Peter and Paul

Two of the most prominent leaders of the early church were Apostle Peter and Apostle Paul.  Both of them were strong leaders, and yet, they were very different men.  Paul was a Pharisee prior to his conversion; Peter was a fisherman.  Paul was, by the nature of his position, a very educated man; Peter, being a fisherman, most likely had minimal learning.  On the other hand, Peter spent three years learning directly from the Master, while Paul spent most of his life, up until his conversion, learning from ‘masters’ that couldn’t recognize the fulfillment of prophecy when it unfolded right in front of them. 

Peter and Paul each had at least one life-changing experience with God after the Ascension.  Peter, who had been given the keys to the kingdom by Jesus, had a vision that extended salvation to the Gentiles.  Paul, on the road to Damascus, was knocked to the ground, struck blind, and told directly by God that he was not following the right path.  So, Peter did not have a complete understanding about who he should be sharing the Gospel with, but Paul had a major misunderstanding about what the Gospel was.

Now, it would make sense to me that Peter, having unlocked the door of salvation for those of us who were not born Jewish, would be heavily involved in ministering to the Gentiles from that point on.  Paul, on the other hand, with all of his knowledge of Old Testament Scriptures and Prophecy, was uniquely qualified to counter any arguments that any of the Pharisees could use to come against the Church.  That is not the way that God chose to use them, though.  In fact, at one point Paul criticized Peter for his dealings with Jews and Gentiles.  Later, Paul pronounced judgment against the Jews, and announced that he would concentrate on the Gentiles.

You may have heard it said that whom God calls, He qualifies.  It is also true that, frequently, God will use people that would seem to be poorly qualified to do whatever it is that He has called them to do.  That way, when people try to find fault, they have to at least consider that this person is doing something that they shouldn’t be able to do.  Some people don’t let that bother them.  When Moses, under God’s direction, pronounced judgment against Korah, the earth opened up and swallowed up Korah and his family.  That was a new thing; nothing like that had ever happened before.  The very next day, though, there were people accusing Moses of murder, as if Moses could orchestrate an earthquake by himself.  Some people will attribute miracles to any supernatural power they can imagine, rather than acknowledge God.

The point of all of this is that God will frequently do things that don’t make sense to the natural mind, even the minds of people that are very smart, but He does it so that He will be glorified.  He doesn’t want us to get all egotistical about what we can do, as if we could actually accomplish something on our own.  That’s why Jesus told us to let our light so shine, that others would see our good works and glorify the Father in Heaven.  People that are paying attention will know that we just aren’t good enough to do the things that we do.  We should be grateful for this because, if people thought that we could actually do those things that only God can do, then they will look to us for answers and solutions that they should be looking to God for; believe me, you don’t want that kind of responsibility.

A Little History

            Occasionally, you may hear a reference to the nation of Palestine.  This country, as you may well know, was almost directly between Middle-Earth and Narnia, deep in the area commonly referred to as the Twilight Zone.  There has never been a nation called Palestine on this planet.  There was an ancient kingdom of Philistines, but not Palestine.  There was once a British colony called Palestine, which was created in 1922, after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, for the express purpose of creating a homeland for Jews.  There was actually a written mandate from the League of Nations, directing England to do exactly that.  Under British rule, the area was home to both Jews, Arabs, and Europeans.

During Hitler’s rule of the Third Reich, he engaged Mufti Mohammad Amin al-Husayni (or Al-Husayni engaged Hitler), who was strongly anti-Semitic, to broadcast radio messages into the Middle East, propaganda in support of Nazi Germany, and calling for their aid in exterminating the Jews.  Now, Al-Husayni was a resident of the British colony of Palestine, and he did not like the idea of Palestine becoming the Jewish homeland.  Quite frankly, judging by the way the British dragged their feet in carrying out their mandate, they weren’t overly thrilled with it, either.  But here we have a mufti broadcasting anti-Semitic Nazi propaganda into the Middle East.  Traditionally, Jews and Muslims had gotten along reasonably well, but by taking certain verses of the Koran out of context to support Hitler’s agenda (or, perhaps simply his own desire to make Palestine an Arab country), Al-Husayni was able to turn a lot of Muslims against the Jews. 

            After World War II, the Allies decided that they should move quickly to establish the Jewish homeland.  If there had been a Jewish homeland prior to Hitler’s regime, perhaps there would not have been as many Jews in Nazi-controlled territories.  It’s difficult to say.  I think that it’s safe to say that Hitler was well aware that there was a fair amount of anti-Semitism in Germany when he became chancellor, and German Jews controlled a disproportionate amount of the wealth in Germany, so it was easy for him to portray them as greedy outsiders who were cheating good honest Germans out of their hard-earned money…  You get the idea.  Perhaps if there had been fewer Jews controlling a smaller portion of the German economy, the Nazis would not have felt the need to try to exterminate them.  Also, if there had been a Jewish homeland ready to defend the rights and well-being of Jews living in Germany, perhaps the Nazis would have been more reluctant to take such drastic measures to rid themselves of these ‘undesirables.’

            So, the Holocaust triggered a ramping up of the long overdue creation of a Jewish homeland.  Unfortunately, a large number of Arab people were living in the land that had been set aside for this new nation (I have no way of knowing how many ‘Palestinians’ were previously Ottomans, and how many were Arabs that emigrated from other parts of the Mideast after the fall of the empire).  Many of them were perfectly willing to move somewhere else (a fair percentage of the people currently living in Jordan identify themselves as Palestinians, in spite of the fact that considerably more time has passed since the colony of Palestine ceased to exist than the amount of time that passed while Palestine existed).  In any case, Israel came into existence, and found themselves in a situation very similar to what King David wrote many years before, “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.”