Safety For People Or Made To Be Human Shields

Today, after watching www.bbc.com and the video showing a hospital in Gaza, a greater burden has weighed upon me to speak out. This decision isn't even motivated by a religion belief in favor of Israel, it comes from a humanitarian view of Hamas and other Middle East countries that use their citizens as human shields.

A foreign doctor was interviewed who confirmed that most of the injured were men, women and children. But my question is, did they intentionally walk over the leaflets that announced their neighborhood was about to be bombed? A report on major news outlets have said that Israel droped leaflets letting people know their neighborhoods were next, and that they were ignored.

The Hamas leader who was killed by a bomb last week, stayed in his house with his four wives and children believing that surely they would not bomb civiliams. This is not the first time human shields have been used, Iraq was noted for this as well. But it is the human population that willfully walks over leaflets telling them to leave the areas because they are about to be bombed that has left me speechless.

Suicide bombers are one thing; people who, with full knowledge of what they are about to do, kill themselves and others, and/or cause great destruction. But in the name of life, how can anybody just walk over an announcement that your neighborhood is about to be bombed, and everybody killed and go on like nothing is happening? People know that Hamas leaders are in the neighborhood. They are warned, yet they stay. This is I don't understand.

Is there a brainwashing of all these people that says they are dying for the cause and that their death will bring them or their country honor? After all the years of war between Israel and Palestine, why aren't there any bomb shelters or places of safety for people to go to?

If tunnels can be made for smuggling in ammunition from Iran then surely if the Palestinians were concerned about their people, they would provide some sort of shelter for them but they have not--at least that I know about--and is reported "there is no place for them to go".

So in summary, Gaza/Hamas, it appears that you're using your own people as a human shield and allowing them to be killed for the sake of propaganda on the international stage at the suffering they are going through. You say, "Look how many are injured and dead", and yet, you have not taken any steps to provide protection for them. But you did make the provision for your ammunition. Which in the name of your god is more important--I guess we have the answer.

Wet and Dry

This is indeed a beautiful day to know the Lord, to worship and adore Him, and to soak in His glory--the River. My personal Bible study has been in the Book of Joshua. When the children of Israel came to the Jordan River it was when the river was swollen to over flowing with bountiful water. The priests were sent into the water. Obedience to the Lord's command through Joshua brought a miracle--the water stopped flowing, the land became dry and the people were able to walk across for the second time in their history--on dry ground.

The thought occurred to me as I was teaching this that sometimes we think the dry ground we are walking on is a wilderness, when in fact it just might be God holding back the challenges and oppositions to your success so that you too can walk across the situation on dry ground. The key is for us to keep our focus on the Lord, on our purpose in the kingdom, and walking by faith and not by sight.

The next thing we should remember is that when we say we believe and submit to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior--don't look back to the old man--that old life style and things that we have given up except if you are witnessing to somebody about where the Lord has brought you. Hallelujah!

In Joshua 24:21-24,27 it states "Now therefore put away, said he, the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto the Lord God of Israel. And the people said unto Joshua, The Lord Our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey. ... And Joshua said unto all the people, Behold, this stone shall be a witness unto us, for it hath heard all the words of the Lord which he spake unto us" it shall be a witness unto us; for it hath heard all the words of the Lord which he spake unto us. It shall be therefore a witness unto you, lest ye deny your God."

The Word of God declares that if we do not glorify and worship the Lord, the rocks will cry out in our place. Take a moment and give God all the praise and worship you have in you--let Him know that you will cry out to Him and refuse to give your place to a rock. And remember whether you are on dry ground or in the River--you are safe in the arms of the Lord your God.