W W W W World Wide Web Witness Inc. Home Page Contents Page for Volume What is New
SECTION 9
Israel! An independent nation with an independent policy - thus spake Liebermann.
You must do this and that, so spake Obama.
The ideas and ideals are becoming very mixed; but then, what could you expect with would-be nannies on the one hand, and savage wolves on the other, biting at the ankles and with longing eyes seeking the face of the Jew, with the primal lust to kill that is so common when truth is forsaken and the curse of God is mistaken for His mode of creation. Again, there are the watches, the eyes of whom seem to flit, now here, now there, often averted while they speak.
Israel however remains just as surely as it was exiled by divine decree earlier in history, indeed until 1948, at the national level. What God says comes to pass, the outings and the innings, and sequence and the reason, the salvation whether utilised for His glory or dismissed at Calvary: and His faithfulness to His word is far more invariant than physical laws, since these were created, and operate as man imagines, only to find, quite often, that not they but man's understanding needs adjustment. So with the word of God, it is not this but man's understanding that needs adjustment.
This is taken from
God's Gift of Grace in Christ Jesus,
Ch.
5,
April 2009
CHAPTER 5
RAILING AGAINST ISRAEL and
INDEPENDENCE FOR THE INDEPENDENT
OBAMA INSISTS
LIEBERMAN RESISTS
ISLAMIC EXPANSION INSISTS
THE SHIP LISTS,
TRUTH PERSISTS
News 416
The Australian April 9, 11-12, Asia News April 10
It is not in the least surprising, that one should come upon Liebermann's words to the effect that Israel is an independent nation with an independent policy, and has a mind of its own. You might almost have been forgiven readily for forgetting that Israel is not in the pocket of the UN, or the USA, or the EU, or the Madrid Quartet, or Putin's Russia, like some new territory of the Antarctic, now losing so much ice.
An aside on that ? yes, hearing so often the very knowledgeable, or some of them, who are not any more impressed with this than with the apparent expectation of some scientists that ice will no longer be the Arctic mainstay, but just ... ocean, you could almost forget the visible developments in the general region of the South pole and its fascinating changes. The politicians with their claims for the Antarctic, with so much milder expectations than have some ... they do not seem to be forgetting the look of the startling scenario. But then, science, or rather the group of those who so often and so brashly speak in terms of it, is SO knowledgeable about so much. This danger becomes so perilous when scientists have opinions, based on theological considerations, that it is all but impossible to find science in the midst of some of these altercations.
Scientism in the sense of the scientistic, is becoming like the bacteria, CA-MRS-SA, invasive even in the most unexpected places, and now very mischievously, in religious areas in so-called science. This is often to be found demeaning itself and its high reputation because of facts, by proceeding almost witlessly into the pit of opinion forming models that dictate, so reading itself into data, till the latter are brought to vanishing point and pre-judgment fills all like an engulfing mountain of hot lava disgorging its inward contents.
Instead, you have to go and check out the facts! (cf. Scientific Method ... ).
But let us return to Israel, and for that matter, since this is the topic, to Palestine, a term deriving it seems from the Philistines, who had a time there. The Turks had it for another time, and Saladin had a hand in things there. Indeed, there was at one time, a Crusader State in the area, for near to a century, called the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and The Encyclopedia Britannica declares that it stretched from Turkey to the Red Sea. Many have had a hand ... At the present time, as for millenia in the past, Israel has the ruling hand, as foretold by Jesus Christ, as was its demise (Matthew 24:1ff., 23:37ff., Luke 19:42ff., Luke 21:24); and as to its restoration, see SMR Appendix A, and Ezekiel, Isaiah, Micah, indeed many of the prophets (cf. The Biblical Workman Chs. 1 and 3).
It is a matter of grace, of gift, of God's sovereign authority over ALL the earth and THEREFORE over this little part of it.
As to that, it ...
 |
is GIVEN by grace to Abraham and his
descendants (cf. Galloping Events Ch.
