No peace in the Middle East

My Sunday school lesson this week had to do with Gods promise to Abraham. It greatly has to do with todays current events. There can be no roadmap to peace in the Middle East. They might as well complete the wall and separate the Arabs and the Jews as best possible. The Bible has much to say about the Arabs and Israelis; their conflict goes back some four to five thousand years to Abraham. God promised Abraham that he would make him a “Father of many nations”, (not just the father of one nation, Israel).A summary of events is as follows: God delayed His promise quite some time. Abraham’s wife got impatient and offered up her maidservant Hagar who was an Egyptianto Abraham in order that he might have a son.They had a son and named him Ishmael. Ishmael was not the son that fulfilled Gods covenant. Ishmael was the product of his wife Sarahs impatience and lack of faith.



Ishmael was about thirteen years old when God delivered on His promise. When Abraham was one hundred years old and his wife Sarah ninety, God miraculously enabled Sarah to become pregnant and gave them the son that He promised, his name was Isaac. God formed an “everlasting covenant” with Abraham and promised the land of Israel to Isaac and his descendants. As for Ishmael, God promised to multiply him exceedingly, but His covenant was with Isaac; therein started the feud that has lasted all of these thousands of years.



The Bible quotes an angel of the Lord describing Ishmael and his lineage in the following manner:



And the angel of the Lord said

To her:

“Behold you are with child,

And you shall bear a son.

You shall call his name

Ishmael,

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 of his brethren.” Gen. 16:11



Do the people who attacked us on 9/11 seem like wild men? Have you ever watched them scream and yell and beat themselves with chains? Do they reside in the presence of their brethren? Do you wonder why they blow themselves and others up with bombs? When Isaac was born, Hagar and Ishmael were sent away to allow room for Isaac and his descendants. It created a hatred that has endured for thousands of years. Ishmael and his descendants have resented it ever since. The Bible is infallible, there can be no peace in the Middle East until Jesus returns

_____________________

Gen. 12:1

Now the Lord had said to Abram:

Get out of your country,

From your family

And from your fathers house,

To a land that I will show you.

I will make you a great nation;

I will bless you

And make your name great;

And you shall be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you,

And I will curse him who curses you;

And in you all the families

Of the earth shall be

Blessed.

How well do you know the Bible?

In the foregoing passage, how did Gods promise to Abraham: And in you all of the families of the earth shall be blessed, become fulfilled?

Matt. 1:1







———————————-