Israel Betrayed
The right to the land hidden in archives while propaganda flourished.
I continue to be amazed, though not surprised, at the way Old Testament prophecies speak with razor-sharpness into the 21st century political scene. Take, for example, the modern state of Israel, which has come to accept accusations of wickedness and opposition to building as a way of life. When you think of it, nothing has changed since the days of Ezra nearly 2,500 years ago. Just as now, with unlikely allies such as the United Arab Emirates, ancient Israel had friends in high places.
King Cyrus of Persia not only freed the Jews from captivity in Babylon but also permitted them to rebuild their Temple, even returning the rich furnishings confiscated by Nebuchadnezzar and bolstering their resources with lashings of gold and silver. But there were the inevitable vocal opponents of its reconstruction, just as there are today over plans to extend Jewish sovereignty in parts of Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley. Many even deny Israel’s right to any of the Holy Land.
In Ezra’s day, when Cyrus’s successors succumbed to pressure from Israel’s opponents and the work on God’s house came to a standstill before resuming under the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, the elders of Israel had to remind King Darius of a much earlier decree: “Now if it pleases the king, let a search be made in the royal archives of Babylon to see if King Cyrus did in fact issue a decree to rebuild this house of God in Jerusalem.” (Ezra 5.17)
Cyrus had indeed ordered the Temple restoration; the Lord had ‘moved his heart’ in order to fulfil the word spoken by Jeremiah (Ezra 1.1) – and, for that matter Isaiah, who had twice mentioned the king by name more than a century before he existed1.
San Remo
In the very same way, today’s politicians (especially in Britain) need to rediscover the San Remo Treaty of 1920. A record of the resolution was hidden away in the British war archives for generations until recently unearthed – time enough for Israel’s enemies to successfully spread the now widely accepted propaganda that the Jews have stolen Arab land. Israel’s legitimacy has thus been repeatedly questioned as media outlets and members of parliament have joined forces to rewrite history.
Of course, for those who believe the Bible is God’s word, Israel’s right to their ancient land was spelled out in Genesis 15.18-20, Gen 17.8 and elsewhere. But their ‘earthly deed’ was signed by world leaders (including British Prime Minister David Lloyd George) on the Italian Riviera 100 years ago.
In confirming the intent of the Balfour Declaration of 1917, the Jews were granted all the land from the Mediterranean to the River Jordan (including currently disputed territories), making a nonsense of the oft-heard Palestinian cry, ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free’. In view of the almost total ignorance of this hugely significant treaty’s existence, it’s high time our political leaders were made aware of it and took action to put the record straight in the public square.
An excellent booklet on the background to San Remo, called Pathway for Peace, has been published and can be purchased on the Christian Friends of Israel website at https://www.cfi.org.uk/sanremo-100.2 Why not send one to your MP?
Ezra speaks to us
My prompting to re-read Ezra at this time came from my church where we have started a series of sermons on the book. It’s particularly appropriate, coming as ‘exiles’ start to return from lockdown. And though it’s perfectly acceptable to apply the Word of God to our lives in this way, we need to remember that it was originally addressed to Israel, who should take heart that Ezra’s day is being replicated in the 21st century, which means that there is still hope for Israel. Hope both in being delivered from their enemies and protected by their Lord, who still moves on the hearts of kings, presidents and prime ministers on their behalf.
Cyrus clearly gets this, in recognising that the God of heaven is synonymous with the God of Israel, and that though the Jewish exile was God’s judgment on sin, it was not for the surrounding nations to stick the knife in (Ezekiel 35.15). For that would amount to interference in the family discipline of those who are still God’s chosen people. And so Cyrus responds to the Spirit’s leading by letting the exiles return and rebuild their Temple.
