New and Old Issues For Israel & the Middle East

The great commission given Jesus resurrected described by Matthew begins this little trek.

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations.”

It was given to the eleven disciples apparently, and in Galilee, away from the cosmopolitan center of Jerusalem and some doubted. The author of a lecture I read considers the places where the word doubt (in translation of course) is used in the gospel of Matthew and the way it indicates that Matthew understood the issue of doubt about the resurrection. It is notable that one additional place where the word doubt is used is in regard to the fig tree. Jesus knew about the issue of doubt too. In spite of everything he had done people would doubt-even with remedial help (fertilizer) given.

The lecture moved on to consider the authority of Jesus expressed in the gospel according to Matthew, since (Matthew 28:18), “Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.’” The next few paragraphs are an interesting bit of exegesis and illustration made by a scholar with decades of Bible learning. Find such if you have the time-it is time well spent.

Besides the Fertile Crescent running through Israel as a trade route from Babylon there is the historical issue of Alexander the Great, the Ptolemies, Seleucids and Maccabees leading to the Roman invasion of Jerusalem. The Jews had already had an apprenticeship in captivity in Egypt and Babylon.

 Perhaps there is a lesson to be learned from the Jewish times in captivity. They have also been made captives by Soviets, Germans and Thessalonica was depopulated of them largely by the Nazis after Jews gathered there centuries before after expulsion from Spain. Christians as spiritual Jews, or the new and improved nation of Israel (remember Jacob/Yiśrāʾēl-'perservere with God), may have something to learn from that-don’t return to the spiritual bondage of the laws, Sharia or whathaveyou and carnality in which there is no forgiveness of sin possible-for only the Lord was perfectly free from sin and only through faith in Jesus Christ may one be set free.

The Persians were better rulers of conquered peoples than the Babylonians-Cyrus the Great is an example. The Romans have Ptolemy tramping through the Temple as of he were Antiochus Epiphanes (I believe I read about the succession of good and bad Jewish rulers in a book at the Houston Graduate School of Theology long ago). Eventually a non-Jewish King Herod only married into Jewish royalty marginally builds a lot. He may be have been something like an evil Donald Trump, except Trump didn’t have his heirs killed and a generation of babies slaughtered to pre-empt a rival ‘King of the Jews’. Democrats do that with support for abortion getting rid of potential Republican voters while they arrange for the illegal immigration of Latinos so they can vote Democrat and take back Texas from Republicans locking up the electoral college (sort of joking a little about that yet not too much).

Investigating the common perceptions about Pilate as a Governor (good guy vs. bad guy), the crucifixion and the Jewish revolt of 66-73 brings one rocketing through the first century of history through an important local periscope with global consequences. The importance of the revolt can be explained in an informative way. In one year the Romans had four emperors and the son of the General who destroyed Jerusalem-Vespasian is made Emperor. That Emperor-Titus was the patron of Josephus the writer. I’ve been doing some historical reading-I did not invent that observation myself.

Quite a bit of time passed from the crucifixion of Jesus to the writing by Josephus of the Jewish War. Obviously he needed to be very careful about what he wrote. There were thousands of crucifixions made by Romans then as they amused themselves finding novel ways to nail ‘em up finally running out of space for crosses (probably no fun crucifying squirming wretches for a living either). Plainly Josephus didn’t want to write too much about a ‘king of the Jews’ that wasn’t appointed by Rome and was already regarded by some of the Roman leadership as the source of trouble-making.

In 135 A.D. the Bar Kokokba revolt occurred-Emperor Hadrian suppressed it and built a temple of Zeus on the temple mount. Jews were given the death penalty if they were found in Jerusalem. In 200 A.D. the Mishnah was put together codifying rabbinic law. This little historical excursion allows a better idea of some of the reasons why history developed the way it did-and also provides some of the irony of history. The parable of the fig tree did warn that the tree would be cut down if it wasn’t productive. Unintentional Roman payback for Jewish leadership choice to crucify the Lord was mass crucifixions of Jewish survivors. History had only then started along the wrong selection corrections course for the decision of the elitist Sanhedrin.

The Jews have had a tough role as God’s chosen people being a blessing to all nations. One considers Einstein and Yassir Arafat; one can point out Omar Khayyam as a Muslim yet he was really Persian rather than Arab. The Arabs as Ishmaels sons seem to have been a little cursed-with the Ottoman Empire and abundant fossil fuels contributing to global warming and a dinosaur like death originating in a now desertified former Eden.

Some Jews have been saved through the Lord, and all Christians are spiritual Jews. They still have an important role in history and it seems evident that the Muslims –persecuting the Jews- are cursed. How could Muslim leadership be unaware that terrorist political leadership worst cases Palestinian and Muslim political development? Terrorists don’t operate along lines of Kant’s moral imperative. They don’t seek objective improvement for all human beings first nationally then globally in accord with the will of the governed. Instead political relativism elevates any silly political plank a candidate has to canonized status once he/she/it is in power instead of finding candidates with good ideas who are elected because they have good ideas. Cult over competence and mind over matter are dialectically opposite sides of e-coin.

Terrorist political leadership seeking to bring chunks of Israel into a recrudescent Caliphate conflict continues today. The Temple of Zeus or the Dome of the Rock on the temple mount symbolizes the realm of the lost. The media report from both sides of everything and invent some of their own cube roots. Rush Limbaugh as a populist like Ronald Reagan has driven the ecospheric and creative intelligentsia from the Republican Party while a succession of Democrat-like candidates has been elected pursing cult interests.

American political leadership is devoid of competence on macro-social issues except for Marko Rubio, Joe Miller, Rand Paul and eminence grilse Ralph Nadir. Even so President Bush II was correct about Al Qaeda seeking to establish a caliphate in Iraq and Syria. He had that report in 2006 I guess when ISIS got its start in Iraq.  Unintentionally perhaps, President Obama has loosened up the Middle East for terrorist organizing as he has U.S. national border security. The nation of Israel will need to persist even while the world is run by the lost pursuing ways of eternal death without God.