When snowdrops appear during the winter, emerging through the frozen ground and then showing such delicacy and fragility, you know that winter won’t last forever. These beautiful little flowers bring a message of hope and happiness.  However bad things might be, they are harbingers of something better that is coming, hopefully soon.

Bad Times

Much of the developed world is experiencing hard times at present. It seems that people have become accustomed to a lifestyle that their country’s productivity cannot maintain, so for years wages have been at a standstill and public services have been cut back.

Many European nations, including Britain, have been facing an “austerity budget” in an attempt to limit national borrowing and “balance the books”. It has not been a popular strategy (ask the Greek people) and the result has been hard for many people, especially those who have lost their jobs and who now struggle to survive. No wonder people ask if there is any end to this process of cutting back and making do. All this is causing political anxiety and further unrest.

Death and Taxes

At the turn of the year, when pundits review the past twelve months and forecast how the coming year might work out, one headline said it all: “The only certainty is uncertainty”. This is particularly true as a General Election draws near.

It was Benjamin Franklin who made the now famous statement:

     “Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes”.

Uncertainty is something we have to cope with and we are designed accordingly. For only God knows the end from the beginning and His foreknowledge is a divine prerogative. Solomon explains that God has given us a sense of anticipation and apprehension which is quite different from the animal kingdom, but He has concealed just what the future holds for each of us.

               He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

To return to Benjamin Franklin’s comment for a moment, we know that one day we will die, but we don’t know when, and it is as well we don’t know. For if we knew, we would always be living with that deadline over us. In Bible times, when God’s prophets ministered, there was a king who was told he would live another fifteen years. King Hezekiah had that life sentence to serve, which for him and for his nation was much better than the alternative (see Isaiah chapter 38). On the other hand, Jesus once told a parable about a rich farmer who was so concerned about storing his abundant harvest that he planned larger barns, only to be told:

                “Fool, this night your soul will be required of you; then whose those things be which you have provided?” (Luke 12:20).

Divine Uncertainties

In an uncertain world, some things are unshakeably true and unalterable. The promises God has made cannot fail, for when God says something it has to happen. As one apostle put it:

                      “Let God be true but every man a liar” (Romans 3:4).

What he meant was that God’s words can never fail, even if everyone else is shown to be liars and utterers of falsehood. This is not just a put-down for mankind, although it is, that because none of us ever keep our promises absolutely. It is rather a declaration of divine certainty. God will never fail to fulfil what He has said; His words are rock-solid certainties.

God has a purpose with the earth which will include the establishment of His kingdom, or rulership, here once again. Long ago, when there were kings in Israel, God’s kingdom existed on earth and people had the opportunity to witness a better way of life in action. But that arrangement only lasted some 400 years before collapsing because of human indifference and unbelief. Then Jesus was born and he showed us what mankind is capable of in terms of a living and vibrant relationship with God. Born the Son of God, the Lord Jesus always obeyed and always pleased his heavenly Father, and he willingly gave his life for us , so that we can also share in a loving relationship with our heavenly Father.

A Living Hope

When Jesus was raised from the dead, three days after he was cruelly crucified, his resurrection was a remarkable expression of hope. When the Bible uses the word “hope”, it doesn’t mean something that might happen, as in the expression “Oh, we do hope so”. We us the word loosely as we can never be absolutely certain what will happen. When God’s prophets or apostles talk of the hope of the gospel, or urge us to put our hope in the living God (Jeremiah 17:7), they are referring to something that is certain, which gives us hope.

That wonderful hope is available for all who read God’s word and act upon it, as God requires.

The Roman soldiers were advancing on Israel and threatened to destroy all the precious manuscripts of the Qumran Community on the shores of the Dead Sea. So the scribes stored the scrolls in stone jars, and hid them in caves. These scrolls were only found in 1947, and have been reliably dated to just before the time of Jesus – that’s well over 2000 years ago. They are known as “The Dead Sea Scrolls”. The remarkable thing is that there are parts of almost every book in the Old Testament, and nearly the whole of the book of Isaiah.

What’s this mean to us?

Quite simply, that all the prophecies made in the Old Testament have not been greatly altered in translation over the years.

