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Women’s shelters in Afghanistan may soon come under the control of government leaders who follow Sharia law.
Battered women, child brides, and rape victims who may be killed by their families have few choices in Afghanistan. Islamic clerics endorse wife beating, and women who run away have been cruelly punished. Shelters, supported by independent groups and the U.N., sprang up after the U.S. and allies overthrew the Taliban. They provide security, skill training, and education for illiterate women.
But adherence to Sharia has become the basis of political one-upmanship.
Enayatullah Balegh, a member of Afghanistan’s Council of Muslim scholars, said Sharia allows women to live only with a close male relative — her husband, father, brother, or son. Thus women’s shelters are illegal and should be shut down.
In October 2010, the Afghan Supreme Court said that women who run away from home can be charged with prostitution or adultery unless they go to the police or a relative’s home. In January 2011, the Council of Ministers released regulations requiring that women seeking shelter must first seek admission from a government panel, have monthly examinations to monitor their sexual activity, practice and study Islam, and be accompanied to the shelters by a husband or a male relative.
Those who run shelters say that government officials already pressure them to hand women back to their communities, even if it’s likely the women will be killed. Shelters will be unlikely to refuse if they are run by government officials.
The Karzai government, notorious for corruption and threatening to partner with the Taliban, accused the shelters of corruption and mismanagement. Hussan Ghazanfar, the acting minister of women’s affairs — the department that would gain control of the independent shelters — claimed the 11 registered havens receive millions in international funding but only take in 210 women. She conceded that did not include all the women helped, but rather how many were residing in shelters the day they checked.
“The international community gives $11 million and we can work with much less of a budget,” she said. “If they are not ready to give us this money, only one million will take care of this.”
Manizha Naderi, whose organization, Women for Afghan Women, runs four shelters, told TheNew York Times, “That’s a total lie.” Her shelter in Kabul helps 40 women on any given day, 350 women in a year, at a total cost of $100,000. “There is no shelter in Afghanistan with a million dollar budget.”
The government takeover of women’s shelters is a stark example of the totalitarian nature of Sharia law. The most desperate, abused, helpless women are allowed no refuge, no place where they can be treated as human beings. Every institution is expected to conform to mullahs’ interpretations.
This contrasts sharply with Judeo-Christian beliefs, which teach that we are all created in the image of God, and we are to treat each other as we want to be treated.
How would Jesus treat an outcast woman? We don’t have to guess — the Bible shows us.
He rescued a woman accused of adultery from being stoned by her community.
He reached out to the Samaritan woman at the well, who had a shady background — entrusting her to be the messenger of the good news that He is the Messiah, and by doing so, elevating her in the community and in history.
Unlike Sharia law, which requires multiple women’s testimonies to equal one man’s, the Bible reports, “And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, ‘He told me all that I ever did.’” (John 4:39)
The battered women in Afghanistan and others under the cruel tyranny of Sharia can use our prayers that they would be treated with the dignity that Jesus showed.
Wendy Wright is President of Concerned Women for America, the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization.
Yesterday the space shuttle Discovery blasted off on its final mission into space. Two more space shuttle launches remain. The American manned space missions that started 50 years ago with Alan Shepard’s 50 mile flight will soon end.
It was like yesterday when the most prized toy was a metal Gemini space capsule which spitted sparks out of its end and had a red blinking light. Every American child dreamed of being an Astronaut and we were regularly told at school we could do anything as Americans because the USA was the greatest country in the world.
In science class we would watch the Disney movie Man In Space and listened in awe as rocket scientist Werner von Braun told us about the amazing future we would have traveling to distant worlds. On Thursday nights the delight of Star Trek made the universe seem smaller.
Then on a hot summer night tens of millions witnessed the grainy image of Neil Armstrong jumping down to the moon on the screen of a black and white television. We eagerly rose the next morning to read with pride the three inch headline
MEN ON MOON!!!
Latter on the cracking scratchy radio account of Apollo Thirteens amazing safe return home was aired over school PA systems. In 1989 we all cried a tear or two when the shuttle Challenger exploded into pieces.
But that was then when America was great. We are told that there now is no money for the future of manned space flight. Americans school children are now told we are no more exceptional than any other nation in the world.. Money is now only available to be spent on regulation , bureaucrats, and public employee unions.
In the future if we are lucky we might be able to hitch hike a ride into space with the Russians, Chinese or Indians.
That is because as a nation Americans are now going no where fast.
Increasingly, the leaders of Western Europe are recognizing the failure of multiculturalism. Whether they will do anything about the problem remains to be seen.
How did Europe come to this pass? I speak as one born in the Balkans but raised in Canada, where I was, thankfully, assimilated to democratic, Anglophone culture. The issue in Europe has in part to do with the formation and expansion of the EU and whether, with the massive migration of worker Turks into Western Europe, Turkey should be admitted to the EU.
