Living Waters Fellowship Blog

American-Israeli Relations

By R. Baruch Meir Clein

I recently came across some information regarding American-Israeli relations that I thought was worth sharing. I am not exactly sure what it all means, but I have learned enough in my life to know that there is no such thing as coincidences.The following is just a sampling…with the real kicker at the end.

October 30, 1991:
President Bush (1st one) opened the Madrid Conference, the intended purpose of which was to strip Israel of its land in exchange for “peace” with the Palestinian Arabs.

ON THAT VERY DAY, an extremely rare storm formed on the coast of Nova Scotia, a storm later named “The Perfect Storm” (which the book and movie were about), and record-setting waves pounded the New England coast – causing heavy damage to the President’s home in Kennebunkport, Maine.

August 23, 1992:
The Madrid Conference moved to Washington, D.C. with the same agenda of attempting to wrest land from a sovereign country. That, of course, would create a state of homelessness for thousands of Jews.

ON THAT VERY DAY, Hurricane Andrews produced an estimated $30 billion in damage, leaving 180,000 Floridians homeless. It was the worst natural disaster to ever hit America – at least up to that time.

January 16, 1994:
President Clinton meets with the Syrian President in order to develop a strategy that would force Israel to give up the Golan Heights.

LESS THAN 24 HOURS LATER, a powerful 6.9 earthquake rocks southern California, leaving countless Americans homeless.

March 1, 1997:
Arafat begins a one-month tour of America and President Clinton publicly rebukes Israel for not surrendering land for peace.

ON THAT VERY DAY, that Arafat lands in America, powerful tornadoes devastate huge sections of the country while ripping across Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Days later, as Arafat is still touring, storms hit the Dakotas, causing the worst flooding of the century.
Weeks of storms rage throughout the Midwest until Arafat completes his tour. The day he leaves the U.S., the storms “suddenly” begin to settle down, and end within a few days.

January 21, 1998:
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu meets with Clinton and is coldly received as President Clinton and Secretary of State Madeline Albright refuse to lunch with him.

ON THAT VERY DAY, just hours later, the Monica Lewinski scandal erupts and will consume the major portion of Clinton’s time for the remainder of his tenure.

Others include…

The World Trade Center Bombing of 1993, on the day that Secretary Albright leaves on a trip to visit 8 Arab/Muslim countries to develop a strategy against Israel.

The Northridge Earthquake in 1994, on the day that President Clinton and Syrian President Assad demand that Israel turn the Golan Heights over to Syria.

Ravaging tornadoes hit the Mid-West on the day in 2002 that Bush negotiates Arafat’s release from Israeli capture.

Hurricane Lili hitting the U.S. the same time in 2002 that Bush refuses to move the American Embassy to Jerusalem and refuses to recognize Jerusalem as the Capital.

But here, ladies and gents, is the kicker.

August of 2005 was the month when Sharon expelled the Jews of Gaza from their homes. Just about 10,000 Jews were made homeless, in accordance with the demands of the American President and his Secretary of State. The operation was being concluded on August 29.

ON THAT VERY DAY, America was hit by THE WORST natural disaster to have ever occurred in America. Hurricane Katrina hit the New Orleans area and just about 500,000 people were made homeless.

10,000 Jews out of a population of 6 million is a percentage of .00167.
500,000 Americans out of a population of 300 million is a percentage of .00167.

Like I said, I don’t believe in coincidences. All I can say is that the next time this government comes down hard on our brethren over there, we all might want to duck for cover.

Upon receiving a book in the mail from Artscroll(.com), they presented to me a catalogue which I began to flip through.  I found that they have a new Interlinear Chumash Series that is being released in increments (Genesis-Exodus-Leviticus-Numbers-Deuteronomy, not in that order).  Fortunately Genesis and Numbers are available online now for $17.99 each.  Unfortunately, the other three books are not complete yet, and Deuteronomy is not scheduled to release until 2010!  I hope that date gets adjusted….

I saw a sample page and this resource looks so cool and easy to read. Here is a link to a sample page, there are four of them:

http://www.artscroll.com/images/insides/inc1h-3.html#view-link

Here is just a link to the information page:

http://www.artscroll.com/Categories/inc.html

I hope somebody reading this thinks this is neat too!

Cliff

In Genesis 17 it says:

 19 Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. ^[d] I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. 20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. 21 But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.” 22 When he had finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him.

