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Behold!
Torah Portion: Deuteronomy 11:26-16:17
Re’eh (‘Behold’)
The word Re’eh that starts our Torah portion this week is an interjection demanding immediate attention: Behold! The word re’eh (behold, see, take note) occurs over a thousand times in the Tanakh and is often used by the prophets to preface statements of what God will do.
God says to Israel though Moses: Re’eh, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse (Deut 11:26). This is an important ‘here-and-now’ choice (today), a decision with serious consequences. Israel had seen much of God’s power, protection and provision, and many miracles. They were now given a choice regarding their future: would they hear (i.e. listen) and obey the commandments of God (the Hebrew words for hear (sh’ma) and obey (shamar) come from the same root)?
This is a choice we all must make – and like Israel, it must be made as a matter of urgency (Psalm 95 also says, “Today, if you hear God’s voice, do not harden your hearts…”).
Israel’s Instructions
Israel was given a number of clear instructions which we would do well to heed today. First, they were not to go after other gods or follow the ways of the nations (Deut 12:31), where every man did whatever was right in his own eyes (Deut 12:8). Instead they were to be careful to hear and obey all God’s regulations, “that it may always go well with you and your children” (Deut 12:28). God’s laws were for the protection of His people, who were to be separate from all the other nations on earth.
Secondly, Israel was to not listen to false prophets, who ensnared people into idolatry. This was a test of whether their love for the Lord was wholehearted (Deut 13:8). Again, this is so applicable today to us, surrounded by many false voices (1 John 4:1).
Finally, God stressed the importance of true worship, instructing Israel to observe the main Feasts of the Lord - Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot (Deut 16:1, 10 and 13 respectively).
Vital Choice
Choosing to hear and obey brings blessing and life: “It will go well with you and your children”. Refusal to hear and obey brings cursing and death.
But how can we hear God’s voice among the many noisy demands of this world? It is so easy to focus on worldly voices. God’s word is clear: Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God (James 4:4). It’s that serious. God’s mercy and encouragement says: THEREFORE, CHOOSE LIFE.
Just as Moses challenges us, so do the prophets who followed him. Listen to Isaiah: “Why spend your money on what is not bread, and your labour on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to Me, and eat what is good…Come to Me; hear Me that your soul may live” (Isa 55:2): THEREFORE, CHOOSE LIFE.
Most importantly, Jesus echoes the same truth: “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:35-51).
God’s promise of life is also a promise of restoration. We can see this being fulfilled before our eyes in the nation of Israel – born again physically (Isaiah 66:8) and soon to be born again spiritually.
THEREFORE, RE’EH, CHOOSE LIFE. Let us make the right choice - today.
Author: Greg Stevenson
The Household of God
Christians have a choice: apostasy and judgment, or faithfulness and preparation?
Pope Turns Judas
But is strongly criticised by brave bishops
On the Death of Robert Mugabe
Monster or hero?
By Susan Gibbs, daughter-in-law of a former Governor of Rhodesia.
Very few, black or white, genuinely mourn the death of Robert Mugabe. They may praise him as ‘an icon of Africa’s liberation’, but few will genuinely mourn his passing. Nor should they, for even by the abysmal standards of post-colonial Africa, ‘Comrade Bob’ was particularly bad.
In his first address after becoming President of Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia) following the 1979 Lancaster House Agreement, he surprised even his supporters by declaring in clipped English: “I urge you, whether you are black or white, to join me in a new pledge…to forget our grim past, forgive others, and forget.” Yet it was Mugabe himself who never forgot or forgave. Years ago a close friend of his said: “Mugabe hates…nobody hates like Mugabe.”
Not fully aware of the depth of this hate, nor of the spiritual battle being waged, many have searched for other answers to his murderous malevolence. The fact remains that Mugabe was no founding father of Zimbabwe: he was the appalling destroyer of the ‘Jewel of Africa’.
