Jewish traditions, kosher traditions and Messianic traditions

Gentiles have traditions and, as Tevye of ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ says, Jews also have ‘Tradition!’ Jewish traditions reflect our wanderings through Eastern Europe, Spain, Morocco and Babylon. Some traditions reflect biblical emphases, but others are more tinsel-like in nature. Let’s look at Shavuot (in Greek, Pentecost) for some helpful perspective at this season.

The harvest festivals

The first agricultural harvest of the biblical New Year (which occurs at Passover time, according to Exodus 12:1-2) is the barley and flax harvest (see Exodus 9:31). The Book of Ruth takes place during the season of Passover, during the barley harvest (ktzir se’orim’; Ruth 1:22)

 The second harvest comes approximately fifty days later, and it is the wheat harvest (‘bikurei ktzir hittim’; see Exodus 34:22; Leviticus 23:15-21;  Deuteronomy 16:9-12). The Feast of Shavuot/Pentecost celebrates the wheat harvest. In the Hebrew Scriptures fifty days separate between the barley and the wheat harvests. Shavuot is also called the ‘Feast of the Reaping’ (‘hag hakatzir’) in Exodus 23:16. There the Jewish people are told to celebrate “the reaping of the first fruits of your labors which you have sown in the field” (also seeNumbers 28:2, 26, where the feast is called ‘hag habikurim’ – First fruits Festival).

The third and last harvest (Exodus 23:16) is called ‘Hag ha-Sukkot’ (Tabernacles or Booths), the final harvest of the threshing floor and the wine vat –  “all your produce and all the work of your hands” (Deuteronomy 16:13-15).

What happens at Shavuot?

In the Books of Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, God communicates to Moses His threefold focus on the Feast of Shavuot:

Moses adds another event here: all Jewish men needed to come up to Jerusalem three times a year, to appear before YHVH’s presence with offerings (Exodus 23:14-17; 34:23; Deuteronomy 16:16).  Shavuot was thus considered one of the shalosh regalim (sholesh regolim in Yiddish) – the three pilgrim feasts.

On this day, fifty days after Pesach/Passover (Leviticus 23:16), the counting of the ‘omer’ (a peck measurement and first-fruits prophetic promise of a coming full harvest) was completed with the entire nation of Jewish farmers gathered on the Temple Mount, declaring their thanksgiving to the God of their fathers as enscripturated in Deuteronomy 16:1-11.

How did the Apostles celebrate Shavuot?

When I studied Second Temple Jewish History at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, my professor Dr. Menahem Stern (the top world scholar of that discipline) pointed out how Acts 2:5-11 was an accurate description of the extent of the Jewish Diaspora in those days – the countries to which Israel had been exiled and still remained in Exile:

At Shavuot, Jews from all over the world would come up to Jerusalem to honor the commandment. It is true that a few proselytes (Gentile converts to Judaism) also came up, but the ethnic component was 99% Jewish – Jews from Arabia to Asia, and from Egypt to Elam –all got together for a national Thanksgiving Day celebration in Jerusalem. This Feast occurred every year – Jewish people celebrating a Jewish feast in a Jewish city. Even the Jewish Paul the Apostle had this Feast marked down on his personal calendar, reminding himself to come up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Day of Shavuot/Pentecost (Acts 20:16). Paul’s national identity and his apostolic faith were recognizably Jewish and remained so – from birth to death (Acts 21:24; 28:17).

When YHVH speaks, He does not stutter

The God of Jacob gave to Moses specific days on which the sons of Isaac were celebrate His feasts (see Leviticus 23:2). Here are some of those festive dates:

But when it comes to the exact date when the Mosaic Covenant was given, the biblical text is totally silent. The God of Israel does not even command the Jewish people to celebrate that day as a Feast. Why is this?

In search of the lost date

The Scriptures do not give an exact date for when the Mosaic Covenant was given to Moses. That event happened somewhere within a two-month period, but the Bible does not specify when. It’s a little like the date of Christmas. December 24/25 was chosen not because of a specific date given in the Gospel accounts; it was based on pre-existing pagan Roman traditions. But people have a tendency to focus on dates and, when the Bible is silent about such things, folks tend to choose dates anyway.

Here is the timeline given in the Bible of the events which transpired between the first Passover in Egypt and the Giving of the Decalogue in the Sinai Desert:

This biblical timeline reveals that it’s impossible to state with certainty when the Giving of the Tablets happened. So why is it that Orthodox Jews are taught that Shavuot is the date of Matan Torah (the Giving of the Sinai Covenant)? Good question! Let’s first look at how the Greek loan-word ‘Pentecost’ got involved in the whole mix.

Pentecost – it’s all Greek to me!

Over one hundred years before the birth of Yeshua, Jewish scribes in Egypt translated the Bible from Hebrew into Greek. This translation, known as the ‘Septuagint’ (or ‘the Seventy’, referring to the traditional seventy translator-scribes) made use of the word  Pentēkostē (πεντηκοστὸν)  in Leviticus 25:10, to refer to ‘the fiftieth’ – in this case the 50th year of Jubilee. In Yeshua’s day Hebrew-speaking Jews would call the Feast of Reaping ‘Shavuot’ in Hebrew, while Greek-speaking Jews would call the same Feast Pentēkostē (‘Pentecost’ in modern English).

The 50-day reckoning is based on Leviticus 23:

The most dynamic Jewish harvest-feast ever in Jerusalem

In Acts 1:3 Luke recounts that Messiah Yeshua ascended to heaven 40 days after the crucifixion:

Ten days later, after Messiah Yeshua’s ascension on the 40th day after Passover (making it 50 days total), “when the Day of Shavuot/Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place” (Acts 2:1). The Ruach Hakodesh (Holy Spirit) came upon these gathered Messianic Jews all of a sudden and with great power:

Flaming tongues of fire danced on these believers’ heads, and they all began to speak in unlearned languages – the languages of the countries of the Jewish Exile (Acts 2:6-8). The good news of Messiah Yeshua and His resurrection were being proclaimed in the very heart of Jerusalem. The result of this supernatural visitation let to a huge Messianic harvest of salvation – the ingathering of over 3,000 Jewish men into the Body of Messiah. Shimon Kaipha’s message was bold and evangelistic and spoken to all the Jewish men gathered for the Feast of Shavuot:

These 3,000 men were all followers of the Mosaic covenant, as were all Jews in those days.  Jerusalem’s Messianic leaders reflected this reality when they later told Paul: “You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed, and they are all zealous for the Teaching” (ed. of the Mosaic covenant; see the context of Acts 21:20).

These men had just been inaugurated into what Messiah Yeshua called ‘the New Covenant’ in Luke 22:20. In the words of Jeremiah, this New Covenant was different from the Mosaic covenant:  it would not be “like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them, says YHVH” (Jeremiah 31:32).

Peter said that these amazing manifestations peered into the future, to the time prophesied by Joel. He declared that at the very End of Days, earthquakes, world-shaking signs and the outpouring of the Ruach Hakodesh would occur. Peter spoke by the Holy Spirit, declaring that this pouring out of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2 was a down payment, a promise that Joel’s prophesied events would one day come to pass, and in that day the entire Jewish nation would be filled with the Spirit of YHVH.

But not all Jews believed in Yeshua on Shavuot

Even though 3,000 Jewish men boldly accepted the atonement of Messiah Yeshua on Shavuot/Pentecost, the majority of Israel’s spiritual leaders continued to spurn Yeshua and the ‘quiet waters of the Shiloah spring’ (see Isaiah 8:6). They despised and rejected David’s Messianic Son. Our nation followed our leaders, turning our faces from Him and not esteeming Him, as Isaiah had prophesied (Isaiah 53:3).  Abandoning the Fountain of living waters, we hewed for ourselves “cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water” (Jeremiah 2:13). These ‘broken cisterns’ are synonymous with the rabbinic system which calls for obedience to its own interpretations of the Mosaic covenant, while rejecting the Messianic New Covenant of which Moses and Yeshua spoke.

Ruth’s Rabbi

My dear friend, Dr. Louis Goldberg (former Professor of Jewish Studies at Moody Bible Institute) often taught that the rabbis connected Shavuot/Pentecost to the giving of the Mosaic covenant on Mount Sinai – not based on biblical information, but on their desire to shift focus away from the amazing events of Acts 2 – especially regarding the New Covenant, the Messiahship of Yeshua, and the offer of salvation to non-Jews.

Acts 2 clearly connects Shavuot/Pentecost with the inauguration of the New Covenant. This New Covenant would eventually spread into Europe and Asia, proclaiming that Gentiles could also be included into the Jewish Body of Messiah (called ‘the commonwealth of Israel’ in Ephesians 2:12 ESV)  through faith in Yeshua alone.

This business of allowing Gentiles to have access to Jewish blessings (see Romans 15:27) and to have equal fellowship with the God of Israel alongside of Jews – this was shocking to many Pharisees of that time. Most Jewish religious leaders feared that this new upstart Messianic movement, by allowing Gentiles in, would overwhelm rabbinic Judaism’s role as ‘watchman on the Mosaic walls.’

The glorious and flame-tongued New Covenant was rejected by the rabbis and, in its place, a multi-faceted rabbinic interpretation of the Mosaic covenant was substituted. Instead of the gospel offer of salvation to Jews and Gentiles, the rabbis stressed that Yeshua was a false Messiah and that Gentiles seeking God’s would be better served by converting to the Covenant of Moses and by submitting to rabbinic authority. The ‘poster girl’ for this conversion process became Ruth the Moabite – even though the Bible describes no conversion process for Gentiles, and the Book of Ruth itself continues to the very end of the book to refer to Ruth as a Moabite (see Ruth 4:10).

Rabbinic Judaism had performed plastic surgery on the humble Moabitess. Her story (which had occurred at the time of the Passover barley harvest story) would now be morphed into a Shavuot wheat-harvest narrative. Some rabbis even stated that three kosher rabbis actually were witnesses officiating at Ruth’s (fictional) conversion to rabbinic Judaism on the threshing floor – even though the office of ‘rabbi’ only appeared on the scene 1,500 years after Ruth’s day.

Ruth herself was made to do double duty: She would now be presented as a convert to the rabbinic stream of Mosaic Judaism, and Shavuot would be highlighted as the day of the Giving of the Mosaic covenant.

In light of all of the above-cited biblical and historical information, it needs to be clearly stated: the rabbinic emphasis tying Shavuot/Pentecost to the Mosaic Covenant is actually a distraction from what the Bible teaches. It is undercutting what the God of Jacob communicates throughout the Holy Scriptures. Its focus de-emphasizes precisely what YHVH wants us to understand.

“There is no New Covenant – it’s simply a refurbished Mosaic Covenant!”

The rabbis who had fellowshipped with Saul prior to his Damascus Road roller-coaster experience had even more serious objections to the new apostolic Messianic teaching. Though Paul’s lifestyle was Mosaic in practice (see Acts 28:17) as was the pattern of all Messianic Jews at that time (see Acts 22:3; 23:6; 26:1-7), Paul taught that one of the main purposes of the Mosaic covenant teachings (Torah in Hebrew means ‘teaching’) was to lead the Jewish people to Messiah Yeshua.