Admission of Turkey into the EU clearly would exacerbate an already critical illegal migrant situation. This particularly affects Germany, France, Austria, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, and the UK (which also has a large population of Islamic Pakistanis). The drain on welfare resources and medical services to support these unassimilated populations has reached crisis proportions, to say nothing about the undermining of civil law in parts of Paris and London, the Midlands of England, Germany, and Austria.
In addition, Europe’s problems have been worsened by American policies in the Balkans of the past 15 years. This is true in three important respects:
Our mismanagement of Bosnia
Our intervention in Kosovo
Our policy of defaming our traditional Serb allies while ignoring the incredible mafia criminality and anti-Christian destructiveness of Albanian and Bosnian Islamic extremism
The extent of infiltration of Islamic organized crime from Albania and Bosnia into Europe is staggering. This is ignored or excused by the powerful Albanian lobby in America’s Northeast and in Congress. To be fair, some in Congress, such as Congressman Dan Burton of Indiana, are alert to the situation, and a fresh look is being taken at our Balkan policy within the State Department.
The Bosnia Imbroglio
President Clinton imported Al Qaeda from Afghanistan into Bosnia to counter Slobodan Milosevic, a decision facilitated in part by Madeleine Albright’s vitriolic, personal hatred of Serbs, which significantly skewed our foreign policy. We did not betray the Poles, Hungarians, Romanians, and Bulgarians, all of whom had more reactionary communist regimes than the former Yugoslavia. The irony is that Serbs rid themselves of Milosevic without Washington’s help and turned him over to the Hague.
The attempt to combine the three major ethnic groups in Bosnia into one state has failed. Serbs have defensively created Republica Srpska. The Croats, who have tried accommodation with the radical Islamist leadership, have decided they have had enough. They recently asked Russia to intervene in the Security Council to stabilize their situation in the face of radical Islamist undermining of their status in the Bosnian federation.
I have carefully read the 700 pages of The Clinton Tapes by Taylor Branch. The book is based on 79 two-hour interviews, often late at night, as President Clinton sought over the years during his administration to freshly recount events of the day or of previous days.
It is remarkable how little understanding is reflected in these tapes about the history of the Balkans, especially of the strong Christian heritage in Bosnia and Kosovo and the attempts by the Ottoman Empire to restrict Christianity by forced conversions to Islam through the kidnapping of Serbian boys (who became the famed Janissaries), by brutality, and by discriminatory economic policies.
Nor was there even a hint of anxiety or regret at what his importing of Al Qaeda into Bosnia was causing as they settled down, married Bosnian women, and began the process of imposing Islamic radicalism on Bosnia, which had become significantly secular since the expulsion of the Ottomans from Europe after World War I.
From Bosnia and Kosovo we now have one of the largest and most virulent drug cartels in the world, the worst of white slavery and prostitution trafficking into Europe, and terrorist training compounds. (Several of the 9/11 hijackers spent time in Bosnia among their Al Qaeda compatriots.) It is fascinating that some, including Boutros Boutros-Ghali, former Secretary-General of the UN, wanted to re-establish Christianity as the dominant culture in the Balkans against the rising radical Islamic tide, a proposal that never got off the ground.
It is scarcely credible, but nevertheless true, that the Clinton Administration ignored the Islamic Declaration by Alija Izetbegović, former president of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in which he clearly urged Islamists in Bosnia and worldwide to take up jihad against the West. Instead they regarded him as “their boy,” ignoring the proliferating terrorist cells in Bosnia.
The Devastation of Kosovo
The silence of the West about the expulsion of Serbs, Romanies and other non-Albanians from Kosovo, the terrorizing of the remaining Serbs, and the destruction and desecration of literally hundreds of churches, monasteries, cemeteries and other Christian landmarks, some of which are medieval treasures, is a tribute to the West’s allowing some of the worst vandalism and repression of the Christian faith in modern times.
There are more churches, monasteries and other Christian landmarks per square kilometer in Kosovo than anywhere else on earth. Kosovo is to Serbian Orthodox Christians what Canterbury is to Anglicans and the Vatican to Roman Catholics. But Christian Orthodox populations are expendable in the political maneuvering of Western politicians.
The latest bombshell is the Council of Europe’s recently adopted report from Dick Marty that Kosovo leaders, including Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, are complicit in crime, including organ trafficking. There is now a strenuous effort to sweep the body parts issue under the rug lest it torpedo efforts to legitimize the illegally mandated separation of Kosovo from Serbia. The data are horrific: Serbian captive youths were selected on the basis of genetic compatibility for killing in order to harvest saleable body parts.
