Iron and clay, whirlwind and Jews

The leader of the world’s greatest superpower was awakened by a disturbing dream. Nebuchadnezzar’s “spirit was troubled and his sleep left him” (Daniel 2:1).  The dream was burning with significance, but its interpretation was hidden from him. The whole matter filled the king with foreboding. Nebuchadnezzar was going through a meltdown with no one to help him.

The king gave his advisors a choice – get supernatural revelation about the dream and its meaning or be put to death! With a probable sentence of death hanging over Babylon’s political and spiritual counsellors, Daniel and his friends interceded before YHVH. The God of Jacob gave Daniel the revelation he needed in the nick of time. Daniel went to Nebuchadnezzar and declared, “As for the mystery about which the king has inquired, neither wise men, conjurers, magicians nor diviners are able to declare it to the king. However, there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and He has made known … what will take place” (Daniel 2:27-28).

God’s wake-up call to the king of Babylon began with the truth that the God of Israel is sovereign even over the affairs of superpowers and super-kings. “Let the name of God be blessed forever and ever, for wisdom and power belong to Him. It is He who changes the times and the epochs. He removes kings and establishes kings. He gives wisdom to wise men and knowledge to men of understanding. It is He who reveals the profound and hidden things. He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with Him” (Daniel 2:19-22).

Whatever the challenges, whatever the shakings, the God of Jacob already knows the answer. He already has the solution.

A brittle state of the union

The top-secret revelation Daniel had received was future in scope. A list of empires would arise after mighty Babylon’s demise. The fourth in line (verse 40) was described as having toes made of a mixture of iron and clay (verse 33), referring to the partly strong /partly brittle nature of that kingdom (verses 42-43). That empire would suffer from a lack of internal unity and cohesion. At one point this kingdom would even undergo a painful division (verse 41).

But that fourth kingdom would also fade. Only after that would the final kingdom be inaugurated. The Messianic throne of David’s Greater Son would be established in Jerusalem and would reign over all nations. “In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people. It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever” (Daniel 2:44; see also Isaiah 2:1-5).

• That final kingdom has not yet been established on earth, though the day of its advent is drawing close. We who live in the days of the fourth kingdom (Daniel 2:40) would do well to heed the words of this prophecy as we attempt to deal with brittle disunity

Inherit the whirlwind

The biblical history of humankind continues to emphasize one consistent point: when mankind abandons God and His principles, the result is the collapse of society. From Cain to the corruption of Noah’s day, from the one-world false unity of Babel’s Tower to Sodom and Gomorrah’s fiery end – the Scriptural record drives home the message that “righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34).

In 1190 AD a cleric in the medieval court of Philippe of Alsace (the Count of Flanders) is quoted as having said “Rome ne s’est pas faite en un jour” (Rome was not built in a day). The construction of that mighty city and the zenith of its empire took place over a thousand year period. But Rome’s collapse happened rather quickly, as charted in Edward Gibbon’s masterpiece The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

• Gibbon emphasized that Rome’s fall was primarily due to the gradual loss of civic virtue among its citizens

One could add other empires to this list – like the British Empire. England had been granted a golden opportunity to bless and protect the Jewish people in 1917. Yet the divine invitation was spurned at the highest levels of its political and military command structure. Britain repeatedly violated Genesis 12:3, which proclaims that the blessing or cursing of the Jewish people is the international key to divine favor or judgment. Within approximately thirty years the British Empire was no longer.

The prophet Hosea spoke a similar warning to his own people. His words have relevance to each of our countries today.

• “Put the shofar to your lips! Like an eagle the enemy comes against the House of YHVH, because they have transgressed My covenant and rebelled against My teaching. Israel has rejected the good – the enemy will pursue him. They have set up kings, but not by Me. They have appointed princes, but I did not know it. With their silver and gold they have made idols for themselves. For they sow the wind and they reap the whirlwind” (Hosea 8:1-7)

When a country abandons God’s ways and word to establish its own – when materialism, secularism, rebellion, hatred and violence characterize its populace – these sad choices bring on traumatic shaking and agonizing barrenness. When a nation mocks the biblical principles regarding the shedding of innocent blood (Genesis 9:6; Numbers 35:33; Deuteronomy 19:10) or the divine foundations of marriage and sexual identity (Genesis 1:27; Matthew 19:4-6; Leviticus 18:22: 20:13; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10; 1 Timothy 1:9-11), the result is a spiritual ‘termite infestation’ which leads to social and spiritual collapse of a country’s foundations.

A house divided against itself

In civil war, a nation turns on itself. It is similar to how cancerous cells attack and destroy healthy cells in a human body.

