June 24, 2007

• Ishmael’s Descendants by Pastor Don

   I took a few notes to the best of my ability, but you may want to read a good history of this land for a complete study on this.

  Someone asked Pastor Don about the Muslims. We had gone up to the dome of the Rock on our trip to Israel, and wanted to know more about the history of the Muslims and where they came from. Pastor Don pointed out that if you tell a lie long enough and loud enough people will begin to believe it. This is true in the case of Ishmael and the Muslims. The Muslims contend that they are part of Abraham’s seed as well as Israel is. They claim Ishmael, the first born of Abraham and Hagar, is the true heir. They claim Israel belongs to them. But that is not biblically accurate.

  

   

  In our Bible we have a map called the Ancient World of the Patriarchs – the above map is the closest to that map that I could find on the internet.

  If you read the account of Abraham in Genesis, you will see that he left Ur of the Chaldees (sort of near the Persian Gulf), and traveled to Canaan. During this time God promised him that he would have many offsprings (at that time he and his wife were beyond the age of childbirth and were barren). Initially, because he and his wife were old, his wife came up with having Abraham go into Hagar, an EGYPTIAN MAID. Hagar produced a son called Ishmael. Then God gave Sarah and Abraham a son whom they called Isaac. When Abraham was instructed to sacrifice his son, God told him to take Isaac, HIS ONLY SON, to sacrifice. Also God, when Abraham tried to get God to bless Ishmael as the first born God told him that he would make a great nation out of Ishmael as well but that Isaac was Abraham’s son of the promise. Genesis 17:18-21 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 hard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall begat 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 time next year.

  It is clear that the line of Abraham runs through Isaac. Abraham & the EGYPTIAN maid’s son Ishmael will have offspring and rule great nations, but it is not the direct line that God wanted established toward the Messiah.

  Now, Mohammed came from Mecca – which is in Saudi Arabia – not Canaan area. When the people come to the Dome of the Rock and it is time to pray, they do not bow to Jerusalem, they bow to Mecca. The Koran does not mention Jerusalem with the frequency that it is mentioned in the Bible, both old and New Testaments. Our assumption is that the reason the dome of the rock is wanted so much is because it is holy to the Jews and the Christians, not because there is a long history of sacredness to the muslims for the spot.

  Here is a prayer rug lined up toward Mecca waiting for the person to pray.

  

  But Pastor Don then went on to point out where Ishmael’s sons went when they went out from Abraham, they did NOT go to Mecca – they stayed in the Canaan area, down south. If you look at the map you will recognize city names. They settled from Havilah as far as Shur which is east of Egypt as you go toward Assyria (Genesis 25:18) This is the lower Canaanite region. They did not come from Saudi Arabia and Mecca or go there. The Medes and Persians brought the Jews into captivity in Babylon (again far to the East of Canaan). There is NO direct lineage or spiritual lineage to connect the muslims with Abraham.

  The Ishmaelites were Jews, and stayed Jews.

  Everything concerning these countries that God prophesied have come true. Israel has been restored as a nation, May 6, 1948. If you look at the world you do not find any Jebusites, Hittites, Amorites, etc. There is no one who speaks Hittite now, or Jebusite, or Amorite, these nations were all destroyed. The only ones who have any direct lineage and a living language are the Israelites.

  This is another example of the Prophetic time crossing over in the Spiritual.

  EVERYTHING promised in Prophesy will occur. When the events are ready to occur in the prophetic, and the Spirit is ready to receive them, then the prophesy will occur. We were struck by how the “sacred” dome of the rock was treated by the muslims. We saw soccer games played by kids and kids shooting the tourists with water pistols.

  

  And, notice that the place is not teeming with muslim pilgrims, the two in the picture below are from our tour group.

  

  

  

  Isaac had two sons – Jacob (supplanter) and Esau (red). Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of pottage. Jacob inherited the land, and Esau settled in Moab, Edom, and Ammon. He had 12 tribes.

  So what of the Palestinians that claim that the land belongs to them? Israel, according to Mark Twain was a desert, there was no life in the land. Nomads would camp there, but no one wanted the land. After the Israelites left in the dispersion AD 70, God stopped the rain on the land and the land was a desolate wilderness.  Once Israel was again in the land (1948), the climate changed, and what was a dry desert became fruitful. Because Israel wanted the land God gave them as an inheritance, and because the land became fruitful, the other nations did not like that idea.

  Satan knows his time is short, and he is doing anything he can to delay the second coming of Christ, something that is dependant on a temple being built and end times prophesies fulfilled. No one thought that the nation of Israel would be re-established, but God had it happen in a day.

  To combat the resettling of the nation of Israel, the Arab countries sent gypsies, and other disenfranchised people to go in and kill the Israelites, with the promise that if they killed the Israelites they would gain the land they captured. Israel won this war with God’s help, and held Jerusalem for one day, but then bowed to world pressure and gave up parts of Jerusalem

  For thousands of years there were no Palestinians. If you ask a Palestinian where they are from they will tell you from Lybia, from Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia. There is no 3rd generation Palestinian.

  Jordan remains. They were the only country good to Israel. In the last Days God will spare Egypt and Jordan because of how they treated Israel.

  There are events occurring today that seem to be fulfilling the End Times prophesy. If you want to know what the Spiritual time is, look to Israel.

  Pastor Don spent some time sharing with us that in the area away from the mosque where we are standing (see picture below) there is a place that has nothing built on it. Pastor Don feels that it will be found that the Holy of Holies is not located where the dome of the rock is but a few hundred feet away from that where we are standing, and that some “peacemaker” will come up with a solution that will make peace between the muslims and the Israelites, and both will have their holy sites. And of course once that happens events from Revelation kick in. For some reason the picture I put in before has disappeared. If you just click in the blank space below these words, the picture comes up. I have the premium subscription, and am surprised that the picture is not showing up.

  

  A personal note. To get up to the dome of the rock we had to relinquish our Bibles, and anything that appeared to be Christian. The guards grabbed the things with looks of disgust, told us that if we did not get back to the guardhouse in 30 minutes our stuff would be trash. We did get our stuff back, but it was a very uncomfortable feeling to have our things taken away. I suspect that as more and more times of lawlessness come, we may find our religious freedom curtailed, and this is a hint of what it might feel like to not be able to worship openly.

  Have a blessed night, I am slowly catching up with my posts, but I have some incredible, wonderful Bible studies and teachings to come. Guess who was here this weekend? Pastor Danquah! But I am going to put up the studies in order so that I don’t miss any one, so stay tuned.

  Heather

  • 8:48 pm
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