The Marty report confirms allegations by prosecutor Carla del Ponte, of the Hague International War Crimes Tribunal, first published in 2008 (some say even earlier, in 2003). Human Rights Watch has called on the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo to appoint a special prosecutor based outside Kosovo to investigate Marty’s findings. But there is an insuperable obstacle to effective judicial proceedings: Kosovo is tiny, and it is almost impossible to shelter witnesses, should they come forward. Testifying would mean signing a death warrant against oneself and one’s entire family.
Few in America recognize that in the Balkans we are reaping the whirlwind of recent policy errors. In Samuel Huntington’s words, we are indeed witnessing the clash of civilizations. But our adversary is not an identifiable state enemy. The strategy is to insinuate a minority Islamist population into a culture and allege discrimination while practicing it. Once they gain status or power they turn on their hosts.
In America today one cannot even begin to discuss the issues. On April 25, 2008, at the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa, Bernard Lewis, professor emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, warned that there is:
a degree of thought control and limitations of freedom of expression without parallel in the Western world since the 18th century … Islam and Islamic values now have a level of immunity from comment and criticism in the Western world that Christianity has lost and Judaism has never had.
Samuel Mikolaski is a retired theology professor. His curriculum vitae and published work are on his website.
Page Printed from: http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/02/the_united_caliphate_states_of.html at February 25, 2011 – 08:41:58 AM CST
9 And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands upon him: and the children of Israel hearkened unto him, and did as the LORD commanded Moses. 10 And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, 11 In all the signs and the wonders, which the LORD sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land, 12 And in all that mighty hand, and in all the great terror which Moses showed in the sight of all Israel.
We have here a very honourable encomium passed both on Moses and Joshua; each has his praise, and should have. It is ungrateful so to magnify our living friends as to forget the merits of those that are gone, to whose memories there is a debt of honour due: all the respect must not be paid to the rising sun; and, on the other hand, it is unjust so to cry up the merits of those that are gone as to despise the benefit we have in those that survive and succeed them. Let God be glorified in both, as here.
I. Joshua is praised as a man admirably qualified for the work to which he was called, v. 9. Moses brought Israel to the borders of Canaan and then died and left them, to signify that the law made nothing perfect, Heb. 7:19. It brings men into a wilderness of conviction, but not into the Canaan of rest and settled peace. It is an honour reserved for Joshua (our Lord Jesus, of whom Joshua was a type) to do that for us which the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, Rom. 8:3. Through him we enter into rest, the spiritual rest of conscience and eternal rest in heaven. Three things concurred to clear Joshua’s call to this great undertaking:–
1. God fitted him for it: He was full of the spirit of wisdom; and so he had need who had such a peevish people to rule, and such a politic people to conquer. Conduct is as requisite in a general as courage. Herein Joshua was a type of Christ, in whom are hidden the treasures of wisdom.
2. Moses, by the divine appointment, had ordained him to it: He had laid his hands upon him, so substituting him to be his successor, and praying to God to qualify him for the service to which he had called him; and this comes in as a reason why God gave him a more than ordinary spirit of wisdom, because his designation to the government was God’s own act (those whom God employs he will in some measure make fit for the employment) and because this was the thing that Moses had asked of God for him when he laid his hands on him. When the bodily presence of Christ withdrew from his church, he prayed the Father to send another Comforter, and obtained what he prayed for.
3. The people cheerfully owned him and submitted to him. Note, An interest in the affections of people is a great advantage, and a great encouragement to those that are called to public trusts of what kind soever. It was also a great mercy to the people that when Moses was dead they were not as sheep having no shepherd, but had one ready among them in whom they did unanimously, and might with the highest satisfaction, acquiesce.
II. Moses is praised (v. 10-12), and with good reason.
1. He was indeed a very great man, especially upon two accounts:–
(1.) His intimacy with the God of nature: God knew him face to face, and so he knew God. See Num. 12:8. He saw more of the glory of God than any (at least of the Old-Testament saints) ever did. He had more free and frequent access to God, and was spoken to not in dreams, and visions, and slumberings on the bed, but when he was awake and standing before the cherubim. Other prophets, when God appeared and spoke to them, were struck with terror (Dan. 10:7), but Moses, whenever he received a divine revelation, preserved his tranquillity.
(2.) His interest and power in the kingdom of nature. The miracles of judgment he wrought in Egypt before Pharaoh, and the miracles of mercy he wrought in the wilderness before Israel, served to demonstrate that he was a particular favourite of Heaven, and had an extra-ordinary commission to act as he did on this earth. Never was there any man whom Israel had more reason to love, or whom the enemies of Israel had more reason to fear. Observe, The historian calls the miracles Moses wrought signs and wonders, done with a mighty hand and great terror, which may refer to the terrors of Mount Sinai, by which God fully ratified Moses’s commission and demonstrated it beyond exception to be divine, and this in the sight of all Israel.
