Yes, God loves Osama bin Laden! In fact, God loves every son of Ishmael. Ishmael is the father of the Arab people as Isaac, along with his father Abraham, is the father of the Jewish people. Genesis 16 tells a sordid story of a disappointed and desperate wife (Sarah), a weak and vacillating husband (Abraham), and a passive and persecuted servant (Hagar). Frustrated that she had not yet borne Abraham a son, Sarah concocted a steamy scheme in which Abraham would have a sexual encounter with her servant Hagar and produce a child she would own as her own. While we can appreciate the level of Sarah’s despair and understand such an arrangement was not uncommon in the Ancient Near East this plan did not meet with God’s approval. God continued His intention to give the Hebrew’s First couple a miracle child. What the inappropriate union did produce was hostility in the house of Abraham. So much hostility was generated, in fact, that Hagar fled the only life she had ever known.
God tracked her down (just as He does each of us) on the run and having apprehended her He communicated eternal truth for the Arab world. The Arabs would be too many to count (16: 10) and they would lead a wild life of unrelenting hostility and violence (16: 12). The bloodshed of and by Arabs spanning the globe should not shock us. God said before Ishmael was ever born it would be so. But God also said some more hopeful things for the sons of Ishmael.
Ishmael means “God hears” and just as our Lord graciously listened to the cry of Hagar 4,000 years ago so He bends His ear to the earth to hear the prayerful cry of Arabs today. The “whosoever will gospel” is for the Arab just as it is for you and I! Just this week I had the opportunity once again to share my Jesus with Palestinian and Lebanese friends. How grateful I am that I am not forced to learn a different message than the one I share with Westerners. Three is one gospel for the entire world and one Savior for the entire world.
Sarah understandably called the God Who found her The God Who Sees (16: 13) for He not only saw her in her plight but sees the Arabs of the planet and pities them. Our military may have difficulty finding bin Laden but the God of heaven and earth knows right were he is today and He loves him. If bin Laden were to turn to our God right now he would find Him A Well of the Living One Who Sees Me (16: 14). That well is there today for every son of Ishmael to drink deeply from. Those who drink from that living well will never thirst again (John 4: 14).
Would you pause right now and lift up some Arab friend in prayer that the God Who Hears and Sees would bring them to Himself.