Jerusalem – the joy of the whole earth?

On Monday, May 14, Israel was the center of some powerful earth tremors.

• The 70^th anniversary of the establishment of the Jewish state of Israel, a major and essential step in the fulfillment of the ‘dry bones vision’ of Ezekiel 37:1-14
• The recognition by the world’s primary super-power, the United States, of the connection between the Jewish people and their historic and biblical capital Jerusalem. Zechariah 14:7 and Isaiah 2:1-4 prophesy that the recognition of Jerusalem in its multifaceted biblical and Jewish priorities will be the hallmark of international Messianic days
• The Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Hamas terrorist group corralled 40,000 Gazan Arabs and then deliberately stampeded them in a coordinated attack against Israel’s security fence guarded by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Using firebombs, explosive devices, shootings, lethal slingshots etc., Hamas placed women and children on the front line of attack, while jihadi gunmen hid behind them, waiting for the opportunity to break into Israel and massacre Jewish civilians. 58 Arabs were killed while attacking IDF troops or attempting to tear down the security barriers. Up to 2,700 Gazans were treated for tear-gas inhalation or wounds from rubber bullets or live fire.

The following are some helpful perspectives on these events.

These are the days of Ezekiel

The prophet Ezekiel was given an End of Days vision wherein the God of Israel would actually bring the Jewish people back to their homeland in preparation for a national spiritual revival. “I will bring you into the Land of Israel,” says YHVH. The May 14 commemoration of the Jewish state’s establishment in our day is human acknowledgment (be it ever so frail) of a mighty work of God.

• Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel; behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope has perished. We are completely cut off.’Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says YHVH God, Behold, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, My people’” (Ezekiel 37:11-13)

The redemption of Jerusalem

The prophetess Anna declared on the Temple Mount in Luke 2:36-39 that the redemption of the world is linked to the redemption of Jerusalem. When darkness covers the earth and gross darkness will overshadow all the nations, YHVH’s light will shine on the Jewish people and bring life from the dead to the whole world (Romans 11:12, 15).

• “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of YHVH has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth and gross darkness the peoples. But YHVH will rise upon you and His glory will appear upon you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising…to bring your sons from afar, their silver and their gold with them, for the name of YHVH your God, and for the Holy One of Israel because He has glorified you. Foreigners will build up your walls, and their kings will minister to you. For in My wrath I struck you, and in My favor I have had compassion on you” (Isaiah 60:1-3, 9-10)

There have been other U.S. Presidents who spoke of their personal faith during election campaigns, but none of them was sufficiently pickled in the word of God to take a courageous stand for God’s heart and purposes regarding Jerusalem. It took a brash former real estate tycoon and reality TV show moderator to lay America’s cards on the table and call the world’s bluff (www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/statement-president-trump-jerusalem/; www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/12/11/2017-26832/recognizing-jerusalem-as-the-capital-of-the-state-of-israel-and-relocating-the-united-states-embassy). This bold move will bring a measure of blessing to the U.S.A.

Pray for future Presidents (who will also have the ability to undo Trump’s Jerusalem proclamation with “a pen and a phone”) –

• www.npr.org/2014/01/20/263766043/wielding-a-pen-and-a-phone-obama-goes-it-alone
• https://nypost.com/2016/11/10/a-pen-and-a-phone-how-trump-will-erase-obamas-foreign-policy/
• www.washingtonexaminer.com/trump-will-steamroll-obamas-pen-and-phone-legacy-and-its-obamas-fault

A day is coming when all nations will come against Jerusalem to divide it (see Joel 3:1-2; Zechariah 14:1-3).

Let us pray for Jerusalem and for our own nation, that our leaders will make wise and godly choices both today and in that day.

The Palestinian self-destruct switch

The Islamist terror group Hamas has some clear short and long term goals in Gaza. It hasn’t been able to inflict painful Israeli casualties due to Israel’s counter-strategies (obliterating Hamas terror tunnels, IAF Iron Dome missiles against jihadi rockets, shooting down Hamas drones, etc.). So now Hamas has decided to manipulate world media, trying to pressure Israel into caving in to jihad – an IDF retreat from swaths of Israel’s own sovereign territory. The strategy is simple but cruel – stampede their fellow-Gazans into attacking the IDF positions and turning these human shields into cannon fodder (www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12297/gaza-violence).

Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 and handed the entire existing infrastructure in Gaza over to the Palestinian Authority. Within the space of a few days Gazan Islamists had destroyed the majority of that infrastructure. Within two years the terror group Hamas was attacking Israeli civilians with rockets and mortars, calling for Israel’s annihilation based on Islamist jihadi beliefs. The continuing passion to conquer the Jewish state and set up a Caliphate on Israel’s green and pleasant land is still the prime motivator for most religious Gazans.

Israel’s former Ambassador to the United Nations Abba Eban once remarked that the Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. He also noted (after Israel’s lightning victory in the June 1967 Six-Day War), when Israel offered a complete withdrawal in exchange for recognition and full peace (that offer was angrily refused), “I think that this is the first war in history that on the morrow the victors sued for peace and the vanquished called for unconditional surrender.”

The Islamist-led war against the Jewish state has never succeeded in destroying Israel, though it has tried for over 70 years. Hamas tactics are to spill the blood of its own women and youth in suicide attacks against Israel. If they manage to break through Israeli lines, they will slaughter Israeli kibbutzniks and Jewish civilians, calling for a renewed jihad. However, if they die as human shields while throwing Molotov cocktail bombs and shooting at the IDF, then they will be trumpeted by their Hamas handlers as martyrs and there will be a renewed call for jihad.

• Once yearly both Hamas and PLO-associated Fatah call for violent demonstrations against Israel – the ‘Nakba’ and the ‘March of Return.’ At those times, when IDF forces are attacked, there are often Palestinian casualties. This May the violent demonstrations were moved forward by one day to coincide with the moving of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. But make no mistake – the Embassy transfer was not the reason for the jihadi attacks; it was only one excuse of many. The insatiable jihadi passion to murder Israelis and destroy their state – that is the fundamental dynamic at work here (see Ezekiel 36:1-5).

The Grinch who tried to destroy Jerusalem

Dr. Seuss wrote a children’s book years ago about a mythical green and hairy creature called ‘the Grinch.’ When the Grinch saw someone enjoying himself, he got so angry that he bit himself. The Islamist Hamas movement is demonically enraged that Israel exists, that the Jewish people are thriving and strong, and that non-Muslims recognize a restored Jewish city of Jerusalem. During these May riots they are biting themselves ferociously – until the soil of Gaza is drenched red with their own blood.

The world’s news media have fallen unwittingly into line, fulfilling their stage role as ‘useful idiots’ (Lenin’s term). Parroting Hamas propaganda sound bites, they proclaim that the cause of the riots is Trump’s U.S. Embassy move, or even supposed IDF trigger-happy bloodthirst (www.melaniephillips.com/whos-responsible-for-these-gaza-deaths-the-hamas-and-their-western-media-enablers/). When 40,000 violent Gazans attack disciplined IDF soldiers, what is amazing is that there are so few casualties. Actually, IDF snipers follow very strict instructions and only fire at known terrorists, at those throwing IEDs or at those who try to break through the security fences.

In the 1998 film The Siege (Denzel Washington, Bruce Willis, Tony Shalhoub), the CIA agent Elise Kraft (played by Annette Bening) comments about the Palestinians that “they seduce you with their suffering.”  This same seduction dynamic is Hamas’ pièce de résistance being splashed across the world’s TV screens and front pages – another outstanding example of ‘fake news.’

How should we then pray?

• Pray that Hamas plans for destruction and murder in Israel be frustrated and stopped
• Pray that Iranian funding and support for Hamas would be exposed and thwarted
• Pray for Israel’s security leaders – for divine revelation and strategies
• Pray for the Israeli civilian farmers and kibbutzniks in the Gaza periphery – for safety and courage
• Pray for believers and prophetic intercessors worldwide to tap into God’s heart about these issues
• Pray for the raising up of Ezekiel’s army speedily and in our day

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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