Talia's Joy

My perspectives on Israel and the Bible

Month: June 2019 (Page 1 of 2)

CHAPTER 5 : ISRAEL, THE COVENANT PEOPLE

June 30, 2019 /

Israel was formed and established by God as a special people for a special purpose. To them were given the promises and the covenants that would seal that purpose for eternity, and grant Israel the privilege and the responsibility to bring forth the Word and the Messiah, and ultimately the redemption of the whole world.

The first promises

The first promise to Israel was given to Abram when God called him out of Haran to set out for the Promised Land, the land of Canaan. God promised Abram that:

  • He would show Abram the land that would be his,
  • He would make of Abram a great nation,
  • He would bless Abram and make his name great,
  • He would bless those who blessed Abram and curse those who cursed him, and
  • in Abram, all the families of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12:1-3).

What amazing promises! Abram and his progeny would be given a land, they would become a great nation and through them the entire world would be blessed. This is the first hint of God’s plan to bring forth the Messiah-King from the people of Israel.

Later, the LORD again spoke to Abram and said,

Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are – northward, southward, eastward and westward; for all the land which you see I will give to you and your descendants forever.

And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered.

Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width for I give it to you

(Genesis 13:14-17).

Note here that the emphasis is on the land that God would give Abram and his descendants forever. God’s promises to Abram and his descendants are not airy-fairy things but down-to-earth practical and real. The land and the people and their calling as the chosen nation are all inextricably tied together.

Yet again the LORD came a third time to Abram and said, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward” (Genesis 15:4). Abram had reason to be afraid. He had just rescued his nephew, Lot, and the other captives from a confederation of very powerful kings who had attacked the land (Genesis 14). He probably feared retribution. But God promises him protection and that He himself would be Abram’s reward. Abram had refused to accept the reward offered him by the King of Sodom (Genesis 14:14:21-24) but he gained another, far greater reward – the LORD Himself. God is here talking about relationship. He would be Abram’s God. With God on his side, what could Abram possibly fear?

THE FIRST COVENANT WITH ISRAEL

But Abram wondered how God’s promises regarding his descendants could be fulfilled since he still was childless at that point, and his heir was one of his servants. So God took Abram outside and declared, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them…So shall your descendants be”. And we are told that Abram believed Him and Abram’s faith was counted as righteousness by God (Genesis 15:5-6). We can see here why God chose Abram. He was a man of faith. He believed God. Again we see that the promise of a multitude of descendants was inextricably linked with the promise of the land, and God went on to say to Abram, “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it” (Genesis 15:7). And Abram seeking clear confirmation asked, “Lord GOD, how shall I know that I shall inherit it?” (Genesis 15:8).

Responding to Abram’s concerns and his need for confirmation, God then set about making a solemn covenant with Abram and his descendants. God had Abram bring a heifer, a female goat and a ram, all three years old, and a turtledove and a pigeon. The birds he did not cut in two but the other animals were all cut in two and each half laid out opposite the other. When the sun was going down Abram fell into a deep sleep accompanied by a sense of horror and great darkness, which no doubt resulted from the terrible presence of the LORD. And when it was dark a smoking oven and a burning torch appeared and passed between the pieces laid out and God said,

To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates – the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittities , the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites” (Genesis 15:9-12, 17-21).

This strange ceremony is derived from what is thought to have been the custom of the times according to contemporary inscriptions. In those times the parties to an agreement would ratify it by walking between the divided pieces of animals while they invoked upon themselves a fate similar to that of the slaughtered beast if they should fail to keep their word.4 It is interesting to note here that there is no record of Abram walking between the pieces of the animals. Only God, in the smoke and the fire, passed through. It was therefore a one-sided agreement, made by God, and which could thus be broken only by God.

THE SIGN OF THE COVENANT

This too is the first time the precise boundaries of the Promised Land are defined and they stretch from the River of Egypt in the south and west to the River Euphrates in the north and east. The River of Egypt was traditionally understood to be the easternmost branch of the Nile River delta, the Pelusian arm of the Nile5. Pelusium was a border town of Egypt. This means that the whole of the Sinai Peninsula would have been included in the Promised Land. More recent commentators suggest that the River of Egypt is what is now known as Wadi Arish6, which lies some 60km from the southern border of the Gaza Strip today. This confusion may have come about because the Pelusian arm of the Nile no longer exists. It became choked with sand as early as the first century BC.7 The Wadi Arish interpretation would exclude the Sinai Peninsula from the Promised Land of Israel. However Wadi Arish is a ‘wadi’ (in Arabic) or ‘nahal’ (in Hebrew), a term denoting a watercourse that dries up in the summer months – one that flows only intermittently. The word used in the Bible is ‘nahar’, meaning a river that flows all the time. This would seem to count against the Wadi Arish interpretation. During the reign of King David, Israel controlled the area from the River of Egypt and the Gulf of Aquaba (on the Red Sea) in the south to the Euphrates River in the north. 8

When Abram was 99 years old, the LORD appeared again to him. This time he ratified the covenant promising Abram that,

  • He will make his covenant with him and will multiply Abram’s descendants exceedingly,
  • He changes Abram’s name to Abraham because he will make him exceedingly fruitful and he will be the father of many nations and the father of kings,
  • He will establish his covenant as an everlasting covenant with Abram’s descendants in all their generations,
  • He will be their God for ever, and
  • He will give to Abraham and all his descendants after him all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession (Genesis 17: 1-8).

This time God emphasizes the everlasting nature of the covenant. It is forever! Although as we said before the covenant was made by God alone, as a sovereign act, he does require of Abraham and his descendants one thing – that all the male children be circumcised on the eighth day (Genesis 17:10-14). This was the mark of the covenant that would distinguish the chosen people as God’s own and which would separate them from other peoples.

WHAT GOD REQUIRED OF ISRAEL

At this point in history it appears that all that was required was circumcision (Genesis 17: 10-11),however circumcision was merely a sign: an outward sign of what was expected to be an inner truth: their devotion to God. The nature of this inner devotion was not spelled out until the times of Moses, when God spoke saying,

And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways and to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the LORD and his statutes which I command you today for your good? Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the LORD your God, also the earth with all that is in it. The LORD delighted only in your fathers, to love them; and he chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day. Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer (Deuteronomy 10:12-16).

God, therefore chose Israel out of love in order to bless them. He gave them certain commandments, not to burden them, but for their own good. But God knew the heart of man: He knew that man is naturally rebellious and therefore He built into His covenant certain safeguards: a blessing for obedience and curses for disobedience.

THE BLESSINGS AND THE CURSES

God’s first covenant with Israel includes two sets of blessing/curse provisions. The first set relates to the other nations, the Gentiles and the second, to Israel itself.

The first set of blessings and curses was established at the time when God first called Abram to go out of Haran and into Canaan, that is, at the very beginning of the establishment of the people of Israel. At that time, God said to Abram:

“I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you”

(Genesis 12:3). This is an extremely important principle, which explains much of human history, and it will be discussed in more detail in Chapter 6.

The second set of blessings and curses relate to the people of Israel and they are spelled out to Moses and the people after the exodus from Egypt and prior to their taking possession of the Promised Land (Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 11). These will also be discussed in more detail in Chapter 6 as they are key to an understanding of the history of Israel and the Old Testament.

THE COVENANT IS PASSED ON TO ABRAHAM’S HEIRS

The covenant that God had made with Abraham was repeated to both Isaac and to Jacob making the line of descent by which the covenant was to be transmitted very clear. To Isaac, Abraham’s son and heir, God spoke saying,

Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land of which I shall tell you.

Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.

And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws (Genesis 26:2-5).

Later God appeared to him again saying,

I am the God of your father Abraham; do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for My servant Abraham’s sake (Genesis 26:24).

To Jacob, Isaac’s son and heir, God appeared in a dream and spoke saying,

I am the LORD God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land of which you lie I will give to you and your descendants.

Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Behold. I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you (Genesis 28:13-15).

Again we see reiterated the main points of God’s covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and their descendants, the people of Israel, namely:

  • the LORD is to be their God and He will never forsake them,
  • they would multiply and become a people too numerous to count,
  • they would always come back to the land of Israel, the Promised Land,
  • through them God would bless all the peoples of the Earth, and
  • through them would come the Messiah and redemption.

THE FOUR MOTHERS OF ISRAEL

It is significant to note here that God’s promises and covenantal oaths come in threes. Three times God made promises to Abraham regarding the future of his descendants, the land, the future coming of the Messiah and His ongoing relationship with Abraham’s descendants. After that, God made the covenant with Abraham, which was sealed by His passing through the divided corpses of three animals, each three years old. Three times he declared and affirmed the covenantal promises, first to Abram, then to Isaac and thirdly to Jacob. Three is the number of completeness and the number of the Godhead. It is as if God is emphasizing that this is a covenant that is both complete and Divine. It cannot be changed by man, nor by any act or failure of man, because it is derived only and completely from God himself.

Until now I have concentrated on the descent of the royal line according to the male line. Equally important is the purity of the female line. The four mothers of the covenant people, Israel, namely Sarah, Rebekah, Leah, and Rachel were all descended directly from Terah, Abraham’s father.

Sarah was Abraham’s wife but also his half sister (Genesis 20:12). Terah was her father. To us this seems very strange and later on in history, after the Law of Moses had been established, it would have been considered incestuous and such a union would have been banned (Leviticus 18:9).  Why then did God allow it and even bless this union? There are many who try to explain away these words, saying that she was an adopted sister or his niece, or that Abraham was lying. Yet Abram very clearly states that Sarah “is the daughter of my father” (Genesis 20:12). I see no reason not to take this as literal truth. Terah was a godly man, who worshipped the LORD and Sarah as his daughter would have been brought up to know and follow the LORD also. God did not want the chosen line corrupted by paganism. It makes sense to me then that in order to preserve the Faith in the One God, God would lead Abram to take a wife from amongst those who also believed in the One God. There would not have been many to choose from at that time.

