Today's Scripture Reading (November 22, 2023): Nehemiah 13
"A
Call to Spy" Is a movie that attempts to tell the story of Noor Inayat
Khan, who worked in the communications office in Britain during the Second
World War. According to the film, the Allies needed someone to go into occupied
France and get information out about what was going on behind enemy lines. In
the 1940s, espionage was a man's game basically because of the danger involved.
But Britain had no one qualified to send.
Enter
the Noor Inayat Khan. She had been working in Special Operations and had proved
her worth as a communications officer. She knew how to run the equipment,
although her superiors doubted whether she was a good candidate for espionage.
Some of her detractors argued that she wasn't smart enough and her personality
was too volatile. But Britain's problem was that they didn't have any other
options. And so, they began to train Noor to go into France as an espionage
agent for Britain.
Khan
finished her training, and on June 16, 1943, she was airlifted into France,
where she was met by the French Resistance. Khan became the first female
wireless operator sent by Britain behind enemy lines. And when she arrived in
France, Noor went to work. Circumstances on the ground in France caused Britain
to recall Khan a little more than a week later, but Khan wanted to stay. And
the British reality was that no one else in France could do the job. So, Khan
stayed. She did a spectacular job in France, but starting on June 24, 1943,
German officials began to arrest members of the resistance cell for which Khan was
working. But while Khan herself evaded capture, all of her contacts slowly
disappeared.
Khan
was finally betrayed in October 1943. She was arrested and put into custody on
October 13. She tried to escape twice and was almost succeeded once, but Khan was
rearrested. And in September 1944, Khan was abruptly moved to Dachau
Concentration Camp. It was there that she was executed on September 13, 1944.
Noor Inayat Khan has been labeled as one of the forgotten heroes of World War
II.
The
task of a spy is to infiltrate a system and then share secrets with their
employer. It was something that Noor Khan did very well. The identities of
spies are one of the most guarded secrets of any nation. And discovering who
the spies are is one of the priorities of every government. Khan suffered
between these two realities; Britain wanted to keep her identity a secret, but
someone who had been entrusted with this British information revealed her name
to the Germans.
Tobiah
was an Ammonite, and as the exiles began to return. Tobiah began working
against Israel. He had mocked them; he had threatened them, challenged them.
Tobiah had even hired a prophet to prophesy against Nehemiah. But at every
step, Nehemiah had opposed them. He kept Tobiah on the outside. And Nehemiah
breathed a prayer to his God. "Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, my God,
because of what they have done; remember also the prophet Noadiah and how she
and the rest of the prophets have been trying to intimidate me"
(Nehemiah 6:14).
But
finally, Nehemiah had to return to King Artaxerxes and the life he had left
behind in the King's court. And then Tobiah went to work. He was complimentary
to those in Jerusalem, acting like he was their friend.
And
the people, including the High Priest, Eliashib, bought the act. Eliashib admitted
Tobiah to the inside of Jewish culture to the extent that the High Priest even
rented him a room inside the Temple. The room was a space where the tithe had once
been stored. It was an elevated position for a rejected Ammonite who had
opposed the rebuilding of Jerusalem. But from the inside, Tobiah could damage
everything the exiles were trying to accomplish. It took him a while, but he
finally achieved his goal. Now, all this Ammonite spy had to do was sabotage
the significant efforts of the exiles.
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading:
Malachi 1
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