THE PHILISTINES AND THE PALESTINIANS
BY DAVID CLOUD
SEE: https://www.wayoflife.org/friday_church_news/19-24.php; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
(Friday Church News Notes, June 15, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The Philistines originated from the cursed family of Ham’s son Canaan (Ge. 9:22-25; 1 Ch. 1:8-12). They occupied the land of Canaan and were Israel’s bitter enemies (Ge. 21:32; 26:1-18; Ex. 13:17; Jos. 13:2-3; Ju. 3:3, 31). In the King James Bible, the Hebrew word palesheth is translated “Palestina,” “Palestine,” “Philistia,” and “Philistines.” They violently stole a well from Abraham (Ge. 21:25). This context is the first time that “the land of the Philistines” is mentioned in Scripture (Ge. 21:32). The Philistines also stopped up Isaac’s wells (Ge. 26:14-18). The Philistines are mentioned 34 times in the book of Judges and 155 times from 1 Samuel through 2 Kings, as they opposed Israel from the time of Shamgar and Samson until that of Hezekiah (e.g., Jud. 3:31; 13:5; 1 Sa. 4:2; 13:5; 13:17; 31:1; 2 Sa. 5:18, 22; 21:15). The giant Goliath that David slew was the champion of the Philistines (1 Sa. 17:4). In the second century AD, the Roman Emperor Hadrian renamed the land of Judea “Syria Palestina” to celebrate his victory in the Second Jewish War (Bar Kokhba revolt). Jerusalem was converted into a Roman city and renamed Aelia Capitolina after Hadrian and his gods. (Aelia is derived from Hadrian’s family name Aelius, and Capitolina refers to the idolatrous cult of the Capitoline Triad in Rome, Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva.) It was a brazen attempt to erase the memory of Israel from her land and give it back to the Philistines. After conquering the land from the Ottomans in the 1920s, England perpetuated the myth that the land of Israel is “Palestine.” The Palestinians, though of Arab stock, still hate Israel and have vowed to drive her into the sea, but Bible prophecy addresses the Philistines in three major passages and their defeat is sure. See Isaiah 28:14-32; Jeremiah 47; Joel 3:4-21. Israel is God’s chosen nation, and He gave the land to Israel as an eternal possession. “For the LORD hath chosen Jacob unto himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure” (Ps. 135:4). God calls Himself “the God of Israel” 203 times and “the God of Jacob” 25 times. To Israel were committed the Holy Scriptures (“unto them were committed the oracles of God,” Ro. 3:2). Through Israel, the Saviour came (“of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever,” Ro. 9:5). Jesus told the woman at the well that “salvation is of the Jews” (Joh. 4:22). Sadly, Israel rejected her own God 2,000 years ago in the person of her Messiah, Immanuel (Isa. 7:14), but the same Bible that prophesied that rejection in Isaiah 53 prophesies Israel’s repentance and conversion in coming days (De. 30; Jer. 31; Eze. 37). “The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel” (Joel 3:16).