Apr 6, 2009

Lambs vs. the Jackals

By Jim Fletcher

As I sat last week and listened to great speakers like Thomas Sharp and Mike Gendron teach the overflow audience at the 15th Annual Tulsa Prophecy Conference, I was struck by the contrasts between Bible-believers and everyone else. I kept sensing that the jackals who absolutely hate the Bible are becoming more dangerous, radical, and bold.

What a beautiful thought.

The attendees at the conference have always known that this day would come. The apostasy predicted by Jesus, Paul, Peter, John and others is here. We are accused of being foolish, apocalyptic, and deranged for believing that it all looks darkest before the dawn. However, our great Creator God is in control.

The fact that international media, politicians, clergy, entertainment types, and outright pagans think I’m crazy fills me with another beautiful thought: I don’t care! I know whom I have believed, and I’m certain God watches and acts in history. That’s enough for me.

At dinner one evening during the conference, I was visiting with a great group of guys. We were talking about the U.S. stance toward Israel.

I couldn’t help thinking, only half-jokingly, that the last really pro Israel American president was John Adams. For those of you who are historically challenged, that was a ways back up the road. Let’s stop wondering just what is in Barack Obama’s heart regarding the Jewish state. Even if he liked Israel, which I speculate he doesn’t, he’d still sell her down the river at the first sign of trouble. Either the man is hopelessly naïve, or a meaner version of the seemingly bumbling Jimmy Carter. Obama’s dispatching of Hillary Clinton to seek-out “moderate” Taliban to dialogue with (looking for winged elephants would be more productive) tells you all you need to know about his strategy.

If Obama is a more dashing Mr. Peepers, Benjamin Netanyahu is Duke Wayne. The new Israeli prime minister, one hopes, will order a strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities. If you wonder how it will turn out…how does it always turn out? I have several Bible translations and not one of them mentions a final destruction of Israel. They do mention a final destruction of the Babylon System, which has always opposed Israel.

One couldn’t dream-up a fighting force as lethal, sophisticated, and physically and morally courageous as the Israel Defense Forces. They will win because God goes before them. Does the world believe this? No. Will the world believe this? Yes.

In Israel, you can go to the mall and see young people. They stroll the streets of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. They laugh. They shop, email, text. They are all also carrying guns. Ironically, the world views these kids defending their ancestral land as jackals, while their tormentors are considered to be lambs.

Witness the obsession with justifying Palestinian terrorism. Just this week, a psycho walked into an Israeli community just south of Jerusalem and took an axe to two young people, killing one. The killer got away, but you won’t hear much about this from the media. The Associated Press, as usual, published a piece about it, then descended into the usual discussion of the “problem” of Israel not going along with the two-state solution. It reminds me of the hatchet-piece Anthony Lewis wrote in the Washington Post a decade ago, concerning a deranged Jordanian soldier who opened fire on a group of Israeli schoolgirls during a field trip.

After an opening paragraph or two mentioning the massacre, Lewis then spent 13 paragraphs bashing the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Typical. In our world today, in which good is bad and vice versa, Israel is the jackal; her tormentors are the lambs.

A mind not damaged by anti-Bible bias can see quite clearly that Israel is besieged.

The Palestinians are aggressive, arrogant, and tragically flawed due mostly to the radicalization cultivated by the PLO/Palestinian Authority. Fifteen years ago, Oslo was supposed to see a Palestinian entity that was moderate and committed to peace. What do we see today? For starters, a few days ago, the cowardly Holocaust denier, Mahmoud Abbas, declared that Netanyahu is not committed to peace. Disingenuous Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat declared that Israel is not going along with international consensus.

What will the result of this lie be? More axe murderers, bombers, snipers. More Jews killed.

How will Israel respond and what will be the outcome?

I’m reminded of the poignant foreword that novelist Herman Wouk (The Winds of War) wrote for The Letters of Jonathan Netanyahu, which chronicled the life of the extraordinary Israeli war hero. Wouk wrote that because he knew he would have to devote his life to physically protecting his people, Yoni made himself “into a great fighting man.”

The outcome of that kind of commitment is that the real lambs will defeat once and for all the real jackals.

Because their God goes before them.

Related Links

Israeli army faces fresh criticism - Aljazeera.net
Blair urges Netanyahu not to abandon peace talks - Ha'aretz
Obama reiterates U.S. support for Palestinian state - Reuters