THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING!

I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people
Who have set themselves against me all around.

Psalm 3:6

 

 

No, its not a case of Cold War paranoia, but its 2015, and the Russians are really coming - to the Middle East.  Whilst America is executing its policy of withdrawal and non-involvement in the Middle East, and Europe is busy trying to figure out what to do with the hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing ISIS or other extremist Salafist butchers, Russia and Iran are quietly filling the power vacuum in the Middle East.



The Russians have established a base on the Mediterranean coast of Syria at Latakia (see map below) a mere 420 km from Jerusalem (as the fighter jet flies!).

 



http://www.affarinternazionali.it/IMAGE/syria.jpg



According to American sources there are now some 28 Russian fighter jets in Syria and at least 12 support aircraft, transporters and helicopters. Russian drones are already being used for surveillance purposes, and there are plans to send some 2000 Russian military personnel to this new airbase, in the 'first phase' (!) of its development.   It is likely that they are also sending surface-to-air missiles to the base, since this is an integral part of the defense of any air base.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4703202,00.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/11880974/Russia-begins-military-operations-in-Syria-as-Putin-sends-28-jets.html
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/95971a4e-607d-11e5-a28b-50226830d644.html#axzz3mRoQZkWM

Netanyahu meets Putin

http://theaviationist.com/2015/09/20/su-30sm-exposed-on-the-ground-latakia/

A satellite photo taken on September 20 shows at least 16 Russian combat aircraft stationed at the Bassel al Assad air base near the Syrian town of Latakia Photo: Stratfor/Reuters http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/11880974/Russia-begins-military-operations-in-Syria-as-Putin-sends-28-jets.html

Earlier this month, Qasem Soleimani, the commander of Iran's elite Quds Force, met with the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, and as a result hundreds of Iranian ground soldiers were also sent into Syria. This cooperative effort between Russia and Iran is intended to shore up Syrian President Assad's crumbling regime which now controls  only  25-30% of Syria, mainly along the coastline. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4699809,00.html

 

 

 



Soleimani (left) and Putin (right) have both put boots on the ground in Syria. (Photo: AP, Fars, EPA)
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4699809,00.html

 

 

 

The question of course arises - why? Why are Russia and Iran so keen to support the crumbling Assad regime? What are their interests? Do they really care about the Syrian people, and an end to the Syrian civil war? Do they really want to support Assad, a cruel and despotic leader who massacres his own people? I suspect not.  As Middle Eastern regimes shake and self-destruct in the so-called 'Arab Spring', a power vacuum is being created. America and Europe have lost the will to fill such a vacuum. Iran and Russia have not. They both have the ideological drive and military might to move in. Though both Russia and Iran have an interest in defeating the advances of Dai'ish (ISIS), such an event would also conveniently serve their empire building goals allowing them to get a much stronger foot-hold in the Middle East, and the possession of very significant oilfields and uranium mines.

Although the Russian and Iranian presence in Syria is not ostensibly directed towards any  attack against Israel, it is nevertheless of great concern to us here. This week Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, travelled to Moscow for direct talks with the Russian President, Putin, aimed at reducing the possibility of  'misunderstandings' and inadvertent clashes between Israeli and Russian forces in the area, particularly in dealing with arms shipments from Iran to Hezbollah through Syria.  http://news.yahoo.com/netanyahu-putin-agree-plan-avoid-syria-clashes-081802449.html 

The long term risks are not so clear. It appears that as Iran has increased its direct presence in Syria, their proxy, the Shiite Hezbollah militias, are pulling out. Hezbollah has lost an estimated 1000 fighters in its efforts to support Assad against Dai'ish (ISIS) and as long as it has been so tied up in Syria, it has not had the resources to open a front with Israel. Why is it pulling out now? It may be merely to make way for its 'big brother' Iran, but it may equally be intended to allow Hezbollah to rearm and prepare for a new confrontation with Israel. Russia's involvement with Iran is also very worrying. We have already seen their readiness to supply Iran with sophisticated long-range surface-to-surface missiles in the wake of the lifting of the boycott against Iran. What is Putin's long-term agenda?  Is there a wolf in sheep's clothing in our midst? Although we would welcome the defeat of the military forces of Dai'ish, we fear it may be at the cost of installing an even greater threat to Israel, the Middle East and the World, a Russian-Iranian coalition, extending from the Mediterranean to the North Sea and the eastern borders of Iran.

