DANIEL'S PRAYER AND THE DAY OF ATONEMENT

Today a solemn hush descended on the whole land. It was the Day of Atonement, the most dreadful and awesome day of the Jewish calendar. God commanded us to observe this day as it is written in Leviticus 16;

This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: On the tenth day of the seventh month you must deny yourselves and not do any work—whether native-born or a foreigner residing among you—  because on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before the Lord, you will be clean from all your sins.  It is a day of sabbath rest, and you must deny yourselves; it is a lasting ordinance.  The priest who is anointed and ordained to succeed his father as high priest is to make atonement. He is to put on the sacred linen garments  and make atonement for the Most Holy Place, for the tent of meeting and the altar, and for the priests and all the members of the community.

 “This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: Atonement is to be made once a year for all the sins of the Israelites".

Leviticus 16: 29-34 

It was on this day, and only on this day,  that the High Priest was to go into the Holy of Holies and make atonement for the sins of the people of Israel.  We are told (in verse 29) to afflict or deny ourselves on this day. Most interpret this as a command to fast and most Jews refrain from food or water, from wearing leather shoes, using lotions or creams, washing or bathing, or engaging in conjugal relations.  They also gather in synagogues for the five services that take place during the day.  On this day too a strange hush falls over the land as it is forbidden to drive a car. The roads are empty except, in recent years, for the many children who take advantage of the empty roads to ride their bicycles, skateboards, scooters etc.  Others enjoy a leisurely walk down the roads without the need to avoid cars. 

This morning I took a long walk around my neighborhood, praying for the city and for Israel as I went. The silence was most eerie but beautiful too. I sat on a bench overlooking Ein Kerem (the birthplace of John the Baptist) and the outskirts of Jerusalem. The only sound was the gentle sussuration of the breeze in the pines overhead and the occasional bark of a dog or cry of a baby. I felt close to Yeshua as I walked. In his days there were no cars and so the countryside must also have been just as silent as he walked the length and breadth of the Land. I laughed too at my filthy feet and understood why Yeshua had to wash his disciples' feet (apart from the fact he did it to teach them the meaning of service)(John 13:2-17). Roads were not paved in Jesus' day and the loess dust, finer than flour, which is blown in from the Sahara Desert, must have made their feet filthy too. 

Looking towards Jerusalem on Yom Kippur - notice the lack of cars on the highway!- it is usually nose-to-tail traffic

Our empty streets - downtown Mevasseret  on Yom Kippur

My feet!

This year I have been studying the Book of Daniel and I feel it is most timely, particularly Daniel 9.  In the first year of King Darius the Mede, the 67th of the Israelite's Babylonian Exile, Daniel after studying the prophecies of Jeremiah realized that the time of the restoration of Jerusalem was drawing near. Today many are sensing the imminence of the return of Yeshua and the final restoration of the world. We would do well to emulate Daniel. He did not shout for joy and race out onto the streets yelling 'the end is near'. Instead, he studied the word of God diligently and turned to God in prayer and fasting, with mourning:

So I set my face to my Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and supplication, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.

                                         Daniel 9:3 (my translation) 

This phrase ' so I set my face to my Lord God...' is in Hebrew  וָאֶתְּנָ֣ה אֶת־פָּנַ֗י אֶל־אֲדֹנָי֙ הָֽאֱלֹהִ֔ים ('v'etnah panei el Adonai haElohim). It was an interesting confirmation to me when I attended a national gathering of local believers and found it was entitled ' פָּנַ֗י אֶל־אֲדֹנָי֙' (my face to my Lord) taken from this very verse. Many of the newly written songs that were sung at this gathering were also taken from Daniel 9. It would appear that I am not the only one with the sense that God is calling us, as believers, at this time to take on this attitude of prayer, supplication, fasting and mourning, not just for ourselves, or the people of Israel, but for the people of all the world. The end times are a time of joy and anticipation for those of us who believe, but they will also be terrible times of much suffering and loss, a time of many wars, earthquakes, floods, and diseases, even as we are beginning to see today. The prophet Amos said this:

Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord!

For what good is the day of the Lord to you?

