God's Chosen People:
How this affects the Wars and Policies in the Middle East
Sermon God’s Chosen People
Sometimes it seems that there has been a war going on in the Middle East forever. Not years, not decades, not centuries. But millenia. Thousands of years.
There have been power struggles, fights over trade routes, fights over fertile lands, and now fights over oil.
But be it the main cause or not, THE way to rally the troops or get the people on your side in a Middle East war is bring up religion. You must fight for your God. God is on your side.
The three sides, the three religions of the Middle East. Judaism. Christianity. And Islam. Distrust, Sometimes hatred. And sometimes allies. It changes like the wind.
All three religions trace back to the story of Abram. It is in all three Holy books. The Torah for Jews. The Old Testament for Christians. And the Quran for Muslims.
We are not sure what Abram was doing as far as fathering children before his 90th birthday. He had no children with Sarai. Scholars are unsure if Abram had other wives, but if he did father children before Ishmael, they were female. And I am sorry, ladies. I didn’t make the rules. But in that world female children were out of the loop when it came to inheritance.
Abram
(Became Abraham)
Hagar Sarai (Became Sarah) Keturah
(slave of Sarah) (Abraham’s 1st wife) (Abraham’s 2nd wife)
Ishmael Isaac 6 sons
Arab peoples Israel Other Arab peoples
Muslims Jews Muslims
Abram’s firstborn son wasn’t with his wife, Sarai. It was with Hagar, her servant. A surrogate. At first Sarai was supportive, then she turned on Hagar. Hagar ran away, but an angel told her to return: …you will give birth to a son.
You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery.
LISTEN CLOSELY: ISHMAEL He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.”
God then miraculously provided Sarai and Abram with a son when they were in their 90’s. Isaac. Isaac - the father of Jacob. Jacob, who renamed himself Israel - LET GOD PREVAIL. Jacob, the father of the 12 sons. The 12 sons that represented the 12 tribes of Israel.
In a covenant with God, Abram changed his name to Abraham. Sarai changed her name to Sarah. His son, Isaac, as the oldest - even though he technically wasn’t the oldest, would become the father of the “chosen people.” What we now know as the Israelites. The nation of Judaism. The Jewish people.
Ishmael, God had big plans for him, too. God promised him a great nation. But they were not the “Chosen people.” Those were the descendants of Isaac. The son of Abraham and his wife Sarah. Not Ishmael, the son of Abraham and a surrogate. A slave. A lesser woman. Inferior. Not worthy of being “chosen.” The descendants of this “DONKEY OF A MAN” are the Arab peoples. The Muslims. The nation of Islam.
Are you beginning to feel the tension? Are you beginning to hear the slurs? Are you beginning to hear the putdowns? Surrogate. Slave woman. ILLEGITIMATE! A “wild donkey,” this Ishamel, the angel warned us, he won’t get along with ANYBODY!
Because THIS - Isaac and Ishmael, this is where the hostility comes from.
So why war? Because of the promise God made to Abraham. The Abrahamic Covenant - God and Abraham. To the “Chosen People” goes the “Promised Land.” Canaan. What became Palestine. What is now - Israel.
And from there the holy books begin to go their separate ways.
Call it Israel. Call it Palestine. Everybody wants a piece of it. No. Everyone wants ALL OF IT. Why? Because it is written in their Holy Books. Jews and Muslims both claim to be the chosen people. Hence, inheritors of the Promised Land.
And here is something you may have never considered before. SO DO THE CHRISTIANS!
Maybe not you, maybe not me. But for the Zionist Christians??? You bet!
And their justification comes from none other than Jesus himself!
Before we get too deep, let’s look at the Promised Land - what is it, exactly?
Canaan. The Land of Milk and Honey. Moses stood at the edge of the Sinai. He looked into Canaan. The land of modern day Israel.
Moses could see it. But Moses couldn’t enter it.
Joshua led the Israelites into Canaan.
But was this strip of Canaan the ONLY land promised to the descendants of Isaac? Of Jacob? Of the 12 sons?
We have a war going on right now. A continuation of a conflict from 1948 when Israel was created as a Jewish homeland after World War II. A land that didn’t include the West Bank. Didn’t include Gaza. Those remained Palestinian. Muslim.
But not any more. They are part of Israel.
IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE DIDN’T IT INCLUDE THAT WAS PROMISED AS PART OF THE “PROMISED LAND?
