Global SITREP A10-24: The End of HAMAS and The War in the North Part V

The Theater of Prophetic War

UPDATED 30 May 2024: Eschatology Today may be the first to note that the current war launched against Israel by the Islamic jihadists of HAMAS in Gaza on October 7, 2023, and then joined by the Islamic jihadists in Lebanon, Iraq, Iran and Yemen has fully transitioned from a war of localized tactical engagements to a war of theater-wide strategic engagements. This transition brings us to the doorstep of the over-arching prophetic scenario discussed here for more than the past decade. The deployment and use of strategic strike weapons such as 1,000 miles plus drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles is the defining character of the strategic change to this war. As such great and fearful changes lie ahead as detailed by the inspired prophets of ancient Israel.

UPDATE 03 June 2024: Fires in northern Israel today started by Hezbollah rockets and incendiary drone attacks. 

Most of us will recall that incendiaries were sent over the border from Gaza into Israel prior to HAMAS' invasion and massacre of Israelis on October 7, 2023. Those incendiary devices sparked dozens of fires in southern Israel. 

How long will Israel wait before the Hezbollah menace is neutralized? The IDF is well aware that Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies have been practicing repeating what HAMAS did, but this time in northern Israel. The clock is ticking.

Marana'tha!

Global SITREP E1-19: Conflict in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea

TOP Image: Greek and Internationally recognized East Med EEZs
Bottom Image: Turkish unilaterally imposed East Med EEZs

UPDATE 28 December 2019: As noted in the last paragraph of theoriginal 3 December posting, there are significant issues to be addressed and they grow more critical day by day. 

On the front lines in the outskirts of Tripoli there are Turkish soldiers (supporting the GNA) in urban combat against Russian mercenaries of the ChVK Wagner Group (supporting the LNA). The Russians are the spearhead of the LNA offensive. 

The fighting has escalated in Tripoli and Misrata with the news that new deployments of Turkish Army troops, Turkomen militia from northwestern Syria, and ships of the Turkish Navy are enroute to join the battle. There they will oppose the Haftar-led LNA that has been buttressed by more Russian mercenaries, counter-drone technology, Egyptian armor and UAE UCAV aircraft. The Turkish military deployments are in response to the slow but steady advance of LNA forces westward. 

20 December 2019: Egyptian Navy has conducted exercises in the Mediterranean Sea that include submarine-launched Harpoon cruise missiles. The exercises simulate naval warfare against the Turkish Navy.

Egypt has also deployed T-72 tanks to Haftar's LNA Army for their offensive to liberate Tripoli and Sirte from GNA militias. The LNA has given a 72-hour ultimatum for the militias to withdraw from both cities. 

8 December 2019: On the sidelines of the NATO Summit in London last week, direct talks between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Greek President Kyriakos Mitsotakis failed to find a resolution to the Eastern Mediterranean Sea exclusive economic zone (EEZ) crisis. No great surprise here, as the Greeks have noted to the international community, there isn't a neighboring country on any Turkish border that is not in a bilateral conflict with Turkey. 

By way of publication in the Turkish Government's Official Gazette and ratification by the Turkish Parliament, the Istanbul Accord, a maritime exclusive economic zone agreement between Turkey and Libya's internationally recognized GNA government in Tripoli, Libya went into effect yesterday to divide the Eastern Mediterranean Sea between them. Erdogan also announced yesterday that accord has been delivered to the United Nations by Turkey.

Greece, which views the Accord as a violation of its sovereign rights and having no legal standing in international law, expelled the Libyan GNA Ambassador Mohamed Menfi. Ambassador Menfi has until Monday to depart from Greece. 

For his part, Greek President Mitsotakis said the Turkish move in denying Greek sovereignty over its many islands has placed Turkey in "unprecedented diplomatic isolation." Greece has announced it will use military force to immediately halt any Turkish oil or gas drilling in the sea southeast of Crete. The application of a European Union sanctions regime against Turkey is also imminent.

3 December 2019: Last week Turkey and the Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli, Libya signed a military pact that essentially divides the whole Eastern Mediterranean Sea between them. Eschatology Today will refer to this pact as the 'Istanbul Accord.' 

As if the Middle East didn't need another point of conflict that could spark a war between two supposed NATO allies (Greece and Turkey), the Turkish government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan with a single stroke of their pen annexed a massive swath of the Greek economic zone. For their part the Greeks describe the Istanbul Accord as being "ridiculous." 

The Turkish action is noted in the Eschatology Today map above (click to enlarge). It is in the stripped fluorescent yellow portion. This map is based upon initial reports of the Istanbul Accord as none has as yet been published by Turkey or the GNA. The Turks claim their maritime border now extends from southwestern Turkey all the way across the Eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Libyan coast line of Derna (Darnah) and Tobruk (i.e. all of the Libyan coast to the Egyptian border).

The Istanbul Accord pretends as if the Greek island of Crete and hundreds of other Greek islands going back into antiquity simply no longer exist. Greek citizens inhabit all of those sovereign Greek islands. Eschatology Today would liken Erdogan's Istanbul Accord to that of Adolf Hitler's 1938 military annexation (invasion) of the Czechoslovakian Sudetenland. 

