James Bond and the Book of Judges

Spy thrillers have never been more popular. From James Bond to Jack Bauer, movies and TV serials about secret agents continue to capture the imagination of people everywhere. Boys have dreams of growing up to be policemen, firemen, race card drivers or spies. The quintessential secret agent with a license to kill was 007, Ian Fleming’s ultimate Brit on Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

All governments operate such agents under the strictest shadows of secrecy. Their operations are never acknowledged, the existence of their agents are state secrets. For example, even the existence of the US Special Forces Operational Detachment (Delta Force is also known as the CAG or Combat Applications Group) is not officially acknowledged by the American government or military. CIA operations such as MK-ULTRA (forcible experimentation on psychiatric patients with LSD) and the Vietnamese Phoenix Program were not acknowledged at the time. British teams possibly affiliated with the SAS and MI6 (like ‘‘the Sixteen” or Group 13) and NSA teams (possibly I-13) seems to operate in similar clandestine waters. Successful spy operations, even those involving “termination with extreme prejudice” (assassination) are never openly reported by the world’s top secret services.

Does the Bible shed any light on such activities? What does God think about countries taking out their avowed enemies? And how does this apply to today’s news?

Wisdom from Wimber

Years ago the renowned church growth specialist and spiritual catalyst of the Vineyard movement John Wimber told a story about a significant interchange he once had at a conference. An agitated listener (who felt that Wimber’s emphasis on the current operation of spiritual gifts was borderline) stood up and asked dramatically, “Just how far, sir, do you intend to go here?” With God’s wisdom, Wimber immediately answered, “Only as far as what this Book says!’, holding up his Bible. “Well, I’m thankful for that”, said the assuaged man as he took his seat.

Wimber continued, “But have you ever read this Book? Voices come out of burning bushes, thousand-foot high angels appear with flaming swords, donkeys prophesy etc John’s point was that the Bible says a lot of things that most of us never really read, understand or internalizes and many of us do not expect to experience similar events. To be biblical and to do biblical things may be far more bracing, challenging and exciting than many of us have ever considered!

Ehud, the savior raised up by YHVH

In Judges 3:12-28 we meet Ehud, described as a God-given deliverer (Hebrew, moshia, from the same root found in the names Jesus or Yeshua, meaning savior or deliverer). His rise to the proverbial “fifteen minutes of fame” came about as a result of Israel’s national sin of idolatry against God (3:12, 19). YHVH withdrew His protective hand from the Jewish people, strengthening one of their enemies Eglon King of Moab (modern central Jordan). Eglon invaded Israel and seized the city of Jericho (today under the control of the Palestinian Authority).

Eglon’s harsh occupation caused Israel to cry out to God in repentance and God’s heart was stirred by Jewish repentance (see Judges 10:16, “and they got rid of the foreign gods among them & and He could bear Israel’s misery no longer”). YHVH’s response was to remember the covenant He had made with Abraham, and to send a military leader (a “judge”) to deliver Israel.

Ehud was that man. He was also left-handed, an unusual trait in those days, but a strategic benefit for his upcoming role. He was sent by the leaders of Israel to bring tribute (a repeated forced tax) to the King of Moab – something which would be delivered in a public presentation (3:17-18). But God had spoken to Ehud about another task that He had for him something that required skill, strategy, subterfuge and a special sword.

On a mission from God

Ehud crafted a small sword one cubit in length (0.4572 meters or 18 inches) and sharpened it on both sides in preparation for his coming assignment. He then strapped it securely to his right thigh, a “concealed weapon” in modern law-enforcement terminology. Ehud worked out a strategy whereby he would be able to get close to the king and to operate in strictest secrecy.

After he had visited Moab for the initial visit and had presented his tribute, he returned to Jewish territory. Having touched down at home base, he immediately turned around and came back to the court of the Moabite king. He announced publically that he had a secret message for Eglon, who immediately assumed that this message was an “eyes only” secret communication from Israel’s leaders. In actuality, the message was coming directly from the God of Israel, and its content was “death from above”.

Eglon cut off Ehud in mid-speech, telling him to be silent and not reveal secret matters. He then forced his courtiers to leave the stateroom, and bid Ehud to join him in his upper room in total privacy. Having arranged ideal circumstances, Ehud approached the king and said that his message was coming directly from God Himself. He then quickly drew the assassination weapon out adroitly with his left hand, using the element of surprise and plunged the blade with one blow directly into Eglon’s voluminous belly. The thrust was so deep that the sword buried itself in the king’s gut, and even the handle of the weapon disappeared. The text says that even Eglon’s “refuse” came out of the wound. The hit was accurate, quiet and came totally by surprise.

