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Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
Matthew 24:32-36
Let us return alas to the famed "Olivet Discourse." Oh yes, another fancy name applied by scholars and academics — which is actually quite appropriate, thankfully. It refers to Christ's end-time dissertation delivered to His followers upon the Mount of Olives just outside Jerusalem to the east. On this occasion, in a private setting upon the Mount, Yeshua took aside a select group of His disciples for a momentous briefing about the coming of His kingdom and the signs of His return to rule in power and glory as they conferred about the end of the world and when it would come. . .
"Well, exactly how many miles it is from here, I can't tell you; but, when you come to a very rough and steep hill in the road, you'll know you've almost arrived; in fact, the highway comes to an end right over that hill..." This is an alternate (paraphrased) version that Messiah might have used to answer the questions of the disciples about when and how long, had the metaphor been more fitting. However, He chose other figurative language to illustrate and illuminate the last stretch of this road, which is more than likely not just a random choice of word pictures. Although saying basically the same thing, the parable of the fig tree uses pictorial language that would have conjured up images already very familiar to the Jewish people from the writings of their ancient prophets. They were familiar depictions that made reference to their very own nation — pictures used much earlier on especially by Joel and the great seer Jeremiah — which would also link that nation to the signs of the end of the world.
In chapter 24 of Jeremiah, we find two distinct groups of Judahites and Jerusalemites figuratively represented by two different types of figs. Those Israelites that would submissively yield to the yoke of chastisement, which the Lord would impose upon the Jews for their rebellions against Him, were classed as the basket of "good figs," tasty as the first ripe figs of season. The other basket of "very evil figs," which were deemed absolutely inedible, were those Israelites who refused to submit, but resolved rather to resist the instrument of punishment (the imperial occupation of the Babylonian empire), and rebelled more persistently still.
The account and scope of this chastisement and servitude, to which the Jews were obliged to yield by the prophecy of Jeremiah, stretches on into chapter 30, eventually spanning centuries, and even millennia beyond the seventy years of the original judgment obligation. It finally culminates in the unparalleled "time of Jacob's trouble." This exquisite passage (Jeremiah 30:3-24), also foretelling the eventual (and final) return of the Jews to their homeland, ends with the words, "in the latter days ye shall consider it (v.24)."
This homeland is also popularly known as the Promised Land. And indeed, the promise rehearsed by Moses to the children of Israel, after their deliverance and departure from the bondage of Egypt, described this land as a land of fig trees (among other amenities): "For the LORD thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey (Deuteronomy 8:7-8)." Then again, upon encountering hardship on their trek for that promised land, the Israelites took up a murmur against Moses, complaining that their harsh wilderness surroundings did not smack at all of such a lush, promised "place of figs:" "Wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil place? it is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink (Numbers 20:5)."
Beside Jeremiah, and reckoned about 200 years more ancient, the prophet Joel (c. 800 BCE), using "fig" symbols, also predicted successive desolations and afflictions of Judah and Jerusalem (even before the first siege and captivity of 586 BCE by the Babylonians, during the time of Jeremiah). In his prophecies about "the great and the terrible day of the LORD,"1 he foretold of the ultimate return in that day from these captivities, confiscations, extortions, and other abuses and oppressions by their captors and enemies. However, prior to the ultimate, permanent restoration of Israel to prosperous dominion in the land of promise — under the reign of Messiah out of Jerusalem — Joel also prophesied of the ravaging of Israel, in the following symbolic terms: "For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion. He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white (Joel 1:6-7)."
Thus, we see that Christ's choice of symbols in the parable of the fig tree would have had great meaning to the Jews who were well versed in the writings of their prophets of old. The summer He referred to would, of course, be the time of fruition for this tree, the time in which Israel would dwell safely in Zion, "every man under his vine and under his fig tree," and under the rulership of Mashiach. Such a time of peaceful prosperity has not been a part of Jewish history since the glorious days of King Solomon (c. 1000 BCE).2
But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains [superseding all other dominions], and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it. And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree [individual proprietary liberty and pursuit of happiness]; and none shall make them afraid [no more voracious imperialists]: for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken it. For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever. In that day, saith the LORD, will I assemble her [children of Israel] that halteth [crippled from assaults and victimization], and I will gather her that is driven out [scattered and exiled], and her that I have afflicted [by numerous chastisements]; and I will make her that halted a remnant [preserved portion], and her that was cast far off a strong nation: and the LORD shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever. And thou, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first [primary or chief] dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem. —Micah 4:1-8
"Summer," we know, alludes to the coming of the Messianic Kingdom with the return of Christ Yeshua to Earth. This is understood by referring back to the wording of the original question Christ was responding to at the outset of the Olivet Discourse: "When shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world (Matthew 24:3)?" The apostle Luke makes this even more obvious in the parallel passage from his Gospel: "And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees; when they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand. So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled (Luke 21:29-32)."
