How Do We Know the Jews Inherited Israel?

Tom: Thanks, Gary. You’re listening to Search the Scriptures Daily, a program in which we encourage everyone who desires to know God’s truth to look to God’s Word for all that is essential for salvation and living one’s life in a way that is pleasing to Him. In this segment of our program for this week, we’re continuing our discussion of Dave Hunt’s new book Judgment Day! Islam, Israel, and the Nations. 

Now, Dave, we’re going to pick up with Chapter 3, but I want to read, basically, an endorsement of the book Judgment Day! Islam, Israel, and the Nations, and this is from General Shimon Erem. I don’t know if he is retired now, but the most famous, I would say, of all the Israeli generals in the IDF.

Dave: Still living. General Erem has been in every war, wounded seven times. He is 83, I think. He was one of those who David Ben-Gurion asked to form the first Officer’s Training Corps there in Israel. He was leading a convoy on his way to try to break through to Jerusalem when Ben-Gurion made the announcement May 14, 1948, of independence. He was also in the volunteer brigade, the Palestinian Brigade, the British Army. They got some volunteers from Israel - Jews. There were no Arabs in this Palestinian Brigade; the Arabs were fighting on Hitler’s side. He was telling me the British didn’t have too much confidence in these Jews from Palestine, so-called. They kind of put them on guard duty, or whatever, and then they gave him an assignment with some of his men… “Nazi troops are reconnoitering or something over there, and they got a scouting party out, etc. Why don’t you guys sneak over and try to find out what they’re up to.” 

And Shimon told me - he said, “We don’t sneak over there and try to find out what they are up to, I captured them! We captured them and brought them back.” But anyway, a very interesting man. And by the way, Tom, he carries two Bibles everywhere he goes. He does believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He believes the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob gave them that land and is protecting them, and has protected him on many occasions.

Tom: He writes, after reading the book - I understand he read it in one sitting, which is amazing…

Dave: He couldn’t put it down - 400 pages.

Tom: Right. “Dave Hunt’s Judgment Day has encyclopedic dimensions of the most crucial and vital issues of our times - life and death issues, which affect us both as individuals and as a Judeo-Christian community. In 1948, when the state of Israel was just re-established, 600,000 Israelis faced 80 million Arabs. Sixty thousand ill-trained and ill-equipped Israeli soldiers of a newly organized army, six months old, crushed 600,000 [a ratio of one to ten] soldiers of four Arab armies, well-trained and heavily armed, reinforced by units from several additional Arab countries, not to mention the active help of the British. Shame and humiliation overwhelmed the whole Islamic world. To eliminate Israel, a strategy was conceived establishing the unholy trinity: Islamic terrorism; a hostile, anti-Semitic Europe; and a corrupt United Nations. The slogan of the conquest is, ‘First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people.’ Europe has already been invaded by hordes of Muslims. It is all there in Dave Hunt’s Judgment Day. Who is next - USA? Like the biblical prophets, Dave Hunt has a vision and is not hesitant to issue a battle cry. Judgment Day is a must read and a call to action. James’ statement [that is, quoting from James:2:26For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
See All...], “Faith without works is dead,” cannot be ignored. Not only will faith be dead but alas, the faithful, too, unless we act. Dave Hunt makes it utterly clear in Judgment Day. It is a powerful book. General Shimon Erem, retired.” Wow! 

Dave, in Chapter 3, titled, “Who Inherits the Promised Land?” you indicate from the Bible that Abraham had at least eight sons, and you asked the question, “Which of these sons qualify for the inheritance, or do they all get a share?” 

Dave: Yeah, well of course that’s…that question is of great importance today. Now, the six sons that were born to him through Keturah, his second wife after Sarah died, their descendants have pretty much been eliminated; we don’t know of any survivors, which is interesting. 

The first son, of course, was Ishmael. Now, that was the son of unbelief, not the son of promise. God had promised him a son through his wife Sarah. She said she couldn’t have children, and indeed couldn’t, apparently. They had been married many years, so she suggested to Abraham, “You should go in and have sex with my maid, Hagar, and God will give you the promised son through her.” 

Well, so Abraham heeded his wife’s advice, and unfortunately, we are still reaping the consequences of that today. Unbelief and disobedience have serious consequences. Even though God may forgive us for it, there are consequences that are in process and will continue. And, of course, Sarah then was jealous of Hagar after this happened and banished her and her little child, and then God brought her back and there was a reconciliation of sorts. And Ishmael was a young boy and Abraham loved him, and you will find this…his birth is recorded in Genesis 16. We’re moving into Genesis 17 now: God said to Abraham (this is a very important passage), “The son of Hagar, that’s not the son of promise, but I’m going to give you - I promised I would give you a son through your wife Sarah, and I’m going to do that very shortly.” 

Abraham laughed. He can’t believe it. How is that possible? This is the great man of faith. He’s the father of the faithful. Nevertheless, he did have times of doubt, and he said, “Why can’t you just bless Ishmael? You gave me a son, Ishmael. I love him. He’s a good boy. Why can’t he be the son of promise?” 

God says, “He’s not the son of promise. I’m going to give you a son through your wife. You will call his name Isaac, and he will be the one who will inherit the blessing that I promised to you, he and his descendants.” 

Well, you would think that would be enough. Even the Qur’an says that this is the case, that the land was promised to the Jews and it belongs to them. However, the Arabs say, “No, that’s not true. Ishmael was the first born! The first born inherits.” Okay? 

So now we go back to Genesis 15, where God defines further who will be the descendants who inherit this land. He says, “They will be slaves for 400 years in a foreign land. Four hundred years from now, I will bring them into the Promised Land, the land of Canaan.” That happened to the Jews. It did not happen to the Arabs. The descendants of Ishmael were never slaves anywhere. In fact, they began to intermarry. They intermarried with the Edomites, and with the Midianites, and with the Hittites, and various others. So the Arabs today are not a pure descent from Ishmael. However, there must be a lot of Ishmaelite blood in them, so we will give them credit for being the descendants of Ishmael.

Tom: Which is why you said by Abraham taking Sarah’s advice…

Dave: Right.

Tom: …it created problems way down the line.

Dave: With us today, okay? So we know that the Jews are the chosen people. They’re the ones who inherit the land, because they were the slaves for 400 years in Egypt, then they were brought en masse into the land of Canaan. The descendants of Ishmael, they moved down to Arabia. Although a nomadic group of people intermarried, nevertheless they became identified as the Arabs.

Tom: Dave, you say some things here that - I think our audience really needs to hear some documentation. When you said that the Qur’an supports the idea that the Israelites are the chosen people and that it is their land, people say, “What? How can that be? Then the problem should be solved.” Let me read some of the verses from the Qur’an. 

This is Surah 5:70 - it says, “We made a covenant of old with the children of Israel.” And then it goes on…

Dave: Tom, let me interrupt. It’s interesting, why does Allah say “we”? Of course, the God of the Bible says “we” because the God of the Bible is a Triune being - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But all through the Qur’an…and I don’t think it’s just the editorial, I think Mohammed must have picked that up from the Bible or from - of course he was, supposedly illiterate - but from Christians. But anyway, go ahead. I’m sorry. 

Tom: Right, and that’s a good point for our listeners. When it begins “we,” that is supposedly Allah speaking.

Dave: And see, in Genesis 1, God says, “Let Us make man in Our image.”

Tom: Right. So that’s Surah 5:70. Surah 10:91,94, it says, “We,” that is, Allah speaking, “brought the children of Israel across the Red Sea, and Pharaoh with his host pursued them, and we verily did allot unto the children of Israel a fixed abode.” 

Continuing, “Pharaoh wished to scare them from the land, but we drowned him and chose with him and those with him in the Red Sea all together, and we said unto the children of Israel, ‘Dwell in the land.’” And that’s Surah 17:103,104. 

“We delivered the children of Israel from Pharaoh. We chose them purposely above all creatures,” Surah 44:30-32. 

“We favored them above all peoples,” Surah 45:16. 

“Remember Allah’s favor to you. He gave you what he gave no other of his creatures. O, my people, go into the holy land which Allah hath ordained for you,” Surah 95:20,21.

