To Uphold Zion’s Cause
(Isaiah 34: 8) “For the Lord has a day of vengeance, a year of retribution, to uphold Zion’s cause.”
Isaiah Chapter 34 : Introduction
At the time of writing of this article in Israel the Israelis have been brutally savaged by the terrorist organization Hamas from Gaza. Thousands of rockets have been launched from Gaza, terrorists have rampaged through the streets of some Israeli cities killing and pillaging and indiscriminately murdering men, women, boys and girls and decapitating babies, not to mention the death of IDF soldiers. Tragically babies and young children have been butchered by these Hamas terrorists. Israel is now at war! Over 1,300 Israelis have now been killed, and more than 3,000 have been wounded or injured and Israeli forces have killed more than 1,500 Hamas terrorists who broke through the Gazan border into Israel.
The Israeli military have since mobilized 360,000 reservists and have now stationed a large number of troops in the north adjacent to the Lebanon border. Added to this, Prime Minister Netanyahu has now ordered that Israeli civilians living in the north of Israel near the border with Lebanon be armed with modern weapons to defend themselves if Hezbollah attempts an incursion from the north. IDF defence personal are also starting to train these civilians in their use of these weapons. Now there are Israeli airstrikes that have hit Hezbollah positions in South Lebanon.
As I write this article, according to reliable reports, Israeli forces continue to make air strikes in Gaza focused on munitions factories, large and small, and the offices of the Hamas leadership. The IDF have lost approximately 300 soldiers so far in combat, hostages numbering 100-200 were taken by these Hamas terrorists who took them to Gaza where it is reported that many of them have already been murdered, used as human shields, and they continue to be tortured. The terrorists murdered at least 260 people attending a music festival. Those killed were primarily younger people who attended this event which some also considered a new age festival. In other words, the types of young people who came to this event were enjoying the good weather, music, food, and the company of like-minded Israelis, many of whom recently completed their Army Service. The Hamas terrorists massacred more than 100 civilians in the southern kibbutz (collective farm) of Kfar Aza. They murdered and decapitated some, including babies. Hamas are the modern day Nazis!
Now the IDF are preparing for a major ground assault into Gaza, and having warned the civilians to flee from Gaza within a 24 hour period, the IDF will commence their all-out assault on Hamas by land and by air strikes. American army personnel are now in Israel and another aircraft carrier is on its way to defend Israel, and I dare say to watch Iran that is fighting its proxy war against Israel through Hamas and Hezbollah. Of course behind this militant demonic madness of Hamas we know is Iran that is funding the Hamas terrorists and Hezbollah in the north and behind Iran is “the principality of Persia” in the unseen spiritual realm (Daniel 10:20). America has started to send armaments and ammunition to Israel and they have a naval fleet including another aircraft carrier in the region closer to Israel as a show of support. This may be a temporary deterrent to Hezbollah.
The State of Israel was formally established by the Israeli Declaration of Independence on 14 May 1948, and was admitted to the United Nations (UN) as a full member state on 11 May 1949. The International community at the UN should go to Israel’s defence as it is a member nation, but by and large since 1948 the UN members have issued more sanctions against Israel than they have against any other nation. Will the UN send troops to defend their member nation? ‘Rhetoric’ and ‘sabre rattling’ is cheap when not backed up by action! Already there are ‘murmurings’ starting to arise through some of the western mainstream media including CNN and MSNBC about Israel committing “war crimes” which is a fallacy!
Added to this, the European Union is sending funds to Gaza for a so called humanitarian cause. The EU is no friends of Israel. Virtually all of the money being sent is not being used for the welfare of the Arab people in Gaza but going into the coffers of the Palestinian Authority and the terrorist organization Hamas. Terrorism is being funded! Even though these two terrorist organizations hate each other they will join forces when it comes to attacking Israel. The Islamic world is divided, yet unites when they have a common enemy they want to fight and destroy, and this demonic obsessive agenda that is causing them to unite is the destruction of Israel, the Jews, and the Faithful Body of Messiah spiritually grafted into the Commonwealth of Israel. (Romans 11:17-18) (Ephesians 2:11-22) (Amos 9:11-12) (Acts 15:14-18). Satan hates Jews and Bible believing Christians vehemently.
