Abraham's Covenant and Conflict...Cauldron Part No 2

Today’s problems in the region we call the Holy Land cannot be ignored or put on the back burner. They are in-your-face, everyday news. Hundreds of reports coming from that area weekly could be used to make the point. Israel and its neighbors are rumbling toward war!

The following news excerpt vividly illustrates that fact. The report is from a former insider of the Iranian regime. Reza Kahlili was in the CIA directorate of operations working as a spy in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. As of this writing, he serves on the Task Force on National and Homeland Security, an advisory board to Congress, and on the advisory board of the Foundation for Democracy in Iran (FDI).

Iranian scientists are working on nuclear warheads—and trying to perfect them—at an underground site unknown to the West, according to a high-ranking intelligence officer of the Islamic regime.…

The site, approximately 14 miles long and 7.5 miles wide, consists of two facilities built deep into a mountain along with a missile facility that is surrounded by barbed wire, 45 security towers and several security posts.

The new secret nuclear site, named Quds (Jerusalem), is almost 15 miles from another site, previously secret but exposed in 2009, the Fordow nuclear facility.…

Quds, built about 375 feet under the mountain and accessible by two large entrances reinforced with concrete, has 12 emergency exit tunnels and spreads around the mountain.

The site has a capacity of 8,000 centrifuges and currently has three operational chambers with 19 cascades of 170 to 174 centrifuges enriching uranium….

One chamber is specifically allocated to laser enrichment research and development, and Iranian scientists have seen great progress, the source said.…

Moreover, the source said, successfully making a neutron reflector indicates the final stages for a nuclear weapons design that would be a two-stage, more sophisticated and much more powerful nuclear bomb.

Regime scientists are also working on a plutonium bomb as a second path to becoming nuclear-armed, the source said, and they have at this site 24 kilograms of plutonium, which is sufficient for several atomic bombs.

The scientists are at the last stage of putting together a bomb warhead, he said, and the scientists in their design for a plutonium bomb are using polonium and beryllium, which would serve as the trigger for the bomb.

Iranian scientists, aided by North Koreans, are also working on new ways to have more miniaturized and more powerful atomic bombs, he said.…

The regime is working on 17 Shahab 3 missiles in preparation of arming them with nuclear warheads, the source said. The operational and technical aspect of the delivery system is 80 percent completed, he said.

The regime, aided by North Korea, is also working on neutron warheads that could be used as super EMP weapons for electromagnetic pulse attacks.[i]

Penalty for Premature Paternity

The prophetic issue of war and peace in the Middle East, as explained in the upcoming book Cauldron, began with the angelic rebellion in heaven. Sin then entered the human world at the Fall in the Garden of Eden. But the conflict really picked up steam when the great patriarch, Abraham, stepped onto the stage of human history.

God’s plan is always the right plan. His is always the perfect plan. That was true when He created the angelic hosts. It was true when He created the man and the woman in Eden. It was also true when He promised Abram that he would father a great family through his wife, Sarai.

Sin is terrible because it altered God’s perfection. The “lawlessness” we’ve been talking about has continued to interfere with God’s perfect plan down through history. After Lucifer determined to do things his way rather than God’s way and Adam disobeyed, choosing to do what he considered was best, the Bible record shows that mankind continued to grow worse and worse until the Lord had to destroy all but Noah and his family with the Great Flood. Abram and Sarai continued the long line of disobedient acts committed by fallen men and women. Rather than wait on God’s precise timing to do its work, they acted on their own. We are living with the consequences of their sin thousands of years later. In fact, notes Hal Lindsey, “the current crisis in the Middle East originated in a feud that began in the tents of Abraham—the father of both Ishmael and Isaac.”[ii]

High Price of Disobedience

Jesus once said that among men, no one was greater than John the Baptist. Abram, who would later be renamed Abraham, surely was in John’s class in God’s view, because He trusted him to father God’s chosen people, the children of Israel.

But even the greatest of men and women are fatally flawed because of their fallen nature. Such is the case of the great father of God’s chosen people. Despite his deep love for God, Abram jumped the gun in the matter of God’s plan for him and Sarai. The couple’s disobedience was so serious that fighting and struggles have plagued the world ever since.

