Israel_and_the_Middle

Israel and the Middle East

Will There Ever Be Peace?

James F. Gauss

Will there ever be peace in the Middle East? It is the perennial question that modern man has been asking for decades and the peace for which hope springs eternal. But is it realistic? Is it achievable? Is it within the realm of God’s plan?

The Middle East has had an ancient history of volatility and violence that is established in biblical record. Islam has its root in Arabic culture mixed among the belief and tradition of Abraham and his son Ishmael fathering the Arabic tribes of the Middle East. If both the people of Islam and those of Judeo-Christian heritage claim Abraham as their patriarch, why have they been forever at each others throats? The answer can be found in the Scripture of both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.

We can gain some insight into this generations’ old conflict by picking up the story in Genesis 16 where Abraham and his wife Sarah were first known as Abram and Sarai. Abram was 86 years old and Sarai had never bore him any children, yet God had promised him that he would have a male descendent who would bring forth descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven (Genesis 15:4-5).

Frustrated and impatient with the lack of God’s immediate fulfillment of His promise, Abram decided (with Sarai’s encouragement) to take matters into his own hands.

He took unto himself Hagar, Sarai’s maidservant, and she bore him a son.

And the Angel of the Lord said to her [Hagar]:

“Behold, you are with child, and you shall bear a son. You

shall call his name Ishmael [viz., God shall hear], because the Lord

has heard your affliction.

He shall be a wild man; his hand shall be against every man,

and every man’s hand against him. And he shall dwell in the presence

of all his brethren.” (Genesis 16:11-12)

Several things should be noted at this point. First, Abram (meaning, “high father”) chose to disbelieve God’s promised covenant with him and establish his own covenant by the flesh. Second, his partner in this fleshly covenant was Hagar the Egyptian (meaning one who takes flight). Third, it was God, not Abram, who chose the name of Ishmael for this son to be born outside of God’s chosen covenant with His people. Fourth, it was God who said at Ishmael’s conception, that he would “be a wild man;” and that “his hand shall be against every man, and every man’s hand against him.” At the same time “he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.” And who were Ishmael’s brethren? He had a Hebrew father, Abram, and a pagan Arabic mother, Hagar. His brethren at the time of his birth were both Jews and Arabs.

When Abram was 99 years old, he was still without a true heir by Sarai’s womb. God then spoke to Abram and made this covenant with him:

As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be

a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram,

but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many

nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations

of you, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish My covenant

between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations,

for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants

after you. Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in

which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting

possession; and I will be their God (Genesis 17:4-8).

Fourteen years after the birth of Ishmael, God fulfilled His intended covenant with Abram (now Abraham) with the birth of Isaac [“laughter”] to Sarah [“princess”] who was no longer called Sarai [“dominant”].

Abraham asked God if “Ishmael might live before You?”

But God told Abraham, “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him.

“And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation (Genesis 17:18-20).”

God never intended to establish His covenant with Ishmael, because Ishmael was not the child of the promise but of the flesh. God could not establish His covenant with him, He could only bless him. While God blessed Ishmael with fruitfulness, He never made a covenant with him. God’s covenant was with Abraham and him only. And, unlike Abraham and Isaac, God never promised Ishmael and his seed that He would be their God.

Although Arabic Muslims claim Abraham as their heir, biblically they are descendants of pre-covenant Abram, the one who disobeyed God and disbelieved His promise of an heir through Sarah. God could bless Ishmael, but He could never establish His covenant with a sinful seed of the flesh.

Ishmael became the father of 12 Arabian princes (nations) whom God said that He would “multiply . . . exceedingly” (Genesis 17:20). Ishmael and Hagar were driven into the Wilderness of Paran to dwell (Genesis 21:20-21). This wilderness covers the eastern Sinai and the southern and southeastern borders of present-day Israel.

Ishmael’s 12 sons according to Genesis 25:12-18 were:

Nebajoth, the firstborn = “fruitfulness”

Kedar = “dusky (dark) skinned”; father of the nomadic Bedouins

Adbeel = “disciplined of God”

Mibsam = “fragrant”

Mishma = “report”; to hear

Dumah = to be “dumb”, i.e., “silent”

Massa = “burden” or “tribute”

Hadar = “magnificence” or “glorious”; an Edomite; present day Jordan

Tema = one to the south

Jetur = one who is “encircled”

Naphish = “refreshed”

Kedemah = “precedence”

They inhabited an area from Egypt and the Sinai Desert, the Arabian peninsula to Assyria (which includes present day Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Syria and the lesser Arab kingdoms).

Remember, God promised that Ishmael and his descendants would be wild men whose hand would be “against every man.”

The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, reasserted the striking difference between the seed of the pre-covenant Ishmael and the covenant-fulfilling seed of Isaac.

He made both historical and spiritual comparisons.

For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a

bondwoman [or slave], the other by a freewoman [Genesis 16:15].

But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to

the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, which things

are symbolic.

For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai

which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar---for this Hagar is

Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is,

and is in bondage with her children---but the Jerusalem above is free,

which is the mother of us all. . . .

But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted

him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now.

Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the

bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be

heir with the son of the freewoman (Galatians 4:22-26,29-30).”

Paul makes it clear that Ishmael was the pre-covenant seed of a slave and therefore could not represent God’s covenant with His people. Isaac, on the other hand, was a freeman, born of a freewoman as the fulfillment of God’s promise to His people. Those who are heirs to the bondsman of the flesh (viz., Ishmael), will remain in bondage until set free by the salvation of Christ, who is heir to the covenant of the freeman, Isaac.

Paul also pointed out that the descendants of Ishmael will always be persecuting the descendants of Isaac, the freeman, and that the heirs of the two can never share in the inheritance of the freeman. The only hope of sharing this inheritance that the descendants of Ishmael have is to be grafted in through the salvation of Christ.

Muslims claim that Allah is their god, but Jesus said: “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me (John 8:42).” The Islamic faith, because it is not a covenant faith with Jehovah God, cannot accept Jesus and therefore denies the existence of God the Father.

Followers of Islam are taught through their holy book, the Koran, to persecute and kill the infidels or non-believers (principally Christians and Jews). While they accept Jesus as a prophet to the Jews, they are taught to despise and hate all followers of Christ and Jehovah God.

Yet, Jesus said, “I and My Father are one (John 10:30).”

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6).”

The Apostle John, who was the only one to use the term “antichrist” in the Bible, made it abundantly clear that, “Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also (1 John 2:22-23).”

In his second letter, John continues this theme by stating: “For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. . . . Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds (2 John 7, 9-11).”

Satan is using people of Islamic faith to persecute those of the blood covenant, whether they are Christians or Jews, because he despises God and Jesus whom he could not corrupt. He has blinded Muslims to the truth with his hatred of Christ. Is it any wonder that those who follow the Islamic faith do so only because they were born into a Muslim family or were persecuted into doing so? The fulfillment of Ishmael’s legacy as the seed of a woman of bondage has been capitalized on by Satan’s continued bondage-inducing hold on the people of Islam. Until they are set free in Christ, they will forever persecute and be adversaries of those of the only true blood covenant---Jews by heritage and Christians through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.

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James F. Gauss is a free lance writer, frequent public speaker and the author of Christians Confronting Crisis, We the People, Volumes I, II (historical document series), Islam & Christianity and other books.

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