Paul teaches that when the Jewish people come to Messiah Yeshua, they are no longer under the guardianship of the Mosaic covenant. Paul describes the Mosaic Covenant using the Greek term paidagogos (παιδαγωγὸς) – a bodyguard who would take the child from his home through the rough Greek streets to school, protecting him and bringing him safely to the Greek school, and then home again (παιδαγωγὸς; Galatians 3:24; translated as ‘a bodyguard’). The Mosaic Covenant was God’s appointed bodyguard who would lead Israel safely to Messiah and to Yeshua’s New Covenant:

The Pharisees of Paul’s day understood that the Apostle was interpreting the Hebrew of Jeremiah 31:31-34 literally – exegetically – to mean that the New Covenant was ‘not like’ the Mosaic covenant. And they wanted to close down any open Jewish discussion of Jeremiah 31, by insisting that Jeremiah could have only meant ‘a renewed covenant.’

But this rabbinic perspective violates the peshat, the clear exegetical meaning of Jeremiah 31:32, which states: “not like the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the Land of Egypt.” Jeremiah was clearly prophesying that this New Covenant is also a Jewish covenant, and that this New Covenant is in some ways not like the Mosaic covenant.

Without scriptural warrant, authority or proof, rabbinic leaders tweaked the biblical emphasis of Shavuot from thankful celebration for the wheat harvest to a Mosaic-rabbinic focus. It is as if they said, “Let’s make sure to leave out the New Covenant, leave out Messiah Yeshua, and let’s make sure that there are no Gentiles sneaking in the back door into a Jewish kingdom!”

Many Jews and Gentiles, unaware of the Biblical and historical facts here, have embraced this rabbinic ‘fake news’. It is also not unusual to see many dear believing brothers and sisters unknowingly swallowing this less-than-biblical propaganda.

Not everything Messianic is kosher

In today’s Messianic movement, we need to be aware that sometimes our theological formulations are more tentative and less accurate that we might think. Some Messianic leaders and teachers have been taught by their own Messianic leaders and teachers that the rabbinic perspectives regarding the Mosaic covenant’s supposed connection to Shavuot are kosher. I have dear Messianic friends and leaders who deny that the New Covenant is actually a New Covenant. Instead, they teach that it is simply a new and improved Mosaic Covenant. I have dear Messianic friends who also believe that Ruth is the poster child for philosemitic Gentiles, who would be making a wise choice to convert to rabbinic Judaism.

It is my conviction that these dear friends err (see Matthew 22:29) not knowing what the Scriptures say. They may be unaware of both Jewish and rabbinic history – and probably also unaware of the early clashes between Messianic apostolic teaching and that of the rabbis on these points.

The heart of Ruth

Though the story of Ruth is connected to the Passover barley harvest and not to the wheat-harvest time of Shavuot, there is a wonderfully encouraging message for us in the Book of Ruth – one which can strengthen our hearts regarding the relationship between Jews and Gentiles.

Ruth was a descendent of Lot’s incestuous union with his daughters after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:36-37). In Deuteronomy 23:3 the God of Jacob forbids male Moabites (the ‘seed’) from entering even the outer courtyards of the House of YHVH. This proscription was to last for ten full generations after intermarriage. Ruth was not a Moabite male, and as such was not under this scriptural ban. But the social reality was that few Jewish men would have wanted to take a Moabite woman as a bride.

What was so special about Ruth? What caused her to stand in God’s spotlight and to be joyously included into the destiny of the Jewish people – without hiding her Moabite origins?

  1. She had a heart of faith. She recognized God’s heart for Israel and His covenant connections with the Jewish people. She understood that the calling of Israel was a ‘done deal’ – and that to follow the God of the Jews meant to be forever linked with the Jewish people.
  2. She had the heart of a servant. She poured out her life and strength to bless her Jewish mother-in-law Naomi, and willingly bound her destiny to that of Judah’s descendant Boaz. Her reward included being the great-grandmother of King David as well as being found in the precious lineage of Messiah Yeshua!

Let us rejoice in the great Harvest Feast of Shavuot/Pentecost, as we thank God for His rains coming down on the face of the earth, and the outpouring rain of His Holy Spirit coming down on our hearts! And let’s look forward to the soon-coming prophesied mighty harvest – when Israel will bring much greater riches to the nations and life from the dead to the entire world! (Romans 11:12, 15)

How should we then pray?

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

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

To donate online visit: http://www.davidstent.org/give

Boskey personal update on the Ezekiel 37 Institute

Dear friends! 

Thank you for your kindness, support, prayers and faithful friendship. Thank you for helping us to keep on doing what the Lord is calling us to do!

Today it is time for us to give you an update on our Ezekiel 37 Institute.  We are happy, excited, encouraged and expectant!

Today, like many days, Avner and Daniel and I had a ‘put our heads together’ meeting on the status, progress, needs and plans for E37.  As always, we prayed together.  We are happy to report good news!

We are a few weeks away from the release of E37 on multiple media platforms.  Today it really struck me that we are birthing something that could be described as a full-fledged and unique media company.  We are about to launch a huge amount of top-notch teaching on multiple media platforms – about Israel, the end times, the Bible, Jewish history past and present, prophecy and more.  These will be full-length videos, short-form videos, graphics, texts, links and other updates.

We have actually created an on-line Bible school – for those with ears to hear, eyes to see, hearts to learn and spirits willing to appropriate foundational truths for the challenges ahead.  

Enroll for free

We’ve just about got all our ‘ducks in a row’ as we launch E37.  

For the last nine months we have been working with a media team, a US-based website developer company, ’Emery Marketing.’  The Emery team has completely recreated our davidstent.org website. The gifted members of this team have had the foresight and wisdom to help us establish a user-friendly platform on our website for learning and interaction with us.  Users will be able to enroll for free in the E37 program in order to receive lesson outlines, ask questions and receive updates. 

We are about to unveil the ‘Watch’ page on our website.  It is hidden at this moment, but it will shortly be a live page.  This Watch page will be the major focus of our website.  The Watch page will be one primary platform where the E37 content can be viewed.  

Here are some more facts on the ground

In addition to the team at Emery, we have also invited two Israeli believers to help Daniel with content curation – the gathering of materials and images which are being incorporated into the lessons.  We are very thankful that these two believers have the exact skill sets needed to help us shape the E37 content and we are delighted by their valuable help!

We are now close to ending a two-week period in which a pilot group has been testing the Watch page, the ‘enroll for free’ function and all other related pages.

Daniel has been able, by the grace of God, over the last three years, to be the ‘chief cook and bottle washer,’ the ‘little red hen,’ doing 95% of the many tasks involved in building Ezekiel 37 Institute.  He is extremely gifted as an artist and super-savvy in using the many tools needed to create the videos.  I have worked alongside him with encouragement, feedback and some content curation – but he has done virtually all the work himself.  And that work is actually too much for one person.  So the Lord has directed us to add other team members, because the scope of this vision requires more helpers. This is not a job for a ‘mom-and-pop-and-sons’ company anymore.  This vision is expanding and we are delighted that this is happening.   

At this very time, we are also dialoguing with a well-established and capable local Israeli social media management team.  Lord-willing, this team will be overseeing the uploading of our content onto multiple media platforms.  Social media management is a major part of how the E37 content will be uploaded and managed on multiple platforms.  The task is too big for us to do it only by ourselves – we need additional team members.  

Both the scope of our team and the reach we believe we will have, are increasing.  We are trusting the Lord for expanding resources so that the message can go out to many.

I am thoroughly delighted to see our sons carrying the vision we have been given.  Daniel is the videographer, designer, producer and overall media manager.  David Boskey is one of the main teachers in this series, teaching 13 lessons.  Avner teaches 19 lessons, and Daniel will be teaching two lessons.  

So, our team is now four people in the US and more than eight people in Israel: Daniel, Avner, David, Rachel, J, M, O, A, S and Lord-willing a group of individuals working with the Israeli social media management team.

I see that the Lord Himself is expanding what we are doing  

We want to clearly make our needs known to you.  Our operating costs have increased by $8,000 to $10,000 per month.  We are moving forward in full confidence that the Lord is the One who is leading us.  We are looking to Him and to His provision as we step out into uncharted territory.  

It’s clear that the coming days are dark.  Messiah Yeshua’s return is not far off.  The onslaught of evil and the precipitous increase of hatred toward the Jewish people and toward Israel are clear signs of the end times.  

“When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?”  Psalm 11:3

“And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.”  Matthew 24:12

We believe that the Lord has ordained that we step into the fray, into the gap, and lift up the standard of His unfailing Word regarding Israel, His covenants and promises for the Jewish people, the affections of His heart for Jacob’s children and His plan for salvation for them.  

Your prayers for the Ezekiel 37 Institute are much appreciated:

Here’s a short clip of Daniel speaking about E37 during our April journey in North America:

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1BmAd2TgUT/

Many people have told us they eagerly anticipate learning from the E37 course.  Here are some testimonies from a number of friends who have seen some of the E37 content:

“I am very excited about this; it is precisely the right timing. I strongly sense that things are about to change in the coming months and believers must be equipped to face the shift that is going to occur. The household of faith must be adequately equipped to face the last days.  I believe the Ezekiel 37 Institute will be an important and effective equipping instrument in the hands of the Lord.  More than two decades ago, I felt the Lord gave me a scripture concerning Avner from Isaiah 58:11-12 ... ‘And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt, you shall raise up the foundations of many generations, you shall be called repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in.’” 

“We’re so excited about the Ezekiel 37 Institute and we’re watching it this morning!  I’ve done the first two lessons and wow wow wow! The topics are so well organized and thorough and complete!  Love how Avner and David teach/share in a way that the listener can grasp and apply.  This is a gift beyond words for this hour.  We said just this morning how incredible it is that you all finished this in the midst of war. We are praying that the same anointing impacts the root of the hearts of our children and grandchildren, the legacy you’re bringing forth to the Messianic and Gentile Body of the one New Man.  Only the Lord knows all y’all have gone through to produce such a quality product!”

“I’m crying listening to Avner offer the intro to E37.  The clarity and simplicity of the presentation will make the course appealing to many, I pray.” 

“E37 has the same high level of Biblical excellence but a higher quality of graphics and music and a deeper, more complete understanding of God’s heart for Israel, His Jewish People and how to prepare ourselves personally and share with others.”

“The E37 Institute is an answer to our hearts cry to hear Avner’s in-depth teachings on God’s heart for Israel in English to grow deeper ourselves in His Word and to share it with others. The graphics are just incredible with vivid color, and love the background music! Avner and David do an amazing job presenting the material in a clear and concise manner for the listener to absorb and apply.”

“I strongly believe you’re being led by the Holy Spirit to spread all these truths to many people out here.”  

“We are so very grateful and indebted to you for the way you pour yourselves out for those who have ears to hear and hearts that tremble at His word.  Thank you for the time and labor of love you spend to educate and inspire the many.  Many will be taking hold of your teachings.  Looking forward to the wisdom and revelation to come.  May He richly bless you and your family.”

“Please do keep us informed when you launch!  Just watching the trailer recently gave me such an amazing witness!! We need this institute!!!! Thank you for all you are doing.” 

“The format and length were good. I remained engaged, and the content was relevant and helpful. I have taken a number of online courses over the years, and I would place this among the most thoughtful and professionally executed that I have experienced. What stood out to me was not only the quality of the production and organization of the material but also the clarity, depth, and spiritual maturity of the teaching itself. The content felt both academically solid and deeply pastoral, which is a rare combination.”

“The content was concise, well structured, and easy to follow. The video was very interactive, illustrated sermon points without being invasive, and beautiful from a visual standpoint. I really appreciated the sermon outline, and used it to keep up with the teaching. Very personal compared to other courses. I felt like the teaching was prepared for me intentionally, almost like it was a live zoom call, instead of an afterthought like a sermon posted online.”

