Many people believe that we are living in the end times, including me. We are definitely getting closer. Many people want to get closer to God and understand Him more clearly, including me. Many people, including me, look for clues in the Bible for every political or military development in the country. But what I am wary of and try to avoid is “raping” the biblical text for my own purposes. Over the years I have thought, spoken and written about it many times. I am completely convinced that God’s Word is true and still relevant in our time, as it was in biblical times. The very fact that Israel once again exists, prospers, speaks its own language, and is able to wage war to protect its land is proof of how relevant the Bible really is.
After the rebirth of Israel in 1948, the reunification of Jerusalem in 1967 was another miracle and sign that God knew how to carry out His plans for Israel. Israel’s existence is based on the visions of the biblical prophets and the promises they carried. For this reason, the prophets and their visions were included in the Israel’s Declaration of Independence. Everyone in Israel understands that we do not live here by chance, but with a goal and a task. This explains why our enemies do not allow peace and constantly want to destroy Israel. From their point of view, we conquered their land, from our point of view we live in the land with biblical a biblical mandate. This conflict cannot be solved diplomatically.
What I can’t participate in is twisting the Bible to fit my imagination. In the last few weeks I have often been asked how I spiritually or prophetically interpret Israel’s dire situation these days. To be honest, I ask myself this too. I talk and debate about it with my friends and have to admit that I don’t understand a lot of it myself. What I understand, however, and keep reminding myself of is that Israel makes the same mistakes as before, but also knows how to be obedient. Israel’s political situations in the past 75 years can be compared to the biblical situations in the times of Judges and Kings, one-to-one. We write about this often in our Member articles to help our readers see God’s work in a new way.
But, why do we have to constantly seek prophetic interpretation of every extraordinary incident in the country? This makes no sense to me because I’ve heard too many different interpretations of this or that episode over the years. For instance, many Christians I’m hearing are highlighting the “idolatrous” Nova music festival as being responsible for the Hamas attack. If every festival in Israel were compared to the incident of the Golden Calf, Israel would no longer exist. It’s also important to note that the Nova music festival was not a national event, like the children of Israel as a whole dancing around the Golden Calf.
The outdoor Nova Festival event in a rural farmland area near the Gaza-Israel border was supposed to be an all-night dance party, celebrating the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.
Just before Hamas’s paratroopers landed in the festival area. https://t.co/j5HMSU7pWi pic.twitter.com/LumGePNcoQ
— Clash Report (@clashreport) October 8, 2023
No, Israel has other and more dangerous idols than the Buddha statue at the music festival, if you really want to get biblical. Israel is still plagued by a level of pride that continually brings the nation down. Without going into certain conspiracies, the elected leadership as well as the security apparatus absolutely failed on October 7th. Either they believed that Israel was invincible and Hamas was no real threat, or there was something bigger behind the attack in southern Israel that I don’t want to talk about. Ten percent (360) of the young participants in the Nova music festival were slaughtered by the terrorists, and hundreds more were injured. Numerous young Israelis committed suicide in the days and weeks that followed because they could not cope with what they had experienced and seen.
People look for relevant passages in the Bible and then boom, another prophecy is discovered. Even the political murder of Yitzhak Rabin was found in the Bible a few days after the assassination in 1995. In addition, I could list numerous other “prophetic words,” not just from the last few years, but from the last 30 years. And? I know so many people, mostly in Christian circles, who only dig for prophecies in the Bible and see every political development or statement as a prophecy. One wonders whether this has something to do with sensationalism.
In the Jewish world, biblical prophecy is talked about less. Here, we live it. These days alone, the Children of Israel are fighting a war that some Christians abroad see as an end-time war. Once again, that may well be the case. But the difference is that here, we don’t have time to speculate because we are busy living out what many Christians abroad imagine to be a prophetic event. It is always easier to preach about biblical developments than to actually live them out on the ground.
