Messianic Perspectives

Guest (Male): With media attention focused on Israel and the people of the Gaza Strip, hope for a peaceful solution to the Middle East situation seems almost hopeless. Yet the ancient prophets told us thousands of years ago how everything will turn out. Stay tuned as we talk about Bible prophecy today, right here on Messianic Perspectives.

Liz Aiello: Shalom and welcome to Messianic Perspectives, a daily program where we look into the scriptures from a distinctive first-century Jewish point of view. This is Liz Aiello. Today, Dr. Gary Hedrick is talking about Bible prophecy. His subject is Egypt and the Arab Nations in Prophecy.

Here on Messianic Perspectives, we usually focus on prophecy as it relates to Israel, but today we’ll be looking at the future of the Middle East from the viewpoint of the Arab nations. Because believe it or not, Israel is not the only nation in the Middle East that God has a plan for. I’ll be back a little later with information about a special offer, so have your pen and paper ready. And now with today’s installment, here’s Gary.

Dr. Gary Hedrick: All right, thank you and welcome listening friend to another edition of the program. It’s good to have you with us today as we begin this series of studies dealing with Egypt and the Arab nations in prophecy. Too often in our study of prophecy, we neglect the Arab nations. And one reason for that is that we know that God’s prophetic plan revolves around the nation Israel.

In our series on Israel, God’s timepiece, we talked about the fact that Israel is the pivot around which God’s plan for the ages revolves, and Israel is the benchmark that enables us to know where we are in the progression of God’s prophetic plan. If you want to know what time it is on God’s calendar, just look at Israel.

2,000 years ago, when national Israel rejected Yeshua of Nazareth as the Messiah, the clock stopped. God’s prophetic clock stopped. It went into a state of suspended animation for 2,000 years. Did you know that even the Talmud says that the Shekinah glory departed from the Jerusalem temple about 40 years before the destruction of the temple in AD 70? And if you go back 40 years before AD 70, that’s AD 30 or AD 31 in that vicinity.

That takes us back to the very time when the Jewish people rejected their Messiah. That’s when the clock stopped for Israel. And during this 2,000-year interlude, God has been calling out a people for himself from among the Gentiles. We call it the church. But then on May 14th, 1948, something happened. The state of Israel was reborn.

For the first time in over 2,500 years, there was a sovereign state of Israel in the Middle East. The stage was set for God’s prophetic clock to start ticking once again. And when it does, it’ll be the start of the 70th week of Daniel or the tribulation period, which will culminate seven years later in the return of the Messiah to planet Earth. That’s why we say if you want to know what time it is on God’s prophetic calendar, look at Israel.

Because when Israel makes the covenant of Daniel 9:27 with the Antichrist, that marks the commencement of the tribulation. So, there is a very real sense in which the timing of God’s prophetic plan revolves around his dealings with Israel. That’s why we sometimes forget that Egypt and the Arab nations also play an important role in God’s prophetic plan.

God has provided very precise and detailed information about the future of the entire Arab world. And in this series of studies, we’re going to see some very remarkable things, including the fact that the prophetic scriptures teach that in the future, Israel’s greatest enemy in the Middle East will be—who do you think it will be? Iraq? Iran? Maybe Syria?

No, actually, it’s none of the above. In fact, when we get to that place in our study, you’ll probably be surprised to learn that it’s one of the countries you’d least expect, at least up to this point. And the details are all carefully laid out in the prophetic scriptures, as we’re going to see over the next several days. God has a very special plan for the Arab people.

Sometimes those of us who are pro-Israel have a tendency to think of the Jews as the good guys in the Middle East and the Arabs are the bad guys, like the guys with the white hats and the black hats. But it’s not that simple. The truth is that there are good guys and bad guys on both sides. The Israeli government is not always right. They’re not infallible.

And it doesn’t make me or anyone else who points out their faults anti-Semitic to say so. If all it took to make me anti-Semitic was for me to be critical of the government of Israel, then over half the population of the state of Israel would be anti-Semitic because the present government got less than half the votes in the last election. You see, most Americans have an oversimplified view of the Middle East. It’s the Jews against the Arabs, the good guys against the bad guys.

But listen, the Arabs are not all bad guys. In fact, the radical elements in the Arab world, like Hezbollah, PLO, and Hamas and groups like that, actually represent a very small fraction of the total Arab population. Did you know, for example, that there are over a million Arabs in the Middle East right now who are Christians rather than Muslims?

When we take our tours to Israel, one of the places we always visit is Bethlehem. Bethlehem is an Arab city, not far from Jerusalem. It’s where Jesus was born. But for centuries, it’s been an Arab city and there are hardly any Jews who live there. The First Baptist Church in Bethlehem is a large evangelical work, an Arab church. They have a Christian day school with almost 1,000 students.

We were there just a few months ago. It’s a wonderful, beautiful facility. The pastor is an Arab Christian who loves Israel and the Jewish people. He also loves his own people, the Arabs, and he has given over his entire life to ministering to the Arab population in Bethlehem. There are many hundreds and thousands of Arab people in that area who are Christians, born-again Christians, who love the Lord.

