TEN TOES

The Roman Empire divided into Left and right foot per Daniel 2

11 January 2017:  This has been an ongoing work for some time now, through which I've read or studied umpteen eschatological books, papers and web postings on the subject the final "beast" empire. The vast majority of these focused on the European Union, or Europe exclusively, and that's not, pardon the pun, without iron-clad cause. The Roman Republic, and then Empire, began as a European, or more correctly, a Mediterranean power.  This can be seen in the above clickable image. This image begs for some detailed study with respect to several coming prophetic fulfillment's and issues discussed below. 

The angel Gabriel, in the 70 Weeks prophecy given in Daniel 9:24-27, specifically pointed to the Roman Empire as the origin of the Antichrist by saying "And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary." As we all know, Jerusalem and the second temple were destroyed by several Roman legions in 70 AD. But hold that thought because first we have to go back to the past of Daniel's lifetime in order to see the prophetic future more clearly.

In Daniel 2:36-45 the dream of Nebuchadnezzar regarding a statuesque image is vividly described and then interpreted with absolute perfection by Daniel after God had shown him the same dream and given him its meaning in a night vision. The fourth and final kingdom was symbolically described as having "legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay." Daniel 2:40-43 contains the details of the meaning of the final form of the fourth kingdom, the Roman Empire.

In Daniel 7 more details about this fourth empire, the fourth and final of the four and only four beast empires, are given. In verse 7 we read: "behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth; it was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns." Pay careful attention here. What is the final beast with 10 horns doing? Would it be reasonable to interpret that this beast kingdom is at war and utterly crushing its enemies?

Now watch what happens as the interpretive narrative continues in verse 8: "I was considering the [ten] horns, and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And there, in this horn, were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words."  

The fourth beast with ten horns is utterly destroying its enemies when suddenly from among the ten horns of this fourth beast an eleventh little horn comes up, and plucks three of the original ten horns out by its roots. This little horn is clearly the Antichrist. See also Daniel 7:19-20 where these events are repeated for what i believe is good interpretive measure. And they are again repeated for a third time in verse 24: 

"The ten horns are ten kings

Who shall arise from this kingdom.

And another shall rise after them;

He shall be different from the first ones,

And shall subdue three kings."

When prophecy is repeated three times in the Word of God its a pretty good indicator that something really, really, really important about future events is being stated. I am ashamed to admit that I had not noticed this important repetition previously, and that is after having studied this chapter of Daniel many, many times over. Yet last week I read it again and it was if I was finally seeing this prophecy for the first time, albeit in an entirely different light. This prophecy is in plain text; it means exactly what it says irregardless of the symbolism associated with it in other directly related prophetic verses. 

The fourth beast empire is at war, devastating its enemy when the Antichrist arises, he deposes three heads of state incorporating them into his own sphere. No wonder Daniel was troubled; I'm living in the days of this prophecy coming to fulfillment and I've never before thought of this prophecy in this way before. It is frightening to consider.

Western Part and Eastern Part of the Final Form Beast Empire

And about those ten toes from Daniel 2 on the two feet that are part iron and part clay. The map above shows that the iron legs above the feet are a literal type of symbol. Rome was a divided empire; you could literally draw a vertical line down the map between Italy and Greece and you'd have the Western Roman Empire, and the Eastern Roman Empire, which became the Byzantine Empire. (The line has been added to the above map for proper visualization of this point)

The western part, or more to the point, the toes on the right foot of Nebuchadnezzar's statue, are pretty easy to identify as they are the current major nations of western Europe: Italy, Spain, France, the UK and Germany. These nations can also be identified as "the merchants of Tarshish" of Ezekiel 38, and their young lions (former colonies) and their other regional allies will provide the bulk of the political and military power the final beast empire will have at its disposal for the Antichrist.

The eastern part, the five-nation group of the left foot is just a little bit more problematic, but I think its a solvable problem. Greece is easy. So too is Cyprus. And Israel. This new group of three and their mutual military alliance and financial and economic activities has been discussed here nearly one year ago. That leaves two nations to identify as toes on this foot. Turkey is an obvious choice. It will not be the same Turkey that we know today, particularly due to the aftermath of the brief Battle of Gog/Magog of Ezekiel 38/39. 

That leaves one toe to go. Given the prophetic demise of Syria in Isaiah 17, that nation is out. So too is Lebanon according to Joshua 13. Both of these nations have a national life expectancy that may well be measured in months or a very few years at most. Libya and Egypt and Sudan are covered and not to be considered according to Daniel 11:43. Jordan, the western-most part that matters, will be part of Israel when Psalm 83 has been fulfilled as seen in Ezekiel 39:11. So that leaves the nation recently noted here as emergent, even as we speak and into the near future - Kurdistan, or as Isaiah 19:24 refers to it - Assyria.

This interpretive view also clearly requires a whole lot of massive military and geopolitical change to occur, and most of it where war has been and is now running rampant. It should be obvious that all of the pre-70th Week prophetic wars will manifest profound changes in virtually every aspect of the Middle East as we know it today - political, religious, societal, financial, economic, military - all of these will be transformed into a new paradigm which can only be vaguely seen at this point in time.

