The Original People of the Promised Land

Imagine that you were taking a quiz that has only one question:

Who were the original people of the Promised Land?

1. The Israelites / Jews
2. The Palestinians

Which option is correct? Take a moment to think about your answer before reading the rest of this article.

This quiz was conducted during a seminar which was attended by a little more than 500 people. Out of those who answered the quiz, 65% of them answered that the Israelites or Jews were the original people of the Promised Land. The other 35% answered that the Palestinians were the original people of the Promised Land.

However, according to the Bible, neither of these two options is correct! The original people of the Promised Land were neither Jews nor Palestinians. Rather, when Abram (Abraham) first stepped into the Promised Land, the people who were living in the Promised Land were Canaanites (Gen. 12:6)! This was long before there were any such people as Israelites, Jews, or Palestinians. Moreover, the original name of the Promised Land was neither “Israel” nor “Palestine”, but “Canaan” (Gen. 12:5).

Now, let us ask ourselves: How did we answer the quiz? Which option did we choose? Why did we choose that option? Many people choose either option because they support the political cause of either Modern Israel or Modern Palestine. Perhaps we chose either option because a third option was not provided. That is certainly fair. Yet, did the Canaanites even come to mind when we were doing the quiz? Or have we been conditioned by politics and media that we have forgotten that we have forgotten what our Bibles say?

As Christians, the Bible is our final standard of truth from God. There is nothing wrong with loving Israelis and Jewish people. There is also nothing wrong with sympathizing with Palestinians. There is nothing wrong with having a political view. However, something is terribly wrong when our politics have overtaken our faith to the point that we forget what our Bible says!