Can There Be Peace in the Middle East?
Lesson Overview
Can There Be Peace in the Middle East? with Dr. Ed Hindson
This standalone message by Dr. Ed Hindson asks whether lasting peace in the Middle East is possible. His answer is that true peace will not come through diplomacy but only when Christ returns, and along the way he traces God’s covenant promises to Abraham and the recurring theme of God coming down to meet human need. Use this overview to review the key points after watching the full video.
The Question of Peace
Hindson opens with the endless international effort to broker Middle East peace, noting how often American presidents and political candidates promise a solution, including the two-state proposal. He argues these efforts keep failing because, as he reads the conflict, the aim of Israel’s enemies is ultimately all the land, not a compromise. He quotes Jeremiah, “peace, peace, when there is no peace,” and 1 Thessalonians 5, that the day of the Lord comes while people say “peace and safety.” His point is that humanity wants peace but does not meet God’s conditions for it, so real peace remains out of reach. He frames the enemies of peace in terms of the religion of Islam, which he considers a false religion, and he is careful later to distinguish this from any hostility toward Arab people.
Why There Will Not Be Peace Soon
Hindson gives the return of Israel to the land as the first reason peace is unlikely soon. He recounts that Rome destroyed Jerusalem and scattered the Jews in AD 70 (memorialized in the Arch of Titus), that the Bar Kokhba revolt of 132 to 135 was crushed, and that for nearly 2,000 years there was no Israel on the map. Yet on May 14, 1948, Israel suddenly became a nation again, which he sees as God keeping His promise to bless the nation.
God’s Covenant With Abraham
The heart of the message traces God’s dealings with Abraham. In Genesis 12, God calls Abram to leave Ur and promises to make him a great nation and to bless all peoples through him. Years pass without a child, and in Genesis 15 God promises Abram a son of his own body, “and he believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” a verse Hindson stresses shows salvation is by faith, not works.
He explains the covenant ceremony of the divided animals: normally both parties would pass between the pieces, but God put Abram into a deep sleep and passed through alone as fire, making it an unconditional covenant that God alone guarantees. He then recounts the mistake of Hagar and Ishmael, when Sarah put human reason above divine revelation, and stresses that God still spared Hagar and the unborn Ishmael in the wilderness (which Hindson calls one of the strongest pro-life passages in Scripture), because it was not Ishmael’s fault. After thirteen years of silence, God appears again, changes Abram’s name to Abraham, and promises Isaac, the child of the covenant, born miraculously when Abraham was 100 and Sarah 90.
He draws out the purpose of the delay: God begins the messianic line with a miraculous birth to a couple too old to conceive, preparing His people to believe a later, greater miracle, the virgin birth of the Messiah.
Arab Is Not the Same as Muslim
Hindson pauses to make an important clarification: God is not anti-Arab. Arab is an ethnicity, while Islam is a religion (which he considers false). He notes that many Arabs are Christians or secular, and that many Muslims are not Arabs at all (Turks, Iranians, and Indonesians among them). He stresses that God’s promise to bless “all peoples” means the gospel is for everyone, and rejoices that it has spread farther and faster than ever through modern media.
The God Who Comes Down
The unifying theme of the message is that God repeatedly “comes down” to meet human need. Hindson traces this through Scripture: God comes down to Adam and Eve after the fall and gives the first promise of a redeemer, comes down to Moses at the burning bush and at Sinai, comes down to deliver Israel and answer Elijah, and ultimately comes down as a baby in Bethlehem, God incarnate. On the cross, when mocked to “come down,” Jesus refused, and Hindson calls that refusal the greatest thing He ever did, since He stayed on the cross out of love, bearing the Father’s wrath in our place.
When Peace Finally Comes
Hindson’s answer to the title question is that peace in the Middle East will come only when Christ comes down again at the second coming. He holds that the rapture precedes the tribulation, since the tribulation is the “wrath of the Lamb” and the church is not appointed to that wrath, and points to Abraham’s near-sacrifice of Isaac, where God provided a lamb, as a picture of Christ. He reads Revelation 19, where Christ returns on a white horse with the church (the armies of heaven) at His side, defeats the Antichrist by the word of His mouth, casts the beast and false prophet into the lake of fire, binds Satan, and reigns for a thousand years. The Lamb becomes the King who rules the world in peace.
The Personal Appeal
Hindson closes by turning from world events to the individual. He warns that just as time may run out for America, time will run out for each person, and that one will meet Jesus either as Savior or as judge. He urges listeners not to be so concerned about everything wrong in the world that they miss the only One who can make it right, and calls them to put their faith in what Christ did on the cross.
Key Terms
Two-state solution: the proposal, which Hindson argues will not bring lasting peace, to establish a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Unconditional covenant: an agreement God alone guarantees, pictured when God passed through the divided animals by Himself in Genesis 15.
Justified by faith: being credited as righteous through believing God, as Abraham was, rather than by works.
The angel of the Lord: the visible Old Testament appearances of the Lord, which Hindson identifies as the pre-incarnate Christ.
Wrath of the Lamb: the tribulation as divine judgment, from which Hindson says the church is exempt.
The second coming: Christ’s return in Revelation 19, which Hindson says will finally bring peace to the Middle East.
Verses to Know
Jeremiah 6:14, “peace, peace, when there is no peace.” Genesis 12:1-3, God’s call and promise to Abram. Genesis 15:6, Abram believed God, credited as righteousness. Genesis 17, the covenant confirmed and Abram renamed Abraham. Revelation 19, the return of Christ on the white horse.
Takeaway
Human diplomacy cannot secure lasting peace in the Middle East, because it will come only when Christ returns at His second coming, and the same God who kept His promise to Abraham and “came down” to die for sinners calls each person to trust Him.