Vol. XXXVIII October 2, 2006 No 10
THE BIBLE AND THE MIDDLE EAST
by Tom McLemore
“...we refuse to practice cunning
or to falsify God’s word...”–2 Corinthians 4:2
Three major questions seem to be on people’s minds with all the news about continuing turmoil in the Middle East: Does the Bible teach that the modern nation of Israel is special to God and that God will punish nations that are not good to Israel (i.e., does the Bible have anything to say about how our government should treat Israel)? Does the Bible predict what is happening now in the Middle East? Do these events mean that the end is near? The story of the Middle East is complicated and involved. However, there are some fundamental facts that can help God’s people put the whole business into perspective.
Fact Number One: The present animosity between
Arabs and Israelis does have biblical roots.
Isaac was the progenitor of the biblical nation of the Israelites, and Ishmael was the progenitor of the biblical nation of the Arabs (Genesis 16:11-12; 25:16-18; Galatians 4:24-31). God blessed Ishmael, but the covenant was with Isaac. (Genesis 17:18-21; 21:17-21; Hebrews 11:17-18). Islam teaches that it was Ishmael that Abraham was commanded to offer instead of Isaac. The Arabs have tried, by rewriting history, to change God’s choice of Isaac. However, the descendants of Ishmael as such have never been the people of God.
Fact Number Two: None of the nations
which are the subjects of Bible prophecies exist today.
The Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, Arabia, and Rome of Bible times no longer exist. The method commonly used by modern prognosticators is to take prophecies which pertain to these nations and apply them to peoples who inhabit the same general geographical area today. The prophecies regarding these nations were fulfilled in Bible times. The method being used by many compares to expecting the present resident to pay a bill owed by a previous resident. This approach amounts to practicing cunning and falsifying the word of God (2 Corinthians 4:2).
The modern nation of Israel is not the Israel of the Bible. This is discernable from facts pertaining to the flesh. Israelis are not the pure descendants of Abraham. All genealogical records were destroyed in A.D. 70. There is no way for any person to prove descent from Abraham. This is also why there no priesthood in modern Judaism. Any priest would have to descend from Levi, and the high priest would have to be a descendent of Aaron. The mongrelization of the Israelite race over centuries is the result of ancient dispersion by Assyrians and Babylonians and intermarriage before returning to Palestine following World War II.
The fact that the modern nation of Israel is not the Israel of the Bible is also evident from matters of the spirit. All promises to and prophecies about Israel in the Old Testament have been completely fulfilled. The promises concerning the land of Palestine are found in Genesis 13:14-18; 15:18-21; 17:1-14; cf. 24:7; 26:1-5; 28:1-5; 35:9-12; 48:3, 4; Exodus 33:1. In Joshua 21:43-45 it is affirmed that all these promises were fulfilled: “Thus the LORD gave to Israel all the land that he swore to their ancestors that he would give them; and having taken possession of it, they settled there. And the LORD gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their ancestors; not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the LORD had given all their enemies into their hands. Not one of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.”
Furthermore, the possession of the land was conditional. This fact is clearly stated in Joshua 23:13-16: “[K]now assuredly that the LORD your God will not continue to drive out these nations before you; but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a scourge on your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land that the LORD your God has given you. And now I am about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one thing has failed of all the good things that the LORD your God promised concerning you; all have come to pass for you, not one of them has failed. But just as all the good things that the LORD your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, so the LORD will bring upon you all the bad things, until he has destroyed you from this good land that the LORD your God has given you. If you transgress the covenant of the LORD your God, which he enjoined on you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from the good land that he has given to you.”
As history reveals, the Israelites broke the covenant and were exiled. The ten northern tribes were deported by the Assyrians in the eighth century B.C., and the southern kingdom was carried away captive in the sixth century B.C. However, God promised to return the people to the land after seventy years, when the land should have had its sabbaths. The promise is stated in Jeremiah 29:10: “For thus says the LORD: Only when Babylon’s seventy years are completed will I visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.” This promise of restoration is said to have been fulfilled in 2 Chronicles. 36:20-23: “[The king of the Chaldeans] took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had made up for its sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept sabbath, to fulfill seventy years. In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, in fulfillment of the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD stirred up the spirit of King Cyrus of Persia so that he sent a herald throughout all his kingdom and also declared in a written edict: ‘Thus says King Cyrus of Persia: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the LORD his God be with him! Let him go up.’”
