Current Events Monday: The Middle East Conflict
Our regular Monday Devotional has been revamped as “Current Events Monday.” Each week we will examine critically and theologically an event (or events) and ways we can apply biblical wisdom to everyday life. The goal of these articles is to encourage, convict, and to inspire biblically-centered thinking and acting with regard to some of the more visible and important topics of our contemporary culture. There is no intention to take a political bent or bias on this blog, but rather the hope is that we can be prompted to rise above some of the popular, divisive rhetoric in order to get a fuller understanding of ways to promote Christlikeness in the discernment of complex issues.
Today, we consider the ongoing conflict and rising tension in Israel.
The violence we witness today in the Middle East is certainly nothing new. The conflicts playing out in the news each day are rooted in centuries (and perhaps millennia) old tensions regarding religion and race. It is somewhat easy to find hundreds, if not thousands, of articles and books to explain the complexities of the conflict between Arab Muslims and Israeli Jews—so we will not get into the high weeds of the conflict’s history here. We will however bring up an important biblical truth which not only affects people living in Israel today but also impacts life in our own zip code.
Dating back to the sinful experience of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3), human beings have been obsessed either with becoming gods or at least being God-like. Notice that the serpent tempted both Adam and Eve (and us) to consider their supposed finiteness and insufficiency, implying that God was holding them back from experiencing the good life. The Man was supposedly keeping them down! Adam and Eve bought into the serpent’s lies, ate the fruit, and the rest is history.
Ever since this fall into sin, humankind has bucked against each other and God. In fact, Paul once likened our sinful rebelliousness to “kicking against the goads” (Acts 26:14). In ancient times, farmers would use iron rods known as goads to tap oxen into plowing in the right direction. The oxen however were famous, or infamous, for kicking against these goads in order to go their own way.
If individuals kick against the goads, then so do entire nations. The pride of nations is usually based upon efforts to extract meaning in life from the standpoint of some sort of virtue or achievement. In other words, nations say, “The more power we have over others, then the more virtuous we are. The more virtuous we are, then the more we will find meaning and happiness in life.” In the case of Middle East conflict, it appears as thought people are trying to achieve not only their virtuous version of freedom but also of controlling the land which they deem as being God-given. The very attempt at achieving these ends however both confuses and corrupts the true meaning of life which they are looking for in the first place.
When we begin to understand the ways in which we have kicked against the goads and the utter futility of achieving our own god-like status, we then become open to a power beyond ourselves. In both the Bible and in human history, we’ve seen clearly that the true end of life is completed and fulfilled in Christ. His grace becomes the power which is made perfect in our weakness, not in our bombs.
We indeed must pray today for the conflicting nations and organizations in the Middle East to come to Christ. Consider also our own ways of kicking against the goads. Is there a conflict happening between you and another based on pride? How may the conflict be solved by bowing to the Lord in submission and humility? How may you find strength in your humble weakness before Jesus? Are you willing to forsake all to follow Jesus?
For an in-depth, factual report about the background and complexities of the current conflict, please see the following article: In rocket war ‘for Al-Aqsa,’ Hamas has already won the Palestinian leadership | The Times of Israel