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Recently, it has been reported that the AKP has been forcing women out of senior jobs in Turkey. A while ago I wrote an article publishing and describing four photos sent to me by Turkish friends showing graphically how oppressed and miserable Ermine Erdogan, wife of Turkey’s prime minister, looked on visiting the Obamas in Washington.
What’s going on in Turkey is scarcely a secret. For example, a Turkish-American wrote recently in the Los Angeles Times:
“In a disturbing trend, secular Turkish women feel growing pressure to cover up, even facing intimidation or discrimination if they don’t. In one case, Turkish President Abdullah Gul, who has the authority to appoint university rectors, bypassed highly recommended female professor of medicine Gaye Usluer for a man, who was recommended second to her and received far fewer votes from their colleagues at Eskisehir Osmangazi University.”
There are many such stories with specific examples to back them up.
Now an AKP member of parliament has thrown more abuse on me than I have ever seen in a mere 800 words. (And I’ve been working on the Middle East for 30 years!) The article in Hurriyet says that I am an evil Orientalist imperialist, though it at least pays me the compliment of saying I am original about it.
And all I said is that she looked oppressed! Oh, right, that’s not a problem for women in the Middle East. Incidentally this is a reaction to the huge number of Turks who have been talking about the piece and complementing it. By referring to the trumped-up conspiracy trials which have labelled critics of the AKP as traitors, the article attacking me implies that Turkey is quickly ceasing to be a democratic country.
Of course the tone of crazed rhetoric and virulent hatred–reflecting the desire to wipe me off the face of the earth–is probably the greatest condemnation of the movement that launched it which professes to be a moderate family-values party, not a radical Islamist one. If the AKP was as it claimed, it would provide a reasoned response, perhaps even trying to convince me that I was wrong.
When one cuts away all the abuse, the only point cited to prove that I’m wrong is that the prime minister’s wife has been involved in a campaign against illiteracy.
In strategic terms, the article is rather stupid. What the author should have done was to suggest that I insulted Turkey in some way. But instead she makes it all about the AKP and how great it is. I can practically see Hurriyet readers guffawing and nodding their heads as they read the article since they know what I’m writing is true.
What most amuses me about this attack is that the article never describes what I wrote or what the pictures show.
Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley), and The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan). To read and subscribe to MERIA, GLORIA articles, or to order books.To see or subscribe to his blog, Rubin Reports.
Leftist activist M. J. Rosenberg has written a lie about me, claiming that I am unhappy with the Obama Administration because I want it to go to war with Iran. This is silly. It is the kind of lie used to discredit people who make a reasoned critique on any issue in order to portray them as extremists. Such a distortion then allows people to ignore the need to consider rational arguments or to respond to them with logic and proof.
The reference to me is dishonest since I have never ever advocated and do not advocate the United States going to war with Iran. I only advocate the Obama Administration implementing the kind of sanctions supported by Congress as well as the British, French, and Germans. Going to sanctions is not supposed to be a prelude to war but a way to avoid war. It’s called diplomatic pressure.
The idea of the United States attacking Iran is a terrible idea, it will never happen any way, and I oppose it. A I also don’t advocate that the United States attack Iran’s nuclear facilities. Such a proposal has no connection whatsoever to reality.
I also don’t advocate an Israeli attack on Iran at this time and have never written anything urging such an attack. Whether or not such an action would be necessary is an idea that can only be evaluated well into the future. Again, the whole purpose of serious sanctions is to avoid such a confrontation. I discuss the subject here analyzing the pros and cons of any such future attack without advocating it and pointing out reasons why doing so might not be a good idea.
I would, however, suggest that failure to use the pressure of diplomacy and sanctions makes some future confrontation more likely not because the United States would (or should) attack Iran but that Iranian aggression will trigger conflicts in the region, whether or not America participates and whether or not Israel ever attacks Iranian nuclear installations.
Here is the article to which Rosenberg was apparently referring and it says nothing at all like his claims.
If someone disagrees with you they should be able to state your argument honestly and not make up things with absolutely no evidence to support such a claim. Unfortunately, in the times we live in such behavior is all too common.
What makes this especially ironic is that at almost precisely the same moment Forward editor J.J. Goldberg was publishing a very nice defense of me in response to a right-winger who attacked me for not urging an Israeli attack on Iran. Goldberg also includes a number of my previous articles on the subject which can also be found on this site.
