The recent peace accord signed between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization was executed with less fanfare than the earlier agreement between the same parties. This peace initiative will have a dramatic effect, however, on the overall fulfillment of scriptural prophecy. This month’s article will examine the accord in relation to three Bible points: Christ comes when not expected (Matt. 24); Israel continues to ignore God’s plan for Palestine (Judges 2); man perpetuates strife, not peace (Hag. 2).
The extraordinary becomes ordinary
With much less fanfare, another Middle East peace accord has been signed. Perhaps it was a testament to the speed with which landmark changes are occurring that this time the peace ceremony did not seem quite so extraordinary. Maybe it was the fact that Mr. Arafat and Mr. Rabin seemed more comfortable in their roles as peace architects. Maybe it was the fact that CNN news only provided live coverage of the event when there was a break in the O.J. Simpson trial.
Even the Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, said: “Perhaps this picture has already become routine, the handshakes no longer set your pulse racing. Your loving hearts no longer pound with emotion as they did then.”
In a day when breakthroughs are common in many fields and political upheavals have occurred in many places, maybe people have become accustomed to the unexpected; nothing seems too remarkable anymore. People’s lives just keep going on no matter what! And the words come to mind: “For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man” (Matt. 24:38,39 NIV).
Jews resolve to share Palestine
Thus without the fanfare it deserved, on September 28, 1995, in the presence of King Hussein of Jordan, President Mubarak of Egypt and President Clinton of the United States, Yassir Arafat and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin signed a comprehensive peace plan that details in step-by-step fashion how Israel will withdraw from the occupied West Bank. The accord consists of 23 pages of articles followed by 284 pages of annexes and appendices that decree in minute detail every aspect of the withdrawal.
This time, teams of more than 100 negotiators from each side lived and worked together virtually uninterrupted for two months to produce an agreement that took into account not only the major issues of security and land but far more delicate questions of insecurities and obsessions.
The New York Times chronicled the minute details contained in the accord: “Accordingly, half the document deals with separation — the withdrawal of Israeli troops and the hand-over of civil authority to an elected Palestinian Council. The other half deals with sharing power, water, airways, the environment and roads, and with cooperating in health care, monetary policy, postal services and so on, down to minutiae-like standards for car parts” (September 29, 1995). The level of the accord is so detailed that it specifies that Palestinian children must be vaccinated at the age of six; the police station in Jalqamus will have 45 police officers, 2 vehicles, 8 rifles and 15 pistols.
Going against God’s plan
Despite the intricate detail of this accord, the overall plan is in direct opposition with God’s command. When Israel originally occupied the land they were told by the Lord that the land belonged to them and they were to “wipe out all its inhabitants from before them” (Josh. 9:24). And they were forbidden to enter into any covenants with the people of the land: “And you shall not make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall break down their altars” (Jdg. 2:2).
Ignoring the overall will of God, we find today that the world cheers as the chosen people are not just sharing the land with others but are actually handing over part of it which God gave them in a divinely provided military victory. While this peace accord may seem like progress in human terms, it runs counter to the revealed will of God.
Civil strife
As could be expected, the accord evoked bitter opposition. “Scattered groups of Israelis tried to block roads, opposition leaders signed a Pledge of Allegiance to the land of Israel and declared the Washington agreement invalid. In Hebron, a flash point of Arab-Israeli violence that will be a testing ground of the agreement, close to 1,000 protesters waving Israeli flags and black banners of mourning gathered under heavy security” (The New York Times, Sept. 28, 1995).
Civil strife is a characteristic of the latter days: “And I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen; and I will overthrow the chariots, and those that ride in them; and the horses and their riders shall come down, every one by the sword of his brother” (Hag. 2:2).
Israel’s goals need the kingdom
The motives for seeking peace with the Palestinian Liberation Organization were expressed by Prime Minister Rabin in his comments at the White House. He said: “Ladies and gentlemen, this week the Jewish people in its thousands of places of dispersion has marked a new year, and in their Holy Day prayers, Jews everywhere are saying: May we be remembered and inscribed before you in the Book of Life and of blessing and peace and prosperity, of deliverance and comfort and opportunity, we and all who people the House of Israel, for a good life and peace. These are my wishes to all the Jewish people. These are my wishes to all the citizens of Israel: a good life and peace. These are also our wishes to our neighbors, to all the world peoples: a good life and peace.”
These goals will be achieved, but not by the present course of events. They will be achieved when the Jewish people are finally subjected to their Messiah and all the world comes under the rule of the Lord Jesus and the saints. Let us pray that hoped-for day will soon be a reality.
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