General Articles

God’s Love for Jerusalem :: By Sean Gooding

Published on: by RR10

Ezekiel 16:1-14

“Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations, 3 and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem: “Your birth and your nativity are from the land of Canaan; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. 4 As for your nativity, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed in water to cleanse you; you were not rubbed with salt nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. 5 No eye pitied you, to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you; but you were thrown out into the open field, when you yourself were loathed on the day you were born.

6 “And when I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ Yes, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ 7 I made you thrive like a plant in the field; and you grew, matured, and became very beautiful. Your breasts were formed, your hair grew, but you were naked and bare.

8 “When I passed by you again and looked upon you, indeed your time was the time of love; so I spread My wing over you and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine,” says the Lord God.

9 “Then I washed you in water; yes, I thoroughly washed off your blood, and I anointed you with oil. 10 I clothed you in embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of badger skin; I clothed you with fine linen and covered you with silk. 11 I adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your wrists, and a chain on your neck. 12 And I put a jewel in your nose, earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head. 13 Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. You ate pastry of fine flour, honey, and oil. You were exceedingly beautiful, and succeeded to royalty. 14 Your fame went out among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through My splendor which I had bestowed on you,” says the Lord God.”

Every day, our news cycles are overrun with the war that is going on in the Middle East. We hear about the missiles that are launched at or by Israel, and we hear about the loss of life and how many military personnel or civilians were killed. We get to see, as I did today, the Iron Dome defense system at work. Someone from my Facebook network had videos sent by a friend living in Israel. There is a hatred for Israel, and the media is naturally turned against her. Everything is skewed, and it seems that it is okay for the enemies of Israel to launch attacks but wrong for her to defend herself or try to hit back at the ones hurting her citizens.

Many in the Christian world have a messed-up view of Israel. Some think that God has abandoned Israel and that now, the local church has replaced Israel. Nothing could be further from the truth. The passage that we have above is God telling us how He found Jerusalem as a baby, and no one cared for her. No one loved her, no one showed her the care to nurture her and to help her live. But God commanded her to live, verse 6. God made her grow and thrive, verse 7, and watched as she became beautiful. Then, God claimed her as His own, verse 8. God performed the act of marriage with the idea of covering her with His wings, and she became His own, Mine, verse 8.

God made her beautiful, made Jerusalem the desire of all the nations, and nation after nation pursued her. But she is God’s, and while at times she is wayward, at times she plays as the adulterous wife (see the rest of the chapter), God is faithful to her and always will be. The New Testament church has not replaced Israel. Paul spends three chapters in Romans telling us this: Romans 9-11. He, Paul, was evidence that God was not done with Israel because God redeemed him, a Jew. In Malachi 2:16, we are told that God hates divorce.

“For the LORD God of Israel says That He hates divorce, for it covers one’s garment with violence,’ says the LORD of hosts. ‘Therefore, take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously.'”

God wrote the entire book of Hosea to tell us about Israel’s adultery and that even in that, God will redeem her and take her back. He will buy her back from her lovers, and she will be His. The entire point of Hosea 3 is that although Israel has been an adulterous’ wife,’ she will return and worship with David, her king, and seek the Lord in the latter days. In Deuteronomy 32: 8-10, we see that God chose Israel as His inheritance.

“When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He divided the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. But the LORD’s portion is His people, Jacob His allotted inheritance. He found him in a desert land, in a barren, howling wilderness; He surrounded him, He instructed him, He guarded him as the apple of His eye.”

God will not abandon Israel, just like we can be assured that He will never abandon us even when we are the adulterous ones and when we fail Him. Gradually, the focus of the world will come back to Jerusalem, and somehow, some way, she will be the key to ‘world peace.’ The Anti-Christ will set his sights on Jerusalem, God’s temple and Jesus’ earthly throne, and she will be front and center on everyone’s mind. The whole world will be once again focused on her; they will watch what happens with bated breath, and what happens there will determine the mood of the whole earth.

Make no mistake, Jerusalem will not fall again. We are told in many places that she is the ‘apple of His eye’; she is special to God, and yes, at times, God allowed armies to run over her and punish her for her sins, but He, in turn, destroyed all of those civilizations, and the last one to be destroyed is the sleeping Roman Empire. If you look at Daniel 2, you will see that it is the mountain ‘not made with hands’ that destroys the feet of the iron and clay mix. The final vestiges of the Roman Empire are portrayed by the legs of iron.

Pray for Israel; pray for her to repent and turn to the Lord. Thank God that He is faithful and that we can see his faithfulness played out in His love, commitment, and care for Israel. Soon, very soon, all of her enemies will be gone. Jesus will rule, and she will be the center of the world’s political system. There is about to be a switch from the church age back to Israel and the fulfillment of promises that are millennia old, waiting for them to repent and return. I leave you with Zechariah 12:10.

