Copyright 2024. By Joseph Shulam
This article is adapted from a speech given during a seminar of Musalaha in Jerusalem, Israel in the 1990s.
I am a Jew, a disciple of Yeshua HaMashiach (that is the Hebrew name of Jesus Christ). I have two brothers sitting here with me who are Arab Palestinians, and we face a significant problem as believers. First and foremost, we must respect our rulers. Paul, in the Roman letter in the 13th chapter, tells us to respect our governments and the authorities we live under. As disciples of the Messiah, we have different national allegiances. God created different nations, but our first allegiance is to God and His Son. Bishara, who is from Bethlehem, is a Palestinian. Until 1967, he was a Jordanian citizen because Judea and Samaria were under Jordanian rule. The Gaza Strip was under Egyptian rule. In effect, there is a problem of allegiance that he has as an Arab, as a Christian, and as a Palestinian.
I, as an Israeli Jew, have a very similar problem of allegiance to my government. All three of us here believe that the first place in our life is the Messiah, His Body, His church, and the brotherhood we share. The whole concept of reconciliation is imperative if we live together as brothers and sisters, believing in the same God, Bible, Messiah, and Salvation that comes by grace from God. It is a dilemma, a problem.
Before I address this problem of divided loyalty, I want to say that reconciliation is a central theme of the Bible. From the day that Adam and Eve were thrown out of the Garden, God's will has always been to reconcile all men unto Himself. That reconciliation runs through the entire biblical story; it is not unique to study and work on. It only becomes unique when both the Arab and Jewish world has drifted so far apart from God's will that reconciliation has become a novel idea. We had to establish an association whose prime goal was to effect reconciliation.
If believers and the church were what they ought to be, there would be no need for such an organization. It would be so well understood that it would be redundant to talk about it. But that is not the situation. The situation is that we are saturated with hatred, hostility, and violence on all sides. Either as Israelis or as Palestinians, as Jews or as Arabs, we are pulled apart by our compatriots. We drift toward one call or the other, and we take sides.
If we had taken the side of the Bible, we wouldn't have this problem. As Salim Munayyer stated in a previous speech, the main problem of reconciliation is a problem of sin. Sometimes, it is the sin of ignorance. Now, I belong to those who believe that the Bible is all-sufficient and that only the Bible is all-sufficient. It has an answer to every human problem on individual, national, corporate, family, and tribal levels or any other level of human existence. For this reason, I believe that this complex problem between Jews and Arabs, Palestinians and Israelis has an answer in the Bible. It has a model by which we can be reconciled if we follow it.
I may seem stupid to talk about reconciliation when there are half a million Western soldiers encamped in the Arabian Desert, sharpening their swords against a million Iraqi soldiers on the other side of the dunes. Every day when you open your newspaper, you read of people stabbed and killed, the Israeli soldiers shooting Palestinians with rubber bullets, and the Palestinians throwing firebombs. Yesterday, there were four cases of firebombing; three vehicles burned, about five people were wounded, and one person died right here in Jerusalem. So, talking about reconciliation in a situation like this doesn't sound very intelligent.
You remember that just a year ago, it seemed so hopeless that the Cold War would end, that Berlin would be unified, that Romania would get out from under the rule of Ceausescu, that Americans could travel wherever they so desired in Russia, that the Jews would come out of Russia at the rate of 2000 a day. All of these things seemed impossible just a year ago. Neither the CIA nor the KGB dreamed of such things happening so fast. But in one year, what seemed impossible became not only possible but a reality, just in one year.
I believe reconciliation is also possible, and the Bible gives us the model.
The model comes from the story of Jacob and Esau in the book of Genesis.
To review this story, Jacob and Esau are twins, but Esau comes out of the womb first. The Bible indicates that Esau and Jacob already struggled within the womb. Esau comes out first. He is a strong man, a hunter, and an outdoorsman. He is a survivor. Jacob is a more petite man, a philosopher sitting in his tent. When Esau comes in from one of his hunts, very tired and hungry, and he smells the food Jacob is cooking, he is willing to give up everything to have some of that food. Jacob takes advantage of Esau's weakness and buys his inheritance from him, which Esau does not value very much. Like most passionate and outdoors people, they think much more of the moment than of the future. "The bird in the hand is better than ten in the bush," Esau believes. He feels uncertain about what is going to happen. "What am I going to inherit? I am hungry now; I will sell my birthright and take some of this stew."
It is an unfair deal, but it is a legal deal. Esau was willing to sell, Jacob was willing to buy, agreed on the price, and signed the contract. Legally, the deal is done. Years go by, Esau realizes the mistake he made, and he wants to kill his brother. Rebecca hears about this from God. Nobody tells her because Esau only makes that decision in his heart. Scripture says: "And Esau thought in his heart that when his father dies, he will kill Jacob, his brother." It says there in Genesis 27, "..and it was told to Rebecca." How could anyone tell her if Esau only made this decision in his heart? So, God must see into Esau's heart and reveal it to Rebecca. Rebecca tells Jacob to pack up and go to Haran to her brother Laban.