Mugabe’s True Colours
Mugabe in 1982In the midst of the ‘Chimurenga’ (Zimbabwe’s war of liberation from white rule begun in the 1970s by bush fighters), at a summit of post-colonial African leaders in Gabon (West Africa), crucial decisions were imminent on Zimbabwe’s future leadership. The choice was between supporting Mugabe or his arch-rival, Joshua Nkomo. Mugabe was armed and supported by China, while Nkomo was armed and supported by Russia. Mugabe won the day – but he wanted one-party rule and in 1984 Nkomo fled temporarily to England.
Soon after taking power in 1980 Mugabe showed his true colours, as a tyrant intolerant of opposition, consolidating his power in what became known as the ‘Gukurahundi massacre’ in Matabeleland. A conservative estimate concluded that 20,000 black civilians (including women and children) were slaughtered in what has been classified internationally as genocide.
As the nation plunged into decades of famine, an HIV epidemic and hyperinflation in which the central bank printed useless notes (in one night 12 zeros were wiped off the currency), the arch-proponent of pan-Africanism and Marxism sought to apportion blame for the chaos and turned on Zimbabwe’s 4,000 white farmers.
Nothing better sums up Mugabe’s madness: the farmers were among Africa’s most efficient producers of food, the backbone of the economy and essential to the country’s survival, yet he turned on them with murderous viciousness. In the six months before we left at the end of 1983, 10% of the white farmers in our district had been murdered (including, during one Easter holiday, two little girls - school friends of our son - on a neighbouring farm).
Years ago a close friend of his said: “Mugabe hates…nobody hates like Mugabe.”
Brazen Corruption
Few leaders in modern history have been more brazenly corrupt than Mugabe. As the nation sunk into impoverishment, he taunted his citizens by throwing lavish parties at which French champagne and caviar were served.
During those long years many of us kept praying and asking the Lord how he could keep getting away with it for so long. But in Zimbabwe the elderly are respected and as the only African leader who had fought in a ‘war of liberation’, Mugabe was venerated in surrounding countries. Eventually his people were so weakened that they were unable to rise up against him and ZANU, his political party.
Realising at one point that his country needed to work to feed itself, Mugabe briefly pacified white farmers by offering Denis Norman the job of Minister of Agriculture (Norman, previously a minister in Ian Smith’s government, now lives in the UK and runs a small Christian charity dedicated to helping those who suffered during the war years). But after Mandela was released in 1990 and the glory bestowed on Mugabe as the golden boy of Africa shifted southwards, Mugabe ceased trying to woo the world.
Mbare township before (left) and after (right) Operation MurambatsvinaHe sent army personnel to DRC to plunder their diamonds and rape their women, and used army brutality to pillage Zimbabwe’s own diamonds, leading to the suffering and deaths of civilians in Marange. One of his worst actions, in the middle of a very severe winter in 2005, was Operation ‘Clear out Rubbish’ (Murambatsvina) in which he bulldozed slums in Harare. This resulted in the loss of some 700,000 homes and livelihoods, with an estimated 2.4 million indirectly affected. This still haunts many in Zimbabwe today.
Learning to Forgive
Despite his fierce anti-colonialism, declared Marxism and determination to end British rule, Mugabe clung to many customs that echoed colonial rule and maintained a deep personal admiration for the Queen.1
My father-in-law represented the Queen in his capacity of Governor of Rhodesia between 1959 and 1969 and Mugabe wrote a glowing introduction to his biography “honouring him as a man of principle and commitment”.
He later followed this up by sending the 5th Brigade, his North Korea-trained praetorian guard, to kill our family.
We left the country, but the couple who bought our farm were murdered a few months later. We feel profoundly blessed to have escaped without having had a family tragedy. A great many of us have had to learn the true meaning of forgiveness. I remain overwhelmed and grateful for the privilege to have felt the closeness of God during those years.
I remain overwhelmed and grateful for the privilege to have felt the closeness of God during those years.
