Global SITREP D3-19: Missing Pieces for Prophetic Fulfillment

Jordan Valley

Update 6 October 2019: All the speculation about the revealing of the Trump Administration "Deal of the Century" is pretty much a moot point. We recall that it was to be revealed in full a few months ago. Avigdor Lieberman essentially put a stop to that ongoing process with his resignation as Defense Minister, a portfilio that PM Bibi Netanyahu continues to hold himself. Lieberman's resignation has since resulted in two elections, with possibly three or even four, national elections to come. And since the "Deal" was to be announced after the new Israeli was formed and stabilized, obvious the deal is in haiatus indefinitely. 

Curious thing we have here then. God is in complete control, and so no government, no leader, means no "Deal." And that means this plan to divide the land has not progressed any further than from the paper or computer program it has been written on. Eschatology Today is of the mind and believes at this point it is obvious that God is quite definitively expressing His will, the understanding being that His supremely appointed times are the determining factor not only on the non-formation of a new government for Israel, but also on the fact that the Trump Administration's "Deal" has been prevented on being brought forward in any meaningful way.

But this is not to say that there is no movement going on. The U.S. Ambassador is reported in a Times of Israel report today as saying that PM Netanyahu's previously announced plan to annex the Jordan Valley (image above) "does not preclude a political solution." The "Deal of the Century" is precisely that, a political solution. I suggest those with a keen interest read the linked ToI article and ask yourselves if it does not reflect the express will of God. 

A Netanyahu decision to enact Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley could happen, probably will happen, now that the U.S. has made public it would be no obstacle. Recall that the Jordan Valley, and the political situation in Jordan (the expected "great upheaval), have been key SITREP topics every now and then for nearly 6 years, always looking for an expected breaking point. Keep an eye on this as well.

And it should not go without saying that Israel remains on very high alert for an Iranian attack. Also, do not be distracted by Iran's ongoing political destabilization of Iraq. The Iranian Shia (IRGC-QF in particular) are committing horrible crimes against humanity in Iraq as we speak. The Iraqi Shi'a who are not part of the pro-Iran militias are fully aware of the Iranian pilfering of multiple millions of dollars worth of Iraq's oil revenues, and that nearly five million Shi'a Iraqis live in abject poverty because of it. Iran's attempt to turn Iraq into another Lebanon will backfire.

2 October 2019: As the Israeli political situation continues to be sorted out, it occurrs that there is something to be said about the still missing pieces, or specific prophetic dominos, which have yet to fall into place.

1. The Islamic Republic of Iran (Parac according to the text of Ezekiel 38:5 and Daniel 6:28, Persia and Persian, respectively.)

The first and most apparent is the agressive role the Islamic Republic of Iran is playing accross the entire MIddle East. According to all of the prophetic texts that relate to the current pre-70th Week period of wars and rumors of wars, the Islamic Republic of Iran is absent from thos texts. What is present is a militarily reduced Iran of Ezekiel 38:5 in the company of other lesser military powers, namely Libya and Sudan, that are part of the larger Magog-led (Russian-led) military expedition that will move against Israel.

What does Ezekiel's prophecy relate? That Persia comes with "shield and helmet." Shields and helmets are the warfighting implements of foot soldiers. This is no further reference in this verse to the other common implements of modern warfare like armor, missiles and artillery. Footsoldiers. So this is is why Eschatology Today interprets Ezekiel 38:5 and referring to a militarily reducing iranian threat, and as we can all see today, Iran is currently the most heavily armed nation in this region. Therefore some kind of military engagement is necessary to reduce Iranian military power to the level of support it will provide to the Magog expedition. We believe this will be manifest in Jeremish 49:34-39 in the near term.

2. Libya and Sudan

Aslo, there are the other nations two named with Iran in Ezekiel 38:5. They are the modern-day Libya and Sudan. Libya is in the midst of its second civil war. Current speculation would follow that the Libyan National Army headquartered in Tobruk and Benghazi and led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, will emerge with a victory. Haftar's forces are aligned with and armed by with Putin's Russia. Sudan is also in the throes of civil war at present and the outcome will also be consistent with Ezekiel's prophecy.

3. The Fourth Beast (Physical Empire)

The third piece is often overlooked, but has been discussed here a couple of times previously, so an eschatological reminder is a good idea. Read Revelation 13:1-2. Eschatology Today interprets "the sea" in verse 1 as being the gentile nations of the earth. This is confirmed by verse 2 which is the focus of this item. 

"Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority."