The Istanbul Accord also involves Israel and Cyprus who are, as we've discussed here before, in a military alliance with Greece. The Turkish move directly threatens the proposed gas and oil pipelines between Israel and Cyprus to the Greek mainland and European Union Markets. This move also occurred just prior to the NATO Summit of this week, and alliance fallout is likely to be severe against Turkey, not to mention European Union anger at what the Turks have done. Current levels of EU sanctions against Turkey stand a very good change of becoming far more harsh. Turkey's status within NATO is also in peril. 

Additionally, the Istanbul Accord tosses a wrench into the Berlin peace talks scheduled for January 2020 between the two governments in the Libyan Civil War. Most international recognition is with the GNA Tripoli government led by Fayez Sarraj, while an assortment of other nations, including Russia, Egypt and the UAE are militarily supporting the eastern Libyan National Army (LNA) in Benghazi under Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar's leadership (whom we've also discussed previously). There are approximately 1,500 Russian Wagner Group mercenaries that have intervened in the war to fight alongside Haftar's LNA. Armed UAE drones also routinely bomb the Tripoli airport. The Istanbul Accord is likely to cost the GNA in Tripoli dearly in terms of international recognition.

The prophetic implications are obvious and numerous, touching on the fulfillment of Scripture from Daniel through Ezekiel. The issues between Turkey and Russia alone stand out profoundly so that clearly major changes will have to occur for the Magog Confederation to materialize as many interpret Ezekiel 38/39 indicating Turkey being part of that confederation (also discussed in-depth previously on Eschatology Today).

Global SITREP D8-19: The Quickening

Trochka (NATO Name: SS-21 Scarab) Battlefield Ballistic Missile

UPDATED 22 November 2019: As stated previously on Eschatology Today, virtually all of the unfulfilled pre-70th week prophecies have one of more of their specific aspects observable in the news of the day. This have been true for many months now. What Eschatology Today makes note of now is that many of these prophetic aspects are occurring simultaneously and in a quickening of their occurrences. What had been months between their occurrence was reduced to weeks. in the latter part of 2019 the observation is of days between occurrences. The prophecy of our Lord in Matthew 24:6-8 is staring us all in the face. And as Luke 21:13 says, this is our "occasion for testimony."

The first three days of this work week saw events of prophetic significance. The Syrian's launched the battlefield ballistic missile seen in the image above at a civilian refugee center in Idlib causing massive casualties among most women and children. Surely this has application to Jeremiah 49:23 as it occured precisely in the location noted by the prophet. For illustrative purpose, in the clickable map above one can locate the town of Idlib. South of Idlib is Hamath (Hama), and to the north is Arphad close to the Turkish border.

Iranian missile attack on Israel

The day prior the Iranian launched ballitic missiles assessed now to have been four of the Fateh-110 type Short Range Ballistic Missile (SRBM), each with a 500kg (1,100 lb) high explosive warhead. These Iranian SRBMs were destined for impact in central Israel to cause mass casualties and unprecedented damage. However, Israel's Iron Dome ABM systems brought them down to eliminate that threat. The map above illustrates where the incoming missile alerts were heard in northern Isrel and the Golan. Israel then went on the offensive with the launch of 40 cruise missiles causing very significant damage to Syrian air defenses and the IRGC-Qods Force infrastructure they are intended to defend. Reports and online video indicates that Syria launched S-300s and about half of of them immediately crashed as the Israeli missiles destroyed their controlling emitter antennas. Here we're referencing in-progress or leading into aspects of both Isaiah 17 and Jeremiah 49:23-27.

The earlier rocket fire from the PIJ in Gaza must be seen as being an integral part of the overarching Iranian war offensive against Israel. We have shown recently how the coming IDF ground offensive is tied directly to opeerations against the regions of anceint Edom and Moab in western Jordan according to Isaiah 11:14, echoed by Ezekiel 28:24-26, both of which are integral to the 'big picture' presented by Asaph's Psalm 83.

Iranian protests against Twelver regime November 2019

In Iran itself the nation-wide and inceasingly violent revolt (image above) of the people against the regime (the king and princes) is straight out of Jeremiah 49:34-39. Notice ancient Elam region.The people have taken and destroyed police stations but not before looting their armories. They are well armed now, and have been pulling memebers of the hated Basij off their motorcycles and pummeling them to their deaths in city streets all across the country. Again, these things are taking place simultaneously, concurrently and even at this pace we haven't seen anything yet, but as I&W for what is to come, well, we already know that part in detail per prophetic Scripture.

Valley of Hamon Gog (Multitude of Gog)

In many SITREPs the scripture of Ezekiel 39:11-16 has been referenced concerning the burial location of the vast army Gog of Magog will lead against Israel. Just in case this location has not been identified clearly as being land in present day western Jordan, east of the Dead Sea, this map and its shaded red area illustrates precisely where the Valley of the Passengers, henceforth to be known as the Valley of Hamon Gog (Valley of the Multitude of Gog), exists now and in that near-future time.

