Mountains in the tribal area of Benjamin north of Jerusalem
Israel has a prominent mountain range running through its mid-section like a spine. This range reaches from the Jezreel valley in the north and extends past Hebron in the south. When a person arrives in Israel and leaves the coast going eastward and inland, this long mountain range immediately can be seen. First, there is the hill country, or the Shephela, as it is called. After that, a steep, laborious climb toward Jerusalem beginning in the vicinity of Latrun. Finally, at Jerusalem, the peak of this mountain range is reached at an elevation of approximately 2700 ft. (800 meters) above sea level. Many of the ancient cities of Israel, such as Bethlehem, Hebron, and Shechem sit atop this range. It is important to understand that this mountain country was primarily the home of the Israelites of old. One of the main North-South routes ran along this ridge.
Much has happened concerning the changing of borders and the settlement of this land in past history. However, one thing is certain – no one has moved the mountains. They remain today as a mute testimony concerning this land and its rightful occupants. Also they are a testimony concerning the Word and the will of God. These mountains stand in defiance of much of the world’s popular and “politically correct” opinion today. These hills even defy much popular opinion among Christians.
Long ago, the prophet Ezekiel foresaw that these mountains would one day become a “bone of contention” for the world. They would suffer the scorn of the nations (Ezek. 36:3.) In fact, the God of Israel commanded Ezekiel on several occasions to prophesy specifically to these mountains. The prophet obeyed, and his interesting prophecy is recorded for us in Ezekiel 36:1-15.
Before we look at this prophecy in detail, let us stop a moment to catch ourselves up on the history of this mountain area of Israel during the past 2,000 years. We know that Israel was dispersed from this area and from Jerusalem. This was after the unsuccessful rebellions against Rome in AD 70 and in 135. The whole land of Israel came under direct Roman rule. Later later it fell into the hands of many other peoples. These were the Byzantine Christians, Arab Moslems, Ummayads, Abassids, Fatimites, Seljuks, Crusaders. Finally in modern times, the English.
As the Holy Land was again returned to “Christian” rule at the end of World War I, Great Britain was given a mandate by the League of Nations to create in the area of Palestine a home for the Jewish people. The British, however, soon began to bow to Arab pressure and made a series of compromises that continue to cause great unrest in the Middle East. One of their first acts was to take approximately 75% of the regional territory called Palestine, which had been allotted for the Jewish people, and create the Palestinian state of Transjordan (presently Jordan). All this vast area was immediately closed to Jewish settlement. The Palestinian state of Transjordan extended eastward from the east bank of the Jordan- the bank we no longer hear about in the evening news.
As Arab pressure mounted in the 1930s, England bowed to the Arabs again and began restricting Jewish settlement in the land. The flow of settlement was finally brought to a near standstill. This was at the precise time when millions of European Jews were fleeing for their lives from the coming Holocaust. Many of these Jews who were fleeing Hitler were turned around by the British and sent back to the inferno of Europe. As a result, six million Jews, having no place to go, were murdered by the Nazi war machine in the Holocaust.
By 1947, the area of Palestine had become too big a problem for England to handle. The matter was again turned over to the United Nations, and a further division of the land was proposed. This plan directly affected the area of our concern – the mountains of Israel. The area west of the Jordan river was now included in this new plan. Most of the mountain area was to be given to the Arabs, and the Jewish settlements were to be restricted to the coasts and lowlands. The Jews reluctantly accepted the partition, but the Arabs went to war against the newly declared state of Israel. It is interesting that the Arabs at this time refused to accept the very area for which they are now clamoring.
The War of Independence resulted, with tiny Israel fighting five Arab armies, and actually gaining victory over them. In the midst of this war, Jordan invaded and annexed the area which we know as the West Bank. That area remained in Jordanian hands until the Six Day War of 1967, when Israel reclaimed this whole mountain area and the city of Jerusalem.