As noted previously, the fourth beast constituent parts are here given in the reverse order of how they were originally prophesied to appear on the earth in Daniel 7. Originally the four empires were the Babylonian Empire, the Medo-Persian Empire, the Macedonian-Greek Empire and the Roman Empire. In Revelation 13:2 description of the reconstituted Roman Empire, the fourth beast, includes in reverse order the Macedonian-Greek, Medo-Persian and Babylonian Empires. 

Is this what we see in the world today? No, today we see the Persians ascendent in the Middle East as in ancient times. Persia (Iran) today again appears as a bear with three ribs in its mouth. Who are those three ribs in this modern era? Look at a map. They are Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. This is an undeniable fact.

So, for the appearance of the fourth beast as this prophecy (Revelation 13) from God, Jesus and John on Patmos there are some events that have to come to pass. What has been previously identified as the "eastern leg" needs to be subdued to become integral to the fourth and final beast empire. This may indicate yet another major war as we've also discussed here previously. The emergence of the little horn among the ten occurs as it is conquering and crushing to pieces as we read in Daniel 7:7-8. 

Marana'tha!

Global SITREP D1-15: The Sinai Peninsula and Greater Egypt (The War of Isaiah 19)

UPDATE 24 July 2015: I decided to bring SITREP A20-13 forward and relabel it as Global SITREP D1-15 because the events that have continued to tear at Egypt make it clear that the Isaiah 19 prophecy remains in the process of literal fulfillment. 

These current events are reported in our media as pitting terrorist organizations such as HAMAS, the Muslim Brotherhood. the al-Murabituun and Wilayat Sinai of the Islamic State against the Egyptian Government, but make no mistake, this is civil war exactly as prophesied by Isaiah 19:2 pitting Egyptian against Egyptian.

The current government of Egypt faces an expanding Sunni insurgency and finds itself in a situation where its closest military ally is actually the State of Israel. Egypt's Egyptian enemies are four-fold, yet the same as they are all Sunni Muslims waging jihad against the State. A brief look at each may serve us as this civil war progresses in the future.

We're already very familiar with the Sunni militants of the Muslim Brotherhood (al-Ikhwan al-Muslimuun), but we're not so familiar with the insurgent force known as the al-Murabituun. They are terrorists of crossed wires led by a former Egyptian special forces officer who has in recent times been directly linked to both Al-Qaeda and its original Egyptian-born half known as Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) and the Islamic State in Sinai (Wilayat Sinai). Wilayat Sinai is the former al-Qaeda affiliate in the Sinai, Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, which this year pledged itself to the Caliphate of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. There has always been a certain number of jihadists within the Egyptian military as evidenced in the assassination of President Anwar Sadat 34 years ago. And then there's the off-shoot of the Ikhwan in Gaza, HAMAS. These are the Egyptians set against Egyptians of Isaiah 19:2.

Remember this map from September 2014?

So severe is the existential threat facing the Egyptian government that it today extended the long-standing state of emergency declared for Sinai through October 2015. The northern Sinai is a virtual no-go zone for the Egyptian army these days with both HAMAS and Wilayat Sinai in total military control between Al-Arish and Rafah, Gaza. If you will recall, this entire area was offered about a year ago to the PA and HAMAS by the Egyptian government to combine with Gaza for the purpose of creating a territorial state of their own as a part of an overall peace deal following HAMAS' war with Israel (Operation Protective Edge). If you need a memory re-fresh on this particular issue, see the map above which I specifically created for Global SITREP D7-14: THE NEXT WAR.  

The "Next War" has begun. It is the War of Isaiah 19. Some times things take a year or more to come to a point of boiling over and the activities of the Islamic State's Wilayat Sinai along with the other Sunni jihadists in Egypt have managed to do just that. In the end the State of Israel will have to pacify the whole of Sinai as Egypt's military will have its hands full with Islamic State aligned jihadists on the Libyan border and in southern Egypt where yet another insurgency grows.

By the way, Israel will not only have to pacify the Sinai, but they also have a very firm military commitment to defend the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan from the Islamic State. The acquisition of this knowledge very recently brought me to a reading of Jeremiah 49 and the realization that the expansion of Israel into Jordan (as is clearly seen in Ezekiel 39:11) is closer than we may currently may think it is.

13 October 2013:  My original assessment below on Egyptian-Israeli military cooperation against the Islamists in Gaza, Sinai and even in the Nile Delta region has been confirmed 100%. 

This confirmation comes via a report issued on October 2, 2013 by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy entitled "Israeli-Egyptian Peace: 40 Years After the 1973 War and Holding."
 

EXSUM OF THE REPORT:

Egyptian Defense Minister Abdul Fatah Sisi, in a reversal of state policy that has lasted since the 1979 peace treaty, has authorized the Egyptian military and intelligence community to maintain direct communications and coordination with their counterparts in Israel.