This interpretive view is also standing on a potential threshold of providing a new understanding of what the "covenant among many" will be all about; that it very likely to be directly related to the final version of the last days "Roman Empire." A treaty of alliance between the western and eastern feet and toes of the fourth empire; a treaty which includes Israel as an integral part. And as for the betrayal of Israel in the middle of the 70th Week, what should we expect of the "son of perdition" who entered into this alliance by ripping three existent nations within it out by their roots?

Of these ten: Italy, Spain, France, UK, Germany, Greece, Cyprus, Israel, Turkey, and Kurdistan/Assyria which three will be uprooted by the Antichrist, and from which of them shall he arise are the remaining and likely unknowable eschatological questions to be answered. There are strong clues as has been discussed here previously, but this will have to wait a finality as the watchmen continue to watch.

The Isaiah 11 - Psalm 83 - Ezekiel 39 Connection

18 January 2013: In the past 4 going on 5 years now Psalm 83 has been the subject of much discussion, in particular since the 2008 publication of Isralestine by our cherished brother-in-Christ, author and lecturer Bill Salus, and in the steady stream of articles and essays on new insights that have been continuous since then.

Despite all of this it is no understatement to say that there will always be something new to bring to our attention regarding the ongoing Psalm 83 war between Israel and its Muslim Arab neighbors. And it will likely be proven true at some future point that even after this prophecy comes to complete fulfillment new Scripture references to it will be identified that had escaped notice previously.

Well, it was to my surprise and sheer delight that in researching additional information on Jewish Messianic expectations that I found myself reading one of the most important prophetic chapters in the Bible in this regard, Isaiah 11. It is this chapter that the Jewish traditions regarding the first of the two messiahs they hold very high and imminent expectations for, Moshiach ben Yossef (Joseph, and also referred to as Moshiach ben Ephraim), appears. To the Jews, Moshiach ben Yossef is a precursor to the arrival of Moshiach ben David.

Without getting too far off focus in the discrepancies between Jewish and Christian eschatology and the teaching of the Holy Spirit regarding the latter, the essential point I want to make here is that the text of Isaiah 11:10-16 not only ties the appearance of this Moshiach ben Joseph/Moshiach ben Ephraim to the Messianic age, but also and as expected, to the regathering of Israel "from the four corners of the earth;" as well as to the unified nature of the prophesied re-establishment of the Israeli state to be inclusive of the tribes of Judah and Joseph/Ephraim, as is also prophesied by the parable of the two sticks in Ezekiel 37:15-23, but it also ties these things directly to the elimination of the threat posed to the newly regathered Israel, as foretold in Asaph's Psalm 83, by the "Philistines" (Palestinians) and "the people of the East" identified as "Edom, Moab and the people of Ammon" (Jordan). Moreover the elimination of the military threat Israel faces ultimately extends in verse 15 to "the Sea of Egypt" and drying up of "the River" (that is, the Euphrates River in northern Iraq and Syria).

Here is the text of Isaiah 11:10-15, with emphasis given to verse 14 for its direct relevance to Psalm 83.

“And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse,
Who shall stand as a banner to the people;
For the Gentiles shall seek Him,
And His resting place shall be glorious.”

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 who are left,
From Assyria and Egypt,
From Pathros and Cush,
From Elam and Shinar,
From Hamath and the islands of the sea.

He will set up a banner for the nations,
And will assemble the outcasts of Israel,
And gather together the dispersed of Judah
From the four corners of the earth.

Also the envy of Ephraim shall depart,
And the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off;
Ephraim shall not envy Judah,
And Judah shall not harass Ephraim.

But they 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.

The Lord will utterly destroy the tongue of the Sea of Egypt;
With His mighty wind He will shake His fist over the River,
And strike it in the seven streams,
And make men cross over dry-shod.

There will be a highway for the remnant of His people
Who will be left from Assyria,
As it was for Israel
In the day that he came up from the land of Egypt."

As has been discussed previously on Eschatology Today, one of the results of the Psalm 83 near-future final military engagement will be not only the defeat of the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, thus making the global objective of "a Palestinian state" a Biblical non-starter, but also the total military defeat and territorial conquest of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is also made clear in verse 14. This is prophetic concurrence and reinforcement for the text of Ezekiel 39:11-16 regarding the future burial of Gog of Magog and his militarily allied forces. 

Ezekiel 39:11

"It will come to pass in that day that I will give Gog a burial place there in Israel, the valley of those who pass by east of the sea; and it will obstruct travelers, because there they will bury Gog and all his multitude. Therefore they will call it the Valley of Hamon Gog."

I suppose it should, but I cannot let it pass without saying that I literally had goosebumps and forearm hairs standing on end as I flipped back and forth among these prophetic passages. And on this note I can only close this blog item by citing the Gospel of Luke where it is written, "For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known." Amen and Maranatha.