Torah Portion: Deuteronomy 1:1-3:22

Devarim (‘The words’)

This week’s Torah portion, the start of the Book of Deuteronomy, is a recounting by Moses of the previous 40 years, including an 11-day journey that, due to Israel’s rebellion, took them 38 years (Deut 1:2).

Having constructed the tabernacle and set up a practical government system at Mount Sinai / Horeb, Israel was instructed by God to “Go, take possession of the Promised Land” (Deut 1:6-8). They travelled to Kadesh Barnea (Deut 1:19) on the southern edge of the Promised Land, the ‘jumping off’ place from which the Israelites were to go up to take possession of Canaan.

Kadesh Barnea

This place already had a history: Genesis 14:7 tells us that Kadesh Barnea was in the territory of the Amalekites and Amorites, as noted in the account of the battle of the kings when Abram victoriously saved Lot and was blessed by Melchizedek, the priest-king of Salem. It was close to where Abraham eventually settled (Gen 20:1).

But, instead of taking inspiration from their father Abram’s miraculous victory, marching in as Moses instructed, Israel’s leaders, using the excuse of caution, gained agreement for spies to reconnoitre first. The result (recorded in Numbers 13, also Deuteronomy 1) was disastrous, destroying the people’s tentative trust in God and leading to God’s judgment that He would not go up with them but wait until that entire generation of fighting men had died (excepting Joshua and Caleb).

Stuck in a Rut

I have in my work observed people use Health & Safety risk assessments as a tool to destroy, for whatever reason, an inspirational project. Such assessments are all very well in their place but we ought not to let them confuse good and right decisions, especially when God has said “Go”! To obey is to follow a command immediately, without questioning, risking an unknown outcome. Isn’t God able to make his own risk assessments?

So, instead of being the springboard it should have been, Kadesh Barnea became a rut: a place of disaster, disappointment and disobedience from which God would not lead Israel out for a long time (Deut 1:46). It was also the place where:

• Rebellious Israel tried on their own to go up into the Promised Land, but were crushed and forced back by the Amorites (Deut 1:44-46)
• Miriam died and was buried (Num 20:1)
• Israel quarrelled, with the result that Moses and Aaron were also excluded from the Promised Land (Num 20:2)
• Moses’ request of the King of Edom (descendant of Israel’s brother Esau) to pass through his land was rejected (Num 20:14)

Kadesh Barnea became the place that I think everyone would have wanted to leave, but no-one was able to. It might have been the place of which David the psalmist was thinking in Psalm 40 when he wrote about the miry pit and slimy clay, an ancient refugee camp.

Fear and Faith

I have been told that Smith Wigglesworth once said, “Fear looks, faith jumps!” So let us take careful heed of Psalm 95, expanded upon in Hebrews 3:15-4:1: “Today, if you hear God’s voice, don’t harden your hearts, as you did in the Bitter Quarrel”.

These were the people that God had redeemed from Egypt, but they were unable to enter the Promised Land because of lack of trust. Therefore, let us fear rightly, trembling at the possibility that even though we have been redeemed, through not trusting we could miss the gift of entering God’s rest, instead finding ourselves in Kadesh Barnea.

Author: John Quinlan

Torah Portion: Numbers 30:1-36:13

Matot / Masei ('Tribes' / 'Journeys')

We come to the end of our journey through Numbers this week, following Moses as he fulfils his final acts of service to the Lord and to Israel. Anticipation builds through these chapters as the Children of Israel are now just a stone’s throw away from the Promised Land, after 40 long years wandering in the wilderness.

We know that these years were not easy, with Israel facing a series of implacable external enemies as well as internal revolts. The enemy tried every which way to stop God’s covenant people from receiving their promised inheritance, throwing obstacles into their path ranging from threats of physical violence to occult curses, from sexual temptations to spiritual seductions (are not all these tactics still used against God’s people today?).

But with the Lord on their side, Israel was unstoppable. Canaanite and Amorite armies fell before them. The curses of professional seer Balaam, commissioned by the Moabites, were turned on their head. Attempts by Moab and Midian to use their women to seduce Israel sexually and spiritually were thwarted. Each of these obstacles was turned by the Lord for good: to judge His enemies, test and strengthen Israel’s faith, bless them and bring Himself glory. But they were not without cost on Israel’s part.

Moses’ Final Task

In chapter 31 of Numbers, the Lord gives Moses one final instruction before the Children of Israel were finally to cross over the Jordan: to order vengeance on the people of Midian for their part in seducing the men of Israel with women and pagan idols. From the moment of this betrayal (reported in Numbers 25) Moses had been instructed to “treat the Midianites as enemies and kill them, because they treated you as enemies” (Num 25:16-18).

