A Detour - Looking at title to the Promised Land

Deed and Title to the Promised Land

The group has repeatedly approached the topic of the Promised Land and which people have been granted ownership rights in this disputed area.

We'll take a look at this by first looking at the players involved, starting with Noah:




Three people-groups came from Noah's sons: The Japhethites, the Hamites, and the Semites. The sons of Canaan, from Ham's line settled in the Promised Land and became a source of trouble to Israel. This conflict became the source of prophecies and instructions to drive them out.  For instance, in Joshua 3:10:

Here is proof that the living God is really with you and that he will surely defeat your enemies. He will defeat the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites; he will force them to leave their land.  The Box of the Agreement of the Lord of the whole world will go before you as you cross the Jordan River.  Now choose twelve men, one from each of the twelve tribes of Israel.  The priests will carry the Holy Box of Yahweh. He is the Lord of the whole world. They will carry that Box in front of you into the Jordan River. When they enter the water, the water of the Jordan River will stop flowing and fill behind that place like at a dam.”

Abraham came from the line of Shem (the Semites)



When Abraham was called by God, he was living in a place called Ur (of the Chaldeans)



And Abraham journeyed to a place called Haran



And while Abraham was in Haran, God revealed the land where Abraham's offspring were intended to dwell..  In Genesis 15:

The sun began to go down and Abram got very sleepy. While he was asleep, a very terrible darkness came over him.  Then the Lord said to Abram, “You should know this: Your descendants will live in a country that is not their own. They will be strangers there. The people there will make them slaves and be cruel to them for 400 years.  But then I will punish the nation that made them slaves. Your people will leave that land, and they will take many good things with them.

“You yourself will live to be very old. You will die in peace and will be buried with your family. After four generations your people will come to this land again and defeat the Amorites. That will happen in the future because the Amorites are not yet guilty enough to lose their land.”

After the sun went down, it got very dark. The dead animals were still on the ground, each animal cut into two pieces. Then a smoking firepot and a flaming torch passed between the halves of the dead animals.

So on that day Yahweh made a promise and an agreement with Abram. 

He said, “I will give this land to your descendants. I will give them the land between the River of Egypt [Pelusian arm of the Nile] and the great river Euphrates.  This is the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”

And in Exodus 23, it is described like this:

“I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, and from the desert to the Euphrates River. I will give into your hands the people who live in the land, and you will drive them out before you.

A note here:  the closest Israel has come to possessing the full extent of the Promised Land was during the reign of David - but, even then,  they did not occupy the entire land of the Promise.  That leads to a line of interpretation that says God's promise to Israel will not happen until the Messiah returns (comes).

This comes from a reading of Abraham's covenant (in Genesis 12:7) that promises the land to Abraham's seed (singular) - pointing to a specific descendant.

Back to the family tree: 

Abraham's family line is spread among several: a wife, two concubines, and an adoption.

We read earlier, God acknowledges there are already people living in the land when He makes the covenant with Abraham, and He promises Abraham they will be driven from the land.   

The whole parcel of land between the eastern bank of Nile River and the Euphrates River, which includes portions of Egypt and most of Iraq and everything in-between, was given to Abraham as part of a massive land grant.

What we know so far: Everything to the West of Nile belongs to someone else. Everything to the East of the Euphrates belongs to someone else And not all of this land would end up as the possession of Israel. Overall, it was given to Abraham and his descendants. The narrative does not say the land inheritance would only go through Isaac and Jacob and to their descendants. The line through Keturah To begin looking at which descendants inherit which portions of land, let's start with the offspring from Keturah, a concubine who came after Sarah and Hagar. In Genesis 25, it says:

Abraham married again. His new wife was named Keturah.  She gave birth to Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. 

Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan. The people of Asshur, Leum, and Letush were descendants of Dedan. 

The sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah. All these sons came from the marriage of Abraham and Keturah. 

Before Abraham died, he gave some gifts to his sons who were from his slave women. He sent them to the East, away from Isaac. Then Abraham gave everything he owned to Isaac.

