Tuesday In the Fourth Week of Easter
1 The Israelites did
what was evil in the sight of the Lord, who therefore delivered them into the
power of Midian for seven years,
2
so that Midian held
Israel subject. From FEAR of Midian
the Israelites made dens in the mountains, the caves, and the strongholds.
Even though I walk in the dark valley I fear no evil.
for you are at my side.
One
does wonder; what was the evil that the Israelites did in the sight of the
Lord?
Answer:
Baal was the
name of the supreme god worshiped in ancient Canaan and Phoenicia. The practice
of Baal worship infiltrated Jewish religious life during the time of the Judges
(Judges 3:7), became widespread in Israel during the reign of Ahab (1 Kings 16:31-33)
and also affected Judah (2 Chronicles 28:1-2). The word baal means “lord”;
the plural is baalim. In general, Baal was a fertility god who was
believed to enable the earth to produce crops and people to produce children.
Different regions worshiped Baal in different ways, and Baal proved to be a
highly adaptable god. Various locales emphasized one or another of his
attributes and developed special “denominations” of Baalism. Baal of Peor
(Numbers 25:3) and Baal-Berith (Judges 8:33) are two examples of such localized
deities.
According
to Canaanite mythology, Baal was the son of El, the chief god, and Asherah, the
goddess of the sea. Baal was considered the most powerful of all gods,
eclipsing El, who was seen as rather weak and ineffective. In various battles
Baal defeated Yamm, the god of the sea, and Mot, the god of death and the
underworld. Baal’s sisters/consorts were Ashtoreth, a fertility goddess
associated with the stars, and Anath, a goddess of love and war. The Canaanites
worshiped Baal as the sun god and as the storm god—he is usually depicted
holding a lightning bolt—who defeated enemies and produced crops. They also
worshiped him as a fertility god who provided children. Baal worship was rooted
in sensuality and involved ritualistic prostitution in the temples. At times,
appeasing Baal required human sacrifice, usually the firstborn of the one
making the sacrifice (Jeremiah 19:5). The priests of Baal appealed to their god
in rites of wild abandon which included loud, ecstatic cries and self-inflicted
injury (1 Kings 18:28).[1]
The Return of Baal And the
Jezebel Spirit in America[2]
It
is uncanny how much this moment in history resembles the conflict between
Elijah and Jezebel, between the power of God and the satanic lie of
Baal. Are we under the demonic influence of Jezebel?
Jezebel
first appears in 1 Kings 16, when she marries Ahab, king of Israel. Jezebel was
the daughter of Ethbaal, the king and high priest of the Baal worshipping
Sidonians. Baal worship was closely associated with obsessive sensuality and
often involved sex acts. Jezebel, as a daughter of this perverse kingdom, was
raised in an atmosphere where sex was a path to power and influence (sounding
familiar yet?).
Ahab,
King of Israel, was completely subdued and dominated by Jezebel (a type of
modern man?). Jezebel then introduced the worship of Ashtoroth to Israel. This
god/goddess was a power-hungry goddess of love and sensuality.
Priestess-prostitutes filled her shrines and serviced her worshippers. The lure
of these legal, readily available erotic encounters was more than the men of
Israel would resist. By Jezebel’s influence, most Israelites, the northern
kingdom, left the worship of God for Baal and Ashtoroth. The prophet Elijah
laments that only 7000 men in the entire nation were not swayed by her control (How
many men have left God – exchanged the power of supernatural grace for sensual
pleasure – by simply clicking on to easy access porn sites? How many men have
either abandoned their family or refuse to get married at all?).
·
The
Jezebel spirit is born of rebellion (1960s? Now?). The Spirit of Jezebel is
basically a controlling spirit working through the lust of the flesh, and the
lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (The counter
forces to these are poverty, chastity and obedience).
·
Other
ways a Jezebel spirit can gain power of a nation …
o
Puts
power and politics ahead of people
o
Baal
worshippers would propagate child sacrifice (today’s abortion)
o
Operates
through fear and intimidation (Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals)
o
Intolerant
of Word of God (Banish God from public sphere, loss of religious freedom)
o
Allows
seduction to prevail
o
Twists
truth; Lies
o
Usurps
the law
o
Propagates
sorcery; Black magic (New Age, Witchcraft, Satanism, Reiki, crystals,
horoscopes, ouija boards, luck charms, etc.)
Is
any of this sounding familiar? It should. This almost perfectly describes the
Motus Operandi of most of the liberal secular ruling class in power today.
Elijah
went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions?
If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” But the people
said nothing. (1 Kings 18:21)
Roméo Dallaire
John McCain in his book
Character is Destiny examined the character traits exemplified by Roméo
Dallaire who in 1993, was appointed Force Commander for the United Nations
Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR), where he witnessed the country descend
into chaos and genocide, leading to the deaths of more than 800,000 Rwandans.
