Two days ago on the IsraBite News online publication an article appeared and according to the report it stated that; “Israel and Turkey have agreed to restore full diplomatic relations, Prime Minister Yair Lapid announced. “The resumption of relations with Turkey is an important asset for regional stability and very important economic news for the citizens of Israel,” a statement from Lapid’s office said. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu confirmed the decision to reappoint ambassadors and said Ankara would be sending its envoy to Tel Aviv, Israel’s second-largest city.
The two countries recalled their respective ambassadors in 2010 after the Israeli Navy intercepted a flotilla transporting weapons to the Gaza Strip, an incident that resulted in the deaths of nine Turkish nationals. Following an attempt at mending ties, Turkey withdrew its ambassador in 2018 when the United States announced that it would be moving its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. Çavuşoğlu noted that, despite the normalization process with the Jewish state, Turkey would continue to “defend the rights of Palestine, Jerusalem and Gaza.”
A recent report revealed that Hamas’ headquarters in Istanbul directed hundreds of terrorist attacks against Israelis. The report claimed that President Erdoğan’s government “collaborates with terror organizations on both the ideological and operational levels.” The process of rapprochement with Israel started earlier this year. In March, President Isaac Herzog met with Erdoğan in the Turkish capital. Two months ago, Lapid visited Ankara, after his Turkish counterpart travelled to Jerusalem, the first high-level visit by a Turkish official in 15 years.”
700 years ago the prophet Isaiah foretold of a covenant that Israel’s leaders would enter into in the last days at the end of this present age which would be a covenant of death and not life for the nation of Israel. We see this described in Isaiah Chapter 28: 14-19…
(Vs.14) “Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers who rule this people in Jerusalem. (Vs.15) You boast, “We have entered into a covenant with death, with the realm of the dead we have made an agreement. When an overwhelming scourge sweeps by, it cannot touch us, for we have made a lie our refuge and falsehood our hiding place.” (Vs.16) So this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who relies on it will never be stricken with panic. (Vs.17) I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line; hail will sweep away your refuge, the lie, and water will overflow your hiding place. (Vs.18) Your covenant with death will be annulled; your agreement with the realm of the dead will not stand. When the overwhelming scourge sweeps by, you will be beaten down by it. (Vs.19) As often as it comes it will carry you away; morning after morning, by day and by night, it will sweep through. ”The understanding of this message will bring sheer terror.”
When we look at the long and troubled history of Israel in the Bible we see that time and time again they entered into covenants with pagan rulers and nations. Inevitably these agreements did not work in Israel’s favour. When we see these accounts in the Old Testament they are patterns or a foreshadow of what Israel will do at the end of this age when they will enter into another covenant with pagan nations different from all previous ones which we have seen in the Middle-East. The last treaty of course was the Abraham Accords.
Now it needs to be said that virtually all prophecy teachers see Daniel Chapter 9:27 as a seven year peace treaty that the Antichrist makes with Israel and then breaks it half way through unleashing the time of Jacob’s Trouble for Israel and the time of Great Tribulation for the world and draws nations into its cauldron of fire. However, there are those down through Church history that saw Daniel 9:27 referring to the work of the Messiah putting an end to the Mosaic sacrificial system by His atoning death. Biblically, contextually and historically this makes better sense. (See the link to the study “Seventy Weeks Have Been Determined” below)
Having said this, according to the prophet Isaiah in the last days Israel will enter into an agreement with pagan nations that will be “a covenant of death” because God is not in it, neither will He have been consulted concerning it, or approved of it. Let’s briefly look at this…
Daniel Chapter 28:14-19.
(Vs. 14-15) “Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers who rule this people in Jerusalem. You boast, “We have entered into a covenant with death, with the realm of the dead we have made an agreement. When an overwhelming scourge sweeps by, it cannot touch us, for we have made a lie our refuge and falsehood our hiding place.”
Notice that Israel’s leaders are called “scoffers who rule the people in Jerusalem.” They are called scoffers because they have turned their backs on the God of their forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and on the covenants He made with them, but more so they are scoffing at the New Covenant cut in the blood of the Messiah whom Israel, by and large today still reject, especially their leaders. This agreement with the pagan nations will see one man come forth who will broker the deal and he will have the supernatural power of Satan to set up the agreement. This pact is called “a covenant of death and with the realm of the dead” being that compartment in Sheol where the departed spirits of the unsaved are in perpetual conscious torment, and who are waiting for the Great White Throne Judgement to come at the end of the Millennial reign of the Messiah (Luke 16:23-26) (Revelation 20:11-15).