An Israeli, a Palestinian, and an American peacemaker walk into a bar. They each order a drink. The American turns to the Israeli and says: “You pay for everyone as a confidence-building measure.”
[This is an original so if you tell it please give proper credit.]
You couldn’t do better to understand the contemporary Middle East than through an al-Jazira television program recorded and translated by MEMRI. The speaker is Moncef al-Marzouki, a Paris-based Tunisian human rights activist.
Note: if you read to the end of this article you will encounter the stinger, like a horror movie’s last scene when the monster leaps out and devours the hero.
Marzouki lives in Paris, which tells a lot. It’s hard to live in the Arabic-speaking world and express such frank opinions. Moreover, he is very much exposed to Western influences which flavors his thought and, by the same token, distances him from those living in the Middle East.
While under the themes of Political Correctness and multiculturalism, those in the West celebrate and flatter Arab political culture, the people who actually live under that system are in despair.
While those in the West usually argue the main complaint of Arabic-speakers is about what foreigners do to them, their real problem is what their own leaders do to them.
While in Western universities, students are most often taught about the Middle East along the lines of Arab nationalist ideology, their best counterparts in the region are imprisoned and tortured by regimes holding that doctrine. Meanwhile, these victims’ ill-treatment of is applauded by the Western professors’ ideological counterparts in the Arabic-speaking world.
This doesn’t mean demagoguery and xenophobia—far more common in the Middle East against the West than vice-versa—don’t inflame popular feeling into a murderous rage against non-Arabs and non-Muslims. Nor does it mean that all of this is mere artificial incitement which would not otherwise exist in the mass population.
In short, those who believe Arabs are just waiting to be liberated from their rulers so as to become moderate democrats are wrong. Yet those who think they are just being stirred up by Western policies are also wrong. Indeed, it is the hatreds and misconceptions of the West and of Israel which make peace and cooperation largely impossible.
Khodhari states:
“The Arab peoples have gone from being subservient to and humiliated by a totalitarian, tyrannical ruler, to being subservient to and humiliated by the ruler’s son….I believe that within five years, these peoples will bow down to the ruler’s chauffeur. I swear that within a decade, they will cheer the ruler’s barber, and obey his orders.”
This is the despair of the would-be Arab democrat. The reference is to the succession of Bashar al-Assad to his father, Hafiz, as Syria’s dictator, and of the likely impending succession of Gamal Mubarak to his father, Husni, as Egypt’s ruler.
Khodhari is furious about the masses’ passivity:
“These dead peoples, which know no shame, and which have become addicted to slavery, conceal all the signs of their humiliation, death, and submission, and shield themselves with the Palestinian cause, and the living, courageous, and heroic Palestinian people. However, I believe that if the Arab peoples turned their backs on the Palestinian cause… The heroic Palestinians must not seek the help of slaves [which means] most of the Arab peoples.”
Once again we see the overwhelming symbolism of the Palestinian cause. The liberal portrays the “refusal” of Arabs to fight for the Palestinians as proof of how they have been reduced to slaves of the regime. But the truth is the exact opposite: the use of this issue to blind people to their own national and individual self-interest has been one of the greatest weapons of the regimes, and of their totalitarian Islamist rivals as well.
The problem, of course, is that Arabs don’t see themselves as being passive and addicted to slavery. On the contrary, they see themselves as active and fighting for liberation. Why? Because they are supporting the resistance to Western imperialism and Zionism. That’s why they don’t respond to Khodhari’s argument, they have an alternative route to feeling good about themselves that’s more emotionally satisfying and far safer.
After all, there is no cost to inveighing against foreign enemies. It’s like the joke about the Soviet and the American arguing in the 1970s. The Soviet says: “I can go to Red Square and say, `Down with America!” And the American says, “So can I. But I can also go to the Capitol and say down with America. Can you go to Red Square and say, `Down with the USSR?’”
Marzouki then raises a second point, about his witnessing the May 1968 rebellion in France when, despite many sometimes violent confrontations:
“Not a single Frenchman was killed….What happened in Hama [Syria]? 20,000 dead. What happened in Egypt? What happened in Tunisia? They sprayed them with machine-guns. And the list goes on….All this is in addition to the concentration camps…hundreds of thousands who were imprisoned [and] tortured….These are terrorist states which…treat their peoples as if they were flies that must be sprayed with pesticide.”
He concludes—something obviously true but few if any Western professors would dare say—that the repression since independence has been far worse than that under colonialism.
