Episode Transcript
<h1><!--block-->The Uniqueness of Israel Chapter 2: His Land </h1><h1><!--block--><br></h1><h1><!--block--><b>Narrator:</b> [00:00:00] You're listening to a podcast by Lance Lambert Ministries. For more information on this ministry, visit lancelambert .org and follow us on Telegram to receive all of our updates.</h1><p><!--block--><br></p><h1><!--block-->Welcome. Today we have a big announcement. We have a new release available for purchase today. In the 1980's, Lance Lambert wrote a book called "The Uniqueness of Israel," which gave a comprehensive view of the land and people of Israel and how this little nation is so different from the nations of the past, which rise and fall and never return.</h1><p><!--block--><br></p><h1><!--block-->He proves how special Israel is and how Israel's history and future belong to the Lord. We have been working over the past several months to create an audiobook version of this extensive book, and it is now available. You can find the audiobook to purchase on Audible and I'll leave a link in the show notes for you to be able to easily find it. For now, let's listen to chapter 2 of <br>"The Uniqueness of Israel," read by Matt Jamie. This chapter is entitled His Land. Let's listen.</h1><p><!--block--><br></p><h1><!--block--><b>Reader:</b> Chapter 2: His Land. The land of Israel is unique in another and more deeply significant way. God speaks of it as "My land". This is as remarkable as it is singular. For instance, in Leviticus 25:23 he says, "The land moreover, shall not be sold permanently for the land is mine." This is not the only time that the Lord refers to the land of Israel in this way.</h1><p><!--block--><br></p><h1><!--block-->For example, in Isaiah 14:25, he says, "I will break the Assyrian in my land and upon my mountains tread him underfoot." And in Jeremiah 2:7, "I brought you into a plentiful land, but when ye entered, ye defiled my land [00:02:00] and made mine heritage an abomination. Furthermore, God still refers to the land as his even in the last days. Ezekiel 38:16:</h1><p><!--block--><br></p><h1><!--block-->"It shall come to pass in the latter days that I will bring thee against my land that the nations may know me," and yet again in Joel 3:2: "I will gather all nations and I will execute judgment upon them there for my people and for my heritage, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations and they have parted my land."</h1><p><!--block--><br></p><h1><!--block-->The divine affection and care for the land is stated simply and lucidly in the inspired words of Moses, recorded in Deuteronomy 11:11-12: "but the land wither ye go over to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys and drinketh water of the rain of heaven. A land which the Lord thy God careth for.<br>The eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year, [00:03:00] even unto the end of the year." When we understand this, it is no cause for wonder that Hosea 9:3 refers to it as "the Lord's land" saying, "they shall not dwell in the Lord's land." Or that Joel 2:18 calls it "His land" saying, "Then the Lord became jealous for his land."</h1><p><!--block--><br></p><h1><!--block-->Or that the psalmist triumphantly exults in Psalm 10:16, "the Lord is king forever and ever. The heathen are perished out of his land;" or prays in Psalm 85:1, "Lord thou hast been favorable unto thy land. Thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob." These examples are enough to prove that the land of Israel stands in a unique relationship to the Lord.<br>Nowhere in the Bible does he refer to anywhere else as "My land." Every part of the earth is God's by right. The Lord himself declared this in [00:04:00] Exodus 19:5, "All the earth is mine." The psalmist echoes it, "the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein." Psalm 24:1.</h1><p><!--block--><br></p><h1><!--block-->Furthermore, we know that the earth is waiting for the final restitution of all things. Our ascended, glorified Messiah is the guarantee of this. For however forcefully the authority of God may have been usurped by the powers of darkness, or however deeply the world may lie in the clutches of the evil one, the uttermost parts of the earth are destined to come back to God through the finished work of the Lord Jesus.</h1><p><!--block--><br></p><h1><!--block-->The nations may rage against God and his purpose, but it will make no difference to the final outcome. God himself has clearly stated this in one of the greatest of the Messianic psalms: "Yet I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will [00:05:00] tell thee of the decree: the Lord said unto me, Thou art my son; This day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance, And the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." Psalm 2:6-9. Yet another messianic psalm declares "He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the River unto the ends of the earth ... all nations shall serve him."</h1><p><!