TEMPORARY OR PERMANENT DECISION BY MAN, OR DIVINE INTERVENTION?
It seemed almost impossible to establish peace in the Middle East. However,the situation in the Middle East suddenly started moving forward....
Pay attention and turn your ear to the sayings of the wise; apply your heart to what I teach, 18 for it is pleasing when you keep them in your heart and have all of them ready on your lips. So that your trust may be in the LORD, I teach you today, even you. Have I not written thirty sayings for you, sayings of counsel and knowledge, teaching you to be honest and to speak the truth, so that you bring back truthful reports to those you serve? Do not exploit the poor because they are poor and do not crush the needy in court, for the LORD will take up their case and will exact life for life. Do not make friends with a hot-tempered person, do not associate with one easily angered, or you may learn their ways and get yourself ensnared. Do not be one who shakes hands in pledge or puts up security for debts; … 28 Do not move an ancient boundary stone set up by your ancestors. …
23:10 Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless,11 for their Defender is strong; he will take up their case against you. Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge. … Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always be zealous for the fear of the LORD. There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.
24:10 If you falter in a time of trouble, how small is your strength! Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering towards slaughter. If you say, ‘But we knew nothing about this,’ does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay everyone according to what they have done? … Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice …Do not fret because of evildoers or be envious of the wicked, for the evildoer has no future hope, and the lamp of the wicked will be snuffed out. Fear the LORD and the king, my son, and do not join with rebellious officials, for those two will send sudden destruction on them, and who knows what calamities they can bring? PROVERBS 22:17-24:22.
In Proverbs Chapters 22 to 24, the “thirty sayings of the wise” starts in a similar way to the familiar sayings of Christ:
Whoever has ears, let them hear,
and
Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches
addressed to the seven churches in Revelation.
The emphasis of the teachings is on wisdom and knowledge, and there appears a repeated warning against the removal of ancient boundary stones. In ancient times, boundary stones marked a person’s property and so anyone who moved such a stone was in effect stealing land.
The emphasis of the teachings is on wisdom and knowledge, and there appears a repeated warning against the removal of ancient boundary stones. In ancient times, boundary stones marked a person’s property and so anyone who moved such a stone was in effect stealing land.
This concept also appears in God’s command:
Do not move your neighbour’s boundary stone…in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess (Dt.19:14).
Also, God explicitly promised Israel:
I will establish your borders… from the desert to the Euphrates River. I will give into your hands the people who live in the land(Ex.23:31).
Today, taking territory from another country is illegal under international law as well as being morally wrong. However, how many people know that this is also a biblical order? Foreknowing the horrors and never-ending consequence of wars, God warned that the first step towards hatred and sorrow is the removal of boundary stones. If it is breached, ‘their Defender…will take up their case against you’. On the whole, the wisdom sayings teach us to seek and trust in the Lord alone for our needs, counsel, knowledge, hope and future.
An article about “The Future of Israel’s Borders” issued on 30 June’20 examines the current situation of the Holy Land, by pointing out a big misconception about Palestinians and it presents a clearer understanding of Israel.
Article 2 of the first chapter of the United Nations Charter declares :"All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations." This was formulated in 1945, in a very understandable response to the aggressions by Nazi Germany. It remains a valid ruling on the dangers posed by powerful nations should they choose to use force to take over neighbouring territories. Even so, Article 2 was contravened by China in 1959 when it overran Tibet; by Turkey in 1974 when it invaded northern Cyprus, and is constantly contravened by Iran -- with the evident complicity of most of the members of the UN -- in its expansions into Iraq, Syria, Yemen ad Lebanon, as well as its 41-year-long threats to obliterate a fellow UN member state, Israel. It is not surprising, therefore, that the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), with its existing and locked-in bias against Israel, should condemn Israel for its plan to extend Israeli law to disputed lands, in line with the US peace plan revealed in 2020. The rejection of the US plan by the UNHRC and others ignores the reality that it is one of the most balanced documents drawn up in favour of peace and the creation of a viable State of Palestine in the West Bank and Gaza. …Peace plans and treaties only work when both sides sincerely want to make them do so, and then can require one or more generations of young people who learn the benefits of an end to violence. Sadly, that is still a remote hope. Today's Palestinian children are taught to hate Jews and glorify -- and handsomely profit from -- violence against them. There is every reason not to feel hopeful about yet another plan for peace. Even if the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank could be persuaded to act in its own self-interest (and there is little sign of that), the intransigent Islamist terror movements in Gaza -- Hamas and Islamic Jihad -- would most likely still not be brought around in the manner advocated in the plan as the only way to improve the lives of the Palestinians living there.
When this article was written, the EU, the chief of the UN, a multitude of Arab states, the international Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and other numerous countries seemed to all oppose the peace plan. It seemed almost impossible to establish peace in the Middle East.
However, since then the situation in the Middle East suddenly started moving forward. On 4 Aug., two huge explosions ripped through the port of Beirut killing hundreds and injuring thousands, which reminds us of the prophecy against Tyre in Ezk.26 & 27.
Following the disaster Israel promptly offered Lebanon humanitarian aid while Lebanon is still officially at war with Israel. Reflecting God’s love, Israel is often first in line to help following disaster anywhere in the world.
On 13th, a historic diplomatic breakthrough, i.e., an agreement between the United Arab Emirates and Israel was announced although it does include that Israel does not express sovereignty in Judea and Samaria. The peace treaty is likely to be signed by October.
On 16th, another amazing statement was announced by the Lebanese president, in which he suggested that he would be receptive to an agreement with Israel similar to the one signed with the UAE. Peace treaties are expected to create peace and the conditions for building the Third Temple in Jerusalem, which would remind us of a pact of brotherhood with Lebanon in the days of King Solomon.
Further on 19th, a major breakthrough that Israel agreed to the creation of a Palestinian state by ‘process of division of the land’ was announced.