“And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.”

Pray for the peace of Israel.

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church
Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church

How to Connect with Us

Online: https://mmbchurch.ca/

Email: seangooding@mmbchurch.ca

Join us on Zoom every Sunday (10:30 am) for Sunday Service AND every Tuesday at 8:00 pm for Bible Study: Meeting ID: 700 794 460 Passcode: 032661; https://us02web.zoom.us/j/700794460?pwd=M3NFRG91ZW5Sa2Z3amVyWkFnYXd6QT09

Why They Hate Reagan—the Movie and the Man :: By Paul J. Scharf

Published on: by RR10

Ronald Reagan was elected president when I was in sixth grade, then reelected when I was a sophomore in high school—serving until my sophomore year in college.

In my naiveté, I guess I thought he’d be there forever—either him or, at least, someone much like him. How dreadfully wrong I was.

Reagan’s story has now come back to life on the big screen and reminded us once again of this larger-than-life portrait of Americana.

Now, Reagan is my favorite president, so I readily admit that I am biased, and I am certainly also no movie critic—although I know when a film leaves me bored or inspired. And I thought the Reagan movie was brilliant. Rather than drilling down into one specific incident in Reagan’s presidency, then filling in the story with lots of historical fiction, it spans his entire life, and almost everything it portrays about Reagan (played by Dennis Quaid) is factual. The story is told through the eyes of a former KGB agent (played by Jon Voight) who had been assigned to monitor Reagan since the 1940s and was horrified to watch him ascend to become governor of California, then president of the United States.

The movie is filled with majestic views and does an excellent job of capturing the big, momentous scenes in Reagan’s life while staying very close to the historical reality. And people across the country are flocking to see it.

Everyone, it seems, is thrilled with the movie—save for one group. The critics hate it. They despise it.

And I cannot judge their motives or their hearts, but my guess is that many of them hate the movie because they really hated, and still hate, the man. I doubt that any movie could have been made with a sympathetic portrayal of Reagan’s life or presidency that our depraved culture would appreciate because so many people simply hate almost everything the man stood for.

First and foremost, many people hate his clear moral vision. The movie focuses on Reagan’s obsession with defeating the Soviet Union, winning the Cold War, and keeping America free from the destructive forces of communism. A major influence fueling those passions was Reagan’s childhood faith—instilled in him by his mother. Though he strayed from it many times, it was never far away. The movie does not preach a sermon or even include a clear gospel message, but it also does not shy away from depicting Reagan’s view that God always had a plan for his life—and his mother’s belief that God would use him in a very special way.

Reagan modeled a style of leadership that is no longer palatable in our sensitive society. He was joyous, witty, eloquent, and always sharply dressed—yet he could be ruthless for the sake of goodness and truth. In his passion to excel and achieve his ideals, he might appear strident and harsh. He was a leader you would be drawn to—and one for whom you would also maintain a healthy sense of fear.

I have studied Reagan much in the last few years. Lynnette and I visited the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum in Simi Valley, Calif., in 2019. I spent one day touring the museum and a second just relaxing and enjoying the surroundings. I’m fascinated by many of the videos that continue to be produced by both the Reagan Library and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute. There are endless hours of discussion and commentary about Reagan that I’m interested in listening to when I need to hear something relaxing but motivational.

Watching this film reminded me again of the traits I see in Reagan that are also noticeable in several of the Christian leaders who have highly influenced my own life. I do not know that they particularly studied Reagan, or sought to imitate him, or would even agree with me if I shared these reflections with them. Perhaps these are simply attributes that are intrinsic to strong leaders who are committed to the cause of righteousness. They relate to the pursuit of honor, integrity and principle—exhibited in conduct that is befitting of one’s office and purpose.

These are traits that I aspire to exhibit. The culture has deteriorated rapidly since they were in vogue—in a day when serious men spoke and acted and presented themselves in a manner that displayed the depth of their commitments and of their moral gravity. The changing trends we’ve witnessed since have largely been to our societal detriment.

Ronald Reagan was neither a perfect man nor a perfect president. That much he certainly knew, and he trusted in the grace of God alone through the gospel for his eternal hope. I look forward to meeting him one day—not just on the big screen but in heaven—and telling “the Great Communicator” of the impact he made upon my life, even though from a great distance.

Reagan promotes a message that our culture detests. That is exactly what makes it so magnificent.

***

Paul J. Scharf (M.A., M.Div., Faith Baptist Theological Seminary) is a church ministries representative for The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, based in Columbus, WI, and serving in the Midwest. For more information on his ministry, visit sermonaudio.com/pscharf or foi.org/scharf, or email pscharf@foi.org.