--block--><br></p><h1><!--block-->Psalm 72:8-11. All this will be fulfilled when the "kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ." Revelation 11:15. Nevertheless, the glorious truth that the whole earth belongs to God and will one day be restored to him, does not diminish the fact that he speaks of the land of Israel as his land.</h1><p><!--block--><br></p><h1><!--block-->[00:06:00] This makes it unique. The land of Israel is the land where God spoke to man and revealed himself. It is supremely the land of the Bible. It is true that both Mesopotamia and Egypt were also lands in which God revealed himself to chosen men, but it was always in relation to this land in order to bring them into it.</h1><p><!--block--><br></p><h1><!--block-->We are told, for instance, in Acts 7:2-3: "The God of glory appeared unto our Father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, and said unto him, Get thee out of thy land and come into the land which I shall show thee." The Lord said to Moses in Exodus 3:8: "and I am, come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them unto a good land, unto a land flowing with milk and honey."</h1><p><!--block--><br></p><h1><!--block-->It is from the land of Israel, and not from Mesopotamia and Egypt, that the imagery of the Bible is drawn. There are, of course, some general [00:07:00] similarities common to the whole of the Middle East. But it is from the mountains and valleys of the land of Israel, from its climate and the rich variety of its natural life that the illustrations and lessons of the Bible are taken.</h1><p><!--block--><br></p><h1><!--block-->The richness of biblical imagery is directly related to the richness of the natural life of this land. It is the country of the patriarchs, the land of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob and his sons. It is the land in which God met with them and worked miracles on their behalf, the land which he promised to them and to their descendants for an everlasting possession.</h1><p><!--block--><br></p><h1><!--block-->To this day, there are places in the land forever linked with their names: Beersheba, Shechem, Bethel, Hebron. It is the country of Moses and Joshua. Moses was born in Egypt, spent the first 40 years of his life there and a further 40 years in the Sinai wilderness, and never actually entered the promised [00:08:00] land.</h1><p><!--block--><br></p><h1><!--block-->Yet from the moment the Lord appeared to him, the land of Israel was his land. Even the mighty wonders and signs, which God worked in Egypt through Moses and Aaron in order to deliver a slave people from Egyptian power, had this land in view. For 40 years, God led them through the wilderness by the pillar of cloud and fire, feeding them with manna and quenching their thirst with water, which came miraculously out of the rock in order to bring them into it.</h1><p><!--block--><br></p><h1><!--block-->This was the land where the river Jordan parted, and the nation passed over as on dry ground, where the walls of Jericho fell down and where at Gibeon and Aijalon, the sun and the moon stood still for a day. It was in this land that the people of Israel experienced the power of God enabling them to possess it, or when alienated from God through sin and unbelief, knew defeat.<br>It is the country of the judges. At the Spring of Ein [00:09:00] Harod in Galilee, the Lord whittled down Gideon's army from 32,000 men to 300, and then led them to victory. At Mount Tabor, also in Galilee, Deborah, the prophetess inspired Barak to defeat Sisera. In the veil of Sorek and at Gaza, then in Philistine territory, the sad story of Samson was played out.</h1><p><!--block--><br></p><h1><!--block-->In Shiloh in Samaria, the young Samuel obeyed the Lord's voice and went on to become a key figure in biblical history. This is the land where kings ruled, the country of David and Solomon - of good kings, such as Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah and Josiah, and of evil kings such as Ahab, Ahaz, and Manasseh. Wherever you travel in this country, there are reminders in the rebuilt cities and towns and in the ancient ruins of places which figured so prominently in their reigns.</h1><p><!--block--><br></p><h1><!--block-->It is the land of the [00:10:00] Psalmists, David, Asaph and the Sons of Korah, and the land of the prophets like Elijah, Isaiah, and Hosea. It was in this country that they lived and died, and it was of this country that they repeatedly spoke. And surely the feelings of those in exile, whether prophets like Ezekiel and Daniel, or leaders like Nehemiah and Ezra, were most beautifully expressed by the Psalmist when he wrote:</h1><p><!--block--><br></p><h1><!--block-->"<em>By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yea, we wept when we remembered Zion. Upon the willows in the midst thereof, we hanged up our harps. For there, they that had led us captive required of us songs. And they that wasted us, required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing Jehovah's song in a foreign land?"