Kameel Majdali's Road Ahead

  Introduction It was a sobering scene.   Location : The plain of Moab, near the Jordan River, at the back door of the ‘Promised Land,’ near the city of Jericho.   Main character: Moses, the aged and faithful servant of God, was about to give his valedictory speech.   The audience: A large group of Israelites: the younger generation, who were born in the wilderness (‘the wilderness generation’).   The challenge: Moses would need all the God-given communication skills he could muster to reach this younger group of people who knew no other leader but him. After all, if Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II, in their 70s, could connect with younger people, why not God’s anointed prophet? The setting: It had been forty years since Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt by the power of God. The journey on foot should have taken around forty days. Yet, due to tempting God ten times (Numbers 14:22, 24-34), the days turned to years. During these forty years, the ...

Introduction Some of your favourite Bible stories and characters are found in this book. Yet it also serves as a solemn warning about the perils of disobeying God. In all cases, it is folly and madness to say ‘No’ to Him. Welcome to the Book of Numbers, the fourth of the five books of Moses, known as the Pentateuch or Torah (the Law). The stories are great, and the lessons even greater.   The name in the original Hebrew is wayyedabber or ‘ and he said.’ The reason for the name ‘Numbers’ is that it has to do with two censuses. The first is of the ‘generation of the exodus’ (Chapter 1), namely the children of Israel who miraculously departed from Egypt. The second census or numbering was of the ‘generation of the wilderness,’ the generation of Israelites born in the wilderness (chapter 26), to the ‘generation of the exodus.’ Though the exodus generation was headed towards the promised land of Canaan, they never reached it. Numbers will explain the dire reasons why. Key Characters Mos...

As of this moment, Israel is at war. Not just the ‘state of war’ it has been in since its birth in 1948. It is an actual hot, fierce, and furious war. And unlike earlier wars in 1948, 1956, 1967, 1969-70, 1973, 1982, 2006, and earlier Hamas wars (2008, 2012, 2014), this current war presents an existential threat to the Jewish state and the world. We have learned that Israel’s current war is multi-dimensional:   Bi-lateral Dimension : This war is between Israel and Hamas;   Regional Dimension : Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and Iran to the east are also part of this conflict;   Civilisational Dimension : It is a fight between ‘Christianised’ Western civilisation and the part of the non-Western world that is rabidly anti-Judaeo-Christian.   Theological Dimension : Judaeo-Christian (Biblical) eschatology vs. Islamic eschatology. Eschatology is the doctrine of last things or end times; Spiritual Dimension : Ultimately this earthly conflict is a proxy war fo...