NOTES ON THE FUTURE OF ISRAEL: FOREVER ARE THE JEWS GOD’S CHOSEN PEOPLE

SCRIPTURE. “‘Sing for joy and rejoice, O Daughter of Zion; for behold, I am coming, and I will dwell in your midst,’ declares the Lord. ‘Many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day and shall be My people. And I will dwell in your midst, and you shall know (recognize, understand fully) that the Lord of hosts has sent Me to you.’ The Lord will take possession of Judah as His portion in the holy land and will again choose Jerusalem.’ Be still before the Lord, all mankind; for He is roused (raised up) from His holy habitation [in response to His persecuted people].” – ZECHARIAH 2:10-13, AMP

QUOTATION. “And once The Storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether The Storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of The Storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. ‘That’s what this Storm’s all about.’” ― HARUKI MURAKAMI, Kafka on the Shore, 2002; edited’’

FIRST THOUGHTS

As we agonize over the ongoing ordeal of the WAR IN GAZA with its untold violence and deaths, I was taken to this great passage as a Divine Reassurance to Jewish Israel that God has not forsaken them. On the contrary! “For surely I will shake My hand against [Israel’s enemies], and they shall become spoil for their servants. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me” (2:9).

Lest that sound callous against the horrendous suffering of the Arabs and their precious children who live in now war-ravaged Gaza whose casualties now number in the many thousands, we must remember TWO REALITES in the midst of yet untold carnage.

ONE: Regardless of the endless political debates that have raged since the State of Israel’s re-founding on May 12, 1948, Yahweh has declared since time immemorial at least 170 times: ‘The Land belongs to the Jews!’ (Editors, Different Spirit, ret. Dec. 22, 2023). “Now [in Haran] the Lord said to Abram, Go for yourself [for your own advantage] away from your country, from your relatives and your father’s house, to ‘the land’ that I will show you.” – GENESIS 12:1, AMPC

TWO: What is called ‘THE HAMAS COVENANT (or Charter) was issued by its official name, The Islamic Resistance Movement, on August 18, 1988 as its founding identity, stand and aims. The Preamble: “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.” Therefore, beloved, with a full grasp of Islamic Jihad’s stated goals, Israel is forced toward a final fight for its very existence. There is no room for a negotiated settlement that contravenes either God’s Word or Islam’s singular mission to wipe Israel (and Jewry) off the map.

PURPOSE. The goal of this unapologetically important teaching today is primarily to hopefully allay any doubts that this Generational Conflict has a Right side and a Wrong side – any abuses of that War notwithstanding this historic, undebatable fact. I also hope to inform us all of the true nature of Orthodox (“God-fearing”) Islam by culling from my critical review of the Qur’an, the Hadith, and biography of Muhammed from my first book, The Sixth Seal (2017). From which we shall gain a much more accurate understanding or Hamas and its progenitor, the Muslim Brotherhood founded by HASSAN AL-BANNA, March 22, 1928.

II. A SHORT HISTORY OF ISLAMIC JIHAD

When I opened this conversation in my previous book under the subheading, “The Threat of Islamic Terrorism,” I wrote this:

“On June 5, 1968, SIRHAN BISHARA SIRHAN fired a .22 caliber bullet at the head of ROBERT F. KENNEDY at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California, fatally wounding the presumptive next president of the United States. Sirhan’s stated motive was Kennedy’s support of Israel in the 1967 Six Day War. As a Muslim Arab (or Palestinian), Sirhan’s violent act effectively heralded the resumption or ‘new beginning of Islamic terrorism’ aimed against America and the Western World” (2017, p. 59; rev. edition, 2023).

ORIGINS. But this Unique Hostility has a much more distant foundation in Biblical History, beloved. Some for example have written of TWO EVENTS that set the stage for its emergence centuries later.

ISHMAEL. “And the Angel of the Lord continued, ‘See now, you [Hagar] are with child and shall bear a son, and shall call his name Ishmael [God hears], because the Lord has heard and paid attention to your affliction. And he [Ishmael] will be as a wild ass among men; his hand will be against every man and every man’s hand against him, and he will live to the east and on the borders of all his kinsmen.” – GENESIS 16:11-12, AMPC

ESAU. “And not only that, but this too: Rebecca conceived [two sons under exactly the same circumstances] by our forefather Isaac, and the children were yet unborn and had so far done nothing either good or evil. Even so, in order further to carry out God’s purpose of selection (election, choice), which depends not on works or what men can do, but on Him Who calls [them],it was said to her that the elder [son] should serve the younger [son]. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated (held in relative disregard in comparison with My feeling for Jacob).” – ROMANS 9:10-13, AMPC