Jacob lived there with Laban for 21 years. He had two wives and many children: twelve boys and another girl. After 12 years, God tells him to return to his father's land. But Esau has also significantly grown. He has become a powerful leader of many sons and tribes, with four hundred soldiers at his disposal. Jacob knows that he has wronged his brother and that Esau wants to kill him.
Why am I using this as a model for reconciliation between Jews and Arabs today? Because we are talking about our progenitors. If you read the list of nations that came out of Esau, you will find there the Midianites, the Amalekites, and many of the progenitors of the modern Arabs. The modern Arabs are mainly a conglomerate of tribes that came from ancient people, just like the Jews did. Their language is just as ancient as Hebrew and is part of the same family of languages. They are descendants of Abraham through Ishmael and then through Esau. So we are cousins, and the Arabs realize that we are cousins. The Koran calls us cousins, and genetically we are cousins.
The difficulty that Jacob and Esau had over an inheritance, and the difficulty today between the Arabs and Jews, is over an inheritance. The inheritance is not only a question of land—Salim tried to point that out—it is a question of culture and religion and all of the things about which Salim spoke.
Historically, this war and enmity have had reconciliation periods. It hasn't always been as bad as it is now. It is also true of Jacob and Esau; they reconcile between chapters 23 and 63.
Let me state this before I continue with how they reconciled. The world talks about peace, making peace between the Jews and Arabs. They speak of this through an international conference, through direct talks, through war, through whatever solution the world can offer. Biblically speaking, the world cannot make peace. If you take a concordance and look at the word peace, you will find very quickly that the word peace is never attributed to anyone except God. Only God can make peace. Only God can give peace. Only God can produce peace between human beings and between man and God. In speaking of situations between enemies in the world, the Bible uses a phrase: "And the land was quiet for forty years..." or however many years it was. It never uses the word peace.
That is as much as the world can ever achieve: that the land will be quiet, that the enemies will stop shooting, and that trade relationships with others will develop. But it does not mean that it has the divine attributes of peace.
Now, between the brothers gathered here at this conference, we have peace. This peace is not something that we have sat down and negotiated. This peace is something that God has done for us through Jesus Christ. We have no choice but to get along with each other and cease fighting, not because of what we have done but because of what God has done for us. He has given us His peace, and we are reconciled, whether we like each other. We have to recognize this reconciliation, and in this area at least, name it and claim it. In other places, this doctrine does not work. But in this area, it does. We have to claim this reconciliation that God has achieved through Jesus Christ.
Now, back to our model. After twenty-one years, Jacob comes home to Canaan with lots of flocks and many goods that he accumulated - some miraculously, others by cunning - in those years working for Laban. He also comes with many children and many servants. Approaching the border of Canaan, Jacob knows that his brother is coming toward him. How does he know? Because Jacob knows his brother. He prepares for this meeting. He takes security measures.
The first thing he does is divide the camp. He assures himself of survival if Esau should attack. One of the camps would survive.
The second thing Jacob does is prepare gifts. These are described in the book of Genesis. They are many riches. The list is found in chapters 32:14-18. Seven waves of gifts he sends with servants ahead of him. Ten camels, ten horses, ten donkeys, gold, silver, and numerous riches to give to Esau. Now, these gifts represent Jacob's paying Esau the correct value for his inheritance. He bought his inheritance with a bowl of soup, and everyone would agree that it was an unfair price, even if it were legal. Also, I agree that Esau has the right to change his mind.
When you go to a store and buy something you don't need, when you get home with it, your mother can say to take it back to the store; you paid far too much for it, which would be embarrassing. However, once you return to the store, most will understand and either return your money or give you a voucher to buy other things you need or exchange them; this scenario is different with Esau and Jacob and also not the case in the Middle East.
If you tried to return something to a store in the Middle East, they would generally tell you tough luck; you bought it. That is the case with Esau and Jacob. However, Jacob feels in his spirit that there is some justification for his brother's claim and anger.
That is the first thing that must come in reconciliation. You can never reconcile two sides who think that they are absolutely right and the other side is absolutely wrong. There can never be any reconciliation without recognition of wrong, injustice, and lack of fairness. Jacob understands that he was unfair to his brother, that his brother is out to get him, and that he has prepared 400 soldiers to come against him in war. Please read these chapters in Genesis carefully.
If you want to reconcile, you first must realize that your attitude is one of humility and that the other side is not angry without a cause. There is a reason why Esau is furious, and there is a reason why the Palestinians are angry.
