Messianic Perspectives

Liz Aiello: With immediate 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.

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: Thank you and welcome, listening friend, to this edition of the program. It's good to have you with us today as we continue this series of studies dealing with Egypt and the Arab nations in prophecy. One of the problems we have when it comes to understanding the things that happen in the Middle East is that most Americans know very little about the Middle East, even Christians. Evangelical Christians, when you ask who are the Arabs, where did they come from, what's the difference between an Arab and a Palestinian, most of us don't know the answers.

So you see, our problem is that most of us know very little about the Middle East, which is too bad because the Bible is basically a Middle Eastern book. By learning more about the Middle East and the people of the Middle East, we learn more about the Bible. The more you learn about the Bible and the Middle East, the more you realize how little things have changed over the last two or three or four thousand years. In fact, on the last program, we had gone back several thousand years in our study of Egypt and the Arab nations in prophecy.

We were looking at the Table of Nations in Genesis chapter 10, where we have the origination of the Egyptian people. We said there are 70 nations descended from Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the three sons of Noah, and every nation on earth traces its origin back to one of those three sons of Noah. Now, what about the Egyptians? Where do they come from? Well, let's look at it here in Genesis chapter 10 in the Old Testament. We already have the obvious advantage of knowing that present-day Egypt is located in Northern Africa.

Of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, we know that Ham is the one whose descendants moved southward into Africa and southern Arabia. So we can narrow it down to those verses in Genesis chapter 10 that describe the descendants of Ham. Here they are, beginning in verse six. It says, "And the sons of Ham: Cush and Mizraim and Phut and Canaan." And the sons of Cush: Seba and Havilah and Sabtah and Raamah and Sabtecha. And the sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan. Verse eight: "And Cush begat Nimrod. He began to be a mighty one in the earth."

Of course, Nimrod was the founder of the great Babylonian empire, ancient Babylon, but we're looking for Egypt, so we've got to go back up to verse six. Now, watch this again. Verse six: "And the sons of Ham: Cush," that's the area south of Egypt, what we would call today Nubia and Ethiopia, "and Mizraim," that's the Hebrew word for Egypt, "and Phut," that's the Libyans, "and Canaan," that's the Canaanites, of course.

Now, understand that not all of these identifications are easy. Some of them involve a certain amount of guesswork. For example, when we say Gomer is Germany, it's a guess. An educated guess, but still a guess, because the ancient boundaries were all different back in those days and many of the names have changed and many of the people have migrated into different areas. But one reason we can identify Egypt is that the Hebrew word Mizraim is a dual formation in the Hebrew. In Hebrew, we have singular, dual, and plural: one, two, and then three or more.

Literally, Mizraim means "two Egypts." Of course, ancient Egypt consisted of two kingdoms: Upper and Lower Egypt. Another reason it's relatively easy to identify Egypt is that the people are basically the same. The Egyptian people that we have in that country today are descendants of the same people who've lived there for over 5,000 years. Now, there is some Arab blood mixed in there because the Arabs conquered Egypt many centuries ago, and in fact, Arabic has become Egypt's official language.

The original Egyptian language has almost entirely disappeared except for what has been preserved by the Coptic Church. But the people themselves are descendants of the same people who've lived there for 5,500 years. What this means is that the Egyptian people represent a continuity that extends from today all the way back to Noah and the flood. They are descendants of Noah's son, Ham. Now, some of the other nations we're not so sure about, but we know who the Egyptians are and where they came from.

We know who the Israelis are and where they came from, but what about the Arabs? Who are the Arabs, and where did they come from? Well, for answers to those questions, we can turn over to Genesis chapter 16. It all began when Abraham decided to give God a hand with His plan. You remember God had promised to give Abraham and Sarah a son. After the giving of the promise, 10 years passed without any sign of a pregnancy. It always amazes me how self-righteous we get when we tell this story.

We say, "Well, Abraham and Sarah should have trusted the Lord." But I wonder how many of us, if we're honest, could pray for something day and night, week in and week out, month after month after month, year after year after year for 10 long years. Most of us would have probably thrown in the towel after the first year or two, or maybe after just a few months. If you're a real trooper, you might have stuck it out for two or three years. Let's just be honest about it. It's true. Look at it from Sarah's point of view.

With every year that passed, it became less likely that she would ever be able to conceive. After all, she was almost 70 years old when the promise was given, 65 or 66 years old, something like that. So time was not exactly on her side, was it? But Abraham and Sarah hung in there for 10 years. That's a long time to keep trusting and to keep hoping and to keep praying and to keep believing. 10 long years, and still no pregnancy, no Isaac. Now she was 76 years old instead of 66.

So Sarah decided to help the Lord keep His promise. Here's what it says in Genesis 16:1: "Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bare him no children: and she had a handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai." You see, surrogate motherhood is nothing new, is it?

Verse three: "And Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife." Verse four: "And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived: and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes." When Hagar realized she was pregnant, she began to look down on Sarah, who was barren. She despised Sarah. Of course, the son that was born as a result of the union of Abraham and Hagar was Ishmael.

The son of promise was supposed to be Isaac, and Isaac would come when the time was right, but here they ran ahead of the Lord. They got out of sync with the Lord's timetable, and Ishmael was born. This is significant because when you talk about the origins of the Arab nations, you're concerned basically with two key people in the book of Genesis: Ishmael and Esau. We'll talk about Esau later, but Ishmael was the son of Abraham and Hagar: Abraham the Hebrew and Hagar the Egyptian.

That's why the Arab people today trace their ancestry back to Ishmael. In fact, they're very proud of the fact that they are sons of Abraham and descendants of Ishmael. So the Arabs and the Jews are related. They both come from the line of Abraham: the Jews through Isaac and the Arabs through Ishmael. The Arabs have even followed some of the traditional Jewish customs, like circumcision, for example. Even before the time of Muhammad, Arabs traditionally were circumcised at the age of 13, following the example of Ishmael.

It's based on Genesis chapter 17, verse 24, where the Bible says: "And Abraham was ninety years old and nine, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin." Verse 25: "And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. And the selfsame day was Abraham circumcised, and Ishmael his son." So the traditional age for circumcision among the Arabs is 13. To them, it's a transition from childhood to manhood. It's a rite of transition from childhood to manhood.

The Jews, on the other hand, perform infant circumcision on the eighth day after birth. For many centuries, no one knew why God had told the Jews to perform circumcision on their male babies on the eighth day after birth. The Jews just did it because that's the way God said to do it. Really, that's all the reason they needed, but medical science made the discovery that the level of vitamin K in the blood reaches its highest level on about the eighth day after birth.

Vitamin K is essential to blood coagulation and to proper healing after the surgery. So 4,000 years later, we learn why God said what He did. You see, God doesn't always explain Himself because He knows that obedience is not so much a function of the mind as it is a matter of the heart. So the best policy is just to trust Him. He knows what He's doing. It would have been better if Sarah had trusted the Lord instead of trying to take matters into her own hands, instead of trying to help God keep His promise. Well, we'll continue this next time. See you then. 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 six dollars or more to the ministry of Messianic Perspectives.

Just visit our secure online store at messianicspecialties.com to place your order. If you would prefer to order by mail, just address your request to Messianic Perspectives, P.O. Box 345, San Antonio, Texas 78292. To order by phone, use our toll-free order line. The number is 1-800-926-5397.

Have you enjoyed this edition of Messianic Perspectives? 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.