Will Australia, in the end, breathe on these bones?

May 3, 2019

‘Prophesy to the breath, son of man, and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.”’ (Ezekiel 47:9)

JERUSALEM, Israel – On these pages, back in April 2016, I described what I called “God’s fingerprints” that were left on the rock fortress of Masada, 1,946 years ago.

Unearthed evidence revealed that, despite their impending doom, the zealots waiting for the Roman enemy to reach the mountain top had reason to hope in a future for their then dismembered nation.

Preserved in a promise; recorded on a remnant – a scroll scrap from the Prophet Ezekiel foretold the future reconstitution of the Jewish people.

Israel would rise from the dead.

Prophesied, too, was the part Gentile nations would have the opportunity to play when the clock-hands of human history would tick into “the set time to favour Zion”, and we who would be alive would witness that the Lord had begun to “restore the Kingdom to Israel.”

Our nations have been given the choice to help prepare the way by supporting the restoration of the Jews to their land and capital city, or by obstructing and opposing it.

The bones began coming together in 1882 when the First Aliya (immigration) brought a wave of Jews to the land. Four waves followed before World War 2 and more would come flooding in after. Beginning in December 1979, 1.2 million Jews poured in from the former Soviet Union. Last year, 28,000 more Jews from numerous lands came home.

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...my fervent prayer and message will be that Christians Down Under must not be swept into surrender or resignation

Before our eyes, the ‘sinews and flesh’ are coming upon this nation; ‘skin is covering them.’

But as yet they have ‘no breath’.

It will come, Ezekiel says, blowing from the four corners of the earth after the people are reconstituted as a nation in their Land. Will it come from every nation? Probably not. But it will come from the directions of “the four winds”.

Standing atop the red-gold limestone fortress that is Masada, the Dead Sea shimmering far below, feeling on my face the heat of the sun in the Judean sky, I turn to the north and the south, the east and the west, eyes and ears straining.

I am a watchman, watching for the ruach—the promised incoming breath of life.

For the past two-and-a-half years it has been coming in strongly from the United States, from the west. Like no other leader in modern history, the maligned and detested Donald Trump has extended previously unimaginably strong support to the Jews in their land.

Defying the world, he has approved Israel’s claim to Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state and placed his embassy there. Agreeing with Israel’s belief that Iran is using its nuclear agreement as a cover behind which to continue pursuing weapons of mass destruction, Trump unilaterally pulled his country out of that agreement, parting ways with his allies in the Five +1, re-imposing painful sanctions on the regime in Tehran and adding more.

And just hours before this writing, the president flew once again in the face of international opinion when he issued a proclamation recognising Israel’s sovereign ownership of the Golan Heights.

Yes, the wind is blowing strongly from the west.

Turning to the south, sadness and disquiet come upon me. What about from there? What about the breath from the “Great Southlands of the Holy Spirit?

Will Australia, in the end, not also breathe life into these bones?

It had looked so promising. After celebrating over the last two years the centenaries of its exceptional leadership in liberating Israel’s Land in World War 1, Australia had the opportunity, first under Malcolm Turnbull and then under Scott Morrison, to send more blessings Israel’s way.

Turnbull wouldn’t do it, but for a breathtaking moment it looked as if Morrison just might.

Within days of assuming office last August the new prime minister—a professing Christian—indicated his willingness to consider recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving Australia’s embassy there.

We held our breaths, wanting the courageous statesman we hoped he would be to make the tough and only morally acceptable decision.

Instead of thus being a blessing to Israel, Morrison quailed before the furious “progressive” tempest that was whipped up in response to his mere contemplation of this move.

The breeze from Down Under faltered, then blew itself out. The moment passed.

What, we were left wondering, would happen now? Australia will soon hold an election.

How will it turn out?

Will we see—as the polls seem to say—the humiliating defeat of the right despite Morrison’s effort to please and appease all sides?

Will the Labor Party, whose senior echelon has loudly proclaimed its intention, if elected, to recognise the anti-Israel “State of Palestine” with “Eastern Jerusalem” as its capital, be put into that place of power?

It’s about 14,000 km from Masada to Canberra. Painful as it is to admit, I’m afraid that even while praying here “please don’t let it happen” I sense in my spirit that over there, it might well.

It’s an eventuality for which I feel we must prepare ourselves.

For six years now, this non-Australian has been carrying Australia in my heart. Five times I have been down there, exhorting Christians to pray and act to help keep their nation from dividing up Israel’s land by recognising “Palestine”, and to get Australia to recognise Jerusalem and to move its embassy to that city.

This July, God willing, I’ll fly to Australia once more.

If the Liberal Party is returned to power, my hope will be to galvanise Aussies into action to get their prime minister to correct the error made in December, so that Australia will officially recognise a single, united Jerusalem as the eternal and indivisible capital of the Jewish State of Israel—and speedily move its embassy there.

If the election is lost to the left, and the right-wing becomes the opposition, my fervent prayer and message will be that Christians Down Under must not be swept into surrender or resignation, or rendered useless through apathy; but that they would come to understand the gravity of the hour, and gird up their loins in the coming months to fight for the return of an effective right-wing government that will properly align Australia with God’s purposes for Israel.

Only a government that in this way undertakes to “serve” Israel (Isaiah 60:10) can create the conduit through which Australia can meaningfully send currents of blessing to breathe upon the reconstituted nation of Israel, “that they may live again.”

May our gracious God show mercy to Australia; bringing her into the destiny that multitudes of Aussies believe He has always purposed for her as part of the Great Southlands of the Holy Spirit.

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Stan Goodenough

Stan Goodenough: is a South African gentile who has lived in Jerusalem for a quarter of a century. A Christian journalist, writer and tour guide, he believes passionately that Australia is being offered a unique opportunity to lead the way in supporting Israel’s God given and legitimate right to extend sovereignty over its restored land.

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