Most converted Christians and religious Jews are interested in Israel. Why this interest in Israel? Because that is what the Bible talks about. That is where God focuses. While the New Testament mentions cities and churches in Greece and Turkey and Rome, the Old Testament is pretty much limited to what is now called Israel. This country and the surrounding Middle East region has been the focus of much news and commentary for a long time. But now there are two so-called Palestinian governments on Israeli land: One in Gaza, the other in the so-called West Bank, Samaria and Judea. Why did this happen?

In 1948, the Jewish state was reestablished after nearly 2000 years. Since that time and even before, Jews from all over the world have been returning to Israel. Since 1948 we have seen several Arab wars against Israel with miraculous consequences to those armies who try to eradicate Israel. Why have the vastly outnumbered Jews won these wars so miraculously?

The last few years we have seen a people who call themselves Palestinians rioting against Israel continuously. Where did the "Palestinians" come from? What are their goals? What does the Bible say about them and their future?

Today we will try to answer these and other questions about the people the world calls the Palestinians.

We’ll spend a lot of time in the book of Ezekiel. This book was written by a Jewish captive in Babylon about a 125 years after the house of Israel was taken captive by the Assyrians. It is written to end-time Israel.

What are the mountains of Israel? Some feel that they represent the government of Israel. But most would agree that they are the mountains running north and south through the heart of Israel. The ones Jerusalem and Bethel and Ai and Shilo and Shechem and Bethany and Hebron lie in. The ones Abraham and Sarah and Isaac and Rebekah and Leah and Jacob and Joshua and Joseph and David are buried in. The ones Jesus died in.

They also constitute the bulk of what is called the West Bank. When one hears the term "The West Bank" what you are really hearing is "the mountains of Israel" because they both describe nearly identical land. The mountains of Israel are Biblically described as Samaria and Judea. They extend from the Jezreel Valley, just north of Nablus or Shechem south about 150 miles to about the southern end of the Dead Sea. Why is this region called the West Bank? West Bank is the name given to the region by the world media after Jordan captured it in the Israeli War for Independence in 1948. West Bank simply means that region of Jordan lying west of the Jordan River. Does it matter that Jordan relinquished her claim to the area after the 1967 war? Apparently not. The media and the Arabs still think it is a more useful name than the Biblical names of Samaria and Judea, which would imply Israeli ownership and a recognition of the Biblical name. Ever wonder who inspires the media?

Why would God through Ezekiel be addressing the mountains of Israel? Why are so many religious Jews and evangelical Christians concerned about giving the West Bank and particularly Jerusalem to the Palestinians? What used to be called the PLO is now called the Palestinian Authority, a name designed to provide respectability to the terrorist organization. You see, there is no Palestinian culture, no Palestinian language, there has never been a land called Palestine which was ruled by Palestinians. Palestinians are just another group of Arabs. The word Palestine was given to the region by the Romans who were trying to erase everything Jewish from the land, including the name "Israel." But let's turn to a few scriptures to find out why many people are concerned about Israel and the West Bank.

God gave Abraham and his descendants a whole lot more land than what is now Israel. He gave him land extending over much of what is now Syria, western Jordan, and the Sinai Peninsula. Did his descendants include Ishmael who was to become the father of the Arabs? Abraham would have liked it that way but God had other ideas. Let's look at Genesis 17:18.

So Ishmael, the father of the Arabs, did not inherit God’s covenant with Abraham.

The promise later passed from Isaac to Jacob. Gen 28:3-4 describes Isaac’s blessing on Jacob.

Do you see any conditions upon which God's promise was based? Must the Israelites live a perfect life? No, He simply said the land was their's to use. The promise was UNconditional. If you read Genesis 15:17, you'll read of a ceremony where God made the covenant binding only on Himself - only God walked between the carcasses, not Abram. Did God change His mind when Israel sinned in Egypt? No. He returned them back to the land. What did He have to say about the land when He was telling the Israelites about the results of sinning?

