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Chapter 1

NEWS 149
 
THEY MOVE BUT HE IS STILL
IMMOVABLE, COME and COMING BACK

April 2000 TV News


The advice of President Bush, to Yasser Arafat, that he hopes that a certain message comes through to him, 'loud and clear', is a refreshing change. The advice in question ? That violence MUST stop on the Palestinian-Israel front. While he by no means implicated this quarter alone, he signalled heavily to it, since it has not been particularly notable for resisting the thrust to violence, sometimes glorying in it, as in Hamas, sometimes fostering it, at times anointing children with it, at others, indiscriminate victims.

This, together with the US VETO in the United Nations, on the concept or proposition of having a UN mission or delegacy or investigation panel in the land of Israel, has been indicative of a new aura of articulation, expectation and explicitness. The UN at least is not a welcome co-partner for any investigation, judicial or other, it seems, at the present.

The US presence in this land of contention, for its own part, is presumably construed as friendly, but the overall picture is now one of some restraint; though whether this is to remain, is to be seen.

The use of death of an indiscriminate character among civilians to ... shall we say, adjust thinking is perhaps reminiscent of Hitler invading Russia, when a certain duress was doubtless designed to have an impact, to make a change. Whether the change, in that historic case, was the one desired is exceedingly doubtful.

As for the present in the 'holy' violence, as it seems to be regarded by many, the expenditure of foreign lives for policy aims, in terms of land, is certainly an interesting priority set. Whether it is to be revealed soon as nothing less than a proxy imperialism for Islam, oil and Arab interests, by the onset of events of a catastrophic character, or is simply to continue as a sort of psychological experiment, to find the exact rate of tolerance, and what major errors Israel may be prodded in making, in order to secure world support for a new eviction notice from all or part of their minor holding of the once internationally promised Palestine, is an interesting question.

That of which there is no question is this: that the predicted surge into Israel WILL come, and its repulse will be just one more landmark, like the case of poor Pharaoh in the Exodus, Sennacherib of Assyria in the demolition of his army by divinely ordained and not Israel-directed means, or that of a different order, but quite as successful, that of Cyrus of the Medes and Persians, purring like a sports car on a scheduled journey, when he fulfilled the prediction of Isaiah, who named him long before the monarch's birth, as the one who would restore a remnant of Israel to its land. This he did, implementing the prophecy in name (his own) and in deed (their release), by duly dismissing the Jews who wanted to go home, with his blessing, and a treasure of restored temple objects, to return from captivity. The Cyrus Cylinder likewise attests his action.

But for the future ? what then of the impenitent fury to come, so often voiced from the quarters in Islam which major on this ? When this comes, from whatever source, with whatever words, it will form a part in a parade, an item in a list.

When this predicted surge into Israel comes*1  -
it  will add one more to these notable events,
selected and noted above, as to many more.
Like a time-bomb the clock ticks; it is not silenced by talk.

As to this confrontation, that defends Israel, moreover, it will have the distinction, as being rather near the end of the Age (cf. Romans 11:25ff.), and of a scale of vast proportions. Indeed it is compared to the scale of the Exodus confrontation (Micah 7:15ff.), quite explicitly. And that ? it shook the world. This, it will lead to the end of the turmoil at the place appointed.

That Exodus event of ancient times, it led to that testimony of which at times Israel was so fine a testimony (Isaiah 43:21), as in the day of David, and of which later, it became an unacceptable attestation (Isaiah 30:8ff.), leading to the Babylonian captivity, and in the day of Christ Himself, the "Israel" in whom God delighted (Isaiah 49:3-6), to nearly two millenia of Gentile occupation of the city of David (cf. Isaiah 65:12-15), through the predicted departure (Isaiah 49:7 cf. Deuteronomy 32) from the faith once for all delivered and never changed, but brought to fruition in the Messiah. This moreover was a departure by the nation, Israel, which for all that, as in Ezekiel 36-37, was brought back to the land unconditionally assigned (Genesis 17), with the word ringing in its ears "not for your sakes do I this", as the Lord prophetically attested His own concern to be faithful to what He says, to those to whom He uttered His word of promise. (Cf. SMR Ch. 9.)

So the world squabbles about the Middle East as if it had ANY say in the matter. Justice and truth are always relevant, but in all justice WHO MADE the world, and WHO can assign it as He will ? He has left man in many things free, but freedom to contradict His word, while formally present, lacks the power. The world goes on, this simple but marvellously contrived scenario looming like a vast liner in mid-ocean, about to smash into a rowing boat. The rowing boat is the United Nations and all who concern themselves vainly or even arrogantly in the matter, as if God had not spoken, or did not care, or was not aware, but somehow gave to them in the created consciousness provided for their use,  a power  He could not match. The spirit of man which enjoys this has large powers, but that to overcome its Maker is not among them. When He speaks, He duly acts; what He assigns, is surely performed. Whether in the Middle East or in Moscow, Beijing, or other centres, it is the same. Man proposes; God disposes. But man is not aggregating his rebellions in ways that come to crisis again, and the play is already in Act V.

