Do the Jews Have a Divine Right to the Land of Israel?

This is a hot-button issue, especially with what is currently happening between Israel and Hamas.  Many Christians, especially those who believe in Dispensationalism, believe that the land of Israel remains the divinely appointed homeland of the Jewish people.  They base their belief on passages like Psalm 105:7-11.  I disagree with this view, as do many Christians.  While I support the nation of Israel in their current fight against Hamas, and I believe they have a political right to the land of Israel, I do not believe the Jews today have a divine right to that land.  One of the most eloquent voices on this topic is Steve Gregg.  In a recent interview, Steve Gregg articulated the position that the Jews do NOT have a divine right to the land of Israel.  I will try to summarize his argument below, but I recommend that you watch the interview.  

First, God's promise to give Israel the land of Canaan was completely fulfilled (Josh 21:43-45).  It is true that God did not immediately drive all the Canaanites out of the land, but He states His reasons for this, and He did eventually drive them out little by little.  First, the Jewish people were not numerous enough to fill the land, so God left some of the Canaanites for a time so the land wouldn't be overrun with wild animals (Dt 7:22).  Second, God left some of the Canaanites in the land of Canaan so that future generations of Israelites could learn how to fight in battle (Judges 3:1-2).  Eventually the Jews fully conquered the land, so God has already fulfilled the promise to give the land of Israel to the Jews (see also Gen 15:18-21; 1 Kings 4:20-21).

Second, while God promised to give the land of Israel to the Jews "forever," this promise was conditional, and the Jews did not fulfill the conditions.  Even God's initial promise to Abraham was conditional (Gen 12:1-3).  Abraham had to leave his land and relatives and go to the land God would show him, which he did.  Later, God made it clear that the promise to Abraham's descendants was conditional (see Gen 18:19;  Dt 28:45-46, 63; Lev 18:24-28; Jer 18:7-10).  The Jews did not fulfill the conditions; they were disobedient and idolatrous, so God drove them out of the land.  

Third, while God did promise to bring the Jews back to the land if  they repented (Dt 30:1-10), this promise has already been fulfilled.  In 586 BC the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and the temple, and took the people to Babylon.  Then, in 539 BC, the Persians conquered Babylon, and King Cyrus issued the Cyrus Decree, allowing exiled Jews to return to their homeland and rebuild their temple.  All of the promises made about the scattered Jews returning to the land were made before or as they were in the process of returning from Babylon.

Fourth, while the Jews did return to the land of Israel in 1948, this was not a fulfillment of Bible prophecy.  There is no prophecy in the Bible about Israel returning to the land in unbelief.  The current nation of Israel is a secular nation.  The main city of Tel Aviv has some of the largest LGBTQ celebrations in the world.  Only twenty percent of the Jews in Israel today are religious Jews; only 1.8% of the population of Israel today is Christian, and most of those are Arab Christians.  

Fifth, in 70 AD, after the Jews rejected Christ, God sent the Romans to destroy Jerusalem and the Temple, and the Jews were scattered all over the empire.  There is no promise in the Bible to bring these people back to the land and to reestablish the nation of Israel as God's covenant people.  However, God is not finished with ethnic Jews.  He still loves the Jewish people and, since the first century, He has been in the process of saving them from sin and including them, along with the Gentiles, in His New Covenant people -- the church of Jesus Christ.