It is not only history that makes this clear, the Bible also describes how
three things are supposed to be inseparably linked:
The
people of Israel,
the
Torah and
the
land of Israel.
G-d intended it that way. And if one of them is missing, if this bond is incomplete, then this has consequences.
This third part is about the land of Israel.
In the first parts, we saw how G-d chose a people and gave them His Torah so that they would be a holy people. But He has reserved a special land for this people. A land that belongs to Himself and which He looks after in a special way:
A land which the Lord thy G-d careth for: the eyes of the Lord thy G-d are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year. Deu 11:12
It is about the land of Israel. It was promised to Abraham and his descendants and when the children of Israel came out of Egypt, G-d himself instructed them to take it.
It is a special land. The most important land on this earth. And we realize that every day when we hear the news, for example.
And precisely because it is so special, special rules apply here. And that brings us to the continuation of our covenant of three: G-d chose a people for Himself, gave them the Torah
before they entered the land of promise.
Why before? Because the land and the Torah belong together!
This is made clear again and again in the Torah:
Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety. Lev 25:18
Life according to His provisions is linked to the security of the people.
And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the Lord your G-d, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil. And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full.
Deu 11:13-15
And likewise, life according to His provisions is linked to the yield of the field.
Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other g-ds, and worship them; And then the Lord's wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the Lord giveth you. Deu 11:16-17
We now have this trinity before our eyes. G-d chooses a people, brings them into the holy land and expects them to develop a holy lifestyle. In this way, the greatness, holiness and power of G-d will be revealed to the whole world.
But the Bible also describes what happens when one of these three things is missing:
1 the people without the Torah
The above verse (Deu 11:17) describes what happens if the people live in the land but do not live according to the Torah: they are cut off from the good land.
The land is holy. And if the people who have been chosen for this holiness do not live holy lives, they will be “spit out” of the land, so to speak:
Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: that the land, whither I bring you to dwell therein, spue you not out. Lev 20:22
This spitting out has already happened several times in history. This shows that G-d is serious about these “promises”:
In the eighth century BC, the ten tribes in the north of Israel were spit out (Assyrian exile).
In the sixth century BC, the two tribes in the south of Israel were spit out (Babylonian exile).
In the first century AD, the Jews (the former Southern Kingdom) were spit out.
2 the land without the people
The land was conquered and settled by different peoples during these three events: Assyrians, Babylonians, Romans. Plus Greeks, Turks and others. The special thing is that under these foreign rulerships the land was not inhabited and cultivated in the same abundance as it was when Israel lived there.
And there is a reason for this:
The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes. Lev 26:43
G-d intended this land for a people. And if this people is not in the land, the land lies fallow. This is exactly what has happened over the centuries.
When the travel journalist Mark Twain saw the country at the end of the mid-19th century, he wrote of a “desolate land”, which he experienced as a “silent, sad expanse”, “a desert”. Mark Twain wrote
(We saw) “never a human being all the way”, ... “scarcely a tree or shrub”. (”... A desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds... a silent mournful expanse... a desolation... we never saw a human being on the whole route... hardly a tree or shrub anywhere. Even the olive tree and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil, had almost deserted the country.”).
S.: ‘Innocents Abroad’, 1867
From a purely human point of view, this is strange and peculiar. Normally, of course, a people begins to cultivate a land when it has conquered it. But strangely enough, no nation was able or had the desire to do so. At least not in the abundance and breadth that Israel did.
3 people not in the land: cemetery - the more in the Torah, the more they are drawn to the land
An exile is something like an educational measure by G-d. If His people do not live according to the Torah, He admonishes them many times. If nothing else helps, only the maximum punishment remains.
Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the Lord your G-d, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, which the Lord thy G-d hath forbidden thee. For the Lord thy G-d is a consuming fire, even a jealous G-d. When thou shalt beget children, and children's children, and ye shall have remained long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, and shall do evil in the sight of the Lord thy G-d, to provoke him to anger: I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed... Deu 4:23-28
But in the same breath, a glimmer of hope appears. Because of course we should learn something from educational measures.
But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy G-d, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy G-d, and shalt be obedient unto his voice; (For the Lord thy G-d is a merciful G-d ) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them. Deu 4:29-31
The first step that happens in exile is conversion and repentance. The people recognize their transgression and remember the divine ways that are intended for them.
But that is not all. For since the punishment was to be spit out of the land, repentance is followed by reflection on the true homeland.
And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the Lord thy G-d hath driven thee, And shalt return unto the Lord thy G-d, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul; That then the Lord thy G-d will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the Lord thy G-d hath scattered thee. If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy G-d gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee: And the Lord thy G-d will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers. Deu 30:1-5
These are tremendous promises. If His people repent and live in His ways again, He will bring them back.
And as far as the ten lost tribes are concerned, we are experiencing more and more in these days what the prophet Ezekiel prophesied:
The bones of the dead are awakening. They are given new life. And finally, they will be allowed to leave their graves and return to their homeland:
Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord G-d; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord. Ez 37:12-14
It is fascinating to see what meaningful times we are living in. Jesus brings the ten tribes back to life, leads them back into the ways of the Torah and ultimately back to the Promised Land.
And this begins to flourish again with the return of the tribes. Just as He has promised:... Thus saith the Lord G-d; Because they have made you desolate, and swallowed you up on every side, that ye might be a possession unto the residue of the heathen, and ye are taken up in the lips of talkers, and are an infamy of the people:... But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to come. For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled and sown: And I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it: and the cities shall be inhabited, and the wastes shall be builded:... Yea, I will cause men to walk upon you, even my people Israel; and they shall possess thee, and thou shalt be their inheritance, and thou shalt no more henceforth bereave them of men. From Ez 36:1-12