From the river to the sea… Israel will be free
Ancient prophecies are becoming painfully relevant in today’s society.
Psalm 83:4 ends with the poignant words: “So that they are no longer a nation, and the name of Israel is no longer remembered.”
Anyone who delves into the end times encounters a forest of differing views. I have read countless books and listened to many preachers. Some confirmed one another, others contradicted one another. Opinions on the Rapture, on the position of Israel and on the Great Tribulation vary enormously. Respected preachers proclaim all manner of views that are often diametrically opposed to one another.
Lately, the people of Israel have particularly fascinated me. I was always connected to Christian churches where people held very different views on this. In one church, only spiritual Israel existed. No specific significance was seen in the Jewish people anymore; they had become a people like any other. Later, I became involved with a church that had a deep love for Israel. That theme is not central every Sunday, but the church does organise an annual ‘Israel Sunday’ to consciously reflect on the people.
Unimaginably changed
What moves me is the incredible hostility towards Israel that is also rearing its head in our own society. I am careful not to immediately attach a spiritual connotation to this. I am no Bible scholar and remain cautious in this area. However, I do note that attitudes towards Israel in the Netherlands have changed beyond recognition.
Immediately after the Second World War, following the horrors of the Holocaust in which millions of Jews in the concentration camps cried out their despair to God, the situation was very different. In those years, the Netherlands gave massive support to the Jewish people. There was deep sympathy for the Jews who, from all corners of the globe, sought a safe haven in that small area in the Middle East, what was then Palestine.
Sympathy for Israel
Although I am not familiar with the historical record in detail, I know that the sentiment at the time was clear: they deserve this safe haven. After so much suffering, they are entitled to a place of their own. Organisations, newspapers and broadcasters devoted a great deal of time at the time to programmes in which love for the Jewish people resonated. This may have stemmed from a sense of guilt, because the Netherlands allowed the Jews to be deported without any mass protest against the German occupiers.
That sympathy for Israel remained palpable in the Netherlands right up until the 1970s. I still remember well how Prime Minister Joop den Uyl of the Labour Party openly expressed his sympathy for the country. He sought contact with Golda Meir to offer her and her people words of encouragement during the threat from Egypt and Syria during the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Now, decades later, we are seeing an enormous hostility arise due to left-wing, progressive influences and external forces.
Brutal
On 7 October, a brutal, barbaric massacre took place amongst the Jewish people. It mainly affected young people, but also innocent children and the elderly who had nothing to do with the struggle against Hamas and Hezbollah.
The cruelty was unprecedented. Yet I saw that Dutch politicians and the media paid only very brief attention to this. Only a handful of individuals with a warm heart for Israel continued to speak out about the horrors. The mainstream media quickly moved on.
Human shield
When Israel’s bombardment of Hamas in Gaza began, public opinion shifted completely. Prime Minister Netanyahu announced that he would eradicate Hamas. Meanwhile, that terrorist organisation is cunningly hiding its launchers beneath nurseries, hospitals and schools. They are using the inhabitants of Gaza as human shields.
Subsequently, the world turned en masse against Israel. People felt the impact of the military actions in Gaza was so great that it overshadowed all the previous atrocities. The fact that Hamas fires rockets at Israel day and night faded into the background. This shift in public sentiment is strongly reminiscent of the words from the psalm: “They plot a secret attack against your people and devise schemes against your protected ones. Come,’ they said, ‘let us wipe them out, so that they are no longer a people and the name of Israel is no longer remembered.’
That is the bitter meaning behind the slogan ‘from the river to the sea’. That is the left-wing jargon used by activists who even disrupt the performance of a singer like Lenny Kuhr because of her ties to Israel. Yesterday she explained on television that anti-Semitism has taken such a turn that she no longer feels safe in the Netherlands. Jewish schools and institutions need security because of the constant threat from quarters whose sole aim is to intimidate Dutch people of Jewish descent.
Psalm 83
That is why I thought of Psalm 83. The call to exterminate them is becoming a reality today. Not only in Israel, but equally so in the Netherlands. I hope it never comes to that, but there is a danger that a time is approaching when Jews will no longer be welcome in our country.
This shift is linked to the changing nature of our society. Groups from Arab regions with a deep hostility towards Israel play a role in this. The left-wing political establishment responded directly to this by placing people of Islamic background in electable positions. As a result, this hostility has penetrated deep into the House of Representatives. The Dutch media, from NRC to de Volkskrant, consistently champion the residents of Gaza, whilst adopting an extremely critical and cold stance towards the Jewish people.
It leads to the sad conclusion that people would prefer to wipe out the very name of Israel. That is the deepest desire of many: to literally drive the people into the sea so that they drown, because they believe they have no right to exist.
My deepest wish
Theologically speaking, I believe that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob keeps his hand upon this people. The matter is complex and I cannot explain it all precisely. I know that there is one way to God, and that is through Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul writes in the Epistle to the Romans of his great desire that his fellow countrymen might come to know the way of Christ. That remains my prayer too. At the same time, God remains a God of faithfulness, who has laid his hand upon the descendants of Abraham.
I hope that God will protect the people from the hostility that surrounds them. My deepest wish is that they may come to know Jesus as their Saviour, who died for them too. That not only peace may come to this part of the world, but that both Jew and Arab may find peace in Him. Although many do not yet see this, I hope that their eyes will be opened and that they will all behold their Saviour.
@wimvanputten