August 24, 2005
 I
have sought to clarify the real strategic, democratic, and biblical issues surrounding
the Israeli government's evacuation and retreat from Gaza and Northern Samaria.
My goal is to correct misinformation about events in Israel, and to present more
accurate information from an Israeli, Hebrew, and Messianic perspective about facts
on the ground.
Today, I ask the question -- what is the prophetic import of events going
on in Israel today?
Signs and Weathermen
An ancient Indian proverb cautions care when using one's finger to point something
out. A passing onlooker may end up focusing on the finger, and may totally miss
the object to which one was pointing!
In Matthew 16:1-3, Yeshua warns that it is possible to be aware of current events
while at the same time totally missing what these events are prophetically pointing
to. Even a weatherman can miss the significance of a coming storm!
"When it's evening, you declare that
tomorrow will be good weather, because the sky is reddish. And in the morning you
announce that there will be nasty weather today, because the sky is red and overcast
. . . You know how to discern tomorrow's weather, but you don't know how to discern
the signs of the times."
What significance should be drawn about the disengagement
from Gaza and Northern Samaria? Is the lesson to be learned simply a call to good
citizenship, that Israel's citizens should obey their Prime Minister without question
-- as it were, a unique Israeli exercise in upholding the democratic form of government?
Or is the disengagement a prophetic wake up call to Israel and the nations -- a
decisive prophetic line in the sand which has now been crossed, with international
and eternal consequences?
The prophet Samson ended up "eyeless in Gaza." It is our prayer that, with Israel's
recent departure from Gaza, the eyes of the prophets and the eyes of the Jewish
people, who are all called to be prophets, would be opened more clearly and that
we would all prophesy with even greater accuracy and devotion to Yeshua (see Psalm
105:15; Numbers 11:29)!
A Retreat by Any Other Name
The forced evacuation of Jewish Israelis from Gaza and parts of Northern Samaria
is the first and only case in Jewish history of Jews uprooting other Jews from their
homes and synagogues, and then destroying those buildings -- all in order to hand
over portions of their divinely promised land to enemy forces (the uprooting of
Yamit under Ariel Sharon's supervision in 1982 and its handover to Egypt probably
should also be included). It is also the first case of the Israeli army retreating
from terrorist forces. And it is actually the third time in the modern era that
Israel has abandoned territory promised by God to Israel.
In 1956, Israel abandoned Gaza due to U.S. and Russian threats
(it was later retaken by Israel in June, 1967). On July 1, 1994, Israel's Yitzhak
Rabin handed over Jericho to Yasser Arafat, an event shepherded and promoted by
former President Bill Clinton. Today, Sharon's unilateral retreat has been euphemistically
called a "disengagement." But even in Hebrew, a retreat is still a retreat.
Frozen Snapshots
This past week, Israeli TV has broadcasted non-stop live and on-site, covering all
aspects of the evacuation. Israelis have been bombarded with a marathon of sound
bites and "eye bites" -- Jews removing other Jews from their homes, farms, and synagogues.
The pictures, especially footage of bulldozed homes, have broken the hearts of many
Israelis, while others have responded to the tragic evacuations with cold sneers
and derision. While some Israeli hearts are responding to this tragedy with tenderness,
other hearts are hardening and refuse to hear their brother's cry rising up out
of Gaza's soil.
Some modern Israelis find it embarrassing and difficult to relate to the sufferings,
exiles, and pogroms that have characterized Jewish history among the nations. They
don't want to think of their people as having been victimized, and so they avert
their eyes and their hearts when forced to consider such issues.
It may be shocking for some to discover that certain Israelis
cannot or will not see the parallels between the suffering of Gaza's Jews and the
suffering of the Jewish people in Europe and the Arab world. Nevertheless, it is
heartening to know that many other Jews are finding tears on their cheeks and softening
occurring in their hearts. Please pray that God will have His way with many
Israeli hearts, tenderizing them and causing them to seek for Messiah Yeshua's face
amidst the pain.
