NEWSBITE 20.4.2021

“Put not your trust in princes, in mortal man, who cannot save.” (Psalm 246:3)

There is no doubt that Israel is a military power to be reckoned with in the Middle-East. After Israel spent a week successfully taking out an Iranian spy ship in the Red Sea, destroying Iranian bases in Syria, and setting back the Iranian nuclear programme with a bomb blast in Natanz, the Saudis have decided to repair relations with Tehran, in effect undercutting the formidable Abraham Accords alliance that has been built with their acquiescence.

We may well ask the question; “After working closely with Saudi Arabia and the UAE to build a real sense of an alliance against the spreading hegemony of the Shiite fanatics in Iran, why would these countries backstab Israel? Well, there have been a lot of good will messages going back and forth and much hand shaking and impressive press coverage. There have been business deals transacted and an increase in Tourism, yet like much of Middle-Eastern relationships, they are just transactional and look great on paper and on social media, but not reliable if the needs of the Sunni states changed.

Now that the Biden Administration are in power with its determination to re-negotiate the 2015 Iranian Nuclear Deal vetoed by the Trump Administration, the Saudis and the other Arab league nations are recalibrating what is necessary to survive as they see Iran moving ahead with their nuclear programme. Iran, now allowed back into the US good graces, means a very different Middle East than what Trump envisioned.

Essentially, the Gulf States allowed Israel to take the heat for an attack on an Iranian spy ship, while conspiring to shift and kneel in front of the Iranian Ayatollah. This is the Middle East. There are no lasting alliances or friendships, just necessities bound in transactional relationships. The mistake to trust Saudi Arabia and others is the real issue here and that mistake is Israel’s.

When the end-time invasion of Israel occurs the Saudis will watch from the sidelines but not lift a finger to help. (Ezekiel 38:13) In reality countries and their rulers respect strength, not honour or friendship or even business deals. The Sunni Arabs, Sudan, Morocco, and others didn’t reach out to Israel because they wanted to be friends. They signed the Abraham Accords because Israel has become the regional powerhouse it was meant to be. These same countries are willing to throw Israel under the Iranian bus unless the Israelis are willing to fight the enemy at “their gates.”

A war is coming to the Middle-East and in this end-time scenario Israel will be abandoned. Now the Lord loves Israel and has a covenant with them which He fully intends to fulfil but in order for the blessings of that covenant to come upon Israel the nation must turn back to Him and to the Messiah for salvation and protection. Israel at present are strangers and aliens to their own covenants of promise and estranged from the Messiah our Lord Jesus who has bled and died for their sins in order to establish the New Covenant with them as a people. (Jeremiah 31:31-37)

This New covenant ratified in the blood of the Messiah shed on the sacrificial altar of the cross includes Gentiles spiritually grafted into the Commonwealth of Israel through faith in the Messiah our Lord Jesus for salvation. (Romans 11:15-18) (Ephesians 2:11-22) On the Day of Pentecost David’s fallen Tabernacle was spiritually restored. (Amos 9:11-12) (Acts 15:16-18) It was a partial spiritual restoration.

After the Lord has purified His wayward people in Israel through His refining fire the surviving remnant will turn back to Him and come to the foot of that old rugged cross where the Messiah has suffered and died for them. (Zechariah 12:10-14; 13:8-9) There at the foot of the cross, spiritually speaking, Israel will experience a complete spiritual and national restoration and become the praise of the earth among the nations that have survived the Time of the Big Trouble. (Isaiah 62:7)

Right at this present time those with whom Israel has made the Abraham Accords are now stabbing Israel in the back as it were. Islam will always be Islam. You cannot make peace with Islam. It is an ideology, a form of government, a socio-economic and militaristic power with religion as a component. It can be likened to a Hydra with several heads but one body.

Even though the nation of Israel has been re-born as a nation for over 70 years now it seems they are still ignoring the Word of God which says; “It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in princes.” (Psalm 118:8-9) And again it is written; “This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind, who makes the flesh his strength and turns his heart from the LORD.” (Jeremiah 17:5)

Tragically Israel is still under the Curse of the Law. (Deuteronomy 28:15-28) That is the bad news. However the good news for Israel is that the Messiah our Lord Jesus became that curse as the Passover Lamb to save them from their sins. (Galatians 3: 13-14) (1 Corinthians 5:7) (Matthew 1:21) The only future for Israel is to turn back to the God of our forefathers of faith Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and to repent and receive their Messiah as saviour and Lord.

When the battered and bruised remnant in Israel turn back to the Messiah to save them they will experience salvation from their enemies and from the hand of all who hate them and enabled by the blessed Holy Spirit to serve the Lord their God and the Messiah without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all their days. (Luke 1:67-75) And so God’s Word to Israel still stands today at this time when they are looking for human allies which it seems have started to desert them. As the Lord has said; “Put not your trust in princes, in mortal man, who cannot save.”