Sarah and Abraham’s son, Isaac also took a bride from amongst his kinsmen. In fact Abraham instructed his most senior servant to go and find a wife for Isaac specifically from his family, saying

Please, put your hand under my thigh, and I will make you swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell; but you shall go to my country and to my family, and take a wife for my son Isaac (Genesis 24:2-4).

The servant brought back Rebekah who was the granddaughter of Nahor, one of Abraham’s brothers. Isaac therefore married his second cousin, who was also descended directly from Terah, Abraham’s father.

Rebekah’s father was Bethuel and he had a son called Laban and Laban was the father of Rachel and Leah, the two wives of Jacob. They were thus also second cousins, but also direct descendants of Terah. In this way therefore the purity of the royal line was ensured.

CHAPTER 6: GOD SEPARATES THE PEOPLES

June 30, 2019 /

In the previous chapters we have seen how God formed Israel, and called her out (separated her) for special blessings and purposes, but what of all the other nations?  What was their response to all of this? Did they rejoice in what God was doing or were they jealous? Did they cooperate with God’s plan or did they oppose it? Did they love the people of Israel or did they hate them?

Before we try to answer these questions let’s consider a basic principle that is important for understanding these matters; the significance of the concept and act of separation. If we read through the account of the creation of the world we can see that each stage involved a separation. First, light was separated from darkness, then the waters (seas) were separated from the firmament (land masses), then the plant life was brought forth (separated from the earth), and the lights of the heavens, the sun and the moon and the stars, were separated out in order to divide the light from the darkness, and to mark the day from the night and the seasons of the year. The animals were separated from the waters and finally mankind was separated from all other living creatures in that his role was to rule over them (Genesis 1:1-28). Indeed physicists today say that when our universe was formed matter was separated from antimatter and only because of their continued separation can the universe exist as we know it, because whenever a particle of matter and a particle of antimatter come together they annihilate one another3. Separation then would seem to be a fundamental and essential principle of creation, and without it we would not and could not exist. 

Throughout the history of God’s dealings with mankind we see that the act of separation continues and marks many significant events. Woman was separated from man (Genesis 2:22-23). Adam and Eve were sent out of the Garden of Eden and thus were cut off from the Tree of Life lest they eat of it and perpetuate sin and disobedience forever (Genesis 3:22-24). What is more, from this point forth we can see that human history very largely became the story of the separation of peoples. The first separation occurred when Cain, after he had killed Abel, was driven out from among his brethren and the presence of the LORD and he settled in the land of Nod, which means ‘wandering’, to the east (Genesis 4:16). He and his descendants became outcasts and wanderers, but they would all have been destroyed in the Flood in the times of Noah.

Noah and his family were separated out from the rest of mankind and rescued from the Flood (Genesis 6-8). Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, and from these three all the Earth was repopulated  (Genesis 9:18-19). Genesis chapter 10 tells us how the descendants of these sons established many nations.  It was from Noah’s eldest son Shem that the royal line leading to the Messiah-King was derived but not all of his descendants were part of that line. Shem’s sons were Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud and Aram. It was through Arphaxad, his son Eber and his son, Peleg that the royal line of descent would pass (Genesis 10:22, Luke 3:35-36). What of the others? They founded the other Semitic peoples. Arphaxad’s eldest brother, Asshur, was one of the founders of the city of Asshur, which became the center of the Assyrian Empire that later conquered Israel and took captive her people. Research this to check

The descendants of Shem’s brothers, Ham and Japheth also founded many nations.  From Japheth the coastland gentile nations to the north and west came forth (Genesis 10: 2-5). From Ham came forth Cush (Ethiopia), Mizraim (Egypt), Put (Libya) and Canaan. One of Cush’s sons was Nimrod, the mighty hunter, and we’re told that the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad and Calneh in the land of Shinar (Genesis 10:8-11). He later went to Assyria and built Nineveh and other cities (Genesis 10:11-12). Thus Nimrod’s descendants not only founded the Babylonian empire but also played a part in the establishment of Assyria and Nineveh, all of whom later became fierce enemies of Israel. Mizraim’s descendants included the Caphtorim from whom came the Philistines, another thorn in the side of Israel for many years to come.

We have already seen how Canaan was cursed because of the sin of Ham. Here we are told that he gave rise to the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, the Arvadites, the Zemarites and the Hamathites (Genesis 10:15-18) These were the Canaanite peoples who lived in the land that God was later to give to the people of Israel (Genesis 15:18-21) and they would be scattered (Genesis 10:18). It may seem unfair that these descendants of Canaan would be so treated but in Genesis 15:16 we are given a clue as to why God, in all righteousness cast them out of their land. When God spoke during the making of the covenant, He told Abram that he himself would not take possession of the Promised Land but rather it wouldn’t be until the fourth generation after him that his descendants would return and possess the land, because “the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete”. Here the term ‘Amorites’ is apparently used loosely to encompass all the occupants of Canaan. Moreover it seems clear that they were not being cast out from the land unfairly, but rather they were being punished for their ‘iniquity’.

After Abram and Lot came into the land of Canaan their possessions, flocks and herds became very great and the land was not able to support them both. Their herdsmen began to fight. Therefore Abram asked Lot to separate from him and with great generosity granted Lot first choice as to which part of the land he would settle. Lot chose the well-watered and lush Jordan Valley, leaving Abram the less fertile and comparatively barren high country of Samaria (Genesis 13:5-12).

Lot settled in the Jordan Valley and pitched his tent in Sodom. Now the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were extremely wicked and sinful and the LORD could not find even ten righteous people in them (Genesis 13:13, 17:16-33). When the two angels of the Lord came to Sodom and were guests in the house of Lot, all the men of the city demanded that Lot bring them out so that they could have sex with them. He refused and the angels protected him and prevented the men from entering the house (Genesis 19:1-11). Nevertheless the enormity of their sinful intent sealed the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plain. The next day God rained fire and brimstone, probably a volcanic event, on the plain destroying all except the small town of Zoar to which the angels had sent Lot and his two daughters to safety (Genesis 19:12-29).

Lot and his two daughters went out from Zoar and were living in a cave in the mountains. The two daughters, having lost their husbands in the destruction of Sodom, despaired of finding new mates. They therefore made their father drunk with wine and had sex with him without his knowledge. As a result they both became pregnant, the elder gave birth to a son, and called him Moab (meaning in Hebrew ‘from the father’, and the younger also gave birth to a son, whom she called Ben-Ammi (Genesis 19: 30-38). Moab was the father of the Moabites and Ben-Ammi the father of the Ammonites, who lived on the eastern flank of Israel across the Jordan River.

The next important separation from the royal line is that of Ishmael. Although he was Abraham’s eldest son Ishmael was born to his wife’s Egyptian maidservant, Hagar, as a result of Abraham and Sarah’s unbelief and lack of trust in God. He was not the son of the promises. When Abraham begged God to recognize Ishmael as his heir, God said,

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.

But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year (Genesis 17:18-21).

It could not be clearer. Ishmael would be blessed and the father of a great nation but he was not to be the heir to his father’s covenant with God. That inheritance belonged to the legitimate, legal heir, the son of Abraham’s wife, Sarah, namely Isaac.

What would happen to Ishmael? The Angel of the LORD had spoken to Hagar concerning Ishmael saying,

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 16:12).

It seems that Ishmael would hate all others and they would all hate Ishmael. Why? I suspect that he would not have been terribly happy to be excluded from his inheritance as the eldest son. It is likely that he would have been extremely jealous and angry. Such strong negative emotions poison the soul and cause a man to become violent and aggressive – a wild man.

After Isaac was born conflict developed between Sarah and Hagar over their sons and Sarah pleaded with Abraham to send Hagar and Ishmael away. Now Abraham was reluctant because he loved Ishmael but God spoke to him saying,

Do not let it be displeasing in your sight because of the lad or because of your bondwoman. Whatever Sarah has said to you, listen to her voice; for in Isaac your seed shall be called.

Yet I will also make a nation of the son of the bondwoman, because he is your seed (Genesis 21:12).

So Abraham sent Hagar and Ishmael away into the wilderness near Beersheba. God watched over them and Ishmael grew and became an archer. When the time came his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt. They lived in the Wilderness of Paran in the southern Negev (Genesis 21:14-21). The genealogy of Ishmael’s descendants is recorded in Genesis 25: 12-18. It also says that he and his descendants dwelt from “Havila as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt as you go towards Assyria”. This region is understood to represent the general area of the Arabian Peninsula and Ishmael is considered the father of the Arabs.

Another separation occurred in the time of Abraham. After his wife Sarah died, Abraham took another wife, Keturah. She bore him six sons, Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah. Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan, who also dwelt in the Arabian Peninsula. Midian was the father of the Midianites who lived east of the Jordan River. Abraham also had other sons by his concubines. But we are told that he gave all that he had to Isaac. The other sons were given no inheritance but Abraham did give them gifts while he was still alive and sent them away to the country to the east (Genesis 25:1-6).

Isaac and Rebekah had two sons, Jacob and Esau. As we have seen previously, Esau was the elder but he sold his birthright for a bowl of stew, and then Jacob tricked Isaac into giving him the blessing of the elder son. When Esau found out he was deeply distressed. He cried out with an ‘exceedingly great and bitter cry’ and begged his father to bless him also (Genesis 27:34). Isaac responded and said to him,

Behold, your dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth,

And of the dew of heaven from above.

By your sword you shall live,

And you shall serve your brother;

And it shall come to pass, when you become restless, that you shall break his yoke from your neck (Genesis 27:39-40).

Esau was furious and determined in his heart to kill Jacob (Genesis 27:41). Again we can see the Cain principle at work. Esau allowed jealousy and anger to corrupt his heart and he became a man of hatred and violence as a result. Even his father prophesied that Esau would live by his sword, a violent and warlike man.