Here are some fleeting descriptions of scenes that flashed across Israeli TV screens
this week:
Jewish Children in Gaza
A small tot steps outside his house -- unaware that his parents are about to be
removed -- and shyly hands out tiny cookies to the soldiers waiting to enter. A
three-year-old riding out of his home on the broad shoulders of an IDF officer asks
with a big smile, "Are we going out for a fun ride?"
Another three-year-old girl runs over to an IDF commander
(who has just explained to her parents that they are about to be evacuated) and
gives him a big kiss and an even bigger smile. A small class of eight-year-old boys
chant Psalm 130 as soldiers wait to evacuate them from their schoolroom ("Out of
the depths I cry to You, O Lord! Hear my voice!")
Grown Men Crying in Gaza
As the army and police announce to Morag resident Yuval Unterman that he needs to
evacuate his home, he quietly rips his shirt (a sign of Jewish religious mourning)
and stands wordless in front of the soldiers. As the shammash (synagogue attendant)
opens the Netzarim synagogue ark where the Torah scrolls are housed (in order to
remove them and evacuate them as well), he staggers and buries his face in his hands,
shaking with sobs.
Tekoa Rabbi Menahem Fruman, known for his heart-to-heart dialogue
with neighboring Arab communities near Bethlehem, tenderly removes a Torah scroll
from the Neve Dekalim synagogue -- his long, wispy, white beard wrapped around the
scroll -- crying. He walks slowly out of the synagogue, his face creased with agonized
tears. A Holocaust survivor, dressed in his original prison camp uniform, kisses
soldiers who have come to evacuate him, and leaves his home weeping.
Soldiers Showing Incredible Restraint and Kindness in Gaza
One of Israel's most respected and decorated soldiers, Colonel Erez Tzukerman, commander
of the famed Golani Brigade, quietly listens as a Gaza resident (a former soldier
under his command) weeps and shakes at the fact that his commander and brother-in-arms
is evacuating him from his own home. Erez nods his head in understanding, does not
react or defend himself as he is yelled at, and then embraces the soldier as they
cry together.
A 25-year-old commander quietly listens to the Fitusi family explain all the terrorism
they have endured, read aloud a letter that the six-year-old daughter has written
to be read to the soldiers, and then slowly walks out the door to prepare for the
family's evacuation. A five-year-old boy comes over to him; the commander crouches
to talk with him, kisses him on the head, and asks quietly, "Do you hate me?"
IDF Southern Command General Dan Harel and Southern District Police Chief Commander
Uri Bar-Lev openly weep in different Gaza synagogues as their own forces get ready
to evacuate the buildings of praying Jews. Soldiers carrying a "hilltop youth" out
of a yeshiva in Homesh, Northern Samaria, lay him down gently on the ground and
then hug him. He gets up and runs over to the Torah scroll being evacuated and kisses
it, weeping.
A young woman soldier who has just evacuated a family from
their home goes behind a bus (where she can be alone) and begins to groan and wail
deeply over what she has just seen.
One soldier told me that he wandered around one of the abandoned towns after the
evacuation and saw over a hundred hungry, abandoned dogs and cats; empty houses
ghost-like in their stillness, with chocolate milk still on kitchen counters, freshly
made bread barely taken out of open ovens, food still on the tables, half-empty
fridges -- as if the Rapture had just taken place.
The lives of those evacuated have been severely shaken. Many have left homes that
up to four generations have lived in. For many, their communities were all that
they have ever experienced. They are now, for the most part, living in temporary
housing or crowded into hotel rooms, awaiting the outcome of slow government bureaucratic
processes.
Pray that God will use the pain to point these people's hearts to Himself.
Pray for their resettlement to the east of the Gaza Strip, and for the daunting
physical needs involved. Pray for the soldiers who have taken the brunt of evacuating
Gaza's Jews. Pray that God will speak to them in their hearts and use the residual
pain to open their hearts to Him, to ask questions that only He can and will answer.
