The "Muddled East"

The Middle East seems more like the "Muddled East" as our political system ponders what to do about the burgeoning crisis in Syria.  This has gripped me personally with greater intensity as my son, who works for the United Nations, heads for a new assignment in Beirut, Lebanon the first of October.  The anniversary of 9-11 coupled with our government's wrangling-wrestling with how to confront the apparent usage of chemical weapons by Assad against his own people make this part of the world an inescapable part of our focus.

And not surprisingly for us as believers.

The apocalyptic content of biblical prophecy points to the Middle East being at the very cynosure of events that will ultimately shape the course of human history.  Skeptics may scoff but the challenge to examine scripture and to see how poignantly the prophets warned about God's dealing with the nation of Israel from her re-emergence from relative obscurity in 1948 to a place of world prominence today is undeniable. Recent books like THE HARBINGER have caught the attention of the secular press because there are elements of truth presented that are hard to fabricate and to ignore.

I am advocating a careful read of scripture.  Prophecy is not always easy to read or obvious to interpret but books like Ezekiel, Daniel, Isaiah and Revelation are particularly valuable in piecing together an eschatological framework for what we are seeing as history unfolding before us.

In any case, the "Muddled East"--a region of daily-evolving crisis and change--is ours to observe, if not in the pages of scripture, certainly in the news media, in spite of its tainted perspectives.  What we decide to do--or not do--in Syria--will continue to fan the flames of the escalating crisis in North Africa and the Middle East.

My prayer is that we will find in the pages of scripture the gospel of hope that invites us to a personal relationship with the God of the universe who's "got the whole world in his hands".  It may be "muddled" to us, but it is not to Him.