Christians today are called not only to help Jews return to their ancient land (Isaiah 14.2) as San Remo has so helpfully achieved, but also to share the good news of their Messiah with them! (Romans 1.16)
Echoes of ancient times
Notwithstanding the Arab peace deal, regional sabre-rattling continues unabated. And the Beirut blast stands as a warning to all who would malign the people of God. For the truth is that Lebanon has done little to stop the ongoing terrorist activities of Hezbollah, who have established a stranglehold on the country from whose borders they have long aimed their guns at Israel. Backed by Iran, they have for some time threatened to resume their hostile campaign against the world’s only Jewish state, who have connections to the land going back over 3,000 years.
One report states that the ammonium nitrate that caused such devastation to the Lebanese port was owned by Hezbollah who intended to use the material in a war against Israel.3 If this is the case, Lebanon have made a rope from which to hang themselves rather as Haman did in ancient Persia. Tragically, however, thousands of innocent residents were caught in the crossfire, for which the Lebanese authorities must take responsibility for having allowed the terror group the freedom to operate with impunity for so long.
It’s time they recognised that fanatical Islam, not Israel, are their real enemies, which should be obvious from the way their southern neighbours have responded to the explosion by offering aid, as they have repeatedly done in other disaster areas over the years.
Contrary to propaganda voraciously imbibed by the left, Israel does actually believe in loving their neighbours. It’s an Old Testament command (Leviticus 19.18) confirmed by Jesus as a summary of the Law, along with loving God.
It’s all in the book!
So why does much of the Western world continue to act as cheerleaders for those who point weapons at the people who gave them so much, and on whose moral found- ations their civilization has been built?
The Bible, the foundational guide to living on this planet, is now accessible to 5.7 billion people (80% of the world’s population) in their own language4 – thanks to the Jews, who also gave us Jesus, the Saviour of the world, “a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel” (Luke 2.32).
The boiling cauldron of today’s Middle East has echoes of the time when Ezekiel prophesied around the same time as Ezra. Jerusalem lay in ruins and her people had been carried off to Babylon. Among those who gloated over their predicament were the people of Tyre, the ancient Lebanese port just 50 miles south of Beirut.
The Bible says that if your enemy is hungry, you should feed him (Romans 12.20). But instead they cheered the destruction of the Jewish capital with an anti-Semitic chant that gave rise to the phrase ‘Hip, hip, hooray!’, the initials of Hip translating in Latin as ’ Jerusalem is fallen’.
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Ezekiel duly prophesied that Tyre would one day be thrown into the sea, which is what literally happened when Alexander the Great plundered the region in 332 BC. (Ezek 26.12) “No other city, before or since, has ever been thrown into the sea,” the late David Pawson wrote in his masterful work Unlocking the Bible. “When Alexander the Great came marching down towards Egypt…the people of Tyre simply got into their fishing boats and sailed to the island half-a-mile offshore, knowing that Alexander had an army, but not a navy.”5
But the un-phased General commanded that every brick, stone and piece of timber be used to build a causeway to the island, where its people were subsequently defeated. Even today, fishermen’s nets are spread out on the bare rock of old Tyre, just as Ezekiel prophesied, while the modern city is out on the island with sand having silted up against Alexander’s causeway. If it’s in the Bible, you had better believe it!
Yes, God has promised to punish Israel’s malicious neighbours, especially when the Jews are back in the land following their long exile among the nations, when he would demonstrate his presence among them as the one and only true God (Ezekiel 28.24-26).
The ancient Scripture is forever true that, if you bless the seed of Abraham, you too will be blessed, but if you curse them, you will bring judgment on yourselves. (Genesis 12.3)
When the British Labour Party effectively cursed the Jews by failing to deal with anti-Semitism in their ranks, they were duly routed at the polls. German cities eventually lay in ruins after their brutal persecution of the Jewish people through the Holocaust. And when Britain betrayed the Jews by failing to act on their behalf in the 1930s and 40s, they began to lose their great empire. And their moral integrity soon disappeared with it.
Like ancient Tyre and modern Beirut, Britain too is in danger of becoming a heap of ruins. We need to return to the God of Israel, and to his Son, Jesus the Jewish Messiah, who said that whoever fails to build on the rock of his teaching was building his house on sand. “The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” (Matthew 7.27)