Explore the deep historical roots of tension in the Middle East. This episode delves into why Jerusalem holds unparalleled significance despite its physical shortcomings. Ronald L. Dart takes listeners on a journey back through millennia, unraveling the ancient conflicts that still influence modern geopolitics.
The CEM Network is pleased to present Ronald L. Dart and Born to Win.
SPEAKER 02 :
If you’ve ever been to Jerusalem, there’s a natural question that comes to mind. Why should anyone care very much about this particular piece of real estate? The wars that have been fought over that city are legendary. And they don’t just go back to the 1940s. They go back thousands of years. And why? Jerusalem is not a port. It’s not on a river. It’s not on a trade route. It doesn’t sit on top of the world’s oil reserves or a gold mine. The hills and fields are rocky. When you go through there, the only way they can plant a field is they have to create a rock fence around it of all the rocks that were in the field. And a lot of work has to be done in that town to grow in that area to even grow any kind of crop at all. Of all the places in the world I have visited, and I’ve been to a lot of them, Jerusalem is not on my list of the places I would care to live. The truth is that the physical city of Jerusalem, after all the wonderful praise in the Bible about Jerusalem the Golden, is a disappointment. It is a small, dirty, smelly, dangerous city. So why have people wanted the city so much they’re willing to kill and risk their lives over it? Now, you might think it’s just over things like the Dome of the Rock, but it goes back a lot further than that. Why the continuing animosity in Palestine? Why can’t these people just get along? And why has there been failure after failure in all the efforts to attain peace in that troubled region? Do you think we’re going to see peace there anytime soon? Well, if you take the long view, you’re going to have to realize the animosities and hatreds of that region are so old that most of the people fighting have long since forgotten why they hate one another in the first place. It all started when God gave a little piece of land to a man named Abraham. That little piece of land included, of course, everything from the Nile River to the Euphrates. That’s from Cairo in Egypt to Baghdad in Iraq. That’s right. That’s what God promised He was going to give to Abraham and to all of his descendants. The animosity started with the sons of this great man. Most of us are aware of what can happen when a wealthy man dies and his heirs begin to squabble over his estate. Actually, you don’t even have to be very wealthy, do you, for heirs to squabble over the estate? And we realize, though, that the greater the stakes… the greater the hatred that can be built between brothers and sisters. Abraham had no children, you know, until he was a very old man, and his first two sons were Isaac and Ishmael. Abraham sent Ishmael away, and he’s the father of the Arab people who sit on most of the reserves of the world’s oil, as it turns out, while Isaac inherited Palestine. Now, nobody could know back in those days that the better deal was Arabia, but we’ll have to lay that aside for the moment. Isaac inherited Palestine, which agriculturally was a whole lot better country than Arabia, and there was jealousy between him and Ishmael. Now, Abraham was quite a man. He was 100 years old when Isaac was born, and he was a lot older than that when his wife Sarah died. So what did Abraham do with his golden years? Well, he got married to a young woman. She had to be a young woman. I figure probably Keturah was in her 20s when he married her, and he’s over 100. Why do I think she was in her 20s? Well, because he had six more sons. And I don’t know if he had daughters in that mix as well, but he definitely had six more sons before he died at the ripe old age of 175. Quite a man, wasn’t he? The story continues in Genesis 25. Then Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah. And she bare him Zimran, Jokshan, Midan, Midian, Ishbak, Shua. All these were the children of Keturah. Now here’s where the problem begins to come in. In verse 5, Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac. But to the sons of the concubines which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts and sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived eastward into the east country. So Abraham is still alive, and all these boys and all their grandkids and all the people and all the people who might have otherwise been heirs of Abraham were all sent away from Isaac, Abraham’s son. While Abraham was still alive into the East Country, and Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac. Now, when you consider the wealth of this man, you might spare a little thought to the jealousies created by sending all of his sons away except one, and the resentment that followed. The passage of time has dimmed the memories of who’s who in the Middle East. I don’t know that anyone can really tell you which of the various Arab or other tribes in that part of the world are the descendants of which of the sons of Abraham. But the old hatreds are still as bright as they were 3,000 years ago. Everyone may have forgotten the original jealousies, but no one forgets the hatreds. The Middle East peace process, as people call it today, is a band-aid on a 3,000-year-old gaping wound, and it is not going to be easily healed. And these are the days of Abraham’s life which he lived, a hundred, threescore, and fifteen years. Then Abraham gave up the ghost and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, 175 of them, and was gathered to his people. And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar. The field that Abraham purchased from the sons of Heth, there was Abraham buried with Sarah his wife. And it came to pass after the death of Abraham that God blessed his son Isaac, and Isaac dwelt by the well of Hira. Now what’s interesting about this little passage here is that Isaac and Ishmael were together at the funeral of their father and his burying. One might wonder if they made any peace in what they might have said to each other. But after that, they separated, and as far as we know, they never met again. Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebekah to wife, and Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife because she was barren, and the Lord listened to him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. You know, it’s a curious fact that many of the great men of the Bible were miraculous births in that their mothers were infertile and couldn’t have children. It took a miracle to bring them into the world, and they were born in most cases to older mothers. It’s really surprising how frequently that seems to happen. Well, anyway, while she was pregnant, the children struggled together inside of her. And she said, why is this happening? Why am I this way? And she went to inquire of the Lord. And the Lord said to her, two nations are in your womb. Two manners of people shall be separated from your bowels. She had twins. She was carrying twins. And yet it says they’re going to become two manner of people. And the one people shall be stronger than the other people. And the older? shall serve the younger. Now, there’s not much in it in the birth of twins, you know. One of them comes out, and then a few minutes later, the other one comes out. But in the Middle East at this time, and under the laws of inheritance, that was very important, and the order was very important, because the older son had the birthright from the father. Rebekah is carrying twins, and the irony of this story is they were fighting before they were even born. It would take incredible naivete to assume that you could make peace between two men who were born to fight, who were fighting before they were born. I think about this every time I hear that someone is trying to act as a peacemaker in the Middle East. Because in the Middle East, the peace process can kill more people than the festering low-grade war that seems always to be there.
SPEAKER 01 :
I’ll be back in a moment with the rest of this story. You already know that biblical prophecy can be hard to understand. What you may not know is that without a grasp of history, it is next to impossible. Write for a free introductory program in our series on history and prophecy. It will open up a whole new world of Bible study. Write to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. Or call toll free 1-888-BIBLE-44.
SPEAKER 02 :
And when Rebecca’s days to be delivered came around, behold, there were twins in her womb. And the first came out red, all over like a hairy garment. And he called his name Esau, which means rough. It’s hard to imagine, looking back, just how hairy this young man was as he grew up. His skin was almost like a goat because of the hair that was on it. After that, his brother came out, and his hand took hold of Esau’s heel, and his name was called Jacob. And Isaac was 60 years old when these boys were born. And the boys grew. Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field, rough man. And Jacob was a plain man, a smooth man, dwelling in tents. Isaac loved Esau because he liked venison, and Esau brought in a lot from the hunt. But Rebekah, well, Rebekah loved Jacob. And so any hope that these two boys would not continue the war they began in the womb was lost in parental favoritism. But the worst, well, the worst was yet to come. Esau was a hunter, but Jacob, Jacob was a good cook. And one day he was making his own version of a hot pot, a Middle Eastern version of Texas red, shall we say. When Esau came in from the field, he’d been hunting, and he hadn’t eaten and was starving. And he said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with some of this red soup, for I am hungry, I’m faint. And they called his name Red, actually, from that day forward. Red is Edom, and the names Esau and Edom in the Scriptures, in prophecy in particular, are synonymous. His name Esau meant rough. His nickname was Red from the red soup he ate on this day, which turned out to be pivotal as it happens. Now Esau, as the first twin out of the womb, had the birthright. What this meant was that the basic promises God gave to Abraham and all the inheritance of Abraham would naturally have been his. Jacob understood the implications of this, and he wanted to cut a deal. He didn’t much like the second son’s portion in the inheritance. So Jacob said, “‘Sell me this day your birthright.’ And Esau said, “‘Look at me, I’m on the point to die, and what use will the birthright be to me if I die?’ And Jacob said, “‘Swear to me this day.’ And he swore to him, and he sold his birthright to Jacob.” And Jacob gave Esau bread and a pottage of lentils, this lentil soup. I presume it was red because perhaps of the red peppers in it. And he did eat and drink and rose up and went away. Thus, Esau despised his birthright. Now, lest you think that Jacob took advantage of a man who was actually starving, Esau was still on his feet. He could have found himself something to eat. And if it hadn’t been so, the story would not conclude with the phrase, Thus Esau despised his birthright. The writer of the book of Hebrews takes note of this event, and he says in chapter 12, verse 14, Follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled. lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. You know how afterward, when he wanted the blessing, he was rejected. He found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. It was a point of no return for him, and out of it came a root of bitterness and that is with us to this day, and many have been hurt by it. Now, we’ve got one more player in