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Chapter 3

RIGHT, MIGHT AND CONVENIENCE

See The Australian, April 19, 2014

News 471

See also Department of Bible ... Volume 5, Chapter 8, with Volume 7, Ch. 13

In today's edition of The Australian, we find record of President Putin's idea that since some parts of the Ukraine (the part not yet taken over in sympathy with his ideas of rule) were once Russian, and were part of a concept of the New Russia, imperially pleasant to the ruler's tongue and ear in a former period, therefore he has a RIGHT to invade.

Since some parts of Poland were taken over by Russian, here and there in history, then perhaps Poland has a right to invade Russia - remember, we are not talking of feasibilities, but rights, and right is not might, and there are different kinds of wrongs. Now if Putin had said that since at certain times certain parts of the Ukraine were ruled in concept and control by Russia, therefore if he had MIGHT to invade, he would feel no inhibitions, we could at least understand the reasoning, vicious as it would be in kind. He might even add that he felt like taking over the other parts as well, to be neat about it.

Now let us consider. Since certain parts of Israel, in its scattered state, as predicted by God from Deuteronomy on, with the provision for their restoration as recorded in Deuteronomy (32-33), Micah 7, Ezekiel 36-39 and Isaiah, were mistreated with utter, vile violence in Russia over CENTURIES and with gross intemperance in Stalin's day as well, for they were often useful, then a writ (we are talking of RIGHT, remember) might be taken out in terms, as with Putin, of certain aspects of history duly selected. It would in this case be a writ against Russia, giving Israel the RIGHT to demand reparation, or failing this, perhaps even to invade to secure JUSTICE.

In practice, Putin is not likely to be agreeable to this sense of right, having another alleged one on his mind, and seems to have a distinct bias towards getting rather than giving, and getting according to will rather than in terms of agreements, such as that of the

Budapest Memorandum, which is cited below. Hence he might demur, rights being highly selective in citation.

Provisions of the Memorandum are cited are these:

	Respect Ukrainian independence and sovereignty within its existing borders.
	Refrain from the threat or use of force against Ukraine.
	Refrain from using economic pressure on Ukraine in order to influence its politics.
	Seek United Nations Security Council action if nuclear weapons are used against Ukraine.
	Refrain from the use of nuclear arms against Ukraine.
	Consult with one another if questions arise regarding these commitments.

In terms of this, Moscow was in alliance to protect the independence of the nuclear-yielding Ukraine, in a work of power and principle, the former working well for the now resistless Russia, but not so well for the now menaced and partly stripped Ukraine (per stolen Crimea). There Russia had, it is contended, not merely a RIGHT to vacate the premises of the Crimea, stolen in violation of the protection by a 'protector' along with various MIG aircraft and the lives left desolate in death, through her incursion. Remove the atomic weapons and we will protect your independence becomes this, in HISTORY: remove your atomic weapons and we will invade you and have right to take the rest. Protection becomes theft ? warranty of safety in a bargain becomes warranty of totalitarian take-over with all the violations of free speech and action which this travesty of truth requires! Will even the Gospel be freely preachable in its fulness without trampling and truculence and ecclesiastical bindings and blindings ? Will even that be left in the premises of predation ?

That is not all. Now Israel might make its determinations of RIGHT and reparations, and seek to regain the territories in which its outrageously treated minorities were so notoriously abused; and is it then also an impractical thought ? Not at all. JUSTICE is linked to RIGHT, and right is the opposite of wrong and wrongs ... Israel, despite its rebellion against the only God there is, pinnacling in the murder of Jesus Christ (as predicted in Ps. 22, Isaiah 49:7, 53-53), through which God made a path of mercy for those repenting and receiving the redemption wrought, is definitively marked by that same God. He ALWAYS does what He says, and one thing clear is the restoration of Israel as in Ezekiel 36-39, by HIS OWN power, and right to deliver what He both made and gained and delivered. They are HIS people historically, one may note, since there seems to be some interest in history in the Russian mind, or that of its currently despotic leader, and He has the might to act, as well as to write. His coming action against a massive enemy (more than one people involved) which is to attack Israel is notorious in Ezekiel (above), and that it comes when Israel is weak (as in Deuteronomy 32), is another index for the mind to consider.

