The Israeli/Lebanon conflict. They'rs fighting for the wrong Promised Land

THEY'RE FIGHTING FOR THE WRONG PROMISED LAND!

by Adam Harbinson

'There are more children being killed than soldiers. And that's not right.'

(Jan Egeland, United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator).

In his book, The Lost Message of Jesus, Steve Chalke tells of a missionary who is trying to introduce God to a pagan tribe somewhere in the Far East . They had their own little god who ruled over their territory, provided for them and protected them from marauders. But the missionary wanted them to worship the 'High God', who is not restricted to their tribe; a God who rules the universe. The chief asked the missionary about his homeland; 'Does your tribe worship this High God?' And the missionary had to admit that his people too, worship a small tribal god.

There's a great story told of the occasion when the Hebrews were escaping from Egypt . As they made their way across the Red Sea on dry land, the angels looked over the parapets of heaven and cheered them on. And as the waters closed again over the pursuing armies of Egypt , sweeping them to a watery grave, a great roar of victory was heard all across the skies. But one of the angels noticed that God wasn't celebrating. 'Where is he?' he asked Gabriel. And Gabriel told him that God was quietly weeping; 'Thousands of his children have been drowned today.'

It seems to me that the present conflict in the Middle East raises the same question: is God the God of the Israelis alone? And if we think he is, we're reducing the God of the universe to the level of a tribal spirit. Yet isn't this exactly why religion has been at the root of wars all through the ages, the belief that God is on my side and will justify whatever I do? And my mind turns again to the words of Pascal: 'Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.'

I've a Jewish friend who works in the Church's Ministry among Jewish People (CMJ). He sent me some photographs last week from Israel and Lebanon - and they disturbed me. One was of a group of Israeli teenage girls who were writing their greetings on high explosives that were being fitted to bombers on their way to Lebanon . One read: 'Greetings from Danielle' and another, 'Best wishes from Moshe.' And there were other pictures too, of a little person, about 6 years old, but there was only half a body as the big paramedic held it up like a rag doll. And a young girl almost beheaded, and an arm missing. And the caption was, 'Thanks for the greetings!'

The debate about who is the aggressor? Was he provoked? Which side should we back? is irrelevant to these little ones and their families. And they should be irrelevant to us, for nothing, no cause can justify killing on such a scale. The best the apologists can come up with is, 'At least the Jews don't use suicide bombers.' Pathetic, isn't it. I mean, why should they when they have at their disposal almost 1,000 F16 bombers and Phantom Jets, courtesy of America ?

What we're seeing here as the conflict flushes the truth out is another 'axis of evil.' State terrorism on a massive scale, supported by a discredited President Bush, whose only appeal to the crazy Right Wing fundamentalists is that he begins his day's business in the White House with a prayer meeting. The F16's he supplied dropped 23 tons of American high explosives on a vacant bunker where leaders of Hezbollah had once been. Now that's a deadly cocktail of overkill and ineptitude, and what might he be thinking, for there's little doubt that he saw those pictures too? I guess it doesn't really matter to him, for his tribal god explains it all away as 'collateral damage.'

If only they could see that the true God, the High God will not be labelled a WASP (White, Anglo-Saxon Protestant), that he does not share their view that the Arab and the Muslim are of no more value than stray dogs. And so the wickedness of the world continues, and still the children suffer as politicians jostle for power and arms dealers swell their coffers. And still, unthinking Christians support the Zionists who bomb and slaughter in defence of their homeland.

But there's an interesting little Scripture, written to the Hebrews as it happens, that shows how small-minded it all is: 'Abraham - father of the Jewish nation - was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God.' (Hebrews 11:10 NLT) - they're bombing and killing for the wrong Promised Land.