Featured Is the Land of Israel Still a Special Place to God?

Before discussing this matter any further, I would like to ask you to read both Ezekiel 20 and 36 again carefully, and I will do the same. After you have done that, if you still are unable from those passages to answer your own questions that you have asked in this comment, we can discuss it further.

 

Same to you.

For the record, Ezekiel 36 is definitely not talking about anything that has already happened.

 

I do not see anywhere in the Bible that "Jesus stated that all prophecy has been fulfilled in Him [italics and bold added to the original].

Had He taught that, there would be no future events left that Scripture foretells that will yet happen, including no Rapture, no Second Coming, no New Heavens and no New Earth, etc.

 

You have misunderstood what I am saying. I never made any comparative statements concerning the Cross, Resurrection, etc. of the type that you are asserting.

This is what I said at the end of my comment (#98) - "Ultimately, Jerusalem and Israel are still special to God because He has determined that it is there that He will hallow His name on the earth as it has never been hallowed."

God's name will be hallowed in Jerusalem in a way that it has never been hallowed when Israel as a nation finally acknowledges that Jesus of Nazareth was and is her Messiah and their rightful King. God is not going to allow the final words from the chief religious leaders of that nation concerning His Son to be "we have no king but Caesar."

John 19:15 But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar.

Jesus of Nazareth is going to be glorified as their King by that nation--something that has never yet happened.

Furthermore, God's name is going to be hallowed in Jerusalem in a way that it has never yet been when all the nations will come there year by year for a 1000 years to worship the Lord as the King (Zech. 14).

 

You misunderstand my views when you claim, "You have finally admitted that the reason you believe the land is “special” has to do with . . ." as if I have only one reason that I have only now stated.

I have several biblical reasons for holding that the land of Israel (esp. Jerusalem) is still special to God. I have presented several of them so far.

I never denied that one of them is the glorious millennial reign of the glorified Jesus of Nazareth from Jerusalem as the King of the Jews and of the world! God certainly is going to hallow His name by ruling from Jerusalem over that nation that has so profaned His name.

 

The physical land of Israel still exists. As I have said more than once in this thread, treating what Scripture reveals about that land (esp. Jerusalem) is the subject of this thread.

 

So far, I have directed attention to the following aspects of the land of Israel being special to God:

1. God cared for that land in a special way before there were any Israelites

2. God made Melchizedek a priest and he was the king of Jerusalem, which shows that Jerusalem was a place of the true worship of the true God before there were any Israelites.

3. The land of Israel was and is special to God because it was/is the place of the tombs and of the burial in other ways as well of many of His choicest servants.

4. God cared for that land when the Israelites were not in the land as a nation because He had judged them for their sinfulness of not allowing the land to rest in its sabbaths. Through His judgments on them, the land enjoyed that rest while they were in exile.

I have also talked about some other considerations that are far more important than these, but I am not going to say more about those at this time because I want to treat them at a later time. As I continue to study this subject, I hope to add to this list.

 

As a fifth aspect of how Scripture reveals that the land of Israel was special to God, consider what God did when He removed Israel from the Northern Kingdom for their wickedness:

2 Kings 17:23 Until the LORD removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day.

As a result of God's judgment, the Assyrian king subsequently settled pagans in the land of Israel who did not fear the Lord:

24 And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof. 25 And so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they feared not the LORD: therefore the LORD sent lions among them, which slew some of them.

Notice carefully what God did on this occasion. Even though He had removed Israel from the land, He still cared whether or not those who were dwelling in that land feared Him. Because the pagans who were in that land then did not fear Him, God sent lions to punish them!

It is impossible to say that this passage shows that the land was only special because of the Israelites because if that were the case, God would not have cared what would have taken place in the land once the Israelites were out of the land.

The passage, however, clearly shows that God did care about what took place in that land even when the Israelites were no longer there!

As a result of what God did, the new inhabitants of the Northern Kingdom who were unbelievers somehow yet knew and told the Assyrian king that the God of the land was judging them because they did not know "the manner of the God of the land":


26 Wherefore they spake to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which thou hast removed, and placed in the cities of Samaria, know not the manner of the God of the land: therefore he hath sent lions among them, and, behold, they slay them, because they know not the manner of the God of the land.

In response, the Assyrian king--who was an unbeliever-- ordered that one of the Israelite priests be sent back to teach the new inhabitants the manner of the God of the land:

27 Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Carry thither one of the priests whom ye brought from thence; and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the manner of the God of the land.

28 Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the LORD.

Even though the Israelites were no longer in the land--and never returned to the Northern Kingdom--God acted so that those who lived in that land still feared Him. Clearly, God wanted whoever inhabited that land to fear Him. His concern for that land was not at all only because the Israelites were there and only as long as they were there.

This passage definitively shows that the land of Israel was special to God even after He had expelled the Israelites from the Northern Kingdom!

 

Your comments are completely irrelevant to the passages that I have treated.