This prophetic summer seems inexorably linked to the restoration of Israel and the return of the Jews to their promised land, according to Psalm 102, verse 16: "When the LORD shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory." Quite remarkably, this is a phenomenon that has seen formal political fulfillment on the world stage only within the last 50 years, with the establishment of Israel as a nation-state on May 14, 1948. Those familiar with Middle Eastern and Jewish history understand the profound significance of this occurrence, since it marks the rebirth of a nation that was scattered and went completely out of existence nearly 19 centuries ago!
In the year 135 CE, the Romans effectively extinguished the state of Israel in the hard fought Bar Kochba revolt of 132 CE, in which nearly 1,000 villages were destroyed and almost 600,000 Jewish insurgents lost their lives, not counting those who died of hunger and disease in the Roman siege. Thereafter, the Romans renamed the provincial region Syria Palaestina. Hadrian, the Roman emperor at that time, established a Roman colony on the site of former Jerusalem, which he converted into a Greco-Roman city under the name Aelia Capitolina, where he erected temples to himself and Jupiter on the very site of the former Jewish temple to Jehovah. Jews were officially barred from entry to Jerusalem and the surrounding district from that time on. For more than 1,800 years since, only minority populations of ethnic Jews inhabited the land known as Palestine, while millions lived in exile scattered across the globe.
In 1947, after the close of the Second World War, Palestine was partitioned by the UN into respective Jewish and Palestinian states, providing an official homeland for the Zionist Jews who longed to emigrate there from Europe, Russia, America and many other lands of the Diaspora. The Zionists, by armed struggle to secure their own sovereignty and after several successful military offensives, captured key territories in early 1948, and on May 14 of that year proclaimed the sovereign State of Israel. In accordance with a decision of the United Nations General Assembly, with the support of the United States and the Soviet Union, the State of Israel was established. By the summer of the following year, they joined the United Nations and were recognized by more than 50 governments.
This Generation Shall Not Pass
This remarkable history of "the fig tree," coupled with the amazing fulfillments of numerous other prophecies given by Christ in His Olivet Discourse of Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21, make for extraordinary evidence that the last generation of secular history is, at this moment, winding down to its expiration deadline. The implication by Messiah in those passages is that the complete realization of the specific set of prophesies He gave related to the advent of the Messianic summer would occur within a single, last generation of mankind. In fact, that particular generation, according to the Mount-of-Olives prophecy, "shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled (Matthew 24:34)." That is, before that particular generation dies out, it shall witness the fulfillment of all those signs, including the coming to Earth of the Son of man in the heavens with power and great glory. Again, it seems important to note that this limited time frame is couched within a passage that appears to link the revival of the "fig tree" — as a major end-time element — to the last-generation scenario.
Other last-generation phenomena (more extensively detailed in previous sections) surrounding the comeback of the proverbial fig tree, include the savage and devastating conflicts of this century of multitudinous wars — civil, international, and world scale — as well as the numerous famines, diseases, and earthquakes around the globe. We have noted that together these have caused immeasurable destitution, staggering casualties, and horrendous loss of life for countless millions in this century alone, with much more yet to come. Hardly overshadowed by these international calamities, local life in this century on the more "micro" scale is also travailing painfully under the modern plagues of domestic forms of rage, hatreds, betrayals, abuses, and conflicts. These have multiplied out of the disastrous disintegration of natural affection between parents and children, wives and husbands, employers and employees, neighbors and friends, community members, and even strangers.3 Road rage, air rage, employee (union/syndicate) rage, gang rage, ethnic and race rage, guerrilla and terrorist rage, political rage, religious rage, and every other form of rage has consumed our societies, and is regularly ravaging all courtesy, respect, decency and peaceful resolution with pervasive, ever-rising levels of violence, evil, and insanity. Meanwhile, mirroring the insanity, the assortments of "enlightened" prophets, gurus, sects, cults, denominations, and political, scientific, economic, as well as religious saviours and "Christs" proliferate like commercial ads on prime-time television.
