I was looking at this particular photo when the Holy Spirit spoke gently, “The Palestinian narrative is alive.”
Three Palestinians Killed in Clashes with Israel as Thousands Protest Over Temple Mount
To anyone who does not know anything about Israel and the Jews, history or present, stories and photos like this can easily evoke sympathy towards the Palestinians and rage towards the Jews. The news story featured here is written from the never-ending “victim” state perspective of the Palestinians while giving no consideration to the underlying cause of their self-inflicted suffering.
A more accurate news is this one:
This is a War for Sovereign Control of Temple Mount
Excerpt:
“The Palestinians are consistent in their tactics: First shed Israeli blood, then tell the world they are victims and as martyrs are justified in seeking revenge – especially against “the sons of apes and pigs who defile Al Aqsa.” This was how the Halamish killer Omar al-Abed, 19, a Hamas sympathizer, described the Jews in the “will” he posted on Facebook three hours before the murders. Except that instead of dying with a martyr’s halo, he survived.
The whole week, it was dinned into Palestinian and Israeli Muslims by their leaders, including elected members of the Israeli parliament, that the Al Aqsa compound, an artificial mountaintop platform built as the site of the Jewish Temple more than 2,000 years ago, is exclusive Muslim property and no Jew has the right to set foot in the “Noble Sanctuary.” This claim also applies to Jerusalem, known in Arabic as Al Quds.
The most notorious metal detectors in Middle East history became emblems that objectified their rage over Israeli sovereignty in Temple Mount and the holy city. This has exposed the dispute as being a national rather than a religious dispute.
For Israel, sovereignty over its capital and the site of the Jewish temples, which was won at great cost in a war of defense after millennia of exile, is not in question. The government’s reiterated pledge to preserve the status quo on Temple Mount and the cities holy places is solidly backed up. But it cuts no ice with the Palestinians since the pledge is offered by an entity they consider a usurper.”
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The Palestinian narrative is truly alive in this situation. But as Christians who are supposed to know the Word of God, we must not be carried away emotionally but rather see with spiritual eyes, the events that are taking place in Israel. We must pray for the peace of Jerusalem. We must pray for both Jews and Palestinians who are both victims of Satan’s manipulation. The devil wants the Jews annihilated and the other group is being deceived to carry it out; and the world that does not know any better is supporting the false narrative that has its origin from the pit of hell.
On the other hand, this conflict over the Temple Mount is a prophetic event that leads to many possibilities. We must keep an eye on the time clock which is Israel, for the return of Yeshua/Jesus the Messiah is hinged on the Jews crying out to Yahweh in their time of desperation and distress. Read Zechariah 12. Remember also the words of Yeshua in Matthew 23:37-39:
37 “Yerushalayim! Yerushalayim! You kill the prophets! You stone those who are sent to you! How often I wanted to gather your children, just as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, but you refused! 38 Look! God is abandoning your house to you, leaving it desolate. 39 For I tell you, from now on, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of Adonai.’”
Zechariah 12, Isaiah 62 and many other prophecies will be fulfilled because His Word never fails.
As gentile believers in the Jewish Messiah Yeshua, let us not forget that salvation is for the Jews first then for the gentiles. Let us not be selfish as to minding only our own business, paying no attention to the troubles that beset Israel and most importantly, not praying for them. Paul’s reminder to the Roman church is also a reminder to us, the present generation of gentile believers. This truth must be inculcated in us.
Romans 11
1 “In that case, I say, isn’t it that God has repudiated his people?” Heaven forbid! For I myself am a son of Isra’el, from the seed of Avraham, of the tribe of Binyamin. 2 God has not repudiated his people, whom he chose in advance. Or don’t you know what the Tanakh says about Eliyahu? He pleads with God against Isra’el, 3 “Adonai, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars, and I’m the only one left, and now they want to kill me too!” 4 But what is God’s answer to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not knelt down to Ba‘al.” 5 It’s the same way in the present age: there is a remnant, chosen by grace. 6 (Now if it is by grace, it is accordingly not based on legalistic works; if it were otherwise, grace would no longer be grace.) 7 What follows is that Isra’el has not attained the goal for which she is striving. The ones chosen have obtained it, but the rest have been made stonelike, 8 just as the Tanakh says,
“God has given them a spirit of dullness —
eyes that do not see
and ears that do not hear,
right down to the present day.”
