JEHOSHAPHAT

I see it is over a month since I last updated my blog. I apologize for the long silence. At the end of November I took myself off for a short holiday in Eilat. It seemed too short so I decided to stay on another day. On that day a friend and I went out to Timna and when scaling a small hill in order to get that ‘perfect sunset through the arches’ photo I slipped and did a not-very-graceful nosedive down the hillside. I can now definitively assert that kiwis cannot fly. They don’t do crash landings so well either. I sustained a collection of minor injuries to arms and legs. It could have been much worse and I thank God for that. With my friend’s help I managed to drive to the hospital and get patched up. The next day I even managed to complete the 5 1/2 hour drive back to Jerusalem by myself. I cannot believe I did that as I was unable to drive for over a week afterwards. It has been a slow recovery with many trips to doctors and nurses since then. I am glad to say all my open wounds have now closed (at last) and are healing well and I am having occupational therapy to get my thumb working again. I am due to start physio for my arms on 2nd of January. Needless to say all this has slowed me down somewhat. I was able to juggle my work days and have made up all the work I missed in the first week after the accident. Our semester finished this last Wednesday and I am now on holiday until the Spring Semester starts at the end of January. I am looking forward to being able to swim again one day soon. Before my accident I had just taken out a very expensive annual subscription to the pool, so I want to get my money’s worth!

Before my expedition to Eilat our housegroup was privileged to host a Bible teacher from the UK. He shared with us from II Chronicles 20 the story of King Jehoshaphat when several enemies invaded Judah. By the time Jehoshaphat was informed, these enemies, the armies of Ammon, Moab and others from beyond the Jordan (the region of Jordan and Syria today), had already invaded Judah and were encamped at Ein Gedi by the Dead Sea. Did Jehoshaphat panic? Did he rush about gathering his army and trying to form alliances with others to fend off this impending attack? Did he strengthen his fortifications and build up his armaments? No, he did not. Instead he turned to YHVH setting himself to seek God and proclaiming a fast throughout all of Judah. All the people of Judah gathered in Jerusalem to seek the LORD and Jehoshaphat, whose name means ‘God has judged’, called upon God to judge his enemies, saying,

 “O Lord God of our fathers, are You not God in heaven, and do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations, and in Your hand is there not power and might, so that no one is able to withstand You? ⁷ Are You not our God, who drove out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel, and gave it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend forever? ⁸ And they dwell in it, and have built You a sanctuary in it for Your name, saying, ⁹ ‘If disaster comes upon us—sword, judgment, pestilence, or famine—we will stand before this temple and in Your presence (for Your name is in this temple), and cry out to You in our affliction, and You will hear and save.’ ¹⁰ And now, here are the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir—whom You would not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned from them and did not destroy them— ¹¹ here they are, rewarding us by coming to throw us out of Your possession which You have given us to inherit. ¹² O our God, will You not judge them? For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You.”

Through the prophet, Jahaziel, YHVH replied saying,

Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s. ¹⁶ Tomorrow go down against them. They will surely come up by the Ascent of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the brook before the Wilderness of Jeruel. ¹⁷ You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem!’ Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord is with you.”

The next morning Jehoshaphat appointed singers to go out before the army praising God, and as they sang God set ambushes for the armies of Ammon, Moab and the others and they were defeated. When the army of Judah arrived on the scene all they found were dead bodies. They did not need to fight. God had fought the battle for them just as he had promised. Furthermore, the kingdom of Judah was blessed with peace and prosperity throughout all the remainder of the reign of Jehoshaphat.

So they came to Jerusalem, with stringed instruments and harps and trumpets, to the house of the Lord. ²⁹ And the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries when they heard that the Lord had fought against the enemies of Israel. ³⁰ Then the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet, for his God gave him rest all around.

As we studied together this passage of Scripture I couldn’t help seeing how timely it was. Today Israel is surrounded by enemies with armies greater and more numerous than ours, and determined to ‘drive Israel into the Sea’. However, unlike Jehoshaphat, our leaders are not turning to God for deliverance. Instead we are pouring all our energies in building bigger and stronger defenses, developing new weapons and trying to create alliances with nations we hope will come to our aid when the war breaks out. All of this will be in vain unless we turn to God as a nation.

