Charles Gardner reviews ‘Dangerous Hero’ by Tom Bower (William Collins, 2019).

If you want to know what a godless society looks like, just read this book.

I spent the best part of a fortnight thoroughly absorbed in Tom Bower’s intriguing, and very readable, biography of Jeremy Corbyn.

It wasn’t, however, always a pleasant experience - in view of its portrayal of a man who comes across as an inveterate liar with little fondness for people. But I trust that the book – which also serves as an excellent political history of Britain’s modern era – will prove an antidote to other aspiring Marxists, who hopefully will be sickened by the vitriol, abuse and hatred liberally dished out in the name of hard-left politics.

Animal Farm?

I think I can safely say that I was forever inoculated against Communism through reading George Orwell’s Animal Farm at school. It’s a pity that the young Corbyn apparently never read the collection of Orwell essays his mother gave him as a 16^th birthday present.

Respected biographer Tom Bower has performed a great service by further exposing the disgraceful anti-Semitism that has been allowed to spread through the Labour Party like gangrene, and may well prove its ultimate undoing.

The book also serves as an excellent political history of Britain’s modern era.

All who have stood against the Jews over several millennia have eventually come to a sticky end, though tragically not before inflicting terrible pain, heartache and humiliation.

That Corbyn keeps bouncing back from a series of often self-inflicted setbacks – whether through anti-Semitism or sheer incompetence – is a shocking indictment, not only of the Labour Party, but of the British electorate as a whole.

Need for Prayer

The author indicates that he was reluctant to tackle this project, but felt it necessary to discover the truth about a would-be Prime Minister who has been cagey about his past, and who apparently hates talking to journalists.

The one thing that became clearer to me than anything else on reading this book is that Jeremy Corbyn needs an encounter with Jesus Christ. Please pray that he has one – for his sake, and also because the alternative might well lead to Britain becoming the next totalitarian state.

‘Dangerous Hero: Corbyn’s ruthless plot for power’ (400pp hardcover, paperback) retails for £20. Available widely in bookshops and online, including on Amazon. Also available as an e-book and an audio-book.

Tom Bower is a British investigative journalist and biographer who has also written on such as Prince Charles, Tony Blair and Richard Branson.

We’ll never solve knife crime if we don’t understand it.

The news is full of reports on knife crime and politicians are busy searching for something to blame: Government cuts, not enough police, too many school exclusions – the list is endless.

But when will we face up to the real sickness in our nation: the way we have allowed the foundational building-block of our society – the family - to be undermined and broken down by our secular humanist, postmodernist, politically correct culture? And now we are proposing to brainwash a whole generation of schoolchildren with the same values.

I know that sounds like an emotional outburst – which it is! But I can give some pretty solid statistically-based facts to back it up. Let’s take a hard look at knife crime, which has overtaken Brexit as the number one talking point in the news this past week.

Violent Crime and Gang Warfare

The data shows that in the 12 months to December 2018, 1.7 million violent crimes were committed in England and Wales.¹ This was an increase from 1.2 million in 2016. Knife crime among young people has soared, with particular connections to drugs, gangs and territorial disputes.

Of course, knife crime is not new. Back in the early 1970s my wife and I and our three young children moved into the East End of London. On our first night, an 18-year-old boy was stabbed to death on the pavement outside our house. We trembled before God wondering if we had done right in bringing our children into this environment. Although I was no stranger to street violence after ten years in Tottenham, you never get used to the tragedy of young lives cut short and the sense of impotence and despair that surrounds it.

‘How we can stop the gangs in their tracks’ was the headline in The Times earlier this month² for a long article about knife crime, including quotes from the Home Secretary and senior police officers, and calls for more ‘Stop and Search’ and more work in schools warning children of the dangers. Only right at the end of the article was there a mention of ‘dysfunctional parenting’ and the suggestion that police officers should call upon these families to talk about the children.

Knife crime among young people is not new – but it has soared in recent years.

Underlying Causes

The Lords and Commons Family and Child Protection Group are preparing for a major conference on juvenile crime and family environment. A wide range of research studies show a complex variety of factors encourage young people into crime, such as low socio-economic status, harsh parenting, exclusion from school, availability of weapons, family disorganisation and abusive, violent home environments.