THANK YOU!

Dear friends, we thank you for your partnership of many years, through your prayer, giving and faithful encouragement.  

We are now making our needs known for increased support so that we can do the work the Lord has given us.

In addition we would be greatly encouraged if you would follow or subscribe to our newly created channels where the E37 Institute will be platformed shortly:

As I mentioned above, our website ‘Watch’ page is the primary platform for people who desire to go deeper in learning from the E37 Institute series.  Very shortly we will write to you again, letting you know when the Watch page is open to the public.  You will be able to enroll for free, and receive lesson outlines, interact with us and get updates through our Watch page.

To sum it all up:

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

In Messiah Yeshua,

Rachel Boskey, for Avner, Daniel, David and the E37 team

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

To donate online visit: http://www.davidstent.org/give

   

Standing in a divided nation with an undivided heart

David’s prayer – the gift of an undivided heart

David calls out to YHVH in his distress, asking for a divine work to be done in his own heart: “Give me an undivided heart that I may fear Your name!” (Psalm 86:11 NIV). The greatest commandment in the Scriptures involves serving the God of Jacob with an undivided heart (see Matthew 22:35-38), the SHMA: “And now, Israel, what does YHVH your God require of you, but to fear YHVH your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve YHVH your God with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deuteronomy 10:12).

King David’s commandos – brave warriors with an undivided heart

Some of King David’s top soldiers came from the tribe of Issachar – warriors who had a clear prophetic “understanding of the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do” (1 Chronicles 12:32). Right after them are mentioned the magnificent special forces of Zebulun – men who could handle all types of weapons, and who followed David with an undivided heart: “From Zebulun, there were fifty thousand who went out in the army, who could draw up in battle formation with all kinds of weapons of war and helped David with an undivided heart” (1 Chronicles 12:33). ‘Semper fi,’ as the US Marines would say.

 Israel’s prophetic future – an entire nation with an undivided heart

The God of Jacob promises that a day is coming when He will pour out His Spirit on the entire nation of Israel – after He gathers them back from their planet-wide Exile. At that time He will do spiritual heart-surgery on the Jewish people, giving them an undivided heart:

God’s true saints long for this hour to come! Join us in earnest prayer, that the God of Isaac will accomplish this prophetic promise for His people Israel – speedily and in our day!

The world has a divided heart toward the Jewish people and their God

The Bible waxes eloquent about how the nations hate both Zion (the Jewish people) and their God:

 A divided heart sees the Jewish people’s existence as a thorn to be uprooted

The Great Powers of the early 20th Century for the most part spoke with one voice regarding the hopes of Jacob’s children to re-establish a Jewish state and homeland. To paraphrase Gandalf’s iconic dictum when confronting the Balrog on the Bridge of Khazad-dûm: “You shall not pass!”

This newsletter limits the following comments to a brief sketch of American State Department officials’ declarations on the subject – their support for what can be described as ‘The Arab Lobby.’ See also my October 16, 2024 newsletter – ‘Military Witchcraft.’ The quotes below reveal not only a divided heart estranged from the Bible’s prophetic promises to Israel, but also no small dose of anti-Semitism as well.

In US POTUS Truman’s personal memoirs (Volume Two: Years of Trial and Hope; 1956), he noted: “The Department of State’s specialists on Near East were almost without exception unfriendly to the idea of a Jewish State. Like most of the British diplomats, some thought the Arabs on account of their number  and because of the fact that they control such immense oil  resources should be appeased. I am sorry to say that there were some among them who were also inclined to be anti-Semitic.”

On August 28, 1919, Charles Crane (later US Ambassador to China) headed up the King-Crane Commission, having been appointed by POTUS Woodrow Wilson. That official US Report concluded:

US Secretary of the Navy (1944) and Secretary of Defense (1947) James V. Forrestal reveals in his The Forrestal Diaries (1951) his opposition to American support for a Jewish state. He states: ‘No group in this country should be permitted to influence our policy to the point where it could endanger our national security’. A number of oil companies were suspending investments in the Middle East, he claimed, ‘because of the disturbed condition in Palestine.’

On August 24, 1945, Loy W. Henderson, Director of the State Department’s Office of Near Eastern and African Affairs, wrote a memo to US Secretary of State James F. Byrnes warning: “The active support by the Government of the United States of a policy favoring the setting up of a Jewish State in Palestine would be contrary to the wishes of a large majority of the local inhabitants with respect to their form of government. Furthermore, it would have a strongly adverse effect upon American interests throughout the Near and Middle East” Henderson added in a letter of March 20, 1976: “I did, however, oppose the United States playing a leading role in the establishing of a Zionist State in Palestine by force against the will of the inhabitants.”

On May 12, 1948 US Secretary of State George C. Marshall, the renowned World War II General and author of the Marshall Plan, attacked a move to recognize the Jewish state: “ The transparent dodge to win a few votes would not in fact achieve this purpose. The great dignity of the office of the President would be seriously diminished … based on domestic political considerations, while the problem which confronted us was international. I said bluntly that if the President were to follow Mr. Clifford’s advice and if in the elections I were to vote, I would vote against the President.”

Kermit ‘Kim’ Roosevelt Jr. was Teddy Roosevelt’s nephew and the first head of CIA covert action in the Middle East. He also played a leading role in the CIA’s overthrow of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. On November 24, 1948 Roosevelt  gave a lecture at the National War College in Washington, DC, while serving a Secretary of the anti-Israeli and anti-Zionist Committee for Peace and Justice in the Holy Land.  Here is a quote from that lecture:

William A. Stoltzfus Jr, a 27-year veteran of the US Foreign Service and US Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Kuwait and United Arab Emirates, stated in a private interview to Robert D. Kaplan (author of ‘The Arabists: The Romance of an American Elite’, 1993), that the establishment of a Jewish homeland goes against American values and interests: “And it’s pretty clear to me that the powerful, vested interest of a certain group of people, concentrated in the big cities in big states, determines our Middle East policy. If you’re looking for some kind of a plot, that’s where to look.”

On April 18, 1989 Marshall W. Wiley, former US Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary (Oman), was interviewed by the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training: Foreign Affairs Oral History Project. Here is one question asked and Wiley’s answer:

These above-quoted poisonous and twisted spiritual roots, rabidly anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli, have lately been sprouting again – like mushrooms after the rain – on the podcasts of American media pundits like Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens and Megyn Kelly. The heart of America’s diplomats is divided. This is a matter for prayer!

When a nation has a divided heart

An April 7, 2026 survey published by  Pew Research Center reveals that 60% of US adults have an unfavorable view of Israel, up from 53% last year.   In both political parties, majorities of adults under 50 rated Israel negatively, while 28% of all adults polled rated Israel very unfavorably. On the Democratic side of the aisle, 80% of all Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents polled expressed an unfavorable view of Israel, as opposed to 69% in 2022. Democrats under 50 expressed a very unfavorable view of Israel (47%).

It is time to discern the times, as did the men of Issachar ” (1 Chronicles 12:32). What is the spread of anti-Semitism pointing to? What are we facing? The spirit of the dragon, Satan himself, is flexing his muscles and preparing for the final showdown – à la  Revelation 12. When Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods in Brooklyn are attacked by Islamist marches shouting genocidal Islamist chants, and when Jewish houses of worship like Park East Synagogue on 67th Street in Manhattan  are attacked by terrorist mobs attempting to storm police barricades, the divided heart of America is on global view in all its violence,

 Where there is no prophetic vision the people mourn (Proverbs 29:18)

The Scriptures tell us that, without a biblical foundation, a nation’s leaders will always make the wrong choices. They could be diplomats, politicians or intelligence agents. They could be capitalists or oligarchs. All of these will always make the wrong choices regarding the Middle East and Israel – unless they are guided by the Bible, God’s touchstone of national and individual blessing and protection.

As Senator Ted Cruz attempted to communicate to Tucker Carlson in a recent interview, Genesis 12:3 is the touchstone: those who bless the Jewish people and their nation will be blessed, but the one who dismisses, dishonors, mocks or scorns Israel and her calling will be directly cursed by the God of Jacob. This is how the God of the Bible deals with nations – whether obedient ones or rebellious ones.

Israel – God’s touchstone which reveals the heart

Michael T. Benson is an American historian and the 27th president of West Virginia University. He is the author of ‘Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel,’ where he notes: ‘Truman’s support for the Zionist cause…was due to attitudes Truman developed as a young man in Missouri as a result of an upbringing heavily influenced by the Bible’ – a matter of relevance, perhaps, at an underlying level of psychic predisposition, as with Balfour and Lloyd George before him.”

US Under Secretary of State Dean Acheson once made reference to those same biblical truths which touched President Truman’s heart, though Acheson simultaneously scorned and belittled their eternal value:

Four solid legs on which to stand

Here are four biblical principles which can guide us to respond to these challenges, according to God’s heart, with an undivided heart:

How shall we then pray?

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

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

To donate online visit: http://www.davidstent.org/give

Agent Smith and Amalek

“My name is Legion, for we are many”

In the days of Yeshua, a Roman legion was composed of nine cohorts of 480 foot-soldiers each, and the tenth cohort (called ‘the first’) was composed of another 800 men. Approximately 120 auxiliary troops were also added to this main group of 5,280 warriors. The lead unclean spirit who possessed that demonized Gerasene/Gadarene (see Matthew 8:28), was in charge of a company of thousands of lesser demons – according to the text, about 2,000 in total. Both he and his demonic legion were expelled by Messiah Yeshua. They violently entered into 2,000 pigs, whom they then drowned in the waters of the Lake of Galilee. It’s worth noting that the Gadarene inhabitants were not Jewish, since being a hog farmer was not a typical Israeli occupation in those days.

The flowers of evil

In his phantasy of a protest song ‘Ballad of a Thin Man,’ Bob Dylan said: “Something is happening but ya’ don’t know what it is – do you, Mister Jones?” Spiritual blindness is not uncommon – it raises its fuzzy head in every generation. Sometimes it manifests itself through materialism, at other times through narcissism. In our day it has chosen the red-black-and-green banner of anti-Semitism which is sweeping its way across international borders.

Hatred of the Jewish people and their homeland are poisonous weeds which are sprouting up all across the planet. The spiritual forces which led to the rise of the Third Reich have come back ‘from the dead’ and are spreading like the plague across the Western world.

If you had the opportunity in 1936 to take out Adolf Hitler – as Lieutenant Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg and others (including Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer) attempted to do in Operation Valkyrie on July 20, 1944 – would you have joined the conspiracy? Was it acceptable to take down a messenger of the anti-Messiah in that day?  Is it acceptable to do something similar in our day, when murderously anti-Jewish jihad aims its missiles and drones at Jewish civilians in the Jewish state of Israel? And what happens when the movie character similar to ‘Agent Smith’ of ‘Matrix’ fame takes over bodies and minds like the Gadarene demoniac – and then morphs into anti-Semites who proudly label themselves ‘Christians’ and ‘American patriots.’ Jew-haters are popping up on the right and on the left, like mushrooms after the rain.

‘Imagine’ everlasting hatred

When I was a young Jewish man, I learned that some famous Church Fathers hated the Jewish people and called for their persecution and destruction. Names like Justin Martyr, Origen, Augustine, Chrysostom, Torquemada the Grand Inquisitor, the Crusaders, Martin Luther – even the arch-terrorist George Habash (a Greek Orthodox Arab from Lod) who participated in the PLO’s Black September terror attacks at the 1972 Munich Olympics – to me these people represented an anti-Semitic core within Christianity. After I came to faith, I realized that there are other Christians who love the Jewish people – and I was (and am) deeply thankful for these brothers and sisters.

