The 4000 Year War Series

The 4000-year war

CCCAG 10-22-23

Scripture- Gen 16

Introduction

Last week we asked the question, “Are we living in the end times” and then looked at what the people and the culture would look like as we approached the end times.

This morning, we are going to look back in time so that we have an understanding of the history of what is going on in Israel today.

Many of you might not realize that this fight between the Jewish people and the Arabs is not a recent development. This did not start in 1948 with the United Nations granting the land of Palestine, as it was called then, to those of Jewish descent after the holocaust.

The land given to Israel wasn’t a large section of land- a skinny little parcel that hugged the Mediterranean Sea and the mountains that run down the middle of that country. In area, it was about ¼ to 1/3 of what Israel had been in bible times

Then in 1967, an alliance of Arab nations, primarily Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon who were all financially backed by Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Pakistan attacked and attempted to wipe out Israel. This alliance of Arab nations was crushed by the Israeli military, and in the ensuing battle Israel took a lot of land- creating a border that had not existed since the time of King David.

After the 1967 war, in an effort to keep the peace they had earned, Israel ended up giving some of that land back- most notably it gave the entire Sinai Peninsula back to Egypt, but kept the area around Gaza.

It also kept what is known as the West Bank which is an area on the west side of the Jordan River. The United Nations still considers Gaza and the West Bank of the Jordan river to be “disputed territory”.

That’s the wars that have happened in many of our lifetimes, but this conflict It actually goes back much further in history.

Back beyond 1948, back beyond even the crusades of the Middle Ages.

Back before Jesus was walking this earth.

In fact, to discover the origins of this conflict, we have to go all the way back to Genesis and the Father of our Faith, Abraham to see where all of this started.

So let’s talk a little about Abraham.

Abraham is called by God to travel to what is now modern Israel.

God makes a covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15.

Let’s talk about this word covenant for a moment-

If you don’t know what a covenant is, it’s a formal contractual promise between two individuals.

There are two basic types of covenants in the bible- conditional and unconditional.

Conditional covenants requires actions from both parties involved in the covenant. In today’s terms, this would be like a mortgage on a home- the borrower of the money promises to give you the money, you promise to pay it back with interest.

Unconditional covenants are those who the greater of the two parties promises to do something for the person with who they are entering into this promise. It is also called a royal grant covenant- where a king gives a reward to a faithful subject for a service rendered, and that covenant is irrevocable because it’s based on the word and promise of the King HIMself.

In this covenant, God promised to bless him, and give him so many descendants that they will not be able to be numbered.

In essence, this covenant was a reward. It was based on Abraham believing the word of God to him. As Genesis 15:6 stated, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.

God was so impressed by Abraham’s faith, that He gave Him this promise, and the promise was that Abraham’s descendants would be innumerable, like the stars in the sky.

Abraham questioned how God was going to do that, since he had no children, and his wife Sarah was barren, and they were well past childbearing years.

God assured Abraham that this would come to pass.

However, a year went by. No child

Then another year went by. No child.

5 years go by, still no child.

10 years go by….now they are starting to sweat a little. After all, Abraham is now 85 years old, and Sarah is 75 years old. Even in bible times, Sarah is well past childbearing years.

They keep staring at the nursery they built, and seeing that there is a lot of dust accumulating on the cradle.

So, they decide to help out God a little. This is the beginning of the conflict we see today.

Gen 16:1-4

Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; 2 so she said to Abram, "The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her."