“Do not disturb”

On his way out, Ehud shut and locked the doors of the king’s suite, giving the impression that he was not to be disturbed, perhaps even using the toilet (3:22-24). The smell of “refuse” probably had given them that impression as well. Ehud had done the equivalent of hanging a “do not disturb” sign on the king’s hotel doorknob. He then fled and was able to make it safely back to Israeli territory, before the Moabites had discovered what had transpired.

When he returned, he immediately blew a war trumpet (see Numbers 10) and yelled out, “Pursue them for YHVH has given your enemies the Moabites into your hands” (3:28). In the ensuing clash 10,000 Moabite commandos were killed (3:29) and Israel had quiet on the military front for eighty years (3:30).

YHVH uses hit teams

The above text reveals that God may be a lot less “politically correct” than some of us. Ehud was YHVH’s divinely raised-up hit team, and the message for Eglon King of Moab came straight from the mouth of the God of Israel. With apologies to James Bond, it is worth recalling the words of Moses at the Red Sea where “Pharaoh’s army got drownded”. To broadly paraphrase Exodus 15:3 where YHVH is described as a warrior, one could nearly say, “The name is YHVH – James YHVH”.

The context in Judges 3 shows that God sees Himself as inextricably involved when it comes to His covenant protection of the Jewish people. Certainly the Book of Esther describes His watch care and preservation of Israel from the destructive plans of Persian rulers (Esther 3:7-15) and from the murderous spirit of the Prince of Persia (Daniel 10:13, 20).

The same God of Israel watches over His Jewish people today to preserve them from the destructive plans of modern Iranian rulers. Pray for His preservation of Israel and His defusing of all weapons formed against the Jewish people (see Isaiah 54:17).

Who’s fighting Hitler?

On January 20 2010 an anonymous hit team “terminated with extreme prejudice” a Hamas terrorist named Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Al-Mabhouh had recently given two interviews for Hamas, in which he claimed personal responsibility for the kidnapping and murder of two Israel soldiers Ilan Sa’adon and Avi Sasportas in the late 1980’s. To get them to enter his vehicle, al-Mabhouh dressed up as an Orthodox Jew. He was one of the founding members of Hamas’ armed terror group Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, and was the purchaser of long-range missiles and armaments from China, Iran and possibly Syria. Some of these missiles are already targeted at Tel Aviv from within the Gaza Strip, and will be used against Jewish population centers in the next round of war.

Al-Mabhouh often used Dubai as a stop-over (just across the Persian Gulf from Iran) to meet with arms merchants, and as a transit point to China, Iran, Syria and Sudan to oversee weapons transfers. Al-Mabhouh entered Dubai with a false passport supplied by Syria, while he enjoyed Dubai’s reputation as a Middle Eastern meeting place and watering hole for spies and arms dealers.

The hit tem was highly professional. Like Ehud the Judge, they got their man, left a “do not disturb” sign on the hotel room doorknob, and made their escape safely before the Hamas terrorist’s body was discovered. However, due to extensive CCTV coverage in the Kingdom of Dubai, as well as passport scan at ports of entry, the existence and modus operandi of the team was somewhat exposed. Dubai’s Emirates Police Chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim has held daily press conferences exposing details of Dubai’s investigation of the hit team, but has been totally silent about their awareness of the Hamas terrorist’s activities.

Various governments have expressed some degree of outrage regarding the hit team’s use of forged passports. Each of these governments has in times past issued false passports to their own security services, as well as having used (and still using) hit teams in their own countries’ secret services.

It is interesting to note that some wire services report that the intelligence agency behind the Dubai hit team had given British intelligence a limited heads up prior to the action. A large segment of British public opinion has come out overwhelmingly positive about the hit, and suggesting that British policies should imitate success in defense of British interests in the same Middle Eastern theater.

Though it is most likely that the professional hit in Dubai will never be directly linked to any intelligence agency, all thoughtful people concerned for Israel’s survival should ask themselves, “Who is fighting against Iranian, Syrian, Sudanese terrorism? Who is willing to risk their lives to blunt the jihadi spear and to remove developed weapons systems from jihadi arsenals in Gaza and Lebanon?”

With the resurgence of a Hitler-like spirit in the Islamist world, is God once again raising up new judges, new Ehuds, to protect and deliver His covenant people?

Orwell the prophet

There is a quote popularly attributed to the writer George Orwell (of Animal Farm and 1984 fame), “We sleep peaceably in our beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on our behalf”. This is a true proverb even if its source is not clear.