</em></h1><p><!--block--><br></p><h1><!--block-->Psalm 137:1-4. This country is also the land of the New Testament. [00:11:00] It witnessed the preaching of John the Baptist, heralding the coming of the Messiah. To this day, you can visit Ein Karem, by tradition his birthplace, or see the ravines and great open wastes of the wilderness of Judea where he lived, and the river Jordan, near Jericho, where he baptized. <br>Supremely, the land of Israel is the land of Jesus. Wherever we tread in this country, we tread where Jesus trod. It was in Bethlehem that he was born and in Nazareth that he was brought up. There he spent the first 30 years of his life becoming a carpenter by trade. He made Capernaum on the north shore of the Lake of Galilee, his base during the three years of his public ministry.</h1><p><!--block--><br></p><h1><!--block-->As far as we know, he never left this land. From the way he spoke about it and its natural life, we understand how much he loved the land. He spoke of reading the weather signs, of the [00:12:00] lilies of the field, which toil not neither spin, and the birds of the air, which sow not, neither reap nor gather into barns, of the foxes and their holes, the shepherd and his sheep,<br>the farmer plowing, sowing and reaping, the vinedresser and his vineyards were all part of the scene he loved. From its hills and valleys, its seasons and moods, its plants, its flowers, its animals and birds he drew his parables and his illustrations. Above all, he loved its people. Their common life and experience were the source of many of his stories.</h1><p><!--block--><br></p><h1><!--block-->It was simply his land, for it was in this land that <em>the</em> W<em>ord became flesh and dwelt among us</em> and the first disciples <em>beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth.</em> John 1:14. This was the land which saw the love [00:13:00] of God incarnate, the heart of God revealed, which heard his matchless words and witnessed his signs and miracles.</h1><p><!--block--><br></p><h1><!--block-->It was here that he gave the blind their sight and caused the deaf to hear, the dumb to speak, and the lame to walk. This land became the scene where the leper was healed, and the dead raised to life, where God restored the outcast and received the sinner. It was on one of the mountains of this land, perhaps Tabor or Hermon, that Jesus was transfigured in glory. On a hill above the lake of Galilee, he preached the Sermon on the Mount and fed the 5,000. On one of its lakes, the Lake of Galilee, he calmed the storm and walked on its waters. It was a quiet garden in this land, which heard his strong crying, and witnessed his tears and agony and prayer. </h1><p><!--block--><br></p><h1><!--block-->At the foot of one of its hills, he was crucified, nailed to a tree that had once grown [00:14:00] within it. In a grave, newly hewn out of one of its rocks,<br>his body was gently and sorrowfully laid. It was also in this land, thanks be to God, that he rose from the dead on the third day, the glorious victor over sin and death and hell, to become the everlasting savior of all who put their trust in God through him. Then from one of its mountains, the Mount of Olives, he ascended to the Father to sit down at his right hand forever.</h1><p><!--block--><br></p><h1><!--block-->Truly, the land of Israel is the Lord's land. This country is also unique because all the final great events of world history prophesied in the Bible will take place either in relation to it or actually within its borders. Here, the last great battles will be fought. On the mountains of Israel, the whole armed confederacy of the North will be destroyed *Ezekiel 38-39. And on the plane of Armageddon in [00:15:00] Galilee, the final battle of human history will be fought. *Revelation 16:13-16. And it will be in this land that the spirit of grace and supplication will be poured upon the Jewish people with the most glorious results. *Zechariah 12:10. Nor is that the end of the story for it is to this land that the Messiah will return.</h1><p><!--block--><br></p><h1><!--block-->His pierced feet will once again stand upon the Mount of Olives. He does not come first to the lands of the superpowers or to lands of riches or culture. He returns to his own land, the land of Israel. All of this makes Israel unique. Many lands can boast of great wealth and natural resources, of vast military might or of a highly sophisticated culture, but none can boast that it is "His land".</h1><p><!--block--><br></p><h1><!--block-->In this, the land of Israel stands alone. [00:16:00]</h1><p><!--block--><br></p><h1><!--block--><b>Narrator:</b> To listen to the full audiobook for the Uniqueness of Israel, click the link in the show notes or visit <br>www.lancelambert.org/<br>uoiaudiobook. May you know the deep, deep love of the Messiah Jesus.</h1><p><!--block--><br></p><p><!--block--><br></p><p><!--block--><br></p>
