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Israel and the United States are at war with Iran with the first strikes resulting in the death of the Islamic leader the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei with reports of as many as forty of the top leaders in Iran.  The Israeli Air Force conducts its largest-ever attack as over 200 aircraft strike 500 targets in Iran, and the US attacked over 900 sites in the first twelve hours.

Opposing The Jewish State

This conflict has been boiling for decades– ever since the Jews began returning home in significant numbers following the Balfour Declaration and WWI when the Ottoman Empire, the Islamic Caliphate, that had existed since the 1500’s would fall. 

This fall of the Ottoman Empire was expected from Bible prophecy as seen in Revelation 16:12 with the drying up of the Euphrates.  As book is full of sign and symbol this drying up referred to the power surrounding the Euphrates, as power that was unleashed earlier in the book in chapter 9:14.  This symbol of a flooding or drying up of river symbolizing the power of the nation surrounding that river is used elsewhere such as Jeremiah 46:7,8 and Isaiah 8:7.

The author Robert Roberts would write in 1884 in Christendom Astray “Until the Turkish power is removed out of the way — until this political Euphrates is dried up, the restoration of the Jews, in the complete sense required by other parts of the prophetic word, is not possible.  Hence, the necessity for its evaporation predicted in the vision… the Turkish empire will die out as a necessary preparation for the way of the kings of the east.”

Well dry up and fall it did paving the way for Jewish return.  The doors were open for the Jewish people to finally return home.  However, as always, opposition was swift.

Firstly there was great opposition from the Church of Rome, an institution built on the foundation of “replacement theology”, the belief that they had replaced the Jews as God’s chosen people.  For them they saw it as a theological crisis that the Jewish people would again inhabit their ancient lands and holy places.  While the Church’s opposition removed from the front lines this was not the case for the Islamic opposition.

The Islamic opposition to the Jewish return would explode into war as Israel was founded in 1948, and again in 1956, 1967, 1973, and the many smaller regional wars and intifadas since.  In every war the Islamic forces faced humiliating defeat.  In fact, Osama Bin Laden spoke to this in an videotaped address following the 9/11 attacks on the the Twin Towers.  He said “What America is tasting now is only a copy of what we have tasted. Our Islamic nation has been tasting the same for more than 80 years, of humiliation and disgrace, its sons killed and their blood spilled, its sanctities desecrated.”  September 11th, October 7th, and all the terrorism against Israel and the West who has supported Israel is all part of the Jihad, or holy war.

There plans however while bringing great suffering to the Jewish people have not brought any victory, and in fact only further humiliation.  And what they fail to realize is that the God of Israel is fulfilling his word given thousands of years ago, and in opposing the Jewish State you are opposing Him.  

As the Apostle Paul writes in Romans 8:31–“If God be for us, who can be against us?  

Or, as Elisha’s servant learns in 2 Kings 6:16,17–“Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.  And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.”  And here has been the case from the beginning of the Jewish return, an unseen hand has been at work.  Unseen it might be, but it is the power of Almighty God.

And in fact, in bringing violence against the Jewish people and shedding their blood you can be sure that God takes note, for he says in Zechariah 2:8–“He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye”.

This is not to say that the secular State of Israel is God’s final design, it is not.  He has yet to fill them with the word of life and turn them into the holy nation he has always intended.  The path to that is still a long and hard road, but without a doubt He is at work.

Axil of Evil

Following September 11th George W. Bush declared in 2002 in his January State of the Union Address that Iraq, Iran, and North Korea were together an “Axis of Evil”.  Two of those powers were hostile to Israel - namely Iraq and Iran.  Iraq would be the first to fall the year following, in 2003, when the US would lead an coalition toppling Saddam’s regime.  The result of the second Gulf War while it brought an end to Saddam’s Scud Missiles and threats against Israel, it actually strengthened Iran and put at the top of their agenda the acquisition of the nuclear bomb.

Twenty years ago the Bible Magazine front cover was “Iran:  Playing with Fire”. At the time pictures were in the news of a banner in Iran that called for Israel to be “wiped off the face of the world”.

Firstly, this was an open plan destined to fail for reasons outlined.  However, it was, and is, and attitude that was in line with Bible Prophecy.