This must have been a difficult pill for Moses to swallow – Moses, who had married a Midianite woman, lived for years in Midian in the tents of his Midianite father-in-law, who also acted as an advisor to him (Ex 18). Moses, who was evidently close to his Midianite brother-in-law (see Num 10:20-32), as well as probably many others from this tribe. Indeed, the Midianites were descendants of Abraham (see Genesis 25:1-2), so they were probably viewed by the Children of Israel as distant relations.

But something had happened to persuade Midian to turn on their own flesh and blood, joining the Moabites in plotting to thwart God’s purposes for Israel. How painful this must have been for Moses to witness – and how difficult he must have found it to order Israel to take up arms against them.

Zealous Defence

Even in his old age, on the verge of death, Moses had to learn to count the cost of following God wholeheartedly, as Jesus taught us to do:

If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters - yes, even his own life - he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not carry his cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple. (Luke 14:26-27)

Today we may not be called to kill in order to defend our families and communities from evil, but we ought to have the same spiritual zeal in the battle against the “principalities and powers of this world’s darkness” (Eph 6:12) in which we are all embroiled. This visceral illustration from the journey of ancient Israel shows how seriously God takes the defence of His children's safety and purity. So ought we – whatever the cost.

Author: Frances Rabbitts

Calling for little ships of hope to rescue us from disaster

As we approach the 80^th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, I finally got round to watching the DVD of the movie Dunkirk which my son bought for my birthday. The subject has many lessons for the current state of Britain, facing a crisis even darker and more dangerous than confronted us then.

It was obvious, in May 1940, that we faced disaster from which the chances of successful escape were pretty much impossible. But what we had then, and we don’t have now, was a God-fearing nation. Most of the young people portrayed in the film would have had fresh memories of Sunday School and would have felt relatively comfortable about calling to Heaven for help while, at home, mums and dads were quick to respond to the King’s call for prayer, with queues forming outside churches up and down the country.

God was even mentioned in Churchill’s famous speech: “We will fight on the beaches; we will fight on the landing grounds…we shall never surrender…” until victory was achieved “in God’s good time”. It took five more years, but the great man got it right.

Yet none of these factors was reflected in Christopher Nolan’s epic film, which attributed our deliverance only to British grit and the ‘Dunkirk spirit’. Though otherwise brilliant as a production and cinematic experience, it failed miserably in this important aspect, especially considering the great care invested in ensuring accuracy in every detail.

Apart from a few oblique references to the need for a miracle, the ‘God factor’ was meticulously filtered out of the picture. And yet, as the producers made clear in the special features disc that comes with the DVD, they were trying to portray things at the deep end, as it were, in the heart of the action, from three different angles – those of the soldiers, the pilots and the brave boatmen.

Dunkirk has lessons for the current situation in Britain, facing a crisis even darker and more dangerous than confronted us then.

A Miracle Indeed

Three 'little ships' from the Dunkirk evacuation, 1940. Yes, it was our darkest hour of the war; we stood on the brink of invasion with our army trapped on the beaches of Dunkirk. But the call for help went out, prayers were offered and 338,000 men lived to fight another day - ten times more than the most optimistic estimate of Churchill and the generals.

It was a miracle indeed. The sea was becalmed, Hitler inexplicably ordered his troops to halt for three days as they began to surround the British Expeditionary Force in a pincer-like movement, a combination of cloud cover and brave Spitfire pilots restricted carnage inflicted by the Luftwaffe, while some 800 fishing and pleasure boats mounted an extraordinary rescue.

Yet it had been an apparently hopeless situation, resembling the plight of the Israelites fleeing slavery in Egypt, trapped on a beach with the army bearing down upon them and nothing but the Red Sea in front of them. Thankfully, Moses had his instructions from God and, when he lifted up his staff, the sea parted to make way for their escape.

We too need the God of Moses. He is still there; and he is not deaf. He is merely awaiting our call for help. But many of today’s young men are being left on the beaches, apparently with no hope, because no-one has told them of Jesus (Rom 10:14).

Not by Might, Nor by Power

This is a darker hour even than Dunkirk, because our present climate of chaos and confusion is the result of switching off the light of Christ from our national life. We have turned our backs on the God of the Bible to follow our own selfish and foolish ways, leading to an unprecedented breakdown in family life. We are on the brink of complete ruin.

But a remnant of Christians is praying for deliverance from this evil. They represent the ‘little ships’ crossing the dangerous currents of secular culture to rescue Britain from despair and degradation, trapped by a godless ideology that offers neither hope nor comfort.