In the midst of all this, and despite the very troublous times of our 20th century, Israel has been miraculously restored and built up — against towering odds and amidst overwhelming populations of hostile neighbors — to very prosperous and powerful status among the nations of the world. By comparison on world scale, the average household income in Israel exceeds that of the British, the gross national product per capita is almost 80% that of Great Britain, and Israel is rated by the London-based Jane's Intelligence Review as the world's third most powerful military. According to Yeshua's parable, a sure indication that summer is indeed near is that the fig tree has already begun to manifest obvious signs of its return to vitality, and, naturally, of its preparation for bearing its fruit/sweetness. The prophetic "shoe" of verse 16 from Psalm 102 seems quite a good fit on the "foot" of the last 50 years of Zionism.
The metaphor of the fig tree must be carefully considered when applied to the proverbial and highly anticipated, final restoration of the Israel spoken of by the prophets. Isaiah (chapter 62) spoke of it in prophesies about the "acceptable year of the Lord."
A bountiful array of prophesies from the ancient Hebrew texts deal with the restoration and redemption of the Jewish people, even from before the time of their first national desolation, captivity, exile and dispersion from the land of their original statehood in ancient Canaan, now often (and mistakenly) called Palestine. The first desolation was actually a fairly lengthy process of collapse. For 235 years, between 721 and 586 BCE, Israel actually experienced a sort of gradual dissolution, by stages; which included only a few periods of reformation and recovery, confined solely to the southern portion of the kingdom, known by the name of the dominant tribe Judah, which was also last to fall. A look back at history also reveals the occurrence of a second sweeping desolation of Judah by the Romans (beginning in 70 CE, completed in 135) that brought to an end the first recognized restoration of the Jewish nation.
Since the 10th century BCE, after the deaths of its greatest kings, David and son Solomon, the history of the nation of Israel developed into a tragic and tumultuous period of division, rebellions, power struggles, internal conflict, as well as assaults and invasions from external enemies, and eventually complete demise. The once united kingdom of Israel under David and Solomon subsequently split into two: the northern kingdom under the name Israel, and the kingdom of Judah (with Jerusalem as its capital) to the south. By 721 BCE the northern break-away fragment (of Israel) collapsed under the assault of the Assyrian Empire, which deported in captivity the great majority of the northern ten tribes of Israelites, and subsequently transplanted them far and wide throughout their empire, importing other foreign nationals to take their place.4 About 235 years later, the remaining southerly kingdom of Judah also fell, on this occasion to the succeeding empire of Babylon.
This event, in which the people of Judah were now carried away in captivity, enslaved, and slaughtered by the thousands in the siege of Jerusalem, is well established and commonly known, even by secular historians, as the Babylonian Exile of 586 BCE. Occasioned by the conquests of the famous Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, it, more than any other in a series of several blows to Israel's hegemony and political independence in the region, represented the final nail in the coffin of the original state of Israel, particularly predominant Judah (from whence the name "Jew" is derived).
The siege and Exile of 586 BCE actually occurred twenty years after the initial conquest of the region by Babylon. It came as a last resort option for king Nebuchanezzar, who had been provoked by Judah's repeated rebellions against their vassalage to Babylonian domination. It was under defiant Zedekiah, the last of Judah's kings (whose eyes were put out after his capture), that Nebuchadnezzar finally besieged and destroyed the city of Jerusalem. He burned the magnificent temple erected there over 400 years earlier by King Solomon, took the great majority of the population of the kingdom of Judah captive, and deported them to Babylon as slaves (including king Zedekiah—in chains).
Seventy years of servitude to Babylon ended in 536 BCE, under the subsequent hegemony of the Medo-Persians (conquerors of the Babylonians), when Cyrus the Great issued a decree permitting the Jews to return to their homeland to rebuild. All this transpired according to the very word of Jeremiah given in prophecy 11 or 12 years earlier during the reign of Josiah (one of the last kings of Judah): "And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years (Jer. 25:11). . . . For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place (Jer. 29:10)." The emancipation decree of Cyrus marked the beginning of the first return of the Jews to their homeland.
