Being King of the Mountain, was nothing compared to being captain of the baseball team or class president. It was small potatoes.
Last week there was another attack on Israel. First, I am amazed that such a small country is such a big deal. Let's say someone conquered Israel, what would they get? In land mass it is dwarfed by just about every nation in the Middle East in terms of square miles. Natural resources? The Promised Land it is mostly desert. Truthfully, what Isreal seems to have is people, brilliant people. Their contributions to science are truly amazing, check out the Nobel Peace Prizes sometimes - well the ones they give out for actually doing something.
If they lost their land, they could go be brilliant somewhere else. I am not saying they should, I am just trying to look at the situation from an unemotional, or political vantage point. They could.
What is my stance on all this? I think that if Palestine disarmed, there would be peace, and if Israel disarmed, they would be overrun in 24 hours.
I have been following this since I was in 4th grade - well, when I wasn't playing king of the mountain. Israel has tried land for peace. That didn't work. They've tried defending themselves against attacks. That hasn't worked. They have so far, be restrained in aggressive acts. That seems to have held their borders pretty solidly.
I was looking over the details of the recent attack. there were some sympathizers and some terrorists in the mix. I suppose in a time of war, it is hard to tell who is who. Tragically, lives were lost. Apparently the bottom line is that, as was seen in the film from the attack, the plan was to scatter the blockade busters, but it became more violent than anyone predicted. Nothing like bringing matches to a fuel depot.
Beyond the politics and spin, Christians are to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
Psalm 122:6-7
6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
"May those who love you be secure.
7 May there be peace within your walls
and security within your citadels."
Peace is not the lack of war, it is knowing the hand of God is able to keep you in spite of that which goes on. True peace leaves fear at the doorstep, and invites others to join in. It is not making concessions at all costs, but dictating a mutual respect between two parties.
As we head for the last days of this world as we know it, there will in fact be 7 years of peace. But it will not be God's peace - no it be that of man for his selfish reasons.
Daniel 9:27 He will confirm a covenant with many for one 'seven.' In the middle of the 'seven' he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.
The tiny land of Israel is like a timepiece for the events preceding the return of Christ. It is actually no small potatoes. What happens in Israel affects your eternity.
Comments
Open your eyes people. The story is unfolding right in front of us.
As I have studied there are two theories of the tribulation periods. I have listed a short dissertation of both.
First is the rapture where Jesus comes down from the heavens and takes up His people ( dead and alive) and His church ( Body of Christ)so they are spared the tribulations. It is then that the 7 years of so called peace ( if you want to call it that)begins. Pre tribulation. The first 3 years the anti christ makes peace with Israel but it is broken after that as he desecrates the temple in jerusalem revealing his truse self as Satan.
The other theory is Jesus makes His appearance only after the tribulation where He judges all that are left and calls His people ( dead and alive) and His church to heaven. Post tribulation rapture.
There in lies the issue of how the two sides interpret the scriptures. As time permits, I will review further my books on this issue by noted authors as well as the bible.
Either way, the tribulations will be every thing but peacefull and not something one would want to witness.
Those borders for the state of Israel were drawn up at the end of Israel's war of independence in 1948. The birth of Israel was difficult, and friend and foe did some bad things. A large number of the local Arab population within those borders left to settle outside, in the areas of the Gaza strip and the West Bank. Some of this was voluntary, some coerced. As I mentioned, both sides did some bad things.
OK, fast forward to 1967. The UAR (a Frankenstein of Egypt and Syria that did not last) started a blockade of Israel. A blockade is an act of war, so Israel, correctly asserting that war was already initiated, counterattacked. In that attack, they seized the Golan Heights (which Syria was using to shell Jewish famers), Sinai, Gaza and the West Bank. More negotiation, and the Sinai went back to Eqypt. That leaves Israel occupying the Gaza strip and the West Bank.
And today, 43 years later (to the day + 2!), Israel is still occupying the Gaza strip and the West Bank. Now, you can certainly make the case, "Well, if those Palestinians would just disarm, the whole thing would be over". Yes, and if the Wolverines in "Red Dawn" had just said, "OK, General Cuban dude, here's our guns. Let's have a group hug!", then that movie would have had a happier ending, too!
Yep, there are rocket launches from the inside of the Gaza strip into Israel. But you know what? That's occupied territory. Israel has been holding that land for 43 years.
What's this flotilla really about? Go rent the movie "Exodus" with ol' Blue eyes (Paul Newman, not Steve McQueen). In 1946, the Hagannah (a pre-independence Jewish group) put a bunch of orphan survivors from the Holocost on a boat and sent it to Palestine, daring the British to sink it. That's essentially what the Turkish/Hamas folks are doing now with the flotillas.
- a Narnia muse