In regard to knife crime, research shows that girls are more likely to murder a family member, while boys are more likely to murder a stranger. Boys are more likely to use a firearm and girls to use knives or blunt weapons. Boys and girls equally use violence in conflict resolution, but girls are more likely to be involved in home-based family conflict, whereas boys are more likely to be involved in gang-related crimes.

Most media reports about knife crime focus on the socio-economic factor. In our equality-obsessed culture, it is often assumed that poverty and deprivation are the driving forces behind today’s soaring crime rate. However, this assertion is tempered when we compare serious crime figures today with those of a hundred years ago.

In the year 1910, the total prison population for England and Wales was 20,904 (today it is 82,543) and there were just over 3,000 prosecutions for serious crime.³ These statistics do not include figures for petty offences such as drunk and disorderly behaviour. Of course, the total population at 35,756,615 was only just over half of today’s population, but poverty levels were vastly higher than today,⁴ which really blows away the claim that socio-economic factors are the main cause of juvenile crime.

A century ago, crime rates were lower even though poverty levels were higher – blowing away the claim that socio-economic factors are the main driver of crime.

My own observations from living and working in inner-city areas of London for most of my working life are that the vast majority of children involved in crime come from disruptive families. This observation is backed by statistical studies, which show that the parents of juvenile murderers tend to have provided them with a model of violence. Both male and female young offenders are highly likely to have experienced severe abuse in their families and in up to a third of cases this includes sexual abuse.⁵

In other words, both boys and girls who grow up in violent families and who are themselves subjected to physical abuse are at risk of repeating that behaviour upon others - including other children, with girls more likely than boys to murder children younger than themselves.

Our Trouble is Self-inflicted

This brings me back to my emotional outburst at the beginning of this editorial. The simple truth is that we have brought all this trouble upon ourselves, by abandoning our Judeo-Christian heritage!

We have a whole generation of children and young people who have little or no knowledge of biblical truths about gender, sex and family life. Sadly, that also is true of many of our Members of Parliament, who are currently considering an ‘Education Bill’ designed to give ‘Relationships and Sex Education’ (RSE) to children as young as four in primary schools. The Bill not only forces all schools to teach LGBTQ+ values that undermine and destroy the marriage-based family, but also restricts the freedom of parents to withdraw their children.

What we are witnessing today is nothing less than state-sponsored social engineering! We fought the Second World War against the Nazi regime’s social engineering of public morality in Germany to promote their nationalist and racist ideology. But now we have a Parliament in Westminster debating a Government Bill to enforce acceptance of another form of social engineering: the promotion of homosexual lifestyles, transgenderism and the false notion that all forms of ‘family’ are equally good for children.

It is incredible that a Conservative Government whose philosophy is to preserve traditional values should be proposing a measure that will do such immense harm, undermining stable family life and putting children at risk.

Both boys and girls who grow up in violent families and who are themselves subjected to physical abuse are at risk of repeating that behaviour upon others.

It surely should be obvious that by weakening the traditional marriage-based family we have brought upon the nation all this knife crime, drugs, gang warfare, disruptive classroom behaviour, school exclusions, family breakdown, homelessness, mental health problems, depression, suicide and other social problems.

If we destroy the family, which is the linchpin of society, every part of national life is affected, because the family is the major agent in transmitting values and behavioural patterns to the next generation.

Faith AND Action!

In our recent editorials we have discerned glimpses of light and given a message of hope. Of course, there is always hope, but realistically the only way forward for the nation is repentance! And repentance does not simply mean saying sorry: it means a change of direction: turning away from false teaching and embracing truth, which changes our mindset and actions.

The only realistic hope lies with the faithful remnant of Bible-believing Christians who are still interceding before God for mercy upon Britain and the European Union. But prayer needs to be backed up and reinforced by firm action to declare the truth in all our conversations and at every opportunity – in our families and neighbourhoods, and with all our contacts.

In the words of Paul to the Christians in Thessaloniki, the nation needs to see “your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess 1:3).