For the next 600 years, Israel existed for the most part as the restored Province of Judah under tribute to the supremacy of foreign powers. First as a satrapy of Persia, then under the Hellenistic dominance of the Grecian Empire, including the later Egyptian (Ptolemaic) and Syrian (Seleucid) rival fragments of Alexander's domain, and finally as a province of the Roman Empire when Israel/"Palestine" was conquered by Pompey in 63 BCE. Though Judah enjoyed some semblance of autonomy in their own land under various of their own governors during this extended period of renewed vitality, in which they also restored their temple from ruin, only about 80 years of that period can be accounted as an era of actual political independence. The Jewish Wars of Independence, beginning in about 167 BCE with the successful Maccabean Revolt, led to a brief period of sovereignty during which the reigning Hasmonean dynasty (also known as the Maccabees) even struck their own coinage. This, of course, all ended with the Roman conquest of 63 BCE. After that time, the rulers of Judah were procuratorial vassals appointed by ultimate authority of the Roman emperors, as in the case of the infamous King Herod (the "Great").
It was during the reign of Herod's son Antipas, whom John the Baptist censured, that Christ was condemned and crucified. And, the Zealot revolt of 66 CE occurred during the reign of his great-grandson Agrippa II, who supported the Roman invasion under Titus, which finally resulted in the destruction of Jerusalem and the reduction of the Temple (that Herod had so grandly remodeled and enlarged) to ashes in the fateful year 70 CE.
Thus, in summary form, is comprised the abbreviated history of Israel's first destruction and desolation, their first restoration, and then their second devastation that effectively extinguished their place among the nations of the world — until only within the recent "days" of this very generation in which Israel has been rebirthed after nearly 2,000 years! An absolutely amazing and highly improbable outcome that could only be as a result of divine intervention. Perhaps other students of history can name a similar case of a nation who was reborn after 19 centuries of extinction. I cannot.
This very generation has witnessed, on an ongoing basis, the fulfillment of the ancient and far-reaching Messianic prophecy of Isaiah written more than 700 years before Christ (implying a second desolation and restoration 100 years even before Israel's first desolation):
"And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea [the numerous lands of scatteration of the "Wandering Jew," including the distant, New World "isles of the sea," such as South and North America]. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations [as the (often-desecrated) blue and white flag of Israel], and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth." —Isa.11:11-12
Even as we speak, immigrants of Israeli ancestry and Jews from all over the world continue to arrive on the shores of their ancient national homeland in the newly restored State of Israel under the banner of the Star of David on a daily basis.
Since the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, 2,762,328 Jewish immigrants from around the world have been absorbed into this little country about the size of New Jersey, and half the size of Holland. Just for reference, prior to 1995, the breakdown of the origins of the "olim" by country is roughly as follows: about 33% of the olim had come from the FSU (Former Soviet Union); 14% from Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia; 11% from Romania; almost 8.5% from Iraq and Iran combined; 7% from Poland; 3% from the USA; 2.5% from Turkey; 2% from Yemen; nearly another 2% from Ethiopia, followed closely by Argentina with 1.8%; the remaining 15% of the total, about 374,000 originated in a wide variety of other countries-namely, Bulgaria, Egypt and Sudan, Libya, France, Hungary, India, the UK, Czechoslovakia, Germany, South Africa, Yugoslavia and Syria (in descending order of percentages). Since 1995 to the present and following the trend of post-USSR immigration, the ratio of olim coming from the FSU, as opposed to other countries, is more than 8 out of 10.5
This year alone, through September 1999, a total of 48,809 immigrants (or, "olim" as they're known in Israel) have made their "aliyah" to Israel (meaning their "going up"). That's an average of 184 olim a day, with roughly 85% of them coming from the Former Soviet Union. In the last 10 years, since the doors to the massive aliyah from the one-time Soviet Republics of the FSU were flung open at the collapse of the USSR in 1989, nearly a million Jews have emigrated from the FSU to the land of the "fig tree."6
This "putting forth of leaves" by the fig tree is nothing less than an obvious sign that summer is near. And though the summer has not yet come, yet the days of that grand event are surely upon us, according to the prophets. Jeremiah (2,600 years ago) spoke of the same metaphorical putting forth of leaves in anticipation of the Righteous Age of the Summer of Messiah. He first clearly identified the age to which he made future reference: "Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch [son of David], and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth [Millennial reign of MESSIAH, obviously unfulfilled as yet]. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely [at last, the ultimate destiny of the chosen people]: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS (Jer.23:5-6)." And how do we know this summer is near?...
Jeremiah goes on to say, "Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that they shall no more say, The LORD liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt [exodus in days of Moses]; but, The LORD liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land (Jer.23:7-8)."
