Understanding Conflict in the Middle East–Part One (Resources & Notes)
[Note: In Genesis 17:4-5 we have a promise made to Abraham that was not folded into the first covenant ratified at the mount in Sinai, and this was the promise of “many nations” that would come from the line of Abraham. Nonetheless, this particular promise was entwined with the other promises as it relates to having an heir with Sarah, and having a descendant who would help the nations, and receiving an inheritance in Canaan and beyond, and the promise of immortal life to fulfill the promise of an “everlasting” covenant. Noting that the first covenant could not offer immortal live, but it did provide for a lineal inheritance for the people of Israel, with the caveat that it required their obedience to retain the inheritance generationally. But the people of Israel failed in their keeping of the “stipulations” to the first covenant, because it was not possible for them to keep the Ten Commandments. Thus, another covenant would be needed, and the ability to keep it by faith, and that was made possible by the promise of the holy spirit to make immortal life possible, and by the spirit of God we see that the inheritance could be extended to those outside the family of Abraham through Isaac. It is this spirit that is made possible and dispersed by Jesus the Christ. Therefore, we should expected that the descendants of Abraham would form nation-states, and that they would receive their rightful place among the nations in order to fulfill the promise of “many nations,” but the people of Israel cannot claim a political “right” in accordance to what the first covenant promised because it has been withheld in that context, and the promise of “many nations” was independent of that first covenant. Simply, in becoming many nations, and receiving their boundaries through ethnicity, language, and through strife they have received their prescribed allotment in the world, but not because of their righteousness or because they have a covenant from the mount in Sinai to back up any claim to the lands they now occupy in the world.] [Note: Sarah was in charge of Abraham’s household servants and so she had the authority to cast out the bondservants Hagar and Ishmael, and this event became the solution to the issue of the birth-right inheritance, and this solution became the basis for the Apostle Paul’s allegory that explained the nature of the two covenants relative to the lives of Sarah and Hagar.] [Note: The Mount of Mercy (Mount of Arafat) is beside the Plain of Arafat near the city of Mecca. The Mount of Mercy (Jabal ar-Rahmah) is according to Islamic tradition the hill where the prophet Muhammad delivered his farewell address to the Muslims who had accompanied him for the Hajj.] [Note: Jeddah or Jiddah in Arabic means “grandmother,” and tradition claims that Eve was buried near the sea in the town of Jeddah.] [Note: Persian rulers recognized the city of Jerusalem as the capital city of the displaced Israelites, and this is understood from the decrees of Cyrus II, Darius I and Artaxerxes I. For we read in Ezra that: “During the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, in fulfillment of the message from the Lord spoken through Jeremiah, the Lord prompted Cyrus, king of Persia, to make this proclamation throughout his entire kingdom, which was also released in written form: AN OFFICIAL STATEMENT FROM CYRUS, KING OF PERSIA All of the kingdoms of the earth have been given to me by the LORD God of Heaven, and he specifically charged me to build a temple for him in Jerusalem, which is in Judah” (Ezra 1:1-2, ISV). (See also, Ezra 4:1-16).] [Note: Some equate the area of Hejaz that includes Mecca in Saudi Arabia with the biblical wilderness or desert of Paran.] [Note: His Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan is the 43rd generation direct descendant of the prophet Muhammad.] [Note: Saracen was a term used by the ancient Romans to refer to those peoples who inhabited the deserts within the Roman province of Arabia-Patraea and these Saracens were considered by some to be distinct from the southern Arabs. The term “Saracen” eventually became synonymous with “Muslims” during the time of the Crusades. In some Christian writings the name Saracen was interpreted to mean “not from Sarah,” while in Jewish tradition the Saracens were believed to be descended from Hagar’s son Ishmael. Some Christians also called them the Hagarenes or Ishmaelites.] [Note: The priestly nation of Israel was immersed in continual sacrificial duties, rituals and observances, and according to the biblical record the people of Israel were responsible for carrying out the will of God in overthrowing the inhabitants of Canaan. The people of Israel were only able to take it by struggle and conflict as they were not an exemplary nation that lived by faith in God.] [Note: Some consider the prophet Muhammad to be a descendant of Ishmael, but this claim is generally disputed by Muhammad’s own statements regarding his family genealogy. Likewise, the Palestinian Arabs and others within the Arab world also claim to be descendants of Ishmael, and thus descendants of Abraham. This conclusion is, however, problematic and difficult to authenticate from biblical, genealogical and historical records regarding the peoples of the Middle East.] [Note: “Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his