2. He was greater than any other of the prophets of the Old Testament. Though they were men of great interest in heaven and great influence upon earth, yet they were none of them to be compared with this great man; none of them either so evidenced or executed a commission from heaven as Moses did. This encomium of Moses seems to have been written long after his death, yet then there had not arisen any prophet like unto Moses, nor did there arise any such between that period and the sealing up of the vision and prophecy. by Moses God gave the law, and moulded and formed the Jewish church; by the other prophets he only sent particular reproofs, directions, and predictions. The last of the prophets concludes with a charge to remember the law of Moses, Mal. 4:4. Christ himself often appealed to the writings of Moses, and vouched him for a witness, as one that saw his day at a distance and spoke of him. But, as far as the other prophets came short of him, our Lord Jesus went beyond him. His doctrine was more excellent, his miracles were more illustrious, and his communion with his Father was more intimate, for he had lain in his bosom from eternity, and by him God does now in these last days speak to us. Moses was faithful as a servant, but Christ as a Son. The history of Moses leaves him buried in the plains of Moab, and concludes with the period of his government; but the history of our Saviour leaves him sitting at the right hand of the Majesty on high, and we are assured that of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end. The apostle, in his epistle to the Hebrews, largely proves the pre-eminence of Christ above Moses, as a good reason why we that are Christians should be obedient, faithful, and constant, to that holy religion which we make profession of. God, by his grace, make us all so!
5 So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD. 6 And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Beth-peor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day. 7 And Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. 8 And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days: so the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended.
Here is, I. The death of Moses (v. 5): Moses the servant of the Lord died. God told him he must not go over Jordan, and, though at first he prayed earnestly for the reversing of the sentence yet God’s answer to his prayer sufficed him, and now he spoke no more of that matter,ch. 3:26. Thus our blessed Saviour prayed that the cup might pass from him, yet, since it might not, he acquiesced with, Father, thy will be done. Moses had reason to desire to live a while longer in the world. He was old, it is true, but he had not yet attained to the years of the life of his fathers; his father Amram lived to be 137; his grandfather Kohath 133; his great grandfather Levi 137; Exod. 6:16-20. And why must Moses, whose life was more serviceable than any of theirs, die at 120, especially since he felt not the decays of age, but was as fit for service as ever? Israel could ill spare him at this time; his conduct and his converse with God would be as great a happiness to them in the conquest of Canaan as the courage of Joshua. It bore hard upon Moses himself, when he had gone through all the fatigues of the wilderness, to be prevented from enjoying the pleasures of Canaan; when he had borne the burden and heat of the day, to resign the honour of finishing the work to another, and that not his son, but his servant, who must enter into his labours. We may suppose that this was not pleasant to flesh and blood. But the man Moses was very meek; God will have it so, and he cheerfully submits.
1. He is here called the servant of the Lord, not only as a good man (all the saints are God’s servants), but as a useful man, eminently useful, who had served God’s counsels in bringing Israel out of Egypt, and leading them through the wilderness. It was more his honour to be the servant of the Lord. than to be king in Jeshurun.
2. Yet he dies. Neither his piety nor his usefulness would exempt him from the stroke of death. God’s servants must die that they may rest from their labours, receive their recompense, and make room for others. When God’s servants are removed, and must serve him no longer on earth, they go to serve him better, to serve him day and night in his temple.
3. He dies in the land of Moab, short of Canaan, while as yet he and his people were in an unsettled condition and had not entered into their rest. In the heavenly Canaan there will be no more death.
4. He dies according to the word of the Lord. At the mouth of the Lord; so the word is. The Jews say, “with a kiss from the mouth of God.” No doubt, he died very easily (it was an euthanasia–a delightful death), there were no bands in his death; and he had in his death a most pleasing taste of the love of God to him: but that he died at the mouth of the Lord means no more but that he died in compliance with the will of God. Note, The servants of the Lord, when they have done all their other work, must die at last, in obedience to their Master, and be freely willing to go home whenever he sends for them, Acts 21:13.
II. His burial, v. 6. It is a groundless conceit of some of the Jews that Moses was translated to heaven as Elijah was, for it is expressly said that he died and was buried; yet probably he was raised to meet Elias, to grace the solemnity of Christ’s transfiguration. 1. God himself buried him, namely, by the ministry of angels, which made this funeral, though very private, yet very magnificent. Note, God takes care of the dead bodies of his servants; as their death is precious, so is their dust, not a grain of it shall be lost, but the covenant with it shall be remembered. When Moses was dead, God buried him; when Christ was dead, God raised him, for the law of Moses was to have an end, but not the gospel of Christ. Believers are dead to the law that they might be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, Rom. 7:4. It should seem Michael, that is, Christ (as some think), had the burying of Moses, for by him the Mosaical ordinances were abolished and taken out of the way, nailed to his cross, and buried in his grave, Col. 2:14.
