In Genesis 12:7 Abraham, the father of both Jews and Arabs, was told, “Unto thy seed will I give this land”. In Galatians 3:16 the Apostle Paul tells us that the seed was Christ. So then, Christ, before he was born, was promised the land of Israel. The Bible says Christ will return from heaven to set up God’s Kingdom on earth: the centre of his government will be Jerusalem and the land of Israel. A repentant and believing section of the Jewish people will form the nucleus of the population. The Kingdom will bring countless blessings to the whole world, and not just to Israel. The Bible tells us, “All nations shall call him blessed” (Psalm 72:17).
Jerusalem: If the Middle East is the centre of God’s plan with the earth, then Jerusalem is its epicentre. From the very first, when God brought Israel out of captivity in Egypt, He spoke of “the place” where He would set His name. That chosen place was Jerusalem. There David was established as king over the first kingdom of God on earth; and Jesus himself, David’s greater Son, called Jerusalem “the city of the great King”. The promise that lay behind these words includes the following prophecy:
“They shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem.” (Jeremiah 3:17)
Jerusalem is at the meeting point of three continents and so is perfectly placed strategically to become the capital city of the world. The prophet Ezekiel says:
“Thus saith the Lord God, This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her.” (Ezekiel 5:5)
Ancient cartographers, taking this passage literally, placed Jerusalem at the centre of their maps.
One thing is clear. In the Middle East peace process, Jerusalem is the constant sticking point. The city contains the holy sites of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. But as one writer has said of Judaism, “Its religion is not tied to ‘sites’ but to the land, not to what happened in Jerusalem but to Jerusalem itself”. For Israel, Jerusalem is its capital city now. The Palestinians also claim Jerusalem as their capital. But whoever sets their ambitions on that city should consider prophecies such as Zechariah 12:
“Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about … And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people; all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people (nations) of the earth be gathered together against it.” (12:2,3)
The reference to “all the nations” is of particular interest in the light of recent events in which the UN Secretary General has been involved in brokering a ceasefire.
From this and other prophecies such as Zechariah 14, it is clear that Jerusalem is the very last place that Israel will give up. When the invasion of the land comes, a remnant of the nation will be defending Jerusalem. They will stand on the brink of total defeat. Half of the city will be taken captive but then, as Zechariah says, “shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations” (verse 3). At that time Jesus will be revealed to the Jews as Israel’s Messiah and some at least will submit to his authority. He will replace their unbelieving spirit of self-confidence and stubbornness with a new spirit of trust and obedience in God and His Son.
“Peace and Safety”
The prophecies we have briefly reviewed have to do with the build-up for Armageddon, the situation in the Middle East before the establishment of the Kingdom of God. But there is another strand of Bible teaching, parallel with these prophecies which, surprising as it may seem, leads us to expect the development of a Middle East peace process. In Ezekiel 38, when the Gogian confederacy invades Israel, Israel is said to “dwell safely” (verse 8) and the invader says, “I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely” (verse 11). Therefore we are to expect the development of a state of peace and confidence just before disaster strikes. The Apostle Paul alludes to the same phenomenon when he writes: “The day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety (security); then sudden destruction cometh upon them” (1 Thessalonians 5:2,3).
Remarkably, despite the continuing antagonism between Israel and her neighbours and the Palestinians within the land, a peace process has developed, though friction and mistrust continue. It started in 1977 when President Anwar Sadat of Egypt visited Israel, and led to the Camp David Accords the following year. Slow progress was made until the Gulf War. Then in 1991 the Madrid Conference led to real progress resulting in the famous handshake in 1993 between the prime minister of Israel and the leader of the PLO. The words of Yasser Arafat at that time are quite extraordinary: “Mr. Prime Minister … The PLO recognises the right of the State of Israel to exist in peace and security”! When Mr. Rabin was asked why he entered into the peace negotiations he said, “I believed that the coincidence of events on the international scene, in the Middle East, in Israel were ripe to achieve two goals: peace and security”! Both men became Nobel peace prize-winners in 1994. The very words of Scripture came alive in this amazing development.
At the time of writing the peace process still faces difficulties. Has the “peace and safety” cry of 1 Thessalonians 5 come and gone, or are further developments to take place before the “sudden destruction”?
“Be ye also ready”
Who would dare predict the tortuous course which Middle East events are taking? Only through a right understanding of the Bible can we make sense of it all. If we focus too closely on day-to-day events, a clear pattern may not be discernible. But if we stand back for a moment and view the broad sweep of both the history of the Middle East and current events through the eyes of Bible prophets, we can see a very clear picture emerging. The world is moving rapidly towards the return of Christ to set up the Kingdom of God on earth. It is that Kingdom of which all the prophets spoke and in which all the promises of God will finally be fulfilled.
None of us knows exactly when the Kingdom will come, nor indeed the exact order of events leading up to it. What we can be certain of is this: the tide of events is sweeping towards the great climax of history at breathtaking speed. We can be part of that Kingdom through faith and obedience to the King, the Lord Jesus Christ. There is little time left to prepare.
Bible prophecies often concern political events, and this booklet certainly touches on a number of international political developments – happenings which Christadelphians believe will herald the second coming of Christ. It should be noted, however, that Christadelphians are not themselves active in politics or protest, nor concerned to make political statements.
