Syrians

And, uh, verse 8: Then the king of Syria warred against Israel, and took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp.

And the man of God sent unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware that thou pass not such a place; for thither the Syrians are come down.

And the king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him and warned him of, and saved himself there, not once nor twice: Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing: and he called his servants, and said unto them, Will ye not shew me which of us is for the king of, of Israel? That is, there's a spy in the camp somewhere.

He didn't know that the prophet, the man of God, had been warning the king of Israel.

I mean, just from the community that I was born in, I was born in this clump of Syrian-American Muslims in Beckley, West Virginia.

So a bunch of new immigrants to the United States in the 1990s who had all said, you know what, maybe Beckley, West Virginia is a place where we can serve an underserved community and get our green card and For some reason, suddenly that meant that there was a bunch of Syrians in Beckley, West Virginia.

But even going back to the 1920s and 30s, there were communities that were defined mostly by national origin.

And obviously faith played a role.

And really, Germany has never recovered from that in terms of immigration.

The crime wave they've experienced, the increase in sexual offenses, not all of it down to the Syrians, because obviously that was just the beginning.

But then there's other problems as well.

I mean, Germany has made some extraordinary decisions there over the last ten years.

AND, UH, VERSE EIGHT, THEN THE KING OF SYRIA WARD AGAINST ISRAEL, AND TOOK COUNSEL WITH HIS SERVANTS, SAYING, IN SUCH AND SUCH A PLACE SHALL BE MY CAMP.

AND THE MAN OF GOD SENT UNTO THE KING OF ISRAEL, SAYING, BEWARE THAT THOU PASS NOT SUCH A PLACE, FOR THITHER THE SYRIANS ARE COME DOWN.

AND THE KING OF ISRAEL SENT TO THE PLACE WHICH THE MAN OF GOD TOLD HIM, AND WARNED HIM OF, AND SAVED HIMSELF THERE, NOT ONCE NOR TWICE.

THEREFORE THE HEART OF THE KING OF SYRIA WAS SORE TROUBLE FOR THIS THING.

Their great, great grandparents lived through a time and many of them committed atrocities that were very real, but 81 years later, they don't feel like they should be paying for those crimes with policies that punish the country and make it weaker, both from immigration and, you know, environmental regulation, that it's choking the economy there and And this government, MERS, which is supposed to be a center-right government, is indistinguishable, really, in those two areas from the left.

And so I think people are just tired of looking back and saying, well, you know, you produced the Nazis, therefore you have to let a million Syrians into your country.

And I think that, you know, what's interesting about it is that it's not limited to Germany, right? The EU today, I think it was this morning, came out, and floated the idea that maybe they were going to stop funding part of the budget of the state of Saxony-Anhalt for the crime of democratically electing a party that they don't approve of.

This is bigger than just what's happening in Germany with the left.

And then you get the post-Bronze Age collapse, Dark Ages.

And then you have the Neo-Syrians and the Neo-Babylonians and the Hittites collapse.

You get the Persians coming.

And I'm going to be honest, I cannot recall if the Persians ever conquered Egypt.

Now it so fell out that his father Nabonassar fell into a distemper at this time, and died in the city of Babylon, after he had reigned twenty-nine years.

But as he understood, in a little time that his father Nabonassar was dead, he set the affairs of Egypt, he set the affairs of Egypt and the other countries in order, and committed the captives he had taken from the Jews, and Phoenicians, and Syrians, and of the nations belonging to Egypt, to some of his friends, that they might conduct that part of the forces that had on heavy armor, with the rest of his baggage, to Babylonia; while he went in haste, having but a few with him, over the desert to Babylon; whither, when he was come, he found the public affairs had been managed by the Chaldeans, and that the principal person among them had preserved the kingdom for him.

Accordingly, he now entirely obtained all his father’s dominions.

He then came, and ordered the captives to be placed as colonies in the most proper places of Babylonia.

Nor indeed was Herodotus of Halicarnassus unacquainted with our nation, but mentions it after a way of his own, when he saith thus, in the second book concerning the Colchians.

His words are these, The only people who were circumcised in their privy members originally were the Colchians, the Egyptians, and the Ethiopians.

But the Phoenicians and those Syrians that are in Palestine confess that they learned it from the Egyptians.

And for those Syrians who live about the rivers Thermodon and Parthenius, and their neighbours the Macronais, they say they have lately learned it from the Colchians.

Jehoiakim doesn't like it.

And the Bible says in verse number two that the Lord sent against him bands of the Chaldees, the Syrians, the Moabites, the Ammonites, and sent them against Judah to destroy it So what's the Bible teaching? The Bible is teaching that there's a political scene that's going on.

where Jehoiakim is like, I don't want to pay these taxes, and we shouldn't have to serve Babylon.

I'm strong enough, and I'll do my own thing.

You can be a tough guy if you want to, but God is in control.

And the chastisement that you're receiving doesn't even have to come from Babylon.

Because the Bible says that God allowed all of these neighboring nations, like the Ammonites and the Syrians and the Moabites and these other nations all around to pester Judah.

And the point was this, listen, listen to God.

The Berbers of the borders of Galicia, of Merida, Corea, and all the region round about, took up arms and began to march south upon Toledo, Cordova, and Algeciras, whence they intended to take ship and go to join their compatriots in Barbary.

The situation was full of peril, and the Arab emir of Andalusia, Abdelmalik, who had sternly refused to lend any assistance to the Syrian Arabs shut up in Ceuta, now found himself in this dilemma, that either he must submit to his own rebellious Berbers, or he must invite the cooperation of the very Syrians whom he had persistently refused to succor, and who, when they arrived, might possibly turn out to be a worse plague than that they came to remove.

In grave apprehension he sent ships and brought over the Syrians, after first making them promise to go back when their work was done.

Thus reinforced, the Arabs of Andalusia put the Berbers to utter rout, hunted them like wild beasts through the country to their mountain fastness, and gratified their vengeance to the full.

And then the event which Abdelmalik had endeavored to guard against came to pass.