It’s been a great two weeks from Fire Valley State Park in Nevada to Palm Desert, CA, to Scottsdale, AZ, (more in pics to come of amazing sights of sites), but it’s left me unprepared to present the blog I wanted to on EMPs. So that will come next Saturday. Lots to read and digest to understand this threat to our nation and to the world on top of all I have already researched.
But for Christ-followers, do not be afraid. It is still Father’s world and He seems to be getting ready to tell Jesus, “Enough! Go get our people and start the final countdown to the New Heavens and New Earth.” History is not repeating itself. It is heading for a climax after 6000+ years of rebellion against the Creator, and it will be important to be ready.
In Luke 21:25-28 Jesus said, “And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves,people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken…Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads,because your redemption is drawing near.”
Last Saturday I blogged on Something Wicked that was coming our way: transgenderism, antisemitism and abortion are just three of the major trends in our society that will call for God’s judgment on the USA and much of the West that follows our lead.
Briefly, YHWH judged Israel (aka Ephraim; the ten tribes initially led by Jeroboam) and Judah (Judah and Benjamin), the Northern and Southern Kingdoms, for their repeated national idolatry and violence within the land. The bloodshed of innocents cried out to God more than Abel’s blood had when he was murdered by his brother, Cain.
How much more will the worship of sexuality, the hatred of the descendants of Jacob and the abortion of millions of living humans invoke the anger of a just God? Unbelievers do not like to hear that God will judge sin… until they have been offended! Then they want God to act immediately to condemn whoever has hurt them or their cause, without considering His great mercy and love for humankind, and that His ways may have different priorities than they espouse.
How much longer can the USA proceed on its downward spiral until The God Who Is says, “ENOUGH!” (See Habakkuk 2.) Has there been enough idolatry? Though we do not make giant statues of gold to worship (?), people in our nation adore many things more than the LORD who said, “You shall love YHWH your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”
There has been enough bloodshed in America to overshadow the days of the Kings of Israel and their slaughter of children sacrificed to Molech and Ashtoreth; abortion killed in the USA more than 1,026,000 babies in 2023, compared to less than 19,000 deaths by gun violence or accidents. Yet those were the headlines that grabbed attention; the confused girls who were pressured by a parent or a boyfriend or status to abort their babies did not attract the spotlight, even though they numbered in the hundreds of thousands.
Cheers erupted in the New York state legislature in 2019 as they approved a law allowing for abortion up to the time of birth, which brought to mind the drums and noise made when children were placed in Molech’s arms to burn, so that the screams of the babies could not be heard.
In 2015, religious freedom seemed compromised when a Washington high school football coach was fired for praying with his team after a game. Joe Kennedy waited roughly six years for the Supreme Court to hear the oral arguments for his case. This was a notable case in 2022, and recent events have caused the issue to resurface.
Earlier this year, Laura, an 11-year-old student of Creekside Elementary in Washington state, requested to start an interfaith prayer club at her school. Her request was denied even though an LGBT club was approved about the same time as Laura’s request causing one commenter to note, “Sadly, the promotion of LGBT identities is held sacred while religion is sidelined and marginalized.”
Toronto Police Service sent its “Progress Pride Flag-wrapped scout car” to drive around the streets of the city while crime remains at levels not seen for years.
Pelosi says Democrats will codify a “right” to abortion if they win in November. Such a devout Catholic?
The legislative body of the United Methodist Church, the second-largest Protestant Christian denomination in the US, voted to repeal a 40-year ban on the ordination of gay clergy on May 1, 2024.
This coming June, homosexual “pride masses” are scheduled to take place in hundreds of Catholic churches in the USA and Canada as a reaction to celebrations in traditional churches of The Sacred Heart of Jesus.
On the governmental front, the current administration may be waging a secretive war on Christian faith – prayer, churches, Bible studies in senior living centers, and even Christian kids in school are all under attack. Joe Biden is empowering anti-Christian forces in the FBI and DOJ to severely deplete our religious liberty. Agencies have been caught placing spies in churches, making your bank report when you purchase a Bible, targeting “radical traditionalist” Christians and banning Bible studies at senior living centers – and this is just the beginning. The ACLJ is in court to protect teachers who were banned on April 18, 2024 from praying “where students could see them.”
The Department of Justice’s investigation into the FBI’s disturbing 2023 memo suggesting that Catholicism is a breeding ground for violent domestic terrorists – especially within Traditional Latin Mass circles – found that the memo “failed to adhere to FBI standards” but showed “no evidence of malicious intent,” absolving the agency of wrongdoing.
Toronto city officials have appealed to the Trudeau government to legalize ALL quantities of crack, cocaine, heroin, meth, and other hard drugs, despite warnings that it will bring increased chaos and violence to the city, already seeing the highest crime rates ever.