This particular enemy is centred (but not isolated) in the North, Moscow being right to the North of Jerusalem. If God exercises His right on behalf of Israel, then the Russian might might not look so mighty, and its inflexible selectivity of what it wants, ignoring the rest of history, might not look quite so coy. Whether Russia is indicated, though very probable, is not entirely certain in the ancient names used; but the warning is there, and who comes to fit, is it.

Russia is warned. But it is not only that. God has a way of reducing the totalitarian trespassers, the guileful and the vainglorious, the impassioned pursuers of some blighting philosophy or other, who wish to make havoc in history, as they pursue their blind-sided belligerence.

That is two counts. If I were living in Russia, unless sent there by the Lord, I would be considering leaving. Russia's treatment of the Ukraine in Stalin's day (which is also a matter of history, since that is so interesting a matter) was so much worse than atrocious, so prolonged, so slowly vexatious, so heartlessly inhuman, in such crass and gross inhumanity, so robbing, so blighting as if to make it almost hard for the devil to compete, that any thought of RIGHT in taking it over in the form of some new totalitarian outburst once again, is not only ludicrous. It lambasts history and is like one who scratches a wound, or breaks a broken leg. Right is the last thing for such a breach of trust, decency, such a reach of unmitigated horror, such an invention of specious cruelty under such utterly deceptive propaganda as was then made in those historical acts, items in the past of the relationship, from a fuller perspective, between the Ukraine and the murderer of millions of its citizens, amongst contumely and a vicious mistreatment. The fact they were, if not dead, left to live in exile does not soften the charge, if justice is the concern...

If RIGHT were in view, Ukraine might invade Russia and get back some of the stolen goods, though it could not get back the tens of millions of lives slowly or swiftly murdered by the Russia through its leader, now claiming the word 'right' in some malady of error, about taking it over again. There is none this so much resembles in history, our current interest is it not ? but Sennacherib. It was he whose tormented concepts of history were utterly false, a profound misinterpretation as he sought in words to bring Judah to his itchy palm. Alluring by psychology, and trying to win the war in advance by intimidation (he was not missing from the borders of Judah, as now Russia is not missing from some of those of the Ukraine). He sent of truth twisting scenarios which, whether he realised it fully or not, were works of the art of deception (as in Isaiah 36:4ff.).

Sennacherib did not know when to stop. When God Himself was made subservient to the will of the theologically confused invader, in terms of what he had done and could do himself, as if his own gods were the ones, and the others rubbish, then that was fatal. His army in terms of this particular relationship to Israel, the people of the Lord at that time before the breach now to be healed, was not adequate to resist God Almighty. Its desolation was vast and sudden, as occurred likewise in its historical time, with Pharaoh before him (Exodus 14, Isaiah 37:33-38). In fact, in Micah 7:15, God compares what He is going to do to this invader when the time comes, precisely to what He DID in the case of Egypt, so long before. God can take a very long view, since time is His invention.

Playing with fire, even raging furnaces without clothing protection is child's play when it comes to playing with Israel, now set for its conversion to Christ, as set forth in predictive HISTORY in the 12th Chapter of Zechariah, especially verse 10, as also in the cited Chapters of Exekiel. Indeed, in one of the accounts of the divine actions to come on the irresistibly drawn enemies to invade, in Micah 7, the account is quite picturesque (Micah 7:15-17); and it accords well with Isaiah 2 and 66.

What of the verses which follow, on the other hand, this vast rebuff, in Micah 7, of the enemies which presume to trifle with God's then restored people ? These loving and gracious words speak of the only realistic alternative. GOD for His part, does not delight in acquisition by force, as He does in mercy, and as He declares, "As I live, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked," Ezekiel 33:11. Indeed He even appeals in a way that many a tyrant could never do, not being one of those, saying:

"Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity, and passes by the transgression
of the remnant of His heritage ? He does not keep His anger for ever,
because He delights in mercy.
"He will turn again; He will have compassion on us; He will subdue our iniquities; and You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. You will perform the truth of Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old."

GOD does not break His agreements, such as that which with Russia made in a matter of collaboration that if Ukraine gave up its large load of atomic weapons, protected would be her independence (it included the Crimea in the then definable Ukraine). What is this then, that assails it ? Right! If right is definable as wrong, what is the use of words! but the word of God stays.