A Covenant with Death

Perhaps this very moment, Peres and Olmert and Ramon are secretly conferring with the enemies of Israel to beguile her children with a covenant of “Peace.” But it is with lies and falsehoods that they prepare the scourge intended to rip and tear away the heritage of Jacob’s seed, Judea and Samaria and yes, even Jerusalem. Still they trust in their agreement with hell and their covenant with death!

“Wherefore hear the word of the L-RD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem. Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves” (Isaiah 28:14-15).

They do not realize that their “covenant with death shall be disannulled, and their agreement with hell shall not stand,” BUT when the “overflowing scourge shall pass through,” they “shall be trodden down by it.”

“Therefore thus saith the L-rd G-D, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste. Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it” (Isaiah 28:16-18).

Pro-Semite “Evangelicalism” for the Biblically Challenged

Once again, evangelical “Christian” leaders have appropriated for themselves the mandate to manipulate US foreign policy. In a July 27th Open Letter¹ to President Bush, prominent evangelicals requested to meet with the President to “personally convey… support and discuss other ways” of effecting “a two-state solution and creation of a new Palestinian state that includes the vast majority of the West Bank.”

Although signatories include many presidents and other persons of prominence in “Christian” universities, magazines, and organizations e.g., Northwest University, Bethel University, Wheaton College, Fuller Theological Seminary, Denver Seminary, Christianity Today, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, World Hope International, World Relief, Evangelical Covenant Church, Vineyard USA, World Vision…, the Open Letter suggests a surprising lack of familiarity with what it describes as “the full teaching of the Scriptures”:

The Open Letter in alleging “violence and injustice” to Israel, ascribes baseless charges to the nation that still follows the commands of Leviticus 19:33-34:

And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him. But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

“If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat….” (Proverbs 25:21). These are not empty words. Unlike Islamic nations who use the Palestinians as expendable pawns, Israel is committed to give to those in hunger. When Gaza crossings were closed by terrorist attack, or when Hamas refused to allow life-giving supplies to their own, or when Palestinians failed to cooperate in humanitarian efforts, Israel alone shouldered the burden. Recently the IDF even investigated the viability of coastal air and sea drops of emergency provisions. One particularly effective Israeli food delivery system has been a 220-meter long conveyor belt circumventing the key Karni Crossing.

“… and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink” (Proverbs 25:21). When Palestinians recently fled from Gaza into the desert, IDF soldiers reportedly opened their tanks and tossed them water bottles.

“Thou shalt love him as thyself” is the motto Israeli doctors follow without partiality as they treat both the Palestinian terrorist and his victims. However, some have understandable qualms: "I don't mind servicing wounded Palestinian patients because that's what we were taught to do, but it does bother me when the television news reports detail how many Jews were killed in an attack and the Palestinian patients break into cheers."

The Open Letter urges political expedience i.e., utilizing the current administrations “time it has left in office” to “bring peace to Jerusalem.” However, the counsel of kings and rulers [and presidents] have yet to bring peace to the City of Peace.

Succeeding centuries have proven Immanuel Kant’s Perpetual Peace, a philosophical treatise of the protocols of peace, an exercise in futility. The international Hague Peace Conferences of 1899 and 1907 failed to preempt the First World War. And the Holocaust is a menacing reminder of the abrogation of the League of Nations’ legacy: la Der des Ders (the war to end all wars).

“Political expediency” is the antithesis of His ways. Ways the Open Letter fails to mention. However, the Lord does mention those who trust in the political to do what only He can do:

Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion… (Psalms 2:1-6).

The Open Letter, in capriciously affirming Palestinian parity with Israel, spurns “the oath” the Lord God “had sworn” regarding His choice of Israel as “a special people,” “a holy people,” “above all people”:

For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers… (Deuteronomy 7:6-8).

The Open Letter states: “Historical honesty (sic) compels us to recognize that both Israelis and Palestinians have legitimate rights stretching back for millennia to the lands of Israel/Palestine.” Apparently these evangelical “Christian” leaders adhere to “another” gospel. Scripture affirms ONLY the right of Israel to the disputed land:

He said unto him [Abram], I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it. … to thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates (Genesis 15:18).

The LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God. … And I will give unto thee and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God (Genesis 17:1-8).

… I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee [Jacob] will I give it, and to thy seed (Genesis 28:13).

The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me (Leviticus 25:23).

For, lo, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will bring again [turn back] the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the LORD: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it (Jeremiah 30:3).