4); |
|
|
has been given UP by disgrace, as Israel
insisted on cumulative follies |
|
|
was given through grace for the siting of the
scripture, the Bible, |
This, it was the Cross of Jesus Christ, and the greatest expression of divine solicitude linked to power that there could be, the latter shown in the resurrection of the body of Christ AFTER it had died in, through and because of sin, vicariously received by Him. In this, He has provided a certitude for our resurrection who believe Him and believe in Him, a living certificate of grace and power and peace and righteousness of God. It shows that He who having no sin, could, being God, pay and pay adequately for one and for all who should ever come to Him, in the Age of grace provided, in the confines of predestining knowledge, known to Him as are all things (Ephesians 1:4, Acts 15:18, Isaiah 46:10).
Israel is a given thing, and sinful though the nation has become and been (cf. Isaiah 1, 6, Amos!), it is not to be in vain, but a stage of opportunity, fulfilment, rebellion, discipline and deliverance alike. Let us consider the case a little further.
After all, though some might never think of it, Israel is an independent country, nation, land upon this earth. It is not a State in Russia, or the USA, or a bit of Jordan. Actually, Palestine was conquered by the British General Allenby in 1917-1918; and it was in 1917 in that in the Balfour Declaration, it was announced by Britain, with special regard to the work it seems of Chaim Weizmann, Director of the Admiralty Laboratories 1916-1919, helpful in the defence of the Empire, that in Palestine was to be the homeland for the Jews*1.
Indeed, not only was this same Balfour Declaration incorporated into the British Mandate of 1920, for this area, as announced by the League of Nations, but it was confirmed by all the Allied Governments*2. It had before that been part of the Ottoman Empire from 1517, and was famed as the land of Israel from its entry around 1400*3, till 586, then again from around 516 till 70 A.D., a chronological distance of some 1430 years, or if you prefer. 1.43 millenia. They were out of it for some 1878 years, and have now been back for nearly 61, making a total residential time*3A of about 1491 or approximately 1.49 millenia, whilst various Moslem interests have held the territory, it appears from data to be found in the Encyclopedia Britannica, for perhaps some 1119 years, or about 1.12 millenia.
To be sure, in the internationally accepted Balfour Declaration, Israel, the people to be planted in Palestine, had to show reasonable concern for the situation there; but it was cited as a homeland for them, not an annex, all the same. However, Jordan got a large slice of Palestine instead of Israel, when it was carved up in 1948. This part had been a segment of 'Palestine' from 1918-1948; and Palestine was a British Mandated Territory from 1920-1948.
The League of Nations, in 1920, confirmed this earlier action, the Mandate actually incorporating the Balfour Declaration; but the way it transpired was this, that Britain soon transferred much of Palestine to Transjordan, created out of some of the Ottoman Empire that was, and that, it became the predecessor of Jordan, so gifted yet. The transfer of various parts of the Ottoman Empire was formalised in 1920, through the Treaty of Sèvres (Aug. 10, 1920). It was all quite formal but Israel was not treated as a non-participant in the Declaration was, for pressures seemed to take precedence over principles.
The Balfour Declaration in fact read:
"His Majesty's government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."[
It is apparent that since religious and civil rights had to be protected for others in Palestine, that either all of Palestine was in view as a homeland for Jews, so that others must be duly considered as they rule; or that some bit of Palestine was in view, and even in that if there were any others non-Jews in that bit, they would have to be regarded with the same consideration and concern. However, what home is it which is not one's own, but a shared bedroom! Neither the house (Palestine) nor a bedroom (part of it) were to be Jewish as a national entity; but it is CALLED a national home. Was that to be the meaning understood ?
If NOTHING in Palestine were to be Jewish, under their government according to their laws, ethics and so on, then what is the gift ? If EVERYTHING in Palestine is given, with restrictions to enable others to have some continuity, then maybe it is still a home, though a restricted one; but at least the rights question is resolved. You are not then confined to barracks as it were, even in your own little bedroom.
Others have rights and since all of Palestine is in view, these must be considered. That would make some sense; but not the concept of a bit of the place and in that bit, only a bit of rule. A national homeland in such a derisory diminution! The phrase would be rendered empty.
