Covenant of Death in Lebanon

Events in the aftermath of Lebanon's June elections have chilled my soul to the bone. Although not achieving a majority in Parliament, Hezbollah did win a majority of the popular vote (55%). That, however, was not what gripped my heart.
 
Hezbollah, founded, funded and controlled by the government in Iran, is a ruthless, Islamist, terrorist organization bent on the destruction of Israel and the West. It is the most powerful military force in Lebanon, intimidating the government's military units. Hezbollah is a tool of the Iranian mullahs who envision a Shia crescent of hegemony running from Iran through Iraq, Syria and Lebanon to the doorstep of Israel, ultimately resulting in the death of Israel as a nation and a Shia-controlled Palestinian nation.
 
What shocked me was the fact that 70% of the Christians in Lebanon (including many evangelicals) have aligned themselves politically with Hezbollah for security reasons in what the writer of an article in the WEA Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin called a “covenant of death”. (See Isaiah 28:14-22.) How could so many who claim Jesus as their Saviour affiliate with those who reject the Saviour's Cross? Additionally, we learn from the article that 70,000 believers have fled Lebanon since mid-2006.
 
In order to pray effectively for this situation, we must first understand why so many Christians support Hezbollah. American evangelicals tend to believe that God's promise to “bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you” is still applicable to the current state of Israel (as I believe). However, believers in the Middle East tend to have a different view of Israel. Arab Christians in Lebanon have seen Israeli bombs dropping on Lebanon in response to the barrage of Hezbollah rockets on Israel during the summer of 2006 through a different lens. Many have never seen accurate news reports describing how Hezbollah attacked first and others simply believe that Israel responded too forcefully no matter whether or not Hezbollah initiated the conflict. Most Lebanese Christians see Israel as the aggressor and Hezbollah as defending them against Israel's attacks.
 
I had a conversation a few months back with an Arab Christian who did not like Israel. His dislike went back to 1982 when Israel pushed the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) out of Lebanon to put a stop to PLO attacks on their northern border. He believed, based on regional news reports at the time, that Ariel Sharon had led Israeli troops into refugee camps at Sabra and Shattila in Lebanon to commit a massacre. I am very familiar with this conflict because I was flying a helicopter with supplies for the U.S. Marines into their encampment at the Beirut airport from a U.S. Navy supply ship at the time. During their military action, the Israelis were aligned with the militias of several factions in Lebanon including the Christian Phalange. One of those factions brutally attacked the two refugee camps at Sabra and Shattila, leaving a trail of death and destruction.
 
Ariel Sharon, then Israel's minister of defense, was held indirectly responsible for the massacre by an Israeli investigating committee, not because he ordered or initiated it, but because he did not do enough to stop it. He was not welcomed in polite company in Israel for many years as a result. Israel as a nation neither initiated nor condoned the attacks at Sabra and Shattila, yet most Middle Eastern Christians believe it was undertaken by the Israelis.
 
We should have understanding and compassion for Lebanese Christians who have seen Israeli bombs dropped on their nation, even as we disapprove of their alignment with Hezbollah. Pray that God will remove the scales from the eyes of those believers who have allied themselves with enemies of the Cross in a “covenant of death”. Pray for those who have been forced to flee Lebanon in recent years. And please ask our Heavenly Father to touch the hearts of Hezbollah terrorists and draw them to Christ.