So the Israelites were scattered - several times. What did God say about their land after their return?

The land was still theirs centuries later when they returned from captivity. Could the Eternal have revoked His promise after the time of Christ? Did He turn His back on His promise to the Jews after they rejected Christ? This is the theme of present day Replacement Theology.

Doesn't sound like God could renege on His promise, does it? When we see the sun give daylight, the moon and stars providing night light, the sea and its waves, does it remind us that Israel still owns the land and still continues to be a nation? That is not the belief of mainline Christian Churches such as the Methodists, the Anglicans, the Presbyterians, the Lutherans, and the Episcopalians who believe that the church has replaced the Israelis as God’s favorite people and so see the land as belonging to the so-called "Palestinians." Their position is known as replacement theology. It is strongly opposed by Messianics, Evangelical Christians and Christian Zionists.

As I said, Israel became a Jewish state in 1948. In the six-day war of 1967 Jews recaptured Judea and Samaria from the Jordanians after which Jordan publicly relinquished the land. Since 1948 the Jews have returned to Israel by the millions.

The landlord is still God.

What was the condition of the land when the Jews returned? God tells us (of course):

In order to destroy all the idolatry the Israelites left behind, God destroyed their cities and their religious places throughout the country. God hates idolatry. Our God is a jealous God.

Yes, He left a remnant, probably not just for their own protection but also to demonstrate that the Israelites had not totally deserted their land.

The land was under Turkish control from 1517 to 1917 (ten times forty years), and Turkey destroyed this land thoroughly. The rulers enacted ridiculous laws; for example, one which required taxes to be paid for live trees. The people cut down the trees so they wouldn't have to pay taxes! The country therefore ended up in a very wretched condition, empty of trees and covered with rocks where once great forests had stood. Many authors, including Mark Twain, described the land as being devoid of any living creatures other than birds of prey and foxes.

But what of the people living in Israel? In 1864 about half the people of Jerusalem were Jews; about a third were Moslems. Hebron, Jerusalem, Tiberias all had semi-autonomous Jewish areas. When the Jews began returning to Israel in the mid-to-late 19th century, there were so few people living there, they could settle in most of the Holy Land without displacing anyone.

In 1920 the League of Nations designated British-occupied Palestine as a homeland for the Jewish people. Palestine then included all of what is now Israel, Jordan, and the West Bank. The land was no more than set aside for the Jews than the Arab nations revolted against the decision forcing Britain to designate the area that is now Jordan for the Arabs and install an Arab monarchy. Britain was politically protecting its oil sources but Israelis thereby lost over fifty percent of their land.

Jewish settlements created jobs to which neighboring Arabs were drawn. As Jewish settlements grew, Arab settlements grew up around them. The rise of Hitler caused more Jewish people to return to the land. But Islamic opposition and terrorism against the British and in favor of Hitler Germany persuaded England to reduce the number of Jewish people allowed to return at the time they most needed the land to escape the Nazi extermination camps. Britain was again worried about her Arab oil supply. They traded human lives for Arab oil. Is the US now following this pattern in its relations with Israel and Arab peoples too?

As we said before, following the establishment of the Jewish state in 1948, all the surrounding Arab states attacked Israel. Israel successfully resisted these Arab armies, even though it really had no army of its own. Since that time Arab neighbors have done everything possible to destroy and eradicate the Israeli state. God has seen to it that the Israelis nearly always came out victorious. Lebanon was an exception. Is that because the Jews are so righteous? Not at all. Why then has God sided with the Jews over the Arabs in their wars and what has this to do with the "Palestinians," the subject of this sermon?

Ezekiel 36, which we have read a little of today, talks about the return of the Israelites. Ezekiel 35 talks about the Edomites. The two chapters are related, as we shall see.

