It was my 70th birthday.....February 4, 2020. The previous year had been an incredible year for the economy. Rush Limbaugh was given the Presidential Medal Of Freedom....a fitting tribute to this man who had been for many years a voice of reason....even though he lost that reason in his last years....for a decade earlier he astutely commented that Barack Obama's following was cult-like....but here he became the leader of Trump's cult-like following.

               It was the State of the Union Address....and a rip-roaring one it was....as Trump ignored Pelosi's outstretched hand at the beginning....and she didn't employ the usual....'it is my high honor and privilege'.....when introducing him....and then she ripped up his speech just as he concluded with...."and the best is yet this come."
               Trump began the speech with....."America's enemies are on the run, America's fortune's are on the rise, and America's future is blazing bright"....but this as God was just beginning to unleash the judgment of Covid-19 upon the entire world. Trump continued...."We are moving at a pace that was unimaginable just a short time ago, and we are never, ever going back." God would have something to say about that. The president concluded his....what essentially was a rally with this...."This nation is our canvas, and this country is our masterpiece. We look at tomorrow and see unlimited frontiers just waiting to be explored. Our brightest discoveries are not yet known. Our most thrilling stories are not yet told. Our grandest journeys are not yet made. The American Age, the American Epic, the American adventure, has only just begun!" I wonder if John MacArthur listened to these words of prophecy on February 4, 2020?
               Fast forward to September 22 of this year.....Rosh Hashanah had been over for five days....and Yom Kippur was to begin in two days. The Israeli Prime Minister was giving an address to the General Assembly of the United Nations. I've always admired Benjamin Netanyahu....but I posted this the day of the address.... 

"Netanyahu's speech was starting to resemble Trump's State of the Union in the great changes that were ahead as he said....'Imagine the blessings of finally cracking the genetic code, extending life by decades, and dramatically reducing the ravages of old age...imagine a world with boundless clean energy.' John Lennon is not the person that any God-fearing man should be referencing....but that's what he did....by name....and it disturbed me a little in how he felt that he needed to remind people of what he personally had accomplished. He did acknowledge towards the end the dangers in this latest quest for peace in the Middle East but it was almost as an afterthought."

             Peace with Saudi Arabia was perceived to be at hand....the deal of the century....and Netanyahu's stated theory was that peace treaties with five Arab neighbors would be enough to convince the Palestinians to stop the violence. I posted then on the proposed peace treaty with Saudi Arabia...."Whatever the details are....and we do not know them now....they may on paper be sound....maybe even genius....but they will not succeed."
            In my review of the movie Golda in late August I posted...."but the reason that you might want to see this movie is that Israel may be in a similar situation in the very near future."
            I posted this on the eve of Rosh Hashanah....September 14...."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."
               I still find it amazing that the film Golda....which was about the surprise attack Yom Kippur war in 1973.....this fifty years after that war....came out only weeks before the surprise Sukkot attacks of October of this year....but I find it astonishing that we do not see the significance in this....a very visual reminder for Israel to be vigilant....only weeks before another feast day attack....but yet it was another surprise attack! 
               The reignited antisemitism all around the world....and deep within us in America....should shock us to the core. Our pulpits should be ablaze with the significance of the days with which we are in....but instead it is business as usual. I think that I can guarantee you this....the people in our intelligence communities are not asleep. They know exactly the danger in what is going on all around Israel....and Taiwan....and Eastern Europe....and within our own country. They are between a rock and a hard place in that they have had on the one side an Obama or a Trump or a Biden dictating to them....for political purposes....and on the other side the caution not to show their hand....but our pulpits do not have that excuse.