Jokshan was the father of Sheba. These are the Sabians of Job 1:15, and the traveling merchants of Sheba in Job 6:19. 

The second son was Dedan. They are mentioned in Isaiah 21:13, Jeremiah 25:23, 49:8 and Ezekiel 25:13. The descendants of Dedan were the Asshurites, the Letushites and the Leummites . 

Sheba and Dedan are mentioned together in Ezekiel 38:13 where they refuse to participate in Russia’s attack on Israel. Then five of Abraham’s grandchildren through his son Midian are mentioned; they were Ephah (Isaiah 60:6), Epher, Hanoch, Abida and Eldaah. All these were descendants of Keturah. This list is parallel to the one in First Chronicles 1:32-33. 

This is the fulfillment of one of the promises that God made to Abraham where He said: You will be the father of many nations. These six sons fathered six tribes or nations and some of his grandchildren fathered others. These tribes are mostly Bedouin and range the desert areas in Sinai, Arabia and Syria.

The adopted line of Lot

Abraham may have adopted Lot, when Lot's father died.  So let's see if God addressed this line.

In Genesis 13:

Lot looked and saw the whole Jordan Valley. He saw that there was much water there. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. At that time the Jordan Valley all the way to Zoar was like the Lord’s Garden. This was good land, like the land of Egypt.)  So Lot chose to live in the Jordan Valley. The two men separated, and Lot began traveling east.

The sons (and simultaneously, grandsons) of Lot, Abraham nephew, settled in the area on the east side of the Dead Sea.

The line through Lot

Lot's sons became the Ammonites and Moabites.

The Moabites:

Does God promise them any land?  As Moses is recapping the history of Israel's time in the desert:

“The Lord said to me, ‘Don’t bother the Moabites. Don’t start a war against them. I will not give you any of their land. 

They are the descendants of Lot, and I gave them the city of Ar.’”

The Ammonites:

Does God promise them any land?  Also from Moses's recap:

But you did not go near the land that belongs to the people of Ammon. You did not go near the shores of the Jabbok River or the cities of the hill country. You did not go near any place that the Lord our God would not let us have.

Daniel, in Chapter 11, speaks of Ammon and Moab as being present during end time events.

The line through Hagar

The first land distribution was to Ishmael. Genesis 25:18: His descendants settled throughout the desert area from Havilah to Shur. This area begins near Egypt and goes toward Assyria. Ishmael’s people were often at war with the other descendants of Abraham.

The line through Sarah

Isaac was the father of Esau and Jacob.  And Jacob would be renamed Israel after his wrasslin' match.

Esau and Jacob had some conflict and contracts before they received their land inheritance:

Esau sold his birthright (as firstborn son) to Jacob.

Jacob stole Esau's blessing from Isaac 

So Esau sold his inheritance to Jacob, and later Jacob receives the inheritance from Isaac. This moves Jacob "ahead" of Esau (and Esau's offspring) with regards to the land of promise.

The line through Esau

Esau received the "leftovers" blessing from Isaac:

“You will not live on good land.
     You will not have much rain.
You will have to fight to live,
    and you will be a slave to your brother.
But when you fight to be free,
   you will break away from his control.”

Does God promise them any land?  As Moses is recapping the history of Israel's time in the desert:

Tell the people this: You will pass through the land of Seir. This land belongs to your relatives, the descendants of Esau. They will be afraid of you. Be very careful. Don’t fight them. 

I will not give you any of their land—not even a foot of it, because I gave the hill country of Seir to Esau to keep as his own. You must pay the people of Esau for any food you eat or water you drink there.

The line through Israel

The remainder of the land, after all the previous distributions, will be deeded to Israel's descendants.

Summary so far

These are the only rightful claimants to Abraham's Promised Land: Ishmaelite Arabs Edomites Moabites Ammonites Israelis These are the only people that have a claim on the land. No one else has a claim to the land. No one else except the Israelis can make any ancient claim on Palestine. Israel owns all the politically disputed land.