Israel’s Messiah Yeshua Son of David once said, “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand” (Mark 3:24-25).

Many people in the Western world in general, and in the United States of America in particular, are horrified to witness the quickly widening cracks in their national foundations. The bedrock of biblical principles has been mocked and jettisoned. In their place the hydra-like heads of idolatrous materialism, sexual uncleanness, spiritual rebellion and anti-Semitism are rising up in preparation for a fateful battle royal.

A violent spirit of division

In late February 1848 a small booklet by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels was published in London’s Bishopsgate. Destined to become one of the world’s most influential political documents, its German title was Manifest der kommunistischen Partei (‘The Communist Manifesto’).

Its two opening sentences were riveting: “A specter is haunting Europe – the specter of communism. All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this specter” (“Ein Gespenst geht um in Europa  ‐ das Gespenst des Kommunismus. Alle Mächte des alten Europa haben sich zu einer heiligen Hetzjagd gegen dies Gespenst verbündet”). Marx and Engels presented their German revolutionary proposal following on the heels of the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror  – “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” This small manifesto would create earthquakes of division in both Europe and in Russia.

Classical Marxism (Communist political theory) prophesied that European nations would eventually be ripped in two, divided by the revolutionary spirit of Communism.

Violence was seen by these political architects as a foreordained means of establishing a Communist society.

• The last few words of the Communist Manifesto (1848) state clearly: “The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletariat have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.”

 

• On January 8, 1849 Engels proclaimed, “The next world war will result in the disappearance from the face of the earth not only of reactionary classes and dynasties, but also of entire reactionary peoples. And that, too, is a step forward” (marxistsfr.org/archive/marx/works/1849/01/13.htm).

 

• On February 21, 1874, Engels wrote in a letter to Wilhelm Blos: “To denigrate violence as something to be rejected, when we all know that in the end nothing can be achieved without violence!” (“Auf die Gewalt zu schimpfen als etwas Verwerfliches an sich, wo wir doch alle wissen, daß schließlich ohne Gewalt nichts durchzusetzen ist!”).

Fascist violence in Germany

Street violence in pursuit of revolutionary social change was to become a very European phenomenon. The rise of violent gangs whose goal was to ‘reclaim the streets’ was one of the main expressions of the mounting struggle between Communists and Nazis for the soul of Germany.

Here are quotes from Hitler himself and from the official pamphlet of the SA (Sturmabteilung – storm troopers, often known as ‘brownshirts’) along with the Nuremberg Trials file numbers (https://archive.org/stream/naziconspiracyag02unit/naziconspiracyag02unit_djvu.txt; http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/chap15_part04.asp):

• “What we needed and still need were and are not a hundred or two hundred reckless conspirators, but a hundred thousand and a second hundred thousand fighters for our philosophy of life. We should not work in secret conventicles, but in mighty mass demonstrations, and it is not by dagger and poison or pistol that the road can be cleared for the movement but by the conquest of the streets. We must teach the Marxists that the future master of the streets is National Socialism, just as it will someday be the master of the State” (404-PS)
• “Possession of the streets is the key to power in the state – for this reason the SA marched and fought” (2168-PS)

The present-day torch processions, thuggish marching and anti-Jewish/anti-Black threats of Nazis, neo-Nazis, KKK white supremacists and alt-right supporters in Charlottesville, Virginia shows that Hitler’s vision of fascist revolution through control of the streets lives on in the evil thoughts of these movements’ activists.

Communist violence in Germany

At the same time as the Nazis were rising to dictatorial power in Germany, the Communists also saw street fighting as a key to the triumph of their own cause. Under the leadership of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, the KPD (Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands – the Communist Party of Germany) was committed to spearheading a violent revolution in Germany, and during 1919 and 1920 violent attempts were made to seize control of the government.

The Roter Frontkämpferbund (Alliance of Red Front Fighters, also known as Rotfront – www.dhm.de/lemo/kapitel/weimarer-republik/innenpolitik/roter-frontkaempferbund.html) was formed in 1923 and was active until 1933 when it was banned (https://libcom.org/history/beating-fascists-german-communists-political-violence-1929-1933-eve-rosenhaft; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roter_Frontk%C3%A4mpferbund). The Communist youth street fighting Roter Jungsturm (Red Youth Storm) was renamed as Rote Jungfront (Red Youth Front) in 1925. These groups provided security for Communist events and also participated in active agitation. But since the Nazis’ street violence was more brutal and their movement more popular, most of the Red Fighters’ work involved fighting off Nazi and police attacks.  Street clashes between Communists and Nazis were commonplace during that time, when Nazi flags clashed with red flags on the streets of Germany.