Even though in China and in North Korea and in Russia Bible believers are suffering persecution, for the most part, the persecution of the Body of Messiah is occurring in Islamic nations today and spreading into the western democracies traditionally associated with Biblical Judeo-Christianity. The Islamic Trojan Horse is well ensconced within the western democracies. In Sydney Australia this week there was a large gathering of pro-Palestinian protestors who set fire to a Jewish flag and who were crying out “Gas the Jews!” and “F_k the Jews!” This kind of Islamic militancy and hatred against the Jewish people will increase even more in the western democracies. Already in other western countries and in other Middle-Eastern countries there are protests against Israel and militant protestors praising Hamas!
Satan knows his time is short before he is incarcerated and chained in a pit under the earth without contact with humans. In his twisted logic and desperation and malevolent hatred for God and His people he wants to destroy Israel. He is trying to prevent the Second Coming of the Messiah our Lord Jesus because Satan knows that the Second Coming of the Messiah hinges on God’s prophetic purposes for Israel’s national and spiritual survival as a nation. This whole attack on Israel is the spirit of antichrist at work through Israel’s implacable enemies surrounding them on all four sides.
Having said this, we know from God’s Word that Satan and his forces on earth and his principalities and powers of darkness in the unseen spiritual realm will never eradicate Israel as a nation. Israel will survive even through the Time of Jacob’s Trouble to come. In the Millennial Messianic Kingdom of God in the age to come Israel will be the chief nation elevated above all of the surviving nations. On the original sight of Mt Zion the Messiah our Lord Jesus will reign as king over all of the nations in His Millennial Temple at Jerusalem (Jeremiah 30:1-10) (Isaiah 2:1-5).
The Messiah, our Resurrected Lord Jesus, is now reigning in heaven over the whole universe as God the Son upholding all things by His powerful word. As the author of Hebrews writes; “But in these last days He (God) has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His nature, upholding all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:2-3). Having said this He is the still King of the Jews and will reign on David’s throne in Jerusalem as Israel’s king! To this the Hebrew prophets testify!
At present the whole International Community publically states that Israel has a right to defend itself but in reality in the end when Israel’s back is against the wall will the international community practically support Israel? Even the Arab nations are siding with the so called militant ‘Palestinian’ Arabs in Gaza. Possibly this war that has started in Israel will cause the Saudis to delay any real alliance with Israel? As yet Hezbollah has not invaded from the North. If Iran gives Hezbollah the nod then rockets more sophisticated than the ones Hamas have will rain down upon Israeli cities. Already Israeli tanks have been exchanging fire with Hezbollah mortar positions located in Lebanon just over Israel’s northern border. As I mentioned America’s presence in the Middle-East is a deterrent to Hezbollah.
So far the LORD has been keeping a restraining hand on Hezbollah that is also in league with the Islamic Jihad terrorist group that support Hezbollah’s agenda to destroy Israel. We know from the Word of God that the time will come when all the nations will send their armies to invade Israel and lay siege to Jerusalem. When it looks like Israel will be wiped off of the map the LORD will send back the Messiah our Lord Jesus to destroy all of Israel’s enemies, and in that day all Israel will be saved! (Zechariah Chapters 12 &14) (Ezekiel Chapters 38 & 39) (Joel 3:1-3, 12-16).
In that day when the Messiah comes back every Jew still living on earth at that time will be saved. They will look upon the one whom they have pierced and turn back to Him (Zechariah 12:10-13:1). This will be the remnant spoken of in the prophet Isaiah and in the Book of Romans, None will be lost! (Isaiah 10:21-22) (Romans 11:5) (Romans 9:27-29). In that day “Israel will possess their possession” and possess the gates of their enemies!” (Obadiah 1:17) (Genesis 22:17). When the Messiah returns to destroy the armies of the Islamic Antichrist and fights them at Jerusalem against His enemies, Judah will also fight at Jerusalem side by side with the Messiah our Lord Jesus as their Commander in Chief! (Zechariah 14:14). Now let’s look at Isaiah Chapter 34 in its prophetic context. It is a prophecy yet to happen in the future. It is most relevant to what we see transpiring today in the Middle-East as the world is confronted with the growing Islamic threat to democracy. Let’s now look at what Isaiah writes…
Isaiah Chapter 34: Exposition
1. The nations will be judged
(Vs.13) “Come near, you nations, and listen; pay attention, you peoples! Let the earth hear, and all that is in it, the world, and all that comes out of it! The Lord is angry with all nations; His wrath is upon all their armies. He will totally destroy He will give them over to slaughter. Their slain will be thrown out, their dead bodies will send up a stench; the mountains will be soaked with their blood.”
