Now more than eleven months after Hamas’ massacre in Israel’s Gaza envelope, and steadily approaching the one-year anniversary while more than one hundred hostages remain trapped in the terrorists’ tunnel system underground,[1] the age-old “controversy of Zion”[2] continues to imbibe the nations.[3] Major cities, despite sitting thousands of miles and kilometers from both the conflict and the region at large, continue to host demonstrations in support of Hamas with attendance filling main boulevards beyond their capacities.[4] As the fall semester begins, the greens of Western colleges and universities again become ground zeroes for campouts calling for a globalized intifada (which would look a lot like more 9/11s, if we’re honest).[5] News agencies bluster their ways through what should be objective reporting and far too often instead parrot propaganda from internationally recognized terrorist organizations.[6] The war between Israel and Hamas is not not influencing the United States’ presidential election cycle—or, perhaps more disastrously, the incumbent US administration’s campaign hopes have significantly influenced and slowed the war (somehow managing a service to the detriment of every side).
I live on the northern front, and wonder daily what it means to respond to this war, to this zeitgeist, that we knew would one day come in a manner faithful to the confession of Jesus.[7] Despite having watched the global outrage during Operation Protective Edge in 2014, I truly underestimated what I call “the world of October 8th” a decade later. The last near-year has exposed our moral compass, murkier than mud, and supplied additional evidence that not a single one of us can be trusted with the leadership and authority we abdicated in the travesty of Eden.[8] For as often as I wonder how to faithfully walk the road we’re on, I look back and ask, “How did we get here?”
The answer may surprise you:
Covenant.
Turn the pages of history back to an encounter under the oak trees of Mamre in the hills of Hebron;[9] when blood drenched an aisle God alone walked down, ratifying and expounding on the promise made a few chapters earlier:
Now the Lord had said to Abram:
Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.[10]
Seed. Land. Blessing. And thus the Everlasting Covenant was cut with the father of the faith in the Maker of Heaven and Earth, who can and will resurrect the dead.[11] This is what Jesus shed His blood for on the cross.[12] The Everlasting Covenant, gifted to Abraham, inherited by Isaac, and passed onto Jacob, now stewarded by his sons and daughters.[13] But, mind you, it did not go to Ishmael.[14] It did not go to Esau.[15] These disruptions tore the tents of their father Abraham, and set the stage for the fractures running throughout the Middle East and the broader nations of the earth today. The controversy of the covenant split the family then, and it splits the family now. The whole world is reeling for it.
So why would God do such a thing? The Arab world traces its lineage back to the two sons cut off from the covenant.[16] Didn’t the One who sees and knows everything see these wars coming? Didn’t He know the sons of Ishmael would include a Saudi named Muhammed, who would birth a counterfeit of the revelation of God that exonerates perversion and bloodlust? Consider this consequential, and illuminating, prophecy:
And Abraham said to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!”
Then God said: “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.
But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year.”
Then He finished talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.[17]
This is the conversation wherein the God of Abraham changed Abram into Abraham: the “father of many nations,” a change that came square in the reiteration of the covenant and an elaboration of terms: it was after this that Abraham and his whole household—including Ishmael—were circumcised to mark their fidelity to the covenant.
And it is the conversation wherein the LORD alienated Ishmael from the inheritance and stewardship of the covenant, but declared He’d set up the chessboard that would entrench us in the controversy as we live it today. This makes it clear He did not intend for this “present evil age” to last forever, this wretched life of wars.[18] He deliberately set up the chess board of the Middle Eastern quagmire we’re living through, through Ishmael’s seed, through Esau’s seed. He Himself announced and took credit for the coming day when “all nations” will trip over Jerusalem; everyone will get drunk on the issue.[19] Why?
Covenant.
Jerusalem is the “city of the Great King,”[20] thereby placing it directly in the crosshairs of the controversy. No wonder why it became the object of the unidentified “third mosque” in Muhammed’s delusions.[21] No wonder this current wicked war began with the “al-Aqsa Flood,”[22] as if the nobility of Jerusalem could ever whitewash such a demonic enterprise.