And many of them have come to faith in Christ through the ministry of that Arab church. So, we need to guard against these stereotypical generalizations that the Arabs are the bad guys and the Jews are the good guys. There are extremists on both sides. There are good and bad on both sides. The only side you and I have to worry about being on is God’s side.

Because he’s the one who’s working out his plan in the Middle East. Before it’s over, judgment will fall on both Arabs and Jews for their unbelief, those who are not believers. And in the prophetic scriptures, we learn that God has a place in the world to come for Jew and Gentile alike. Even the Palestinian people, those poor people who have been kicked around and despised and have become people without a homeland, people with no place to go.

The prophetic scriptures tell us that at last in the millennium, in the Messianic Age, the Palestinian people will have a homeland. They’ll have a special allotment in the Promised Land just for them. By the way, we hear so much about how the Palestinians have been mistreated by the Israelis. But did you know they’ve been treated much worse by their fellow Arabs? They have.

More Palestinians have been killed by their fellow Arabs since 1950 than the Israelis have ever thought about killing. The Kuwaitis have killed thousands of them. The Syrians, the Jordanians. In fact, do you know why the Jordanians are so insistent that Israel should give back the West Bank for a Palestinian state? It’s because in the partition plan that was set up by the United Nations prior to 1948, the West Bank was set aside to provide an Arab homeland for those displaced Palestinian people.

Not many people know that. The United Nations had mapped out that whole area of Palestine. Part of it was to go for the establishing of a new Jewish state and part of it was to go for an Arab state—that was the West Bank of the Jordan River. You say, well, why didn’t the Palestinian state ever get off the ground? Well, it’s because the surrounding Arab nations rejected the plan.

They didn’t want any state of Israel. What they wanted was an Arab state and then they promised they would give the Jews minority rights. And less than 24 hours after the declaration of the state of Israel on May 14th, 1948, Egypt and Jordan attacked Israel from north and south. Well, Israel won the war, but during the war, Jordan took control of the West Bank all the way to East Jerusalem, the Old City.

That was the area that was supposed to be set aside for a Palestinian homeland. But it was occupied during the Arab-Israeli war by the Jordanians. And in 1950, Jordan annexed it. They made it part of Jordan, or they thought they did. And Jordan controlled the West Bank from 1950 until the Six-Day War of 1967. That’s 17 years.

Now, here’s the question. If the West Bank rightfully belongs to the Palestinian people by virtue of the United Nations partition plan, then why didn’t the Jordanians give it to them? Jordan controlled the West Bank for 17 years. And as far as I know, nobody in the Arab League was jumping up and down demanding that it be given over to the Palestinians.

But once Israel wins the West Bank back for the first time in 2,500 years, guess what happens? Once it’s controlled by Israel, then all of a sudden this Palestinian state becomes a major issue. It seems rather hypocritical. And the Palestinian people themselves are caught in the middle. They’re the ones who suffer. They’re the ones whose children are dying. They’re the ones who are losing their homes.

The Jordanians don’t want them. The Saudis don’t want them. The Syrians don’t want them. In fact, Assad of Syria wiped out 20,000 of them at Hama in 1982. His troops just went in and literally wiped out the whole settlement. Burned it to the ground. 20,000 Arab people dead. And some estimates of the number of casualties run even higher than that.

But God has a plan for Egypt and the Arab nations. He has a plan for the poor suffering Palestinian people. He has a plan for all the descendants of Ishmael. And that’s what we want to talk about in this series of studies. That’s all of our time for today. Listen, it’s been good to have you with us, listening friend. We’ll see you back here next time. You take care. Bye-bye.

Liz Aiello: Thank you, Gary. And thank you, listening friend, for tuning in today. Gary Hedrick’s subject today has been Egypt and the Arab Nations in Prophecy. Now, on a program like ours with Messianic emphasis, you might think it’s rather odd to be talking about Egypt and the Arab nations. However, it’s important to understand that God has a prophetic plan for the Arab people, just like he has a plan for Israel and the Jewish people.

He has not forgotten the sons of Ishmael, and the prophetic scriptures tell us that Arab believers will have a prominent place in the coming millennial kingdom. If you enjoyed today’s presentation on Egypt and the Arab Nations in Prophecy by Gary Hedrick, you’ll be glad to know we’ve placed the entire series on one convenient CD. It’s available for a gift of just $6 or more to the ministry of Messianic Perspectives.

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Why not continue to learn about the Jewish roots of your Christian faith by inviting a speaker from CJF Ministries? Call our toll-free number 1-800-926-5397 and we’ll be happy to handle all of the details. And as always, when you’re in touch with us, please mention the call letters of this station. If you’re listening to our webcast or podcast, we need to know that too. This is Liz Aiello. Join us next time, won’t you? As Dr. Gary Hedrick continues our series on Egypt and the Arab Nations in Prophecy, right here on Messianic Perspectives.

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