COMMENTARY. “To further enforce God’s sovereignty in choosing, PAUL quotes Malachi 1:2-3: ‘Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.’ Here God is speaking of the two nations, [Jewish] Israel and [Arabic] Edom, of which Jacob and Esau were heads. God marked out Israel as the nation to which He promised the Messiah and the Messianic Kingdom. Edom received no such Promise. Instead, its mountains and heritage were laid waste for the jackals of the wilderness (Mal. 1:3; see also Jer. 49:17-18; Ezek. 35:7-9).” – WILLIAM MACDONALD, Believer’s Bible Commentary, 1995, p. 1717; edited

ISLAM. Here we turn to the Historic Ignition to Jewish hatred for the entire Modern Era that flowed from these Two Events, that surfaced in Medieval Times. I will Bullet Point the major developments again for efficiency of time and space (Kelly, 2023, pp. 59-65).

CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS. This approach to fomenting a worldwide clash of civilizations finds it origins, of course, in the founder of Islam, the so-called “prophet” of Islam, or ‘Islamism,’ Muhammad ibn Abdullah, or more plainly, MOHAMMED (AD 570-632) … The historical records demonstrate that following his “revelations” from an ostensible angel named Gabriel, this then-new religious system culminates in the written book, the Qur’an. Using this authoritative text, Mohammed began his efforts to convert the then Jewish and pagan people of the area by peaceful means. However, and this is an epic, “however,” seeing that such methods were ineffective, he turned to more successful military means, especially for several reasons more and more ‘against the Jews’ who inhabited the region.

JEWS AS ARCH-FOES. [Thus] Mohammed then turned his attention once again to the Jews, who were easier targets than the Meccans. He began killing the Jews and looting Jewish settlements. After one Jewish town had surrendered, 700 to 1,000 men were beheaded in one day while all the women and children were sold into slavery and the possessions of the town looted! This fact is supported by Muslim scholars as well as by Western historians. (Morey, 1992, p. 83; Dashti, 1985, pp. 89-91)

RADICAL SUBMISSION. Thus are the roots of Militant Islam found entrenched in the earliest chronicle of Muslim conquests and barbarism toward anyone who would not peaceably convert. Therefore, Islam came to mean something that is predicated on the impenetrable, unquestioned dogma of the Qur’an (see Gibb & Kramer, 1953, p. 276). The definition of “Islam” in turn is noted by DR. MARK HARTWIG: “Islam in its original meaning is the primary act of self-surrender: an act of … choice whereby a person places his or her destiny in the hands of Allah and ‘submits’ to Allah’s [violent] government” (Hartwig, 2002, p. 18); emphasis added). The implications of this relatively moderate statement are found squarely in the center of the word, ‘submit.’

JIHAD: THE SIXTH PILLAR. Dr. Mark Hartwig again defines Jihad: “Although the term Jihad means ‘struggle’ rather than ‘war,’ physical combat is clearly part of the concept … The Holy Qur’an [which means ‘Recitation’] has given a comprehensive treatment to its concept of war. The Book defines and prescribes its own rules and principles for the ‘Conduct of War’ (2002, p. 4). So the question now becomes, what are those rules or teachings concerning the conduct of war?

THE NINTH SURA. “But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the pagans [non-Muslims] wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war); but if they repent, and establish regular prayers and practice regular charity, then open the way for them; for God is oft-forgiving, Most Merciful” (The Qur’an, Sura 9:5, trans. by A.Y. ALI, 2001).

THE HAMAS OCTOBER 7 SLAUGHTER. “On 7 October 2023, the paramilitary wings of Hamas, the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, the PFLP, and the DFLP launched a series of coordinated armed incursions into the Gaza envelope of neighboring Israeli territory, the first invasion of Israel since the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. This incursion fell on the day of Sukkot, a Sabbath day. The attacks initiated the 2023 Israel–Hamas War, almost exactly 50 years after Operation Badr and the greater Yom Kippur War of 6 October 1973 …

The attacks began in the early morning with a rocket barrage of at least 3,000 rockets launched against Israel and vehicle-transported and powered paraglider incursions into its territory. Hamas fighters breached the Gaza–Israel barrier, attacking Israeli civilian communities and military bases as well as a music festival near Re’im, resulting in 1,139 deaths – 695 Israeli civilians, among them 36 children, as well as 373 members of security forces and 71 foreigners. The total includes an unknown but significant number of deaths from friendly fire. Around 250 Israeli civilians and soldiers were taken as hostages to the Gaza Strip, of whom about 30 were children …At least 44 nations denounced the attack as terrorism, while many Arab and Muslim countries blamed the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories as the root cause of the attack. The day was labeled the bloodiest in Israel’s history and the deadliest for Jews since the Holocaust.” – EDITORS, Wikipedia, Dec. 20, 2023; edited