Thus, if SOME of Palestine were all, how on earth could Israel be expected to get some of the land, and even in that, have to put up with what could be entirely contrary views, forces and aspirations! Is that a home! is it a national home, that ? Are rights to be defended for the hostile, when only a bit of Palestine is given; and is there the effrontery to imagine that if this is so, that it is any home at all!
It appears that the phrasing therefore extends to the concept of Palestine, a national home where there was to be of course, consideration for the existing inhabitants of so varied a place. Attempts to reduce this scope have been many; but that is no home which is a partition of a place which even then, cannot be free for the part allocated. Whatever Britain, under much pressure, said afterwards, the plain meaning was far from restrictive for this reason. Britain transfer of much of Palestine at once in its new mandate, to Jordan was an immediate diminution, and with what restrictions was this part of Palestine, then, so transferred, with reciprocal restrictions concerning the treatment of Jews in it ?
In any case, the treatment of Israel IN Palestine, in what was left of it, was horrid. The place was handed over by Britain to the Arabs. Where was the homeland then ? Is this death by degrees ?
If the Jews had to fight to gain the land, when they were not even a nation, is this the famed national homeland ? and this, while the world waited and watched to 'see what would happen' to a dispersed people, suddenly abandoned to many Islamic nations! There is little more infamous in Britain's recent past, than this, as also in their attempt to prevent people from the holocaust era, returning, using British Navy ships to deter the cheap hulks in which hopeful Jews were returning.
Palestine has had a long history, yet since the Jews arrived nearly one and one half millenia ago, they have had the longest tenure; but all this is merely incidental. The basic fact with which the Madrid Quartet must wrestle, for it will assuredly wrestle with them, to their detriment if they ignore it, and that on the authority of the Bible, the predictions of which always are fulfilled*4, is not such minor points as the above. It is not just that Jews have held Israel as a country*5, their nation, for longer than anyone else. It is not what the British meant or did not mean in the Balfour Declaration (miserable and misleading as it would appear, if it meant less than Palestine).
It is not Britain, or subsequently, as notable in the day of Reagan in particular, the USA which is the big brother, or the father, or the aid or aide to Israel, though any nation may play a part (even Germany, not exactly friendly to Israel during Hitler's rule, has been very much so quite often since then, and in particular made a massive reparations payment to Israel).
It is God who underwrites the continuity of Israel till He calls His Church to Himself and then rules in the WHOLE EARTH. Certainly, Jerusalem was to be destroyed (Matthew 24) and the Jews dispersed amid international mockery (though there is with it, much respect ... cf. Deuteronomy 28:37ff., Ezekiel 36:15). They were also to be brought back and have been, to fight triumphant wars against all odds, as they did in 1948, 1967, 1973 (cf. SMR pp. 755ff.), from many nations, as in Zechariah 12, events to precede a vast national repentance towards Jesus Christ as that part of the same prophecy shows.
Those who dare to TELL, as Obama does*6, that they will use all their powers to institute a two-state solution in this sector of the Middle East, may have reasons of their own, of one kind or another. They may choose to ignore what they will; but in the end, what they can ignore only to their most grave detriment is the word of God. Much is yet to happen in and around Israel (cf. SMR pp. 502-516). Near indeed is a seething invasion, to be repelled. Oil and delusion alike (cf. More Marvels ... Ch. 4 ) are causing great interest on the part of many nations, in subduing and squelching Israel. However, it will not be.
The cost will be vast as Ezekiel 38-39 indicates, and while all kinds of casuistry may succeed in a part (cf. I Thessalonians 5:1ff., Daniel 7:26), it will fail in the end. The efforts will be wasted. The incendiary nature of the situation will continue as it must, since three misuses of the name of Jesus Christ are all embroiled - Romanism in its own way, Judaism in its focus, Islam with its invented christ, made some 6 centuries after the day of eyewitness - all have power and presence. It is so religiously amusing, but better, instructive to see how all these large national blocks in the Madrid Quartet have to HELP hundreds of millions of Moslem peoples, who seem to have desire for Israel, or at least many of their leaders (including the case of Iran, which perhaps is a slight variant, for their President merely wants to obliterate it, it seems), in order to extort more land.