How to Eulogise
Throughout his long reign, much of Mugabe’s corruption and depravity was unknown to the wider world, as he stifled freedom of expression. Newspapers faced censorship and a ruthless and unrelenting onslaught was mounted on journalists, media houses and individuals who dared express themselves. On one particular occasion I remember the Bulawayo Chronicle was published with an entirely blank front page.
The tragic wreck of a country Zimbabwe became remained two years after Mugabe was deposed in an army coup. Mnangagwa, who has taken over, was involved with Mugabe’s atrocities and is generally regarded as worse.
Reflecting on Mugabe’s death, Fr. William Guri (CSsR, PhD) said the following:
For me to eulogize Robert Gabriel Mugabe would be an act of great betrayal to the many people who died and whose lives have been damaged for life by his long rule.
To eulogize Mugabe for me is to capitulate and give up the struggle for human rights and social justice. It will be to celebrate the triumph of the evil over the good, the false over the true, the darkness over the light, the irrational over the rational, the inhuman over the human.
After thinking long and hard about Robert Gabriel Mugabe, I have concluded that it is alright to feel no sadness and grief. It is alright not to mourn. It is also alright not to feel guilty for not feeling sad and for not mourning. Much as he disregarded Christian values and much as he debased humanity, I shall not allow him to diminish my Christian faith nor my humanity, which in Africa we call Ubuntu.
“Moreover, no man knows when his hour will come:
As fish are caught in a cruel net,
Or birds taken in a snare,
So men are trapped by evil times
That fall unexpectedly upon them”
(Ecclesiastes 9:12)
Susan Gibbs is the daughter-in-law of the late Sir Humphrey Gibbs, former Governor of Southern Rhodesia. She is the author of Call Of The Litany Bird: Surviving The Zimbabwe Bush War (2011, Loose Chippings).
Notes
1 A devout Catholic, educated by Jesuits, Mugabe was also a deeply religious man. His mother lived with him during his early years in Government House and each morning they took communion together. As the years went by and we began to see the face of evil in his actions, many felt that the Vatican should have taken action against him. Instead (grotesquely, it was felt) he was even permitted to attended the funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005.
News in Brief, 13 September 2019
Studies in Jeremiah (31)
A timeless message about life’s true meaning.
Review: Body Zero
Paul Luckraft reviews ‘Body Zero’ by Nicholas Paul Franks (self-published, 2019)
Discipline is a sign of the Father's love
Torah Portion: Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25
Ekev (‘If…’)
Just before this passage, the Lord reminded the people of Israel that He had chosen them out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be His people, His treasured possession (Deut 7:6). This was both a unique privilege and an awesome responsibility. If they kept the Lord’s commands, He would be faithful to bless them more than any other people.
During their 40 years in the wilderness, the Lord led them, fed them and kept their clothes from wearing out, although they went through challenging times when there seemed to be no provision. God tested them in order to show what was in their hearts and whether they would keep His commands. They had to understand their own weakness and their need to trust Him.
Even our Lord, Yeshua, was tested for 40 days in the wilderness and we, too, will go through trials to teach us to depend on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. It is a sign of the Father’s care, not His neglect or abandonment, that He trains us with loving discipline. In difficulties, we cry out to the Lord. But do we continue to trust when it is tough, and do we remember to keep thanking Him when all is going well?
Danger: Complacency and Pride
The Lord was bringing Israel into a fertile land where they would prosper, multiply and feel secure. Then would come the danger of complacency and the temptation to become proud, forgetting all that the Lord had done to lead them there. “You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me’” (Deut 8:17).
Denying the Lord’s provision – including of our ability to produce wealth – is a dangerous step. Today, again and again, we see people lauded for their scientific discoveries or remarkable achievements with no credit given to the Creator who made them possible.
