The past few weeks have been quite tumultuous in the Middle East. A series of events have rocked Israel and the surrounding nations.

It began with the pager and walkie-talkie assassinations by Israel’s Mossad, killing and maiming Israel’s enemies with the very tools they used to communicate their terror on September 17 and 18.

Following this, Israel conducted simultaneous airstrikes in Lebanon, taking out thousands of missile launchers on September 23. Israel has continued these strikes on Lebanon’s military sites since they began. Hezbollah has launched over 9,200 missiles at Israel since October 7^th.

Then, there was the elimination of Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, with a massive precision bombing attack on his underground complex on September 27. Iranian Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan, along with several other high-level Hezbollah members, were also killed in the attack.

Israel struck the Houthis in Yemen on September 30^th in response to over 220 missile attacks at Israel in the past 11 months.    

On Monday night, the Israeli Defence Forces launched special operations into Lebanon to push the Hezbollah back to the Litani River, 29 km north of Israel’s border, which no military forces were supposed to cross following UN Security Council Resolution 1701, adopted in 2006.

On Friday, September 27, just before the strike on Nasrallah, Netanyahu addressed the UN. Netanyahu spoke of Israel’s preference for peace, security and prosperity over war in the region:

Ladies and gentlemen, as Israel defends itself against Iran in this seven-front war, the lines separating the blessing and the curse could not be more clear.

This is the map I presented here last year. It’s a map of a blessing. It shows Israel and its Arab partners forming a land bridge connecting Asia and Europe. Between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, across this bridge, we will lay rail lines, energy pipelines, and fiber optic cables, and this will serve the betterment of 2 billion people.

Now look at this second map. It’s a map of a curse. It’s a map of an arc of terror that Iran has created and imposed from the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean. Iran’s malignant arc has shut down international waterways. It cuts off trade, it destroys nations from within, and inflicts misery on millions.

 On the one hand, a bright blessing — a future of hope. On the other hand, a dark future of despair. And if you think this dark map is only a curse for Israel, then you should think again. Because Iran’s aggression, if it’s not checked, will endanger every single country in the Middle East, and many, many countries in the rest of the world, because Iran seeks to impose its radicalism well beyond the Middle East. That’s why it funds terror networks on five continents. That’s why it builds ballistic missiles for nuclear warheads to threaten the entire world.

For too long, the world has appeased Iran. It turned a blind eye to its internal repression. It turned a blind eye to its external aggression. Well, that appeasement must end. And that appeasement must end now.

Clearly, Israel’s choice is for Peace and Security. This is the picture Ezekiel paints in the latter days:

…the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.  (Ezekiel 38:8)

And again, in verse 14:

In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely (v14)

Netanyahu was clear on Israel’s preference:

So, ladies and gentlemen, the question before us is simple: which of these two maps that I showed you will shape our future? Will it be the blessings of peace and prosperity for Israel, our Arab partners, and the rest of the world? Or will it be the curse in which Iran and its proxies spread carnage and chaos everywhere?

 Israel has already made its choice. We’ve decided to advance the blessing. We’re building a partnership for peace with our Arab neighbors while fighting the forces of terror that threaten that peace.

However, Israel is being forced to deal with the existential threat, and not just threat, but real-time attacks by Hamas and Hezbollah.

The media paints the picture of Israel as being the aggressor. The United Nations is an institution that is united against Israel, as Netanyahu pointed out in his address:

Standing at this podium 40 years ago, I told the sponsors of that outrageous resolution to expel Israel: gentlemen, check your fanaticism at the door. Today, I tell President Abbas and all of you who would shamefully support that resolution: check your fanaticism at the door.

 The singling out of the one and only Jewish state continues to be a moral stain on the United Nations. It has made this once-respected institution contemptible in the eyes of decent people everywhere. But for the Palestinians, this UN house of darkness is home court. They know that in this swamp of antisemitic bile, there’s an automatic majority willing to demonize the Jewish state for anything. In this anti-Israel flat-earth society, any false charge, any outlandish allegation can muster a majority.

 In the last decade, there have been more resolutions passed against Israel in this hall, in the UN General Assembly, than against the entire world combined. Actually, more than twice as many. Since 2014, this body condemned Israel 174 times. It condemned all the other countries in the world 73 times. That’s more than 100 extra condemnations for the Jewish state. What hypocrisy. What a double standard. What a joke.

 So, all the speeches you heard today, all the hostility directed at Israel this year — it’s not about Gaza; it’s about Israel. It’s always been about Israel. About Israel’s very existence. And I say to you, until Israel, until the Jewish state, is treated like other nations, until this antisemitic swamp is drained, the UN will be viewed by fair-minded people everywhere as nothing more than a contemptuous farce.

In its moment of need, the world has turned against Israel. If there was any doubt about the rise in anti-semitism, the fact that the UN has voted 174 times to condemn Israel, and only 73 times to condemn all other nations in the world combined is astounding. With all the conflict around the world in the past 10 years, ISIS, Ukraine, Syria, Yemen, Ethiopia, just to name a few, how is this possible to take such a position without some underlying poison infecting the minds of the nation? These are the frog spirit teachings described in Revelation 16:13 which infect the nations and bring them down the battle of Armageddon:

“And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.” (Revelation 16:13–14)

The recreation of Israel has been the work of Almighty God himself. Remember the words of Ezekiel 38:

“…in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.” (Ezekiel 38:8)

The question is, “who gathered them?” The answer is also given in Ezekiel’s prophecy:

“And I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bring fruit: and I will settle you after your old estates, and will do better unto you than at your beginnings: and ye shall know that I am Yahweh.”  (Ezekiel 36:11)

Israelis living the area of Judea and Samaria are scathingly called “settlers” and the land is called “the occupied territories.” God calls the area of the mountain of Israel “His land” and the people “His people” and takes responsibility for “settling” “His people” there.