DK. With the one exception of what historians call, “The Golden Age” of Jewish culture in Spain under Muslim rule (c. 700-1,000 AD), Muhammed’s Legacy amounts to an otherwise unbroken bloody, 1,400 year stream of violent persecution of the Jews by Muslims that obviously remains unchanged today. While moderate and nominal Muslims do not normally exhibit such hatred, the truly orthodox, conservative, Qur’an-observing Muslims do.

Those passages such as the 9th Sura cited earlier are what SALMAN RUSHDIE, has accurately termed, ‘The Satanic Verses’ (1988), the name of his infamous book that has earned him a permanent Fatwa (death warrant) issued by Supreme Leader of Iran, RUHOLLAH KHOMEINI in 1989. A number of failed assassination attempts followed, with the latest one taking place on August 12, 2022 when he was stabbed multiple times as he was about to give a public lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York.

Be forewarned, beloved, there is a high price on Truth-Telling in these Last Days. And it shall likely rise in the days ahead should America reelect DONALD TRUMP as President. Selah.

III. THE TEACHING

COMMENTARY. “This Promise relates chiefly to the Latter Times. ‘And thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent Me’ —The fulfilling of these My Words shall be an undeniable evidence that My Mission is Divine. ‘And the Lord shall inherit Judah His portion’ — Shall claim, recover, possess, and delight in Judah, as a man doth in his paternal inheritance. God will give visible tokens that the Land of Judea is, in a peculiar sense, ‘His Land!’ And its inhabitants ‘His peculiar people,’according to the tenor of the Covenant He made with their fathers. ‘And shall choose Jerusalem again’ — Will have a regard to Jerusalem, as He formerly had. This Prophecy will be more fully accomplished at the General Restoration of the Jewish Nation [some 130 years later].” – JOSEPH BENSON, Notes on the Holy Bible, 5 vols., 1811-1818; edited

Beloved, as I discussed some of this with a close friend and Bible scholar named David who is completing his Doctorate in Chinese Missions, ‘God does not give any explanation whatsoever’ for His Choice of the Jews and Israel as “The Apple of His Eye, His Chosen ones.” He doesn’t have to – He’s God.

But we also discussed the Beginning of the Troubles when Sarah (then Sarai) proposed using Hagar as concubine to Abraham (Abram) as demonstration of an historic case of Unbelief. Still, that does not satisfy our human desire for Grand Explanation that goes without saying that I do not possess.

BACK TO THE FUTURE. As we move to some conclusions about this Pan-historic Struggle between Jews and Arabs, I return to the Point of Origin: ABRAM & SARAI. To do so, I turn once again to a wise treatment of this complex matter by Moody and Dallas Theological trained JEREMY MYERS in his insightful piece: “Hagar: The Horrible Mistake” (Summer 2013; edited).

UNBELIEF. In Genesis 16, Abram once again shows that though he is the Father of Faith, he still makes mistakes and has doubts. It is always a bad idea to try to accomplish God’s plan in your own way and your own timing. God’s plans come complete with His methods and His timing, and when we try to tinker with that, it messes everything up.

IMPATIENCE. As we come to Genesis 16, we see Abram, the Father of Faith, trying to rush God’s plan. God has promised to Abram land and a family, and so far, Abram has received neither. So, in Genesis 16, Abram tries to provide a family for himself rather than trust and wait on God.

UNCERTAINTY. If we look at the times God has promised a son to Abram, there is one thing noticeably absent from all of those promises. Though God had promised Abram a son, God had never included Sarai in that Promise. God never said that Abram would have a son through Sarai, only that Abram would have a son. Sometimes God does not give us all the information we think we need to follow Him. Sometimes, He only tells us what He is going to do; not how He is going to do it.

DISOBEDIENCE. So at first, things seem to work out just fine. Everything went according to plan. Hagar conceived just as Sarai wanted. But, as with all sin, there were ‘unexpected, negative consequences.’ Hagar began to despise Sarai. In those days, it was always seen as a curse to be barren, and so now that Hagar had conceived by Abram, there was proof that Sarai was barren. Hagar probably thought that since she had conceived, she was better than Sarai. Sarai probably went through this whole thought process as well. Aside from the mental turmoil she went through of having her husband sleep with another woman, she now must deal with the emotional anguish of feeling cursed by God, and despised by her servant. Her plan worked, but not quite as Sarai had imagined.

