Iraq

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Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. —Romans 4:16

I recently heard on the radio a brief commentary by Dr. Lowell Davey (President of Bible Broadcasting Network) concerning the country of Iraq. He reminded us that Iraq is second only to the nation of Israel in number of times it is mentioned in the Bible. Of course we may not see it in writing as “Iraq,” but it is known as Babylon, the land of Shinar, Mesopotamia, the land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. It is Iraq. It is where the Garden of Eden was; where Adam and Eve were created; where Satan appeared; where the Tower of Babel was built; where the confusion of languages occurred; where Abraham came from; where Isaac’s bride Rebekah was born; where Jacob spent twenty years with Laban; where the Israelites were sent into captivity; where Daniel was in the lion’s den; where the greatest city revival ever took place—with Jonah in Ninevah; where we find the story of Esther; where destruction is prophesied by Nahum; and where in Revelation we will read the prophecy of the fall of Babylon. It is Iraq.

This knowledge has not been wasted on our troops who are stationed there—many of you are quite aware of the history of the land in which you have served or are serving. My husband and I remember well one night at our local Navy base where we were studying the Old Testament with a group of service members. The lesson was from Genesis 11 and we had reached the verses which read, “Terah became the father of Abram (whom God later named Abraham), Nahor and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot. While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, in the land of his birth. . . . Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan.” (Genesis 11:27,28,31) An Army soldier attending the class spoke up, “I’ve been to Ur.” This was early in the war and we just hadn’t heard anyone say those words before! “You’ve been to Ur???” “Yes,” he said, “I was stationed at Tallil. . . Camp Adder. You want me to bring pictures next week of our trip over to Abraham’s house, and the ziggurat there?”

We were fascinated by this revelation—that one of our class members could make this whole story “come alive” by the sharing of his deployment experience in this ancient land. The next week we all huddled around his computer and looked at his pictures of Ur. Amazing.

Debra Weir, a member of Virginia’s Army National Guard 1710^th Transportation Company, in an interview published in The Roanoke Times, described her experience this way, “I had the . . . opportunity to go and walk on the ground of Abraham. To me, that’s mind-boggling. . . . I read Genesis. I’ve studied the Old Testament. But I didn’t realize until I looked at a map . . . this is the cradle of civilization. . . .I felt like I was doing my spiritual journey. . . . The whole deployment was God’s plan for me to be a better person. I’m different. . . . I tell you, it got me reading the Bible again.” The newspaper article described some of her journey: “A big part of it was walking on and touching with her own hands the wellspring of faith for Islam, Judaism, and Christianity: the house of Abraham. A snapshot of Weir in uniform shows her sitting on a reconstructed stoop of the 27-room complex believed by many scholars to be the house of Terah, an idol merchant and father of Abraham. . . .Ur was one of Mesopotamia’s wealthiest and most vibrant cities. And the Ziggurat of Ur is one of dozens of similar temple compounds built around ancient Mesopotamia, which may have included the biblical Tower of Babel. . . .Before 1700 B.C., Abraham made his way to present-day Jerusalem, a land promised by God in the Old Testament to Abraham’s descendants forever. And they have been fighting over it ever since.” (The Roanoke Times, July 28, 2009)

Dr. Terry W. Eddinger, a Professor of Old Testament studies at a seminary in North Carolina, was deployed to Iraq as a Navy chaplain with a Marine unit in 2005. He was asked this question in the recent Biblical Illustrator magazine, “You are a Christian, a professor of archeology and the Old Testament, and a military chaplain. How did that background affect your expectations going into Iraq?” In the article, Dr. Eddinger is quoted answering, “Going into Iraq, and the Middle East in general, I knew I was entering a land with a long history. Civilization began here and so did much of the basics of society—writing, astronomy, agriculture, urban living, monumental architecture, and more. My prior experiences in other Middle-Eastern countries taught me that many of the ancient ways still exist. So, I looked forward to seeing the land of ancient Mesopotamia and hoped to see things that would help me understand the Bible and ancient history better. I just wish it could have been under more peaceful circumstances.”

Peace. There is no peace yet—but thanks to your service, there is the hope of peace. And when we think of this land as so pivotal in our spiritual history we are reminded of God’s covenant to Abraham in Genesis 15 when He promised the land of Israel to the future generations of Abraham and Sarah: “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.” (Genesis 15:7) And in the preceding verse we know that, “Abram believed the LORD, and He credited it to him as righteousness.” (Genesis 15:6) We find “the rest of the story” in Hebrews 11: “By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because he considered Him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.” (Hebrews 11:11,12)

And it all began in Iraq.

Work Cited:

Davey, Dr. Lowell, “Perspective,” BBN Radio, November 24, 2009.

Moxley, Tonia, “Franklin County Soldier’s Deployment to Antiquity in Iraq,” The Roanoke Times, July 28, 2009.

“Wild & ‘Woolley’ in Iraq,” Biblical Illustrator, Vol. 36, Number 2, Winter 2009-10, p. 80,81.

Questions to Share:

1. SFC Weir believed that God had a purpose for her time in Iraq. What is it that you believe God has to teach you during this period of deployment?

2. What is it that you believe God has to teach you as a couple during this period of deployment?