In their pride, Israel would start thinking that the Lord had given them the land because they deserved it. However, the Lord made it clear that it was not because of their righteousness or integrity, but because of the wickedness of the other nations already living there. What was more, if Israel followed their example of pagan worship, they too would be driven from the land. We know that this is just what happened, although they were (and continue to be) His treasured possession.
No-one Can Boast
When we are blessed, are we ever tempted to think that we are somehow better than others? We have been chosen to be holy and blameless in His sight (Eph 1:4) and to be raised with Yeshua and seated with Him in the heavenly realms, but this is all through God’s grace - not of ourselves but by the gift of God, so that no-one can boast.
Instead, we are warned not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought (Rom 12:3). We are to humble themselves; it is the Lord who raises up and blesses (1 Pet 5:6; Matt 23:12). “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ” (Eph 1:3).
Author: Catharine Pakington
A Rebellious Generation
Where is the prophetic voice that is so desperately needed?
We should not be surprised at the scenes of chaos in Parliament. Each of the MPs has been voted as a representative of the people. A rebellious Parliament is a reflection of a rebellious nation. The chaotic scenes are simply a reflection of a nation in chaos. We have rejected the venerated heritage of our fathers and what we are seeing is the result of our own folly.
The House of Commons is a reflection of family life in the nation. There is hardly a family in Britain that has not been affected by breakdown. Millions of children suffer from the disruptive behaviour of their parents; they lose the security of home life and they lose their friends, their education is disrupted and their life chances lessened. Millions of children now suffer mental and emotional problems because the nation has lost its moral and spiritual compass.
The Bible that provided the basis for personal and corporate behaviour is no longer taught in our schools to all children and is absent from the vast majority of homes; so family life no longer reflects the values of truth, integrity, faithfulness and loyalty.
This is why we have a chaotic and dysfunctional Parliament. It all starts in the family! If children are brought up in loving, stable and secure families and taught biblical values at a young age, the chances are very high that they will grow up to be stable and trustworthy adults, speaking the truth and making a good contribution to the community.
The House of Commons is a reflection of family life in the nation: dysfunctional, rebellious, chaotic.
50 Years of Change
For 50 years this nation has been steadily eroding its biblical foundation that made it a great nation and what we now see in our dysfunctional, rebellious Parliament is the result. Both the Leader of the Opposition and our Prime Minister have been notorious rebels throughout their political careers. They now shout at each other across the despatch box, the world looking on with amazement to see the famous ‘Mother of Parliaments’ torn asunder by 650 rebels in utter disarray.
For the older generation who were brought up with biblical values of gentleness, respect and unselfishness – (God first, others second, self last) – it is simply excruciating to watch this generation of overgrown, unruly infants tearing the nation apart with their mindless behaviour. I can echo the words of the Prophet Ezekiel: “Son of man, you are living among a rebellious people. They have eyes to see but do not see and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious people” (Ezek 12:2).
Who is to Blame?
When everything goes wrong in the nation, the biblical principle is not to blame the politicians but to blame the religious leaders. Listen to this, also from Ezekiel: “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves” (Ezek 34:10).
And from Jeremiah: “Among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen something horrible: they commit adultery and live a lie. They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from his wickedness” (Jer 23:14).
As a senior churchman who has worked alongside the last four archbishops of Canterbury (Donald Coggan, Robert Runcie, George Carey and Rowan Williams), I have been a close observer of church leadership in the nation since the mid-1970s.
I saw at first-hand what a group of unbelieving bishops did when Donald Coggan made an impassioned ‘call to the nation’ to return to biblical values in 1975. They hounded him out of office, vowing that they would oppose any other Bible-believing evangelical getting into Lambeth Palace – hence the appointment of Robert Runcie, the most liberal Archbishop we have ever had, at a time of radical social change when the prophetic voice of the Church was desperately needed.1
When everything goes wrong in the nation, the biblical principle is not to blame the politicians but to blame the religious leaders.
