God’s hook in the jaws of the world

Middle Eastern events are speeding up, both in significance and momentum. Yet even amidst the tumult, there is a quiet place available in God from which flows understanding, discernment, sobriety and peace.

Like the men of the tribe of Issachar, “men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do” (1 Chronicles 12:32), we want to find that place, grasp hold of it with both hands, and cleave to what God is doing among the nations regarding His Jewish people.

The divine gambit

In Ezekiel 38 YHVH allows us a measure of insight into His ways regarding the nations. The prophet declares that God’s last days judgments will fall on a consortium of nations who trouble the nation and land of Israel. “I am against you” (verse 3); “thoughts will come into your mind and you will devise an evil plan” (verse 10).

Yet God is sovereignly pro-active in this whole process, leading the troublers of Israel into judgment: “It shall come about in the last days that I shall bring you against My land” (verse 16). “Are you the one of whom I spoke in former days through My servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days for many years that I would bring you against them?” (verse 17). “It will come about on that day, when Gog comes against the land of Israel, declares YHVH God, that My fury will mount up in My anger” (verse 18). “With pestilence and with blood I will enter into judgment with him” (verse 22). God is not absent from this process nor is He unaware of what is happening. Au contraire – He is much involved.

The key phrases in this divine scenario are found in verse three, “ I will turn you about and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out, and all your army,” as well as in verse eight, “After many days you will be summoned; in the latter years you will come into the land that is restored from the sword.”

When the set time comes for God to trigger His plans for judgment on the nations, He activates His hooks and pulls those nations down into the Middle East, to trouble the nation of Israel. Even the greatest super-power can be caught on the hook of God, whether he was expecting it or not. Unauthorized and anti-biblical pressure on Israel brings, according to the Scriptures, both God’s wrath (Jeremiah 30:16) and God’s curse (Genesis 12:3).

Imperial hubris

The sound and fury being demonstrated by most of the nations – in pontificating about how the land of Israel must be divided and about how the restoration of the Jewish people to major portions of their Promised Land is a “rectifiable error” – is actually a sign and a wonder to those who have the eyes to see and the ears to hear. The season we are living in is no longer one of whether or not judgment will fall on these nations. The only question now is one of timing.

Just a reminder of biblical perspective on this matter: the clearest passages dealing with the return of Messiah (Zechariah 14:1-3; Joel 3:1-2) plainly teach that Yeshua returns in judgment based on the nations’ invasion of Israel and division of both the land of Israel and the city of Jerusalem. The Second Coming is triggered by the nations’ plans and actions to establish the borders of these areas, and by their attempting to remove Jewish people from East Jerusalem. The unholy source and sober significance of such moves is unmistakably set forth in Scripture.

What is happening in our day and at this moment is not the invasion of Gog and Magog, for that battle is nearly the zenith of the nations’ troubling of Israel. What is happening right now is “a preview of coming attractions,” a dress-rehearsal of the nations where the same principles are at play today and the same issues are at stake. The empires of the world are zooming in on Zion, and the nations are getting into quite an uproar.

I hear the sound of “Rolling Thunder”

The list of nations intent on whittling Israel down grows by the minute. Prime Ministers and Foreign Secretaries of these countries go on record practically daily, declaring that Israel must be pressured for her own good, and that her recalcitrant attitude is the main obstacle to a smoothly running Middle East. The latest world leader to dance on this spiritual minefield is President Obama, who declared on May 19 2011 that Israel must withdraw to the pre-June 1967 lines, and that Jerusalem must be divided. He was immediately seconded by the discordant chimes of France, England, Poland, Germany, the European Union, the Quartet, Egypt, Jordan etc.

YHVH’s words to Belshazzar in Daniel 5:5-28 have sober relevance for the mightiest powers of our day: “Mene, mene, tekel u’farsin.” You have been surely weighed on the scales of God. You have been found severely lacking in what He was looking for. Your kingdom will be soon divided.”

Where judgment will fall first is not really the central issue, for when judgment falls it will not stop in one country alone. What is coming could rightly be described as a “Rolling Thunder Revue.”

The only thing that can lessen and mitigate the evil decree is repentance – intercessory repentance for the sins of your nation’s thrusting its finger into the apple of God’s eye (Zechariah 2:8).

In days gone by the bearded Hebrew prophets fulminated against the evils of ungodly kings. In our day God is raising up a fiery army of New Covenant prophets who will bring the leaders of our world to account for their evil thoughts and plans against Israel the people and the land.