2. He was buried in a valley over against Beth-peor. How easily could the angels that buried him have conveyed him over Jordan and buried him with the patriarchs in the cave of Machpelah! But we must learn not be over-solicitous about the place of our burial. If the soul be at rest with God, the matter is not great where the body rests. One of the Chaldee paraphrasts says, “He was buried over against Beth-peor, that, whenever Baal-peor boasted of the Israelites being joined to him, the grave of Moses over against his temple might be a check to him.”
3. The particular place was not known, lest the children of Israel, who were so very prone to idolatry, should have enshrined and worshipped the dead body of Moses, that great founder and benefactor of their nation. It is true that we read not, among all the instances of their idolatry, that they worshipped relics, the reason of which perhaps was because they were thus prevented from worshipping Moses, and so could not for shame worship any other. Some of the Jewish writers say that the body of Moses was concealed, that necromancers, who enquired of the dead, might not disquiet him, as the witch of Endor did Samuel, to bring him up. God would not have the name and memory of his servant Moses thus abused. Many think this was the contest between Michael and the devil about the body of Moses, mentioned Jude 9. The devil would make the place known that it might be a snare to the people, and Michael would not let him. Those therefore who are for giving divine honours to the relics of departed saints side with the devil against Michael our prince.
III. His age, v. 7. His life was prolonged, 1. To old age. He was 120 years old, which, though far short of the years of the patriarchs, yet much exceeded the years of most of his contemporaries, for the ordinary age of man had been lately reduced to seventy, Ps. 90:10. The years of the life of Moses were three forties. The first forty he lived a courtier, at ease and in honour in Pharaoh’s court; the second forty he lived a poor desolate shepherd in Midian; the third forty he lived a king in Jeshurun, in honour and power, but encumbered with a great deal of care and toil: so changeable is the world we live in, and alloyed with such mixtures; but the world before us is unmixed and unchangeable.
2. To a good old age: His eye was not dim (as Isaac’s, Gen. 27:1, and Jacob’s, Gen. 48:10), nor was his natural force abated; there was no decay either of the strength of his body or of the vigour and activity of his mind, but he could still speak, and write, and walk as well as ever. His understanding was as clear, and his memory as strong, as ever. “His visage was not wrinkled,” say some of the Jewish writers; “he had lost never a tooth,” say others; and many of them expound it of the shining of his face (Exod. 34:30), that that continued to the last. This was the general reward of his services; and it was in particular the effect of his extraordinary meekness, for that is a grace which is, as much as any other, health to the navel and marrow to the bones. Of the moral law which was given by Moses, though the condemning power be vacated to true believers, yet the commands are still binding, and will be to the end of the world; the eye of them is not waxen dim, for they shall discern the thoughts and intents of the heart, nor is their natural force or obligation abated but still we are under the law to Christ.
IV. The solemn mourning that there was for him, v. 8. It is a debt owing to the surviving honour of deceased worthies to follow them with our tears, as those who loved and valued them, are sensible of our loss of them, and are truly humbled for those sins which have provoked God to deprive us of them; for penitential tears very fitly mix with these. Observe,
1. Who the mourners were: The children of Israel. They all conformed to the ceremony, whatever it was, though some of them perhaps, who were ill-affected to his government, were but mock-mourners; yet we may suppose there were those among them who had formerly quarrelled with him and his government, and perhaps had been of those who spoke of stoning him, who now were sensible of their loss, and heartily lamented him when he was removed from them, though they knew not how to value him when he was with them. Thus those who had murmured were made to learn doctrine, Isa. 29:24. Note, The loss of good men, especially good governors, is to be much lamented and laid to heart: those are stupid who do not consider it.
2. How long they mourned: Thirty days. So long the formality lasted, and we may suppose there were some in whom the mourning continued much longer. Yet the ending of the days of weeping and mourning for Moses is an intimation that, how great soever our losses have been, we must not abandon ourselves to perpetual grief; we must suffer the wound at least to heal up in time. If we hope to go to heaven rejoicing, why should we resolve to go to the grave mourning? The ceremonial law of Moses is dead and buried in the grave of Christ; but the Jews have not yet ended the days of their mourning for it.
Having read how Moses finished his testimony, we are told here how he immediately after finished his life. This chapter could not be written by Moses himself, but was added by Joshua or Eleazar, or, as bishop Patrick conjectures, by Samuel, who was a prophet, and wrote by divine authority what he found in the records of Joshua, and his successors the judges. We have had an account of his dying words, here we have an account of his dying work, and that is work we must all do shortly, and it had need be well done. Here is, I. The view Moses had of the land of Canaan just before he died, ver. 1-4. II. His death and burial, ver. 5, 6. III. His age, ver. 7. IV. Israel’s mourning for him, ver. 8. V. His successor, ver. 9. VI. His character, ver. 10, &c.
