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CHAPTER FIVE
THE LITTLE MATTER OF ISRAEL
AND THE LARGE MATTER OF THIS WORLD
2
WHY DOES IT MATTER ?
THERE ARE TEN REASONS IN THIS WORLD WHICH COME
FROM ITS STATUTE OF LIBERTY
The Liberty to Sin and not Win
to Retract the Lens of Truth and not See
is Real,
but its Unravishing Results
are neither Realistic nor Wise
Let us then consider why the case of Israel, as in the last Chapter, and the treatment of it to which this leads, is important to understand.
Firstly, to disbelieve in what is clearly written, as noted in the preceding Chapter, as so often in so much throughout this site
(as in Department of Bible..., Vol. 2, Ch. 1 with Ch. 6, and Vol. 4, Ch. 5,
for example, or in the ISRAEL series of volumes),
is an exceedingly important type of failure.
People fail astoundingly at times, to realise something most obvious, because their vision is so clouded by contempt, or custom, or tradition, or normal expectation, or a false premiss or presupposition, or weakness, that it is important to be reminded, at times sharply. Such cases occurred in the days of Christ on this earth, at various times (Mark 8:13-21 is an excellent example), even among His friends.
Why then, being reminded of some of these concerns which apply to our present world, though they have been formulated and presented in the Bible from the days of David, indeed those of Moses, to the present, are we to regard them as important! Can people afford to shrug ?
1) Truth is always important. To forget in mathematics, a crucial theorem, when its diligent and understanding application to a current case is before one, can be defeat in the short term. If that term is an examination, the importance does not need to be stressed. Life IS in part an examination. That is the first reason for its being important NOT to forget or to confuse these issues as set forth in the preceding Chapter. They are not only minding the mind but minding the life, of one as of another.
2) Divine truth is much MORE important than some items, though all matter, since it is given for a purpose, and to be negligent is no part of the ways of a wise servant. Negligence is not divinely commended (cf. Jeremiah 48:10 - where concepts of deceit and slackness are associated with the term used, and Psalm 119:37-40).
3) Since man is to LIVE by the word of God, who has manufactured it so that the jot and tittle have point and matter, that is with precision (as in I Corinthians 2:9-13), then failure to seek it out can affect LIFE, like bad food, where scrupulous care was not taken, which can affect more than the stomach! Even a little rot can spoil the lot.
4) In particular, some Presbyterians in particular (but by NO means only those) have become too fond of some of the less central Reformation norms, and too forgetful of the early net emphasis in the first*1 300 years of the Christian Church, on a less sedate eschatology than that on which Augustine, himself varying, settled and which tended to brood both in the often largely apostate Middle Ages, and at times later, being taken up by many Reformed theologians, an extra to their main and blessed thrust. One must beware of virtual worship of the wrist-watch of a great batsman, if fond of cricket. It is not to the point.
Over time for many, allegory became rampant (cf. Department of Bible ... Vol. 2, Ch. 6), and many saw the Pope as the antichrist, foreshortening things considerably; for though he is of the essence of the antichrist, and that movement (cf. SMR pp.1032-1088H), the papacy was not then, and is not now, the very epicentre. Rome is to be destroyed in its religious centre (Revelation 17-18), its "mystery" enshrouding the whole spirit of formalised error and crooked waywardness, back to Babylon (cf. SMR pp. 946ff.). Indeed, it is now FAR from the time of the Reformation, and the papacy, while making a great score in the massacres in the Inquisition, for evil cruelty and domineering error (cf. Ancient Words ... Ch. 14), has not reached a final apex, rather declining in evident power, even in Europe, where its place in European history received no mention in the endeavour for a European constitution. This is in full accord with, and indeed partial fulfilment of Revelation 17, verses 1-5 and 16. This acute heresy is to fall off the back of the beast, to be ridden no long bidden or even tolerated. Ecclesiastical power with that backing is no longer available.
The day of Rome's physical power was not to be that of the antichrist, but rather than of its abasement, as is now occurring. Things are not to be foreshortened, but each to take place in its day and time, as the progress of the scroll of history proceeds to the end.