Journey for Jehovah

“Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee” (Genesis 12:1). When God gave Abram these instructions, the seventy-five-year-old man faithfully did as he was told. He always obeyed his much-beloved God, who had never failed him. He, Sarai, his nephew, Lot, and their families packed up all they possessed and went into the land the Lord showed him: Canaan. The images of the Middle Eastern landscape we see daily in news coverage of the region make it easy to envision the scenario as the ancient troupe set off on their journey:

Shepherds looking north and east from what are now called the Golan Heights might have seen the first Hebrew scouts coming over a range of low hills. Herdsmen followed with sheep and goats, then came pack donkeys with the women and children, heading south towards Canaan. They wore brightly coloured tunics, knee-length for men, slightly longer for the women. Men wore sandals or went barefoot, the women leather shoes. Most of the adult males had neatly trimmed beards and hair hanging to the neck; the women’s tresses flowed down their backs.

When these nomads camped, they grouped round a tent belonging to…Abram, later to be known as Abraham. He was leaving behind the clan of his father and brothers at Ur in southern Mesopotamia and migrating into unknown territory.

Abraham’s journey launched the history of the new Hebrew people, a moment of incalculable consequence for the world. Leaving the Euphrates valley with its dark, thick-walled houses, Abraham’s growing clan moved to the dry but open wilderness and pasture land of Canaan.[iii]

The journey, though monumental to the travelers in distance, scope, and risk, would eventuate in absolutely spectacular results. Genesis 12:2–3 records God’s promise to make of Abram “a great nation.” Further, God stated, “I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

Perhaps the most dramatic truth found in this passage is the prophecy that Abram’s future family would affect the peoples of the whole world throughout the centuries to come. To know that God still curses those who curse Abram’s offspring, we need only to remember what happened to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis of World War II Germany. Hitler committed suicide in total defeat. The Nazis were considered war criminals by the whole world, and most top Nazis were executed. This was the most hated regime of modern times.

And to know that God still blesses those who bless Israel, all we have to do is to consider that America, the nation-state that God used to help bring modern Israel to birth, is to this point in history one of the most spiritually blessed countries, and certainly the most materially blessed nation ever to exist.

Ultimately, Abram—whose name, of course, would later be changed to Abraham—is a blessing to the whole earth in that through his offspring, God brought Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, into the world.

A Patient Heavenly Father

God had promised to bless the world through Abram and his descendants; however, he and Sarai obviously had tried to have children without success. They were very old—and getting older! The great man of God lamented the fact that he couldn’t give God what He wanted: “And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless?… Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir” (Genesis 15:2).

But, God wasn’t worried. His plan hadn’t changed. He patiently, lovingly took Abram aside and asked him to look at the heavens and try to count the stars. That mind-boggling number, the Lord said, would be the head count of his descendants one day.

Abram was still unsure about the matter and asked God for affirmation that He would possess the land. God gave that assurance through a covenant, which is a binding agreement of the most immovable kind. Like God instructed, Abram gathered animals for the covenant process. After putting Abram into a deep sleep, the Lord performed the covenant ritual. Abram had no part in agreeing to the promise, except to accept God’s word on the matter. Then God gave a far-reaching prophecy explaining what would happen in the coming centuries:

1) Abram’s descendants would be away from the Promised Land for four hundred years.

2) They would be greatly mistreated in foreign lands.

3) The Lord would punish the people who mistreated Abram’s descendants.

4) After four hundred years, Abram’s heirs would leave the land of their bondage with very great possessions.

5) Abram would live a long life, then die and go to heaven to join his forefathers.

6) Four generations later, Abram’s descendants would come to the land of promise.

God concluded the covenant by describing the boundaries of the Promised Land as stretching from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates River. “The meaning to Abraham and the early readers of Scripture is clear,” explains theologian John Walvoord in his book, Armageddon, Oil, and the Middle East Crisis. “The land promised was Palestine, stretching from the Sinai Desert north and east to the Euphrates River. This would include all the holdings of present-day Israel, Lebanon, and the West Bank of Jordan, plus substantial portions of Syria, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.”[iv]

Unconditional Covenant

It’s important to emphasize that this covenant God made with Abram was one that nothing and no one could ever break. The promise, or agreement, depended on God’s absolute love and integrity alone and had nothing to do with Israel’s performance.

Abram’s Arranged Affair

Even with the covenant in place and God’s assurance that He would fulfill His promise, the graying Sarai couldn’t seem to ignore her ticking biological clock. Still, there was no child. Sarai began to wonder if she and her husband should put “plan B” in place by asking the couple’s Egyptian handmaid, Hagar, to serve as what we would call today as a surrogate mother. The practice was common and, while it does not excuse ungodly sexual activity during Abram’s generation or any other, the culture at this time often called for such action when a couple couldn’t conceive otherwise. Abram was quick to agree to Sarai’s suggestion to do what they thought was best rather than what God wanted to do through them. Soon, Hagar had conceived a child with her master.