Small groups of Jesus followers, meeting in homes around the country as well as in more formal venues, are trimming their sails to the wind of the Spirit as they seek God’s victory in our nation. They are not great in numbers but, like Gideon’s 300-strong army, they do command huge potential power. For when the Israelites of old cried out to God for deliverance from the crushing oppression of the Midianites, God called Gideon – the least of the least in terms of personal stature – to lead the rescue.

We too must dispense with our idols, our false gods of materialism and humanism, and our politically correct agendas, as Gideon was ordered to do (Judg 6:25-32). And we must remember that it is “not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit” (Zech 4:6) that the enemies of God will be defeated.

This is a darker hour even than Dunkirk – but a remnant of Christians is praying for our deliverance from evil.

Biblical Boats, Spiritual Lessons

Noah’s Ark (and indeed the Red Sea crossing) also pictures rescue (salvation) for those trusting in Christ, who are saved from the depths of the sea that would otherwise have drowned them by putting their faith in the God of Israel.

Sea of Galilee: Much of Jesus’ earthly ministry was focused on boats plying this wondrous stretch of water. Photo: Charles GardnerIt is significant, I believe, that much of Jesus’ earthly ministry was carried out in the vicinity of the Sea of Galilee, particularly in or around boats. When the disciples were struggling in rough seas, Jesus came to them walking on water. And as soon as he got into the boat, they reached the shore – a miraculous intervention no doubt (John 6:16-21)!

On another occasion, in the midst of a squall that threatened to capsize the boat, Jesus rebuked the storm with a word and all was calm, causing the disciples to ask one another: “Who is this, who commands even the winds and the waves, and they obey him?” (Luke 8:22-25). We all need Jesus in our lifeboat, and Britain is once again looking for little ships of disciples to rescue us from disaster.

Every Day with Jesus,¹ calling for biblical wisdom, underscores this point: “At this present time, enemy forces threaten us. Marriages are crumbling, and the moral ropes that once held us so fast and firm and now frayed.”

As with the Jews of ancient times, God came to our rescue in 1940. But, just like them, we soon forgot the means of our great deliverance by forsaking God’s commands, which produced a generation that tragically never saw the Promised Land. We mustn’t let that happen again.

Notes

1 Bible-reading notes produced by Crusade for World Revival, originally written by the late Selwyn Hughes.

Pastor pleads for international support to combat deadly persecution

Editorial introduction: Jesus said that in the times of the end, Christians “will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me” (Matt 24:9). This prophecy seems to be coming to pass around the world today. This report sheds fresh light on the suffering of our brothers and sisters in Nigeria, for your information and prayers.

In the latest of seemingly never-ending reports of deadly violence in Nigeria comes news that suspected Boko Haram terrorists killed at least 65 people at a funeral in a village in the north-east of the country.¹

In the past decade, tens of thousands of people — mainly Christians — in the north and middle-belt regions of Nigeria have been killed by Islamist Boko Haram terrorists and armed Fulani herdsmen, while millions more have been displaced.

The facts about exactly what or who is driving the violence are hard to nail down in an environment where different interest groups advance vastly divergent narratives, and in which rumours and allegations abound.

But some of the hard facts are that the death and destruction is continuing, the tragedy which some human rights groups are calling ‘genocidal’ is not getting the global media attention it deserves, and there has been no constructive international engagement with the crisis in Africa’s most populous nation.

Fears of Government Complicity

I spoke to a Nigerian pastor who contacted Gateway News in the hopes of reaching the international community with the concerns of “many Christians” who feel that their government is not only failing to protect them but is complicit in their suffering.

Pastor Emmanuel² in Nigeria’s middle-belt Plateau state, who has spent years reaching out to Nigerian Fulani people with the love of Christ, said that many Christians now believe that most of the Fulani herdsmen currently involved in terror were brought into the country from other African countries by President Muhammudu Buhari to destabilise the government, in the event of him losing the presidential election which took place earlier this year.

Pastor Emmanuel said many Christians are also starting to believe allegations made in public in 2014 by a former national anti-corruption chief, Nuhu Ribadu, that Buhari brought in thousands of Fulani herdsmen for the same reason before the 2015 election, but abandoned them when he won at the polls, resulting in them turning to “banditry”.

Pastor Emmanuel believes that if Ribadu’s 2014 allegations against Buhari were false, he would have been arrested, but nothing happened to him and the President never denied his claims. Emmanuel believes Buhari may have found a way to co-opt Ribadu.³ Both Buhari and Ribadu are Fulanis.

Many Nigerian Christians believe that the Fulani herdsmen currently involved in terror were brought into the country by their President for political reasons.