References

1 Violent crime is surging four times as fast outside London. The Times, 2 March 2019.

2 Sylvester, R. 2 March 2019.

3 First statistic from Ministry of Justice, quoted in ‘Prison and Courts Statistics, England and Wales’, House of Commons Briefing Paper Number CBP7892, 7 March 2017, p21. Second statistic from World Prison Brief. Third statistic from internal research for the Lords and Commons Family and Child Protection Group.

4 Though, of course, poverty is a relative concept and its measure over the years has changed.

5 See studies quoted on pp4-5 of ‘Trauma and Young Offenders: A Review of the Research and Practice Literature: Research Summary'. Beyond Youth Custody, 2016.

Jeremiah's first public prophetic word.

The word of the Lord came to me: “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem: I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the desert, through a land not sown. Israel was holy to the Lord, the first fruits of his harvest; all who devoured her were held guilty, and disaster overtook them,” declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 2:2-3)

This is the first word that Jeremiah was given to declare publicly in his ministry. Previously in his communication with God, the words he heard were for him personally. This first message to the nation was highly significant. Although Jeremiah knew that he was going to have to say some very hard things that would not be well received, this first word was a message of love which would have been easy for him to declare publicly. It was just what the young prophet needed to begin his ministry.

All the prophets of Israel constantly referred back to the history of the nation and what God had done for them. Here, Jeremiah is reminding the people of the amazing way God had cared for them, provided for them and protected them throughout their 40 years’ journey between leaving Egypt and entering the Promised Land.

Israel’s Spiritual Sojourn

For most of that period, Israel travelled through the desert. It was an exacting time for the tribal leaders and a time of enormous strain for Moses in maintaining order, discipline and unity among the tribes. But it was also a formative time when the Children of Israel became a nation.

There is nothing so powerful as shared hardship and danger in bringing unity to a disparate group of people. This is what happened to Israel in the desert. They were a group of nomadic tribes living in tents with no homeland, but the shared experience of facing the dangers and privations of the wilderness welded them together. They learned the value of community, co-operating in the gathering of manna, and caring for each other - especially the weak and the elderly.

The first word that Jeremiah was given to declare publicly was a message of love.

Above all, the sojourn in the desert was a spiritual experience that established them as a covenant people under God. They were his bride, newly brought into a sweet covenant relationship with him: a relationship of growing love and trust, as he practically demonstrated his love and his power in one miracle after another.

The first miracle was in persuading Pharaoh to let the people go. The deliverance from slavery was followed by the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea and the disaster that overtook the Egyptian army who were closely following with the intention of once again reducing them to slavery. But God had amazingly delivered Israel and thereby demonstrated his love and his power to protect his soon-to-be covenant people in fulfilment of his promises.

This love and power was demonstrated numerous times by the Lord’s provision of food and water in the desert. Many times the Israelites would have starved or died of thirst if he had not provided for them. But the desert was not only a time for the people of Israel to learn about the very nature of God, it was a time for sealing their bond with God and learning to trust him completely.

Separation unto God

The desert was not a place of separation from God. It was a place of separation from the world and from foreign gods: for leaving behind the fleshpots of Egypt, for ridding themselves of the pariah mentality of a people in slavery. It was a time of separation unto God, where there were no worldly attractions to compete for their attention. The conditions of the covenant relationship could be fulfilled – “I will be your God and you will be my people”.

The great silence of the desert was filled with the presence of the Living God. It was here that Israel learned holiness – separation – as they learned to love and to trust the Lord. In this first message given to the young Jeremiah, God remembered the devotion of Israel, her dependence upon him and her love for him.

This was to set the scene for all the dramatic warnings of danger that Jeremiah later had to pronounce – none of which were intended to be declarations of judgment so much as loving calls to recognise the folly of breaking the covenant with God by running after false gods. Israel’s worshipping of bits of wood and stone had tragically put them outside the protection of Almighty God and at the mercy of cruel enemy armies.

Israel’s sojourn in the desert was a profoundly spiritual experience that established them as a covenant people under God.