Northwestern University this month cut a deal with encampment protesters to establish full-ride scholarships for “palestinian” students, even though there is no such national nor biological identity. This is to appease the angry mobs who storm buildings and threaten the safety of Jewish students and faculty.
A Bush era “presidential emergency action document” reveals sweeping and broad powers the executive branch can wield in the face of a “crisis,” real or imagined. Ponder how these powers can be abused when “Christians” are viewed as a threat to public peace for adhering to the teachings of the Bible. Consider how “hate speech” laws can be twisted to include any quotations from the Bible that condemn actions being normalized in our upside-down society.
While globally, America is still relatively safe, this can change in a heartbeat… or the lack of one from an elected official😳! We still have groups that provide legal protections and take action against persecution of Christians (as well as mistreatment of Jews, Muslims, Hindus and other religiously justifiable activities; think Falun Gong or Chinese artists such as Shun Yun). However, we may be like the proverbial frog in a slowly warming kettle.
Christ-follower, be aware that you may be required to love your enemy in ways you have not imagined: expressing concern for a jailer from a cell while you await trial; helping in a soup kitchen when you are not allowed to work; praying for people who spit at you and deride you as being “outdated,” narrow-minded, bigoted and hateful. Love them as Jesus loved His Roman crucifiers and the Sanhedrin rulers who mocked Him while He was on the cross: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
The USA has passed a “point of no return.” I mourn, not only for the loss to the world of the “city on a hill,” but for my children and grandchildren who will live in a nation those of us over 45 will not recognize.
No matter who “wins” in our coming election, the infections of socialism, anti-Americanism, and selfish philosophy permeate our society too deeply to be cured by any one elected official. The swamp that Donald Trump arrogantly thought he could clean up in his first term drowned him out, as much because of his supercilious attitude and self-importance as illegalities perpetrated by those who despised him.
We Christ-followers in the USA must prepare for coming persecution such as the Hebrews have suffered for so long.
“I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.” Jesus, John 17:14-15
“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” Jesus, John 16:33
Yet something wicked this way comes. Not the carnival nor the Ray Bradbury book or the movie of the same name, but something much more sinister and relevant to the lives of Christ-followers in the USA and other nations influenced by America’s churches.
I am not a prophet and have no “word of the LORD” on this, but it seems to me we have passed a point of no return. The world is rapidly spinning out of control of societal norms that have been standards for hundreds of years. Even Nazi Germany from the 1930s to WW2 was mostly recognized as violating basic human rights, even as the political madness ruled from the top down by way of fear and intimidation. Many people rapidly escaped and various plots to assassinate Hitler or his henchmen were unsuccessful. But there was a keen sense in the rest of the world that Germany and Japan were on the wrong side of history.
Now we see history “rhyming.” Remember, itneverrepeats just as certainly as a man cannot step in the same river twice. Antisemitism is at levels higher and more widely spread across the globe than the 1930s. Universities that once allowed vigorous discussion of divergent ideas, years ago began shouting down unpopular views that expressed traditional values. Administrators have kowtowed to leftist and elitist abusers that they trained to resist what those of us over 40 considered normal. A student leader at Columbia, Khymani James, declares, “Zionists don’t deserve to live. Be glad — be grateful — that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.”
Aside from the Israel/Gaza storm, men pretending to be women are now invited to change in Olympic women’s dressing rooms for the next series of games. In spite of obvious physical differences, how these guys “feel” about themselves matters more than what their biology teachers told them. When girls object, they are vilified as bigoted and narrow-minded and are sexually discriminating against these “trans-women.”
The upcoming Paris Olympics are trying to balance “wokeness” with public displeasure at men competing in women’s sports by dumping the decisions of who qualifies back onto the individual governing bodies of each sport. There’s a lack of backbone for you.
“Gender-affirming” surgeries tripled in the USA from 2016 to 2019 with 12-18 year-olds accounting for 10% of permanent mutilations of naturally-born characteristics. Boys and girls, can you say “social contagion?” The governor of Arizona vetoed a state legislature bill that would have prevented confused school boys from showering with girls stating, “I will not sign legislation that attacks Arizonans.”
In April this year the German parliament overwhelmingly passed a so-called “self-identification law,” which allows people confused about their sex, including minors, to change their legal gender once per year. The government is promoting puberty blockers and hormones on its website for gender-confused children at ages when kids should be riding bicycles and playing with dolls and trucks.
Live Action’s “Meet Baby Olivia” video shares a realistic look at the development of preborn children in the womb, validated by well-qualified OB/GYN doctors. While some states are moving to require the video for sex-ed classes, an article for USA today claimed it would mislead people and stigmatize teenage girls who have an abortion when faced with an unplanned pregnancy.
The issue here is not that society is changing, but that Christ-honoring Biblical truth is being side-lined by prophets of a new age.