Islamising Nigeria

Pastor Emmanuel continued that the belief that both Boko Haram and the Fulani attackers were ‘created’ by President Buhari is gaining ground in Christian circles. Likewise, many Christians are convinced that the President is pursuing an agenda to Islamise Nigeria, whose population is roughly half Christian and half Muslim (with a small percentage of traditional religionists and people of no faith). The Muslim population is mainly in the north.

Emmanuel said that Christians in Nigeria were also baffled recently by the President’s proposed ‘Ruga’ programme to resettle Fulanis on land in every state of the country and to build houses and community infrastructure for them. He said the plan, purportedly to stop clashes between farmers and nomadic Fulani herders which Buhari maintains are about grazing land, was suspended after Nigerians (especially Christians) opposed it, asking why one would build houses for foreigners all over the country. According to media reports on the failed Ruga plan,⁴ critics also said it would send out a message that violence pays.

Pastor Emmanuel said the Ruga project is another indication of Buhari’s Islamisation agenda. While it is good that the plan has been suspended, he said Nigerian Christians need to remain alert. For instance, the Government is talking about carrying out a census of Fulanis and disarming people who legally own firearms, which would leave them vulnerable to armed Fulani attackers.

He also highlighted a development in which a High Court branded the country’s main Shia Islamic group a terrorist organisation,⁵ after it staged a protest in the capital, Abuja, in which a policeman and about six members of the group died. He said the group was protesting against the detention of its leader who has been held by the Government since 2015 despite court orders to release him.

“We Nigerians are asking why the Shiites were branded as terrorists when they have done nothing that compares with the killing, kidnapping and ransacking of villages by the Fulani herdsmen, who have never been branded as terrorists,” Pastor Emmanuel said.

Many Christians are convinced that the President is pursuing an agenda to Islamise Nigeria, whose population is roughly half Christian and half Muslim.

Calling on Christians

According to the pastor, Christians feel helpless about the security situation that threatens to destroy the country and it is vital that the international community take note of the situation, including the Government’s Islamisation campaign and complicity in the security crisis. He said they are looking to Christians around the world for prayer support and to help mobilise appropriate action.

He also said that Nigerian Christians lack a strong national voice, as the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), which used to be that voice, has been politicised and some of its members have been bribed.⁶

A Christian political observer in Nigeria told Gateway News that while there are Christians in the country who share Pastor Emmanuel’s views, there is no formal Christian position on the security situation or allegations that Buhari has birthed terror groups.

She agreed that the Fulanis responsible for “kidnapping, raping and maiming” are mainly foreigners, but said there are many complex underlying issues around the ongoing and escalating violence in the country.

“The challenge is, talk is cheap and so you have rumours and allegations flying in all directions but no-one is coming forth with concrete evidence to support their claims.

“Having said that, in order to understand why some things defy logic in Nigeria, you need to understand that the president is Fulani. They are a minority with a super-race mentality who believe they are born to rule. So the president is first and foremost Fulani and then he is a [Sunni] Muslim and finally he is Nigerian. His loyalty is in that order. He makes no apologies about that, neither does he hide it.”

Hope for Action

Amid fresh concerns that Boko Haram terrorists may have killed kidnapped Christian schoolgirl Leah Sharibu,⁷ Open Doors USA chief David Curry accused the Nigerian Government of lacking the resources to protect terror victims and not having the will to fight the terrorist agenda of ISIS-affiliated groups in the country.

Indications that the United States and Britain are committing themselves to prioritise combating Christian persecution and religious freedom issues around the world⁸ will hopefully translate into meaningful action as far as the suffering Christian community in affected parts of Nigeria is concerned.

When one part of the Body suffers, “every part suffers with it” (1 Cor 12:26). If you would like to do more to stand with the persecuted Church in Nigeria, we recommend Open Doors UK and the Barnabas Fund. If you know of other reliable ministries working in this area, do post them below.

Notes

1 See Fox News, 30 July 2019

2 Not his real name.

3 At the time Ribadu made his explosive allegations, he was on the team of Buhari’s election opponent Goodluck Jonathan. But ironically, Ribadu was a key member of Buhari’s 2019 election campaign and described his win at the polls as a victory for Nigerians.

4 E.g. see Ruga: High-level settlement for herdsmen shot down by suspicion. Punch NG, 7 July 2019.

5 Nigeria bans local Shi'ite group after protests. Reuters, 28 July 2019

6 Having said this, CAN has accused Buhari of pursuing an Islamisation agenda. Read more here.

7 See Nigerian government admonished amidst fresh concerns about Leah Sharibu. Gateway News, 26 July 2019.

8 E.g. U.S. and Britain putting a new emphasis on religious freedom abroad. Crux, 12 July 2019.

Jeremiah’s most devastating prophecy.

