ISRAEL, AND THE END TIMES--LEAVE HER LAND ALONE!

JOEL 3:1-2, “For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, ² I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.”

 

INTRODUCTION:  Keep your eyes upon the Middle East; especially upon Israel.  As the countdown to Armageddon ticks onward it is in that region of the world where the most obvious and most significant events leading to the coming of the Lord shall take place.  Around 2,500 years ago Joel forewarned of God’s wrath against the nations of the earth for their persecution of a reborn state of Israel in the last days.  He promised that He would bring them back into their land from the nations in which they had been scattered.  No other claim to the land of Palestine is necessary other than that God promised it to the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  However, the historic events that brought about the rebirth of Israel should satisfy any legitimate claim to the land in the eyes of the international community. 

In brief, led by Theodor Benyamin Herzl the First Zionist Congress convened in 1897 at Basel, Switzerland.  Its goal to secure for the Jewish people their own state, due to the increasing unpopularity of Jews throughout Europe, this gathering proved a major event in the establishing of the modern state of Israel.  In his diary Herzl wrote, “Were I to sum up the Basel Congress in one word which I shall guard against pronouncing publicly, it would be this: At Basel I founded the Jewish State. Perhaps in five years but certainly in 50 everyone will know it.”  On May 14, 1948 - 50 years and 9 months later, the State of Israel was founded. Unfortunately, Herzl died in 1904 of a heart attack, having spent most of his adult years advocating for a Jewish state.

Taking up the Zionist cause, Chaim Weizmann became the de facto leader of the Zionist Movement.  Interestingly, Weizmann invented artificial acetone, the chief ingredient in gunpowder, in 1915 in the middle of World War I.  His invention enabled the British to mass-produce gunpowder for the war effort.  Because of this, he became friendly with Arthur Balfour, the foreign secretary of England. Balfour, who in 1917 promised British support for a national homeland for Jews in Palestine, said that acetone converted him to Zionism.  Acetone contributed greatly to the Allies victory in World War I.  World War I, waged over four years (1914-1918) pitted the Allies (chiefly France, Britain, Russia, and later, the U.S.) and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Turkish Ottoman Empire) against each other. By right of conquest the entire Middle East, which had been part of the Ottoman Empire, was split into two territories.  Half was controlled by France (the French Mandate); the other half by England (the British Mandate).  The French Mandate included the northern part of what is today the territory of Lebanon and Syria. The British Mandate included the southern and eastern part of the Ottoman Empire.  The Ottoman Empire controlled the Middle East from the 16th to the early 20th century—for some 400 years. During this time, the countries of Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, etc. did not exist. The residents in these areas were predominately Arab subjects of the Ottoman Empire, living in loosely organized tribal communities. The British Mandate included the landmass on the West Bank of the Jordan River all the way to the Mediterranean Sea, as well as the landmass on the East Bank of the Jordan River, an area known as Trans-Jordan. The British called this whole huge area “Palestine.”  By this time, there were between 85,000 to 100,000 Jews living in the Land of Israel, of a total population of 600,000. (See History of the Jews by Paul Johnson, p. 430.) Most of the Arabs living in the land had migrated there only in the previous thirty years attracted by the jobs created by the Jews who were building and farming. (Note that when Jews began to immigrate to Palestine in large numbers in 1882, fewer than 250,000 Arabs lived there (See From Time Immemorial by Joan Peters, p. 244).

Not keeping their word, the British seeking favor with the Arabs created three Arab states within their mandate:  Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Jordan, but did nothing but make further, yet reduced promises to the Jews.  Due to Britain’s reneging on their promises, and active prevention of further Jewish migration to Palestine, millions of Jews seeking to flee Nazi persecution were turned away from Palestine by the British.  It was only after six million Jews were annihilated in Nazi death camps, and under heavy pressure by the United States did Britain and the United Nations grant the Jews their homeland, and the nation of Israel was reborn on May 14, 1948.

Joel 3:1 was fulfilled.  God had gathered His people back into their land.  Britain’s treachery against the Jews marked the decline of the British Empire. Remember, the Lord told Abraham in Genesis 12:3, “I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee”.  The sun began to set on the British Empire, and rise upon the United States.  America’s support for a Jewish state began as the United States ascended to become the world’s superpower.

However, since 1948 further events have happened, and are happening that shall bring to pass the rest of Joel’s prophecy:  “I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.”  In this verse God says He will gather the nations to the valley of Jehoshaphat (valley of Jezreel, or by its modern name—Megiddo; Armageddon)!  Their sin—parting God’s land!  Nearly every world leader — and certainly every American president since the Six Day War (1967) — has demanded Israel give up significant amounts of territory within Judea, Samaria, and the Golan Heights in order to create a sovereign Palestinian state and make peace with Syria.  It is well documented that after every concession made by Israel under American pressure that the U.S. has experienced a significant disaster:

October 30, 1991-- President George Bush opens the Madrid Conference with an initiative for a Middle East peace plan involving Israel’s land.