There are men and women who are sacrificing their comfort and even their lives, silent and secret warriors in a war against evil and quite real enemies. They work for different countries, but what binds many of them together is a commitment to justice, truth and righteousness and the survival of their own nation, as well as a passion to preserve what remains of Judeo-Christian civilization.

Could we take a moment and pray for these people - for their protection, their success, and the revelation of Yeshua as their savior and deliverer - and the savior and deliverer of the own countries as well!

We appreciate you. Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the enablement of God to us in the work he has called us to do. Thanks again!

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

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Connecting The Dots

One of the hallmarks of the very last days is that “many will travel to and fro, and knowledge will increase” (Daniel 12:4). The last 200 years have seen an information explosion unparalleled in human history, and this trend shows no sign of abating. Today it is easy to jump on a plane (apart from security checks!) and travel effortlessly across continents and time zones.

Yet the New Covenant Scriptures tell us that knowledge by itself is not enough. Paul says that knowledge puffs up, while love builds up (1 Corinthians 8:1). Yeshua noted that there is something called “the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom” (Matthew 13:11) which God gives to some and withholds from others. Even some experts in the Scriptures were rebuked by the Messiah, when He said, “Woe to you experts in the Torah. For you have taken away the key to knowledge!” (Luke 11:52). Knowledge they had, but a spiritually sensitive heart was lacking.

Even today it seems that it is possible to know a fair amount of information about a biblical subject, but to miss out on God’s heart on the matter. Is it possible that one can have a lot of biblical knowledge about Israel, while at the same time miss out on God’s heart on the matter?

God’s heart for us as believers worldwide is that we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, and become mature people, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Messiah (Ephesians 4:13). An indispensable last days key in this maturation process is surely receiving a revelation of God’s heart for Israel and acting on it.

Facts are stupid things

President Ronald Reagan once proclaimed, “Facts are stupid things” at the 1988 Republican National Convention. Though many pundits thought that Reagan was misquoting John Adams (“Facts are stubborn things”), the President’s quote reminds me of the essay “In the laboratory with Agassiz” (https://philosophy.lander.edu/intro/introbook2.1/x426.html), which was required reading for seminary students in Bible Study Methods classes.

In this real story, Professor Louis Agassiz insisted that one of his biology students keep examining the body of a dissected fish. He required the student to come back to him with ever increasing observations about how the fish was fashioned, what were its specific and peculiar characteristics – until the student began to become aware of physical facts that had avoided his initial hurried glance. For the student, this meditation/observation was key to a breakthrough in his personal understanding of scientific research. Only focused and studious observation would lead to deeper understanding and revelation. What was required of the student was a passion for the truth and a heart to gain a more mature perspective.

Professor Agassiz said, “Facts are stupid things – until brought into connection with some general law.” In this newsletter we are looking at facts about Israel, but the general overarching “law” here is the heart of God for His Jewish people.

Deep Blue and the Prophetic

In 1996 IBM presented a supercomputer nicknamed Deep Blue, which simultaneously played six chess games against world champion Garry Kasparov. Though Kasparov did defeat Deep Blue, one year later he lost out to its successor Deeper Blue. Kasparov then called foul, and protested that some humans were secretly reprogramming Deeper Blue during the games, introducing a flesh and blood dynamic in support of the cybernetic side.

Students of the prophetic Scriptures could learn something from this story. Kasparov was stressing that digital discernment is not enough to win. Something human – a heart, a mind – is what separates an unthinking IBM machine from a living, breathing, caring human being.

Similarly, an obsessive compulsion to tag and then catalogue every biblical prophecy in exact chronological order of future fulfillment will not necessarily reveal God’s heart about those events. It is even possible to have amazing eschatological acumen while functioning with a hollow (or shut-down) heart – and totally missing the big picture!

Eschatological facts can become “stupid things” when eviscerated, to paraphrase Agassiz. Let us move beyond a simple knowledge of the existence of biblical prophecies concerning Israel, and on to a greater maturity in grasping God’s heartbeat for that nation – as revealed through the prophetic portions of the Bible.

Shunning Israel

I regret to say that some believers have a detached heart regarding Israel. Their thought (and heart) processes would unfold something like this: they correctly observe that many in Israel turned away from following the Davidic dynasty (1Kings 12:16-19), or turned away from honoring the prophets (Jeremiah 7:25-26), or again turned away from embracing King Messiah Yeshua when He came at His first appearing (Matthew 23:37-39).

As a result, these believers relate to Israel with a sense of offense, turning a cold shoulder and an even colder heart away from the Jewish people. This attitude is often blended with a false sense of spiritual superiority, “We Christians are not like these bad Jews. We follow Christ and we obey the truth. But as for these people, they obviously don’t!”