Fearing his brother’s wrath, Jacob fled to Haran to the house of his uncle, Laban. He took Leah and Rachel, Laban’s daughters, as his wives and many years later returned to his family and his country. In the meantime Esau had left Canaan and  was living east of the Jordan River. Before settling in the region of Shechem in Canaan, Jacob first crossed the Jordan and made peace with his brother, Esau (Genesis 27:42 – Genesis 33:20). Esau lived east of the Jordan, in the region known as Edom and Esau was the father of the Edomites (Genesis 36: 1-43).

We can see then that as God developed his plan and established the royal line of descent he separated out the chosen people, Israel, from all others. Abram (Abraham), who was a descendant of Shem and Arphaxad, was chosen by God to establish his holy people Israel. Abram and his wife Sarai (later renamed Abraham and Sarah) traveled from Ur and Haran in the company of Lot, Abram’s brother’s son, but Lot was not of the royal line either. Therefore he and his descendants were also separated out. The others all were sent or moved away to the lands to the east and north, and from them were descended many of the nations which would later become the enemies of Israel, among them the Canaanites, the Moabites, the Ammonites, the Edomites, the Ishmaelites, the Midianites, the Amorites, the Edomites, the Philistines, the Assyrians, the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans. It is my thesis that these nations were all established in bitterness and jealousy as they were excluded from the chosen line and allowed these strong emotions to develop into anger and hatred and ultimately violence, according to the Cain Principle already discussed. A graphic summary of the lines of descent can be seen in Figure 1.

We have spoken about the principle of separation. God took pains to keep the chosen line separate from the surrounding peoples to prevent its corruption and also to protect the people from the temptation to fall back into pagan idolatry. This separation was maintained by three main practices:

  • circumcision,
  • the prohibition against intermarriage, and
  • the dietary laws.

We have already seen that God demanded circumcision of all boys on the eighth day as a sign of the covenantal agreement between Himself and Abraham and his descendants (Genesis 17:10-14). This would have set the Israelites apart from the peoples around them.

The prohibition against intermarriage was not formalized until the giving of the Law to Moses but the principle seems to have been clear from the time of Abraham. We have already seen this in that Isaac and Jacob both took wives from among their monotheistic kinsmen and not from the pagan Canaanite population amongst whom they lived. We can also see that they kept themselves separate when we read of the incident concerning Dinah (Genesis 34).

Dinah was the daughter of Jacob and Leah. Sechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, took Dinah and violated her. He loved her and wanted to make her his wife so his father, Hamor, came to Jacob to ask for her as a wife. He made what seems like a reasonable request and says, “ make marriages with us; give your daughters to us, and take our daughters to yourselves” (Genesis 34:9). But Dinah’s brothers, angry that their sister had been defiled, replied “ We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised, for that would be a reproach to us” (Genesis 34:14). But they acted deceitfully promising to give Dinah to Shechem in marriage if the Hivites would consent to being circumcised. When the men of Hamor agreed and were circumcised, and were still in pain as a result, the sons of Jacob attacked and killed them all and plundered the city.  It is therefore clear that, until that point at least, intermarriage between the descendants of Abraham and the Canaanite population did not occur.

The dietary laws were not established until the giving of the Torah, the Mosaic Law. In Leviticus 11 these laws are spelled out in detail. There is much debate as to the purpose of these laws since no reason is given in Scripture. Theories range from health considerations, to the teaching of self-control and awareness, to the exercising of piety and devotion to God, or to ensuring the separation of Israel from those nations around them. I am not sure what God’s primary reason was but it is certain that the dietary laws would have made it difficult for Israelites to eat with their pagan neighbors, and therefore difficult if not impossible to enter into contracts or intermarry, and therefore the dietary laws would have forced them to maintain a separate identity and character.

Figure 1.

CHAPTER 4: ABRAHAM AND THE CHOSEN PEOPLE

June 30, 2019 /

As we have already seen, God had a plan to redeem the world and to accomplish this he would send his Messiah Savior, but first, he chose a people through whom he would work out his plan. He called this people Israel.Israel is the nation that God chose to bring forth the Messiah. In Deuteronomy 14:1-2 it says,”…you are a holy people to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth”. Actually the word chosen is a little misleading. It suggests that there were ‘x’ number of nations before God and He just picked one. Actually it is not so. God didn’t pick the people of Israel He formed them by divine intervention.

First, God called out a man, Abram, and made him the father of Israel. Abram was directly descended from Shem, and was a man who was found righteous in God’s eyes because he believed God (Genesis 15:6; 26:5). Abram lived in Ur of the Chaldees (situated in modern day Iraq). Abram’s father Terah took Abram, Abram’s wife Sarai, and his grandson Lot, and they set out to go to the land that God would show them. They reached Haran and there,Terah died (Genesis 11:31-32).

While Abram remained in Haran, God appeared to him and said, “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s 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” (Genesis 12: 1-3).

Abram, Sarai and Lot left Haran and came to the land of Canaan, to Shechem and the terebinth tree at Moreh. There God appeared again to Abram and said “To your descendants I will give this land” (Genesis 12:6). Some time later God told Abram that He had brought him out of Ur in order to give him “this land”, that is, Canaan, to inherit it (Genesis 15:7).  At this time God made a binding covenant with Abram, saying, “…to your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates – the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgasites, and the Jebusites” (Genesis 15:18).  

There was only one problem. Abram had no son. Sarai was barren (Genesis 11:30) and they both were very old. There was no way in the natural that their descendants could inherit the promises of God. Abram and Sarai despaired and they took matters into their own hands, instead of waiting on the LORD to do it His way. Sarai gave her Egyptian maid Hagar to Abram and as a result Ishmael was born.

This failure of faith was to have serious consequences. Hagar, while pregnant with Ishmael, fled into the wilderness but the Angel of the Lord found her there and not only said that she should return to her mistress, Sarai, but also that He would multiply her (Hagar’s) descendants exceedingly. He went on to say of Ishmael, “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 16:12).God rejected Ishmael, born out of disobedience and lack of faith, from the chosen line, and as a result jealousy would eat into him, turning him into a man consumed with anger and hatred, who would lift his hand against everyone, causing everyone to be against him. Nevertheless he would remain near his brothers, a constant thorn in their sides. When Abram later pleaded with God to consider Ishmael, God blessed Ishmael and said he would “make him fruitful”, “multiply him exceedingly” and “make him a great nation” (Genesis 17:18, 20), but God did not give him the inheritance of the Land of Canaan or of the Covenant.  When he was a grown man, Ishmael went to the east and settled in the Arabian Peninsula (Genesis 25:18). He was the father of the Arab people.

A third time, God appeared to Abram and repeated his promise saying,

I am Almighty God, walk before Me and be blameless. And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly… As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be father of many nations.  No longer shall your name be called Abram (exalted father), but your name shall be Abraham (father of a multitude); 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 17:1-8).

God therefore not only called out a nation holy unto Him, but he gave this people a land, the land extending from the River Euphrates to the River of Egypt, as an everlasting possession.

God at this time too changed Abram’s name to Abraham and Sarai’s (she that strives) name to Sarah (princess) (Genesis 17:5,15) and God said,

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. But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year (Genesis 17:18-21).

Abraham was 99 years old and Sarah 90, and well past the age of childbearing (Genesis 17:1,17). Not only that, Sarah had always been barren. Little wonder therefore that both Abraham and Sarah laughed (Genesis 17:17, 18:12). There was no natural way Sarah could conceive a child, but God intervened and in due course she gave birth to Isaac (which name means ‘he laughs’), Abraham’s true heir and the heir of God’s covenant promises.

The people of Israel, then, were not only established by the decree and covenant of God, but also by a divine act of God, a miracle, in that an old, barren woman conceived and gave birth to a son. As if this were not enough, when Isaac grew and took a wife, Rebekah, it was found that she too was barren. But Isaac had faith, and prayed to God. The LORD granted his prayer and Rebekah conceived (Genesis 25:21) and gave birth to twins, Esau and Jacob. Again, God had performed a miracle in order to establish His people.

Before Esau and Jacob were born the LORD spoke to Rebekah saying,

“Two nations are in your womb, Two peoples shall be separated from your body; One people shall be stronger than the other, And the older shall serve the younger” (Genesis 25:23).

Sometime later, when they were grown men, Esau who was a hunter came in from the field, very weary, and asked Jacob to feed him some of the red lentil stew that Jacob had prepared. But Jacob said, ” Sell me your birthright as of this day” (Genesis 25:31). Esau was so hungry and tired that he agreed and made an oath selling his birthright to Jacob – for the prince of a bowl of lentil stew (Genesis 25: 32-34).

Many years later, when Isaac was old and blind and approaching death, Rebekah and Jacob tricked him into giving the blessing belonging to the first born to Jacob instead of Esau. Isaac blessed Jacob saying,

“…may God give you

Of the dew of heaven,

Of the fatness of the earth.

And plenty of grain and wine.

Let peoples serve you,

And nations bow down to you.

Be master over your brethren,

And let your mother’s sons bow down to you.

Cursed be everyone who curses you,

And blessed be those who bless you” (Genesis 27:28-29).

Thus Jacob, whose name means ‘supplanter’, took not only Esau’s birthright but also his blessing. Jacob inherited Isaac’s land and possessions and became the patriarch of the family. But did he also inherit the covenant promises of God? 

Before Isaac died he called Jacob to him and blessed him saying,

May God Almighty bless you,

And make you fruitful and multiply you,

That you may be an assembly of peoples;

And give you the blessing of Abraham,

To you and your descendants with you,

That you may inherit the land

In which you are a stranger,

which God gave to Abraham

(Genesis 28:3-4)

The covenant promise therefore passed from Isaac to Jacob. God confirmed this later coming to Jacob in a dream saying,

I am the LORD God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants.

Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Behold I am with you and will keep you wherever you go. And will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you (Genesis 28:13-15).

Jacob took Leah and Rachel, the daughters of Laban his uncle, as wives. God opened Leah’s womb and she gave birth to Jacob’s first four sons, Reuven, Simeon, Levi and Judah. Jacob loved Rachel but she was barren, so she gave Jacob her maid, Bilhah, and Bilhah gave birth to two more sons, Dan and Napthali. Leah, when she saw that she had stopped bearing, gave Jacob her maid, Zilpah who bore two more sons, Gad and Asher. Following which Leah again conceived and bore two more sons to Jacob, Issachar and Zebulun. Meanwhile God had not forgotten Rachel and at last he opened her womb so that she bore Jacob two more sons, Joseph and Benjamin (Genesis 29:31-30:24, Genesis 35:22-26). These twelve sons are the twelve patriarchs of the nation of Israel. The royal line of David and the Messiah-King, Yeshua, originated in Abraham, and passed through Isaac, Jacob and Judah (Matthew 1:1-17, Luke 3:23-38).

It is interesting to note that here too God had a third time to supernaturally open the womb of a barren woman in order to establish the people of Israel. It is for this reason I say that they were not simply a people picked out of the nations by God, but rather a people specially formed and supernaturally created by God for his purposes.

As we trace these earliest steps of the Messianic descent it is also perhaps significant that the line does not always pass down through the eldest sons. Cain, the eldest son of Adam was rejected because of he murdered his brother Esau. Abraham’s eldest son, Ishmael, was the child of unbelief and an Egyptian maidservant, illegitimate and therefore he was also rejected.  Isaac’s eldest son, Esau, sold his birthright for a bowl of lentil stew. Furthermore, Jesus was descended from Judah, the fourth son of Jacob, not the eldest, Reuben. The Messianic line of descent therefore is determined by spiritual principles not merely those of physical biology or social tradition.

God called this special people, Israel. The word ‘Israel’ can literally be translated as ‘he who has struggled with God’.  This name was granted to Jacob after he had wrestled with the Angel of God and prevailed (Genesis 32: 22-30). This name has proved to be descriptive and prophetic. Israel throughout her history has constantly wrestled with God but has prevailed, even through great struggle and suffering.

Israel is therefore a nation made by God for a specific purpose, namely to be God’s prophetic vessel of revelation through history, to record and protect his written Word, the Bible, and in due course and most importantly, to bring forth the Messiah, Jesus. In Deuteronomy 14:1-2 it says of Israel,”…you are a holy people to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth”.

Is it any wonder then that the little nation of Israel, throughout its whole history, has been targeted for destruction by the enemies of God, those being used by Satan, to prevent the redemption of the world and its salvation. Here lies the most fundamental root of the enmity against Israel.

In Deuteronomy 14:1-2 it says,”…you are a holy people to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth”.    

CHAPTER 3: NOAH

June 30, 2019 /

in the years following the birth of Seth, many generations passed and eventually Noah was born. The name ‘Noah’ means ‘rest’ or ‘comfort’. When his father, Lamech, named him he said of Noah, “This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD has cursed” (Genesis 5:29).Clearly Lamech understood that his son would somehow play a pivotal role in the comforting of mankind following the cursing of the ground after the Fall. In other words, he would play an important role in God’s redemption plan.

By the time that Noah was born men had multiplied on the earth and God perceived that “the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5).


What was the nature of this great evil? In the verses preceding Genesis 6:5 we are told that “the sons of God” had taken human women as wives, and this unholy union had given rise to ‘anakim’, usually translated as giants. Who were these “sons of God” and what manner of being were they? This is a mystery I do not claim to understand, but it seems to me that these verses are tied to those that follow and relate to the great wickedness of mankind at that time. I believe that, whatever its exact nature, this corruption of humanity was yet another attempt by Satan to destroy the Messianic line. This would explain God’s anger and his determination to purify the earth by destroying mankind by means of the Flood.

One man though was pure and godly. His name was Noah. The Word says, “Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:9 my emphasis). Not only was he just and had a personal friendship with God, he was also ‘perfect in his generations’. What does this phrase mean? The word here translated as perfect is ‘tamim’ in Hebrew and it means ‘complete, whole and innocent’. The genealogy of Noah is given in Chapter 5 of Genesis and it portrays a direct line of descent from Adam and Eve, through Seth. It was uncorrupted by intermarriage with the ‘sons of God’ whoever they might have been. It was a pure line and, as we have seen already, it was the line of royal descent that led directly to the Messiah-King, Yeshua. Thus when God saved Noah and his family from the flood, it was an act that not only saved the last righteous man from judgment but also one which preserved the line of the Messiah-King who is the cornerstone of God’s redemption plan.

Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, and from them all the earth was repopulated after the Flood (Genesis 9:18-19). Shem was the eldest son and it was through him the Messianic kingly line would pass.

The Bible also tells us of a curious and important incident involving Noah and his sons that had far ranging repercussions. One day Noah got drunk, had fallen asleep and become uncovered in his tent. Ham, Noah’s second son, saw the nakedness of his father, Noah, and told his two brothers. The two brothers backed into the tent and covered their father’s nakedness without looking upon it themselves. When Noah woke up and realized what had happened, he called down a curse on Ham’s youngest son, Canaan, saying, “…cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants he shall be to his brethren” (Genesis 9:25).

I always wondered when I read this passage what had been so bad about Ham seeing the nakedness of his father. Was it just a matter of shame or embarrassment, or was there more to it?  And why was it Canaan that was cursed and not Ham?

We are told that Ham ‘saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside’.  What exactly does this mean? The phrase “uncover his nakedness” appears in a number of places in Scripture and it is always a euphemism meaning to have sexual intercourse (Leviticus 18:6-19, 20:11, 20-21, Ezekiel 22:10-11, Habbukuk 2:15, I Samuel 20:30). Leviticus 20:11 says, “The man who lies with his father’s wife has uncovered his father’s nakedness…”  Did then Ham’s sin consist of having incestuous sex with his father’s wife, his mother?  If this was what indeed happened, as some commentators claim1, it would explain the severity of Noah’s reaction and the curse.  However the verb used in this passage is different. We are told that Ham ‘saw’ (וירא  (  his father’s nakedness. It does not say he ‘uncovered’ ( גילה )  his father’s nakedness. To uncover or strip away a garment is an active deed but to see something is more passive. He did not uncover his father’s nakedness, he merely saw it. But what did he see and why was it such a serious thing that resulted in Canaan being cursed? This passage has been the subject of much theological debate through the centuries and there are many theories2. The explanation that makes the most sense to me is that Canaan, Ham’s youngest son, uncovered his father’s nakedness (that is, he had sex either with his grandfather himself or his grandfather’s wife, according to the Biblical euphemism, and Ham saw it and reported it to his brothers. This would account for the seriousness of the sin and the fact that the curse was brought down on Canaan and not on Ham, nor on any of Canaan’s brothers. This view is supported by verse 24 which says, “So Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his younger (better translated as ‘youngest’) son had done to him”. The pronoun ‘his’ referring to the youngest son is confusing here but it must refer to Ham’s youngest son, Canaan, and not to Ham himself, because Ham was not Noah’s youngest son. Japheth was Noah’s youngest son.

If Canaan really did this, it would have been especially grave and appalling considering that God had just destroyed the rest of mankind because of the corruption of humanity resulting from illicit sexual relationships. Now Canaan would have now once more jeopardized mankind.  

Whatever the truth of the incident, when Noah became aware of what had happened he said,

Cursed be Canaan;

A servant of servants

He shall be to his brethren…

Blessed be the LORD,

The God of Shem,

And may Canaan be his servant.

May God enlarge Japheth.

And may he dwell in the tents of Shem;

And may Canaan be his servant.

(Genesis 9:25-27)

We should also note that in the passage quoted above the LORD (YHWH), is identified as the God of Shem, and that Shem was the eldest son and heir of Noah. It is from Shem that Abram was descended (Genesis 11:10-26). In other words the royal line passed through Noah and Shem and on down the generations to Abram, the father of Israel and the forefather of the Messiah-King, Jesus.

References:

  1. Torah, Prophets and the Writings : Volume 1 Genesis . 1987. Orenstein, Y. Yavneh Publishing House, Tel Aviv    (in Hebrew)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_Ham#Early_Jewish_interpretations

http://www.christianlibrary.org/authors/Grady_Scott/noahcurse.htm

http://www.theologyonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13268

2. ibid

CHAPTER 2: THE CAIN PRINCIPLE

June 30, 2019 /

After Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden, Eve gave birth to two sons, Cain the elder and his brother Abel. Abel grew up and became a keeper of sheep and Cain was a farmer, a tiller of the ground. In due course, they brought offerings to the LORD. Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground and Abel brought of the first-born of his flock, and we are told that God respected the offering of Abel, but not that of Cain. Understandably perhaps, Cain felt rejected and angry, but God came to him saying, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it” (Genesis 4: 6-7).

In these words lies a fundamental principle, which underlies all God’s dealings with man and which underpins all of human history. Cain brought an unacceptable offering to the Lord. He had not done well, and his offering had been rejected by God. At first glance it seems that Cain had been treated unfairly by God. How was Cain to know what would constitute an acceptable offering? It is not totally clear in the Scripture but some say that Cain should have known. In Genesis 3:21 we read that after Adam and Eve had sinned and become aware of their nakedness, God had killed some animals and made them tunics of skin. This is the first time that we see in Scripture the necessity of the shedding of blood for the covering of the results of sin. This happened before Cain was born but he would surely have known about it. Perhaps therefore he should have understood that the shedding of blood was required. Be that as it may, there can be no argument that Cain chose to do things ‘his way’ and not God’s way, whether knowingly or not.

