Day 342 Swords of Iron – “Some of our Neighborhood History”
Chaim starts the video by saying that he’s at the Philidelphi Corridor near the Rafah Crossing between Gaza and Egypt and it’s necessary to constantly pay attention because there’s so much going on. There’s constant gunfire and explosions. Chaim also mentions the helicopter which the IDF sent to rescue a wounded soldier but instead, it crashed, killing two of the crew and wounding several others.
He says that at the Aliyah Return Center on Kibbutz Zerra in the Galilee he’s watching amazing things happen too. This includes the miracle of Israel where in school the children study all the different languages, cultures and religious traditions of all the other people in this country.
There are many other ways that Israel is a multi-cultural society.
Chaim contrasts this with Iran, which is a Shi’ite Moslem-dominated society and he wonders aloud why the regime there is so upset about the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, a Sunni Arab who was the leader of Hamas’ political bureau.
Chaim says he wants to back up for a moment and talk about a promise God made to Abraham in Genesis 17:15-21; Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. And I will bless her and also give you a son by her; then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be from her.” Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” And Abraham said to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!”
Then God said: “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year.”
Chaim says there were 12 Imams in Shi’ite Islam, and he gives some of the history of how Shi’ite Islam was a schism from Sunni Islam because of events that occurred in the late 7th Century in what is today Iraq.
Sunnis and Shi’ites have been clashing for centuries, and there have also been clashes within these two camps. The history of the Middle East is very violent, with many wars, blood feuds and clashes between and within various factions.
But Israel is a uniting factor because opposition to a Jewish State with its capital in Jerusalem is something all these warring factions can agree on.
The Shi’ite vision of the End of Days includes the 12 Imam returning from a trip he took down a well in what is today Saudi Arabia several hundred years ago. He will bring redemption to the world, in this narrative, by destroying all the enemies of Islam and forming a global caliphate.
But Chaim says there’s a different narrative about the Messiah who will bring redemption to the world, and Israel is prophesied to play a central role in this process. In this context, he quotes Ezekial 28: 25-26; ‘Thus says the Lord God: “When I have gathered the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and am hallowed in them in the sight of the Gentiles, then they will dwell in their own land which I gave to My servant Jacob. 26 And they will dwell [c]safely there, build houses, and plant vineyards; yes, they will dwell securely, when I execute judgments on all those around them who despise them. Then they shall know that I am the Lord their God.” ’ ”
The clashes in the Middle East are, as Chaim says, about far more than land, or refugees, or any of the other things that so often get talked about. The real heart of the conflict is about whose narrative is correct. The existence of Israel as a sovereign Jewish state with political control over the city of Jerusalem calls all the non-Biblical narratives into question.
But Chaim says that narratives aside, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is in fact keeping His promises.
He concludes by quoting Zechariah 8:7; “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Behold, I will save My people from the land of the east and from the land of the west; I will bring them back, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. They shall be My people and I will be their God, in truth and righteousness.’