Once again I would cry out to the USA and the European Nations to wake up to the threat that confronts us. From our perspective they seem increasingly weak and ineffectual. The USA has lost the will to be the world's 'policeman' and Europe is busy putting its finger in the hole in the dyke, in the face of a mass migration from Northern Africa and the Middle East, instead of trying to stop the source of the flood. One day soon the dyke might crumble and then it will be too late.

We who pray to the God of Israel, and of the whole world, we need to cry out now to the LORD. Although we know God is ultimately in control and He is working out his redemption plan, we are called as a 'holy priesthood' (Revelation 1:5-6; I Peter 2: 4-5) to intercede for the lost at this time. We need to be faithful in praying for our leaders, and the leaders of our enemies too, that "God's Will be done in Earth" in our days.  

Today is Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), the most solemn day in the Jewish calendar. It ends the Days of Awe when Jews search their hearts, ask forgiveness of one another for wrongs committed, and seek God's forgiveness for their sins. On this day they pray that their names will be written in the Book of Life for the coming year.  In a desire to obey the Biblical injunction to 'afflict your souls'  on this day (Leviticus 23: 26-28) most Jews totally abstain from any work, food or drink or other pleasurable activity for 25 hours. TV and radio stations are silent and all shops, businesses and places of entertainment are closed. In Israel all traffic on the roads stop and an eerie hush descends upon the Land, broken only by the cries of happy children riding their bicycles and skateboards along the traffic free highways and streets, and the occasional ambulance siren.

Messianic believers also observe this solemn day. Many of us use it as an opportunity to fast and pray, not only for ourselves, but especially for our People. While we can rejoice that we have the sure knowledge that our names are written indelibly in the Book of Life for ever (Revelation 3:5), we are very conscious that in Judaism today there is no such certainty for even the most observant of Jews. They can only hope, at best,  that they will be found worthy to be sealed in the Book for the next year. Only in Yeshua can we have any certainty of eternal life and freedom from the second death. We long to see all people blessed with that knowledge and to find true eternal life in Yeshua.

 

Lord, how they have increased who trouble me!
Many are they who rise up against me.
² Many are they who say of me,
“There is no help for him in God.” Selah

³ But You, O Lord, are a shield for me,
My glory and the One who lifts up my head.
⁴ I cried to the Lord with my voice,
And He heard me from His holy hill. Selah

⁵ I lay down and slept;
I awoke, for the Lord sustained me.
⁶ I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people
Who have set themselves against me all around.

 

 

Psalm 3: 1-6

https://dailydeposit.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/psalm-63-4.jpg



CHOOSE FAITH

 

 

It is a beautiful Shabbat morning here in Jerusalem. It is so quiet I can hear a man talking down in the valley below me.  The sky is a clear blue and, from my balcony, I can just make out the hills of Jordan across the Dead Sea, a far cry from last week when I couldn't even see to the other side of my neighborhood, because of the thick blanket of dust.

 

That week, we had the worst dust storm in recorded history in Israel as a NE wind picked up dust from Iraq and Syria, and carried it over the whole land, where it hovered in the still air for 4 or more days. At its worst, on the Wednesday, the particulate matter in the air  in Jerusalem was over 170 times worse than its normal readings. Those who suffer from asthma and other respiratory diseases were at great risk and our hospitals treated hundreds of patients having breathing difficulties. Thankfully however we recorded no deaths unlike in Lebanon and Jordan where several people died. The dust was combined with temperatures in the high 30s and even reaching in to the 40s at times, humidity levels reaching the 90s along the coast, and not a breath of breeze to blow the dust away. It settled on everything turning the whole landscape to yellow. One morning I awoke and looked out my window and thought it had been snowing. All the trees were covered in a thick whitish layer of dust. 

 

The view from the Promenade over the Jerusalem. The Temple Mount is totally obscured by dust (and this was taken after the worst of the dust had settled)

Approximately the same view on a normal day.

