The Story beneath the stories
of the Gaza war, and the Israeli response to Hamas’ unwavering commitment to kill every Jew on the planet (plus, eventually, all who will not submit to Muhammad’s Allah).
The stories – lower case s – that is, the narratives of the respective combatants, as well those suffering civilians on both sides, are now becoming so polarized that there is little ground for dialogue, or for peace-making. So I shall look beneath these stories to the Story – upper case S – which goes back to the respective deities of these two groups, and the real battleground.
This will take us back to ancient times. I will seek to keep this pithy, avoiding unnecessary historical and theological details. Some folks will not like any God-talk – not believing in such – but these are just facts.
The Jewish people of ancient – Biblical – Israel, were in a covenant relationship with their God, the LORD – in the Hebrew YHWH or Jehovah – and, save for a faithful remnant, rebelled against Him, bringing upon themselves the curses of that covenant, enumerated and described by Moses in his fifth book, Deuteronomy, chapter 28. This rebellion came to a head when Messiah, their God manifest in the flesh (i.e., as a human), came to bring salvation – forgiveness of sin and eternal life – but was rejected by the controlling “religious machine” of those days and put to death. As a result the unbelieving among them were themselves rejected of God, and cut off from the name and the people of God’s believing and faithful Israel.
But the sacrificial death of Messiah had been long prophesied – along with many details of it, centuries before it came to pass, such as Psalm 2, Psalm 22, Isaiah 9, Isaiah 53, etc – that Messiah would be, besides a King, and Prophet (Deuteronomy 18), also High Priest (after the order of Melchizedek, Psalm 110:4). In the role of this latter He would offer a sacrifice for the sins of His elect people, both from the Jews and the Gentiles. The sacrifice would be Himself, as John the Baptist said of Him, “Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
The believing Jews – along with the Gentiles who believed in the true God and in Jesus the Messiah whom He had sent – were the true Israel always approved and beloved of God, now an international spiritual nation no longer tied to the land and the old Mosaic ordinances of worship and polity. This true Israel rejoiced in the New Covenant they were under, which was foretold by the prophet Jeremiah (in his prophecy, chapter 31:31 ff.).
The old unfaithful disgraced Israel’s curses culminated in their removal from the land in 70 A.D. and 135 A.D., by the Roman armies. They were scattered among the nations, no longer under the protection of their God, and suffered greatly under the hand of those who despised them.
The Messiah-rejecting Jews of today – in the 21st century – are still under these curses, as can be seen by their very difficult history up through the years. As the LORD foretold, their sufferings would be great, until and unless they would return to Him.
What we see in Gaza, and in the situation of the Jewish state comprised of the descendants of these rejected and rejecting Jews, is part of this greater underlying Story.
As I have brought God into the picture, I must also bring His and humanity’s adversary into it: the prince of demons, Satan, the old serpent, or devil, for it was he who “inspired” and moved the reprobate Jews to reject and have executed God’s Messiah. They remain – even in our present time – adversaries of God, continuing to side with the devil in our own day, though – being spiritually blind – they do not see this. These present troubles the Jews are in now is part of the curse of the abandonment of their God, He no longer with them to protect them. The Deuteronomic curses pronounced upon them are fierce and continuing.
And the Islamists who are attacking them – and the Palestinian people under them being attacked back in return? – what of these? A saying of Isaiah the prophet applies here: “For the leaders of this people [of Israel] cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed” (Isaiah 9:16). While this certainly applied to the Jews – their rabbis and teachers – it also applies to the Gazan civilians: their leaders deceive them and lead them into destruction. This dynamic is played out in many nations, to the peril of their respective peoples.
The murderous and genocidal jihadists are under a different curse, the curse upon the demon prince, Satan, who was a murderer and a liar from the beginning, and destined to be in the Lake of Fire – the repository of the wrath of God – at the Judgment. For the Allah of Muhammad is the demon prince Satan; it was not Gabriel who spoke to Muhammad in the cave of Hira, but the demon (as Muhammad correctly suspected and feared until someone close to his first wife Khadija persuaded him otherwise).
At any rate, this is the Story underneath the more superficial stories of what we see happening on the Gaza coast of the Mediterranean Sea.
We have two demonic entities – one a peoples once God’s but now in rebellion and disowned by Him for siding with the demon, and another openly demonic by the fruits of murder and wanton genocide they openly display. How will this contest turn out?
That cannot be seen yet, but it does not bode well for either, nor for the larger world looking on. Iran is on the verge of nuclear capability, yearning to lob a nuke into Jerusalem or Tel Aviv, and other nuclear powers increasingly hostile to the main supporter of the Jewish State, the U.S. (the U.S. is another story entirely!), there are many also yearning to destroy her! It remains to be seen how this will play out as well.
I should mention that part of the larger Story is what is called Armageddon – and I shall speak of it in its Biblical and precise definition – which is the final War of all wars, wherein all those who name the name of Jesus Christ will be targeted for destruction on a global scale – and likely many Jews along with them. There will no doubt be nuclear exchanges on a massive scale, the U.S. by far getting the worst of it – seeing as she is the prime candidate for the one designated in the book of Revelation as the headquarters nation of what is called global Harlot Babylon, those nations and peoples of the world opposing God and His people.
I’m sorry for all this bad news, but what can a Poet do when the Apocalypse is upon us but speak the truth!? The word apocalypse means in the original Greek of the New Testament, uncovering, or revelation – and refers to the entire New Testament age. As we are nearing the end of the of that age I should say we are in the latter days of the apocalypse – the revelation of what is to transpire according the prophecies of God in His book.
There is no safe place from these things that are to come upon the earth, save one: having made peace with God, in forsaking our sinful ways and receiving of Him forgiveness of sin and eternal life, through Christ Jesus His Son, so that death is no enemy, but an entrance into His presence. Please, my readers, seek this safety in these tumultuous times of judgments coming upon the nations, some far more severe than others. Our final breaths are the seals of our eternal destinations. For those still breathing there is still time to ask for mercy, and to be sealed unto a good and joyous everlasting destination by the mighty Saviour.