Public opiinion on the nation of Isreal is shaped, on the surface, predominantly by the bias of media corporations and university professors (though they don’t have much success with mine). However, below the veiled layer of propaganda they push is an even darker influence, fuelling anti-semitism, and ultimately, anti-Christ sentiment. Today I will offer an overview of the situation according to the bias found in Biblical Scripture, then comment on whether current events are prophetic.
MY HISTORY, THEIR HISTORY
I spent six months working and travelling in Israel during the eighties. While there I interacted with Israelis up close. I learned about their character and their customs, and some of their history. I saw how small-tiny-the country was, and realized how fragile was the nation which has had to survive genocidal attempts over not just one century, but over millennia. Why so much fuss over a tiny piece of land today, when the Islamic world controls vast areas in comparison?
Even before the Roman empire besieged Jerusalem in 70AD, killed over a million of its citizens and dispersed the rest, Israel suffered existential threats. You can read about them not only in the Bible but in the history books-at least, the ones which have not yet been tossed or re-written.
Babylon and Assyria, and individuals such as Haman, came close to wiping ancient Israel off the map long before Christ was born, and now more extreme elements in the Islamic world, such as Iran and thier proxies Hamas and Hezbolla, state openly that they want to do just that-wipe Israel off the face of the earth.
The “whys”, in human terms, are rooted in the time of Abraham, four thousand years ago. Ishmael was in competition with Isaac, then Esau and his descendants fell out with Jacob. Subsequently numerous other nations came to be in violent competition with the descendants of Jacob.
BENEATH THE PROPAGANDA AND HATRED
At the very bottom of it all-and some of you will not be able to accept this-is the hatred of Satan for the will and plan of God. Most specifically, the rub for Satan has been the fact that the Son of God-God in the flesh-entered the world through the nation of Israel, and secondly, that God intends to ultimately fulfull all His promises to the nation, while also blessing those of all nationalities and ethnic backgrounds through His Son. Satan’s hatred is summed up in the twelth chapter of Revelation, as plain as plain can be:
The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him (Revelation 12:9).
When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child (verse 13).
EVIDENCE FOR GOD
The identity of this woman is clearly laid out in this chapter-to the unbiased-as the nation of Israel. It is confirmed in other parts of Scripture, and blatantly in all of history. The centuries-long hatred for Israel and for Jews is unmistakable evidence for the truth of Scripture, and so for the existance of God. The Bible is truly the Word of God.
The reasons for the persecution of this woman who gave birth to the male child are perhaps the subject of another article. Briefly, God allows persecution, not because He’s weak or because He’s hateful, but because He has given humanity free will-for now-and because the nation of Israel itself has rejected Him-their sword and shield-and His Son, continuously. He didn’t want it that way. In fact, Jesus Christ wept over Jerusalem, and said this:
“If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you (Luke 19:41 to 44).”
The most recent terror attack on Isrealis is, unfortunately, just more fulfillment of Satan’s hatred for the nation. And this hatred is shared by not only Hamas and their financial amd military backers, but by a large percentage of people in the West, who are routinely fed false facts and downright lies, and who already hate the God of Isreal and of the Bible. Israelis have not persecuted Palestinians: they’ve simply tried to defend themselves against those who hate them, who hide among the Palestinian people and use them as human shields, cowardly murderers that they are. That too is a subject for another day.
THE FUTURE
My point today is to draw attention to the fact that the Word of God… the BIble… is seen to be true through the history and predicament of the Isreali nation. But more than that, a future is also contained within Scripture, which tells us what is yet to come, for the nation, for its haters, and for the rest of us. If you are determined to pick sides in the current conflict, I suggest very strongly that you do not follow the lies of the haters, which will be increasingly echoed by our media masters, but instead pray for the nation of Isreal, attempting to defend its exisence, and accept the One who is and who will be their saviour as He is ours: Jesus Christ.
ARE WE SEEING PROPHECY FULFILLED?
Are we seeing prophecy fulfilled? There are some in the evangelical world who always go much too far when commenting on such events as those we see today, in their misinterpretation of Scripture. There is some reason to believe that what’s occurring might be in fulfilllment of Psalm 83, but that is, I stress, only a possibility. However, one certain fulfillment, as I’ve said, is the ongoing hatred for Jews and the nation of Israel, and the attacks on their existence in the land: this is indeed prophetic. The Bible foretells the rabid insistence, in end times, that Israel must be removed from the land, and particularly Jerusalem, But about specific current events the Lord hasn’t “told me” anything, and I would say He hasn’t really “told” anyone else. Beware of faulty speculations.
It’s my conviction that we are indeed in the general time foretold in Scripture, in which we will see the fulfillment of momentouos prophecies if we live long enough. By “general time” I mean that decades could yet pass until something more significant happens. On the other hand, it could happen over the next few years, and this looks all the more possible when you consider other happenings in our time. Again, nobody knows for certain, so don’t let them tell you that they do. I’ve written before on the timing of the fulfillment of prophecy in relation to our time. If you’re interested, you could read my post which is linked below. Otherwise, I’ll be summariizing my most recent thoughts on signs of the times soon. Thanks for reading.
Fuel for Faith, Food for Thought 