The creaking of the floorboards on the Titanic known as Planet Earth is getting louder:
➢ world economic insecurity;
➢ the potential American legalizing of euthanasia (Bill HR 3200, currently under consideration in the US House of Representatives, pp. 425-430; www.lc.org/index.cfm?PID=14102&AlertID=1015) a move which has parallels to initial Nazi medical policies (the Aktion T4 program of October 1939);
➢ civil unrest and nuclear ferment in Iran;
➢ the sudden reappearance of a pneumonic plague similar to the bubonic plague once known as the Black Death (that epidemic killed close to 100 million in China and Europe by 1400 AD) in the Northwestern Chinese city of Ziketan, western Qinghai province (www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article6736993.ece);
➢ increasing international pressure on Israel to freeze the resettling of the Jewish people in parts of the Promised Land;
➢ the marked rise of anti-Semitism in Europe in general and in Britain and Hungary in particular.
There is much to consider and much to pray about.
Each individual crisis is part of a larger picture, and it is that larger picture that we want to see. Yeshua stressed that it is important to join the dots and discern the times. “You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times” (Matt. 16:3).
Recently while studying the Book of Micah I was struck by how this prophetic scroll lays out some striking spiritual milestones, traffic warning signs if you will, for the last-days generation. May the beacons of these biblical lighthouses help us all to stay clear of rocky shores in the days ahead.
“Hear O peoples and listen O earth!” (Micah 1:2)
Micah begins his message with a divine warning to the whole earth. He ends it with a prediction of God’s judgment on the nations (7:10, 13, 16-17). In both cases YHVH is calling the nations to focus in on what He is doing with the Jewish people – to bow the knee in humble recognition of their amazing and irrevocable calling, their tragic failures, and their earth-shaking last days restoration.
Today Israel’s desperate need is for a savior, redeemer and defender. Israel is not yet cleansed of sin; she deeply needs the atonement and restoration that only the blood of Messiah Yeshua can provide. Apart from the power and Spirit of the Lord (see Micah 3:8; Zech.4:6), the Jewish people cannot fulfill our calling to bring life from the dead to the world (see Romans 11:12,15).
This is the matrix into which the intercessors of the world need to pray – recognizing Israel’s spiritual need for salvation (which means asking God for mercy and repentance for Israel) on the one hand, while calling out to God for the physical restoration of Israel and the fulfillment of the Jewish people’s first-born status (on the other)! Here is the holy ground on which intercession and evangelism meet.
“Is the Spirit of the Lord angry?” (Micah 2:7)
Nearly all the prophets of Micah’s day were overwhelmingly united; with one voice they declared that a time of peace was soon coming to Israel – if only it played its political cards right. They were upset with Micah’s words that God was about to judge and purify His beloved people through great shakings and times of trouble (see Micah 6:1-3). These false prophets hissed at Micah and commanded him to be silent: “Do not prophesy about these things; disgrace will not overtake us” (Micah 2:6; 3:11).
Today the world’s largest Jewish community outside of Israel supports the official peace process and Middle Eastern policies of a serving American President, while less than 6% of Israeli Jews feel that this President’s policies are good for the Jewish state (see Micah 3:5). Unless Israel’s leaders back down from God’s covenant promises regarding the Land of Israel in Genesis 12 and 15, they will face political pressure, shakings and times of trouble from Western governments.
It is biblically true that God has used worldwide anti-Semitism and the hatred of the nations to purify and restore Israel (as He did with Assyria in Isaiah 10:5-19; see also Micah 2:3). Yet the same Bible warns us that God judges those nations severely and by no means leave them unpunished in the process (see Amos 9:8).
Pray for the leaders of your nation and for the leaders of Israel – that they all will make wise choices which will be biblically sound and which will bring blessing on both Israel and on your own nation.
“I will surely gather … together the remnant of Israel …like a flock in its pasture” (Micah 2:12)
One of God’s last-days strategies is the regathering of the Jewish people to their own Promised Land. Though this restoration of the Jewish people to the land of Israel will incur the hatred of the nations in general and the military onslaught on the part of the Arab nations in particular (see Ezekiel 36:2-7; Psalm 83:2-12; Psalm 2), God will apportion His blessing or cursing to each one of these nations based on those countries’ response to Zion – His royal standard and plumbline (see Genesis 12:3; Matt. 25:40; Joel 3:1-2; Micah 4:11-13).
As anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism undergo a wildcat demonic mitosis, expanding and multiplying with hellish anointing, determine in your own heart that you will not desert the banner of the King of the Jews, nor turn your back on His people Israel.