How many Russias and UNs and EUs and USAs are needed to support the many Islamic lands which have already warred on Israel. The point is of course is simple: they are fighting against God (cf. Zechariah 12: ). It is not that Israel is a white-haired boy; for it is still in rebellion against its own God (cf. Zechariah 12:1-13:1, Deuteronomy 32, Leviticus 26). Nevertheless, God is determined to honour His promise and His word (cf. Galloping Events Ch. 4, Ezekiel 36:22), and in His characterisable faithfulness, He is going to carry it out.
It is a pleasant day, then, for the forces of antichrist to try it on, try it out. The result is already written (Revelation 19), as they try more than to take over Israel: to take over God. That would be the only way they could succeed.
Taking over the author of a book however is a bit extravagant for the characters in it. It has always seemed good to the devil to gain the heights of heaven (cf. Revelation 12) or at least share them (Genesis 3); but it is all futile. You cannot win against your Constructor and Creator, whose knowledge is more than that of the most successful spies, in a country, but not less.
Every move is foreknown; and to attest it, the prophecies which are all being fulfilled, scores in my own lifetime, simply happen, an impossibility for any program were it to make ONE mistake, for like the ripples of a stone thrown into the waters, the results of that one error over the millenia in which the prophecies apply, would falsify things to a fatal extent. At that, the computer does not know how to allow for freedom; but God who made it, He knows it and all its ways.
A country of its own ? well, to be sure, not entirely. Independence from OTHER NATIONS ? an understandable ambition. Yet it is BECAUSE as Deuteronomy 32 makes so clear, and many of the prophets, they have forsaken their own God that there leadership is lost and their liberty is so infringed upon, that nations seem almost to take it for granted that this modern, powerful, progressive nation has to have nursemaids or guardians, in addition to its many enemies among the nations WHICH HAVE ALREADY ATTACKED IT, to check it and keep it in place.
Which place ? very little place, or none, according to its various authorities who would seek to play God and INSTRUCT Israel what it MUST do.
Small wonder the end is coming close, like a four-blade razor, to the impious cheek of the nations in their hostile arrays, land-grabbing exercises against little, tiny Israel. Bullying*7 in general is never admirable. In this case, it is also not only foolish, but is able to be fatal.
NOTES
The words used in the Balfour Declaration: “nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.”
See the Penguin Dictionary of Modern History, 1789-1945 and the Penguin Dictionary of Twentieth Century History 1900-1982, for example.
See:
Downfall from Defamation Ch. 4
Useful here is Professor Gleason Archer's work, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties, where he handles the topic in masterly fashion, as also his Survey of Old Testament Introduction. Dr Bryant Woods dating work and allied investigations have also been of capital aid in checking this aspect of history.
Israel, in the format of the patriarchs, if you like, the proto-national patriarchs, but still a presence relative to the nation-to-be, and a presence of promise (Genesis 12), has of course been in the land much longer than this estimate expressed in the text of this Chapter, in millenia. The Muslim presence was unable, because of the lateness of the Koran and its founder, to have any earlier presence than that which might be gained from the 7th century AD ... onward. It was a complete newcomer as far as its distinctives were concerned. As to these, they completely contradict the entire tenor of Old Testament revelation in sacrificial centrality in the approach to God's mercy, and redemptive necessity in terms of the Messiah which has been present in one form or another, since Genesis Chapers 3 and 22, and the entirety of the Mosaic law. See SMR pp. 1080ff..
The Passover itself was redemptive, and it was only the presence of the blood of the lamb on the door of the homes, on that last night before Exodus, that saved the household from destruction.
Similarly, the sacrificial realities of Leviticus, culminating in the Atonement Day, Leviticus 16-17, were centred on the same divine grace which alone could intervene to save by blood, for the blood by its life MADE the atonement (Leviticus 17:11). THAT is statedly the site from which the reconciliation comes, to meet the plight of man in his sin. The law was to show the necessity of salvation by grace (Romans 7:13), so that its triumphant divine provision, costing the Lord Himself so much, even the death of His Messiah, sent from heaven (Isaiah 48:16), might prevail. The law shook the soul into penitence and acceptance; the blood provided for the cover. Such is the message of Leviticus on this point of cover.
