ISRAEL UPDATE

October 8, 2006 – October 6, 1973 Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, Judaism’s most holy day, one of awe, reverence and extreme observance even by Jews that are not normally consistent in the practice of their religion.

The Synagogues and homes were full of people that donned their religious attire, tallith (prayer shawls) and Kippa (head covering). 

Army instillations were thinly manned; even border outposts were maintained by skeleton crews leaving the nation vulnerable to say the least.

AT 2:00 p.m. Syria and Egypt with the assistance of many other nations launched a furious attack to regain the land taken in the 1967 Six Day War.  Israel went from the point of being overrun to being within artillery range of Damascus and had the Egyptian 3^rd army surrounded and poised to move into Cairo.  Russia and the Untied States both postured conventional military might and threatened with nuclear arms as well.   Finally a peace treaty was signed, the U.N. peace keeping forces were in place and all was well relatively speaking for a while.

On October 8, 1973 Israel’s future was doubtful in man’s eyes and as of October 8, 2006 the threat of war still looms larger than ever.  The difference between 1973 and 2006 is the fact that all of the land given to the Palestinians in the name of peace now has Israel more vulnerable because the terrorists now occupy areas once secure.

Remember the words of the prophet Jeremiah:

Jeremiah 4:19 "My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war."

Please realize the peace effort has put Israel in a most precarious place, and history will repeat itself.   

 

October 8, 2006 – What is it that defines being in the presence of G-d, that life changing experience where we are no more what we were but are eternally changed?

Moses encountered a burning bush in Exodus 3:3-14 where he was first humbled by what he saw and felt, received his commission and the rest is, shall we say, history.

Entering the Promised Land Joshua encountered the personage of G-d in Joshua 5:13-15 and became one of Israel’s greatest leaders.   Isaiah 6:1-9 describes how the prophet whose book bears his name saw a phenomenal panorama of G-d’s glory and was never the same.   Jeremiah 1:1-10 is but just another example of how a man of G-d unable on his own came into the presence of G-d and what a man of G-d he became!`

While I could go on with more examples there is one clear pattern when men come into G-d’s presence they are humbled then G-d propels them to greatness. 

Sad to say so much emphasis in the Christian world is just the opposite, it ends up being all about me, what I’m entitled to or what we can make ourselves into.

However, the Biblical perspective of G-d’s presence shows us just how much G-d can and will do if we just seek G-d until we come into His presence.  He humbles us and oh the greatness you can enjoy. 

 

To be continued…