Daniel 4:33-34 (NIV 36-37)

Do you "walk in pride"? Observe this verses:

Daniel 4:33-34 (NIV 36-37)

"At the same time that my sanity was restored, my honor and splendor were returned to me for the glory of my kingdom. My advisers and nobles sought me out, and I was restored to my throne and became even greater than before"

"Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble"

INTERLINEAR BIBLE:


AUDIO FILES (free download)


If you compare with the Aramaic of the original, you'll see that "sanity" is the rendering of Aramaic "mandá", which means "reason" or "knowledge". It means that the king's infirmity was a kind of madness, thas it was his brain that was sick. After he got back his health, the king acknowledged Israel's God's supremacy, and he recognizes that the punishment which came upon him was in order to humble him, because he was "walking in pride".

What do you mean as "walk in pride"? Do you walk in pride?

Please take a look to this video, which can illustrate the point:


Awesome, isn't it? The ways of God are not always comprehensible, but He is right, and his ways just, as the king said. Let's emphasize about one of the examples used to describe opposition to Israel, that what happened in Gush Katif.

On 15th august 2005, the Israeli government began an operation of displacement of their own citizens, which was completed in september. It happened in Gush Katif, a territory in the Gaza strip (in Israel's southwest) The eviction caused grief among many Jews who lived there. Many of them were displaced by force. The Gaza strip is now populated by a strong majority of Palestinian Arabs.

The unpopular operation of the Jewish government was in the context of a plan known as "land for peace". The plan is part of the peace process in the Middle East, and the main idea is that the Arabs should receive back some territories occupied by the Jews in 1967, and recognize Israel right to exist and Israel's sovereingty. This idea collapsed totally in the case of Gush Katif. The Palestinian Arabs destroyed synagogues with frenzy, celebrated the expulsion of the "hated Zionists" and have set in the control of Gaza a terrorist organization as their "government", the notorious "Hamas" (which means "violence") Under Hamas rule, Gaza strip is becoming more and more a terrorist's nest, and they have build a tunnels system to circumvent Israel's blockade and get rockets which they fire against Israel all the time. They use the tunnels also to infiltrate Israel and to get material for bombs - which is forbidden by the blockade - that the suicide bombers use. The goal and the reason that Hamas exists is the obliteration of Israel State.

Maybe you know the whole story. But the video has a point in emphasizing something that not all of us remember: this operation of eviction of the Jewish government against their own citizens was the result of strong international pressure, even from their best friend and ally among the nations, USA.

Why Israel's best ally coerced them so that they should give land? Why their best friend among nations "walked with pride" in this occasion?

We have to see the whole scenario, the context of this political decisions. From the State of Israel's creation in 1948, the Arab nations which are Israel's neighbours - and even other ones - declared a war to death to the Jews, and denied Israel's right to exist. It was a year of war against a people which was coming back to their ancestral home after 2000 years of exile and the death of 6 000 000 souls in the Holocaust. The victory of Israel against the very superior armies was seen with sympathy by the rest of the world, with a few exceptions. Israel was recognized as a State by most of the UN, and became a UN member 1949. The Palestinian Arabs, who left their homes and land to give way to "Allah's army" that should "deliver them from the Zionist invaders", remained out of the country and have been rejected in the same countries which was supposed to help them. This was the beginning of the "Palestinian catastrophe".

But let's take a look to another war, in other context. In 1967 began a new war against an Israel which was better prepared, stronger and more populated. This very short war (known as "the Six-Day war") ended with a total defeat of the Arab nations (Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Irak) with an army which outnumbered Israel's army, two times more numerous (ten times, if we count only professional soldiers in Israel) The Arab nations came with five times more combat planes and three times more tanks. But God fights for Israel! In those six days were killed 777 Jews and 23000 Arabs. 2563 Jews were wounded, but 45000 soldiers in the Arab army. Israel occupied the Sinai peninsula - a traditionally Egyptian territory - and the Gaza strip - under Egyptian control by that time. The Jews occupied also Judea and Samaria - the so called "West Bank", where there are most of Palestinian Arabs - and the Golan Heights, which was under Syrian control.

Love can easily freeze (read Mt 24:12) And sympathy, even easier. Among the nations which recognized the brave Jews who fought 1948-1949 defending their land, now some of them were found condemning the "cruel Zionists" of 1967. This military victory was the beginning of a new antisemitism, where the lefts and the Communist countries joined the traditional Muslim enemies of Israel. How has this new antisemitism evolved? We don't know. But that we do know is that, under its influence, stronger and stronger, the international pressure and even from their best friend among nations, caused a decision of the Israeli government that has been fatal for their country (see the NOTE at the end for further information)

Now, remember that God fights for Israel. the displacement of Jews from Gush Katif began on august 15, 2005. In august 23, 2005, when 8000 Jews were evacuated from Gaza, 1 million Americans were evacuated from their homes because of the hurricane Katrina.