Let’s look at verse 1 of Ezekiel 35:

Mount Seir is the name of a fifty mile long mountain range south-southeast of the Dead Sea, in what is now Jordan. It is in the ancient land of Edom - where Esau settled.

So we can see here that God is opposed to Edom. You may remember that Esau married the daughters of Ishmael and his children thereby became Arab princes. But there was a specific reason why God is opposed to Edom. It stemmed from an ancient hatred of Israel by Esau. You might remember that Jacob attempted to trade his brother Esau’s birthright for a bowl of stew, and Esau agreed to it. Let's begin reading about it in Genesis 25:

Later Isaac gave Jacob his blessing. When Esau found out that Jacob had both the birthright and the blessing, jealousy filled his heart and he hated Jacob. Esau planned to kill Jacob.

But the history of this hatred does not end there. Hundreds of years later, when Moses wanted to take the Israelites through a portion of Edom on their way to the promised land, the following occurred:

Hundreds of years later Edom still hated Israel. They and the Ammonites and the Moabites, all three occupying what is Jordan today, joined together to destroy Israel. In 2 Chr 20:10 Jehoshaphat, king of the house of Judah is talking to God.

Jehoshaphat and the Jews humbled themselves before the Lord and the Lord then protected Israel by causing the three tribes to fight among themselves.

God defended the Jews from extinction. This ancient hatred of Jews by Palestinian Arabs continues to this day. In 1929 and 1936 Arabic Moslems massacred Jewish people living in Hebron. Mufti-inspired riots killed 66 in 1929 and in 1936 the Jews were driven from the city by the British to prevent continued killings. In 1948 fanatic Moslem gangs prevented food from reaching the starving people of Jerusalem. Since that time Moslem nations have continued their hatred by instilling hatred of Jews in school children. Palestinian school maps do not even reflect the nation of Israel. School books have such statements as:

In 1941, the Islamic leader in Jerusalem, Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini, an uncle of Yassar Arafat, met with Hitler and supported the Nazi cause to encourage him to slaughter Jews in Europe so they couldn't escape to settle in Palestine. Hitler, in turn, announced that the Arabs were then part of the axis powers. In 1948, when Israel announced its independence, al-Husseini ordered Arab families to flee Israel so that Arab armies could invade Israel, and before his death he founded the PLO which he turned over to his nephew Yassar Arafat, to whom he was mentor. Arafat's life purpose, imbued with Nazi hatred of Jews like his uncle, was not to establish a Palestinian state. That was only one means among others to gain his ultimate goal, which was to slaughter every Jew in Israel and "drive them into the sea."

Back to Ezekiel 35 where we were talking about God’s anger with Mount Seir or Edom:

Breaking in in the middle of this sentence, what are the two nations? Most feel they are either the houses of Israel and Judah, or Samaria and Judea. Before 1948 there were many Jewish settlements in these two areas. After 1948, Jordan refused to let Jews live in these areas and destroyed their homes, synagogues, and businesses. Now that Israel owns and occupies the area again, the Arabs want the land back. What’s worse, the Israelis are putting the so-called West Bank under the Palestinian Authority’s (the Fatah terrorist’s) administration, who the Israeli and American governments think, will repay with peace. In my opinion, this is only another step of transferring God’s covenant land to the Arabs.

Why is God punishing the Edomites? Not because He hates them but because He wants them to wake up and accept the true God's supremacy, and accept that the land belongs to Israel. Is God saying that just the Arabs will know He is the LORD or does He include all Israel too? Could this be the time when the Jews finally accept Yeshua as their Messiah?

Nations around the world doubted the Israeli's ability to survive the 1948 war of independence. But God had predicted the results millennia before:

In 1948, the Israeli army was outnumbered. They had little training. Their military equipment was old and unreliable but they survived the attacks by six Arab countries. But Israel also had other problems. For months Arab terrorists prevented food from reaching Jewish people in Jerusalem. But the Lord showed that He was watching over His people. In April of 1948 a weed called khubeize provided miraculous relief to the hungry Jewish population. The spinach-like herb sprang up wild . . . Women scoured the fields of the city looking for it. A few weeks later an unseasonable three-day rain struck Jerusalem, bringing a new and totally unexpected crop of khubeiza pushing up from the soil.