Avoiding the minefield of fear

The initial response of many believers to the rapidly lengthening shadows of malevolence against Israel is often fear. How will the Jewish people be able to stand if Iran develops a nuclear arsenal, or if the USA reduces her military, political or economic aid to Israel? What will happen if the European Union boycotts the Jewish state, or if the United Nations passes resolutions declaring that a Jewish presence on portions of the Promised Land is illegal and subject to international sanctions? What will happen if hordes of Muslims (whether Turks, Syrians, Palestinians from Gaza or Lebanon or even from within Israel) try to invade Israel en masse and wreak havoc on Israel’s borders and security forces?

After this first wave of fear passes, it would be good to remember that these nations and these Palestinians have absolutely no idea of Whom they are angering, and Who He is who is preparing to visit these nations with His judgments. Let’s remember that even though events in Pharaoh’s Egypt looked bad for the sons of Israel immediately prior to the Exodus, the soon-to-come revelation of God’s glory and judgments through Moses the prophet topped anything that anyone had ever known up to that point. The same is true in our day.

As we pray for Israel’s protection, let us take moment of silence and remember that God is on the move among the nations, and that for those countries who raise their hand against Israel the land and the people, it will be a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the Living God (Hebrews 10:31).

Avoiding the minefield of eschatological cold-heartedness

Years ago I remember having a theological conversation with a seminary student. “When I see Israel’s dependence on weapons and on its army, I think of God’s rebuke to Israel not to trust in horses or chariots!”, said my friend. His unspoken presupposition was that America was allowed to pursue its military interests to the uttermost, but that Israel was somehow carnal and disobedient to God when it did the same! A similar geopolitical weltanschauung can be seen when one compares international reaction to Israel’s targeting of Islamic terrorists, with international reaction to the recent Navy SEAL special operations forces hit on Osama bin Laden.

As we try to align our hearts with God’s own heart as revealed in the Bible, let us ask God for revelatory insight on how the mighty Israeli prophetic army that God is raising up (Ezekiel 37:9-10; Isaiah 41:14-16) is related to the present Israeli army.

Let us not look on Israel with the cold dispassionate gaze of a bored bystander, but cry out to God for the apple of His eye – the one nation whose agony and suffering God empathetically feels as His own pain (Isaiah 63:9), and whose prioritized good and blessing He Himself has prophesied (Jeremiah 32:37-44; Isaiah 62:1-11; 43:1-7).

Avoiding the minefield of last days narcissism

One further thought. The Scriptures are filled with end-time descriptions of the Jewish people, their land and God’s plans for their restoration and good. Sometimes the prophetic rushing river of God’s promises to Israel is so powerful and fast-moving that it is possible to get caught in the web of all of these prophetic facts, to get hypnotized by the oncoming speed and surge of their soon-coming fulfillment.

Yet God has given us all of this biblical information not for our own satisfaction, not to assuage our own compulsive tendencies, and not to become eschatological know-it-alls. What He really wants is for us to weep for His people (Isaiah 62:1-12). He wants us to intercede with hot tears for their protection, their salvation and their restoration.

The fruit of a balanced last-days vision leads one to activism in prayer for Israel, activism in helping and succoring the Jewish people, and activism in saving Jewish lives through good works and the gospel of Yeshua, Israel’s Davidic Messiah.

“He’s got plans of His own to set up His throne …”

Do not be afraid of the evil plans of the enemy, nor of how he may be using the blinded leaders of nations. Isaiah 8:10 proclaims, “Devise a plan, but it will be thwarted; state a proposal, but it will not stand, for God is with us – Immanuel!”

Pray for the leaders of your nation and for the leaders of Israel – that YHVH will grant repentance, clarity of vision, divine discernment and courage to follow the truth – to fear God and not to fear men.

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do!

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

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Bin Laden - Of heroes and hydras

Usama Bin Laden is dead. The Saudi born Islamist of Yemeni extraction was “terminated with extreme prejudice” by U.S. Navy Seals Team Six, in a superbly executed 40 minute special forces operation involving at least four helicopters flying out of Afghanistan. A ten year manhunt has come to an end.

