Israelis would in any case point out that a great number of Jews were dispossessed from Arab lands, in which their forebears had lived for centuries. Sadly, tragically, war and calamity have displaced countless groups of people all over the world: the joy of the Christian Gospel is that all who will follow Christ, whatever they may have suffered in this age, are offered an earthly kingdom of permanence and peace.

More important, however, than arguments over politics or statistics are the facts that we can find in God’s written word, the Bible. By turning back the pages of history, recorded in the scriptures, we can find encouragement for both Jews and Arabs – and the Bible is the only place where these things are recorded. It should be mentioned that although Arabs have their own Muslim holy book, the Koran, they acknowledge most of what is recorded in the early books of the Jewish scriptures, which are very much older.

Bible background

Abraham has been mentioned in connection with both Israel and the Palestinians: both Arabs and Jews share Abraham as their forefather. They are both Semitic peoples, that is to say, descended from Shem, the eldest son of Noah. After the great Flood, Noah’s descendants were dispersed into all parts of the earth.

It was from moon-worshipping Chaldea that God called Abraham, his wife Sarah and his orphaned nephew Lot to live in Canaan, a territory south of the Euphrates river and stretching down to Egypt. It was a territory then inhabited by Canaanites, Philistines and other Godless tribes. Faithful Abraham was promised that the curse of Babel would one day be reversed, and –

“I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great … and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:2,3)

A remarkable promise indeed! But when Abraham reached Shechem (present-day Nablus in the West Bank) – the first time he had set foot in the disputed territory of Canaan – God added: “to your seed I will give this land” (Genesis 12:7). Later, from the hills north of Jerusalem, God commanded him:

“Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are – northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see, I give to you and your seed for ever.” (Genesis 13:14,15)

The extent of this promised possession was marked out in Genesis 15:18-21: “From the river of Egypt (in the south) to the great river, the River Euphrates” (in the north-east).

But there was a problem. The land was promised to his “seed”, yet Abraham and Sarah were old and had no children. Aged 86, Abraham then took Hagar, Sarah’s Egyptian maid, as his wife. Hagar received an angelic message that her son should be “Ishmael”, an Egyptian name meaning ‘God hears’. A promise of a great family was made concerning Ishmael:

“I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count … his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him.” (Genesis 16:10-12, NIV)

The Arab heritage

That was a very revealing forecast! Ishmael was to be the father of bedouin Arabs, desert dwellers in Arabia. The situation was later confirmed to Abraham when, still having no son by Sarah, he pleaded with God that Ishmael might be his heir:

“Then God said: No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish my covenant with him … As for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.” (Genesis 17:19,20)

History confirms the existence of the twelve branches of Ishmael’s family. Isaac meanwhile received confirmation of the promises through him; and, in turn, they were repeated to his son Jacob:

“The land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants … I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land.” (Genesis 28:13-15)

On the contrary, the future for Esau, Jacob’s twin, was:

“Behold, away from the fatness of the earth shall your dwelling be … by your sword you shall live.” (Genesis 27:39,40, RSV)

God gave Esau a possession in the dry, red deserts of Edom, down by the Dead Sea (Deuteronomy 2:5). Abraham and Isaac had settled in the land of promise and he had sent his other sons “eastward … to the country of the east” (Genesis 25:6). Midian’s children became desert caravanners, and Sheba and Dedan occupied southern Arabia. From Abraham’s nephew Lot came the Ammonites and Moabites who inhabited the land east of the river Jordan.

A divided family

Thus we get an overall picture of a divided family: on the one hand, Isaac, Jacob and the twelve tribes of Israel (the name which God later gave to Jacob) eventually being established in the promised territory and, on the other, the Arab sons and families moving eastward and southward away from the “promised land”. The Bible is very clear that the “children of Israel”, the Jews, were the divinely appointed inhabitants of the Land. After a period in Egypt, the migration referred to as the Exodus, under the leadership of Moses and Joshua, brought them back as an organised nation, with God’s law given to them at Sinai, to inhabit the Land. Israel’s inheritance of the Land was always (and still is) subject to His people remaining obedient to Him. The Bible’s Old Testament presents the history of loyalty alternating with faithlessness. There were further periods of harassment by their neighbours, and exile. Yet, even then, and despite their faltering faith, God remembered His promises and brought them back.

It was 500 years after the return from exile in Babylon that Jesus came into the world – the long promised Jewish Messiah. The Jews of the time flocked to listen to him and benefit from his miraculous powers; yet few in the end accepted him, and once again their fate was to suffer persecution and dispersion. The Romans besieged their holy city, Jerusalem, and Jews were driven into almost every country of the world. They were destined to wander – though not for ever.

Has God forsaken His people?

Had God cast away the Jews? Was their rejection of the Messiah the end of God’s plan with His once-chosen people? Many maintain that this is so, and that the God of Israel has no further purpose with the Jews – that Christians and not Jews are now the focus for the outworking of God’s promises for the future. It is true that God’s purpose is with those who believe and obey Him, of whatever race; nevertheless, God has not forsaken His chosen people, the Jews.

The centuries of bitter persecution have come and gone; the pogroms of Europe brought indescribable terror upon Jewish communities in their day; the unspeakable suffering of Jews during the Second World War is something mankind may never erase from its memory. But God has not forgotten. Did He not say through His ancient prophets, for example, Ezekiel –

“I will … deliver you into the hands of strangers, and execute judgments on you … (yet) although I have cast them far off among the Gentiles, and although I have scattered them among the countries … I will gather you from the peoples, assemble you from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.” (Ezekiel 11:9-17)

It is abundantly clear that the Jew, despite his terrible tribulations, has survived. Why? So that Jews could continue to be God’s witnesses among the nations. Jews survive not through any merits of their own, but as a testimony that God keeps His promises and will fulfil what He covenanted to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Isaiah records why Israel survived:

“But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob, and he who formed you, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are mine … You are my witnesses, says the Lord, that I am God.” (Isaiah 43:1,12)