Command the Raven

Deuteronomy 7:12-26 [show/hide]ERROR: You have exceeded your quota of 5000 requests per day. Please contact the developer of this application if you have questions. (If you're the developer and have questions about this error message, please contact Crossway.)

12 Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the LORD thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he sware unto thy fathers:   13 And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee: he will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee.   14 Thou shalt be blessed above all people: there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle.   15 And the LORD will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will lay them upon all them that hate thee.   16 And thou shalt consume all the people which the LORD thy God shall deliver thee; thine eye shall have no pity upon them: neither shalt thou serve their gods; for that will be a snare unto thee.   17 If thou shalt say in thine heart, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?   18 Thou shalt not be afraid of them: but shalt well remember what the LORD thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt;   19 The great temptations which thine eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the stretched out arm, whereby the LORD thy God brought thee out: so shall the LORD thy God do unto all the people of whom thou art afraid.   20 Moreover the LORD thy God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed.   21 Thou shalt not be affrighted at them: for the LORD thy God is among you, a mighty God and terrible.   22 And the LORD thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little: thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee.   23 But the LORD thy God shall deliver them unto thee, and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed.   24 And he shall deliver their kings into thine hand, and thou shalt destroy their name from under heaven: there shall no man be able to stand before thee, until thou have destroyed them.   25 The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire: thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therein: for it is an abomination to the LORD thy God.   26 Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing.

Here, I. The caution against idolatry is repeated, and against communion with idolaters: “Thou shalt consume the people, and not serve their gods.” v. 16. We are in danger of having fellowship with the works of darkness if we take pleasure in fellowship with those that do those works. Here is also a repetition of the charge to destroy the images, v. 25, 26. The idols which the heathen had worshipped were an abomination to God, and therefore must be so to them: all that truly love God hat what he hates. Observe how this is urged upon them: Thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; such a holy indignation as this must we conceive against sin, that abominable thing which the Lord hates. They must not retain the images to gratify their covetousness: Thou shalt not desire the silver nor gold that is on them, nor think it a pity to have that destroyed. Achan paid dearly for converting that to his own use which was an anathema. Nor must they retain them to gratify their curiosity: “Neither shalt thou bring it into thy house, to be hung up as an ornament, or preserved as a monument of antiquity. No, to the fire with it, that is the fittest place for it.” Two reasons are given for this caution:–

1. Lest thou be snared therein (v. 25), that is, “Lest thou be drawn, ere thou art aware, to like it and love it, to fancy it and pay respect to it”

2. Lest thou be a cursed thing like it, v. 26. Those that make images are said to be like them, stupid and senseless; here they are said to be in a worse sense like them, accursed of God and devoted to destruction. Compare these two reasons together, and observe that whatever brings us into a snare brings us under a curse.

II. The promise of God’s favour to them, if they would be obedient, is enlarged upon with a most affecting copiousness and fluency of expression, which intimates how much it is both God’s desire and our own interest that we be religious. All possible assurance is here given them,

1. That, if they would sincerely endeavour to do their part of the covenant, God would certainly perform his part. He shall keep the mercy which he swore to thy fathers, v. 12. Let us be constant in our duty, and we cannot question the constancy of God’s mercy.

2. That if they would love God and serve him, and devote themselves and theirs to him, he would love them, and bless them, and multiply them greatly, v. 13, 14. What could they desire more to make them happy?

(1.) “He will love thee.” He began in love to us (1 John 14:10 [show/hide]ERROR: You have exceeded your quota of 5000 requests per day. Please contact the developer of this application if you have questions. (If you're the developer and have questions about this error message, please contact Crossway.)
), and, if we return his love in filial duty, then, and then only, we may expect the continuance of it, John 14:21 [show/hide]ERROR: You have exceeded your quota of 5000 requests per day. Please contact the developer of this application if you have questions. (If you're the developer and have questions about this error message, please contact Crossway.)
.

(2.) “He will bless thee with the tokens of his love above all people.” If they would distinguish themselves from their neighbours by singular services, God would dignify them above their neighbours by singular blessings.

(3.) “He will multiply thee.” Increase was the ancient blessing for the peopling of the world, once and again (Gen. 1:28 [show/hide]ERROR: You have exceeded your quota of 5000 requests per day. Please contact the developer of this application if you have questions. (If you're the developer and have questions about this error message, please contact Crossway.)
; Gen. 9:1 [show/hide]ERROR: You have exceeded your quota of 5000 requests per day. Please contact the developer of this application if you have questions. (If you're the developer and have questions about this error message, please contact Crossway.)
), and here for the peopling of Canaan, that little world by itself. The increase both of their families and of their stock is promised: they should neither have estates without heirs nor heirs without estates, but should have the complete satisfaction of having many children and plentiful provisions and portions for them.

3. That, if they would keep themselves pure from the idolatries of Egypt, God would keep them clear form the diseases of Egypt, v. 15. It seems to refer not only to those plagues of Egypt by the force of which they were delivered, but to some other epidemical country disease (as we call it), which they remembered the prevalency of among the Egyptians, and by which God had chastised them for their national sins. Diseases are God’s servants; they go where he sends them, and do what he bids them. It is therefore good for the health of our bodies to mortify the sin of our souls.