Dave: Pretty clear in the Qur’an, however…

Tom: Well, in the early parts.

Dave: Right, but how do they explain that away, Tom? I do not know, but, of course, they contradict themselves, they contradict one another, they pretend to be Palestinians…let me go back to that for a minute. The so-called Palestinians today, there’s a dispute over the land between Palestinians (they call themselves that, and it’s not who they are. It’s not true. The world accepts it) and the Jews. The Jews can trace themselves back to this land - 4,000 years back - to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, okay? But the so-called Palestinians cannot. They’re Arabs, all right? Now, they claim to be descended from the original Palestinians and that the Jews have come in, Johnny-come-latelys, and occupied their land. Well, first of all, there were no original Palestinians. It was not the land of Palestine, it was the land of Canaan. You can trace that through history if anybody cares to verify it. It was not called Palestine until 135 AD when the Romans in anger re-named Israel “Provincia Syria-Palestina,” okay? Furthermore, the Arabs, on the one hand, claim to be descended from Ishmael, and yet at the same time claimed to be descended from the original Palestinians. Well, who was Ishmael? His father was from Ur of the Chaldees, his mother was an Egyptian. Now, how do you become an original Palestinian - of course, there were no such people, but anyway - an original Canaanite, even, if your father is from Ur of the Chaldees and your mother is from Egypt, and they came to the land of Canaan long after it had been settled by these people? Okay? So on the very face of it, it is a lie, it is a fraud, and yet the world accepts it. 

Now, how do we know that the Jews are those people who - as God promised Abraham, “Your descendants who will inherit this land will be slaves for 400 years in a foreign land, then I will deliver them and I will bring them into this land together 400 years from now.” Now, of course it did happen to the Jews, we know that from history, but anyway, this is very ancient history. So God gave them a sign! Tom, I just love the Bible; it is fantastic. You cannot escape it - He gave them the Passover to keep. 

Let me read just a few of those verses, because this is a very, very powerful proof, and God intended it to be proof. He left it as evidence. So here’s what God says - [Exodus] 12:14, God said, “And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and you shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.” Now, we have talked about that in the past. It’s an amazing prophecy that the Jews will always continue to keep the Passover. And we talked about some other things, like sacred fires of the goddess of Vesta and Zoroastrian fires in Persia, which their prophets said would never go out (which went out), but God says, “You keep the Passover for ever.” 

They keep it to this day. Who keeps it? The Jews! The Arabs don’t keep the Passover, the so-called Palestinians don’t keep the Passover. So this was the sign God gave when He took these people out of that land to bring them into the promised land. 

Now, going down a little further - I just love it - He says, [Exodus:12:26And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service?
See All...] “And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service?” Why are we doing this? “You shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when He smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped.” 

So this was to be kept forever as a proof, as a sign. 

Now, we’ve talked about it in the past briefly, Tom, but let me just go over it again. When you have an event that is witnessed by a multitude of people, and at that very time it is memorialized by some remembrance which is thereafter kept year after year, week after week, whatever it is, you have absolute proof, beyond the shadow of a doubt. It will stand up in any court of the law. It actually happened. 

Tom: Dave, what if somebody out there is saying, “Yeah, well, wait a minute! What about Santa Claus and Christmas? We have a tradition. We’ve been doing that forever. What’s this?”

Dave: You haven’t been doing it forever. I mean, you don’t even know when this began!

Tom: Well, you know what I mean - you know, it’s been around for a long time.

Dave: But you don’t when it began, and it is not to commemorate some actual event. It’s not to commemorate some actual person named Santa who went around and gave presents to everybody. Everybody knows that’s a myth. 

Now, let me illustrate it like this: suppose we are still under the British - we’re still a British colony here, and then you and I get a bright idea. We say, “Hey, let’s say that there was a day of independence! We got our independence back in 1776. Of course, it didn’t happen; we’re still under the British, and we’ve been commemorating that with firecrackers and so forth ever since, annually, July 4th.” 

Well, immediately, someone would say, “Well, we didn’t do it last year. We didn’t do it the year before.” 