It will be darkness, and not light.

Amos 5: 18 

We are being called to intercede for the lost, to fulfill our God-given role as priests. The job of a priest is to stand before God and intercede for the people. We who are in Yeshua have constant access to the Holy of Holies, not just on this one day of the year, but every moment of every day, and we can plead for the forgiveness of our people.  Daniel prayed for his people using these words:

“Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 5 we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. 6 We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our ancestors, and to all the people of the land.

7 “Lord, you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame—the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far, in all the countries where you have scattered us because of our unfaithfulness to you. 8 We and our kings, our princes and our ancestors are covered with shame, Lord, because we have sinned against you. 9 The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him;10 we have not obeyed the Lord our God or kept the laws he gave us through his servants the prophets. 11 All Israel has transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to obey you.

“Therefore the curses and sworn judgments written in the Law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against you. 12 You have fulfilled the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing on us great disaster. Under the whole heaven nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem. 13 Just as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come on us, yet we have not sought the favor of the Lord our God by turning from our sins and giving attention to your truth. 14 The Lord did not hesitate to bring the disaster on us, for the Lord our God is righteous in everything he does; yet we have not obeyed him.

15 “Now, Lord our God, who brought your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and who made for yourself a name that endures to this day, we have sinned, we have done wrong. 16 Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hill. Our sins and the iniquities of our ancestors have made Jerusalem and your people an object of scorn to all those around us.

 “Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary.  Give ear, our God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy.  Lord, listen! Lord, forgive! Lord, hear and act! For your sake, my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name.”

Daniel 9: 4-19 

We can echo Daniel's prayer for the forgiveness of our sins, the sins of the people of Israel and for the sins of the people of all the world. We have all sinned, rebelled against God's ways, failed to heed the words of the prophets, and we all need atonement.  Atonement has already been granted in Yeshua through his shed blood on the cross, but many have not yet entered into that free gift. We need to pray for all those who have not yet known Yeshua and received him as Savior and Lord. Time is running out. The end days are drawing near. We need to call on the mercy of our Lord God, for His name's sake. 

Life is uncertain. We never know when our days will be numbered. On Sunday this week three young, strong men of Israel, got up and went off to work as usual, never dreaming it would be their last day on this earth. At around 7AM one of the Arab workers arriving from a nearby village opened fire on the security guards at the gates of the settlement of Har Adar, some 3 km from my home.  The three guards were killed and a fourth seriously injured before other security personnel killed the terrorist.

The three Israeli security personnel killed in the terror attack.
https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5021658,00.html

Terror is no respecter of persons. One of those killed was an Arab from the village of Abu Ghosh, a village known for its peaceful coexistence with Jews in the area. This act of terror has upset the trust between Jew and Arab in this area, which has seen few terror attacks even during the worst of the Intifada. Many Arabs from the neighboring villages come every day to work in the Jewish towns and settlements. Friendships arise and there is a high degree of respect between the peoples.  The man who carried out this attack was 47 years old, had a wife and 4 children and had worked in Har Adar for many years. He was liked, trusted and respected by his employers. What causes a man like that to  pull out a gun and open fire? It wasn't a sudden impulse. He left a letter to his wife clearly stating his intentions to carry out the attack.  He had some personal issues. He had been so violent to his wife that she had left him and gone to Jordan, leaving him to care for his 4 children. This may have precipitated his actions, but why express his despair and rage in such an act of violence directed against Jews. I believe it is a result of the deep indoctrination of prejudice, hatred and lies which is characteristic of the education system, and in the preaching in the mosques and religious madrasas in the Palestinian areas. Children grow up hating Jews, having been feed lies and libels about them, and with the belief that the greatest thing they can do is to kill Jews and thus gain entry to Paradise.  The only solution is Yeshua. Only in Him can these lies be exposed and defeated, and only in Him can the centuries, even millennia, of hatred be forgiven and only in HIm can true reconciliation and peace occur. If we wish to pray for the peace of Jerusalem we need to pray for the Muslim peoples and the Jewish people alike that they may find the true Messiah, Yeshua, the Saviour of the world.  