4. That, if they would cut off the devoted nations, they should cut them off, and none should be able to stand before them. Their duty in this matter would itself be their advantage: Thou shalt consume all the people which the Lord thy God shall deliver thee–this is the precept (v. 16); and the Lord thy God shall deliver them unto thee, and shall destroy them–this is the promise, v. 23. Thus we are commanded not to let sin reign, not to indulge ourselves in it nor give countenance to it, but to hate it and strive against it; and then God has promised that sin shall not have dominion over us (Rom. 6:12, 14 [show/hide]ERROR: You have exceeded your quota of 5000 requests per day. Please contact the developer of this application if you have questions. (If you're the developer and have questions about this error message, please contact Crossway.)
), but that we shall be more than conquerors over it. The difficulty and doubtfulness of the conquest of Canaan having been a stone of stumbling to their fathers, Moses here animates them against those things which were most likely to discourage them, bidding them not to be afraid of them, v. 18, and again, v. 21.

(1.) Let them not be disheartened by the number and strength of their enemies: Say not, They are more than I, how can I dispossess them? v. 17. We are apt to think that the most numerous must needs be victorious: but, to fortify Israel against this temptation, Moses reminds them of the destruction of Pharaoh and all the power of Egypt, v. 18, 19. They had seen the great temptations, or miracles (so the Chaldee reads it), the signs and wonders, wherewith God had brought them out of Egypt, in order to his bringing them into Canaan, and thence might easily infer that God could dispossess the Canaanites (who, though formidable enough, had not such advantages against Israel as the Egyptians had; he that had done the greater could do the less), and that he would dispossess them, otherwise his bringing Israel out of Egypt had been no kindness to them. He that begun would finish. Thou shalt therefore well remember this, v. 18. The word and works of God are well remembered when they are improved as helps to our faith and obedience. That is well laid up which is ready to us when we have occasion to use it.

(2.) Let them not be disheartened by the weakness and deficiency of their own forces; for God will send them in auxiliary troops of hornets, or wasps, as some read it (v. 20), probably larger than ordinary, which would so terrify and molest their enemies (and perhaps be the death of many to them) that their most numerous armies would become an easy prey to Israel. God plagued the Egyptians with flies, but the Canaanites with hornets. Those who take not warning by less judgments on others may expect greater on themselves. But the great encouragement of Israel was that they had God among them, a mighty God and terrible, v. 21. And if God be for us, if God be with us, we need not fear the power of any creature against us.

(3.) Let them not be disheartened by the slow progress of their arms, nor think that the Canaanites would never be subdued if they were not expelled the first year; no, they must be put out by little and little, and not all at once, v. 22. Note, We must not think that, because the deliverance of the church and the destruction of its enemies are not effected immediately, therefore they will never be effected. God will do his own work in his own method and time, and we may be sure that they are always the best. Thus corruption is driven out of the hearts of believers by little and little. The work of sanctification is carried on gradually; but that judgment will at length be brought forth into a complete victory. The reason here given (as before, Exod. 23:29, 30) is, Lest the beast of the field increase upon thee. The earth God has given to the children of men; and therefore there shall rather be a remainder of Canaanites to keep possession till Israel become numerous enough to replenish it than that it should be a habitation of dragons, and a court for the wild beasts of the desert, Isa. 34:13, 14 [show/hide]ERROR: You have exceeded your quota of 5000 requests per day. Please contact the developer of this application if you have questions. (If you're the developer and have questions about this error message, please contact Crossway.)
. Yet God could have prevented this mischief from the beasts, Lev. 26:6 [show/hide]ERROR: You have exceeded your quota of 5000 requests per day. Please contact the developer of this application if you have questions. (If you're the developer and have questions about this error message, please contact Crossway.)
. But pride and security, and other sins that are the common effects of a settled prosperity, were enemies more dangerous than the beasts of the field, and these would be apt to increase upon them. See Judges 3:1, 4 [show/hide]ERROR: You have exceeded your quota of 5000 requests per day. Please contact the developer of this application if you have questions. (If you're the developer and have questions about this error message, please contact Crossway.)
.

- Matthew Henry Commentary

D E U T E R O N O M Y

CHAPTER 7

Moses in this chapter exhorts Israel, I. In general, to keep God’s commandments, ver. 11, 12. II. In particular, and in order to that, to keep themselves pure from all communion with idolaters. 1. They must utterly destroy the seven devoted nations, and not spare them, or make leagues with them, ver. 1, 2, 16, 24. 2. They must by no means marry with the remainders of them, ver. 3, 4. 3. They must deface and consume their altars and images, and not so much as take the silver and gold of them to their own use, ver. 5, 25, 26. To enforce this charge, he shows that they were bound to do so, (1.) In duty. Considering [1.] Their election to God, ver. 6. [2.] The reason of that election, ver. 7, 8. [3.] The terms they stood upon with God, ver. 9, 10. (2.) In interest. It is here promised, [1.] In general, that, if they would serve God, he would bless and prosper them, ver. 12-15. [2.] In particular, that if they would drive out the nations, that they might not be a temptation to them, God would drive them out, that they should not be any vexation to them, ver. 17, &c.