>How long before wearing a kippah can result in being arrested? Try last week! >Will we who believe God created distinct males and females in His image be accused of hate speech for quoting the Bible?Try a couple years agoand still fighting for free speech and to stay out of prison! >When will someone lose a job for espousing open dialogue on divisive issues? Try last week again!
>Fortunately our government will never spy on citizens going about their daily business😳. They can leave that to Google and Apple.
>Then again, maybe they will, but they will only use such surveillance against the “bad guys.”
Now, if we can just be certain we who call on the Name of YHWH or Jesus are never on the “bad guys” list! But if we insist on allowing Hebrews to wear their identity on their heads, some may want to kill us. If we label men and women as birth-assigned genders, we could be in trouble. If we feel we should be allowed to express our faith by talking openly about being Jewish or Christian we may be discretely followed or imprisoned. If we insist a human is a human as soon as he/she has all the genetic information of a human, there are voices that will call us liars and try to drown us out.
As Christ-followers, we are faced with decisions every day for which we are supposed to seek wisdom from The God Who Is. This includes everything from who we are to marry, where we are to live, what we are to eat, and how to respond to that crazy driver who tailgates you until he has opportunity to pass and then zooms in as though to force you off the road. Obviously, some decisions are greater than others and will have more impact on our lives.
When I stand before my God one day (probably sooner than most of my readers😏), do I want to have to confess to Him that I voted for a misogynistic playground bully who was blatantly selfish, viciously vindictive, thrived on personal insults and denigration of anyone who disagreed with him, and felt that he should have immunity from laws that apply to the rest of us?
Or do I want to confess that I voted for a lying Catholic who supported abortion up to the time of birth, was untruthful about whether God created man and woman as distinct genders, who lied about “freedom” while enabling the Department Of Justice to label Christians as “extremists” for quoting the Bible, and cared so little about law that he promoted illegal immigration of millions?
Decisions, decisions, decisions…
Perhaps, as a wiser friend once commented, the USA may have come to this point as the beginning of a compassionate and just God’s judgment on our nation. A liberal friend of mine remarked that it is sad that we have this choice between these two old white guys. He asked with a wistful voice, “Is this the best we can do?”
As a Christ-follower, not a “christian-nationalist,” I need to go back and read my Master’s three-chapter Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, 6and 7. I need to pray in the Holy Spirit as well as with my understanding (per 1 Corinthian 14:15) and ask Father, “What am I not applying in this sermon that I should be doing?” I remember this world is not my Home; I am an alien living here.😎
You may be thinking, “If we can just get XYZ elected, everything will be all right!”WRONG.
We will not get what God wants for us from any politician or elected official. They will not teach us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. They may even become the ones doing the persecution! They will not instruct by word or example how to overcome unjust anger, control our lusts nor keep our promises. As our political climate flourishes on fear, it is unlikely any of them will coach us how to avoid anxiety or to be content. What politician (other than maybe Jimmy Carter?) even tried to live by the Golden Rule: “Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them.”? (Matthew 7:12)
Does The God Who Is really appoint world leaders such as the USA’s or Russia’s President or China’s Chairman or the UN’s Secretary General? Who allowed Sinwar to rule Hamas and let a terrorist group take over the people living in Israel’s historic land? Who will orchestrate the last global conflict that will be part of the scenario to welcome back the King of kings and Lord of lords?
So my decision is to be doing whatever Jesus wants me to be working on when He returns; loving my neighbor, praying for my persecutors (more coming on that in April), learning to lean on Him for His Holy Spirit’s wisdom, listening to His still, small voice instead of the clamor of popular music and movies. I need to be learning to apply the lessons Jesus taught, asking for His mercy for how far short I so often fall, and trust that He will work out His plan for our lives and the world, even if it looks like Job’s trials. God is good all the time and all the time, God is good.
After having recently watched the footage that revealed the labyrinth of tunnels where Hamas mastermind, Yahya Sinwar, has been hiding out for months, it occurs to you that there has to be a fair amount of self-hatred going on in someone who would choose to live fifty meters under the earth in a dark, damp dungeon of one’s own making.
How else can anyone explain the choice to give up a normal and happy life along with the comfort of family and friends? Turning one’s back on the beauty of nature, the wonders of exploring all the resources and amazing sites that are above the earth, in favor of spending years digging through dark passages to create miles of safe refuge after committing heinous atrocities, demands an unexplainable masochistic impulse to which no sane person can relate.
Yet this is the picture and the reality of Hamas terrorists whose intense hatred for the Jewish state has resulted in their self-inflicted punishment of missing out on life and the joy of living it to the fullest. Seeing these tunnels, especially the one that housed Sinwar, provides an insightful but dismal window into the twisted and demonic mindset of these men who have dedicated their entire being to destruction, terror, killing, internal darkness and everything associated with death and carnage.