That is, because life was poured out, therefore sin could be covered or atoned. You see the same in Psalm 51, where it is a humble and a contrite heart, a broken one which is needed in repentance, not a maze of accomplishments, so that the sprinkling of blood might then atone for the heart prepared to receive this. There lay the way home, the cover for sin, the meeting of the demands of the law, the path in mercy in which God delights (Micah 7:19ff.), a path where blood is the entry (Hebrews 9:22, Leviticus 17:11) and repentance of heart receives it.
NO ONE ELSE but the God who predicted the Messiah, God the sent (Isaiah 48:16, Psalm 45), could be Saviour (Isaiah 43:10-11); and as to salvation, it is to this that God demands man turn, and in fact in the most beautiful fashion God appeals to him, for his own deliverance, to receive it as expressed in detail in Isaiah 52-53, as to its content, the Messiah, offered in the innocence of deity incarnate, in substitution for sinners' penalty. Here then is the offering of God to God, that man might live: by faith (Psalm 32). The Islamic message is wholly contrary to any such Messianic, substitutionary atonement, vested in Him to die in the area of AD 30 (cf. Highway of Holiness Ch. 4, Christ the Citadel ... Ch. 2), to be rejected by Israel (Isaiah 49:7) and received by many in many nations (Isaiah 52:12-15), the only way to find God, Himself through Himself, the finale for faith (Isaiah 9:7, Daniel 7:14,25-27 cf. Acts 4:11-12).
See SMR Chs. 8 - 9, The Pitter-Patter of Prophetic Feet Ch. 4, Answers to Questions ... Ch. 5, together with indexes on this aspect. See also SMR p. 973A, Joyful Jottings 22 -25, and see Isaiah 34, 44-45, Matthew 5:17ff..
The situation is relatively complex in this, that:
 |
1) God is determined to bring
them back (did so, and will do so more), has said so; |
|
|
2) He has been determined to
teach them the folly of unfaithfulness, |
|
|
3) the latter is now in the
throes of completion and the former progresses, |
Meanwhile, the Mosque is allowed, a thing of abomination in the temple area as has happened before, something that is of direct and pseudo-religious defilement, no doubt as a teaching device to Judah. If the TEMPLE is now OBSOLETE BECAUSE Christ has put away sin for faith by the sacrifice of Himself (Hebrews 7-9 says so), in ONE sacrifice ONCE and for all, and so is allowed by its replacement abomination to make continually just that point: then so is the land itself non-vital from a spiritual point of view. It is not the land that saves, but it was IN IT that the Saviour came. Hence the Crusades did not rescue it; that fact teaching that Christ is not a war matter, but a procurer of peace for man BY HIMSELF.
On the other hand, the LAND has been certified for Israel and Israel for it, and it is the platform or stage if you will; and God allowed His Son to be murdered there, and to that place HE Himself will return (Zechariah 14:5, Psalm 72, Isaiah 2, 11, Micah 4). Its significance is the use HE has made of it in both His word and His works. Thus while its earlier seizing is beside the point, for Israel was to be exiled by DIVINE DECREE (as in Leviticus 26), its divestment from Israel would at once become another matter. Indeed, Israel's return is part of the point, now; and its deliverance to come rather soon (the time is 'near' cf. Answers to Questions Ch. 5 in the light of Luke 21:24ff.) is to teach the nations something.
That ? it is written in Ezekiel 39:27-28.
"‘When I have brought them back from the peoples
and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands,
and I am hallowed in them in the sight of many nations,
then they shall know that I am the Lord their God,
who sent them into captivity among the nations,
but also brought them back to their land, and left none of them captive any longer.
And I will not hide My face from them anymore;
for I shall have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel,’ says the Lord God."
Thus the nations who imagined vainly and arrogantly that their power and might had put them into commanding positions in a modern world, will find that to the contrary, that just as God USED Nebuchadnezzar (cf. Ezekiel 29:17ff.) and even gave him 'wages', though that proud king did not realise his post and had to be dealt with (cf. Daniel 4), so He uses others in His divine drama, that moves now fast towards the conclusion of its major issues on this earth.
