Trouble in the Middle East

God’s train runs on time!

Galatians 4:1-5,  “…………………. vs4 But when the set  time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a  woman, born under the law, vs5 to redeem those  under the law, that we might receive adoption to  sonship.”

Messianic Expectation!

John 4:19-26, [The Samaritan woman at the well] 

“….our ancestors worshiped on this mountain (Mt.  Gerizim), but you Jews claim that he place where we  must worship is Jerusalem……..God is spirit, and his  worshipers must worship in Spirit and in truth…..the  woman said, I know that Messiah (called Christ) is  coming.  When he comes, he will explain everything to  us………”

Peter says Christians are what  Israel was intended to be:

I Peter 2:9-10: “But you are a chosen people, a royal  priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special  possession, that you may declare the praises  of him who called you out of darkness into his  wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people,  but now you are the people of God; once you  had not received mercy, but now you have  received mercy.”

The land and its long history of  habitation:

1. Exodus 23:23, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites,  Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites……

2. Israel takes possession, but not fully.

3. After Israel and Judah fall, Assyria, Babylon, Greek,  & Rome rule the land.

4. “Syria Palaestina ,” the name given by the Romans  in 135 AD referring to the province of Judea.

5. After Rome, the Byzantine & Ottoman empires.

6. In 1880, a few Jews begin migrating back to their  “homeland.”

7. In 1917, British administered migration back the  homeland with statehood in 1948.

The Crusades [1095 – 1291]

1. Launched by the Pope to reclaim the Holy Land particularly Jerusalem from the Muslims.

• Pope Urban II proclaimed this a “sacred pilgrimage” and  for fighting one would be forgiven of sins with salvation  guaranteed.

2. “The Dome of the Rock” in Jerusalem:

• Tradition claims this is where Abraham offered Isaac.   (Mt. Moriah)

• The fortress purchased by David which became the “city  of David.”

• The place of Solomon’s Temple.

• The place where Mohummad's followers place a mosque after Mohummad's death in the 7th century. 

• A holy place for the Jews, a special place for Christians,  and the 3rd most “sacred” Muslim place.

The Past 150 years in “the Land”

1. Palestinian people, a few Jews, the land sparsely  populated.

2. British oversight:

     1. 1917 the Balfour Declaration, protecting the Jewish  right to return to the Land.

      2. 1922, The League of Nations continues the British  administration of the land considering the land to be  the Jews’ homeland.

3. 1947, The United Nations adopt the previous  policies of the League of Nations .

4. 1948, The Creation of the Jewish state of Israel.

     1. The Palestinians call it “Nakba” meaning  “catastrophe.”

     2. The Jews consider the land their divine right.

     3. 750,000 Jews return to the Land with more to follow.

The Palestinian people, who are they?

1. Many think they have lived in the land the longest.

2. Their ethnicity:  a. May be the descendants of past invaders.   b. May be the descendants of Canaanites & Philistines.   c. They are Arabs with Arabic language and Muslims.

3. They are not claimed by Muslim nations such as Iran,  Egypt, Iraq, Syria, or Jordan.   a. As “refugees,” they never assimilate into the cultures receiving  them and remain in almost permanent refugee status.

4. 700 Club Video “The Land” suggests that in 1948 the  Jews wished them to remain in their homes to peacefully  coexist.   a. It also suggests that their status as “permanent refugees” is a  tool used by Arabs to hate Israel.