The real deception here is what this horrific existence chosen by these perpetrators has caused them to willingly endure, all in their aspiration and hope to annihilate the people they despise. Most of us have heard how unforgiveness harbored in the heart of a person hurts them more than the one they are incapable of forgiving, because whatever festers inside someone also has the capacity to injure them physically as well as mentally and emotionally.
In this case, dedicated Hamas operatives have made the decision that they deserve the worst because that is exactly what they have given themselves. With no guarantee that they will prevail in their goal of taking over the land of Israel, which would necessitate the genocide of millions of Jews, they are willing to invest years of their lives, delaying or even giving up on the many joyous milestones marked by most of us, including the completion of higher education, marriage, the birth of children, anniversaries, birthday parties and so many other wonderful occasions which make life enjoyable and worthwhile.
Instead, they remain stalwart to a futile purpose that can only ensure their unhappiness, loneliness, emptiness and indifference to their own demise since life, to them, has no value or blessing other than to end it as early as possible. This is the demonic spirit that must enter the soul of a terrorist in order to delude itself into believing that for this reason they were created.
And this describes the pitiful existence which Sinwar and all of his cohorts have been living. As we got a glimpse into these tunnels extending a distance of 500 kilometers, we can see an elaborate system of compounds that took 15 years of painstaking work to build exceeding the cost of a billion dollars. The corridors are long vacuous passageways that resemble burial tombs or prehistoric caves, not intended for man to inhabit. Consequently, anyone who has burrowed themselves like a mole, rat or groundhog has lost all proportion of what it means to be a sane human being and is completely devoid of a sound mind or balanced judgment.
One can make the argument that the decision to live this way would fall under the category of being seriously mentally ill in a way that clouds reason and clear thinking from being a guide and a voice of reason as we navigate our daily lives. But unlike those who suffer from mental deficits, terrorists make a decisive choice to walk away from the light and go for the path of darkness which usually leads them to an abyss from where there is no return because their minds are overtaken by the delusion, to the point where they are taken captive by their own madness.
Ironically, their defenders would probably make the case that as freedom fighters, they are willing to defer personal gratification for the larger reward of gaining the justice and equality that has evaded them. Yet, the lifestyle for which they have opted, until such time as they can realize their dream, attests to a complete and total waiver of ever accomplishing good, or extending hope, blessing and meaningful purpose to themselves as well as others.
Sadly, to the extent that they remain committed to this diabolical goal their lives will be destroyed far greater than what they will be able to accomplish since we know that God is on the side of light, protecting all those who choose His direction.
So, when you think about it the world is actually focused on championing the wrong objectives, because the truth is that Hamas is not at all fighting for rights, land or even equality. It must be recognized that they are totally dedicated to the murder of all Jews, regardless of how many deaths of their own people, including themselves, it will take to accomplish that aim.
It is clear to understand this when you understand the enemy of God – Satan, himself. He hates God’s creation and will stop at nothing to extinguish mankind in his attempt to thwart the plan of the Almighty. With promises of grandeur, he deceives his victims into believing that they can know and have everything. It’s as old as the deception which took place in the Garden of Eden. But the only thing that happened was the guarantee of death by following his advice.
And this is nothing more than a new day with a new lie. Hamas terrorists have bought into the idea that they can steal what was intended for the Chosen People, and in order to pull that off, they are willing to live in the depths of hell for as long as it takes. Not until they abandon the darkness and delusion, will they ever be able to recognize that they actually hate themselves, first and foremost, because they cannot see their own value or worth, aside from the killing machines that they have chosen to become.
This is the real pity. Once you give yourself over to a spirit of delusion, you cease to be a useful and productive person to yourself as well as your own people. It stands to reason that no freedom or liberty can ever be obtained for others by those who have lost interest in a good life for themselves.
And so, to all the pro-Palestinian advocates, who claim to be fighting for their good, it is futile to support and champion a blessed life for those who don’t even love themselves enough to breathe the pure air, feel the warmth of the sun and treasure the wonders of creation, all of which lie above the earth – the place which we were meant to enjoy and inhabit.
________________________ Cookie Schwaeber-IssanA former Jerusalem elementary and middle-school principal and the granddaughter of European Jews who arrived in the US before the Holocaust. Making Aliyah in 1993, she is retired and now lives in the center of the country with her husband. You can subscribe to her articles by email at itscook7@gmail.com. She is published in All Israel News and The Jerusalem Post.
What happens when God does things we do not understand?
Is God always faithful?
Our understanding is very limited.
We must be patient and trust.
Trust is the key word!
This blog was ready last night, but this morning before posting it, we went to the grocery store. While Anita was picking up some items, I was getting in a few extra steps when I suddenly felt very weak, kind of disoriented and had a hard time focusing my vision. A stroke!? I wondered as I leaned against a pole. I forced myself to focus on where I was: okay, I’m in a pet food aisle in… Oh, yeah, Kroger at Beaumont Center. Should I call out for help? No one else in that aisle; how long would it be for someone to notice me if I laid/fell down? Not long, I thought. I wished there was a chair for me to sit down, but the pole was adequate for support.