A Pre-Bar Mitzvah Prophecy
Back to the Israeli television broadcasts this week: In the living room of one of
the families about to be evacuated, the father asked his oldest son if he had anything
that he would like to tell the commander evacuating him. The boy quietly opened
his Bible to Amos 9:13-15 and chanted in sing-song Hebrew the ancient words of the
prophecy. As we watched in our own living room, tears streamed down our cheeks.
Hear the words of the prophet:
"Behold, the days are coming, declares
YHVH, that the plowman will overtake the one who is reaping, and he who treads out
the grapes will overtake the one who is sowing seed. And the mountains will drip
sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. And I will bring back My people Israel
from captivity, and they shall rebuild the destroyed cities and inhabit them. And
they will plant vineyards and drink the wine, and will eat the fruit of those vineyards.
And I will plant (Israel) upon their own land and they shall no more be pulled up
out of their land which I have given to them, says YHVH, your God."
This pre-bar mitzvah boy prophesied a mouthful. God is in
the process of bringing His people Israel back to their promised land of Israel.
Over the past 150 years, the Jewish people have been rebuilding destroyed cities
and have even planted new towns in the pristine desert sands (as in the case of
Gaza's communities). As this river of restoration flows (the Hebrew word for
restoration is tikkun), and as the process expands, then more Jews return,
more destroyed towns are rebuilt, and the Jewish people once again find themselves
at home in their own land.
Bumps in the "Restoration Road"
But there are bumps in the restoration road. This happens in every struggle and
in every process of taking back from the enemy what has been stolen. Opposition
and attack sometimes briefly slow down the process. The evacuation of Gaza and four
villages in Northern Samaria is one such bump in the road. This is a setback and
a cause for grief and mourning. The fact that Jews have been used to inflict this
on other Jews is also a tragic surprise.
But the evacuation of Gaza is not the reversal of the process of restoration.
It is a grievous road bump on the way. As Michael Freund said recently, "This
is hardly the first setback we have suffered on our long and sometimes torturous
return to Zion, and it is almost certainly not the last" ("Jewish Gaza will be rebuilt,"
Jerusalem Post, Wed., Aug. 17, 2005, p.14).
The Jewish people will never again be decisively exiled from their land, as one
or two embittered and disgruntled Messianic preachers have been arguing for. Though
there is definitely a sifting and a purification coming for the nation of Israel,
it will not entail the full exile of Israel nor the full evacuation of Jerusalem
(see Zechariah 14:2b). The return of the Jewish dry bones in Ezekiel 37 is described
by God Himself as occurring in unbelief. But God is not caught off guard by this
spiritual fact. Indeed, He is the One who is causing the people of Israel to return
to the borders of the promised land -- including to the Gaza Strip.
It is important to remember that the process of restoration cannot be smoothly charted
as if it were part of some American engineering manual, or even a Messianic Jewish
engineering manual! The process of restoration is not easily condensed into an efficient
and scientific linear equation, a four-color flow chart or an intricate time-line.
Such a computerized approach to the restoration process is probably more Hellenistic
than Jewish, more fatalistic than prophetic, more mechanistic than mystical.
God is a Multi-Tasker
The truth is that God is capable of doing more than one thing at a time and, in
fact, God works in precisely such a multifaceted way. He has determined to bring
His people back to the land of Israel, even in unbelief; to establish them in their
land, even in unbelief; and to cause them to grow into an amazing and world-perplexing
people, even in unbelief.
All that is lacking for Israel is the breath, the Ruach, the Spirit of God.
When YHVH pours out His Ruach of grace and supplications (Zechariah 12:10), we the
people of Israel will mourn, we will repent, we will embrace our Messiah Yeshua,
we will come alive as a mighty army (Ezekiel 37:10), and we will move under God's
feet as His divine threshing sledge bringing judgment and blessing to the nations
(Isaiah 41:15; the Hebrew word for this sledge is morag, one of the names
of the evacuated Gaza communities).
God's process of restoration is cyclical -- He brings His people back to the same
land from which they were originally exiled and evacuated. He is moving simultaneously
to establish physical restoration and spiritual restoration in the bodies and spirits
of the same Jewish people who once rebelled against Moses' authority and David's
dynasty. God's river of restoration continues to flow over the Jewish people and
into their hearts, even though there are occasional eddies, side pools, and backwaters.
