Israel’s Biblical Geographic Borders:

“I have given you a land for your inheritance from the river Egypt to the great river Euphrates” (Gen 15:18)

Just a century ago, the modern State of Israel did not exist, and half of the world’s Jewish population was obliterated by the Nazi Holocaust just a generation ago. On the day of May 14, 1948, the ensign of Israel was raised as a New Nation, actually a nation brought back from the brink of extinction. Today’s Israel stands strong among the nations. The prophet Isaiah asks in 66:8;

“Who has ever heard of such a thing? Who has ever seen such things? Can a country be born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment?”  The answer is YES one country can! And that not because of Israel’s might, but because of God faithfulness to His covenant with Abraham and the people of Israel.

There’s general agreement about the nature of Israel’s Biblical boundaries as the Lord promised Abraham.

1. The North seems to run from the Mediterranean coast, toward the east direction and includes parts of present day Lebanon and Syria. It reaches even as far as the northwest section of the Euphrates River.

2. Despite previous tribal allowances to Gad, Ruben, and half of the tribe of Manasseh, the eastern border of the Land seems to be limited to the Jordan River, but also seems to include what is called the Golan heights today.

c. The Southern border includes the Negev wilderness and meets the Mediterranean Sea at the Wadi and the Nile River of Egypt.

d. The Western border is from the Wadi of Egypt along the Mediterranean coast up to Lebo hamath in the north.

Here below are listed the precise Biblical borders of the land promised to Abram’s descendants in plain Biblical terms? Over 4,000 years ago, The Lord makes them perfectly clear. Like any modern-day land purchase, the deed indicates the boundaries of the land given. To ensure that there is no doubt about the land’s boundaries, Scripture also indicates the different groups of people that occupy it:

“In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: ¹⁹ The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, ²⁰ And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, ²¹ And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.” Genesis 15:18-21

We know that these peoples lived in what is today Egypt, Sudan, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, part of Asian Turkey, and of course all of Israel, including Gaza, the West Bank, and all the City of Jerusalem.

This fact adds another dimension to the promise: The Lord will restore to Abram’s descendants land that is currently occupied by other nations! The question arises of how Israel will acquire this land – will she have to invade and conquer other countries? The text in Genesis 15 offers no indication that Israel will have to fight and conquer; therefore, the logical answer is that the Lord will see that the promise is fulfilled. Scripture indicates that there are more than one war coming, in which the Lord will intervene and Israel will then have rule over the nations immediately surrounding her.

The boundaries of the land promised to Abram’s descendants is clearly indicated in the Bible, yet we know that Israel has never had control of the full extent of this land. The Lord never said when it will happen, but He does say that it will happen. I believe that after the final battles described in the Bible, when all the nations will rise against Israel, with the return of Jesus, Israel will prevail. The promise will be fulfilled with the establishment of His Messianic kingdom. If He has fulfilled every promise given thus far, we can be certain that He will fulfill those that remain – including all the land promised to Abram’s descendants.

God’s Prophetic End Times Judgment & the Ultimate Restoration of Israel:

“FOR BEHOLD, in those days and at that time when I shall reverse the captivity and restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all nations and will bring them down into the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and there will I deal with and execute judgment upon them for their treatment of My people and of My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations and because they have divided My land.” [Joel 3:1-2; Parallel Bible, KJV/Amplified Bible Commentary]

Part 2 – David Purchases the Temple Mount

Why Did King David Purchase the Site of the Jerusalem Temple Mount?

by Wayne Blank, as adapted by Arthur J Licursi

“And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing. So David bought the threshingfloor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. ^24:25And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD was intreated for the land, and the plague was stayed (halted) from Israel.” (2 Samuel 24:18-25 KJV)

Beginning in the prophetic time of Abraham, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem has become one of the most famous, and most-contested, places on Earth. It has been for centuries and will continue to be so right until the day of the Messiah’s comes, which the Christians call His “2^nd coming.”

Nearly 3,000 years ago, King David was the Israelite purchaser of the place that is known today as the Temple Mount - years before there was a Temple there. As we will read, David actually purchased the property for another purpose, but it was later used as the site of the Temple built by David’s son and successor, King Solomon.

But first, a clarification. As it is translated in the KJV, 2 Sam. 24:1 seems like a contradiction but it’s not.

“^24:1 And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah.” (2 Samuel 24:1 KJV)

What was the LORD supposedly angry with Israel for? And why would the LORD cause David to do something - that the LORD would then punish David for doing? The answer, as made plainly obvious by the account of the events that followed, was that 2 Samuel 24:1 is actually two objective statements: “the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel” and “he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah.”

Who actually was the “he” that incited David? The answer is found in Chronicles where the same incident is translated more clearly: “Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel” - to which “the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel.” 2 Samuel 24:1 was translated correctly, but it was not translated clearly.

“^21:1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.” (1 Chronicles 21:1)

So, it was then that Satan incited David to sin, to which the LORD’s wrath was inflicted.

“^24:2 For the king said to Joab the captain of the host, which was with him, Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, and number ye the people, that I may know the number of the people.