Violent clashes erupted when Nazi shock troops and Communist shock troops fought for control of the German streets.

The most popular slogan of the Roter Frontkämpferbund was “Beat the fascists wherever you encounter them!” The SA would chant, “The red front – break them to pieces!” or “The red front – beat them to a pulp!” After the Nazis completed their takeover of Germany, the Red Front Fighters were jailed, tortured and many were murdered. Others escaped to fight in the Spanish Civil War or in the Soviet Army.

Modern radical violence in Europe

Street fighting received a PR boost through Mick Jagger and Keith Richard’s hit song “Street Fighting Man” of 1968. The song was inspired by violence Jagger had seen while attending the anti-Vietnam War demonstration at London’s Grosvenor Square across from the US Embassy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protests_of_1968; www.theguardian.com/world/2008/may/21/1968theyearofrevolt.antiwar) as well as by media reports concerning the Paris Student riots (www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/world/europe/11iht-paris.4.12777919.html?mcubz=3; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_1968_events_in_France). The Rolling Stones’ catalytic anthem reflected the return of street riots to the Western world.

Anarchist-led riots at the G7, G8 and G20 summit meetings like Genoa in 2001 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/27th_G8_summit) and Hamburg in 2017 (www.dw.com/en/hamburg-g20-riot-damages-run-into-millions/a-39745157; http://edition.cnn.com/2017/07/08/europe/g20-protests/index.html) as well as other major world cities are one of the metastasized results of these expressions. Up to 200,000 participants were involved in these demonstrations. Rioters threw Molotov bombs, attacked police and armed forces, destroyed property as well as other acts of violence. The anarchistic and Communist nature of these riots and demonstrations shows no sign of letting up in days to come.

Modern radical violence in the USA

Americans have witnessed anarchist/leftist riots at the World Trade Organization and ‘G’ summits (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_bloc; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Seattle_WTO_protests). Recent anarchist attacks have focused on the President of the United States (www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/01/20/anti-donald-trump-activists-try-block-access-inauguration/; http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/19/politics/trump-inauguration-protests-womens-march/; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DisruptJ20).

One striking manifestation of violent civil unrest is connected to the movement known as Antifa (www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2017/08/economist-explains-11). Its name refers to its self-designation as anti-fascistic. This amorphous movement attacks targets which they define as connected to capitalism, racism, authoritarianism, patriarchal organizations, ‘heteronormals’ and white supremacists. Their loose self-definition seeks “the elimination of racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, and discrimination against disabled people, the oldest, the youngest, and the most oppressed people” as well as the creation of “a free [and] classless society.”

• “Antifa groups are known for militant protest tactics, including property damage and, sometimes, physical violence … According to National Public Radio, ‘People who speak for the Antifa movement acknowledge they sometimes carry clubs and sticks,’ and their ‘approach is confrontational.’ CNN describes Antifa as ‘known for causing damage to property during protests.’ Scott Crow, described by CNN as ‘a longtime Antifa organizer,’ argues that destroying property is not a form of violence” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifa_(United_States)

 

• “Largely made up of anarchists and, to a lesser extent, activists ascribing to various strands of Marxism, anti-fascist activists decided to adopt the tactic of physical confrontations against white supremacists from across the spectrum: from neo-Nazi punks to the resurgent Ku Klux Klan” (aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/02/anti-fascists-racists-afraid-170221100950730.html)

 

• On June 12, 2017 the New Jersey Department of Homeland Security issued a domestic counter-terrorism bulletin defining the Antifa movement as terrorist and extreme anarchists: “Anti-fascist groups, or ‘Antifa,’ are a subset of the anarchist movement and focus on issues involving racism, sexism, and anti-Semitism, as well as other perceived injustices” (njhomelandsecurity.gov/analysis/anarchist-extremists-antifa)

Though Antifa tends to be strongly against fascist and anti-Semitic public events, Mark Bray (a lecturer on human rights and politics at Dartmouth College and author of the forthcoming book “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook”) notes in a recent Jewish Telegraph Agency article:

“The threat posed by the ‘alt-right’ in the context of empowerment through Trump made a lot of people concerned about fascist, neo-Nazi, white supremacist violence, They turned to the Antifa model as one option to resist it. The option of physically confronting these groups has spread among the left and been normalized” … “Bray said that while anti-Zionism is not a focus of Antifa, many members tend to be anti-Zionist as part of their far-left activism. Anti-Racist Action groups, he said, had taken part in anti-Zionist events in the past” (www.jta.org/2017/08/16/news-opinion/united-states/what-you-need-to-know-about-antifa-the-group-that-fought-white-supremacists-in-charlottesville)

