It is said that it was the oppressive Pharaoh Seti I who enslaved the Hebrews in Egypt and it was Ramses II who reigned over the Exodus in about 1290 BCE. God sent a good man called Moses to take the Hebrews out of Egypt after this God of Israel had sent ten plagues that eventually persuaded King Ramses to let the slaves go. God caused a volcano to erupt, so the light guided them through the night and its smoke gave them direction through the day. They were guided where to cross the Red Sea and the army of the Pharoah was lost, as they tried to follow the escaping slaves. Moses led them to the mountain where the God of Israel dwelt. Moses was given the Ten Commandments. Meanwhile the Children of Israel became impatient and stopped fearing God. They built a golden idol to worship and they sufficiently misbehaved for God to sentence them to walk in the wilderness for forty years. When they were brought to the Promised Land of Canaan Moses remained behind and Joshua was chosen by God to lead the Children of Israel.
By the time of Jesus, the great temple built by Solomon in 957 BCE was ruled over by the Sanhedrin. They made it into a moneymaking venture. All money brought to the Temple was said to be unclean and there were moneychangers there to exchange it into temple currency, which was said to be cleaned. They charged a hansom interest for doing this and Jesus famously accused them of turning God’s house into a den of thieves. They no longer feared God and carried out their wishes rather than His. Shortly after this, the Temple Guards arrested Jesus and had him tried before the Sanhedrin. Jesus spoke in such a way that they failed to understand his meaning. They wanted to kill him but were unable to by Roman Law, so they took him to Pontius Pilate, who was the Roman prefect of Judea. He found no fault in Jesus and famously washed his hands of it. The Sanhedrin argued and eventually persuaded Pontius Pilate to have Jesus crucified. As he had promised, he rose again in three days.
They became fearless of the God of Israel once again and between 66 to 70 AD took on the might of the Roman Empire. Their Temple was sacked. The remaining Israelites killed or scattered. They were a broken people and made their living more often as not by lending money. They became a hated race and in Germany in the Second World War many were rounded up and executed. God during this time had been trying to get the Jewish people to love all men and share with their fellow man. In 1948, they were given the land of Palestine but instead of living in peace with the Palestinians they took over more and more of their land and houses, which has led to the continued hostilities. The Americans especially gave defense and weapons of mass destruction to intimidate their Arab neighbors and the Middle East, as it is known, is an uneasy area of religious conflict, where right wing politics rules uneasily. There have been many conflicts between the Israeli Jews and the Muslim Arabs.
The Americans apply diplomacy wherever they feel they can, but it always has the heaviest slant in favor of the Jews and against the Arabs. There are some uneasy alliances between the more westernised states, but as wars throughout this area continue to be godless and bloody, there are many left dead through indiscriminate bombing, fighting and the starvation of women and children. The charities do valiant work but cannot save all those who get injured and are malnourished. When Israel responds to attacks it is always disproportionate in its response with the targeting of civilians on the excuse that there are enemy leaders living among them. Until the right-wing leaders of the Israeli government learn to value life that is all God made, regardless of the man made labels that may be put on them. Spiritual Law is God’s Law for all nations and all men and women must abide by it in truth and honesty and not just for what they can get out of it.
Friday, 14th May 2021
No comments:
Post a Comment