“At that time,” declares the Lord, “the bones of the kings and officials of Judah, the bones of the priests and prophets, and the bones of the people of Jerusalem will be removed from their graves.

They will be exposed to the sun and the moon and all the stars of the heavens, which they have loved and served and which they have followed and consulted and worshipped. They will not be gathered up or buried, but will be like refuse lying on the ground. Wherever I banish them, all the survivors of this evil nation will prefer death to life”, declares the Lord Almighty. (Jeremiah 8:1-3)

This is the most devastating piece of prose among all the prophecies of Jeremiah. Jeremiah’s prophecies are usually in poetic form; but this is different, and so too is its content. There are no conditions here, nothing suggesting that the prophesied disaster is conditional - that it may happen, unless there is repentance and turning. All the red lines have now been crossed. Judgement is inevitable.

The placing of this devastating statement at the conclusion of chapter 7 is highly significant. It needs to be read as the final word of that chapter, outlining the inevitable consequences of ignoring the warnings: “I will bring to an end the sounds of joy and gladness and to the voices of bride and bridegroom in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, for the land will become desolate” (Jer 7:34).

“‘At that time’, declares the Lord…” describes in vivid language what is going to happen in the city of Jerusalem and the land of Judah because, “they will not listen to you!”

A Figment of Imagination?

The shocking rhetoric of this text has been dismissed by some biblical commentators such as Walter Brueggemann¹ as ‘unrealistic imagination’ designed to shock the people of Judah, as a kind of last hope of change and redemption. Many commentators regard this outburst from Jeremiah as something that could not possibly have happened.

Sadly, recent archaeological evidence confirms that what Jeremiah foresaw was not a figment of his imagination, but an accurate revelation of what happened in Judah, and Jerusalem, in the year 586 BC. Research in the land of Israel shows that there was a sudden and devastating demographic fall in the population of Judah, in the city of Jerusalem and its surrounding area at that time.

Archaeology shows that what Jeremiah foresaw was not a figment of his imagination, but an accurate revelation of what happened in Judah, and Jerusalem, in 586 BC.

Some archaeologists say that the population of Judah suddenly fell from 108,000 to 40,000 inhabitants at that period through a combination of exile and destruction. 2 Kings 24:15-17 estimates that about 10,000 were taken to Babylon in the year 586 BC. Jeremiah says that 832 people from Jerusalem were taken that year, but he also records that a further 3,023 had been taken ten years earlier and another 745 were taken to Babylon in the year 581 BC (Jer 52:29-30). In addition to these exiles, we know that an unknown number went to Egypt after the assassination of Gedaliah, and that none of them, including Jeremiah, returned (see Jer 44:25-27).

Anthropologists studying the archaeological evidence for that period reckon that the fall in population across the land of Judah was around 80%, but in the city of Jerusalem and its environs, it appears to have been as much as 90% or even more.²

The devastation of the city and the towns and villages of Judah was similar to our modern ‘scorched earth’ policy, with unburied bodies left scattered across the countryside and open to the prey of wild animals and birds.

Terms of the Covenant

All this is to say that the scene described by Jeremiah in this passage was not a wild flight of his imagination, but an accurate forecast of what has now been discovered to have taken place in history. His description of people from all ranks of society being left exposed to the sun and the moon and the stars of heaven is a poignant reflection of the idolatry that had encompassed the nation, sweeping whole communities into pagan practices that had been roundly condemned by the prophets of Israel for centuries.

Jeremiah spent the whole of his adult life pleading and reasoning with the people of Judah and warning of the inevitable consequences of turning to other gods. He saw with horror what was happening in the nation in much the same way as Moses saw with horror the ‘golden calf’. Moses had been called by God to establish his covenant relationship with the people of Israel and warned them of the consequences of breaking that covenant (Deut 4:24-26).

Jeremiah was present when Josiah renewed the covenant (2 Kings 23). The king pledged loyalty to Yahweh after he had sent the scroll to the Prophet Huldah, asking whether or not it was a genuine word from God (2 Chron 34:22-28). Jeremiah expressed full agreement with the words of Huldah, “Tell them that this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘cursed is the man who does not obey the terms of this covenant’” (Jer 11:3).

Jeremiah’s description of people being left exposed to the sun and moon and stars of heaven is a poignant reflection of the idolatry that had encompassed the nation.