Marana'tha!

Global SITREP C3:19: Elam and Iran in History and Prophecy

Elam/Iran  Susa/Anshan

27 June 2019: Elam and Iran (Paras), from the biblical prophetic perspective, are they the same or different? There are, according to the conducted Eschatology Today research, as many differing opinions or interpretations of this question as there are maps or drawings which depict the territory of ancient Elam within what we know today as the Islamic Republic of Iran (Paras). What appears as a fact is that ancient Elam does not exist today, but within its ancient territory are several provinces of the present Islamic Republic of Iran. Perhaps that is all we need to know about the subject. But maybe there is more. This discussion of the "more" will be brief but detailed overview of the Biblical and historical perspectives.

The Biblical Perspective

Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel all referenced this land within the prophecies given them directly by the LORD God, or in the case of Daniel, by His angelic messenger Gabriel. One question that arises is why Jeremiah's prophecy (Jer. 49:34-39) only refers to Elam, and Ezekiel's prophecy (Ez. 38:5) only refers to Iran (Paras). Not many venture futher to acknowledge that Ezekiel also referred to Elam during the time of his prophetic ministry. 

Ezekiel 27:10 refers to Paras (Iran). Then in Ezekiel 32:24 the prophet speaks lamentations upon the nations that will go down into the pit having been conquered by the sword (war). Among them is Eylam (Elam), gone into the pit,; conquered for having caused "their terror in the land of the living." With Elam in the pit is also Asshur (Assyria), Meshech, Tubal, Edom, Sidon and Egypt). So here are two example of Ezekiel using both terms for modern Iran in the same general time period (circa 580 BC).

The Historical Perspective

In those ancient times Elam had been an established political state for a couple of millennia in the general region of Iran we know today as the province of Khuzestan when Jeremiah and Ezekiel received their prophecies. Back then Elam was a contemporary of Akkadia and Sumeria. Elam emerged from that domination circa 1300 BC, and over hundreds of years there emerged within Elam two regional powers, Susa, with which we're eminently familiar from the Old Testament, and Anshan. In those ancient days the kings of Elam were known as "the king of Elam and Anshan. 

Then, circa Nebuchadnezzar the First (Nebuchadnezzar I) reign, about one-hundred some-odd years prior to King David's rule in Israel, the western half of Elam came under the control of the Babylonian Empire, while in the east, in Anshan, the Achaemenids began establishing what would come to be known as the Achaemenid Persian Empire. Before taking on Babylon, as the Bible recounts for us, successive kings of Anshan (Achaemenes, Teispes, Cyrus I, Cambyses and finally Cyrus II (Cyrus the Great 559 BC) took all nations and empires east of the Tigris River, until the sack of Babylon, as we know from Scripture. The languages of this second of the great world empires after Babylon was Persian, Elamite, Akkadian and Aramaic as the official language of government.

The point here is that from a bible-based eschatological perspective, Elam and Persia are virtually synonymous. This is why Ezekiel used both names. And this is how Eschatology Today interprets Jeremiah 49:34-39 and Ezekiel 38:5 as referring directly to the modern-day Islamic Republic of Iran. In the days of Jeremiah and Ezekiel both Elam and Anshan (proto-Persia) were located within the same geographic region of southwestern Iran.

Global SITREP D8-15: Is This the End of Israel's "Pricking Brier"?

                                                                                                                                   Image attribution: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/Getty

11 October 2015:  In today's edition of YNet.com's Alex Fishman's Israel Opinion column you can see a prime example of how a secular Jew properly puts blame for Arab muslim violence against Israel where it belongs, as well as improperly putting blame for Islamic violence where it does not belong - at the feet of fellow Jews, which he refers to rather antiseptically as "Religious Zionism." 

Mr. Fishman's hand-wringing and galloping, unbridled fear lies not with the next injury to a fellow Jewish citizen of Israel, but with some unknown Arab muslim member of the Knesset - who pledges not one iota of loyalty to the State of Israel, but to islam because that is what is absolutely required of all muslims in the submission to the false god "allah" as dictated by the qur'an and their imams - that the Arab MK might be hit in the head by a rock thrown by a fellow muslim or a baton wielded by an Israeli policeman.

Americans must pay attention here, because a Republican candidate for President of the United States, Dr. Ben Carson, is absolutely correct in what he says about muslim's and the U.S. Constitution - i.e., not one of them can submit to the U.S. Constitution because to do so is diametrically opposed to the quranic dictate of submission (islam) to only "allah" and his will as expressed by the sayings of Muhammed and the sayings of his seventh century followers.

Mr. Fishman does not express any comprehension whatsoever about islamic violence, a/k/a jihad, being waged against Israel. He has no clue that the incitement to violence comes from one origin and one origin only - the sermons of the local imams in the mosques of Israel. He does not understand that the knives have come out of the kitchen because the qur'an says so and the imams preach it every day. Why else are explosives and firebombs kept in the al-aqsa mosque? It is an armory for achieving the will of their false god; all islamic mosques have this same purpose. They are the 'beach head' for the expansion of islam by the sword. This is the "organized leadership" that Mr. Fishman is utterly blind to.