Also the leaders in Israel will be under the delusion that they will be protected from their enemies by this pact when “the overwhelming scourge” of an attack on Israel happens. Israel’s leaders will think that they will not be defeated by it because of their supposed allies. Israel’s leaders will be trusting in the Egypt of this world and not in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This pact or agreement they will make “is a lie” and in this lie “they will make refuge and falsehood their hiding place.” This will be spiritual deception for Israel’s leaders and its people. When you see Israel’s leaders today they are being “mollycoddled” by nations that pretend to be allies but that in reality do not care for Israel, and this includes the man from Turkey Erdoğan who seems to be seeking to broker peace in the Middle East between Jews and Arabs. In fact he could be well named as the Globetrotting Caliph who has positioned himself as a negotiator for peace on the international scene.
In the Book of Daniel we are told about the Antichrist who “By peace he will destroy many!” As Daniel writes concerning this man; “Through his craft (occult power) and by his hand, he will cause deceit to prosper, and in his own mind he will make himself great. In a time of peace he will destroy many, and he will even stand against the Prince of princes. Yet he will be broken off, but not by human hands” (Daniel 8:25) this vision applies to the last days (Daniel 8:26). And then we read…
(Vs.16-17) “ So this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who relies on it will never be stricken with panic. “I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line; hail will sweep away your refuge, the lie, and water will overflow your hiding place.”
The stone “laid in Zion, a tested and precious cornerstone for a sure foundation” is the Messiah Himself our Lord Jesus, and the only one upon whom anyone can build a sure foundation for time and for eternity, and the one who brought salvation to Israel. To be ruled by Him is to see a kingdom on earth “ruled by justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line.” This will be the benchmark and moral standard of the Messianic kingdom on earth to come in the next age after this age has finished, and to this the prophets testify. And then we read…
(Vs.18-19) “Your covenant with death will be annulled; your agreement with the realm of the dead will not stand. When the overwhelming scourge sweeps by, you will be beaten down by it. As often as it comes it will carry you away; morning after morning, by day and by night, it will sweep through. ”The understanding of this message will bring sheer terror.”
When the time of Jacob’s Trouble comes upon Israel for three and a half years prior to the Lord’s return to earth, the pact of the lie that they have taken refuge in will be inundated and swept away in the devastating flood of the terrible carnage and collateral damage that will be unleashed on the nation that in effect has scoffed at that precious stone laid in Zion being the Messiah our Lord Jesus, “being the cornerstone for a sure foundation.” Did not the Lord Jesus say that whoever hears His word but does not obey it is like one building their life and future plans on sand, which will see the building crumble when the winds of adversity hit it hard and great will be its collapse! He also said that whoever hears His Word and obeys it, is like one who builds their life and future plans on a solid rock, so that when the winds of adversity come, their life and plans for the future will stand firm because their foundation has been built on the solid rock of God’s Word.
This scourge that will come upon Israel will come at the hands of the Antichrist and his Islamic armies that have ransacked Jerusalem and exiled half of the city’s population (Zechariah 14:1-2). the Jewish leaders and the people of Israel will “be beaten down by it” seeing that their pact with death and their agreement with Sheol will have dire consequences for the nation, because the pagan nations Israel have trusted in will not stand with the Jewish people in their darkest hour ever when Israel’s leaders are betrayed including the Arab nations on the Saudi Arabian Peninsula (Ezekiel 38:13). For Israelis in that day “the understanding of this message will bring sheer terror.” Only then will they call upon the only Rock of Salvation, being the Messiah our Lord Jesus, and when they cry out in their severe extremity with every strong man with his hands on his stomach like a woman in labour and with every face turned deathly pale with fear, the Messiah our Lord Jesus will come to their rescue and that Big Time! (Zechariah 14:3-5).
Even though two thirds of Israelis will perish in the land of Israel during the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, a third, having been brought through God’s refining fire, will enter into the splendour and grandeur of the Messianic kingdom over which David their King, being the Messiah our Lord Jesus; will reign in righteousness, justice and in true holiness over the surviving nations of the world! Israel will go into the time of Jacob’s trouble but be saved out of it at the end! (Zechariah 13:8-9) (Jeremiah 30:1-10). The man from Turkey, if he is indeed the Antichrist, may well be the one to entice Israel’s leaders to make that pact with death.
Through intrigue and subterfuge and being one who understands dark sentences (the occult) the Antichrist in the end will betray Israel, setting Himself up in God’s Temple and proclaiming that he himself is God, yet when the Lord Jesus comes back the Antichrist and his Islamic army will fall on the mountains of Israel and all go down into the pit of Hades in wholesale lots! (Daniel 11:36-37, 45) (2 Thessalonians 2:4) (Ezekiel 32:17-32). In that day the remnant of Israel will “possess the gates of their enemies” and “possess their possession,” and in that day “No one will ever make them afraid again.” for “the knowledge of the Lord will circumnavigate the globe as the waters cover the seas!” In that day the Messiah’s reign will be glorious! (Genesis 22:17) (Obadiah 1:17) (Ezekiel 34:28) (Micah 4:4) (Habakkuk 2:14) (Isaiah 11:10).
