Prophecy Update: 1/12/2022
The Minor Prophets have a lot to tell us about last days prophesy. Sometimes we overlook the teaching of the Minor Prophets and focus on some of the bigger things like the Gog Magog Prophecy, the Mark of the Beast, and the prophecies regarding the coming wars in Israel. The foundational truths regarding the last days are laid out for us in spectacular ways in the Minor Prophets. Todays update will cover some of these prophecies and then we will talk about Russia. The Russian NATO conflict over Ukraine is leading to war.
“For the sons of Israel will remain for many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar and without ephod or household idols. Afterward the sons of Israel will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king; and they will come trembling to the LORD and to His goodness in the last days.”
Hosea 3:4-5
This stunning prophecy illustrates that Israel will be set aside for a time until the last days. The prophecy lays out for us three pairs of things Israel will lose. The first pair is King or Prince. This means that Israel would not have a government set up by God with His divinely appointed leaders. This has been the case since 586 B.C.; that is when we entered into the time of the Gentiles. The second pairing illustrates that God is going to cleanse Israel. Sacrifice and sacred pillar shows us that there was legitimate and illegitimate worship in Israel. God will not let illegitimate worship come back. The third pairing ephod and household idols regards true and untrue ways of approaching God. The ephod is what the High Priest wore and he would seek God using the Urim and Thummim which were Gods divinely appointed method of finding the will of God. Household idols are evil and will not be coming back to Israel.
Secondly, the verse tells us that a time is coming when the Jews will return to the Lord. When? In the last days! This will be fulfilled during and after the seven-year tribulation period. It is interesting that the first president of Israel in 1948 was David Ben Gurion. God chose a David to lead them!
This describes the history of Israel until 1948 when everything changed and Israel became a nation. However, notice something important, Israel does not have a king nor a temple. This is promised in the Minor Prophets.
An important distinction must be made between the Church and Israel. Israel is on a calendar and the church is on the job. Daniel 9 tells us that 490 years have been determined for Israel and 483 of those years have passed by. There is still a seven-year period for God to fulfill all of His promises to Israel. The Church has the great commission and has the job to make disciples in all of the nations.
“This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.”
Matt.24:14
Our job is almost done because the gospel has gone out to the whole world and disciples have been made in every nation on planet earth. It is only a matter of time for the other prophecies to come to pass.
“Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, When the plowman will overtake the reaper And the treader of grapes him who sows seed; When the mountains will drip sweet wine And all the hills will be dissolved. Also I will restore the captivity of My people Israel, And they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them; They will also plant vineyards and drink their wine, And make gardens and eat their fruit. I will also plant them on their land, And they will not again be rooted out from their land Which I have given them,” Says the LORD your God.”
Amos 9:13-15
God is very clear in this passage. When Israel comes back, they will never lose their land again. They are back, and although they are going to face some pretty bad wars, including Armageddon, Jesus will come and fight for them and they will never lose their land again. Israel is here to stay and the world, Satan, and the ungodly nations hate what God is doing.
“I will go away and return to My place Until they acknowledge their guilt and seek My face;
In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me. Come, let us return to the LORD. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us. He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day, That we may live before Him.”
Hosea 5:15-6:2
Israel will seek the Lord in the affliction of the tribulation. The prophets are clear that Israel will come back two times. The first time was when they came back after the Babylonian Captivity. The second one is when they came back in 1948. What is exciting in this passage is that God infers both the resurrection and a timing for the return of Israel. A day is as a thousand years and so from Jesus first coming to today has been almost 200 years.
What is amazing is that from Jesus resurrection to 1948, 113 different prophecies were fulfilled. The first one was Rome destroying Jerusalem and the temple. The land began to turn around in the late 1800’s as Jews started to return to the land. In the early 1900’s Jews began to speak Hebrew again and the ancient language was revived. All three of these things fulfilled prophecy.
“Behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling to all the peoples around.” Zechariah 12:2a
There is no doubt that from 1948 to 1967, Jerusalem was the key to conflict between Israel and the Arab states that wished to drive them into the sea. It is still the key to the conflict. God has made it clear that Jerusalem will be a source of conflict all the way till Jesus comes back.
“And I answered the second time and said to him, “What are the two olive branches which are beside the two golden pipes, which empty the golden oil from themselves?” So he answered me, saying, “Do you not know what these are?” And I said, “No, my lord.” Then he said, “These are the two anointed ones who are standing by the Lord of the whole earth.”