In the Middle East during these times, childlessness was regarded as the most dreaded misfortune a woman could experience. In fact, many believed that happiness could even be measured by the number of children, particularly sons, a couple had. For most women, much of their entire identity and sense of purpose was wrapped up in the ability to bear children. In light of this, Hagar displayed what would have been a typical attitude: Once pregnant with Abram’s child, she haughtily looked down her nose at her barren—at least to this point—mistress. The beginning of the future troubles in the Middle East had begun!

Humiliated by Hagar’s attitude, Sarai grew angry and took out her frustration, no doubt, on the ears of her husband. Abram acted less than a diplomat, telling Sarai to do with Hagar as she wished. Sarai did just that; in fact, she “dealt” so harshly with Hagar that her actions and words sent the pregnant woman packing (Genesis 16:6), foreshadowing things to come. The hostilities would build from this point to become full-blown wars that will continue to boil until Christ returns.

Heavenly Intervention

As Hagar was heading out of town, she had an unusual encounter. An “angel of the Lord” appeared to her in what many scholars believe was a theophany—a supernatural appearance before His birth to Mary in Bethlehem many centuries later. The angel of the Lord told Hagar to repent, or turn from her haughtiness, and trust herself and her unborn child to Sarai for safekeeping. He then made Hagar a great promise, a mixed blessing of great expectation and dire consequences. The great expectation was the promise that her offspring would grow to become a great number of people who would populate many nations. The terrible results of Abram and Sarai getting ahead of God’s plan would be that the fruit of the sin would result in big trouble: Hagar’s baby, to be named Ishmael, would be a “wild man” who would be “against every man,” and “every man’s hand [would be] against him.” He would dwell among his brothers (see Genesis 16:7–12).

Hagar might not have realized exactly what all of the angel of the Lord’s promises meant at this point. The promise of a wonderful future, however, convinced her to pick herself up and return to Abram’s house.

The Birth of a Fierce Family

The description of Ishmael offered by the angel of the Lord quickly propels our thoughts to the Middle East today. What do we know about today’s descendants of Abram and Hagar? Certainly the Arab people are descendants of that long-ago union. This is not a thought that is argued against by the Arab people themselves. They readily claim Abraham as their original father and Hagar as their mother.

That is the fact upon which they base their claim to the land now called Palestine. Many of the Arab authorities claim that Israel—that is, the Jews—is an illegitimate intruder in the area also called the Holy Land. That is why some of the terrorist organizations within the radical Islamic groups call for jihad (holy war) against the tiny nation of Israel.

Very interesting facts about recent history come to the surface when examining the words the angel of the Lord gave Hagar. The Israel-Arab conflict down through history is covered throughout the pages of this book. But we’ll look at that trouble briefly here:

1) The Arabs have lived mostly as nomadic people in the arid lands of the Middle East since the time of Ishmael.

2) The Arabs have been in constant conflict, warring against other peoples and with each other during that history.

3) The Arabs continue to live much like their early ancestors in dress and cultural ways. They remain “wild” in the sense they have not, as a race, conformed to the modern, “civilized” way of life.

4) The Arabs now dwell among their brothers. The prophecy given to Hagar—“And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man”—means the Arabs and the Jews will live in the same region. They are, after all, half-brothers. They will quarrel over the same land, particularly as the end of the age approaches.

“The descendants of Ishmael have been at Isaac’s descendant’s throats for four thousand years now, and their blood feud has smoldered and frequently flamed into war during all that time,” notes Bible scholar and author Hal Lindsey in The Final Battle. “No racial problem in the world can compare with this one in terms of duration and intensity of animosity.”[v]

God Keeps Promise to Hagar

Not only have we seen the prophecy about Ishmael’s descendants being “wild” come to pass; we’ve seen the prediction of their proliferation fulfilled as well. God has absolutely kept His promise to multiply Ishmael’s seed; the great Arab race has exploded in population, dominating the Mideast region and beyond for many hundreds of years. Further, the Arabs have been blessed indeed with great riches. Petroleum brought from beneath the sands has made Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and some other nations there the richest per capita countries in the world.

Sadly, because of the religious and governmental systems in most of the Arab-dominated nations, the masses of people enjoy few of those oil riches. Their dictator-leaders keep the great wealth for themselves.

