On March 20, 2015, (just last month), the United Nations, through their Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) made the most outrageous declaration concerning women’s rights violations. They condemned only one nation, and one nation only, for violating women’s rights out of the 193 United Nation member body. Well that nation must have been Iran or Iraq, the Sudan or Saudi Arabia, or possibly Syria. In all of these nations you will find women under oppression to the extreme.

Women are made to wear compulsory clothing, not allowed to drive or travel without permission and excluded from political life in Saudi Arabia. In Iran, women are not allowed to run for the presidency and executed if convicted of adultery or if they kill an attacking rapist. Women are denied any semblance of equal rights in Sudan, being subject to marriage at age 10 and genital mutilation, having no age minimum for consensual sex. In Syria, governmental authorities regularly use rape and torture as a tactic of war against women. But all of these nations received a pass. Time would not allow me to speak to rights violations in China or North Korea who are only beginning to make reforms with many obstacles to equality still in the way. Which nation received condemnation above all of these? If you know your Bible, you probably have already guessed. That’s right! It is little O’ Israel.

Why is this important to us? Because in Luke 12, religious leaders were rebuked for being able to discern when inclement weather was coming, but not knowing the signs showing the first arrival of the Messiah. In Matthew 24, Jesus gives signs before His second coming and in the 42nd thru 44th verses, tells us to keep watch and be ready for His return. Israel becoming the target of the United Nations is one such sign.

In Zechariah 12:2-3 we read, 2 “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples, when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem. 3 And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it.” WOW! Coincidence? Is our nation also joining the chorus against Israel? Interested in hearing more on this? If so, email me at: chrishayden60@sbcglobal.net

Be grateful and be blessed even more.

Pastor Chris Hayden
Central Christian Church