THE MIDDLE EAST ISSUES - BIRTHRIGHT, REBELLION, AND DISBELIEF

As we move into the year 2018/5778 I thought it would be a good time to review the history of events in the Middle East from a Biblical perspective.

 

The Promise - Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. Gen 12.1-3

 

After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir. And, behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness. Gen 15.1-6

 

Disbelief - Now Sarai Abram's wife bare him no children: and she had a handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. And Sarai Abram's wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife. And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived….Gen 16.1-4

 

Promise to Hagar and Ishmael - And the angel of the Lord said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude. And the angel of the Lord said unto her, Behold, thou art with child and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the Lord hath heard thy affliction. And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren. Gen 16.10-12

 

Promise to Abraham, again - Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? And shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear? And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee! And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year. Gen 17.17-21

 

We see in the above verses that Abraham is called to be the Father of Israel. He is told he will have a son from his own seed - from his wife Sarah and him. Sarah is not convinced and provides her Egyptian slave to Abraham for bringing forth an heir. This union with Hagar the Egyptian slave woman and Abraham produces Ishmael. Abraham now thinks his heir is established.

 

Not so fast. God tells Abraham again that He is going to give Abraham an heir from Sarah and that this son will be the son of God’s promise and everlasting covenant. This is the beginning of the Jewish nation.

 

Notice that Abraham pleads with God for Ishmael to be the son of the covenant. God tells Abraham, No, it is going to be from the son I promised for you that comes from Sarah. So, even at the beginning, the Father of the Jewish nation was pleading with God for Ishmael. It is God who says no--it will be the son of the promise. God keeps His word--it is going to be Isaac, the son of promise, with whom the covenant is made--not Ishmael.

God tells Abraham that Ishmael will be the father of 12 princes and will be greatly blessed and multiplied. Thus Ishmael is the Father of the Arab nations. Through Isaac God says He will establish a covenant and possession of the land of Canaan.

 

And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. Gen 17.7-8

 

Ishmael’s Descendants - Ishmael’s descendants today include but are not limited to: Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Egypt, Libya, Turkey (the Ottomans), Turkestan, Persia (Iran and Iraq), Syria, and Jordan.

 

Abraham’s son Isaac later had twins, Esau and Jacob. Esau was the oldest son and was to receive the birthright blessing of the first born. God told Rebekah, while the boys struggled in the womb, that the older would serve the younger, in effect telling her the youngest would receive the birthright blessing usually reserved for the older:

 

And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife, because she was barren: and the Lord was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. And the children struggled together within her; and she said, if it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the Lord. And the Lord said unto her, “Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.” Gen 25.21-23

 

Isaac favored Esau and Rebekah favored Jacob as they grew up: Genesis 25.8

 

Esau despised his birthright and sold it to Jacob for a morsel of food. In the Middle East cultures a vow is a sacred pledge. Esau should never had made this vow. Gen 25.29-24

 

There were many issues between Esau and Jacob. Esau made his parents unhappy marrying the local women (Genesis 26.34-35; 27.46), Esau was a hunter and daddy’s boy, Jacob was a homeboy (tent dweller) and momma’s boy. The big issue was Esau marrying the local women and not someone of his family lineage.

 

Rebekah never forgot these things and at the time of blessing she took action for Jacob to receive it: Genesis 27

 

After Jacob and his mother deceived Isaac to get the blessing, Jacob was sent away to find a suitable wife. He was also sent away because Esau was angry and wanted to kill him. After Jacob left to his uncle’s home to find a wife, Esau married Ishmael’s daughter Mahalath thinking this would please his parents. Gen 28.8-9

 

Esau married into Ishmael’s lineage and so both Ishmael and Esau fathered tribes that to this day hate the Jews. Some of Esau’s descendants today are: Syria, Iraq, Iran, Egypt, and Jordan. His descendants also include the Edomites of Biblical times which today is Jordan. Esau is Edom…Gen 36.1, 8, 19.

 

Some other interesting descendants of Esau include Haman the Agagite from the book of Esther. He was of Amalekite lineage and got the king of Persia to pass a law allowing all Jews to be killed on a certain date. Esther the Queen went into the king and told him what Haman was up to. The king passed another law allowing the Jews to defend themselves and hung Haman on the gallows he had erected to kill Esther’s uncle Mordecai.

 

The Palestinian terror organization Hamas, in Gaza, is named after Haman. The word means hate. These are the descendants of Esau. Other notable descendants of Esau were the Herod family of Jesus’ time. This family included Herod Antipater, Herod the Great (He had all babies killed at the time of Jesus’ birth), Herod Antipas, and Herod Agrippa. The line of Herod was from the area known as Idumea which was where the Edomites were located. Remember Esau is Edom.

 

Nothing has changed in 4,000 years. The problems in the Middle East today are all related to this birthright issue. As told in the Bible, Abraham and his descendants are the people of promise and inheritors of the everlasting covenant. Because Abraham listened to his wife Sarah and did not wait for the promise, he bore a son with Sarah’s Egyptian slave Hagar. The Arab nations conceived from this union today still hate the Jews and want the birthright and the land which was promised to the Jews through Abraham.