No Prophetic Voice
Today we have a group of 25 Church of England bishops publishing a statement about Brexit that is full of political correctness but has no Gospel in it. It has no prophetic call to the nation to turn to God. In fact, there is no mention of God!!! No call to prayer, no call to ‘repentance’, no recognition of our departure from the word of the Lord which is why the nation is in such trouble!
The bishops reflect the same secular humanist, globalist spirit as the rest of the establishment who are defying the referendum and trying to keep Britain locked into the European Union.
Replacing Israel
If church leaders would only bother to read the Bible – the whole Bible, not just little bits of the New Testament – they would understand the nature of the spiritual battle that is raging across Britain and much of Europe today.
In their ignorance, they think that the Church has replaced Israel, so they don’t bother to study the Old Testament. Therefore, they do not understand the lessons we can learn from the history of Israel: they don’t know what the prophets refer to as the ‘deeds of the Lord’ and they don’t understand the way God is working out his purposes today – how he is shaking the nations, even sending natural disasters that we label ‘climate change’. They don’t understand why God is doing all these things – in fact they do not even recognise that God is active today in the world he created! The Church is silent at a time when the word of the Lord is desperately needed.
We are a nation under judgment - that is why there is such confusion. There are strong warnings in the Bible about the consequences of rejecting the teaching God has given to us: “The Lord will send on you...confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to…” (Deut 28:20). This is what we are seeing in our Parliament and on our city streets. The only hope is for repentance and turning to God - but when will the prophetic voice be heard? Do we have to wait until catastrophe envelops the nation?
References
1 See Clifford Hill, The Reshaping of Britain. Wilberforce Publications, 2018.
Understanding the Times
Brexit, Iran and questions about the end of days.
The news media is awash with Brexit and we all know we are living in momentous days. Everyone is murmuring that this week may have been the most significant week in British politics for centuries.
I have no wish to detract from this state of affairs. Virtually all of us are, I believe, experiencing a sense of reverence for the seriousness of the situation in which we find ourselves. Seeking the Lord for how to pray must be a top priority. Nevertheless, let’s not forget that there is a big wide world out there, beyond Brexit, which has not dropped everything this week to stay glued to the BBC Parliament channel. Other things of significance have been happening that we would do well to heed.
Prelude to War
Top of the bill is surely Iran’s newest contravention of the 2015 nuclear deal, bringing the ayatollahs another step closer to nuclear capability. Previously enriching uranium at 4.5%, today (6 September) will see a move beyond this, potentially of up to 20%.1 This comes in the midst of a spike in Middle East tensions that saw Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon narrowly avoid escalation to all-out war last weekend.
In the bigger picture, Iranian entrenchment across the entire region shows no signs of letting up, despite the combined efforts of Israel and its allies. Commentators have long warned that when the Syrian civil war finishes, Iran’s efforts to exploit regional instability to its own ends will start to consolidate. Indeed, the dust has not even settled in Syria and Hezbollah is on the brink of developing a precision-guided missile system with the express aim of attacking Israel, while Iranian proxies from Iraq to Gaza, Syria to Yemen are being resourced to the same end.
These are grave matters that go far beyond wars of words on Twitter. The mullahs in Tehran, openly hell-bent on wiping Israel from the face of the planet, are ideologically compelled: in other words, in the long run, sanctions and diplomacy may not make any difference whatsoever.2 Barring pre-emptive (or divine!) intervention, we are witnessing the prelude to a combined assault on Israel that could end up being both ballistic and nuclear, with the IDF forced into a multi-front war with enemies on all sides - not unlike the situation Israel faced immediately after its national rebirth just over 70 years ago (though with much superior weaponry).
No wonder then, that in this ‘week of all weeks’ in British politics, Israeli PM Netanyahu has managed to book an unexpected visit to Boris Johnson, later seeing the US Secretary of Defense who has also been in London (as has US Vice-President Mike Pence). Perhaps Israel is quietly seeking support for military action on a different level from that on which it has currently been operating.
