THE ENIGMA OF ISRAEL

This is the last of three successive columns on the Middle East. This final focus is on Israel which I described in the last column as being in the eye of the storm and watching the confusion of her detractors.

I also said that the outcome of most of what we see is uncertain. However, I make exception for one thing, about which I feel absolutely certain; that is that the intense and bitter hatred towards Israel shown by her neighbouring nations will not go away, no matter what the outcome of their political struggles might be or who may gain power or in what way they may rule.

The reason I am so sure about this is that such antagonism is a spiritual issue, not a political issue, and its certain continuance is an ongoing fact underlined indelibly by the witness of history. The most extraordinary and ironic part of that historical witness lies in the very story of the secular Zionist movement that propelled the Jews into statehood from the late 19th century until the mid 20th century. The founders of that movement were driven by the secular, pragmatic belief that the only way that the Jews would escape the storm of anti-Semitism which raged in Europe in the 19th century would be to find a country of their own in which they could settle. That alone would bring peace, and it would definitely bring peace. Such was the profound conviction that was voiced in Theodore Herzl’s epoch making book “The Jewish State” and inspired his World Zionist Movement at the end of the 19th century. It was the same belief which drove the continued Jewish settlement of Palestine throughout the first half of the 20th century. Thus for sixty years it was the flag of Jewish hope – a new nation of their own in which there would be peace. The bitter fact is, however, that on the very day of the proclamation of the state of Israel, the Jews found themselves locked into an armed struggle for survival against Arab nations determined to repeat the Holocaust and drive them into the sea. They have been locked into it ever since. The failure to find peace is the fundamental failure of Zionism, even though God used Zionism to bring his people back to their historic land.

Israel survived the attempted destruction in 1948 and has survived other concerted attempts since to destroy her. Israel has now had over 60 years of history as a state, but it has been anything but a story of peace in their own land. They remain the butt of a hatred as strong as it has ever been at any time in their history. The essence of the Zionist dream, peace and acceptance, has never been fulfilled. Israel is hemmed in by a ring of nations seeking its destruction, and which at this very moment are targeting her cities and people with any number of missiles.

The failure of the Zionist hope lies in the fact that it was a purely secular and political hope. The Zionists certainly knew how deep the roots of anti-Semitism were, and they knew that for two thousand years the Jews had suffered from it; but they never appreciated the deeper spiritual root of the problem and never countenanced the hand of God in it. They vainly looked for a human and political answer to a problem only God could answer.

Sadly the Jewish state and its leaders are as secular as its Zionist forebears, and can look no further than political answers and sheer force to maintain their existence. This they have done with all the ingenuity that they have showed throughout their history. However, in their unbelief they remain blind to any true spiritual understanding that it is only God who can give them true deliverance from hatred.

A second certainty follows from this first, namely that God will not allow them to be completely destroyed no matter how much pain, hatred and threat they go through. The last 60 year of the history of Israel has amply demonstrated how the providence of God has kept that nation from destruction. He will continue to do so. He will continue to show his “holiness” (i.e. his complete commitment to his promises) among the nations by what he does for his people.

Where will it all end? I have no better guide than Zechariah 12:2ff and 14:2ff. In that prophetic scenario all the nations of the world, led by the spiritual principalities and powers of the world will come against Israel in a final attempt to destroy the nation and frustrate God’s purposes. They will appear to succeed but will be finally met and destroyed by the intervention of God. At the same time the Messiah will be revealed to Israel. That will be the moment of peace. We have seen enough in the last 60 years to make to Zechariah prophecies entirely credible.

When this will happen and what lies between now and then I have no certainties whatsoever except that we shall be watching an unparalleled end time period of history as the process unfolds.



Bob




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HEAVING VOLCANO (Continued)

Last week I referred to a prophetic picture of the Middle East which had Israel at its centre and encircled with hurricanes representing its neighbouring states. The hurricanes were getting ever stronger and more violent and were building up into a huge whirling vortex. That picture was given just a few months before arrival of the widespread uprisings that have been called the “Arab Spring”. It is a picture that has proved genuinely prophetic.

Those uprisings began in Tunisia, whence they spread to neighbouring Libya. Yemen was also thrown into turmoil and Bahrain was threatened. Iraq was already in turmoil due to the US invasion. But the critically important developments have been in Egypt and, more recently, in Syria. These two countries are the most influential of the Arab states and form the cornerstone of the Arab League of 22 nations. The situation in both these countries is at a highly critical stage of impasse, with violent revolution and brutal response evident on the streets of their cities. A major split in the Arab League has emerged as the league has censured Syria. It is not at all the sort of things most observes would have imagined twelve months ago.

So what exactly is happening, and why? In historical terms the unrest constitutes a popular movement against the self-serving and brutal autocratic governments that gained power in the ‘60s and 70s, mainly through army intervention, and deposed the corrupt kingships left over from World War 2. It is a movement for greater freedoms and for political re-structuring that will deal with poverty and injustice. This is genuinely the case even though there are among the “revolutionaries” elements which would like to impose their own brand of dictatorship. It is fundamentally a widespread challenge to the old political order, “l’ancien regime” of the Arab world. It is a challenge to autocracy and a call for something more akin to genuine democracy. That is why it has earned the title of “Arab Spring” – a new birth.

