The start of tensions in the Middle East

All through Genesis there was rivalry and hostility. This rivalry occured between Abraham’s herdsmen and Lot’s herdsmen, between Isaac and Ishmael and again between Esau and Jacob.

Let’s look at the ‘family tree’ of these people:-

So we can see that the Jews and Arabs are closely related. We shall now have a look at some of the Bible prophecies about these people.

The seeds of the hostility between Arabs and Jews can be seen here when Abraham gave his inheritance to Isaac and sent his other sons, including Ishmael, away. It is interesting to note that he sent them eastward, which is still the position of the Arabs relative to Israel today.

When Rebekah was expecting Esau and Jacob, she was told that there would be a struggle between the nations that would develop from the twins.

The rivalry continued after Isaac had given the blessing to Jacob. Isaac gave Esau a lesser blessing.

We meet the conflict between Esau and Jacob at various stages through the Old Testament. If we bear in mind that Esau was also known as Edom (Genesis 36 v 19), we see it in the following passages:

The fascinating thing for us is that this hatred has continued in the descendants of these men right down to our age. The tensions in the Middle East between Israel and the Arabs are a result of this. There have been great efforts to achieve peace in the Middle East, which have been successful to a degree, but the basic suspicion still exists between the nations involved. We are not interested in the politics of the Middle East situation as such, but see in them a remarkable fulfilment of Bible prophecy.

This is one more piece of evidence (in addition to those we looked at in Session 3 and Session 5 of the first course) given to us by God to encourage our faith in Him.