Zechariah 4:12-14
This is a fascinating prophecy that is about the temple that is coming in the tribulation period. Zechariah is having a vision with an angel and they are talking about the temple. Zechariah wants to know who are the two olive branches and God says they are the two anointed ones. The two anointed ones are Elijah and Moses. Revelation 11 quotes this verse about the two witnesses:
“And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.”
Revelation 11:3-4
I want to turn the update to Russia. The nations are in conflict over what Russia is demanding.
“Something happens almost every day that tells us that Israel’s enemies are preparing for war. On the other hand, Israel’s responses to these events indicate that Israel is not preparing for war. At a ceremony in Tehran, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi pledged to kill former president Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Not only did the Biden administration not condemn the Iranian regime for threatening the life of a former president and secretary of state, but on the day Raisi made the threat, President Joe Biden’s nuclear negotiators were in Vienna beginning another round of nuclear talks with Raisi’s emissaries.” jns.org
As Iran is preparing for the war with Israel, so Russia is also planning to go to war. The Biden administration pacifies the enemies and does not prepare for war. God is very clear that prophecy teaches us that Russia and Iran will come after Israel, and lose, and lose big. When you live by prophecy you do not have to fear what others fear. We know that God is in control and will accomplish His prophecies!
Russia has been training to go to war with America for over 20 years. They have underground cities stocked with food and provisions that are for the people when they go to nuclear war with the US. They talk about the coming war, they show videos of how they are going to attack, and Russia is moving closer to attacking the USA. Russia also has a mafia in America that works for Putin.
“Organized crime in Russia began in the Russian Empires, but it was not until the Soviet era that vory v zakone (“thieves-in-law”) emerged as leaders of prison groups in forced labor camps, and their honor code became more defined. With the end of World War II, the death of Joseph Stalin, and the fall of the Soviet Union, more gangs emerged in a flourishing black market, exploiting the unstable governments of the former Republics. Louis Freeh, former director of the FBI, said that the Russian mafia posed the greatest threat to U.S. national security in the mid-1990s.”wikipedia.org
What most people do not understand is that many of our enemies have criminal groups operating in the USA. The Russian Mafia likes to brag that they are older than the Italian Mafia and are more violent. When God opens up a nation to more criminal activity we have been turned over to our sin.
“The Russian mafia is similar to the Italian Mafia in many ways, the groups’ organization and structure follow a similar model. The two groups also share a similar portfolio of criminal activity. The highly-publicized Italian Mafia is believed to have inspired early criminal groups in Russia to form Mafia-like organizations, eventually spawning their own version.” wikipedia.org
Along the side of the Russians, the Iranians are talking about calling their sleeper cells to start killing Americans like Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo. Our response as a nation gives no hope to the people who have been threatened.
“Princeton Faculty Member Brags About Death Threats Against Trump Admin Envoy. A former Iranian official who is a faculty member at Princeton University recently bragged in an interview about how his hardline government’s death threats against a former top Trump administration official had him and his family “trembling” with fear. Hussein Mousavian, a former member of Iran’s nuclear negotiating team who works as a Middle East security and nuclear policy specialist at Princeton University, said in a recent interview that the Iranian regime’s threats to murder Brian Hook, the Trump administration’s special envoy for Iran, have heavily impacted Hook’s family life. “I went to America and an American told me that Brian Hook’s wife can’t sleep, she cries and trembles, she told Brian, ‘They’ll kill you,’ since Hook was a partner in the death of Haj Qassem [Soleimani].” freebeacon.com
It is amazing that Princeton can hire an enemy of the United States, pay him, and allow him to brag on how the Iranian government will kill Americans. He should be arrested, put on trial for spying in America, encouraging murder, and supporting the enemies of the USA. Biden celebrates his outreach to Iran and will not allow anyone to talk bad about the deal with Iran.
“In short, the U.S. policy is to appease Iran, and Israel’s policy is to appease the United States. But no one is blocking Iran from becoming a nuclear power.” jns.org
Iran is an ally with Russia and they are planning very bad things for Israel and the USA. Russia shares the view with Iran that the USA is the great Satan and Israel is the little Satan. As Russia and Iran begin their assault on the USA, remember prophecy. Prophecy gives us Gods view of history and we know that if God is removing the restrainer, then eventually that means we will be raptured out of here. God knows how to protect His children in the face of war!
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