 

Later Esau was denied his birthright (he sold it to Jacob) and this began a hatred that still exists today between Jews and Palestinians. Today this is the Hamas organization in the south (Gaza) and Hezbolla in the north (Lebanon). These two terror organizations are fully supported by both Egypt and Iran, not to mention other Arab countries.

 

ADDITIONAL BRIEF HISTORY

In 70 AD the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans. Then in 132 AD the Bar Kokhba revolt took place in Jerusalem. This was an attempt by the Jews to form an independent state in Judea. The Romans put down the rebellion in 135 AD and dispersed the Jews and destroyed Jerusalem. This is what Wikipedia says:

A complete Roman legion with auxiliaries was annihilated. The new state knew only one year of peace. The Romans committed no fewer than twelve legions, amounting to one third to one half of the entire Roman army, to reconquer this now independent state. Being outnumbered and taking heavy casualties, the Romans refused to engage in an open battle and instead adopted a "scorched earth" policy which reduced and demoralized the Judean populace, slowly grinding away at the will of the Judeans to sustain the war.

 

Bar Kokhba took up refuge in the fortress of Betar. The Romans eventually captured it and killed all the defenders. According to Cassius Dio, 580,000 Jews were killed, 50 fortified towns and 985 villages razed. Yet so costly was the Roman victory that the Emperor Hadrian, when reporting to the Roman Senate, did not see fit to begin with the customary greeting "If you and your children are well, all is well. For I and the army are all in good health." He was the only Roman general known to have refused to celebrate his victory with a triumphal entrance into his capital.

 

In the aftermath of the war, Hadrian consolidated the older political units of Judaea, Galilee and Samaria into the new province of Syria Palaestina, which is commonly interpreted as an attempt to complete the disassociation with Judaea.

 

After this event there were always a mere handful of Jews in the area now called Palaestina until Jews began returning in earnest during the late 19^th and early 20^th century. This was the beginning of the Zionist Movement. Jews offered the Arab owners in Palestine, as it was now called, money for the land. The Arabs wanted nothing to do with this “worthless” land and gladly sold it to the stupid Jews.

 

As Jews immigrated in greater numbers and bought more land the Arabs became restless. The Jews began to turn swamps and barren land into productive money making farms or Kibbutzim. Conflicts began to occur between Jews and local Arab tribes. The Arabs attacked Jewish settlements in hope of discouraging their growth. The Jews kept coming. This conflict lasted until after World War Two at which time Britain took over Palestine.

 

In 1948 after years of struggle, the United Nations granted the Jews a national homeland in Palestine. The Jews agreed to the borders established by the U.N. but the Arabs did not. In May of 1948 five Arab nations including Jordan, Syria, and Egypt attacked the new born nation of Eretz Yisrael (Land of Israel). The Arab nations broadcast over the radio to all Arabs living in Israel to leave their homes. They were told that after the Jews were destroyed they could come back and reclaim their homes. The Jews did not kick them out. They left on the hope Israel would lose and they could come back.

 

Israel won the war and the majority of those people who left never returned. Their descendants are those who are today called Palestinians. There never was a Palestinian nation. It was always a territory of other nations. Prior to Britain it was a territory of the Ottoman Turks for over 400 years. These refugees from the 1948 war which the Arabs lost where never integrated into the surrounding Arab nations. Those who choose to return to Israel at that time were allowed to participate in all phases of Israeli life.

 

The losing Arab nations choose to make these people refugees in order to keep the pressure on Israel and to keep the feud alive. This has over time worked to the advantage of the Arab nations and Palestinians. Israel is called Apartheid and referred to as “Occupiers” by the surrounding Arabs and now the world at large.

 

Never in history has a nation that won a war had to take in refugees who hate them. The refugees should have been absorbed by the surrounding nations and therefore allow Israel to exist as a Jewish homeland--as it was created to be. This situation has festered now for more than 65 years. Nothing has been solved.

 

The nations surrounding Israel will not rest until Israel and the Jews are wiped off the face of the earth. This is documented by the Arab’s own words. To this day Hamas will not recognize Israel’s right to exist. Neither do most of the other nations. Listen to what Egypt says to their own people in their own language. The same goes for Iran, and Saudi Arabia. None of these countries want Israel to exist. Their goal is complete destruction. They may say sweet words to the west, but listen to what they say among themselves for the real truth. How do you negotiate peace in this atmosphere? Would you negotiate with such enemies?

 

This issue goes back 4000 years to God’s promise to Abraham. If you don’t believe in the Bible you cannot understand the situation. If you don’t believe there is a God you can’t understand the situation. This is a birthright and a promise by God issued to Israel. It is irrevocable. It is everlasting. It cannot be changed or amended. It is the truth whether a person chooses to believe it or not. How will this issue ever be resolved?

We all know that YHVH has a plan. All world events are moving toward a resolution of the issues at hand. Our part is to watch, pray, and discern. There will be great tribulation before the issues are resolved--but the final resolution will bring peace to this world and the reign of Jesus.