Persia in the Book of Daniel

When we look at Nebuchadnezzars famous vision in Daniel 2 it is a vision of the Kingdoms of Men–both as a series of succeeding empires starting with Babylon, and a picture of the Kingdoms of Men in the "latter days" as they stand against the Kingdom of God.  The second of those empires is Persia, or Iran as it was changed to in 1979.  In the climax of the vision the image is broken in pieces “together” indicating that in the final phase of the Kingdom of Men the area of Persia would be seen hostile to Israel and her King.

Similarly in Ezekiel 38 there is a northern alliance of nations that come against Israel, and again Persia is listed with them in verse 5.

This means that the move away from the west in 1979 brought Persia inline with her place in Bible prophecy.  Therefore for all the noise today about regime change leading to a partner of peace for Israel and the west it would seem unlikely, and short-lived if it does come about.

Opposing the Abraham Accords

If we go back to pre October 7th 2023 we had a situation where Iran wielded significant power in the Middle East with a “ring of fire” surrounding Israel in the form of a list of proxies.  However, Iran had serious concerns in the form of the Abraham Accords.  With the possibility of Saudi Arabia joining the Abraham Accords, and only days before the horrific attacks by Hamas on Israel, the Tehran Times ran the headline “Normalization with Israel is betting on a losing horse” on October 4, 2023.

What is most ironic is that the attacks of October 7th triggered a chain of events that has resulted in a much stronger Israel, at the very least a greatly degraded Iran and her proxies, and possibly a reordered Middle East.

Bring the Southern Alliance Together?

When we look at the southern alliance in Ezekiel 38 it is described as “Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof” in a position of protest on behalf of Israel.  Today this alliance would be the southern gulf states, Britain as Tarshish, and many of her previous colonies including the United States.  And while if we take Israel out of the equation this alliance has been loosely there, Israel is there!  This is why the Abraham Accords were so important prophetically as they brought the southern gulf states into a new camp of warm and openly Israeli friendly Arab countries.

What is so unexpected is Iran’s response to Israel and America’s attacks.  They have been launching missiles at the gulf states including Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE, Bahrain, and even Saudi Arabia.  In some cases it is only the US bases there, but in the case of the UAE and Bahrain they have been aiming at some of the most prestigious hotels in the world.  To understand the scale of these Iranian attacks the UAE has come out and said it has successfully intercepted and destroyed 137 ballistic missiles and 209 drones launched toward the country since the beginning of the Iranian attack.  

What will the result of this be?  Some are saying this it is militarizing the Abraham Accords in real time.  It’s not hard to see how this will bring these southern Arab nations closer to Israel, especially when they need Israel’s protection and defence technology.  This might be the irony of the 7th of October.  It was meant to stop the Abraham Accords, and in the end it just might lead to their expansion.  We watch this space!

The Coming Peace

What is becoming clear is that the strange time of peace that we see in Ezekiel 38, before the northern invasion, is and always was going to be impossible to achieve while Iran was pouring money and arms into it’s proxies surrounding Israel, and even in Judea and Samaria.  And while we do not expect Iran to fully swing into the Abraham Accords it cannot be in a position to stop the peace that is prophesied, nor the rise of Zion.

Haman

Not missed by in Israel is the timing so close to the festival of Purim which they will celebrate starting the evening of Monday March 2nd when they will read together the account of the book of Esther.  In the pages of this book is the story set in Persia where we encounter Haman the Agagite, or Amalekite, who held a deep hatred of Mordachai, and his people, the Jewish people.  His description of the Jewish people is in chapter 3:8,

“There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom; and their laws are diverse from all people; neither keep they the king's laws: therefore it is not for the king's profit to suffer them.”  He then follows this up with what was called in the 1940’s, a final solution–“If it please the king, let it be written that they may be destroyed…”

The Islamic regime in Iran echoed the spirit of Haman, but they too may soon be added to the list of past enemies of Israel, for as Haman’s wife says “If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews, before whom thou hast begun to fall, thou shalt not prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before him.”

May these events bring us closer to our Lords return.  Come back next week for another Bible in the News!  This has been John Billington with you this week.