Moses on Mount Pisgah.
B. C. 1451.
Deuteronomy 34:1-4
1 And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And the LORD showed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan, 2 And all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, unto the utmost sea, 3 And the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto Zoar. 4 And the LORD said unto him, This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither.
Here is, I. Moses climbing upwards towards heaven, as high as the top of Pisgah, there to die; for that was the place appointed, ch. xxxii. 49, 50. Israel lay encamped upon the flat grounds in the plains of Moab, and thence he went up, according to order, to the mountain of Nebo, to the highest point or ridge of that mountain, which was called Pisgah,v. 1. Pisgah is an appellative name for all such eminences. It should seem, Moses went up alone to the top of Pisgah, alone without help–a sign that his natural force was not abated when on the last day of his life he could walk up to the top of a high hill without such supporters as once he had when his hands were heavy (Exod. 17:12), alone without company. When he had made an end of blessing Israel, we may suppose, he solemnly took leave of Joshua, and Eleazar, and the rest of his friends, who probably brought him to the foot of the hill; but then he gave them such a charge as Abraham gave to his servants at the foot of another hill: Tarry you here while I go yonder and die: they must not see him die, because they must not know of his sepulchre. But, whether this were so or not, he went up to the top of Pisgah,
1. To show that he was willing to die. When he knew the place of his death, he was so far from avoiding it that he cheerfully mounted a steep hill to come at it. Note, Those that through grace are well acquainted with another world, and have been much conversant with it, need not be afraid to leave this.
2. To show that he looked upon death as his ascension. The soul of a man, of a good man, when it leaves the body, goes upwards (Eccl. 3:21), in conformity to which motion of the soul, the body of Moses shall go along with it as far upwards as its earth will carry it. When God’s servants are sent for out of the world, the summons runs thus, Go up and die.
II. Moses looking downward again towards this earth, to see the earthly Canaan into which he must never enter, but therein by faith looking forwards to the heavenly Canaan into which he should now immediately enter. God had threatened that he should not come into the possession of Canaan, and the threatening is fulfilled. But he had also promised that he should have a prospect of it, and the promise is here performed: The Lord showed him all that good land, v. 1.
1. If he went up alone to the top of Pisgah, yet he was not alone, for the Father was with him, John 16:32. If a man has any friends, he will have them about him when he lies a dying. But if, either through God’s providence or their unkindness, it should so happen that we should then be alone, we need fear no evil if the great and good Shepherd be with us, Ps. 23:4.
2. Though his sight was very good, and he had all the advantage of high ground that he could desire for the prospect, yet he could not have seen what he now saw, all Canaan from end to end (reckoned about fifty or sixty miles), if his sight had not been miraculously assisted and enlarged, and therefore it is said, The Lord showed it to him. Note, All the pleasant prospects we have of the better country we are beholden to the grace of God for; it is he that gives the spirit of wisdom as well as the spirit of revelation, the eye as well as the object. This sight which God here gave Moses of Canaan, probably, the devil designed to mimic, and pretended to out-do, when in an airy phantom he showed to our Saviour, whom he had placed like Moses upon an exceedingly high mountain, all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, not gradually, as here, first one country and then another, but all in a moment of time.
3. He saw it at a distance. Such a sight the Old-Testament saints had of the kingdom of the Messiah; they saw it afar off. Thus Abraham, long before this, saw Christ’s day; and, being fully persuaded of it, embraced it in the promise, leaving others to embrace it in the performance, Heb. 11:13. Such a sight believers now have, through grace, of the bliss and glory of their future state. The word and ordinances are to them what Mount Pisgah was to Moses; from them they have comfortable prospects of the glory to be revealed, and rejoice in hope of it.
4. He saw it, but must never enjoy it. As God sometimes takes his people away from the evil to come, so at other times he takes them away from the good to come, that is, the good which shall be enjoyed by the church in the present world. Glorious things are spoken of the kingdom of Christ in the latter days, its advancement, enlargement, and flourishing state; we foresee it, but we are not likely to live to see it. Those that shall come after us, we hope will enter that promised land, which is a comfort to us when we find our own carcases falling in this wilderness. See 2 Kings 7:2.
5. He saw all this just before his death. Sometimes God reserves the brightest discoveries of his grace to his people to be the support of their dying moments. Canaan was Immanuel’s land (Isa. 8:8), so that in viewing it he had a view of the blessings we enjoy by Christ. It was a type of heaven (Heb. 11:16), which faith is the substance and evidence of. Note, Those may leave this world with a great deal of cheerfulness that die in the faith of Christ, and in the hope of heaven, and with Canaan in their eye. Having thus seen the salvation of God, we may well say, Lord, now let thou thy servant depart in peace.