I am fully convinced that everything will happen as the Bible describes, sooner or later. The Savior of Israel will also appear one day, but until then I will wait patiently and report what is happening in the land. “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord…in the media,” that is our work and that is our task. What appeals to me and those around me more than anything else in the Bible is God’s guide to salvation, His wisdom, and His motto for our present day, to live righteously in His presence. The Bible is the foundation of our faith, and me and my household want to deal with it first in our lives and our present, and less in trying to peer into the future.
People often only look to the future, and miss the present and living today according to biblical values. I know and feel that we are living in an exciting time and are going through a spiritual battle, but I will not present biblical passages as others do. Israel’s entire existence for the last 75 years is the fulfillment of the prophets, every hour, day, week, month and year. War and peace are part of it. Israel is a miracle, and anyone who doesn’t believe in miracles is not a realist. Everything will come true, even without my prophetic interpretation.
I agree. It is so difficult to understand all of what is happening. If tragedy happens ONLY because of idolatry, then cities like New Orleans and Las Vegas are in for judgment soon, too.
God’s Word is always key. All of us should be circumspecting. Israel is key in prophecy and we should always pray: God’s will be done. He is the only One who sees the end from the beginning.
I totally agree with you my friend! God Bless Israel
“I don’t want to misuse the Bible, so, I won’t propose any verses; no one will call me sensational or a false prophet, and how to be saved is anyway more important.”
Great. That’s just the easy way out clad in false humility. Firstly, most don’t know how to get saved (they are not born of water and Spirit), and secondly, I’d rather have someone who, even at the risk of being wrong, clearly states their view backed by Scripture than keeping their mouth shut for fear of making a mistake or losing their reputation.
Yes, for a non-Jew outside of Israel it’s easier to quote prophecies, and that’s why they shouldn’t do it??
Shame on you. You’re not living in Israel, experiencing this tragedy.
Maybe I put it too harshly, in which case I apologize.
Aviel cannot do differently. In light of the ongoing horror, he cannot write, “Here is the prophecy, it’s all ordained by G-d.”
IMO, Oct. 7th is found in Zechariah 14:2, but even if that is correct, it won’t alleviate the current suffering of anyone. However, if an article touches on the subject of Tanakhic prophecy, I think it is still legitimate for a reader to suggest a prophecy which may apply here.
Nothing happens without G-d allowing it. IMO, the current tragedy is the prelude to Israel’s ultimate victory – all the bereaved will receive their loved ones back.
Many Holocaust survivors “hate” Rabbis Manis Friedman because he says the Shoah was ordained by G-d. People don’t want to hear that.
I donate every month £150 to Zaka Tel Aviv, which won’t comfort those who have lost loved ones either.
Zechariah 14 is an end time chapter, and since “Jerusalem” and “Israel” often denote Jewry, we can paraphrase vv. 2-3 thus:
“For I will gather all Gentiles to Yerushalayim for war: Israel will be “outwitted” (לֶֽכֶד m.n. NH 1 capture. 2 snare, trap), the houses plundered, and the women raped; and a part of Jewry will be taken captive. But the rest of the population won’t be uprooted. Then Hashem will come forth and make war on those Gentiles.”
Why blaming the elected leadership, Mossad, the IDF, et al. that the security apparatus failed on October 7th if it was ordained by G-d?
We’re only waiting for Persia, Magog, Togarmah, et al. to enter the conflict.
“Serving the Lord” includes warning others that time is running out, e.g. by showing where we are on the prophetic timeline. Yes, all will come true, even without you presenting Biblical prophecies, but studying the latter and warning folk, might save some more.
To be even more clear:
Sorry, but I find the article hypocritical and self-righteous.
The people of Israel are the Holy God’s Chosen People, not like Gentiles in US and UK. They must become holy, so that the God of Israel be “proved holy through” them before the eyes of the nations, and Ezekiel 36:23 be fulfilled.
How can the Jewish people become holy? According to Exodus 31:12-13, by keeping His Sabbaths holy.
The testimony of a Jewish mother in Kibbutz proves it: out of desperation, she looked up and pledged to God that if He saved her and her children from Hamas, she would keep His Sabbaths holy for the rest of her life. As soon as she prayed it, the Hamas terrorists walked away from her house as if God blinded their eyes.
