Many people, including Arabs, would have us believe that before the establishment of the nation of Israel in 1948, there were no tensions or anything to harm the good relations between the Arabs and the Jews. Even many historians point to the 1948 establishment of Israel as that which led to the current escalation in the Middle East. The implication is that the only reason there is a crisis in the Middle East today is because of the establishment of the nation of Israel in Palestine; that is the origin of the conflict between these two peoples, who supposedly got along previously. Having been repeated so many times, it has become the accepted conventional wisdom. You have an entire generation of young people around the world, both Muslim and non-Muslim who have believed that “conventional wisdom.”
The study of prophecy will reveal that the enmity between Arabs and Jews
goes back thousands of years and that the conflict would be ongoing between two
of Abraham’s sons Ishmael and Isaac.
To understand where and how this crisis originated we need to go to the
Old Testament Scriptures. The Bible clearly teaches us that the crisis in the
Middle East originated in a feud between Abraham’s sons Isaac and Ishmael, an
enmity that continues to this day between the nations that represent their
descendants.
Grant Jeffrey explains that,
“The
most dangerous threat facing the modern world has its origins in a
4000-year-old conflict between two half-brothers. The ancient blood feud
between Ishmael and Isaac is now being played out on the world stage. God told
his people thousands of years ago that there would be an implacable hatred
between the sons of Abraham. Ishmael, the son of the Egyptian Hagar, Woodburn
with enmity toward his brother, Isaac, the son of Sarah and the ancestor of the
Jewish people.
Millenniums
of hatred are now culminating in the violent dispute involving the Palestinians
and their Arab brethren against their Jewish neighbors. As we look closely at
the origins of this war, we will gain greater understanding of how God has set
the stage for the final resolution of this struggle and the events of the last
days.”[1]
As we have seen in some detail already, God made a promise to Abraham
that he would give him an heir who would bless all nations and raise up a
mighty people who would spread God's love around the world. Abraham was a man
of faith who never doubted that God would do what he had promised he would do.
What he failed to understand was how and when God would fulfill that promise
which led him and Sarah to commit an act of disobedience.
Abraham and his wife Sarah decided that they would "help" God
fulfill the promise. Since Sarah was barren, she told Abraham to have relations
with Hagar her maidservant, something that was the standard practice in those
days. This was precisely the act of
disobedience, Abraham and Sarah acted rather than patiently waiting for God to
fulfill the promise in His time.
Abram’s
wife, Sarai, had not borne any children for him, but she owned an Egyptian
slave named Hagar. Sarai said to Abram, “Since the Lord has prevented me from
bearing children, go to my slave; perhaps through her I can build a family.”
And Abram agreed to what Sarai said. So Abram’s wife, Sarai, took Hagar, her
Egyptian slave, and gave her to her husband, Abram, as a wife for him. This
happened after Abram had lived in the land of Canaan ten years. He slept with
Hagar, and she became pregnant. When she saw that she was pregnant, her
mistress became contemptible to her (Genesis
16:1-4).
According to Genesis, Sarah began to despise Hagar causing her to
realize that the "help" they had offered God to bring about the
fulfillment of His promise was a mistake. Abraham gave his wife permission to
deal with Hagar, the Bible tells us that Hagar fled to the wilderness because
of the harsh treatment she had received from Sarah, this was the first of the
two times that Hagar had been exiled.
Abram
replied to Sarai, “Here, your slave is in your power; do whatever you want with
her.” Then Sarai mistreated her so much that she ran away from her
(Genesis 16:6).
During her first exile she had been
instructed by God to return and submit herself to Sarah's authority.
The
angel of the Lord found her by a spring in the wilderness, the spring on the
way to Shur. He said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from and
where are you going?” She replied, “I’m running away from my mistress Sarai.”
The angel of the Lord said to her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her
authority” (Genesis
16:7-9).
Ishmael was born and was brought up in Abraham’s household. It was 14
years later, when Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah 90 years old, that she
gave birth to the natural heir that God had promised. His name was Isaac.
The
Lord came to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had
promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at
the appointed time God had told him. Abraham named his son who was born to
him—the one Sarah bore to him—Isaac. When his son Isaac was eight days old,
Abraham circumcised him, as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years
old when his son Isaac was born to him (Genesis
21:1-5).
[1] Grant R.
Jeffrey, The Next World War (Colorado Springs, CO: WaterBrook Press,
2006), p. 9.
All Scripture quotations, unless indicated, are taken from The Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible®, and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers, all rights reserved.
Copyright © 2020 by Miguel J Gonzalez Th.D.
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