9 And David says,
“Let their dining table become for them
a snare and a trap, a pitfall and a punishment.
10 Let their eyes be darkened, so that they can’t see,
with their backs bent continually.”
11 “In that case, I say, isn’t it that they have stumbled with the result that they have permanently fallen away?” Heaven forbid! Quite the contrary, it is by means of their stumbling that the deliverance has come to the Gentiles, in order to provoke them to jealousy. 12 Moreover, if their stumbling is bringing riches to the world — that is, if Isra’el’s being placed temporarily in a condition less favored than that of the Gentiles is bringing riches to the latter — how much greater riches will Isra’el in its fullness bring them!
13 However, to those of you who are Gentiles I say this: since I myself am an emissary sent to the Gentiles, I make known the importance of my work 14 in the hope that somehow I may provoke some of my own people to jealousy and save some of them! 15 For if their casting Yeshua aside means reconciliation for the world, what will their accepting him mean? It will be life from the dead!
16 Now if the hallah offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole loaf. And if the root is holy, so are the branches. 17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you — a wild olive — were grafted in among them and have become equal sharers in the rich root of the olive tree, 18 then don’t boast as if you were better than the branches! However, if you do boast, remember that you are not supporting the root, the root is supporting you. 19 So you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” 20 True, but so what? They were broken off because of their lack of trust. However, you keep your place only because of your trust. So don’t be arrogant; on the contrary, be terrified! 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, he certainly won’t spare you! 22 So take a good look at God’s kindness and his severity: on the one hand, severity toward those who fell off; but, on the other hand, God’s kindness toward you — provided you maintain yourself in that kindness! Otherwise, you too will be cut off! 23 Moreover, the others, if they do not persist in their lack of trust, will be grafted in; because God is able to graft them back in. 24 For if you were cut out of what is by nature a wild olive tree and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree!
25 For, brothers, I want you to understand this truth which God formerly concealed but has now revealed, so that you won’t imagine you know more than you actually do. It is that stoniness, to a degree, has come upon Isra’el, until the Gentile world enters in its fullness; 26 and that it is in this way that all Isra’el will be saved. As the Tanakh says,
“Out of Tziyon will come the Redeemer;
he will turn away ungodliness from Ya‘akov
27 and this will be my covenant with them, . . .
when I take away their sins.”
28 With respect to the Good News they are hated for your sake. But with respect to being chosen they are loved for the Patriarchs’ sake, 29 for God’s free gifts and his calling are irrevocable. 30 Just as you yourselves were disobedient to God before but have received mercy now because of Isra’el’s disobedience; 31 so also Isra’el has been disobedient now, so that by your showing them the same mercy that God has shown you, they too may now receive God’s mercy. 32 For God has shut up all mankind together in disobedience, in order that he might show mercy to all.
33 O the depth of the riches
and the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How inscrutable are his judgments!
How unsearchable are his ways!
34 For, ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Who has been his counselor?’
35 Or, ‘Who has given him anything
and made him pay it back?’
36 For from him and through him
and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever!
Amen.
The Temple Mount issue is only one of the many excuses to the more sinister plot to destroy the people whom Yahweh called the “apple of His eye.” Pray, pray, pray!
Psalm 122:6
6 Pray for shalom in Yerushalayim;
may those who love you prosper.
Isaiah 62:1
For Tziyon’s sake I will not be silent,
for Yerushalayim’s sake I will not rest,
until her vindication shines out brightly
and her salvation like a blazing torch.
Love in Yeshua,
Cynthia