God’s Suffering

This first message reminding the people of God’s great love and care for their fathers in the desert was followed by a plea that was full of pathos:

This is what the Lord says, “What fault did your fathers find in me, that they strayed so far from me? They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves. They did not ask ‘Where is the LORD, who brought us up out of Egypt and led us through the barren wilderness, through a land of deserts and rifts, a land of drought and darkness, a land where no-one travels and no-one lives?’

I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and rich produce. But you came and defiled my land and made my inheritance detestable. The priests did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord?’ Those who deal with the law did not know me; the leaders rebelled against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal following worthless idols.”

God’s question, “What fault did your fathers find in me?” shows the pathos in God’s heart when his people are faithless and turn away from him. It is as though God was saying, ‘After all I have done for you, how could you possibly deny me and turn your back upon me?’

It is almost inconceivable in human relationships that someone would turn against you if you had spent your whole life caring for them. And yet, it does happen! The sense of rejection and personal suffering is intense in such circumstances. But this should enable us to understand the suffering in God’s heart when those whom he has loved and cared for turn against him and no longer trust him.

Foundational Teaching

This is the truth about the nature of God that was revealed to the prophets of Israel, that laid the foundation for the revelation of God as our Father which was at the heart of the ministry of Jesus. The Gospel Jesus gave to his disciples to take to all nations can never be fully understood and embraced without the foundation laid by the prophets of Israel.

God’s question, “What fault did your fathers find in me?” shows the pathos in God’s heart when his people are faithless and turn away from him.

Sadly, this is missing in so many churches today, where the preachers do not bother to preach the whole word of God – because they rarely study the life and teaching of the prophets of Israel.

If we do not learn from the history of Israel, that disaster struck them when they departed from the word of the Lord, we will make the same mistake again!

Surely, the preachers in Britain and all the Western nations should be declaring with all the energy and power of the Holy Spirit that, like the people of Israel in Jeremiah’s day, we too have turned our backs upon truth and embraced powers of darkness that are leading us to destruction.

We too worship bits of wood and stone in our consumerist society where we compete with one another to show off our possessions which are worthless. In so doing we make ourselves worthless to God in working out his purposes of communicating his love, his faithfulness and his good purposes to the nations. We become, like Israel in Jeremiah’s day, useless servants!

This article is part of a series. Click here to read other instalments.

The tragedy of Corbyn’s rise to political prominence.

The sick, anti-Semitic hounding of an MP who is not even Jewish takes the scandal within the British Labour Party to a new low.

Former Labour Friends of Israel chair Joan Ryan has suffered death threats since resigning from the Party over what she termed its “culture of anti-Semitism”. She has also been branded a “Jew whore” who should burn “in the ovens”.¹

Corbyn’s Hypocrisy

Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn’s attitude to Israel and the Jews has been brought into sharp focus by Tom Bower in his book Dangerous Hero (William Collins, £20) – an absorbing, shocking read that begs the question of how a man with little intellect or understanding of the world has been raised up as a potential leader of one of the greatest nations on earth.

Over many years as a backbench MP, Corbyn’s overt Marxism went largely unnoticed and ignored as irrelevant since he was expected to remain on the fringe of the political scene.

But these are not normal times. For this ‘man of peace’ who opposes military intervention has at the same time shown consistent support for blatantly violent organisations like the IRA, PLO, Hezbollah and Hamas – the latter three committed to the destruction of Israel.

Much of the electorate seem blind to such hypocrisy, also demonstrated by the unholy alliance between Corbyn’s extreme-left cronies and far-right Islamists who would be happy to stone adulterers and throw gay people off roofs.

This ‘man of peace’ who opposes military intervention has at the same time consistently supported blatantly violent organisations like the IRA, PLO, Hezbollah and Hamas.

Communism is Brutal

It is clear that on many issues, including Marxism, Corbyn holds a very blinkered and simplistic view. He also has no concept of Israel’s long history of persecution or, indeed, any understanding of its emergence as a modern state.

For example, he insists that all conflicts should be settled by the United Nations, but fails to see that it was the UN that legitimised Israel in the first place.

As for Communism, Corbyn seems oblivious to the fact that it has been consistently discredited wherever it has been practised, and keeps flagging up Venezuela as a wonderful example of Marxist management even while its people are starving with inflation running at 1,000%, despite rich oil reserves.

