ekistics: study of human settlement

12 days in the countdown to departure.

I am currently in Cedarville, OH still, taking a course during May term. I'll be leaving a couple days before summer school ends to drive home to Detroit on May 21.

Erin is currently in the Washington DC area at her parents' home. On May 21 she will fly to Detroit, and I will pick her up at the airport on my way back to Clarkston, MI.

The next morning (22May) Erin, my dad, and myself will depart on a non-stop flight from Detroit to Amman, Jordan via Royal Jordanian Airlines.

Palestinian children are seen through holes in the Barrier Wall made by Israeli rockets and bullets during an Israeli attack on Khan Yunis.

Angela is staying with an older couple during May term and I was able to enjoy a warm home cooked meal by them tonight- a very nice treat since I currently have no cafeteria meal plan! After dinner they asked me why I was interested in going to Jordan this summer to volunteer in a Palestinian refugee hospital. I thought I would give some of my answers, and some other thoughts for those of you to chew on who find yourself in a situation of fully supporting Israel but you're not entirely sure why.

Because the Church has, in its current history, had such a deep political and spiritual support for the nation of Israel, I have a pretty serious burden, as a Palestinian Christian, to encourage my brothers and sisters to educate themselves on both sides to the situation in the Middle East. It is not enough to ignorantly support Israel simply because the US does, nor is it enough to blindly speak for a complete Israeli state due to uneducated interpretation of Old Testament Scriptures. As Christians under the New Covenant, bound by the unifying and redeeming blood of Jesus, we must long for justice for all. Revelation lays out for us God's ultimate desire for His full glory in the New Jerusalem- pictures of justice for all His people, equality, abundant love, perfect worship, an end to pain, an end to weeping, an end to death. While I don't pretend to understand anything close to the full extent of biblical theology and eschatology regarding Israel and the Church and the New Jerusalem in the future, I do know one thing: the Jewish people have no excuse for oppression, exploitation, and destruction of any other people. God judged the Northern Kingdom due to idolatry and oppression of the poor (Amos 2:7: They trample on the heads of the poor as upon the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed.) Why did God judge the Southern Kingdom? The same reasons ring throughout the prophet's warnings! (Is. 10:1-3, Micah 2:2). Judah was spared for a time, but finally God sent the people into exile, again- due to idolatry and mistreatment of the poor:

Jeremiah 5:26-29
26 “Among my people are wicked men
who lie in wait like men who snare birds
and like those who set traps to catch men.
27 Like cages full of birds,
their houses are full of deceit;
they have become rich and powerful
28 and have grown fat and sleek.
Their evil deeds have no limit;
they do not plead the case of the fatherless to win it,
they do not defend the rights of the poor.
29 Should I not punish them for this?”
declares the Lord.
“Should I not avenge myself
on such a nation as this?

God states His conditions of deliverance, should Israel choose to obey:

Jeremiah 7:5-7 IF you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place AND
if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your forefathers for ever and ever.

The point to all this? God is not pleased with injustice. Israel's purpose is to stand as the Nation of Priests, the conduit through which all other nations would reach God. And instead Israel constantly chooses to mimic the nations surround them, instead of the other way around. I think this is not much unlike our current situation today. God was not angry with Israel for keeping her land, but for mistreating aliens, for denying justice and simply being another nation of oppression, like all the rest, rather than a nation of redemption, justice, and worship. Let's ask the question: Does present Israel treat the Palestinians justly? If 80% of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank are dependent on UN aid, is Israel really innocent of mistreating the poor?

We hear of Palestinian suicide bombers every week- and occasionally hear the subsequent cut off of electricity to the entire Gaza Strip at the hands of Israel for the following week. In a documentary I watched recently, the question was asked: "If Israel did not have its US supplied tanks, US supplied gunnery, US supplied air fleet (etc)... what would Israel's weapon be?" Yes, perhaps the only realistic answer is- one's own body. Suicide bombers. Please don't misunderstand- I am not defending nor justifying suicide bombing. However, in a back swing reaction to a nation whose Church tends to blindly support Israel, I think it is extremely important to present another side.

Even though no politician who speaks up against the incredibly large US budget for Israel would never get elected into office, should Christians not speak up, either? Brothers and sisters, these people are people. These people want to live, and on and on--you've heard it. But please don't brush it aside. Please educate yourself further. I have so much more to learn,...and I know that I will never come anywhere close to fully grasping the complexity of this situation. However, I know that the Palestinian people are people. They are people in need of the love of Jesus, in need of medical care, in need of justice, in need of the gospel- just like the rest of us. Not even the suicide bombers are individuals to hate. If they are your enemy, then love them. If they are your greatest fear, then prayer for them and for your own heart's assurance in the security of Jesus. And always consider...there are probably many deep, deep, DEEP hurts and pains of those who do this to themselves and others around them. Consider Israel's part in suicide bombing. Consider the devil's part in suicide bombing. Do not hate Palestine, its people, or its cause.

And never assume you know all (in either direction of this conflict), as I hope I am not coming across to you. I know so little, you know so little...but we long to know the heart of Jesus, to know what is right, true, and pure.

Do justly. Love kindness. Walk humbly with your God [micah 6:8 nasb].