The Berlin Jewish branch of Antifa would actually be classified as within the anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist stream:

“We believe that anti-Zionism … has no anti-Semitic aspects…We see the ‘Jewish State’ as a racist and discriminatory term…We express solidarity with the BDS movement…We express solidarity with For Palestine. Their uncompromising stand and vision for the decolonization of Palestine and toward a democratic and secular one state solution which includes the right of return for all Palestinian refugees and their families is an inspiration for us…The Palestinian struggle for liberation, freedom and justice should be the center of discussion in the Left around the world and in Germany specifically” (https://jewishantifaberlin.wordpress.com/about-us/)

Summing up street violence in the USA

Street violence in recent American history include events related to:

• movements of the totalitarian right (Nazis, neo-Nazis, KKK, white supremacists and alt-right adherents)
• movements of the totalitarian left (Antifa, American Communists and anarchists)
• racially driven riots from Watts and Long Beach in California to Ferguson, Missouri and Baltimore, Maryland (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_racial_violence_in_the_United_States).

The widening cracks and growing fault-lines within American society show potential for civil war. We live in sobering times.

“Then I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, “Come.” I looked, and behold… (w)hen He broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come.” And another, a red horse, went out. And to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that men would slay one another. And a great sword was given to him” (Revelation 6:1-4)

Satanic strategies and anti-Semitism

“I have come to cast fire upon the earth; and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished! Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division; for from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law” (Luke 12:49-53).

The quickly approaching day of Yeshua’s return will not be accompanied by an amazing outbreak of world peace, rose-colored glasses and positive confession. Yeshua Himself speaks of division reaching even into the sacrosanct family unit. The Day of His Coming will not be a day of peace but a day of war. And most followers of Yeshua are spiritually not yet prepared.

• One of the main satanic strategies of the Last Days involves stirring up hatred and murder against the Jewish people, as described so clearly in Revelation 12
• An outbreak of civil war in the West would in turn catalyze increased violence and hatred against the Jewish people and their state (see Zechariah 14:1-3; Joel 3:1-2)

The Jewish people have a heightened sense of history and an attenuated sensitivity to anti-Semitic manifestations. The 20th century has made it clear to the Jewish nation that the greatest sources of anti-Jewish actions and atrocities have come from three wellsprings – Nazism, Communism and Islamism.

• Today many in the Jewish community can quickly spot Nazi anti-Semitism, but some may be asleep at the wheel when it comes to the anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism of the Left and of the Islamists.

In 1993 my wife Rachel had a troubling dream. The scene of the dream was in rural Kansas, in the dark of night. Rachel found herself standing in a convenience store whose shelves were nearly empty of food. There was the feeling that great evil was afoot, that economic collapse had happened, and that it was not safe to wander around. Many people had guns, and heavily-armed gangs roamed through the land. There was no government. The atmosphere was full of danger and death. A dark shadowy figure said to Rachel, “All this chaos, breakdown and no food in the stores is because of the Jews. They are the ones to blame.”  In her dream Rachel needed to find me (I am of course a Jewish man) and get me away from there. In that dream it was not safe to be a Jew in America.

Intense intercession to counteract the curse of Genesis 12:3

The Nazi and KKK marched through the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia, cursing and threatening the Jewish people. Their smirks conjured up images from Hitler’s Europe. Anti-Jewish words and deeds trigger the powerful protective blessing and cursing which YHVH spoke over Abraham and his Jewish descendants in Genesis 12:3. “Those who bless you, I will bless” says YHVH. “And the one who mocks/disdains you, him I will curse.” The Hebrew verb here meqalelecha refers to mocking, disdaining or treating the people in question (i.e., the Jewish people) as insignificant. Speaking curses, mockery and condemnation of the Jewish people by any group activates this covenantal clause.

How should we then pray?

• Pray for those who have cursed, mocked and disdained the God of Israel and His Jewish people – that YHVH would grant them repentance leading to life and clarity in the truth – that they would become worshippers of YHVH and lovers of His people (Isaiah 63:8-9)

 

• Pray specifically for the frustrating, the exposing and the suppression of all plans, strategies and weapons raised against the Jewish people (Isaiah 54:17)

 

• Pray for believers worldwide to receive a spirit of revelation about these matters, that they might come into alignment with God’s word and heart (Ephesians 3:14-19; Isaiah 62:1, 6-7)

 

• Pray for the Jewish people worldwide to receive revelation regarding these days of division and anti-Semitism – that they might hear and follow the voice of Israel’s Messiah regarding the right steps to take

 

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

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

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