This specific gathering and restoration is not a reference to the first restoration, outlined in preceding paragraphs, which occurred by return out of the easterly oriented kingdom of Babylon; rather, this exodus speaks of a second regathering from a global scatteration, and particularly from the north—which is exactly what we have seen in our day. The great majority of Zionist resettlers of modern day Israel have come from Russia and Eastern/Central Europe to the north. In fact, the first prime minister of modern Israel, David Ben-Gurion (1948-53, 1955-63), was a native of Poland under the Russian Empire; and, the "father" of political Zionism, Theodor Herzl, founder and first president of the World Zionist Organization (1897), was a native of Hungary. In view of all this then, it is evident that this second time the children of Jacob are being gathered constitutes the Spring-time days of the approaching, and long-awaited prophetic Summer.
The modern, end-time restoration of Israel which we have been witnessing in our lifetime is the precursor to the full and ultimate establishment of Israel as the ruling power of Earth, with Jerusalem as the capital and Yeshua Ha'Mashiach as King. But, as repeatedly stressed by this author, the end is not yet. As evidenced in earlier chapters of this book, the rising swell of anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic sympathies throughout the world parallels the prenatal conditions of travail that beset a pregnant woman before giving birth. For though the sudden, contemporary reemergence of Israel in our time signals the day of her magnificent salvation and incontestable authority over the nations of the world, yet in keeping with the parable of the pregnant woman in travail, there must come a severe — albeit brief — period of affliction before the Birth of the Kingdom of God on Earth.
Isaiah, speaking of the uncommon set of circumstances surrounding the sudden coming(s) of Messiah and the swift establishment of His Kingdom (of Israel), put it this way: "Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children. Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? saith the LORD: shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb? saith thy God (Isa. 66:8-9)." Indeed, the whole regathering and birthing phenomenon is relatively sudden and, for all practical matters, an unexpected marvel (except by those who are familiar with the words of the Hebrew prophets). Yet the process is not complete, until the final fruit is born; and that will not come without tribulation. Unusual as the process may seem, Zion, both as a fig tree and as the beloved (pregnant) bride, shall inexorably bring forth her ultimate fruit—but not before the accompanying, inevitable travail.
| As a parenthetical note on this passage of prophecy quoted above
from Isaiah chapter 66 regarding the coming kingdom of Zion under Messiah,
a look at the immediately preceding verse in this passage reveals a strange
concept of considerable interest: "Before she
travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered
of a man child." (Isa. 66:7) In verses 8 & 9 above,
Isaiah infers an odd and bizarre aspect about Israel's birthing
process...
The strangeness in the whole passage, highlighted in this verse (7), is that Zion was to bear a proverbial "man child" before all of the travail which leads up to the birth of His Kingdom on Earth. In this last chapter of the Book of Isaiah, focusing on the coming of Messiah and the ultimate State of Israel, he also alludes to misguided temple-building, and offering of sacrifices, implying a seriously erring religion catering to self-serving agendas; all of which subsequently results in the future division of the self-willed from their submitted, believing brethren, whom they then self-righteously hate and persecute. If only (as this author surmises) the "Orthodox" could have unassumingly accepted that the humble King of the Jews had already been born in exemplary meekness, perhaps their centuries of travail since might have been averted, while they rather coveted power and glory first. Adopting a matching attitude of Messianic meekness and brokenheartedness would surely have led to a better grasp of Isaiah's earlier alert to the "acceptable year of the Lord." (Isa. 61:1-3) Many of us are awakening to this understanding.7 |
As Christ and so many of the prophets before Him (as well as following) taught, serious travail, affliction, persecution, and great tribulation shall befall the people of God before their deliverance is accomplished. Even now, those who are not drunk on the wine of the spiritual fornication of Babylon the Great see the telltale clouds of warning gathering on the horizon. Thanks to the modern mediums of communication and diligent journalistic and intelligence sources, information is publicly available that Russia, China, and other anti-Western states are very actively engaged in arming the hostile neighbors of Israel to the eyeballs with the latest high-tech weaponry; included are weapons of mass destruction, both nuclear as well as chemical and biological, and the long-range missile batteries necessary to deliver them (in formidable barrages). Even the USA, in trying to play both ends against the middle for the sake of its own selfish interests in the Middle East (primarily oil), has played a huge part in inadvertently arming Israel's enemies, not the least of which is peace-cloaked Egypt. At this very time, Israel is almost completely surround by heavily armed adversaries who are ardently antagonistic to its very existence. Travail, and much more yet to come, is, unfortunately, the order of the day — not peace.