But there is hope, Marzouki concludes. There’s the work of NGOs, “the number of journalists in prison, and the number of peoples in exile.” Here are two problems. First, NGOs generally remain very weak and most larger ones are either regime fronts or Islamist ones. Second, while the number of prisoners and exiles show people oppose the regime it also indicates they have done so unsuccessfully. And most don’t want to be in prison or exile. If that’s the price of being democratic activists few will have the courage to do so.
And here’s the big finish: “There was an armed rebellion in Algeria, and today, there is an armed rebellion in Yemen….And these despicable regimes are on the verge of collapse.”
Oh, dear! The armed rebellion in Algeria is by the local franchise of al-Qaida; that in Yemen by Islamists backed by Iran. Like the Communists in 1930s Germany who insisted Nazi rule would only be prelude to a Red takeover, liberals in the Arab world must contend with the fact that the revolutionaries today would be even worse in power than the incumbent regimes. So much for hope.
1 John 2:1
We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
The Father is always willing to give what Christ asks. The Spirit of Christ always teaches and influences us to offer the petitions which Christ ratifies and presents to the Father.
To pray in Christ’s Name is therefore to be identified with Christ as to our righteousness, and to be identified with Christ in our desires by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost.
The Father Himself loveth us, and is willing to hear us: two intercessors, Christ, the Advocate above, and the Holy Ghost, the Advocate within, are the gifts of His love. – Saphir.
The Godhead is engaged in helping us to pray. What a solemn yet blessed privilege to come into the circle of Divinity and be the Holy Spirit’s mouth-piece in prayer.
What holier exercise can the soul engage in than that of prayer? In this more than in anything else the soul is lifted into the heavenlies. Never is the soul so engaged with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit as in prayer.
- Daily Meditations for Prayer.
UN Climate Report Used Questionable Sources – January 26, 2010
The UN climate report that contains an erroneous claim on the rate of glacier retreat also includes references to studies not originating from peer-reviewed scientific literature, some of them linked to environmental activists. A review of references listed in the four-volume 2007 UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report shows that it includes reports linked to various green groups, including WWF and Greenpeace. CNS News
Egyptian Christians Under Attack – January 26, 2010
Egyptian Maher El-Gowhary and his 15 year old daughter Dina never pray twice at the same church, never stay longer than a month in any one apartment. They are constantly under threat, always on the run because they converted to Christianity in a largely Muslim country. Fox News
Online Loose Ends Can Trouble Survivors – January 25, 2010
A dozen businesses have sprung up to help denizens of the digital world grapple with the thorny issues raised after your physical being leaves behind only its virtual reality. Internet experts and estate planners say a cybercrisis is brewing because popular Internet services have policies that, barring an order from a court, forbid accessing or transferring accounts — including recovering money — unless someone has the password. The Washington Post
Russia and US To Resume START Talks – January 25, 2010
Russia and the United States have agreed to resume talks on a new strategic arms reduction treaty. US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, agreed last year to reduce the nuclear warhead stockpile to between 1,500 and 1,675 for each country. A higher level of the negotiators shows that the sides have made progress toward signing a new START treaty, which was at the top of their agenda last year. The new treaty is to replace the 1991 agreement, which expired on December 5, 2009. Novosti
Abortion Workers Who Turn Pro-Life – January 25, 2010
Advances in ultrasound imaging and abortion procedures have forced providers ever closer to the nub of their work. This intimacy exacts an emotional toll, stirring sentiments for which doctors, nurses, and aides are sometimes unprepared. Most apparently have managed to reconcile their belief in the right to abortion with their revulsion at dying and dead fetuses, but a noteworthy number have found the conflict unbearable and have defected to the pro-life cause. The Weekly Standard
“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” John 14:27
Tragedy is a reality in this world. We lose things; houses, cars, savings. We lose people we love, sometimes very suddenly. We get that phone call, that knock on the door, that diagnosis, the one that shoots cold pain into the centers of our stomachs.. We remember those gut-twisting moments for the rest of our lives. The worst thing about them is not just the loss we’ve experienced, but the perpetual fear of future losses. Anticipation of “the worst” can taint every day of our lives for years. Yet, God tells us to not fear, but to trust wholly in Him. How does that work when the fear is there and very real? How can it work?
Fear is natural, and it is a normal response to uncertainty and danger. Yet, fear is not a virtue like caution or prudence. Fear simply robs our lives of joy.. The question is therefore, how do we face joblessness or drive on bad tires we can’t afford to replace? How do we remember the loss of a child and not cling desperately to the children we have left? How do we live in peace and victory?
