Shalom from Zion
One word seems to confront us on a regular basis these days. Recently, the Lord spoke this word after the following incident. Chuck was waiting for a ride to the airport for a time of ministry in Scotland. It was just before 1 AM local Israeli time.
Suddenly, blood came pouring out of his nose and for the next 10-15 minutes flowed so freely that Karen considered calling an ambulance. The bleeding finally stopped. A shaken Chuck took leave of a shaken Karen to fly off.
Landing in Frankfurt later that morning for a plane change, he calmed down enough to ask the Lord what that was all about and very distinctly heard the word, "Suddenly!"
Immediately, he thought of a tsunami suddenly rising out of the sea, a horde of tornadoes ravaging America's Midwest, Middle East [ME] uprisings and US President Obama changing national policy towards Israel in the blink of an eye.
The word "suddenly" in scripture,
means just that - quickly, unexpectedly. At times it indicates a good thing, but often it is something God warns us about.
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At times, God's judgments can descend suddenly:
[Canaanites left in the land] will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods. Then the LORD's anger will be kindled against you, and destroy you suddenly.
Deut. 7:4…[A proud, wicked person's] calamity shall come suddenly; suddenly shall he be broken without remedy.
Prov. 6:15; 29:1I have declared the former things from the beginning… I showed them. I did them suddenly, and they came to pass.
Isa. 48:3 -
God's beneficial acts might also occur suddenly.
When the day of Pentecost/Shavuot was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. Suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
Acts 2:1-2At midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God… Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. Immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed.
Acts 16:25-26Also see Mal.. 3:1; Luke 2:13-14; Acts 9:3.
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God's righteous judgments in the Day of the Lord and the return of Messiah Yeshua are said to happen suddenly, yet those who watch and pray and trust need not be afraid:
Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it comes. For the LORD shall be your confidence, and shall keep your foot from being taken.
Prov. 3:25-26Watch therefore, for you do not know when the master returns …or else coming suddenly he finds you sleeping. What I say to you I say unto all, Watch.
Mark 13:35-37…the day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night. For when they shall say,
1 Thes. 5:1-3Peace and safety;
then sudden destruction comes upon them… and they shall not escape.Surely I come quickly ['suddenly'].
Rev. 22:20Also see Eccl. 9:12; Matt. 24:27.
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The great harlot Babylon, that final global religion-civilization, will be destroyed suddenly.
Therefore shall [Babylon's] plagues come in one day, death, mourning, and famine…
Rev. 18:8; cp. Isa. 47:9The kings of the earth [say]…
Rev. 18:9-10; also see verses 15-19 and noteAlas, alas, that great city Babylon… For in one hour is your judgment come.
in one hour
twice; cp. Jer. 51:8
The word of the Lord from Jerusalem
Recently, God spoke a word through Lance Lambert. As we heard Lance give this, we were struck not so much by the judgment prophesied, as by the urgency of the hour and the call to intercession. Here are some excerpts. (For the complete prophecy, see here)
It is well with you that you intercede for Israel that she be saved, for it is My purpose to save her. I will complete the circle of Redemption that began with Abraham and my promise that a great nation would come forth from him, and that in him would all the families of the earth be blessed. And so it has happened! For Israel became the vehicle through which My Word has come to all the nations; and also My Salvation; and the knowledge of My Purpose. From this nation, above all, came the Messiah. Soon the fullness of the Gentiles will have been saved, and I will turn again to Israel, to My Jewish People. They shall be re-engrafted into their own olive tree, and My promise to Abraham will be gloriously fulfilled… and I will use this nation as the last witness to the world as to who I am.
Take very seriously what is taking place in the Arab world… It is not a move toward freedom and true democracy, but an enormous gain for militant Islam. They will seek to annihilate and liquidate Israel, but they will not only fail, their strength and power will be broken, and a huge harvest of souls will be saved from amongst them.
Hear Me, I call you to intercession! It will not be easy. All the powers of My enemy are centered and focused on stopping this people from coming into My Redemption and Salvation. But he will fail! I look therefore for those who will stand in the gap, who will build up the wall, who will stand in the place of intercession.
Shortly also I will begin more serious judgment on the Western nations. I will bring them to nothing…
Hear this Word of Mine. I call you to intercede for those who belong to Me in those nations, that they will be saved from it! Hear this cry. My heart yearns for those who belong to Me, that they might be clear in their understanding, clear in the way that they are to walk in the midst of all this. Do hear Me! … I do not desire judgment, but judgment of the most serious and devastating kind will fall upon those nations. Hear this Word from Me, and obey My call to intercession!