I have no wish to detract from the seriousness of the situation in Britain – but there is a big wide world out there, beyond Brexit, which has not dropped everything this week to stay glued to the BBC Parliament channel.
Are We Nearly There Yet?
This entire situation does not escape those with an interest in eschatology (that is, the study of the end times), because Persia (modern-day Iran) features in passages of Scripture that are clearly yet to be fulfilled. The most obvious example is Ezekiel 38-39, which tells of a multi-army war on Israel involving Iran, nations from north Africa, likely Turkey and possibly led by Russia.3
Although there is disagreement about just when this war is supposed to take place in the grand scheme of God’s end-time purposes, and we are clearly not there yet, we watch current trends with interest. Most of the peoples mentioned in these chapters harbour a militant hatred of Israel today (or ally with those who do), in an increasingly joined-up manner.
As children of our Heavenly Father, the question always hovering near us is the question all children notoriously ask their parents on long journeys: Are we nearly there yet?
Many generations have thought that theirs was the ultimate - the last - yet history has continued, God’s grace towards sinful man outlasting all expectations. But this is no reason to become complacent: we are all called to be watchful and alert, especially when we see a particular selection of signs coming to pass in close conjunction.
Signs All Around
These are outlined, most fundamentally, in Matthew 24, flanked by the Old Testament prophets, many other New Testament passages and of course Revelation. The signs include:
- The restoration of Israel from international exile to the Promised Land, for a second and final time;
- A widespread falling away from Christianity and rejection of belief in God;
- The spread of selfishness and moral licentiousness with a consequent rise in pride, greed, abuse and violence;
- An increase of deception and false prophecy within the Church;
- Political turbulence all over the world, part of the great ‘shaking of the nations’ prophesied in Haggai 2:6 and Hebrews 12:10;
- Worldwide persecution of believers and a general hatred towards the Gospel;
- The move towards a global government of an authoritarian, surveillance-based nature.
It is increasingly impossible to deny that these things are coming to pass today, albeit perhaps not yet on the scale described in Scripture. This begs more questions for believers here in Britain: where does Brexit fit into this big picture? If these signs are coming to pass, since they are biblically inevitable, why bother to defend our democratic freedoms or take a stand against the existential threats to our crumbling culture? What possibility for revival is left?
Many generations have thought that theirs was the ultimate - the last - yet history has continued. But this is no reason to become complacent. We are all called to watch the signs.
The Gospel at the Centre
I do not pretend to have all the answers to these questions – but then, I’m not entirely sure that we need them. What we need is a renewed and robust focus on the Gospel. “No man knows the day or the hour” at which the Son of Man will return (Matt 24:36; Acts 1:7). We might have every reason to believe that his return is truly ‘right at the door’ (Matt 24:33) - and we should certainly live like it. But we do not know what mercies the Lord will yet grant us, nor what intercession might yet achieve.
One thing we can all be asking with great fervency is for “the Lord of the harvest to send out workers”, for “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few” (Matt 9:37-38). We can be certain that the Lord is working his purposes out, chief among which is for the truth about Jesus to be preached “in the whole world as a testimony to all nations” (Matt 24:14), giving everyone the opportunity to hear and respond.
The Gospel – that is, the truth about Jesus Christ, his death, resurrection and soon return, and the coming Kingdom – is why God is permitting British politics to go into meltdown. The Gospel is why he is allowing nuclear threats to gather on the international horizon. The Gospel is why Revelation is in our Bibles. The Gospel is why you and I are here, right now, living another day. Let’s not forget the Gospel, in the midst of Brexit.
Notes
1 For whether or not this is a bluff and what it might mean for the region, read Jonathan Tobin at JNS.
2 Trump’s sanctions may yet drive Iran to its knees and to the negotiating table, but this is not a regime that can be reformed. Europe’s efforts to appease (led by President Macron, following Obama’s footsteps) have only fuelled Iranian aggression.
3 This is presuming that these chapters are to be read literally.