And God will use the pain and the agony created by this evacuation to open Jewish
hearts to His own heart, and to bring Israeli hearts into a right relationship with
His own heart.
The exile and public agony of Gaza's Jews has sadly occurred, but this momentary
light affliction has not stopped the process of Jewish restoration to and in the
land of Israel. It has not reversed the flow of the river of restoration. Indeed,
it has opened the door to one of the last days' most significant prophecies regarding
the restoration of Israel and the judgment of the nations.
Three Big Prophetic Events
Two momentous prophetic events have occurred in the last 25 years.
According to Bob Jones, a prophetic brother, World War Three began on October
6, 1981, with the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat by Islamic
jihadi forces (led by Ayman Zawahiri, now Osama Bin Laden's second-in-command).
This rise of an armed and fanatic army of Islamic world jihad indicates that world
jihad will figure prominently in the coming battles of WWIII.
On September 11, 2001, another prophetic brother, James Goll, was told by the Lord
to turn on his TV immediately. As he watched planes crash into the World Trade Center,
God told him that "the time of the hunters" had begun. This term refers to
Jeremiah 16:16-18, a prophecy of a worldwide season of anti-Semitic persecution
which will purify the Jewish nation as well as fully bring them back to their ancestral
homeland of Israel. This prophetic word re-emphasizes that growing world-wide anti-Jewish
persecution will now be linked to anti-Israel strategies and Islamic jihadi terrorism.
The third event, the time of dividing up the land of Israel, is kicking into
high gear in front of our eyes, and it is the evacuation of Gaza which has proved
to be the alarm bell. A little bit of background is necessary here.
"The Secret War Against The
Jews"
The Arab and Islamic world has been actively trying to wipe out the Jewish State
of Israel since the late 1940's. The PLO has made the destruction of Israel its
organizational strategy since its inception in 1964, whether by direct armed attack
or by "the plan of stages" -- whittling off pieces of Israel, through diplomacy,
until direct military attack can be decisive.
The nations of the world and, in particular, the USA, have
also been advocating a political process which would divide up the biblical land
of Israel. The organization known as the Quartet (composed of the USA, the European
Union, the UN, and Russia; see
www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/
ps/2003/20062.htm)
has been pushing since 2003 for what it has euphemistically been labeled "a performance-based
and goal-driven roadmap, with clear phases, timelines, target dates, and benchmarks
aiming at . . . a permanent two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."
Since unimpeded access to Islamic oil is essential for Western economies, and since
oil access is also connected with progress on dividing the land of Israel, it has
become a clear policy goal of oil multinationals, Saudi Arabia, and allies in the
U.S. State Department and the C.I.A., to push for strategies to make this dream
a reality. Two books which throw light on these strategies are: "The Secret War
Against The Jews: How Western Intelligence Betrayed the Jewish People" by John Loftus
and Mark Aarons (www.john-loftus.com) and "Sleeping With the Devil: How Washington
Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude" by former C.I.A. Middle East case officer Robert
Baer. Loftus and Baer are commentators for the FOX Channel.
A Long-Standing U.S. Policy
Goal
It is to be assumed that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has already run into these
international and strategic hardball pressures. There is a place for much compassion
here. What would you do if you were Israel's PM, you did not believe the Scriptures,
and you needed to simultaneously fend off U.S. pressure, terrorist attacks, and
impending legal action against yourself (possibly) and your own children (certainly)
for illegal campaign funding?
It seems that Sharon hoped that he could gain world sympathy by a unilateral disengagement,
while simultaneously freezing world pressure against further withdrawals. But U.S.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently popped that balloon on August 18, 2005,
in a NY Times article with Joel Brinkley and Steven R. Weisman. She "offered
sympathy for the Israeli settlers who are being removed from their homes in Gaza"
but also made it clear that she expected Israel and the Palestinians to take further
steps, in short order, toward the creation of a Palestinian state. "Everyone empathizes
with what the Israelis are facing," Ms. Rice said in an interview. But, she added,
"It cannot be Gaza only."
