Warm greetings in Yeshua’s name!
No doubt many have wondered what the Biblical origin & basis of the current conflict is. As with almost everything else, it is first found in the Torah.
In short, in Gen. 16 Hagar, Sarah’s maidservant, is sent away by Abraham at Sarah’s strong behest. While in the wilderness, an angel of the LORD speaks to Hagar Gen. 16:11-12.
Based on the Hebrew, the Angel may well have been, though it is not definitive, Yeshua in one of his preincarnate appearances in the Torah. Of course, Yeshua is not specifically identified in the Torah but nonetheless it is clear that he appears and is involved with the three Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Jacob also the name of Yeshua’s brother; not “James”!) cf. Gen. 18, 22, 32:25-32. In this last reference, we see that Yeshua, while struggling (not actually “wrestling”) with Ya’akov (Jacob), says that Ya’akov will have the name Yisrael (more deeply actually “soars above with/prince (of) God”; not “struggles with God” as typically translated).
The angel tells Hagar that she will have a son and that he will be “… (a) wild ass of (a) man”… in Gen. 16:12. The Hebrew translated “wild ass”, is not the usual Hebrew word for a donkey. Rather, it refers to a particular type of donkey that was very swift and so wild that it cannot be domesticated.
Also, one of the singular Hebrew words for man is not used but rather “adam” (“ahdam”). “Adam” is mostly though not exclusively) used for or with the idea of “mankind”.
Thus, the Torah is not telling us just about Ishmael (basically “God hears”), but rather, what his descendants will be like! Hagar is also told that they would be extremely numerous.
In Gen. 16:12 the Angel says regarding Hagar’s son that “… his hand in (the) totality (i.e., his hand against all), and – in connectedness – (the) of (the) totality (i.e., all) hand(s) against him”… The Hebrew word translated “all/whole” more deeply means totality.
In other words, Ishmael’s descendants would be against everyone and everyone would be against them. The verse finishes by saying that Ishmael in totality, i.e., “the whole/all” in an encompassing way, would be over the face of his brothers (and there) he would dwell.
In Hebrew the emphasis is on over the face of his brothers.
Unfortunately, I can tell you from first-hand experience in Israel this is exactly what the Arabs are too often like; absolutely emotionally out of control. On a scale of emotions from one to 10 they too often are a 15. You see & experience first-hand what the Angel said and try to understand them as people accordingly.
It should very much be remembered that the Middle East is an extremely emotional place; not – at all (!) – like the West and it’s Aristotle/Greek based “reason & logic”!
Yeshua’s world was in fact first century Israel and an extremely emotion-based culture; his words actually contained far more emotion than comes across in typical tepid Western translations, where he sounds like a Gentile from the Bible Belt 200 years ago…. Cf. Lk. 19:41, where Yeshua “wailed” for Yerushalyim.
Unfortunately, it seems that everywhere there are large populations of Arabs and Muslims with non-Muslims there is or has been a great deal of conflict and unrest.
A quick bigger picture look at the situation. Unfortunately, Islam has absolutely no tolerance for any non- Islamic presence in its midst. This is seen in the fact that the Arab Christian population in Israel is down to less than one or two percent of the total population. Arab Christians are not being forced out by Israelis or the Israeli government but rather by Palestinian Muslims.
If the Muslims are able to get their way, Bes Lechem (“House of Bread” “Bethlehem” “bread” in Hebrew from the verb “struggle”; cf. Gen. 3:17-19 v.19) will no longer be called that and instead we’ll be called by an Arabic name. The Palestinian Authority used to charge $115 U.S. for every busload of tourists that entered Bethlehem. They made an absolute fortune. Then, they start trouble, tourism drops way off and then leadership goes on TV and says they have no money….. Quite a number of Palestinians work both in Israeli tourism related jobs and in Israel and that gets cut off also, thus making life difficult across the board, as tourism is Israel’s 3rd largest industry!
A couple of things you won’t see on CNN or most of the rest of the media.
After my wife’s accident I managed to get her into a taxi and took her to a hospital in Jerusalem where we knew someone who worked there. I was shocked to see probably 40% or so of the patients were Arab! I was told that the Palestinians, if they are able to do so, much prefer Israeli hospitals because they get much better treatment there. It’s not publicized but there’s also a large number of Arab doctors who work in Jerusalem hospitals.
When my wonderful wife and I used to take an apartment in downtown Jerusalem or if it was within walking distance of the Western Wall, I would pray walk to the Wall for morning prayer and at other times when I was able to do so. I typically would go through Jaffa Gate. The Damascus Gate which you may have seen in the news recently is just east of the Jaffa Gate.
