Biblical Audio Commentary – A Signal for Destruction

Biblical Audio Commentary – A Signal for Destruction

Transcript:

The prophecy of Isaiah 11:10-16 is quite interesting, if potentially speaking of our current day events surrounding the Israel-Hamas War.  Its verses certainly detail a future time.  The question is: When?

Isaiah describes a second regathering of the people of Israel from many areas.  When was the first?  Presumably in the time of Nehemiah.  This, the second and pertinent one, is that of Israel coming together as a nation in 1948 and subsequent to that.

As I mentioned in my recent Commentary titled Aliya, God is doing a work in the hearts of Jews worldwide right now – a tugging at their very being so that they immigrate to Israel so as to fulfill the Lord’s purposes.  He has not forgotten or abandoned His People Israel; rather He is in the process of doing something truly amazing that the world will gawk at and exclaim about: that because He has done such miracles – He is truly God Almighty.  But that day is still a little ways off.

Those who foolishly follow their own corrupt hearts – Christians included – who think that the church is the new Israel and the Promised Land is an afterthought with God, His Chosen People cast to the side of the road as so much trash – they will rue the day for hating what God loves.  These people are ones who believe in Replacement Theology and Christian Palestinianism, who despise Bible prophecy and believe Christ would abandon His Bride to God’s wrath in the Tribulation.  Woe to those who believe that God would break His covenant promise.  Woe to those who disdain His very Word in which He declared that He would raise a standard again in Israel and bring glory to His Name in their midst.  Woe to those who favor God’s enemies – the very ones whom He is using to bring about the ultimate salvation of Israel, so that Jesus might sit on His throne in Jerusalem.  Christians who decree that Israel has no right to the land God gave her – and who encourage her foes – they will find themselves facing the wrath of God for the evil in their hearts.

Am I being too harsh?  Am I really saying anything that God has not said against His enemies and the adversaries of Israel throughout Scripture?

Isaiah in our passage today says that the people of Israel, who were contentious with each other, will come together as one.  Even in the extremely political environment of Israel’s right and left, notice how the entire nation has consolidated in its single purpose of ridding the country from the evil rot within that she has tolerated far too long.

This unified nation in the guise of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) will accomplish what she sets out to do.  To those naysayers and Israel haters, I say this: Watch how God works and be fearful for your contentious stance against Him.

Note Isaiah 11:14-15 for how this current war will play out – whether it’s the Psalm 83 War or not (which I think it is):

But they shall swoop down on the shoulder of the Philistines in the west,
and together they shall plunder the people of the east.
They shall put out their hand against Edom and Moab,
and the Ammonites shall obey them.
And the Lord will utterly destroy
the tongue of the Sea of Egypt,
and will wave his hand over the River
with his scorching breath,
and strike it into seven channels,
and he will lead people across in sandals.

The Philistines occupied Philistia, what we today know as the Gaza Strip.  They were “Sea Peoples” who migrated into the land of Canaan in the 13^th century.  They were invaders to the land – that would be God’s land – who were among those He decreed the Israelites should strike and destroy.  Their descendants are among those in Psalm 83 who conspire against Israel and will be eradicated in her great victory (Psalm 83:17).

In the Isaiah passage we also see what is today the nation of Jordan, comprised of the ancient countries of Edom, Moab, and Ammon.  The Sinai Peninsula – possibly an area of the Red Sea adjacent to it – is referenced here as the tongue of the Sea of Egypt.  Both Jordan and Egypt have peace agreements with Israel and many Bible prophecy teachers think they will hold up.  Not me.  They are fragile treaties at best.  As the Israel-Hamas War escalates, I believe both these nations will be pulled into it and reap the disasters that Psalm 83 and Isaiah 11 proclaim.

The River mentioned is the Euphrates.  Iraq is greatly unstable and is likewise mentioned in Psalm 83 as Assyria.  Is this the fulfillment of the 6^th Bowl Judgment of Revelation 16:12 when the Euphrates dries up completely, or is this a precursor?  I think this may be the beginning, but not the end as noted in the Tribulation.

When Isaiah in v15 speaks of the Lord utterly destroying all these enemies, the word reference is Strong’s #2763, the Hebrew word charam, meaning to devote to destruction, or complete extermination.

This is wholly in line with Psalm 83’s outcome and the determination of Benjamin Netanyahu speaking for the Israeli people.  Now is the time and place that Israel’s enemies, who she has allowed to live harmfully in her midst for far too long, will meet their complete end.  There is a time when God’s people – whether Christian or secular as Israel is today – must not listen to the whining and cajoling of the world with its anti-God rhetoric.  “Cease fire for fairness!”  No – Israel cannot give an inch to her satanically-inspired enemies.

When God raises a signal, an ensign, a standard, a banner, as He proclaims in Isaiah 11, His will – will be accomplished.  This victory will set the end-times stage for the next major Israel-focused war – that of Ezekiel 38, the War of Gog and Magog.

All this conflict must occur so that God will be glorified.  In our flesh we hate to see the death and destruction, but God’s bigger picture will prevail.  Those Christians decrying how awful Israel is for her supposed brutality need to take up their complaint with God.  As they do – as they currently are – it may very well be that they realize too late that they themselves will be subject to God’s wrath.

I don’t care if you’re saved or not, you cannot hate what God loves and expect no correction, discipline, rebuke, or out-and-out punishment.  It would not surprise me one iota if these Christians opposing Israel – and because of that, God Himself – are cast into the Tribulation as part of Gods’ mercy, so that they have the opportunity to gain perspective and become purified, so that they may be worthy of God’s eternal kingdom.  To be clear: this is a heart issue – not one of works.

I’m sure this is not a popular position that I take in saying this, but it’s simply inconceivable to me that these Christian, Israel haters won’t face a comeuppance for their hearts being so hard.  If God is just – which He is – they will pay a steep price for scorning the very Name of God.

Will they repent before it’s too late?  Only God knows, but time is running out for them to turn around.  Pray for them.  You know who they are, as I’ve called out some of them in this venue.  That’s their only hope before they enter an era of greater chaos than they could have ever imagined.

Choices have consequences.