 

Thankfully the temperatures have now returned to more-or-less normal temps (30ish in the day and 20ish at night)  for this time of year. We even had some rain one night, but it mainly fell in the north and in the southern deserts. Here we just had a few drops for 10 minutes or so. I did enjoy the lightning though which was spectacular.  

 

 

 



http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4700653,00.html
Floods in the Negev this week



The weather may have settled (for now anyway) but not so the city. This week has been marked by increasing violence. Even this morning the quiet has been periodically broken by the 'thub thub' of police helicopters circling overhead, a sure sign that there is trouble in the city. On the way home from work on Thursday I saw that the police had once more put the huge concrete blocks across the road that leads up into the neighboring Arab village of Sur Baher, and the intersection was littered with large stones and concrete blocks, and the road was stained black from Molotov cocktails that had been thrown at passing cars.  Multiple such incidents have been occurring all over the eastern part of the city this week and on the Temple Mount. On the Eve of Rosh Hashanah a Jewish man was killed when his car crashed off the road into a ditch after it was pelted with stones. A bus driver was lightly injured on Thursday when his bus was stoned. Elsewhere in the city, on the same night, another bus was attacked and burned, but the driver managed to escape unhurt. For several days now, Arab youths have barricaded themselves in the Mosque of Omar on the Temple Mount  and have been throwing rocks and firebombs at security forces. One of the firebombs set fire to some wooden beams sending billows of smoke above the Mount.

 

Smoke billows from the Temple Mount this week
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4701596,00.html

 

 

Bus on fire in Jerusalem on Thursday
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4701596,00.html

Yesterday afternoon, as the riots continued not much more than 500 m away, our congregation met for a picnic in a park. It was idyllic - lush green grass under shady horse chestnut trees, and the children playing happily in the little stream.

 

What a contrast! But that is the nature of our city - a city of great beauty and great ugliness, peaceful and violent, ancient and new, full of light and great darkness, a city of tremendous contradictions and contrasts.

 

Perhaps that is the nature of life itself.  Sometimes I look around and see so much suffering, violence and distress. The cancerous ideology of ISIS and its consequences threaten the stability of the whole world. Thousands of refugees fleeing its violence, and that of similar extremist Muslim groups in Africa and Syria, flood Europe. Other refugees are stuck in no-man's land with winter approaching. An earthquake and tsunami strikes Chile. Iran is still enriching uranium and plotting the overthrow of the Western world unchecked. North Korea threatens to fire nuclear warhead armed missiles at the USA,. The brutal civil war in Syria continues, and Russian and Iranian troops are now on Israel's doorstep in Syria.

 

What is more, I look around my friends and I see them all battling illness and other traumas in their lives, and I myself have not been spared. It can be depressing. It can lead to despair and a failure of faith. This morning I woke feeling a bit like Job - just one attack after another, and no end in sight. Job in the midst of his distress cried out to God, saying

 

What is man, that You should exalt him,
That You should set Your heart on him,
 That You should visit him every morning,
And test him every moment?
 How long?

Job 7:17-19 

 

 

How long must all this suffering go on?  Why does God allow it? Why are men so evil and cruel, inflicting such terrible things on each other? Why is nature so treacherous?

 

These were the questions on my heart this morning as I pondered these things. Such questions can bring us down to the depths of despair and lead to a loss of faith. A few years ago I was suffering from such black thoughts and began to question, not God's existence, but his goodness.  Have you ever done the same? It is a scary place to be, because only in God's goodness is there any light, or hope in the world. I teetered on the brink of losing my faith. One day I poured out my heart to a wise friend, and she said, "Faith is something you choose". And I knew this was my answer, just as it was the answer that Job received so long ago.  God never answered his anguished questions, but He challenged Job to think upon God's majesty and power. 

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said:

² “Who is this who darkens counsel
By words without knowledge?
³ Now prepare yourself like a man;
I will question you, and you shall answer Me.

⁴ “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Tell Me, if you have understanding.
⁵ Who determined its measurements?
Surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
⁶ To what were its foundations fastened?
Or who laid its cornerstone,
⁷ When the morning stars sang together,
And all the sons of God shouted for joy?...