The time to stand in the gap is now!
In May there was friction between Israeli Prime Minister [PM] Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu and President Obama. As Bibi moves closer to a biblical stance concerning Israel, Obama moves further away, and that does not bode well for America.
Many Americans and a large contingent of American Christian Zionists disagree with Obama, yet God's Word is clear - He either blesses or judges nations according to what their leaders do. For gentile nations, those blessings or curses are meted out by how their leaders relate to Jacob/Israel, that is, to the Jewish people and the land God promised them. (Zech. 2:8; also, Gen. 12:3; Psa. 83:1-18; Isa. 60:9; Ezek. 35:2-5; Joel 3:1-2; Obad. 1:10; Zech. 12:9, etc.) America and most other nations today are on a collision course with Israel's God.
In the above word God urges us to pray. Through intercession, God's judgments can be turned aside, at least in part.
I sought for a man … that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before Me for the land, that I should not destroy it. But I found none. Therefore I have poured out My indignation upon them…
Ezek. 22:30-31a; see also Ex. 32:9-14; Luke 18:1-8, etc.
Obama vs. Israel
Liat Collins noted that as Obama hosted a Passover meal in the White House in April, he coolly compared the uprising in the Arab world to the story of the Exodus from Egypt. It's a perfect message for the Twitter generation. With the perspective of barely three months … Obama takes the most epic event in more than four millennia of Jewish history and reduces it to its lowest possible common denominator, and then distorts it some more.
(Lessons from the Shoah," L. Collins, JP Features, 1 May 2011)
What followed was worse. Obama stunned Netanyahu hours before their meeting in the White House, by radically changing US foreign policy, sandbagging Israel and aligning himself with Palestinian Authority [PA] chairman Abbas' preconditions for talks
as he called for a complete phased withdraw of Israeli forces from occupied Palestinian lands
to the 1967 borders
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His goal: two states for two peoples
with borders based on the 1967 lines, which are really, lines agreed upon in the 1949 armistice, following which Jordan occupied Judea and Samaria for 19 years. The armistice lines, considered indefensible by defense experts, are often called 'Auschwitz borders' in Israel.
Obama wants Israel as a Jewish state for the Jewish people; Palestine as a Palestinian state for the Palestinian people.
But the PA refuses to see Israel as a Jewish state. Yet he presses Israel to make concessions, and dreams about final negotiations on permanent borders
before deciding on security, the future of Jerusalem, or Palestinian 'refugees,' the real make-or-break issues for both sides. ("Obama: 'A Full and Phased Withdrawal' by Israel to '1967 Lines'," Arutz 7, 20 May 2011)
Obama backed all of the PA's demands, and ignored most of Israel's conditions for peace. Caroline Glick summed up:
He said Israel must concede its right to defensible borders as a precondition for negotiations; he didn't say he opposes the Palestinian demand for open immigration of millions of foreign Arabs into Israel; he again ignored Bush's '04 letter to Sharon opposing a return to the 1949 armistice lines, supporting large settlements, defensible borders and opposing mass Arab immigration into Israel; he said he was leaving Jerusalem out but actually brought it in by calling for an Israeli retreat to the 1949 lines; he called for Israel to be cut in two when he called for the Palestinian state to be contiguous; he called for Israel to withdraw from the Jordan Valley, without which it is powerless against invasion, by saying the Palestinian State will have an international border with Jordan. Obama conceptually and substantively abandoned the US alliance with Israel.
("Obama's abandonment of America," C. Glick, www.carolineglick.com, 20 May 2011)
Gama Helal, former adviser to US presidents on the Middle East, noted Obama's shift towards the Arabs, for whom the 1967 borders have always been the starting point for any peace process, since they don't believe they should lose any territory as a result of their past efforts to destroy Israel.
("Obama's AIPAC speech gets mixed reviews in Israel," Israel Today, 23 May 2011
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Israel's PM Netanyahu fights back
Meeting with Obama the next day, Netanyahu publicly, politely, patiently, yet firmly, explained his "No". Many Zionists, even in the US, were pleased with his bold response. In Israel his approval ratings rose as he stood up to Obama's unbiblical decrees.
JP analyst Herb Keinon wrote that the current difficulties in US-Israeli relationship… are not a personality clash, but rather a conceptual one… Obama essentially believes in the land for peace formula, that what it will take to solve the Israeli-Arab conflict is a painful ceding of Israeli land. Netanyahu, on the other hand, believes, based on past experience, that this will not do the trick nor ensure Israel's security - so forget about it.