From the passage quoted above it seems to me that Cain’s incorrect sacrifice was not counted as sin at that point, and God gave him an opportunity to correct his mistake. Cain still had the choice whether or not to let sin enter into his life. He could have simply brought to God the acceptable sacrifice and found full acceptance. However he chose otherwise. He allowed jealousy and anger to rule over him, and this ultimately led to the murder of his innocent brother.

Even after this terrible act, God gave Cain one last chance to repent, when He spoke with him saying, “Where is your brother Abel?”, but Cain refused to take responsibility for what he had done and lied to God (Genesis 4:9-10) thereby increasing the trespass even more. Consequently God cursed him saying, “So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand”. The word, ארור, here translated as ‘cursed’ implies that the very nature of something has changed. It also carries a sense of finality. There will be no more chances. Now Cain has so hardened his heart against God he will no longer listen to Him, nor even to his own conscience. Interestingly enough, if we continue reading in Genesis 4 we see that one of Cain’s descendants, Lamech, was also a murderer and even presumed to claim the ‘mark of Cain’ to protect him from vengeance ‘seventy seventy-fold’ (Genesis 4:23-24). If we harden our hearts against God there is a tendency to slide ever deeper into sin and this tendency is very often passed on down the generations.

Incidentally, we are told that Cain went out from the presence of the Lord (Genesis 4:16). This passage does not say that God cast him out from His presence. God had merely told Cain that he would be cursed from the ground, which would no longer yield its strength to him and he would become a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth. Yet Cain exaggerated the situation, and added his own interpretation, saying “I shall be hidden from your Face… and it will happen to me that anyone who finds me will kill me”. His anger and his sense of rejection caused him to have a distorted view of reality and therefore he perceived his punishment as being worse than God intended. His misconception fueled his indignation and intensified his anger, and it was this that drove him out from the presence of God. Thus it was Cain who rejected God, not the other way around.

Cain went out from the presence of the LORD and dwelt in the land of Nod to the east of Eden (Genesis 4:16). Where was the land of Nod?  We are told it was east of Eden and some believe it to have been the Arabian Peninsula. The land of Nod may not have been an actual place since this phrase could also be translated as the land of wandering, an allusion to the type of life Cain and his descendents would experience as fugitives and vagabonds.

As we continue to read through the historical books of the Old Testament we see this pattern, repeated again and again. Every individual and every nation faces exactly the same choice, then as it is today. Will we do it God’s way, or rebel and go our own way? Will we choose obedience or rebellion, love or murder? Will we accept God or reject him? Will we cooperate with him towards redemption or will we fight against him?

This is what I have called the Cain Principle and it underlies all of human history, from the time of the Fall until now. We can see it at work on many levels, but especially we can see it as it relates to the chosen line of the Messiah. The Enemy, Satan, works through mankind trying to bring to naught God’s redemption plan. If he, Satan, can arouse our jealousy and anger towards God’s chosen, he can lead us to murder. This is the root of the ancient enmity, towards God’s chosen, both Israel and the saints in Jesus.

Satan by causing Cain to murder his brother and by causing Cain to go out from the presence of God, almost succeeded in breaking the line of descent that would lead to the Messiah. God however raised up a third brother, Seth (Genesis 4:25), to replace Cain and Abel.  Seth was the beginning of a line of descent through which the promises of God for redemption would be carried until it gave rise to the Messiah, Yeshua (Genesis 5, Luke 3:23-38). At various points of history, Satan tried to break that line in an effort to derail God’s plan. After the Fall in Eden, the next major attack came during the days of Noah.  Let us take a look at that event a little more closely.

.

CHAPTER 1: THE BEGINNING OF THE GREAT ENMITY

June 30, 2019 /

When God first created the world it was perfect. Genesis 1:28 tells us that God saw everything that He had made, “and indeed it was very good”. Genesis 2 recounts how God planted a beautiful garden in the east, in Eden, and in it he put every tree that was pleasant to the sight and good for food. In this paradise he put Adam and Eve and their task was to tend and keep the garden. God told them they might eat of every tree of the garden except one, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, lest they die.

As we know, they disobeyed God and ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and sin entered the world. The result of this disobedience was a curse, which fell on mankind and the world as a whole. Everything was changed. We call this event the Fall. The curse fell on the Serpent, or Satan, who had tempted Eve, on Eve and Adam and all their descendants, and on the ground itself. All of creation was subjected to the bondage of death and corruption (Romans 8:19-22). Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden lest they eat of the Tree of Life (Genesis 3:22-23) and gain eternity thereby perpetrating the curse and corruption forever.

Yet, even as God cursed the Serpent, he sowed the seeds of the hope of redemption, saying “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed, He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (Genesis 3:15).This is the first Biblical hint of the Messiah, who would come to redeem the world from the Curse. Thus even as God subjected the world to bondage and death, he began to work out its salvation.

Here too we see the beginnings of enmity, the deep hostility of Satan towards the seed of Eve, mankind, and the Seed of Eve, the Messiah, Yeshua (Jesus). From the very beginning Satan was working in opposition to God, and throughout all of history, we see Satan doing his very best to destroy God’s redemption plan. I call this the Great Enmity.

Before we can go further and examine in more detail God’s redemption plan, we must first understand what ‘redemption’ means. ‘Redemption’ is one of those esoterically Christian words we throw around a lot, although many of us have only a fuzzy understanding of its meaning. To non-Christians it probably has little meaning at all.

The word is first used in Scripture in Exodus 6:6 when God speaks to Moses, saying, “I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgements” (my emphasis). The Hebrew word used here is וגאלתי (vega’alti) and it can be understood as simply ‘to set free’ or ‘to liberate from bondage’. Yet there is a deeper connotation too. Elsewhere in the Old Testament the concept of redemption is linked with the shedding of blood. In Numbers 35 the Hebrew word,גואל (go’el), from the same root  is used for the Avenger of Blood, who was appointed to put a murderer to death. Redemption is therefore linked to judgment and vengeance. When Israel was set free from Egypt there was a shedding of blood when the firstborn of Egypt were slain by the LORD. When we are set free from the bondage to sin it is also by means of the shedding of blood that occurred when Jesus’ was crucified. In Ephesians 1:7 we are told that “In Him (the Lord) we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins…”

In the New Testament the Greek words used to denote redemption contain the meaning of the buying out, or ransoming, of a slave in order to obtain his freedom1. The price paid for our deliverance is the shed blood of Jesus, “Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood he entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9:12). Isaiah 35:10 also describes those who, in the last days, return to Zion with singing as the ‘ransomed of the LORD’.

In short then, the concept of redemption includes connotations of deliverance from bondage, judgment, vengeance and ransom. So now, let us consider what is God’s plan for redemption and how he is executing it?

References:

  1. Torah, Prophets and the Writings : Volume 1 Genesis . 1987. Orenstein, Y. Yavneh Publishing House, Tel Aviv    (in Hebrew)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_Ham#Early_Jewish_interpretations

http://www.christianlibrary.org/authors/Grady_Scott/noahcurse.htm

http://www.theologyonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13268

INTRODUCTION

June 30, 2019 /

Why does Iran want to wipe Israel off the map? Why have Palestinian leaders, Hamas, Hezbollah and other terror organizations declared they wish to push Israel into the sea? Why is Israel the target of so many terror attacks and frequent wars? Is it because Jewish immigrants displaced Arabs from the land? Is it a result of the partition that led to the modern State? Is it because of the post-’67 occupation of Palestinian territories? Or, is it because this Jewish state is an anomaly in a Muslim neighborhood? Are these often-quoted reasons the true roots of the Middle Eastern conflict or instead merely a rationalization for the hatred and violence that exists?

To discover the roots of the current conflicts between Israel and her neighbors we must first understand that they are not a new phenomenon. Israel’s neighbors have always hated her. She has constantly known warfare and violence since her very beginnings. The tribes of Canaan fought her, the Philistines were a thorn in her side, the surrounding nations repeatedly attacked her, the Assyrians and the Persians conquered her and dispersed her people, the Greeks and the Romans subjugated her, the hordes of Islam overran her, and Hitler tried to exterminate her people. Why? It is my thesis that this enmity reaches far back in time to the very beginning of creation and its roots are spiritual rather than political or material. At its core lies the fundamental enmity of Satan and his followers towards God and His followers.  The Middle Eastern conflict is the flesh and blood outworking of a great spiritual battle between God and the forces of Evil.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that Israel epitomizes all that is good and godly and that the enemies of Israel are fundamentally evil. It is not that simplistic. What I am saying is that all those involved, on all sides of the conflict, are participants, knowingly or not, in this battle, and victims of the evil influences, lies and deceptions that Satan uses to manipulate men and women to his own ends, namely to promote his desire for glorification and supremacy and the usurping of God’s power and authority.

We must then ask – does God take sides in the Middle East? This very idea is repugnant to most Western Christians. After all, isn’t God a God of justice, fairness and love? How can He take sides? As one who believes that God loves all men, women and children equally, how then can He favor one nation over others?

To answer these difficult questions we must turn to the Scriptures. In writing this book I seek to expose the spiritual roots of the conflicts between Israel and her enemies, outline the outworking of this enmity through history and come to a clearer understanding of the true nature of the present hatred and violence. Once this foundation is laid we can each begin to define our own position and response, and identify our role and responsibility in God’s eternal plan. In so doing we each need to confront the question of where we, as Christian believers, should stand in all this? Should we take sides? Whose side? Does it matter in the great eternal plan? Why should we care anyway?