Yet, as anti-Semitic and anti-Israel voices rise in the West, dripping their acrid and deceitful insinuations on myriads of gullible people through internet propaganda, I have been forced to take a step backward, and to realize that the ghosts of anti-Semitic Church Fathers and leaders are unfortunately ‘still alive and well.’ Their malevolent messages surface hundreds of times a day on my computer screen and cell-phone, and millions are getting poisoned,. As it happened in the days of Adolf, so it is happening today.

John Lennon’s hippie idealism in his 1971 peace-anthem ‘Imagine’ is not the message of the moment on Planet Earth. Instead of Ringo Starr’s two-fingered peace sign, the world (especially jihadis in the Middle East) is shaking a one-finger sign at the Jewish people. Ezekiel prophesies that everlasting hatred from enemy nations toward Israel is actually the current and Last Days dynamic. It will be vanquished only by force of arms (see Psalm 149 and Psalm 139:21-22) and by the return of Messiah Yeshua:

A counterfeit river brings a real reward

The pro-jihad, pro-Hamas, pro-Hezbollah and pro-Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) violent anti-Jewish and anti-American demonstrations shout their hate-chants “Free, free Palestine!” and “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free!” Their championing of jihadi slaughter of the Jewish people has been taken up by leftists and rightists, in a horseshoe dynamic where anti-Semitic evil joins to anti-Semitic evil, even when the demonstrators come from the opposite sides of the political spectrum.

Genesis 12:3 speaks out a prophetic promise to the nations at the very beginning of the Biblical narrative: the one who who dismisses, disregards or dishonors the Jewish people will be cursed directly by YHVH the God of Israel. That is the meaning of the Hebrew verb ‘meqalelecha’ italicized above. As anti-Semitism rises and sits at the head table of the public sphere, its very permitted presence catalyzes a curse on the nation which permits it to survive and flourish. There is a ‘reward’ for cursing the Chosen People: a curse falls on that country, coming straight from the hand of God of Jacob.

Jean Améry, Austrian writer and Holocaust survivor, has stated that “anti-Zionism contains anti-Semitism like a cloud contains a storm.” He warned of the coming of “a revived anti-Semitism, often under the cover of anti-Zionism.” Amery called anti-Zionism “the respectable anti-Semitism.” This anti-Semitism is seemingly not directed against the Jews but “only against Zionists,” as it were. A day would come, said Améry, when anti-Semitism would no longer hide itself covertly in the shadows, but would once again rise to become a threatening presence in the public sphere.

Do you believe in the God of Joshua?

David was a poet and a warrior. The women of all the cities of Israel came out to welcome him when he arrived at Gibeah (see 1 Samuel 22:6) bearing Goliath’s sword and skull (see 1 Samuel 17:51-54; 1 Samuel 21:9). 1 Samuel 18:6-7 tells us that the women were “singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with joy and with other musical instruments. The women sang as they played, and said, ‘Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.’”

Many modern followers of Yeshua have great difficulty rejoicing in victory over one’s mortal enemies. Anti-Semitic talking heads like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens call such military joy 'anti-Christian' and opposed to the New Testament. These pundits reject that the God of Joshua is the same as the God of Jacob.

Back to the Bible

Carlson continues to speak in highly negative terms against the Jewish people, the State of Israel, the IDF and Prime Minister Netanyahu when positive reference is made to the Biblical teaching about God’s eternal war against Amalek:

The above Scripture passages are direct quotes from YHVH the God of Israel (see Psalm 119:160 and Proverbs 30:5), from Moses, described by Joshua as greatest prophet in Israel in his day (Deuteronomy 34:10), and from Samuel the Prophet (1 Samuel 3:19). According to Carlson, the Gospel does away with these words of YHVH. But this theological perspective is called ‘Marcionism’ – a heresy (according to church leaders is the Second Century AD. To call the words of the God of Israel ‘anti-Christian’ is to follow in the same steps as this anti-Semitic Church Father.

There are many today who see the Hebrew Scriptures as somewhat less than the word of God, and who cannot relate to YHVH as Lord of the battle or as Warrior God (see Deuteronomy 20:10-13; 1 Samuel 18:17;  25:28; Psalm 24:8; Psalm 144:1). And they do not believe that God fights for Israel and publicly identifies with her. Since the Word of God must be our foundation on these issues, it is telling to see that Carlson describes his own Christian upbringing and knowledge of the Bible as shallow and bereft of theological foundation (watch his address at the 50th Anniversary celebration of the Heritage Foundation, at 00:50-01:01).

Sheep and goat Christians

Messiah Yeshua speaks here of judging the nations at His return. Joel 3:1-2 explains more about this event. The nations of the world will be judged in a face-to-face encounter with Israel’s God. They will render accountability for their anti-Semitic words, thoughts and deeds. It seems that some of the people facing that judgment will be called ‘Christians’ yet their hearts are dismissive of Jacob’s people. They disregard and dishonor the nation of Israel. The separation between ‘sheep’ and ‘goat’ Christians will have reference to such individuals as well.

As we consider these coming events, and as we survey the poisonous rise of anti-Semitism across the globe, it is worth asking ourselves: How do we respond to this Satanic flowering of evil? Are our hearts connected to God’s heart, as it says in Isaiah 63:9: “In all [the Jewish people’s] afflictions He [YHVH] was afflicted!” As we examine the prophetic chessboard that the Bible lays out for us, could it be that have we constructed a chessboard that has no place for God’s tears – and for our intercessory tears?

 How shall we then pray?

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

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

To donate online visit: http://www.davidstent.org/give

The Bear, the Lion and the Eagle

Over 2,500 years ago Daniel received a stunning prophetic vision (Daniel 7:5) spotlighting four empires in his time, which God symbolized by four beasts. The second beast in this prophetic vision was a raging and carnivorous bear, which symbolized the Persian Empire. That region is today called ‘Iran’).

War has broken out in the Middle East, and the limelight is shining again on the Persian Bear. Two of the main protagonists are modern Iran (on the one hand)  and the regathered state of Israel (on the other).

Let’s leave the specific context of Daniel 7, and look for an animal which could symbolize  the Jewish people. Since the King of Israel is Messiah Yeshua, and since He is described in Revelation 5:5 as the overcoming Lion of the tribe of Judah, one could perhaps poetically say that the battle now occurring in the Arabian Gulf has the Persian Bear facing off against the the Jewish people –the Israeli Lion. And this time, the world’s premier super-power – the United States of America – has joined the fight against the Iranian Bear. Since America is often symbolized by a bald-headed Eagle, could it be said that the Persian Bear is on one side of the battlefield, while the Hebrew Lion and the American Eagle are hunkering down on the other side.

Counting the cost

Messiah Yeshua spoke a parable many years ago, one which applies both to true discipleship and to kings setting out to battle:

A house divided

Classical jihadi Islam has a Last Days vision. It can be summed up by the Arabic battle-cry: “Khaybar, Khaybar, ya yahud! Jaish Muhammad soufa yaʿoud!” (Arabic: خيبر خيبر يا يهود جيش محمد سوف يعود, lit. ’Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews! The army of Muhammad will return!’). This chant refers to the Battle of Khaybar of 628 CE, when Muhammad marched with a large Muslim army to besiege and slaughter the Jewish community of Khaybar, an oasis in present-day Saudi Arabia.

This murderous battle-cry is chanted at anti-Israel demonstrations and during Islamist terrorist attacks as well. Muhammad in his lifetime led 27 jihadi campaigns, and deputized 59 other jihadi battles. The original Islam was a religion of jihadi conquest, and today those who follow Muhmmad’s pattern are described by the non-Muslim world as terrorists.

A foundational sectarian division broke the Islamic Ummah (Arabic for ‘community’) into two adversarial camps at the very beginning, in 632 AD. The clash between these two main wings of Islam – the Shia and the Sunni – revolves around who was to succeed Muhammad as the leader of Islam’s burgeoning world-wide dictatorship or caliphate.

The Shia (or Shi’at Ali – ‘the Party of Ali’) believed that Muhammad had named his cousin/son-in-law Ali ibn Abi Talib, to be his successor and Islam’s leader. Shi’ites believe that Ali’s right of succession was usurped by a power-group of Muhammad’s followers, who instead chose Muhammad’s closest companion Abu Bakr (632–634) to succeed him as the caliph of Islam. 

The Sunni camp is called ‘ahl as-sunna’ in Arabic – meaning ‘the people of the habit’ or ‘the people of the [correct Islamic Muhammaden] usage which is sanctioned by tradition.’ Sunni Islam is approximately 80-85% of Islam’s adherents, while Shi’ite Islam is followed by between 10-15% of the Muslim world. The divide between the two streams of Shia and Sunna has led to over 1,400 years of battle, and is the religious clash lying behind much of Islam’s sectarian violence.  Political ambitions and regional rivalries have added to the explosive mix.

Today Iran heads up the Shi’ite minority, while Saudi Arabia champions the Sunni majority, As Ira Stoll comments in March 4, 2026’s The Washington Free Beacon, “The Sunni-Shiite split is frequently a stronger explanatory dynamic in the Middle East than settler-colonialism or U.S. imperialism or oil or whatever other favored explanation the press or academia are pushing.” Former Pentagon specialist on the Middle East Harold Rhode comments: “Shiites call the Sunnis ‘Sunni dogs’ – ‘Sag-e Sunni.’ They don’t see them as real Muslims, they see them as heretics.”

Armageddon Shi’ite style

Iran’s strikingly warlike aggression is connected to three root issues:

The jihadi leaders and generals of the Islamic Republic of Iran are going for broke on this one. They are prepared to pull the world into a Shi’ite Armageddon in pursuit of their Last Days dysphoric vision – think ‘Iranian kamikaze pilots with nuclear backpacks.’

When Shi’ite Iran attacks the Sunnis Arab world

Over the past week, Shi’ite Iran has attacked twelve Sunni Islamic countries, as well as two countries whose populations are basically either Christian or Jewish. Iran has also attacked a UK NATO-related base and an American NATO-connected base in Turkey (an Islamic country). Here is the current list of these fourteen countries, along with links specifying the locations and nature of attacks:

  1. Cyprus – Larnaca, Limassol
  2. Cyprus – UK/EU/NATO Akrotiri and Dhelkelia Air Force Bases
  3. Turkey – (Incirlik AFB  US/ NATO/ nuclear bombs are stored here by the USAF)
  4. Israel – over 500 missiles and 2,000 drones
  5. Jordan
  6. Syria
  7. Iraq – here and here
  8. Kuwait – here, here and here
  9. UAE – here, here, here and here

According to data from Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, by Thursday March 5, Iran had launched 941 drones, 189 ballistic missiles and eight cruise missiles toward the UAE. 57 drones struck UAE territory. 755 drones and 172 missiles intercepted

  1. Qatar – here, here, here, here, here, here and here
  2. Bahrain – here and here
  3. Saudi Arabia – here, here, here, here and here
  4. Oman – here
  5. Azerbaijan – here

These unprecedented Iranian Shi’ite attacks on Sunni neighbors over the past ten days (and not only on the Jewish state of Israel) are staggering. This new and dangerous pattern in the Middle East has the potential to spread like a wildfire into a Muslim-versus-Muslim religious war, echoing the earliest decades of Muhammad’s jihadi endeavors.