Deuteronomy 7:1-11 [show/hide]ERROR: You have exceeded your quota of 5000 requests per day. Please contact the developer of this application if you have questions. (If you're the developer and have questions about this error message, please contact Crossway.)

1 When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou;   2 And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them:   3 Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.   4 For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.   5 But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.   6 For thou art a holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.   7 The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people:   8 But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.   9 Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;   10 And repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face.   11 Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command thee this day, to do them.

Here is, I. A very strict caution against all friendship and fellowship with idols and idolaters. Those that are taken into communion with God must have no communication with the unfruitful works of darkness. These things they are charged about for the preventing of this snare now before them.

1. They must show them no mercy, v. 1, 2. Bloody work is here appointed them, and yet it is God’s work, and good work, and in its time and place needful, acceptable, and honourable.

(1.) God here engages to do his part. It is spoken of as a thing taken for granted that God would bring them into the land of promise, that he would cast out the nations before them, who were the present occupants of that land; no room was left to doubt of that. His power is irresistible, and therefore he can do it; his promise is inviolable, and therefore he will do it. Now,

[1.] These devoted nations are here named and numbered (v. 1), seven in all, and seven to one are great odds. They are specified, that Israel might know the bounds and limits of their commission: hitherto their severity must come, but no further; nor must they, under colour of this commission, kill all that came in their way; no, here must its waves be stayed. The confining of this commission to the nations here mentioned plainly intimates that after-ages were not to draw this into a precedent; this will not serve to justify those barbarous laws which give no quarter. How agreeable soever this method might be, when God himself prescribed it, to that dispensation under which such multitudes of beasts were killed and burned in sacrifice, now that all sacrifices of atonement are perfected in, and superseded by, the great propitiation made by the blood of Christ, human blood has become perhaps more precious than it was, and those that have most power yet must not be prodigal of it.

[2.] They are here owned to be greater and mightier than Israel. They had been long rooted in this land, to which Israel came strangers; they were more numerous, had men much more bulky and more expert in war than Israel had; yet all this shall not prevent their being cast out before Israel. The strength of Israel’s enemies magnifies the power of Israel’s God, who will certainly be too hard for them.

(2.) He engages them to do their part. Thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them, v. 2. If God cast them out, Israel must not take them in, no, not as tenants, nor tributaries, nor servants. Not covenant of any kind must be made with them, no mercy must be shown them. This severity was appointed,

[1.] By way of punishment for the wickedness they and their fathers had been guilty of. The iniquity of the Amorites was now full, and the longer it had been in the filling the sorer was the vengeance when it came at last.

[2.] In order to prevent the mischiefs they would do to God’s Israel if they were left alive. The people of these abominations must not be mingled with the holy seed, lest they corrupt them. Better that all these lives should be lost from the earth than that religion and the true worship of God should be lost in Israel. Thus we must deal with our lusts that was against our souls; God has delivered them into our hands by that promise, Sin shall not have dominion over you, unless it be your own faults; let not us them make covenants with them, nor show them any mercy, but mortify and crucify them, and utterly destroy them.

2. They must make no marriages with those of them that escaped the sword, v. 3, 4. The families of the Canaanites were ancient, and it is probable that some of them were called honourable, which might be a temptation to the Israelites, especially those of them that were of least note in their tribes, to court an alliance with them, to ennoble their blood; and the rather because their acquaintance with the country might be serviceable to them in the improvement of it: but religion, and the fear of God, must overrule all these considerations. To intermarry with them was therefore unlawful, because it was dangerous; this very thing had proved of fatal consequence to the old world (Gen. 6:2 [show/hide]ERROR: You have exceeded your quota of 5000 requests per day. Please contact the developer of this application if you have questions. (If you're the developer and have questions about this error message, please contact Crossway.)
), and thousands in the world that now is have been undone by irreligious ungodly marriages; for there is more ground of fear in mixed marriages that the good will be perverted than of hope that the bad will be converted. The event proved the reasonableness of this warning: They will turn away thy son from following me. Solomon paid dearly for his folly herein. We find a national repentance for this sin of marrying strange wives, and care taken to reform (Ezra 9 [show/hide]ERROR: You have exceeded your quota of 5000 requests per day. Please contact the developer of this application if you have questions. (If you're the developer and have questions about this error message, please contact Crossway.)
, Ezra 10 [show/hide]ERROR: You have exceeded your quota of 5000 requests per day. Please contact the developer of this application if you have questions. (If you're the developer and have questions about this error message, please contact Crossway.)
, and Neh. 13 [show/hide]ERROR: You have exceeded your quota of 5000 requests per day. Please contact the developer of this application if you have questions. (If you're the developer and have questions about this error message, please contact Crossway.)
.), and a New-Testament caution not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers, 2 Cor. 6:14 [show/hide]ERROR: You have exceeded your quota of 5000 requests per day. Please contact the developer of this application if you have questions. (If you're the developer and have questions about this error message, please contact Crossway.)
. Those that in choosing yokefellows keep not at least within the bounds of a justifiable profession of religion cannot promise themselves helps meet for them. One of the Chaldee paraphrases adds here, as a reason of this command (v. 3), For he that marries with idolaters does in effect marry with their idols.