As for Communism closer to home, in the years before the fall of the Berlin Wall 30 years ago, a friend of mine who has been helping Jews escape to Israel since those days² described to a gathering last weekend the appalling conditions experienced there, with people forced to live in crumbling, stinking apartments amidst communities where food was scarce and money virtually worthless.

He recalled with horror the pitiful sight of a child lying on a step, frozen to death in its own urine. “Life under communism was brutal. And it was the Church – along with the prayers of Christians – that changed society in Eastern Europe, not politics. It was these brave people of faith who changed world history, not Gorbachev or Reagan.”

Chaos and Dysfunction

The story of Corbyn’s rise to power is a tragedy, not a triumph. Out of an apparently chaotic, dysfunctional domestic life, he focused his vision and energy on imposing similar disorder on the rest of us – by replacing capitalism with an enforced ‘paradise’ of equality in which the poor are lifted up and the rich dispossessed.

But it is political ideology, not people, he evidently loves. His purpose for living seems to be driven by fury for wealth creators and innovators, and of all middle class folk out to improve their lot, more than by a genuine love for the vulnerable – promising ‘friendlier’ politics, but delivering back-stabbing aggression instead.

It is political ideology, not people, Corbyn evidently loves.

It has clearly been a miserable existence constantly plagued by strife, dissension, vengeance and division even among those who sing from the same hymn-sheet as he does.

Joan Ryan (left) and Luciana Berger, now ex-Labour MPs, have both received vile anti-Semitic abuse. See Photo Credits.War on God

So why and how has hate-filled, anti-Semitic, anti-bourgeois thuggery like that suffered by Joan Ryan gained such unprecedented popularity in this sceptred isle?

Whether you consider the attitudes of the far-left, or those of Islamists, or those of the far-right, the collective picture should leave us in no doubt that we are witnessing a furious battle for the soul of our nation. The forces of darkness are arrayed against those wishing to defend the Judeo-Christian values which alone have raised us above other nations in the past.

Jesus is the litmus test of all truth (John 14:6) and the devil is the father of lies for whom lying is his native language (see John 8:44; 1 John 2:22). It is no surprise, therefore, that it should feel quite natural for those who peddle godless ideologies – of whatever nature - to lie, deceive and act dishonestly.

It should also alert us to the fact that any ideology (however noble) which rejects the truths of Scripture will inevitably join the war on God, his truth and those who bear his name.

Ultimate Rebellion

The Jewish people are God’s chosen, eternally and irrevocably. Even today, Christians the world over – some 1.5 billion of them – worship the ‘God of Israel’ who, in the fullness of time, sent his beloved Son, the Jewish Messiah, to save his people (and all believing Gentiles) from their sins.

The devil is out to destroy the image of God in this world, which means we would ultimately all lose out if he succeeded, because we are all made in God’s image. Our enemy’s thinking is that, if he can destroy the Jewish people (God’s chosen) as well as non-Jews who believe in God (Christians), then he will have won the battle for men’s souls.

The truth, then, is that anti-Semitism is effectively one of the ultimate expressions of rebellion against God. And God himself, I believe, has allowed it to be exposed.

From Tragedy to Triumph

Jesus said that the devil is out to “kill, steal and destroy”, but that He had come that we might have life in all its fullness (John 10:10). The Bible also says that “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Ps 14:1, 53:1).

The devil is out to destroy the image of God in this world.

The miserable life led by Corbyn and his cronies is not what God has purposed for us. If you are fulfilled by endless political rows and confrontations, stoked by a hate-driven, destructive ideology, that is truly a tragedy. But Jesus came to turn tragedy into triumph and, by his resurrection from the dead, has proved once and for all that he holds the answer for every hopeless cause.

He will turn your ugliness into beauty, your darkness to light, your hell to heaven, your grief to joy, your pain to purpose, your hate to love. Please pray for Joan Ryan and her colleagues - for their protection and blessing - as well as for Jeremy Corbyn.