Yes, Shabbat ought to be kept, and the testimony is amazing.
However, no descendant of fallen Adam becomes holy by keeping the Sabbath (nor by any other works).
I agree with you to the extent in which no one can make themselves “holy” with whatever they do. However, the holiness of the God of Israel is at stake, and that is why He repeatedly said that He would restore and cleanse His People for His Holy Name’s sake.
For those who have been disobedient to Him, to keep the Sabbath is the first (and a big) step to take in submission to Him. As Zechariah 13:8-9 writes, He is likely to continually put His People ‘into the fire and refine them like silver and test them like gold’.
Your thinking of the war scenario seems being too far ahead of the time.
Yes, I think I know what you mean now, and I tend to agree.
However, Zechariah 13:8-9 refers to the two-thirds of European Jewry who perished between 1939 and 1945 (and the “little ones” in vs. 7 are the 1.5 million children who died during the Shoah).
I don’t know what else you still expect to happen before the end hits, but maybe we should not argue about it.
I take “the little one” to simply mean “the descendants” of those who shouted, “His blood is on us and on our children!” and crucified their forever Messiah King Yeshua.
I agree that “two-thirds”, six out of nine million Jewish people perished, according to His Word, spoken through Zechariah more than 2400 years ago.
The gift of the fear of the Lord may be particularly precious here to understand more about who He is and what He is doing for and with His Chosen People.
I agree with the last writers comment about the Sabbath. That is a key principle of Gods holiness through Israel. It is a witness to the world. No doubt on that Black sabbath some were not observant. Israel has been tearing itself apart this past year politically and no doubt God is not pleased. Perhaps Oct.7 was a big wake up call? As for end time prophecy much still has to happen and is mostly part of what scripture refers to as the day of the LORD. For example Jeremiah 30:7. “Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it; And it is the time of Jacobs trouble, but he shall be saved out of it.” NKJV.
It has nothing to do with a wake up call, and Jer 30:7 refers to the Shoah.
Essentially, only Iran, Russia, Turkey, etc. has to attack Israel now, and G-d will then defeat Israel’s enemies (and burn the earth).
So much for, “much still has to happen.”
I see the Bible prophesies as valid as valid for “big picture” things. And I don’t think God caused the festival massacre. But there is a devil who does hate people and when we get too far from God’s protection there is danger. Staying close to God for me is easy with the personal relationship I have with messiah Yeshua/Jesus. Following the Holy Spirit is fulfilling and gives more protection against the enemy.
HaSatan is a lion on a chain = he cannot do anything unless permitted by G-d.
Yet, the 1,000 years in Rev 20:7 are symbolical and don’t refer to some millennium. They refer to the kingdom which has been accessible since Shavuot 2,000 years ago, and the verse states that the adversary will be let loose, followed by God and Magog (representing pagans) attacking Israel.
That’s what we are about to witness, followed by the “olam haba” (no millennium).
Just to add: the events of October 7th have nothing to do with the “spiritual walk of the victims” (which is a ludicrous claim).
Hence, the innuendo that the people were not following the guidance of the Holy Spirit and thus massacred, it utter religious nonsense and rather shows that the Ruach HaKodesh is not leading YOU.
The Shoah is unrelated to Yeshu, but not Jerusalem’s siege in 68 CE during which parents ate their own children.
Yeshu himself always employs “little ones” to mean “children.”
Israel practiced infanticide and was thus subjected to a gradually increasing national punishment, lasting for 2,520 years (536 BCE–1948). Israel murdered children for centuries, and G-d paid her back.
The Tanakh is replete with references to the Shoah, but people don’t want it; it doesn’t align with their personal view of how G-d is. They may confess the G-d who ordained Israel’s victory in the 6-Day War, but deny the G-d who ordained the Shoah (or deny His existence).
G-d created man in His image 6,000 years ago, and today man creates G-d in his own corrupt image; he only accepts G-d on his own terms.