This Land Is My Land
Pat Robertson seems to have an endless capacity to make theological assertions that boggle the sensibilities of most people, and today he made another. Robertson made the following assertion on his television show, The 700 Club, concerning the grave condition of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon:
You can see and hear Robertson's full statement here.
It all gets back to hermeneutics. What is the Bible's bottom line? What is its central, irreducible message? Certainly some believe God's gift of Israel to Abraham's descendants to be the essential promise of Scripture. For them, Genesis 15:18-21 describes the divinely mandated geographical boundaries of the land. Certainly there have been many who have held onto this conviction throughout history. During the first century CE, a time when "God's land" was occupied by Roman armies, this faith led to fervent apocalyptic expectation on the part of many, the hope that God would soon break into human history in a dramatic way and restore God's land to God's people.
Significantly, this hope does not seem to be central in the teaching of one prominent Jewish rabbi of the time, Jesus of Nazareth. For Jesus, the bottom line was an ethical one. The greatest commandment, according to Jesus and many others, was to love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus' take on the Torah (that its central message is primarily ethical in nature) was one that was held by many in Israel. In fact, the hermeneutic of ethical monotheism became the basis of rabbinical Judaism. This, rather than claims about ownership of "the land," is what motivated the rabbis whose debates are recorded in the Talmud and in later writings.
But there are others--Pat Robertson, some fundamentalist Christians, and some ultra-Orthodox Jews--for whom the land is what it's all about. While respecting their right to hold this view, I want to pose a question that I would hope Robertson and others would be willing to address.
Is God as territorial and nationalistic as Robertson believes? Is God's primary concern about lines on a map? Is God's fundamental desire about the political and religious identity of those who would exercise governmental control over Israel? Is God's central passion about issues of political sovereignty? Or is God's agenda centered more around the quality of the life lived by the people who dwell in God's land, that they do justice and love mercy, as God says through the prophet Micah?
What does it mean to say that Israel is God's land? Consider the fact that Jerusalem is seen as a holy place by Jews, Christians, and Moslems alike. Here is one vision of what it might look like to put flesh on the conviction that Israel is God's land:
We honor Israel as "God's land" when we work to make it a place of peace, shalom, salaam.
We honor Israel as "God's land" when we seek to transcend myopic concerns for the well-being of one people and have faith in the prophetic vision that the one God cares for the well-being of many nations and peoples.
We honor Israel as "God's land" when we share the passion that God spoke through the prophet Amos that "justice roll down like waters;" the conviction that all people are children of God; and the commitment that everyone is entitled to full equality in the political, economic, and social dimensions of life.
We honor Israel as "God's land" when we realize that God is the owner of the land and that those who inhabit the land are but stewards of God's gifts, called to care for the land and ensure that all peoples can enjoy its bounty.
We honor Israel as "God's land" when we are filled with the hope that peoples of all faiths can live together in mutual respect in Israel ... or anywhere on earth.
I am sad to see him in this condition. But I think we need to look at the Bible and the Book of Joel. The prophet Joel makes it very clear that God has enmity against those that "divide my land." God considers this land to be his. You read the Bible, he says, "This is my land," and for any Prime Minister of Israel who decides he's going to carve it up and give it away, God says, "No, this is mine."
[Sharon] was dividing God's land, and I say, Woe unto any Prime Minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the EU, the United Nations, or the United States of America. God says, "This land belongs to me. You better leave it alone."
You can see and hear Robertson's full statement here.
It all gets back to hermeneutics. What is the Bible's bottom line? What is its central, irreducible message? Certainly some believe God's gift of Israel to Abraham's descendants to be the essential promise of Scripture. For them, Genesis 15:18-21 describes the divinely mandated geographical boundaries of the land. Certainly there have been many who have held onto this conviction throughout history. During the first century CE, a time when "God's land" was occupied by Roman armies, this faith led to fervent apocalyptic expectation on the part of many, the hope that God would soon break into human history in a dramatic way and restore God's land to God's people.
Significantly, this hope does not seem to be central in the teaching of one prominent Jewish rabbi of the time, Jesus of Nazareth. For Jesus, the bottom line was an ethical one. The greatest commandment, according to Jesus and many others, was to love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus' take on the Torah (that its central message is primarily ethical in nature) was one that was held by many in Israel. In fact, the hermeneutic of ethical monotheism became the basis of rabbinical Judaism. This, rather than claims about ownership of "the land," is what motivated the rabbis whose debates are recorded in the Talmud and in later writings.
But there are others--Pat Robertson, some fundamentalist Christians, and some ultra-Orthodox Jews--for whom the land is what it's all about. While respecting their right to hold this view, I want to pose a question that I would hope Robertson and others would be willing to address.
Is God as territorial and nationalistic as Robertson believes? Is God's primary concern about lines on a map? Is God's fundamental desire about the political and religious identity of those who would exercise governmental control over Israel? Is God's central passion about issues of political sovereignty? Or is God's agenda centered more around the quality of the life lived by the people who dwell in God's land, that they do justice and love mercy, as God says through the prophet Micah?
What does it mean to say that Israel is God's land? Consider the fact that Jerusalem is seen as a holy place by Jews, Christians, and Moslems alike. Here is one vision of what it might look like to put flesh on the conviction that Israel is God's land:
We honor Israel as "God's land" when we work to make it a place of peace, shalom, salaam.
We honor Israel as "God's land" when we seek to transcend myopic concerns for the well-being of one people and have faith in the prophetic vision that the one God cares for the well-being of many nations and peoples.
We honor Israel as "God's land" when we share the passion that God spoke through the prophet Amos that "justice roll down like waters;" the conviction that all people are children of God; and the commitment that everyone is entitled to full equality in the political, economic, and social dimensions of life.
We honor Israel as "God's land" when we realize that God is the owner of the land and that those who inhabit the land are but stewards of God's gifts, called to care for the land and ensure that all peoples can enjoy its bounty.
We honor Israel as "God's land" when we are filled with the hope that peoples of all faiths can live together in mutual respect in Israel ... or anywhere on earth.
posted by David Ourisman at 3:30 PM
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