LEST THEY SHOULD TURN

http://www.tiszta-lap.hu/images/images/the-sower-sowing-the-seed-english-school.jpg

This beautiful spring Shabbat morning I was sitting on my balcony reading the well-known parable of the sower (Mark 4: 1-20). Once again I was struck by the words of Yeshua (Jesus) who, when asked about the parable by his disciples and others who were with him, said,

 “To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables,  so that

‘Seeing they may see and not perceive,

And hearing they may hear and not understand;

Lest they should turn,

And their sins be forgiven them.’”

Mark 4:11-12

This has always seemed rather odd to me. Why on earth would Yeshua not want people to turn and be forgiven?  It seems harsh that some people are denied revelation while others are granted understanding, and consequent forgiveness of sins. 

Seeking to understand this I turned to the origin of Yeshua's quote from the Tenach (Old Testament) which can be found in Isaiah 6:

Also I  (Isaiah) heard the voice of the Lord, saying:

“Whom shall I send,

And who will go for Us?”

Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”

 And He said, “Go, and tell this people:

‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;

Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’

“Make the heart of this people dull,

And their ears heavy,

And shut their eyes;

Lest they see with their eyes,

And hear with their ears,

And understand with their heart,

And return and be healed.”

 Then I said, “Lord, how long?”

And He answered:

“Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant,

The houses are without a man,

The land is utterly desolate,

The Lord has removed men far away,

And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.

 

But yet a tenth will be in it,

And will return and be for consuming,

As a terebinth tree or as an oak,

Whose stump remains when it is cut down.

So the holy seed shall be its stump.”

Isaiah 6: 8-13

Isaiah was called to prophesy at a time when God had determined to exile Israel from the Promised Land. The People of Israel had turned away from God and committed heinous sins in the worship of foreign idols. They had even burned their babies alive in the terrible worship of the bull god, Moloch,  right here in the valley of Gai Hinnom (Gehenom) in Jerusalem. God needed to cleanse the land and the people and he would do this by the conquest of the Land and the exile of the people to Babylon. God knew already that the people would not listen to Isaiah's prophecies but He called him nevertheless, so that righteousness would be fulfilled. The people could never claim that they had acted out of ignorance. Rather they would chose not to listen to Isaiah's warnings and repent.  

The people of Israel shut up their ears and closed their eyes and consequently bore the fruit of their rebellion. They were conquered and driven out of the Land for a time, until all the cities were destroyed and the land left desolate. Yet God kept a remnant, the stump, the holy seed, which in due course returned to the Land to repopulate it. 

About 400 years later, Israel yet again turned away from God. They did not receive his Son, blocked up their ears and closed their eyes, and as a consequence were again driven away from the Land, this time by the Romans who destroyed every city. The Land lay desolate trampled under the feet of the Gentiles for two thousand years. Yet, even so, a 'stump' remained and the remnant of survivors has once more returned to the Promised Land.  

Why did Yeshua allow this to happen? Why did he not, at the time of his first coming, open the eyes of all the people to understand and repent? Why did he not save them all when he came two thousand years ago? He knew their hearts.  They were looking for a king, a conqueror who would free them of their Roman oppressors. They were not interested in repentance from sin and did not want to know God in any depth. So the veil that was laid on the People in the time of Isaiah has remained over the majority of the People of Israel until this day. 

In the times of Moses and the Tabernacle, and later also in the Temples, the Holy Presence of God was separated from the People by a veil. This was for their protection. Sin cannot stand before a Holy God. A sinful person coming into the Presence of God would simply be annihilated.  Only the High Priest, appointed by God, and covered by the blood of the sin offering, could enter the Holy of Holies, and then only once a year on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16). 

When Yeshua died on the cross, the veil of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. Why from top to bottom?  Because no human act could do that. Only God himself could tear down the veil from top to bottom.  

