What if the government of your country, backed by the military, issued a proclamation to all of the citizens of your county or state that said that if you and all your neighbors do not vacate your homes by August 14, 2005 you will be living in them illegally and therefore you will be taken from them by force?
How would you respond? If you had some forewarning that this was going to be attempted wouldn't you organize a peaceful resistance to such a preposterous notion? Wouldn't you and your community come out by the tens of thousands? Wouldn't it be utterly confusing when the government and the media begin to call you a radical extremist, capable of violence and that you could be considered dangerous, just because you peacefully resist? Without ever having met you they would label you as a right-wing extremist as if coming from the right was a nasty thing. They would of course do this so that the rest of the nation would look down on you as not worthy of your home or their support.
Suppose that the reason the government is doing this is so that they can take what belonged to you, what was promised to you by God himself, and give it to your enemies! Wouldn't that seem as preposterous as the thought of giving Miami to Cuba so that the United States and Cuba could live at peace with each other?
For those who are still in the dark about what is happening in Israel these days or the significance of near future events there I will bring you up to speed. What I just described above is actually happening in Israel! Hatched within the brain of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was a plan that was born forth with the seemingly harmless name "Disengagement."
The Disengagement was
simple. It determined that Israel would abandon her morally right
determination to not negotiate with an enemy that was still killing
Israel's non-combatant citizens, namely women and children and
the husbands and fathers of such. Rather than simply wait for
the violence to stop in order to restart negotiations Israel would
now disengage from further talks with the Palestinians and simply
start implementing the U.S. backed Road Map to Peace without the
cooperation of the Palestinians.
On the surface this would seem a very intelligent step forward
out of an otherwise unprofitable stalemate. It would force the
Palestinians to the table or they would forfeit their ability
to negotiate terms. The Bush administration threw their general
support behind the plan, going as far as to make a written suggestive
promise to Israel that if she pulled all the Jews out of Gaza
and handed this land over to the Palestinians Israel would not
have to give up further West Bank cities.
What neither Sharon, Bush or the Palestinian leadership figured
into the plan was the growing orange tide that has swelled against
their plan.
Why do the Jews love the land of Israel so much? They love it because it is a tangible sign of hope given them by God himself! They can touch it and work it and live on it and call it home just as the rest of us do with our homelands. The difference is that our hold on the land is not forever, but theirs is forever and sealed in a covenant made with the creator of all things. It is a down payment on their eternal inheritance, or at least for those who choose to live by the statutes laid out in the covenant.
Ariel Sharon and his supporters see Israel as a secular state and do not recognize the ultimate authority of God or his covenant with Israel. It is probable that his heart would not soften even if the much-anticipated finding of the Ark of the Covenant were to be announced. Make no mistake, Sharon would make much political hay out of it, but his dependence is upon his own strength and wit alone, not upon God. His type is referred to in the Bible as the "sleek and fat." These are those that live according to their own strengths, understanding and selfish ambition.
Sharon has made a grave
error in judgment. He has not understood that God's covenant is
written into the hearts of many Jews even if it cannot be etched
into his own cold heart. Some who are resisting Sharon understand
what resides in their hearts and will resist him with everything
they are and have. Others who have joined them have a vague sense
of it all, but are still searching for the meaning of their hearts
yearning. Some of these will be swayed away by the worldly wisdom
of those who dream of a world ruled by one government. Others
do not yet feel such a connection to God via the land and the
covenant that grants it to them. They are there to resist the
utter stupidity of giving away their homes and land to an enemy
who only dreams of their total annihilation. They clearly see
the evil of giving away the land that many gave their lives for
during Israel's struggle to exist. To be sure there are many who
are sitting on the proverbial fence post, many of them will eventually
join the orange tide because for a moment the truth will appear
clear to them. But they are not sincere and will fall away.
We are witnessing the beginning of the separating of the goats
from the sheep of Israel , the separating of those who live for
God from those who live for themselves.
Why orange? It is the color of the "Jude" Star of David patches sewn on the garments of Jews in Nazi concentration camps. It was chosen as the color of resistance to totalitarianism. These people wear this color as a statement that never again will they go quietly as so many did to the Nazi camps and ultimately their deaths. Orange is being worn by the descendants of those who wore it in the camps and by many now elderly survivors of those camps. Together they are now marching to the aid of their brethren in Gaza in defiance of Israel's Nero!
The United States has
intensified its interest in this diabolical plan since it was
first conceived. Presently U.S. support has grown into insistence
on its implementation, justifying pressure on Israel as being
essential to fulfilling the Road Map to Peace.
I have written much about the Road Map. In essence it is the "covenant
of death" spoken of by the prophet Isaiah about the end-times.
The Disengagement is a major step towards the covenant with death.
The Road Map calls for the declaration of a Palestinian State
on the covenant lands of Israel that will be acknowledged by Israel.
This will be done in exchange for Israel's enemies making peace
with her. For those who study the prophecies, it is understood
that Israel will have only a brief moment of peace before being
punished for rebellion against the covenant. Israel's enemies
will swarm like a flood over her and so will begin the desolation
(a.k.a. tribulation) that will lead to the return of Jesus Christ.
Daniel tells us that those who know their God will resist the antichrist when he acts against the covenant. We must resist the spirit of the antichrist. We must pray for the Jews who know their God. We, whether Palestinian, American, European or any other gentiles, who are grafted into the root through Jesus Christ are bound into the same covenant and the hope it promises to the Jews. We have a direct interest. We are watching the fulfillment of end-time prophecies! Those who stand firm to the end will be saved and then God will join his other flocks together with Israel and they will become one in the land.
Pray for those who
resist evil in Israel and pray for the peace of Jerusalem!