Also, Obama thinks that now, in the midst of a ME in upheaval, is the time to settle the Arab-Israeli conflict, yet Bibi believes that with everything else happening in the Arab world, and Israel not knowing what will happen to any of its regional partners… this is the time to step back and let the dust settle before taking daring next moves.
("Obama-Netanyahu: Not everything is personal," H. Keinon, JP Analysis, 21 May 2011)
Obama also said the so-called Palestinian refugee problem could be solved after borders were set. Netanyahu disagreed. The Arab attack in 1948 on Israel resulted in two refugee problems,
Palestinian and Jewish, both about equal in number. Jews who were expelled from Arab lands, where they lived since biblical times, were absorbed by little Israel, but the vast Arab world refused to absorb the Palestinian refugees.
Yet today, Palestinians are demanding that Israel accept the millions of these refugees' descendents, thus destroying Israel's future as a Jewish state…
("Bibi Says No to Obama on '67 Lines', Warns Against Illusions," Arutz 7, 22 May 2011)
Days later, Bibi spoke to a joint meeting of the US Congress. While he did not state any new Israeli initiatives, what he did do, as he said in private conversations, was to pound some policy stakes into the ground that would not be moved by the swirling winds in the region… No return to 1967, no refugees,
no negotiations with a PA government that includes Hamas, and the absolute necessity of Palestinians recognizing Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people.
What made this speech so important, was how it was received. That Israel's prime minister received a rock-star ovation from both sides of the aisle of both houses of Congress sends an important message of support to both friend and foe alike.
He knew the symbolic value of a speech by a foreign leader to a joint meeting of Congress,
which only happens about four times a year. Although he knew that Obama was not applauding either the content of the speech, or the fact that he went to Congress to deliver it, he gambled that in the long run, both he and [Israel] would gain more by, in his mind,
("Netanyahu and 'The Book of Why'," Herb Keinon, JP Features, 27 May 2011)speaking truth to power
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Straight talk
The Zionist Organization of America, strongly condemned
Obama's ME policy speech, criticizing that at a time when the Nazi-like terrorist group Hamas (a proxy of Iran), whose charter calls for the murder of every Jew (Article 7) and Israel's destruction (Article 12), merges with Abbas' Fatah, forming a unity government, Obama can now call for a PA state [even] on the 1967 indefensible lines…
("ZOA Condemns Obama Call For a Hamas/Fatah Terror State …," www.zoa.org., 19 May 2011)
Israel Today writes that Abbas is also determined to rewrite recent history in the region.
In a NY Times opinion piece (May 17th), Abbas claimed that after the UN decided to partition 'Palestine' into Jewish and Arab states in 1947, 'Zionists' launched an unprovoked military offensive forcing surrounding Arab states to intervene.
It's almost laughable, except that in context Abbas was arguing that in September, the UN must right that alleged historic wrong by recognizing an independent Palestinian state.
Again, Netanyahu defended truth, calling Abbas' article a Stalinist-style rewriting of history
and a gross distortion of well-known and documented facts,
that it was the Arabs who rejected the partition plan…while the Jewish leadership accepted it,
and that six Arab armies then attacked Israel to destroy it.
He took issue with something else Abbas wrote, that the creation of a Palestinian state would pave the way for us to pursue claims against Israel at the UN.
Bibi said that since 1993, Israel has participated in the peace process with a guarantee that a Palestinian state ends the conflict. Yet, one could conclude from the article that the Palestinian leadership views the establishment of a Palestinian state as a means to continue the conflict with Israel.
("Palestinian leader rewrites history of Israel," Israel Today, 18 May 2011)
"Why History Matters: The 1967 Six Day War,"
is the title of an article by David Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee.
Forty-four years ago … the Six-Day War broke out. While some wars fade into obscurity, this one remains as relevant today as in 1967. Many of its core issues remain unresolved … Politicians, diplomats, and journalists continue to grapple with the consequences of that war, but rarely provide context. Yet without context, some critically important things may not make sense.
First, in June 1967, there was no state of Palestine. It didn't exist and never had. Its creation, proposed by the UN in 1947, was rejected by the Arab world because it also meant the establishment of a Jewish state alongside.
Second, the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem were in Jordanian hands. Violating solemn agreements, Jordan denied Jews access to their holiest places in eastern Jerusalem. To make matters still worse, they destroyed many of those sites…
Third, the Arab world could have created a Palestinian state in the West Bank, eastern Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip any day of the week. They didn't. There wasn't even discussion about it…
Fourth, the 1967 boundary [before] the war…was nothing more than an armistice line dating back to 1949 … [after] Arab armies [had] attacked Israel in 1948,trying to destroy her.They failed. Armistice lines were drawn but they weren't formal borders…Fifth, the PLO … was established in 1964, three years before the [1967] conflict erupted … with the goal of obliterating Israel. Remember that in 1964 the only 'settlements' were Israel itself.
