(Isaiah 30: 1-2) “Woe to the obstinate children,” declares the Lord, “to those who carry out plans that are not mine, forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit, heaping sin upon sin; who go down to Egypt without consulting me; who look for help to Pharaoh’s protection, to Egypt’s shade for refuge.”
In Saturday’s online edition of News a headline read; “Erdogan says Turkey wants better ties with Israel, talks continue” The sub-header read; “The Palestine policy is our red line,” the Turkish leader said. “If there were no issues at the top level, our ties could have been very different.” The article went on to say; “President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that Turkey would like to have better ties with Israel and that talks at intelligence level continued between the two sides, but criticized Israeli policy toward Palestinians as “unacceptable.” The two countries have had a bitter falling out in recent years, despite strong commercial ties, expelling ambassadors in 2018. Ankara has repeatedly condemned Israel’s occupation in the West Bank and its treatment of Palestinians.
Speaking to reporters after Friday prayers in Istanbul, Erdogan said Turkey had issues with “people at the top level” in Israel and that ties could have been “very different” if it were not for those issues. “The Palestine policy is our red line. It is impossible for us to accept Israel’s Palestine policies. Their merciless acts there are unacceptable,” Erdogan said. “If there were no issues at the top level, our ties could have been very different,” he added. “We would like to bring our ties to a better point.” Turkey and Israel, former allies, expelled each other’s top diplomats in 2018 over clashes when dozens of Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces on the Gaza border. Ankara and Tel Aviv continue to trade with one another.
In August, Israel accused Turkey of giving passports to a dozen Hamas members in Istanbul, describing the move as “a very unfriendly step” which his government would raise with Turkish officials. Hamas seized Gaza from forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007, and the group has fought three wars with Israel since then. Turkey says Hamas is a legitimate political movement that was elected democratically.” (End of article)
It seems that those who have been Israel’s enemies in the Arab world are now seeking peaceful relationships with Israel and even now Turkey is moving towards normalising its relationship with the Jewish State. The sticking point of course with Turkey and other Arab nations deciding whether to join the normalization process with Israel is the ‘Palestinian issue’ which Biblically is not even an issue. God calls the homeland of the Jewish people Israel and has declared its capital to be Jerusalem where He has chosen to put His name. (2 Chronicles 6:6) God Himself has set Jerusalem in the centre of the nations. (Ezekiel 5:5) In fact the whole Bible in both Testaments clearly states that the homeland of the Jews is called Israel and God gave their name to them through the patriarch Jacob after He had spent the night wrestling with the Messiah. (Genesis 32:28) The people of Israel are in fact the descendants of Jacob, not Esau. (Genesis 17:21)
God elected Israel to be a nation even from the womb of Rebekah as the babies jostled together in their mother’s womb, a ‘jostling’ we see today between the descendants of Jacob (Israel) with the descendants of Esau (the Arabs). Now Israel is God’s Land which He has given to His people to be for them “an everlasting possession” (Genesis 17:8) and in doing this He has shown that his people Israel are a special people who have a covenant with Him concerning the land of Israel, a contact with Abraham sealed in the blood of an animal which can never be annulled. The whole land from the River Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt and everything in between was given to the people of God as their birthright and inheritance and called Israel. (Genesis 15:17-19)
Today Israel is back in the land as foretold in the prophet Ezekiel Chapter 37 but the leaders and the people of Israel are still strangers and aliens to their own covenants of promise and estranged from their Messiah and only saviour from sin our Lord Jesus. Even though their hearts are hardened towards Him it is only a partial hardening. At the very end of the age every Jew still living on earth will have their hearts softened and be saved because God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable. (Romans 11: 25-27)
Many leaders in the nations and even within wider Christendom are all amazed at the Arab nations seeking to normalise relationship with Israel and believe it is a good thing but those who know what the Bible teaches about Israel in the last days will know it is a false peace that will not last. The issue for the whole Islamic world that has not gone away is the division of the Land of Israel and especially the division of Jerusalem. Recently Benny Gantz, now a contender for the Prime Minster of Israel, stated that the Palestinian Arabs could have their own capital within the precincts of Jerusalem but with the proviso that Jerusalem remains the capital of Israel. However, the PLA have made it clear that they would never countenance such an agreement. The PLA want it all!
Israel has already entered into a covenant relationship with the UAE, Bahrain and with Sudan but as yet the Saudis and other Arab nations are waiting to see how the ‘Palestinian’ issue will pan out. Added to this they are waiting to see who will be the president of the United States as it is still in dispute. At present there is a lot of pressure on Israel from the United Nations and the European Union to divide up Jerusalem and the land of Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu is ‘under a lot of pressure’ to compromise for the sake of peace with the whole Muslim world if the truth be known.
The situation is much wider in perspective than just Israel normalising its relationship with the Arab world. Erdogan has made it clear in the past that he wants Jerusalem for Islam and he has not changed his position. He is a past master at taqiyya (the Islamic art of lying and giving disinformation in a time of Jihad).
Now in the Word of God the Lord told the Israelites not to enter into a covenant with a pagan nation for security because the Lord Himself was their security and they were to completely trust in Him alone for all of their spiritual and temporal needs and not to man.
As the Psalmist writes; “It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man.” (Psalm 118:8-9) God Himself has also said through the prophet Isaiah; “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in their abundance of chariots and in their multitude of horsemen. They do not look to the Holy One of Israel; they do not seek the LORD.” (Isaiah 31:1)
And again the Lord said through Isaiah; “Woe to the obstinate children,” declares the Lord, “to those who carry out plans that are not mine, forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit, heaping sin upon sin; who go down to Egypt without consulting me; who look for help to Pharaoh’s protection, to Egypt’s shade for refuge.” (Isaiah 30: 1-2)
In the Bible Egypt is used as a metaphor for the world and Pharaoh is used as a metaphor for the god of this world being Satan and by extension the Antichrist. Today Israel as a nation are not looking to the God of our forefathers of faith Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, neither have they received their Messiah our Lord Jesus, but are indeed aliens and strangers to their own covenants of Promise which are all fulfilled in the Messiah. It may seem a good thing in the eyes of Israel’s leaders to normalise relations with their Arab neighbours and other Islamic countries but at the end the whole Islamic world will turn against Israel.
Jerusalem will be divided and conquered by their implacable Islamic neighbours and Turkey will lead the invasion. (Ezekiel 38:1-6) (Zechariah 14:2) (Joel 3:2) Erdogan is not to be trusted! He has the Hagia Sofia but he wants Jerusalem. There can be no lasting peace in this world until the Prince of Peace returns to establish His Messianic Kingdom on earth after He has completely destroyed all opposition and every earthly kingdom arrayed against Him. (Daniel 2:32-35, 44-45)
In that day the surviving remnant of Israel will look only to the Messiah whom they have pierced and mourn for him with tears of repentance and joy. In that day they will not look to Egypt but only to the Lord. (Zechariah 12:10-14)
As it is written; “For this is what the LORD has said to me: “Like a lion roaring or a young lion over its prey—and though a band of shepherds is called out against it, it is not terrified by their shouting or subdued by their clamour—so the LORD of Hosts will come down to do battle on Mount Zion and its heights. Like birds hovering overhead, so the LORD of Hosts will protect (shield) Jerusalem. He will shield it and deliver it; He will pass over it and preserve it.” (Isaiah 31:4-5)
