As I See It
please remember, I'm not claiming to be a Bible Scholar and these thoughts are just my own...do with them as you wish, comment if you like, but please try to refrain from calling me a heretic or false prophet...unless you really feel the Holy Spirit compelling you to.
Life got the better of me last weekend. An outburst of anger and frustration led to several days of depression. One of my pity parties that I prefer to blame on my “time of life.” Poor Pastor Art…and even now I whine, but it’s not all my fault…if only he would
Never mind.
Yesterday I visited several blogs. I am surprised how few are mentioning the crisis in the Middle East. Perhaps the authors are all on the hill tops waiting for the trumpet to blow.
With the war and the earthquakes and the storms and fires, surely the Day of the LORD is upon us. Or perhaps my circle was not wide enough. I did encounter an interesting question on one of the sites I like checking out. “Where are the Evangelical Christians in this Middle East Crisis?”
My initial thought was, “just who do you mean by ‘Evangelical?”
The article was written by a Christian in Lebanon, who of course had a rather unique point of view of the matter. Then I thought of the Biblical mandate to “pray for the peace of Jerusalem”. And the promise that YHWH would bless those who blessed Israel and curse those who cursed her.
This morning I read - well I scanned Isaiah chapters 1 through 30. I was looking for a verse that had jumped out at me around the time that Israel was handing over the Gaza Strip to the Palestinians - an apparent victory for terrorists in my opinion. I found the verse - 30:1
“Woe to the rebellious children” declares the LORD. Who execute a plan, but not Mine. And make an alliance, but not of My Spirit.”
The chapter goes on to talk about Egypt. A lot of Bible scholars, over the years, have discussed what places like Egypt, Babylon, Moab, Assyria actually refer to in prophesy.
It is true that neither Isaiah or John, the author of Revelation, had any knowledge of places like Russia, England, North America. So if they saw people from such places, how would they identify them. If they saw armies from such places, where would they assume they were from. Lot’s of scholars like to say that Babylon in Revelation refers to the Roman Catholic Church. I recently heard one teacher explain quite convincingly that Babylon was actually the United States. Of course I also heard a teacher explain how Prince Charles was the anti-christ. Seems like anyone can proclaim anything if they wear a suit and have a PhD after their name, and do so using the Bible. Then again, some anti-higher learning, self proclaimed Bible teachers do the same thing. I think it is a dangerous thing to play with the Word of God. So maybe Babylon is actually Babylon (Sadom Husain, you know who I mean, declared that Iraq was and would again be the great Babylon). And Egypt is Egypt. Isaiah 19 says the Nile river will dry up and the Egyptians will become believers. I wonder when that will happen?
In my opinion, Assyria sounds an awful lot like the USA. But what do I know?
As I read/scanned the first 29 chapters of Isaiah, looking for that verse, I got a sort of spinning sensation. Like Isaiah standing in the midst of this unfolding vision as it spiraled around him. There is war and destruction, there are warnings of natural disasters coming from God as judgment. The total end of the world is mentioned a few times, and at other times more localized catastrophes are mentioned, as God judges His chosen people for not keeping their part of the covenant. Jesus appears several times. Isaiah 7 - the virgin birth, Isaiah 9, the light in the great darkness, Isaiah 11 a little child will lead them, Isaiah 16, the Kingdom of Jesus, Isaiah 28, the corner stone. There are more Jesus prophesies in the book, but remember I only scanned it, and only went as far as Chapter 30.
I was thinking of the destruction of the temple by the Romans in 70AD. The invasion of the Muslims, the crusades, World War II. Was Isaiah seeing all that as God revealed to him His plan, His warning, His promise? “If my people… When my people…”
I just thought of Scourge in “A Christmas Carol “, asking the spirit of Christmas’s yet to come. Are these visions of things that will be, or that might be?
Isa 30:8 The LORD told me to write down his message for his people, so that it would be there forever.
They have turned against the LORD and can't be trusted. They have refused his teaching
and have said to his messengers and prophets: Don't tell us what God has shown you and don't preach the truth. Just say what we want to hear, even if it's false.