A few seconds later (or couple of minutes?) I felt a little better, no longer worried about falling down. I found Anita, but was still lethargic and weak. She drove home; we checked my blood sugar – 120; blood pressure – 130/80; just headachy and tired… like after a stroke. So I am assuming it was a TIA: Transient Ischemic Attack; like a stroke, but probably would not be found on a scan or MRI.
After an hour’s nap, I got up for some lunch and still feeling a little residual headache, polished up this blog. Nothing new in what follows, but after today’s TIA, the event just reminded me of these five principles.
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In the story of Job, we find that Satan had been “going to and fro on the earth.” Of course, we know what the devil was up to; he was looking to cause problems for Father’s creation and fulfill his dream of taking the place of “the Most High.” He was doing what is in his nature since he fell from Heaven: lying, killing, destroying; i.e., anything that would deter God from accomplishing His purposes for mankind.
What I found most intriguing in this story from the first time I read it was that Satan was not paying any attention to Job since Father had a “put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side.” The devil just figured he had more ripe targets. But it was God who called attention to Job! So in the ensuing short debate, Father pulled the hedge down! He allowed the devil to attack everything Job owned, “Only against him do not stretch out your hand.”
Some time later, Satan showed up again in Heaven, and God again called attention to Job who had maintained his integrity and not blamed God. “‘Yahweh gave, and Yahweh has taken away; blessed be the name of Yahweh.’ In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.” (Job 1:21-22) After a short debate again, God released Job to even further trouble. “‘Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life.But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.’And the Yahweh said to Satan, ‘Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life.'” (Job 2:4-6)
The rest of the storyis very interesting and worth an hour or two to read in your native tongue. (Biblegateway.com has a pulldown menu for various translations of the Bible; if you click on the “ALL” in the pulldown, you will find hundreds of translations in different languages from Arabic to Hindi to Chinese.)
However, for the purposes of this blog, the introduction to Job is sufficient. What happens when God does things we do not understand? Why would He have called Satan’s attention to Job? Why would He allow Satan to “prove” his argument that Job only served God for what he could get from Him? If Father knew that Job would be faithful, why put this poor mortal through such misery as He knew Satan would inflict!?
The key consideration for these question lies with whether we believe that God is always faithful, which is what the Bible teaches. “The steadfast love of Yahweh never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning;great is Your faithfulness.” This is what we must grasp when facing questions of why God protected one child from abuse but allowed another to suffer: God IS still faithful. Why did some church buildings escape calamity when hurricanes hit and others were destroyed? Why are some missionaries miraculously saved while others suffer such harm and death?
The key for the answers to these question lies in our very limited understanding of The God Who Is! We are talking here about the designer of our DNA who knows the inner workings of molecules below the level of quarks. Yet, at the same time, we are talking about the Creator of light that spangled the universe with its beams before He even put our Milky Way, Andromeda and all the galaxies’ stars in place! How can we possibly begin to understand Him… unless He reveals Himself to us!?
Since He did exactly that by coming to our world, becoming one of us, a mere baby born to a faithful Jewish virgin, we must simply be patient and wait for Him to continue to reveal Himself to us. He was fully human, yet fully GOD. Jesus was the epitome of the revelation that began when God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26)
If you do not know this Creator, this Savior, you can know Him. He is at once closer than a brother yet so magnificent that to see Him as He is made one of His closest friends faint at His appearing. He is the infinite/personal God, The God Who Is, and He has been continually revealing Himself throughout history to any who would trust Him.
Ahh, there’s that word: trust! Often translated as “faith” in the Bible, it is not just mental assent to a set of doctrines or observance of rituals. It is a matter of the “heart,” the center of your being, the focal point within you that makes all your decisions. All one needs to do is tell Him that you trust Him, and He will lead you on from faith to faith.“Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” (Job 13:15, NKJV) So just talk to Him as you would a friend or your Father; after all, that IS what He IS! And He will hear you. And if you have ears to hear, you will.
There are many names of God used in the Bible, probably because He IS God, and more than our tiny minds can comprehend. Each Name of God carries with it significance of some aspect of our relationship with the Creator of all things; e.g.Yahweh-Maccaddeshem, The LORD Who Sanctifies (Leviticus 20:8), Yahweh-Jireh, The LORD Provides (Genesis 22:14), Yahweh-Shalom, The LORD Is Peace (Judges 6:24). And there are many others, many of which are used multiple times. In Genesis 31, Jacob refers to the LORD (Yahweh) by four titles: “the God of Bethel,” (verse 13) “the God of my father, the God of Abraham andthe Fear of Isaac” (verse 42). In calling God “the Fear of Isaac,” Jacob was saying more than merely his father, Isaac, had respect for God and worshiped Him. But to understand why, let’s look at the “back-story” to why Isaac feared God.
