“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” (Isaiah 30:1)
In last Friday’s edition of the Jerusalem Post Online in the Business Innovation section a headline read “Erdogan says Turkey and Israel can jointly bring gas to Europe.” In the report it said…
“Turkey and Israel can work together to carry Israeli natural gas to Europe and the two countries will discuss energy cooperation during talks next month, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying on Friday. The two countries expelled their ambassadors in 2018 after a bitter falling-out. Ties have remained tense since with Ankara condemning Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and its policy toward Palestinians, while Israel has called on Turkey to drop support for the militant Palestinian group Hamas which rules Gaza. However, Turkey has been working to repair its strained ties with regional powers as part of a charm offensive launched in 2020. In an apparent easing after years of animosity, Erdogan said on Thursday that Israeli President Isaac Herzog would visit Turkey in mid-March. Also Erdogan told reporters on a return flight from Ukraine, “We can use Israeli natural gas in our country, and beyond using it, we can also engage in a joint effort on its passage to Europe.”
In the Bible God constantly warned the leaders of His people Israel not to enter into agreements with pagan nations, especially those nations who did not acknowledge the God of Israel or the absolute and final authority of the Torah. Any nation that has leaders that do not acknowledge God or keep His commandments and statutes is an enemy of God and of His people.
The reason God chose Israel was to be a nation set apart to Him for His exclusive use and one that would be free from idolatry, acknowledge only Him as their sovereign Lord and look only to Him for protection and for all of their spiritual and temporal needs as His people. God wanted them to be a nation through whom He could display His presence and power to the nations and through whom He could bless the nations but not to look to the nations for support or enter into agreements with them. Israel was to be totally separated to the Lord in every way and look only to Him for everything they would need for life and Godliness. However, this is not what the leaders of Israel are doing today. God is going to use the Time of Jacob’s trouble to solve this problem. Already we can see anti-Semitism rising like a spectre in many nations.
It is clear that Erdogan of Turkey is Israel’s enemy. On more than one occasion in public Erdogan has declared his disdain for Israel. Way back in May of 2017 he urged Muslims to throng to the Temple Mount in a show of solidarity with Palestinians as he issued a string of challenges to Israel, which he called “racist and discriminatory”. “We, as Muslims, should be visiting Al-Quds more often,” he said, referring to Jerusalem by its Arabic name. “Each day that Jerusalem is under occupation is an insult to us,” he added, at the opening ceremony of the International Forum on al-Quds Waqf in Istanbul.
At the time of this report in the mainstream Media in 2017 Erdogan said increased Muslim visits to the Jerusalem holy site “would be the greatest support to our brothers there both in terms of our religion and historical responsibility, Al-Quds and the fight of our Palestinian brothers for rights and justice is of great importance to us. We will keep making efforts for Quds to turn into a city of peace,” he said. In the blistering speech, which also criticized Israeli legislation and US plans to move their embassy to Jerusalem, Erdogan also called Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians “racist and discriminatory” and said the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the Gaza Strip “has no place in humanity.”
Last year he publically denounced Israel when he said; “Israel, the cruel terrorist state, attacks the Muslims in Jerusalem – whose only concern is to protect their homes … and their sacred values – in a savage manner devoid of ethics. The violence in Jerusalem was an attack on all Muslims”, he said, adding that “protecting the honour of Jerusalem is a duty for every Muslim”. His support for, and acknowledgment of the Muslim Brotherhood is common knowledge. Their creed states; “Allah is our goal, the Prophet is the model, the Qur’an its constitution, jihad its path, and death for the sake of Allah the most sublime belief.”
Has Erdogan’s ideology changed? Can a Leopard change its spots or a tiger its stripes? Back in December of 2019 another press release stated that Ankara’s Islamist government was turning a blind eye to Hamas officials directing attacks on Israel from Istanbul. Now we have the man from Turkey seeking to have an economic agreement with Israel, supposedly one of ‘mutual co-operation.’ Natural gas in the Middle-Eastern Region is “a great money-spinner” for the nations that have control over the natural gas resources in that region. When you consider the very recent fracas between Turkey and Greece over natural gas resources in the Eastern-Mediterranean Sea one can see where Turkey stands on this issue of who should really have the control over the natural gas resources in the Middle-East.
It seems at present that even the Islamic Arab world want economic ties with Israel and also military alliances but only because of the threat of Iran. The Arab nations on the Saudi Arabian Peninsula in reality would not support Israel if there was no nuclear threat coming from the Iranian regime across the Gulf. The reality is that Islamic ideology is implacable in its mandate to see a global Islamic Empire and one that fits like a hand into a glove with the creed and ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood.
There is a well-known saying which states “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.” This came about after the fall of the city of Troy to the Greeks. The walls of Troy could not be breached by the Greeks so they constructed a wooden horse with a hidden compartment in the belly of the horse and placed some soldiers in it. They then left the horse just outside of the gates of Troy and gave the king and people of Troy the impression that they were giving up and going home. Well the people of Troy brought the wooden horse into the city and left it standing thinking that the Greeks had left this as a gift. The people of Troy proceeded to celebrate and partied on into the night. While the city by and large was in a state of euphoria and inebriation, the Greek soldiers undetected slid silently down a rope from the hidden compartment in the belly of the horse and opened the gates of the city and the Greek army poured into the city and Troy fell to the Greek armies.
Why Israel should have any economic dealings with their Islamic neighbours goes against God’s Word which warns against such alignments. As the Psalmist writes; “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 118:9). We know from God’s Word that Israel’s immediate Islamic neighbours and the whole weight of the Islamic world will ultimately come against Israel. Only the intervention of the Messiah our Lord Jesus on His return to this planet will save Israel from total annihilation and break the power of Islam forever! (Matthew 24:21-22) (Isaiah 34:5-17) (Jeremiah 30:1-10).
The current Israeli government under the leadership of Naftali Bennett had Mansour Abbas, a devout Muslim and Palestinian citizen of Israel, brought into the coalition government even though he had some ties with the Muslim Brotherhood. Is the ‘wooden horse’ now within the walls of the city of Jerusalem? How will Mansour Abbas ultimately effect the decisions of the Knesset related to Israel’s’ security, economic interests and the constant pressure by many militant Arabs in Israel pushing for a ‘Palestinian State’?
There is no doubt that the man from Turkey seeks political, economic and military allies and is hard at work gaining supporters for the resurrection of the Caliphate and the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Historically, at the zenith of its power, the Turkish Ottoman Empire not only dominated the entire Middle-east for 600 years but also swept down into North Africa and into the continent of Europe and became a real threat to the western powers and to Christendom as well. Islam is well entrenched in almost every nation on the planet and many are in key positions within western governments.
Today God is saying to Israel what He said to the leaders of His people through the prophet 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” but are they listening? The reality is that Turkey cannot be trusted and will ‘gobble up’ as much of the natural gas resources they can get their hands on even if it means dealing with Israel. Naftali Bennett and the political leaders of Israel need to reflect on this matter carefully and heed this warning; “Beware of Turks bearing gifts?”