Pray that you, your friends, your congregation, your denomination, your city and your country will become and remain steadfast friends and allies of God’s purposes on Planet Earth vis-à-vis His chosen people.
“Kingship will come to the Daughter of Jerusalem” (Micah 4:8)
Micah saw in a vision that at the end of days Israel will become the center of the world – spiritually and governmentally. Zion will become the world’s capital city. Messiah Yeshua will reign from a united Jerusalem as the ultimate Davidic King, and all nations will recognize these facts, coming in worship and blessing to the Mountain of YHVH. Divine patience counsels us that true peace will not be a Middle Eastern reality until that day. In the meantime, we should remember that all Gentile peace plans, treaties and strategies (be they ever so well intentioned) will fall by the political roadside on the way up to Jerusalem.
Pray for the spiritual and physical welfare, well-being and salvation of the Jewish nation, and give yourself no peace until Israel enters into the fullness of that calling (see Isaiah 62:1, 6-8).
“The remnant of Jacob will be among the nations … like a young lion among flocks of sheep “ (Micah 5:8-9)
The prophet says that, at the end of days, military victory will be granted to Israel. She will be the unchallenged international superpower in the Middle East. At what exact point-in-time this will happen may not be crystal clear in Scripture (see Zech. 13:8-14:2 etc), but this future reality is the prophetic word of the Lord. Israel as God’s victorious army is a mighty theme in the Bible, and it is the pinnacle of Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones (Ezek. 37:9-11; Psalm 110:3; Micah 4:11-13).
Pray for spiritual life and revelation to be given to the leaders of Israel’s armed forces, intelligence agencies and strategists. Pray that they will speedily come to know Yeshua and heed His voice in all matters!
“What does YHVH require of you?” (Micah 6:8)
God is still searching the hearts of the whole world, and especially the hearts of Israel, to find men and women who desire justice, who love mercy, and who yearn to walk humbly with their God. Though bribery, corruption and dishonest dealings may characterize some in Israel (see Micah 7:1-6), the prophet encourages us all to hold on to God’s amazing promises of salvation and restoration for the Jewish people: “But as for me, I will wait for YHVH expectantly. I will trust in the God of my salvation, and my God will answer me” (Micah 7:7).
The spiritual overhaul that Israel desperately needs will require more than plastic surgery. But rest assured – the final results (after the Divine Surgeon lays down His tools) will be absolutely breathtaking (see Zech.8:23)!
Whenever you hear disheartening news concerning Israelis or the Jewish people still scattered in exile across the face of Planet Earth, pray with passion that God’s holy heart will be birthed in the hearts of His beloved Jewish people, through repentance and faith in Messiah Yeshua.
“Do not gloat over me, my enemy!” (Micah 7:8)
Micah warns those who believe that God has abandoned His Jewish people – or even those who do not believe that the God of Israel exists – that Israel’s present problems will not last forever. God will soon rescue His people from the anger and hatred of the nations. At that point there will be a major reversal of historical roles – Israel’s enemies will experience the fate they had tried to inflict on the people of Jacob, while the Jewish people will finally see their enemies defeated forever.
“The day for … extending your boundaries will come” (Micah 7:11)
Within a short time we will witness the re-establishment of the full borders of the Promised Land as covenanted to Abraham, to David and to Solomon. This will include areas such as the Golan, the West Bank, southern Syria and southern Lebanon. This prophetic transfer of territory will reach its zenith after the return of Messiah Yeshua. In that day the United Nations will no longer have any mandate to focus on how to shrink Israel out of existence, and world leaders will come crawling in repentance over their evil divisive strategies on this matter (Micah 7:16-17).
“As in the days when you came out of Egypt, I will show them My wonders” (Micah 7:15)
God promises that, in the day when He brings back Israel to their Promised Land and stretches forth His mighty arm to defeat all anti-Semitic and anti-Messiah nations, He will again demonstrate signs and wonders on the level of what He did in the Book of Exodus, in the days of Moses and Pharaoh.
The final redemption of Israel will be more dramatic and awe-inspiring than even Cecil B. DeMille’s famous movie “The Ten Commandments”. Paraphrasing John 14:12, we who live to see this day will see miracles greater than those that Moses saw, even as the two witnesses of Revelation 11:6 will do greater miracles than Moses and Elijah combined.
These prophecies from Micah are burning torches in the hands of the Holy Spirit. May they illumine our prayers and inspire us to call upon God for even greater things!
“This is what YHVH says, He who made the earth, YHVH who formed it and established it – YHVH is His name. Call to Me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know” (Jeremiah 33:3).
In Messiah Yeshua,
Avner Boskey
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