 



Have you commanded the morning since your days began,
And caused the dawn to know its place,...

 

Have you entered the springs of the sea?
Or have you walked in search of the depths?
¹⁷ Have the gates of death been revealed to you?
Or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death?
¹⁸ Have you comprehended the breadth of the earth?...

 

    Job 38

 

God confronts Job with his puniness and contrasts it with His own greatness and power. Who is man to question God, who has created us and the whole Universe?  Yes there are questions, legitimate questions, but for now anyway God will not or cannot give us the answers. We have only a choice, Despair or Faith. And what is more,   without uncertainty and doubt, there can be no Faith.  

 

Having said that Faith is not blind. Faith is based on fact, logic and our own experience of the world. When we chose faith we do not throw away our brain. We use our brain to build faith. When I begin to doubt or lose my peace in God, I turn my thoughts to the revelation of His nature in Scripture, in my past experiences of His goodness and in the beauty of Nature. Paul in the letter to the Philippians said this

:

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.   The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.

 

Philippians 4: 8-9

 

If we chose Faith, we may not find the answers to all our questions, but we will find peace - the peace that passes all understanding.

 

"Love in the Mist" Netanya Winter Pond

 

 



 

BE STILL ...

Be still, and know that I am God...

Psalm 46: 10

 

הַרְפּ֣וּ וּ֭דְעוּ כִּי־אָנֹכִ֣י אֱלֹהִ֑ים

http://www.jpost.com/HttpHandlers/ShowImage.ashx?ID=252434

This week the summer vacation ended for Israel's schoolchildren and their teachers, and schools opened their doors for the 2015-16 school year. Our school began earlier, and I returned to work a month ago. Already I feel exhausted. Each day, six days a week, I hit the ground running at 5:30 in the morning, and I don't stop until I collapse in a heap at the end of the day.  It is madness, this ceaseless round of frantic activity and stress. There is no time for rest, relaxation, fun or friends.  For the last two weeks I have been sick  and I cannot even stop long enough to let my body heal. Yet I, like most people in Israel, feel trapped in this madness. A friend this week likened it to a hamster in his wheel, running, running, running, and getting absolutely nowhere.

One of the characteristics of Israeli life is this frantic busyness, which at least in part is driven by the determination to live every minute of life to the full. It may be a reaction to the Holocaust and the centuries of persecution, destruction and death, and a sense that we who have survived must live for all those who perished. Or then again, it might just be a bad case of 21st Century-itis.  Whatever the cause, the pace of life here in Israel is insane. I believe that one of the reasons that Israelis are so impatient and irritable is due to a chronic lack of sleep. I once sat with a group of neighbors who, over coffee, were trying to outcompete each other boasting of how little sleep they could live on. They saw sleep as a waste of time. On another occasion I surveyed the high school students in my school and found that, during the week, the average number of hours they slept per night was 4!!! . Tel Aviv proudly advertises itself as the 'City that Never Sleeps'.

I feel like that hamster running in its wheel, and I long to get off, but how? The bills keep coming in and I must work to pay them.  Yet, I keep thinking, that God does not want us to live like this. Did he not promise a Sabbath rest to all those who are born again in Yeshua? Did he not warn us to beware of failing to enter into that rest?

Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. 

Hebrews 4:1  

 

Of course the rest spoken of here is a spiritual rest, the rest from trying to save ourselves by our works. But should that not also result in a physical rest? God's Sabbath, the weekly day of rest  commanded by the LORD, is after all physical, and not just a spiritual metaphor. Must we inevitably be caught up in the whirlpool of the world? It seems that this is all a clever ploy of the Enemy, Satan. If he can keep mankind so frantically busy and constantly exhausted, then we cannot not stop, be still and know God.

 

One of my favorite Bible verses is the one quoted above: Be still and know that I am God.... This verse loses something in its translation into English. The Hebrew  word for 'Be still' is 'harpu' הַרְפּ֣וּ which is an active form implying an action, not a passive lack of action. It would perhaps be better translated as 'still yourself' or 'make yourself still'.  In addition the word for 'know' here is d'u      דְעוּ

This is not the word usually used for knowing a person, but rather the word used in the Bible to denote sexual intercourse, as in Abraham knew Sarah.  This degree of intimacy and knowing is not possible without spending time and investing in a deep relationship. How can we know God like that if we do not stop rushing about?