‘Collateral damage’

For the past ten days Iranian missiles and drones have intensively targeted civilians in Israel. They have also targeted oil refineries, oil rigs and oil tankers in the Gulf States and in the Arabian Gulf. Iranian missiles and drones have destroyed water desalinization plants in various Gulf countries. Iran has hit shopping malls, hotels and airports; CIA bases, US Embassies and US air force bases. Iran has struck Oman, the country which until just recently labored as a mediator between Iran and the USA.

Iran’s current military behavior is reminiscent of how the Scriptures describe those who breath out arrogant threats and blasphemies:

A senior Gulf official recently described Iran’s strikes on its neighbors — particularly on its arch-rival Saudi Arabia — as a “miscalculation” and stated that Tehran had “lost all goodwill from Islamic and Arab states.”

Who makes a man unable to see? (Exodus 4:11)

The combined airforces of Israel (the IAF) and America (the USAF) have achieved amazing results in a very short time. The Supreme Leader of Iran, Khamenei, has been removed from the living, along with more than 40 of his top brass. Nuclear weapons laboratories and drone warehouse have been annihilated. The Iranian Navy has been obliterated, as well as the top GHQ of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Basij terror-police. At this rate, within 2-4 weeks it will be highly unlikely for this jihad juggernaut to ever recover and threaten Israel, America, Europe or the Middle East.

At the same time, OSINT (open-source intelligence sources) reveal that Iran has managed to strike some significant blows against America’s radar assets, causing billions of dollars in damage:

The largest American radar in the Gulf is the AN/FPS-132 Upgraded Early Warning Radar, valued at $1.1 billion. It is a fixed radar system designed to detect drones, jet fighters and missiles. Located at al Udeid Air Base, Umm Dahal in Qatar, it was hit with a Iranian missile on Saturday, February 28, 2026 and was irretrievably damaged.

Raytheon’s AN/TPY-2 transportable x-band radar is the radar component of America’s THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) system. On Sunday March 1 or Monday March 2, Iran hit this x-band radar which was deployed at al-Ruwais Industrial City in the United Arab Emirates. The destroyed radar component is estimated to be worth $500 million. N.R. Jenzen-Jones, a munitions specialist and director of the research company Armament Research Services (ARES), told CNN the radar cannot be easily replaced and called it a significant loss. “The AN-TPY/2 radar is essentially the heart of the THAAD battery, enabling the launch of interceptor missiles and contributing to a networked air defense picture. It also happens to be an incredibly expensive piece of kit. The loss of even a single radar of this type would be an operationally significant event. ”

Two other THAAD AN/TPY-2 x-band radar systems were also hit by Iran – one at Prince Sultan AFB al-Kharj in Saudi Arabia, and one in Jordan and the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base.

These losses are grievous, but they are also a regular part of war. The loss of these ‘eyes’ shortens the warning time for Israelis and Gulf nations – time to send up interceptor anti-missiles, and time to allow civilians to make it to the safety of their own personal shelters. But these losses also reveal a more sinister development lurking beneath the geopolitical surface: Russia has been supplying intelligence information to Iran, detailing locations of US fighter jets, warships and radar installations.

 On target

Israeli and American forces have been targeting and eliminating the highest of high-value targets. The IDF’s SIGINT 8200 and VISINT 9900 obtained practicable intelligence which was then used by 50 IAF planes to drop 100 bombs on Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei, removing both his presence and 48 of his High Command from the battlefield.

The combined forces of the USAF and the US Navy have so far destroyed over 42 Iranian Navy battleships, corvettes, frigates, cutters and drone-carriers, as well as the lion’s share of Iran’s ageing air force – (which have been comprised of 250 to 350 aging combat-capable aircraft – older F-4, F-5, F-14, MiG-29, and Su-24 jets).

Other significant targets hit and greatly degraded include Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport, the Min Zadai nuclear bomb development labs, the underground complex of factories and storehouses for missiles and nuclear weapons at Parchin.

How shall we then pray?

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

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

To donate online visit: http://www.davidstent.org/give

These are the days of Samson

The God of Joshua is on the move. Some Bible believers may be surprised by this reality, but it is nevertheless true: the same God who ordered Joshua to enter Canaan is calling His Jewish people back to their Promised Land – to “take the Land that remains” (see Joshua 13:1-6). Today Israel’s enemies may wear different fatigues and carry different weapons, but their aim is the same: “Come, and let’s wipe them out as a nation, so that the name of Israel will no longer be remembered. . .  Let’s possess for ourselves the pastures of God!” (Psalm 83:4,12). The current war between the Islamic jihadi terror-republic of Iran and its two main enemies (America and Israel) is the latest manifestation of this ongoing and final battle.

The two satans

For decades the Shi’ite dictatorship in Iran has labeled America as ‘the greater Satan’ (Shaytan-e Bozorg in Persian; al-Shaytan al-Akbar in Arabic) and has called Israel ‘the lesser Satan’ (Shaytân-e Kuchak in Persian; al-Shayṭān al-Aṣghar in Arabic). These nicknames speak of intense hatred and murderous intent. These names are much more radical than how Shi’ite Iranians describe Great Britain – ‘rubâh-e pir’ (‘the old fox’).  

The Islamist clerics who have enslaved Iran see the US and Israel as their main jihadi target, and are utterly committed to the destruction of both ‘satans.’ Secular Westerners just don’t get it; they are puzzled by such spiritually energized hatred.  Some American anti-Semitic pundits like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens blame ‘the Jews’ for Iran’s attitudes, and put Shi’ite genocidal hatred down to the policies of the Jewish state or the nature of the Jewish people. But the key to this clash is eminently spiritual. This planet is returning to the 600’s AD – “these are the days of Mohammad” – the days of rampaging and murderous jihadi conquest.

“Then the Spirit of YHVH rushed upon him, and he killed thirty Philistines” (Judges 14:19)

Samson was YHVH’s secret weapon, raised up from the tribe of Dan to destroy God’s enemies the Philistines. “For behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son, and no razor shall come upon his head, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb. And he will begin to save Israel from the hands of the Philistines” (Judges 13:5).

The Philistine enemy saw battlefield victory as connected to the victory of their own idols:

The warrior sons of Jacob saw ultimate Jewish victory as proof of YHVH’s triumph on behalf of His chosen people:

 Forty at a single blow

At 5 am on Saturday morning February 28, 2026, I awoke at home feeling restless. I came downstairs and sat in my easy chair, thinking and praying – asking God what was going to happen with the upcoming clash between Iran and America/Israel. All of a sudden, at 0540 I heard a huge noise – very low register – of many military aircraft taking off and filling the skies around our house. It was later published that over 200 IAF planes were involved in this operation, the largest coordinated air strike in the Israeli Air Forces’ history. We live not far from a major airbase. This noise was non-stop, and after a minute or two I had the sense that these squadrons were rising up in order to head out to Tehran to initiate the long-awaited attack. This massive symphony orchestra continued for something like 15 minutes.

Flight time from our region to Tehran is 2 hours and 15 minutes approximately. At  approximately 0810 hours, the IAF attacked Tehran, striking Supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei’s compound and palatial residence with 30 bombs. Over 1,200 other locations were hit simultaneously by the IAF, eliminating forty military, intelligence and political senior commanders, including Iran’s jihadi master. Many of these had been involved in the planning and preparations for Hamas’ jihadi pogrom on October 7, 2023 beside Gaza. These men had gathered that morning at various top-secret locations scattered across Tehran for strategic discussions. Here are ten names of the forty:

In parallel and in conjunction,  the US Armed Forces launched a coordinated effort named Operation Epic Fury (here, here and here), striking over 900 Iranian targets as the joint campaign expanded. Focus has been on missile stockpiles, production chains, launchers and anti-aircraft systems and radar installations (along with IAF participation), Four USAF B-2A Spirit stealth bombers (accompanied by five KC-46 tankers) traveled on a non-stop round-trip from Whiteman AFB, Missouri, dropped dozens of 2000 lb. bombs on hardened underground ballistic missile sites in Iran, before returning directly to Whiteman.

Other Allied strikes

Other targets have included General Headquarters for Iranian General Staff (the command-and-control hub linking senior leadership with security forces on the ground); the Tharallah HQ (the Tehran-based defense command center);  GHQ for Ministries of Intelligence and Defense; officers of top Military commanders' offices; the Basij HQ in Tehran (irregular police responsible for the murders of tens of thousands of anti-regime demonstrators); the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Base in Parchin;  other Government and judiciary buildings. The IAF has achieved aerial superiority over Tehran, The IAF has intercepted more than 50 Iranian suicide-drones over the past 36 hours.

Many strategic centers have been hit by US and Israeli forces in the following cities: Tehran, Lorestan, Alborz, Tabriz, Qom, Kermanshah, Mashhad, Ardabil, Khorramabad, Urmia, Isfahan, Mehrabad, Bandar Abbas Shiraz, and others in Shi’ite-controlled Northern Iraq. US forces also sank an Iranian Navy Jamaran-class corvette at Chah Bahar pier in the Gulf of Oman.

Iranian counter-attacks

Iranian forces hit the Sky Light oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, and damaged a UAE gas platform with its Shahed 136 drone. Iranian drones and missiles also hit a French Navy base and hotels in Abu Dhabi, as well as bases and an airport in Dubai (UAE); the Crowne Plaza Manama Hotel and a US radar base in Bahrain; malls. hotels and al Udeid air base in Doha (Qatar); Kuwait’s main airport;  Muwaffaq Salti air base in Jordan; military installations in Oman, Saudi Arabia and Syria.

Muslim rioters attacked the US Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan. Consulate security shot and killed 22 invaders and left more than 120 injured.

Iran has fired over 400 ballistic missiles and 1,000 drones at Israel since the war began. Areas hit include the Greater Haifa and Tel Aviv regions (including an unoccupied children’s school); Bet Shemesh (half-way between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv) where an Iranian missile with a 479 kg. warhead demolished 10 buildings, murdering nine and wounding 48; the Negev (not far from our home); Galilee and the Golan Heights. A 32-year-old Filipina care-giver, Mary Anne Velasquez de Vera, was killed in Tel Aviv when a missile scored a direct hit on her building. She was taking care of her employer when killed. Shrapnel from an Iranian missile landed close to the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City today as well.

Iran’s new Defense Minister is a top terrorist with much Jewish blood on his hands

Yesterday Iran appointed Ahmad Vahidi as the new commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Two years ago, Argentina called for his arrest over his involvement in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, in which 85 people were killed and 300 wounded.  Vahidi played a major role in planning and directing the suicide bombing attack of the Jewish community building in Buenos Aires. He was also involved in the car bombing terrorist attack of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia (June 25, 2006), The attack, in which the Revolutionary Guards, the office of Supreme Leader Khamenei and the Iranian intelligence ministry were directly involved, claimed the lives of 19 American soldiers and one Saudi Arabian national, and wounded more than 400.

How shall we then pray?

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

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

To donate online visit: http://www.davidstent.org/give

   

Shabbat shalom from Tehran

As the Islamic Republic of Iran’s jihadi dictatorship plows ahead in rebuilding its nuclear bomb factories and hypersonic missile and drone stockpiles, it continues to breath out murderous threats, chanting ‘Marg bar Âmrikâ’ (‘death to America’) and ‘Marg bar Esrâ'il’ (‘death to Israel’). Since 1979, thousands of Americans have been murdered by Iran’s Shi’ite mujahidin (jihad warriors).