Rather than walk further up and enter what’s called the Rova, the Jewish quarter of the Old City (everyone knows there’s a Jewish, Arab, and Christian Quarters; no one knows the other quarter is the Armenian quarter; very nice people) and wind my way through its narrow pathways to the Wall. I would veer left and start to go down the steps into the Shuk, the Arab market and quarter. Just to the right of that entrance way is a bookstore run by followers of Yeshua.
Upon heading down the steps into the Arab quarter you can very much begin to feel what I would call the very palpable, real weightiness of darkness. It was a place always filled or swirling it seemed, with tension.
The Arabs there I can only describe and looking at their eyes, it’s as though they were dead. They also would literally look right through me; an amazing experience! If there was a woman sitting trying to collect charity (in Hebrew it is called righteousness; because, if God has blessed you, it is only righteous that you share some with those less fortunate). I always put something into the woman’s cup, and they would just glare at me! (There was an Arab woman I used to see sitting on the sidewalk about fifty yards or so north of Jaffa gate and when I gave her something she always extremely positively emotionally reacted).
Of course, I was praying very strongly for the Arabs around me as I walked past them and again they literally looked right through me except for a few who were trying to hustle me into their little shop.
If I took a cab from the Western Wall back to our apartment, I always had to be careful that I got an Israeli cab driver rather than an Arab one because although I had some good experiences with them, I also had some bad ones where they would try to rip me off.
The observant Israelis who drive cabs would have a little sign in the windshield that said in Hebrew they were Sabbath observant. I would always look for some type of sign in the windshield to see if they were Israeli or Arab.
In Tel Aviv this was never an issue as there are no Arab cab drivers there (or in Netanya, about 18 miles north. A beautiful place right on the Mediterranean, that suffered that terrible Passover Eve bombing a number of years ago at the Park Hotel. My wife and I stayed there about nine months after the bombing and saw are some of the victims at a support dinner, but that’s for another time, God willing….
Of course, I didn’t go too far into the Shuk because to do so would be dangerous for me by myself. Not too far down into it, is an alleyway to my right that leads to a back entrance at the back of the Western Wall Plaza. One reason I like using this entrance was because it didn’t have much traffic and it wasn’t used by tour groups, so I didn’t have to wait to go through security. I would always encourage them and thanked God and them for being there.
As soon as I began entering into the Jewish Quarter, I could literally begin to feel that very heavy spiritual oppression going away and could begin to feel light, peace, and joy!
Prayer at the Western Wall in short is an absolutely amazing experience! I particularly tried to go on Friday mornings, because that’s when, around noon or so, if the Imman at the Dome of the Rock got everyone cranked up enough “death to Israel” ” death to the Jews”, the Palestinians would throw rocks over the Wall, and Israel riot police would go through a narrow green wooden door at the top of a rampway, and have to stop it.
This CNN – Israelis call it “PNN” “Palestinian News Network” – is what they and the others report as “Israeli riot police clash with Palestinian demonstrators at the Temple Mount….”
Americans would never put up with what Israelis have to!
The riot police start showing up about a dozen or so at a time about 2 hours before the Friday morning end of prayer at the Dome of the Rock. One time when I was there a group of the riot police took off their riot gear and put on what Jewish men traditionally put on for morning prayer. They asked me to join them, which I was more than very happy to do. Quite an experience!
One of the very very sad things is that at one time Israelis were willing to try to work something out with the Palestinians; now they are disgusted with them and want nothing to do with them.
There is very very very clearly, a big picture spiritual warfare dynamic taking place; yet while Yerushalayim is actually Israel’s poorest city materially, it is incomparably rich spiritually!
The Palestinians very much need prayer as well as the billion-plus Muslims in the world!
Please remember Ps.122:6 about Yerushalyim (more deeply in Hebrew) “extend the hands and ask for the shalom (in part, “not just the absence of negatives, but deep, positive peace) of Yerushalyim, they will be serene who love you”.
Please also remember that Heaven is – very much so (!) – described as the renewed/new in quality Yerushalyim Rev. 21!
If that is where you are going to be forever, be even more encouraged to focus on and pray for the shalom of Yerushalyim now; before our wonderful Mashiach Yeshua returns there!
Rich blessings to you & yours in Yeshua’s name!
Jacob
Assembly Without The Walls
Ps. 133 Lk. 19:41