3. They must destroy all the relics of their idolatry, v. 5. Their altars and pillars, their groves and graven images, all must be destroyed, both in a holy indignation against idolatry and to prevent infection. This command was given before, Exod. 23:24; Exod. 34:13. A great deal of good work of this kind was done by the people, in their pious zeal (2 Chron. 31:1 [show/hide]ERROR: You have exceeded your quota of 5000 requests per day. Please contact the developer of this application if you have questions. (If you're the developer and have questions about this error message, please contact Crossway.)
), and by good Josiah (2 Chron. 34:3, 7 [show/hide]ERROR: You have exceeded your quota of 5000 requests per day. Please contact the developer of this application if you have questions. (If you're the developer and have questions about this error message, please contact Crossway.)
), and with this may be compared the burning of the conjuring books, Acts 19:19 [show/hide]ERROR: You have exceeded your quota of 5000 requests per day. Please contact the developer of this application if you have questions. (If you're the developer and have questions about this error message, please contact Crossway.)
.

II. Here are very good reasons to enforce this caution.

1. The choice which God had made of this people for his own, v. 6. There was such a covenant and communion established between God and Israel as was not between him and any other people in the world. Shall they by their idolatries dishonour him who had thus honoured them? Shall they slight him who had thus testified his kindness for them? Shall they put themselves upon the level with other people, when God had thus dignified and advanced them above all people? Had God taken them to be a special people to him, and no other but them, and will not they take God to be a special God to them, and no other but him?

2. The freeness of that grace which made this choice.

(1.) There was nothing in them to recommend or entitle them to this favour. In multitude of the people is the king’s honour, Prov. 14:28 [show/hide]ERROR: You have exceeded your quota of 5000 requests per day. Please contact the developer of this application if you have questions. (If you're the developer and have questions about this error message, please contact Crossway.)
. But their number was inconsiderable; they were only seventy souls when they went down into Egypt, and, though greatly increased there, yet there were many other nations more numerous: You were the fewest of all people, v. 7. The author of the Jerusalem Targum passes too great a compliment upon his nation in his reading this, You were humble in spirit, and meek above all people; quite contrary: they were rather stiff-necked and ill-natured above all people.

(2.) God fetched the reason of it purely from himself, v. 8.

[1.] He loved you because he would love you. Even so, Father, because it seemed good in thy eyes. All that God loves he loves freely, Hos. 14:4 [show/hide]ERROR: You have exceeded your quota of 5000 requests per day. Please contact the developer of this application if you have questions. (If you're the developer and have questions about this error message, please contact Crossway.)
. Those that perish perish by their own merits, but all that are saved are saved by prerogative.

[2.] He has done his work because he would keep his word. “He has brought you out of Egypt in pursuance of the oath sworn to your fathers.” Nothing in them, or done by them, did or could make God a debtor to them; but he had made himself a debtor to his own promise, which he would perform notwithstanding their unworthiness.

3. The tenour of the covenant into which they were taken; it was in short this, That as they were to God so God would be to them. They should certainly find him,

(1.) Kind to his friends, v. 9. “The Lord thy God is not like the gods of the nations, the creatures of fancy, subjects fit enough for loose poetry, but no proper objects of serious devotion; no, he is God, God indeed, God alone, the faithful God, able and ready not only to fulfil his own promises, but to answer all the just expectations of his worshippers, and he will certainly keep covenant and mercy,” that is, “show mercy according to covenant, to those that love him and keep his commandments” (and in vain do we pretend to love him if we do not make conscience of his commandments); “and this” (as is here added for the explication of the promise in the second commandment) “not only to thousands of persons, but to thousands of generations–so inexhaustible is the fountain, so constant are the streams!”

(2.) Just to his enemies: He repays those that hate him, v. 10. Note,

[1.] Wilful sinners are haters of God; for the carnal mind is enmity against him. Idolaters are so in a special manner, for they are in league with his rivals.

[2.] Those that hate God cannot hurt him, but certainly ruin themselves. He will repay them to their face, in defiance of them and all their impotent malice. His arrows are said to be made ready against the face of them, Ps. 21:12 [show/hide]ERROR: You have exceeded your quota of 5000 requests per day. Please contact the developer of this application if you have questions. (If you're the developer and have questions about this error message, please contact Crossway.)
. Or, He will bring those judgments upon them which shall appear to themselves to be the just punishment of their idolatry. Compare Job 21:19 [show/hide]ERROR: You have exceeded your quota of 5000 requests per day. Please contact the developer of this application if you have questions. (If you're the developer and have questions about this error message, please contact Crossway.)
, He rewardeth him, and he shall know it. Though vengeance seem to be slow, yet it is not slack. The wicked and sinner shall be recompensed in the earth, Prov. 11:31 [show/hide]ERROR: You have exceeded your quota of 5000 requests per day. Please contact the developer of this application if you have questions. (If you're the developer and have questions about this error message, please contact Crossway.)
. I cannot pass the gloss of the Jerusalem Targum upon this place, because it speaks the faith of the Jewish church concerning a future state: He recompenses to those that hate him the reward of their good works in this world, that he may destroy them in the world to come.

- Matthew Henry Commentary

Proverbs 25:11-12 [show/hide]ERROR: You have exceeded your quota of 5000 requests per day. Please contact the developer of this application if you have questions. (If you're the developer and have questions about this error message, please contact Crossway.)

