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Yet, taking refuge in Ramallah was not good enough, as the West Bank, and with it Ramallah, came under Israeli occupation. To add to the challenge, one of my brothers was in Jordan looking for work at that time and was not allowed to come back home. So, my family worked relentlessly trying to get him reunited with us in Ramallah, but the Israeli occupation authority rejected every application we submitted on his behalf. As a result, my brother ended up in Lebanon where he worked as a Journalist, and he consequently served some time in prison for criticizing the Lebanese government. After the beginning of the civil war in Lebanon in 1975 we didn’t hear much of him; we had no idea what happened to him.

Observing the unfolding events in Palestine, my father, like many Christians, saw it as the fulfilling of biblical prophecies. So, when Israel bombed the PLO headquarters in Tunisia on October 2, 1985, my father thought of Israel’s retaliation power as another proof for these prophecies. Sadly, three days later, we received the news that my brother was among those killed in the attack. My brother apparently had joined the PLO after suffering the loss of his homeland, offering his intellectual services. I am not sure how my father felt afterwards, but I vaguely remember him saying that my brother must have influenced the PLO towards peace. And I kept hold of that idea, that my brother gave his life, not only for his homeland, but also for peace.

Palestinian Christians do suffer for being Christians; they also suffer for being Arabs. Yet, in spite of their sufferings, King Hussein once said that Arab Christians are the glue of the Middle East—no peace would be possible without their contribution. But, the number of Arab Christians in Palestine has dwindled significantly during the past century, and even more in the past few decades. Still, many Christians in the US seem to be ignorant or indifferent about the need to support their brothers and sisters in Palestine. One preacher reportedly went as far as describing Arab Christians as “Christians with a Muslim mind,” apparently attempting to reduce the significance of their existence, or to disqualify their much-needed, balanced view of the ongoing conflict between Arabs and Jews.

Indeed, many Christians in the US are encouraged to think that Israel’s presence can be a substitute for the Christian presence in that troubled part of the world. Nothing could be further from the truth. National Geographic, in its June 2009 issue, published an article that underscored the indispensible role of the Arab Christian minority in the Holy Land. As Palestinian Christians, we have been privileged with both a long history and a unique identity in Christ; we also have our own unique mission: through our living Christian witness we strive to bring individuals closer to God; and consequently, we give reason and hope for equality and reconciliation between the different groups in Israel/Palestine.

—Mourice Mrabe

Mourice Mrabe was born in Ramallah in 1962 and moved to the USA in 1989. Mourice came to a personal relationship with Christ in 1981 and serves as a lay worship leader in the Arabic Church of Sacramento.

In our reading back during the winter in Genesis, we found a poignant and profound picture of the fall of Adam into a life of perpetual sin and his banishment from paradise. He is relegated to restlessness and wandering, separated from intimacy and fellowship with his Creator. Then the very chapter that references the fall, records the divine plan for restoration of fellowship. That plan takes on definition with God’s promise to make Abram a great nation through which all the nations of the earth will be blessed. Abraham’s call therefore is the divine antidote to Adam’s fall.  

God’s promise that Abraham’s children would inherit the Promised Land was but a preliminary step in a progressive plan through which Abram and the heirs of Abraham would inherit a better country—a heavenly country. That plan comes into sharp focus when we see Moses leading Abram’s descendents out of their 400 year bondage in Egypt. Through 40 years of wilderness wanderings, God tabernacled with His people and He prepared them for the land of promise.  

Like Abraham however, Moses only saw the promise from afar; but when you start to read the book of Joshua, you will see God’s plan taking on tangible reality, as Joshua leads the children of Israel into Palestine. The wandering of Adam, Abraham, and Moses finally give way to rest on every side. So Joshua was able to say, “Not one of all the Lord’s good promises to the house of Israel failed: every one was fulfilled.” (Joshua 21:45).

So as Adam would fall in paradise, Abraham’s descents would fall in Palestine. Thus Joshua’s words in his final farewell take on ominous reality, “But just as every good promise of God has come true, so the Lord will bring on you all the evil He threatened, until He has destroyed you from this good land He has given you. If you violate the covenant of the Lord your God… you will quickly perish from the good land He has given you.” (Joshua 23:15-16).

Though the land promises reached their zenith under Solomon, the land eventually vomited out the children of the promise just as it vomited out the Canaanites before them. During the Assyrian and Babylonian exiles the wanderings experience by Adam were once again experienced by the descendants of Abram.

Of course, God’s promises to Abraham were far from exhausted because Palestine was but a preliminary phase in a patriarchal promise. God would make Abram not just the father of a nation but Abram would become Abraham the father of many nations. Abram would be heir of the world. The climax of the promise would not be Palestine regained but something far greater, it would be paradise restored—as God had promised Abraham real estate, so too He has promised him a Royal Seed. Joshua led the children of Israel into the regions of Palestine, but Jesus—the Royal Seed of Abraham—will one day lead his children into the restoration of paradise.

The point here is simply to say as you read through Joshua, remember you are on a continuing journey through the Bible, which is God’s unfolding plan of redemption. It starts with paradise and the loss of paradise and it ends with paradise restored. A New Jerusalem, not the old Jerusalem, but a New Jerusalem that Paul says, “is free and she is our mother.” (Gal. 4:26) Paradise lost becomes Paradise restored, and that is what each and every one who loves Jesus Christ had to look forward too.

For further information please see my Legacy Study Bible and my book The Apocalypse Code.

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