It is with strained difficulty that anyone could deny that the "beginning of sorrows" foretold by Christ has commenced. Increased terrorism, for example, translates perfectly into figurative birth pangs, of increasing intensity and frequency. Taking into account the most recent suicide bombings in Jerusalem of July 30 and September 4, 1997, more Israeli citizens have been killed since 1993 than died from such attacks in all the years prior, dating back to 1948.8 The consequent breakdown of the Israeli-Palestinian "peace process" is no doubt the outcome of a deliberate strategy to systematically isolate thoroughly and seek utter eradication of Israel by a forced confrontation, which, it is hoped, would lead to its defeat. The terror attacks figure, if not as unofficial declarations of war, then certainly as provocations of it.
Heavily bolstered now by the recent massive infusion of fresh tactical and hardware support from Russia and China, International Intelligence Briefing commentator Cliff Ford surmises that the Arab and Islamic foes in the region believe they have "effectively neutralized Israel's nuclear deterrent." That is to say, they now believe their combined military readiness to be sufficient to overwhelm the defensive capabilities of the Jewish state, even were Israel to consider a nuclear option — which formerly kept full scale aggression at bay. The new strategic layout promises, and almost guarantees the outbreak of war, which Ford predicts may occur as soon as 1998.9 Thus we see that the noise of "wars and rumors of wars" continues to build more loudly than ever to a very alarming crescendo.10
Turkey, Israel's key and sole military ally in the region, is under pressure both from within and without to dump its alliance with Israel. A groundswell of ever more belligerent, popular fundamentalist Islamic forces — shown via video camera toting placards condemning western-style regimes in Turkey with the slogan "To HELL With Your Democratic Mentality"11 — threaten the stability of this unlikely ally with a political upheaval that would leave Israel completely cut off from anything but remote (and steadily waning) allies, such as the USA. The pressure, of course, is for Turkey to realign itself with its Eastern and Muslim roots. A strong swing in that direction was displayed recently with the 1996 election of Islamic fundamentalist Necmitten Urbakhan to the presidency, advocating a public policy of Islamization of the nation. Urbakhan only lately resigned on June 18, 1997, after barely a year in office, under pressure from the Turkish military, who feared his fundamentalist push away from a modern secular state.
News analyst and commentator Cliff Ford notes also that the strength of the uprising has gathered such momentum that "the Turkish military has been making preparations to meet an Algerian style insurgency" (with uncertainty about whether it can be contained).12 Some idea of the strength of the radical Algerian Muslim insurgency can be gleaned even from the past nine months of repeated bombings, raids and massacres by Islamic guerrillas. Daily television news broadcasts over that period have covered at least six bloody terror bombings and two vicious massacres of villagers, which combined have killed 600 people. The massacres have involved slashing, burning, stabbing, and shooting of victims, after which in one instance their homes were subsequently looted. According to a CBS Evening News report of August 29, 1997, more than 60,000 have been killed in Algeria since the Algerian government cancelled the 1992 general elections in an effort to nullify what had already shaped up as certain victory for the Islamic Salvation Front, with radical Muslim candidates in the lead.
Again, International Intelligence Briefing's Cliff Ford proposes that, from outside, Russia is simultaneously seeking to strategically squeeze Turkey through a knot hole to compel it to shed its mutual defense pact with Israel by committing to arm its long-standing rival over Cyprus. This arms deal is in the form of a sale of "a number of Russian S-300 (anti-aircraft) missiles" to its traditional enemy, Greece (as also recently reported in Turkish newspapers), under the guise of supposedly seeking to adjust the military imbalance that exists between the two countries. Ford also points out that the former prime minister of Turkey, Tansu Ciller, in a public announcement, threatened war with Russia, if it delivered the missiles to Greece.13 As noted in an earlier chapter, the only thing louder and more frequently noised than the relentless drum-beats of war is the fanciful talk of peace.
Notably, the major focus of all this peace and war talk centers on Israel and Jerusalem and the "controversy of Zion."14 Unfortunately, the overwhelming testimony of the Hebrew scriptures is that the Spring season just before Zion's Summer is not to be without its tempestuous tribulations and stormy assaults; a season when Jerusalem will once again be trodden down of the Gentiles (Luke 21:24 & Revelation 11:2), the land of Israel "parted" in extorted land-for-peace deals, and the Jews betrayed and sold out for gain as they are once again partially scattered for a very brief period (Joel 3:1-3).15 The concise book of the prophet Joel, in its three-chapter preview (28 centuries ago) of the great "day of the Lord," raises the end-time trumpet of alarm and attests that the fig tree shall be stripped of its bark and languish near death before reaching the zenith of its restoration at the climax of world history.