On the same day, an extremely rare storm forms off the coast of Nova Scotia. (It was eventually tagged “The Perfect Storm,” and a book and movie were made about it.)  Record-setting 100-foot waves form at sea and pound the New England Coast, even causing heavy damage to President Bush’s home in Kennebunkport, Maine.

August 23, 1992: The Madrid Conference moves to Washington D.C. and the peace talks resume, lasting four days. On that same day, Hurricane Andrew — the worst natural disaster ever to hit America — produces an estimated $30 billion in damage and leaves 180,000 homeless in Florida.

January 16, 1994: President Clinton meets with Syria’s President Hafez el-Assad in Geneva. They talk about a peace agreement with Israel that includes giving up the Golan Heights. Less than 24 hours later, a powerful 6.9 earthquake rocks Southern California.  This quake, centered in Northridge, is the second most destructive natural disaster to hit the United States, behind Hurricane Andrew.

March 1 to April 1997: The combination of PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat touring America, and Clinton rebuking Israel for not giving away her land for peace, coincide with some of the worst tornadoes and flooding in US history.  On the very day Arafat lands in America, powerful tornadoes devastate huge sections of the nation, ripping across Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Kentucky and Tennessee.  Arafat’s American tour also coincides with the storms in the Dakotas, which result in the worst flooding of this century, in addition to weeks of major storms throughout the Midwest.  Arafat finishes his tour and leaves the US and the storms stop.

January 21, 1998: Netanyahu meets with President Clinton at the White House and is coldly received.  Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright refuse to have lunch with him.  Shortly afterwards that day, the Monica Lewinsky scandal breaks into the mass media and begins to occupy a major portion of Clinton’s time.

September 27-28, 1998: Secretary of State Madeleine Albright works on the final details of an agreement in which Israel will give up 13 percent of Yesha.  The same day Hurricane Georges slams into the Gulf Coast with 110 mph winds and gusts up to 175. The hurricane hits the coast and stalls.  On September 28, Clinton meets with Arafat and Netanyahu at the White House to finalize the land deal. Later, Arafat addresses the United Nations about declaring an independent Palestinian state by May 1999, while Hurricane Georges pounds the Gulf Coast causing $1 billion in damage.  At the exact time Arafat departs the US the storm begins to dissipate.

October 15-22, 1998: On October 15, 1998, Yasser Arafat and Benjamin Netanyahu meet at the Wye River Plantation in Maryland, to continue the talks which ended on September 28.  The talks are scheduled to last five days with the focus on Israel giving up 13 percent of Yesha. The talks are extended and conclude on October 23.  On October 17, awesome rains and tornadoes hit southern Texas. The San Antonio area is deluged with 20 inches of rain in one day.  The rains and floods in Texas continue until October 22 and then subside.  The floods ravage 25 percent of Texas and leave over one billion dollars in damage. On October 21, Clinton declares this section of Texas a major disaster area.

May 3, 1999: This is the same day in Israel that Yasser Arafat is scheduled to declare a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as the capital.  The declaration is postponed to December 1999 at the request of President Clinton, whose letter to Arafat encourages him for his “aspirations for his own land.” He also writes that the Palestinians have a right to “determine their own future on their own land,” and that they deserve to “live free, today, tomorrow and forever.”  That same day, starting at 4:47 pm CDT, the most powerful tornado storm system ever to hit the United States sweeps across Oklahoma and Kansas. The winds are clocked at 316 mph the fastest wind speed ever recorded.

August 29, 2005: Exactly one week after Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon completed the forcible eviction of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip hurricane Katrina struck the states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama with a destructive and catastrophic force. 80% of the entire city of New Orleans was left under water. Many weather experts called this the worse hurricane and natural disaster that has ever hit the country.  President Bush supported Sharon’s evacuation from Gaza.  In April 2005 Bush and Sharon met in Crawford, Texas where Bush praised Sharon for his “strong visionary leadership” in initiating the Gaza withdrawal, known as the disengagement plan.  “I strongly support his courageous initiative to disengage from Gaza and part of the West Bank,” he said, referring to the withdrawal of more than 8,000 Jewish settlers from Gaza and four isolated West Bank settlements.

Some think that these events are coincidences.  In light of what God has said, I believe that God is trying to tell us something.  God is not pleased with outside interference in what He is doing in Israel.  He has returned the Jews to the land of promise, but the world seeks to reduce Israel out of existence.  According to Scripture the Jews will never again be forced out of their land. 

NEXT WEEK:  Jerusalem, A Burdensome Stone for the Nations