In a recent TV interview here in Israel, former Consul General of Israel in New
York, Alon Pinkas, stated that, with the evacuation from Gaza, "the U.S. has seen
the victory of its 38-year-old policy." American Rice and Israeli Pinkas dovetail
in agreeing that the evacuation of Gaza was a long-standing U.S. policy goal, and
that the continuing division of the biblical land of Israel is an ongoing U.S. strategic
goal.
"The Time of the Dividing Up
of the Land of Israel"
So, the evacuation from Gaza is not taking place in a vacuum. At this point, with
the exile of the Jewish remnant from the Gaza Strip and from parts of Northern Samaria,
the world has now entered into the period which can be called "the time of the
dividing up the land of Israel." The first fruits have been seen globally on
television this past week. It is unfortunate that the U.S. is one of the prime movers
in this dividing process.
This season will involve intensified world focus on and preoccupation with forcing
Israel to retreat from other portions of the biblical heartland. It will involve
political, economic, and military pressure. Two decades ago, an internationally
respected, prophetic brother prophesied that the USA would face another oil embargo
when a man named Abdullah would become King over Saudi Arabia. Abdullah acceded
to the Saudi throne on August 3, 2005. The economic pressures against Israel will
also include oil embargoes against the USA and other countries -- Islamic oil weapons
crafted to weaken connections between those countries and the state of Israel.
We have been warning about the immediacy of this biblical scenario for nearly 12
years. What is sobering is that in the first round of this battle, Israel has been
pressured into evacuating portions of its own lands..
What Will Eventually Develop According to the
Scriptures:
- There will be a concerted effort on the part of enemy Arab
nations to occupy all of the land of Israel and to destroy the Jewish state. The
enemy will be characterized by murderous spite, derision, and hate-filled joy (Ezekiel
36).
- All of the nations mentioned in this future pan-Arab attack,
described in Psalm 83, are presently Islamic. Look for a jihadi Islamic context
in this future war against the Jewish state.
- Based on Ezekiel 38-39 this coming jihadi invasion of Israel
will be decisively defeated.
- The nations of the world will continue to attempt to divide
the land of Israel and will finally use military force to achieve this goal. This
will result in severe judgment on those nations and the return of Messiah Yeshua
(Joel 3:1-3).
- In pursuit of the above strategy, the nations will invade
Israel and divide Jerusalem, expelling or evacuating Jews from East Jerusalem while
allowing them to remain in West Jerusalem. This evacuation will directly catalyze
the return of Messiah Yeshua (Zechariah 14:12-21).
In light of these biblical scenarios, we encourage you to keep
God's strategies and prophetic plans close to your heart.
We encourage you to pray for your country -- that it would
bless and protect Israel and the Jewish people, and not turn against them. We encourage
you to intercede for Israel's protection and salvation. We encourage you to reach
out to Jewish people around you -- your Jewish friends and acquaintances -- and
to share the good news of their Messiah Yeshua's life, atoning death, and amazing
resurrection.
We encourage you to prepare for the coming wave of anti-Jewish
persecution, terror, and future holocaust. How will you be able to save Jewish lives
and protect them as they return to their promised land?
Thanks for reading these words and for chewing on them. We bless you and thank you
for your friendship, prayers, and support. They mean a lot to us!
In Yeshua, Israel's Messiah and the Light of the world!
Avner Boskey (for Rachel, Daniel, David, Asaph and Elisha)
FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES
www.davidstent.org
david@davidstent.org
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"
. . . a timely sweep of what God is saying regarding Israel in this day and
hour." - Cindy Jacobs
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. . . a refreshing combination of a spirit of revelation, biblical clarity, a
heart for Israel, and Scripture-based prayers . . . " - Mike Bickle
"A
timely and significant book!" - Jane Hansen
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Goll's instruction on praying for Israel will trigger the great Jewish and Arab
revival. This will result in the greatest Gentile revival in history!"
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