August 3, 2007
In last week's letter I suggested that we are living in the days of restoration, which brought to mind something Moshe said to Israel upon their entrance to the good land: "… has a god tried to go to take for himself a nation from within another nation by trials, by signs and wonders and by war and by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm and by great terrors, as YHVH your Elohim did for you in Egypt before your eyes?" (Deuteronomy 4:34).
Was the above scripture played out once again over the past hundred years, when the first nation/stick of Judah (see Eze 37:16) was taken out of the nations by the mighty hand of the Almighty, and brought back to the land? Were there not two world wars during this time? If this is what it took to bring a remnant of the first nation out; what about the second nation "in the hand of Ephraim" (Ezekiel 37: 19 Zechariah 10)? Is this the scenario which is unfolding before our eyes? Will we see great terrors, trials, signs, wonders and wars? There is much resistance by religious authorities to this biblical understanding, namely to the fact that YHVH has these two witness nations of Judah and Israel and that they are to be restored into one nation in the land. Never-the-less, YHVH's Word is the "same yesterday, today and forever". And since He is watching over His Word to perform it, it really does not make much difference what man thinks, although YHVH does grant windows of time for repentance.
Many of you responded positively to last week's letter (DDD), for which I would like to thank you. I would also like to add that none of us can foretell the future, but we can have fun looking at the horizon and analyzing what we see. The following is a portion of a letter that I received last week:
"What we've witnessed many times is the "Chicken Little syndrome", where someone is crying the sky is falling..., and it leads to the "Boy who cried wolf" syndrome where folks then tend to become numb, complacent and will cease to rightly respond. We do not want to be watchmen who are like mute dogs that cannot sound a warning, but as we're peering to the horizon to see what may be coming, we need to have the object in focus before we start crying battle. We have to be still, and press our ears to hear and wait on Father".
With that in mind, I am going to 'take a shot' at what I perceive to be Syria's reason for flexing its muscles on its border with Israel. The Syrians are well aware of the consequences that they would have to face, should they attack Israel. Hence I believe their reason for feigning military aggression is in order to force the UN and the US to put pressure on Israel to abide by UN-resolutions which address the handing over of all territories, and the creation of a PA State. Assad also feels compelled to demonstrate strength of leadership and a posture of 'standing up' to Israel. Should a Syrian threat be imminent and in earnest, Israel could make use of a preemptive attack. It doesn't appear, however, that Olmert is ready to do that, especially with Peres, who wants peace at all costs, at the helm. Thus, in the course of this past week all kinds of diplomatic efforts were made, and voices (including from the Bush government) were heard making pronouncements regarding the emergence of a PA State before the American President leaves office.
On the other hand efforts have been made on the part of some moderate Western Islamic clerics to deplore Muslim extremists. One even went so far as to point his finger directly at the Saudis, who are the ones financing the building of mosques and perpetuating their particular brand of Islam (Wahabbism) which is the most extreme sect within Suni Islam. This cleric advised the Bush administration to stop supporting the Saudi regime. But lo and behold, guess who is now behind the most recent peace initiative? Do you want to laugh or cry?
As far as war is concerned, we in Israel are at war with Hezbollah and Hamas. As to the Saudis, our government is willing to sit down with them (with the backing of the USA) and at least in principle accept their plan, which is nothing more than another version of UN resolution 224 and 338 and motivated by mega bucks. At this point we will have to wait and see what will come out of it. Could this be one more prop on the stage of the land division scene (Joel 3:2), very specifically "the mountains of Israel" which consist of what is commonly called the West Bank? In Ezekiel 36:1-4 the enemies declare that those areas belong to them.
But in contrast, the Elohim of Israel says: "I will make them [Judah and Israel] one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king will be king for all of them; and they will no longer be two nations, and they will no longer be divided into two kingdoms" (Ezekiel 37:22).
Ephraim
In last week's letter I suggested that we are living in the days of restoration, which brought to mind something Moshe said to Israel upon their entrance to the good land: "… has a god tried to go to take for himself a nation from within another nation by trials, by signs and wonders and by war and by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm and by great terrors, as YHVH your Elohim did for you in Egypt before your eyes?" (Deuteronomy 4:34).
Was the above scripture played out once again over the past hundred years, when the first nation/stick of Judah (see Eze 37:16) was taken out of the nations by the mighty hand of the Almighty, and brought back to the land? Were there not two world wars during this time? If this is what it took to bring a remnant of the first nation out; what about the second nation "in the hand of Ephraim" (Ezekiel 37: 19 Zechariah 10)? Is this the scenario which is unfolding before our eyes? Will we see great terrors, trials, signs, wonders and wars? There is much resistance by religious authorities to this biblical understanding, namely to the fact that YHVH has these two witness nations of Judah and Israel and that they are to be restored into one nation in the land. Never-the-less, YHVH's Word is the "same yesterday, today and forever". And since He is watching over His Word to perform it, it really does not make much difference what man thinks, although YHVH does grant windows of time for repentance.
Many of you responded positively to last week's letter (DDD), for which I would like to thank you. I would also like to add that none of us can foretell the future, but we can have fun looking at the horizon and analyzing what we see. The following is a portion of a letter that I received last week:
"What we've witnessed many times is the "Chicken Little syndrome", where someone is crying the sky is falling..., and it leads to the "Boy who cried wolf" syndrome where folks then tend to become numb, complacent and will cease to rightly respond. We do not want to be watchmen who are like mute dogs that cannot sound a warning, but as we're peering to the horizon to see what may be coming, we need to have the object in focus before we start crying battle. We have to be still, and press our ears to hear and wait on Father".
With that in mind, I am going to 'take a shot' at what I perceive to be Syria's reason for flexing its muscles on its border with Israel. The Syrians are well aware of the consequences that they would have to face, should they attack Israel. Hence I believe their reason for feigning military aggression is in order to force the UN and the US to put pressure on Israel to abide by UN-resolutions which address the handing over of all territories, and the creation of a PA State. Assad also feels compelled to demonstrate strength of leadership and a posture of 'standing up' to Israel. Should a Syrian threat be imminent and in earnest, Israel could make use of a preemptive attack. It doesn't appear, however, that Olmert is ready to do that, especially with Peres, who wants peace at all costs, at the helm. Thus, in the course of this past week all kinds of diplomatic efforts were made, and voices (including from the Bush government) were heard making pronouncements regarding the emergence of a PA State before the American President leaves office.
On the other hand efforts have been made on the part of some moderate Western Islamic clerics to deplore Muslim extremists. One even went so far as to point his finger directly at the Saudis, who are the ones financing the building of mosques and perpetuating their particular brand of Islam (Wahabbism) which is the most extreme sect within Suni Islam. This cleric advised the Bush administration to stop supporting the Saudi regime. But lo and behold, guess who is now behind the most recent peace initiative? Do you want to laugh or cry?
As far as war is concerned, we in Israel are at war with Hezbollah and Hamas. As to the Saudis, our government is willing to sit down with them (with the backing of the USA) and at least in principle accept their plan, which is nothing more than another version of UN resolution 224 and 338 and motivated by mega bucks. At this point we will have to wait and see what will come out of it. Could this be one more prop on the stage of the land division scene (Joel 3:2), very specifically "the mountains of Israel" which consist of what is commonly called the West Bank? In Ezekiel 36:1-4 the enemies declare that those areas belong to them.
But in contrast, the Elohim of Israel says: "I will make them [Judah and Israel] one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king will be king for all of them; and they will no longer be two nations, and they will no longer be divided into two kingdoms" (Ezekiel 37:22).
Ephraim
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