There are some very good reasons why we Christians should care about what happens in the Middle East, and specifically to Israel.  Our lives are intimately linked to Israel whether we know it or not. What has happened in Israel in the past has determined who and what we are today. What will happen in the future with respect to Israel will directly determine, not only our personal fate as believers, but also the fate of the entire world.  Have you never wondered why day after day, year after year, this tiny, seemingly insignificant nation of around only 8 million people, constantly features in the world’s headlines. One dies in Israel in a terror attack and it is major news, while the death of thousands in another part of the world barely gets a passing mention. It’s as if even the world intuitively knows and understands the importance of Israel. If they have ‘got it’ all the more reason that we Christians should grasp it too, and what is more, we need to go further, grappling with it until we find understanding far beyond that of the ‘World’. 

In Hebrews 5:12-6:2 it is made clear that after we are saved we are expected to mature, come to desire the solid food of the Word of God and progress beyond the elemental principles of repentance, salvation, judgment and the resurrection of the dead. I believe that part of that growing-up involves grappling with the revelation given us regarding the redemption plan of God, its outworking in human history and coming to a clear understanding of our role and responsibility in working alongside God to bring about its fulfillment and completion.

What is more, in the words of I Peter 3:15 we are exhorted to “always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you”. What is the basis of our hope? Surely it lies largely in the demonstration of God’s love, faithfulness and power as it has been demonstrated throughout history in the fulfilling of his promises to Israel as recorded in the Bible.

I would therefore propose that a clear understanding of the place of Israel in God’s redemption plan, his dealings with her, and how this all relates to the events in the Middle East today, is essential for the Christian believer for at least four reasons:

  • It gives us the ‘big picture’, which forms the context of our individual salvation and faith. The historical record of God’s workings in relation to Israel and the nations around her is one of the most powerful testimonies to His existence and character. It increases our knowledge of God himself, his nature, his love and his power. It encourages and builds faith.
  • Knowledge of God’s promises and plans provides stability and builds courage. It provides us an anchor, and an antidote to fear and anxiety, in the perilous times in which we live. Christians need to be strong and calm in the face of turmoil, so that we can give light, strength and comfort to those around us.
  • We have responsibility to participate with God in the outworking of his Redemption Plan, which is intimately linked to the fate of Israel. Our first responsibility is to pray, but also to speak out and act in our own area of influence, as He leads and empowers.
  • What is more, if we claim that we love Jesus, how can it be that we do not love the things he loves? In the flesh, Jesus was an Israelite, through and through, and he is the King of Israel, past, present and future. We can glimpse Jesus’ love and compassion for Israel as he cried out in lament over Jerusalem saying, “How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings…” (Matthew 23: 37). Jesus loved Israel so much that he was willing to suffer crucifixion and death that she might be saved. The Holy Scriptures are saturated with declarations of God’s love for Israel.  For example, in Zechariah 2:8 Israel is described as the “apple of His (the LORD’s) eye” (my insert).

I believe that at this present time the battle lines are being drawn up for a very great battle. I do not know whether this will be one of the final battles prophesied in Scripture or not, but surely the present troubles are leading in that direction and each day takes us closer. Israel has never had to confront so many or such powerful enemies as she does today. When I look at the sheer magnitude of hatred directed towards her, and the sophistication of the weapons aimed in her direction, listen to the rhetoric of the leaders of her enemies and consider the weakness and ambivalence of her friends, I tremble. In the natural, there is not much hope that she can survive. Yet I believe she will, for God is greater than all of these. He has promised in Scripture that Israel will be established in the end, with the Messiah as her King and Jerusalem as her heart (Revelation 21 and 22). I believe that every Christian believer has a role to play. We must decide whether we are for God or against Him. There will be no neutrality – no sitting on the fence. It is therefore imperative that we each decide on which side we are, and to make such a significant decision we need to be informed and have a clear understanding of Scripture.

NIMROD’S FORTRESS

June 23, 2019 /
Nimrod’s Fortress, 13 April 2014

High in the Golan Heights, near the Lebanese border, lies the magical Nimrod’s Fortress. It stands on a hilltop, at an altitude of 816 meters (2675 ft) on the slopes of the towering Mt Hermon. It is surrounded by cultivated olive groves and a forest made up of mainly Calliprinos Oak. It overlooks the fertile Hula Valley and the Banias Springs.

THE NAME

Nimrod’s Castle is named after Nimrod, the great-grandson of Noah, and son of Cush. According to the Bible, Nimrod was a mighty hunter and warrior, and his kingdom extended over the Mesopotamian Fertile Crescent, which included the Babylonian and Assyrian region (see map below).

Cush became the father of Nimrod; he was the first on earth to become a mighty warrior.  He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the Lord.” The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, and Accad, all of them in the land of Shinar. From that land he went into Assyria, and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-ir, Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city.

Genesis 10: 8-12

Although the Bible does not explicitly say so, it would appear that Nimrod was the king who ordered the construction of the Tower of Babel as recorded in Genesis 11:

Now the whole world had one language and a common speech.  As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.  Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

8So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

Genesis 11: 1-9

The non-canonical Book of Jasher, referred to in Joshua 10:13 and II Samuel 1: 18, confirms and adds much detail to this account:

20 And king Nimrod reigned securely, and all the earth was under his control, and all the earth was of one tongue and words of union.

21 And all the princes of Nimrod and his great men took counsel together; Phut, Mitzraim, Cush and Canaan with their families, and they said to each other, Come let us build ourselves a city and in it a strong tower, and its top reaching heaven, and we will make ourselves famed, so that we may reign upon the whole world, in order that the evil of our enemies may cease from us, that we may reign mightily over them, and that we may not become scattered over the earth on account of their wars.

22 And they all went before the king, and they told the king these words, and the king agreed with them in this affair, and he did so.

23 And all the families assembled consisting of about six hundred thousand men, and they went to seek an extensive piece of ground to build the city and the tower, and they sought in the whole earth and they found none like one valley at the east of the land of Shinar, about two days’ walk, and they journeyed there and they dwelt there.

24 And they began to make bricks and burn fires to build the city and the tower that they had imagined to complete.

25 And the building of the tower was unto them a transgression and a sin, and they began to build it, and whilst they were building against the Lord God of heaven, they imagined in their hearts to war against him and to ascend into heaven.

26 And all these people and all the families divided themselves in three parts; the first said We will ascend into heaven and fight against him; the second said, We will ascend to heaven and place our own gods there and serve them; and the third part said, We will ascend to heaven and smite him with bows and spears; and God knew all their works and all their evil thoughts, and he saw the city and the tower which they were building.

27 And when they were building they built themselves a great city and a very high and strong tower; and on account of its height the mortar and bricks did not reach the builders in their ascent to it, until those who went up had completed a full year, and after that, they reached to the builders and gave them the mortar and the bricks; thus was it done daily.

28 And behold these ascended and others descended the whole day; and if a brick should fall from their hands and get broken, they would all weep over it, and if a man fell and died, none of them would look at him.

29 And the Lord knew their thoughts, and it came to pass when they were building they cast the arrows toward the heavens, and all the arrows fell upon them filled with blood, and when they saw them they said to each other, Surely we have slain all those that are in heaven.

30 For this was from the Lord in order to cause them to err, and in order; to destroy them from off the face of the ground.

31 And they built the tower and the city, and they did this thing daily until many days and years were elapsed.

32 And God said to the seventy angels who stood foremost before him, to those who were near to him, saying, Come let us descend and confuse their tongues, that one man shall not understand the language of his neighbor, and they did so unto them.

33 And from that day following, they forgot each man his neighbor’s tongue, and they could not understand to speak in one tongue, and when the builder took from the hands of his neighbor lime or stone which he did not order, the builder would cast it away and throw it upon his neighbor, that he would die.

34 And they did so many days, and they killed many of them in this manner.

35 And the Lord smote the three divisions that were there, and he punished them according to their works and designs; those who said, We will ascend to heaven and serve our gods, became like apes and elephants; and those who said, We will smite the heaven with arrows, the Lord killed them, one man through the hand of his neighbor; and the third division of those who said, We will ascend to heaven and fight against him, the Lord scattered them throughout the earth.

36 And those who were left amongst them, when they knew and understood the evil which was coming upon them, they forsook the building, and they also became scattered upon the face of the whole earth.

37 And they ceased building the city and the tower; therefore he called that place Babel, for there the Lord confounded the Language of the whole earth; behold it was at the east of the land of Shinar.

38 And as to the tower which the sons of men built, the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up one third part thereof, and a fire also descended from heaven and burned another third, and the other third is left to this day, and it is of that part which was aloft, and its circumference is three days’ walk.

39 And many of the sons of men died in that tower, a people without number.

Jasher 9: 20-39

In Rabbinical literature Nimrod is also identified as the builder of the Tower of Babel and the epitome of rebellion against God. It is possible his name, Nimrod, actually derives from the Hebrew root m,r,d, meaning rebellion. There are many Rabbinical writings and other ancient writings concerning Nimrod but it is unclear how much of these is true and how much is legend. Whatever the case, it is certain that Nimrod, although he started out as a mighty hunter before the LORD, he led his people into rebellion against God (see v 25 above), desiring to conquer Yahweh himself and become god in his place.

At this point in time we cannot know for sure if the Fortress site ever had any direct connection with Nimrod, but as it lies on the southwestern margin of his kingdom and overlooks an important transport route, it is possible. Recent research claims to have uncovered proof of a structure dating back at least to the Hellenist era, underlying the current Fortress.