God-Guaranteed Greatness

Abram had been eighty-six years old when his and Hagar’s son Ishmael was born. Now, at ninety-nine years old, Abram was told an amazing thing by none other than God Himself. As recorded in Genesis 17:1–5, God said that not only was Abram to become a father again; he was going to be a fathermany times over—“I will multiply thee exceedingly” (Genesis 17:2). That is indeed enough to make a man fall on his face! And, that is exactly what Abram did. He lay flat on his face before Almighty God, who also told him many other wonderful things. For example, the name “Abram” was no longer significant enough to proclaim the greatness God was about to invest in him. From now on, he would be known as “Abraham,” which means “the father of many nations.” Kings and entire nations would be born from his line of descendants. The covenant between Abraham and the Creator of all things would, God promised, last forever.

It was a staggering promise Abraham’s God made that day. More than that, the Lord guaranteed that Abraham and all of his descendants would own the land of Canaan forever. That includes all of what is called today the Holy Land.

God then made a second covenant between Abraham and himself, one made binding through the act of circumcision for Abraham and all his male heirs to follow (see Genesis 17:9–14). This covenant differs from the earlier one in that the first covenant was “unconditional”—Abraham and his heirs could do nothing to either keep or break it; God did it all. This later covenant was “conditional,” one that must be entered by Abraham and his heirs. Circumcision also means that those entering that covenant must keep the requirements involved in obedience to God. To do otherwise brings certain judgments as corrective measures. In that sense, it is possible to break this covenant.

New Names for New Fame

Like the name “Abram,” the name “Sarai” was not significant enough to reflect the powerful blessings God was about to bestow upon the couple. So God changed Sarai’s name to “Sarah,” promising to bless the woman who would not only become the mother of a son, but who would become “a mother of nations.” The couple’s new fame would become tremendous on the earth (see Genesis 17:15–16).

Ishmael’s Mocking Brings Strife

Sure enough, twenty-five years after her son’s birth was promised, Sarah became pregnant and delivered Isaac—and this is where we come to the beginnings of the strife between Abraham’s sons. God’s words recorded in Genesis 16:12 describing Ishmael’s character were coming true: Ishmael was a wild young man looking for trouble, and he found it. Isaac was a very young child when Ishmael, about sixteen years old, began to mock the younger boy in threatening tones.

Sarah, obviously upset and angered, told Abraham that Hagar and her son would have to go. Abraham was extremely saddened about having to deal with the situation. The Lord talked with the old father of both boys and comforted him, letting him know that, in this case, Abraham should listen to his wife and do what she wanted him to do. Whether Sarah did it for the right reasons or not, or whether she knew it or not, sending Hagar and young Ishmael away from Isaac was the only way there would be any peace at all in Abraham’s family.

God of Isaac Loves Ishmael

Genesis 21:14 and the verses following describe how Abraham gave Hagar and her son some provisions and sent them out as commanded. The old man’s faith must have been tested greatly by having to watch the pair shuffle away from the protection of his home. But Abraham always believed God and trusted him completely.

The trip proved very difficult for Hagar and her son as they struggled to survive in the wilderness of Beer-sheba. When the supply of water Abraham had packed for them ran dry, just at the moment Hagar was about to give up on her son’s survival—and her own, for that matter—she left the exhausted boy in the shade of a bush. “Let me not see the death of the child” (Genesis 21:16) wept the distraught woman, who was “seemingly alone and without help.”[vi] But she soon learned that she wasn’t alone, nor was she without help. God, who sees all and who hears every cry, came to her, tenderly asked her what was wrong, reaffirmed His promise to make of her son “a great nation” (Genesis 21:18), and then miraculously provided a well of water in the wilderness. How wonderfully personal this time was between Hagar and the Heavenly Father! The God of Isaac also loves Ishmael…by this, we can know He loves us, too.

Sinful disobedience had set the wheels in motion that would cause Abraham to sire sons of strife. Peace will not come to either of Abraham’s two families until the Prince of Peace returns to put down all war on the planet.

Thankfully, many prophetic signals, as we will vividly illustrate in the upcoming book Cauldron will let us know Christ’s return must be very near indeed. Jesus is the only hope for mankind collectively, and He is the only hope for us individually as each of us passes through this life.

One day the great strife will end. There will be peace, not war, in the Middle East and everywhere else. But first there will be a time of Great Trouble, which we will look into in the next entry.

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