“No reason to get excited,” the thief he kindly spoke. “There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke. But you and I, we’ve been through that and this is not our fate. So let us not talk falsely, now. The hour is getting late.” (Bob Dylan, “All Along The Watchtower”, Dwarf Music © 1968, 1996) In …Read More
One day, one battle, one Lord, one name
Matthew Miller (better known as Chasidic/reggae beatboxer/rapster Matisyahu) released an April 2008 recording called ‘One Day.’ Speaking about this monster hit Matisyahu said that “it is an anthem of hope with a big beat, the kind of song that makes you bob your head and open your heart at the same time.” The song expresses a confidence that God has put us on this earth for a reason and …Read More
Dissecting Israel
High school Biology teachers often guide their students through the dissection of frogs or fish. The stench of formaldehyde wafts around trembling fingers as scalpels slice through rubbery material. Students squint at the internal organs of the amphibian or the vertebrate and then roughly sketch the physical details. There is no time for lasting emotional connection with the dissected creature, whose remains are soon disposed of in the nearest rubbish …Read More
Sweeping away the refuge of lies (Isaiah 28:16-17)
Yesterday (Sunday January 15, 2017) in the early evening a rooster crowed in Paris. A small droplet of victory fell from Heaven. The “Conférence pour la Paix au Proche-Orient” (Conference for Peace in the Near East) decided not to approve its original detailed pre-conference communiqué which would have been an evil decree ratcheting up ‘lawfare’ against the Jewish state. Over the past week believers worldwide have called out to Jacob’s …Read More
Replacement Blowback
Newton’s third law of motion states that “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” This principle also manifests itself in politics, in war and in religion. The intelligence community uses the term ‘blowback’ to describe an analogous dynamic – the unintended consequences, unwanted side-effects or repercussions of a black operation that backfires. Replacement Theology (an anti-Semitic expression of Christian theology that raised its head in the 2nd Century …Read More
Robbing Jacob
One of the pillars of morality for the human race is found in Leviticus 19:11-12: “You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another. You shall not swear falsely by My name, so as to profane the name of your God; I am YHVH” (Leviticus 19:11-12). God connects robbery to dealing falsely and to lying to one another. Robbing Jacob in Genesis Most Christian sermons castigate Jacob as a thief …Read More