As this drum group were singing an ‘honour song’ in Jerusalem, they were surrounded by some Orthodox Jews, who asked them why they were singing ‘their’ songs? Lynda forestalled a protest by one of the drum group, who admitted that they did not know the meaning of the song, as it had been handed down by word of mouth for many generations.
When she asked the Orthodox Jews they were able to tell her that the drum group had been singing worship in ancient Hebrew to the God of Israel.
A similar incident took place with the group that I had the privilege of travelling with. We had been performing in different children’s wards of the Hadassah Hospital, Jerusalem, and each introduction was duly translated into Hebrew and also into Arabic. The third – outpatients – ward contained only Jewish children and parents, so no Arabic translation was needed.
As we were chatting there with the kids, parents and staff, our Cree drum group started up another honour song and our Hebrew translator, a young Israeli woman, tried to translate what she heard as Hebrew! She said she couldn’t catch all the words, but told us that they were singing to ‘the God Who is, Who was, and Who is to come!’
A similar incident occurred the next evening when the group performed in the theatre of the largest kibbutz in Israel, Ma’agan Michael, on the Mediterranean coast. Again, an Israeli lady told me she heard several Hebrew words used in one of the songs.
Certainly, the words, ‘Yahweh’, or ‘Yehowah’ occur regularly in honour songs – which are songs sung in honour of the Creator, no matter what native tribe or language is involved. Honour songs have been handed down for hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of years and no-one among those First Nation tribes understands their meaning any longer.
Jeremiah 50:33 This is what the LORD Almighty says: “The people of Israel are oppressed, and the people of Judah as well. All their captors hold them fast, refusing to let them go. 34 Yet their Redeemer is strong; the LORD Almighty is his name. He will vigorously defend their cause so that He may bring rest to their land, but unrest to those who live in Babylon.
Things are going to get much worse for Jews and Israelites in Babylon – while in Israel, things will get better! Nevertheless, as in Nazi Germany, many will hold off until it’s too late, not believing that things will get so bad, or that Babylon will be destroyed.
Many of Judah and Israel will be destroyed in the fall of Babylon. Those who survive the attack will be shocked and bewildered, like the rest of the world, and will become refugees. They will eventually conclude that they must make their way to Israel.
Jeremiah 51:49 “Babylon must fall because of Israel’s slain, just as the slain in all the earth have fallen because of Babylon. 50 You who have escaped the sword, leave and do not linger! Remember the LORD in a distant land, and call to mind Jerusalem.”
Jeremiah 50:4 “In those days, at that time,” declares the LORD, “the people of Israel and the people of Judah together will go in tears to seek the LORD their God. 5 They will ask the way to Zion and turn their faces toward it. They will come and bind themselves to the LORD in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten. 6 “My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray and caused them to roam on the mountains. They wandered over mountain and hill and forgot their own resting place.
Jeremiah 50:28 Listen to the fugitives and refugees from Babylon declaring in Zion how the LORD our God has taken vengeance, vengeance for his temple.
But how will they travel to Israel from a land that is a smoking ruin? There won’t be any airports left! Will the Jews/Israelites have any alternative but to walk from New York into Canada (assuming Canada survives!), or from LA into Mexico? And hope for onward transport from there, perhaps by ship to Israel?
Isaiah 14:1 The LORD will have compassion on Jacob; once again he will choose Israel and will settle them in their own land. Foreigners will join them and unite with the descendants of Jacob. 2 Nations will take them and bring them to their own place.
Hopefully, Canada and Mexico will become agents to bring these refugees to Israel, but still they will wish that they had obeyed Jeremiah 50:8 and been “like the goats that lead the flock.” These will not be the only survivors of the fall of Babylon.
Get out! Flee! Run for your life!:
1 Judah and Israel can expect things to get very troubled in Mega-Babylon. Anti-Semitism will increase and it will become difficult for them to be allowed to leave. An underground may be set up to smuggle out those who see the “writing on the wall.” Those who are wise will “be like the goats that lead the flock.”
2 Jeremiah mentions both the sons of Judah AND the sons of Israel. The six million American Jews we can understand, but who are these “sons of Israel?” Perhaps that will become clearer in due course?
3 “Get out, flee, leave! Run for your lives! Come out of her, do not linger; come out from them, be separate; come out of her, my people!” Can any instructions be more obvious? Get out, NOW!
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8 The 6-hour war
Of course, naturally the Hebrew prophets talk more about the land of Israel, the lost tribes and also those nations which immediately surround Israel. It does not really require much prophetic anointing to predict conflict in the Middle East in the near future! But what DO the Hebrew prophets have to say about the Middle East?
In 2011, we see turmoil and revolution throughout the Arab nations. One by one autocratic governments have fallen to popular uprisings, with others still trying to hold on to power at whatever cost in human lives.