Some years ago Israel was suffering a prolonged drought of many years and the situation was getting desperate. I remember that at that time our leaders called upon all the people to fast and pray, and many did. The result was that the drought broke allowing us sufficient time to develop the water management and desalination technologies that now protect us from water shortages. Sadly, I do not hear any similar call to prayer and fasting in the face of the current threat of war emanating from Iran, and through its proxies in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza. Although we are all cognizant of the situation, we (and I include myself in this) are either living in denial or are too caught up with our own problems to take the need for intercession very seriously. I thank God for all those who do, whether in the nation of Israel or abroad. Your prayers matter and are effective, but please pray that more and more Israelis will understand the need to seek their God, with prayer and fasting, at this time.

You can read more about King Jehoshaphat and his reign in  1 Kings 15:24 – 22:50 and 2 Chronicles 17:1 – 21:1. Other references include 2 Kings 3:1-14, Joel 3:2, 12, and Matthew 1:8.

In a similar vein our housegroup studied Exodus 18 this week and were reminded of how Israel was able to defeat the Amalekites as long as Moses kept his arms raised. When Moses grew tired, Aaron and Hur set him on a rock and held his arms for him. Israel needs those who will raise their arms in intercession for us, and we intercessors need each other to support us when we grow tired.

Gaza

When I last wrote we were in the midst of the latest round of fighting between Israel and the Islamic Jihad militia in the Gaza Strip. Over two days, some 450 rockets and missiles were fired into southern Israel from Gaza over a period of around 48 hours. There were no Israeli fatalities but a number of people were injured, and much property destroyed or damaged. Half of the country was under ‘lockdown’ with schools and businesses closed from Tel Aviv southwards, causing a great deal of disruption.

This latest round of conflict followed the assassination by the IDF of the Islamic Jihad leader, Baha Abu al-Ata, considered to be the prime instigator of terror against Israel over the past year, and Intelligence had information that he was planning a major terror attack against Israel. Islamic Jihad retaliated to Abu al-Ata’s assassination with the rocket fire into Israel. In a departure from recent policy the Israeli government did not hold Hamas responsible and the IDF responded by attacking only Islamic Jihad positions and military installations killing some 34 Gazans, including about 16 civilians caught in the crossfire.

As before, Egypt again brokered a ceasefire but since then we have had sporadic rocket fire in the south, including two incidents in the last week. After a three week period of calm on the border, the weekly Friday violent demonstrations have also restarted. We are all asking how long this intolerable situation will continue, and what is the solution to it all.

Elections again!

Another intolerable situation is the continued lack of a government. After the second inconclusive round of elections, and the failure of both Netanyahu (Likud) and Gantz (Blue and White) to garner a coalition, we have been forced into having third election which will take place on the 2nd March 2020. Currently Gantz’ Blue and White Party is winning in the polls and Netanyahu is coming under a lot of pressure to step down from the leadership of his party, the Likud. The Likud has announced it will hold primaries on 26th December with Gideon Sa’ar the only candidate standing against Netanyahu so far. Please pray that all this political chaos will result in a righteous and honest government for our land.

Winter

Today is the shortest day. Winter is here but you would scarcely know it. Yesterday I went for a lovely stroll in the forest in my shirt sleeves! We had a week of rain earlier in the month but this last week it has been gloriously sunny.

Not everyone is rejoicing in this weather however. If you have spent a winter in Israel, especially up here in the Judean Hills, you will know that it can be bitterly cold. Nighttime temperatures in Jerusalem usually drop to around 4 degrees and we can even get frosts and snow at times. Israeli homes are not designed for warmth and most lack good insulation and central heating. This time of year is especially difficult for the elderly, the sick and handicapped who are trying to subsist on meager government pensions. Many elderly folk simply cannot afford to heat their homes. Many live alone (23% of over 65s) and many live in substandard housing, suffering from the effects of damp and mold, and even periodic flooding. Although reports (1) say that the number of impoverished elderly in Israel is dropping every year, there are still many suffering the effects of dire poverty. It is shameful that though Israel as a nation is rich and prosperous, with a steadily growing economy, many on the bottom of the social spectrum do not see any of this wealth coming their way. Our new government, whoever they are, needs to take some serious action to right the many social wrongs that have been neglected for years.

Immigration

This past year, 2019, has seen a continued increase in the number of new immigrants arriving in Israel. In the last 9 years, from 2010 until the end of 2019, Israel has absorbed some 255,000 new immigrants arriving from 155 different countries (2). Of these, 34,000 arrived this year, mostly from the former USSR countries, especially the Ukraine.

Israel is bursting at its seams. The population now exceeds 9 million in an area the size of New Jersey and half of which is desert or rugged mountains. This is putting a big strain on housing and services. The building industry cannot keep up with demand and the cost of housing is skyrocketing. Roads are also becoming totally clogged with traffic. Israel. According to the travel app Waze, Tel Aviv was ranked 5th in the world for traffic congestion. According to the International Monetary Fund Assistant Director, Craig Beaumont, Israel now has the worst traffic congestion in the OECD. He said, “The population in Israel is increasing, the standing of living is increasing, more and more people are switching to private vehicles, and the infrastructure challenge is mounting.” Israel averages some 2,800 vehicles per kilometer of roads, 3.5 times the 800 vehicles per kilometer of roads average density in the OECD and almost double that of Spain which comes in with the second worst road density in the OECD.

Needless to say the traffic congestion makes everyday life quite stressful especially for those who have to commute for work. Thankfully I do not have to do so, but I was reminded of the difficulties recently when I had to go into Jerusalem during the morning rush hour(s!) for a physio appointment. A trip that normally would take me 15- 20 minutes by car took well over an hour. On another day, I decided to use public transport and it took me one and a half hours to make the same trip by bus!

The main entrance into Jerusalem is currently closed off as a new light rail extension and road system is being built. This project is slotted to take some 3 years to complete. In the meantime traffic is being channeled into other routes causing many delays. An additional entrance to Jerusalem is also being constructed. Yesterday while walking in the forest I saw the portals for the new tunnel already taking shape. This new entrance will veer off Highway 1 from Tel Aviv at Maoz Tzion and cut through the hill under the Giv’at Shaul neighbourhood emerging near the Monster Intersection near the Shaare Tzedek Hospital. You can see the portals, indicated by the arrow, in this photo looking from Mevaseret Tzion towards Giv’at Shaul (Jerusalem).

This last Saturday night the long awaited final section of the Tel Aviv to Jerusalem high speed train line opened. This line has been under construction for 18 years! The first section from Jerusalem to Ben Gurion Airport opened a year or so ago and has been plagued with many problems and breakdowns. I hope this new section will run more smoothly. The trip between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv will take only around 30 minutes and it will no longer be necessary to change trains.

Tourism

This past year has also seen an increase in tourism in Israel. Last year some 4.1 tourists visited Israel and 77.5% of those visited Jerusalem during their stay (3). This year we are on course to break that record again. Tourism is one of our main sources of income and in 2018 tourists spent some $US 5.8 billion here, excluding air fares. This influx of visitors also contributes to our traffic woes, especially here in Jerusalem. In Jerusalem there are plans to construct an aerial cable car across the Hinnom Valley from the First Station to the Old City, but this proposal is meeting some opposition from those residents over whose homes the cable car will pass.

Hannuka and Christmas

This year the 8-day-long Jewish festival of Hannuka will start on Tuesday 23rd December coinciding with western Christmas on the 25th. Christmas is not widely celebrated here in Israel but one man, an Arab Christian, Issa Kassisseh, is trying to bring a little of the Christmas spirit to Jerusalem. Riding on his camel Jerusalem’s Santa Claus hands out free Christmas trees to passersby and warmly receives children in his Santa’s House in the Old City. Christians make up only about 2% of the population of Israel, and these are mainly of the Greek Orthodox or Roman Catholic faith. There is also a community of some 10,000 Armenian Christians.

On that note I will close and wish all my readers a Happy Hannuka, a Merry Christmas and a very Blessed New Year.

References:

1. https://www.ynetnews.com/magazine/article/HyRkPmThH
2. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/273457
3. https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3766301,00.html