Should not be better to stand with Israel?

Or, is there somebody who thinks that this is just "coincidence", and that God has nothing to do with it?

It doesn't matter how many terrorists commit suicide in Alah's name to kill Jews. It doesn't matter how many new antisemites talk about the "poor Palestinians" and the "Zionist invaders". God fights for Israel! The "new antisemitism" is increasing fast, and we see how an unclean spirit is touching more and more governments and leading them to recognize the Palestinian Arabs as a "state" and to condemn Israel's actions, who is defending its territory and citizens. That pride they are showing now will have consequences, because God fights for Israel.

Why do we connect "unclean spirit", "pride" and "antisemitism"? could you be wondering. The Biblical word from Aramaic which NIV has translated as "pride" is "gevá". It meand the same as haughtiness, superbia or arrogance in English, and implies also the same idea or attitude, "I'm worthier than you". And believe me, in this world there is nobody who is "worthier" than God's people. God calls the Jews "treasured possession", He says that Zion is "engraved on the palms of His hands" and that they are "light for the Gentiles". The only people that God apply this terms besides Israel is the Church of Jesus Christ, and it is because it is "grafted in" in Israel, its "olive tree".

To invade Israel and to handle with them as enemies is nothing new. During the Assyrian invasion, which conquered the Kingdom of the North and repopulated its territory with a mix of Jews and strangers - which would be the well known "Samaritans" - we can see another case of superbia in 2nd Kings 19:27-28:

"But I know where you are and when you come and go, and how you rage against me. Because you rage against me and because your insolence [=pride] has reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will make you return by the way you came"

These words were God's answer to the king of Assyria, and the Lord gave him even a prophecy (verses 32-33) :

"He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it. By the way that he came he will return; he will not enter this city, declares the Lord"

The Word of God has sanity even for haughty ones. James 4:6-7 says:

"But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: 'God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble'. Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you"

If you are a Christian then you have maybe heard this verses in thousands of sermons. But maybe you have listened to them without connecting them. Observe "then" in the second verse. This particle means that the verse is addressed to "the proud" in the verse before, and that it is they who need to "resist the devil" (with the obvious conclusion that the haughty are under Satan's control)

King Nebuchadnezzar, full of pride, despised God. Because of that, he got mad for seven years, until he acknowledged Israel's God. If you walk without God because of a decision you made in pride, and now you're incapable of mending, know this: Jesus has the solution! He says in Matthew 11:28-30 :

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light"

Humility is the only cure of superbia. You don't have to eat grass and live without a roof as the Babylonian king for seven years. Just kneel before the Lord and tell Him, "Lord Jesus, pardon me because of my haughtiness, and all other sins I've commited against You. Please come into my life, be my Lord, wash me with that blood that was shed on Calvary's cross, save me, heal me, deliver me and adopt me as a son of God" He came to deliver you from sin, and this prayer, or a similar one - if it is the voice of your heart which really is addressing the God of Heaven - is the prayer that fills God's heart with joy, to know that a sinner has repented and wants to get salvation. He has the power to save!

May the Lord bless you. In the love of Christ, your brother

Israel Leonard

PS. Jesus is coming soon!

NOTE:

After the Six-Day war in 1967, when Israel was under the attack of four armies from Muslim countries, in UN resolution 242 was determined Israel right to "new defensible borders", instead of the earlier ones, and which could permit them to reject violence acts and threats from other countries.

Which ones are this defensible borders?

See next video:


The conclusions are inevitable:

So long Israel is under death menace from Palestinian Arabs and nations which sustain terrorism and Muslim extremism, as Iran, it is essencial that they retain the control over the West Bank (the disputed territory which is greater in size and significance) and retain the blockade of the Gaza strip (where the terrorists get weaponry and train new suicide bombers, which they raise from childhood) Nobody can call himself "friend of Israel" and deny them this minimal defense rights - especially in these times we are living in. We have emphasized in our Facebook site that only a born again Christian or somebody WHO LOVES ISRAEL is able to lead a serious dialog between the Palestinian Arabs and the Jews, and we believe it. Some "conditions" of peace from Hamas don't exist, because they don't seek peace but war. They don't want two states living in harmony, but to obliterate Israel. They don't want a democracy in their region, but an Islamic terrorist state.

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