On My Mind: An Illusion Of Peace

THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES AND WILL CONTINUE

DESPITE EFFORTS FOR PEACE...

"And I will plant them upon their land, and they

shall no more be torn up out of their land which I gave them,"

says the Lord your God.

Amos 9:15

Various news reports have been indicating that President Trump

will be sending an envoy to Jerusalem soon to "pressure" Israel's

Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu into a "peace agreement"

with Hamas. While I believe that President Trump is acting in

earnest to try and resolve this long-standing conflict between

Israel and this vicious terrorist group which is constantly
threatening that nation's people with acts of mayhem
and murder and destroy their land with incendiary
balloon launches across the Gaza border, I think he
should first ask Hamas to change their charter which
calls for the destruction of Israel and her people.
Unfortunately, I do not think this will happen anytime soon.

And while I applaud his moving America's embassy to

Jerusalem in recognition of the city being the eternal capital of

Israel, our president further needs to realize that as far as a "two state

solution" goes, Jerusalem must remain off the table as non-negotiable.

But here in-lies the problem. The enemies of the Israeli people

will not agree to any kind of peace deal without the consideration

of dividing the city of Jerusalem. They realize that once Israel

agrees to a plan to divide the city-something they will never willingly do-

their long-standing enemies will have the advantage to overwhelm

and destroy them, which has been the on-going scheme of the
PLO/Palestinian Authority, Hamas, and other terrorist groups
like them, ever since Israel rose from the ashes of WWII and

the Holocaust to take her place among the nations in 1948.

To better understand this endless conflict between Jew and Arab,

we have to go back to the biblical story of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar.

God had promised Abraham and Sarah, despite their advancing ages,

a son and a heir, however, instead of waiting for the Lord to fulfill

His promise to them, Abraham allowed his wife to talk him into taking

Hagar, her Egyptian handmaiden, into their tent so that she could

bear a child for them. Now, we have to pause here for a moment and

consider what Hagar must of been thinking. She is basically a slave

with no rights of her own, living on the mercy of her master and his wife.

Aside from the many tasks she was assigned to do, she was now being

told that she must go into her master's tent and sleep with him so

that she might become pregnant and have a child to please her mistress.

In what would clearly be tantamount to a case of rape today, this

nubile servant girl had no choice but to obey and so she went into the

tent and into her master's bed. And then, when she did conceive

a child by Abraham, the Bible tells us that she became proud before

her still barren mistress, and in anger, Sarah chased her out of

the camp. Poor Hagar now finds herself spurned by her
master and alone and pregnant in the wilderness.
Little did she realize, however, was that God was watching
this whole sordid soap opera the entire time, and He went
down to tenderly address Hagar in her despair.
The Lord told her that she would bear a son and that his
name would be Ishmael, which means, "God hears."
He promises that her son will be the father of a mighty
nation someday. However, the Lord then tells her that she
must return to the camp and humbly submit herself to her mistress.

Hagar obeyed God and went back to the camp and later

bore Abraham a son whose name was Ishmael.

Although God did indeed bless Hagar's son and multiplied

his seed exceedingly as the father of a great nation,

He would establish his covenant with the son of Abraham
and Sarah whose name was Issac.

One of the many people groups whom descended from Abraham,

Hagar and Ishmael are the Arab people. However, along with

the promise of posterity from the Lord, many of the descendants

of these three important biblical figures have also inherited,

and have passed on to future generations of descendants,

the feelings of bitterness and anger and rejection felt by

Hagar, the victimized slave girl, and subsequently her son,
especially after the birth of the promised son, Issac.
The rivalry and jealousy between Hagar and Sarah must have worsened
as the time passed, especially when Sarah saw Ishmael mocking Issac
and she told her husband to once again cast out Hagar and her son.
Mockery of the heir of the covenant was a serious offense both to
God and to Abraham. God told Abraham to do what Sarah asked
and remove Hagar and Ishmael from the camp. So, Abraham
rose early one morning and taking bread and a bottle of water
gave them to Hagar and sent her and Ishmael away. The
resentful former slave woman and her son soon became
lost, wandering aimlessly through the wilderness at Beersheba,
which translated means, "Well of the Oath."

The Expulsion of Ishmael and his mother
Gustave Dore 
(1832-1883)
French painter


When the water was gone and her son was dying of thirst, Hagar
once again cried out in anguish to the Lord and He answered her,
saying, "What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has
heard the voice of the youth where he is."

The Lord reminded her that he had not forgotten the earlier
promise He had made to her once before in the wilderness,
that He would make her son Ishmael into a great nation.
Then God "opened her eyes and Hagar saw a well of water
and she re-filled the water bottle and brought it to Ishmael".

Afterward, her son grew to manhood in the wilderness of Paran,
which in Hebrew means, "To beautify, to glory, or adorn".
Ishmael became an archer, and when he was of age, his mother
found a bride among her own Egyptian people for her son.
Years later, Ishmael would once again be reunited
with his younger brother Issac to bury their father.

"The days of Abraham's life were 175 years.
Then Abraham's spirit was released and he died
at a good old age, satisfied and satiated, and was gathered
to his people. And his sons, Issac and Ishmael, buried him
in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron, the son
of Zohar the Hittite, which is east of Mamre."
Genesis 25:7-9

Many Arabs believe that Ishmael was actually the one
chosen by God as the keeper of His covenant. The rise of
Islam in Arabia in the 7th century and the teachings of
the prophet Mohammad, have further served to confuse
the descendants of Abraham, Hagar, and Ishmael.

However, the Holy Bible, which is the irrefutable Word of God,

confirms that Issac was the son promised to carry on Abraham's

posterity and God's covenant with succeeding generations of
His chosen people and nation, Israel.

Unfortunately, the conflict between these two peoples
will continue and genuine peace will remain elusive
in this volatile region of the world until
Sar Shalom, the Prince of Peace, Yeshua Ha'Mashiach,
the One Who came to save the sons and daughters
of Issac and Ishmael from the taint of sin
and the curse of death on the cross,
returns to judge the nations from Jerusalem,
to forever destroy His enemies, and to rule the redeemed
of God with His perfect justice and everlasting peace.

Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives

(1859)
Edward Lear
(1812-1888)
English artist and illustrator