Why do you use the word Palestine, when it is not even in the Bible?
Answer — It is in the Bible. Exodus 15:14, Isaiah 14:28 &31, and Joel 3:4. They all are in reference to the strip of land between the Eastern Mediterranean Sea coast and the Jordan Valley. In Antiquity, this was inhabited by the Philistines, from which Palestine is derived. I use the word sparingly, and only because it is the term quite readily understood by even the Biblically ignorant. But, I much prefer to use the term “Israel,” especially since the Jews once again, according to prophecy (Deut. 30:1 & 2 and Ezekiel 37:12-14) have made it their Sovereign homeland.
Actually, to call the Arabs now living in Israel “Palestinians” is a misnomer. Palestine, or Israel as we now know it, was the homeland of the Jewish people from Joshua, about 1400 BC, until, by God’s Sovereign design, they were expelled and scattered into every nation on earth by the Roman destruction of the temple and Jerusalem in 70 AD From that time until the early 1900’s it was primarily a wasteland under the occupying boots of several different empires. Little by little, Jews started settling the land by way of Kibbutzes.
After World War II, they escaped Europe and their numbers grew until the War of Independence. They were declared a Sovereign State. But, by a United Nations supervised cease-fire, the borders were established that left the Arabs in what we have come to know as the West Bank. I do not like to call present day Israel the Promised Land, because the Promised Land goes all the way out to the Euphrates River and back to the River of Egypt in the West. The Jews have never occupied much of that except a small area east of Galilee during Solomon’s reign.
But, when Christ returns and sets up His Kingdom, ruling from Jerusalem, Israel will finally enjoy all the real estate promised to Abraham in Gen. 15:18. And, it will not be desert. It will be as the Garden of Eden was. Isaiah 51:3 – “For our Lord shall comfort Zion; He will comfort all her waste places; He will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody.