The flames of jihad on the Temple Mount

World media are filling their screens and blogs with violence – pictures of explosions and fire on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount; videos clips of Israeli SWAT teams pushing back rioters who are assaulting the police with Molotov gasoline bombs, rocks, fireworks, boulders and clubs. World power diplomats are calling on Israel to exercise maximum restraint, and cluck their tongues in disapproval at Israel’s ‘disruption of peaceful Muslim worship.’ These events may be on the news, but they are not new. The following is a brief reminder of history and context regarding riots on the Temple Mount.

The origin of connections between the Temple Mount and Islamic tradition

Muhammad actually never set foot on the soil of the Promised Land, dying in Medina in 632 AD. Sixty years after his death in 691-692 AD the now-golden Dome of the Rock was constructed in Jerusalem, while the black-domed al-Aqsa mosque was completed in 701 AD. In later years an Islamist tradition developed that in the year 620 AD Muhammad rode a mythical horse named al-Buraq, taking his legendary ‘night journey and ascension’ (in Arabic al-’Isrā’ wal-Mi‘rāj) to the ‘distant masjid or mosque’ (in Arabic al-Masjidi ‘l-’Aqṣá); Quran 17:1, Surat al-Isrā’). But in 620 AD Islamist jihadi forces had not yet invaded any country, including Israel. Jihadi battles were happening only in what is today called Saudi Arabia. In 633 AD Syria was invaded, and only in 638 A.D. was Israel conquered by jihadi armies. The al-Aqsa mosque never existed in Muhammad’s day. What it represents is a form of Islamist Replacement Theology spin, where Islamic people and purported Islamic events were artificially injected into Jewish sites, replacing them with a false Islamist identity. The Islamist attempt to destroy and invalidate Jewish connections to the Temple Mount is at the heart of this age-old conflict. It is Replacement Theology on steroids, backed up by jihadi invasion, conquest and oppression.

Napoleon versus the British Mandate

Napoleon Bonaparte declared on April 20, 1799:

“Rightful [Jewish] heirs of Palestine! The great nation [France] . . . calls on you . . . to take over that which has been conquered and, with that nation’s support, to remain master of it against all comers . . . Hasten! Now is the moment, which may not return for thousands of years, to claim the restoration of civic rights among the population of the universe which had been shamefully withheld from you for thousands of years, your political existence as a nation among the nations, and the unlimited natural right to worship in accordance with your faith, publicly and most probably forever!”

Yet when England occupied those territories, it had a distinctly different vision. Article 13 of the League of Nations Mandatory Charter given to Britain in 1922 denied the United Kingdom’s right to interfere with the Temple Mount site or with the administration of ‘purely Muslim holy places:’ “Nothing in this mandate shall be construed as conferring upon the Mandatory authority to interfere with the fabric or the management of purely Moslem sacred shrines, the immunities of which are guaranteed.’ The King’s Order-in-Council issued by the government authorities of Mandatory Palestine in 1934 also confirmed the Ottoman religious status quo. Jews were forbidden from accessing the Temple Mount, which was now considered by Christians to be an exclusively Muslim holy place.

The Mountain which had been conquered by jihad and made Judenrein by the sword of Islam was now having its anti-Jewish ‘Islamist Replacement Theology status’ validated by Britain, the fast-fading heir to a Christian and Protestant empire. A British Christian writer expressed his anger at Britain’s realpolitik submissiveness to Islam in 1922: “To permit a false religion to hold sway in ‘the city of the Lord’ (Matt. 5:35), or any other portion of the Holy Land, would be to thwart and countermine God’s set purpose, and be altogether contrary to His plans regarding the earth and man upon it” (Frank G. Jannaway, Palestine and the World; London: Maranatha Press, 1922; pages 232-233).

The Grand Mufti al-Husseini and the al-Aqsa pogroms

Starting in the 1920’s and continuing up to the present Islamist leaders have falsely charged that there is a national Jewish goal of seizing the Temple Mount and rebuilding a Jewish Temple there.

Haj Amin al-Husseini was one of the main instigators of the April 1920 Nebi Musa riots outside of Jerusalem, virulently renouncing the 1917 Balfour Declaration (which was favorable to the establishment of a Jewish national home). Six Jews were murdered and 216 Jews injured (of them 18 critically) in that riot by Arab mobs. About 300 Jews were evacuated from the Old City of Jerusalem at that time. Al-Husseini was charged by the British with inciting Jerusalem’s Arab crowds and was sentenced in absentia to 10-years imprisonment by a military court. He fled to Syria after the riots, but was welcomed back by the British and appointed as Grand Mufti of Jerusalem in 1921.

A 1922 Arabic leaflet penned by Sheikh Abd al-Qadir al-Muzaffar entitled Public Call to the Muslim People from your Brethren, the Muslims of Jerusalem and the Rest of Palestine: “The Zionist body which is trying to create a Jewish kingdom in Palestine, dreams of taking from us the al-Aqsa Mosque, built upon the ruins of Solomon’s temple, and of reconstructing their temple…” (An Aesthetic Occupation: The Immediacy of Architecture and the Palestine Conflict, by Daniel Bertand Monk, Duke University Press, 2002, page 83).

On Yom Kippur, September 1928, ten armed thugs dispatched by Islamist leadership attack Jewish worshippers at the Western Wall, shouting “Death to the Jewish dogs!” and “Strike, strike!”

In September-October 1928 al-Husseini began to distribute leaflets throughout Mandatory Palestine and the Arab world claimed that the Jews were planning to take over the al-Aqsa Mosque. The leaflet stated that the British Mandatory Government was “responsible for any consequences of any measures which the Moslems may adopt for the purpose of defending the holy Buraq themselves in the event of the failure of the Government.” The Moslem Supreme Council stated in a memorandum, “Having realized by bitter experience the unlimited greedy aspirations of the Jews in this respect, Moslems believe that the Jews’ aim is to take possession of the Mosque of al-Aqsa gradually on the pretense that it is the Temple.” and it advised the Jews “to stop this hostile propaganda which will naturally engender a parallel action in the whole Moslem world, the responsibility for which will rest with the Jews.”

On Thursday August 15 1929, a commemoration of the Jewish Fast of the Ninth of Av occurred at the Wailing Wall. On Friday August 16 (the Islamic day of prayer), the mawlid (Arabic for the birth) or mawsin an-nabi (Arabic for ‘the feast of the prophet’) – that is, the birth of Muhammad – was celebrated on the esplanade of the Temple Mount, As the crowd came down from the Mount, they attacked the Jewish prayer area, burning prayer books, Torah scroll arks and cupboards, and destroying paper prayer notes left in the cracks of the Wall. Rioting quickly spread to the Jewish commercial area of town.

On Friday August 23, 1929 thousands of Arab villagers who had been incited by bloodthirsty preaching in local mosques streamed into Jerusalem from the surrounding countryside to pray on the Temple Mount, many armed with sticks and knives. For five days violent Muslim mobs attacked Jewish communities in Jerusalem, Motza, Jaffa, Haifa and Safed. Approximately 135 Jews were murdered and 340 wounded during that period.

On Saturday August 24, 1929 Arab mobs attacked the ancient Jewish Quarter of Hebron killing and raping men, women and children and looting Jewish property. Over 65 Jews were killed and 58 were wounded. Many of the victims were mutilated, others were tortured. Most of the 116 Arab fatalities and 232 wounded throughout the British Mandate during those five days were as a result of military confrontation with British security forces.

In all the above cases the Muslim population had been stirred up by false rumors that the Jews were attempting to seize the Western Wall and the Temple Mount.

The British Shaw Commission of Enquiry concluded, “The outbreak in Jerusalem on the 23rd of August was from the beginning an attack by Arabs on Jews for which no excuse in the form of earlier murders by Jews has been established . . . The fundamental cause, without which in our opinion disturbances either would not occurred or would not have been little more than a local riot, is the Arab feeling of animosity and hostility towards the Jews” (Report of the Commission on the disturbances of August 1929, Command paper 3530; Shaw Commission report; 1930).

Husseini, Hamas, Hitler and Hassan

Haj Amin Al-Husseini later spearheaded the Arab Revolt (1936-39) which led to the death of over 300 Jews and the destruction of many Jewish farms and orchards.

Al-Husseini co-operated with three forces which have played a strong role in genocidal attacks against the Jewish people:

Hassan al-Banna (founder of the Muslim Brotherhood)
Sheikh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam (founder of the anti-Zionist and anti-British Black Hand [al-Kaff al-Aswad], and spiritual doyen of Hamas
Adolf Hitler (whom he met on November 28, 1941 where they collaborated on planning a Holocaust of all Jews in the Promised Land)

In close cooperation with Adolf Eichmann and an Einsatzkommando (Special Operations force and mobile killing squad) under the control of SS Obersturmbannführer Walther Rauff, the Mufti Al-Husseini planned to build crematoriums for the Jews in the Dothan Valley of Samaria. The testimony of Faiz Bay Idrisi, a senior Arab officer in the British Mandatory police, stated, “I remember what was said in police circles and among supporters of the Mufti in those months . . . Haj Amin al-Husseini’s master plan was to establish in the Dothan Valley, close to Shechem, giant crematoriums like Auschwitz, into which would be brought the Jews of Palestine, Iraq, Egypt, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, and even North Africa, in order to slaughter them with the methods of the S.S. who operated in the death camps in Europe.”

When Muhammad’s descendent occupied al-Aqsa

Jordan’s King AbdullahI bin Al-Hussein was a 38^th generation direct descendant of Muhammad through the House of Hashim [Hashemite]. As conqueror of the Temple Mount in May 1948, he oversaw the following:

the exile of all Jews from Jordanian-controlled Jerusalem
the settling of Arabs in their place
the demolishing and destruction of fifty-eight synagogues in the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City
the systematic destruction of 38,000 ancient Jewish graves on the Mount of Olives
the transformation of the Old City of Jerusalem into a Judenrein city (a Nazi term meaning ‘cleansed of Jews’)
the transformation of the Western Wall into an exclusively Islamic holy site.

For more information see Jerusalem Divided: the Armistice Regime, 1947-1967, by Raphael Israeli, Psychology Press, 2002, page 24.

What happened in June 1967?

On June 7, 1967 the Israel Defense Forces captured the Old City of Jerusalem. After nearly 2,000 years the Temple Mount was once again in Jewish hands. On June 17, 1967 then-Minister of Defense Moshe Dayan met Islamic religious authorities on the Temple Mount. It was decided to permit the Jordanian Awqaf (waqf) Ministry to continue to administer the site. Jews and Christians were given the right to visit the Temple Mount provided that they respected Muslims’ religious sensibilities, but they were not allowed to pray there. Only the Western Wall was to be recognized as the Jewish place of prayer. Muslim were in charge of ‘religious sovereignty’ on the Temple Mount, while ‘overall sovereignty’ became Israel’s. Israel would be responsible for security around the perimeter of the site, while the Jordanian-controlled Jerusalem Waqf would be responsible for events within the compound. Today, the Jerusalem Waqf controls the Temple Mount, schools, orphanages, Islamic libraries and museums, mosques, the Shari’a courts as well as many residential and commercial properties in greater Jerusalem.

‘Al Aqsa is in danger!’ October 1990

In early October 1990 a small Jewish extremist religious group (the ‘Temple Mount Faithful’) stated that they were going to lay a cornerstone for a Third Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. On 8 October 1990, mosque loudspeakers in the Kidron Valley and on the Mount of Olives proclaimed that “al-Aqsa was in danger.” The immediate result was an Islamic riot where 17-20 Palestinians were killed and over 100 others injured (after they attacked Israeli Border Police on the Temple Mount).

According to the Israeli Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Events on Temple Mount on 8 October 1990, “The members of the Waqf knew that the High Court had refused the Temple Mount Faithful petition to lay the cornerstone of the Third Temple, and did not respond to requests by Israel Police officers on the morning of the incident to calm the crowd. This, even after the police informed the Waqf that they would also prevent the Temple Mount Faithful, and anyone else, from visiting the area, though such visits are allowed by law… The incident itself began when, suddenly, violent and threatening calls were sounded over the loudspeakers “Allahu Akbar” [Allah is Greater], “Jihad” [Holy War], “Itbah al-Yahud” [Slaughter the Jews]). Immediately afterwards, enormous amounts of rocks, construction materials and metal objects were thrown at Israeli policemen who were present at the site. Many in the incited, rioting mob threw stones and metal objects from a very short range, and some even wielded knives. The actions of the rioters, and certainly the inciters, constituted a threat to the lives of the police, the thousands of worshippers at the Western Wall and to themselves. This was a serious criminal offense committed by masses who were incited by preachers over loudspeakers, and this is what led to the tragic chain of events . . . Nineteen policemen were injured as well as nine Western Wall worshippers. According to Police statistics, 20 people were killed and 52 injured on the Temple Mount.”

“A new Israeli temple in the place of al Aqsa mosque” – September 1996

On September 24, 1996 a new archeological exhibit called ‘the Rabbinic tunnel’ was opened to both the Israeli public and international tourists. It was the culmination of nearly 30 years of archeological excavations outside of the Temple Mount’s external buttress walls. A tunnel was dug outside of these supporting walls which had been constructed by Herod the Great in order to expand the workable surface of the Temple Mount. The tunnel and the retaining walls were not part of any Temple at any period in history.

Even though the tunnel was more than two football fields away from the al-Aqsa mosque and totally outside the Islamic precincts, the head of the PLO Yasser Arafat declared that the opening of the tunnel was a “big crime against our religious and holy places.” Palestinian Authority spokesman Sa’eb Erekat declared, “Well, the thing is … it was the Israelis who announced that they will open this tunnel in order to build … a new temple now in the place of the Al-Aqsa Mosque” (CNN, September 29, 1996).

On September 24, 1996 Voice of Palestine radio urged listeners to “move immediately and effectively to face this serious criminal scheme. We appeal to them all to shoulder their religious and national responsibilities in these serious circumstances and to confront these painful incidents and tragic dangers facing holy Jerusalem” (Voice of Palestine radio from Jericho monitored by BBC, September 24, 1996, 1050 GMT).

On September 25, the Palestinian Authority and Arafat’s Fatah faction brought busloads of Bir Zeit University students to attack Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint outside Ramallah. Molotov cocktails and rocks were thrown at the IDF who initially repulsed them with rubber bullets and tear gas. Whereas at other times PA police had previously prevented crowds from approaching Israeli checkpoints, this time they stood aside. As the rioting spiraled out of control, PA police joined in, firing on Israeli soldiers.

In a speech in Gaza at that time, Arafat invoked Islamic references to war, reminding the crowd that “to the believers who fight for Allah, kill and are killed, heaven is promised” (quoted in The New York Times, Oct. 4, 1996).

In three days of violence 14 Israeli soldiers and 44 Palestinians were killed. The violence had been stirred up by the Palestinian Authority. It spread a poisonously false charge that al-Aqsa was under attack. It created out-of-control violent attacks by Palestinian Arabs on Israeli troops and civilians. This was a repeat of the Islamist violence against Jews which had exploded in 1920, 1928-29, 1936 and 1990.

The rose of Sharon and the rise of Sharon – September 2000

On September 28, 2000, then-opposition leader of Israel Ariel Sharon visited the al-Aqsa compound accompanied by a large number of armed security guards. After Sharon left, a violent Palestinian demonstration erupted with people throwing stones and other projectiles at Israeli riot police. Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at the crowd, injuring 24 people. On September 29, 2000, Israel deployed 2,000 riot police to the mosque. After Friday prayers Muslims hurled stones at the police and at Jewish worshippers gathered at the Western Wall. The police then stormed the compound, firing both rubber bullets and live ammunition at the rioting Palestinians (4 killed and 200 wounded).

Israeli Arab journalist Khaled Abu Toameh reported on September 19, 2002, that the rioting and the official reason behind it were planned and fabricated in advance by the Palestinian leadership:

Imad Faluji, the PA Communications Minister, admitted on October 11, 2001, that the violence had been planned in July, far in advance of Sharon’s ‘provocation.’ He said: “Whoever thinks that the intifada broke out because of the despised Sharon’s visit to Al-Aksa Mosque, is wrong, even if this visit was the straw that broke the back of the Palestinian people. This intifada was planned in advance, ever since President Arafat’s return from the Camp David negotiations . . .”

More than a year later, on the first anniversary of the intifada, West Bank Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti gave an interview on October 22, 2001 to the London-based Arabic newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat in which he admitted that he had played a direct role in igniting the intifada. He said: “I knew that . . . when Sharon reached al-Aksa Mosque, this was the most appropriate moment for the outbreak of the intifada . . . The night prior to Sharon’s visit, I participated in a panel on a local television station and I seized the opportunity to call on the public to go to al-Aksa Mosque in the morning . . . We tried to create clashes without success because of the differences of opinion that emerged with others in al-Aksa compound at the time . . . After Sharon left, I remained for two hours in the presence of other people, we discussed the manner of response and how it was possible to react in all the cities and not just in Jerusalem. We contacted all [the Palestinian] factions” (How the war began, Khaled Abu Toameh, September 19, 2002)

Close to 3,000 Palestinians and 1,000 Israelis were killed in these clashes, which lasted five years.

Once again, the 2000 AD Islamist violence was deliberately triggered against Jews. The fig leaf was a supposed Jewish attack on al-Aqsa mosque, but the real reasons were more sinister and had to do with another goal – jihadi destruction of the Jewish people’s state.

To view how Islamists perceive these events, watch Al Jazeera’s program.

The Ramadan riots – July 2017

On July 14, 2017 three Islamist terrorists attacked and murdered two Arab Israeli policemen at the conclusion of the Muslim holiday of Ramadan. Within a very short time their terrorist attack was being justified in Islamic circles (surprise, surprise) as a noble response to a ‘Jewish attack on the sanctity of al-Aqsa mosque.’ This false charge exploded like fireworks on a haystack, spreading like wildfire throughout the world’s media outlets. British commentator Melanie Phillips has written an excellent commentary on this dynamic – Incitement, lies and the strange eclipse of the Dome of the Rock.

Note the declarations of the most prominent Islamist leaders at the time of these riots, and how they echo the bloodthirsty cries of Haj Amin al-Husseini and his comrades:

Mahmoud Al-Habbash, PA chief shari'a justice and religious affairs advisor to ‘Abbas,: “Responsibility for the Al-Aqsa mosque is the exclusive right of the Palestinians, and Israeli intervention in the affairs of Al-Aqsa constitutes aggression against the Muslims' religious and political rights”

The Fatah Revolutionary Council “calls for holding demonstrations headed toward Jerusalem from the adjacent cities, villages, and refugee camps, and extends congratulations, commendation, and pride to our people in Jerusalem who guard Al-Aqsa mosque like the apple of their eye”

PLO executive committee member and Jerusalem Affairs department head Ahmad Qurei warned “The government of Israel and its executive branches are continuing to harm the Al-Aqsa mosque, pilfer its contents, and forcibly lay their hands on the mosque's entire noble compound”

Fatah Revolutionary Council member and spokesman Osama Al-Qawasmeh emphasized: "The Fatah movement will never allow the Israeli plan for emptying the Al-Aqsa mosque and Jerusalem's Old City of its original inhabitants, the Palestinian people, to pass . . . Jerusalem and its centerpiece, Al-Aqsa mosque, represent a red line in the fullest and deepest sense of the words, and that there will be no peace and stability unless Jerusalem is restored to its Palestinian owners."

Hamas political bureau head Isma’il Haniya said: “Al-Aqsa and Jerusalem are a red line . . . The occupation's plots will be carried out over our dead bodies”

Sheikh Raed Alah, leader of the northern branch of the Islamic movement in Israel, wrote: "As long as Al-Aqsa mosque is occupied, it is in constant danger. This danger will pass only if the Israeli occupation is removed. This means that the Israeli occupation is the source of the danger threatening Al-Aqsa mosque . . . and the attacks against it will intensify as long as it [remains] occupied . . ."

Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi, head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars and a prominent religious leader for the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and the Islamic Movement in Israel, tweeted: “Standing at the battlefront and at the head of the jihad in the land of prophecies and the place where the Prophet arrived in the Night Journey [i.e. Al-Aqsa] will continue until Allah alone declares victory and fulfills his promise.” “The existence of the Zionists is alien, oppressive, aggressive, and criminal. It is inconceivable for it to persist. It is undoubtedly [destined for] perdition”

Those who love Israel and believe in God’s divine hand accomplishing her restoration in our day – need to be aware of these dark machinations on the part of those who oversee the waqf of al-Aqsa and those who stir up violence among Palestinian and Muslims worldwide.

The current round of Ramadan riots – May 2021

When Ramadan began in late April 2021, Israeli police put up anti-riot barriers beside Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate, preventing young Arabs from gathering in the evenings. At the same time, violent videos were being posted on TikTok of Muslims attacking religious Jews in Jerusalem. Simultaneously, an Israeli court decision from 1973 evicting Arab squatters from property (originally Jewish owned in Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrach area) was finally about to be actualized. On April 22, a far-right Jewish group clashed with Muslims in front of the Damascus Gate, with some wounded on each side.

The Hamas terror organization in Gaza declared that Jerusalem and al-Aqsa Mosque were being threatened, and avowed that the “gates of hell” (an Arabic euphemism for ‘total war’) would be opened. Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Lebanon’s Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah simultaneously began banging warm drums and threatening hostilities. Jerusalem Post reporter Seth Frantzman explains: “The statements by Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran are not isolated. They occurred as a coordinated message . . . preparing the ground for further violence . . . This is also a Hamas ploy for power in Jerusalem, a city it has had a foothold in but in where it has had difficulty raising its head. It is a Hamas ploy for power in the West Bank after the Palestinian Authority postponed elections. It is also a way for Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas to appear relevant. They also want to drive a wedge between Israel and its new peace partners in the Gulf, knowing that the violence in Jerusalem will pressure Bahrain, the UAE and others to make statements . . . The bubbling crisis could now affect Israeli relations with the Gulf and may also spark the interest of Washington and Europe.”

The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) Spokesman Abdel-Latif Al-Qanua stated that Israeli actions “represent an escalation of aggression against our people, a flagrant breach of their legitimate rights, and a blatant violation of the freedom of worship . . . The continuation of these racist measures, vandalism in Al-Aqsa Mosque, restrictions on our people, and the pursuit of worshipers will result in a massive uprising against the occupier and its racist plans that target Al-Aqsa Mosque.”

Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Israeli politician Mansour Abbas (RA’AM party) condemned Israeli security forces, using language eerily similar to the words of Haj Amin al-Husseini: “I wholeheartedly condemn the violent assault on the holiness of the al-Aqsa mosque and the worshippers. Al-Aqsa mosque is for us a red line. Muslim control over the Temple Mount and the mosque is total/exclusive” he tweeted.

Attacks by mostly young Muslims against Israeli Police and IDF Border Patrol triggered riot-control measures and resulted in some wounded. When rioters attacked Police from within the al-Aqsa mosque, Israeli security forces entered the mosque and arrested rioters. Busloads of rioters on their way to Jerusalem were prevented from entering the city.

The rocket’s red glare

Over the past 27 hours, Islamist rockets have been fired from Gaza against Israeli kibbutzim and cities. They have either been intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-rocket network or have fallen in uninhabited areas. Some mortars have also been fired at Israeli targets.

Israel has long planned specific military exercises in the coming week focusing on simultaneous enemy attacks from Gaza and Lebanon. The exercise is appropriately named ‘Chariots of Fire’ (see 2 Kings 6:17; 13:14).

How should we then pray?

Pray for the frustrating and ceasing of Islamist rocket fire, and for divine wisdom for IDF strategic leadership
Pray for those who disseminate lies and violence about the Temple Mount – that they would receive a revelation of their sinful deeds and the gift of repentance which leads to everlasting life
Pray for diplomats to receive gifts of truth and courage to become forces for good and not for evil
Pray specifically for Arabic-speaking believers in Yeshua across the Islamic world to receive God’s perspective on these issues, as well as bravery to declare these truths clearly and unapologetically
Pray for Israelis to receive a revelation about what is actually happening on the Temple Mount, as well as an anointing of courage to explain to others what is happening
Pray for world leaders to receive a spirit of revelation and repentance about these matters, that they might come into alignment with God’s word and heart (Ephesians 3:14-19)

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

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal or credit card) through: www.davidstent.org

Biblical foundations and Iran

Over the past few years, world news has been playing ‘whack-a-mole.’ Burning headlines jump back and forth between subjects such as U.S. riots, U.S. elections, and U.S. border crises. And, as has recently been exposed, major media have spotlighted a deliberate media focus on fear-inspiring coronavirus-related headlines over the past year, in order to boost circulation. But for those who keep an eye on Middle East developments, it is Iran’s nuclear subterfuge and turtle-like progression toward developing functional atomic bombs which has exercised a sobering influence on the area’s top players – Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Israel. The recently signed Abraham Accords were crafted to have a multi-faceted emphasis, yet most analysts see the heart of the matter here to be a defensive response to Iranian ambitions in the Middle Eastern arena. Iran’s unconcealed desire to become the dominant Islamic Caliphate is understood to be a real threat by the world’s Sunni Muslim majority.

Iran’s Islamist dictators are driven by faded dreams of Shi’ite glory going back to the 600’s A.D., when their leaders once looked ‘most likely to succeed’ in steering the jihadi ship of state. Crushed repeatedly in combat (especially at the Battle of Karbala 680 A.D.) by Sunni power brokers, the Shi’ites saw their own defeat as a paradigm of holy martyrdom, and they looked forward to an End of Days scenario which would usher in Shi’ite triumph. At that point their Mahdi (‘rightly guided one’) would return, smiting all enemies (including Sunnis and Jews) and bringing on a Day of Judgment. Thus the establishment of a Shi’ite Caliphate (a world Islamist dictatorship) is their goal. To that end, Iran supports Shi’ite terrorist movements in Lebanon (Hezbollah), Gaza (Hamas; Palestinian Islamic Jihad), Syria (Iran Revolutionary Guards), Iraq (Kata’ib Hezbollah or Mahdi Army), Yemen (Houthis or Ansar Allah), etc. Their initial goal is to fully crush and control Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Lebanon and Israel. This would give them control over most of the world’s petroleum and shipping lanes in the Middle East. Western military and intelligence influence would be blocked throughout the Near East as well.A deadly serious cat-and-mouse game has been going on in the Middle East for some time now between Iran and its proxies on the one hand, and Israel and the U.S.A. on the other:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-56724039
https:/www.dw.com/en/israel-iran-conflict-to-be-major-middle-east-issue-in-2020/a-51600787

https:/www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/iranian-official-admits-israel-swiped-nuclear-archive-665257

Recently headlines have noted:

the American assassination of top Iranian General Qasem Soleimani (January 3, 2020) of the Iran Revolutionary Guards
a purported Israeli assassination of top Iranian nuclear scientist and weapons program director Mohsen Fakhrizadeh
a purported Israeli Naval Seals attack on an Iranian spy ship in the Red Sea.

Over the past months, Iranian-linked naval forces have hijacked foreign oil tankers and shot missiles or attached limpet mines to Israeli-connected cargo ships. For the most part these skirmishes have taken place in the shadows, but they underline the strategic importance of Iran as a spoiler and threat to Middle Eastern stability.

“It is Zion; no one cares for her” (Jeremiah 30:17)

For the most part, the Western world and China are not overly concerned about Iranian calls for Israel’s annihilation:

On May 22, 2020 Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei marked Quds (Jerusalem) Day in Iran, declaring “The Zionist regime is a deadly, cancerous growth and a detriment to this region . . . It will undoubtedly be uprooted and destroyed.”
On January 3, 2021 Iranian lawmakers proposed legislation that would obligate the government to initiate steps for the “destruction” of Israel by 2040.
“Creating facts unilaterally won’t help us in this already difficult situation,” (Germany’s Foreign Minister, Heiko Maas, referring to Israeli intentions to build housing in the Jerusalem area)
“What we are hearing currently out of Tehran is not a positive contribution, particularly the development in Natanz,” (Germany’s Foreign Minister, Heiko Maas, referring to recent purported Israeli counter-intelligence operations against Iran’s Natanz nuclear weapons factory)
“We reject any attempts to undermine or weaken diplomatic efforts on the nuclear agreement” (European Union spokesman P eter Stano, condemning purported Israeli operations against the Natanz nuclear weapons factory)
“China strongly condemns the sabotage on the Natanz nuclear facility in Iran. We firmly oppose attacks on nuclear facilities, which is a grave issue and can bring unpredictable and inestimable consequences” (Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian on April 14, 2021)
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on April 14, 2021 that those who “planned, ordered, participated in and carried out” the action committed a “reckless criminal nuclear terrorism” and a “grave war crime that must not go unpunished.”

There is a certain amount of buzz in some Christian circles regarding Iran-related apocalyptic events. But what bedrock biblical information is available to us about Iran’s End Times role and her spiritual dynamics?

A threefold cord

The Table of Nations in Genesis 10 informs us that “the sons of Shem were Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram” (Genesis 10:22). Abraham was a descendant of both Shem and Arpachshad (Genesis 11:10-26). Elam was also a descendant of Shem, and he was the forefather of one of the three great Iran-based nations, the Elamites. Abraham had to rescue his nephew Lot from the forces of Chedorlaomer king of Elam in his own day (Genesis 11:11-17).

The three nations connected biblically with modern Iran are the Elamites, the Medes/Medians, and the Persians. Isaiah 21:2 and Jeremiah 25:25 refer to the ancient political and military union between the kings of Elam and Media, while in the Book of Esther there is a reference to the ‘Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Media and Persia’ (Esther 10:2). These three nations uneasily shared the territory of what is modern Iran.

When Assyria exiled the Ten Tribes of Israel, they were banished to territories that Assyria had temporarily conquered from the Medes: “Then the king of Assyria led Israel into exile to Assyria, and put them in Halah and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes” (2 Kings 18:11). From that time onward, Jewish people lived in exile in the country known today as Iran. During the Feast of Shavuot/Pentecost, Jewish men would travel the great distance from Iran to Jerusalem, in order to participate in the sholesh regolim – the thrice yearly pilgrim holidays (Exodus 23:14-17). This means that Persian (also known as Parthian) Jews were also participants in the outpouring of the Ruach Hakodesh (the Holy Spirit) on the Day of Pentecost: “And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born? Parthians, Medes, and Elamites . . . Jews” (Acts 2:8-10).

YHVH the God of Israel raised up the Medes and the Persians to destroy the superpower of Babylon: “Behold, I am going to stir up the Medes against them, who will not value silver or take pleasure in gold. And their bows will mow down the young men. They will not even have compassion on the fruit of the womb, nor will their eye pity children. And Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, the glory of the Chaldeans’ pride, will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah” (Isaiah 13:17-19). Darius (of Daniel’s ‘lion’s den’ fame) was described as being “the son of Ahasuerus, of Median descent, who was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans” (Daniel 9:1).

Ezra sees these three nations as kingdoms bound together: “And they finished building following the command of the God of Israel and the decree of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia” (Ezra 6:14). “The laws of Persia and Media . . . cannot be repealed” (Esther 1:19).

The prophetic destiny of Elam

There are two clear statements about the destiny of Elam found in Jeremiah. The first one prophesies a near-future collapse of their empire accompanied by great destruction and devastating exile.

The word of YHVH that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning Elam, at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying: “This is what YHVH of armies says: Behold, I am going to break the bow of Elam, the finest of their might. I will bring upon Elam the four winds from the four ends of heaven, and will scatter them to all these winds. And there will be no nation to which the outcasts of Elam will not go. So I will shatter Elam before their enemies and before those who seek their lives. And I will bring disaster upon them, even My fierce anger, declares YHVH. And I will send the sword after them until I have consumed them. Then I will set My throne in Elam, and eliminate from there the king and officials, declares YHVH (Jeremiah 49:34-38)

The second prophecy is one of comfort, promising a restoration of Elamite fortunes at the End of Days.

But it will come about in the last days that I will restore the fortunes (Jeremiah 49:39)

The prophetic destiny of Persia – part one

There are three passages which lay out prophecies about Persia which have already happened.

The first passage prophesies that Babylon will be conquered by the Persians and the Medes and divided between them (539 B.C.):

“Then the hand was sent from Him and this inscription was written out. Now this is the inscription that was written: ‘Menē, Menē, Tekēl, Upharsin.’ This is the interpretation of the message: ‘Menē’ – God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it. ‘Tekēl’ – you have been weighed on the scales and found deficient. ‘Perēs’ – your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians.” . . . That same night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed. So Darius the Mede received the kingdom at about the age of sixty-two” (Daniel 5:24-31)

The second passage prophesies the rise of four Persian kings and their eventual conflict with the Greek Empire (529-480 B.C.):

“Behold, three more kings are going to arise in Persia. Then a fourth will gain far more riches than all of them. As soon as he becomes strong through his riches, he will stir up the entire empire against the realm of Greece” (Daniel 11:2)

The third passage prophesies in two parts – the first concerning the near-future rise of Persia/Media and Greece, and the second referring to a coming metamorphosis of Greece into a fourfold kingdom (the Diadochi):

And I heard the voice of a man between the banks of Ulai, and he called out and said, “Gabriel, explain the vision to this man.” So he came near to where I was standing, and when he came I was frightened and fell on my face; and he said to me, “Son of man, understand that the vision pertains to the time of the end” . . . And he said, “Behold, I am going to inform you of what will occur at the final period of the indignation, because it pertains to the appointed time of the end. The ram which you saw with the two horns represents the kings of Media and Persia. The shaggy goat represents the kingdom of Greece, and the large horn that is between his eyes is the first king. The broken horn and the four horns that came up in its place represent four kingdoms which will arise from his nation, although not with his power . . . And the vision of the evenings and mornings which has been told is true. But as for you, keep the vision secret, because it pertains to many days in the future” (Daniel 8:16-22, 26)

The prophetic destiny of Persia – part two

Ezekiel is the prophet who gives us clear details about the role that Iran/Persia will play in the Last Days. He calls that country out by name, and explains that it will be part of an anti-Semitic and anti-Israel military invasion force which will overrun the mountains of Israel – all this just before the return of Messiah Yeshua:

Now the word of YHVH came to me, saying, “Son of man, set your face toward Gog of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, and say, ‘This is what YHVH God says: “Behold, I am against you, Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. So I will turn you around and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out, and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them magnificently dressed, a great contingent with shield and buckler, all of them wielding swords; Persia, Cush, and Put with them, all of them with buckler and helmet; Gomer with all its troops; Bet-Togarmah from the remote parts of the north with all its troops – many peoples with you. Be ready, and be prepared, you and all your contingents that are assembled around you, and be a guard for them. After many days you will be summoned; in the latter years you will come into the land that is restored from the sword, whose inhabitants have been gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel which had been a continual place of ruins; but its people were brought out from the nations, and they are living securely, all of them. And you will go up, you will come like a storm; you will be like a cloud covering the land, you and all your troops, and many peoples with you.” (Ezekiel 38:1-9)

Therefore prophesy, son of man, and say to Gog, ‘This is what YHVH God says: On that day when My people Israel are living securely, will you not know it? You will come from your place out of the remote parts of the north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding horses, a large assembly and a mighty army; and you will come up against My people Israel like a cloud to cover the land. It shall come about in the last days that I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may know Me when I show Myself holy through you before their eyes, Gog. This is what YHVH God says: Are you the one of whom I spoke in former days through My servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days for many years that I would bring you against them? (Ezekiel 38:14-7)

This detailed prophecy reveals that Iran’s apocalyptic role involves invading Israel, attacking the Jewish people who have been gathered from all the nations and restored from the sword of the Holocaust. These Jewish people would settle on the mountains of Israel – what is today called Shomron or Samaria or the northern section of the West Bank. Iran will be part of an international fighting force with contingents from many specific countries in the Middle East, Africa and the Turkic belt of some of those countries whose name ends with the suffix “stan”.

Persian princes and spiritual warfare

Daniel the prophet receives clear revelation from an angelic being (chapter 10), possibly Gabriel. That angel explained to him that from the first day that Daniel had set his heart on understanding these matters and on humbling himself before his God, Daniel’s words were heard (see James 5:16; Luke 18:1). The angel then says that “I have come in response to your words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia was standing in my way for twenty-one days. Then behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia. Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the latter days, because the vision pertains to the days still future” (Daniel 10:12-14). A determined demonic opposition may have slowed the arrival of the divine answer, but it could not stop it. It is a comfort to remember that the angels of God have the power to counteract and thwart the agents of the Devil. Worth noting here is that this prophecy specifically opens up the divine destiny of the Jewish people in the Last Days.

This amazing angelic revelation shows us that physical countries and empires are influenced by demonic hierarchies. There is an administrative demonic order in Satan’s kingdom. Paul refers to such things as well: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). The Bible indicates here that every country has demonic princes which are trying to influence their populations for evil, to foster and encourage sin, and to pull on men and women to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10).

The angel then said to Daniel, “Do you understand why I came to you? But I shall now return to fight against the prince of Persia; so I am leaving, and behold, the prince of Greece is about to come. However, I will tell you what is recorded in the writing of truth. Yet there is no one who stands firmly with me against these forces except Michael your prince” (Daniel 10:20-21). Here it is revealed that the rise and fall of world empires is connected to God’s strategies. But there is simultaneously an opposing undercurrent of Satan’s hierarchical warfare as well. See Revelation 12 for a summation of this process and its prophetic insight regarding the specifically redemptive Jewish factor here as well. As we consider the modern Middle East as well as the Western and Eastern superpowers, let’s keep aware of these demonic factors and influences as we shine God’s light into a darkened world (see Philippians 2:12-16).

How to pray for Iran

At present there is a strong body of believers in Iran who have courageously thrived under intense persecution and tribulation. Many of these wonderful people have a deep love for the Jewish people and for the country of Israel. I have seen secret videos from Iran where believers worshipped to Hebrew melodies, danced Israeli folk dances in praise, and used the flag of Israel with its star of David as part of their meetings.

Pray for Iranian believers – for protection, boldness and spiritual fruit and harvest
Pray for Iran’s leadership – for Damascus Road revelatory experiences, angelic visitations and dreams from heaven
Pray for many Iranians to catch YHVH’s vision of His love for His Jewish people and His continuing redemptive acts on behalf of Israel
Pray for the raising up of the Ezekiel 37 prophetic army among the Jewish people

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

Donations can also be made on-line (PayPal or credit card) through: www.davidstent.org

Passover – the waters of death and the waters of life

Passover is here. Jewish homes are gathering for our yearly seder, the recounting of God’s deliverance from the hands of our enemies in Egypt. This is the Jewish family celebration par excellence. I have cherished childhood memories of my Ukraine-born bobbeh (Jewish grandmother) bringing out culinary masterpieces, one after another, to the festive table. I would sing the Four Questions, the privilege of the youngest child, and my father (who had been a cantor in the US Army) led the family and guests in singing the entire Haggadah (the long liturgical song service) while I slowly drifted off to sleep.

This year let’s consider the redemptive role of water in the Exodus story. Both death and life are bound up in the waters of Egypt.

“Drown the seed of Abraham!”

“But as the time of the promise which God had assured to Abraham was approaching, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt, until ‘another king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph.’ It was he who shrewdly took advantage of our nation and mistreated our fathers in order that they would abandon their infants, so that they would not survive” (Acts 7:17-19). The Passover story is deeply connected to the flowering of YHVH’s promise to Abraham:

Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him.Then God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years. But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age. Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.” (Genesis 15:12-16)

The Jewish people entered into Goshen and prospered there. Thanks to Joseph’s divine connections they experienced good relationships with Egypt’s leadership. But all good things come to an end. Joseph died. The pharaoh died. And “a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph . . . Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, ‘Every [Hebrew] son who is born, you are to throw into the Nile, but every daughter, you are to keep alive’” (Exodus 1:8, 22). But the waters which brought death to Israel would be used by YHVH to bring deliverance.

A beautiful child

“Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived and gave birth to a son; and when she saw that he was beautiful, she hid him for three months. But when she could no longer hide him, she got him a papyrus basket and covered it with tar and pitch. Then she put the child in it and set it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile” (Exodus 2:1-3).

Amram the Levite and his wife Yocheved (Numbers 26:59) had three children – Miriam, Aaron and Moses. Yocheved could not bear the thought of killing her baby; he was a beautiful child. She hid him, avoiding the long hand of Egypt’s secret service, but pressures eventually led her to put her baby’s fate into YHVH’s hands. She took some of the plentiful Egyptian papyrus found along the banks of the Nile and made a small basket, sealing its bottom with pitch as Noah had done many years before (Genesis 6:14). She sent her daughter Miriam to watch over the basket and be an eyewitness as to the bitter fate of her dear son: “And his sister stood at a distance to find out what would happen to him” (Exodus 12:4).

God’s hand was all over this scenario:

Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the Nile, with her female attendants walking alongside the Nile. And she saw the basket among the reeds and sent her slave woman, and she brought it to her. When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the boy was crying. And she had pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call a woman for you who is nursing from the Hebrew women, so that she may nurse the child for you?” Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go ahead.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. And she named him Moses [Hebrew, Moshe], and said, “Because I drew him [Hebrew, m’shitehu] out of the water” (Exodus 12:5-10).

What had been the watery graveyard of many Jewish babies was now transformed by YHVH into the water-filled springboard for freeing the entire nation of Hebrew slaves. Out of death would come life.

“By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s edict” (Hebrews 11:23).

The waters of the Nile – a divine sign

When YHVH and Moses were discussing his commission – to become the ‘Abraham Lincoln’ of Egypt’s Jews – He gave Moses a supernatural sign:

Then Moses said, “What if they will not believe me or listen to what I say? For they may say, ‘YHVH has not appeared to you.’” [. . . and YHVH said] “So if they will not believe you nor pay attention to the evidence of the first sign, they may believe the evidence of the last sign. But if they will not believe even these two signs nor pay attention to what you say, then you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground; and the water which you take from the Nile will turn into blood on the dry ground” (Exodus 4:1, 8-9)

The Egyptian context of what this sign meant is powerful. Two of Egypt’s demonic idols were directly connected to the Nile:

Hapi son of Horus was the god known as ‘Lord of the River Bringing Vegetation.’ He was considered responsible for the annual flooding of the Nile. This flooding deposited rich silt on the river's banks, ensuring healthy harvests.
Khnum was considered the god of the source of the Nile, the creator of the bodies of human children which he made at his divine potter's wheel from clay, and placed in their mothers' wombs. His titles included 'Divine Potter' and 'Lord of created things from himself.'

The God of Jacob was showing by this sign that He is sovereign over all supposed gods and spiritual authorities. The message would not be lost on Pharaoh, Egypt’s priests and commoners alike.

Then YHVH said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is stubborn; he refuses to let the people go. Go to Pharaoh in the morning just as he is going out to the water, and position yourself to meet him on the bank of the Nile. And you shall take in your hand the staff that was turned into a serpent. And you shall say to him, ‘YHVH, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you, saying, “Let My people go, so that they may serve Me in the wilderness. But behold, you have not listened up to now.” This is what YHVH says: “By this you shall know that I am YHVH: behold, I am going to strike the water that is in the Nile with the staff that is in my hand, and it will be turned into blood. Then the fish that are in the Nile will die, the Nile will stink, and the Egyptians will no longer be able to drink water from the Nile.”
Then YHVH said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and extend your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, over their streams, over their pools, and over all their reservoirs of water, so that they may become blood. And there will be blood through all the land of Egypt, both in containers of wood and in containers of stone.’” So Moses and Aaron did just as YHVH had commanded. And he lifted up the staff and struck the water that was in the Nile in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants. And all the water that was in the Nile was turned into blood. Then the fish that were in the Nile died, and the Nile stank, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. And the blood was through all the land of Egypt . . . And Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, just as YHVH had said. Then Pharaoh turned and went into his house with no concern even for this. So all the Egyptians dug around the Nile for water to drink, because they could not drink from the water of the Nile. Seven days passed after YHVH had struck the Nile. (Exodus 7:14-25)

The God of the Hebrews was confronting and defeating the ‘gods’ of Egypt. The Ten Plagues were actually a magnificent and awesome manifestation of spiritual warfare, as YHVH Himself declares: “For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and fatally strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the human firstborn to animals. And against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments – I am YHVH” (Exodus 12:12; see Numbers 33:4).

YHVH was using the waters of the Nile to make a point and declare the gospel, the good news, of His immediate deliverance.

“I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army”

The climax of YHVH’s judgment came through water. The God of the Hebrews declared that He would be glorified through the drowning of Egypt’s special forces in the waters of the sea:

Now YHVH spoke to Moses, saying, “Tell the sons of Israel to turn back and camp in front of Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. You shall camp in front of Baal-zephon, opposite it, by the sea. For Pharaoh will say of the sons of Israel, ‘They are wandering aimlessly in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.’ And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will chase after them; and I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am YHVH” . . . Then the Egyptians chased after them with all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen and his army, and they overtook them camping by the sea, beside Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon (Exodus 14:1-4, 9)
But Moses said to the people, “Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of YHVH, which He will perform for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again, ever. YHVH will fight for you, while you keep silent” . . . Then Moses reached out with his hand over the sea; and YHVH swept the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and turned the sea into dry land, and the waters were divided. So the sons of Israel went through the midst of the sea on the dry land, and the waters were like a wall to them on their right and on their left.
Then YHVH said to Moses, “Reach out with your hand over the sea so that the waters may come back over the Egyptians, over their chariots and their horsemen.” So Moses reached out with his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal state at daybreak, while the Egyptians were fleeing right into it; then YHVH overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen, Pharaoh’s entire army that had gone into the sea after them; not even one of them remained. But the sons of Israel walked on dry land through the midst of the sea, and the waters were like a wall to them on their right and on their left. So YHVH saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. When Israel saw the great power which YHVH had used against the Egyptians, the people feared YHVH, and they believed in YHVH and in His servant Moses. (Exodus 14:13-14, 21-22, 26-30)

“By faith they passed through the Red Sea as through dry land. And the Egyptians, when they attempted it, were drowned” (Hebrews 11:29).

As Pharaoh had tried to destroy the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob through water, so YHVH destroyed the cream of Egypt’s military might through water. This was in accordance with His promise to Abraham that YHVH would curse the one who curses the Jewish people (Genesis 12:3) – tit for tat.

Biblical praise and worship

Some of us are comfortable praising God in a beautiful sanctuary, with wall-to-wall carpeting and state-of-the-art sound systems. But the explosion of praise and worship which Moses, Miriam and the people of Israel raised on the shores of the sea reached heights that are unknown to many of us. In Exodus 15 they praised God for protecting the Jewish people according to His covenant promises, for utterly annihilating their enemies, and specifically for striking terror into the hearts of His enemies in what is today known as Gaza, the West Bank and Jordan. They praised Him for the fact that YHVH was about to bring Joshua and Israel into the Promised Land, there to be planted forever by God’s hand:

Then Moses and the sons of Israel sang this song to YHVH, saying: “I will sing to YHVH, for He is highly exalted! The horse and its rider He has hurled into the sea. YHVH is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation. This is my God, and I will praise Him; My father’s God, and I will exalt Him. YHVH is a warrior; YHVH is His name! Pharaoh’s chariots and his army He has thrown into the sea, and the choicest of his officers are drowned in the Reed Sea. The waters cover them. They went down into the depths like a stone. Your right hand, Lord, is majestic in power. Your right hand, Lord, destroys the enemy . . . The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoils! I shall be satisfied against them! I will draw my sword, my hand will destroy them!’ You blew with Your wind, the sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters. Who is like You among the gods, YHVH? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders? . . . Anguish has gripped the inhabitants of Philistia. Then the chiefs of Edom were terrified. The leaders of Moab, trembling grips them. All the inhabitants of Canaan have despaired. Terror and dread fall upon them. By the greatness of Your arm they are motionless as stone – until Your people pass over, YHVH, until the people pass over whom You have purchased. You will bring them and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance, the place, YHVH, which You have made as Your dwelling – the sanctuary, YHVH, which Your hands have established. YHVH shall reign forever and ever!” (Exodus 15)

Waters of the future

Zechariah shares a stunning prophetic word regarding YHVH the warrior’s future military exploits against His Middle Eastern enemies. He will once again act as He acted on Moses’ behalf, and once again dry up the Nile, bringing down His enemies in Egypt, Iraq and Lebanon. This is the God we serve, and this is His prophetic word. These prophecies need to be factored into our Last Days vision. Great shakings in the Middle East are soon to come. Let’s incorporate these prophetic declarations into our intercession and our strategic vision:

“For YHVH of armies has visited His flock, the house of Judah, and will make them like His majestic horse in battle. And they will be like warriors, trampling down the enemy in the mud of the streets in battle. And they will fight, because YHVH will be with them, and the riders on horses will be put to shame. And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them back, because I have had compassion on them. And they will be as though I had not rejected them, for I am YHVH their God and I will answer them. Ephraim will be like a warrior, and their heart will be joyful as if from wine. Indeed, their children will see it and be joyful. Their heart will rejoice in YHVH.
I will whistle for them and gather them together, for I have redeemed them. And they will be as numerous as they were before. When I scatter them among the peoples, they will remember Me in distant countries. And they with their children will live and come back. I will bring them back from the land of Egypt and gather them from Assyria. And I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon until no room can be found for them. And they will pass through the sea of distress and He will strike the waves in the sea, so that all the depths of the Nile will dry up. And the pride of Assyria will be brought down, and the scepter of Egypt will depart. And I will strengthen them in YHVH, and in His name they will walk, declares YHVH” (Zechariah 10:3-12)

Passover is a time for remembering, for praising God for His past redemptive acts, and for worshipping Him for all that He is yet to do!

How should we then pray?

Pray for the Jewish people to catch YHVH’s vision for His future redemptive acts on behalf of His people
Pray for the sons and daughters of Jacob to receive divine revelation of Messiah Yeshua their Passover Lamb
Pray for believers worldwide to receive fresh biblically-based revelation of YHVH’s heart and strategies for His covenant people
Pray for the raising up of the Ezekiel 37 prophetic army among the Jewish people

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

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal or credit card) through: www.davidstent.org

Moses, the Exodus and the Ten Plagues

Spring is at the door, and both Passover and the Israeli elections are upon us. Time to remember Moses and Aaron, the dynamic duo who delivered the Jewish people from Egyptian bondage by signs, wonders and persistent obedience to YHVH the God of Israel. The most dramatic of God’s power manifestations in Egypt were the Ten Plagues (makkot, or ‘blows’ in Hebrew): blood, frogs, vermin, flies, cattle plague, boils, hail, locusts, darkness and the slaying of the first-born.

Cattle plague and the finger of God

The phrase דֶּ֖בֶר כָּבֵ֥ד מְאֹֽד ‘dever kaved me’od’ – a very heavy pestilence/plague (a divinely catalyzed infectious bacteria, probably anthrax; Exodus 9:5) brought devastation to Egypt’s livestock. Horses, donkeys, camels, cattle and sheep/goats were all destroyed, though the plague somehow zoomed in on Egyptian herds, sparing the Jewish ones: “But YHVH will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing will die of all that belongs to the sons of Israel” (Exodus 9:4; also Exodus 8:22-23). The Egyptian gods Apis/Re, Hathor and Khnum were powerless before the finger of YHVH, and the animals sacred to them (bulls, cows, rams) likewise perished.

This cattle plague (dever) is used in the Bible to describe a punishment sent by God (see Jeremiah 14:12; 29:17-18). The oft-quoted 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 tells us that YHVH can send such plagues against Israel or other nations (see Jeremiah 27:8, 13): “If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send a plague among My people, and My people who are called by My name humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

We have received many requests for our perspective on what is happening in Israel (especially) and in the nations concerning the virus which first reared its dragon-like head in China nearly a year and a half ago. Both political and medical communities have been overtaken by surprise regarding the nature, source, intensity and antidote to this problem. Everyone is scrambling to catch up. Those considered to be authorities have been extremely frustrated due to the time lag between fast-paced events and the accuracy of their official declarations. Fairness, accuracy, pastoral wisdom and humility are prerequisites for all of us at this juncture in time.

Luke 2:34-35 describes Yeshua as “a sign to be opposed . . . to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” In the same way, God speaks prophetically to the world “so that the secrets of men’s hearts are disclosed” (1 Corinthians 14:25). Both believers and secular folk are having ample opportunity to see the truth of Paul’s words as battle lines are drawn over these issues: “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are . . . hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions” (Galatians 5:19-20). His exhortation to us all – “If we live by the Spirit, let’s follow the Spirit as well. Let’s not become boastful, challenging one another” (Galatians 5:25).

Peering through the fog of war

Solomon shares two nuggets of wisdom with us:

“The first to plead his case seems right, until another comes and examines him” (Proverbs 18:17).
“A lazy one sees himself as wise in his own eyes, more than seven who know how to give a discreet answer” (Proverbs 26:16). Someone has paraphrased this last proverb: “A fool can ask more questions than seven wise men can answer!”

The unprecedented speed and virulence of this recent plague has brought with it ‘the fog of war’ (German, Nebel des Krieges). “War is the realm of uncertainty; three quarters of the factors on which action in war is based are wrapped in a fog of greater or lesser uncertainty. A sensitive and discriminating judgment is called for; a skilled intelligence to scent out the truth” (General Carl von Clausewitz). The intense pressure and scrutiny under which politicians, medical authorities and the media find themselves – “Solve the crisis yesterday!” – has resulted in some unfortunate rushes to judgment. These may well have skewed people’s ability to make sense of events.

The pedigree of this virus is shrouded in Asian fog. Churchill’s telling description of Russia as “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma” seems to fit the puzzling Chinese origin of this coronavirus. According to the former head of the CIA, in the Fall of 2019 researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) laboratories fell ill with symptoms consistent with COVID-19. Scientists there were working since 2015 with RaTG13, a bat coronavirus 96.2 % similar genetically to the virus that causes COVID. The lab has been doing research for the Chinese military since 2017. With the outbreak of the coronavirus, the Chinese government engaged in a cover-up, including the silencing or removal of on-site Chinese doctors who had tried to warn locals. Angus Dalgleish (Professor of Oncology, St Georges University, London) notes that “Chinese scientists who wished to share their knowledge have not been able to do so and indeed . . . it appears that preserved virus material and related information have been destroyed.” Access to on-site virus samples, lab records and personnel, eyewitnesses, and whistleblowers were blocked and are still mostly blocked by China. Simultaneously, Beijing has suggested that the virus’ origin may have come from a US virology lab, something which inadvertently acknowledges the possibility that the Covid-19 virus has a lab origin.

A scholarly article was published November 9, 2015, ‘A SARS-like cluster of circulating bat coronaviruses shows potential for human emergence.’ The authors (which include scientists from the Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Wuhan Institute of Virology) discussed (four years before the current pandemic) their research and laboratory modification of bat coronavirus. They homed in on “the threat of cross-species transmission events leading to outbreaks in humans. Here we examine the disease potential of a SARS-like virus . . . Using the SARS-CoV reverse genetics system, we generated and characterized a chimeric virus expressing the spike of bat coronavirus . . . Our work suggests a potential risk of SARS-CoV re-emergence from viruses currently circulating in bat populations.”

Another scholarly article submitted on January 29, 2019 to MDPI (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute. a publisher of open access scientific journals) by the Wuhan Institute of Virology discussed ‘Bat Coronaviruses in China.’ The publication stated that over the past two decades, three coronaviruses have been identified as the cause of large-scale disease outbreaks – SARS, MERS and SADS. Two of these originated in China, and caused a worldwide pandemic claiming thousands of lives. “It is highly likely that future . . . coronavirus outbreaks will originate from bats, and there is an increased probability that this will occur in China. Therefore, the investigation of bat coronaviruses becomes an urgent issue for the detection of early warning signs, which in turn minimizes the impact of such future outbreaks in China.”

A research article submitted for publication to the Chinese Journal of Biosafety and Biosecurity on October 26, 2018 by scientists at both the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Wuhan Library and Intelligence Center, already expressed scholarly concern regarding safety issues at Chinese biological research/warfare labs: “The biosafety laboratory is a double-edged sword; it can be used for the benefit of humanity but can also lead to a ‘disaster.’ With increasing numbers of high-level biosafety laboratories constructed in China, it is urgent to establish and implement standardized management measures for biosafety laboratories.” Immediate problems included a lack of “operational technical support, professional instructions” and “feasible standards for the safety requirements of different protection zones and for the inoculation of microbiological animals and equipment.”

Sir Richard Dearlove or ‘C’, the former head of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) between 1999 and 2004, has said on The Telegraph's Planet Normal podcast (June 4, 2020; 18:20-22:30) that recent reports point to Chinese scientists at the WIV carrying out clandestine gene-splicing experiments on bat coronaviruses when the virus escaped due to biosecurity flaws. “I do think that this started as an accident . . . It's a risky business if you make a mistake. Look at the stories . . . of the attempts by the leadership to lock down any debate about the origins of the pandemic and the way that people have been arrested or silenced. I mean, we shouldn't really have any doubt any longer about what we're dealing with.”

The report Dearlove referenced was at one point rejected by several journals, including Nature and the Journal of Virology, which deemed the research “unsuitable for publication.” The report was then rewritten a number of times to remove accusatory claims about China before being published in the Quarterly Review of Biophysics Discovery. One of their previous versions suggested the novel respiratory disease should be dubbed the ‘Wuhan virus,’ and claimed to have proven “beyond reasonable doubt that the COVID-19 virus is engineered.” The authors originally wrote that “we are aware that these findings could have political significance and raise troubling questions.” Dearlove concludes, “It raises the issue, if China ever were to admit responsibility, does it pay reparations? I think it will make every country in the world rethink how it treats its relationship with China and how the international community behaves towards the Chinese leadership.”

“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics” (attributed to Mark Twain)

The push for leaders to access and present accurate analyses of the disease pandemic has resulted in a measure of haste and inaccuracy in some public declarations.

One of these concerns the ‘infection fatality rate’ (IFR) – what percentage of people die after catching the disease. In early March, the World Health Organization announced that “about 3.4% of reported Covid-19 cases have died” and that “by comparison, seasonal flu generally kills far fewer than 1% of those infected.” This 3.4% figure was widely reported. Former President Trump disagreed, saying , “I think the 3.4% is really a false number,” and “I would say the number is way under 1%.” The Center for Evidence-Based Medicine at the University of Oxford now estimates that the infection fatality rate for Covid-19 is “somewhere between 0.1% and 0.41%.” This is well below 1% and within range of the flu’s infection fatality rate of 0.15%.

The present pandemic has led to millions of deaths and much suffering. At the same time, it is important for people get an accurate read on what the dangers and fatality rates are, in order to be able to assess the threats without unnecessary panic. It is sobering to consider that one recent survey revealed that “31% of Americans say they believe the number of Americans dying is lower than the number reported.” One of the factors which has influenced countries around the world to grind to a halt economically and socially, has been what may well be a somewhat exaggerated read of the dangers.

Another example of the need for accurate communication involves the confusion resulting from public health guidelines being reversed. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in a March 8, 2020 interview stated that “right now in the United States, people [who are not infected] should not be walking around with masks,” but “if you want to do it, that's fine.” On April 3, the Center for Disease Control (and Fauci) reversed course and advocated for wearing non-surgical masks to reduce community transmission. Reversals of this nature weaken the credibility of these authorities.

A third example involves governmental agencies being less than transparent regarding the numbers of fatalities, whether undercounting or overcounting them. In a December 31, 2020 article entitled “Covid-19: Russia admits to understating deaths by more than two thirds,” the reporter states: “Russia’s true death toll from the novel coronavirus pandemic is not about 57,000, as official figures claim, but more than 180,000, the country’s deputy prime minister, Tatiana Golikova, conceded at a press conference.”

The need for clarity, accuracy and non-fear-based reporting is summed up in the following quote from The Hill: “How the data on coronavirus is presented and discussed is a serious problem, as efforts to contain the pandemic . . . are based on the math of transmission. Far-reaching public policy decisions are made based not only on data but on public demands as shaped by the data presented to the public. The public needs to know the truth to have confidence in those policy decisions, even if the truth means that there is a great deal of uncertainty which will not be resolved for some time. Fundamentally, the problem is that people – and the news media – don’t like uncertainty and demand exact answers even when there are none to be had. The result too often is bad numbers, bad reporting and a disillusioned public when the numbers turn out to be off-base.”

Is haste always a bad thing?

There is a traditional Arabic proverb which states that “haste is satan’s creation” (‘al-ajaleh min ash-shaytan’). This novel pandemic has rushed into the world like a lion, and the response of the medical community has been to create an antidote as quickly as possible. Working under immense pressure, top vaccinologists and epidemiologists have applied cutting-edge technology using active principles and mechanisms which are different from the standard ‘killed vaccine’ inoculations. Standard vaccines inject people with a dose of inactivated or killed virus particles, bacteria or other pathogens that have been grown in culture and then killed to destroy disease-producing capacity. The immune system of each inoculated person then produces broad-spectrum antibodies with NK (natural killer) T-cells in reaction to the killed virus. This gives the vaccinated individual a resistance to the disease which lasts for a certain period of time.

The newly developed coronavirus vaccine uses a different technology called mRNA, causing the inoculated person’s immune system to be able to recognize and destroy the unique spike protein barbs typically studded across the surface of each coronavirus cell.

This vaccine is the ‘new kid on the block.’ The speed of its development was directly connected to the crisis of the pandemic-related emergency. Traditional lab tests (which usually last over 5 years) were thus compressed into an intensive three-month laboratory dash. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given emergency approval to this vaccine based on limited but strenuous tests. However, it is certainly true that normal procedures have been hot-wired in order to quickly get a vaccine out into the world. The goal here is to save lives and to reduce collateral damage from coronavirus and its often accompanying side-effects, like the cytokine storm.

Testing positive or negative?

Now we are dealing with both a new virus and a new vaccine – and both are too new to have much of a track record. Since the medical world has little experience in dealing with this coronavirus, and since there is precious little information on what might or what might not be the side-effects of this vaccine, the playing field of debate is wide open. Anyone can suggest what might be the potentially damaging side effects here, and they could be right – or wrong. Anyone can champion the vaccine and declare that there will never be negative side effects, and they could be right – or wrong. Most of the debate is presently arguing over possibilities and likelihoods. But little productive water has gone under the bridge here regarding verifiable results.

The propagandistic nature of the debates I have seen underscores the need to think and speak clearly. Arguments are never won by attacking people’s character, intelligence or motives. It would not be fair to compare the best of one side’s arguments with the worst arguments of the other side. Accuracy is not served by simply ‘filling in the blanks’ when sufficient information is lacking in defense of one’s own position. There is much left to discover and uncover in these matters. Let us not lose our souls in the journey or our love in the process.

Some of the negative possibilities being voiced (again, without available proof) include issues regarding weakening the effectiveness of one’s immune system, the future possibility of overreaction to new variants or viruses as a result of the effects of the mRNA vaccine, and effects on human fertility. On the other hand, those who raise these above issues are often summarily discounted as being part of a far-right or alt-right conspiracy theory group/cult. In Israel right now, the majority of the media and politicians characterize any hesitancy or concerns about the efficacy of the vaccine to be fake news or an indication of irrational fears.

Who’s on first?

Years ago the comedy duo Abbott and Costello had a routine called “Who’s on first?” involving a long string of word plays and double entendres. Today in Israel the term may have some less humorous meanings, connected to issues regarding the Israeli government’s drive to require Israeli residents to present proof of vaccination as a laissez-passer in order to attend public social events (concerts, cinemas, swimming pools, restaurants, bars, discothèques and synagogue or congregational gatherings). The government’s concern here revolves around the possibility that close social contact could end up spreading coronavirus infections (‘super-spreader events’). Those inoculated can receive a ‘green passport’ allowing them access to events temporarily off-limits to unvaccinated Israeli residents.

The problems with this step are multi-faceted:

So far over one million adults and under three million children have not been vaccinated. Some are considered medically unsuitable for vaccination; others have not yet been able to get to the vaccination sites, and others do not feel comfortable with this vaccine or possibly have personal reasons against being vaccinated. The green passport effectively removes them from participation in significant aspects of social life in Israel, even though they are most probably not sick with coronavirus. There is also deep discussion about under what circumstances unvaccinated workers who interface with the public could be let go from their jobs.
These new limitations are at odds with various Israeli laws protecting personal and individual civil rights, including the right not to have the government force medical procedures against a citizen’s will. The recent government decision to divulge information about non-inoculated citizens to municipal authorities has also created unease in some quarters, as well as the use of cell phone tracking of potentially or truly infected residents by the GSS (Israel Security Services – equivalent to the FBI). It’s worth remembering (though most people are not aware) that for many years America’s NSA and the UK’s GCHQ already have access to every cell phone and personal computer communication on the planet, with the Chinese catching up quickly. The famous American economist Milton Friedman once noted that “nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.” There is concern about a slippery slope and a potentially dangerous precedent in the deterioration of civil liberties here.
The history of the Jewish people (especially the persecutions of the Nazi period) casts a shadow on some of these steps, and causes echoes among a significant amount of Israelis who still remember those days.
There is significant social and media pressure on those who are not inoculated to follow the crowd on this one and ‘get the jab.’ Some feel that these pressures are manipulative and anti-democratic.

Here is a quote from the current Israeli Minister of Health Yuli Edelstein who himself was once a prisoner of conscience in Russia and suffered due to his desire to immigrate to Israel: “Getting vaccinated is a moral duty. It is part of our mutual responsibility . . . Whoever does not get vaccinated will be left behind.”

Among Israeli Messianic Jews and Gentiles, these matters have led to a measure of debate and argument. These tensions are challenging to average believers as well as to Messianic leadership. Some believers are declaring that the days of the mark of the beast are upon us, and a handful have stated that anyone who gets vaccinated has ended up siding with the enemy or even has lost his ability to be considered a real human. On the other side, there has been scorn and paternalistic intolerance toward other believers whose conscience or spirit will not permit them to receive the vaccine. Some congregations continue to meet by ZOOM, while others are subdividing their meetings by making room for vaccinated individuals in ‘green areas’ and also for unvaccinated individuals in ‘purple areas’.

The body of Messiah in Israel, like other places on the planet, is being tested through these events regarding its own spiritual unity and its love for the brethren (1 Peter 1:22; 1 John 3:11,16).

A good name is to be chosen over great riches (Proverbs 22:1)

Hollywood knows how to recognize a good story. Many blockbuster films have zeroed in on the themes of industrial sin and greed – how large companies have attempted to destroy competition or whistleblowers in their ambition to corner the market. In 2000 Julia Roberts played the role of Erin Brockovitch in a movie about Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E)’s cover-up of the Hinkley, CA groundwater contamination incident. Al Pacino and Russell Crowe starred in The Insider (1999), based on whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand’s fight to give testimony against wrongdoing in the tobacco industry.

In the rough-and-tumble of free market capitalism, powerful companies often try to band together as cartels in order to crush and swallow smaller competitors. It is possible that a similar dynamic has occurred regarding attempts to suppress and downplay innovative medical solutions and alternative treatments for coronavirus. Every few weeks Israeli papers carry positive and encouraging articles about local testing of potential anti-coronavirus wonder drugs. Here are some of those links from local media – NONS, EXO-CD24, ALLOCETRA, BUDESONIDE, IVERMECTIN, BAMLANIVIMAD, Spirulina seaweed, MOLNUPIRAVIR, Vitamin D, etc.

The fear of man brings a snare (Proverbs 29:25)

There are some people who are strongly convinced that deep and dark Armageddon-like conspiracies are presently afoot. They believe that a handful of men are actively conspiring to bring about a reset of the entire planet, establishing a dictatorship which will both enslave mankind and turn the human race into a synthesis of robot and human. The result can often lead to a fear of government authority and social institutions, including among some here in Israel. Fear usually morphs into anger and then hatred.

There is no question that the Scriptures do speak about the Last Days, and part of that scenario is the temporary triumph of evil men and women, including the requirement for all mankind to receive mark of the beast:

And it was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast would even speak and cause all who do not worship the image of the beast to be killed. And he causes all, the small and the great, the rich and the poor, and the free and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, and he decrees that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name. (Revelation 13:15-17)

In the Talmud (Ketubot 111 aleph) Jews are exhorted not to behave in such a way that the coming of Messiah will be delayed. The French rabbinic commentator Rashi added that God doesn’t want the Jewish people to push for the Last Days to come before their appointed time. That balance is helpful for us as we teetering on the edge of a global pandemic. Living in light of the ‘time of Jacob’s trouble’ still means that we need to walk carefully and not give in to stampeding the process: “Woe, for that day is great! There is none like it. And it is the time of Jacob’s distress/narrowness. Yet he will be saved from it” (Jeremiah 30:7).

In light of the importance of this subject, I am going to do something I have never done up to this point. I am copying the last two sections from my previous newsletter. They are worth chewing on again, and are even more relevant in this context.

A pandemic of fear

A dear and departed prophetic friend spoke nearly ten years ago of a pandemic which would come upon the earth. He said that “the first one would prove to be little but fear,” but that a second one coming after that would be serious. There is all-too-evident fear spreading across the globe, and it is certainly doing great damage.

The current spread of the coronavirus has caught many unprepared and at a disadvantage. Proper awareness of the virus’ origins and design, proper emergency hospital treatment, proper evaluation of potentially promising anti-viral medicinal solutions, accurate appraisals of the effectiveness of masks and social distancing, accurate communications to the public regarding what the vaccine can and can’t do, and clear explanations about its development process – in so many cases medical, scientific and political authorities have been doggedly struggling to keep abreast of the fast-moving changes and developments. And their consumer audiences (both of media and of vaccines) have been shocked to discover that sometimes and in some venues the emperor has no clothes.

Do not give the devil a foothold

We are aware of how some dear friendships are breaking down, how other relationships are fracturing, and social media wars are being conducted by believers in full public view, with drawn and bloody swords – just over these issues. Fear, anger, mutual accusations of conspiracy theories – is this what we signed up for, dear brothers and sisters? What do we need to do to be able to stand in the evil day? Paul reminds us that “we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of people, by craftiness in deceitful scheming, but speaking the truth in love . . . (Ephesians 4:14-15).

In the midst of this media maelstrom, it is important to remember the humanity of those with whom one disagrees, on both sides of the aisle. All of us must honor each other’s right (both ethically and legally) to hold our own perspectives and opinions. Those who would suppress or suspend the civil rights of people who in good conscience cannot or will not receive vaccination, are potentially leading their people down a slippery slope, one which could easily lead into dark cellars.

I have always found encouragement from this apostolic command, “Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil a base of operations/ a foothold/ an opportunity” (Ephesians 4:27). The Greek work here is topos (τόπος), and the language conveys the sense of a helipad, where a demonic helicopter can land an unload troops.

Let no unwholesome word come out of your mouth, but if there is any god word for edification according to the need of the moment, say that, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the Ruach HaKodesh of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. All bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and slander must be removed from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving each other, just as God in Messiah also has forgiven you. (Ephesians 4:29-32)

How should we then pray?

Pray for all those working on developing and applying medical solutions to receive God’s wisdom and strategies
Pray for governmental leaders to receive divine revelation and courage how to best handle the challenges and make the wisest decisions
Pray for all who are attempting to understand God’s ways and wisdom and obey His voice amidst the roaring storm of competing voices
Pray for believers in Israel to receive a new outpouring of God’s love for the body and His deep desire for unity, especially in crisis
Pray for the raising up of the Ezekiel 37 prophetic army among the Jewish people

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

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal or credit card) through: www.davidstent.org

Ezekiel 37 Institute – video teaching on the Minor Prophets - Obadiah

This video teaching is the twelfth and last one in our new twelve-part video series – teaching on eight of the Twelve Minor Prophets – presented by Avner Boskey from a Messianic Jewish and Israeli viewpoint.

This twelfth video is ‘The Prophet Obadiah’ https://youtu.be/_PHgtG0pEXc

We hope that you have enjoyed this series. Pray for us as we work on two new projects: the complete E37 Institute teachings, and a series on the Book of Ezekiel.

Our YouTube channel – Signet Ring Media – at the link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoX5hxSFWLBUANDaQttw0uQ

If you would like to stay notified of these new releases on the Signet Ring Media channel, after subscribing just click the notification bell .

For more information regarding the E37 Teaching Institute, visit: https://davidstent.org/e37/

Ezekiel 37 Institute – video teaching on the Minor Prophets - Habakkuk

We’re delighted to announce that our new twelve-part video series – teaching on the Minor Prophets – is being released on our YouTube channel. Once a week, we are releasing a new episode from this series. Eight of the Twelve Minor Prophets will be presented by Avner Boskey from a Messianic Jewish and Israeli viewpoint. Four of the prophetic books will have two video sessions each, while the other four books will be covered in one video each.

The eleventh video is ‘The Prophet Habakkuk https://youtu.be/dDSns2X3UZc

https://youtu.be/dDSns2X3UZc

We encourage you to subscribe to our YouTube channel – Signet Ring Media – go to the link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoX5hxSFWLBUANDaQttw0uQ

If you would like to stay notified of these new releases on the Signet Ring Media channel, after subscribing just click the notification bell 🔔.

For more information regarding the E37 Teaching Institute, visit: https://davidstent.org/e37/

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

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal or credit card) through: www.davidstent.org

The Feast of Esther – anger, conspiracy, fear and rescue

Let’s move the hands of the clock back more than 2,400 years to ancient Iran. Two high-level Persian court politicians had become so angry with King Ahasuerus that they plotted together to assassinate him. The old Latin word for this plan – conspiracy – comes from the joining of ‘spiro’ (to breath) and ‘con’ (together). They ‘breathed together’ – were in the same room – as they planned their dastardly deed.

In those days, while Mordechai was sitting at the king’s gate, Bigthan and Teresh, two of the king’s officials from those who guarded the door [ancient term for court diplomat; see also 6:2], became angry and sought to attack King Ahasuerus. But the plot became known to Mordechai and he informed Queen Esther, and Esther told the king in Mordechai’s name. Then when the plot was investigated and found to be so, they were both hanged on a wooden gallows; and it was written in the Book of the Chronicles in the king’s presence (Esther 2:21-23)

The Jewish holiday of Purim (‘lots/dice’ which are thrown to determine someone’s fate or a course of action) is upon us. It is the happiest of all Jewish celebrations, commanded in Esther 9:27-32 as a feast “not to be neglected by the Jews”, nor should “their memory fade from their descendants.” The manic-depressive (or, better worded, ‘depressive-manic’) nature of these events accurately reflect much of Hebrew history. Even today the world nervously considers a similar scenario – the Islamic Republic of Iran’s nuclear conspiracy to destroy Israel (the Jewish state) and to wreak havoc on pro-Western forces and neighbors.

Social media is currently buzzing with a plethora of posts focusing on coronavirus-related subjects. No matter what position these posters hold, one common denominator often binds these posts together – the flames of anger, conspiracy and fear.

Let’s consider the Book of Esther in light of our current situation. What can be learned about the roles of anger, conspiracy and fear in God’s redemptive process of rescuing both the Jewish people and all who turn to Him in these Last Days?

A king’s anger

Solomon commented that “a king’s wrath is like the roaring of a lion” (Proverbs 19:12). King Ahasuerus’ character comes down to us in Scripture as that of a man known for occasional burning anger:

On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was cheerful with wine, he ordered . . . to bring Queen Vashti before the king with her royal turban in order to display her beauty to the people and the officials, for she was beautiful. But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s order delivered by the eunuchs. So the king became very angry, and his wrath burned within him (Esther 1:10-12)
After these things, when the anger of King Ahasuerus had subsided, he remembered Vashti and what she had done, and what had been decided regarding her (Esther 2:1)
Then Haman became terrified before the king and queen. The king then got up in his anger from drinking wine and went into the palace garden (Esther 7:6-7)
So they hanged Haman on the wooden gallows which he had prepared for Mordechai, and the king’s anger subsided (Esther 7:10)

A queen’s fears

The Scroll of Esther reveals that, even though Esther was the favored Queen of Persia, she had to confront powerful fears.

Esther did not reveal her people or her kindred, because Mordechai had instructed her that she was not to reveal them (Esther 2:10)
Esther still had not revealed her relatives or her people, just as Mordechai had instructed her. For Esther did what Mordechai told her just as she had when under his care (Esther 2:20)
Then Esther spoke to Hathach and ordered him to reply to Mordechai: “All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that for any man or woman who comes to the king in the inner courtyard, who is not summoned, he has only one law, that he be put to death, unless the king holds out to him the golden scepter so that he may live” (Esther 4:10-11)
When Mordechai learned of everything that had been done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city and wailed loudly and bitterly. And he came as far as the king’s gate, for no one was to enter the king’s gate clothed in sackcloth. In each and every province where the command and decree of the king came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping, and mourning rites. And many had sackcloth and ashes spread out as a bed. Then Esther’s attendants and her eunuchs came and informed her, and the queen was seized by great fear. And she sent garments to clothe Mordechai so that he would remove his sackcloth from him, but he did not accept them. Then Esther summoned Hathach from the king’s eunuchs, whom the king had appointed to attend her, and ordered him to go to Mordechai to learn what this mourning was and why it was happening. So Hathach went out to Mordechai in the city square, in front of the king’s gate. Mordechai told him everything that had happened to him, and the exact amount of money that Haman had promised to pay to the king’s treasuries for the elimination of the Jews. He also gave him a copy of the text of the edict which had been issued in Susa for their annihilation, so that he might show Esther and inform her, and to order her to go in to the king to implore his favor and plead with him for her people (Esther 4:1-9)
When the king saw Esther the queen standing in the courtyard, she obtained favor in his sight. And the king extended to Esther the golden scepter which was in his hand. So Esther approached and touched the top of the scepter. Then the king said to her, “What is troubling you, Queen Esther? And what is your request? Up to half of the kingdom it shall be given to you!” (Esther 5:2-3)

There was good reason for Esther to fear. Her royal predecessor had been summarily dumped, and Esther only became queen through winning a fickle ‘Miss Persia’ beauty contest. The Jewish people were not native to Persia, having been exiled to Iran as Babylonian prisoners of war barely 100 years previous. There were good reason for Mordechai to forbid Esther from revealing her Jewish identity. Haman’s genocidal conspiracy plans leave no doubt about that.

Honor, fear, anger, blood and conspiracy

“High honor is not safe from injury until blood is spilt over its flanks” (a proverb of Abū al-Ṭayyib Aḥmad ibn Al-Ḥusayn Al-Mutanabbī Al-Kindī, famous Iraqi ‘Abbāsid Arab poet at the court of Aleppo’s Sayf al-Dawla). In David Pryce-Jones’ classic ‘The Closed Circle: an interpretation of the Arabs’, he explains that “acquisition of honor, pride, dignity, respect and the converse avoidance of shame, disgrace, and humiliation are keys to Arab motivation, clarifying and illuminating behavior in the past as well as in the present” (page 34). This dynamic is found throughout the Middle East, he adds. Pryce-Jones notes that “by definition, honor and shame involve publicity” (page 40).

Here is a Middle-Eastern key to understanding the issue of public honor in some of Ahasuerus’ and Haman’s actions:

The principle of giving honor was decisive in the royal response to Vashti’s behavior (Esther 1:20).

Haman’s public authority was recognized by public homage. Mordechai’s refusal to follow the crowd was seen as a challenge which brought shame and potential weakness to Haman: “After these events King Ahasuerus honored Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and promoted him and established his authority over all the officials who were with him. All the king’s servants who were at the king’s gate bowed down and paid homage to Haman. For so the king had commanded regarding him. But Mordechai neither bowed down nor paid homage” (Esther 3:1-2)

Haman’s ambitious soul had no problem with enacting genocidal vengeance against Mordechai and his entire nation: “When Haman saw that Mordechai neither bowed down nor paid homage to him, Haman was filled with rage. But he considered it beneath his dignity to kill Mordechai alone, for they had told him who the people of Mordechai were. So Haman sought to annihilate all the Jews, the people of Mordechai, who were found throughout the kingdom of Ahasuerus” (Esther 3:5-6)

Then Haman went out that day joyful and pleased of heart. But when Haman saw Mordechai at the king’s gate and that he did not stand up or tremble before him, Haman was filled with anger against Mordechai. Haman controlled himself, however, and went to his house. But he sent for his friends and his wife Zeresh. Then Haman told them of the glory of his riches, and his many sons, and every occasion on which the king had honored him and how he had promoted him above the officials and servants of the king. Haman also said, “Even Esther the queen let no one except me come with the king to the banquet which she had prepared, And tomorrow also I am invited by her with the king. Yet all of this does not satisfy me every time I see Mordechai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.” Then Zeresh his wife and all his friends said to him, “Have a wooden gallows fifty cubits high made, and in the morning ask the king to have Mordechai hanged on it; then go joyfully with the king to the banquet.” And the advice pleased Haman, so he had the wooden gallows made (Esther 5:9-14)

So the king’s servants said to him, “Behold, Haman is standing in the courtyard.” And the king said, “Have him come in.” Haman then came in and the king said to him, “What is to be done for the man whom the king desires to honor?” And Haman said to himself, “Whom would the king desire to honor more than me?” Therefore Haman said to the king, “For the man whom the king desires to honor, have them bring a royal robe which the king has worn, and the horse on which the king has ridden, and on whose head a royal turban has been placed. Then order them to hand the robe and the horse over to one of the king’s noble officials, and have them dress the man whom the king desires to honor, and lead him on horseback through the city square, and proclaim before him, ‘So it shall be done for the man whom the king desires to honor.’” Then the king said to Haman, “Quickly, take the robe and the horse just as you have said, and do so for Mordechai the Jew, who is sitting at the king’s gate. Do not fail to do anything of all that you have said.” (Esther 6:5-10)

The thwarting of a conspiracy

The Book of Esther is essentially the historical narrative of how Satan took advantage of Persian Haman’s pride and genocidal ambitions, and how the devil was ultimately defeated by intercession (both in prayer and in direct appeal to the monarch – Esther 4:3, 8, 13-17; 7:1-6; 8:3) as well as by physical defeat of the anti-Jewish forces (Esther 8:4-9:16).

For Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the adversary of all the Jews, had schemed against the Jews to eliminate them, and had cast Pur, that is the lot, to disturb them and eliminate them. But when it came to the king’s attention, he commanded by letter that his wicked scheme which he had devised against the Jews was to return on his own head, and that he and his sons were to be hanged on the wooden gallows. Therefore they called these days Purim after the name of Pur. And because of the instructions in this letter, both what they had seen in this regard and what had happened to them, the Jews established and made a custom for themselves, their descendants, and for all those who allied themselves with them, so that they would not fail to celebrate these two days according to their regulation and according to their appointed time annually. So these days were to be remembered and celebrated throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city. And these days of Purim were not to be neglected by the Jews, or their memory fade from their descendants. (Esther 9:24-28)

Terrorism and fear

In the film ‘Network’ by Paddy Chayefsky and Sidney Lumet, a news media outlet seeking to boost ratings comes to the stark conclusion that terrorism sells. So the media executives get together in the same room and conspire to assassinate their own top television host on prime time.

Terrorism-related homicides are a small fraction of overall homicides, both in the world and in the U.S.A. Yet terrorist attacks are prominently highlighted on the evening news. And that media frenzy is exactly the outcome that terrorists desire. The media system actually fuels the fears of their audiences by marketing the shock value of terror attacks.

Things that seem uncertain, unpredictable and not controllable ratchet up people’s perception of risk. And when people remain in a state of heightened stress for a long time period, their ability to carefully weigh costs and benefits of different actions is downgraded, A felt need arises to resolve matters decisively and to establish certainty in one’s perspectives.

When people get angry, they find it hard to believe that factors beyond anyone’s control have caused the immediate problem. It must certainly be that there is an individual to blame. “People in an extended hyper-state of vigilance struggle to distinguish lower threats from higher threats.”

In the article ‘The enemy in our feeds: This is how your fear and outrage are being sold for profit’ by Tobias Rose-Stockwell, July 28, 2017, one sentence stands out as particularly relevant for us: “The terror was far more contagious than the virus itself, and had the perfect network through which to propagate – a digital ecosystem built to spread emotional fear far and wide.”

In Esther’s day it could have been said, “Even paranoid people can have real enemies following them.” In today’s social media culture, paranoid people see real enemies in just about every corner. Left-wingers and ‘progressives’ see the enemy on the right. Right-wingers and conservatives see the enemy on the left. Both pro and anti virus-vaccination advocates see dark hearts only on the other side of the aisle. Regardless of the final outcome, it can ruefully be noted that countries, families and individuals are being split over these matters. It might be the fear of the virus or it might be the fear of the vaccine. But the social collapse that we all see coming down is no respecter of persons.

A pandemic of fear

Do not give the devil a foothold

I have always found encouragement from this apostolic command, “Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil a base of operations/ a foothold/ an opportunity” (Ephesians 4:27). The Greek word here is topos (τόπος), and the language conveys the sense of a helipad, where a demonic helicopter can land an unload troops.

Let no unwholesome word come out of your mouth, but if there is any good word for edification according to the need of the moment, say that, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the Ruach HaKodesh of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. All bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and slander must be removed from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving each other, just as God in Messiah also has forgiven you. (Ephesians 4:29-32)

How should we then pray?

Pray for all those working on developing and applying medical solutions to receive God’s wisdom and strategies
Pray for governmental leaders to receive divine revelation and courage how to best handle the challenges and make the wisest decisions
Pray for all who are attempting to understand God’s ways and wisdom and obey His voice amidst the roaring storm of competing voices
Pray for the raising up of the Ezekiel 37 prophetic army among the Jewish people

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:

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BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal or credit card) through: www.davidstent.org

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Ezekiel 37 Institute – video teaching on the Minor Prophets – Nahum

Ezekiel 37 Institute – teaching on the Minor Prophets – Micah Part Two