Today God is trying to get the nations to listen and to pay attention to what He is doing and is going to do in these last of the last days. In the writings of the prophets Ezekiel and Joel we see the LORD God of Israel draw the nations to Jerusalem to judge them for the way they have treated His people Israel (Ezekiel 38:4) (Joel 3:1-3). Clearly this judgment is one that comes upon all of the nations of the world who have sent their armies to attack Israel. In the prophet Isaiah and in the Book of Revelation we see the Messiah’s robes stained with the blood of His enemies (Isaiah 63:1-3) (Revelation 19:13). The dead will be so numerous that their stench will rise to the heavens and the mountains of Israel will be soaked with their blood (Joel 2:20). The armies of the nations that have attacked Israel and plundered Israel will fall on the mountains of Israel in wholesale lots consumed by fire out of heaven (Ezekiel 38:22; 39:4-6).
These nations are mentioned by name in Ezekiel Chapter 38:1-6 and they are all Islamic nations. We are also told that many nations will be with them so we may well see other non-Islamic nations that oppose Israel joining the armies of Islam to lay siege to Jerusalem. The fiery holocaust from heaven that will incinerate these armies will be God avenging His people Israel and by extension the faithful Body of Messiah spiritually grafted into Israel who have been persecuted by Islam. In this war Israel is fighting right now as I write the butchery being perpetrated by Jihad minded militant Muslims upon Jews and Christians, and upon those who cannot defend themselves, Islam’s judgement is justified in the sight of God!
The apostle Peter speaks about this end-time fiery judgement upon the nations when he writes that the heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare, exposed or burnt up. All that God has not established on earth will be incinerated. Every kingdom opposed to God will be uprooted and destroyed! (Daniel 2:34-35, 44-45). It will be the fire that will burn up the dross of sin and rebellion. This day will see the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the intense heat.
In the Greek text of 2 Peter 3:10-12 “the elements melting in the fervent heat” describes something akin to the splitting of the atom or a nuclear detonation that will be so powerful that it will cleanse the earth and the heavens. Knowing this fact should be the catalyst for the redeemed saints of God to live separated and godly lives and looking forward to the day of the LORD when their rescue will come from the wrath of God (Romans 5:9) (1 Thessalonians 1:10; 5:9). Our blessed hope as New Covenant believers is the Second Coming of the Messiah to earth to destroy all opposition, rescue Israel, and rapture and resurrect the saints immediately after the tribulation of those days (Daniel 2:34-35, 44-45) (Matthew 24:29-31).
Also at that time there will be a great earthquake in Israel that will cause all of creation and the nations on earth to tremble (Ezekiel 38:19-23; 39:4-6). In the Messianic kingdom in the age to come people will go out from the city of Jerusalem to gaze upon the dead bodies of those who in the previous age rebelled against God and His Messiah our Lord Jesus. The fact that we are told that “their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched” alludes to an eternal ongoing torment they will be experiencing in the furnace and that they will be loathsome to all mankind (Isaiah 66:24).
All of the kings of all of the empires on earth who sought to oppose God will be alive in hell and in conscious torment along with the Antichrist whom they followed (Isaiah 14:9-12). The nations that will go down into this pit of Hades are specifically named and they are all Islamic nations today (Ezekiel 32:18-32). This judgement will also be unleashed upon Satan and the principalities and powers of darkness in the unseen spiritual real.
2. Principalities will be dethroned
(Vs.4) All the stars of the heavens will be dissolved and the sky rolled up like a scroll; all the starry host will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like shrivelled figs from the fig tree.”
The prophet Isaiah writes; “The earth staggers like a drunkard and sways like a shack. Earth’s rebellion weighs it down, and it falls, never to rise again. In that day the LORD will punish the host of heaven above and the kings of the earth below. They will be gathered together like prisoners in a pit. They will be confined to a dungeon and punished after many days.…” (Isaiah 24:20-22). “The hosts of heaven above” are Satan, his fallen angels, his demons and principalities and his entire realm in the air just above the surface of the earth in the unseen spiritual realm. Satan is the prince of the power of the air (the atmosphere) (Job 1:7:2:2) (Ephesians 2:2). “The kings on the earth below” are those in power who have been controlled by these principalities and powers of wickedness in high places.
