Faith.In.Life

The Middle East

After taking a week off do a conference, I am going to jump back into these constant contact videos with a really light weight topic:  the middle east.

The reason for doing so is not only because of all the news and warfare coming out of that area as of late, but also because Genesis 21 marks a unique point in Abraham and Sarah’s narrative.  First, Sarah finally gives birth the heir the two have been waiting for all this time and names him Isaac because “God has brought Sarah laughter that God in fact has done what he said he would do in delivering Abraham a son even in he and is wife’s old age.

Second, though, we see a feast given to celebrate a coming of age moment as Isaac is weaned. Ishmael as the older half sibling is said to be making fun of this new baby.  Now, its hard to discern what Ishmael may have been doing - with something as innocent as making fun of Isaac’s age or appearance, or if Ishmael’s words are formed to be more to that of mocking Isaac.  Certainly Ishmael should have been the one to inherit this birth right that we understand to be the blessing of Abraham - that God would be his God and Abraham and his descendants would be God’s people.  One might assume that the latter way of making fun of Ishmael is actually what is going on here for whatever Ishmael said got Sarah’s attending, and now she wants both Hagar and Ishmael gone (of course one could suggest that this is what she has wanted all along, and now since Ishmael has sort of sinned on a public forum she now will put her desire into motion and action).  

This is where Ishmael and Isaac part ways as Abraham’s heirs.  Islam claims to equally be children of the promise, only they are heir of Abraham through Ishmael, while Jews equally make the same claim as heirs of Abraham through Isaac.  Even within the Biblical text we see justification to Islam’s claim (while the Quran and Muslim law will take this much further).  Abraham sends Hagar and Ishmail away with a what might be akin to a small cooler into the wilderness to somehow fend for themselves. Then we read in Ten 21:15-21:

15 When the water was gone, she put the boy in the shade of a bush. 16 Then she went and sat down by herself about a hundred yards away. “I don’t want to watch the boy die,” she said, as she burst into tears. 

17 But God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, “Hagar, what’s wrong? Do not be afraid! God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. 18 Go to him and comfort him, for I will make a great nation from his descendants.” 

19 Then God opened Hagar’s eyes, and she saw a well full of water. She quickly filled her water container and gave the boy a drink. 

20 And God was with the boy as he grew up in the wilderness. He became a skillful archer, 21 and he settled in the wilderness of Paran. His mother arranged for him to marry a woman from the land of Egypt. 

As war wages once again in the Middle East we shouldn’t be all that surprised.  The conflict has long gone back between Judaism and Islam, or in our terms of largely the Jerusalem and Palestinian conflict around the Holy War over “The Promised Land” which is ultimately found in both religion’s claim to Abraham’s blessing and birth right.  And one thing we can say about war is that it never changes and it is always ugly - sometimes far more ugly then other times (especially with the most recent reports coming out of the middle east.  I tend to reflect largely on war with a similar attitude to St. Augustine’s perspective that he takes on war in the very long read “The City of God.”  Basically in the City of God St. Augustine makes the claim that war is only justifiable in the face of a great evil in which the evil needs to be undone, corrected, or even obliterated.  But, in cases of such personal attachments with an additional ideology of entitlement from both sides its far less about the overall concept of war, and far more about just how badly can we destroy the other.  There was one movie called The Kingdom that said it so perfectly over the course of the film.  First, we see in the movie a terrorist attack upon an American military base in which loved ones are killed in terrible ways.  When the survivors regroup, one of the Americans gives to the other a promise of vengeance when they say “We are going to kill every single one of them.”  Likewise, we later see that when America attacks teh terrorist group, that equally those left standing say in their own language to one another the exact same promise of vengeance - we equally are going to kill every single one of them.”  And in this case war may very well be about correcting a great evil in one’s own eyes, but actually becomes much more about the middle eastern mindset known and “an eye for an eye,” where whatever wrong is done to us will be returned on the other and possibly even ten fold.  

And yet, this is where we must pause.  It is so very strange that largely many Christians and even America itself has seen Israel as the good guy / ally and Islam or Palestine as the enemy / axis.  I know this time there are people in America that have sided with Palestine.  Its strange that in this polarity we would claim atrocities done by both sides to be the most horrific things done on the planet (which they are, no question), but once you begin to do your research the reason an atrocity was done on one side to the other is because the other side had done something similar first - and then it becomes all about outdoing the other to escalate war to a place that no one is safe - and recently it has become clear that when I say no one, I mean literally no one - and any boundaries listed in another book about war written by Sun Tzu - “The Art of War," which gives far less boundaries to what is available to regimes or armies in the mist of war - are entirely forgotten - everything is free reign with no check and balances at all.  And just as Muhammad Ghandi said - “An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.”

Regardless of the tactics behind the warfar, if we follow how one religion or region responds to the other in a eye for an eye tactic you actually can trace the tit for tat back to Ishmael and Isaac.  I will sometimes hear that Jerusalem, Israel, and the Jews living in it are “God’s chosen people,” and that is the reason we should side with Israel - because from this point on Genesis will focus on Abraham’s descendants from Isaac to ultimately Jesus.  

However, through these verses we see YHWH hears the boy crying in the wilderness, and responds to his distress by sending an angle to Hagar.  The angel offers a blessing that sounds almost exactly like the promise given to Abraham, where the angel says to Hagar to go to her son and comfort him, “For I will make a great nation form his descendants.”

In other words, God’s heart cares for and is for both Isaac AND Ishmael.  This suggests that God then equally has a heart for both sides of the middle eastern conflict - for both Israel and Palestine, both Jew and Muslim.  

In fact, in my time in the EPC I heard a fascinating sermon on this very passage when a missionary who was centered in the middle east was presenting God’s heart for both the Jew and the Muslim, and specifically gearing our hearts to even yearn and long for the descendants of Ishmael to return home.  And while God’s heart certainly breaks over the conflict in the middle east, hears the cries of the distressed, and can deliver them through yet another crisis - both Israel and Palestine as Jews or Muslims have still lost focus for who the birth right actually is available for.  

Paul, in his reflection on how we all have descended from Abraham, says in Galatians 3:15-16 something that very much speaks to us still today:

15 Dear brothers and sisters, here’s an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or amend an irrevocable agreement, so it is in this case. 16 God gave the promises to Abraham and his child. And notice that the Scripture doesn’t say “to his children,” as if it meant many descendants. Rather, it says “to his child”—and that, of course, means Christ.

In other words, God did not give his promises “to his children,” which one could say that God did in fact give his promise to abrahams Children, to both Isaac and Ishmael.  But, Paul says, no, “rather, it says “to his child” - and that, of course, means Christ.  The conflict in teh middle east will only ever end when we hear the words of Jesus as seen n Matthew 5:38-42 where we ultimately start serving our brothers and sisters - even our enemies - and he says:

38 “You have heard the law that says the punishment must match the injury: ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also. 40 If you are sued in court and your shirt is taken from you, give your coat, too. 41 If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile, carry it two miles. 42 Give to those who ask, and don’t turn away from those who want to borrow. 

Forgiveness is the only way to bring sight back to the world.  Yet, forgiveness cannot happen unless we ourselves have been forgiven, and we can only find forgiveness in Christ Jesus, in whom the promise is given - and obtained through.  This will not happen through Judaism or Islam - but only through Christ.