When they seek to play God, the game is tipped over.
Thus just as the Temple could be replaced, making the point that it was now irrelevant to salvation, its symbols being fulfilled in a determinate and consummate manner in the person of Jesus Christ, so the land need not be held, its significance for salvation having been fulfilled. Yet for His culminating purposes - of teaching the nations that Israel left for discipline, and not because of the might of the nations, and is brought back in faithfulness, despite the might of the nations, a tiny nothing in the hand of God who rebuts as He will, in mind or body: Israel the land DOES yet have a point. NOW again it is substantial in significance
|
|
1) for Israel to have back,
according to His promises often repeated as in Micah 7, |
|
|
2) for nations to be shown now
that the discipline past (as it soon will be), |
It is not that ISRAEL is glorified in this (cf. Ezekiel 36:22), for none but God will be (Isaiah 2). Rather it is that Israel will be fulfilled in this in its specific part in the plan of God, both initially in terms of the symbols and situation for salvation, and then finally in its expression of the determination of God to gather the nations and truncate, indeed terminate their ludicrous aspirations (cf. Zephaniah 3:8ff.). Learn they will! (Micah 7:15ff.).
It is pregnant in point that the language of Ezekiel 39, showing this final flourish against the nations, and the divine action for Israel, declares that God in so acting, will by that time have acted internally on much of Israel. Indeed, there is to have been an intimate action on Israel:
" 'And I will not hide My face from them anymore:
for I shall have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel,' says the Lord GOD."
That is correlative with Zechariah 12:10 when He will pour forth the spirit of grace and of supplications, so that many in Israel will "look upon Me whom they have pierced."
Salvation thus comes before this finale, for many in Israel, and the reconciliation so long adjourned, will flourish both in spirit and in divine deliverance: this last, from those who had come to imagine that theirs was might, that they might dictate to Israel what it would and would not do, and indeed to God! However much they might disguise such a thing even from themselves, it is the word of God which determines these things, and to reject its analysis is to be cruel to one's own soul.
The Australian, April 9, 2009. The two-state solution, he declared, "is a goal I will actively pursue." The Palestinian economy could not take the status quo, and Israel had to live in fear of attack: hence it must be resolved by taking more land from Israel. So do the thugs gain credence, by their endless killings, while Islam holds so many lands and endless acreages all about. Indeed, it is well to record that very properly, Jordan took Palestinians into citizenship at one stage, only to find them busily using its territory for seeking to destroy Jews in Israel. The option was withdrawn, before the furore could tear the nation apart!
What God has ordained, the discipline but not the extinction of Israel, the vast discipline of those who want to add their own discipline, not of themselves, but of Israel whom God has smitten as He promised: these things will be. It is strange to see the various agents and actors in the Israel drams taking up their places, as if they could not read. God is so very open about His intentions; but so many minds are so closed. It is like a nut: if it takes some cracking, well the nut-cracker is available. Is it necessary ? with many, alas, it would seem so.
Bullying may appeal to those who in a fit of anti-aetiological, counter-causal irrationality (cf. Causes and SMR Ch. 5, with Deity and Design Ch. 8), imagine that surviving is to be equated in dynamic with creation, and that continuing to live is in some mystically fabulous way to BECOME a source of creativity in the cosmos of thought, concepts, causal connection, symbolic code and its impartation to adjusted recipiencies, artistic marvels and works of wisdom so profound that man's mere mathematics and conceptual power is constantly trying either to imitate these profound works of creation, or to find out how they work with fascinated and often bewildered astonishment.
It is amazing what the human mind is capable of doing in the field of self-deception, however unintentional, when its vital interests are perceived to be at stake. Unfortunately for many, the sale of truth for convenience, convention or conformity is like selling a house in the USA at the height of the downturn, for one dollar! It is a foolishness for which the reward is proportional, even in the end, in the case of the Gospel, eternal exclusion from the God who is despised to the point of dismissal, whether with ire, indifference or dynamic. It is the profoundest mercy that in the Lord God's prevenient and predestinative knowledge (Romans 8:29ff., Ephesians 1:4), in the grandeur of His love, He misses none which He may graciously find: for His almighty power together with His vast love as shown in scope in Colossians 1:19ff., is such that none goes to the hell of exclusion except where only force would make it otherwise.
