Preface: There is a steady flow of visitors to these posts from Israel....and I am so very thankful for that. In fact next to the United States....there are more visits from Israel than any other country. I believe that we need to heed what I am going to remind us of in this post. Let me start with this....on September 22 of last year....almost a year ago to the day....Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke before the General Assembly of the United Nations. You can easily Google the transcript. I have always held Netanyahu in admiration as a person. I enjoy even listening to him speak....because his speech is so eloquent and yet simple and straightforward. I just read again his speech to the U. N....and it amazes me....(but not in a good way)....even more than when I read it the first time a year ago. The following post is from the day after the speech.....September 23....fourteen days before the Sukkot attack at the Israeli music festival!
Benjamin Netanyahu Speech To The United Nations
1 Thessalonians 5:3 "While people are saying, 'There is peace and security,' then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape."
Benjamin Netanyahu is calling it the potential for an historic peace...."Peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia will truly create a new Middle East." He presented his case to the United Nations for a peace treaty between Israel and Saudi Arabia. He used the words "peace and prosperity." He contrasted the "blessings" of peace with the "curse" of terrorism....war....and Iran. He pointed out that four Arab neighbors had already made peace with Israel....and if Saudi Arabia follows them in making peace with Israel....than the Palestinians should recognize that they would have no choice but to make peace with Israel also.
The speech was mostly optimism....wildly over-optimistic at times....he wasn't trying to hide that. He has to pursue peace....we all do....but just as it was decreed that Peter would fail....so will fail this latest attempt at building that...."new Middle East."
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. This is like trying to build a house of cards with an oscillating fan that will eventually pass the house of cards and blow them all down.
The Israeli Prime Minister's speech was laced with biblical themes. All of Benjamin Netanyahu's speeches are intelligent and clearly understood. It's a great gift of his....and English is his second language....whereas Joe Biden and Donald Trump stumble and bumble all over the place....but a speech is only a speech. Trump's February 4, 2020 State of the Union Speech....written by others....was eloquent and powerful....it could rival JFK's or Reagan's words....but it was also arrogance and deception and false prophecy! It meant nothing as the world was just beginning to experience the ravages of the coronavirus.
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.
I also found it odd how he emphasized....first the great potential of artificial intelligence...."the most consequential development of our time"....and then immediately after....the great dangers of artificial Intelligence. Actually I found it very disturbing that he would make AI which he said is...."progressing at lightning speed"....such a major part of a major speech.
We need to be reminded of the evening of February 4, 2020.....the State of the Union Address....and repent of what we either ignored or took part in....where on our side of the aisle we gloated....repeatedly shouting....."four more years"...over economic statistics that would have come with any republican president to have succeeded the policies of Barack Obama. As Trump boasted of his accomplishments....he skillfully covered up the greed and the pride and the selfishness that he alone truly did instill in us.
The celebration of that night was not unlike that of Belshazzar's Feast....where we brought out references to God....captured from a true Christianity far removed from the church of today....displayed in one instance as...."talent on loan from GAWD"....as Rush Limbaugh was given a medal that night....not for his decades of service to principles....but his four years of service to a man who merely uses those principles to seek glory for himself....and all this as there was handwriting on the wall....ignored as 'fake news'....of a judgment from God about to be revealed to the whole world....in a pandemic....a judgment that we mocked....and continue to mock....just as Pharaoh mocked God in the face of Moses.
Read the words that night from a genuine biblical false prophet....a false prophet that so much of evangelicalism fell under the influence of...."Tonight I stand before you to share the incredible results....(of the past three years)....Jobs are booming....Incomes are soaring....Poverty is plummeting....Crime is falling....Confidence is surging....and our country is thriving....America's fortunes are on the rise.....America's future is blazing bright....our pride is restored....("Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall" Proverbs)....we are moving forward at a pace that was unimaginable just a short time ago....and we are never going back....we are advancing with unbridled optimism"....and the address ended 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. Our spirit is still young. The sun is still rising, God's grace is still shining, and my fellow Americans, the best is yet to come."
Our shepherds had utterly failed us....and continue to fail as they fear repercussions from the pews....people taken in by the false prophet. We defend a constitution while ignoring God's Word and the warnings therein....as the words of the prophet Amos to Israel are now directed to us...."Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God..." (Amos 4:12)
This italicized paragraphs was added shortly after the first posting.
"Please forgive my rambling like this, for I look lovingly at these men but fully realize that it is Christ who redeemed me, it is the Father who chose the weakest, unsightliest jar of clay and it is the Holy Spirit who dragged me to belief, opened my eyes and gave me faith. And it is Christ again who keeps me, who keeps all of us, though we let Him down time after time. The modern church bears scant witness to the glories that underlie the gospel. Its doctrines permit man to credit His own choosing of Christ as evidence of his salvation. Christ is less than sufficient, the Bible is less than adequate and the Holy Spirit hastens to our beckon call. Large churches legitimize us, oblivious of the warnings to the Laodiceans. Reformed churches sit on the laurels of sound doctrine forgetting the command to the Ephesian church to return to their first love. Evangelicals pass out 'four spiritual laws' booklets with a place for a signature for salvation as if they were handling out coupons for a free Big Mac. Pray for a Reformation, that we return to the cross of Christ, that pastors would preach His glories, that fathers would teach His truths and that we would be salt and light to a destitute nation."
