POSTED 10 AUGUST, 2006

A Time to Weep or Laugh

by Mark Huey
mhuey@outreachisrael.net

For the first time in over a month, I found something to laugh about regarding the current conflict in the Middle East, and Israel in particular. After weeks of interceding through prayers and weeping for those in the Holy Land, a momentary relief was welcome, albeit brief. It seems that for this moment in time, weeping outweighs the laughter by a great margin, despite the comforting reminder from ages ago that there is “a time to weep and a time to laugh” (Ecclesiastes 3:4a). Maybe laughter is like a psychological safety valve that allows one to blow off steam, in order to endure the simmering cauldron of sorrows before it boils over.

What generated the passing chuckle was the much anticipated decision by U.S. policy makers that our government would submit to the dictates of the United Nations’ latest resolution to terminate the ongoing turmoil. How absurd I thought, as a chortle (although crying was considered) erupted from within. Has not recent history proven time and again that the United Nations is an impotent body without the will or means to bring about the elusive, “lasting peace” it proclaims? Does the world have to once again learn the lesson that appeasement absolutely guarantees a future conflagration of even greater proportions?

The historical record of appeasement is consistent. The world is rife with the graves of those that eventually had to battle the pacified, who once emboldened, propitiously and accurately understood any mollifying measures as weakness. Repeating this mistake is absurdly laughable. But laughter is fleeting. A momentary giggle will never prevent the river of tears that weeping hearts will ultimately shed over the pools of blood that will in due course result. It is just a matter of time. This is no laughing matter, but rather anguish beyond today’s headlines. If this flawed tactic is not insanity, what else could it be but idiocy? Will mankind never learn from its mistakes?

The history of Ancient Israel is replete with examples of Israel seeking elusive peace and security through appeasement or strategic alliances with other nations, despite God’s solemn warnings. Still, the pattern seems to repeat itself. In modern times, the U.N. mandated State of Israel, now being led by secularists who largely disregard the lessons of the Bible, is in a quandary about how to physically survive while conceding to the demands of the nations to further divide the Promised Land into yet a second state (Palestine)—whose charter calls for the destruction of the Jews and Israel proper. Strategically speaking, the two objectives cannot coexist, and yet the current prime minister of Israel continues to foment the policy of “disengaging” settlers from the West Bank, once the wars with Hezbollah and Hamas are mitigated. The pressure to follow the objectives of the Road Map must be excruciating.

To complicate matters, reminders of appeasement in the previous century are haunting echoes from an aging generation of Jewish Israelis that avoided Nazi extermination. Adding to this outcry is a chorus of threats to eliminate Israel from the face of the Earth by an Iranian leader who is diligently seeking to develop nuclear arms to achieve his ambitions. Perhaps this is why Yeshua says, “blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh” (Luke 6:21a).

However, Believers in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob need to always remember that despite all of the evil machinations of the rulers of this world, the Lord sits in Heaven and He alone laughs. When one reads Psalm 2, some solemn warnings about what He requires are detailed:

“Why are the nations in an uproar and the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, ‘Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us!’ He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them. Then He will speak to them in His anger and terrify them in His fury, saying, ‘But as for Me, I have installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain.’ I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall shatter them like earthenware.’ Now therefore, O kings, show discernment; take warning, O judges of the earth. Worship the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way, for His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!” (Psalm 2:1-12).

Did you note that our blessings are rooted in worshipping, rejoicing, and taking refuge in the Holy One of Israel?

Remember, God is not mocked, but rather allows all that is transpiring in His Creation to occur according to His time, and ultimately, for His glory. This is impossible to comprehend given human beings’ inherent limitations. Furthermore, we limited creatures have a difficult time admitting or even understanding that God’s ways and thoughts are infinitely higher than our own abilities:

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:9-11).

Those who trust in or take refuge in the Lord can be rest assured that all that God has declared in His Word will be accomplished according to His will. Believers are to place their faith in the absolute certainty that God is not a human being like them that He could lie (Numbers 23:19; Titus 1:2).

Perhaps the words of suffering Job will be our inspiration, as well as declaration, whether one weeps or laughs in these troubling times: “though He slay me, I will hope in Him” (Job 13:15).

May we all take refuge in Him and Him alone—at all times!

Until the restoration of all things…

Mark Huey (B.A., Vanderbilt University in History and Graduate Studies at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University) is the Director of Outreach Israel Ministries (www.outreachisrael.net). He is the author of several books, including: TorahScope, Volumes I & II, and Counting the Omer: A Daily Devotional Toward Shavuot. He is also co-author of Hebraic Roots: An Introductory Study.