Such follies of imagination, in rebellion,  are less only than the dismissive wave of the world-weary hand, to farewell God altogether, like thieves who, desiring a house for themselves, convince their own thoughts for a little while, that he is deceased.

God however not merely CANNOT die, since He has for ever known all things, including Himself, and does not change from what He would be (Malachi 3:6, Hebrews 13:8) - though, to be sure He evacuated the format of Christ, which was a format killed indeed, to heaven, from which this same Jesus will return in glory, He who died to rule, offered Himself to save, to conclude the operation for one, for all. As to the nature of His coming, after He has removed His own (Matthew 24:35ff., I Thessalonians 4), the specifications of that judicial return, Zechariah does not hesitate to demarcate Jerusalem, and indeed the Mount of Olives. He who made man in particular and each of the billions of brain cells, in order, and the purport of the whole, the integral with the minute, does not despise detail.

You thought, He says, that I was altogether such a one as yourselves, but I will rebuke you.

"Now consider this, you who forget God,
Lest I tear you in pieces,
And there be none to deliver.
Whoever offers praise glorifies Me;
And to him who orders his conduct aright,
I will show the salvation of God" - from Psalm 50:21ff..
 

  • It is not the death of the immortal God which is the question, or the criterion, but

·       the death of mortal man,

·       in himself, in his nations, his systems and his selfish aspirations,

  • a note without music,

·       a sound without meaning, in his so frequently godless wanderings, manoeuvrings and machinations, one which nevertheless deplores that it finds no meaning while spitting in meaning's very face:

  • man whose vulnerability is like that of the rowing boat, before the well ordered ocean liner;

·       man subject constantly to plague, impurity, lust of heart and folly of mind, to scourges such as Communism, still viciously afflicting the Chinese victims of its unholy surges, Darwinism and Freudianism, that crew of the confused, removing the very ground of truth while they assert it (cf. SMR pp. 610ff., Ch. 4 Part 1, Chs.  2,   3 10),

  • dismissing the only possible grounds of validity (cf. That Magnificent Rock Chs. 5 6, 7, Barbs, Arrows and Balms  6,  7)
  • while using it to assert their hideous monstrosities,
  • the real plagues in type, accursed among the many like them*3.


 

For these,  the physical onsets which of course follow, are like traffic accidents for a child who insists on walking, gay and abandoned, into the heart of massed cars on a city centre.
 

We deal with no speculation or theory, not suggestion or submission. God has spoken as has been attested multiply with no overturning, for years on this site, and for many more before it, as by pilgrims for generations and centuries. He has spoken on much, on the Middle East*2 as in massive detail on the course of history. When the eyes are open, the facts do not because of that, appear; they were there all along. It is however necessary to open the eyes for a little to look. Even if compassion for the centuries long harassment, plunder and compulsive atrocities against the Jewish people in Europe does not stir; and even if the international accord which gave Palestine to the Jews after World War I, is not of interest; even if the current ownership of so small a section of Palestine for this once so great people is a mere glimmer in the sunshine: yet the word of God is not mocked. It happens. It will continue to happen, now as of yore.

Let Allah provide out of his own hand, if he were there, the needs from the incredibly vast Moslem resources of land and money, for the people of this religion. God has provided for the Jews were He said. The zest of the world to strip the Jews from their pitiful sliver of land in the Middle East meets only a hand which though once pierced, is not without almighty power. It is a hand of Him whose body was resurected. He could bring Himself to that, in order to bring us to Him (I Peter 3:18). But where the world goes its way as if oblivious, so be it. It is a mayhem it seeks (MIcah 7:15 is only one of the indications of what it will cost). It is a spirit of rebellion of which this is only one of a myriad of manifestations. It is hard to ignore. It is terrestrial, yes, it is even real estate. Words cannot remove it. Blindness cannot obscure.

His power indeed is so great that it was quite able to send His only begotten Son into the world (I John 4:9,14, from His everlasting life in the form of God before this (Philippians 2, I John 1:1-4, John 5:19-23, Things Old and New Ch. 2), to have HIM exposed, mocked and rejected - as if Einstein were deemed not good enough for a Grade 1 maths. class - and then overcome it all by a plan duly forecast a millenium earlier, and likewise expose the entirety as part of that plan! (I Cor. 2:9, Acts 2:23, Joyful Jottings  21,  22,  23 25). So are His enemies exposed.