Sixth, in the weeks leading up to the Six-Day War, Egyptian and Syrian leaders repeatedly declared that war was coming and their objective was to wipe Israel off the map … [So] twenty-two years after the Holocaust, another enemy [was speaking] about the extermination of Jews…
Seventh, Egypt's President Nasser demanded UN peacekeeping forces in the area, in place for the previous decade to prevent conflict, be removed. Shamefully, the UN complied…
…Egypt blocked Israeli shipping in the Red Sea… regarded as an act of war by Jerusalem. The US spoke about joining with other countries to break the blockade, but did not act…
…Israel, in days leading up to the war, passed word to Jordan, via the UN and US, urging Amman to stay out of any pending conflict. Jordan's King Hussein ignored the Israeli plea and tied his fate to Egypt and Syria. His forces were defeated by Israel, and he lost control of the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem.
After winning, Israel hoped its newly-acquired territories… would be the basis of a land-for-peace accord. Feelers were sent out. The formal response came on Sept. 1, 1967, when the Arab Summit Conference famously declared in Khartoum:
No peace, no recognition, no negotiationswith Israel.…All wars have consequences; this one was no exception. But the Arab aggressors have failed to take responsibility for actions they instigated. They want the world to believe post-1967 Israeli settlement-building is the key to the Arab-Israeli conflict. The Six-Day War is proof positive that the core issue is, and always has been, whether the Arab world accepts the Jewish people's right to a state of their own.
(Why History Matters: The 1967 Six-Day War," D. Harris, JP Blogs,9 June 2011)
Just say "No!" to a Palestinian State
An editorial in the JP, expressed the dangerous situation Israel could be facing this coming fall.
The Palestinians have been wildly successful at garnering international recognition of 'Palestine' and are expected to appeal to the UN Security Council and/or the non-binding General Assembly in September to recognize such a state within the June 4, 1967 'borders.' This is a geographic area of tremendous historic importance to Jews that covers not only Judea, Samaria and Gaza, but also large swathes of Jerusalem, including the Western Wall… In the world of the UN, half-million Israelis who live in these areas could … find themselves not merely considered 'occupiers,' but also, apparently, violators of Palestinian sovereignty.
("Zionist diplomacy," JP Editorial, 5 Apr. 2011)
The PA leadership habitually puts road blocks in the path of peace that hinder most Israelis from saying "Yes." The biggest road block is the 'right of return' of the 1948 Arab 'refugees' and their descendents. Abbas said, The Palestinian leadership will never give up the right of return … because the homeland is our final destination.
Then there is Jerusalem, God's burdensome stone
(Zech. 12:3), of which, Abbas said, we will never accept a Palestinian state without Jerusalem as its capital.
("Abbas: Every Palestinian Should See Palestine," Palestinian News & Info Agency, 14 May 2011)
Another road block is the PA denial of Jewish history. On Israel's Independence Day, called the Nakba - the "Catastrophe" - by the Palestinians, Abbas denied that the Jews have a history in the Land of Israel and claimed a fictitious 9000 year-old Palestinian history dating back to 7000 BCE…
He also said, Oh, Netanyahu, you are incidental in history; we are the people of history. We are the owners of history.
This version of history is a brazen distortion of known facts. Judean/Israeli history in the Land of Israel dates back 1000s of years, is documented by ancient Jewish and non-Jewish sources, and corroborated by numerous archeological finds,
yet no one other than Palestinians have claimed there was an ancient Palestinian history, and there isn't any reference to a Palestinian-Arab nation in antiquity… The Quran refers to the people of Israel and even the destruction of the Temple [Sura 17], but not to the Palestinians.
(PMW: "Abbas to Netanyahu: 'You are incidental in history'," IMRA, 24 May 2011)
A JP editorial confirming the above, said the PA has not prepared its people for peace with Israel. Incitement against Israel's very legitimacy has gone on unabated. And too many Palestinians, indulged by the international community, still harbor hopes that millions of refugee descendants will…be allowed to overwhelm Israel demographically…
Would it be wise under these circumstances, when instability and Islamist fervor is sweeping the region, to create a 22nd Arab state that would likely only add to this instability?