From this skewed perspective, when tragedies happen to the Jewish people – like the Holocaust, pogroms, or Arab wars of annihilation waged against Israel – these brothers and sisters often respond, saying that we can be assured that such evils were prophesied against Israel in Deuteronomy 28, and that these events demonstrate that Israel is still not redeemed – that we are not yet in the decisive period of God’s favor for the Jewish people.

As well, many would add that God cannot allow Himself to show any real favor to Israel until He has totally “broken the power” of His own set-apart yet stubborn people (Daniel 12:7). Such believers would be hesitant about openly admitting that God is in the process of restoring His Jewish people to Zion. The present State of Israel, for these believers, might or might not have any theological significance or divine value.

For these believers it seems easier to theologically explain attacks against the Jewish people and their state, than to support the Jewish people and their state against such attacks. When anti-Semitic assaults are more easily justified than pro-Jewish restoration efforts, something is definitely wrong with this picture.

Just in judgment, just in restoration

The prophets agreed that one day Israel would be exiled to Assyria and Babylon because of sin and rebellion (Jeremiah 50:17). Even the nations of the world would look at the Exile and draw the same conclusion (Ezekiel 36:19-21). Yet the God who was just in His judgments on Israel is also just in His prophesied restoration of Israel: “Hear the word of YHVH, you nations, and declare in the coastlands afar off, and say, ‘He who scattered Israel shall gather him, and protect him as a shepherd protects his flock’” (Jeremiah 31:10).

God’s heart is not permanently frozen in anger against Israel, neither are His compassion’s “stuck in a moment”. Though God has had to judge sin among His people with severity, He is also burning with deep love for the Jewish people: “How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I surrender you, Israel? … My heart is upside down, and all My compassions are aflame!” (Hosea 11:8).

Restoration is a verb

We are all witnesses. We live in the day when God is restoring Israel to her promised homeland. Isaiah 11:11 promised that God would restore the Jewish people to their land a second time. The first return was in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. The second return began in the 1850’s and has increased to a flood in our day. Scriptures such as Jeremiah 16:14-15 indicate that the return of Russian speaking Jews from the land of the North (directly north of Jerusalem – the former USSR) in our day is a prophetic portent of a full return of all the exiled Jewish people to their Promised Land – even if they now live in fairly pleasant circumstances in Western countries.

As we observe with our own eyes this process of return and restoration, we also remember that there will be earth-shattering judgments on all the planet, including on the Jewish people. Nevertheless, we are eyewitness of perhaps the most astounding regathering of any nation to its homeland since time began.

To glide along this river is exciting and also a bit challenging. God is in the middle of a biblical restoration process! And how do we respond to that process? Do we take a passive “couch potato” perspective, issuing theologically bland, monosyllabic, non-committal and politically correct comments? Do some of us even hesitate to affirm what God is doing in this Jewish restoration – by withholding our prayers (Isaiah 62:1, 6-7), our comforting words (Isaiah 40:1-2) and our actions (Isaiah 59:16-21)?

Battle stations!

There is a price to pay for those who stand with this prophetic message. For a war is currently being waged between the forces of jihadi Islam (a battle supported by nearly every Islamic country) on one side, and those supporting the restoration of the Jewish people and their state-in-process on the other.

The prophetic Scriptures let us know that the battle to destroy the Jewish people and their state will intensify, until the whole world gets involved (Zechariah 14:1). Highlights will focus on attempts to invade the borders of Israel (Ezekiel 38:8-18), to divide Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:1-2) and to establish by international diktat new borders for the land of Israel (Joel 3:1-3). There will even be false and brazen attempts to claim that the land of Israel is actually occupied Arab land (Ezekiel 36:2-7; Psalm 83:1-12; etc). At that time, Jeremiah 30:13 says that nearly no one will be found to plead Israel’s case in the courts of world opinion.

In Jeremiah 30:15-17 God prophesies that He will again have mercy on Zion and restore her to her ancient land. But as for those nations who say that God no longer is ardent in His love and care for Israel, or that YHVH is not involved in restoring Israel to her Promised Land, the Lord promises that those nations will be destroyed by their own anti-Semitic plots, and that these peoples will be visited by the very judgments they attempted to bring on the Jewish people.

As we stand on the walls in intercession, prayer and petition, we need to connect the dots and not fail in our courage. We who follow Yeshua the Messiah recognize that God is working on Planet Earth, and that the restoration of the Jewish people to Zion in our day is the most prophetically significant event of the past 100 years. We are not sunshine patriots and summertime soldiers. It is time to stand up and be counted!