An Analysis of numerous Bible prophecies about the establishment of the Kingdom of God yields a general conclusion that God wages four international campaigns in His war against the political enemies of truth and righteousness.
Widely read students of Christadelphian material will be aware of the variety of interpretations placed upon the significance and order of some of the individual battles to which prophets such as Isaiah and Zechariah refer. The broader view, however, will define four distinct campaigns of God against four separate enemies.
God’s campaigns are directed against
This article deals with God’s campaign number one.
Israel—land and people
The Bible advances three Israel-related reasons for believing in God which are brought together in Isaiah 43 to 45. These three reasons are: (a) the wonders of Creation, including Israel; (b) the continued existence of Israel; ( c) the fulfilment of previously prophesied coming events, particularly concerning Israel. Israel is key evidential material
The nation of Israel consists of a land and a people. World War 1 could be said to have freed the land; World War 2 drove the people to that land. The land has a fixed centre, Jerusalem, but the borders are variable (God willing we hope to write more about that later).
The people have a fundamental connection to “the fathers”: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob ( or Israel) and his twelve sons and descendants via “the seed”. This is traced through David to Jesus, and in this line God has vested the promises, including possession of the Holy Land. The restoration of Israel as a nation in 1948 is a fulfilment of prophecy and a framework for the continuance of the seed line.
Israel’s neighbours
are loosely termed Arabic. Most of them are descended from the same father as the Jews, that is, Abraham, but diverge from the seed line in the next two generations through Ishmael or Esau. “I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau” (Mal. 1:2,3). Israel’s Arab neighbours have never accepted their exclusion from the seed line and, to this day, dispute God’s decree that the title to the Holy Land is granted to the seed line.
Israel today has four Arab states as immediate neighbours. They are Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan ( see map 1). A fifth political entity is the Palestinians, represented by the P. L. O. Each one of these groups has an identifiable Bible end. By comparing their current position to their eventual Bible destiny we are presented with a fascinating understanding of events of our time as well as indications of future developments.
The key scripture concerning today’s events is Ezekiel 28:24-26. The prophecy from chapter 26 has a latter-day application to Lebanon, but these three verses broaden the context to all of Israel’s neighbours. Verse 24 accurately describes the characteristics of both Israel’s ancient neighbours and the modern-day P.L.O. : “And there shall be no more a pricking brier unto the house of Israel, nor any grieving thorn of all that are round about them, that despised them”. The parallel between the Philistines, Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites and the modern-day fanatical Arab attacks on Israel is evident. The “pricking brier” and “grieving thorn” description is specially applicable to the P.L.O., operating out of any host state and never able to mount a full-scale invasion. Another distinguishing feature of all of Israel’s present neighbours is conveyed in the phrase, “of all that are round about them, that despised them”.
Verses 25 and 26 firmly fix the present-day application, repeating the hating-neighbour theme: “When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the heathen, then shall they dwell in their land that I have given to My servant Jacob. And they shall dwell safely therein, and shall build houses, and plant vineyards; yea, they shall dwell with confidence, when I have executed judgments upon all those that despise them round about them”.
A major point to grasp is that Israel will not dwell safely or confidently until the completion of God’s judgements on her neighbours. There is yet some way to go when we scrutinise developments in these nations.
Egypt
Egypt has been for Israel both a haven and a “broken reed”. After a long period of wealth and strength Egypt was condemned by God to weakness and poverty (Ezek. 30; Dan. 11). However, this condition is not Egypt’s final destiny.
Her modern history has been erratic. Variously aligned with East and West, she has also aspired to leadership of the Arabs, with little success. Egypt has been defeated in four desert wars with Israel. The last time, Israel ended up across the canal and on the road to Cairo. Realising that he could not defeat the power that lay behind Israel’s armed forces, President Sadat signed a peace treaty with Israel at the Camp David meeting of three remarkable men. The other two were President Carter, a peace-at-any-price Southern Baptist, and Premier Begin, who knows his Old Testament Bible prophecies about the destiny of Israel very well. Brought together by God for this special and unique occasion, all these men have now passed from their positions of power and influence, having set Egypt well down the road to her final Bible destiny: “In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land: whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel Mine inheritance” (Isa. 19:24,25).
Egypt will be a blest survivor, and her present peace treaty with Israel reflects this destiny. The third party, to whom Isaiah refers, Assyria, is what we now know as Syria.
Syria
Why is it that chapter 17 marks the end of Isaiah’s frequent use of Syria to describe geographically the country to the north and east of Israel? Only the term Assyria is used for the rest of his prophecy. There is little doubt that the explanation lies in the overthrow of the Syrian dynasty by the Assyrian invaders. Just as Latvia in this century lost its independent identity to the
Russians, so Syria lost its independent identity to the Assyrians in about 720 B.C. Isaiah’s prophecy may be dated about 726-698 B.C., and, by chapter 19 the land north and east of Israel’s borders would have been regarded as part of the Assyrian Empire. Hence, we today are to understand that, by Assyria, Isaiah was referring to land north and east from Israel’s borders, that is, Syria.