So, as Israel’s Prime Minister stated at the end of his speech, quoting Joshua:

To the people of Israel and to the soldiers of Israel, I say: Be strong and of good courage. "חִזְק֣וּ וְאִמְצ֔וּ אַל־תִּֽירְא֥וּ וְאַל־תַּעַרְצ֖וּ מִפְּנֵיהֶ֑ם כִּ֣י ה' אֱלֹקיךָ ה֚וּא הַהֹלֵ֣ךְ עִמָּ֔ךְ לֹ֥א יַרְפְּךָ֖ וְלֹ֥א יַעַזְבֶֽךּ" עם ישראל חי! The people of Israel live now, tomorrow, forever".

After completing his speech at the UN, Netanyahu returned to his hotel room, where he ordered the successful strike on Nasrallah. Netanyahu had warned during the speech:

I have a message for the tyrants of Tehran: If you strike us, we will strike you. There is no place—there is no place in Iran—that the long arm of Israel cannot reach. And that’s true of the entire Middle East.

Another Haman has been destroyed in his attempt to destroy Israel.

On October 1^st, Iran fired over 180 ballistic missiles at Israel. Israel’s entire population were advised to move to bomb shelters as the missiles targeted every part of the country. Most of these missiles were intercepted with the four layers of defence: Iron Dome, David’s Sling, Arrow, and the Israeli Air Force. It appears shrapnel killed one Palestinian Arab as it fell. Four other non-life-threatening casualties were reported from the same missile. There are reports of two Israelis receiving minor injuries, too.

A few of these missiles hit military installations, but no Israeli warplanes were hit, and there were no military casualties.

This was one of, if not the biggest, launch of ballistic missiles against any nation in one day of any conflict in modern history.  Iran’s previous attack of 300 plus projectiles included drones and smaller, slower missiles. Yet, no Israeli loss of life was experienced. Obviously, God is watching over Israel.

Remember the promise to Abraham:

Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: ² And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: ³ And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.  (Genesis 12:1–3)

And again in verse seven:

Unto thy seed will I give this land (v7)

God has made Israel a nation. God placed them in the land. For years, Israel has been in exile, but then God brought them back. Israel’s enemies will not succeed because although all the world is against them, Israel, plus God, is a majority. And although Israel will eventually be invaded, God will not let the nation be destroyed:

 And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: All that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, Though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it. (Zechariah 12:3)

Even though all nations align themselves against Israel and gather against it, they will not succeed. Although the United Nations unites itself against Israel – this is to be expected. The more Israel grows, the more the world hates it. The more it overcomes its enemies who have been attacking it for years, the more the world condemns it.

This enmity or hatred has been ongoing for years. It was there in Ezekiel’s time when the Philistines, who occupied the area of Gaza were fighting against Israel:

Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because the Philistines have dealt by revenge, and have taken vengeance with a despiteful heart, to destroy it for the old hatred; Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will stretch out mine hand upon the Philistines, and I will cut off the Cherethims, and destroy the remnant of the sea coast. (Ezekiel 25:15-16)

History seems to be repeating itself. It was there when Edom was constantly attacking Israel:

Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred, and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time that their iniquity had an end: Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will prepare thee unto blood, and blood shall pursue thee: sith thou hast not hated blood, even blood shall pursue thee. (Ezekiel 35:5-6)

Both passages speak of “old hatred” or “perpetual hatred” using the same Hebrew phrase Ebyah Owlam  meaning enmity from “ancient time.”

This is simply Genesis 3:15 at play on a national level now that God has revived the nation of Israel:

“And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3:15)

We can expect the nations of the world to become increasingly hostile to Israel, because God tells us they will:

“For, behold, in those days, and in that time, When I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, 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.” (Joel 3:1–2)

He is going to bring them into the land for judgment. Israel will go through trying times, but they have been gathered into the land to form the nucleus of the future kingdom of God on earth.

We watch all nations forming against them, and against unsurmountable odds, Israel keeps on being victorious. This is God’s doing as he brings about his purpose. God is only going to intervene more and more, eventually sending his son to Zion to destroy the host that gathers against it – and then take the battle for the establishment of the kingdom out into the world:

“Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, As when he fought in the day of battle.” (Zechariah 14:3)

This will be the time when the “little stone” cut without hands is going to smite the kingdom of men, the image, on the feet:

“Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.” (Daniel 2:35)

The kingdom will grow to cover the entire world:

“And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.” (Daniel 2:44)

We eagerly anticipate this day, and pray for the peace of Jerusalem until it comes. May God bless all those who bless Israel, the work of his hands, and curse them who curse it. This will be the end result:

“Thy people also shall be all righteous: They shall inherit the land for ever, The branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.” (Isaiah 60:21)

For the Bible in the News, this has been Jonathan Bowen joining you.