Luke 24:49
And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.
Acts 1:14
These all continued with one accord in prayer.
God’s promises are given not to restrain, but to incite to prayer. They show the direction in which we may ask, and the extent to which we may expect an answer.
They are the signed check, made payable to order, which we must indorse and present for payment.
Though the Bible be crowded with golden promises from board to board, yet will they be inoperative until we turn them into prayer.
It is not our province to argue the reasonableness of this; it is enough to accentuate and enforce it. – F.B. Meyer.
The promise of the spirit constrained the disciples to pray for it. Are we making as much as we might, of the sure things, which God has purposed shall be, as incentives to earnest, persevering prayer?
He has purposed that His gospel shall be preached throughout the world; are we praying that it may be? God’s certainties should inspire to prayer.
- Daily Meditations for Prayer.
A British court has ruled against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and ordered his return to Sweden in order to answer questions about two sexual assault charges filed against him.
Mr. Assange, dressed in the blue suit he has worn to previous hearings, sat impassively as the decision was read. He is currently free on bail and the court continued that, subject to conditions which were being discussed.Judge Howard Riddle, in his ruling, said that allegations brought by two women qualified as extraditable offenses and that the warrant seeking Mr. Assange’s return to Sweden for questioning was valid.
The verdict marks a turning point in the three-month battle in the British courts and the media against what Mr. Assange, his legal team and his celebrity supporters say is a conspiracy to stop WikiLeaks and its campaign to expose government and corporate secrets.
The case has been fought against the backdrop of the group’s highest-profile operation yet – the release of a quarter of a million confidential American diplomatic cables that became the basis of articles by news organizations worldwide, including The New York Times.
The assault charges would seem convenient given the timing of them, but the two women making them are far left wing activists who went goo-goo eyed over being in the company of Mr. Assange. At the very least, we’ll probably get a few answers to some nagging questions about why both women said “no” after first saying “yes.”
Welcome to the Before It’s News Daily Featured 5 Stories. Each weekday we deliver the most important and interesting alternative stories to your inbox. Be the first among your friends and colleagues to get the scoop on the stories everyone should be talking about today.
Britain’s Times newspaper said Wednesday it had footage of severely wounded and dead protesters in a Libyan hospital which proved that heavy weapons were being used to crush the uprising, as the Libyan interior minister and some army units announced their siding with the Libyan revolt…
This week, Erich ” Mancow” Muller interviewed Donald Rumseld, who was US Secretary of Defense on September 11, 2001. Muller asked Rumsfeld what he says to people in response to the felling of World Trade Center, Building Seven on 9/11. Rumsfeld answered: “What is building 7?” … “I have no idea. I have never heard that.”…
The asteroid Kleopatra, like its namesake, the last pharaoh and queen of Egypt, gave birth to twins – two moons probably spawned by the asteroid sometime in the past 100 million years. The asteroid, itself, is shaped like a dog bone…
Wikileaks’ Julian Assange has released a video message addressing recent “financial blockade” activities conducted by the U.S. through corporations like Bank of America, Visa and PayPal in attempt to bring down the information leaking operation…
It’s recently been revealed that the U.S. government contracted HBGary Federal for the development of software which could create multiple fake social media profiles to manipulate and sway public opinion on controversial issues by promoting propaganda. It could also be used as surveillance to find points of view the powers-that-be don’t like…
For those of us who have been trying to talk about Middle East dictators for a long time–I wrote my book on the subject, Modern Dictators, more than a quarter-century ago–it is amusing to see how people are lining up to be “horrified” by those evil repressive regimes.
Some of these people have built their whole careers on saying that the only problem in the Middle East is the Arab-Israeli conflict, then adding this was Israel’s fault. Indeed, many of them extolled these dictators, especially the anti-American ones.
Reminds me also of how Yasir Arafat was regularly whitewashed in the media–with little about his extremism, lies, corruption, and direct involvement in terrorism–until he was dead and thus bashing him had no political implications about the Palestinian movement’s nature, behavior, and goals. Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein also enjoyed a pretty good press until overthrown by the United States.
If there was time, I could dig up dozens of examples of mass media howlers (send me any you find) but since a friend of mine has done a case study on Libya in this regard, I’ll publish it here with some small additions.
The New York Times has an article entitled “Libya’s Butcher” that tells us:
“Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya vowed on Tuesday that he would “fight on to the last drop of my blood” and die a “martyr.” We have no doubt that what he really meant is that he will butcher and martyr his own people in his desperation to hold on to power. He must be condemned and punished by the international community.”
