Inaugural Blog

Hello one and all: friends, bloggers and countrymen...and fellow believers in honest and principled oratory (AKA - "speaking the truth in love!").  In response to the complaints of friends with whom I dialogue through email and Facebook, I have been asked (commanded, really) to begin a blog! I imagine, it is their nice way of demanding that rather than wax eloquent for paragraphs at a time through other venues, I can articulate my thoughts in a place where they can choose to visit IF and when THEY want and not when I want.  I am quite excited to enter my first blog - and, God willing, continue blogging until the Messiah returns!!!

I have chosen to title my Blog: Ezekiel 37.  The significance may be obvious to some, but if not...I will "splain".  My passion and my interest and the motivation for this particular blog is the current events of the Middle East, and in particular, my spiritual homeland - Israel.  Ezekiel's 37th chapter is the words of one of many Jewish apocalyptic prophets that centuries ago (~2500 in this case), gave testimony of the return of the Jewish people to their ancestral homeland.  This famous "valley of dry bones" prophecy has been fulfilled in our very recent time.  Jewish people, although always maintaining a presence in their historical homeland, began arriving in significant numbers in the late 1800's and, by 1948 when Israel declared itself an independent nation-state, had close to 1,000,000 Jewish inhabitants.  Written during the 1st Jewish exile in Babylon, Ezekiel proclaims:

““And say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, I will take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king will be king for all of them; and they will no longer be two nations, and they will no longer be divided into two kingdoms.”
(Ezekiel 37:21–22 NASB)

It truly is a modern miracle that a small people who have been targeted for exile, persecution, forced assimilation, and near annihilation countless times have not only survived, but regathered into a common entity in their ancestral homeland of 4000 years - the State of Israel.  It is a miracle that is also not without DIVINE involvement, in my humble, but strong opinion.  It is not only the fact the my fellow "seeds of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" have survived 4000 years - it is HOW they survived...against insurmountable odds that by all intents and purposes should never have happened.  Additionally, no other peoples have been the brunt of such vile and vehement opposition and delusional hatred as my fellow Jews.  Why?  Could it be that this really IS about good v. evil?  God v. His enemies? 

I am not saying that we Jews, either individually, as a people or as the Nation-State of Israel, are perfect and aligned only with good.  God knows that is not the case.  Our past, present and indeed our future is and will be racked with horrible choices and actions that are not ordained by either "good" or God.  Our Messiah referenced this very issue as He wept over His holy city of Jerusalem and its history of sin and vile rejection of the Jewish prophets.  Nevertheless, this is about a God who chooses good, chooses righteousness, not necessarily people.  God chooses good in that He and He alone has made an eternal covenant to ensure the survival of His covenant people "until the stars and the sun stop shining"...that's a very long time!

And, how will this story end?

This blog is intended to stir your hearts and your minds to contemplate the importance of this modern miracle and its future.  In fact it is de facto intended to stir contemplation for ALL OF OUR FUTURES - because ALL OF US are tied to what is happening in Israel - whether we like it or not.  It is also intended to generate dialogue about cultural, geo-political and spiritual issues that impact ALL OF US - in the present, the near-future and, yes, into the "olam" - the Hebrew word for eternity.

I welcome any comments, corrections, encouragements, elucidations, questions, exhortations, brow-beating (with civility).  Only, please be prepared for honest discussion and debate if you are so inclined.

Thanks and Blessings to all.

Warmest Regards,
Dan.