I know we have all heard a lot about Hamas lately in the news, but are you aware that this fight goes back a lot longer than 1973 when they say it’s the 50-year anniversary and all that?
This battle goes way back into the Bible history.
First, we need to clear up who is who. Palestine or Hamas they’re all the same. This Israel, Palestine, conflict, and the role of groups like Hamas are extremely complex and have been for a very long time.
They have deep historical political roots. I promise you do not know all the truth yet no matter what you have heard on the so called news. It involves a long history of disputes over land, nation, identity, religion.
The end result is suffering on both sides.
This is not a one-sided conflict, not by a long shot. Understanding all of this complexity requires careful examination of historical events. This conflict continues to be the subject of significant debate. Let me give you some history that will help you understand.
You will know the why.
The most amazing part of all this is it started with an actual covenant between the two peoples. That’s right. They had an agreement, not hatred, but an agreement in Genesis 21:32. Thus, they made a covenant at Beersheba. Then Abimelech rose up and Fyke called the chief captain of his host, and they returned into the land of the Philistines.
There is just too much to cover, so we will just hit the highlights in Genesis 21: 34. And Abraham sojourned in the Philistines land many days. You see peace, not war, not hatred.
Isaac
Now we continue with Isaac, who is the son of Abraham in Genesis 26:8. And it came to pass when he had been there a long time that Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looked out at a window and saw, and behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebecca, his wife. You see, in Genesis 26, Isaac referred to his wife Rebecca as his sister when they were in the land of the Philistines.
Yes, this event mirrors exactly the same situation involving his father Abraham and his wife Sarah, who also pretended to be siblings when they encountered foreign ruler. Anyway, in Genesis 26:10-12, And Abimelech said, “What is this thou hast done unto us? One of the people might likely have lying with thy wife, and thou shouldst have brought guiltiness upon us.” And Abimelech charged all his people, saying, “He that toucheth this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.” Then Isaac sowed in that land and received in the same year an hundredfold, and the Lord blessed him.
Philistines were civilized
You see, the Philistines were civilized and were horrified at the prospect to take in another man’s wife even by accident. And it wouldn’t even have been their fault.
Genesis 26:14-16, For he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store of servants, and the Philistines envied him. For all the wells which his father’s servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them and filled them with earth. And Abimelech said unto Isaac, “Go from us, for thou art much mightier than we.”
The conflict starts
Think about it. The reason is because God blessed Israel above others. This has become a generational hatred, all because of something that was out of anyone’s control. Satan loves this and encourages it. Satan will fan the flames of this. Trust me. In 2 Corinthians 4:4 it says, “In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”
God gives
What the Philistines do not understand is when God gives you a lot, he expects a lot in return. This is why Israel has been punished from the beginning and God will not stop until they stop sinning. Which I suspect won’t be anytime soon.
When we do not obey, we are punished, as any good father would. They punish you so that you learn from the experience. Like God said, if you do not punish your children, you hate them.
Genesis 26-31. Then Abimelech went to him from Girar and Ahuzath, one of his friends, and Fykehall, the chief captain of his army. And Isaac said unto them, “Wherefore come ye to me, seeing ye hate me, and have sent me away from you?”
Good question?
Listen carefully. And they said, “We saw certainly that the Lord was with thee.” And we said, “Let there be now an oath betwixt us, even betwixt us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee, that thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have not touched thee, and as we have done unto thee nothing but good, and have sent thee away in peace. Thou art now the blessed of the Lord.”
Lord is God
Oh, so now that they know the Lord is God, but they still did not worship God or obey Him. Odd and 30. And he made them a feast, and they did eat and drink. And they rose up at times in the morning and swear one to another. And Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.
Let’s jump to Exodus, because this says a lot about the entire region. Exodus 13:17. “And it came to pass when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt.” So they did not go near the Philistines. Weird, right?
Stay away
In Exodus 23:31. “And I will set thy bounds from the Red Sea, even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river. For I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and thou shalt drive them out before thee.”
Now let’s jump to Joshua. In Joshua 13:2-6. “This is the land that yet remaineth. All the borders of the Philistines and all Geshurai, from Sahor, which is before Egypt, even unto the borders of Ekron northward, which is counted to the Canaanite. Five lords of the Philistines, the Gesophites and the Aestophites, the Eshkilonites, the Gittites, and the Ekronites, also the Avites.
From the south all the land of the Canaanites, and Me’era, that is beside the Zidonians, unto Ephek, to the borders of the Amorites. And the land of the Gibblites, and all Lebanon, toward the sun rising, from Baal Gad, unto Mount Hermon, unto the entering into Hamath. All the inhabitants of the hill country, from Lebanon unto Misrifoth, Ma’am, and all the Zidonians, then will I drive out from before the children of Israel. Only divide thou it by lot unto the Israelites, for an inheritance, as I have commanded.”