("Stop the spoiling," JP Editorial, 23 June 2011)
Fatah & Hamas
David Horovitz was the JP's executive editor when he wrote,
Since Fatah and Hamas announced their 'reconciliation' accord, I have waited for the chorus of international outrage… for global condemnation of the PA and its president, Abbas, for choosing to tie their fate to an organization ideologically bent on wiping out the Jewish state…
But I waited in vain. Dumb, delusional or just plain old anti-Semitic, much of the international community is ignoring the Hamas charter's guiding instruction to
kill the Jews…Although this 'reconciliation' has failed as of mid-summer, the fact that most of the world is willing to accept it is much more troubling than its success.
Horovitz:
Hamas, the White House Chief of Staff Wm. Daley noted on [Apr. 28],
("Where is the outrage?" D. Horovitz, JP, 2 May 2011)is a terrorist organization which targets civilians… Therefore a moral international community would seek to deprive it of any legitimacy; to do everything possible to prevent it growing stronger, to make plain it has no place in international dealings. Instead, in those same remarks, Daley declared,the US supports Palestinian reconciliation provided it is on the terms that advance the cause of the peace.What kind of doublespeak is that, and from the ostensible moral leader of the free world?
Jerusalem - Israel's capital
On the anniversary of Jerusalem's reunification, PM Netanyahu said, Forty-four years ago, IDF soldiers realized the prophets' vision and returned Jerusalem to its proper place [Zech. 12: 6] … Jerusalem will never be divided … We will protect Jerusalem, its unity, and we will build and develop it.
A Jerusalem Day poll showed a significant majority of Israelis support Bibi's policies, as 66% not willing to divide Jerusalem even as part of a comprehensive peace agreement.
("Netanyahu on Jerusalem Day: This city is ours!" Israel Today, 1 June 2011)
The battle over this city is intense. Satan deceives by spreading lies about everything that is holy to God. For example, a Palestinian history revisionist says that the well-known verse of the Hebrew psalm,
(PMW: "Palestinian distortion: 'If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,' Crusader expression…," Marcus & Crook, IMRA, June 9, 2011)If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill,
is not a Jewish source at all. He said the words were uttered by a Christian Crusader, and have only recently been 'borrowed' by Jews and 'falsified in the name of Zionism'.
Prophetic foreshadows
Here's a wake-up call.
An exceptional accumulation of very severe natural catastrophes, including earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand, tornadoes and flooding in the US and … in New Zealand, make 2011 the highest-ever loss year on record, even after the first half-year.
Globally, the approximate US $265bn in economic losses up to the end of June exceed the total figure for 2005, previously the costliest year to date…
("2011 Half-Year Natural Catastrophe Review," www.munichamerica.com, 12 July 2011)
A geological map presented at Hebrew University last week shows that the Levant Basin, which includes the huge Leviathan gas field, may contain large quantities of oil in deep strata.
Israel also may be sitting on huge shale oil deposits, and the Israeli Energy Initiatives company hopes to launch a pilot project by the end of this year that will lead towards production of 50,000 barrels a day, one-fifth of Israel's consumption.
Ezekiel 38:12-13 says twice that Gog and Magog attack Israel to take a spoil.
Is this report a lead up to that? ("Israel's Coast May Be Gold Mine of Oil, Says Government Expert," Arutz 7, 1 June 2011)
Happy 63rd birthday, Israel
David Harris notes that for most nations, 63 years "would elicit a shrug of the shoulders. Not in Israel's case … How can it be that this tiny nation, the size of New Jersey or Wales, could defend itself … against determined, well-funded, and numerous adversaries? How can it be that this small sliver of land…bereft of any natural resources until recent offshore discoveries of natural gas, could catapult itself into the top tier of advanced nations? …
The age-old cry of the Jewish people,
Next year in Jerusalem,is now this year…A language of old has been restored.
A dry, barren soil has become lush with the fruits of the earth.
A people decimated by the Nazi Final Solution experienced sovereign regeneration only three years after the Holocaust.
A nation confronted by a war of extinction on its very first day …has never given up or given in…
Israeli society has developed rapidly, enriched by waves of new immigrants. In recent years, for example, thousands of African Christians and Muslims, risked life and limb, crossing inhospitable lands such as Egypt, to seek a new start in Israel.
…Again, the work is unfinished and the challenges are many. But in 63 short years, Israelis have proved the late PM David Ben-Gurion right when he said:
("Happy Birthday, Israel!" D. Harris, JP Blogs, 9 May 2011)In Israel, in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles."
Amos 9:15b
…and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them,says the LORD your God.
Chuck & Karen Cohen