Week 4: Reflections on A Palestinian Perspective: Biblical Perspectives on the Land

I thought this was a very well written article about who the land belongs to. Israel and Palestine have been fighting over who the land belongs to for what seems like forever. This article makes some good points. One of the points I really liked was when the author pointed out that the land is, in the basest of terms, God’s land. In reality, it belongs to none of us, we are simply using it with God’s permission. God created the earth and therefore the land belongs to God. Another thing the author talked about for a while was the two exoduses in the Bible and how it can relate to the current situation. The first exodus was from slavery in Egypt. This story is well known, probably because there is a lot of God’s power shown here with the plagues, the parting of the sea, the fall of Jericho, etc. The second exodus is when the people come out of their exile to Babylon. This story has a very different feel to it. In the first exodus, the people are given the land of Caanan. They force those who were already living there away and take over the land. In the second exodus, the people are told to get along with those who are living there. They are told to share the land and not fight for the land. The author points out that this is the attitude that would best serve the current situation. He points out that many Palestinians do not necessarily desire to rule the land, but to simply be allowed to live in their original homeland. I thought these were some good points and we would do well to try and learn from them.