This is the only time this name, The Fear of Isaac, is mentioned Scripture and it intrigued me, because of translations that change the word, “fear” for “respect” or “awe.” As noted last week, we are to truly fear God, not just respect or stand in awe of Him.
Isaac had good reason to fear Yahweh! In Genesis 22, Isaac was a strapping teenager when Abraham was told to go to Mount Moriah and sacrifice his only promised son. (Yes, Ishmael was also a son of Abraham, but not the son of God’s promise.) We know that Isaac was more than a mere child as he was the one who carried the wood, enough to burn an animal on an altar. Furthermore, he understood the nature and rituals involved in a sacrifice. Though Scripture is silent on his exact age, we know from these ideas that he was a strong young man, certainly stronger than his more-than-115-year-old father, else Abraham would have borne the wood.
Yet, at the top of the mountain, Abraham bound the young man and put him on the altar with obvious intent to kill Isaac. These actions had to be with Isaac’s cooperation! Therefore, we can conclude that Isaac trusted what his dad had told the servants, “I and the boy will go over there; and WE will worship AND return to you.” (22:5)
Now for a digression: I am a bad swimmer with a fear of deep water! Oh, I know how and have even swum in the Atlantic Ocean and Saylorville Lake in Iowa. But always with others who were aware of my hydrophobia. I learned to swim in shallow water before high school, but in 11th grade gym class, we had to jump from a three-meter board! Into the 12 foot (4m) deep end of the pool!! If you have ever stood at the edge of such a scaffold, you will remember 12 feet looks a lot higher from the top than from the deck!
I can tell you clearly that watching a row of guys in front of me jump from the board and safely swim to the side did not help me overcome my fear. Knowing that I would surface in the water just as they had, as long as I kept my mouth shut, did not help. Nothing was going to relieve my fear until the plunge was over!!! Finally, my turn came, and not wanting to hold up the line behind me, I ran to the end of the board and leaped to my death… at least, that was what it felt like! However, after dipping into about four or five feet of the 12 foot depth, I resurfaced (resurrected!) and swam to the side like the rest of the class.
This is to say that, knowing I would survive did not remove the fear of the experience. In the same way, if you can imagine Isaac willingly lying on the altar with a flaming torch nearby to light the wood, waiting for his dad to ritually slice his throat as a sacrifice, even though he believed his aged dad’s God would resurrect him, it had to be one of the most frightening things a man could go through!!!
Isaac had a good reason to fear the God of his father, Abraham. So astounding was this experience, that after he related it to his sons, Jacob and Esau, it was clear why Jacob gave God the name, The Fear of Isaac!
Jesus stated plainly our cause for fear and the relief from it: “Now I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who, after He has killed someone, has the power to throw that person into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him! Are five sparrows not sold for two pennies? And yet not one of them has gone unnoticed in the sight of God. But even the hairs of your head are all counted. Do not fear; you are more valuable than a great number of sparrows.” Luke 12:4-8
In the great hymn by John Newton this balance is caught beautifully in the verse that says: Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved.
This fear that Jesus spoke of was not merely respect nor awe. There are different Greek words for that (don’t be impressed, you can look them up, too). The word phobos, φόβος, literally means fear, dread, fearfulness. It is the word from which we get our word phobia! People who have arachnophobia have no respect for spiders and do not hold them in awe. They are just plain scared of them! This is what Jesus was referring to when He used the word in Luke 12, and what John Newton had in mind when he composed Amazing Grace.
We, too, should recognize that many times The God Who Is may act in ways that will humble and frighten us. Though we know Him to be loving and just, when we see Him as He is, we will undoubtedly fall at His feet as the beloved apostle John did… until He says to us, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” (Matthew 25:21)
Genesis 31:42, 53 “If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed… ‘May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.’ So Jacob took an oath in the name of the Fear of his father Isaac.”
Translations of complex texts are never perfect as every language has its strengths and weaknesses, and cultural and historical features often “color” meanings of words. Thus, the best translations of the Bible (the NASB, ESV and KJV) all miss certain details of the original manuscripts and should be studied by comparing various translations to search out our best understanding of any particular passage.
One of the terms that often bothered me as a young person was “the fear of God” (or “the fear of the LORD”). The fear of God was a big theme of sermons when I was growing up. On the one hand, the term appears in most of the books of the Old Testament and in several of the New Testament biographies and letters. When it is not specifically mentioned, this theme is still evident in several of these other books. (For a quick study on the Bible’s use of these terms, look them up in Biblegateway.com!😉)
The first sermon I heard devoted strictly to the love of God was in college. Since then the evangelical culture in America has shifted, so that one can hardly find teaching any more on God’s judgment, anger or the fear of God. Everything is oriented to how much God loves us and His care and gentleness toward us poor sinners. “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life!”