And this non-sense about Israeli officials, who are and act as nothing more or less than the politicians that they are, tip-toeing in expressing their desire for "quiet" - this is what the secular Israeli wants; it's music to his ears. It's also music to the islamists ears as well!

Mr. Fishman wrote in his opening paragraph that "Israel (meaning the Israeli government led by Bibi Netanyahu) should crack down on its own provocateurs, emanating from the Islamic Movement, the Knesset's Arab faction, or Religious Zionism."  Lumping religious Jews in with Israel's implacable enemies - do you see this obscenity coming from Fishman's keyboard? Ignorance defined. 

These religious Zionists have since the destruction of the Temple been praying for Israel's restoration to the land of Israel. Fulfillment of the prophetic word of God, no? Now they pray for the rebuilding of the Temple and restoration of the daily sacrifice and oblations. This is also prophetic, no? Yes! Again, this is prophecy yet to be fulfilled, and we know it will be. We can only pray that Alex Fishman will be one of those Jews to recognize and accept Israel's one and only Messiah; that he may be one of the 144,000 Jewish evangelists soon to spread out across the globe preaching the Gospel of Jesus which will bring millions to God during the 70th Week.

7 October 2015: Israel faces a great many threats at the present time, but the most pressing of them all is the lack of internal security and the safety of its citizens as they go about their daily lives. It is beyond unacceptable, and a possible cause of a government collapse, when the people of Israel find themselves being stoned, assaulted by would-be executioners and hangmen on a daily basis in their own God-given homeland. Who can count the number of Israeli citizens murdered in cold blood over the years by Arab Muslims living in their midst? Eitan and Naama Henkin were the most recent murder victims, but they won't be the last. Against this backdrop of wanton violence against Israelis it is incomprehensible to hear of a high Israeli government official blaming the Israeli citizens themselves for the murderous intent of the "Palestinian" terrorists. According to Israeli media, this is precisely what defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon did recently when he blamed the Jewish Home Party, and Education Minister Naftali Bennett in particular, for the current violence. Apparently Mr. Ya'alon has not been to a mosque recently to hear the imams sermon calling on all Muslims to the most extreme acts of violence against Jews wherever they are, whoever they are - man, woman, child, that is irrelevant - if they are Jews kill them. Sure his intelligence apparatus has informed him better than this, no?

So, how does all of this square with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu's recent eloquent speech and dramatic moments of silence at the UN? He pointed a long finger at the entire world whose silence in the face of holocausts and pogroms against the Jews, yet when Bibi's people are murdered, assaulted, stoned, stabbed and fire-bombed, blown up on buses and risk their very lives just to travel across town or to a nearby settlement to visit friends or relatives, it is Bibi Netanyahu who cannot find the words to call for the kind of action necessary to stop the Arab Muslim onslaught dead in its tracks. 

Bibi Netanyahu has the power to stop this insanity in the time it would take him to fly back to New York City. Will he, even in the face of Arab Muslim MKs who will shortly defy the government as their Muslim ideology explicitly requires of them? It is certain that they will not act for Israel, they will act for Islam. Perhaps it will be their action at the Temple Mount this weekend that spurs Netanyahu to act for Israel? However, I never thought it would be such a laborious decision on Netanyahu's part even though that decision will lead to nationwide violence. He stands against the tide of Islamist fervor for jihad against Israel, and for Israel it will be that Netanyahu must ultimately act decisively. Prophecy proves it.

We know from the many inspired prophecies of all the great, ancient Jewish prophets, particularly Asaph, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Nehemiah, that the time is rapidly approaching when an Israeli leader will rise up and act, whether or not this leader is Bibi Netanyahu is irrelevant. This leader will have the archangel Michael lending his hand in the process. Wait and see if these two fairly specific verses below are not fulfilled in very short order exactly as they are written.

Isaiah 11:14

"But they  (Israel) shall fly down upon the shoulder of the Philistines toward the west;
Together they shall plunder the people of the East;
They shall lay their hand on Edom and Moab;
And the people of Ammon shall obey them."

Ezekiel 28:24

“And there shall no longer be a pricking brier or a painful thorn for the house of Israel from among all who are around them, who despise them. Then they shall know that I am the Lord God.” 

 

Global SITREP B5-14: The Lord's Fierce Anger Upon Iran

22 January 2014 (Prologue): The prophecy of Jeremiah 49:34-39 has been discussed on this blog on numerous occasions over the past couple of years. This time however a closer look at the text might be a beneficial exercise. Even though there are only six verses to this prophecy, it also contains a substantially larger amount information for the reader to absorb than the text by itself reveals. The both the plain text and the imagery within this prophecy are astounding in my view. As always, I believe this is a prophecy that is about to commence in its fulfillment in three distinct phases: an imminent start, a middle phase during the fulfillment of Ezekiel 38/39, and the final verse during the Millennial Kingdom of Jesus Christ.

Verse 34: "The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet against Elam, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah..."