Since 1967, Israel has administered the area which the world refers to as the West Bank, but which Israel rightly refers to by their biblical names of Judea and Samaria. In the intervening years since 1948, we have seen the prophecy of Ezekiel 36:1-15 come true. Let us look at this prophecy in more detail:
1. “This is what the Sovereign LORD says: The enemy said of you, ‘Aha! The ancient heights have become our possession.’”(36:2) The area invaded by Jordan in 1948 and now designated as the West Bank truly contains the ancient heights of Israel – notably the ancient high places, as well as the central mountains. It includes East Jerusalem and the very Temple Mount, Bethlehem ,Hebron, Gibeon, Shiloh, Bethel and Shechem. This is this very area in which the nations would desire to establish yet another Palestinian state, this one under the direction of the PLO. It is important for us to be clear on this matter. This so-called “West Bank” is biblical Israel.
2. “…They ravaged and hounded you from every side so that you became the possession of the rest of the nations…” (36:3). The history of Israel has been a history of ravages and plunder. This has continued into modern times as Jordan occupied Judea and Samaria and the Old City of Jerusalem. Upon capturing the Old City in 1948, the Jordanians promptly ended centuries of Jewish settlement there by exiling the remaining inhabitants. They then demolished the Jewish Quarter including all its ancient synagogues. In their rage they even went so far as to construct latrines from Jewish gravestones. From the beginning of this occupation in 1948 until 1967, no Jew was allowed to pray at the Western Wall.
3. “…you became…the object of people’s malicious talk and slander…” (36:3). “…I speak in my jealous wrath because you have suffered the scorn of the nations.” (36:6). I cannot think of a single area of the world that has received slander and scorn like Judea and Samaria. The intensity of this slander and scorn has greatly increased since the onset of the two recent Intifadas (Uprisings). Daily, on thousands of TV and radio stations around the world, and in multiplied thousands of newspapers, Israel is slandered because of Judea and Samaria. Hardly a UN session goes by without some criticism of Israel, or some resolution condemning Israel because of the West Bank, which Israel acquired as the result of a war in 1967, a war started by the Arabs.
4. “This is what the Sovereign LORD says: In my burning zeal I have spoken against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom, for with glee and with malice in their hearts they made my land their own possession so that they might plunder its pastureland.’” (36:5). Here, the Word of God turns the light of truth on to the real motivations behind the Intifada. The whole Palestinian problem has been cleverly concocted and kept brewing for almost a century out of pure malice. A Palestinian state never existed in all the history of this land. One never even existed under Jordan, or the Turks, or the Moslem Arabs. The whole idea is a ploy now fostered by the PLO to utterly divide and destroy Israel. This fact has even been openly admitted by leaders of the PLO
Now, what will become of Judea and Samaria? The prophet Ezekiel deals with this, too. Will it become a Palestinian state? Hardly! We note that God calls it “my land” (36:5), and in the Bible, he makes it very clear to whom he has given his land as an eternal possession. He has given it forever to Isaac and his seed (the Jews), not to Ishmael and his seed or the Arabs (Gen. 7:19-21). We can be certain that God is very angry with the nations over their proposed division of this land today (Joel 3:2).
The prophet Ezekiel saw that the mountains of Israel would one day produce fruit for the people of Israel, for they will come home to these very mountains (36:8). He saw that people will be multiplied upon these mountains, but not the Arab people – rather the house of Israel (36:10). The people of Israel will walk in them (36:12), and be prosperous upon them (36:11). They will possess and inherit them (36:12). The Lord promised Ishmael and his descendants (the Arab people) that they would be blessed and be fruitful. Today the Arab league includes 21 separate states spanning an area of more than 5,000,000 square miles. However, God did not promise them Israel, and they will not possess it.
The mountains of Israel will never again deprive people of their children as has happened so often. This whole grisly and blood-stained chapter will end according to God. The Lord also promises, “No longer will I make you hear the taunts of the nations, and no longer will you suffer the scorn of the peoples or cause your nation to fall, declares the Sovereign LORD.” (36:15). Instead, God says, “…the nations around you will also suffer scorn” (36:7).
As believers in God’s word, we must try to see as God sees. We cannot be certain about timing, but we can be certain about the final outcome. In God’s good time the Jews will possess the mountains of Judea and Samaria, and they will live there forever. Any “just and lasting peace” without these truths in mind will be neither just nor lasting. Any peace plan proposed, or peace process initiated without these biblical truths as its background is doomed to ultimate failure.
-Jim Gerrish
This updated article is presented courtesy of Bridges For Peace, Jerusalem. Original publication date, 1989.