Promise of Peace Becomes Compromise

When you receive the Seal, you have the Peace of God. That means that sometimes you have peace with people in the world and sometimes you do not. Israel is facing some tough choices if she wants to make peace with Palestine.

Becoming sealed brings you the peace of God. But just because you have peace with God does not mean you have to make peace with all people. You will be faced with compromises and you will have to choose where to lower your standards.

You never have to make peace to satisfy the requirements of the world. But it is pleasant to live in peace so you will sometimes concede to those people who are different from you.

However you will never need to compromise your faith in God and following His commandments to please any people in the world. When they ask for concessions, you may give up nothing of what God requires of you.

If Israel wants to make peace with the Palestinians in the upcoming peace talks, then she is faced with tough choices, particularly about how to delineate the land.

The Palestinians want something that Israel simply can not give them--their homes they were forced out of after World War II when modern Israel was founded. That is something they can not get at these peace talks.

God gave the land to Israel just as promised thousands of years ago, and Israel does not need to give up most of the country like that. But ever since Jesus came things have changed, including what Israel can expect to have.

Israel may not be able to keep the country as it is--that is, if she wants peace with the Palestinians. She may have to divide parts of herself in half, like the city of Jerusalem. But this would not be as easy as it might sound.

A wall would be needed to divide the city of Jerusalem for security purposes. It would be necessary to protect the rest of the Jewish people in Israel from militant Palestinians. But few people on either side want the wall.

There was a wall in Jerusalem before the 1967 war. And it might have to come back if no other agreement could be reached at the peace talks. A wall would be a compromise--not an "open" society but at least a secure one.

But there are problems with a simple wall dividing Jerusalem too. Who would get the Temple Mount, whereupon is a Moslim shrine called the Noble Sanctuary? Agreement between Israel and the Palestinians on this is unlikely.

Yet an agreement can be reached. It just might require outside help from other countries. The Palestinians are the ones who envision an open society. But they have little empathy for the Israelis who are often attacked.

An open society would not have borders which would keep out many of the Palestinian attackers. In addition Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, has not shown much capability in keeping order in Palestine.

And without order there is no security. Clearly God wants Israel to have security. But just how to get that security is the question. It may call for the kinds of compromises Israel does not want to make.

When you are sealed you receive the Name of God in your forehead. God owns you. As His Possession, you certainly have His Peace. And when you choose not to compromise, His peace is better than that of anyone else in the world.