The Mid-East Conflict & its Origin

Part II

        Sun. p.m., we began a 2 part series on the Mid-East conflict & its origin.  Actually, the Sun. p.m. lesson was more like a world history lesson.

We talked about some of the current issues of the day, & some of the differences in philosophies w/in the Arab world—specifically that of Muslims & the Islam religion.

        We also looked at Israel & its position in the mideast for the last 40-50 years, & how their moving back to the mideast, from 1900-1948—ignited the conflict from which we are now a part of. 

        And this p.m., we are going to attempt to trace this conflict back to its roots—to see how & why it began.

Even in the 1^stcentury, during the life of Christ here on earth, there was a great deal of hatred & discrimination between the people of that part of the world.                   The Jews & Gentiles hated each other.

The Jews & the Samaritans hated each other.

In Luke 10, we have the example of the good Samaritan who helped a man who had been beaten & robbed by thieves, after a Jewish priest & a Levite had passed him by & had refused to help him.

        In Jn. 4: 7-9, we see where the Samaritans had built their own temple, because they wouldn't even worship w/ the Jews.

        This is significant and understandable.

Samaria was the capitol of the Northern Kingdom of Israel before they were absorbed by the surrounding countries—especially, Assyria.

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This left the Southern Kingdom of Judah to make up God's chosen people—this was some 700 years before the time of Christ.

        And when it comes right down to it—the Samaritans were only part Jew.  They were a mixture of Jew & whomever.  And as a result, their worship was far removed from being acceptable in God's sight.  II Kings 17:22,23

        And although we are going to be able to pinpoint some specific instances which contributed to the mideast problem we now face—it is also vitally important to remember some earlier situations which, while not directly influencing the mideast conflict—were never the less, events which hopefully gives us more understanding about an ever present conflict between mankind in general--& more specifically, between men of God & men of the world.

        For example—Gen. 4 deals w/ the first conflict between man—that between Cain & Abel.  Gen. 4:8-16.

And this was probably somewhere in the area between Bagdad, & Umm Qasr—the S.E.corner of Iraq.

        Then w/ the birth of Seth, we see the beginning of a new people—a people submissive to God—a people from which would eventually come the Savior—Jesus the Christ.

Now we know that all of the descendants of Cain were killed in the flood—however—this shows us the tendency that man has—to leave fellowship w/ God, & develop a hatred w/ each other—which eventually develops into conflicts—first individually & later on a much larger scale.

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And we do the same thing today—we get our feelings hurt over something, & instead of taking care of it & putting it to rest, we let it fester & grow & get others involved, & first thing you know, we have a full blown conflict.

        But when we come to the time just after the flood—some 2600 years before the time of Christ, we see people once again leaving the fellowship w/ God.

        Noah had 3 sons—Ham, Shem, & Japheth.

After approx. 5 generations after Noah, the people began to build the Tower of Babel,(close to modern day Bagdad), in order to attempt to reach up into Heaven.  Gen. ll:1-9

        Now, if we wanted to, we could justify their actions.

Gen. 11:1-4

Their heart was in the right place—they just wanted to worship God & be united as one. 

What's wrong with that?

That shouldn't be a problem.

        And this is just like it is at times in the church today.  We think we can make our own rules—do what ever we want to do--& chalk it up to glorifying God.  And nobody can tell us what we can or can't do.

Note vs. 6 there in Gen. 11

So now we see them scattering all over the earth.

        Gen. ch 10 gives the general description of where they went.

        Now remember that we have 5 generations & 3 basic family units—Ham, Shem, & Japheth.

        Japheth & his descendants went North & West— Asia Minor, Europe, Greece, Italy, & Spain.

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        Ham & his descendants went south & west—N E Africa, Egypt, & Arabia.

        Shem & his descendants covered the basic mid-east as we know it— Israel, Jordan, Assyria, & Armenia.

        Thru the descendants of Shem, came the Hebrew nation—later to be known as Israelites—later to be known as Jews.

        Here then we have the emergence of Egypt(the descendants of Ham), as a powerful nation, eventually holding Jacobs descendants captive for 400 years—some 500 years after the tower of Babel.

