Posted 157 days ago

Home Is Where the Heart Is: Israel and Palestine—Whose Promised Land?

Whose Land? Whose Promise?: What Christians Are Not Being Told About Israel and the Palestinians

Book review by Lindsay Lackey

There is a saying many might be familiar with: “Home is where the heart is.” For many of us in the Western world, the concept of ‘home’ has more to do with comfort, good schools, and property taxes than anything else. We wander from place to place, settling down in quiet neighborhoods so that we can live in comfort and security. We hold a sense of pride in our homelands—at least as far as sports teams are concerned. There are, of course, problems, complaints about governments and taxes, neighborhood squabbles over paint colors and cars parked on the wrong curb. Generally, however, we are comfortable, we are safe, we are home.

‘Home’ is not so easily categorized in the Middle East. For centuries the Palestinian and Israeli people have wrestled with their own concept of home in a contest that has held incredible political, religious, and social ramifications. The world has watched as these two nations have warred over a small, deeply historical area of land that is the center of three major religions, not to mention the homeland of both peoples for generations.

How does the rest of the world view this escalating crisis? With whom do we, should we side? What is justice? Where, in all of this, is God? Whose promised land?

These are some of the questions Colin Chapman addresses in his book, Whose Promise Land?The Continuing Crisis Over Israel and Palestine (Baker Books, 2002). Chapman argues that many people tend to reduce the Israeli-Palestinian conflict down to simple issues, ignoring the long-standing history of conflict that goes much deeper than who has been there longer, or to whom the land was divinely promised. In his introduction, Chapman states:

“If the heart of the problem we are dealing with is that two peoples are claiming the same piece of land for different reasons, how do we begin to answer the question ‘Whose Promised Land?’ Because we are not dealing with a single issue, but with a number of issues which are inter-related, we need to resist the temptation to reduce everything to a single dimension—‘the conflict is nothing but…’ or ‘the problem is nothing more than…’ If we can do this, we are then free to recognize the wide variety of major ingredients…which contribute to the conflict.”

Whose Promise Land? is a presentation of both sides of the struggle and of the major issues fueling the crisis. Chapman does not present a “they’re right, they’re wrong” mentality, but instead offers readers a thoroughly researched history from both inside and outside the religious viewpoint. “It is important,” Chapman says, “to have at least a basic understanding of history before we turn to the Bible to attempt to find meaning in historical events.”

The issues addressed in Chapman’s book are questions that cannot be ignored by the world, and should not be ignored by Christians. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not easy to solve, nor is it limited to those living in this controversial land. As Christians, we must learn to recognize the suffering and injustices on both sides, and we must acknowledge our responsibility of global awareness. Whose Promise Land? is a reminder that Christians play a part in the conflict in the Middle East; Chapman offers us a crucial step in understanding our responsibilities as the body of Christ: he offers us some crucial education.

Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 12:27: “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it” (New International Version). The body of Christ is not limited to our own homes, neighborhoods and problems. The body of Christ, of which we are all a part, is universal. Paul also reminds us that “there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it” (1 Cor. 12: 25-26, NIV). Home is where the heart is, as the saying goes, and for Christians, God’s heart is urging us to pray and to engage in the sufferings and injustices of the world.

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