Jerusalem: A Cup of Trembling

Jerusalem:
A Cup Of
Trembling
Behold, I will make Jerusalem a
cup of trembling unto all the people
Round about ... In that day will I
make Jerusalem a burdensome
stone for all people...
Zech 12:2-3

    Jerusalem, the city of peace is not at peace. Israel, the land that God gave to the children of Jacob, has many different people and many different gods. It is a very complex place and there are no easy solutions. In fact, there can be no solution at all until the One comes who has the right to rule it. That, of course, is the Messiah, who will come and sit on the throne of His father David, to rule not just Jerusalem and Israel, but all the earth.
    Meanwhile, the turmoil, fighting and hatreds continue unabated. Each day brings a new problem, a bombing, a shooting, a clash between soldiers and citizens.
    Two peoples claim the land. The Jews, who are descended from Abraham through Isaac and Jacob say that God gave the land to them as a permanent inheritance.

    The Arabs too, claim the land. They claim it also as the descendants of Abraham, through Ishmael, and as descendants of Isaac through Esau (the Edomites). But there are other people mixed in as well. Some of those we call Arabs may actually be descendants from the ancient Canaanites who held the land before Abraham was even commanded to enter it. Others are descended from Abraham’s nephew, Lot who fathered two children by his daughters, Ammon and Moab. Then one must factor in the Egyptians who, if they indeed are descended from the ancient Egyptians, have no ties to Abraham or any of his family at all. Some in Lebanon (Laban’s land) may, in fact, be descended from Laban who was the brother of Rebecca (Isaac s wife) and the father of Leah and Rachel (Jacob’s two full wives). Then there are the ancient Babylonians, Assyrians (a few are left) and the mixture of people the Assyrians brought into northern Israel after the ten tribes were removed. In Yeshua’s day they were known as the Samaritans.
    What a mess!
    The history of the Middle East is one of war. Just read through the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. Not only did Israel have to fight it’s neighbors over and over, they also ended up fighting among themselves, i.e., the house of Israel (northern ten tribes) versus the house of Judah (southern three tribes). Today, only a portion of the Jews claim that their right to live in the land is based on the Scriptures. Most of Jewish Israel is secular, just like our Western nations. Many of the secular Jews do not even believe in God. Many of them lost their faith as an aftermath to the horrible holocaust that took place in Nazi Germany during World War II. Nevertheless, there are still many other Jews who are very religious. They are called the haredim (Hah-reh-deem’), the ultra-orthodox. They are easy to spot because of their clothing; black suits and hats for the men, and long dresses and head coverings for the women. There are many other religious Jews in Israel who are also orthodox in their practice, but wear ordinary, modest, modern dress.
    Not only are the Jews divided along religious lines but also along ethnic lines. This, at first blush, seems a contradiction in terms but it is an actual fact. Many of the Jewish people have lived in the Diaspora (dispersion) for nearly two thousand years. During that time they maintained their identity through their religion, Rabbinic Judaism, and their ancient customs and ceremonies, many of which date back before the time of Yeshua. However, during those two thousand years there has been a certain amount of intermixing with the native populations. Some of it has been through intermarriage. But much of it has been through persecutions.
    During times of stress, some of the native populations would turn upon the Jews as the source of all their problems. The resulting persecutions ranged from mild humiliation, to torture and murder. Often times the young Jewish women were raped, resulting in pregnancies with fathers that were of the local ethnic stock. Thus today, the European Jews generally have blond hair and blue eyes, the Middle Eastern Jews are olive skinned and brown eyed and the African Jews are black, yet they are all considered to be Jewish, and are eligible to make aliyah (immigration) to Israel and become Israeli citizens.
    Some have wondered why the Jewish people trace their ‘Jewishness’ through the lineage of the mother rather than the father. The reason is that during the many persecutions, the Jewish community found itself with a large number of children that were technically considered rnamzers (bastards). As a result these children were cut off from the Jewish community and could never marry a Jew. The sages decided it was not right that the children should suffer for the sin of a gentile rapist, so they declared that Jewish lineage would be determined through the mother rather than the father. Thus, all of these innocent babies were brought into the Jewish communities and considered as if they were of pure Jewish blood.
