Making Sense of the Arab Revolts

‘Look at the nations and watch— and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told’ – Habakkuk 1:5 (NIV)

Our God is the Lord of the nations and in his sovereignty he shakes the nations – pulling down exalted thrones and changing the times so as to prepare a way for his kingdom.

I am sure you have been following the events in North Africa and across the Arab world. Beginning with the ‘successful’ revolt in Tunisia, these popular uprisings are sweeping across the Arab world. What is surprising is not that it is happening (there have been various popular uprisings in the Arab world in the past) but how spontaneous and widespread it is (there have been demonstrations even in Saudi Arabia!) and how it is affecting even the hitherto formidable regimes – from Mubarak’s Egypt to Ghadaffi’s Libya.

The world is worried about the implications to the cost of petroleum products and whether the uprisings will only replace old West-friendly dictators with new unco-operative dictators – like in the revolts in Iran that ushered in Ayatollah Khomeini in the 1970s. But our concerns as the children of Zion should be higher than these. Our concern should be how God’s kingdom can come and his will be done through these events.

The Arab world should be important to anyone who loves Jesus because it is one of the most unevangelised regions of the world with millions without access to the good news. Isn’t it obvious that God is interested in using this time of shaking to make a way for his kingdom in these unreached parts of the world?

Yet we will err if we conclude that things must go one way or the other socio-politically for God’s will to be accomplished. No, God can work out his will in ways beyond our imagination. As we look at the nations and long for God’s glory to come, we must watch to understand what God is up to and not presume that there is only one way in which this will happen. It is not about dictators getting dethroned, or whether democratic governments are elected, or the Islamists not taking over.

In Habakkuk 1:5-6 the prophet was told by God to ‘Look at the nations and watch – and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told. I am raising up the Babylonians…’. And indeed it was amazing for Habakkuk to imagine that God could be behind the rise of the evil Babylonians! He did not realise that God could use wicked men to accomplish his purposes. But God does.

For example, in the seventies when Ayatollah Khomeini took over power, many thought that it was bad news for evangelisation in Iran. Today mission leaders can see that Ayatollah Khomeini affected evangelism positively! Evangelist Sammy Tippit who works closely with the Iranian Church has said, “He showed the people what Islam really is, and the people have rejected it. I remember going into Iran for the first time, and people would walk by some of the clerics, and they would literally spit on the ground because they so despised them. People have been turned off in multitudes.” Tippit says people are turning to Christ in miraculous ways in Iran. “In Iran, God is just coming and visiting people in dreams and visions. I mean, every week this is happening. We’re hearing ofmore and more people who are having this take place in their lives and are becoming believers, followers of Jesus.”

So one thing we are called to do in the face of the present events in the Arab world is to pray, ‘Lord in the midst of these uprisings let your kingdom come and let your will be done. Let many come to know your Son’. And as we pray for his kingdom to come we must realise that we don’t know how he will go about it. Just like he used the evil Babylonians in Habakkuk’s day, he could use anything, even radical Islamist groups. So we must be open, watch and pray, ‘Lord let your will be done in the nations – in these events, in the governments that emerge, etc. Show us what you want us to do to co-operate with what you are about’

One of the hindrances to evangelism in this region is the repressive spirit in Islam that does not allow for any enquiry outside of Islam. I believe that as we pray, what has started as a cry for freedom from socio-political oppression can provide an opportunity for an expression of the deeper cry for spiritual freedom. This is one thing we can pray for – that in the midst of questioning authoritarian rule, the millions of youth across the Arab world will begin to ask deeper questions. Let’s pray that many will search for and find the Prince of Peace. Let us also pray for the missionaries and believers in these lands (CAPRO, the mission I work with, has several missionaries in the Arab world). Finally, let us ask the Lord of the harvest to send out many labourers into this region.