INIQUITY SHALL ABOUND

          On the front covers of several leading news magazines in the U.S. for the month of October, 2000 was a picture of a young Palestinian in the second floor window of a Palestinian police station, who was smiling, pleased and proud that his uplifted hands were covered with Israeli blood.  Two Israeli reserve soldiers had been captured by Palestinians and placed in a Palestinian police station.  A mob storming through downtown Ramallah, surged into the Palestinian police station where the two Israeli reserve soldiers were held.  The mob beat and stabbed two Israelis to death before dumping one of the bodies from a second-floor window while the mob below of thousands cheered the shed blood of the Israelis.

          The Middle East has had the “fires of hate,” and “cycle of mutual hatred” thriving for centuries.  When we understand that the Middle East is the birthplace of at least three major religions and civilizations, we begin to understand the real root of the mutual enmity.  If we would but read\search Biblical history thoroughly, we would find that one of God’s promises to Abraham was that he would be the “Father of many nations.”  When history is examined closely we see clearly that the sons of Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael were the fathers of two(presently existing) great nations in the Middle East.  Also in the days of Jacob and Esau, the sons of Isaac, who was the son of Abraham, there was yet another great division and birth of yet another great nation.  History closely studied reveals that the nations who are the descendants of Isaac, Jacob, Esau and Ishmael, the son and grandsons of Abraham are the major nations between whom mutual enmity exists in the Middle East today.

          God declares, “But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even as it is now.”  Gal. 4:29.  This is the real cause of Middle East tension.  Originally in the days of Abraham, God chose the specific son through whom the Saviour of the world would come.  That was God’s prerogative to make that choice; after all it was impossible for the promised one to come through two human sources.  Further, the fact that one man is not the chosen vessel of God to fulfill His gift to mankind, does not mean that he cannot be partaker of the benefits.  The fact that God chose one as the vessel through whom He wills to work, does not mean that the other who was not chosen  is rejected as far as salvation is concerned.  Wicked human nature despising the choice of God has been at war with one another in the Middle East from Abraham’s day to the present.  The fact today is, as a nation all Middle East nations have become “he that is born after the flesh;” and the mutual hatred and wars still continue for the supremacy.

          Having made the foregoing point, there is an analogy that must be drawn for the Christian world.  Just as the young Palestinian stood with uplifted hands covered by the blood of the ones he had just murdered, so the overwhelming majority of professed Christian’s hands are blood-stained with the blood of millions of the lost whom they might have helped or shared the gospel with, but did not.

          In Ezekiel chapter 33 this reality and principle is clearly taught in verses 7-9, “So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.  When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou doest not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.  Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.”

          In this the very last moments of this the last day of probationary time, when the Bible declares in Rev. 14:6-9, “the hour of God’s judgment is come,” it is the prophesied time of a period when  all God’s children are watchmen.  All of God’s chosen are disciples, ministers, prophets, priest and kings.  This lazy, lethargic and inactive Christianity which gives only lip service to God and rejoices in the supposed fact that one is saved, while one does little or nothing for the saving of souls is a fatal deception.  All such have repeatedly for years stained their hands and garments with the blood of the lost sheep of God while they deceive themselves with the lie that they are secure and saved.  They are murderers and liars like their father the Devil.  All who are truly saved, live like Christ, whose life was devoted to seeking and saving the lost through self-denial and self-sacrifice.