Even so the New Testament tells us that a veil remains over the eyes of the People of Israel:

2 Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech— 13 unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. 14 But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. 15 But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. 16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

2 Corinthians 3: 2-18

WE can see in this passage that though the veil remains there is hope, for the veil is taken away whenever one turns to the Lord, Yeshua. There is no true revelation without Yeshua, no remission of sins and no salvation. That is why Yeshua did not allow the people who had not yet received Him to have understanding. That is why He spoke to them only in parables. He is the 'door' and only through Him can entry to the 'sheepfold' (John 10: 1-4), the kingdom of God, be gained. First one must come to Yeshua and then understanding will be given. 

Today the people of Israel cannot understand truly the Holy Scriptures, even though they might study and dissect them day and night (as do many of the religious). The truth is hidden under the veil. They will not find enlightenment until they open their hearts to Yeshua. This must come first. Full understanding does not come until we meet Yeshua, face to face, and invite him into our hearts. Then His Spirit will meet with our spirit and instruct us and lead us into Truth. 

In the 30 odd years I have lived in Israel I have seen a wondrous thing take root. When I first arrived in 1979 there were only about 200 born-again believers in the Land. Now there are many thousands. No one knows exactly how many, but estimates range from 15-20,000 (1). Nearly every city and sizeable town in the Land has at least one congregation or house group that meets regularly. Some estimate that there may be as many as 150 congregations in Israel now. 

At first we were nearly all immigrants, a polyglot collection from every corner of the earth. Now however a new generation of sabra Israelis (Israelis born here) is rising up into leadership, and establishing godly families in the Land. This generation speaks unaccented Hebrew as their mother tongue,  and are part of the mainstream culture in a way we immigrants could never be. 

For example, Kehila News, a Messianic online magazine, reported thus:

"A new and encouraging phenomenon is taking place among Messianic young people in Israel: Israeli students who are believers are openly sharing about their faith in Yeshua at their schools. This sort of boldness seems to have been unprecedented until now."

  

The article goes on to tell the stories of three young believers  who openly taught the gospel to their classes at school. I would encourage you to read what they said - here is the link:  https://kehilanews.com/2017/04/27/israeli-messianic-youth-take-a-stand-for-their-faith-in-school/

We Messianic believers still represent less than 1% of the total population, but there is steady growth as many of the young people are boldly speaking openly about their faith. There are many signs that the veil which has long blinded the people of Israel is at last, being lifted. In many circles Jews are reclaiming Yeshua as one of their own, perhaps partly a reaction to the way that the Palestinians have tried to claim him for themselves by rewriting history. Academics are beginning to study his life and teachings. At the same time the media is reporting on the activities of Messianic movement here in a much more positive light. Many Israelis, turned off by the extreme legalism and arrogance of orthodox Judaism, and the emptiness of secular materialism, are beginning to opening their hearts to seek something more real. We are now more generations separate from the Holocaust which is seen by many Jews (erroneously) as having been perpetrated by Christians. This belief has been a large part of the 'veil'  blinding the eyes of my generation of Jews. Young people today are not so strongly influenced by this belief, though it still persists. Many Israelis today have been deeply impressed and touched that it is Evangelical Christians who have stood by them when it seems to us that the whole world is against us. Most tourists are Christian and tourism is one of our economic mainstays. There are also many Christian organizations that support Israel and help the disadvantaged in our society with outpourings of aid and practical assistance. These things do not go unnoticed. Seeds are being sowed, and I think the ground is getting softer. 

Of course there is opposition. The latest edition of Kehila News reports how several ultra-orthodox Jews rampaged outside two homes of believers, causing damage to property and trauma to the children inside. They were protesting the opening of a new Messianic place of worship in the town of Dimona, in the south (2). This kind of thing is nothing new. There have been many such attacks and some much worse. 

As the veil lifts and more and more people are saved by the preaching of the gospel we can expect more and more 'kickback'. 

This past week I experienced something else which was of great encouragement to me.  Some 600 or so Jewish and Arab believers met together for an evening of worship here in the heart of Jerusalem. For over two hours we sang together in Hebrew and Arabic with such a unity of love and fellowship. I found myself with tears streaming down my face. I could just feel God smiling. It was a taste of heaven to come, when all pain and suffering, hatred and violence will be gone and we will all worship Him as one.  It also showed me that in spite of all that is taking place in the Middle East, the darkness, horror, violence and war, there is still a flame of hope burning, hope for real peace and real reconciliation. This can only happen in Yeshua by the indwelling Spirit of God. Only He can erase and heal the traumas, the mutual fear and hatred so prevalent here. Only in him can we forgive, and be able to love, one another.

