In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites." - Genesis 15:18-21

The Abrahamic covenant has two characteristics - (1) first it was God initiated and (2) it was God enacted.

In a beautifully written, but ultimately flawed work, Thomas Cahill in The Gift of the Jews describes Abram as a seeking polytheist who was looking for the ultimate God. While some might disagree with this view (including myself), we must remember that Abram lived in a polytheistic and sinful society. And it was out of this sinful place that God called one man to be the father of God's chosen people and ultimately many nations.

For it was God who did the calling. Abram might have been a God-fearing man but it was God who did the choosing and God who did the leading. The first part of the Abrahamic covenant described in Genesis 12 (see Whose Land Is It Anyway - Part One), illustrates perfectly that God was the pursuer and provider of the covenant.

This is reinforced in Genesis 15 when the covenant was sealed by the sacrifice of a heifer, a female goat, a ram, a turtledove and a pigeon. Abraham slew the animals and prepared the sacrifice but you can notice that in verses 12-17 that it was God who did the work of "negotiating" and finalizing the deal.

God symbolically seen as a furnace and lamp passed between the divided the sacrifice and in verse 18 made a covenant with Abraham while Abraham was in a deep sleep (v. 12). Abraham's action in the covenant was in preparation. God's action in the covenant was everything else. And any covenant initiated by God and made by God cannot be broken.

So what was promised to the children of Abraham (through Isaac and Jacob)? Genesis 12 speaks a great nation that will be a blessing to other people. Genesis 17 was the initiation of the covenant through circumcision and the changing of Abram's name to Abraham. Genesis 15 sets the boundaries for the territory from the river in Egypt to the Euphrates and the land belonging to (at the time it was promised) the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, etc.

This land mass extends, therefore, from the Nile River, located almost in the middle of Egypt to the Euphrates River in modern-day Iraq. The tribes mentioned were located in Canaan with the Amorites extending north into what is the southern edge of modern-day Turkey.

So if today Israel attempted to acquire all the land that was promised to them in Scripture, it would include from Egypt to Iraq and from Turkey to Saudi Arabia with the countries of Lebanon, Syria and Jordan in between. In other words, there would be war!

This Tzedakah Moment is not about making a political statement but about bringing to light what God has promised the Israeli people. How God will bring this about is up to him and the timing will be determined by him. But that is to be discussed in part three of "Whose Land Is It Anyway?"