AFTERMATH. Another negative consequence of Abram’s and Sarai’s sin is seen in verse 5. There is now marital strife. In effect, Sarai is saying to Abram, “Why did you listen to me? You should have known better to go and sleep with that woman. Now look what has happened.” And you know, she is kind of right. Abram should have known better. He is the one who was always talking with God. He knew what was right and what was wrong. He knew, deep down, that God had intended the son to come not only through him, but also through his wife Sarai. So when Sarai says in verse 5, “My wrong be upon you!” she is right. Though she implanted the idea in his mind, it was he who sinned, and he who should have known better. Abram cannot blame Sarai even as Adam tried to blame Eve.

ANALYSIS. Hagar had a son because of Abram’s fault, Abram’s mistake, Abram’s sin. Abram should have been the one to deal with Hagar. He should have been the one to provide for her, and protect her. Sure, it probably was not the best idea to keep her around, but he should have taken responsibility for his actions, admitted his fault to his wife, and to Hagar, and then sent Hagar off with enough money and possessions to live and provide for herself. Maybe he should have provided a husband for Hagar. But Abram does none of this. It’s just like us when we sin. We always want to ignore the sin, and avoid the consequences, and never assume responsibility for our actions. We like to sweep the sin under the rug, and let those we have hurt suffer for our neglect.

CONSEQUENCES. From Hagar will come a multitude of descendants. This is very similar to the Promise God had given to Abram in Genesis 15. ‘But whereas Abram’s descendants through Sarai will bring blessing to the world, Hagar’s will bring strife.’ He will experience great affliction at the hands of others, and will cause great affliction as well. This Prophecy is almost an understatement as we see the descendants of Ishmael in many countries of the Middle East. But the descendants of Ishmael are also spiritual in the Muslim Religion. Just as Abram has physical and spiritual descendants, so also does Ishmael. Muslims claim that God actually promised the Land of Israel to Ishmael, and that the Jews stole it from them, and that the Bible is a Jewish lie. This is why there is such a struggle in Israel between the Arabs and Jews even to this day.

GRACE. God-fearing people sometimes try to fulfill God’s will in their own ways — and complicate things. But God can even be in their mistakes and use their mistakes to work out His plans. “But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive … And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Genesis 50:20; Romans 8:28, New King James).

In the last section that follows, I will attempt to summarize what we can make of all this – with God’s help, of course.

IV. LAST THOUGHTS

The Plans of God are perfect, always. The plans of men, well, not so much. Even good men, godly men, oftentimes take matters into their own hands after God has given them a Grand Promise of blessing or responsibility. We are at first exhilarated, tell all our friends about it. Then as time passes without fulfillment, we start filling in the gaps with our human understanding – and that is where the Real Trouble Begins: “Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death” (James 1:15, New King James).

THE FUTURE OF ISRAEL. Notwithstanding the massive and unending frailties of man, God, who foreknew it all, has established for us a ‘Rock of Promise’ that remains inviolate for all time – and then Beyond Time. Each passage that follows rendered in the New King James Version.

“God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” – NUMBERS 23:19

“So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” – ISAIAH 55:11

“He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.” – 1 THESSALONIANS 5:24

“Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory [the Shekinah, the radiance of God] appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, and He said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives, and come to the land that I will show you.’Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. And from there, after his father died, God sent him to this country in which you now live.” – ACTS 7:2-4

And, I conclude, in ‘The Land of Promise’ in which the Jews shall always live, both now and then forever and ever. God’s Promise of The Land to the Jews is inviolate, whether or not people choose to believe Him! Moses records the ancient form of this Promise in absolute terms:

“Look, I have set the land before you; go in and take possession of the land which the Lord swore (solemnly promised) to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their descendants after them.” – DEUTERONOMY 1:8, AMP

Then as the Jewish Apostle Paul declared in his Letter to the Romans (11:26) with the absolute Imprimatur of Yahweh and Yeshua, by the Holy Spirit: “‘And so all Israel will be saved,’ as it is written: ‘The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.’”

His Chosen forever, beloved. Neither shall one single jot nor tittle vary or fade from THE ETERNAL PROMISE to the Jews of Israel.

‘Sha’alu shalom Yerushalayim’ – “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they shall prosper that love thee.” – PSALM 122:6.

YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/dV1eMdL6TbA