The Bible is like a beautiful car, where all the parts function smoothly and well, in integration, for which one is so thankful, for the Lord is good, and so is His word, for it is His! It is spoken and it is done, even the rebellious serving (as did Judas, in making the required sacrifice of Christ flow on, and fulfilling the predictions that a man of evil would do just that as in Psalm 69, 109, 41,55f).
5) It is reported that many Presbyterians in one denomination in the USA have taken steps actively to harass, embarrass or condemn Israel as if it were a nonentity relative to prophecy, and almost an outlaw, an excrescence. In so acting, they appear to be coming near to joining with those, foretold for this period in Zechariah, who would fling Israel away, with the result noted, in some sharper than divine rebuff for their efforts! (Zechariah 12:3). The result there depicted is in no particularly attractive terms, but a decisive in the negative, as the assault was in the positive. Reckless renegacy gains ruinous turmoil in the end. It is better not to reach it.
Indeed, it is not so good to be allied in spirit with those, through ruinous attitude towards Israel, are themselves to be cut into pieces. To be sure, the present effort of some of these may not be quite to cast Israel away, but it is ... in that direction.
One does not want to see church people (though many people assign themselves to false churches, as predicted in II Peter 2:1) imperilled with the passions of the mighty who plan to pummel now more, now less, the brave but still misled little Jewish victim of this world's acquisitive and appalling passions, this Israel. Judas may have had, amongst other things, some intentions which in his contorted mind, seemed good; but the end was not good because the way was not good, however cleverly he may have rationalised.
6) Nations can be compromised, as Australia for a time was, in the recent past, when a vote in Israel's favour was not given at a crucial moment, that of the then PM apparently changing to a not so helpful abstinence. Why inherit the folly of others through confusion, however, for empty seeking of gain of this or that sort, personal, national or party, or through misplaced timidity!
Many fall that way, not wanting to stand out when the latest version of unbelief seeks to seize the reins of government and ambush the past into a conformity to cultural collapse. These things come up for judgment, and nations that become clammy instead of standing fast as in the past where good was better seen, can become humiliated for no good reason. It is not that the humiliation is not then called for; but the call so to act as to be rebuked is spurious and deceitful, dwelling on such superficial premises*2 as to become ludicrous; but not in result!
Therefore, once again, this is important, to seek understanding with all diligence, and not rest in traditions, but in biblical truth and to withhold the impetuous, avoid the brazen and bypass any misleading traditions, new or old, supervening the word of God. .
7)
When Christ declares that there is a period of time called that of the Gentiles (Luke 21:24), and for this entire period Jerusalem is to be trodden down by Gentile nations; and that this time is not eternal, but ends, it is time to open the eyes and the ears alike. When He adds that the treading down is to proceed UNTIL this end of the Gentile era, and we observe that precisely this has happened to Jerusalem at the hand of many Gentile peoples, including Turks, Romans and the like; while now this trampling down has ended, we move the evidential eye!
When further we see that it is the specifically JEWISH people who have miraculously taken it back (cf. SMR Chs. 8-9), as predicted with willing support of divine power, then it is time to realise that to oppose what God has proposed, is unwise. He has verified His own word with an exactitude with which one has a great affinity: His superabundant grace and power is celestial, uncontainable, classic and delightful. It is 'out of this world,' but well able to enter into it!
If HE declares it,
who can stop Him! (Isaiah 14:27). Since He is good, who would want
to ? One asks that question advisedly...
Indeed, if it is as if His heart stops at any thought of not fulfilling the promises to Israel from the day of Abraham on (as in Ezekiel 36:22), when He acts out of "pity" for His name, to deliver Israel in the period of their return, preceding the return to rule by Jesus Christ (Ezekiel 37:23ff.), then what is your heart in its supposed wisdom to contest it with Him (as in Ch. 3 above)!
8) If however you do, being some body political, ecclesiastical, racial or religious, soon the conflict has results; for to depart from the mind of God is, given the amazing freedom granted us, an act of impiety unlikely to lead to joy, and in this case, if pursued to the effort to rid Israel from its place, has exceedingly severe results (cf. Zechariah 12:1-4).