But if we are to understand the nature of The God Who Is, at least as fully as our tiny minds can, we must take in the full guidance of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation, and it is clear that God expects to be feared! More than just His expectation is the reality that He IS to be feared! “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:31)
Someone will quote 1 John 4:18, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear.” Yet, this same John, “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” who penned these words, was so overcome with fear and dread when He saw Jesus in Revelation 1:17 that His friend and Lord had to revive him and say, “Do not be afraid.”
From the 1972 song by Tom Hall, Me and Jesus Got Our Own Thing Going, one would think we could be BFFs and just muddle along without any advice from anyone else. Long before this, in 1855 Joseph Scriven composed a beautiful hymn, What a Friend We Have in Jesus. I do not want anyone to leave this blog thinking we should only and always be afraid of God and not be lovingly devoted to Him who loves us recklessly. But neither do I want anyone to leave this blog thinking we can skate along without a care in the world as though, since Jesus is our BFF we can pretty much do whatever we want, and He will forgive us if we keep messing up!
The closer one gets to the spectacular holiness and righteousness of The God Who Is, the more unworthy and fearful we become. When we pray we enter into the Presence of the Mind who designed the quarks in our DNA and simultaneously spangled the universe with galaxies too far away for us to see. Remember, when the angels in Isaiah and Revelation are bowing before Him they are not calling out, “Love, love, love!”
So the apostle Paul instructs us to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” This is not simply “awe” as we would feel when we look over the Grand Canyon. It is so much more than respect which we may experience in the presence of a monarch or world leader. This is “fall dead at His feet”fear!
It is important that we not mince words and pretend God is not to be feared, when the Bible so clearly describes the benefits of fearing Him (just to name a few):
God has come… in order that the fear of Him may remain with you, so that you will not sin. (Exodus 20:20)
You shall fear the LORD your God; and He will save you from the hand of all your enemies. (2 Kings 17:39)
The eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him,… to rescue their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine. (Psalm 33:18-19)
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who follow His commandments have a good understanding. (Psalm 111:10)
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge. (Proverbs 1:7)
The reward of humility and the fear of the LORD are riches, honor, and life. (Proverbs 22:4)
Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in His ways. 2 When you eat the fruit of the labor of your hands, you will be happy and it will go well for you. 3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house, your children like olive plants around your table. 4 Behold, for so shall a man who fears the LORD be blessed. (Psalm 128)
Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade people. (2 Corinthians 5:11)
And finally, the words of Jesus, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28)
Next week, I’ll be back to explore why Jacob called God, The Fear of Isaac.
Guest Blog by Cookie Schwaeber-Issan Thousands of participants gathered in Munich, Germany, to demonstrate for an immediate ceasefire and to show their solidarity with Palestinians, November 11, 2023.
The headlines don’t get more sensational than: “French Jewish woman stabbed in antisemitic attack, swastika painted on door.”
The shocking crime, which probably has French Jews frantically on edge, is just another recently reported incident of Jews being killed in their own homes. It was just a few weeks ago that“a Detroit synagogue president was found fatally stabbed outside her home.”
Other than the fact that both of these women were Jewish and brutally stabbed to death, what else do they have in common? In each incident, quick conclusions were drawn that there was “no evidence” that the stabbings were motivated by antisemitism. In the case of the Detroit woman, a CNN wire was immediately released relying upon the word of the local police chief who said, “no evidence has surfaced suggesting the killing was motivated by antisemitism.”
However, given that no suspect had been identified, the early conclusion seemed to be more motivated by the fear of the possibility of the crime being connected to the woman’s ethnicity, having the potential to cause great distress to millions of American Jewish citizens. Likewise, in the French stabbing, a rabbi who represented the Conference for European Rabbis also wasted no time in stating, “it hasn’t yet been categorized as an antisemitic attack.”
What is clear is that Jews are, for the first time since the 1930s, experiencing a super-charged atmosphere of hatred and accusation aimed at them even if they are not connected to Israel or the present war taking place against Hamas terrorists, who perpetrated the October 7 massacre within the Jewish homeland. It is, pure and simple, guilt by association but even beyond that, it is the ability to use the war against Hamas, rebrand it as genocide towards the Palestinian people and scapegoat innocent diaspora Jews as justified targets of a manufactured outrage.
Just a week ago Saturday [November 4, 2023], there was a massive pro-Palestinian demonstration at the White House where thousands were seen shaking the gates, which they vandalized with red paint as they chanted vulgarities directed at U.S. President Joe Biden. Some were so bold as to even attempt to climb the same gates which are only yards away from the White House. Others were heard chanting“Allahu Akbar” and “Free, free Palestine.”
