"Lebanon Is Confounded and Withers"

“The land mourns and languishes; Lebanon is confounded and withers away” (Isaiah 33:9).

Israel and Lebanon have had a complex relationship since ancient times. According to Joshua, the region of Lebanon was to be part of the promised land God gave Israel (Joshua 1:4; 13:5-6). Though the Israelites never conquered Lebanon (Judges 3:3), the nation did benefit from the rich natural resources of the region. Solomon built his palace with the magnificent cedars of Lebanon, and named the royal residence “The House of the Forest of Lebanon” (1 Kings 5:6; 7:2). Both the psalmist (Psalm 72:16; 92:12) and the prophets (Isaiah 60:13; Hosea 4:5-7) spoke of the majestic beauty of Lebanon. The modern flag of Lebanon is decorated by a large green cedar.

Lately, Lebanon has been anything but a natural paradise. Caught in the grip of internal conflict between Sunni and Shiite Muslims and professed Christians, as well as the external interference of Syria, Iran, and Israel, Lebanon has been a battlefield for most of its recent history. In the early 1980s, the PLO used Lebanon as an outpost from which to attack Israeli civilians, leading Israel to launch a full invasion of the country. The resulting war led to the creation of a new party, Hezbollah, dedicated to driving the invading Israelis out of Lebanon. And in 2000 Israel pulled out, facing the same inability to drive out its enemies that its ancient ancestors did in biblical times.

In the last few years, Lebanon has transformed itself economically and politically. The Lebanese conducted several successful elections, and the country began to rebuild itself after years of civil war. In 2005 Lebanon’s prime minister was assassinated, with Syria as the primary suspect. This led to an outpouring of opposition to Syrian interference (what some observers called “The Cedar Revolution”), and eventually Syria pulled out all of its troops. Lebanon has been a great example of the kind of modernization and democratization sorely lacking in most of the Middle East.

But all of this progress has been destroyed by the recent Israeli bombardment. On July 12th, Hezbollah carried out raids in Israel, killing eight soldiers and kidnapping two others. This is not the first time Hezbollah has carried out this sort of attack; they have done so many other times in order to gain collateral to bargain for the lives of their own prisoners. In retaliation Israel decided to launch a major campaign of air bombardment on Lebanon, hoping to pressure the Lebanese government into stopping Hezbollah.

The results of this campaign have been devastating. Over 500 Lebanese civilians have been killed in these brutal attacks, compared to the 18 Israeli citizens and 33 Israeli soldiers killed by Hezbollah. Over the weekend, in the city of Qana, more than 50 Lebanese civilians were killed, mostly women and children. Sadly, it is not the first time that city suffered such loss. In 1996, during another Israeli offensive, over 100 Lebanese civilians were killed in Qana.

Israel has the right to defend itself. It has the right of “hot pursuit” of terrorists into Lebanon. But that is not what Israel is doing. The Israeli government made the strategic decision to bombard Lebanon, intentionally targeting the major airport in Beirut, electrical grids and power plants, and other infrastructure targets. Their objective is to force the government of Lebanon to stop Hezbollah, something Israel itself could not do after 18 years of occupation. These attacks have killed hundreds, wounded thousands, and displaced nearly a million innocent civilians, leaving them without shelter, power, or water. All of this in response to the death and kidnapping of 10 soldiers. By what standard of morality can this response be considered just?

There is only one country that can stop Israel’s aggression, and that is the Unites States. Instead, the President gave his tacit approval to the offensive, and the Congress voted 410-8 in favor of a resolution approving Israel’s actions. So both the President and the Congress have approved a military incursion into a sovereign, democratic nation, which has deliberately targeted civilian targets.

Ironically, Israel’s ill-conceived decision to flatten much of Lebanon has only heightened Hezbollah’s standing and popularity. Even Sunni countries which consider the militant Shiite group a threat have denounced Israel’s grossly disproportionate response to Hezbollah. And since we have supported Israel’s decision, we have given the Arab world yet one more reason to hate us.

How can we truly claim to support international law and the spread of democracy in the Middle East while approving of Israel’s actions? How can we ever expect the rest of the Middle East to take us seriously as an honest broker and peace and justice for the Palestinians? How can we not expect the rest of the Arab world not to be inflamed, placing our troops in even greater peril?

As a Christian, I am deeply concerned that my country has given its approval to such a horrendous assault on innocent life. Most of all, I am deeply concerned for the welfare of Christians who live in Lebanon, and for the negative impact this conflict will have on the opportunity for the gospel to spread.

Please pray. Pray for our leaders to seek policies which truly work toward justice and peace. Pray for any Christians who have been left homeless by the attacks. And pray for the gospel to somehow finds its way into the hearts of the people in a part of the world so roiled by hatred.