References

1 World Israel News, quoting Mail on Sunday, 3 March 2019.

2 Fred Wright’s action-packed adventures in aiding Aliyah (immigration to Israel) over the years is the subject of a forthcoming book.

Clifford Denton reviews ‘Scotland Ablaze’ by Tom Lennie (Christian Focus Publications, 2018).

A resident of Orkney, Tom Lennie has carefully researched and written much on the history of Christian revivals, especially those in his native Scotland.

This, the latest in his series of books relating to Scotland’s spiritual heritage, covers the 22 years from 1858 to 1879, a dramatic period in which virtually every region of the country experienced a spiritual awakening.

Ebbs and Flows of Revival

Lennie proceeds chronologically, charting the origins of the 1859-61 revival and its ‘after-waves’ that continued through the next two decades. He then looks in depth at the ministries of many revivalists, including well-known names such as Dwight Moody and Ira Sankey.

For many of us, it will be a surprise to discover the ebbs and flows of the revival that occurred in Scotland, although it is not widely known, especially compared with the simultaneous moves of God’s Spirit from 1859-61 in Wales and some parts of England, as well as in other parts of the world.

This book should be considered a foundational document for anyone seeking to understand God’s work in Scotland in the 19^th Century.

In 595 pages of meticulous detail, supported by an extensive bibliography, Lennie seems to have left nothing out. Indeed, this weighty volume should be considered a foundational document for anyone seeking to understand God’s work in Scotland in the 19^th Century.

Timely Contribution

The book is especially timely considering the way in which humanism has penetrated every area of national life in the UK, and Scotland in particular is contributing much to our political turmoil.

Anyone interested in past revivals will benefit from having this book on their shelf, as well as those calling our nation to repentance in these difficult days, when remembrance of God’s deliverance in the past is of great importance and encouragement for the future.

‘Scotland Ablaze: The twenty-year fire of revival that swept Scotland 1859-79’ (paperback) is available from Amazon for £14.99. Previous books in this series include ‘Glory in the Glen’ and ‘Land of Many Revivals’.

Torah Portion: Exodus 35:1-38:20

Vayak’hel: ‘And he assembled’.

Bezalel is a hero of mine and it would be easy for me to get carried away with the intricacies of the Tabernacle design that suffuse this week’s Torah portion and overlook the bigger picture that is at play here. Earlier in Exodus, between chapters 25 and 31, God had (through Moses):

1. Given a detailed brief for the Tabernacle, its related equipment and the clothing of the priests, together with a number of other instructions
2. Singled out Bezalel, his assistant Oholiab and other craftsmen chosen for the task of creating these important things.
3. Instructed the people of Israel that they were to observe his Shabbats as a sign between Him and them for all time.

Above all, God had stated the Tabernacle’s purpose, which was so that He might live among His people. It was time to build the tent of meeting, with its intricate design suffused with symbolism, for this glorious purpose.

Dangerous Detour

However, in chapters 32 and 33 there was a terrible detour in this unfolding journey: the golden calf incident. The people of Israel tried to set up their own version of a worship system for Adonai, putting their future relationship with God (and thereby the Tabernacle project) in jeopardy. God responded to Moses,

Leave, you and the people you brought up from the land of Egypt…you will go to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I myself will not go with you... (Ex 33:1-3)

It sounded like a fait accompli, but Moses did not accept it. Israel showed repentance and Moses pleaded with God, who listened and responded, “Set your mind at rest – my presence will go with you, after all” (Yeshua faced a not dissimilar situation in John 6:67. Many of His disciples had turned away from Him, not understanding or wanting to understand Yeshua’s words bringing full meaning to a way of worship they thought they knew inside-out. Yeshua said to His disciples “Don’t you want to leave too?” But like Moses, Simon Peter stubbornly stuck with Yeshua saying “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the word of eternal life”).

Then in Exodus 34, God restored the covenant on two new stone tablets. In this week’s passage, Israel are back on track (Ex 35-38).