^24:3 And Joab said unto the king, Now the LORD thy God add unto the people, how many soever they be, an hundredfold, and that the eyes of my lord the king may see it: but why doth my lord the king delight in this thing?

^24:4 Notwithstanding the king’s word prevailed against Joab, and against the captains of the host. And Joab and the captains of the host went out from the presence of the king, to number the people of Israel.

^24:5 And they passed over Jordan, and pitched in Aroer, on the right side of the city that lieth in the midst of the river of Gad, and toward Jazer: ^24:6 Then they came to Gilead, and to the land of Tahtimhodshi; and they came to Danjaan, and about to Zidon, ^24:7 And came to the strong hold of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hivites, and of the Canaanites: and they went out to the south of Judah, even to Beersheba.

^24:8 So when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.

^24:9 And Joab gave up the sum of the number of the people unto the king: and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men that drew the sword; and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.” (2 Samuel 24:2-9 KJV)

All humans are sinners. Ironically, those who strive the hardest to obey the LORD sometimes sin more than as-yet uncalled people because Satan targets the repentant. The major difference between Israel’s first king, Saul, and David who replaced him as King of Israel, was that Saul made self-righteous excuses when he sinned, while David truly repented.

“^24:10 And David’s heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And David said unto the LORD, I have sinned greatly in that I have done: and now, I beseech thee, O LORD, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.

^24:11 For when David was up in the morning, the word of the LORD came unto the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying, ^24:12 Go and say unto David, Thus saith the LORD, I offer thee three things; choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee.

^24:13 So Gad came to David, and told him, and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land? or wilt thou flee three months before thine enemies, while they pursue thee? or that there be three days’ pestilence in thy land? now advise, and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me.

^24:14 And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand of the LORD; for his mercies are great: and let me not fall into the hand of man.

^24:15 So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed: and there died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seventy thousand men. ^24:16 And when the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough: stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD was by the threshingplace of Araunah the Jebusite.

¹⁷And David spake unto the LORD when he saw the angel that smote the people, and said, Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly: but these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me, and against my father’s house.” (2 Samuel 24:10-17 KJV)

In response to the prophet Gad’s counsel (Gad had been allied with David throughout the wilderness years of the civil war with Saul (i.e. 1 Samuel 22:5), David was to build “an altar unto the LORD in the threshingfloor of Araunah the Jebusite.” It was one of the highest points of the city - winnowing (separating the wheat from the chaff, was done by tossing grain into the air, whereby the light chaff was blown away, while the wheat fell straight back down) was done. David purchased the property for the immediate use of building an altar there.

“^24:18 And Gad came that day to David, and said unto him, Go up, rear an altar unto the LORD in the threshingfloor of Araunah the Jebusite. ^24:19 And David, according to the saying of Gad, went up as the LORD commanded. ^24:20 And Araunah looked, and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him: and Araunah went out, and bowed himself before the king on his face upon the ground.

^24:21 And Araunah said, Wherefore is my lord the king come to his servant? And David said, To buy the threshingfloor of thee, to build an altar unto the LORD, that the plague may be stayed (was halted) from the people.

^24:22 And Araunah said unto David, Let my lord the king take and offer up what seemeth good unto him: behold, here be oxen for burnt sacrifice, and threshing instruments and other instruments of the oxen for wood. ^24:23 All these things did Araunah, as a king, give unto the king. And Araunah said unto the king, The LORD thy God accept thee.

^24:24 And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing.

So David bought the threshingfloor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

^24:25 And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.

So the LORD was intreated for the land, and the plague was stayed (halted) from Israel.” (2 Samuel 24:18-25 KJV)

Thus, what we today call the “The Temple Mount,” was purchased by David (24:24) that he might then make an offering, a burnt sacrifice as a sin-offering to the Lord (v25), in repentance.

Then later, King David’s son, King Solomon, built the 1^st Temple on that site, beginning in 966BCE.

 “And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the LORD. ² And the house which king Solomon built for the LORD, the length thereof was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof twenty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits. ³ And the porch before the temple of the house, twenty cubits was the length thereof, according to the breadth of the house; and ten cubits was the breadth thereof before the house. ⁴ And for the house he made windows of narrow lights. (1 Kings 6:1-4)

“Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem in mount Moriah, where the LORD appeared unto David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.” (2 Chronicles 3:1)

Solomon’s Temple lasted until the Babylonians destroyed it in 586BCE. It was rebuilt by King Herod and was the very Temple of Jesus’s time. It was destroyed by the Romans in 70AD.

Today and since the cross of Christ, no temple is needed for sacrifice or worship since Christ dwells in the human spirit of every believer, where they have an unseen union and communion with Him as their very life.

From the dates involved its plain to see that not only has there never been a Palestinian state until Arafat declared it, but Israel’s claim and God-given deed goes back more than 3,000 years. The so-called Palestinians have no historical basis to claim the land of Israel or the Holy Mount.

Mohamed was born in Mecca, Saudi Arabia and he lived in until June of 632AD, about 1,600 years after Solomon built the original temple on the Holy Mount.