In verse 12 of Ezekiel 35, we read that God considers the words attacking the mountains of Israel as blasphemous. Why? How? God still owns the land of Israel. He has brought the Israelites in to occupy the land with signs and wonders to demonstrate His power to the world. The Lord is faithfully keeping His promises. The Jews have been scattered three times: once into Egypt, later into Babylon in 586 B.C., and last by the Romans in 70 A.D. The Land did become desolate but the Jews are now returning. The great exodus from the north (Russia - Jer 23:8) has been going on for quite a few years. The desert is blooming. Jewish settlements are springing up in the mountains of Israel. Israel has been a blessing to the Middle East. It is a prosperous, free country, and has attracted many Arabs to it. The truth of Bible prophesy is proved beyond doubt.

But what were the Edomites doing all this time? Shortly after Judah’s exile to Babylon, the Edomites migrated from their home in Mt. Seir to southern Judah and the Negev. This may have been encouraged by the Philistines who occupied the present area of Gaza. Many understand the Philistines to have come from Greek stock. From that time on Edomites were known as the Idumaeans, a Greek word meaning Edomites.

Why would the Edomites leave their homeland? At about this time the Nabateans, a Central Arabian desert tribe, pushed at the Edomites sufficiently that the Edomites were driven from their mountain fortresses and eventually from their rock city of Petra. It appears that the movement of Edom (Idumaea) into Judah was the result of their retreat from Mr. Seir and Petra. The result, of course, was the introduction of Edomites into the land of Judah. So Ezekiel’s prophesy appears to be dual: Once as the Edomites first moved into Judah and now in today’s world as the Edomites try to push the Jews out of the land of Israel.

The KJV uses the name Idumaea instead of Edom in verse 5. Does plunder and mockery equal land for peace?

But now, millennia after Rome expelled the Jews and renamed the land Palestine, these Edomites are considered to be "Palestinian" Arabs. These so-called "Palestinian" Arabs are now trying to revise the much older history of Israel and so describe themselves as victims of the Israeli state. There are more Arabs in Israel today than there were in 1948 before many of them left. The media and the Palestinians tell us that Israel forced them to leave in 1948. That is not true. The Arabs who left Israel left of their own accord or at the urging of Arab governments, not at the point of Israeli guns. Those who remained in Israel were even granted Israeli citizenship.

Islamic fascination with Jerusalem is a modern invention. Jerusalem does not contain the third-most holy site for Islam. This is an age old ploy to expand Islamic influence into foreign lands. This ploy was also used in both Spain and southeastern Europe in the 1400's. Mecca and Medina are Islam’s holy sites. Islam has a history of claiming new sacred sites whenever they want to expand their influence somewhere. Jerusalem is not even mentioned in the Koran. There is only one vague passage in the Koran book of Sura entitled "the Night Journey" which relates that in a night vision Mohammed was carried by night "from the sacred temple to the temple that is most remote, whose precinct we have blessed, that we might show him our signs...." Mohammed never even visited Jerusalem, let alone flying to heaven from there on his trusty steed. This theory, by the way, was concocted and promulgated by Arafat’s uncle, the grand Mufti of Jerusalem, an avowed Jew-hater, who we mentioned before. This whole theory of Mohammed being in Jerusalem is one of myth, fantasy and wishful thinking. But it is also Muslim justification for owning all of Jerusalem. The Jewish Talmud makes the following observation:

There is no beauty like Jerusalem, no wealth like Rome, no depravity like Arabia.

This was written in the third century AD, three hundred years before the Arabs embraced Mohammed’s Islam.