My question is in regard to Ishmael’s nation.  I guess I was understanding that Isaac, with the whole covenant thing, was in line for salvation and all that good stuff.   I was thinking that would leave Ishmael and his nation on the outs?  However, in the last study session there seemed to be another opinion on Ishmael and Ishmael’s nation.  What will become of Ishmael’s “great nation” in end times and beyond?  Is there some support in the bible for Ishmael’s nation being saved or grafted in?

TR

The reading from the prohets this week is Isaiah 54:1-10.  While there is MUCH we can talk about from the Torah portion, especially practically speaking, I want to focus just a minute on these verses, particularly 6-10.

6 The LORD will call you back as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit— a wife who married young, only to be rejected,” says your God. 7 For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back. 8 In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you,” says the LORD our Redeemer. 9 “To me this is like the days of Noah, when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth. So now I have sworn not to be angry with you, never to rebuke you again. 10 Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the LORD, who has compassion on you.

Who could the wife in verse 6 be, but Israel?  In other words, us.  Note the compassion and grace the Father chooses to bestow, even though his children acted disgracefully, and even drove Him to abandon them for a time.  But now, towards these final days and years, all these beautiful prophecies are becoming a vivid reality for us.  How awesome to be alive and to witness ancient words being fulfilled in our days.

-Cliff

6 Elul 5767   (8-20-07)

I have copied a comment into a new post for everyone’s convenience: 

Shof’tim

I am unsure where I need to go to start a new post, so for now I will do so here.

Having been studying Torah for one year the most unusual concept for me to embrace is community living. Don’t get me wrong…..I embrace the idea of living with less walls and more interdependence……but I foresee lots of bugs having to be worked out. Quite a task and how ever can it be accomplished has been my concern.

Today I read D’varim 17 where the witness are to be the first to stone to death one they have witnessed serving or worshipping other gods. Oh my. A far cry from the head-turning, or worse yet….the condoning of idol worship taking place today.

Questions/comments:

1) When will commands such as this be implemented?
2) D’varim 17:8 says, “IF a case come before you at your city gate……”
I am thankful that in Matt 18:15-20 Yeshua gives us guidelines on how to deal with one another’s sin. It seems this is a great route to take now in preparing for future community living. How better for us to learn now how to appropriately hold each other accountable for our actions than to jump right into the stoning process or be tempted to ignore innappropriate behavior.

One of the neat things I have done in recent months is read a portion of the 5 Gospels (Mat, Mark, Luk, & Jon plus Acts), along with the Torah.

Last week led up to Acts 7, and the “trial” of Stephen by the Sanhedrin.  Stephen was of course accused by false witnesses and testimonies (a.k.a. lies) that he spoke against Moses and the Torah.

The court essentially asked if he held to these beliefs posed by his accusers.  And then they saw his face radiating like an angel.  Wow, think on that for a second.  So then, after that, Stephen delves back to the beginning with Abraham, and gives the most interestingly direct speech about the history of God’s people, leading up to today (his day).  He basically explained how the Jews of the day were hardened and uncircumcised in their hearts, how they were involved in the murder of the Just One, and how they didn’t keep the Law.

After reading it with fresh lenses, I realize just how incredible this moment must have been when the court heard his testimony, and how much it would have angered them.  We know the result was his death by stoning, but he looked up and saw Yeshua at the Father’s right hand.  You know that he knew he did the right thing.  What an example.

That story amazed me, and the history lesson he laid out to get there.

I wanted to do one post to get the ball rolling a little bit.  While reading through the portion this week, I glossed over a few highlights from the “surface level.”  Three times in this portion the Father tells us to not eat the blood of the animals, but we are to pour it on the ground like water.  I remember a certain Messiah whose side was pierced and blood and water came out.  In Deuteronomy 12:23 it says that the blood is the life.  Yeshua poured His life out on the earth when He was crucified and His blood was spilled.  I talked more about this in the New Testament write-up this week, which I may or may not continue to do. What do you think?  You can read it here: www.yourlivingwaters.com/pdf_files/reeh_nt_connections.pdf.

Many subjects are touched on in the portion.  We have Deuteronomy 13 with the rules about false prophets.  We have much about tithing.  Interestingly, I have read about tithing to the Levites, and that not only did the Levites act as priests for the people, but they were also the teachers in the Land.  This provides a little guidance for me in my tithing.  It seems that teachers deserve some help, as they are there doing what they do for our benefit.  Paul talks about this also, about his physical needs, though I don’t have the reference right now.

Those are a couple of thoughts. Thanks for reading.