I will remove far off from you the northern army, and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his rear part toward the western sea. – Joel 2:20
I actually decided on the title for this week’s article last Friday afternoon, before the incident with the Iranian drone and the shooting down of the Israeli Air force jet in the early hours of Saturday morning. Our apartment on Mt. Carmel is only a few kilometers from the Meggido Valley (Armageddon) where the Israeli Air Force’s northern base is located, and Josie heard the air force jets flying at about 5.30 am. We knew that if the air force is flying on the Sabbath, something was happening, but we didn’t know the details until a friend sent us a SMS message a couple of hours later and we immediately turned the news on. Incoming missile alerts were coming every few minutes, even in the town of Acco just 20 kms from where we live. On realising the seriousness of the situation, and the possibility of the incident escalating into a full blown conflict with Syria, Lebanon and even Iran, I sent out a prayer request on Facebook, WhatsApp and Weechat and the response was wonderful. With in a few hours the situation de-escalated and the northern border has been quiet since Saturday morning.
Hours before the above incident began I had typed the title into the email to remind me what I was going to write about this week. The decision to write about this subject was prompted by reports I had received over the last 2 weeks about what was going on at the northern border with Hezbollah in Lebanon and ISIS and other terror groups operating very close to Israel’s border with Syria, and what has been happening in with the Hamas terror organistation in Gaza. All of these terror groups are funded and supplied by Iran. We have been hearing for some time now that Iran is constructing a number of military bases and missile storage production factories inside Lebanon and Syria. Israel’s PM Netanyahu has publicly stated on many occasions that these enemy bases and factories are something that Israel will not tolerate and the Israeli Air Force has bombed areas where intelligence indicated that these installations are being established.
There is no doubt that rogue Islamic Iran is behind much of the current terror attacks, and future plans for attacks against Israel, and surely the Israel hating Iranian religious leadership is becoming more incensed against Israel every time that Iranian interests in Lebanon and Syria are damaged or destroyed when Israel retaliates. The other reason behind this week’s title is that President Trump’s decision to acknowledge Jerusalem as Israel’s capital city, and the fact that the USA will move its embassy back to Jerusalem, must have poured even more fuel on the fire of Iranian hatred of Israel. Iran and its proxies must be getting desperate to destroy the State of Israel.
Since the drone incident on Saturday morning, the situation on the northern border has been quiet, however the Israeli military remains on high alert and has moved extra units to the north in readiness to respond to another attempt by Iran to penetrate Israel’s defenses. Many military and political commentators are saying that a serious war conflict between Israel and Iran is not a matter of if, but when and unfortunately I have to agree with that assessment. I say unfortunately because that is not an eventuality that we want to even consider – such a horror happening in the place we where live, where our children and our grandchildren live, and the place where the LORD has led us to invest our lives into for the last 25 years.
To make matters worse the corruption case against PM Netanyahu is about to be decided. If the police decide to indite him, his position as Prime Minister will be in jeopardy. The last thing the country needs is right now is that kind of political turmoil at a time when the government must be focused on dealing with the nation’s security in the face of the Iranian/ Syrian / Hezbollah threat.
I have written this week’s article in the hope that many of our readers and ministry partners will comprehend the seriousness of the situation facing the nation and the people of Israel, which will dramatically increase your prayer for Israel. The opening verse is a good one to pray and also Psalm 83. There are many other verses in the Bible that you can pray and the Holy Spirit can lead you how best to pray if you ask Him. Your prayers for Israel, now and until the Lord returns are extremely important, and every prayer you pray will be heard by the LORD and will make a difference.
This article originally appeared on Out of Zion Ministries, February 16, 2018, and reposted with permission.