This leading verse simply informs the reader that Jeremiah is the presenter to us of: 

a) the prophetic word that has been given to him by "the Lord of hosts" 

b) the subject of the prophecy, and 

c) when this prophecy was given to Jeremiah. 

The remaining 5 verses contain all of the prophetic data, and within these five verses I discern a distinct sequence of events.

Verse 35: "Behold, I will break the bow (qesheth) of Elam, the foremost of their might."

This verse informs that Elam's (Iran's) foremost military might, it's offensive military might, is suddenly and inexplicably broken. This event is singular unto itself. The plain text metaphor qesheth (battle bow or archer) given here informs us that the choice part or best of the military might of Iran that God will break is an offensive weapon system that launches projectiles at the enemy.

Even without nuclear warheads, Iran possesses an incredible number of rocket and missile platforms that as with all modern military forces provide coverage from short to long ranges and in multiple types for engaging land, sea and airborne targets. These rocket and missile systems are the qesheth that Jeremiah speaks of. There is no reason given for the breaking of these weapons systems, it's just that the Lord of hosts has declared it will happen.

As in ancient times when Persian/Median armies launched massive barrages of arrows at their enemies, so too the Iranian military of today relies very heavily on their modern day equivalent. Iranian warfighting doctrine dictates mass barrage-style launches. Iran can be seen exercising this capability every couple of months or so, and in some instances photoshopping the images to convey ridiculous numbers of rockets being launched.

 Nevertheless, the question is, how will God break such a qesheth as this? I would speculate, aside from a supernatural act by God, this will occur by the same electronic warfare means as Israel has thus far kept all enemy missile systems from firing at their F15-I Ra'am and F-16I Sufa strike aircraft for the past seven years over Lebanon, Syria and the Sudan. Israel not only can put an enemy into an electronic black hole, but the evidence is that the IDF can actually take control of an enemy's weapons systems. Israel's airborne Suter electronic warfare system, or whatever the more mature version might have as its nomenclature today,  the system really is so advanced, that I suspect it is even beyond the very real capability of the rumored non-nuclear EMP capability.

Verse 36: "Against Elam (Iran) I will bring the four winds, from the four quarters of heaven, and scatter them toward all those winds; there shall be no nations where the outcasts of Elam will not go."

Four winds from every direction of the globe scatter outcasts from Elam to every nation of the globe. These are Iranian refugees escaping the tyranny of the regime and the Basij thugs who enforce that tyranny. God provides them this escape so that they may return in the future to this ancient* people to this ancient* land as He promises in verse 39. (those 'latter days' are almost certainly during the Millennium Kingdom of Christ.) So, to recap, the major offensive weapons capability of Iran is suddenly broken or non-functional in the previous verse.

This clearly, as we shall see in the subsequent verse, causes dismay, confusion and a window of opportunity is created whereby those who desperately want to escape (such as Christians and anti-regime Iranians) do so, and the depart the country in every direction of the compass. To my tactical way of thinking, it appears as though not only are Iran's primary weapons down for the count, but is regime's ability to control its population and its borders. Few people are aware that in Iran the rapidly expanding Born Again segment of the population are fervently and devoutly praying for the Jeremiah 49:34-39 prophecy to come to a soon fulfillment irregardless of the consequences for Iran stated in those prophecies. The biggest reason they pray for this prophecy to come to fulfillment is that the scattering of many Iranian people will free them to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ elsewhere in the world!

NOTE* The very word Elam has a dual meaning. It can mean a long time, as an eternity, or it can refer to an ancient region of political power northeast, east and southeast of the lower Tigris River. This is where the ancient country and eventual empire of Elam began.  It is no accident that this region is the location of the nearly operational Arak heavy water plutonium reactor, also known as IR40 (Iran 40MegaWatt reactor), and the under-construction 360MW Darkhovin heavy water plutonium reactor, and the operational 1000MW Bushehr nuclear power plant.

Verse 37: "For I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies and before those who seek their life. I will bring disaster upon them, My fierce anger," says the Lord; "And I will send the sword after them until I have consumed them."

The sudden and sequential over-taking events continue with verse 37. In this verse it appears as though the regime itself is being subdued by a sword, an opposing armed force, perhaps even an insurrection, which brings disaster upon them. How fitting for a Jewish holocaust denying regime to itself be subjected to a Divinely ordained holocaust from which there is no escape unless it is into the saving embrace of the Lamb of God. 

In any event, the consuming of this important region of modern-day Iran by the ravages of war would create far reaching effects, not the least of which would be the downgrading of Iranian military capability and the loss of Iran's primary industrial and oil and natural gas producing sector, the overwhelming majority of which lie within the heart of ancient Elam.

Iranian industry, oil, natgas production and reserves (top) 

in the region of ancient Elam(bottom).

Verse 38:  "I will set My throne in Elam, and will destroy from there the king and the princes,’ says the Lord."

Verse 38 completes the previous causation of this prophetic destruction by the sword of war.  But here there is a very important distinction in the sequence of events of this prophecy. This is the last of the sequence of events. To recap again, the foremost of Iran's military might was destroyed first, this was followed by a mass exodus of many Iranians to all points on the globe, which was followed by the continued dismay of the regime and war being thrust upon them. Then, after all of this does God set His throne in Elam. 

