Preface: The following is from September 15:
The new year is beginning in Israel as I type this....Rosh Hashanah....the year 5784 on the Hebrew calendar. Yom Kippur....the holiest day of the Jewish year....will begin ten days later. It seems that very few people in America know the seriousness of the situation that the world faces right now....and surprisingly it seems that the people of Israel are as every bit in the dark. It's surprising because their very existence is a day by day situation....but they are more worried about losing some personal individual liberties. This nation that was once known for its utter determination to defend itself....is seeing that determination crack. They might think twice if they realized that our ethical constraints in America for keeping commitments have been seriously altered.
In America....everyone on the liberal side is all of a sudden....'the constitution this and the constitution that'....but thirty years ago they were annoyed to have anyone even mention the constitution! This sudden patriotism today isn't a political science or a philosophical or even an ideological concept to them because they do not value written laws that have any holding power to them. That is why the Bible holds no power over their thinking. The liberties and freedoms that they seek to protect is only the liberty to disregard laws of any form....unless they themselves institute those laws....whereby all of a sudden they assume the mantle of legal scholars.
All of the Old Testament prophets faced some sort of similar situations. They warned people who had no respect for God's written word to them....(this was Billy Graham....and God took him home....his warning days done)....or as in the time before Josiah....they didn't even know what that word said. In Israel today they are either culturally Jewish....(I have friends like that....for they are celebrating Rosh Hashanah right now….and will be observing the Day of Atonement….but will be the first to tell you that they are not religious!)....or they are so orthodox that they are the very Pharisees that would see someone drown rather than throw them a rope.
So none of this is new! God is patient....patience beyond anything we should ever presume upon....he sends prophet after prophet....describing the coming calamities in detail....but we will have none of it.
Addendum....September 23: Rosh Hashanah is past but in less then 24 hours....it's 2:30 in the afternoon in Pittsburgh....the holiest day of the year begins in Judaism.....Yom Kippur....or the Day of Atonement.