The origin of the movement is very deep and widespread. It is the fruit of a globalised world, of new technological information channels and a new sense of awareness among a growing and vocal middle class. It will not go away. Even Saudi Arabia, despite the immense wealth and power of its princes, is an autocracy that will not ultimately hold out. In the long term some kind of popular rule will be achieved. But if it follows the European nineteenth century experience, that could be another fifty years or even more.

In the short term, however, the outcome is anything but certain. Egypt has just had its first election for a popular government, but extraordinarily the result will not be known until next March! Meanwhile the army is determined to write itself into a place of power in any new constitution, and is not averse to using its muscle on the streets. Alongside that it is clear that the only Egyptian grouping or “party” which has any real cohesiveness is the Moslem Brotherhood, and it looks pretty certain they will get a sufficient number of candidates elected to have the largest say in the proceedings. It is extremely difficult to say just how much the Brotherhood will stick to its original militant and fundamentalist Islamism. There is an old core of hardliners, but there is some evidence that a younger generation of the Brotherhood seem to appreciate that an Islamic take over of the kind that happened in Iran under Khomeini is not really an option. So everything is “up in the air” and will take time to clarify.

Syria is a much more difficult case. Unlike Egypt its autocratic president has not yet been toppled; he is deeply entrenched and threatens all out attack on Israel if the West intervenes as it did in Libya. A much stronger Islamic fundamentalist influence is evident with close links to Iran. All this makes Syria a very violent and unpredictable storm centre.

The worst outcome would be a replacement of Arab autocracies by fundamentalist theocracies, but, though that sort of battle threatens, it is by no means a certainty.

Israel lies, so to speak, in the eye of the storm. I think I’m correct in saying that the eye is actually the calmest part of the storm. Those who would destroy Israel are in confusion around her. It is an extraordinary counterbalance to the threat of annihilation coming from Iran, and even there the rumblings of a popular movement are not far below the surface.

For me, I have a deep sense that God is palpably at work in the history of our generation in this part of the world. For that I am profoundly thankful, even if the outcomes are as yet obscure.


Bob




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HEAVING VOLCANO

Any attempt at “understanding the times” must include watching the events in the Middle East. That part of the world reminds me of a heaving live volcano, constantly drawing attention to itself with outbursts of fiery and dangerous lava, and ever threatening to burst open with a massive explosion. I have a further image of that area: some time ago I had a prophetic picture of the Middle East with Israel at its centre, encircled with hurricanes representing its neighbouring states. The hurricanes were getting ever stronger and more violent and were building up into a huge whirling vortex. Whether you take the image of a volcano or a huge hurricane, however, the meaning of both is the same; the Middle East has huge potential for destruction in the world.

I have been asking myself one question in particular. Why is it that events over the last few years in the Middle East have brought about a huge exodus of Christians from the area?
At one level this seems easy to answer. For example, the decade-long war in Iraq has actually made that country unsafe for Christians. Whereas under Saddam Hussein, a secularist, they had some protection, now, despite the U.S. presence, Christians have been openly and violently targeted by Islamists and some two thirds have had to leave, fleeing largely to Syria and Turkey. Over this last year, with the overthrow of Mubarak, Egypt has now become less safe for Christians for the same reason as in Iraq, and again large numbers of them have fled, many to the West. The trend can be seen elsewhere in the Middle East.

However, one can ask the question, Why this exodus of Christians? at a another level. Does it indicate the development of a deeper purpose in the mind of God? The region has been, of course, for a long time violently and profoundly anti-Semitic and anti-Israel; there is no readiness to accommodate any Jewish national presence. This antagonism, centred in great measure in Iran, is much deeper even than the bitter antagonism directed at Jews in Twentieth century Europe. And now the region is becoming increasingly hostile to Christians (oddly enough this is true even in Israel, despite the large increase of Messianic Jewish Christians). This hostility is real and growing even though reports are constantly coming through of many conversions of Muslims to Jesus in the most extraordinary and miraculous of ways. Is God taking his people out of a cauldron? I hesitate to offer any answer.

However, as far as I can see, all this intense hostility and antagonism both to Jew and Christian can only be indicative of some profound spiritual undercurrent, or, more accurately, some profound spiritual struggle – even an “end time” struggle. The deeper question is, therefore, where is this struggle leading and how will it develop? How violent will it become and how widespread will be its effect? Will it actually lead to a major crack in the Muslim world? To attempt an answer to these questions would be pure conjecture and speculation. The only thing that is certain is that we must keep our eyes and prayer on this part of the world, constantly giving it up to God since clearly it is here that he is working out some major purpose as history inexorably gets closer to its end. We might well pray something along the lines, “Lord, we are watching a volcano about to erupt. Thank you that you are controlling it, watching over your people and are ready to show mercy in the world”. We should certainly pray for the Christians who are homeless and suffering.


To be continued.



Bob




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