    Then there are the Arabs, a catchall word for the mixture of people previously mentioned. They also come in a variety of religious flavors. Most Arabs are Moslem, that is they are members of the religion which is know as Islam. But the Moslems too come in divisions. Some are more moderate in their beliefs, wishing to have cordial relations with the Western world and open to a certain amount of modern thought. Others are very strict fundamentalists who are determined to convert the entirety of the world to Islam, by force if necessary. Factor into that mix, the Christian Arabs. Those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the promised Christ (Messiah).
    In addition to all of the above, there are also a large number of Christians who have come from outside the Middle East in order to live in the Holyland.
    Then there is the problem of Jerusalem. The Jews claim it as their capital, citing the fact that it has been the center of Judaism for three thousand years. Meanwhile, the Palestinians also want Jerusalem for their capital, in what they hope will be their new Palestinian state. Then, along come the Christians and they want a piece of Jerusalem as well because that is where Jesus was crucified.
    No wonder Jerusalem is such a power keg.
    What is the truth of the matter? Can one really know to whom it belongs? Who should be in charge of Jerusalem, the Jews? the Arabs? the Christians? Do not be surprised if Jerusalem eventually becomes an international city, controlled by a tripartite coalition of Jews, Christians and Moslems, with oversight from either the Vatican or the United Nations.
    Now for a little background information:
    Most people believe that the Jews were totally absent from their homeland for about eighteen hundred years, and only began to return in the later part of the last century. This is just not true. There have always been Jews in the land of Israel since the time that Joshua led the children of Israel into the promised land, after forty years of wandering in the desert. Except for a brief period following the Bar Cochba revolt of 132-135 C.E., there have always been Jews living in Jerusalem, since the time of King David. This is also true of some of those who call themselves Arabs. However, the vast majority of Arabs are relative newcomers to both Jerusalem and the land of Israel, having no ancient claim to the land. Primarily, they have come there seeking work in the jobs that were created by the Jewish economy.
    In the 1870’s the famous American author Mark Twain (Samuel Clemans) toured what was then called Palestine. He recounted how he had walked from Jerusalem to Nazareth and did not see enough vegetation to feed a chicken You see, the Holyland was then under control of the Turks (Ottoman Empire). They had a tax on trees; the land owner paid a tax for every tree on his property. Guess what? All the trees were cut down. As a result the land was barren and desolate. Yet a number of Jews and Arabs did live in Jerusalem and in some of the towns of ‘Palestine.’
    At that time most of the land was owned by Arab sheiks. In large part it was barren wasteland that would support only a handful of Bedouin sheepherders. in the later part of the nineteenth century a number of European Jews began to immigrate in because of the Russian pogroms.
    About this same time a Jewish officer in the French army, named Dreyfus, was accused of a crime, it was latter learned that he was innocent and had been framed because he was Jewish. This became a cause célèbre among the Jewish people, and led to the establishment of a movement called Zionism, the organized return of the Jewish people to their land in ‘Palestine.’ By and large, it was the poor Jews who immigrated while the wealthy Jews of Europe and the Americas donated the money to buy land for them from the Arab sheiks. The sheiks were more than willing to sell their wasteland to the ‘stupid Jews’ who were willing to pay good money for a place to live free from persecution.
    The Jews set about to rebuild their ancient homeland. In one case they bought up a valley in Galilee called the Hula Valley. It was a malarial swamp. They drained the swamp and turned it into fertile farmland. Today, some of the Arabs claim the Jews ‘stole’ the Hula Valley from their ancestors. Of course, it had remained a wasteland for centuries while the Arab sheiks owned it, but that does not seem to matter in their way of thinking. We see that same mentality in the United States when affluent people begin to buy into rundown neighborhoods and restore the buildings into beautiful homes. Sometimes the tenants, who were replaced, feel a jealousy because someone was able to take the mess that they had to live in (possibly be-cause the landlord would not fix the place up) and turn it into a beautiful home.
    Over the years, the Jewish people were able to secure a fair amount of the land for themselves, and worked hard to make it productive. This, in turn, began to bring other Arab people, who needed work, into the area as laborers. Thus, both the Jewish and Arab populations grew in number. Inevitably, this condition began to lead to strife.