The countries which surround Israel are pretty unanimous in their opposition to Israel’s very existence. Several countries, including Syria, are officially still at war with Israel. The government of Lebanon is coming more and more under the control of Iranian-backed Hizbollah, who have already stockpiled greater numbers of missiles than were used in the 2006 war with Israel.1
Hamas also, in the Gaza Strip, continue to amass more and more missiles and mortars from Iran, via Sudan and Egypt’s Sinai peninsula.2 Egypt and Jordan are still officially at peace with Israel, but the recent change of government in Egypt does not bode well for that peace continuing.
Iran, meanwhile, continues to threaten Israel, while developing into a possible nuclear threat. Will all the rhetoric and posing finally spill over into a serious armed conflict, drawing in the whole region?
Yes! The prophets DO predict great changes in the Middle East. And I think we’re talking about a more immediate fulfilment than the events we have already discussed.
Currently, Israel is the only Middle Eastern country with a nuclear weapon capability (since 1966), but Iran is progressing rapidly towards such a capability. Meanwhile the Moslem nation of Pakistan, a safe haven and training ground for Moslem terrorism, have already had a nuclear capability for many years.
Israel has often been accused of having a ‘Samson Option’ – a strategy of massive nuclear retaliation against enemy nations should its existence as a Jewish state be jeopardised through military attack.
Israeli leaders created the term in the mid-1960s, inspired by the Biblical figure Samson, who destroyed a Philistine temple, killing himself and thousands of Philistine enemies.
In 2002 the Los Angeles Times, published an opinion piece by Louisiana State University professor David Perlmutter in which he wrote: "What would serve the Jew-hating world better in repayment for thousands of years of massacres but a Nuclear Winter. Or invite all those tut-tutting European statesmen and peace activists to join us in the ovens? For the first time in history, a people facing extermination while the world either cackles or looks away – unlike the Armenians, Tibetans, World War II European Jews or Rwandans – have the power to destroy the world. The ultimate justice?"
The covenant with death annulled
So what do the prophets have to say on this? The book of Isaiah contains a number of prophetic words aimed at the states surrounding Israel – including Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Gaza. Before we look at
any of these, however, let’s examine another promise regarding Israel (Ariel):
Isaiah 28:15 You boast, “We have entered into a covenant with death, with the realm of the dead we have made an agreement. When an overwhelming scourge sweeps by, it cannot touch us, for we have made a lie our refuge and falsehood our hiding place. 16 So this is what the Sovereign LORD says: “… 18 Your covenant with death will be annulled; your agreement with the realm of the dead will not stand.
The current ‘peace process’, which has not yet led – and I believe will never lead! – to any peace in the Middle East, can be described as a “covenant with death … a contract with Hell (Sheol)”. Israel has got itself into an impossible negotiation with those who only want one outcome – the annihilation of Israel. It will be God Himself who will annul this contract!
How will this come about? Probably, in much the same way as previous conflicts involving Israel have taken place. The Arab, and other Moslem, nations surrounding Israel will wait until they believe that they are in a position of military superiority over her. Then they will begin an attack to “destroy them as a nation, so that Israel’s name is remembered no more.” (Psalm 83:4)
Isaiah 17:12 Woe to the many nations that rage— they rage like the raging sea! Woe to the peoples who roar— they roar like the roaring of great waters! 13 Although the peoples roar like the roar of surging waters, when he rebukes them they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on the hills, like tumbleweed before a gale. 14 In the evening, sudden terror! Before the morning, they are gone! This is the portion of those who loot us, the lot of those who plunder us.
Isaiah 29:5 But your many enemies will become like fine dust, the ruthless hordes like blown chaff. Suddenly, in an instant, 6 the LORD Almighty will come with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with windstorm and tempest and flames of a devouring fire. 7 Then the hordes of all the nations that fight against Ariel, that attack her and her fortress and besiege her, will be as it is with a dream, with a vision in the night—
Isaiah 17 begins specifically as a prophecy against the city of Damascus, but ends describing the total defeat of many nations. V.14 seems to imply a disaster for Israel – a terrorist attack, perhaps even a successful nuclear missile strike? But before morning the problem is gone! “They have ceased to be!”
This is backed up by Isaiah 29, which states that it will happen “suddenly, in an instant.” This could well be the result of a full-scale retaliation by Israel after suffering a nuclear missile attack.
This firstly applies to Syria, so the attack may possibly originate from there (though there are obviously other possibilities). Syria is certainly involved, though:
Isaiah 17:1 A prophecy against Damascus: “See, Damascus will no longer be a city, but will become a heap of ruins.
3 Damascus will cease to rule.
9 In that day their strong cities, which they left because of the Israelites, will be like places abandoned to thickets and undergrowth. And all will be desolation.
The passage goes on to describe Syrian cities being given over to flocks, with only “gleanings left.” This prophecy is particularly interesting because Damascus can claim to be the oldest continually inhabited city in the world. Down through history, it has never been destroyed, but that is going to change!