From that time the ministry of Jeremiah was exclusively directed to warning the nation – the political and religious leaders as well as the ordinary people – about the consequences of breaking the covenant and putting the nation outside the covering protection of God. The brutal warning in this prophecy that concluded his message in chapter 7 accurately foresaw not only the desolation of the land and the slaughter of the population, but also the devastating effect upon the survivors who were taken into exile in Babylon, who preferred death to life. This is so poignantly depicted in Psalm 137: “By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’...” (Ps 137:1-3).

God’s Protection Removed

Can any Bible-believing Christian in Britain or the Western nations fail to tremble when we read the words of Jeremiah and those of the psalmist in Babylon? Historical facts confirm the prophetic words of Jeremiah 8:1-3: God removed his cover of protection from Jerusalem and the land of Judah, allowing the wrath of cruel humanity to do its worst.

In recent times we have seen history repeated in the central European Holocaust that murdered 6 million Jews. But in Israel today, as in all the nations of the West, the land is being polluted with the blood of the innocent, as babies are sacrificed on the altar of abortion clinics. Will God once again remove his cover of protection?

References

1 Jeremiah 1-25: To Pluck Up, To Tear Down. International Theological Commentary, Handsel Press, Edinburgh, 1988, p80.

2 Ahn, JJ and Middlemas, J, 2013. By the Irrigation Canals of Babylon: Approaches To The Study Of The Exile. T&T Clark, New York and London, p149.

This article is part of a series on the life and ministry of the Prophet Jeremiah. Read previous instalments here.

Torah Portion: Numbers 25:10-29:40

Pinchas (‘Phinehas’)

Phinehas (Aaron’s grandson) was commended by God for what seems a brutal act, at the beginning of our portion for this week. In what appears to be a violent rage, Phinehas thrust a javelin through an Israelite and the Midianite woman with whom he had formed a relationship.

Yet it was the means by which God was appeased and ended His judgment on the Children of Israel (a plague). Up until then God Himself had taken the lives of 24,000 Israelites. How are we to understand this story?

Purity for Israel

Throughout history the enemies of Israel, both physical and spiritual, have sought to destroy the identity of the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. At the time of Phinehas there was a subtle move whereby intermarriage with Midianites, who worshipped a foreign God, would have changed the identity of the nation. Succeeding generations of families who came from these mixed marriages would not have been pure (virgin) members of the Tribes of Israel, nor would they have maintained undivided allegiance to the One True God.

The same was true when Judah returned from captivity in Babylon at the time of Ezra (Ezra 9-10), when many Israelites married women from the Canaanites and other local tribes who worshipped foreign gods.

History is full of such examples, right up to our day. Yet God is still zealous for his people and will ensure that, in some way, the Tribes of Israel retain a remnant with undefiled identity for all eternity. These are the 144,000 sealed in Revelation 7, called ‘virgin’ in Revelation 14:4.

Purity for Yeshua’s Disciples

Does this have any meaning for the Christian Church? When Yeshua took away the curse of the Torah (Gal 3:13), a new way was opened whereby the Torah would be written on the hearts of his disciples. But this does not mean that compromise is now permitted.

It was a big moment in the time of the early Christian Church when the Council of Jerusalem was held (Acts 15). After much disputation, four “necessary things” were written into a letter to Gentile converts (Acts 15:22-19). These can be associated with what were termed the ‘Noahide laws’: things that Gentiles should do if their desire was to bind themselves to the God of Israel.

Though in our day these things seem a strange choice, they are associated with particular traps that satan could use to take disciples of Yeshua off-track to worship foreign gods: such as eating food sacrificed to idols, or having sexual relationships with those who could lure them away from worshipping the One True God.

Satan is still setting up traps to lure us off-track, which can often be seen in the compromises made among groups of Christians today. Indeed, in the entire world a system will be set up by the Anti-Christ to trap all whom he is able into worshipping satan himself. This is why there is a call echoing through the Book of Revelation that one day Yeshua’s disciples must “come out of her lest you share in her sins and receive her plagues” (Rev 18:4). Just as Israel was to remain pure, so must Yeshua’s disciples.

The Census

After the plague was ended at the time of Phinehas, a new census was taken of the Children of Israel. This reminds us of an old hymn fitting for times of growing temptation to accommodate the world in the Church: “when the roll is called up yonder I’ll be there.” May it be so for we who desire purity and are willing to stand in the day of temptation. Let us learn this from the zeal of Phinehas.

Author: Clifford Denton

On the need to guard our hearts.

Not a day seems to go by at the moment without some drastic event or other filling our newspapers and screens – not helped, of course, by 24/7 broadcasting, Twitter and every other way in which modern technology allows us to access events all over the world almost in real time. The effect on our hearts, minds and spirits can be overwhelming. We are on information overload - more so than any other generation in human history.

