Marry The Land

“And they will return from the land of the enemy.” (Jeremiah 31:16 NASB)

Basically the ‘lands’ and the ‘nations’ from which the Jewish people are returning to the Promised Land for over a hundred years now, are: the land of the enemy. Deep down the nations and the countries hate the Jewish people and Israel. There are not ‘neutral’ but are ‘the enemy’. Time and again this hatred will flare up. Verbally and physically. The only safe place for the Jewish people is Israel. And Praise God – Baruch Hashem – the time has finally come that they are able to ‘return’, to the Land of Israel.

Who is the owner of the Land of Israel? Israel? No. The Lord God is the Owner of the Land. Leviticus 25:23 NIV “The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is Mine and you reside in My land as foreigners and strangers.” He is the Owner of the Land. Only He has the right to give it or rent it out to people. Even Israel has no right to give this Land away – for whatever reason – or to sell it, or part of it forever, for they do not own the Land. He is the Land-Lord, the rightful Owner. Israel is allowed to live in it. Because He has decided to give it to them, as ‘foreigners and strangers’.

He gave the Land to Israel. Psalm 105:8-11NIV ”He remembers His Covenant forever, the promise He made, for a thousand generations, the Covenant He made with Abraham, the oath He swore to Isaac. He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree, to Israel as an everlasting Covenant: “To you I will give the land of Canaan as the portion you will inherit.” When other strangers conquered the Land, occupied it for almost 2000 years, the Land became utterly forsaken and desolate. It was ‘possessed’ by others, but not loved or taken care for by them. Occupied territory.

Utterly forsaken. Until the Jewish people started to return, to fulfil the prophetic Promise: “You shall no longer be termed “Forsaken”, nor shall your land any more be termed “Desolate”. But you shall be called Hephzibah [“My delight is in her”], and your land Beulah [“Married”]. For the Lord delights in you, and [to Him] your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a virgin, so shall your sons marry you. And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.”

(Isaiah 62:4-5 NKJV) It is a love-relationship between the Jewish people and the land of Israel. Love and marriage go together like a horse and carriage. The Jewish people are marrying the Land of Israel. And in the background God is marrying the Land of Israel and the City of Jerusalem. To bless the world.

For centuries Western nations occupied and colonized big parts of land all over the world. To possess and plunder them for their own benefit. To give the name ‘colonists’ to these pious Jews who return to rightfully own the Land that God has given to them is a ‘gotspe’ – as it is called in the Dutch language, in English ‘chutzpah’. An unbelievable brutality. Like someone who murdered his father and mother and then asks the judge to be lenient to him because he is an orphan. The truth upside down. Projecting your own feelings of guilt upon someone else.

Isaiah 43:5-7 NIV “Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’ Bring My sons from afar and My daughters from the ends of the earth—everyone who is called by My name, whom I created for My glory, whom I formed and made.” The Jewish people are not brought back by Almighty God to possess or occupy the Land that He owns, but to ‘marry’ the Land. And in the process the Lord God is marrying the Land, and He is preparing the City of Jerusalem to be again His dwelling place on earth. In order to bless the countries and the nations and the world through His people, from His Land and from His City.

The prophet Isaiah does not say: Look, how the Jews are coming back home to Israel from the four corners of the world.

But the prophet Isaiah does say: Bring My sons from afar and My daughters from the ends of the earth.

So, let us all realize our responsibility in this process and continue to bring them home to Israel.

Rev. Willem J. J. Glashouwer
President Christians for Israel International