Jeremiah 49: 23 Concerning Damascus: “Hamath and Arpad are dismayed, for they have heard bad news. They are disheartened, troubled like the restless sea. 24 Damascus has become feeble, she has turned to flee and panic has gripped her; anguish and pain have seized her, pain like that of a woman in labor. 25 Why has the city of renown not been abandoned, the town in which I delight? 26 Surely, her young men will fall in the streets; all her soldiers will be silenced in that day,” declares the LORD Almighty. 27 “I will set fire to the walls of Damascus; it will consume the fortresses of Ben-Hadad.”
Syria will be defeated, then. But these prophecies do not just refer to Syria, they apply to an alliance of many nations coming against Israel.
The result of this new Arab-Israeli war will be that these nations who desire Israel’s destruction will ‘flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff … like tumbleweed before a gale.” This implies a once-and-for-all decisive military victory for Israel over all those who oppose her at present.
This attack seems to be described again in Psalm 83, which repeats the results and even lists the nations involved:
Psalm 83:1 A song. A psalm of Asaph.
O God, do not remain silent; do not turn a deaf ear, do not stand aloof, O God. 2 See how your enemies growl, how your foes rear their heads. 3 With cunning they conspire against your people; they plot against those you cherish. 4 “Come,” they say, “let us destroy them as a nation, so that Israel’s name is remembered no more.” 5 With one mind they plot together; they form an alliance against you— 6 the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, of Moab and the Hagrites, 7 Byblos, Ammon and Amalek, Philistia, with the people of Tyre. 8 Even Assyria has joined them to reinforce Lot’s descendants. 9 Do to them as you did to Midian, as you did to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon, 10 who perished at Endor and became like dung on the ground. 11 Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna, 12 who said, “Let us take possession of the pasturelands of God.” 13 Make them like tumbleweed, my God, like chaff before the wind. 14 As fire consumes the forest or a flame sets the mountains ablaze, 15 so pursue them with your tempest and terrify them with your storm. 16 Cover their faces with shame, LORD, so that they will seek your name. 17 May they ever be ashamed and dismayed; may they perish in disgrace. 18 Let them know that you, whose name is the LORD— that you alone are the Most High over all the earth.
Oreb, Zeeb, Zebah and Zalmunnah were four leaders of the Midianites (now part of Saudi Arabia), who were all killed personally by Gideon, at that time a judge of Israel.
As well as Syria, these nations will include Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, probably Saudi Arabia and, quite likely, Iran. The most likely form of attack, liable to produce a nuclear response from Israel, would be a nuclear missile strike.
The country most likely to initiate (and fund) such an attack would be Iran, who are rapidly moving towards a nuclear missile capability. Iran is also called Elam in prophecy:
Jeremiah 49:34 This is the word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning Elam, early in the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah: 35 This is what the LORD Almighty says: “See, I will break the bow of Elam, the mainstay of their might. 36 I will bring against Elam the four winds from the four quarters of heaven; I will scatter them to the four winds, and there will not be a nation where Elam’s exiles do not go. 37 I will shatter Elam before their foes, before those who want to kill them; I will bring disaster on them, even my fierce anger,” declares the LORD. “I will pursue them with the sword until I have made an end of them. 38 I will set my throne in Elam and destroy her king and officials,” declares the LORD. 39 “Yet I will restore the fortunes of Elam in days to come,” declares the LORD.
Iran will be scattered to the four winds, exiled among other nations. The same fate applies to Jordan, which now occupies the ancient lands of Moab, Ammon and Edom:
Jeremiah 49:2 But the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will sound the battle cry against Rabbah of the Ammonites; it will become a mound of ruins, and its surrounding villages will be set on fire. Then Israel will drive out those who drove her out,” says the LORD.
4 Unfaithful Daughter Ammon, you trust in your riches and say, ‘Who will attack me?’ 5 I will bring terror on you from all those around you,” declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty. “Every one of you will be driven away, and no one will gather the fugitives.
A further confirmation that this may well be a limited nuclear conflict, is found in an interesting prophecy of Zechariah (chapter 5), which describes a ‘curse’ contained in a flying scroll (or tube), which measured 30 feet long and 15 feet in circumference (around).
He then describes a contain
er (ephah – a biblical measure), which contains ‘iniquity’ and needs a cover of lead to contain it. The angel shows him the contents (translated as ‘a woman,’ but the Hebrew word can also mean ‘fire’) and describes it as ‘wickedness.’
The third picture is of two women (or fires) “with the wind in their wings”, they had wings like a stork and “lifted up the container (ephah) between heaven and earth”. Finally, the angel tells him they are taking the container to the country of Shinar (in present day Iran/Iraq), to build a house for it. “When the house is ready, the container will be set there in its place.”
Iran has recently boasted that it has many hidden missile silos prepared and ready to fire at Israel, Europe, even the United States. Whether they already contain a ‘fiery curse’ with a lead cover (i.e. nuclear warhead) is anybody’s guess!
Jeremiah 30:16 “‘But all who devour you will be devoured; all your enemies will go into exile. Those who plunder you will be plundered; all who make spoil of you I will despoil. 17 But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds,’ declares the LORD, ‘because you are called an outcast, Zion for whom no one cares.’
The Whore and her Mother: 9/11, Babylon and the Return of the King Page 9