Expanding Borders

Expanding Borders
Chapter 4

A six-year study by over 250 scientists and experts predicts that by the year 2020 the population of Israel will exceed 8,100,000, making Israel by far the most densely populated developed country in the world. Israel will be more than 2.5 times more densely populated than Japan and the Netherlands, and there will be a serious shortage of land for residential construction. In Micah 7:11 the prophet speaks of our time as "the day for extending your [Israel’s] boundaries" (NAS).

Actually, the Scriptures (Isa. 11 & Zech. 10) indicate another large immigration of Jews from the CIS and a massive exodus from the U.S. even before 2020. But there will be no land shortage. A final Arab-Israeli war will precede this massive immigration. Israel’s borders will be expanded to include all of the Golan Heights, much or all of the sparsely inhabited nation of Jordan and Southern Lebanon (Isa. 11:14; Zeph. 2:8-9; Micah 7:11, 14; Obad.18-20). All of this territory was promised Israel in the Balfour Declaration back in 1917. But God will finally give to Israel even more than the nations promised (Genesis 15:18-21).

The God of Israel is a God of miracles—and He has only begun His miracles in achieving Israel’s ultimate destiny. God will even work miracles to bring all nations into harmony with Israel. His intentions are revealed by the Prophet Jeremiah (31:11):

For I am with thee (Israel) saith the Lord, to save thee; though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet I will not make a full end of thee; but I will correct thee in measure and will not leave thee altogether unpunished.

After the destruction of their governments, the people of these nations will "seek the Lord of Hosts in Jerusalem" which will become the capital of God’s Kingdom (Zechariah 8:20-23). Instead of converging on Israel and Jerusalem to partition the Land or take it, the nations will come to Jerusalem to learn of the God of Israel so that they may walk in His ways. Instead of coming to dissect Israel, they will come to be taught (Isaiah 2:1-4). Yes, the Messianic Era will come.

And it shall come to pass in the last days,
that the mountain [Kingdom] of the Lord’s house
shall be established in the top of the mountains,
and shall be exalted above the hills;
and all nations shall flow unto it.

And many people shall go and say,
Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob;
and he will teach us of his ways,
and we will walk in his paths;
for out of Zion [the spiritual seed of blessing]
shall go forth the law,
and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem
[the natural seed of blessing].

The whole world—the Arab peoples too—will come up to worship the God of Jacob in Jerusalem. Peoples of all national tongues will come to pray to the LORD God of Israel because they will understand God is blessing Israel (Zechariah 8:3, 21-23):

…Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts the holy mountain… O house of Judah and house of Israel; so will I save you, and ye shall be a blessing; fear not, but let your hands be strong…. It shall yet come to pass that there shall come people and the inhabitants of many cities,… saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the LORD, and to seek the LORD of hosts… ten men shall take hold out of all the languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you.

Israel's jubilee—fifty years of nationhood—is only the tumultuous beginning. Beyond all the tears and trouble lies Israel as a beacon light to the Gentiles. "There shall not be heard any more violence in thy land, wasting and destruction within thy boundaries; but thou shalt call, Salvation, thy walls, and thy gates, Praise" (Isaiah 60:3, 18 Isaac Leeser). God's comprehensive peace settlement for Israel will only signal the beginning of an eternity of blessing all the families of the earth. Then the promise to Father Abraham—passed down to Isaac then Jacob—will be fulfilled: "In thee and thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed" (Genesis 28:14). The God of Israel is a God of miracles. He has only begun His miracles in achieving Israel's ultimate destiny when the wonderful promises of Israel's Prophet Isaiah (35:5-10) will be fulfilled for all mankind:

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
Then shall the lame [man] leap as an hart,
and the tongue of the dumb sing:
for in the wilderness shall waters break out,
and streams in the desert.

And the parched ground shall become a pool,
and the thirsty land springs of water:
in the habitation of dragons, where each lay,
[shall be] grass with reeds and rushes.
And an highway shall be there, and a way,
and it shall be called The way of holiness;
the unclean shall not pass over it;
but it [shall be] for those: the wayfaring men,
though fools, shall not err [therein].

No lion shall be there,
nor [any] ravenous beast shall go up thereon,
it shall not be found there;
but the redeemed shall walk [there]:
And the ransomed of the LORD shall return,
and come to Zion with songs
and everlasting joy upon their heads:
they shall obtain joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

End Notes

Thomas Shaw, travels and observations (Oxford: Printed at the Theatre, 1738).

Volney, travels through syria and egypt.

Alphonse De Lamartine, RECOLLECTIONS OF THE EAST (Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blanchard, 1838).

British Foreign Office Documents 78/1294, Pol. No. 36.

TIME, January 3, 1994.

Irving Howe and Carl Gershman, Ed., ISRAEL, THE ARABS AND THE MIDDLE EAST (New York: Quadrangle Press, 1972), p. 178.

"Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers."

LEAGUE OF NATIONS PUBLICATIONS, V.I.A.MANDATES, 1935, 27th Session.

UNRWA Reviews, Infor. Paper No. 6.

Anny Latour, THE RESURRECTION OF ISRAEL (Cleveland: World, 1968), p. 318.

Michael Curtis, Ed. THE PALESTINIANS: PEOPLE, HISTORY, POLITICS (New Brunswick: Transaction Books, 1975).

George Antonius, THE ARAB AWAKENING: THE STORY OF THE ARAB NATIONAL MOVEMENT (Philadelphia: 1939).

Ibid.

Howe and Gershman, Ed., ISRAEL, THE ARABS AND THE MIDDLE EAST.

Ibid., p. 178.

Kamal Jumblatt, I SPEAK FOR LEBANON (London: Zed Press, 1982).

Ibid.

TROUW [Daily Newspaper, Netherlands], March 31, 1977.

Felix Bovet, Egypt, Palestine, Phoenecia: A Visit To Sacred Lands (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1882).

Stephen Olin, TRAVELS THROUGH SYRIA AND EGYPT (New York: Harper & Bros., 1851).

Elliot Green, Jerusalem Post, June 11, 1994, p. 6.

Howe and Gershman, Ed., ISRAEL, THE ARABS AND THE MIDDLE EAST, p. 178.

"London: His Majesty's Stationary Office," Chapter 10, 1937.

Ernst Frankenstein, JUSTICE FOR MY PEOPLE (London: Nicholson & Watson, [1943]), p. 130.

Joan Peters, TIME IMMEMORIAL (New York: Harper & Rowe, 1984), p. 4.

Martin Gilbert, ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT, (London: Weidenfeld & Nocolson, 1992), p. 8.

Latour, THE RESURRECTION OF ISRAEL, p. 203.

Yedelya Atland, HARSH REALITIES (Jerusalem: C. M. Israel Group Ltd., 1989), p. 19.

Howe and Gershman, ISRAEL, THE ARABS AND THE MIDDLE EAST, p. 207.

Atland, HARSH REALITIES, pp. 19, 20.