        Beginning in Gen. ll:31, we see the family of Abraham leaving Ur of Chaldees, (the area which is now known as the southeast corner of Iraq—southeast of Bagdad)—going North to Haran, (the area now known as Northern Syria),  then Southwest thru the area now known as Israel.

        It is also thought that the Garden of Eden was probably somewhere in this general area of Bagdad south—and as well—Mt Aarat in Turkey, is probably where the ark landed after the flood.---------

----------a country full of Bible history.

        At any rate, Abraham's family eventually ends up in Egypt where they were held captive for 400 years.

        Now we get to Gen. 16—and this is where things really start to evolve to mark the real beginning of what we currently call the mid-east conflict.

We see that Sarai—Abraham's wife—was not able to get pregnant & she gives Hagar—her servant—to Abraham, so he would have children.

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We won't go there today, but Gal. 4:21-31 covers the relationship between Isaac & Ishmael—Isaac being the child of promise, & Ismael being born of a handmaiden, & being at battle continually w/ Isaac & his descendants.

        And we see that this first started because of Sarai's desire to provide children for Abraham & instead of maintaining her faith in God—decides to take matters into her own hands, & gives her handmaid to Abraham to provide him children.

        Then when Hagar gets pregnant, the conflict begins—even before Ismael's birth.

        Gen. 17:15-21  So now, God tells Abraham that Sarah will bear a child & that thru him, the covenant will be fulfilled---what covenant?

Gen. 12:1-3—the 3-fold promise:

Land—the land of Canaan

People—the Israelites as a nation

Seed—that of Christ

        So then in Gen. 21, we see the birth of Isaac, and the conflict expands.

In Ch. 21:9-21, we see Ismael living in what is now known as Saudi Arabia—just south of Israel, south of Iraq—also a people who would do battle w./ the Israelites after they left Egypt & spent 40 years in the wilderness—on their way to the land of Canaan.

        So now it's thru Isaac that all of the nations of the earth will be blessed—thru Christ.

        And it's thru Ismael that there will be a continual thorn in the side of Isaac's descendants.

        Now—if that wasn't bad enough.......

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        Because of the sin of Lot's daughters, who thought that Lot would have no heirs after Sodom & Gomorrah were destroyed, along w/ Lot's wife who was turned into a pillar of salt in Gen. 19—they got Lot drunk—had sex w/ him—both became pregnant—giving birth to Moab & Benammi—from whom originated the Moabites & the Ammonites—another thorn in the side of the Israelites—2 more groups of people who would eventually form part of the Arab world.

        Not to mention Esau, the twin brother of Jacob, who couldn't get along w/ each other—Esau eventually sold his birthright to Jacob for a meal—Gen. 25.

Then Rebekkah the mother & Jacob lies to Isaac because Isaac was blind & they got Isaac to give Jacob his blessing, when it should have gone to Esau, the eldest.  Gen. 27:34-42—more division—more conflict.

        And as if that wasn't enough—there's more.

In Gen. 36, we see Ishmael's daughter marrying Esau & now we have another tribe formed—the Edomites.

        A couple of generations later, we see the formation of the Amalekites.

        But we're not done yet—there's still more.

Just when you think that it can't get any worse—it does.

        Jacob—later named Israel—marries Leah & Rachel—after he was tricked by their father.

        Leah has the 1^st 4 children of the marriage,& then when Rachel can't get pregnant, she is jealous of Leah, & gives her handmaid Bilhah to Jacob—to whom the next 2 children are born.  Then not to be outdone, Leah gives her handmaid Zilpah to Jacob, & she gives birth to 2 children.

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Then Leah has 2 more children & finally Rachel has 2 children.

        Now you say—so what's the point?

Gen. 37:1.2  Note here which of the sons were involved here—the sons of the 2 handmaidens—where were the sons of Leah & Rachel?

Why didn't they take care of the flocks together?

        Because vs 2 shows that there was a division between the sons of Leah & Rachel, and the sons of Bilhah & Zilpah, and they became envious of Joseph.