When the wrath of God is poured out upon a Messiah hating, Messiah rejecting world it will be the sixth seal opened which will see the great earthquake occur. Principalities and powers of wickedness in the unseen spiritual realm that have controlled and manipulated people will lose their power. The sun will turn black and the moon to blood as they reflect the fires from heaven being poured out on the inhabitants of the world and also due to the thick smoke that will block out the sunlight as the kingdom of the Antichrist is plunged into darkness and where men will grind their teeth in agony (Revelation 16:10). Great hailstones weighing almost a hundred pounds each will rain down upon them from above and men will curse God for the plague of hail, because it will be so horrendous (Revelation 16:21).
The sky will be rolled up like a scroll to reveal heaven and the Messiah preparing to descend to earth from His throne in heaven. People from every walk and level of society will tremble at the knees, kings, politicians, sodomites, murderers, adulterers, thieves, drunkards, generals, despots, occultists, and all who have not repented of their sins and availed themselves of the redeeming, sanctifying, cleansing blood of the Messiah will hide themselves among the rocks of the mountains. They will even call to the mountains and to the rocks to fall upon them to hide them from God who sits on the heavenly throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come and who can stand in such a day? (Revelation 6:12-17). Isaiah also tells us that the LORD will lay waste the earth and devastate it, and ruin its face and scatter its inhabitants. This shaking will affect the religious world, the domestic world and the business world. The earth will be completely laid waste and totally plundered because the LORD will have spoken His Word (Isaiah 24:1-3) (Haggai 2:6-7a).
Satan is the god of this world who has blinded the spiritual sight of the unsaved both in the secular and religious world and he too will be punished and banished from contact with humans where he will be chained under the earth for a thousand years. After this thousand years are over he will be loosed from his prison in the earth and be quickly disposed of by the Messiah and sent into the lake of fire, along with all who have followed him in his final rebellion. After this, there will be a new heavens and earth lasting forever (Revelation 20:1-3) (Revelation 21:1-4).
3. Rivers of retribution will flow
(Vs.5-8) “My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens; see, it descends in judgment on Edom, the people I have totally destroyed. The sword of the Lord is bathed in blood, it is covered with fat–the blood of lambs and goats, fat from the kidneys of rams. For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah and a great slaughter in Edom. And the wild oxen will fall with them, the bull calves and the great bulls. Their land will be drenched with blood, and the dust will be soaked with fat. For the Lord has a day of vengeance, a year of retribution, to uphold Zion’s cause.”
This prophecy will come about in this age in which we live. By its description it is God’s judgement upon Islam for the blood of His people they have shed. God most certainly will judge the nations as we have seen, but now the focus of the camera of God’s Word zooms in on the Islamic world. Now Edom is mentioned. It includes Southern Jordan but primarily in its prophetic context it refers to Saudi Arabia. In Ezekiel 25:12-14 we see the LORD lay waste the geographical region of Edom because of the way they have treated the Jewish people. This wasting destruction upon man and beast from the LORD will stretch from Teman to Dedan. In ancient maps of the Middle East these two geographical locations are located in Saudi Arabia, the heart of the Islamic world.
God will also use Israel to unleash His anger and wrath so that these implacable enemies of Israel will know the vengeance of God for what they have done to His people. Now here in Isaiah we are also told that “the sword of the Lord is covered with the blood of lambs and goats, fat from the kidneys of rams for He has a sacrifice in Bozrah and a great slaughter in Edom.” Ancient Bozrah in this context was located in the region of Southern Jordan but was the southern gateway into the desert of Saudi Arabia. As we will see the blood of these animals mentioned metaphorically describes what will happen to those who are likened to rampaging wild oxen, bull calves and great bulls that destroy everything that crosses their path. This applies to the Jihad mindset of Islam. Their land, the Land of Edom, will be drenched with their own blood and the dust will be soaked with their fat.
In Isaiah Chapter 63:1-5 we see the Messiah our Lord Jesus coming from Edom and from Bozrah, with His garments stained with the blood of His enemies. The winepress of God’s wrath is also mentioned. This same battle is described in Revelation 19:11-21 where we see the Messiah with His robes stained with the blood of His enemies and also the winepress of God’s wrath mentioned. These two passages when put together see the Messiah after He has returned to earth taking the fight to Islam. It will occur at the Messiah’s Second Coming. At the end of Revelation Chapter 19 we see the antichrist and the false prophet captured and thrown alive into the lake of fire. Clearly it reveals that the Antichrist and the false prophet are Islamic.