It is not just that it is heartless, as indicated in the references in *2, but hapless, for it cannot win; and genocidal, in more or in less, depending on whether the nation is perceived as to be opposed and annulled, or harassed and made better fodder for its grasping enemies, as if the plight of those who willingly left it expecting an Arab triumph in 1948, even so exhorted by Arab leaders, such as the Mufti, were to be recompensed because of their earlier desire for its overthrow. Sad now, for their fad then, are they then to return in overwhelming numbers, instead of ruling by force!
Sad ? this when the forces seeking to exploit Israel for their own gain have enormous territories in the Middle East and Africa, to make the residual territories of a stripped Israel almost like a street crossing in comparison. Sad ? when Jordan was specifically given most of the Palestine which the League of Nations had assigned to Israel as a homeland, and accepted Palestinians only to find that the Arab entrants too destabilising as they sought to use Jordan as a base for repeated assaults on Israel! Sad when those who left Israel were given straight access to Jordan, as was most natural since Jordan had most of Palestine, and they fouled their new home, and so as too insidious and invidious and perilous, ceased to be openly welcomed.
Sad when the oft repeated and inveterate desire is to exterminate, remove, not even recognise Israel, seeking help from the world at large to dispossess her, as if the many territories of multiplied square miles of Muslim land were too small! as if the democratic leanings of Israel were too great ? as if all must serve compulsion, and a more democratic path be exterminated with the nation.
Is it sad that Israel does not pack up, when Jerusalem in 1947 was made an international city and only smallish bits of the residue of Palestine were to be given Israel, and the Arab entity in fact REFUSED while Israel accepted this solution at that time! Sad, is it, when on top of this provocation and militancy, 7 nations then made war on Israel to exterminate it, or drive it into the sea, a notion popular in the day of another exterminative war, in the day of Nasser of Egypt! Is Hitler only an exemplar to these modern thrusts of multiplied foes against Israel, in its tininess!
Does pity take vengeance on those oppressed, stripped and murdered indiscriminately, as Israel has been, object of multi-national genocide or some near variant, or does it seek to find a solution among the aggressors, and their immense holdings both of wealth and of land! Or do they again want to surge in on Israel's industrial and research wealth, now that they have endured through multitudes of drastic harassments, and enjoy further their odious manipulations, both of words and weapons!
It is better to reside in justice and truth, and above all in God who made us and His various agencies at various times for various purposes, and has no intention statedly, of becoming superficial and manipulable in His faithfulness and reliability, whether to Israel or to any other with whom He has made covenant, pact or treaty, agreement and promise. It is best to abide in His word, and not in extravaganzas built on allegory or antipathy, turning imagery into event, and declamation into a whisper on the breeze.
Deafness is not desirable, when the word of God is in view, and it is not uncommon, even among religious people, of which the Jews who actually went so far as to crucify the Christ, were a conspicuous example (cf. Isaiah 49:7). They have however received double for their sins (Isaiah 40:2).
9) Indeed, the convulsion which is to come when a group of nations take the notion of abolition or abasement of Israel as one body (Ezekiel 38-39), is horrendous, as seen also in Isaiah 66 and Micah 7, with Deuteronomy 32. Clever maestros seeking to overcome the word of God are in fact acting to overcome Him, who though most generous in gifts to us, has not sold HIS OWN BEING to us, for manipulation and agreeableness (as Paul makes so clear in Galatians 1:6-10); whereas man may indeed sell his only soul, one by one, for the satisfaction indeed the satiety of his wishes, be they wimpish or triumphalistic!
The world and many will suffer much for faults in this line; avoid then in wisdom and humility the cleavage and stay on the side of truth, of the word of God, and seek meekness, seek righteousness as an affair of huge significance (Zephaniah 2:3). Do not advertently find yourself fighting God (as in Acts 5:33-42).
10) These things are important because it is always important to follow the word of God, and not in a witless extravanganza, and crucial not to seek as if wiser, to lead Him! Ask Peter (Matthew 16:21-25)!
NOTES
See on this datum, Department of Bible ... Vol. 2, Ch. 1 Appendix, especially as marked.
See The Unsearchable Riches ... Ch. 1, Regal Rays of Revelation Ch. 1,