STORM CLOUDS GATHERING

I awoke this morning to the lovely sound of rain falling on the trees outside. I can almost feel the joy of the trees drinking deeply of this bounty of fresh water. My cat is fascinated by this wet stuff falling out of the sky and is trying to catch the raindrops.  Here, so far, it is a gentle wetting rain but down on the coast it is not so - there, strong winds, thunder and lightning, and heavy rainfalls are wreaking havoc. Rush hour traffic is snarled as roads flood, homes in Bnei Brak are flooded, the rail line between Ashdod and Asquelon is closed, and people are having to be rescued from cars stranded in window-deep water. Two men were moderately injured when lightning struck the structure they were working on causing it to collapse and catch fire.

Lightning captured in a photo by a resident of Kiryat Bialik. (Photo: Eli Dagani)
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4592259,00.html







Heavy traffic on the Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv. (Photo: Eli Baabur)
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4592259,00.html

 

 Just yesterday the whole country was bathed in glorious sunshine without a cloud in the sky. This winter storm came upon us very suddenly last evening. It made me think of our situation here in Israel. Just over the horizon storm clouds are gathering that could bring disaster upon us in an instant.

 

This morning I read an article in the Jerusalem post written by  Martin Sherman, the founder and executive director of the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies. http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Into-the-Fray-On-the-cusp-of-carnage-381787

 

Sherman quotes Winston Churchill's  first speech to the House of Commons as Prime Minister of the UK on May 13, 1940, in which he said,

We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering.

Sherman goes on to predict that  " if the Jews are to preserve their political sovereignty, all it bodes for the foreseeable future is one of Churchillian “blood, toil, tears and sweat.”  

Sherman warns that,  

 "A perfect storm is brewing for Israel. On virtually every front, ominous clouds are gathering, and should the menacing maelstroms they portend hit together, it is far from certain that the Jewish state will survive the destructiveness of their combined impact.

 In  December  2011, Sherman wrote: “By adopting a policy of continually trying to avoid confrontations in which it can prevail, Israel may eventually find itself forced to engage in a confrontation in which it cannot” and he says now "Precisely such a perilous predicament is now beginning to develop before our eyes".

Winston Churchill, in the first volume of his epic series on World War II, aptly titled "The Gathering Storm", put it thus,

“If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.”

 Sherman claims that "Although many will wish to deny it, this is the situation that could well emerge for the Jews of Israel if the policy of ruinous restraint continues. If they forfeit national sovereignty, now under unprecedented international assault, while they may not become “slaves,” Israelis could well be relegated to infidel dhimmi status in their own homeland".

 

If we look at Israel's situation through our natural eyes we will indeed have to agree with this assessment of the situation. Israel has never, in modern times, faced such a formidable assembly of foes. To the north lies Hezbollah with an estimated 200,000 missiles aimed at every city and town of Israel, to the south Hamas is rebuilding its arsenal and digging tunnels for the next war with Israel. To the east the Syrian civil war rages and the Islamic State conquers swathes of Iraq and Syria, and spreads its poisonous ideology far and wide. Even further to the east Iran continues to prepare an arsenal of nuclear weapons intended to wipe out Israel. The threats are not only outside our borders but inside too. Rioting and unrest is spreading from Jerusalem to all parts of the country, as a third intifada threatens to arise, becoming more a religious than a political confrontation as it is focusing more and more on the Temple Mount. Furthermore, Israel is becoming increasingly isolated politically, and the support of her erstwhile friends, especially the United States, is faltering. There seems little hope. If all these storm clouds collide and all our enemies, or even just a few of them, attack Israel together, we will be overwhelmed in spite of our military might. While our enemies by dint of their superior numbers, and the vastness of their territory, can sustain defeat, Israel cannot afford even to lose even one battle, that would be to lose everything, as Yigal Allon, when he was the Foreign Minister in 1976, said,

 

 "A military defeat of Israel would mean the physical extinction of a large part of its population and the political elimination of the Jewish state...To lose a single war is to lose everything..."

 

But thankfully this is not the whole story.  We are small in number, surrounded by millions of enemies, threatened by sophisticated weapons, abandoned by our friends, and vulnerable, but we have one great advantage.

 

This morning I read how  many years ago the King of Syria came up to the city of Dothan, in which the prophet Elisha was staying, and besieged it with an great army of horsemen and chariots. Greatly outnumbered and out-gunned the people of Dothan were dismayed. When Elisha's servant came to him in distress and despair, Elisha said to him:

 ‘Don’t be afraid,’ the prophet answered. ‘Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.’

And Elisha prayed, ‘Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.’ Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all round Elisha. 

 

¹⁸ As the enemy came down towards him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, ‘Strike this army with blindness.’ So he struck them with blindness, as Elisha had asked.

2 Kings 6 16-18 

 

How different things look when we see with spiritual eyes!  Things looked hopeless to the Elisha's servant, and all the people of Dothan, but the spiritual reality was very different. They were surrounded by the great spiritual army of the LORD. I believe that today too, though we be besieged all around by foes much stronger than ourselves, Israel is protected by the great armies of the LORD.

 

Time and time again, in every battle we have fought since the founding of the State of Israel there have been many reports of supernatural things taking place as God has fought on our side. It is the only way to explain how little Israel has prevailed until now. Unfortunately this has led to a perception of invincibility amongst the people of Israel and there is little room for complacency. Even Elisha, seeing the armies of the Lord with him, did not take the LORD's intervention for granted, he prayed asking the Lord to strike them with blindness and God did so. We too must not take God's protection for granted but must be faithful in prayer. Please do not forget to lift Israel up in prayer at this time. Your prayers matter. They matter far more than you might suspect.

 

PRAY FOR THE PEACE OF JERUSALEM