So you couldn’t just start something and say, “Oh, we’ve been doing it since the beginning.” This is a memorial - the Passover is a memorial of an actual event that happened, otherwise they wouldn’t have kept this, and they kept it last year, the year before…you can go back as far as you want in history, you cannot find a time when they didn’t keep it. And the fact that the Jews keep it today all over the world, probably 90 percent of all the Jews, and if you go to Israel, I think it was 96 percent last year in Jerusalem, but 30 percent of the Israelis claim to be atheists. They still keep this, and God said, “This is proof that I am God. I’m the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I chose you, I gave you this land, I brought you out of slavery - brought you into this land - and no one can dispute it.” 

So we have absolute proof of who that land belongs to, and yet the world accepts the lies. Now, Tom, I mentioned earlier, General Shimon Erem, that he was part of the Palestinian Brigade. When the Romans re-named Israel “Palestine,” everybody that lived there was a Palestinian! Who lived there? The Jews! You chase them out, they come back. “This is our land. God gave it to us.” Okay? So the Jews were called Palestinians. 

So I mentioned the Palestinian Brigade, World War II - what was that? Not an Arab in it; these were Jews. There was the Palestinian Post, a Jewish newspaper; the Palestinian Symphony Orchestra. In the book, we quote leading Arabs who say, “There is no such place as Palestine. We’re not Palestinians, the Arabs are not Palestinians. If anybody is a Palestinian, it’s those Jews.” And I quote among them, Ahmed Shukeiri. Ahmed Shukeiri, 1956, testifying to the United Nations, he said, “There is no such place as Palestine. The Jews are Palestinians, we are not Palestinians.” That’s 1956. Eight years later, Ahmed Shukeiri became the founding chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization. He lied, they lied, they changed their tune, and, Tom, I get angry because the world accepts it, and this man becomes the basis on which they’re going to make some kind of phony peace in the Middle East. 

Tom: If you’ve just joined us, we are going through Dave Hunt’s book Judgment Day! Islam, Israel, and the Nations. Now, Dave, in Chapter 3, you have a couple of pages that - just stunning - about the importance of Hebron to Israel. People don’t think about…you know, we hear about what’s going on in Jerusalem, but Hebron - that’s a tragedy!

Dave: And the so-called Palestinians claim that it’s their land. Now, Tom, I think we have a quote there from the British police chief, if you can find it, what went on there; it was horrible. You see, you had a group, I mentioned, of pacifists…well, you had it in the National Catholic Reporter, as you know - two-page article. You’ve got a group over there, Quakers, I think, and they say, “Wow, we’re here to bring peace, because this doesn’t belong to the Israelis! They moved in here, and they’re persecuting these Palestinians. It belongs to them, and how come they came back in?” 

Tom, I explain: why did they come back in? They’ve been there - this is where Abraham settled; Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived there. They were thrown out in 1948 when the Jordanians took Hebron. They destroyed every synagogue. They threw out all Jews - it’s against the law for a Jew to enter. You say, “Why or how come the Jews are coming back?” Well, finally when Israel re-took it, they allowed a few Jews to come back in. But, Tom, did you find that spot?

Tom: Right, this is a British police chief of Hebron, and later after he was hearing what was going on through the press, he set the record straight: “On hearing screams, I went up a sort of tunnel passage and saw an Arab in the act of cutting off a child’s head with a sword. Seeing me, he tried to aim the stroke at me, but missed. I shot him. Behind him was a Jewish woman smothered in blood with a man I recognized as an Arab police constable named Esau Sharel from Jaffa, standing over the woman with a dagger in his hand. He saw me and bolted into a room close by and tried to shut me out, shouting in Arabic, ‘Your Honor, I am a policeman.’ I got into the room and shot him.”

Dave: Tom, that was only just a sample of what went on. There were slaughters of Jews, massacres. They were chased out. This is their land, and today people move in and say, “Oh, this is terrible what the Jews have done. They’ve taken possession of this Palestinian land; they’re putting the Palestinians out.” Tom, part of the reason I wrote this book is to set the record straight. I want people to know the truth.

Tom: Mm-hmm. Dave, we’re going to come back to this next week. Hebron, as I said, is just a travesty of justice, and I think we need to come back to this next week.