PAUL’S ANGUISH & THE HEART OF GOD • PART III
THE MIDDLE EAST AND THE GREAT COMMISSION
The story of humanity began in a garden—in the Middle East—and the entire unfolding of the biblical narrative took place within this region. Scripture also foretells that the main events at the end of this age will once again occur in the Middle East, before we are brought back to the restored garden.
We live in a time when, for the first time in history, the events taking place in the Middle East bear global weight and consequence. The eyes and interests of the nations are fixed upon this region. At the very center stands Israel, and the most controversial figure on the stage is Jerusalem. In biblical language, Jerusalem is becoming “a cup of staggering to all the surrounding peoples.”[1]
It is therefore our calling to discern the relationship between the Middle East, the fulfillment of biblical prophecy, the Great Commission, the end of the age, and the return of the King.
A REGION IN TURMOIL
When we look at the Middle East in recent years, we see nations shattered and desperate. The region has become one of the greatest humanitarian and geopolitical challenges in modern history. The events that began on October 7, 2023, plunged the region into an era of unprecedented turmoil. What started as a brutal assault against Israel has since ignited a seven-front war stretching from Gaza and the biblical heart land of Judea and Samaria to Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Iran, and the Red Sea. In the span of two years, the entire landscape of the Middle East has been reshaped by war, displacement, and deepening hostility.
Israel faces its deepest wound since the birth of the modern state — thousands of lives torn apart, families grieving, entire communities displaced and living under the shadow of rockets and sirens. For the Jewish people, it has reopened an ancient sorrow, a reminder that even after centuries of exile and return, they still dwell surrounded by hatred and threat.
Across the border, Gaza lies in ruins — a place where the innocent suffer between tyranny and terror. For years, ordinary men, women, and children have lived as hostages within a regime that worships death more than life, and do everything to radicalize it’s people to hate Israel. The rulers of Hamas have turned their own people into human shields, fortresses, and bargaining chips, hiding behind civilians while fueling endless war. The cries of the innocent rise from the rubble — not only from those caught under bombs, but from those long enslaved by fear, silence, and despair.
Yet to understand this present moment, we must look further back—to the unresolved wounds of the last decade. The Syrian refugee crisis remains one of the gravest humanitarian disasters since World War II, with millions still scattered across neighboring nations. Entire generations have been raised in exile, their lives suspended between memory and survival.
The Arab Spring, which began in December 2010 with the cry of a young Tunisian man against oppression, promised liberty but instead unleashed waves of revolution that reshaped the Arab world. From Syria to Libya, from Yemen to the streets of Cairo, the hopes of renewal were soon swallowed by civil wars, dictatorships, and sectarian strife.
Out of that chaos emerged movements of terror—first the Islamic State, and later, the resurgence of regional militias, ideologies, and proxies fueled by a larger spiritual and geopolitical struggle. The alliances have shifted, but the spirit behind them remains the same.
Though temporary truces and fragile negotiations arise from time to time, the region’s instability has only deepened. Hatred between tribes, ideologies, and faiths continues to smolder beneath the surface, while persecution against minorities—especially Christians—persists with merciless intensity.
The Middle East today stands as a trembling fault line of civilizations, where the echoes of ancient prophecies seem to converge with the headlines of our age. To the natural mind, the only possible response is despair—but to those who discern the heart of God, this upheaval is not chaos without meaning. It is the shaking before redemption, the storm before the dawn.
THE CHURCH ERASED AND THE EMPIRE OF THE CALIPHATES
The churches once planted by Paul and the other apostles throughout this region were systematically destroyed after the rise of the first Islamic caliphate under Abu Bakr in A.D. 632. Throughout their history, the caliphates demanded either conversion to Islam or submission under harsh and often violent rule.
The most powerful of these was the Ottoman Caliphate (1517–1922), whose fall at the end of World War I marked the end of an era. Yet today, the Turkish government harbors an open ambition to revive that glory a century after its collapse.
The most recent caliphate was the self-proclaimed Islamic State, whose brutal campaigns brought terror and the slaughter of Christians and other minorities wherever it advanced. More than a thousand years of persecution have driven countless Christians out of their ancestral lands; those who remain continue to endure relentless hostility and pressure.
