The war going on in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank is having a ripple effect around the world. This ripple has come to the United States and has made many Jews afraid of being persecuted as well as it has many people protesting, not only against the Jews here in the US, but especially the Jews in Israel. It seems to be a battle of land occupation with some people believing that the land belongs to people now called Palestinians and others believing it should belong to the Jews.

This article is not written to change minds but to educate on the history of what’s really going on. There are historical documents that trace the word “Palestine” from other words from other languages, back to the era we refer to as BCE, where the word Palestine gets its root word from. As Christians, we refer to it, of course, as the land of Canaan or the Promised Land. There are reasons for both words in the history of this particular piece of landscape.

I want to tell a story about three brothers, two of whom play a huge role in what is going on today. There was a man named Noah who built a huge ship referred to as the Ark. This Ark saved him and his wife, their three sons and their three wives from a worldwide flood that the creator of this world punished mankind with for their sins. After the flood waters receded, and Noah and his family got of the Ark, Noah planted a vineyard, and from the fruit of that vineyard made some wine and got drunk. One of his sons, named Ham, discovered his father’s nakedness (much debate on what that means exactly), which was very disrespectful to Noah. So much so that Noah laid a curse, not on Ham, but on his son Canaan.

In Genesis 9:25 it says, “he said, “Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers.” So, the son of Ham, whose name was Canaan, was going to be a slave, the lowest of slaves, to his brothers Shem and Japheth.

Now, if we follow the descendants of Canaan in Genesis chapter 10, we find that they settle in the land of Canaan. Later the clans of these Canaanites are scattered into an area that we are familiar with, the area of Gaza. Genesis 10:18-19 says, “…Later the Canaanite clans scattered and the borders of Canaan reached from Sidon toward Gerar as far as Gaza, and then toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboyim, as far as Lasha.

This area was later given to the tribe of Judah when the Israelites, the descendants of Shem, conquered the land of Canaan. You see, the descendants of Ham first settled the land, but because of Noah’s curse on Canaan, the descendants of Shem, from whose line Abraham came, were given the land by God when they came out of Egypt. So, the curse was fulfilled that the descendants of Canaan would be slaves to his brothers, especially the descendants of Shem.

Stay tuned next week for the conclusion of how we get to the divided lands of Israel and Palestine. It becomes very interesting how both sides might have a rightful claim to the lands they now reside in. I want to encourage the readers to be praying for the fighting to stop and peace to be made between these two factions.

We invite you to join us at College Hill Church of Christ, 1102 College Blvd., every Sunday morning at 10:30 a.m. for worship or follow us on Facebook at College Hill Church of Christ Alva Oklahoma as we stream our worship service every Sunday. We are a fellowship of believers that follow God’s Word and love all who worship with us!