I was awoken this morning with the thought that the meaning of this verse is much more than meets the eye at first glance. The throne of God on the Earth, in Elam? Surely the Lord Jesus Christ will sit upon His throne in the Temple on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem, and God the Father sits upon His throne in Heaven, so the meaning of this is clearly well beyond the plain text of the verse. It must be figurative.

How does the Bible describe the throne of God? The Bible has many descriptions, yet the most poignant is that as Paul noted the description of which are as "inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter." The throne of God in Heaven is where perpetual and eternal worship of the Almighty takes place. Nevertheless, we might need look no further than the narrative of Ezekiel 1:4- 28 or of John of Patmos in Revelation 4:1-11 where John was taken in the Spirit to that most Holy of all places. John's visual descriptions are of brilliant emerald, jasper and carnelian, lightning flashes and peals of thunder. Ezekiel's much earlier vision was of a great cloud of fire engulfing itself, brightness and radiance the color of amber, the throne having the appearance of a sapphire. 

I am left with the very strong conviction that verse 38 is completely figurative in nature. It is illustrative of something that has the appearance of the Lord's throne, something that destroys the Iranian ayatollah and his regime of false clerics. That, I believe, is a nuclear holocaust which they had intended upon bring to the rest of the world in the pursuit of hastening their non-existent al-mahdi figure. I would include this verse as being fulfilled with the fulfillment of Ezekiel 38:18-22 when God will destroy the nations which came against Israel. This includes Iran according to Ezekiel 38:22, "And I will bring him to judgment with pestilence and bloodshed; I will rain down on him, on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him, flooding rain, great hailstones, fire, and brimstone."

Verse 39: "‘But it shall come to pass in the latter days: I will bring back the captives of Elam,’ says the Lord.”

The prophecy is completed with this verse, and I believe the fulfillment for this verse occurs during the Millennial Kingdom of Christ on the Earth.

Addendum: To those who would erroneously interpret that Jeremiah's prophecy was fulfilled thousands of years ago, I would recommend that they seriously reconsider some key points before blurting out their ignorance on this topic. 

1. Jeremiah lived and prophesied during a critical period of Judah's history. As noted above in Jeremiah 49:34 this prophecy was given in the beginning of the reign of Judah's king Zedekiah. Zedekiah's reign began in 597 BC. No earthly events of the type and in the place prophesied by Jeremiah have ever occurred since 597 BC and forward to the present. Therefore, and without question, Jeremiah 49:34-39 constitutes an unfulfilled prophecy regarding the modern, latter-days country of Iran.

2. In Isaiah's own latter-days prophecy (see: Isaiah 11:11-12) which mirrors the prophecy of Ezekiel 37 concerning the re-assembling of "the outcasts of Israel" gathered together with the "dispersed of Judah," the prophet Isaiah names several nations from which the Jewish people of the Roman exile of circa 66-73 AD would return to the land of Israel:

"From Assyria and Egypt,
From Pathros and Cush,
From Elam and Shinar,
From Hamath and the islands of the sea"

Clearly, the use of Elam and the other national names of antiquity for latter days prophetic fulfillments is a common theme for many of the inspired prophets of God, and should not constitute a problem in any exegesis, including this one.

Global SITREP B6-13: France, Israel and Saudi Arabia United in Preemption of Iranian Nukes

UPDATE 21 November 2013: “They (Iran)  must not have nuclear weapons — and I promise you that they will not have nuclear weapons.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a speaking engagement in Russia this morning.

Bibi and "Gog." In this image Bibi has a pleasant look of calm assurance upon his countenance, almost amused and ready to bust out in a great, big smile of a victor-in-waiting. In stark contrast Mr. Gog doesn't mutually reciprocate Bibi's facial expression in the aftermath of their chat in the Kremlin. His look is decidedly grim, foreboding, like all those aged Soviet leaders of yesteryear used to display when confronting a nation of strength and determination as America was under President Reagan. I know this isn't a thousand words, but you get the general drift of what this image is telling me. It's all good for the good guys.

I would remind all readers that a great war is in-progress. We would all be wise to heed the words of Winston Churchill when reading various accounts in global media these days: "In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies." In other words, exercise extreme caution before accepting anything but the Word of God as truth and fact. Fulfilled prophecy will be self-evident.

20 November 2013: The .jpg graphic below is as relevant today as it was 32 years ago when Israel launched "Operation Opera" against Saddam Hussein's nearly completed and French-made Osiris-class nuclear reactor known as "Osirak." This was the IAF's first operational use of its newly acquired F-16s from the United States. Screaming in at just 150 feet above the Saudi and Iraqi desert floor to avoid radar detection, and all the way from the Gulf of Aqaba, the IAF achieved total tactical surprise against the Iraqi defenders. The Iranian's will likely suffer the same tactical defeat; they'll never see the Israeli's coming, and quite possibly, when they're leaving after hitting and destroying multiple nuclear targets in western Iran.