This war between Shi’ite Islam and the West (with America and Israel as high-profile targets) is not new. Anti-Semitic talking heads like Tucker Carlson who try to frame this present clash as an Israeli-instigated one are ignoring dead and suffering Americans – including the 54 US hostages cruelly kidnapped from the US Embassy in Tehran by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps on November 4, 1979, and held prisoner for 444 days. Also worth remembering are the Iranians citizens protesting against the jihadi Shi’ite tyrants who are ruining their country. Between 30,000 and 60,000 have been brutally murdered, and many thousands of other have been raped, tortured, beaten and imprisoned.

The gathering of a powerful US armada continues in plain view. Eleven F-22 stealth fighter jets are positioned at IAF Uvda Airbase in the Negev. At least 14 USAF refueler tankers are deployed at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv. Two US Navy aircraft carrier strike groups (one in the Arabian Sea [USS Abraham Lincoln] and one in the Mediterranean [the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier]) as well as three guided-missile destroyers are in the immediate conflict zone. At least eleven air-defence destroyers, three littoral combat ships and two to three attack submarines equipped with Tomahawk missiles are loitering in the vicinity. Between 100-150 USAF fighter jets and support aircraft (including F-35s, F-22s, F-15s, F-16s, and six of the military’s early-warning E-3 Sentry AWACS aircraft) have arrived in the area, based in Israel, Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and probably Crete and Cyprus. This is the largest military buildup in the Middle East since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Gen. Charles Wald (ret.), former deputy commander of US European Command notes: “I don’t see the United States invading on the ground in Iran to change the regime. That’s not going to happen.” It seems that ‘boots on the ground’ is ruled out in this upcoming clash. There is an overwhelming American bipartisan consensus against a commitment of ground forces to any Middle East scenario at this point.

Signs of the times

The past 24 hours in Israel have presented a multitude of flashing red lights indicating rapidly approaching outbreak of hostilities. The US and Canada have called for their non-essential embassy staff to immediately depart from Israel by today at the latest. Large numbers of Americans departed Iraq via Baghdad International Airport in the past 24 hours. The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad conducted an emergency evacuation drill. Reports also indicate an evacuation of non-essential staff from the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait.

IAF Iron Dome batteries have been stationed in significant locations across Israel, including at the Knesset. Public air-raid shelters have been opened up across the nation, beginning in Beersheva. IMINT (imagery intelligence) from MizarVision  (a Chinese source) shows F-22 Raptor fighter jets lining up on the tarmac at IAF Uvda base, a hot precursor to an airborne invasion of Iran.

How shall we then pray? Prayer possibilities from the Book of Esther

Monday evening March 2, 2026 marks the onset of the biblical Feast of Esther. It is also the deadline given by POTUS Trump for America’s deadline to Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei, As Haman planned great harm against the Jewish people in his day, so some podcasters and media pundits call for great harm to be inflicted against the Jewish state and any of their allies – even as these words are being written.

Here are four keys for effective intercession which stand out in the Scroll of Esther:

It’s time to stand up and be pro-active in the circles within which you move

It’s time to remember that those who curse or mock the Jewish people and their state are cursed

It’s time to stand with Jewish pro-active response against enemies seeking their destruction

Pray that some enemies of Jacob will grasp this window of opportunity for true repentance

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

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

To donate online visit: http://www.davidstent.org/give

   

Touching the apple of God’s eye at Ben-Gurion Airport

Echoes of Hitler at Ben-Gurion’s VIP Lounge

On Wednesday February 18 2026 the popular anti-Semitic right-wing podcaster Tucker Carlson flew a private jet to Ben-Gurion Airport. He didn’t enter Israel or meet with local Christian or Messianic leaders. Instead, he conducted a hasty ‘hatchet-job’ interview with US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, next to the exclusive Fattal VIP lounge. Carlson repeatedly cut off the Ambassador during the interview, not giving him the opportunity to respond to the rapid-fire anti-Semitic, anti-Israel and anti-Biblical questions being peppered at him. Within three hours Carlson boarded his plane and departed from the Promised Land. After he left Israel, he charged Israel with detaining his team and seizing their passports: “Men who identified themselves as airport security took our passports, hauled our executive producer into a side room, and the demanded to know what we discussed with Ambassador Huckabee . . .  It was bizarre. We’re now out of the country.”

Spokesmen for the US Embassy in Tel Aviv and the Israel Airports Authority denied both the reality and the truthfulness of Carlson’s claims. OliLondonTV posted footage of Carlson hugging an Airport staff member, and commented: “The latest incident has drawn a further spotlight on Tucker Carlson’s increasingly unhinged views, smears against the Middle East’s only democracy and his praise for countries like Russia and Qatar.”

King Solomon once commented: “A hot-tempered person stirs up strife” (Proverbs 15:18). The God of Israel notes how godly judges are to operate: “In a dispute they shall take their stand to judge. They shall judge it according to My ordinances. They shall also keep My laws and My statutes” (Ezekiel 44:24). Carlson certainly fits Solomon’s first description about a man who stirs up strife. And unfortunately, his misuse of the Scriptures reveals a stunning ineptitude in this department as well. The man is either ignorant, uninformed or deliberately malicious. His media persona when it comes to interviews about Jews, Israel and anti-Semitism is consistently arrogant, rude, whiney, boastful, and chock-full of blatant lies and disinformation.

I comment on these matters from my own professional history and perspective as a Messianic leader and theologian in North America, Israel and Russia – as a former member of the Theological Commission for the United Christian Council in Israel (UCCI), former associate editor of the theological journal MISHKAN (1986-93), ThM Dallas Theological Seminary (1985), BA in Jewish History (Hebrew University/McGill University (1979-81), and Israeli tour guide (1987-2010).

When anti-Semites charge

The arrow-like questions fired at breakneck speed toward Ambassador Huckabee reveal Carlson’s beliefs, perspectives and false accusation against the Jewish people, the Jewish state, and the Jewish Bible (see the 70-plus page transcript of his Huckabee interview):

“It is only Zion; no one cares for her!”

The God of Jacob strongly warned Balaam: “Do not go with [Moab and Balak]! You shall not curse the [Jewish] people, for they are blessed!” (Numbers 22:12). Eventually Balaam fell into line, declaring prophetically: “How am I to put a curse on him whom God has not put a curse? And how am I to curse him whom YHVH has not cursed?” (Numbers 23:8). The battle here is a spiritual one; Carlson and his fellow-travelers have fallen under a curse, according to YHVH’s own promise in Genesis 12:3.

Abraham’s God warns about the prophetic future of Israel’s enemies:

Tucker Carlson (a practical advocate of Replacement Theology) never even mentions what the Scriptures (95% written by Jews and 95% written about the Jewish people) speak prophetically about God’s heart for Israel and about His amazing prophetic plans of restoration and return for the sons and daughters of Jacob. His modus operandi is to disconnect the children of Israel from Genesis 15’s Abraham covenant, and then to blithely insist that all promises over the Jewish people “cannot be understood in a literal signification” (as anti-Jewish Church Father Origen wrote in (Origen, On First Principles, Book IV, 19-22; www.newadvent.org/fathers/04124.htm). Now all Jewish promises only apply to Gentile Christians. Carlson has sidestepped one of the main teachings of Scripture – the restoration of Israel.

In that sense his strategies are quite similar to those of the Deutsche Christen (a pro-Nazi Christian movement), who championed obedience to the Nazi government. Their movement gave birth to the fiercely anti-Semitic ‘Institute for the Study and Elimination of Jewish Influence on German Church Life’ (Instituts zur Erforschung jüdischen Einflusses auf das deutsche kirchliche Leben). This institute was headed by Walter Grundmann, later a Stasi collaborator. It denied Yeshua’s Jewishness and called for the removal of any Jewish elements from the Bible (like Genesis 15) and from the Christian faith.

Carlson has fallen into the demonic pitfall which Paul warns Gentile Christians about in Romans 11:17-25:

Carlson peppers his anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli barbs with repeated assertions: “I’m a Christian! I’m an American!” while he boasts arrogantly against the sons and daughters of Jacob. But he fails to reflect a biblical perspective or a godly heart toward God’s Chosen People.

A divisive agenda

Carlson’s poisonous and Hitler-like public record has caused Jonathan Tobin of Jewish News Syndicate to describe Carlson as “the most dangerous antisemite in American history,” and why the activist group ‘StopAntisemitism’ awarded its ‘Anti-Semite of the Year’ 2025 award to Carlson. For the record, the previous year’s ‘winner’ was Candace Owens.

Current polls reflect a rising anti-Semitic plank among America’s conservatives:

The gradual spread of anti-Semitic poison by these neo-Hitlerians is having a real effect on both the present and the future of American politics – especially on how it relates to the Jewish people and the Jewish state. The reality of Genesis 12:3 has never been so soberly pertinent: “I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse.” “For YHVH of armies says this: ‘After glory He has sent me against the nations that plunder you, for the one who touches you, touches the apple of His eye’” (Zechariah 2:8).

In his recent article ‘What’s the real point of Tucker Carlson’s obsession with Israel?,’ Jonathan Tobin states that Carlson’s underlying goal is to sabotage the Trump administration by driving a divisive wedge between his party and the support he receives from both Evangelicals and Israel-sympathetic Jews. “Polls have shown a steep decline in support for the Jewish state among Democrats and even among some Republicans, and especially among young people. [Yet] the vast majority of Republicans remain pro-Israel.” Carlson’s crass anti-Semitic and anti-Israel depth charges, says Tobin, “could hurt Republicans and eventually sink [Trump] in a general election.”

The water is beginning to boil

An old proverb mistakenly attributed to Mark Twain, but actually written down by Peter Senge, notes: “Like the frog that will sit in a pot of water and let itself be slowly boiled to death, we are very good at reacting to immediate danger to our survival, but we are very poor at recognizing gradual threats.” (Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline, Currency and Doubleday, New York, 1990).

The rise into anti-Semitic words and deeds, in anti-Israeli attacks and in anti-Zionist violence – these are a bellwether for anyone who has ears to hear. The ‘Day of Jacob’s Trouble’ is upon us. The spirit that energized Hitler is on the loose and, as Gandalf said, there is the sound of drums in the deep.

Just prior to WWII a Jewish Zionist leader named Ze’ev Jabotinsky repeatedly warned and shouted to Jewish people to get out of Europe.  The following is a translation from Yiddish of Jabotinsky’s touching and sad speech in Tisha B’Av, October 24, 1938, Warsaw, Poland.  It was his prophetic warning to his people, to the masses of his brothers and sisters:

How are Jewish people responding?

Messiah Yeshua warns us that most of humanity – including Jewish humanity – will not adequately discern the current demonically-energized threats:

 The Jewish people are responding to these wildcat anti-Semitic threats in various ways:

As the twisted faces of anti-Semites fill the screens of the nightly news – Zohran Mamdani, Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Marjorie Taylor Greene, the anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli ‘Squad’ in the US Congress, Hitler afficionado Nick Fuentes – we are witnessing the birth of a virulent and violent neo-Nazi American anti-Semitic wave.

How shall we then pray?