the hot red stew of the Middle East, and one more ancient hatred that will not go away. One wonders, when you look at the Middle East, which of these players are the sons of Esau. The story continues in Genesis 26. There was a famine in the land beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech, the king of the Philistines, unto Gerar. Actually, he does the same thing his father did earlier when he went down to probably Abimelech’s father who had the same name. And the Lord appeared to him and says, don’t go down to Egypt. Stay in the land that I’m telling you of. Now, first it was Abraham who was very careful that Isaac not abandon the land he had been given. Now God tells him, maintain your homestead. Don’t go out of this land. Don’t go to Egypt. Stay right here. Sojourn in this land and I will be with you and I will bless you. For unto you and unto your seed I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham by your father. I’ll make your seed to multiply as the stars of heaven. I’ll give unto your seed all these countries, and in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. You know, this is really interesting when he says this, and New Testament writers see this obviously as a reference to the Messiah. But the fact is, right from the beginning, if you think of how Isaac himself would have understood this particular statement, that in his children, in his descendants, there would go out a blessing to all the world, that it was the responsibility of Isaac and his descendants to to be good to the world, to bless the world, to give to the world, to show God to the world, which is the ultimate blessing. Now, why was God going to do all this for Isaac? It’s true that Abraham found grace in the eyes of the Lord and that the covenant God made with him was because Abraham believed God and he accounted it to him for righteousness. All that is true. But there was another element in this, this particular blessing that came forth. He says all this is going to happen because Abraham obeyed my voice, kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. Now, this is interesting because it implies not merely a general commandment keeping, but a known system of law. And there is every reason to believe that this system of law was not much different from the one described by the law of Moses. And here’s one more thing for you to think about in all of this. That one of the greatest blessings that God has ever given to the world is a system of law. Because without it, you don’t have the knowledge of right and wrong. You don’t have a knowledge of where to go. And you have to stop and think for a moment how much of our code of law is actually based on biblical law. How much of that has found its way into English common law, consequently to our Constitution, and our laws and our way of life? that the blessing of God that came to us came because Abraham obeyed my voice, kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws, and Abraham passed them on to his sons, they to their sons’ sons, and down through all generations of man. And those nations that follow those laws, in whatever measure they follow them, are blessed by having those laws under which they live. Isaac dwelt in Gerar, and while he was there, the men of the place asked him about his wife. We’ve got a similar situation going on here to one his father Abraham had another time. And I have no question that Isaac had heard the story. He didn’t learn from it, but he’d heard it. And he said, she’s my sister. We feared to say she is my wife, lest, said he, the men of the place would kill me for Rebecca because she was fair to look upon. You know, she must have been incredible because the servant, you know, that went up to find her and bring her back to be his wife in the first place took a double take real fast on her and says, this must be the gal that I want to take back for my master’s wife. And she’s still a real looker when he goes down here. Well, it came to pass, when he’d been there for quite a long time, one day Abimelech, the king of the Philistines, wandered over and looked out of his window, but perchance, and he saw, and behold, look there, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah, his wife. I don’t know what sporting means exactly, but whatever it was, Abimelech said, a man doesn’t do that with his sister. He called Isaac and said, I can see that woman is your wife. How did you say she’s my sister? And Isaac said plainly, I was afraid I’d die for her. And Abimelech said, What have you done to us? One of the people might lightly have lie in with your wife, and you should have brought guiltiness upon us. Now, what’s interesting to me is that these are the same people that Abraham lied to about his wife, and that these are God-fearing people. They were amoral people to whom adultery was unacceptable behavior. Now, premarital sex didn’t seem to bother them a lot, but the violation of the marriage contract was another matter altogether. Marriage is a covenant. It’s a contract. And the violation of that contract is just simply not acceptable. Well, Abimelech charged all of his people, saying, Anyone that touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death. So Isaac sowed seed in that land and received in the same year a hundredfold. And the Lord blessed him. And the man waxed great and went forward and grew until he became very great. for he had possession of flocks and herds and a great army of servants, and the Philistines were jealous of him. Now we can toss another element into the witch’s brew that is Middle East politics, sheer envy. And to this day, this is something that drives the Palestinians crazy. Not only have the Israelis stolen their land, they think, they are making the land produce and are getting rich off of it. Any surprise of the hatreds that exist in that corner of the world? Stay with me.