This week, continuing demonstrations in Hong Kong against Chinese tyranny have vied for airtime with growing instability in Kashmir, more devastation in Syria, the US-China trade war, a possible arms race between the US and Russia and escalating tensions with Iran in the Gulf. And of course we cannot and should not forget the mass murders of Christians happening across North Africa virtually every day, though they go largely unreported.

Never mind Brexit and Project Fear: the global ‘birth pangs’ heralding the return of our Messiah genuinely seem to be increasing in both frequency and intensity.

Bloodshed Follows Bloodshed

Perhaps most shocking of all this week has been news of the two mass shootings in the USA, claiming 22 lives in Texas and nine in Ohio, both carried out by deeply disturbed young men (aged 21 and 24, respectively). At the same time, at home we heard of a young child being hurled off a high viewing platform at the Tate Modern in London, allegedly an unprovoked attack by a teenage boy.

Surely God’s lament through the Prophet Hosea to morally degenerate Israel is pertinent: “There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land. There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed” (Hos 4:1-2).

Children Plotting to Kill

When our children and young people are plotting to kill, something is drastically wrong: this very concept is awful and provocative, and should be prompting searching questions.

But when the US shootings were first reported, I reacted probably in much the same way as many did: a few moments thinking how terribly regrettable it all was, before getting on with my day. It wasn’t until I read a testimony from the family of one of the victims, daring to forgive the perpetrator with true Christian grace, that I was actually brought to tears and prayer.

How easy it is, unless special care is taken, to grow accustomed to the gradual encroachment of evil as an ordinary part of everyday life.

How easy it is, unless special care is taken, to grow accustomed to the gradual encroachment of evil as an ordinary part of everyday life. We’ve seen it all too many times before; our hearts gradually harden to it, often imperceptibly. But the above verses from Hosea carry a warning: the spread of evil in a society and the departure of love are two sides of the same coin.

Pondering these things, I was reminded of Jesus’ salutary warning in Matthew 24, that “Because of the increase in wickedness [in the times of the end] the love of most will grow cold – but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved” (v12). Let’s consider this more for a moment.

Global Cooling?

How, precisely, might an increase in wickedness around the world threaten the love in our own hearts? Jesus’ description of love ‘growing cold’ here is translated using a Greek word (psuchó) meaning to breathe or blow on something in order to cool it down. Basic science teaches us that warm objects lose their heat when they are exposed to a cooler environment. Just so, spiritually: spending too much time immersed in contemplating the world’s evil is enough to cool the love in anyone’s heart even to numbness.

But another way objects can grow cold is by going underground, hiding away in places where neither day nor night can permeate. Just as the love of God in our hearts can be chilled by constant contemplation of evil, so a total refusal to acknowledge or face up to the realities of evil can have the same effect. This deliberate avoidance hardens hearts in self-defence.

A third way in which things grow cold is through inactivity, which perhaps speaks for itself as a spiritual problem. And a fourth way is through isolation – simply by not being near other sources of heat. Many Christians in Britain are finding themselves in a season of spiritual isolation at the present time; though God-given, these nevertheless come with their own challenges and are not intended to be permanent.

The spread of evil in a society and the departure of love are two sides of the same coin.

Staying Warm

Jesus followed his outline of the terrible days which will precede his return (Matt 24) with a series of parables designed to teach his disciples how to ‘stand firm to the end’, their hearts alive and warm: strengthened by time in the warmth of God’s presence, invigorated by the knowledge of his truth, goodness and victory.

These emphasise the need to be found prepared and filled with the Holy Spirit, faithful and active, wise, watchful and alert. Elsewhere in the New Testament the Apostles join the call for faithful, holy living (e.g. 2 Pet 3; 1 Tim 4; 2 Tim 3:1-4:5).

But, “over all these virtues put on love” (Col 3:14). It’s a cliché, but the fire of real, God-given love is the first and best antidote to these days in which we find ourselves.

Are you investing in fake or fortune?

Visiting family and friends over the past fortnight naturally exposed me to conversations – and television programmes – with which I am generally unfamiliar.

Among these was the intriguing BBC programme Fake or Fortune which, for this particular episode, focused on a rather beautiful portrait passed down through an aristocratic family line.

As it was unsigned, no-one was sure who had painted it. It was generally accepted as the work of a high-calibre artist of the mid-19th Century which, if proved to be the case, would fetch around £8,000 at auction.

However, another expert was convinced it was the work of the famous Thomas Lawrence, which would increase its value exponentially to some half a million pounds! And, indeed, it proved to be one of his!