In verse 13 of Ezekiel 35, God says "you have boasted against me". Arab leaders boast continually about how they are going to totally remove Israel, all Jews, and all Americans from the face of the earth. Let me read you a few of their boasts:

Here is part of an Islamic sermon by Dr. Ahmad Abu Halbita given in 2000:

"O brother believers, the criminals, the terrorists – are the Jews, who have butchered our children, orphaned them, widowed our women and desecrated our holy places and sacred sites. [But it is the Arabs who destroy synagogues, not the Jews who destroy mosques.] They are the terrorists. They are the ones who must be butchered and killed, as Allah the Almighty said: ‘Fight them: Allah will torture them at your hands, and will humiliate them and will help you to overcome them, and will relieve the minds of the believers....This is the truth, O Brothers in belief. From here, Allah the almighty has called upon us not to ally with the Jews or the Christians, not to like them, not to become their partners, not to support them, and not to sign agreements with them. And he who does that, is one of them, as Allah said: ‘O you who believe, do no take the Jews and the Christians as allies, for they are allies of one another. Who from among you takes them as allies will indeed be one of them....The Jews are the allies of the Christians, and the Christians are the allies of the Jews, despite the enmity that exists between them. The enmity between the Jews and the Christians is deep, but all of them are in agreement against the monotheists – against those who say, ‘There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger, that is they are against you, O Muslims.’ Have not mercy on the Jews, no matter where they are , in any country. Fight them, wherever you are. Wherever you meet them, kill them. Wherever you are, kill those Jews and those Americans who are like them – and those who stand by them – they are all in one trench, against the Arabs and the Muslims – because they established Israel here, in the beating heart of the Arab world, in Palestine. They created it to be the outpost of their crusaders, hanging over the necks of the monotheists, the Muslims in these lands. They wanted the Jews to be their spearhead...."

Land for peace? I don’t think so. But almost all world governments seem to think these land transfers will bring peace. Is it any wonder there are riots of venomous hatred following "sermons" such as the one we just read?

Let me read an exclusive, eyewitness account "An Eye Witness to Atrocity" by BBC photographer Mark Seager, dated Oct. 19, 2000.

The rage and hate of Esau for his brother Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, has not diminished for these thousands of years. But God promises to protect Israel from them.

In 1948, 150 million Arabs in 17 countries could not destroy 5 million Jews in one tiny country because God says He will defend them. When they boast against Israel who God has sworn to defend, they boast against God. A rather dangerous practice, wouldn’t you say?

Israel is a bastion of democracy in a host of non-democratic countries of the Middle East. For the last fourteen years Israel and the so-called Palestinians have been involved in a constant series of peace talks. But these peace talks are an illusion. As a recent comment in "Koenig’s Eye View" stated:

There has never been a Palestinian state in the Middle East any time in history. As we said earlier, there is no Palestinian identity with the land named by the Romans as Palestine. Those that call themselves Palestinians are Idumaeans, earlier called Edomites from a land east of Israel, although Arafat, himself, was born in Egypt. The word "Palestinian" is a modern day invention to use against Israel to get the Jews out of the Middle East.

But there are ominous tones in today’s news. The liberal government of Ehud Barak gave away about a third of the West Bank and offered to give away much more, even including parts of Jerusalem, for promises of peace. Why did he do this? Was he blind to the intentions of the Palestinians? No, he was not blind. He feared world opinion. The whole world opposes Israel. Well, almost the whole world. The United States with its large voting Jewish population and two small western Pacific island nations, Micronesia and Kiribati, side with Israel in the United Nations, but almost no one else does. Barak, who was recently elected head of the Labor party and Defense Minister, and former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon were highly decorated generals in the Israeli military and had confidence in the military. What they and present Prime Minister Ehud Olmert lacked was confidence in God. They feel that the military successes of the past occurred because of the ability of the military. In Barak’s case, he was influential in the last war in Lebanon, so he is being hypocritical when he lauds the military. What a difference from the attitude of Jehoshaphat or King David when he said in Psalms:

No, Prime Minister Olmert cannot bring himself to conduct his actions by principle, to do what is right because it is right in God’s eyes, then trust God to support him.. He has apparently never heard of the expression, "Right makes Might." Instead he looks to world opinion, finds little, then follows the "land for peace" advice of the United States and other countries. He has sold his soul in fear of world opinion. I wonder if the United States would exchange land for peace if Mexico wanted a return of the American southwest, and the rest of the world supported it.