Didn't hear many Saudi Arabian complaints back then; don't expect to hear them this time around either.

19 November 2013: A pair of suicide bombers attacked the Iranian Embassy is Beirut this morning killing an Iranian "cultural attache" and approximately two-dozen others, with nearly 150 wounded. Both bombs were VBIEDs, one via a motorcycle, the other a car. Iran immediately blamed Israel, but just as quickly an Al Qaeda-linked "Abdullah Azzan Brigades" terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack. An event such as this could easily be used as a "shoot first, ask questions later" casus belli for a preemptive war launched by Iran and its allies against Israel. This is something that might be of some utility to Iran during the most difficult phase of P5+1 negotiations which Iran has no intention of accepting as discussed below. Expect the unexpected.

18 November 2013: Less than 48 hours before the next IAEA P5+1 round of negotiations with Iran commences in Geneva, the Paris, France-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) says that members of its affiliate People’s Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI) group inside Iran had obtained reliable information about a previously undisclosed and recently completed underground nuclear site. This afternoon NCRI official Mehdi Abrichamtchi spoke to media saying, "According to specific information obtained by the Iranian resistance, the clerical regime is establishing or completing parallel secret and undeclared sites for its nuclear project."  The now exposed nuclear site is a 600-meter long tunnel complex beneath the mountains in Esfahan Province, six miles from the town of Mobarekeh. This site is the location of Iran's Mobarekeh Steel Company and within the Haft-e Tir military industrial complex, the largest industrial complex in Iran. NCRI said that it has passed this information to the IAEA. In 2009 the NCRI exposed the Fordow nuclear weapons complex near Qom to western intelligence agencies, as well as much of the other formerly covert Iranian nuclear weapons program sites since 2006 according to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in the UK.

17 November 2013: Once again word is leeching out via Britain's premier media that the State of Israel is covertly working with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in coordinating the tactical planning for a strike to render moot the object of the P5+1 negotiations in Geneva this coming week. According to a just published article by the Times of Israel which cites Britain's The Sunday Times as the originating source (Two old foes unite against Tehran), Jerusalem and Riyadh have reached an agreement whereby Saudi Arabia will open their airspace and provide other tactical support in the current plan to preemptively kill all Iranian nuclear weapons ambition for the foreseeable future.

The Sunday Times reports that both Jerusalem and Riyadh clearly reject the American assurances coming from President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry and are convinced that they "amount to appeasement and will do little to slow its development of a nuclear warhead." An anonymous diplomatic source has told the Sunday Times, "The Saudis are furious and are willing to give Israel all the help it needs." So, the news today is that the French, Israeli and Saudi governments (as well as the rest of the at-risk GCC governments) have determined to unite behind the execution of a military option to eliminate the threat posed by an apocalyptically-guided Iran in possession of nuclear weapons. They have determined to preempt both a ridiculously "bad deal" and a nuclear-armed Iran. 

Israel and the Saudi's are defending their existence, and France is defending it's stake in the joint European Union and Sunni Arab nations "Union for the Mediterranean" (UfM). UfM member states Lebanon and Syria are both League of Nations mandate territories mandated to French control following World War I. As a note for those who are unaware, the UfM was created in Paris, France 13 July 2008 based upon the Paris and Marseilles Declarations and the Statues adopted on 3 March 2010. The UfM membership is comprised of the EU member nations, the League of Arab States, Israel, Palestine and Turkey. The Bible prophecy implications of the UfM relative to the texts of Daniel, Ezekiel and The Revelation of Jesus Christ are glaringly apparent.

Comparison: Roman Empire and the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM)

Today's news comes with the arrival this morning in Israel of French President Francois Hollande along with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, Israel's lone ally sitting at the P5+1 negotiation table in Geneva, Switzerland, for further consultations with Israeli PM Bibi Netanyahu. On Wednesday, 20 November, PM Netanyahu flies north fully buttressed with his new (and also nuclear-armed allies) to meet in Moscow, Russia with Russian President Vladimir Putin. This will be a different Benjamin Netanyahu than Vladimir Putin has met previously, even without his former American ally.

The direct effects this newly emergent alliance will have on European, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern regions, and thus Bible prophecy, are currently unmeasurable but they clearly will also be immense. This SITREP  will be revisited for frequent updates in the coming days as events transpire. Stay tuned.

Late Development 17 November:  After meeting for several hours with PM Netanyahu, President Hollande of France (left in the image above) set the gauntlet Iran will have have to run if it is to emerge with an interim agreement with the P5+1 this coming Wednesday.  On the surface Hollande's gauntlet would appear to be a four-point set of demands that the Ayatollah's nuclear emissary will have to reject, possibly even before the negotiating session commences. The publicly announced conditions are:

1. The immediate assumption of international control over all Iranian nuclear installations.
2. The immediate suspension of all processing of  Uranium Hexaflouride (UF6) to 20% U-235.
3. The immediate reduction of Iranian stocks of Uranium Hexaflouride.
4. The immediate halt of construction at the IR-40 heavy water plant at Arak.