11 A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver. 12 As an earring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear.

Solomon here shows how much it becomes a man,

1. To speak pertinently: A word upon the wheels, that runs well, is well-circumstanced, in proper time and place–instruction, advice, or comfort, given seasonably, and in apt expressions, adapted to the case of the person spoken to and agreeing with the character of the person speaking–is like golden balls resembling apples, or like true apples of a golden colour (golden rennets), or perhaps gilded, as sometimes we have gilded laurels, and those embossed in pictures of silver, or rather brought to table in a silver network basket, or in a silver box of that which we call filigree–work, through which the golden apples might be seen. Doubtless in was some ornament of the table, then well known. As that was very pleasing to the eye, so is a word fitly spoken to the ear.

2. Especially to give a reproof with discretion, and so as to make it acceptable. If it be well given, by a wise reprover, and well taken, by an obedient ear, it is an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold, very graceful and well becoming both the reprover and the reproved; both will have their praise, the reprover for giving it so prudently and the reproved for taking it so patiently and making a good use of it. Others will commend them both, and they will have satisfaction in each other; he who gave the reproof is pleased that it had the desired effect, and he to whom it was given has reason to be thankful for it as a kindness. That is well given, we say, that is well taken; yet it does not always prove that that is well taken which is well given. It were to be wished that a wise reprover should always meet with an obedient ear, but often it is not so.
- Matthew Henry Commentary

Proverbs 25:14 [show/hide]ERROR: You have exceeded your quota of 5000 requests per day. Please contact the developer of this application if you have questions. (If you're the developer and have questions about this error message, please contact Crossway.)

14 Whoso boasteth himself of a false gift is like clouds and wind without rain.

He may be said to boast of a false gift, 1. Who pretends to have received or given that which he never had, which he never gave, makes a noise of his great accomplishments and his good services, but it is all false; he is not what he pretends to be.

Or, 2. Who promises what he will give and what he will do, but performs nothing, who raises people’s expectations of the mighty things he will do for his country, for his friends, what noble legacies he will leave, but either he has not wherewithal to do what he says or he never designs it. Such a one is like the morning-cloud, that passes away, and disappoints those who looked for rain from it to water the parched ground (Jude 2 [show/hide]ERROR: You have exceeded your quota of 5000 requests per day. Please contact the developer of this application if you have questions. (If you're the developer and have questions about this error message, please contact Crossway.)
), clouds without water.
- Matthew Henry Commentary

Proverbs 25:13 [show/hide]ERROR: You have exceeded your quota of 5000 requests per day. Please contact the developer of this application if you have questions. (If you're the developer and have questions about this error message, please contact Crossway.)

13 As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to them that send him: for he refresheth the soul of his masters.

See here, 1. What ought to be the care of a servant, the meanest that is sent on an errand and entrusted with any business, much more the greatest, the agent and ambassador of a prince; he ought to be faithful to him that sends him, and to see to it that he do not, by mistake or with design, falsify his trust, and that he be in nothing that lies in his power wanting to his master’s interest. Those that act as factors, by commission, ought to act as carefully as for themselves.

2. How much this will be the satisfaction of the master; it will refresh his soul as much as ever the cold of snow (which is hot countries they preserve by art all the year round) refreshed the labourers in the harvest, that bore the burden and heat of the day. The more important the affair was, and the more fear of its miscarrying, the more acceptable is the messenger, if he have managed it successfully and well. A faithful minister, Christ’s messenger, should be thus acceptable to us (Job 33:23 [show/hide]ERROR: You have exceeded your quota of 5000 requests per day. Please contact the developer of this application if you have questions. (If you're the developer and have questions about this error message, please contact Crossway.)
); however, he will be a sweet savour to God, 2 Cor. 2:15 [show/hide]ERROR: You have exceeded your quota of 5000 requests per day. Please contact the developer of this application if you have questions. (If you're the developer and have questions about this error message, please contact Crossway.)
.

- Matthew Henry Commentary

Psalm 5:3 [show/hide]ERROR: You have exceeded your quota of 5000 requests per day. Please contact the developer of this application if you have questions. (If you're the developer and have questions about this error message, please contact Crossway.)

I will direct my prayer unto Thee, and will look up.

If we merely read our English version, and want an explanation of these two sentences, we find it in the figure of an archer, “I will direct my prayer unto Thee.” I will put my prayer upon the bow, I will direct it toward heaven, and then when I have shot up my arrow I will look up to see where it has gone.

But the Hebrew has a still fuller meaning than this – “I will direct my prayer.” It is the word that is used for the laying in order of the wood and the pieces of the victim upon the altar, and it is used also for putting of the showbread upon the table.

It means just this: “I will arrange my prayer before Thee.” I will lay it out upon the altar in the morning, just as the priest lays out the morning sacrifice.

“I will marshal up my prayers.” I will put them in order, call up all my powers, and bid them stand in their proper places, that I may pray with all my might and pray acceptably.