Vs.4—"They could not speak peaceably unto him"

        They would not wish him well &not even acknowledge his presence.  Even today, the Arabs refuse to acknowledge the very greeting of someone they don't like, & if there is an opportunity—they will do him harm.

        This is exactly what happened to Joseph—they refused to acknowledge his presence & at the first opportunity, strove to kill him.

He was saved by Rueben—really strange here—seeing that Rueben—the son of Leah—was the one that went in & had sex w/ Bilhah—Rachel's handmaid—the mother of Dan & Naphtali—2 of his brothers(Gen, 35:22).

        I mean—talk about 'all in the family'.

So then, who are the Jews in Israel, & who are the Arabs?

        Arabs come from some of the descendants of Ham, Shem, & Japheth—the 3 sons of Noah.

        In addition, some Arabs come from descendants of Abraham.

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Originally, the word Arabs, came from those who lived in Arabia.  But in the last 40-50 years, the word Arabs, has come to include a whole realm of those of Islamic faith—throughout the mid-east—those who are primarily in conflict w/ Israel, & anyone else who supports them—and secondarily—at conflict w/ each other.

        As we've seen, conflict has been present w/ man since the beginning of time.  And specific periods of conflict originated w/ man's departure from fellowship w/ God.

        And in one way or another—all conflicts between God's people, & their neighbors in the O T, as well as current conflicts in the mid-east, can all be classified as holy wars.

        Because in OT times, as well as today—disagreements leading to armed conflicts, originate from each particular group's philosophy concerning their own religious responsibilities to their own personal concept of God.

        So, what application can we, or should we make from this lesson to our lives today?

        l. We must never put ourselves in the position of those who condemn others because of their religious views, or because of their nationality.  Rather, we must strive to understand their views, so that we might be better equipped to study w/ them & help them see how the message of Jesus can change their lives.

Matt. 24:14

Rev. 7:9,10

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        There is no doubt that God expects those who are members of the church that Jesus built, to take on the responsibility of taking the Word to the lost—no matter where they are or who they are.

        And that responsibility must begin at home.

I am not against missionaries—either in the U S of abroad.

I think that we should be involved in missionary work.

However, we must get our priorities straight—our work must begin right here at Paris.

        If we can't get it right here at Paris, how can we expect to get it right in some foreign country?

        Will there ever be peace in the mid-east?

I don't know.

        But the question we should be concerned w/ even more than that of peace in the mid-east—would be this—

Will individuals in Paris be made aware of the message of Christ?

And—will I be a part of that purpose of God to take the Word to the lost?

2.      The second part of our application from this lesson is this—What kind of example are we setting for those around us—especially our children & grandchildren?

We saw that the current mid-east conflict actually began not only w/ Isaac & Ishmael—but also w/ their mothers.

The conflict actually began w/ Sarai & Hagar's jealousy of each other.

It expanded w/ the pride of Lot's daughters.

It grew even more w/ the division among the 12 sons of Israel—because of the jealousy of the mothers.

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We hear the comment—LIKE FATHERS- LIKE SON, &

LIKE MOTHER-LIKE DAUGHTER.

        We pass on our attitudes to those around us—especially w/in our families.

How can we expect our children & grandchildren to have good positive attitudes towards others in the church, when all they hear is criticism of others?

        Why do you think—when we hear about a child's bad attitude in Bible class, or in school—you hear the comment

--They didn't suck that out of their thumb, or The apple doesn't fall very far from the tree.

        It's about time we start thinking about others welfare—having others best interest at heart—instead of having selfish attitudes & wearing our feelings on our sleeves—just waiting for someone to offend us—to disturb our comfort zone—and then off comes the gloves.

        Then we can exert our rights & set them straight—or at the very least, take cheap shots at them---

--and in doing so, set the example for others around us—especially those in our family & in the church.

        There is very little if anything we can do about the mid-east conflict.

        However, there is a lot we can do about conflict w/in the family & w/in the church.

        And it all begins w/ my personal attitude.

My attitude or responsibility to myself.

My attitude or responsibility to God.

My attitude or responsibility to others.