THE unique place held by Palestine in the history of the world is partly due to its geographical, situation, for it lies upon the threshold of three continents. It is on the western coast of Asia; not far to the southwest lies the boundary of Africa; while even in Biblical times ships plied constantly between the Holy Land and European ports. Moreover, the age-old caravan route which ran from Damascus to Egypt passed through Palestine. Then, too, if one examines a map outlining the successive empires which enjoyed dominant power during the Biblical era— Egypt to the south, Assyria, Babylonia, and Persia to the east, Greece and Rome to the west—Palestine will be found to form what may be called their focal point. The Holy Land, then, was at the center of the ancient world in a geographical sense, while it was eventually to become its religious and spiritual center, a fact which was surely foreseen by the prophet Micah when he wrote: "The law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem" (Mic. 4:2). History shows that the Jewish people aided in the passage of the commerce of the world from north to south and from east to west, but what is of more abiding importance is the fact that their religious leaders, and above all, the Messiah whom they foretold, acted as intermediaries between God and men, bringing to mankind a deeper concept of religion, a more exalted idea of God and of man's obligations towards Him and towards his fellow men.
It has been well said that the Holy Land occupies the same place in the history of Asia that Belgium holds in European history. Again and again, like Belgium, Palestine has been the battle ground of empires. At an early date the Ethiopians invaded it from the south (II Chron. 14:9), while from the north came the Hittites and the Scythians (cf. Zeph. 2). The conflict between the empires of Egypt and Assyria was largely waged in Syria, while as time went by, Babylonia and Persia invaded this same territory from the east, to be succeeded by the armies of Greece and Rome from across the sea to the west. It was invaded by the Arabs in the seventh century, by the Turks in the eleventh, the Crusaders in the twelfth, and by the Mongols in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Napoleon made Palestine the base for his attempted annexation of India. In the present century Allenby's campaign was fought there, while today the land is still unsettled. Now this amazing record of conflict in Palestine does not necessarily imply that the Hebrews were or are a warlike people, for more often than not their land was simply the scene of the campaigns of others; but this forced environment of strife seems to have fostered a natural tenacity of purpose and strength of character. It is one of the paradoxes of history that while the people of Palestine, whether in time of war or of peace, were in touch with the life of the great nations of antiquity, still they were isolated from them by the mountainous nature of their native land, and retaining their peculiar individuality, they produced the greatest literary monument of all time.
