All sincere believers in Jesus are very interested in what is happening in the Middle East today, but not all of them are sure in their minds as to the proper attitude to be taken to these happenings. People are being trained to kill, and when battle is enjoined many are in fact killed. Do we find ourselves inwardly satisfied when things appear to us to go Israel’s way and the opposition is beaten down? If we do, is this correct moral behavior? Am I my brother’s keeper?
The last question was formed by the lips of Cain, but in his heart he feared only the vengeance of men. God had mercy and granted his implied request.1 Therefore we must not search in our hearts like Cain to find the proper attitude to the continuing bloody results of the Middle East conflict. We must study Scripture and its application to our day. The Word of God takes us to a valley of dry bones and before our eyes commands them to come to life.2 The bones are revealed by Divine power to be “an exceeding great army” and are identified. “These are the whole house of Israel.” God calls them “My people” and reveals how He will perform the miracle of bringing them from death to life. “I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the Land of Israel.”
God did not only have to open their graves; He also had to cause them to come up out of their graves and to bring them into their land. There was absolutely no life in them and it was His work entirely to cause them to appear and to function in the land of Israel. To emphasise and to illustrate these things, it is interesting to consider the histories of some of the leading personalities of the State of Israel. David Ben-Gurion, for example, was born in Poland; Levi Eschol in Russia. Haim Bar-Lev, who was appointed Chief of Staff in 1968, arrived as a fifteen-year-old in Israel from Austria. Abba Eban was born in South Africa, Moshe Dayan in Israel.
These facts show us how God has gathered the nation of Israel from the four corners of the earth. Mrs. Golda Meir, the present Israeli Premier, is of American origin. The Gentiles had put them underground (ghettos). They were not on the level of the earth (no status whatsoever). They were outcasts with no legal protection. God enabled them to come up out of the binding influence of Gentile hate, and brought them into the land of Israel. He gave them the strength and guidance to do all this and now He has given them the strength to implement His will.
He has commanded them to “Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy habitations; spare not, lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes”.3 Israel has been commanded to do all these things and has been given the ability to do them. An exceeding great army can function only in that way. “For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shalt inherit the Gentiles and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.”4
To obey these commands necessitates operating against other people, and in view of the circumstances “an exceeding great army” is the God-given answer. Israel, now being regathered, needs protection and also space to dwell in and expand. This is being provided for them. In the process, God’s promise is being demonstrated as the words of the Old Testament are fulfilled: “The Lord shall cause thine enemies that shall rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face”.5 Three victories against tremendous odds in 1948, 1956 and 1967 should be enough to convince us. To think that this Scripture is not in context in present-day events is to ignore the fearful recorded happenings under the curses recorded in Deuteronomy 28.6 Israel has for many hundreds of years been tossed with tempest and has not been comforted. In the days of their calamities other people laid hands on their substance. They were stripped of all rights and liberties and were driven underground.
There God found them and restored them to life, liberty and protection. John Thomas, in speaking of this time, writes: “Jerusalem should be covered with shame and trodden down as the mire in the streets; and that when the day of her rebuilding should arrive, the decree authorizing it should come from afar. … that in their exodus from Babylon the nations shall be confounded when they shall behold the prowess of the Jews”.7 The Balfour Declaration on November 2, 1917, is the implementation of that decree. In the statistics of the three wars mentioned above we see the fulfillment of the words of the prophet Micah.8
John Thomas continues: “But concerning Israel, the prophet testifies that the Conqueror of the nations will pass by the transgressions of the remnant of His heritage, that He will have compassion on them; that He will subdue their iniquities, and cast all their sins into the depth of the sea; that He will perform the truth to Jacob and mercy to Abraham, which He has sworn to Israel’s fathers from the days of old”.
“We have a well-trained army” is on record as being stated by Israel’s Minister of Defence, General Dayan, when asked if he believed that God gave them the victory in June 1967. The Bible terms it “an exceeding great army”, “a new sharp threshing instrument”, “My battle axe and weapons of war”.9 The following incidents will show the need for such an army. Nasser’s successor as Egypt’s leader, Anwar Sadat, has said that there will be no change in Egypt’s policy of hostility to Israel, and he has threatened Israel with electronic(?) warfare.
Mr. Kosygin, when in Cairo for Nasser’s funeral, warned Israel that she would not find a vacuum in the Middle East. God counselled Joshua many centuries ago: “Be strong and of a good courage”. It is not on record that General Dayan received such a message; we do know that for the task he has and is performing he needs to be just that. We know that Israel does not believe in Jesus Christ … it is written “They shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it”; “Even to this day when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart.”10
Nevertheless, Israel is not careless, lighthearted and gay. The following press reports would seem to bear this out. In The Australian there was an account of an Australian student in Israel. She said: “I was in a bus to Tel Aviv and the engine exploded just outside a Bedouin camp. Everybody instinctively dived for the floor because they thought it was another terrorist attack. This sort of thing is common”. In Time the following appeared, this time from an Israeli student : “We shall stay strong in bombs and bullets, but staying strong inside is harder”. Also in The Testimony: “In the religious life of Israel, the interest in the Bible, which is the very core of national life, is widespread among all sections of the community”.11
These quotations, taken collectively, may help us to see that modern Israel is not abandoned to pride in the flesh for courage, and is “still seeking the word of the Lord”. The Bible holds many accounts of God using men who “did well in executing that which is right in My eyes”, and who did not know Him and did not want to know Him.12
The writer of this article suggests that Israel is implementing God’s will. He does not suggest that Israel today does not know God, nor that they do not wish to know Him. He would direct readers, thoughts on these important issues to Isaiah 54:17 and to Ezekiel 39:22. We who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are not called upon to fight in any army. … not yet. If it is asked, “What shall this man do?” the words of Christ himself give the complete answer: “If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me”.13
References
1. Gen. 4:14-15.
2. Ezek. 37:1,2, 10.
3. Isa. 54:2.
4. Isa. 54:3.
5. Deut. 28:7.
6. Deut. 28:15.
7. Eureka, Vol. 1, p. 48; Mic. 7:11-16.
8. Mic. 7:16.
9. Ezek. 37:10; Isa. 41:15; Jer. 51:20.
10. Amos 8:12; 2 Cor. 3:15.
11. Testimony, Nov. 1969, D. 419.
12. E.g., 2 Kings 10:30; *Isa 45:4.
13. John 21:22.
The Borders of the Land of Israel