“Colonel Qaddafi, who took power in a 1969 coup, has a long, ruthless and erratic history. Among his many crimes: He was responsible for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. In 2003, after years of international sanctions, he announced that he had given up terrorism and his pursuit of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.”
But how has the Times dealt with this horrible monster in the past? Well, Qadhafi was given space for his views.
Or here where Saif Qaddafi, son of the dictator, was allowed to justify the release of a murderer.
Or here with a puff piece celebrating the eco-friendliness of Saif
The Times had no problem promoting this guy in different ways over the years. It’s current portrayal of him as a butcher should have been confirmed by its shunning of him in the past.
Or in other words, it is now saying: I’m shocked! Shocked! To see that dictatorship is going on!
But now the Times is busy working to make the next generation of would-be dictators and extremists look good, notably regarding the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and its charismatic spiritual guide, Yusuf al-Qaradawi. Not one word about the Brotherhood’s collaboration with the Nazis, support for terrorism, and hysterical antisemitism has appeared in most of the American mass media.
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By Barry Rubin
The Western media continues to portray the Muslim Brotherhood–without citing any actual evidence and ignoring everything said or written by its leaders in Arabic–as moderate and full of diverse factions.
But what does it mean when Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the most important Islamist cleric in the world and of the Muslim Brotherhood, says, “The revolution is not over yet.” He means that, like the Russian revolution of 1917, Egypt should have a two-stage revolution: first, the overthrow of the dictatorship and the development of democracy; second, the revolution to implant an Islamist state. Between one and two million Egyptians listened to that speech and cheered.
There are three additional points that should be made about this fallacy.
First, why has the Brotherhood been legally banned in Egypt for so many years? The argument used was that no party should be able to “monopolize” religion. In other words, since Islam is such a potent symbol and powerful source of identity no political party should be able to label itself as “Muslim,” as if other parties were non- or anti-Muslim.
One might view this as an excuse by the regime but it is still a valid point for the future. Going into an election as the “Muslim” party is a tremendous advantage. The Brotherhood is a disciplined organization with a clear leadership hierarchy. Now that it has real prospects for victory why will people who stuck with it in the hard days of illegality rebel against the leadership?
If anyone in Egypt is going to have quarreling factions it is all the non-Brotherhood forces that have no organization, no discipline, no clear leadership, and no program.
Second, while the Brotherhood is organizing its own party, the first party reportedly registered officially has been the al-Wasat party. This is very significant. Al-Wasat was the party that the relative moderates in the Brotherhood repeatedly tried to organize about a decade ago. The government did not want to register it as legal and the Brotherhood’s leadership also opposed it.
What this latest development means is that the real relative moderates in the Brotherhood have despaired that the group will be more moderate and have left it. These are the people who should know best about the Brotherhood’s nature. In other words, a moderate Islamic party is going to be organized outside the Brotherhood, not inside of it.
And what is the evaluation of the former leader of the Brotherhood’s moderate wing, Abou Elela Mady (not my preferred transliteration)? Here is a quotation from the interview he gave to Reuters:
“The Muslim Brotherhood will be the only group in Egypt ready for a parliamentary election unless others are given a year or more to recover from years of oppression.”
So in other words the former leading moderate in the Brotherhood is frightened, predicting that the Brotherhood might win a parliamentary election. I don’t think they are likely to win but they are going to do very well.
I don’t think the Brotherhood is going to take power in the next couple of years and make Egypt an Islamist state. I think that either the Brotherhood will be a very powerful and increasingly strong opposition party or will participate in a government coalition and leverage that into growing power.
Having an anti-Brotherhood president would mitigate their power. But if the first government falters–not being able to deliver better living standards–the Brotherhood will be waiting for its opportunity in several years. The liberal blogger Sandmonkey predicts they may well be ruling Egypt in six years.
Third, Middle East Transparent has been the most important international Internet publication for Arab liberals. Now this publication, in an Arabic-language article, is really worried about events in Egypt, particularly the composition of the constitution-writing committee the military has appointed.
According to the article, Tariq al-Bishri is considered not only to be pro-Muslim Brotherhood but also hostile to Christians by Middle East Transparent. Another member is the openly Muslim Brotherhood Subhi Salih. The author wonders whether this indicates that the army is more Islamist-leaning than we think.
So if the Brotherhood’s own moderates believe it is still radical and if Arab liberals believe it is still radical might they know more than the Western media and (allegedly) intelligent intelligence agencies?
By the way, here’s a collection of Muslim Brotherhood statements you might find to be useful.
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 books include Islamic Fundamentalists in Egyptian Politics and The Muslim Brotherhood (Palgrave-Macmillan); and The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East, a study of Arab reform movements (Wiley). GLORIA Center site: http://www.gloria-center.org His blog, Rubin Reports, http://www.rubinreports.blogspot.com.
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