Stop telling us what God has said! We don't want to hear any more about the holy God of Israel.
Now this is the answer of the holy God of Israel: "You rejected my message, and you trust in violence and lies.
Boy, I sure don’t want to come across sounding Anti-Semantic. But I don’t hear the Israelis calling upon the Holy God of Israel as they continue this fight. It seems they are trusting in their own might. And clearly they have rejected the message about Jesus. Someone in the blog world said that when we pray for the peace of Jerusalem we are praying for the second coming of Christ, for the Day of the LORD, for only then will Jerusalem have true peace. The radical Muslims see this as a “holy war”. Perhaps some of the so called evangelicals and surely some of the charismatic Christians see this as a “holy war” in that Biblical prophesy is being played out. I don’t know. But I am watching, and praying. Matthew 24:6 and 7. And these are only the beginnings of the birth pangs.
One last thing I found very interesting in Isaiah. Chapter 14:1-2 CEV
The LORD will have mercy on Israel and will let them be his chosen people once again. He will bring them back to their own land, and foreigners will join them as part of Israel.
Other nations will lead them home, and Israel will make slaves of them in the land that belongs to the Lord. Israel will rule over those who once governed and mistreated them.
Sounds a lot like what happened at the end of World War II
This is how it reads in the KJV
For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.
And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.
Which of course was translated some 300 years before World War II.
LORD let us feed upon Your Holy Word, and give us wisdom as we do.
6 comments:
I think it's a difficult thing because yes we are called to pray for Isreal and yet we also know that there are things that have to happen to set up the last days.
As a Christian, it's sometimes a bit difficult to know exactly how to react and where to stand when Isreal is just as much at fault as the oposition is. So while I watch with interest and concern, it's not an easy topic to sink my prayer teeth into aside from praying for peace (which will only at the end times!) Doh!
This is why Paul said not all who claim to be Israel are Israel.
It is not question of genetics, or government or citizenship/nationality. It is a question of faith.
Israel is composed of jew and gentile. When the times of the gentile are up and they are coming to a rapid conclusion, then the partial hardening will be lifted and all Israel will be saved, i.e. and the Jewish remnanat and the redeemed gentiles.
Paul wrote of the heavenly Jerusalem which corresponds to Sarah and Isaac. The earthly Jerusalem is in bondage, and corresponds to Hagar and Ishmael. Just look at what Islam, Judaism and Christianity have done to the place. Mystery Babylon indeed!!
The place was a brothel since before the days of Jesus, which is why He lamented over it. Thank God that there is a redemption coming.
I'm not sure I agree with Chris P. but then that wouldn't be the first time. I'll have to look up the places where Paul talks about Abraham and Sarah etc. Still, the verses about blessings and curses and Israel being God's chosen people are numerous, and although I don't think Chris is exactly saying this, we can't say - well Paul isn't talking about the Jewish nation, He's talking about the heavenly Jerusalem. We have to take the Word for what it says.
Galatians 4 and Romans 9-10-11
Why is there a "New" Jerusalem in Revelation 21 and 22? The Jerusalem from above that is our mother is how paul describes it.
That the redeemed would be comprised of Jew and Gentile was prophecied by Isaiah and others. I never said that there weren't specific prophecies for eretz Y'Israel. We are just confused as to who Israel really is.
Dispensationalism is a plague on sound eschatology. Yes, we do have to take the Word for what it actually says.
You evidently didn't visit Pope's blog. Almost the entire thing is taken up with the situation in the Middle East. He has some very interesting views. You might be surprised.
www.forChrist-contramundum.blogspot.com
I think it is very significant that the book of psalms from 800 to 1000 ad was found in Ireland, and the first readable psalme, the most readable, by some reports the one the book was open to was Psalm 83...Psa 83:2 Your hateful enemies are turning against you and rebelling.
Psa 83:3 They are sly, and they plot against those you treasure.
Psa 83:4 They say, "Let's wipe out the nation of Israel and make sure that no one remembers its name!"
Psa 83:5 All of them fully agree in their plans against you...
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