Look at Genesis 18:15 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt (dry riverbeds East AND WEST of the Nile) to the great river, the Euphrates (in present day Iraq).
I want you to listen closely to the wording of the leaders of these countries. I want you to understand. When Zionists say GREATER ISRAEL, this is what they mean. This is the Promised Land to the Chosen People.
So what do we, as Christians do? What is our role? Jesus was a Jew. Our faith comes from Judaism. Their Holy Book, the Torah, is essentially our Old Testament. The Old Testament has verses that can be interpreted as “God will bless those who bless Israel.” Which is drastically taken out of context. But there are plenty who quote it.
Jesus actually had something to say about it, and he said it in: The Parable of the Tenants
The Parable of the Tenants. Found in all 3 of the synoptic gospels. Matthew 21, Mark 12, and Luke 20. The kingdom of God - the chosen people - HAS BEEN TAKEN AWAY FROM THE JEWS. Read from Matthew:
“There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.
“The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.
“But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
“Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”
“He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,”they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.”
Who’s who?
The Landowner - God
The Vineyard - The Nation of Israel.
The Jewish People. The Chosen People of God.
The tenants - the religious leaders, the priests, the scribes. Those who were to tend to the vineyard. Those who were to produce fruit - good people, peace, compassion, love.
“Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you (the Jewish Priests and Scribes) and given to a people who will produce its fruit. (the followers of Christ).”
The servants - the prophets. those whom God sent to collect the fruit. The prophets who came to reward the great collection of people - the Chosen people. The prophets were not named. The first group was mistreated, the second treated worse. Beaten, stoned, killed.
So God sent his Son - Jesus. And they killed him. Jesus is foreshadowing his death.
Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
“‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
“Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”
When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.
The Chosen People? Has Jesus just redefined the chosen people with the New Covenant? The covenant of the blood of the Lamb? Jesus Christ?
Should the Promised Land be Christian? Should Israel - Palestine be The Land of Christ?
Let’s look at the third religion in the equation: Islam.
I have spent some time studying the Quran and I want to quickly summarize my impression for you.
It is not a violent book that says kill all Jews. It is not a book that says persecute all Christians. There is some violence. It is not as violent as the Old Testament. My opinion is Muhammud had a very reasonable account that came to him in a revelation.
Who said the Jews were the Chosen people?
Believe it or not, Allah did. In the Quran. Surah 2:47 Oh children of ISRAEL, remember all the favors I granted you and how I honored you above the others. You (the Israelites) are the Chosen people - and I gave you the Promised Land.
So why then are Muslims and Jews fighting over land promised to the Jewish people?
BUT the Torah says in Leviticus 19:5-6 Because you were CHOSEN and FAILED you will be punished 7 times over, you will receive 7 times more plagues. You walked contrary to me, I WILL WALK CONTRARY TO YOU.
The Israelites had their chance. They were not faithful. Now it is ours.
The descendants of Ishmael get the inheritance. The Arabs. Islam. The Muslims are the Chosen people.
It says in the Quran the promised land belongs to the descendants of Abraham WHO REMAIN FAITHFUL TO THE ONE GOD. And that God is Allah.
Surah (5:21) My people! Enter the holy land which Allah has ordained for you; and do not turn back for then you will turn about losers.
Jews don’t trust Muslims. Ishmael was an illegitimate son. A wild donkey of a man. The line was tainted from the start. Go find your promised “great nation.” It just can’t be here. This is Israel. Land of the Jewish nation. Greater Israel. A land that encompasses part of Egypt, the Sinai, Southern Lebanon, Jordan, part of Syria, and part of Iraq.
Look at the news. Is this what is happening now?
Jews don’t trust Christians. Christians only are only supporting Israel in the war to hasten armaggedon and the Second Coming of Christ, at which time they will condemn all Jews for not believing in Jesus.
Christians condemn Jews because there is only one way to heaven - Jesus. And Jews reject Jesus.
Christians reject Muslims because Islam teaches Jesus was never resurrected.
Ironically, Muslims actually TRIED to co-exist with Judaism when Muhammud got his revelation but the Jewish leaders rejected him.
The wars began. The wars continue.
Yahweh. God. Allah.
Judaism: Yahweh through Moses.
Christianity: God through Jesus.
Islam: Allah through Muhammud.
It’s the same God.
My path to God is through Jesus. I am proud of the gospel. I believe in the death and the resurrection. My faith is in Jesus.
But I also believe we can have peace. If we can love and co-exist.
Peace. Is it possible? Must we always have war? What do you think?