These conditions are totally consistent with achieving the Israeli, Saudi and French position that Iran relinquish its dream of possessing a nuclear weapons capability forever. It would appear that an expected Iranian rejection of these conditions will mean war.

Ezekiel 37:10 "Meh'ode Gadowl Chayil"

29 December 2012:  Ezekiel 37 is a now fulfilled prophecy about the restoration of modern Israel. In modern times Ezekiel's ancient prophetic vision of a valley filled with dead, dry bones which received new flesh upon them and a spirit that God breathed upon from the four winds of the earth came to fulfillment just two years after the Holocaust in the death camps and ovens of Nazi controlled Europe. The tenth verse of Ezekiel 37 tells us these bones then stood up as "mehode gadowl chayil" - "an exceedingly great army."  This army is "the whole house of Israel," and it is known to us as Tzva Hahagana LeYisra'el, literally The Army of Defense for Israel, the IDF.

We will take a look at the eschatological future of the IDF, what the Word of God does and, surprisingly enough, does not have to say about it. However, no discussion about the future of the IDF can be complete without at least a brief look at its origins, exactly as Ezekiel foretold that this exceedingly great army would suddenly arise in the land of Israel and that valley of dry bones. An executive summary on origin of the IDF and its Psalm 83 adversaries can be found in Eschatology Today's original 5-part series from 2009: The Prophetic Road to Revelation (Part II). 

As we all see from the history of the Psalm 83 military engagements fought thus far, the IDF has emerged victorious at a high cost in each one of them. The concluding battles on the southern, central and northern fronts will be the same, and according to the related Isaiah 17 text, even more so. However, as with most things prophetic, the IDF does not operate in a vacuum, particularly in these few years prior to the 70th Week. The difference has been the spiritual realm activity manifest on Earth by Israel's prince, the archangel Michael. In these days prior to the Lord pouring out His Spirit upon the whole house of Israel the archangel Michael has been busy and he's going to become busier.

It is the final prophetic word of Gabriel  to Daniel found in chapter 12 verses1-3 which tie all of this together and informs us of the archangel Michael's role:

“At that time Michael shall stand up,
The great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people;
And there shall be a time of trouble,
Such as never was since there was a nation,
Even to that time.
And at that time your people shall be delivered,
Every one who is found written in the book.

And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake,
Some to everlasting life,
Some to shame and everlasting contempt.

Those who are wise shall shine
Like the brightness of the firmament,
And those who turn many to righteousness
Like the stars forever and ever."

Going 'Back to the Future' with the angel Gabriel

The direct interaction between the prophet Daniel and the angel Gabriel occurs over several chapters. Chapters 10-12 repeat and refine the visions given to Daniel in chapter 7, as well as 8 and 9. Daniel  chapters 8 through 12 in themselves are a more detailed look at the last days. These details Daniel tells us about came from Gabriel beginning in 550 BC (Daniel 8:1) and are a focused prophetic look at the period of human history beginning one-hundred ninety six years into the future, or 334 BC, when the Macedonian-Greek army under Alexander the Great crossed the Hellespont (the Dardanelles Strait) between Greece and the Persian Empire fulfilling the prophecy of the "Ram and the Goat" and concluding with the empire of the fourth beast, the Antichrist and the verses of Daniel 12 quoted above still in our future.

What is amazing in all of this is that there's not so much as a single mention of an Israeli army, the IDF, in the last days events and battles described. Nothing. The closest approach to describing the period of time we are living in right now is found in Daniel 9 where Daniel, fully understanding the word of the Lord through the prophet Jeremiah and the visions given to him thus far by Gabriel, is in the midst of extremely fervent imprecatory prayer and supplications to the Lord in loudly confessing all of the sins of the whole of Israel from the Exodus out of Egypt to the present day. We can know that the concluding period within this prayer is the present day because the Israel that Daniel is referring to is not the one taken captive in Babylon, but rather mirrors the Israel that Aspah prophesied about in Psalm 83.

Daniel 9:16 (emphasis added)

“O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all those around us." 

The very next sentence in Daniel's prayer refers directly to the currently non-existent Temple in Jerusalem, and it is followed with a plea that is also in agreement with that of Asaph in the very first words of Psalm 83. I think it to be more than obvious that the IDF has been raised up as declared in Ezekiel 37:10 to be the Lord's instrument in accomplishing His purposes in answering the Spirit-led prayers of Asaph, Daniel and all of ancient Israel's prophets. These ultimate last day purposes of the Lord commence with the fulfillment Psalm 83 and Ezekiel 28:24-26 and they are purposes which precede the arrival of the 70th Week as foretold by Gabriel.

What is not evident in Scripture is that following the overwhelming victory of Psalm 83 and Ezekiel 28 when Israel is subsequently dwelling in the land safely and securely that anything like the IDF and its nuclear weaponry exists to defend Israel during the 70th Week. It may exist in its present form up until the Antichrist's confirmation of a "covenant among many," but during the 70th Week there is no reference in Scripture that points to the continued existence of the IDF. At that time God is working His will directly and through the activities of the Two Witness and 144,000 Jewish evangelists.