Please pray for :

1. Continued and increased boldness among Messianic believers, especially the sabra youth, to preach the gospel openly. 

2. Protection from those who oppose us

3. Healing and forgiveness amongst Jews and Arabs in Yeshua

(1)http://blog.godreports.com/2015/04/more-and-more-jews-finding-jesus-in-israel/

(2) https://kehilanews.com/2017/05/05/protestors-rampage-outside-of-messianics-homes-in-dimona/

THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS



Sunrise from my balcony this week

“For behold, the day is coming,
Burning like an oven,
And all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble.
And the day which is coming shall burn them up,”
Says the Lord of hosts,
“That will leave them neither root nor branch.
² But to you who fear My name
The Sun of Righteousness shall arise
With healing in His wings;
And you shall go out
And grow fat like stall-fed calves.
³ You shall trample the wicked,
For they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet
On the day that I do this,”
Says the Lord of hosts

 

Malachi 4: 1-3

The balcony of my apartment faces southeast directly towards Basra, once the capital of Edom, and from whence will come Yeshua on the Day He judges the enemies of Israel (Isaiah 63:1). I have always felt it significant that the Lord has placed me here, watching and praying for the coming of the Lord. I do not know when that will be, but the signs are that it could be soon, very soon.

The tide of darkness around us is gathering strength. The enemies of Israel are preparing a monstrous arsenal of weapons for the coming war and boasting of Israel's imminent destruction. To the east the forces of the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) this week reached a new level of depravity and barbarism when they released on the social media footage of the burning to death of the captured Jordanian pilot, Moaz al-Kasasbeh

Moaz al-Kassasbeh in the cage in which he was burned to death

As if that wasn't monstrous enough, they then executed by firing squad two Imams, and beheaded in public four Syrian civilians who dared to condemn the immolation of the Jordanian pilot. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2940990/ISIS-beheads-four-Syrians-took-Facebook-condemn-burning-Jordanian-pilot-death-two-Muslim-clerics-criticised-murder-shot-firing-squad.html

To the south, the "State of Sinai", a jihadist group linked to the Islamic State and previously named Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdis, targeted 10 Egyptian military installations in three different cities, El Arish, Rafah and Sheikh Zuweid, at the same time, leaving more than  35 military personnel dead and 70 others wounded.
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2015/02/04/violence-escalates-in-sinai-as-isis-linked-group-attacks-kill-dozens/

 http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/02/egypt-sinai-wilaya-attacks-army.html##ixzz3QxBdXqfT

Meanwhile also in the south, Hamas is preparing for the next round of aggression against Israel. Last week some  10,000 youngsters, aged 15 -21,  graduated from a week-long military camp run by the al Kassam Brigade, the Gaza based military wing of Hamas. These youths underwent intensive military training, including the use of sniper rifles, simulated tunnel attacks, physical combat training and naval commando operations. The minds of the next generation have already been poisoned with hatred and violence.


http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4619982,00.html

In the north, Iran backed Hezbollah forces in Lebanon are busy amassing rockets and missiles, including long-range missiles capable of hitting any target in Israel. Last week two Israeli soldiers, Captain Yohai Kalangel and Sergeant Dor Nini, were killed and 7 injured when Hezbollah fired a rocket at their unarmoured vehicle on Mt Dov in the Golan. This attack was in revenge for an earlier attack, attributed to Israel, on a convoy bringing missiles from Iran to Hezbollah killing 12, including Jihad Mughniyeh, Hezbollah's commander of the Syrian Golan sector and the son of master terrorist Imad Mughniyeh, Imad Mughniyeh Mohammed Issa, the head of Hezbollah's operation in Syria and Iraq, along with five other Hezbollah fighters and six Iranian military personnel - including Iranian General Mohammed Ali Allah Dadi of Iran's Revolutionary Guard (see my previous blog page). 