“And will look up” or as the Hebrew might better be translated, ‘I will look out,’ I will look out for the answer. – C.H. Spurgeon
- Daily Meditations for Prayer

From Rubin Reports.Blogspot.Com

Two Issues: The War Within Islam + Israel and Islamism Posted: 07 Sep 2010 07:37 PM PDT Please be subscriber 17,367. Put your email address in the upper right-hand box of the page at http://www.rubinreports.blogspot.com/ We depend on your contributions. Tax-deductible donation through PayPal or credit card: click Donate button, upper-right hand corner of this page: http://www.rubinreports.blogspot.com/. By check: “American Friends of IDC.” “For GLORIA Center” on memo line. Mail: American Friends of IDC, 116 East 16th St., 11th Floor, NY, NY 10003. By Barry Rubin Two readers asked me questions well worth answering. The first asked whether Islam itself isn’t the enemy; the second, how these distinctions appear from an Israeli standpoint; . Regarding the first question, I would stress that “Islam” as a religion functioning in the world is not at war with anyone as such. There are those who want to steer Islam toward an active war against how the majority of Muslims live at present and almost all the governments ruling them, using valid quotations and interpretations. And there are those who oppose them, including most of those governments, also using valid quotations and interpretations of Islam. Western leaders’ and media’s mistake is not that they aren’t “anti-Islam” or that they are “pro-Islam” but that they don’t understand fully this conflict happening among Muslims, the contending forces, the stakes, and the nature of the struggle. Thus, dire Islamist enemies are often misjudged as friends merely because they aren’t violent at present or because they say soothing words to Western audiences, while genuinely moderate Muslims are shunned as “inauthentic” merely because they disagree with the radicals. Once again, the enemy is not Islam but those Muslims who, so to speak, want to make Islam an enemy by waging war on others–including other Muslims–through propaganda, organization, violence, and most importantly the seizure of state power to install a totalitarian regime and wage war on everyone else, including non-Islamist Muslim governments. Whether or not these specific groups are violent at any particular place or moment is less important than the goals they are striving to achieve with all the strategies and tactics at their command. The battle against the West or against Israel is generally smaller than the battle among Muslims for control over interpreting Islam and over political power. Most notably: –Civil war in Algeria with tens of thousands of Muslims killed, injured, and tortured by Islamists and also the government side. –A smaller civil war in Egypt, mainly in the 1990s, with hundreds dead and a president assassinated. –A bloody civil war in Iraq in which Islamist Sunnis use terror against Shias, Kurdish Sunni Muslims, and Christians, as well as Westerners there. Sometimes Islamists among the Shia struggle for power within that community and over control of the state. –A low-level insurrection in Saudi Arabia which has claimed scores of lives along with an internal war in Yemen. –The post-revolutionary repression in Iran, reaching a peak with the stolen election and regime violence last year. –The rivalry between Hamas and Fatah among Palestinians, with the former group conquering the Gaza Strip. –The battle over Lebanon between Hizballah—backed by Iran and Syria–and non-Islamist Sunni, Christian, and Druze communities. –The bloody fighting and conflict in Pakistan and Afghanistan which has devastated large parts of both countries and causedt many deaths and much misery. –The less visible but nonetheless important battle by Islamists to control Muslim communities in Europe and North America, sadly with the governments of those countries often ignorantly helping the Islamist side. And more examples could be cited in terms of violence as well as heated debate and competition, extending all the way to Indonesia. How many Muslims have died in this fighting? One might even include the Iran-Iraq war as a manifestation, at least in part, of this struggle. Surely, even excluding that war, we are talking about several hundred thousand Muslim dead, a huge multiple of the number killed in the Arab-Israeli conflict and over a much shorter time period. The imam of the “ground zero” mosque project told an audience that the West had more Muslim blood on its hands than Muslims had killed innocent Westerners. Note the use of the word “innocent” to the latter group while not to the former. In other words, if a Western soldier kills a Taliban in Afghanistan or Sunni insurgent terrorist in Iraq in self-defense that is equivalent to terrorists deliberately killing civilians on September 11 or in the London subway. But leave that aside. If he, or others who fake their stances, were even close to being moderates they would first denounce the revolutionary Islamists murdering Muslims. If they don’t take sides in their own internal struggles–and choose the non-totalitarian side in that struggle–why should one expect them to be moderate in their behavior toward the West? What is going on, therefore, should not be defined mainly as a Muslim battle against the West (that’s the revolutionary Islamists’ narrative) but as a struggle among Muslims as to who should lead ad define their countries, societies, and religion. To a large extent, the real conflict with the West—or even with Israel—would only come after the Islamists have conquered the other Muslims and subordinated them to Islamist dictatorships. This is the stage we hope will never arrive. That is why anyone who takes sides with those–moderates, nationalists, traditionalists–who oppose the revolutionary Islamists is doing something good for Muslims as a whole. And those who take sides either explicitly or objectively with the revolutionary Islamists is acting in a more “Muslimphobic” way than anyone who critiques Islam’s extremist elements. “Muslimophobic” is a good word, though I had to coin it. That means wanting to force a terrible dictatorship on Muslim people, to rationalize repressive dictatorships that already rule over them, and to rationalize revolutionary groups that engage in murder and aspire to engage in endless war and genocide. A leader who, for example, didn’t condemn the stolen election and heightened repression in Iran last year is acting in a “Muslimophobic” manner since such policies injure millions of Muslims. Western governments that won’t work hard to weaken and overthrow the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip are doing something “Muslimophobic” to its victims there. The best thing one can do for Muslims and for Islam is to help win the war against revolutionary Islamism as quickly and effectively as possible, just as the best thing one could do for the Germans, Italians, and Japanese during World War Two, or those who dwelt in the Soviet bloc during the Cold War, was to defeat those ruling regimes and ideologies. Similarly, not all liberals or socialists were Communists, nor all conservatives or nationalists actual fascists. One has to define the enemy and that usually means someone who wants to kill and destroy you, to repress and enslave, whether or not they are trying to do it at this exact moment or merely waiting until they feel strong enough to win. Thus, the enemy is not “Islam” but those particular Muslims and their supporters who want to have a monopoly on defining Islam, kill any Muslims who disagree, impose terrible dictatorships over Muslims, unite Muslims to wage war on everyone else, set back social and economic progress in Muslim majority countries by a century or more, and plunge the world into decades of horror and bloodshed. On the second question, definitions of Islam and Islamism, the question of moderate and of traditionalist Islam are all-important from an Israeli viewpoint. Let me put it briefly and simply. There is a distinction between those who hate us and don’t intend to do much about it–even if that means they will attack us with words, not make peace, and even give money sometimes to the latter group–and those who hate us and are going to try to kill us actively even if it involves a high level of risk for them. We can manage the former; we have to fight the latter. Muslims and Arabs in general, even most Arab nationalists, and all Arab regimes except for Syria (which has cynically but cleverly joined the Islamist cause, the Gaza Strip (ruled by an Islamist regime), and wacky Libya are in the former category. So are most Arab citizens of Israel. The latter category includes Hamas, Hizballah, Iran, Syria, Muslim Brotherhoods, and Libya. We must work to minimize their power and to ensure that revolutionary Islamists don’t take over even more countries which can then be used as bases to attack Israel through a range of ways and also intimidate other Arab regimes and the West into passivity. An Israeli, as opposed to most Jews in Galut (exile from Israel) or if you prefer Diaspora (dispersion from Israel) understands this. What’s important is not whether people hate us but what are they going to do about it and whether their actions pose a direct material threat. To Jews in Galut hatred in itself is a high level of threat because they cannot defend themselves and are dependent on the good opinion and protection of non-Jewish neighbors. Hate speech is equivalent to a major threat. For Israel, talk is talk. Or as an Israeli going to go to Morocco on business replied, when asked if she wasn’t afraid to go to a country where people hate Israel, shrugged and said nonchalantly, “They hate us everywhere. So what?” You should not get from that a disinterest in public diplomacy or hasbara (though Israelis are definitely less obsessed with that than Galut Jews and they should be), but an understanding that in any discussion between material reality and words the former must have the greater weight. Or as Gold Meir put it, “Better a bad press than a good epitaph.” So these things do matter. Revolutionary (or radical or just plain) Islamists are a threat. Ordinary Muslims or secularized Muslims or moderate Muslims or conservative traditionalist Muslims or Arab nationalists (nowadays, not in the past) are far less of a threat. If, for example, the Muslim Brotherhood takes over Egypt, turns it into a new Iran, act in a militantly anti-American and anti-Western way, launches massive repression, and starts a war on Israel, who cares whether they won by election or were previously nonviolent for some decades? 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). The website of the GLORIA Center is at http://www.gloria-center.org and of his blog, Rubin Reports, at http://www.rubinreports.blogspot.com.