So …

• the prophecies about Jesus’ birth were definitely written well before he was born
• Jesus was to die and rise again
• the Israeli nation were to go out of their land, but would return to it

That’s one reason why we believe the Bible.  Look around this site to find even more.

Israel and the Palestinians are at it again.  The world watches nervously, because this is not just a local skirmish – Israel is sending a strong message to its enemy Iran.  What might Israel do next? If Iran has nuclear weapons, will it use them?  What will the US or Russia do?’ If you’re willing to listen the Bible has all the answers.

Israel and the Middle East seem to constantly dominate our news agenda.  Recent events between Israel and the Palestinians are among others in numerous skirmishes between the 2 sides.  Many consider the situation to be impossible to resolve. Others try, but have so far failed to produce any lasting peace.

But how has the situation become so bad? Why did the fighting start in the first place and will it ever be resolved?  The Bible tells us that God’s plan is centred on the nation of Israel, and we have the chance to be part of it, if we want to be. If we go back to the first book of the Bible, Genesis, we meet a man called Abraham.  God made a promise to him:

Now the Lord had said to Abram:
“Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Genesis 12:1-3

Abraham had 2 sons; Ishmael (from whom some of the Arab people descended) and Isaac (from whom the Jews came from). Isaac’s son was Jacob, whose name was later changed to Israel. Jesus was also a descendent of Israel.  So 3 faiths; Islam, Judaism and Christianity all look at this prophecy and say “this seed is referring to us”.  But who is correct?

Abraham’s wife, Sarah, couldn’t have children, but he did father a son, Ishmael, with her maid.  Traditionally it was the eldest son whom the line passed through (a tradition that still exists in parts of our monarchy even to this day).   So you can see why Ishmael’s descendants think the prophecy is about them.

But in Genesis Chapter 17 God renewed the promise with Abraham and he said that the prophecy would be fulfilled through the decendents of Sarah’s son.  But if Sarah was barren, how could that be?  Even Abraham found it hard to believe!

“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.”
Genesis 17:17-21

Ishmael’s descendants have been richly blessed and are some of the richest nations on the earth at the moment.  But it would appear from this (and other incidents in the Bible) that it was Jesus, born through the Jewish line, this prophecy was talking about.

Whose Land is it?

Today one of the big questions to be resolved in the Middle East is that of territory and land ownership.  The question is the same for Gaza, the West Bank, Jerusalem and the entire land known as Israel.  Everybody is arguing about ownership and rights of occupation.
Palestinians maintain that the land is their’s as they have occupied it for 2000 years and that gives them absolute title.  They say they have been ousted from their land by force.  But the Israelis point out that they were there first – from about 1400 BC until they were displaced in 70 and 135 AD.

The situation has been further complicated by various wars.  In 1947, the UN voted to partition the land between the Jews and the Arabs.  However, the Palestinians refused to recognise the state of Israel and Israel began claiming back Palestinian occupied parts of the land as their own.  What we are left with today is a complicated and dangerous position of stale-mate with neither side willing to compromise

On top of this there is the problem of Jerusalem.  The Palestinians want to make this their capital, but the city is sacred to three religions – the Jews, Christians and Muslims.

In any political settlement that might be reached, one important consideration is likely to be overlooked, All land belongs to God: He formed it, and he alone owns it.  As the Psalmist observed:

The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness,
The world and those who dwell therein.
Psalm 24:1

And as the apostle Paul once said, God has given the nations a right for occupation, but not forever:

God, who made the world and everything in it… He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, 
Acts 17:24-27

So neither side actually owns the land.  There is a time coming – and all indications are that it will come quite quickly – when God will call all nations to account for the way they have occupied His earth.  We are told He will “destroy those who destroy His earth” when He sends his King to reign here.  Then this wonderful forecast will come true:

 The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!”
Rev 11:15

There will be peace in the Middle East, but only when Jesus returns to set up God’s Kingdom. Jesus wants us all to have a place in that Kingdom with him.  Then there will be no more war, no more death and no more suffering.  There will be everlasting, perfect peace.  To find out more about this plan, pick up your Bible and read it.

If you would like help reading the Bible, or would like to receive a DVD “Peace in the Middle East” which looks at this subject in more detail, then please visit our websitewww.TheChristadelphians.org.uk or drop us a line at FREEPOST, THE CHRISTADELPHIANS.