While it was estimated that tens of thousands attended this well-organized demonstration, where bus rides were provided for many out-of-town protesters who otherwise may not have been able to participate, the photos of wall-to-wall people made it look as if the crowd numbered well over a million.
This kind of vicious and threatening climate which has emerged almost overnight, hasn’t been seen since the pre-Holocaust days of Nazi Germany, when already visible and audible signs of antisemitism were taking place throughout Europe at unprecedented levels. Jews were being castigated, their shops were being vandalized, and those same events which we are witnessing, yet again, pre-dated the establishment of the Jewish homeland. This already attests to the motivation of this vilification being nothing more than hatred of the Jewish people which, although having lain dormant for years, was never really fully extinguished.
Rather, it waited for the right moment to rear its ugly head and spew the venomous and abhorrent sentiments toward one particular group of people who have, in each generation, borne the brunt of unwarranted loathing and the indefensible calls to eradicate them from the face of the earth.
For those who think that these renewed calls are being shouted by individuals whose ancestry is of Arab origin, think again. Large swaths of American and European populations have joined in adding to the millions of Arab-descendant immigrants who have made their way to what everyone thought were more tolerant venues, where mixed ethnicities resided together relatively in harmony. No longer is that benevolence and goodwill taken for granted.
The sudden surge of anti-Jewish sentiment, although being tied to Israel’s present military actions against Hamas, is purposely being falsely represented in order to paint a distortion of what is really happening. One case in point was a kaffiyeh-donned man named Ali Abdullah who traveled from Toledo, Ohio to be part of the protests on Capitol Hill. Interviewed by Fox News reporter, Mike Emanuel, and broadcast on The Big Weekend Show which aired on November 5, he said, “They’re killing kids, women and pretty much bombing everything. This is not a war. War is military against military, but this is against humanity period. We’re hoping that the aid [from the USA] will completely stop.”
The idea is to blatantly lie about the events which led up to Israel’s ground incursion, to obfuscate the parachuting of terrorists into the land of Israel who then led a brutal pogrom-like massacre upon children, babies, young people, the elderly and everyone else. The beheadings, rapes, torture and burnings are all minor details which went unmentioned by Mr. Abdullah who dishonestly framed Israel’s actions as crimes against humanity. But then if you wanted to whip up a crowd to get them to emit their antisemitic rage, it would be useful to disguise the real events that occurred, replacing them for more insidious accusations which have no basis in reality.
Israel’s top-leading Hebrew newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, published several accounts on November 5, 2023 that have taken place in Germany, France, Switzerland, Spain, Belgium and the U.S. One such story took place in Belgium, where Joel Rubinfeld, head of the Belgium League Against Anti-Semitism, expressed his great concern over what he is seeing. He noted that he received a phone call from someone who threatened to rape his wife that very evening. Other threats, in his city, included spray-painting Jewish stars on the residence of Jews as well as exclusive shops owned by Jews. Rubinfeld claims that 90% of young people have been the victim of antisemitic incidents, specifically citing a 14- year-old teenager who attended a public high school where four of his classmates physically attacked him and threatened his life.
This is what most imperils the Jewish people collectively. They are fast becoming the victims of vicious lies and embellished fiction, which then is adopted by ignorant people who already have a predisposition to believe that Jews are the source of the world’s problems. It is this kind of dishonest, fraudulent and corrupt charges which led millions to participate in the well-organized but ill-fated plan [in the 1940s] to rid the planet of the same individuals whom God called the Chosen People and the Apple of His Eye. [Deuteronomy 7:6, Deuteronomy 32:10]
If we didn’t know better, one might think that the root of this inexplicable desire to annihilate them stems from an unbridled jealousy which has never been resolved since the days of Isaac and Ishmael, when one was called the child of promise while the other was not acknowledged as the offspring to inherit the promises. But it couldn’t be that – could it?
There really is no other explanation, because spontaneous, demonic behavior is birthed from the evil which is satanic, taking its name from Satan, himself – the same fallen angel who, out of jealousy, coveted the place of God – so why couldn’t there be a connection?
A former Jerusalem elementary and middle-school principal and the granddaughter of European Jews who arrived in the US before the Holocaust. Making Aliyah in 1993, she is retired and now lives in the center of the country with her husband.Please feel free to email Mrs. Schwaeber-Issan via admin@allisrael.com or if you wish to read other articles by her, go to https://allisrael.com/writer/cookie-schwaeber-issan.
It’s been a great two weeks from Fire Valley State Park in Nevada to Palm Desert, CA, to Scottsdale, AZ, (more in pics to come of amazing sights of sites), but it’s left me unprepared to present the blog I wanted to on EMPs. So that will come next Saturday. Lots to read and digest to understand this threat to our nation and to the world on top of all I have already researched.
The Spirit's Call 