Laughter in the Psalms 37:13, Psalms 2:4

Submitted by M. Tovey (United States), Jan 10, 2012 at 12:25

I read this late and based upon the series of exchanges, I have yet to understand the disparity of the comments as to who can be called 'Palestinian' based upon any of the 'historical' references already presented in this forum. 'Palestine' is just a name, a very, VERY old name.

While I agree that 5000 years ago there were no Israelites or persons of the Jewish heritage, it took only until Abraham (then known as Abram) to get to the Hebrew (eber) appellation. Since Abram came originally from an area now known as part of Iraq, it is likely that his trace ethnicity was Chaldean or whichever lineage from that area that came from the heritage of Shem, son of Noah.

When called upon by Almighty God, Abram left his mortal father's estate to move westerly to a land shown to him by the same LORD that gave Abram His vision of a race that would eventually become the children of Israel, the grandchildren of Abram, by then known as Abraham. The land shown to Abraham was a land principally known as being in the hands of the Canaanite, Hittite, Amorite and others, but a land promised to Abraham and his seed, forever.

Now, the history that tells about the early inhabitants of Canaan, etc., says that not all were Semitic, especially not the Phoenicians and the Philistines (from whom the Romans gave the appellation that we now use as 'Palestine'); and as such I would not be so quick to say that they are a semitic basis for the current Arab populations, which I have always understood from other scholarship that they (the Arabs) are the nomadic descendents of Sabean and related heritage, with a close connection to being Ishmaelite.

While in the immediate heritage era of being the children of Jacob through to the deportations, being Jewish and being separated by observing holy decree, being an Israelite was a significant ethnic distinction, later to be obscured by the Assyrian deportation (bringing about the Samarian separation); and later after the Babylonian deportation, the beginning of the subsequent variations of being Jewish by blood trace, though intermingled with the bloodlines of host countries during the 'Diaspora.'

When the Israelite/Judean/Jewish populations were displaced by the Roman conquest/deportation/expulsion, the period known as the 'times of the gentiles' commenced and it is the time we are in today. In that, prophetic fulfillment was completed to a point, the promises of the suffering Messiah completed and the future Messianic promises awaiting the appointed time to commence. What this required was the reinstitution of the nation of Israel (as was/is seen in 1948 and continuing) and the antagonism of the enemies of Israel to kick out the Jews, all as prophetically mentioned.

And that is a simplistic way of understanding one thing: against odd human efforts of trying to understand why things are the way they are, the supernatural reason is the only one that is going to make sense. Now all one has to do is ask: who gets it right? So far, everything that Jesus Christ said and is saying has come true…..and that says it all for this observer of the time we are in.

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