So God gave Israel the land
So the one true God gave Israel all the land and permission to drive out the existing peoples. The reason God did this is because these existing peoples sacrificed their children to their fate gods, yes they killed their own children. If they would have opened up their eyes and understood that God loves everyone, not just Israel, they would not have to go through all this.
The key takeaway is that the one true God has a plan, and He can do whatever He wants to do,
for He is God.
We are getting to the main reason
In Judges 3, 1 through 4, “Now these are the nations which the Lord left to prove Israel by them, even as many of Israel as had not known all the wars of Canaan. Only that the generations of the children of Israel might know to teach them war, at the least such as before knew nothing thereof. Namely, five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Zidonians, and the Hivites that dwelt in Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-Hermon, unto the entering in of Hamath. And they were to prove Israel by them, to know whether they would hearken unto the commandments of the Lord, which He commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.”
Test Israel
God needed to test Israel. In these verses, it mentioned that the Lord left certain nations in the land to test the Israelite people. This means that after the Israelites had conquered much of the land of the Canaan under the leadership of Joshua, there were still some nations remaining. As a test for the Israelites, especially for the newer generations who had not known the war of Canaan needed to learn how to defend their own land.
The purpose of this testing was to see if the Israelites would remain faithful to the commandments and statutes of the Lord God. Notice the nations that were mentioned though. These include the Philistines, the Canaanites, the Sidonites, and the Hivites.
The Canaanites practiced idolatry, child sacrifice, and other immoral acts
The Bible does not provide us with explicit details about specific sins or actions of the Sidonites and the Hivites. God’s disapproval like the Canaanites and the Philistines are known. For example, the Philistine Goliath was a giant, six-fingered and all that. So we already know that there was some weird stuff there.
Child sacrifice was indeed practiced by some of the groups in the ancient Near East, and it is explicitly condemned in the Bible. And by anybody with a brain, Canaanites who lived in the same general region as the Philistines are often singled out for their abhorrent practices. Including child sacrifice. The biblical, particularly the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, strongly condemn these practices.
Do as God tells us
While the Bible does not attribute child sacrifice directly to the Philistines in the same manner as the Canaanites, it’s essential to understand that the biblical portrayal of various peoples and their practices may not provide a comprehensive historical account. Instead, the Bible focuses on the theological.
The Philistines had plenty of opportunity to come around and do as God asked of them. They knew he was the one true God, and yet they still practiced idolatry for their fake god, Dagon.
Yes, I know today they worship a different fake god. I do not want to get into that. The purpose of this testing was to see whether the Israelites would continue to follow the commandments of the Lord as handed down by Moses.
It was a way to see if they would remain obedient to the one true God
who was there by their side day by day.
The book of Judges goes over the description of the various judges whom God raised up to deliver the Israelites from the oppression of these nations.
But also, notice it was God himself that created their oppression because of their sins.
God himself that created their oppression, hint
As I already said, there is way too much to cover, so we’re just going to get picky here. I’m choosing this one because everybody is familiar with this story. At least you should be. Read Judges chapter 13 through 16.
I will just hit the highlights. “Israel again did evil inside the Lord. God gave them over to the Philistines.” Interesting. “For 40 years.” Sound familiar?
Trial
The number 40 represents trial, preparation, transformation in the Bible. If you remember, Jesus himself had to go through a purification for 40 days in the desert.
“God took a barren woman and gifted her a son called Samson. He was to be a Nazarite from the womb and judge Israel and begin to save Israel from the hands of the Philistines.
God even sent an angel to tell his parents about Samson’s mission before his birth.” That’s pretty cool, right? “Sampson grew up, fell in love with a Palestinian prostitute named Delilah. Or you could say a Philistine or a Hamas woman. They’re all the same people. And as I said in the beginning, Judge Samson only wanted to protect his people while she only desired riches.
Capture Samson
The Palestinian rulers aimed to capture Samson and told Delilah that they would each pay her 1,100 pieces of silver. Each ruler, Delilah, tried and tried to get Samson to reveal his secret. Finally, she persuaded which was his hair. He was never to cut it or shave his head as part of his Nazarite vow.
Delilah had his hair shaved off while he was at sleep one night.” Pretty sound sleeper, right? “This rendered Samson as weak as a normal man. The Palestinian rulers captured him and blinded him. They gouged out his eyes. They put him to work in their grain mill, turning the wheel.
