It is indeed sad that many Christians who put the Bible on some wall-unit to gather dust consider it only as a decorative piece rather than the Book that holds the key to the answers of many conflicts and malaise gripping our modern contemporary society, both on an individual level as well as on a worldwide scale.
As an important historical book, the Bible, among others, traces the root causes of the Arab-Israeli conflict. This seemingly ‘eternal’ war has worldwide implications and assumes centre stage in the daily drama surrounding world events. The nuclear race has re-surfaced again and the world seems to be reverting to another “arms race”, as Iran is ready to build an N-Bomb and the Pentagon prepares to produce “bunker buster” bombs.
Given this background, from Genesis to Revelation, one cannot help noticing God’s hand in world affairs. Starting from Genesis, we see the disobedience of humankind (reflected in the Israelites). Abraham did not believe God’s promise that he would have a son from his wife Sarah. His doubts and lack of faith resulted in him having sexual relations with the family’s servant (as was customary in those days) with the consequence that Ishmael was born. This was not in God’s plan. Still, God kept His promise and Abraham had a boy from the aged Sarah who was named Isaac. Isaac had two sons, Jacob and Esau. Because Jacob had stolen his birthright and blessing, Esau hated him enough to begin plotting his death! This burning hatred has been passed on from generation to generation ever since then, for approximately 3,700 years. This provides us with a basic understanding of the contentious relationship between these two peoples.
The disobedience and consequences of sin have continued to cascade down the millennia and, despite God’s warnings to keep the two races apart, the Israelites disobeyed time and time again. After they escaped from Egyptian slavery they were condemned to wandering in the desert after they disobeyed, complained and grumbled against God. Even when they finally made it to the Promised Land, they started mixing with ethnic groups and adopting their traditions and idols in violation of God’s commands. The conflict in the Middle East indeed reflects on a macrocosmic scale the sinful and rebellious nature of the individual. Our soul needs the wisdom and revelation of God’s Word (the Bible).
In this ‘bloody’ chess game of the Middle East, nothing is being gained and much is being lost in terms of peace and tranquillity. This region is being exploited and pointing fingers at the perpetrators of violence and terrorism alone is useless because every nation has its own fair share of blame in creating this chaos. All nations have to put their heads together to solve as many problems as possible. It is only forgiveness and people of good will from all sides who might calm ‘hot-headed extremists’ with the aim of lessening the pain and suffering and bring about a win-win situation where justice and truth prevail.
Lasting peace in the Middle East given the above context is quite illusory, if not outright impossible. But many Christians, believe, because it is written in the Bible, that the return of Jesus Christ the Messiah as King, as prophesied in the book of Revelation will bring everlasting peace. Peace will never be achieved from the outside, unless one has peace on the inside. The message of Jesus is not for outward peace, but for inner peace for those who made a conscious choice to surrender their life to the only one true Author and Prince of Peace.
Anthony Zarb Dimech