There are other related prophesies which we have not covered yet today. What about them? Let’s look at some.

Who has been involved with Jerusalem? The United States, Europe, Russia, the United Nations, Egypt, Arabia, Jordan (which is another recent invention), Syria, Libya, Iraq. Are these countries destined for punishment for their involvement with Jerusalem’s fate? The capstone of Jerusalem is the Temple Mount, the area where Jews and Christians are not even allowed to pray today, the area where two previous Jewish temples stood, the first destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC, the second destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. The Temple Mount area currently contains two Moslem mosques.

But the politicians are not reading God’s word as recorded by Zechariah. Egypt’s President Mubarak stated that "no Arab or Muslim can relinquish rights to east Jerusalem and its holy sites." So Arafat would not have dared sign a peace agreement with Israel which shares Jerusalem even if he wanted to. And the Israeli government would not dare give away any of Jerusalem and its Temple Mount, the most holy site in Judaism. It is so holy, the ultra orthodox will not even walk across the mount for fear they may be walking on the area of the holy of holies.

What of the Palestinian Christians? In fact, what of the Israeli Christians? Christians in the Middle East are not unlike Christians elsewhere. Those who believe and live by the literal translation of the Bible, the Evangelicals and Christian Zionists, for instance, tend to be pro-Israeli. Some, like the Messianics, are very pro-Israeli, rejecting Palestinian claims to the land. Others, those whose loyalty is more toward the teachings of an orthodox or catholic church than to the literal teachings of the Bible, generally favor Palestinian independence. We named five of them earlier. Some of this group are extremely pro-Palestinian. Like everywhere in the world, the term "Christian" is not a clear definition. Perhaps the Messianic’s description of themselves as "believers" is more accurate. At any rate, the sermon of Dr. Ahmed Abu Halbita regarding Christians, which we read, should be very unsettling to Palestinian Christians. Unfortunately, that is not usually the case. They usually ally themselves more with being Palestinian than with being Christian. [Reference Reuters’ Report of November 13, 2000] In Israel there is an increasing air of acceptance of evangelical Christians by Israeli Jews. Probably the biggest objection to evangelical Christians is their zeal to proselyte Jews.

And so what do we see today? No matter what, the current Israeli government forces Jews from God-given land. At this hour, as in past years, Palestinians continue to confront Israelis with violence. Cities, settlements, even drivers are fired upon even with missiles. Israelis are murdered. All-out war is waged against Israeli soldiers and civilians, but the soldiers are cautioned about return fire...for in front of the armed fighters, the Palestinians strategically place their own children in the front lines. This is the Palestinians’ own version of Molech, child sacrifice...except they pay each family compensation for the dead children, to encourage their poor constituents to keep on sending the children. Publicly, the so-called Palestinians call for the continuation and encouragement of so-called "peaceful protests." And so do Arab Knesset members, who have sworn "loyalty" to the State of Israel but even visit Israel’s enemies to incite Israeli Arabs to violence until Palestinian statehood with Jerusalem as its capitol is achieved. Bombs may explode in Jerusalem’s markets and buses, missiles hit Israeli homes, Jews may die, but Palestinians, who have broken every cease-fire agreement they ever signed, is in favor of negotiations (accompanied by violence) and so after the funerals, it’s back to business as usual. This is particularly true of the Hamas government now ruling Gaza, who reject peace offers.