Dagon the fake god
The Palestinian people all said that their god, Dagon, saved them from Samson.” Mm-hmm. See how they still refused to listen to the one true God? “Then one day they had him taken to the temple to humiliate him in front of 3,000 people. Samson’s hair had grown back.
Samson prayed to God, “Give me back my strength one last time and let me avenge my eyes.” God heard his prayer and restored his strength. Samson pushed the two columns next to him over, destroying the temple himself and killing the 3,000 people of Palestine, their rulers and civilians, and including Delilah.
This illustrates the power and faith in God, overpowers anything.
Samson judged Israel for 20 years
Let’s move on to Samuel. Notice God did not sanction or ask for this battle. In 1 Samuel 4:1-2, the word of Samuel came to Israel. “Now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle and pitched beside Ebenezer, and the Philistines pitched in Ephek, and the Philistines put themselves in array against Israel.
And when they joined battle, Israel was smitten before the Philistines, and they slew of the army and the field about 4,000 men.” If you think that was bad, just wait. In 1 Samuel 4:3, “And when the people will come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Wherefore hath the Lord smitten us today before the Philistines? Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of Shiloh unto us, that when it cometh among us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies.”
Oh yes, go get your lucky charm
That’ll work for sure, what were they thinking? God is not someone like a magic genie.
I’ll paraphrase this quickly. Eli, who was the high priest and judge of Israel, was 98 years old when he and his sons died, and God allowed the Philistines to kill 30,000 Israelites in a battle and capture the ark of the covenant.
You might say, “Wow, that’s a lot to die.” But God does not fool around with sin. I’m sure you remember the ark of the covenant, right? From all the Indiana Jones movies. But here’s the thing.
The Philistines took the ark
The Philistines took the ark from Ebenezer to Eshad, where God destroyed their stone god Dagon in the middle of the night, breaking off its hands. The one true God plagued the people with tumors, and many people died.
So the philistines thought, “Okay, well, we’ll take the ark to Gath.” These people did not learn very quickly did they? They broke out in tumors, and more people died. So they sent the ark to Ekron, and God killed a great many men there, and others broke out with tumors. At this point, the people were going crazy.
Everywhere they took the ark, people would get sick and die. Then they sent it to Beshi Beth Shemesh. They say that the cry from that city was so great that it reached heaven. Do not forget, this took seven months. So the word traveled faster than the ark did.
Priests and Diviners
They consulted with their priests and diviners who told them to give it back to Israel, and with a guilt offering of gold based on the amount of people who were injured and killed. The priest pointed out, “Remember what God did to Egypt when they defied him?” And the Pharaoh hardened his heart. You can read this current story in 1 Samuel 3 through 6. It’s really amazing.
So in the seven months that the Philistines had the ark, God caused plagues, tumors, deaths, disturbances everywhere the ark went. These people did not learn quickly at all back then. But the way God did it, they should have realized he is the one true God.
So the Philistines returned the ark to Israel to stop the plague and its disturbances with a boatload of gold.
The thing I do not get is the single instance why they did not accept the fact that God is the one true God. Hello? After Egypt, which they obviously knew about, and then their own issues with the ark, you talk about stubborn, I just do not get it.
Fake gods
Obviously, their idols are just fake gods of stone and wood. They neither see nor hear. When you see it with your eyes, how can you deny the existence of God?
I think it was Albert Einstein who said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome“
This statement is often used to emphasize the importance of learning from one’s actions and making necessary changes when faced with repetitive failure or undesired result.”
So has Israel learned their lesson yet?
Has Hamas learned their lesson yet?
Let’s look at another fascinating story about the Philistine-Israel conflict. Who can forget the famous confrontation between young David and the Philistine giant Goliath? In 1 Samuel 17, imagine a being who weighs at in at 600 to 900 pounds of pure muscle and is 11 feet tall.
It depends on which cubit you use. Then he had six fingers on each hand, six toes on each foot. Apparently, that is what’s needed to handle a huge frame like that.
You see, a normal human being are three to one ratio, meaning that they are three times taller than they are wide. But the giants in the Bible are really different. This is how you know the difference between the two, normal people and the giants.
Giants
The giants are not three to one, they are two to one. So since this guy was 11 and a half feet tall, he had to be six feet wide. Yeah, he looked like the Incredible Hulk, from the Marvel series.
If you do not believe me check this out, I have a book, it’s called the Genesis 6 Conspiracy. It’s worth the read, by the way. The author is wearing Gary Wayne. He did an incredible amount of research. The book is 801 pages. Yes, it’s over an inch and a half thick. It’s a really big book.
Gary Wayne
Also Gary has agreed to do an interview with me. So if you’re interested, please let me know. His entire book is about the giants in the Bible. Gary’s description of these beasts of men that look like a modern day Hulk. Yeah, the green guy above.