The commander of Iran's Basij force, Brig.-Gen. Mohammed Reza Naqdi, has been quoted as saying that Israel should await a crushing response from Iran and that "they [the Zionists] should remain fully alerted until complete annihilation of the Zionist regime.”
This week an Iranian website, Shia Online, this week published an article calling for the assassination of the sons of Benyamin Netanyahu, Yair and Avner, and also the sons of former Prime Ministers, Ehud Olmert and Ariel Sharon.

http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Iranian-website-threatens-top-Israeli-officials-posts-family-pic-of-PM-389204
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2931549/Iran-encourages-terror-groups-assassinate-children-Benjamin-Netanyahu-following-Israeli-airstrike-killed-key-Hezbollah-leaders.html


On the stage of the world's press Israel is more and more being scapegoated as the cause of the turmoil in the Middle East. Israel is being blamed for everything from the 9/11 attacks in the USA, the recent attacks in Paris and even the Ebola outbreak in Africa!   Iran's Press TV reported the  Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, in a meeting this Monday with Jordan’s new ambassador to Tehran, Abdullah Sulaiman Abdullah Abu Romman, saying  that the Israeli “occupation” of Palestinian territories is the root cause of problems in the Middle East.http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Iranian-website-threatens-top-Israeli-officials-posts-family-pic-of-PM-389204.  This Lie is gaining strength everywhere and hardly a day passes where it is not expressed in the Press somewhere.  Sadly even in the Church worldwide many are buying into this Lie.  

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is a local and relatively minor component of the wider unrest in the Middle East. Historically the conflict with Israel is not based so much on the geo-political  Palestinian issue but on a much deeper clash between Islam and the Judeo/Christian world view.

Although some Muslim clerics, notably Sheikh Muhammad Al-Hussaini, claim that the Koran legitimizes Israel's rights to the Holy Land, the mainstream Islamic view is that it rightly belongs to the Muslim Waqf, an inalienable religious endowment,  and therefore no non-Muslim can be permitted to buy or otherwise usurp that land from the hegemony of Islam. That is the crux of the issue. According to Islam, the purchase of land by Jews from Muslims is anathema. The very existence of the Jewish State is anathema. The Muslim world as a whole does not really care about the plight, tragic as it is, of the Palestinian people themselves.  One could ask why the Palestinian refugees of 1948, and their descendants, are still living in refugee camps in spite of the billions of dollars of aid that has been donated to better their lives. It suits the cause of Jihad to use the Palestinians cynically as a publicity tool and a justification for attacking Israel.

Apart from that, much of the current turmoil is being generated within the different factions of Islam itself, especially between the so-called moderate mainstream and the radical, fundamentalist jihadis. In addition there remains the age-old violent enmity between the Sunni and the Shiite streams of Islam. One could also argue that the so-called Arab Spring, the overthrow by popular uprisings of the regimes set up after WWII , such as that which occurred in Egypt, is the result of misrule and corruption by the leaders of those countries and the consequent poverty of a large discontented underclass - nothing to do with Israel at all.

The Middle East is an incredibly complex region with a long history of violence and warfare going back far into history, and beyond. To try and blame Israel for the current violence is simplistic and not based on any historical or current reality, much less a Biblical perspective. It is rather a resurgence of the type of anti-Semitism that lead to World War II and the Holocaust. Many of the Nazi leaders fled to the Middle East after the fall of the Third Reich and their influence can be seen in much of the rhetoric coming out of the Muslim world. Even the cartoons are adapted from typical Nazi propaganda.

We, who are followers of Yeshua, need to have His perspective on events. To get that we need to study the Bible and ask Him to interpret it to us through the Holy Spirit. We need to be lovers of the Truth and actively pursue Truth. We need to test everything we are taught by man (including every word I write in my blogs), or read or hear, to see if it is truly of the Truth and measure it up against Scripture, for if we do not love the Truth, we may be caught up in the Lie. Yeshua himself spoke of a falling away in the end times, because 'they believed the lie':

Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you,  not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come.  Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition,   who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?  

 And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time.   For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.   The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders,  and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.   And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie,   that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

    2 Thessalonians 2: 1- 12