PROPHETIC TREND UPDATES
Part 2 ARE YOU WATCHING THE END TIMES UNFOLD LIVE ON THE NEWS? Iran-Israel War and 5 Key Chapters of Prophecy Secondly, and the second passage in the Bible is Zechariah 12 and how it explains Ezekiel. I call this the Jerusalem convergence. And what does the Bible say if we were to take every passage in the Bible that talks about the future Iran, Israel, and the end times, what would it look like? Well, this is what Zachariah says that's illustrated in Ezekiel. And we start with this verse. This is God speaking. I, the God of the universe, the omnipotent, omniscience God of creation, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit says this, "I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all people." Zechariah 12:3. Now, despite no major rivers going by it, no oil around it, no anything but difficult terrain. By the way, when Zechariah wrote those words, he was looking at Jerusalem that was burned rubble and rocks because it was still destroyed from the Babylonian conquest. And the people were just coming back from the post exile under Zerubbabel returning to build rebuild the temple and there was nothing there. And what did God tell Zechariah? The whole world is going to tremble for what goes on in this spot. And Zechariah as he was writing the Bible was probably wonder how that's going to happen. See, Peter tells us the prophets search what manner of time Christ was speaking when he testified beforehand what was going to happen, the suffering of Christ and the glory that was going to follow. I mean, Zechariah and all the other prophets, they just were faithfully writing it down in the Bible. But Jerusalem, God said, is going to be a heavy stone. Who's the modern antagonist? Well, look what the prophecy of Ezekiel 38 says. Persia. Persia is Iran. The modern reality is the Iranian leadership has explicitly declared their intent to liberate Jerusalem by annihilating the Jewish state. And you remember their mantra from the river to the sea. They don't want any Jews anywhere there. They just want to get rid of the Jewish people and the Jewish nation. Now, what does Zechariah and Ezekiel explain for us? Well, the Babylonians. The Babylonians exile the children of Israel. They return under the Persians. Then the Greeks come, then the Romans come. You know, the Persians take the Babylonians place. The Greeks defeat the Persians. The Romans defeat the Greeks. Then we go into the decline and fall. The Roman Empire breaks into pieces. And so the Ottoman Turks, remember the Ottoman Turks are part of the old Roman Empire. The geographic area of Turkey was the center of the Roman Empire and it was invaded by Asian people that became the Ottoman Turks, the Turk people, but they ruled the Holy Land. And World War I, the British mandate started when the allies defeated the Germans and the Ottoman Turks were on the German side and so they lost and so the British mandate took over. But look what happens in 1948 the state of Israel is established. So for 2600 years there was no Jewish sovereignty and then when Ezekiel prophesied there was going to be a (res). As God commands Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones, they come together, and flesh and skin cover them, but there is no breath in them initially. God then instructs Ezekiel to call upon the breath (or spirit), which enters the bodies, bringing them to life. This act symbolizes not only physical resurrection but also spiritual renewal and restoration for the nation of Israel. See, when Ezekiel prophesied that Israel was in under Babylonian captivity, and they never were free other than brief rebellions until 1948, so 2600 years of of no sovereignty, but God says they're going to be a restored nation. And when Ezekiel prophesied that, it was just a blacken pile of rubble. And for 2,000 years, it was nothing. But what happened? Well, look at this verse. I will open your graves and cause you to come up and bring you into the land of Israel. 1945, the graves of the Holocaust. 1948, the resurrection of statehood. 