Yet infinitely worse it is, than the maths. class case would suggest:  since this is God and He as God came to us, and He was killed by His kin, just as now He is ignored by so many of those other nations, of the race of mankind which He made. This is a fever of wanton, irrational incredulity, one which will be purged in the end only at Armageddon. Here is the God-dismissive lust that has lasted since Eden, and will march to judgment, like Hitler's sacrificed troops in their hundreds of thousands, in folly left to be surrounded at Stalingrad, by a man incensed and demented. It is always dangerous to follow folly, however great it seems for a moment. It can demean the greatest and expose the mighty. Hitler is only a type of it. Stalin is another. Mao a third.

Now the nations erect new citadels of unbelief (cf. News 125). They will fare no better. Pity laments the folly; but only repentance can find atonement in that same Christ, rejected by strategy, who nevertheless fulfilled the divine strategy, even through this rejection (Isaiah 49:7).

God cannot be altered, surely one of the greatest glories imaginable, since His perfection is total, in compassion, in mercy, in truth and in rule. Misrule is not His, but man's, and the greater and the longer it lingers, the worse is the affair of heart, misled mind and needless sacrifice. In Christ, as whom incarnate He appeared (John 8:58, Micah 5:1-3),  there is room without limit; the cost of pardon is covered for all who will come, but faith alone is the entrance.

Reason requires it indeed (cf. SMR). It is not however, a substitute for it, but an index to it (cf. Romans 1:19ff., John 5:39ff.).

With heart and soul, the life must be found in Christ, energised by Him, re-created by His redemption, inspired by His sanctification, past all mere form and ceremony, so that faith having found Him, life flows from and back to Him, like the tides on the shore, the waters based, upheld and enabled by His power. Neither is vacuity virtue, nor formality function; no more can empty words of seeming be taken in place of spiritual testimony from reality. He who has the Son has life; and He who does not, lacks it. No amount of life-support systems in fake psychology or self-seeking strata of pseudo-spirituality are even relevant.

It is then that truth is lovely, the will of God is wonderful, His plan is implemented in the waiting life, the watchful heart, and His word is found true, "Delight yourself also in Him, and He will give you the desires of your heart" (Psalm 37:4).
 
 

NOTES

*1

As to that, for both the predicted event and the relevant perspective, see:

SMR Appendix A and SMR pp. 502ff., esp. 510ff., and
The Biblical Workman Chs. 1,  3,
Tender TImes for Timely Truths Ch. 1,
Divine Agenda Chs. 3 and  8,
News  3334,
It Bubbles, It Howls ... He Calls Chs.  1,  3,  7, also
The Frantic Millenium and the Peace of Faith Ch. 10
Galloping Events Chs.  1,  2,    3,  4,  8,
News 14,
Little Things Chs. 1 4,  6, 10).
 

*2
It is perhaps not entirely strange that the place God appointed for the Temple that PORTRAYED His Son's death, in symbol (Hebrews 8-10), which was precisely likewise the site of His repudiation when for purposes of grace and truth, He came, God manifest in the flesh, to that scene, to replace its symbols with His own sacrifice, the earthly gallows, both of justice and truth, and of His own incarnation, should have a certain significance. Auschiwtz is not without significance to the Jews. Atrocity does not lose its name because it hides its face.

Jerusalem it is (Zechariah 12:6ff.) .. "but Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place - Jerusalem." The implicit grave humour in this has been noted before in SMR (pp. 819ff.). It is, you see,

1) Jerusalem
2) her own place and again, it is, in case you were not listening
3) Jerusalem.


What happens thereafter, following this return, is as often noted in this site, the massive repentance of its people (cf. Zech. 12:10ff.), as in Romans 11. Dreams have their place. This is not one of them. Its demise and dismissal is the dream, from awakening now beckons.

See the references also in *1 above.
 

*3

On this topic, there are many references. Amongst them:

SMR Ch. 3, Tender Times for Timely Truths Chs. 7 ,   8,  9,
Biblical Blessings Ch. 2,
Galloping Events Ch. 7,
Stepping Out For Christ Ch. 5, SMR pp. 750Bff., 1042-1088H,
Acme, Alpha and Omega Ch. 9,
Spiritual Refreshings for the Digital Millenium Chs. 15, 3
News 122 (Ch. 14, News, Facts and Forecasts), News 116 (NFF Ch. 8),
Repent or Perish Ch. 5,
Barbs, Arrows and Balms 20,
The Frantic Millenium and the Peace of Faith Ch. 3, and refer
Little Things Ch. 7.