by Jim Hutchens
As of January 20, 2009, Barack Obama is the new President of the United States. Probably no one has ever attained this office accompanied with higher expectations near superhuman expectations expectations that no mortal can fulfill.
President Obama campaigned as the candidate of change. As President, he has committed himself to be an “Agent of Change.” The question is “what kind of change is President Obama committed to?” The answer to that question is obviously pure speculation. We can only conjecture at this point. There’s good change and bad. For openers, the prayer inserted in the Western Wall in Jerusalem on July 24, 2008 (see below), by then candidate Obama, is hopeful a sign of good things to come.
Indeed, with the enormous challenges facing President Obama, not only will he need to be in constant prayer, but Christians are obligated to bring him and our other governing authorities before God’s “throne of grace.” The Apostle Paul reminds us with a sense of urgency and priority, regardless of our party affiliation, “I urge, then, first of all that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”(I Timothy 2:1-4).
Domestically, a top priority for President Obama has to be how to reign in a runaway economy that continues to be fueled, with tax payer money, by a congress unrepentant for its legitimizing of bailouts, exorbitant spending and a growing debt that even our grandchildren’s grandchildren will be unable to pay. This coupled by an energy policy in bondage to environmentalists which is calculated to keep us dependent on Islamist’s oil, gives little hope for sane financial policies in the near future. Perhaps “change agent” President Obama can alter a course that otherwise seems inevitable. Then there is the issue of Homeland Security, no doubt a growing challenge. Recently, Peggy Noonan wrote in the New York Times of two words the Democrats fear, “At least George Bush kept us safe, unlike Obama!” Time will tell.
Of special interest to us however, is the Obama foreign policy, particularly as it relates to Iran and Israel. As I write this in early December, Israeli officials have already indicated they may strike and destroy Iran’s nuclear capability without U.S. approval. If this happens, it will create a firestorm of condemnation from the U.N. world, especially the Arabs. If it happens, Israel will have decided in favor of its survival rather than submitting to the discrimination, ridicule, and increasing world commitment to its extinction. In any case Israel is damned if it does and damned if doesn’t. At this point, Israel appears to be the only nation with the moral courage to confront Iran. The Bush administration was AWOL on this issue and President Obama has indicated he wants to talk to Iran without preconditions.
More specific, with respect to our concerns, will be our policy regarding the Israel-Palestinian issue. President Obama has indicated his support of President Bush’s egregiously failed catastrophe, “The Road Map to Peace.” This embodies the infamous two-state solution that includes giving the Palestinians the greater part of the Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and a divided Jerusalem east Jerusalem being the Palestinian capital.
For President Obama to pursue this already existing diplomatic train-wreck, is to perpetuate a flagrant defiance of God’s covenant promises to provide a national homeland for the Jews within their ancestral Biblical boundaries. Ultimately, it is doomed to fail and rightly so. Meanwhile, it will certainly have the world’s approval. And the Bible indicates it will no doubt succeed for a season, due to the paralyzing and “powerful delusion” God sends on both unbelieving Jews and Gentiles (II Thessalonians 2:11).
But be assured, God will have the last and defining word. Hear the Word of the LORD: “I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves. On that day I will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness,” declares the LORD. “I will keep a watchful eye over the house of Judah, but I will blind all the horses of the nations. Then the leaders of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘The people of Jerusalem are strong, because the LORD Almighty is their God.’ On that day I will make the leaders of Judah like a firepot in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among sheaves. They will consume right and left all the surrounding peoples, but Jerusalem will remain intact in her place.” (Zechariah 12:2-6).
Hoping and planning for peace in the Middle East while disregarding God’s declared decrees is a formula for failure, disaster and judgment, especially for the nations promoting such formulas. To be a genuine “Agent of Change” with God’s blessing, President Obama should cast a new vision for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
Currently we are formulating The Jerusalem Connection Peace Plan that will be presented to President Obama and others in authority. It will be based on the immutable covenants and promises of God for a national homeland for the Jewish people. President Obama could be an “Agent of Change” highly esteemed by God, if he bases his Israel-Palestinian policies on God’s word. The alternative is frightening for him, for our nation and the whole world. Did Bob Dylan see something we didn’t see, in his 1979 classic, when he warned of impending judgment “There’s a slow, slow train comin’ up around the bend?”
Jim Hutchens is President of The Jerusalem Connection, International and editor of The Jerusalem Connection Report.