The southwestern side of outer walls of NImrod’s Fortress, 13 April 2019

HISTORY of the FORTRESS

After the Crusader armies lost the battle of the Horns of Hittim in 1187 they lost their hold on the Land of Israel. The Muslim Salah-e-Din systematically destroyed all the Crusader fortresses but the Crusaders attempted to return and reconquer the Holy Land. They only managed to gain control over the Coastal Plain and the Galilee, however. In 1227 the army of the German Kaiser, Frederick II, arrived in the Holy Land. Fearing that the Crusaders were about to attack Damascus, the Governor of the Banias region, al-Aziz Othman, the nephew of Salah e-Din, together with his older brother, Al-Moatis, initiated the building of the Fortress in 1227. The Fortress was intended to defend the road that connected Tyre, in Lebanon, with Damascus in Syria. After the danger had passed the Fortress was expanded and completed in 1230, but just seven years later the Mongols, invading from Central Asia, destroyed it. The Mongols were defeated by the Mamelukes at the great battle of Ein Harod. One of the Mameluke commanders, Baybars, named himself Sultan of the Mamelukes and gave the Fortress to his second-in-command, Bilik. Bilik restored and expanded the Fortress and some of the most impressive structures, such as the ‘Beautiful Tower’, date from his time. The Beautiful Tower, overlooking the road below, is semicircular on the outside but octagonal inside, with slits for archers facing in every direction. Bilik, in 1275, memorialized his accomplishments and the name of his sultan in the magnificent Baybar’s Inscription.

Baybars Inscription

After the Crusaders were finally evicted from the Holy Land at the end of the 13th Century, the Fortress lost its prestige and was eventually abandoned. It was used as a prison for rebels during the 15th Century but it eventually fell into disuse, used only as shelter by shepherds and their flocks. It is now a National Park under the auspices of the National Parks Authority, the Antiquities Department , the Golan Regional Council and the Israeli Government Tourist Corporation.

OUR VISIT

It was a glorious spring day the day of our visit. The temperature was just right for a picnic in the olive grove before we set off to see the Fortress. Since my last visit, at least 20 years ago, the number of stairs seem to have multiplied, but nevertheless we made it all the way to the top of the highest point of the fortress, the Donjon (or Keep).

An olive grove at Nimrod’s Fortress, 13 April 2019.

The Beautiful Tower and the Donjon looking towards Mt Hermon in the distance
13 April 2019

The views from the Fortress were absolutely stunning. To the north east we could see the patches of snow on Mt Hermon, and below it the Druse town of Majdal Shams. Stretching below the town lie orchards and fields on the basalt rubble of the volcanoes in the region. From these orchards we enjoy the juicy and delicious Hermon apples. To the south and west we could see glimpses of the Huleh Valley far below.

Majdal Shams, 13 April 2019
The fields and orchards below of Majdal Shams.
13 April 2019
The northern reaches of the Huleh Valley from the Fortress Walls. 13 April 2019

NATURE

The hills around Nimrod’s Castle are surrounded by low Mediterranean shrubland dominated by the Calliprinos Oak ( Quercus calliprinos) and the Atlantic Pistachio (Pistachio palaestina). The Calliprinos Oak is also known as the Palestine Oak and the Kermes Oak. In Hebrew it is ‘ alon matzui’ (the common oak), because it is the most common of Israel’s three oak species, the other two being the Tavor Oak (Q. ithuraburensis) and the Allepo oak ( Q. infectoria).

Callliprinos Oak in flower, Nimrod’s Fortress, 13 April 2019

Calliprinos Oak flowers, Nimrod’s Fortress, 13 April 2019

Mount Hermon is a cluster of extinct volcanic mountains that lie at the southern end of the Anti-Lebanon Mountain Range. It straddles the borders between Syria, Lebanon and Israel. The peak lies in Syria and is 2,814 m (9232ft) above sea level, the highest elevation in Syria. Its southern flanks lie in Israel and sport Israel’s only skifield. Snow falls abundantly on Mt Hermon in winter and filters down through the layers of basalt and limestone emerging at its foot in many crystal clear, sparkling springs which water the Golan and feed the rivers that drain into the Jordan River and the Sea of Galilee.

Mt Hermon skifield in summer, 30 July 2012

As the water drains off the mountains it cuts deep gorges through the layers of solidified volcanic lava, basalt, and the softer layers of limestone which make up the region. These alternating layers create many waterfalls, many of which are dry in the summer months. We passed one of these spectacular waterfalls, the Saar Waterfall, as we left Nimrod’s Castle on our homeward journey.

Saar Waterfall, below Nimrod’s Castle, 13 April 2019

HOT SUMMER

June 19, 2019 /

Both Israeli and Palestinian leaders have been warning that we are going to have a long, hot summer in these parts. They are not talking about the weather but rather about the rising tensions between Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza, and Hezbollah and Iran in Syria and Lebanon, not to mention the escalating tension in the Persian Gulf.

This reminded me of the Bible passage about David and Bathsheba. It begins thus  “In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war …” (2 Samuel 11:1). What is it about the spring that caused kings to go off to war? Is it because that is when the weather is most propitious for battle or is it because the hormones are awakened in spring? I don’t know but in the animal kingdom spring is the season when males fight to prove themselves worthy to mate with the females. Perhaps there is something of that in the human species too? Then again, perhaps it is just the growing heat that makes us all a little crazy.

Gaza

The last major flareup of violence between Gaza and Israel, in early May, which resulted in the deaths of 4 Israelis and 29 Gazans, stopped on May 5th when a ceasefire, brokered by Egypt, was agreed. The ceasefire agreement included an obligation on Hamas to halt violence along the border fence, maintain a buffer zone 300 meters from the border and to stop the launching of incendiary balloons at Israeli communities, to end nighttime clashes between Gazans and Israeli security forces along the border, and to end the flotillas trying to break through the maritime border between Gaza and Israel. In return, Israel was to expand the fishing zone, enable the UN cash-for-work programs, allow medicine and other civil aid to enter the strip and open negotiations relating to electricity, crossings and healthcare (1).

After a few short weeks of relative calm, the past two weeks have seen tensions rising once more as both sides claim the other is not keeping their side of the agreement.

The Gazans have begun to target Israeli crops and nature reserves with incendiary devices once again. The conditions are right for fires now that the daytime temperature is rising over 30 degrees Celsius most days and the vegetation is tinder dry. The winter wheat crop is ripe and ready for harvest. Last Wednesday at least six fires in southern Israel were blamed on incendiary balloons launched from the Strip on Wednesday, and another balloon with a bomb attached to it exploded over an Israeli town (2). This explosive balloon was the first armed attack since the May 5 ceasefire came into effect. The terrorists in Gaza have also upgraded their incendiary balloon technology so that the balloons drip flaming liquid as they fly starting multiple fires from a single launch (3).

A firefighter fights a fire in a wheat field near Gaza
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/263242

As a result of this upsurge in balloon attacks, Israel announced on Wednesday a full naval closure on Gaza, preventing Gazan fishermen from fishing. Gazan terrorists retaliated by firing two rockets into Israeli territory on Thursday. One was shot down by Israel’s Iron Dome defense system before it landed in the targeted Israeli town. The second rocket hit a school in the Israeli town of Sderot. Fortunately, most of the students had already gone home for Shabbat and the few occupants of the school were saved by the fact that the rocket failed to explode. Nevertheless, this constituted a serious violation of the ceasefire agreement and on Friday morning the IDF attacked a number of Hamas military targets in Gaza.

On Friday some 7000 Gazans demonstrated at the border and launched dozens of fire balloons into Israel, igniting at least 7 blazes causing significant damage to farm crops. Some of the protestors breached the border fence and the IDF responded with tear gas and live fire, wounding 46 according to the Hamas -run Gazan Health Ministry (1)

Palestinians riot by the border fence with Israel east of Gaza City as smoke billows from arson balloons launched during the protest, on May 15, 2019. (Mahmud Hams/AFP)
https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-fresh-gaza-violence-army-said-pushing-for-serious-military-campaign/

As the spectre of another round of violence looms there is much pressure from the civilian population, especially those living in the communities close to the Gaza Strip, and from at least some of the IDF leaders for a much stronger military response. Roni Daniel, a veteran military analyst on Israel’s TV news channel, Channel 12, cited a senior military source saying that Israel was “on the verge of a serious military campaign,” and that the IDF was considering ending its policy of warning occupants of buildings ahead of airstrikes, even if it causes casualties (4). It seems unlikely however that the Israel Security Cabinet would give the go-ahead for a serious military campaign ahead of the elections on September 17, unless we are forced into it by a serious upsurge in violence from Gaza. That said, the situation is volatile and it would not take a lot to light the fuse.

Syria

Last Tuesday night (11/06) the Tel al-Hara observation post in Syria was attacked by Israel according to Syrian sources. Israel, according to its long-standing policy, has not verified whether it was responsible or not. Tel al-Hara is an extinct volcano that towers over the Israeli border. As the highest vantage point in the area it has been used by Syrian, Russian, Iranian, and Hezbollah forces to gather intelligence on Israel. Late last year the Syrian army took control of the area once more and an agreement between Israel and Syria, mediated by Russia, was made. According to this agreement, only the Syrian army is allowed to remain in this area and Hezbollah, and the Iranian-backed Shiite militias were to be pushed back at least 80km east of the Damascus – Daara Road, which runs close to the Tel.

Iran

Last week, on Thursday (13th May) two oil tankers were attacked in the Straits of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf. The crews of both tankers managed to escape but the tankers burned. This follows a similar attack on 4 tankers in the Straits of Hormuz earlier in the month, on the 12th May (6). The USA and others have blamed Iran for these attacks. The Pentagon has released grainy video footage it says shows Iranian forces removing a limpet mine from the side of one of the ships: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=7Gz08OQUnms . A good summary of the situation there can be seen on the link: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/13/a-visual-guide-to-the-gulf-tanker-attacks .

The Straits of Hormuz contain a shipping lane only 2 miles wide each way and it is through this bottleneck that about 1/3 of all the world’s oil must pass each day (6). Most of the crude oil exported from Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Iraq passes through it to key markets in Asia, the Pacific, Europe, North America and beyond (6,7). Iran has repeatedly threatened to disrupt this movement in order to force the USA to lift its embargo. Such a blockade would seriously threaten world oil supply and destabilize world economies.