By grasping this we are delighted by the logical consistency of Scripture. The promise to Abraham and his seed of possession of all the land from the Nile to the Euphrates involves just three countries known to us as Egypt, Israel and Syria. It is this precise area which Isaiah refers to as a cooperative trio, forming the nucleus of the Kingdom of God. Thus Syria’s final destiny aligns with Egypt and Israel.
We need not be discouraged by Syria’s present anti-Israel stance. During Nasser’s presidency Egypt had been dominated by Russia, hosting up to 20,000 Soviet advisers. Egypt’s remarkable realignment towards Israel is a pointer to future changes, perhaps similarly dramatic, in Syrian attitudes, aided, no doubt, by some painful Divine prods. Isaiah 17:1,2 may have a latter-day application: “Behold, Damascus will cease to be a city, and will become a heap of ruins. Her cities will be deserted for ever. . . “(RSV).
The strongest indication of judgements upon Syria is God’s determination to regain Bashan for His people (see map 2). Half the tribe of Manasseh inherited Bashan before Israel crossed the Jordan (Deut. 3:13). That land now lies in southern Syria, of which the Golan Heights are but a small portion. Its recovery for Israel will be a cause for controversy (Isa. 2:13; Mic. 7:14; Zech. 11:2).
Lebanon
Both Moses and Joshua placed before Israel the prospect of the possession of Lebanon (Deut 1:7; Josh. 1:4). Joshua went as far as allocating Tyre and Sidon to Asher (Josh. 19:28,29). However, for three hundred years the Phoenicians maintained a set of independent city states, famous for their trade, wealth, luxury and culture, of which Tyre and Sidon were the chief two. Ezekiel 26 to 28 foretells the destruction of these people for gloating over the captivity of Israel. It is a classic prophecy, featuring a two-stage proximate fulfilment and a third latter-day application. Chapter 29 refers to Babylon’s involvement, which Alexander the Great followed up later. In the 1960s, Lebanese hotels, banks and markets thrived on newly-found Arab wealth, the modern equivalent of the Phoenicians. But they hosted Israel’s enemies, the P.L.O. As a consequence the current disintegration in Lebanon not only draws parallels with the experiences of the Phoenicians but also pushes it towards its final Bible destiny: “The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee (Israel)” (Isa. 60:13). Biblically, Lebanon’s dissolution becomes absolute. She is well down the path to that end now.
Jordan
Some of the names used by the prophets for the country we know as Jordan are Gilead, Idumea, Mt. Seir, Edom, Esau, Bozrah. The end of King Hussein’s domain may be determined by collating the prophecies under these various names.
In Isaiah 63 Jesus is seen coming from Edom and Bozrah with bloodstained garments, having inflicted upon them a terrible defeat In Ezekiel 35 the reason is clearly spelt out: “Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred, and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time that their iniquity had an end . . . I will make thee perpetual desolations, and thy cities shall not return” (vv. 5,9). Amos 9:12 discloses that Israel shall “possess the remnant of Edom”. In describing Israel as a devouring fire and a flame among the stubble, Obadiah reveals the chilling fact that “there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau”. Lebanon has been nothing compared with the coming agony of Jordan. Jordan’s attempts to capture all of Jerusalem at the proclamation of the State of Israel in 1948 sit uneasily alongside Obadiah verses 12,13: “Thou shouldest not . . . have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress. Thou shouldest not have entered into the gate of My people in the day of their calamity. . . nor have laid hands on their substance”.
In common with two other of Israel’s neighbours, Jordan also occupies territory that God, long ago, decreed as belonging to Israel. He will restore Gilead, which is in north Jordan. It belongs to Reuben and Gad (Deut. 3:16,17).
Crowding in Israel
Three of Israel’s neighbours share a common fatal flaw: they all occupy territory that God has assigned to Israel and which He intends to restore to Israel. A practical reason for this restoration is given in Zechariah 10:10, after God speaks of multitudes of returning Jews: ” . . . and I will bring them to the land of Gilead and to Lebanon, till there is no room for them” (RSV). God will not bring them back to Lebanon and Jordan governed by Arabs; they will return to an enlarged Israel. Today’s arguments about jurisdiction over the West Bank will be irrelevant; the East Bank will be Israeli as well.
Isaiah confirms the need for wider Israeli borders: “. . . surely now you will be too narrow for your inhabitants . . . The children born in the time of your bereavement will yet say in your ears: ‘The place is too narrow for me; make room for me to dwell in” (49:19,20, RSV). Ezekiel 39:28 helps us to quantify the problem: “I will leave none of them remaining among the nations any more” (RSV). There are 14 million Jews scattered round the world. When the regathering is complete they will need a bigger Israel than that of today.
Summary
The destiny of Israel and her neighbours’ is quite clear. Egypt and Syria eventually cooperate with Israel, and the three are preserved as partners. Lebanon, Jordan and the Palestinians cease to exist. A total Jewish return settles into vastly expanded Israeli borders.
God is using Israel as the cutting edge of His judgemental sword. However violent and brutal this process may appear in media presentations, the 3,000-year-old purpose of God is being fulfilled, and Israel is slowly and painfully taking up its expanding position of dominance. We are well into God’s first campaign. If we should measure its progress by Israel’s neighbouring nations, the count is about two down and two to go.
The Solution