The only salvation for Israel, and the conclusive halt to the ravaging and dividing of the spoils of Zion (to occur yet once again), will be direct intervention by the Almighty God Himself, as Zechariah foretells:
Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. . . . And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one. All the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem: and it shall be lifted up, and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin's gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananeel unto the king's winepresses. And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction; but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited. —Zechariah 14:1-3 & 9-11
Not until the actual arrival and presiding of Messiah in Jerusalem will true peace and safety be absolutely established and permanently assured.
This time to which Zechariah refers is the very same time of the awesome appearing of the LORD which Joel writes of — the days when Messiah returns to cleanse Jerusalem of its vile usurpers (as well as its pretentious claimants invoking mere fleshly Judaic covenants, with no spiritual authenticity)16 and to finally dwell there:
The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel. So shall ye know that I am the LORD your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more. . . . But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation. For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: for the LORD dwelleth in Zion.—Joel 3:16-17 & 20-21
Isaiah too insists that a precursory purging must be accomplished, including a separation of the sheep from the goats:
In that day shall the branch of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel [i.e., its anti-God rebellion and wickedness, detailed in the first three chapters of Isaiah's book]. And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem: When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.—Isaiah 4:2-4
Ezekiel likewise testifies to a prerequisite cleansing:
So the house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God from that day and forward. And the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity: because they trespassed against me, therefore hid I my face from them, and gave them into the hand of their enemies: so fell they all by the sword. According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions have I done unto them, and hid my face from them. Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name; after that they have borne their shame, and all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against me, when they dwelt safely in their land, and none made them afraid. When I have brought them again from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies' lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations; then shall they know that I am the LORD their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there. Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.—Ezekiel 39:22-29
God's Name in the Center of the World
Regardless of what you, or I, or anyone may opinion about God's choices, Israel is the center of the Earth, according to The Prophets. Everything revolves around Jerusalem and the land of Israel, where YHWH has chosen to place His Name.17 This includes particularly the future historical developments on this planet, in accordance with the very sure words of prophecy, as they pertain to the New World Order of Zion. For it is not the New World Order of George Bush, Mikail Gorbachev, the United Nations, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, the Bilderbergers, the Rockefellers, the Lucis Trust, the Round Table Groups, or of the coming Mahdi (the Twelfth Imam) that shall inherit and rule the world; but the Supreme Order of Melchizedec, the King of Right, the King of Jerusalem, the King of Peace, the King of the Jews, the Lamb of God, the Faithful and True Witness shall surely rule! At least, whether you choose to believe them or not, the unfailing Hebrew prophets tell us so.
And the greatest prophet of all, the Martyred Son of God signed, sealed and certified the testimony of those ancient prophets as His own. For as the Lamb declared to John in the Apocalypse, the spirit of prophecy — knowledge of truth, true knowledge, and revelation of the future — is "the testimony of Yeshua Ha'Mashiach."18 As the Prophets preached the Kingdom of God on Earth, so did Mashiach; and that He did with specificity about the "acceptable year" of that Summer of the Fig Tree, as we shall study more in the next chapter.
One of the tiniest nations on Earth has, in less than 50 years of its existence in the modern world, come to be the biggest pebble in the shoe of the World that anyone might have ever imagined. Just we can hardly walk a city block without stopping to untie our shoe to clear out the annoyance of even the tiniest bit of gravel or sand, not a day goes by that the concern over that minute piece of real estate in the Middle East does not rumble troublously across the airwaves of our daily news broadcasts. And we are on the other side of globe from it, not in Europe, Asia, or Africa where the pebble is a huge stumbling stone. Not surprisingly, this is just as the Zechariah, by the spirit of prophecy predicted so precisely almost 2,500 years ago:
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. . . . In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the LORD before them. And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. —Zechariah 12:3-10
Even now this envious preordained rally against the People and the Place of The Book is no longer an amorphous, scattered, or isolated phenomenon, but more and more unified and coherent, which we discussed in greater detail in chapter 11. As various other authors and scholars have so rightly pointed out, Israel is indeed God's timepiece in the chronology of eschatology (the study of the ultimate destiny of mankind). As we see the Fig Tree putting forth leaves, we know that Summer is presently imminent. And when the other nations of the world attack and batter that tree, leaving it barked and languishing near death, the Lamb will rise up as the Lion of the tribe of Judah to defend it.