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

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

To donate online visit: http://www.davidstent.org/give

Declarations of peace and preparations for war

The events of the past few weeks have been climactic. There has been an international convergence of declarations of peace and the beating of the drums of war. Tehran, Washington DC and the VIP lounge of Israel’s Ben-Gurion Airport are the locations for these cinematographic shoots. The Jewish feast of Purim and the Islamic fast of Ramadan seem to be the ancient bookends for these martial strategies. The spirit of Haman is on the move, both in Persian preparations and in Western anti-Semitic arrogant boastings. The Middle East is on overdrive, and God’s chosen people are once again at the center of the maelstrom.

The Hebrew clock is ticking in Tehran

The Feast of Purim is nearly upon us, arriving on sundown Monday March 2, 2026. Celebrating the God of Israel’s sleight-of-hand triumph over Haman and his genocidal cohorts, this coming date is also auspiciously close to the deadline that President Trump set for the Islamic Republic of Iran’s leaders, after which the US would “have to take it a step further.” On February 19, 2026 Trump announced on Air Force One, just after the inaugural meeting of his ‘Board of Peace’ in Washington DC: “I would think that there would be enough time – 10, 15 days . . .  or it’s going to be unfortunate for them.” The Book of Esther explains how Haman (that powerful Persian official) threatened malice and mayhem on the Jewish people but instead brought destruction upon himself.

The Shi’ite mobs who have gathered in Iran over the years to burn American flags and to chant ‘Marg bar Âmrikâ’ (‘death to America’) and ‘Marg bar Esrâ'il’ (‘death to Israel’) reflect a genocidal and demonic anti-Semitism (as well as a pervasive anti-Christian poison) deeply rooted within jihadi Shi’ite Islam.

At this point in time, the entire Middle East is an explosive tinderbox. Gasoline fumes are everywhere. Iranian ballistic and hypersonic missiles, along with swarms of deadly drones, wait on standby. The largest gathering of American weaponry (bombers, fighter jets, aircraft carriers and destroyers) has been assembled and is surrounding the borders of what was once called ‘Persia.’ Israeli jets, SIGINT forces and anti-missile defenses are primed and ready. All these warriors are waiting for the go-ahead signal.

Dividing God’s Land between flatterers and thieves

As the pots of Middle Eastern war are coming to a fast boil, POTUS Trump convened a ‘Board of Peace’ meeting on February 19, 2026, gathering leaders of many nations at the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace in Washington DC. Twenty-seven members have signed on to that Board, including fifteen Arab/Islamic countries.

In preparation for the February 19 meeting, eight of these (Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates) released a joint statement on January 21, 2026, reiterating their support for Trump’s efforts and reaffirming each country’s commitment aimed at “advancing a just and lasting peace grounded in the Palestinian right to self-determination and statehood.” Twelve of these 15 Islamic countries (80%) publicly affirmed their Islamist-based goal of dividing the Jewish state of Israel, or of even taking it over in its entirety. Only 2 of the 27 member countries present at that meeting (less than 8%) are on record as opposing the division of the Land of Israel. Watching the live feed of that gathering on February 19, 2026 felt like being a spectator at a ‘coming attractions’ presentation of Psalm 83,  Joel 3:1-2, or Zechariah 12:1-3.

 Considering that the God of Abraham considers Gaza to be part of Judah’s tribal inheritance in the Promised Land (Joshua 15:20,27) and an integral part of Israel’s irrevocable calling (Romans 11:28-29), it should be noted that nations stealing the Land of Israel from the Jewish people and dividing it up is something which the prophet Isaiah forcefully condemns (albeit in a different context):

President Trump addressed the leaders’ gathering for 47 minutes. Much of his speech involved distributing dollops of heavy-handed flattery to those leaders. Regrettably, he also focused on himself in an inordinate way – one not befitting an august leader of the free world:

King Solomon noted that “a flattering mouth works ruin” (Proverbs 26:28) and that the “one who rebukes a person will afterward find more favor than one who flatters with the tongue” (Proverbs 28:23).

Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar set the historical record straight in a few brief words during his own ‘Board of Peace’ comments:

It is to be assumed that Trump was not referring to King David’s taking of Jerusalem as the source of 3,000 years of Middle Eastern torture and suffering. Perhaps the leader of the free world should make sure that his speechwriters are more careful with the speeches they upload to the presidential teleprompter.

 

How shall we then pray?

Here are some guidelines on how to pray for President Trump (and for all other world leaders who weigh in on dividing the Land of Israel):

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

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

To donate online visit: http://www.davidstent.org/give

When world leaders play poker

Some of us believe that our leaders are either all good or all bad. In modern politics, it seems that ‘the enemy’ is always found ‘on the other side of the political aisle.’ We crown the leaders ‘on our side’ with golden crowns, but throw tomatoes and rocks at our political opponents. Yet James 3:8-10 reminds us that all human beings, politicians included, have a very challenging problem: “No one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people, who have been made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things should not be this way.” These radical problems beset both the Left and the Right, and everyone in between.

Even in Bible days, some leaders (even those who led mini-revivals) fell quite short of God’s character. Examples include Hezekiah (2 Kings 20:12-19), Josiah (2 Kings 35:20-24), and David (2 Samuel 11). A superpower leader like Nebuchadnezzar may have had divine secrets revealed to him (Daniel 2:28), yet he was still punished with temporary insanity due to his own pride and braggadocio (Daniel 4).

Today we often honor political or religious leaders blindly, having no sense of what God is about to do in the near future. We excuse narcissism and deceit, and tolerate boasting and arrogance, declaring that our inerrant leaders can do no wrong. But when we sell God short on His standards, we end up tolerating things that YHVH would never tolerate. Such dynamics are alive and well not only in the preserve of politics; they are also par for the course in the religious world, among some self-appointed apostles and prophets – men and women who may know little of the Word of God, and who don’t often clearly hear His voice. Little children (said the Apostle John in 1 John 5:21), guard your hearts from these types of idols!

Theological malignancies and counterfeit Christians

The media of the Western world occasionally shines its garish spotlight on some ‘Christian’ podcasters whose poisoned perspectives about Israel and the Jewish people are 100% counterfeit. Their viewpoints are infected at the very root with Replacement Theology.

On the opposite side of the woke aisle, a grotesque Marxist anti-Zionism has welded itself to fascist anti-Semitism and genocidal jihadi-jingoism, spewing out a river of hatred against the Jewish people. What is desperately needed here? A spiritual return to the biblical roots of Western Judeo-Christian philosophy and civilization, and a recovery of biblical keys and scriptural spectacles. First and foremost, a renewed revelation of the Jewish word of God and its continuing stress on YHVH’s priority love for the sons and daughters of Jacob.

How superpowers think

The past two hundred years present many historical examples of how superpowers reason – what motivates them, what issues they focus on and what values they ignore. The Middle East has watched as a stream of superpowers like the UK, the US and the USSR have waded in to claim oil, strategic territory and arms markets – from Algeria to Arabia, and from India to Iran. The focus of these empires has been financial, involving control of colonized markets and free access to their waterways.

Spiritual and biblical issues have not been the prime motivators for these empires, though some evangelicals have attempted to draw attention to spiritual perspectives. Christian in name, these superpowers have looked at the Middle East as a significant key – not to world revival but to imperial profits. Modern apostate and pseudo-Christian perspectives like those of Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens have sapped biblical motivations from a fading evangelical world, running roughshod over God’s heart, God’s perspectives and God’s plans for the restoration of His Jewish people to their Jewish homeland. Spiritual apostasy has clouded the vision of the West, while an oily film has blinded clear Christian thinking about loving and defending Zion. Who is willing today to publicly stand with Jacob when the room of political discourse is overflowing with Nazis and jihadis? 

Playing international poker with the Promised Land

The Book of Joshua 15:20,47 declares that the inheritance of the tribe of the sons of Judah includes Ashdod, Gaza and its towns and villages, “as far as the Brook of Egypt and the Great [Mediterranean] Sea.” The territory of Gaza is part of the Promised Land which God bequeathed to the Jewish people for eternity. It is part of the irrevocable gifts and calling of Israel, according to Romans 11:28-29. Whether the real estate is located in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria or Gaza, none of it has been handed over by YHVH to any other nation to own or manage. No other country – not the Edomites of Jordan and Ramallah, not the Hittites of the former caliphate of Turkey (see Joshua 1:4), not the sons of Ham in today’s Arab Republic of Egypt (see Psalm 105:23) nor the United States of America – no one can step in to claim that the God of Jacob has given them the right to oversee Gaza or determine its fate. Unfortunately, what is currently happening as POTUS Trump’s 20-point plan (the ‘Board of Peace’) gets off the ground, flies in the face of God’s biblically-expressed intentions.

Israel’s doyen of military reporters Ron Ben -Yishai notes on January 26, 2026:

On Saturday, January 17, 2026 Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu publicly objected to certain aspects of Trump’s plan – America’s insistence that Turkey and Qatar (both prime supporters of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood jihadi terror groups) will be an integral part of the Gaza Executive Board, and have a decisive say in determining the future of Gaza. Israel’s government responded by announcing that “the composition of the Gaza Executive Board, which is subordinate to the Board of Peace, was not coordinated with Israel and runs contrary to its policy.” 

A high-ranking State Department official anonymously responded to Israel’s publicly aired disagreement that same day on the Axios outlet, lashing out at PM Netanyahu:

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Chairman of the Religious Zionist Party (HaTzionut HaDatit or National Union-Tkuma), posted on X later that Saturday night, January 17, 2026:

Violating the borders of Israel on behalf of Egypt, Turkey, Qatar and Hamas

Just recently. the US, Egypt, Qatar and Turkey unilaterally decided to open the physical gates between Egypt and the Hamas-controlled areas of Gaza. This has undercut one of the main goals of Israel’s recent war – to remove the jihadi terror group Hamas’ claws from controlling Gaza. The US announced this decision during the signing ceremony for POTUS Trump’s Board of Peace conference in Davos, Switzerland, according to an unnamed Arab diplomat and an unnamed US official who spoke off the record on Friday January 23, 2026. Friday’s anonymous comments from both the unnamed US official and the anonymous Arab diplomat gloated publicly that this re-opening was “imposed” on Israel – without the Jewish state’s agreement.

The diplomats said that those countries mediating the Gaza ceasefire — the US, Egypt, Qatar and Turkey — all recognized that Israel wasn’t going to agree on its own to reopen the border gate between Egypt and Gaza. So these mediators decided (without Israel’s agreement) to publicly announce Rafah’s unilateral reopening this week during the signing ceremony for the Board of Peace ceremonies in Davos. The crossing between Egypt and Gaza is to be operated by officers from the European Union Border Assistance Mission, along with uniformed members of the Palestinian Authority’s mukhabarat (intelligence service). 

The high-ranking though unnamed US State Department official emphasized: “This is our show, not [Israel’s] show . . . We are going to continue moving . . . We are not going to argue with [Netanyahu] . . .  and we will keep moving forward with our plan. He can’t really go against us.”

Not only has the US given significant authority over what happens in Gaza to Turkey and Qatar – who happen to also be Hamas’ main bankrollers and weapons suppliers. The US State Department is controlling, enabling and facilitating jihadi involvement in that process. The same American hands that are helping to arm Israel, sending bombers and fighter planes to neutralize Iranian moves, are also aiding in re-establishing Hamas and the PLO as a mortal jihadi threat to the Jewish state. Sweet and bitter waters are indeed flowing from the same spring, and Western nations are once again playing international poker, with the jackpot being the divvying-up of the Land of Israel.