President Obama called an uncharacteristically late-evening press conference to announce the positive identification of the terrorist leader as well as his subsequent anonymous burial in the waters of the Persian Gulf. Spontaneous crowds gathered at Ground Zero in New York City, remembering the more than 3,000 civilians murdered by Bin Laden’s jihadi comrades. Iran’s leaders announced that it was high time that U.S. forces leave Afghanistan since, according to Teheran, this was the only reason America had occupied that country.

Both Hamas and Fatah cursed America and mourned Bin Laden’s death, calling him a Muslim hero and an Islamic lion (the word Osama in Arabic means ‘lion’). The Islamic imam of Jerusalem prophesied a dog’s death to President Obama, while the supreme world Islamic authority (the sheikh of Al-Azhar University in Cairo) accused the U.S. of violating Islamic law and sensibilities by burying Bin Laden (UBL) at sea.

How can we make sense of these events? What help do the Scriptures give in sorting things out?

David’s mighty men

In 1 Chronicles 11:10-47 King David’s Seal Team is described. His special forces in that day were called “the Three” and “the Thirty.” Their strength, speed and stealth were legendary throughout Israel, and their stunning exploits are quoted with approval in Scripture.

King David gives thanks to God his Rock, who trained his hands for war and his fingers for the battle (Psalm 144:1). Regarding the Hebrew warrior-judge Othniel it is written, “The Spirit of YHVH came on him, so that he became Israel’s judge and went to war” (Judges 3:10).

Ultimately satan himself will be the one who gathers all ungodly nations to fight against the Jewish people, the Jewish Messiah, and all believers: “Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to wage war against the Rider on the horse and His army” (Rev.19:19; see also Psalm 83).

YHVH is a warrior, Moses said in Exodus 15:3. Modern-day warriors who oppose evil know something of YHVH’s character and zeal in a way that few others can. We are thankful for those men and women who have dedicated their strength and skill for such purposes.

Pray for the safety, discernment, wisdom and salvation of God for the special forces of the U.S. and of Israel – on the cutting edge of the battle against Islamic jihadi terror.

Ten years is a long time

A friend in the USA reminded me that UBL and Hitler died within a few hours of each other, 66 years apart, and their deaths were both announced on May 1. Certainly the spiritual forces that operated in Hitler also motivated UBL. They also drove Saddam Hussein, Hezbollah and Hamas to fire mortars, rockets and missiles at Tel Aviv, Haifa and Beersheva. The source of these murderous spirits comes fundamentally from satan. In the Islamist examples seen above, it also draws historical and spiritual inspiration from the words and works of Mohammed the jihad warrior.

The American intelligence community has been pursuing al-Qa’eda for ten years. Yet even prior to 9/11 such voices like the FBI’s counterterrorism specialist John O’Neill (see The Man Who Warned America, by Murray Weiss) tried in vain to focus attention on the clear and present danger. At various times over the past years, U.S. special forces actually had UBL in their sights, yet the go-ahead was never given. Fear of failure or lack of trust in hot intelligence aborted more than one such operation. It is to President Obama’s credit that he decided to go ahead with this operation. It required courage and resolve.

Take no prisoners, but who is the enemy?

One of the hardest battles to win is the one where one cannot discern who the enemy is. For believers it is clear that satan himself is the ultimate enemy. Those who are God’s enemies are also our enemies (Psalm 139:19-24). Those who are the Jewish people’s enemies are also our enemies (Psalm 83:2-3, 5, 12).

But what about Islam? The leaders of the West never cease to declare that Islam is not the enemy; that it is a religion of peace; and that the problem is only some crazy terrorists who are perverting Islam and giving it a bad name. U.S. Presidents (Barak Obama and George W. Bush) and former U.K. PM Tony Blair are notable advocates for that position. One can see the concern (or even fear) in their words, since they were ultra-sensitive about not wanting to upset a very volatile Muslim world. Street riots and attacks on Western embassies have resulted due to statements, cartoons and rumors deemed insulting to Islam.

Yet a desire to avoid conflict does not always lead to people speaking the truth. An analysis of Islam’s source documents (the Koran and the Hadith) is the best way for us to determine whether or not UBL has perverted Mohammed’s original jihad call. Such a simple study (see “A Perspective on Islam”, www.davidstent.com) leads the average reader to the stunning conclusion that the Koran clearly mandates continuing violent military attacks against non-Muslims until the whole world submits to Mohammed’s control. What is called ‘terror’ in the West is seen as true and courageous Koranic Islam by over 95% of all Islamic teachers and preachers.

