Greetings! IN a way there is a question. I have nothing against any religion or lack thereof, though I am trained to understand the effects that practicing religious ideas (or not) has on people. The question is this - How can anyone rightly involve God as being on "their side" if they themselves are not on His side? The history of the nation and people of Israel, as written in the Old Testament, or Torah/Prophets/Writings is all about the relationship that the chosen people of Israel kept, or failed to keep, with their God. When they did His will, He made them invincible, and when they strayed, he meekly left them to themselves, and they got pounded by outside forces until they repented of their going astray, at which time He came back to them with such great love.
This is an axiom that is not only true for the Jewish believers of Israel and anywhere else, but for Christians as well, since we see ourselves as grafted into the Israel of God, as St Paul writes. Israel has never ceased to have paramount importance in either faith, but "Israel" is not neccesarily a piece of land with fixed geographical boundaries. It is the people that are the nation. God can do anything with any land He wants - He made it all, and the locations are not the point as much as the people are.
And, when I see nowadays, things like this sign someone is holding up "The land of the Bible belongs to the people of the Bible" it is patently NOT true. God had no problem letting Israel know that if they strayed from His ways that He would let them lose their land that He gave them. It has never really been Israel's divine right to hold that piece of land, it is, rather, contingent upon their relationship with God.
When we see modern day Y'israel (right?) that largely does not even try to follow the Sabbath and the commandments that are STILL a part of Judaism, and instead espouse a way of life that makes America look virtuous by contrast, and THEN have the audacity to bring God into the claims that they have some sort of right to that territory, well, I am sorry, this just smacks of arrogance to me. Now, to be sure, there are the Orthodox Jewish people making a go of life there, and they seem to be dedicated, and perhaps for their sake God preserves their land. But even then, the nation as a whole fails to learn from the lessons of the Holocaust that eventually led them to that region in the first place. The Nazis treated Jews in a way that can only be thought of as evil. But is it any better for 3-5 million people to be displaced, kicked out of their homes and jobs and utterly cut off from their own livelihood, so that the returning Jewish people can have a homeland? The American Indians were rather resentful of the white man forcing them off their lands, why should the Palestinians be any different? Where's the following of the Old Testament commandments to be kind and hospitable to foreigners in the midst of your country? The Christians and Muslims in Palestinian lands are not the same as the pagans of Canaan.
I realize this may only inflame a lot of people, and that is not my intent, and I am sorry if it is an offense, but these things have got to be looked at if there is going to be any real peace. Make easy terms with Terrorists? Never. But to think about what was done to you and to strive to never let yourself or anyone else do that again? Uh, yeah! I hope!!
May God bless the people, believers and non believers, of all faiths and non-faiths, who live in the Holy Land, and may He bring all of us to know Him as God. May your lives be blessed with wisdom and peace, and hopefully, a moving away from rhetoric and dangerous ignorace...
God bless!
Seraphim