THE RETURN OF ISRAEL AND THE UNFOLDING MYSTERY
Throughout the long history of Islamic conquest, one crucial element was missing—something necessary for the completion of the divine narrative. That missing piece came with the rebirth of the State of Israel in 1948. With Israel’s restoration, Jerusalem once again became the obsession of the Muslim world and a focal point of global controversy.
In light of these realities, what can we expect for the future of the region? If we look only through human eyes, our conclusions will inevitably lead to pessimism and hopelessness. But our hope is not anchored in human diplomacy or regional politics—it is rooted in the Word of God, in His promises, and in His redemptive work unfolding even now upon the earth.
ISHMAEL AND ISRAEL
To understand the Middle East, we must return to the beginning—to the promise that God made concerning Ishmael, the patriarch of the Arab peoples, who comprise the dominant ethnicity surrounding the State of Israel.
This promise is profoundly significant because the Arab peoples are bound to Israel through Abrahamic lineage. The first two recorded appearances of the Angel of the Lord in Scripture were to Hagar, Ishmael’s mother. The first occurred when she fled from Sarah and was told to return and submit; the second, when she and her son were expelled from Abraham’s household after Ishmael mocked Isaac.[2]
In that moment of despair, the Angel of the Lord gave a breathtaking promise:
“Arise, lift up the boy, and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”[3]
The word great[4]—gadol in Hebrew—carries both quantitative and qualitative meaning. It implies not merely multitude, but significance, dignity, and divine purpose. God declared that Ishmael would become a great nation before Him. It would make little sense for the Angel of the Lord to appear twice to Hagar merely to announce numerical growth yet condemn her lineage to perpetual conflict and judgment. When God called Ishmael “great,” He was pronouncing blessing and assigning a role in His redemptive plan.
Although Ishmael rejected Isaac and was sent away from his father’s house, we must remember that Israel likewise rejected the greater Isaac—Christ Himself—and for centuries has wandered far from the Father’s house. Yet as God will one day restore Israel, so also His plan includes the blessing of Ishmael.
THE UNFULFILLED PROMISE
Throughout history, the descendants of Ishmael have indeed become a vast multitude—but they have not yet become a great nation in the purposes of God. That promise still awaits fulfillment before the end of this age.
The emergence of Islam, the largest false worship movement in human history, from among the sons of Ishmael, is no coincidence. Through this counterfeit faith, Satan has sought to pervert Ishmael’s calling and to destroy his destiny—the promise of blessing that God declared over him.
Yet the Lord will not abandon His word. He will bring the descendants of Ishmael to cry out to Him from the depths of their pain—pain born of exclusion from Abraham’s household. And the Lord will hear their cry. Out of that anguish will rise a great remnant among the sons of Ishmael, who will be used by God to provoke Israel to jealousy, leading them back to their God.
Just as the Church of the nations carries the calling to stir Israel’s heart, so this calling rests in a unique way upon the nations surrounding Israel—the descendants of Ishmael. They are not forgotten; they are destined to play a central role in the story of redemption at the end of the age.
Maranatha.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Why does Scripture emphasize the relationship between Ishmael and Israel in God’s redemptive plan?
How does the persecution of Christians and Jews in the Middle East fit within the prophetic timeline of redemption?
How does the present suffering of both the Jewish people and the innocent in Gaza reveal the brokenness of the human heart and the need for divine redemption?
How should the Church respond when confronted with simultaneous cries for justice and mercy on both sides of the war?
What can we learn from God’s faithfulness to Israel amid tragedy, and how should that shape our intercession for the peoples of the Middle East today?
As global powers pursue their own interests, how can believers maintain a prophetic vision rooted not in politics, but in the hope of the Kingdom to come?
FOOTNOTES
[1] Zechariah 12–14
[2] Genesis 21:9; Galatians 4:28
[3] Genesis 21:18 (ESV)
[4] Strong’s Hebrew #1419 — gadol, “great”: denotes magnitude, importance, or dignity (James Strong, Hebrew Dictionary of the Old Testament)
Paulo Maranatha serves as a pioneer in the Muslim world with his wife and children.