Tanker on Fire in Persian Gulf, June 13, 2019 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/263242

A combined maritime force of Gulf States, the USA and European and Asian allies protect the Strait. The US 5th Fleet is based in Bahrain and maintains a constant presence in the Persian Gulf using patrol vessels, guided-missile destroyers, and mine counter-measures vessels. It also monitors the Strait using satellites and drones (8). Earlier this month an aircraft carrier, the “Abraham Lincoln”, usually stationed in the Mediterranean moved into the Persian Gulf (9) to join the two already stationed there (10). At least two B52H Stratofortress planes and fighters from the Lincoln Strike Group were also moved to the area (11) Last week the USA announced that it was moving an additional 1,000 troops into the area (13).

Iran announced this week that it has quadrupled its production of enriched uranium and by June 27 it will exceed the amount of enriched uranium permitted in its stockpile according to the 2015 nuclear deal made with world powers (12).

With this buildup of military might and the constant exchange of threats and insults between the USA and Iran the tensions are mounting daily. Western and Israeli intelligence officials are concerned that Iran could mount an attack on Israel, by means of activating its proxies in Syria and Lebanon (Hezbollah), in order to further “escalate its feud with the United States and force Washington to the negotiation table” (14).

End Time Battles

With the aligning of the nations and the gathering together of Israel’s enemies many Messianic and Christian believers are asking themselves if this is not leading up to the fulfillment of the prophecies regarding the battle(s?) described in Ezekiel 38, Joel 3, and Zechariah 12. There is much controversy about the timing of the battle or battles described in these passages as to whether they precede the coming of Yeshua and his millenial reign or whether they are the same as the battle described in Revelation 20 at the end of the Messianic Millenium. I do not wish to enter into this discussion at this point but it does seem clear to me that world events are reaching a crisis point and that a great battle centered on Israel and Jerusalem is imminent. If you do not yet know Yeshua as your savior and Lord I strongly suggest you seek to do so. Time is running out. If you do already know Him then you need to make sure you are ready in your heart to face whatever is coming. We also have a duty to be much in prayer and standing with Israel, and the God of Israel, YHWH, in these times. I am very concerned that many Christians do not study the Word of God and are unfamiliar with the role of Israel in God’s redemption plan and are therefore being led into deception just as Yeshua (Jesus) himself predicted would happen in the end times (Matthew 24). We need also to be praying for our own nations that they will be found on the right side of this great battle for God will judge the nations as he said,

In those days and at that time,
    when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,
 I will gather all nations
    and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat.
There I will put them on trial
    for what they did to my inheritance, my people Israel, because they scattered my people among the nations
    and divided up my land

Joel 3: 1-2

References:

  1. https://www.timesofisrael.com/gazans-launch-dozens-of-fire-balloons-into-israel-as-palestinians-riot-on-border/
  2. https://www.timesofisrael.com/rocket-strikes-sderot-yeshiva-in-second-attack-from-gaza-in-a-day/
  3. https://www.jewishpress.com/news/eye-on-palestine/hamas/gaza-terrorists-improve-arson-balloon-technology/2019/06/16/
  4. https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-fresh-gaza-violence-army-said-pushing-for-serious-military-campaign/
  5. https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5524118,00.html
  6. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/13/a-visual-guide-to-the-gulf-tanker-attacks
  7. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-oil-factbox/strait-of-hormuz-the-worlds-most-important-oil-artery-idUSKBN1JV24O
  8. https://news.yahoo.com/us-protect-persian-gulf-iran-wants-target-tankers-205545737.html
  9. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/05/world/middleeast/us-iran-military-threat-.html
  10. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/iraq/military/usstrength.htm?noredirect=on
  11. https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/06/17/heres-firepower-us-has-moved-gulf-region-amid-iran-threats.html
  12. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-48661843
  13. https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/06/17/pentagon-sends-1000-more-troops-middle-east-iran-tensions-heighten.html
  14. https://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-could-target-israel-to-escalate-tensions-with-us-report/

EZUZ

June 6, 2019 /

 מִ֥י זֶה֮ מֶ֤לֶךְ הַכָּ֫ב֥וֹד יְ֭הוָה עִזּ֣וּז וְגִבּ֑וֹר יְ֝הוָ֗ה גִּבּ֥וֹר מִלְחָמָֽה׃

Who is this King of glory?
    The Lord strong and mighty,
    the Lord mighty in battle.

Psalm 24:8

Two hundred kilometers south of Jerusalem lies the tiny communal settlement of Ezuz, right on the Egyptian border. It is said to be the most isolated settlement in Israel today and I believed it as I drove south and then east with the setting sun behind me. The road narrowed to a one-lane sealed track and seemed to be heading nowhere. I was quite relieved when I spotted a young girl hitching in the same direction I was going. There must be something at the end of the road. I picked her up and she assured me I was on the right road.

Click on the link below to see a map:

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Jerusalem/Ezuz/@31.2464706,34.4776276,9z/data=!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x1502d7d634c1fc4b:0xd96f623e456ee1cb!2m2!1d35.21371!2d31.768319!1m5!1m1!1s0x14fe01af0ac7af4f:0xa04d62aae7fdd994!2m2!1d34.472404!2d30.792202!3e0

The Road to Ezuz

It was the summer of 2016. I had just finished the school year and it had been a tough one. I was exhausted and didn’t know if I wanted to continue at that job so I went off into the most remote desert place I could find for a few days of rest and to seek God.

The sun was setting as I pulled into the collection of ramshackle buildings which is the settlement of Ezuz, a cooperative of various artists and artisans. My first impressions were pretty grim. It was a mess and there was a strong smell of bad drains and goats permeating the air. I wondered that creative people and artists would have such a poor sense of the aesthetic!

I soon however found my lodging which was a big improvement. I was staying at Zimmerbus – a B&B (without the breakfast) made from a converted bus. It was a beautiful example of upcycling! The bus was tastefully decorated with wood paneling, home crafted tiles and turquoise soft furnishings. It was also air-conditioned and insulated with an outside layer of dried mud. It was small but perfectly adequate for my needs. It had the added attraction of a swimming pool fed by natural running water.

Entrance to the Zimmerbus
Inside the Zimmerbus
The Zimmerbus with its outside kitchen
The Pool

After a refreshing sleep I set off next morning to explore. Knowing nothing of the area I just followed my nose. I saw a sign pointing to a farm and thought that might be interesting but soon came across other signs saying “NO ENTRY, BORDER AHEAD” and this was a little off-putting so I turned back.

I came instead to a lookout point where I ended up spending several hours enjoying the view while sitting in the shade. I entered into a long discourse with the boldest, sweetest little bird I have ever met. I think she was a female wheatear – a common desert bird – and I could hear the cheeping of chicks nearby. She wasn’t too happy about having a predator type so close to her nest and was determined to see me off. I was moved by her courage and resolve. This tiny, really tiny, little creature was telling me to go away in no uncertain terms. I had to love her.

Get off my territory!
I’m watching you
Can you see me?
Hi, I’m back and I am still watching you, but you seem harmless enough.
I need a stretch after all this posing

The next day I decided to explore the ruins of Nitzana which I had seen on my arrival. On a hilltop, on the site of an ancient Nabatean fortress, is the shell of the Turkish-German hospital built during the First World War, the walls still bearing the pock marks of shelling.

The Turkish German Hospital
Walls of the Turkish-German hospital with shell holes
The Tamarisk Tree and the Battalion 8 Memorial.

The signs warning of falling masonry and the intense heat that day soon drove me away. Spotting a lone tamarisk tree in the valley below I headed for its shade. Beside the tree an Israeli flag fluttered on an armored vehicle, a memorial in honor of the fallen soldiers of the Battle of ‘Auja (today called Nitzana) between the Israeli armored Battalion 8 and Egyptian forces in 1948. You can read about this battle on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_%27Auja

Nearby were the remains of a Byzantine Era Christian Church, one of three in the area, attesting to the fact that the Nabateans of the region were Christianized during the 1st – 7th Centuries AD. The Nabateans settled along the main transport routes and this town was situated at the junction of two major branches of the Spice Route, the road to Shur and the road to Eilat the Red Sea. You can read more about the history and archaelogical sites in the area on this website : https://biblewalks.com/sites/Beerotayim.html

The Byzantine Church and aqueduct

One of the reasons I love to go off into the desert alone is that you see a lot more wildlife than if you are with a noisy group. If you sit quietly for a while you will almost always see some living creature of interest. Here is a lizard I spotted in spite of its amazing camouflage.

Long fringe-fingered lizard. (Acanthodactylus longipes (I think)

On my last morning at Ezuz I rose early before the morning mist dissipated and went for a walk on the Fields of the Stars on the plateau behind the settlement.

The field of the stars

My eyes were drawn to a white, shimmering bush off the side of the track. I knew it wasn’t the season for flowering so I wondered what it was. As I drew near I saw that it was a rather scraggy tamarisk bush, but unlike its neighbours, every leaflet bore a drop of dew shining in the sun.

Dew drops on a tamarisk bush

As I looked at this bush I remembered that the tamarisk is about the only tree that can grow in the salt laden, toxic desert soil. Its long tap roots can penetrate deep to find the water table, but even at depth the water is often full of salts and minerals that would kill any other tree. The tamarisk can survive because it has special gland cells in its leaves that can extrude this salt. I tasted the drops on its leaves. It was horribly bitter and tasted like iodine, and I could not get rid of that taste for some hours. (I don’t recommend tasting these droplets!!)

I felt the LORD was speaking to me through this tree. He had planted me in a toxic workplace but He had given me the way to survive there. I felt He was telling me to go back to work the next year and I did. My hours were cut to 80%, which meant it was less demanding, and at the end of the year, management decided to close the high school and I was laid off.

As the sun rose, the mist dissipated and as I headed back towards my car I was able to enjoy the views and some of the other flora and fauna.

Orange beetles on Globe thistle flower
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