Trusting God In Turbulent Times

Introduction:

A. Today, we are stepping away from our sermon series on the Gospel of Mark in order to address the heartbreaking current events in the Middle East.

B. I’m sure that all of us have been horrified by the recent outbreak of violence and military strikes taking place between Hamas and Israel.

1. The persistent, gut-wrenching hostility between Jews and Arabs has been going on for a long, long time – not years, or centuries, but millennia!

2. What should the rest of the world think and do about this hatred and destruction?

3. What should Christians think and do in response to it?

4. I am in no way an expert about Israel and the Middle East, nor do I claim to know and understand all of God’s plans for Israel.

6. These are difficult topics and there are countless complexities and nuances that makes addressing them a challenge.

7. Nevertheless, I feel it is important to try to be informed about current events in light of Scripture and history, and I feel it is important to try to offer guidance to our congregation about how we might understand and act in the midst of this conflict.

I. Understanding the Terms

A. Let’s start with the term “Palestine” and “Palestinians.”

1. Until Israel was re-established as a nation in 1948, Palestine was the term used for the territory between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.

2. The word Palestinian was applied to anyone living in that area.

a. Just like the term North American is applied to people in the U.S. and Canada and the term European applies to people from many countries, like France and England.

3. As one of the longest continually inhabited places on earth, this region has changed political ownership numerous times and has been a link of migration for many different cultures.

4. The modern-day “Palestinians” represent a mixture of local inhabitants and many other groups of Muslims brought from Bosnia, the Balkans, Sudan, Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon.

5. The term Palestinian did not take on its current popular meaning until the mid-20th century.

a. In common use today, the term Palestinian is primarily applied to non-Jewish, Arabic-speaking residents of this region.

b. This usage is highly controversial, however, since for most of human history a “Palestinian” was simply a person born or living in that land.

6. Prior to Israel becoming a country again in 1948, Jewish groups felt free to use the “Palestine” label for themselves.

a. For instance: the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra was originally called the Palestine Symphany Orchestra, and the original name of the Jerusalem Post was the Palestine Post.

7 Today, the word Palestine is still used to designate a land region, but it has also taken on political connotations as it is used as a label by propagandists who refuse to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist.

8. So, what is the ancestry of the people living in the region of Palestine?

a. Recent genetic studies have confirmed that the ancestries of Jewish and Arabic inhabitants of Palestine are extremely similar.

b. Geneticists have concluded that the people living in these regions share a common ancestry, through people groups continually living in the Palestine territory.

c. This directly contradicts the claim that certain inhabitants, particularly Jewish inhabitants of Israel, have no ancestral claim to the land.

d. At the same time, there is no evidence suggesting that modern Palestinians are direct descendants of either the Canaanites or the Philistines of the Old Testament.

e. Many Arabs are descendants of Ishmael, Abraham’s son born from his maidservant, Hagar, and the Jewish people are descendants of Isaac, Abraham’s son of promise – both groups have a common father, Abraham.

f. But, regardless of definitions and precise lineage, Palestinians and Jews, like all human beings, are ultimately descended from the same original parents, Adam and Eve.

g. We are all one race – the human race!

B. Now let’s talk about Israel.

1. The Bible tells the story of the nation of Israel.

a. Abraham’s father, Terah, for reasons unknown to us, decided to move his family from the Ur of the Chaldeans to Canaan, but only got as far as Haran and settled there.

b. After Terah died, God called Abraham, saying, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Gen. 12:1-3)

c. Ultimately God led Abraham to the land of Canaan and promised to give that land to Abraham’s offspring.