 

This ceaseless activity combined with all the other stressors of life in Israel (economic problems, the constant terrorism, the threat of war just to name a few) has a very negative effect on the life of all believers in the Land. Not only are many of us exhausted, sick and 'burned out', but it makes meeting together for encouragement and support almost impossible. It is hard to find the time to build friendships, to sit and talk, to pray together, to lend a hand or comfort someone in need. Consequently many feel isolated and very few feel they have the strength to reach out and minister to others. It is difficult to maintain any semblance of congregational life. It leads to a weakened Body and undermines our witness to the unbelieving. 


What to do? How can we get off the wheel?  Are we in disobedience when we allow ourselves to get caught up in the world's busyness? Does it come from lack of faith?

And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? ¹⁹ So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. 

Hebrews 3:18

 

Can I not trust God to provide for all my needs without having to work myself to exhaustion? Perhaps we just need to pause, reconsider how we live, learn to live according to the LORD's economic system and not the world's? I am not sure how we can do that but my sense is that somehow we have to find the way or the Enemy will suck us dry. Perhaps this is why the end times church is described in the Book of Revelation as being 'lukewarm';

 

 So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. ¹⁷ Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— ¹⁸ I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. ¹⁹ As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.

Revelation 3:16-19

 

Next week the High Holy Days of the Hebrew calendar begin, a period including Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and the Feast of Tabernacles. This is a time set aside for reflection, repentance and atonement. Sadly, far too often, the preparations for these holy days just add to the busyness, as we shop, cook, clean and entertain family and friends till we drop. I pray that this year will be different. Please pray with me that we all will stop, spend time in quiet reflection, repent of our busyness, and find time to find God and His rest. Perhaps he will show us all a better way. 

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Matthew 11: 28-30 

The Blood Moon controversy.

This brings me to the current controversy in the Body, and also amongst some Jewish scholars, regarding the significance of the sequence of four lunar eclipses (blood moons) and a solar eclipse and their coincidence with the Jewish festival cycle this year. As some are predicting a significant event for Israel occurring on the 28th of this month, a number of people have asked me my opinion. I therefore feel constrained to comment.

Let us not be easily swayed, 'tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine' (Ephesians 4:14) but rooted on solid rock. Scripture is indeed the word of God, and I believe that every word is significant, however our interpretation of that Word is easily flawed. One can read into Scripture just about anything you want. In my now nearly 47 years as a believer there have been many interpretations of end time prophecies that have failed to come to pass. Remember the Y2K fiasco?  It makes one rather cynical when yet another arises. What is more, when these things fail to come to pass, it makes us all look rather silly and undermines the power of our witness.  I prefer to take a 'wait and see' attitude. I believe the end time prophecies will be clear to all at the time the events actually take place,  and they are given to us to comfort us and give us hope.  

Someone once taught me that if someone is putting a time on the day of the second coming of the Lord then you can be sure He will not come on that day, because it is written that He will come suddenly like a thief in the night, when we are least expecting it.

But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.

I Thessalonians 5:2

True, Paul then goes on to say, "But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. ⁵ You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.... (v. 4),  but he does not say that we will therefore know the times and the seasons, but rather that we should be always be ready -  "be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and a helmet the hope of salvation" (v. 8)

Although no one, as far as I know, is saying that the Lord will return on the 28th of September, the principle remains. It is my belief we should all be sober and not easily swayed by each and every interpretation we hear. We need to be solidly founded on the Word of God and prayerful that he will lead us by His Spirit to interpret it correctly.  As for something significant happening on the 28th? It could well be so, since scarcely a day passes that something significant for Israel does not occur!

For a more thorough examination of this matter I would recommend the excellent article written by Mike Moore on

http://fromthetopcom.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/blood-moon-rising_20.html

I want to wish you all a Shana Tova u'Metucha (a Sweet and Good New Year) and may we all find rest in Yeshua from all our busyness.

The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
  He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul.

Psalm 23: 1-3

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