Behold, I will gather them out of all countries, whither I have driven them in mine anger, and in my fury, and in great wrath; and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely: And they shall be my people, and I will be their God… And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me. Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul (Jeremiah 32:37-41).

… Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even gather you from the people, and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel (Ezekiel 11:17).

Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel. … And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children’s children for ever (Ezekiel 37:21-25).

Saith the LORD … I will bring again [turn back] the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God (Amos 9:13-15).

Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the LORD. … And the LORD shall inherit Judah his portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again. Be silent, O all flesh, before the LORD: for he is raised up out of his holy habitation (Zechariah 2:10-13).

… and thou shalt know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob. … Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise. The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the LORD shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the LORD shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended. Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified (Isaiah 60:16-21).

He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac; And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for aneverlasting covenant: Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance (Psalms 105:8-11).

Although the Open Letter purports to “embrace the biblical promise to Abraham: ‘I will bless those who bless you.’ (Genesis 12:3)”, it negates the same “biblical promise” accorded Israel (Jacob), and later to the nation of that name:

Let people serve thee [Jacob], and nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother’s sons bow down to thee: cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee (Genesis 27:29).

He couched, he lay down as a lion, and as a great lion: who shall stir him up? Blessed is he that blesseth thee [Israel], and cursed is he that curseth thee (Numbers 24:9).

There is a “Day” coming when the Open Letter will be weighed in the balance: Did it bless Israel? Did it curse Israel? In that “Day” the signatories of the Open Letter will receive their “reward.”

In a July 27th Open Letter to President Bush, prominent “evangelical” signatories requested to meet with the President to “personally convey… support and discuss other ways” of effecting a “two-state solution.” However, those familiar with the logistics of Middle Eastern affairs would suggest a more suitable epitaph: the “Final Solution.”

¹ Letter to President Bush from Evangelical Leaders (New York Times, 29 July 2007) http://www.mediaforfreedom.com/ReadArticle.asp?ArticleID=3213

A Nation Born in One Day?

Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children (Isaiah 66:8).

On Sabbath Eve, the 5th Day of Iyar 5708 (14 May 1948) David Ben-Gurion declared the establishment of the State of Israel and appealed “to the Jewish people throughout the Diaspora to rally round the Jews of Eretz-Israel … in the great struggle for the realization of the age-old dream — the redemption of Israel.” President Truman, an outsider unexpectedly elevated to the Oval Office a few years earlier, was immediately notified. Quickly hand correcting a two sentence response without notifying officials of contrary opinion in the State Department or a Special Session of the UN General Assembly, the United States, in the person of Harry S. Truman, was the first to recognize “the provisional government as the de facto authority of the new state of Israel.” In the eleven minutes it took Truman to respond, the two thousand year justification for SPIRITUALIZING His covenants, promises, and blessings to Jews as a people and a nation evaporated! The children of Israel were in the land.

The first person of course is the radiant woman which was none other than the nation of Israel. And fighting against the woman was the great dragon and this dragon is none other the person of Satan in his great diabolical work in trying to destroy the nation of Israel because by that he could make God a liar… Of course he ultimately fails because God will yet proclaim His purpose for Israel. He will yet reveal that purpose. It will yet be unfolded in time to come and the very fact that Israel is a nation today is indicative of the fact that God is going to keep His Word as if there was any doubt (The Valley Church, Cupertino, California, Chapter 13, 9/14/75).

There was dancing in the streets, and then the realization that Israel’s rebirth would be through the fire. Arab forces (Lebanon, Syria, Iraqi, Egypt, Tran Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Yemenite) converged within hours to annihilate the fledgling nation, which in the estimation of British Field Marshall Montgomery would occur within two weeks due to the imbalance in training and ordnance: “1 tank w/o gun (Arabs 40 tanks), 0 war planes (Arabs 74), 5 artillery pieces (Arabs 140), 3 armed ships (Arabs 12)” (Yosef Ofek, Not on a Silver Platter: From National Home to Sovereign State, 1939-1949, 1984). Israel did have access to a few Piper Cubs, from which Jews tossed empty seltzer bottles modified to mimic the sound of falling bombs. They also had a few other small planes where the bombardier, legs strapped to the door, would chuck improvised bombs (some with sewer pipe casings) between his legs football style. Like David in the valley of Elah they had little more than sticks and stones, but they were fulfilling His purpose “that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel” (cf. 1 Samuel 17).