So, where exactly is the center of our world? Some say it is the Big Apple; others Rome, or perhaps London. However, for those who look to God for answers, there is a different place.
Ever since Father Abraham obeyed God’s voice commanding him to “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land (that) I will show you” (Genesis 12:1), the territory of Israel has been front and center on the international stage. A beautiful land stretching along the Mediterranean eastern coast and wedged between the continents of Africa, Asia and Europe, the region that was originally called Canaan had captured the attention and the obsession of every king and emperor that ruled the earth.
Why is that?
Not only is the land layout and promise unique, but Abraham’s own introduction into the biblical story is remarkable as well. The man appears out of nowhere without any background information, and his first recorded encounter with the Living God is a firm directive to leave everything familiar to him, his country, his people and his family, in return for a mysterious promise of a distant land that God would give his descendants someday. Someone with a lesser faith would have walked away from the offer muttering to themselves “This is nonsense,” and disappear from the stage of history. Yet Abraham was a man of GREAT FAITH. More than that, he was a man of GREAT LOVE for God.
Twice the Bible describes Abraham as a “lover of God” (Isaiah 41:8 & 2-Chronicles 20:7). This combination of great faith in God and great love for God are the reason Abraham became not only the Father of the Hebrew nation, but also the “Father of Faith” for all who call the God of Israel their Heavenly Father through faith in His Messiah (Romans 4:16).
Perhaps now we can better appreciate why Father Abraham was biblically “nick-named” Abram the Hebrew, “הָעִבְרִי” or “HA-EE-VREE” (Genesis 14:13). This Hebrew word means someone who “crossed over” from a different place; a pilgrim who traversed a great distance at a heavy cost; a traveler seeking a promised destination that could only be reached by faith. As the story of Father Abraham teaches every one of us, Faith and Love are always the foundations of our relationship with our Creator.
The land Abraham was promised has been called many names throughout the centuries. It has been known as the Promised Land, Canaan, Judea, Israel, the Holy Land, Palestine, and Daniel even called it “The Glorious Land” (Daniel 11:16). However, possibly the least known term the Bible calls the land of Israel is found in the prophecy of Ezekiel 38:12. Describing the apocalyptic war of the northern armies of Gog, Magog and their allies, the prophecy speaks of an enemy who will “make an evil plan…” to “go up against a land of unwalled villages… a peaceful people, who dwell safely… against a people gathered from the nations… who dwell in the CENTER of the land.”
Center of the Land?
The Hebrew word “CENTER” mentioned in that scripture describing the people “who dwell in the CENTER of the land” is “טַבּוּר,” “TABUR.” And while there are different words in the Hebrew language that refer to CENTER, such as a structural-center, a conceptual-center, a mathematical-center etc., the word TABUR’s primary use in Hebrew is referring to the biological-center, the navel, the bellybutton of the human body! Of all the different words that the prophet Ezekiel could have used to convey his epic vision, his perspective of the land of Israel is that it is the “Navel of the Earth,” or, as others would say, the “Bellybutton of the planet.”
The bellybutton is where the umbilical cord is connecting the baby to the mother. It is THE LINK that provides and sustains life for the newborn. In the context of Ezekiel’s biblical prophecy, that TABUR land is the point of connection between heaven and earth; the link through which divine life and revelation flow, carrying out and sustaining God’s plan and purpose for His creation.
Although not the most famous of the names for the land of Israel, this title “TABUR” points us toward the assignment of the land and her people in relationship to the rest of the world. This is the land our Creator chose to reveal His most intimate thoughts and intentions to His children, and where much of the Word of God was originally recorded. This is where both Temples stood and where the Messiah was born, lived and died for the salvation of the world. It is the soil where the Messianic/Christian community was born during the First Century Jerusalem revival; and where God’s Kingdom will one day be headquartered in the age to come.