I return, then, to the question that haunts me every day on the northern front. This is not my first war zone, but it is the most dear to me. I know my own bias. I don’t think Jesus will scold me for having my own opinions or political convictions; I do think He would be, at a minimum, disappointed if I allowed my emotions to shape and inform my obedience. I’ve been in the swirl of the Middle East and Muslim world for well over a decade now, and noticed immediately upon entry how common it is for aid workers, Christian or otherwise, in the Arab and Muslim world to adopt Arab animosity against Israel— like you have to take the side of the family you sit nearest to at Thanksgiving in order to belong. Alternatively, too many Christians use their “support for Israel” as an excuse to justify their anti-Arab racism and xenophobia. Neither position honors the LORD or the Everlasting Covenant Jesus secured with His blood.
Here’s the thing: Abraham interceded for Ishmael, and the LORD answered him with plans He’d already drawn up for the boy— that he would live.[23]
God “hated” Esau,[24] but He’s leaving the window of mercy open for the Gentiles until all Esau’s kids have the chance to jump in the water of life.[25]
And here is where the people of Jesus have a unique opportunity—nay, responsibility—in this watershed moment of history: Who else can stand and serve as a bridge between these two bruised brothers? For all our cute ideas about the “day after” in Gaza, how do you actually serve the interests of actual peace in a region torn apart by war?
We are, as Jihadi John called us, the “people of the cross.”[26] Thus the apostle Paul, the exceedingly-Jewish-Jew sent to all the Gentiles roundabout as a messenger of the Gospel of the Kingdom,[27] admonished us:
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.[28]
If you have been crucified with Christ, you must behave like Christ. There is no way around it; no cowardice in the Kingdom of which we serve as ambassadors.[29] It is in this way we display the “manifold wisdom of God” to the powers and principalities of the air[30] and “fill up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ.”[31] The Cross is unequivocally sufficient; we are simply “conformed into His image.”[32]
For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For He says:
In an acceptable time I have heard you,
And in the day of salvation I have helped you.
Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.[33]
How will anyone know if no one goes to tell them?[34] One of the things I find most encouraging is Jesus declared an iron-clad commitment in Matthew 24 to the commission of Matthew 28. See for yourself:
And this Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.[35]
And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.[36]
So we know the job will get done, whether we leverage what has been entrusted to us for Kingdom gain or if we will white-knuckle even our little, squandering it in the sand to our shame and His condemnation forever.[37] But the “new song” that erupted from the center of the earth has made its way to the very ends of the earth,[38] and will return again to the City of the Great King—covering the sands of Ishmael and Esau’s lands like a tsunami of salvation, such that the prophet heard the sons of Islam singing “glory to the Righteous One, the God of Israel.”[39] He is indeed long-suffering and rich in mercy, not willing that any would perish, nor rejoicing in the death of the wicked.[40] The question is, are we conformed to that same heart? Will we, the people of Jesus, the people who confess the King of Jerusalem, do we in fact love those who persecute Jerusalem the way He loves those who persecute Jerusalem? Will we serve the Arab and Muslim world with a witness of “this Gospel of the Kingdom” soon-to-be-restored to Israel?[41]
The controversy of Zion is designed to sift us, and conform us into His likeness. We can either respond in nationalistic rage, or we can embody the cross that salvaged us from death and build a bridge of reconciliation between Isaac and Ishmael, between Jacob and Esau. It will, just like Golgotha, cost us blood. But it will be worthwhile.
It is covenant that got us here. And it is covenant that will swing low and carry us home.
Stephanie Quick is a writer/producer serving with FAI. She cohosts The Better Beautiful podcast with Jeff Henderson. Browse her free music, films, and books in the FAI App and at stephaniequick.org.