Don’t Mirror Image Different Societies and Political Systems With Your Own Posted: 07 Sep 2010 12:50 PM PDT Regarding the Soviet crushing of Hungary’s democratic revolt in 1956: “At the time it seemed extraordinary to me that the Soviet Union should be prepared to undo all the efforts it had made since the death of Stalin to improve its image by such a crude and barbarous affront to decency. Some years later I discussed my reaction with [Robert] Conquest…whose The Great Terror in the late 1960s first fully exposed the scale of Stalin’s murders. He said that the classic error we all made in dealing with the Soviets was in assuming that they would behave as Westerners would in the circumstances. They were shaped by a very different and much more brutal political culture.” Margaret Thatcher, The Path to Power (London, 1995), p. 90. How much more true is that of miscalculating regarding the Middle East!

From KHouse.Org

**MEMORY VERSE OF THE WEEK**

---

Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.
Ephesians 4:31-32 KJV

From KHouse.Org

**IMPORTANT NEWS HEADLINES**

---

IAEA Reports Iran Has Three Bombs Worth of Enriched Uranium - September 07, 2010
Iran has accelerated its nuclear program and currently possesses a sufficient supply of enriched uranium to make three nuclear devices, assuming it speeds up enrichment to 90 percent, according to a new report by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The IAEA report finds Iran currently has 22 kilograms of uranium enriched at levels of 20 percent, and a total of 2.8 tons of uranium enriched at 3.5 percent. The findings were presented ahead of a discussion by the IAEA board of governors, as well as the organization’s General Assembly, which will meet in Vienna this month. Haaretz

At New Year, Israel’s Population Exceeds 7.6 Million - September 07, 2010
The Central Bureau of Statistics published new figures, including the fact that 28 percent of Israelis are currently under the age of 15, and 14, 572 immigrants to the country arrived in 2009. On the eve of Rosh Hashanah 5771, the population of Israel surpassed 7,645,500, of which 5,770,900 people are Jews, 1,559,100 are Arabs, and another 315,500 labeled “other,” according to numbers published by the Central Bureau of Statistics on Monday. Haaretz