Certainly trusting God and putting Him first is the answer. But, while it is easy to say we need to trust God, it is often much harder to do. Simon Peter knew Jesus personally and had watched him perform many miracles, and yet as he walked out to Jesus on the water, he was still frightened by the wind and waves, and he began to sink. We understand Peter; we’re just like him.
So, how can we stop being afraid of the wind and waves when they are loud and crashing into our faces?
We learn about God.
“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” -2 Timothy 3:16
“Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.” -John 16:13-14
It’s difficult to trust a stranger. If we want to conquer fear, we need to start by truly getting to know who God is by prayerfully reading through His Word. We also need to ask God for the guidance of His Spirit. God is glad to give us His Spirit to help us (Luke 11:11-13).
We believe God loves us.
“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment.” -1 John 4:18
When God says He loves us, we believe Him. It’s not humble to say, “Oh, I’m not important to God.” God knows the number of hairs on our heads (Matthew 10:29-31). We are extremely valuable to Him. No matter what we feel (feelings come and go with hormones and food), we need to just start taking God at His word. He said He loves us, we should believe Him.
[He does love us. He lavishes us with value. He loves us so much that He allowed His precious Son to be mocked and beaten and slaughtered in order to buy us back from death. It wasn't a whim. It was the amazing, deep, true love of a mighty God. We need to choose to believe that.]
We also need to remember that He doesn’t love us because of how good we are. He loves us because of how good He is. That means that when we’ve had a really rotten day and we’ve messed up, we don’t have to run and hide from Him. We can run to Him and seek His healing and cleansing right away.
We love God back.
“We love him, because he first loved us.” – 1 John 4:19
How do we love God? We obey Him (John 14:15). And when we fail, we quickly confess and repent from sin. We listen to Him. We trust Him. We worship Him. He gave His Son for us, which alone is worth all the rejoicing in the world.
Praise and worship bring amazing results. We can say, “I believe you love me,” but turning that into, “Thank you for loving me,” makes all the difference. We can praise God for His protection, thank Him for His love, delight ourselves in Him. It is safe in His arms. It is safe living in the center of His will, no matter where His will leads us. And as we praise Him and worship Him and enjoy Him, the fear cannot remain.
We remember that our lives are not our own.
” What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” 1Corinthians 6:19-20
One song’s lyrics say: “Thank you, Jesus, for the life you’ve given me. Thank you, Jesus, for the things I cannot see. I will worship you, the great and might Prince of Peace. I will honor you, Lord of Love, King of Kings. Here’s my life a sacrifice to you. Here’s my life a sacrifice to you.”
When our lives truly belong to Christ and we are wholly given over to His purposes, then we know that every thing – even tragedy – will be used for excellent, wonderful things. He can use it all. As Paul said:
“For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” -2 Corinthians 4:16-18
Fear sometimes seems unbeatable. To us, our fears are very real, and the salt water up our sinuses can be painful each time we crash under the ocean waves. But, in God’s power, in God’s eyes, they are nothing. To God, the terrible monsters that rise up above us to destroy us are merely origami tigers. They look fierce, but in God’s hands they are no real danger. God does not need a good economy to provide for us and pay our bills. If He sees fit to give us a broken down car to drive, then He is capable of holding that broken down car together for us. He can protect our children and our loved ones. He alone can heal our hearts, and He is never worried.
Socialists are convening in Brazil this week to celebrate the shaming of big business and the world’s bankers and to call for the redistribution of wealth. In Oregon, it’s not so different; on Tuesday voters passed propositions to increase taxes on the wealthy and businesses. Yet, even while Democrats control both Congress and the White House, passionate conservatism is growing in America, and its force is being felt from sea to shining sea.
Brazil: Demonstrators marched out in crowds of thousands in Porto Alegre, Brazil on Monday for the first day of the annual World Social Forum. And by “social” they don’t mean tea cakes and chitchat. A 22-year-old Brazilian man longing to lift “the poor out of misery” put one purpose of the gathering into words, saying, “We want to distribute the riches to people. We’re fighting for a more equal society and we’re saying ‘Down with hunger’ and ‘Down with war.’”