The Stakes are High

There’s a lot at stake over the question of who’s behind a particular work of art. I got to thinking how this inevitably also applies to the Creator of the world: is God behind the beauty of our Creation, or are we to put our trust in Charles Darwin’s ideas?

Come to that – who wrote the Bible? Was it God, or man? These are big questions, and the stakes are high in terms of the answers.

According to the Apostle Paul, the acknowledgement of God as Creator is of vital importance. In fact, he points out, the denial of such leads to a progressive unravelling of civilisation itself.

According to the Apostle Paul, denying God as Creator leads to a progressive unravelling of civilisation.

Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul writes that men suppress the truth by their wickedness (Rom 1:18) – and the first casualty is the truth that God is Creator (vv19-20). As a result, their thinking becomes futile and they worship created things rather than the Creator (v23). This in turn leads to sexual degradation and the shameful lusts of lesbianism and homosexuality (vv26-27).

At the same time, it leads to “a depraved mind” (v28) filled with “every kind of wickedness” – even inventing ways of doing evil (vv29-30).

In this letter to the 1^st-Century Christians in Rome, Paul was writing in the context of a civilisation that was well on its way to being unravelled – and remarkably comparable to 21^st-Century Britain! Strange, and yet we are constantly being told that things have ‘moved on’…

Whose Hand?

The psalmist wrote: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands” (Ps 19:1).

Sir David Attenborough enthuses over the wonderful creatures God has made without ever mentioning their Maker, but sure to always emphasise how many millions of years it has taken each species to evolve. Yet Scripture says that God created the world in six days!

Yes, the stakes are high. Our values depend on recognition of whose hand is behind the canvas before us. A life lived in the knowledge of him through whom all things were made (John 1:3) – the greatest ‘artist’ of all time – will be truly priceless.

As Jesus asked, “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36). Knowing Jesus is the key to life. “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:12).

A life lived in the knowledge of him through whom all things were made (John 1:3) – the greatest ‘artist’ of all time – is truly priceless.

Rebuilding the Walls

I don’t believe the residents of Derbyshire’s Whaley Bridge, threatened by a breach in the reservoir above them, merely crossed their fingers as the BBC correspondent reported they were doing. When a further thunderstorm was forecast but subsequently passed over the village, I am apt to conclude that residents had taken to genuine prayer. There are no atheists in a trench, they say.

The church built on the Mount of Beatitudes – the reputed site of Jesus’ famous sermon. Picture: Charles Gardner

As exemplified by the Whaley Bridge crisis, the walls have broken down in British society. And as in Nehemiah’s day, when the walls of ancient Jerusalem were in ruins, we too must return to the God of Israel if we wish to rebuild our country on solid foundations.

Concluding his famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said: “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.

“But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash” (Matt 7:24-27).

Christian love for Israel displayed on Welsh heights

Beautiful feet have once again ascended the mountains of Wales to announce good news for the people of Israel.

For the fourth year running, the North Wales-based Fathers House Sabbath Congregation has incorporated a strong message about Christian support for Israel with a great deal of fun, at the same time bringing extra meaning to the Prophet Isaiah’s statement: "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news…who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’" (Isa 52:7).

Wonderful Display of Advocacy

Christians from Holland joined believers from the Shotton, Deeside, congregation as they ran or walked 8km across the lovely Clwydian range carrying Israeli flags and dressed in Run for Israel t-shirts. The event was followed by a barbecue at a nearby mountain orchard.

Fathers House pastor Mike Fryer explained: “This mountain range draws over three quarters of a million walkers a year from all over the world and the wonderful display of Christian advocacy for Israel was seen by tourists who had come to visit.

“There was of course the odd anti-Semitic comment but the majority of tourists thanked the participants for such fun-loving and passionate support for Israel. Israeli flags and directional signs with Israeli insignia, displayed throughout the area, were left undamaged – re-enforcing the understanding among leaders of the event that anti-Semitism is a minority view in Wales for whom Israel is generally seen as a respected nation.”

Mike’s statement is borne out by a colleague of mine who tours churches around the UK teaching on God’s purposes for the Jews and finds the people of Wales particularly knowledgeable and responsive.

9^th Av

In another show of support for Israel, Christians are taking part this weekend in an initiative called the Nations’ 9^th Av – a date on the Hebrew calendar associated with many tragedies and thus used as a traditional day of Jewish mourning (falling in 2019 on this weekend, 11 August).

Followers of Jesus are using it as an opportunity to confess and pray through the atrocities committed against the Jewish people in the name of Christianity over the past 2,000 years.

Find out more at https://9-av.com/.