The Importance Of Marriage - September 07, 2010
If it is true, as we are constantly told, that American law will soon redefine marriage to accommodate same-sex partnerships, the proximate cause for this development will not be that public opinion favors it, although it appears to be moving in that direction. It will be that the most influential Americans, particularly those in law and the media, have been coming increasingly to regard opposition to same-sex marriage as irrational at best and bigoted at worst. They therefore dismiss expressions of that opposition, even when voiced by a majority in a progressive state, as illegitimate… National Review Online

Botched Teen Abortion Leads To Abortionist Investigation - September 07, 2010
The empire of a troubled New Jersey abortionist who headed a four-state abortion ring is slowly crumbling after Maryland began investigating the setup following a teenager’s botched abortion. In addition to unveiling the illegality of the setup, the investigation resulted in one raid where police discovered a gruesome display of 35 frozen unborn children preserved in jars. Stephen Chase Brigham is the owner of American Women’s Services, which operated 15 abortion facilities in states including New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland. Brigham’s operation involved at least two other abortionists, George Shepard, Jr., of Delaware and Nicola I. Riley of Utah, whose Maryland licenses have both been suspended for their role in Brigham’s business. LifeSiteNews

The Universe Needs A Designer, Stephen Hawking - September 03, 2010
According to Hawking, the laws of physics, not the will of God, provide the real explanation as to how life on Earth came into being. The Big Bang, he argues, was the inevitable consequence of these laws ‘because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing.’ What Hawking appears to have done is to confuse law with agency. His call on us to choose between God and physics is a bit like someone demanding that we choose between aeronautical engineer Sir Frank Whittle and the laws of physics to explain the jet engine. Daily Mail

From KHouse.Org

THE FALL FEASTS: ROSH HASHANAH

This week Jewish communities throughout the world will celebrate Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah literally means “head of the year” and commemorates the anniversary of the creation of the world. It is celebrated on the first day of the month of Tishri, which this year starts at sundown on Wednesday, September 8th and ends at nightfall on September 9th.

The commandment to observe Rosh Hashanah is found in Leviticus 23:23-25 [show/hide]ERROR: You have exceeded your quota of 5000 requests per day. Please contact the developer of this application if you have questions. (If you're the developer and have questions about this error message, please contact Crossway.)
: “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, ‘Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation. Ye shall do no servile work therein: but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD.’”

It is also mentioned in Numbers 29:1 [show/hide]ERROR: You have exceeded your quota of 5000 requests per day. Please contact the developer of this application if you have questions. (If you're the developer and have questions about this error message, please contact Crossway.)
: “And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, ye shall have an holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work: it is a day of blowing the trumpets unto you.”

One of the central features of Rosh Hashanah is the shofar. The shofar is an instrument made from a ram’s horn that sounds somewhat like a trumpet. In the Bible, Rosh Hashanah is referred to as Yom Teruah, the day of the sounding of the shofar, otherwise known as the Feast of Trumpets. The shofar is often representative of Abraham’s offering Isaac to God as a sacrifice on Mount Moriah (Genesis 22 [show/hide]ERROR: You have exceeded your quota of 5000 requests per day. Please contact the developer of this application if you have questions. (If you're the developer and have questions about this error message, please contact Crossway.)
). It was then that God provided Abraham with a ram caught by its horns in a thicket as a substitute for Isaac.

Rosh Hashanah is a time of both celebration and repentance. It is a time of spiritual renewal through prayer and deep personal reflection leading up to Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, on the 10th day of Tishri (Leviticus 23:26-28 [show/hide]ERROR: You have exceeded your quota of 5000 requests per day. Please contact the developer of this application if you have questions. (If you're the developer and have questions about this error message, please contact Crossway.)
). Rosh Hashanah is when the Jewish people recognize God as King and Judge over all living things. On Rosh Hashanah we celebrate the creation of the world, when “God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good,” (Genesis 1:31 [show/hide]ERROR: You have exceeded your quota of 5000 requests per day. Please contact the developer of this application if you have questions. (If you're the developer and have questions about this error message, please contact Crossway.)
).

The vast majority of Christians are unfamiliar with most of the traditional Jewish holidays. Yet they hold great spiritual and prophetic significance. In Colossians 2:16-17 [show/hide]ERROR: You have exceeded your quota of 5000 requests per day. Please contact the developer of this application if you have questions. (If you're the developer and have questions about this error message, please contact Crossway.)
 Paul says, “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to come.” For more information about Rosh Hashanah or other Jewish holy days and their prophetic significance refer to our briefing The Feasts of Israel.

Rosh Hashanah is a time of forgiveness and new beginnings. Please take some time out of your week for serious introspection. Examine your heart before God and spend time in prayer.

May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year.

[This is the first installment of a three part series on the fall feasts of Israel. Next week’s article will cover Yom Kippur - the Day of Atonement.]

Related Links:

• The Feasts of Israel - Listen Free!
• The Feasts of Israel - MP3 Download
• Rosh Hashanah - Hebrew4Christians.com