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Beating the Air – Week 8 / February 16th
2015Devotional“Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I
fight: not as one who beats the air.”
1Corinthians 9:26
Why is it that straight talk, honesty, truth and reality are avoided at all costs in our world today? Who or what is gaining from this modern day phenomenon of constantly ducking issues? Better still, what are we so afraid of? Paul the Apostle, addressing a different context, uses an illustration that remains powerful and pertinent for our time. He says that, “Thus I fight, not as one who beats the air.” It strikes me that in many areas of our world today, including Israel, there is much “fighting that beats the air” and much running with “uncertainty.”
That is, the real issue is never addressed and the real solution is thus never applied. Instead “double speak” and political correctness at every level prevails while on the ground evil advances unchallenged and unchecked. Indeed we’ve got so clever at “beating the air” that we actually believe our self made deceptions! So, people who murder in the name of Allah, crying out Allah Aukbar, quoting verses from the Koran and implementing Sharia Law are not Muslims!! The carnage of their terrible deeds lies all over the world from the Middle East to Africa, South East Asia, Europe and America buy they are not Muslims. No, the people who have to be watched and warned are the Christians because of what they did one thousand years ago!
Take for instance the recent war between Israel and Hamas: The real enemy in this fiasco was Iran. The whole world knows this and even talks about it from one TV talk show to the next; but did Israel or the international community deal with this issue effectively? The answer is no! Instead there was much “beating of the air” but “the beast” is not only still alive but actively rearming for another more deadly assault. And, by the way, this is not to suggest that a military solution was and is the only one on the table. Most certainly, the military option, as Israel has now found out, could have been better applied but there are many other firm options that the players could have applied in order to “kill the beast.” Even as I write this article Iran and Syria are channeling missiles and advanced weaponry to Hezbollah on Israel’s northern border and now also on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights. The whole world knows it but “beats the air.”
What about Iran’s nuclear ambitions? You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that the world, if it continues in its present direction, is once again “beating the air”. In fact Iran’s double speak in this regard is humiliating the whole international community including the USA. The spirit of appeasement has gripped much of Europe and the wider world resulting in much “beating of the air” and then, in the end, when Iran finally acquires “the bomb”, they will throw their hands up in dismay and say, “How did this happen?’ It will happen because we have not learned to “hit the target” and because the West has lost the will to confront evil and thereby defend its own civilization. Indeed, the very nature of evil is no longer understood in the West because the moral compass that defines it, namely the Ten Commandments, has been discarded. It was the Apostle Paul who also wrote that “by the law comes the knowledge of sin.” (Romans 3:20)
Moreover, let’s look at the so called Palestinian/Israel conflict. The truth is that for nearly three decades now the world, and even elements in Israel, has refused to acknowledge that the real agenda being played out by the Palestinians is the total destruction of Israel. This is also true of the so called moderate Palestinians. Poll after poll in the region proves this and the respective Charters of the PLO and Hamas state it clearly. Yasser Arafat, an Egyptian, was the crowned moderate of the nineties and the early 2000s. He was feted all over the world from the White House to the United Nations and was even awarded the Nobel Peace Prize! The reality, as we knew then and all know now, is that he was committed, as ever, to the destruction of Israel. He was in fact an unreformed terrorist and the father of modern day terrorism.
There was much evidence pointing to this fact but it was all ignored in the interests of “beating the air.” Believe me nothing has changed except that hundreds of Israelis have lost their lives and the carnage will continue. Kassam rockets rain down all the time on Israeli towns and villages but the “beast” is never effectively dealt with. Military action and political will appears to be hamstrung and the man in the street pays the price and bears the brunt of all of this.
Men of courage and integrity are nowhere to be found and, as a consequence, truth is trampled on the ground while inept politicians continue to hold grand and pompous meetings in the capitals of the world where they do nothing more than “beat the air” and “run with uncertainty.” Thankfully, as Daniel stated 2600 years ago, “There is a God in heaven” and His name is not Allah but Elohim because He is a God of love!
Malcolm Hedding
©Malcolm Hedding Ministries