I know it sounds crazy, but a lot of the Bible sounds crazy on its face also, and it’s true. They did exist, and there’s proof all around the world. So take it for what it is. So if you want me to do a video interviewing Gary and talking about his book, please let me know.
King Og
Yes, they are that wide, though. In the Bible, there is a King Og of Bashan of the Amorites. You can read about him in Deuteronomy in 3:3. His bed, which was made of iron and was 13 feet long by six feet wide.
I know, that is nuts, right? You can gather from that how big this guy was. Okay, the fact that his bed had to be made of iron instead of wood is another clue. This is not a fairy tale, it is fact and his bed is still on display. It can be seen in the Amorite city of Rabah.
David killed Goliath
Now, how crazy is that? Anyway, these giants were big guys. Getting back to the story. David killed Goliath and David was just a boy. That huge guy was killed with a slingshot of all things. You would think that it would be an arrow or a sword or something.
But with God at your back, anything is possible. And all you need is a slingshot. So at this point, you may still be asking, so why did Hamas attack Israel?
God’s intervention
I hope by now you have figured out why. Whenever Israel transgressed, they appear to encounter unexpected forces that brought about their demise, leading them back to servitude.
How does that happen over and over without God’s intervention? Israel does not seem to learn from their mistakes.
Learn from our mistakes
Do you? Do I? Does any of us learn from our mistake? We are all human. We all make mistakes. We mess up all the time. I know I do. I’m currently going through a trial right now. So God in his infinite wisdom is trying to teach me. Will I learn? Man, I hope so, because I’m getting kind of tired of this trial already.
But I’m glad I’m going through it. You might probably ask, why would anyone say that? It’s because God would not put me through this trial if he didn’t love me. God is like any other father. He’s going to punish his children for being insubordinate and messing up.
Punish your children
Okay. It’s just the way it is. And if you don’t think you’re supposed to punish your children, then God says you hate them because you’re going to let them turn out like some kind of boob. You know what I mean?
You have to teach your children while they’re still young so that they don’t mess up when they’re older. If you think Hamas is not sinning, let’s go over those. Let’s examine that just a little bit. Hamas is a complex organization with various aspects, and it has a significant level of support among the Palestinian people, particularly in the Gaza Strip.
Politics
It also has political representation, and this is all I will say about the politics. Palestinians in Gaza view Hamas as a political party that represents their interests and aspirations. Hamas also provides social services, including healthcare and education, which some Palestinians in Gaza appreciate.
They see these services as a form of support and governance in the absence of other functioning authorities. The part that gets me is when you educate the young people to hate their neighbors. They actually teach them. It’s okay to kill them. You think I’m kidding. Watch the video above and you will see it with your own eyes.
Jesus said love your neighbor
Jesus taught us to love our neighbor as yourself. In fact, he gave us a new commandment. He felt so strongly about it.
Some of the Palestinian view Hamas as a resistant organization and it stands up against their so-called perceived Israel occupation and aggression. They see Hamas as an armed wing defending Palestinian interests.
Defense
Listen, a gate or a wall is a defense, but they think slaughtering defenseless people is a defense. It is important to note that the opinions on Hamas among the Palestinians is not monolithic. There are Palestinians who are critical of Hamas for various reasons, including concern about the governance, education, and especially its use of violence.
All of these things provide insights into the historical relationships and challenges faced by the Israelites and the Palestinians in the ancient time. So with that said, knowing that they go way back, I mean way, way back, and I only picked several quick stories from their past to help you understand how these two peoples have dealt with one another in the past.
Terrorist organization
It’s worth noting here that Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by several countries, the United States, the European Union, Australia, Canada, Japan, United Kingdom, due to his history of violence and its stated aim of destroying the state of Israel.
Why would anybody call for the utter obliteration of another country? Does that make sense to you? I don’t care who they are, what they’ve done, obliterating an entire country, that is really extreme.
God’s will
Anyway, God will choose who he wants, when he wants, and will do what he wants, when he wants. When you do any kind of research to try and figure out what is going on with anything, you first should check the Bible, at least that is what I do. Then start looking at every other possible aspect that can influence what you’re researching.
I know the Bible says in II Corinthians 4:4 “In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto you.”
Let’s us not forget that Satan is the God of this world, and boy, he hates all of us.
We were offered what he can only dream about and cannot have, and that burns him to the core. He cannot get over it. He can’t get through it. He can’t get around it. He knows he’s gonna die.
He too wanted power, and look at where it got him, death. I will leave you with this in Romans 6:23. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
I hope you got something out of this. Let me know if you like the video
Have a great day.