[1] View the heartbreaking footage of where the six hostages executed two weeks ago were held: https://x.com/IDF/status/1833557217913471348
[2] See Isaiah 34:8, KJV
[3] See Zechariah 12:1-2
[4] Footage from London on September 8, 2024 (one year and one day after the massacre of Oct. 7th): https://x.com/visegrad24/status/1832802840441450817
[5] Offenhartz, J. (2024, September 3). Columbia University, epicenter of protests against Israel, braces as students return to campus. PBS. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/columbia-university-epicenter-of-protests-against-israel-braces-as-students-return-to-campus
[6] Sawer, C. T. P. (2024, September 7). BBC “breached guidelines 1,500 times” over Israel-hamas war. The Telegraph. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/07/bbc-breached-guidelines-more-1500-times-israel-hamas-war/
[7] See Matthew 5:43-44; Luke 6:34-36; John 16:2; Romans 12:14
[8] See Revelation 5:4-5
[9] See Genesis 13:18; Covenant and Controversy II: The City of the Great King (2016, FAI) https://youtu.be/kcPW7lm4zNI?si=ZcklZHuORQq-7f7Y
[10] Genesis 12:1-3, NKJV
[11] See Hebrews 11:17-19
[12] See Hebrews 13:20
[13] See Genesis 12:1-3; 15:1-21; 17:1-16; Romans 3:1-4; chs. 9-11.
[14] See Genesis 17:18-22
[15] See Genesis 25:19-34; 27:1-40
[16] Historically, Esau’s lineage populated and governed what is now Jordan, and Ishmael’s offspring spread into the Arab peninsula. They have of course, through Islamic conquest, taken over the whole of the Middle East and North Africa, with some exceptions to minorities (Druze, Yazidi, Kurd, etc). See Ephesians 2:11-22.
[17] Genesis 17:18-22, NKJV; emphasis added
[18] See Galatians 1:4; Isaiah 2:1-4; Micah 4:1-8
[19] See Zechariah 12:1-2
[20] Psalm 48:2; Matthew 5:35
[21] According to the Quran, Muhammed took a nighttime journey via angelic escort to the “third mosque,” an unnamed mosque in an unidentified location. Over time, conventional Islamic tradition decided it must have been Jerusalem. Al-Aqsa, “the farthest” mosque was built on the Temple Mount at least fifty years after Muhammed died. With the exception of a brief period during the Crusades, it has been under Muslim jurisdiction ever since.
[22] This is Hamas’ operational title for their military campaign launched on October 7, 2023.
[23] See Genesis 17:18-21
[24] Malachi 1:3; Romans 9:13
[25] See Romans 11:25; John 7:38
[26] Quick, S. (2024, June 28). In the words of jihadi john // FAI online. FAI ONLINE. https://fai.online/articles/jihadi-john
[27] He recounts his testimony in depth in Galatians 1. Consider that the “gospel given to him” directly from Jesus via revelation cannot violate the only Gospel Jesus ordained to reach the nations in Matthew 24:14— “this Gospel of the Kingdom.”
[28] Philippians 2:5-8, NKJV; emphasis added
[29] See Revelation 21:8; 2 Corinthians 5:20
[30] See Ephesians 3:8-12
[31] Colossians 1:24
[32] Romans 8:29
[33] 2 Corinthians 5:14-6:2, NKJV; emphasis added
[34] See Romans 10:8-15
[35] Matthew 24:14, NKJV; emphasis added
[36] Matthew 28:18-20, NKJV; emphasis added
[37] See Matthew 25:14-46
[38] See Isaiah 24:14-16
[39] Ibid.; See also Isaiah 42:10-13; Sela is now Jordan (Esau’s descendants) and Kedar is Saudi Arabia (Ishmael). By the time the LORD is “going forth like a mighty warrior,” (v.13), it’s Zechariah 12, or 14:3-4: “The LORD will go forth like a mighty man, and His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives.” He is delivering with Jerusalem, and this present evil age is over forever. Maranatha.
[40] See Exodus 34:5-7; 2 Peter 3:9; Ezekiel 18:23
[41] See Matthew 24:14; Acts 1:6-8