As to that, someone devoted to the extinction of or indifference towards God, or His word of witness of the way home, would find it rather after the analogy of hell to be made to be WITH HIM where grace rules (cf. Titus 2-3, Romans 3, 5, 10)! an action of compulsion which mercifully He does not take. To be sure, He sovereignly selects and secures His own (John 1:12); but equally, and in terms of the entirety of His revelation in the Bible, He secures them in foreknowledge in the first place in terms of the scope of love shown both in Colossians 1, I Timothy 2, and Ezekiel 33:11 and I John 2:1ff., as has often been shown (cf. To Know God ... Ch. 1, Great Execrations ... Greater Grace Chs. 7 and 9, Predestination and Freewill).
He is no bully, but love (I John 4:7ff., John 3:15ff.).
Those who mistake the divine discipline on this race and the subjection of the creation to futility or vanity or emptiness, as a major effect of human sin from the first (cf. Romans 8:17ff., 5:1ff.), may indeed rejoice in the lashings; but those who love Him, rejoice in His love. Hence they do not appreciate bullying.
As to the attempt to force Israel
|
|
to receive back those who were
against it and swept out |
|
|
to yield to the nations which
have butchered it time and again with repeated invasions |
|
|
to give them yet more land from its meagre current store: |
if this is not bullying the victim of multi-national assault, following the noteworthy events of the holocaust, what then would be!
With mischievously misaligned causal conceptions of this kind, it is not surprising that some, thinking continuing is creating, and being is initiating, and other nonsenses, to use the phrase of Professor Hoyle, that Cambridge University academic, of a high order, do not find horror in bullying.
Hitler, madly devoted to survival of the fittest fables of this kind, did it on the profound scale with the 6 million Jews attributed to his lethal non-love; and Stalin with the same fatal fascination, one on the right, and one on the left, did it to many more millions; and now that Israel is concerned, one remembers the British politician Bevin, in his frank idea that oil was needed and hence policy in the Middle East needed suitable ... adjustment. To be sure, it was not the same scale by any means, but if the idea counts, then this is moving in that direction as is all self-interested movement towards the Middle East, soaked in oil, though not in the case of Israel.
There is a difference notified but not a few.
Some may want force more than justice, truth or even a dim awareness of the requirements of the Creator. He having MADE the land is not a spectator merely, but the OWNER.
When therefore HE specifies His desires, it is mere folly to ignore Him. His intentions are on record for nearly 3500 years, a sufficient time for any good reader, one should thinks (cf. Genesis 17 and Galloping Events Ch. 4).
He will not ignore you in such a case as Zechariah 12 shows to the nations, in his account from some 2500 years ago, and before the crucifixion of Christ, to which his prophecies pointed in many ways, if you ignore His word. Here in this Chapter, we see our present period. It is one in which Israel is back in its land and is surrounded by nations messing with it, seeking to probe, prod or whatever, to act in intervention of some kind, to concern themselves with this land of Israel.
These are to find it a heavy, a burdensome stone, says the prophet; and he goes on in the same Chapter, to speak of a vast movement still to come in Israel in which they repent of piercing the One who as man, is yet their God and the God of all creation (12:10-13:1). Just as that, the piercing of the Lord was fulfilled in the First Century (that century getting its very name FROM Jesus Christ, being the century in which His resurrection occurred), so is the next phase coming. Thus is this latter day, end time scenario for the approaching return of the Lord, there are being fulfilled before our eyes, step by step, the features of Israel's history, all as foretold.
In fact, God foretold that He would foretell the things for it to come (Amos 3:7), making it a double revelation, that it would be covered, and what it was when it came. .
Further fulfilments are mentioned SMR Appendix A, and Ezekiel, Isaiah, Micah, indeed many of the prophets (cf. The Biblical Workman Chs. 1 and 3). 755ff.SMR pp. 502-516.