1967, the capital becomes Jerusalem, as the scriptures say. Ezekiel doesn't stop there. He says the desolate land is going to be tilled and become like the Garden of Eden. Ezekiel 36. Do you remember when Mark Twain visited the Holy Land? He said it was a desolate, God-forsaken swamp. Today it's one of the Europe's main fruit and flower suppliers. But the coalition of the north, what does it say in Ezekiel 38:2-5? Mog, Russia in the remote north, Persia, that's Iran, and Kush and Putut, that's the northern African partners are going to march militarily on Israel. Now, this is the question. When is this? Is this Armageddon or is this another thing? Well, look what Ezekiel 38 says. The war, the Gog and Magog is followed by seven months of burial and cleanup and then there's the tribulation period and then Armageddon. See, the logic is Armageddon ends with Jesus immediate reign. There's no time for a seven-year cleanup. Therefore, Ezekiel 38 must be a distinct precursor. Now that is exciting to think about because everything that Ezekiel says has to be present is present. A united one nation not divided Israel secure dwelling in safety that was fulfilled partially by the IDF that has you know defeated the whole Arab onslaught since 1948. Iron Dome has done very well until this 25-day war and we're seeing a lot of missiles falling and those cluster bombs coming down, but they're still pretty secure. I mean, they do have submarines with nuclear missiles on them that if it gets close to them they do have what they call the Samson protocol that if it looks like Israel is going to be overwhelmed, they are going to hit the capitals. And Tehran is one capital and Damascus is another. And I don't know which other ones they've picked, but they are going to use their nuclear weapons according to their war doctrine. They're prosperous. Did you read in Bloomberg and New York Times has said that the current 24-day war has prompted 80 billion dollars of orders to Israel for their armament industry. They have very advanced high-tech, you know, weaponry and the world is buying it. Even the Gulf nations are buying it because it works so well. And they're hated. They're the focus of all those UN resolutions and global animosity. What happens in the Ezekiel 38 war? I will execute judgment on him with plagues and blood, shed, fire, and sulfur. It's a supernatural intervention. It's not America. See, that's you. You want to know why it's important that you do a little study like this? In here, I talk about the fact of America just seems to be absent or swallowed up into Europe in the final days. And right now, we're seeing America 9,000 missions, you know, bombing runs on Iran. But something happens because in Ezekiel 38, it's not America that that rescues Israel. Israel is marched on by all Iran and all these forces and God in this mathematically impossible victory liberates them from destruction so the nations may know I'm the Lord. What's my opinion? If we were in class, if you were in the next four weeks of me teaching Revelation and the students raised their hand and asked questions, if you ask what do I think is going to happen, I think that's America's going to fade out somehow. Right now, Nebraska, what almost a million acres of Nebraska, maybe 800,000 acres have burned in the last three weeks. the cows and the the farmland and it's April. There fires all over the place. America is in a drought and we're we're suffering. The Ogala Aqua Fire is dropping. The aquifier in the central valley of California is dropping. It's dropped 18 feet. The land is sinking. We cannot keep pumping out agriculturally water spraying everywhere and feeding the world. The whole world is going through convulsions and we have this $38 trillion debt that if we go up at all on that America's currency goes to nothing. We won't be able to spend you know every flattop aircraft carrier every one of them cost a billion dollars a month to operator. We have 12 of them. That's 12 billion a month. That's 140 billion of our budget just to keep and project that navy out there. So, I think something's going to happen. And then God's going to supernaturally intervene. You say, "And is that the end?" No, that's the beginning. That's when Israel in order to survive because they almost get wiped out and God saves them at the last bit. God is going to allow Satan's Anti-christ to come and make a covenant. And I don't want to get ahead of myself, but what did Jesus say? Remember Jesus. I love Jesus and prophecy because he always comes back to the reality of what prophecy is for. Jesus said, "But stay awake at all times." I'm reading Luke 21:36. Stay awake at all times praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place and to and before the Son of Man. What does Jesus say? What are his two applications? Watch and pray. Keep your antenna up. Be aware of the convergence. Understand the fragility of the world order. But pray. There's a word. There are seven different Greek words for pray in the New Testament. This is one of them. Deomai. It means to beg, to plead. And what it is my prayers. And this is how my prayers are. I'm praying, Lord, how do you want me to be involved? How do I fulfill your purpose for my life in my generation? That's what you should be praying. That's what you should start your day with. By Thomas Coffee