• Moses reminds the whole community of God’s works programme: that during six days, work is to be done, but the seventh is to be a Shabbat, a holy day of complete rest.
• Moses also instructs the community to make a freewill offering for the Tabernacle work, calling forward the craftsmen to make everything Adonai had ordered. From all these, God singled out Bezalel for the work necessary to construct the Tabernacle: according to His holy brief, but with room left for the craftsman’s creativity and design ability, given and guided by God’s Spirit.

Chapters 36-38 describe the crafting and constructing of all the elements of the Tabernacle.

Lessons for Gentiles

In many ways, we Gentile believers of God’s continuing congregation have taken the ‘golden calf’ route and formed our own worship system. We have ignored that we should be grafted into the rich root of God’s holy nation, Israel, and instead have separated ourselves from them. We have moved Shabbat to Sunday, changed God’s designated feasts, failed to understand God’s covenant purposes, and so on. Like Israel, we run the danger of God not remaining with us.

I believe we have to cry out, with Moses and also Peter:

Show us your ways, Adonai so that we will understand you and find favour in your sight. See us as part of your people once again. If your presence doesn’t go with us, where on earth should we go from here? For how else is it to be known that we have found favour in your sight, other than by your going with us? That is what distinguishes us from everyone else on earth.

Then, and only then, might we look with hope that God will lead us into our fullness, not a temporary tabernacle but a permanent spiritual temple, constructed to God’s brief (Eph 2:19-22), making our unbelieving Jewish brothers and sisters envious so that the stoniness will be lifted from them and that all Israel together with us will be saved (Rom 11:25-26).

Author: John Quinlan

Bible quotes from the Complete Jewish Bible.

Torah portion: Exodus 30:11-34:35.

We live in a world of words. They impact us in terms of both what is said to us directly, and what we pick up from surrounding conversations. Researchers reckon that daily we each speak around 20,000 words. That may seem a huge amount - but in a busy work or social environment, it’s probably achievable! It also means that we are hearing everyone else’s ‘quota’ of words. This explains why, coming home from working in an open plan office, my head used to be spinning - words bombarding me from every direction!

Perhaps that’s what Moses felt, sitting alone as judge over the Israelites and dealing with their complaints from morning until night (Ex 18). Until, that is, his father-in-law noticed the detrimental effect that listening to loads of voices was having on him. So Jethro advised Moses to delegate his role to avoid burning out. This shows us that hearing words is not just a physiological process - more is taking place.

Today, of course, technology brings us continuous, unlimited information and incessant conversations from myriad sources. Like Moses, the impact is not restricted to our minds, but affects us body, soul and spirit.

Speaking with the Lord

It’s in that context, referring again to Moses, that we discover a different and amazing effect of ‘words’. In Exodus 34, we read: “When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD” (Ex 34:29, emphasis mine). This clearly observable, overwhelming outcome of Moses speaking with God was not only physical, but spiritual in its effect: “…and they were afraid to come near” (verse 30). It necessitated Moses putting a veil over his face, removing it when he “went in to speak with the LORD” (verse 35).

The chapters in Exodus leading up to this experience contain details about Israel’s new covenant with God and the various practices and procedures of the Law. The passage also describes the horrendous ‘about turn’ of the Israelites in worshipping the golden calf. A striking thread running throughout these accounts is the phrase: “Then the LORD said to Moses…” It’s repeated around a dozen times - God spoke with Moses clearly and regularly.

‘The tent of meeting’ also features regularly in these verses, and we learn that this was where “The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend” (Ex 33:11). Earmarked as a special place, this was where the relationship between God and Moses was shown to be one of intimacy, evidenced through their ongoing conversation.

Intimacy Through Jesus

Centuries later, Jesus showed that such intimacy was not restricted to those with a good theological grasp or spiritual maturity. He was described as “a friend of tax collectors and sinners” and “welcomed sinners, and eats with them” (Matt 11:19; Luke 15:2). This indicates the way that each of us - however long our spiritual journey - can experience closer relationship with God, through our Messiah.

Moses’ friendship with God resulted in that huge impact: “his face was radiant.” Spending time with God makes a difference to us even though, like Moses, we may not realise it! Are you and I speaking more with God, hearing His voice? How vital it is that we experience this intimacy and let its radiance shine out from our lives to our spiritually darkened nation.

Author: Stephen Bishop