In the book of Joel Chapter 3:12-13 we see these invading armies of the nations thrown into the winepress of God’s wrath. This passage of scripture in Joel Chapter 3:12-13 corresponds with the same events described in Isaiah 63:1-5 and in Revelation 19:11-21. In the Book of Revelation Chapter 14:14-20 we see two harvests that occur at the end of the age. The first harvest sees the saints being gathered to the LORD. It is a harvest of mercy! The second harvest sees the unsaved being swept into the winepress of God’s wrath and their blood flowing outside the walls of the city of Jerusalem for about 180 miles as high as the horse’s bridles. It is a harvest of divine wrath! While Jerusalem is not specifically named as the city, when viewed in light of the Biblical co-texts related to these same events it is clear the city of Jerusalem is intended.
This will be the LORDS Day of vengeance, a year of retribution to uphold Zion’s cause, Zion being His people corporately. Not only will the LORD avenge His elect people in Israel that will be calling out to Him day and night to deliver them from their persecutors, but also dispensing righteous vengeance upon Islam and upon all who have persecuted the Body of the Messiah spiritually grafted into the Commonwealth of Israel See also (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10). Now we see another aspect of Edom which focuses specifically on the desert of Saudi Arabia…
4. Babylon will burn
(Vs.9-12) “Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch, her dust into burning sulphur; her land will become blazing pitch! It will not be quenched night and day; its smoke will rise forever. From generation to generation it will lie desolate; no one will ever pass through it again. “The desert owl and screech owl will possess it; the great owl and the raven will nest there. God will stretch out over Edom the measuring line of chaos and the plumb line of desolation. Her nobles will have nothing there to be called a kingdom; all her princes will vanish away.
We are now told in the text that Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch (oil), her dust of the ground turned into burning sulphur, her land becoming blazing pitch! This would have to be the oil reserves under the desert of Saudi Arabia and the oil fields associated with the underground oil reserves. The conflagration will be so intense and widespread that it will make the whole region uninhabitable for humans to live in. The fact that its smoke will rise forever from generation to generation describes a divine judgement that will be eternal such as we seed described in the Lake of Fire. The smoke that makes this region uninhabitable may well be the pollution from the burning oil fields or the fallout from a nuclear detonation in the region that will see Mecca and the other Islamic kingdoms located on the Saudi Arabian Peninsula incinerated. (See the study series on this website titled “Fallen, Fallen is Babylon”).
Today we have the empires of China and Russia and America and the European Union and the United Nations all vying for global power, however, the immerging empire that is going to confront the nations, especially the western democracies, will be the empire of Islam. Their goal will be the subjugation of the nations by the sword and the destruction of Israel and the Body of the Messiah, the faithful Church spiritually grafted into the Commonwealth of Israel. In the Word of God historically Babylon was a literal city and the original source of all false religion, a mother of harlots that caused nations to depart from God and to commit spiritual adultery. Prophetically Babylon is also a city in a desert in Edom whose destruction is heard at the Red Sea (Jeremiah 49:20-22). This would have to be Mecca, the religious woman in the desert that the apostle John saw in his vision (Revelation 17:3-6).
She is the Harlot of Islam, according to the fundamentalist Islamic mindset such as we see in Iran, who rides the back of the militant Islamic beast empire that will ultimately buck her off of its back and have her for breakfast. Babylon the Harlot will become toast! (Revelation 17:16-18). This will be the judgement of God upon Edom because of what has been done to Jews and to Christians by this empire. This woman “was drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus” (Revelation 17:6). Today we see this persecution and bloodshed of faithful New Covenant believers throughout the entire Muslim world and Saudi Arabia is no exception to this butchery. Also it needs to be said that the culture, the lifestyle, the opulence, the wealth, the pursuits, the pleasures of the flesh and the multi interfaith religious activity we see in our wold today all reflect the character traits of the Ancient Babylon of Nimrod, the first major type of the Antichrist revealed in the Word of God.
We are also told in the text that the whole region of Edom will become “the dwelling place of the desert owl and the screech owl will possess it; the great owl and the raven will nest there.” No humans will be able to live there. Furthermore, we are also told that God “will stretch out over Edom the measuring line of chaos and the plumb line of desolation. Her nobles will have nothing there to be called a kingdom; all her princes will vanish away.” In other words Islam will be no more, her princes, her sheiks, her Mullahs, her wealth, her opulence, her oil reserves by which she has intoxicated the nations, her arrogance and her militancy under despotic Jihad minded rulers will be nowhere to be seen of found.