When the rest of the world looked away, he stayed behind in a manmade evil for
the sake of duty and justice. Dallaire was in charge of a small overwhelmed
African peacekeeping force, he could have left but he refused and witnessed the
genocide. He is ashamed he could have not done more and the reaction of the
world that stood by for 100 days doing nothing allowing the devil to reap
carnage, terror and hopelessness. Dallaire was the one candle in a darkened
room of despair created by the collective failure of mankind’s conscience along
with the apathy and deceitfulness of world governments toward Rowanda’s plight.
McCain writes of Dallaire’s dilemma:
The
U.S. government, our allies, and the United Nations went to extraordinary and
ridiculous lengths to avoid using the term, “genocide”, aware that once
genocide was acknowledged, they would have to act. Day after day, long night after
long night, for over three months, more men, women, and children were added to
the rolls of the victims by their hate-crazed persecutors. Romeo Dallaire
soldiered on, saving those he could and agonizing over those he couldn’t, all
the while begging the UN, and the world, to send more troops, to do something,
anything, to help. In his telling, his mission was to keep peace; peace was
destroyed by unimaginable violence, and many thousands died. He failed. He
tried to convince his superiors to send him more men. He failed. He tried to
get the United States and other powerful countries to listen to their
consciences and help. He failed. He tried to persuade the world to stop
genocide. He failed. And while many, many people who had a responsibility to
stop the killings looked the other way and never had a moment of doubt or a
night of troubled sleep, Romeo Dallaire took his failures very, very
seriously.
A
righteous person, no matter how blameless, will always take humanity’s failures personally.
Rwanda Lessons Learned[3]
·
The first and
enduring lesson of the Rwandan genocide – not unlike the Holocaust – is that they
occurred not only because of the machinery of death, but because of
state-sanctioned incitement to hate and genocide. It is this teaching of
contempt, this demonizing of the other – this is where it all begins. Indeed,
as the jurisprudence of the Rwandan tribunals has demonstrated, these acts of
genocide were preceded by – and anchored in – the state-orchestrated
demonization and dehumanization of the minority Tutsi population – using cruel,
biological ascriptions of Tutsis as “inyenzi” (cockroaches) – prologue and
justification for their mass murder.
·
The second lesson is the danger of indifference and the
consequences of inaction. The genocide of Rwandan Tutsis occurred not only
because of the machinery of death and a state-sanctioned culture of hate, but
also because of crimes of indifference and conspiracies of silence. What makes
the Rwandan genocide so unspeakable is not only the horror of the genocide, but
that this genocide was preventable. Simply put, while the UN Security Council
and the international community dithered and delayed, Rwandans were dying.
·
The third lesson is the danger of a culture of
impunity. If the last century was the age of atrocity, it was also the age of
impunity. Few of the perpetrators were
brought to justice. Just as there cannot be a sanctuary for hate or a
refuge for bigotry, neither can there be a haven for the perpetrators of the
worst crimes against humanity.
·
The fourth lesson is
the danger of the vulnerability of the powerless and the powerlessness of the
vulnerable – the brutalized children, women victimized by massive sexual
violence, the slaughter of the innocents – all the first targets of mass
atrocity. It is our responsibility to empower the powerless while giving voice
to the voiceless, wherever they may be.
·
The fifth lesson is the cruelty of genocide denial —
an assault on memory and truth – a criminal conspiracy to whitewash the Rwandan
genocide. In the obscenest form of genocide denial – as in the case also of
Holocaust denial – it actually accuses the victims of falsifying this “hoax.”
Remembrance of the Rwandan genocide is itself a repudiation of such denial –
which tragically becomes more prevalent with the passage of time.
·
The sixth lesson is the importance of remembering the
heroic rescuers, those who remind us of the range of human possibility; those
who stood up to confront evil, prevailed, and transformed history.
Finally, and most important, we must remember and
pay tribute to the survivors who endured the worst of inhumanity – of crimes
against humanity – and somehow found in the resources of their own humanity the
will to go on, to contribute and to make our society a better and more
compassionate community. And so, this anniversary must be an occasion not only
to remember but to learn the lessons of the crime whose name we should even
shudder to mention – namely genocide – and most important: to act on these
lessons.
Daily
Devotions/Practices
·
Make
reparations to the Holy Face-Tuesday
Devotion
·
Pray Day 3 of
the Novena for our Pope and Bishops
·
Tuesday:
Litany of St. Michael the Archangel
·
Total Consecration
to St. Joseph Day 29
·
Manhood of
the Master-week 10 day 7
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Rosary.
Comments
Post a Comment