Now that Israel has removed her citizens from Gaza and the so-called Palestinians are left to settle their own affairs, will we see a repeat of the scriptures we read in 2 Chronicles 20 where the tribes of Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir killed each other? Will the various factions of Palestinian terrorism destroy each other? So far, the Palestinian Authority (Fatah) has retreated to the West Bank but time will tell. It would not surprise me if Hamas invaded the West Bank too and began killing fellow Palestinians. That would effectively surround Israel with terrorists (Hamas, Hezzbolah in Lebanon, and Syria), plus the threat of Iran’s nuclear arsenal. Egypt would then likely join them.

Yes, things are going to get worse in the Middle East, a lot worse, before they get better. According to Zechariah 14, Jerusalem will be divided.

Interestingly, most world leaders are encouraging the division of the city as a solution to the current impasse. All that seems to be missing is the gathering of all the nations of the world to battle against Jerusalem. Sounds like another world war, doesn’t it - World War III? Doesn’t "all the nations" include the US? The President is promising peace for the division of God’s land.

Is there any good news associated with all this? Yes there is.

And what will happen to the those who will fight against Jerusalem? It isn’t pretty.

After that we shall no longer be looked at askance by others, who claim to be Christians, because we keep the so-called Jewish High Days (the Feasts). For as verse 16 states:

Did you catch that last sentence? "There shall no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the LORD of hosts." The word "Canaanite" in this verse is often translated as "merchant" but the Old Testament description of a Canaanite is one who is morally, ethically, and religiously perverted, those people that the Israelites were commanded to totally exterminate. And, as we discussed earlier in this sermon, Edomites, who today call themselves Palestinians, were among the Canaanites. It was they who fiercely opposed Moses as Israel prepared to enter the promised land thousands of years ago, and who later, in league with Moab and Ammon, both parts of modern day Jordan, threatened King Jehoshaphat and his fellow Jews. It is they who, many centuries later, God condemned through his prophet Ezekiel. You might remember that Ezekiel wrote this to end-time Israel while a captive of the Babylonians, long after the days of Moses and Jehoshaphat:

Does verse 15 tell us that the "Palestinians" will be destroyed whether they are in Gaza or the so-called West Bank (i.e. Samaria and Judea), whether they are Fatah or Hamas? There are distinct differences. Gaza was originally populated by Philistines. Joshua occupied it as described in Joshua 15:47 and Judges 1:18. These were originally a different people than those at Mount Seir. Democratically elected Hamas, a client of Iran along with Syria and Hezbollah, wants no peace agreement with Israel, just the destruction of all Israelis. Even Egypt fears Hamas. Fatah claims to want peace with Israel but makes no effort to control terrorism. Fatah claims they only want Israel’s land. Fatah showed no contest in their recent war with Hamas over who would rule Gaza. Will Hamas now move into the so-called West Bank and displace Fatah there too? Israel would then be surrounded by terrorists. Israel and the West are now pouring money and arms into the West Bank to counteract Hamas and strengthen Abbas, the weak-kneed leader of the Palestinian Authority government. The U.S. had already sent Fatah millions of dollars worth of arms which Hamas grabbed for themselves. Israel removed all their troops and citizenry from Gaza but retaliates mainly against so-called Palestinian terrorism originating in the so-called West Bank. Why the difference? World opinion. Emotions, politics, bombings, alliances, and rioting run rampant among people in that area. In verse 15, God threatens "all of Edom." Now that there are two "Palestines," we’ll have to see how the so-called Palestinians fare, no matter what part of God-given Israel they occupy and operate from.

There will be, perhaps are, those who will consider the coming together of the armies of the entire world against Jerusalem as the end of the world. Well yes, it will be the end of the world. It will be the end of the present world. But what is important is that it is also the birth pangs of a new world. And that is the Good News.

Sermon given by Wayne Bedwell

June 23, 2007