The West would prefer to ignore these unpalatable facts, while attempting to prop up corrupt Arab and Islamic pro-Western dictators. The recent Arab street riots conclusively prove that the U.S.A. is having as much success there as they had in Havana, Managua and Saigon. Unless the West wakes up its defensive limbs (which have fallen asleep) and recognizes the spiritual and geopolitical threats connected to jihadi and Koranic Islam, the enemy will continue to be able to operate under the radar with great stealth and effectiveness.

The enemy is much more than Osama Bin Laden’s talking head, or than the al-Qa’eda hierarchy. It is the Islamic goal of world jihad and the restoration of a shari’a-based Islamic caliphate dictatorship.

Pray for the leaders of the Western powers and for Israel – that they will have a clear revelation about the spiritual and religious roots of this present struggle

Pray that they will individually receive a saving revelation of Israel’s Messiah, and the guts and gumption to follow through on obedience to Him

How many heads does a hydra have?

An Arab youth interviewed by Western media after UBL’s assassination proudly declared, “Now you will have one thousand jihadis to take Bin Laden’s place!” The Islamist activists have never ceased in their strategy to take over all the Arab and Islamic countries from their corrupt leadership. This is done either through street revolution followed by military putsch, or by democratic elections followed by military putsch (“one man, one vote, one time”). In either case, it leads to the establishment of an Islamic dictatorship.

Such was the case in Gaza, where U.S. pressure led to free elections, The Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Hamas government came to power, whose constitution calls for jihadi destruction of Israel and the Jewish people. After coming to power, they murdered their main Islamic competitors (Arafat’s Fatah gunmen) and have transformed Gaza into an Islamic dictatorship. The Egyptian elections are presently facing the likelihood of a Muslim Brotherhood victory, either outright or in a few quick stages.

The U.S. State Department and the British Foreign Ministry have both spoken positively of Fatah’s declaration that it will sign a unity agreement with Hamas this week. The cognitive dissonance here is more than huge – how can the U.S. assassinate Bin Laden while speaking positively about the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, which call for the same jihad as did UBL?

It will not do to proclaim victory over jihadi forces in Pakistan while encouraging those same forces in the Palestinian Authority and Egypt.

Pray for clarity, wisdom and courage for Western leaders to grasp the extent and seriousness of the Islamic jihadi threat.

When is a targeted assassination kosher?

Israelis look at world news from a unique perspective. The centuries of anti-Semitism, the past century of genocide and Islamic attempts to wipe out Israel through terrorism and conventional warfare, and present attempts to do the same through nuclear weapons – all of these have engendered a certain cynicism about the world’s intentions regarding the Jewish people and their state. As Bob Dylan once said, Israel is “supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in” (Neighborhood Bully, words & music by Bob Dylan © Special Rider Music 1983). Lately Israel has not been overly enthusiastic in embracing this role.

When Israel began to use targeted assassinations to kill jihadi terrorist leaders, it was rebuked by nearly every Western country and censured at the United Nations. When Israel’s Mossad tried to assassinate the operational head of Hamas who was living in Jordan (a country with a peace treaty with Israel) while all the time planning terror attacks on Israel and her leaders, she faced world (and Jordanian) condemnation. When the head of procurement for Hamas was assassinated in Dubai while engaged in arms purchases meant to destroy the State of Israel, Britain, Ireland and Germany rushed to condemn Israeli activities, while keeping mum about Islamist genocidal goals and operations.

The double-standard here is striking: a targeted assassination is kosher, as long as it is not done by Israel against jihadi enemies!

Pray for your country’s moral clarity and courage on these issues; that your leaders would recognize and move against Islamist threats with the same courage and resolve that Israelis (and the U.S. Navy Seals) do.

Sowing the wind

One further thought. The state departments, foreign ministries, intelligence agencies and economic magnates of the West have long sided with and favored the Arab and Islamic world in their struggles against tiny Israel. Every single one of the Western countries sides with Islamic claims to much of the land of Israel promised by God to Jacob exclusively. None recognizes Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem and all call for that city’s re-division (see Zechariah 14:1-2; Joel 3:1-3). Is the rise of Islamic terrorism directed against the West a divine way of getting Western attentions about these above issues? Does God take His promises seriously in Genesis 12:3, Isaiah 60:12 and Jeremiah 30:16-17?

Pray for your country’s leaders – that they would sober up about God’s word and His promises concerning blessing and cursing the Jewish people and their country.