an old post from an old blog

Monday, July 24, 2006

my thoughts on the middle east. Tell Me if you dig. Current mood: contemplative Category: Religion and Philosophy Isaac and Ishmael so i was thinking. . .(oh no! yeah scary) And God said, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son indeed; and you shall call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. ------------------------------------------------- But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto you at this set time in the next year. - Gen. 17:19, 21 ------------------------------------------------- ok so abraham was promised a child when he and his wife were way to old to have some kiddos of their own, and his seed was promised to "be as many as the stars in the sky, or grains of sand", but abraham didn't have faith and he took his bond-servant hagar as a second wife and a child was born other than the one of promise. ------------------------------------------------- 11 The angel of the LORD also said to hagar: "You are now with child and you will have a son. You shall name him Ishmael, [a] for the LORD has heard of your misery. 12 He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward [b] all his brothers." 13 She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: "You are the God who sees me," for she said, "I have now seen [c] the One who sees me." 14 That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi [d] ; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered. 15 So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael. - Gen. 16:11-15 ------------------------------------------------- but the child of promise was yet to come. . . ------------------------------------------------- 6 Sarah said, "God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me." 7 And she added, "Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age." -gen. 21:6 ------------------------------------------------- so you have two children, two covenents, both opposites, kinda like yen and yang. now historically folks ishmael was the father of pretty much all of the arab nations, and he is spoken of quite a bit in the Quran (islamic bible), and isaac the father of pretty much everyone else. now out of the covenent made from abrahams unbelief you get an angry child who doesn't play well with others, and the other you get a kiddo who grows to be another man after god's own heart. now isaac and ishmael never got along, actually ishmael and hagar got kicked out into the modern day deserts of saudi arabia (also in the quran and bible) now the point i'm getting to is that technically islam and christianity aren't that different ideal wise, so it doesn't make any sense why many arabs are anti-westerncivilization (which was built off of christianity)(and don't say i'm making conclusions about things i don't know, i lived in an arab country for five years, i had many arab friends, i say some not all arabs have problems with christians and western civ,) so the seed of ishmael were allowed to multiply because God spared hagar, but even after all these years Isaac's seed and Ishmael's Seed don't get along. it goes to show that even the best of men get do something with good intentions, but not have good conclusions, a person must have good faith in what they are doing 0r are told, curses and promises are carried down into your lineage so watch how you live. As Far as the middle east goes, I say it is as much a spiritual war as it is a physical war between men.