The Last Chance

She walked into the business of one of our members from church, basically to ask for a handout. He offered to pay her if she was willing to work, and she accepted. Her past was rocky. She was a drug addict, and she had spent a lot of time on the street. But she came to work, did her job, and earned a little cash.

It wasn’t long before he invited her to come to worship, and when he did he discovered that she was a Christian, though obviously she had been away from the Lord a very long time. She came with him and his wife, carrying a Bible that was well-worn, if not obeyed. The folks at the congregation went out of their way to welcome her, and she made it known that she wanted to get her life right with the Lord.

Old habits haunted her, though, and before long he had to let her go at work. He still offered to give her rides to church, along with another family, but her attendance became sporadic. One minute she seemed eager to please the Lord and be part of the congregation; and just as quickly she could declare she never wanted to come back. Eventually, she never did.

She called me every now and then, often to ask for money. It became increasingly difficult to want to help her, knowing that she was blowing disability payments she received on drugs. She confided in another member at church that she was paying for her habit by prostituting herself. And yet it was clear that part of her wanted to escape the life she was trapped in. She could be so sweet at times (she called just to wish me a happy Memorial Day). But she could not shake loose her addictions.

A few days ago she called, asking for food, and asking for help in moving out of her apartment – a “customer” had called to accuse her of stealing his wallet, and when her landlord discovered what she was doing in the complex, he evicted her. I went to her apartment to give her some food, and arranged a time to come pick her up to take her to the house of some man she met.

She loaded everything she could into my CRV, and we headed to downtown Nashville to find the house she was to stay at. Once we arrived, she took one look and decided she couldn’t stay there – too much garbage and to many roaches. Some neighbors told her about a shelter that took in men and women, but when we found it they said they only took men. They told her of another shelter for women, but two years earlier she had been barred from it. She had nowhere to go. “Maybe I’ll just check into a hospital, or just live on the street.”

I suggested that we try the women’s shelter, and she asked me if I would speak for her. I told her I would do my best. When we arrived, the supervisor pulled her file, and I did the best I could to argue her case. They asked her if she could behave, and she said yes. So they took her in. Due to space constraints, she could only have two big garbage bags of clothes, meaning that we had to do something with the rest of her stuff in my car. I asked around and found out that there was a pawnshop around the corner. While she sorted out her clothes, I took everything she owned to a pawnshop, none of which they were willing to buy. I just dumped everything at Goodwill, went to an ATM and got some cash, and gave it to her. I just could not bring myself to tell a woman who had left everything she owned behind that it was worth nothing.

When I got back to the shelter, she was still sorting her clothes. I gave her the cash and apologized that I could not get her more money for her stuff. I told her that I had done all I could for her, that these people could help her (they will let her stay as long as she needs to, and they offer substance abuse counseling), and that this was her last option, that she could not blow this.

And we said goodbye.

Confessions of an Ex-Patriotic Expatriate

I love the summer! I love the parties that go on from Memorial Day to Labor Day, the grilled hamburgers and ice-cold watermelons. And most of all I love fireworks. Tonight some friends and I are going to go to a baseball game and see some fireworks afterwards. I can’t wait!

At the same time, the patriotic significance of July 4th is no longer as exciting to me as it once was. I used to consider myself an ultra-patriot. Ever since I could first read I have always loved reading history, especially American history, and the noble sacrifices of so many people to give us freedom and democracy always stirred me. I enjoyed (as much as a third grader could) all the hoopla of our bicentennial year. I gloried in the “Morning in America” era of President Reagan, and felt enormous pride in our country after the first Gulf war.

That has all changed. And without question, the key turning point for me was the Clinton impeachment. When poll after poll showed that the American people had a more favorable view of Bill Clinton than Ken Starr, I was stunned. I had never felt a real sense of alienation from my nation than at the time. And the whole experience forced me to view America through a different lense – not the naïve perspective of an ultra-patriot, but as a Christian who is an exile in a strange land (1 Peter 2:11-12).

Since that time, many cherished beliefs about America have crumbled. I still love the Constitution, and I only wish those in government paid attention to it. I believe it gave us the opportunity to have the best kind of government for our nation that we could have. Sadly, both political parties have tossed it aside, and to paraphrase the Book of Judges, “there was no Constitution in the land. Everyone does what is right in his own eyes.”

So the last few years it has been hard to get swept up in the excitement of July 4th, other than for the fireworks. And honestly, I wonder how patriotic I should have ever been since my citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:20-21). The New Testament is emphatic that we are strangers and exiles (expatriates) here, longing for our King’s return. His kingdom is “not of this world” (John 18:36), and neither are His people (John 17:14).