Israel Past & Present

Introduction

For better or worse, we are a culture that’s derived toward the news, for good or bad. And what are the things over the last year or so which have dominated the headline? Well, I’ve got here a short stack of news magazines going back, well, really, to uh uh the fall of 2001, special issue, newsweek, September 11th, and the aftermath. In a way, simultaneously, it began to heat up shortly before 9-11 and got to a fever pitch a few months afterwards, the conflict in the Middle East, particularly in Palestine. Here a whole issue dedicated to Israel. How will it survive? And will it survive? And of course, the most recent crisis that is at a peak at this point, and that is Iraq, and the issue of Saddam Hussein.

Which has also prompted a lot of people, even in the media, to talk about things that they typically don’t talk about. Like this Newsweek issue of uh February of last year, the Bible and the Quran, searching the holy books for roots of conflict and seeds of reconciliation. These issues of Iraq and the Middle East and the fight over Palestine, the relationship of Jews and uh Palestinians, and the whole idea of the religion of Islam and what Muslims believe and practice, these things are really the backdrop to these news events. Indeed, the greatest issues of the backdrop to these matters are economic and political and military, but a very real part of the background to these events, and one’s really the one that most people have the most questions about, and the one that the most people have the most problems understanding are the religious connotations and the religious roots of these three faiths, how they overlap, how they intersect, and unfortunately, over the last year especially or so, in a most dramatic way, how they collide.

It’s prompted a lot of questions in our culture. Who was Mohammed? What is the Quran? What does it contain? What is it like? How does it compare to the Bible? What does it teach? What similarities do uh Christians and Jews and and Muslims have, and what differences are among them that are of consequence? Why is it that the Middle East is such a political hotbed with religious overtones? And what is the rationale of Muslim terrorists when they carry out violently their missions, sometimes killing thousands of people at a time. Is Islam a peaceful religion? Is Islam innately a violent religion? These are some of the questions that people have. And not only after exploring these questions can we be better informed so that when we see these things flash before us in the media that we have a better understanding of those things, even from a religious standpoint, which is beneficial, but more importantly, it’s important living in our time that we understand more about these things to assist us in our own personal quest of faith.

Because obviously, whether a person comes from an Islamic background or a Jewish background or some kind of Christian background. These are all people in some way or another quest on a quest of faith and a quest to know God and to be right with Him, which is the most important journey a person can make. And in our journey, though this may not have been so in years past, regarding our journey and the culture in which we live, these issues are more relevant than ever before. And especially as we interact with other people when they are trying to sort things out and make their journey for that which is important spiritually and that which is eternal. There’s a couple of goals we have in this series, and I want you to be patient as we try to accomplish the first one in this series, because that’s mainly what we’re going to do the first three nights as we search for answers in the face of conflict.

1. Looking at the History and Roots

The first one being the idea of looking at the history and the roots of these three faiths. Your roots are very important to you. A tree will shrivel up and die if it’s cut off from its roots. Roots feed us and fuel us. Every now and then I’ll say something or do something that’s a little bit different, and my wife will look at somebody and say, You can take the boy out of the mountains, but you can’t take the mountain out of the boy. And there’s just something that comes out of me every now and then. Maybe you’ll hear a word or a phrase this week that is very Appalachian mountain like because that’s my roots. And we’re all like that, whether we’re a Yankee or a West Coast person, what race we’re of, or what uh culture we’ve been around.

That’s just the way things work. And it’s important to understand regarding Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, some things about their roots. Because it will help us to properly understand things that are going on today. And so, really, the first three nights, we’re going to be looking at a lot of background material, a lot of historical material, to lay some groundwork. And it’s really material that you don’t get in the news media. The news media is geared toward what’s happening now, it’s geared toward what is fast and flashy and shallow. And these things aren’t shallow. You have to think a little bit, you have to dig a little bit, you have to sort through some things. But these are some of the missing pieces that keep people in our time from better understanding these issues.