Don't be distracted by the latest manic developments of the stock market, either on Wall Street, London, Tokyo, or Hong Kong, with all their bull market euphorias and Black Monday depressions. Babylon the Great will most definitely crash and burn, "to be found more at all!"19 But Jerusalem will be forever — the city of the Great King over the World Order of Zion! This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled!
Thus saith the Lord GOD; When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the heathen [highly honored, not regarded as anathema and a curse word], then shall they dwell in their land that I have given to my servant Jacob. And they shall dwell safely therein [not under threat of katyusha rockets, Scud missiles, the Hizbollah, Hamas, Syria, Iran, Sadam Hussein, or the PLO], and shall build houses, and plant vineyards; yea, they shall dwell with confidence [not with gas masks beside their beds], when I have executed judgments upon all those that despise them round about them; and they shall know that I am the LORD their God. —Ezekiel 28:25-26For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up. And I will give them an heart to know me [at last!], that I [guess Who] am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart. —Jeremiah 24:6-7
And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me. Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul [only atheists and agnostics can fail to grasp the inexorable power of that pledge!]. For thus saith the LORD; Like as I have brought all this great evil [desolations, holocausts, and unceasing persecutions] upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised them. —Jeremiah 32:40-42
In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old [total grand scale restoration]... —Amos 9:11 [Though this most assuredly refers to "the city of David" and the house of LORD David intended to build and Solomon completed, it probably should be applied just as appropriately to David himself, his own flesh body (idiomatically referred to as a tabernacle) and his Messiah-, or Christ-, centered kingdom under the KING of kings, just as it was in his day, even before the Temple was actually built. One thing for certain is that David will literally resurrect to rule in Israel — see Ezekiel 34:23-24, 37:24-27, and Hosea 3:4-5.]
And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities [after Armageddon and the seven last plagues — see my chapter 12], and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God. —Amos 9:14-15
And when this cometh to pass, (lo, it will come,) then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them. —Ezekiel 33:33 |
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Chapter 13 Footnotes — "Figs and Generation Finále"
1 the great and the terrible day of the LORD, according to Joel
Joel 1:15 Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.
Joel 2:1-2 & 10-11 Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand; a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. . . .The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining: And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?
Joel 2:31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.
Joel 3:14-17 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel. So shall ye know that I am the LORD your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers [heathen] pass through her any more.Back To Text
2 ...life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness
I Kings 4:25 And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.
3 "Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold."—Jesus, Matthew 24:12
2 Timothy 3:1-5 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
4 customs of Assyrian conquests
As affirmed by Henry H. Halley, it is commonly understood among historians that "Assyrian policy was to deport conquered peoples to other lands, to destroy their sense of nationalism and make them more easily subject." (Halley's Bible Handbook [Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1965], p. 209)
Percentages calculated from statistics provided courtesy of the AICE (American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise) website, www.us-israel.org (Source of figures: the Jerusalem Report)
Statistics courtesy of the Jewish Agency for Israel website, www.jazo.org.il (Source of figures: The Central Bureau of Statistics and The Ministry of Immigrant Absorption)
Zechariah 9:9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.
8 recent news reports on Israel's travail
Taken from report by Cliff Ford & Hal Lindsay, "Special Report—Prelude to Apocalypse," International Intelligence Briefing, September 25, 1997, broadcast by TBN, Atlanta
9
Ibid.
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Mark 13:7-8 And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
11 "these shall hate the Whore" (see Revelation 17:16-17)
Video news clip, "Special Report—Prelude to Apocalypse," shown on International Intelligence Briefing, September 25, 1997, broadcast by TBN, Atlanta
12
Ibid.
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13
Ibid.
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14 tiny nation, huge controversy
Isaiah 34:8 For it is the day of the LORD's vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion.
Joel 3:1-3 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. And they have cast lots for my people; and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.
16 your genetics cannot save you
John 8:31-47 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. I know that ye are Abraham's seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you. I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham. Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me? He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.
John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh [gene pool] profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
Numbers 6:27 And [the priests] shall put my name upon the children of Israel; and I will bless them.
Deuteronomy 12:5 But unto the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come:
I Kings 11:36 And unto his son [Solomon] will I give one tribe, that David my servant may have a light alway before me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen me to put my name there.
Revelation 1:2 [John] bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.
Revelation 1:9 I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos [exiled into isolation, after attempt to execute him by boiling in oil was unsuccessful], for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Revelation 12:17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Revelation 19:10 And I fell at [the angel's] feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
Revelation 18:14, 21-24 And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all. . . . And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all. And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee; and the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived. And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.
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