Oregon:
Socialist ideals were framed in budget-related terms on Tuesday, as Oregon voters decided to increase taxes on businesses and the state’s richest folks. Voters approved Prop 66, which will increase the personal income tax on the states’ wealthy by almost two percentage points. Prop 67 also passed, and will affect businesses by raising the state’s minimum corporate income tax. “Tax the rich” proponents say the tax increases are necessary to pay Oregon’s bills. They say they fear the state would otherwise cut funding to schools, hospitals, and poor people. Those against the tax increase argue that it will hurt small businesses, pushing them out of the state and resulting in loss of jobs and even higher unemployment.
Conservatives Stepping Up: The socialists in Brazil may delight in the perceived failure of American capitalism. The Oregon voters may choose to play Robin Hood. Both houses of Congress as well as the White House may be held by the Democrats. And yet. Conservatives are not just pressing forward in America, they are getting serious attention.
Massachusetts:
Republican Scott Brown made huge news last week when he captured the Massachusetts Senate seat held for 47 years by the late Edward Kennedy. Not only did Brown break the Democrat’s supermajority in the Senate as the 41st Republican, renewing the Republican power to filibuster, but he did so in a state that has not elected a Republican to the Senate since 1972.
Brown is not an especially conservative person, even for Massachusetts. He does, however, provide the one vote necessary to put a stick in the spokes of government run healthcare – at least in its current version. Yes, there is voter discontent with the economy, and yes the Democrat contender Martha Coakley made some terrible gaffes during the race. But the healthcare overhaul may have well been the issue to push Brown into the US Senate. After all, Massachusetts voters hired him knowing exactly what he represented and was at stake in the race.
Twenty-something Alice Fallon commented from an Irish pub after the race. “Everyone thinks Massachusetts is so liberal,” she added. “And coming from outside, I see it as a very split state, with no middle ground.” Last week, that split state sided against the health care bill.
Tim Tebow: Tim Tebow is making big news again, and this time it’s not for winning the Heisman trophy as a sophomore. It’s not for winning NCAA’s QB of the Year in 2007, or the Maxwell Award (he’s won it twice) or, most recently, being chosen MVP of the 2010 Sugar Bowl. The Florida Gators quarterback will be starring in a Focus on the Family-sponsored commercial with his mother – a commercial that will promote family values – commercials scheduled to air during the Super Bowl.
Tebow was born in the Philippines to parents serving as Christian missionaries. Tim’s mother became seriously ill with amoebic dysentery while she was pregnant with him. The drugs used to treat the illness also caused the placenta to detach from her uterus, and doctors recommended an abortion to save Mrs. Tebow’s life. She insisted on carrying the baby to term, allowing Tim, her fifth child, to be born. The 22-year-old football player said, “That’s the reason I’m here, because my mom is a very courageous woman.”
Liberal women’s groups are upset because they suspect there will be a pro-life message involved in the Super Bowl ad, and they don’t want it aired. CBS has decided to air the ad anyway. Tebow responded to the controversy by saying, “…I don’t feel like I’m very preachy about it, but I do stand up for what I believe, and at least you can respect that, because I do stand up. Unfortunately in today’s society, not many athletes tend to do that, to at least stand for something.”
Considering that more than half of Americans now call themselves pro-life, it seems likely that protests against the ad will get drowned out by the applause on Tebow’s behalf.
In The News:
In the third week of January, Fox News not only beat out the CNN and MSNBC news channels in ratings, but FNC topped every other cable network in prime time viewers. Coverage of Haiti and the Senate election in Massachusetts won FNC an average of 3.2 million viewers in primetime. USA came in second in primetime for the week, the Family Channel came in ninth, and ESPN ranked 13th. In contrast, CNN and MSNBC landed at the 22nd and 25th spots respectively.
America’s growing conservative movement has shown up in a variety of ways. In Utah, the incumbent Republican is facing four challengers in the primary because he’s not seen as conservative enough. The Tea Party movement has remained strong and its clout has been widely felt. Those who favor a limited government continue to organize marches and protests through online communication sites like Facebook and Twitter. Thousands turn up at marches, and they present a challenge not only to liberal Democrats, but to big-government Republicans.
The real issue isn’t Massachusetts or Utah or the Super Bowl or Tea Parties. The real issue is that liberalism in America has long been losing its appeal, and the silent majority has found not just one, but many megaphones. In a wide variety of ways, conservatives are standing up and making their voices heard, and they are finding that there are a great many more people who agree with them than they had ever realized.
Prophetical Sensationalism
Daniel 11:43
But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.
When Mussolini took Libya and Ethiopia in 1935 thousands of Bible students hailed him as the Antichrist, claiming Daniel 11:43 was being fulfilled.