There are no promises or prophecies about land or blessings pertaining to the Jews as such which apply following A.D. 70. In the promises made to Abraham (and later reaffirmed to his son and grandson), there are many far reaching blessings which pertain to peoples other than his physical descendants (Gen. 12:1-3; 15:1-16; 22:15-19; cf. 28:14). All of these are fulfilled in Christ. In Acts 3:25, 26, in anticipation of the Gentile mission (which, incidentally, he was yet to understand fully), the Apostle Peter declared by inspiration to the Jews: “You are the descendants of the prophets and of the covenant that God gave to your ancestors, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your descendants all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you, to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.” The Apostle Paul wrote, in Galatians 3:16, of the fulfillment of these promises in Christ: “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring; it does not say, ‘And to offsprings,’ as of many; but it says, ‘And to your offspring,’ that is, to one person, who is Christ.”
With the establishment of the kingdom of heaven, the church, by Jesus Christ, “the Israel of God” is spiritual (See Romans 2:28, 29; 4:13-16; 9:7-8; Galatians 3:26-29; 6:13-16; Philippians 3:3; 1 Peter 2:9). Of particular importance to this discussion is Galatians 3:26-29: “. . . [I]n Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.” All promises made to Israel which were not literally fulfilled in the history of the Jews prior to the establishment of the kingdom of Christ are spiritually fulfilled in Christ and the kingdom of heaven. Today we can join with Paul in doxology: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:3-6). The Israel of the Middle East today is not the Israel of God!
Fact Number Three: The situation in the Middle East has no special
connection with the coming of the end of time.
Relations with Israel have no more spiritual significance than relations with any other nation. Relations with Israel, just like relations with any and all nations, should of course be ethical and just. Yet, the modern nation of Israel has no relation with God that is different from that of any other nation on earth. The Apostle Peter made this plain in this declaration before the household of Cornelius: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him” (Acts 10:34, 35). The fate of any nation is determined, not upon the basis of its relations with the modern state of Israel, but upon the basis of the justice and righteousness of its own people and policies.
It is very important for everyone to grasp the fundamental teaching of the New Testament relative to the end of time. The major source of misunderstanding in the interpretation of New Testament prophecy is a failure to see that two events are addressed in Matthew 24. Through verse 35, Jesus discusses the destruction of Jerusalem. In verses 36ff., it is the second coming of Christ and the end of time which is being discussed. It should be noted that in Matthew 24:14 (||Mk. 13:10), the “end” refers to the end of the Israel according to the flesh as a nation.
One of the songs that is sung by some of us is “Jesus is Coming Soon.” Particularly the second stanza is of interest: “Love of so many cold, losing their home of gold, This in God’s Word is told, evils abound, When these signs come to pass, nearing the end at last, It will come very fast, trumpets will sound.” This is a good example of this misunderstanding of Matthew 24 (and it shows why it is important for us to pay close attention to the lyrics of church songs and not use the ones that mislead). There were indeed signs of the coming of the end of Israel as a nation. However, there are no signs of the second coming of Jesus and the end of time.
Since there are no signs of the end of time whatsoever, political affairs and conflicts are certainly not signs of the end of time. No one but the Father knows the day or the hour (Matthew 24:36). This is reinforced by the widespread use of the image of the thief in the night to describe the second coming of Christ and the end of time (Matthew 24:42, 43; 1 Thessalonians 5:2, 4; 2 Peter 3:10).
The bottom line is that Christians need not consider affairs in the Middle East as having any bearing on the end of time. God’s word (particularly the Old Testament prophets) addresses nations today in terms of ethics and justice rather than predictions. Any wars or potential wars mean nothing whatsoever regarding the end of the world. No war will result in the end of the world/the second coming of Christ (and the same can be said about environmental issues). The last day is the Day of the Lord, and it will be his decision and his action, not man’s, that will bring the end. Our task is the same as always, as summarized in Titus 2:11-14; Mark 16:15, 16; Matthew 28:18-20, et. al.
(NOTE: This is the substance of a sermon presented at Houston Park on Sunday morning, August 27, 2006. Because of interest in the subject in evidence on that occasion, it was thought worthwhile to put it in permanent form).
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