Ignoring Turkish and Qatari wickedness as long as a healthy profit can be made

The Muslim Brotherhood’s motto is: “allah ghayatuna. Al-rasūl za‘imuna. Al-Qur’an dusturuna. Al-jihād sabīluna. Al-mawt fi sabīl allah asma amanina. allah akbar, allah akbar.” (“allah is our goal. The rasul[Islamic messenger – i.e., Muhammad] is our leader. The Quran is our Constitution. Jihad [military struggle] is our path. Death on the path of allah [death while carrying out jihad] is our supreme aspiration.  allah is greater! allah is greater!”).

The ideology behind the 9/11 attacks against America comes straight from the brains of the Muslim Brotherhood – MB founder Hassan al-Banna and MB chief ideologue Sayyid Qutb. In 2005, a former Kuwaiti Minister of Information, Dr. Ahmad al-Rabi', wrote in the Saudi-owned Asharq al-Awsat newspaper: “The beginnings of all the religious terrorism that we are witnessing today were in the Muslim Brotherhood’s ideology . . . All those who worked with bin Laden and al-Qaeda went out under the mandate of the Muslim Brotherhood.”

On November 24, 2025 POTUS Trump passed Executive Order EO 14362 – “Designation of Certain Muslim Brotherhood Chapters as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists.” This Presidential Document does not actually designate the entire Muslim Brotherhood (MB) as a terrorist organization, but only certain chapters or sub-divisions (Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan) of this worldwide jihadi organization – leaving the vast majority of that terror organization still ‘kosher’ in the eyes of the US State Department.

Trump’s Executive Order comes after an Act sponsored by Texas Senator Ted Cruz on July 16, 2025 “Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act”. Cruz's Act (which he had previously attempted to pass in 2015, 2017, 2020 and 2021) which was a more comprehensive Act, totally banning the Muslim Brotherhood (text here).

In some countries, the entire Muslim Brotherhood organization (and not just three sub-groups) has already been labeled and outlawed as a terrorist organization. These steps have been taken by Florida and Texas, as well as by Austria, Bahrain, Egypt, France, Kazakhstan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, the United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan.

The countries of Turkey and Qatar are the two main bankrollers and supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), both in the past and in the present as well. Over the years they have also sponsored terror groups like the Taliban, al-Qa’eda, al-Nusra, and the HTS (currently morphed into the party of Syria’s President al-Julani).

Qatar is not only the main bank-roller of Hamas and HTS; it is also home to the US Army’s CENTCOM (Central Command) and the location of al-Udeid (the largest USAF airbase outside of America). Qatar is seen as a significant ally of the USA, and it has recently donated a Boeing 747 for POTUS Trump’s use. Qatar is connected by deep economic ties to Trump’s family. For decades, Qatar has used the Brotherhood as a means to project influence across the Middle East, even providing Hamas with its headquarters and funding.

Turkey (or as it now calls itself ‘Türkiye’) is also intensively involved with MB and Hamas, creating and supporting resilient networks which directly oppose US counterterrorism priorities. Türkiye is both a NATO ally and a patron of Islamist networks. It plays both sides of the field.

Turkey, Armenia and Hitler

As the Ottoman Empire began its slow slide into disintegration, a Turkish revolutionary group rose up between 1889 and 1926 – the Ottoman Committee of Union and Progress (CUP; in Turkish, İttihad ve Terakki Cemiyeti). Their foremost faction was the ‘Young Turks’ (Jön Türkler). In the Spring of 1914 the CUP caused at least 300,000 Greeks to flee across the Aegean Sea to Greece. The stated goal here was to achieve Türk Yurdu – the Turkification of Anatolia and the transformation of the Ottoman Empire into a homogeneous Turkish nation-state. Between 1914 and 1918 the Ottoman Empire under the CUP was also involved in the massacre and deportation of over one million Armenians.

At the orders of Ottoman Young Turk leader Talaat Pasha, an estimated 800,000 to 1.2 million Armenians were sent on death marches to the Syrian Desert in 1915 and 1916. Driven onward by Turkish paramilitary escorts, the deportees were deprived of food and water and subjected to robbery, rape, torture, crucifixion and massacres. Armenian survivors were dispersed into concentration camps. In 1916, another wave of massacres was ordered, leaving about 200,000 deportees alive from the original 1.2 million. Around 100,000 to 200,000 Armenian women and children were forcibly converted to Islam and absorbed into Muslim households at that time.

The Armenian genocide at the hands of the Turkish nation enabled the creation of an ethnonationalist state, the modern Republic of Turkey. The Turkish government today justifies the deportation and genocide of these Armenians as a legitimate action, and Turkey refuses to classify it as genocide. As of 2025, at least 34 countries have recognized the massacre of Armenians as genocide.

On August 22, 1939 (23 years after the Armenian genocide) Nazi leader Adolf Hitler addressed his chief Wehrmacht military commanders at his Obersalzberg home, a week before Germany invaded Poland. Within a day or two, American journalist Louis P. Lochner was handed the verbatim German text of Hitler’s speech, most probably by Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, chief of Abwehr (German Intelligence). Lochner contacted an American diplomat, but that man refused to pass on the text of Hitler’s briefing to Washington. British diplomat George Ogilvie-Forbes, however, transmitted the document to Whitehall on August 25, 1939.

Hitler’s comments revealed sobering conclusions: a Western world which had been prepared to ignore Turkey’s mass-murder and to condone the genocidal destruction of the Armenians in 1914, would no doubt not get too concerned about other upcoming mass murders – like those of the Polish nation or the Jewish people:

Iraq, ISIS and Syria

The Western world has for the most part a short attention span. Few remember Saddam Hussein’s chemical warfare attack on Iraqi Kurdish civilians in the residential areas of Halabja on March 16, 1988. A mixture of mustard gas and nerve gas (Tabun, Sarin and VX) was dropped on civilian Kurds there, the largest chemical weapons attack on civilians in human history. At least 5,000 people were killed, and up to 10,000 were injured. At first, the US government and its intelligence agencies suggested that Kurdish civilians had not been deliberately targeted, and attempted to place responsibility for the attack on Iran. The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office issued a briefing paper concluding that Iraq shouldn’t be taken to task for the chemical warfare attacks: “We believe it better to maintain a dialogue with others if we want to influence their actions. Punitive measures such as unilateral sanctions would not be effective in changing Iraq’s behavior over chemical weapons, and would damage British interests to no avail.”

The shifting sands of the Middle East have recently served to conceal another atrocity – the genocidal acts of Da’esh (ISIS/ ISIL/ the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [ad-Dawla al-Islāmiyya fī l-ʿIrāq wa-sh-Shām]). This is the jihadi terrorist army which swept across Iraq and Syria from 1994 to the present. This organization committed war crimes against humanity, including systematic genocidal rape and sexual violence against males and females; mass killings of prisoners of war, murders of Christians, Yazidis, Shabaks, Turkmens and other Sunnis and their burial in mass graves; summary executions and decapitations; public floggings and politically motivated assassinations; human sacrifices; sexual enslavement and trafficking of over 6,800 Yazidi women and children; forced conversion to Islam of thousands of Yazidi boys and their subsequent forced drafting into ISIS jihadi terror gangs etc.

A minimum of 25,645 Iraqis were murdered by ISIS between 2014 and 2016. Over 400,000 Yazidis were forced to flee to Turkey and to Iraqi Kurdistan barely ten years ago; 55,000 Yazidis fled to the nearby Sinjar Mountains, where many died (like the Armenians in the 1910’s) from dehydration and starvation. ISIS is still alive and well in Syria (here and here), Iraq, Turkey (here and here) and the Sinai Peninsula. Has the human race undergone any deep moral changes since the Armenian genocide?

Recent events in Syria (see my December 12, 2024 newsletter https://davidstent.org/dividing-the-baby-part-two-of-three/) include the rise of a new Islamist leader who used to head Syrian al-Qa’eda and ISIS. Abu Mohammad al-Julani was once listed by the US State Department as a ‘Specially Designated Global Terrorist,’ with a $10 million reward for information leading to his capture. In 2018 al-Julani announced on CNN that his jihadi goal is to overthrow Syria. Now he has become the darling of the West, fêted by the leaders of the US, France, UK and the European Union. On June 30, 2025 POTUS Trump revoked all sanctions against Syria as part of this new international acceptance of al-Julani (Executive Order 14312). The Syrian mutation of ‘Bin Laden’ has now been christened ‘a peace-maker’ by the cataract-beset leaders of the West.

But the Syrian leopard has not changed his spots, and has proved himself to be “an adept player of geopolitical chess.” Since his ‘ascension to the throne,’ he has directed his ISIS and al-Qa’eda compatriots to carry out massacres of Syria’s Alawites (minimum 1,500 in March 2025; here, here and here), Christians, Druze (here, here and here) and Kurds (here, here, here and here) – while the West blinks anxiously and averts its eyes at the over 3,400 casualties (3,666 in another official report).

The recent videotaped slaughter of Alawites and Druze, showing al-Julani’s bearded jihadi warriors slitting Alawite and Druze throats while chanting the Islamic takbir (allāhu ʾakbar – the Islamist declaration of Allah’s supremacy); the videotaped torture, rape and murder of women from all these these communities (even as late as mid-January 2026); the abandonment by the West of former allies who fought al Qa’eda and ISIS and sacrificed many casualties on the battlefield, to bloodthirsty jihadis – all these events have created a huge sense of betrayal in the Middle East about Western allies in general and American allies in particular.

Steve Emerson, founder of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, explains on his January 26, 2026 podcast:

Iranian genocide

The Islamic Republic of Iran has been waging war with the West – specifically against America and Israel (though Saudi Arabia is not far from being a top priority as well) – since its bloody inception in the Shi’ite Iranian Revolution (January 6 1978 to February 11 1979). Some veterans of the CIA (like Robert Baer, author of ‘The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower’) argue that America must become Iran’s stalwart ally and turn a cold shoulder to Israel. So far, it seems that the current US Administration does not fully line up on Baer’s side of the line of scrimmage.

The nation of Iran is at this point under the iron Islamist boot of a cruel and violent Shi’ite tyranny. The Muslim despots of Tehran and Qom believe that they are on the cutting edge of worldwide Islamist revolution – one which will lead to an international Shi’ite dictatorship. Anyone, even if it be their own citizens, who opposes those goals is considered expendable. In the past three weeks over 36,500 Iranian citizens (and possibly upwards of 60,000 – see here and here) have been murdered by Shi’ite security forces in just two days, January 8-9, 2026, and in just one geographical area alone – the historic bazaar in Rasht, Iran. Over 300,000 other Iranians have been wounded by government thugs, many blinded for life by close shotgun fire. A similar number of Iranian civilians have been dragged out of hospital beds and shot to death, dispatched by a bullet to the forehead. A genocidal massacre is occurring in Persia, and the whole world is watching. Will this evil empire be taken down before it destroys its own people and overwhelms the Middle East?

Appeasement versus victory

At present, most Western leaders have adopted a response toward jihadi forces which could be classified as 'appeasement.' Rather than exhibiting strength and determination which presses through to a forceful victory, Western diplomats have pleaded for ‘process’ and crisis-management, of the 'need' to work toward a temporary holding pattern, of suggesting that violent jihadis choose the path of disarmament instead of ‘the path of jihad.’ Winston Churchill’s famous dictum of January 20, 1940, given on the BBC when he was First Lord of the British Admiralty, is worth remembering: “Each one hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, the crocodile will eat him last. All of them hope that the storm will pass before their turn comes to be devoured!”

How shall we then pray?

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

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

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