That is the first step towards reconciliation. A repentant spirit. A spirit that realizes that these guys have good reason to be angry. Even though the law may be on my side if I take it to court, that doesn't mean anything. There is more than just the dry letter of the law. With the Israelis and Palestinians, it is the same. I can give you examples of what the Israelis have done and what the Palestinians have done; in each case, with the dry letter of the law, they all may be on this side or the other, but sometimes they are blind and have no heart, and you could apply it indiscriminately. That is why good judges always understand that there are such things as circumstances, and they sometimes make decisions not by the letter of the law but by the extenuating circumstances of the case. They can give one man who murdered twenty-four years in jail and yet another murderer twelve years in prison because of the extenuating circumstances around the case. I recently heard of a case in the United States of a woman who was murdered and was acquitted because the man she murdered had abused her terribly for 51 years and had done terrible things to her and her children. What I am saying is that true justice also takes circumstances into account.
Now the law is on Jacob's side: I buy it, he sees it, we agree on the price, and that's it. However, Jacob understands there is more to his relationship with Esau than the law. So, reconciliation has to be willing to admit fault.
The second step is taking precautionary measures. You can never have a genuine reconciliation between strong and weak people. True reconciliation can only be among equals because if not, the strong person could either forgive the weak person or the weak person, out of fear, could appear to reconcile yet not reconcile in his heart. Jacob takes precautions and divides the camps and the gift-givers into seven waves, each bringing a portion of the gift to Esau to receive, and then the next gift will come. In other words, he prepares to win time and test the intentions of Esau in installments. I think that full reconciliation between Jews and Arabs, even if they agreed to reconcile now, would probably take several years.
If you fight with your brother in your home, in front of your parents, and your parents force you to make peace, that normalization usually doesn't occur until a few hours later. For hours, you continue to walk around with a long face, muttering how unfair it was. It takes time, and it happens in installments. However, eventually, you have to face your enemy face-to-face to reconcile.
Eventually, Jacob and Esau meet in a theatrical moment. They take the precautionary measures. Esau knows that Jacob is repentant, and Jacob knows that Esau is repentant, not meaning to harm him, accepting him as his brother. When they meet, they fall on each other's necks, weep, and embrace each other. They recognize something they have in common. Yes, they have hurts and years full of bad feelings, but they know that they came from the same father and the same mother. Even though they were arguing about the same piece of land, they knew that if they loved each other, the problem of the land would solve itself.
After this moving reunion and reconciliation, Esau looks at the many gifts and tells Jacob, "You can keep your gifts. I have plenty of my own. Jaco truly doesn't expect that. I think he honestly wants to repay Esau for what he took from him. But Esau understands Jacob's situation. He has just come from twenty-one years in exile (in Saddam Hussein's neighborhood). He has to set up a house again in the land of his forefathers. Esau has become a very powerful, wealthy landlord. Here is Esau telling Jacob, "Keep your gifts, I have plenty of my own." If we can understand this, we can understand the problem between the Jews and the Arabs.
The Arabs do have plenty of their own. They have most of the land of the Middle East. Israel is a tiny dot in comparison to the Arab world, from Morocco, Algiers, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, and Sudan, which are going west. Going East, there's Arabia, all the Emirates, the Persian Gulf, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon; we are talking about 200 million people surrounding this area. We are talking about vast areas of land, the most significant rivers in the world, natural resources, and 46% of the world's oil. If it weren't for hurt feelings of being trampled, oppressed, and embarrassed, they could easily make peace with Israel. They will never do it as long as the focus is on the feeling that the world has taken advantage of them and has been unfair to them.
Now, we Jews, on the other hand, come with a charter and say that God gave the land to Abraham, that we believe the Bible, and that the land is ours. God sends us to exile and is returning us supernaturally from exile, so it is our land by decree of the Creator of the Universe. His will is to settle in the hills of Judea and Samaria, the Sharon Valey, the Negev, and the Galilee. All we want to do is to be obedient to God. The world has also been unfair to us.
So, both sides have legitimate claims, just as Jacob and Esau have legitimate and logical claims. The only way that we will reconcile is if we follow both this Biblical example and the greatest example of reconciliation of all: the Son of God Himself, who reconciled Himself to Himself all flesh.
We all have been enemies of God. We all have betrayed God and taken advantage of Him. We have been born into His world by His power. We breathe His air, drink His water, and enjoy His rain, as righteous or in the flesh and worldliness. Yet, in spite of all this, He has given His only begotten Son. He has understood our problem and reconciled us unto Himself. He has given us good gifts, the Bible says. He has given us a portion of His own inheritance, and He has prepared for each of us a mansion in Heaven. But we must follow Jacob's example. We must recognize ourselves and our sins, come with a repentant and humble spirit, and be willing to give back to God a little bit of what He has given us.
All of these elements in the story of Jacob and Esau are part of every Christian's experience of reconciling with God and one another. It's important to read these chapters, consider them, and reconcile with God and with one another. In America and throughout the world, there needs to be reconciliation, not only between the Jews and the Arabs but also among all of the various sects and denominations within the church.