This plus the fact of his dream of the revival of the Roman Empire, caused many to teach that he was truly the Antichrist, but how far wrong they have been.
This and all other foolish speculations of the past about Hitler, Stalin, the pope of Rome, and others should cure students of further guessing concerning the fulfillment of prophecy but this seems impossible.
Speculation still goes rampant through the land without check. Some have gone so far as to find the U.S.A. in the name of Jer-USA-lem.
Others see the U.S.A. in Isaiah 18, in the white horse rider of Revelation 6, and the two-horned lamb of Rev. 13.
Innumerable speculations have been advanced concerning the name of the Antichrist, the mark of the beast, and a host of other things of Scripture.
Some even find flying saucers, atom bombs, H-bombs, the airplane, automobile, radio, television, and other modern inventions in Scripture, while the truth is that no one of these is mentioned apart from the general statements that “knowledge shall be increased” [Daniel 12:4]. See the notes given with the various passages used to prove modern intentions, for the true meaning of such passages [22 modern inventions, p.882 – Dake’s A.R.B.].
Libya and Ethiopia could be conquered by any number of men, if the Lord tarries, without fulfilling Dan. 11:43. Unless one conquers AFTER the 10 kingdoms are formed [7:24], AFTER the rapture of the Church [2 Thes. 2:7 notes], comes from Syria and makes a 7-year covenant with Israel [8:9-14; 9:27] He cannot fulfill this prophecy.
There would be no sensational speculation about prophecy if men would watch the time element and other facts that identify a true fulfillment.
- Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible – Notes on Daniel – Page 879.
Schools of the Prophets
1 Samuel 19:20
And Saul sent messengers to take David : and when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as appointed over them, the Spirit of God was upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied.
Hebrew: Iahaqah, to gather, as assembly; a company. From this assembly of the prophets we get the idea of the school of the prophets.
It seemed that men who desired to be prophets gathered together to learn the ways of God and to be trained in divine matters.
No doubt they sought God and were anointed with the Holy Spirit as in other periods.
Certain men in every age have been spiritually minded and hungry for the Lord. There were such gatherings from Samuel’s day on [v20:24; 10:5-12; 1 Ki. 18:4,13; 19:1,10,14].
Those who gathered in Elijah and Elisha’s day were called the sons of the prophets [1 Ki. 20:35, 41; 2 Ki. 2:2-7,15; 4:1, 38; 5:22; 6:1; 9:1].
They were the special servants of God [1 Ki. 17:13, 23; 21:10; 24:2; 2 Chr. 20:20; 24:19; 29:25; 36:16; Ezra 9:11; Neh. 9:26-32; Isa. 29:10], and they were the preachers of their day [Neh. 6:7; Neh. 9:26; Amos 2:11; Acts 3:21; 1 Cor.14:3, 24-32].
Here it speaks of Samuel standing among them as their appointed leader or president of the school [v20]. Elijah and Elisha were heads of the prophets in their time [2 Ki. 2:2-7,15; 2 Ki. 6:1].
In such gatherings there seemed to be a general spirit of prophecy that would come upon all present. At least, this is what happened here.
Three companies of Saul’s soldiers had the Spirit come upon them when they came among the prophets [v20-21].
Then when Saul, the backslider from whom the Spirit had been taken away, came among them, the Spirit was upon him again for the time being [v22-24].
Micah 2:11
If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood do lie, saying, I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink; he shall even be the prophet of this people.
A lying spirit of falsehood and deceit, not the Holy Spirit [v11] .
Other prophets have spoken of this kind – false prophets.
In Ezekiel: Woe unto the foolish prophets that walk after their own spirit and have seen nothing [Ezek. 13:3].
In Jeremiah: The prophets prophesy lies…. I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart [Jer. 14:14-15].
These walked in the spirit, but not the Holy Spirit as the true prophets did. They constantly conversed with their own spirit and that of demons, predicting lies and falsehoods.
Here they prophesied of wine and strong drink, because that was the chief thing on their minds and what they continually gave themselves to.
They desired to please the rich men, to embolden them in their lives of self-indulgence, and to tell them that they would not be punished.
They doubtless did say some good things, when quoting God’s promises to His people, but would not speak of the curses of God upon sin.
This is the secret of success for false prophets even today.
The natural man wants a god, and anything which has a mere resemblance of the spiritual will satisfy, for a time at least, even though it is deception.
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