Mid-East War, Damascus & Israel

It appears that after months of rockets being fired by Muslims in Gaza, and rockets "accidentally" being fired into norther Israel from spillover from the Syrian revolution, that Israel decided that is enough attacks on their citizens.  So the war is under full sway. 

I was looking on Fox news, and they have a report that says Israel is "on the Brink" of war.  This is full-out Muslim jihad, and unlike Christianity, where Christians love and leave the vengenance to God (Rom. 12:19), Muslims rage and immediately set about taking vengenance, in the name of Allah, the ancient moon god (Al-ilah) of Arabia.

I know it is generally not good method to simply start reading from where you open the Bible, but this past week or so, the LORD seems to be directing me to open in passages He wants me to read (Amos 3:7).  A couple of days ago, I opened to Isaiah 17, and was reviewing again the prophetic passage speaking of the destruction of Damascus.  But applying the same context to the entire passage, it goes on to speak of Israel taking a hit in that war:

Isaiah 17:4-6

⁴ Now in that day the glory of Jacob will fade, And the fatness of his flesh will become lean. ⁵ It will be even like the reaper gathering the standing grain, As his arm harvests the ears, Or it will be like one gleaning ears of grain In the valley of Rephaim. ⁶ Yet gleanings will be left in it like the shaking of an olive tree, Two or three olives on the topmost bough, Four or five on the branches of a fruitful tree, Declares the LORD, the God of Israel.

 

Israel will indeed come out victorious in the Middle East (Is. 17:14).  Damascus will be annihilated.  It looks like we are getting ready to witness some of the most destructive wars in history.  Israel is going to come out victorious, according to the word of Yahweh, but they will suffer from the war.  But one of the results of this war in Adonai's plan is that Israel's eyes will be turned back to Him, their maker, because at present most Jews are secular and don't believe in the God of the Bible.  But like the old addage rightly says, "there are no atheists in a fox-hole".  And so as the war intensifies and engulfes the Middle-East, the elect (both Jews and Gentiles) will turn to their maker, because Messiah Yeshua has made us into one new man in Messiah. 

Ephesians 2:15 ¹⁵ by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace,

God will do this because the seventieth shabua (or 'seven') predicted by the prophet Daniel, is about to begin, where God will resume his working with the Jews, and Messiah will apppear at the end of the 7 year shabua, of which will also end the 7 year peace treaty (Dan. 9:24,27).

Assuming the pre-trib rapture theory is correct, the rapture of the true Church is very near.  But most of the Jews will still remain deceived about the identity of Messiah until the end of the 7 years, when 2/3 of the Jews will have died (Zech. 13:8,9), but the remaining Jews in Israel will be saved as the Calvinistic Apsotle Paul taught in Romans 11:
Romans 11:25-27 ²⁵ For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery-- so that you will not be wise in your own estimation-- that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; ²⁶ and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, "THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB." ²⁷ "THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM, WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS."

God is working out His plan of redemption.  Last night at a Bible study on Romans, the pastor gave a quote I really liked by Warren Wiersbe to help people understand election: "God is holy and must punish sin; but God is loving and desires to save sinners.  If everybody is saved, it would deny His holiness; but if everybody is lost,it would deny His love.  The solution to the problem is God's sovereign election.