SPEAKER 01 :
I’ll be right back after this message. For a free CD of this radio program that you can share with friends and others, write or call this week only. Write to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. Or call toll free 1-888-BIBLE-44. And tell us the call letters of this radio station.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, the troubles were really beginning to be a problem as he got richer and richer and the Philistines were more and more jealous. It got to where every time he had dug a well somewhere, the Philistines would stop him up and fill him with dirt. Finally, Abimelech says to Isaac, Look, you’d better move away from us because you’re just getting to be too much stronger than we are. So Isaac departed there and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar and dwelt there. And he dug again the wells of waters that they dug in the days of Abraham his father, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham. And he called their names after the names his father had called them. And Isaac’s servants dug in the valley, and they found there an artesian well, beautiful well. And the herdmen there went to fighting with Isaac’s herdmen, saying, This water is ours. And they called it Ezek, because they fought there. I mean, just wherever you go. Fighting over wells. One thing you do notice, by the way, is a little byplay in all this, that water was really important in this part of the world, even back then, which is not surprising. Wells were crucial to feed the flocks, to water the flocks, and they were things to fight over. Well, they dug another well, and they fought about that one also, and he called it Sitna. And he moved away from there and dug another well, and finally they had dug a well that no one wanted to fight about, and he called the name of it Rehoboth. And he said, For now the Lord has made room for us, and we’ll be fruitful in this land. You know, I have to appreciate Isaac because Isaac was a powerful man. He had an army of servants, and he could have stomped the daylights out of most of these people. But when they fought, he just moved on. And finally, he went up to Beersheba. And the Lord appeared to him in the same night and said, I’m the God of Abraham, your father. I don’t want you to be afraid because I’m with you. I’m going to bless you. I’m going to multiply your children for my servant Abraham’s sake. And Isaac built an altar there, and he called upon the name of the Lord and pitched his tent there. And there his servants dug a well. Well, just everywhere he goes, you have to dig a well. Well, finally, Abimelech came up to him and huzzahed with one of his friends and the chief captain of his army. And Isaac said, why are you coming to me? Seeing you hate me and you sent me away, you don’t want me around. What are you coming up here for? And they said, well, we saw certainly that the Lord was with you. And they used the word Yahweh here. We saw that Yehovah was with you. And we said, there needs to be an oath between us. And between us and you, we need to make a covenant with you that you won’t do us any hurt. As we have not touched you, we have not done you anything but good. And we sent you away in peace. And you’re now obviously blessed of the Lord. And Isaac made them a feast, and they ate, and they drank. And they rose up in the morning, and they swore to one another. And Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace. This feast, this eating and drinking, is all an important part of the covenant, where they shared the flesh of a sacrificial animal in the process of eating this, and that actually seals the covenant between them. So they have an agreement, a covenant, and from now on they’re going to live in peace. It came to pass that same day that Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well they had dug and said, We found water. So he called it Sheba, and the name of the city is Beersheba to this day. And so every time in the Bible you run across this, and it becomes a landmark, by the way, in the Bible. It’s often referred to as a geographical landmark. You know where it was. It was in the south of Judah. And you know why it was. It was a well called Sheba where they found water right after that covenant. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Jacob’s brother Esau had married. Esau was 40 years old when he took to wife Judith, the daughter of Berai the Hittite, and another woman named Bashemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite. He took two young women as wives, both of whom were Hittites, which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and Rebekah. We really don’t know why. Of course, you always have in-law problems, but there seems to have been a singular problem here. The cultural differences with the Hittite people were surely a part of this, but so were the religious differences. And this is one of the key elements of God as he brings Israel out of Egypt eventually and tells them, don’t make marriages with these people around you. And the problem was not racial. The problem was religious because of the terrible religious differences between them and the terrible religious practices of the Canaanites. But it sets up one of the really great stories of the Bible. The battle between Jacob and Esau went on through their lives, even to the point of deceptively obtaining the blessing from his father at a later time. After this, and after Esau learns of it and is absolutely furious about it, Rebekah was scared to death that Esau would kill Jacob. She said, Behold, your brother Esau, as touching you, does comfort himself, purposing to kill you. So Rebekah went and said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth, the Hittite girls. If Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth, like these that Esau has taken, my life will be no good to me at all.
SPEAKER 01 :
But that’s a story for another day. The Born to Win radio program with Ronald L. Dart is sponsored by Christian Educational Ministries and made possible by donations from listeners like you. If you can help, please send your donation to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. You may call us at 1-888-BIBLE44 and visit us online at borntowin.net.
