By GF Herrin

Since the March 17^th Israeli election took place, it has become ever apparent that U.S. President and Secretary of State John Kerry seem more determined than ever to strike some semblance of an agreement with the known terrorist nation of Iran. Realizing that the people of Israel have essentially mandated that the vigilant Benjamin Netanyahu stay in office, Obama and Kerry seem determined to sign a treaty no matter what impact it may have on the Jewish state. As the article states below, many have misgivings regarding a deal with such an unpredictable and hostile adversary.

Negotiations with Iran Going Down to the Wire

In the aftermath of the castigation of Netanyahu for his boldness in addressing Congress on March 3^rd, it is refreshing to hear someone speak lucidly on how the present administration has suddenly turned its back on Israel lately. Marco Rubio, the U.S. senator from Florida, lays out the unfortunate series of recent events very well.

Rubio Speaks on the Obama Administration’s Treatment of Israel

Remember the quote from the Shakespeare play, Julius Caesar? “A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March”? Some of the origins of this saying date back to ancient religious customs. The March observance of Mamuralia was a Greek ritual that involved a scapegoat in the form of an old man dressed in animal skins and being driven from the city. One wonders if perhaps Israel is the scapegoat that all of the nations are raising a stick to now in an effort to drive them out into the wilderness (see Revelation 12:6).

Or perhaps the scapegoat was God, who seems to be, more than ever, in the United States anyway, being driven out of the moral fiber of this world, and in particular, the United States. Recently, the state of Indiana enacted a religious freedom law that gives individual business owners who are Christian the freedom to not cater homosexual weddings , which are clearly a sin and against basic Christian doctrine. The reaction to the law from homosexuals and the liberal media has been almost beyond belief in its veracity and insistence that humans everywhere are now being discriminated against.

Liberals against Religious Liberty in Indiana

More than likely the roots of the observance of Mamuralia come from the Passion of the Messiah, who, in fulfilling the law of Leviticus, became the real scapegoat for mankind’s sins (Leviticus 16:8-10;20-22).

“Then Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats: one lot for the Lord and the other lot for the scapegoat. And Aaron shall bring the goat on which the Lord’s lot fell, and offer it as a sin offering. But the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make atonement upon it, and to let it go as the scapegoat into the wilderness” (Lev. 16:8-10).

“And when he has made an end of atoning for the Holy Place, the tabernacle of meeting, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat. Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man. The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to an uninhabited land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness” (Lev. 16:0-22).

Ultimately, Jesus’ becoming a scapegoat for us has saved us from the burning pit of Hell and given us a personal relationship with the Living God.

“God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness” (2 Cor. 5:21).