Shem—and so he has. He chose Jacob:
Behold, YHVH stood above it, and said, “I am YHVH, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac. I will give the land whereon you lie to you and to your offspring.... Behold, I am with you, and will keep you, wherever you go, and will bring you again into this land. For I will not leave you, until I have done that which I have spoken of to you.” (Gen. 28:13-15)
As detailed throughout the Torah and the books of Joshua, Judges, and Kings, YHVH supernaturally empowered the descendants of Jacob to defeat the clans of giants who were squatting on his land. That divine selection and anointing of Israel to accomplish the impossible leaves no doubt as to what people-group should be in possession of the Levant today.
Conclusion
The Arabs are welcome to have any of the land that was assigned to Shem, other than the land of Canaan, which was promised to Jacob. Yet they aren't content with their own portion, despite its wealth of oil and other natural resources. They stubbornly demand to have the choice portion that God rightfully gave to Israel.
Chalk it up to the ancestral memory of perceived marginalization, or whatever reason you so choose, but the fact is that the Arabs covet what was never theirs. In this way, the Arab Palestinians are no different from Canaan, son of Ham: they will not abide by what YHVH has decreed.
You leaders of Russia would do well to read the oracle of Psalm 83 and consider, knowing the outcome, which side you wish to be on.
Chalk it up to the ancestral memory of perceived marginalization, or whatever reason you so choose, but the fact is that the Arabs covet what was never theirs. In this way, the Arab Palestinians are no different from Canaan, son of Ham: they will not abide by what YHVH has decreed.
You leaders of Russia would do well to read the oracle of Psalm 83 and consider, knowing the outcome, which side you wish to be on.
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