2. When These Three Faiths Collide: Search for Truth

And the second thing that we plan to do is, and that’s mainly what we’re going to do on Sunday, is to make a comparison of Judaism and Christianity and Islam. What do we do when these three faiths collide like they have been in a most dramatic way? Well, there are some choices left for us. We have seen demonstrated one choice, and that is that when you have a strong religious difference, then you just fight it out, and the stronger person prevails and it answers the question. I think most of us as rational people realize that that is not an alternative. That does not improve anything, it’s destructive. Another alternative, and this was more the idea before 9 11, and probably is worth sinking back into this philosophy since 9 11, and that is sort of the ostrich with the head in the sand.

That we want to ignore the differences, downplay the differences, and say, well, it really doesn’t matter. Well, if it really doesn’t matter, why are there so many conflicts? And why are the conflicts intense, even at times violent if the differences don’t matter? That’s an unrealistic option. The third option takes more work. Third option requires of us a lot of honesty and effort. And that is to search for truth. To examine things honestly, as objectively as we can, whether a person’s a Jew, a Muslim, or a Christian, and to study, to research, to think, to reason, and to search for what is right, what is believable, and what is true. That’s what I would encourage you to do. The New Testament says in 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 21, test all things, hold fast what is good.

We understand this principle and anything else, don’t we? We go to buy a car, we want to find that which is good, test, drive it, check it out, research it. We go to find a physician for a certain procedure we need. We want to research it and ask around, get opinions, get references. Religion should be no different. We should test, we should examine, we should search, and then we are to find that which is good and hold on to it. I encourage you to do that over the next several days. Well, tonight, as we begin to lay our groundwork, we will start with the oldest of these religions as far as an organized faith, and that is Israel. We’re going to spend Friday and Saturday night talking mostly about Islam.

3. God’s Promises to Abraham

And at the end of Friday night, we’re going to talk about how Islam and Judaism is clashing now, the land of Palestine, and why there is such a conflict in that land. Sunday we’re going to make the comparisons. But we begin laying some important groundwork tonight, not first by looking at Islam, but by looking at Israel. Surveying the history of Israel, both in the Bible, out of the Bible, and up to present time, past and present. The faith of the Israelites really begin in the book of Genesis, the twelfth chapter, where we’re introduced to a man by the name of Abram, who’s later named Abraham. And God makes him some promises. In Genesis chapter 12, it says in verse 1, Now the Lord had said to Abraham, get out of your country from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you.

I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse them who curses you, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Note that there are really three promises made to Abraham. Abraham was promised a land. This is the land of Canaan, now called Palestine. This would be for his descendants. Second of all, that he was going to make out of this man a great nation. Abraham had no children of this time, though he was an aged man. But God made him this promise and he believed in it. That from him would come a great family, a great nation. And that he would have a protective relationship with Abraham and his people.

That I will bless you, and consequently bless those who bless you, but I will also curse those who curse you. I’m going to protect you. You’re going to belong to me in a very special way. And so Abraham left his home and went to the land of Canaan, where he did not really possess the lands, except for Cape for cave before burial sites. But he lived in tents in a nomadic fashion with the confidence and the hope of God’s promises that one day his family would be great, and it would be a great nation upon that land. And sure enough, he did father a child who fathered more children, who fathered children after that. And so after Abraham, we do see that his descendants are multiplying when we come to the book of Exodus, and that they have migrated to Egypt because of famine, and there they have fallen upon hard times, because the Egyptians have feared them for their great numbers.

4. God Delivers Israel and Makes a Covenant

God is making them into a great nation, a large nation, and they put them into bondage. They cry out to God, and by the hand of Moses, they’re led out in the book of Exodus. And God, through mighty miracles, delivers the Israelites from their oppressive, evil masters, the Egyptians, including the Pharaoh. And he brings them out to Sinai and He makes a law and a covenant with them. And I want you to know what it said here in the book of Exodus, chapter 19, right before God gives the Israelites the law of Moses, which started with the Ten Commandments. He says in verse 4, You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagle’s wings and brought you to myself.

Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people, for the earth is mine. That is in essence what God said to Abraham in Genesis 12. I’ll bless you, I’ll curse those who curse 8 it says, then all the people answered together and said, All that the Lord has spoken, we will do. So Moses brought back the words of the people to the Lord. Understand something, and it is found throughout the Old Testament when God communicates to the Israelites. He makes them great promises. But those promises were conditional upon them heeding his word, upon them keeping covenant with him. He’ll keep his end of the bargain if they will.