5. Desolations have been decreed
(Vs.13-14) “Thorns will overrun her citadels, nettles and brambles her strongholds. She will become a haunt for jackals, a home for owls. Desert creatures will meet with hyenas, and wild goats will bleat to each other; there the night creatures will also repose and find for themselves places of rest.”
Over time even the cities, the strongholds and towns of Edom will be overgrown with nettles and brambles. The creatures described that inhabit this wasteland symbolise the demonic principalities that once lorded it over this great end-time empire. Night creatures will also be there. It is a picture of waste and desolation, a wasteland inhabited by desert creatures. Possibly these creatures that physically live in this wilderness or wasteland metaphorically represent those wicked principalities now confined to this region they once ruled over, but now where they await for the judgement to come where they will go into the lake of fire to join the one who ruled over them.
6. Portions will be allotted
(Vs.15-17) “The owl will nest there and lay eggs, she will hatch them, and care for her young under the shadow of her wings; there also the falcons will gather, each with its mate. Look in the scroll of the Lord and read: None of these will be missing, not one will lack her mate. For it is His mouth that has given the order, and His Spirit will gather them together. He allots their portions; his hand distributes them by measure. They will possess it forever and dwell there from generation to generation.”
In the Messianic kingdom over the thousand year reign of the Messiah in the regeneration, the whole earth will be renewed except for the geographical region of Edom (the Saudi Arabian Peninsula) which will not be suitable for human habitation, even though the birds will find their nesting places there according to the Word of God described as the scroll of the LORD. The whole earth will fulfil its original purpose for which it was created for the benefit and well-being of all of creation. The reign of the Messiah will see these birds mate and multiply at His command and see His Spirit bring order out of chaos (Genesis 1:1-2). The fact that these birds possess the land of Edom forever reflects the final and eternal state where there will be a new heaven and earth and where the old heavens and earth will have passed away forever. The Millennial Kingdom of the Messiah will be the forerunner or the harbinger of the final and eternal state to come! (Isaiah 65:17-25) CPR (Revelation 21:1-4). (See the study series on this website titled “The Millennium”)
Epilogue
At present in our world we see Islam rising again. Both Israel and by inclusion the faithful Church are being persecuted by Islam. Right now Israel is fighting for its very survival against Islamic Jihad terror yet it will survive because God has ordained it to be so in His Word! In the light of history it is Islam that I am strongly inclined to see from the Word of God is the first beast empire that had a seemingly fatal wound in the past that is being healed and is re-emerging in the second beast empire.
The first beast empire came up out of the sea representing the nations (Revelation 17:15). It was a middle- eastern empire that the apostle John saw in his vision on the island of Patmos. “The sea” John refers to would have to have been the Mediterranean Sea.
The second beast empire came up “out of the land or the earth”. It was the first beast empire resurrected in the second beast empire. In light of the fact that all of the empires in the Old Testament related to Bible prophecy in the last days are all Islamic nations and geographical regions today. Having said this the day is coming soon when Israel will be fully restored nationally and spiritually. (See the study series on this website titled “The Two Beasts of the Apocalypse”).
The nation as yet is to pass through the Time of Jacob’s Trouble but at the end of it be saved out of it by the return of the Messiah our Lord Jesus. In that day concerning Israel we are told in God’s Word that by His power the Messiah will break the yoke of oppression from around the necks of His people Israel and He will also tear of their bonds of servitude, and no longer will they be enslaved by foreigners whom they sought for protection instead of looking to the LORD alone. Instead they will serve the LORD their God and David their king (the Messiah our Lord Jesus) whom God will have raised up for them at His first coming, and who will rule over them after His second coming as the king of Israel (Jeremiah 30:1-10).
At the time of writing this article Israel is engaged in another war with Hamas unlike any other war they have fought since their rebirth as a nation in 1948, a war that more than likely will escalate. The conflict continues but God still has everyhting under control. Hezbollah in the north has not as yet entered the war. In the end Israel will survive and reign on earth with the Messiah and with all of the redeemed saints of God in the Messianic Millennial kingdom of God. Indeed in that day Israel will be the head and not the tail! The LORD will fight for Israel once again and bring ultimate victory to uphold Zions Cause!