Previously this type of liaison with had been permitted only through the heavily Islamist MB-staffed Egyptian Foreign Ministry. However, with the purge of the Islamist MB from the ministry and Egyptian government on the whole the Defense Minister directed the military and intelligence community to work directly with Israel due to their shared mutual interest in curbing the terrorist factions that have emerged in Sinai over the past decade, threatening both the Israeli border and Egyptian control over the peninsula.

This liaison is now direct with high-level staffing of the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate (GID) at the Egyptian Embassy in Tel Aviv. The GID has overall responsibility for maintaining the new relationship and Embassy senior consul is actually the senior resident GID representative. Israel has a reciprocal staffing arrangement in Egypt.  Both nations now have the shared view that HAMAS is a primary threat to the region, the United States under President Obama is not to be trusted, and Iran and its regional proxies are the major threat to the Middle East.

14 August 2013: The interim government of Egypt today declared a "State of Emergency" would exist beginning at 4 PM local time throughout the nation.  Approximately 1,000 Egyptians have been killed or wounded in the most recent hours of the civil war. It appears as if Egyptian security forces responded with lethal force after the Islamists opened fire on them at both the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque and Nahda Sqaure makeshift but fortified protest camps. Both camps were then bulldozed into oblivion by Egyptian security forces.

11 August 2013:  The map of the Sinai Peninsula above illustrates where the southern front of the coming Psalm 83 War, the fulfillment of Isaiah 19 and the subsequent Daniel 11 war of conquest of the Roman Antichrist will be focused.  This most strategic aspect of the entire region can roughly be defined as including the whole of the Sinai Peninsula, the Suez Canal and the Nile Delta. It is further defined by the three major bodies of international water which surround it: the Gulf of Aqaba, the Gulf of Suez and the Mediterranean Sea.

An Assessment of the Present Situation

The northern Sinai, from Port Said to Gaza along the Mediterranean Sea, is virtually lawless. This is "Lower Egypt." Fundamentalist Islam as manifest in a plethora of Islamic Jihadist groups runs rampant here. The Egyptian military is just beginning to execute an operation designed to bring this area firmly back under the control of the interim government in Cairo. That will require the annihilation of all jihadists out posts in the Sinai. Israeli assistance from an intelligence and mutually beneficial covert military perspective are essential for the success of the Egyptian operation.

Egypt, however, has a bigger problem to tackle than terrorism running rampant in the Sinai. In Egypt democracy, as we understand it, and fundamentalist Islam are mutually exclusive just as they are anywhere on planet Earth. This is just an undeniable fact and the source of Egypt's bigger problem. Through the current events clarifying lens of  Bible prophecy we can see both the origin and the outcome of this problem through the text of Isaiah 19, Ezekiel 29 as well as Daniel 11.

Firstly, Egypt embroiled in full-blown civil war, as described by Isaiah 19, is the only logical outcome of the current situation, just as it has been in Afghanistan and any other majority Muslim country where fundamentalist Islam is not the supreme political determinant.

Secondly, rampant Islamic fundamentalism in the Sinai is not a problem requiring American and/or European Union military intervention at this time. Foreign intervention will occur in the future of the 70th Week.  I believe that the person identified as a "cruel lord/master" (qasheh 'adown) and "fierce king"  ('az melek) in Isaiah 19:4 is a direct reference to the Antichrist who will conquer Egypt during the 70th Week as revealed in Daniel 11:43.

At the present time Islamic jihadism in the Sinai is an Israeli and Egyptian problem. Through their existing peace treaty the these two nations will solve the problem together, or through the Egyptian military's preoccupation with the civil war in the Nile Delta region, Israel will once again impose a security solution in the Sinai exactly as they have done several times previously. Israel will do this not to conquer the Sinai, but to secure it and free the Egyptian military to deal with the bigger problems in Egypt proper. 

Regarding the full map above. Another problem which will distract the Egyptian military is the Ezekiel 28 aspect which is focused along the Nile River, and particularly from the Aswan High Dam (Syene) to the frontier of Sudan and Ethiopia (Kuwsh).  This is "Upper Egypt" and the conflict described in that prophecy appears to emanate from an ongoing Ethiopian-Sudanese project to build a dam above the existing Egyptian High Aswan Dam.

Finally, the long-term aspects of the Egyptian civil war, which will eventually adversely impact essential commercial shipping through the Suez Canal, will force NATO (US/EU) to intervene to secure the entire length of the Canal Zone/Red Sea choke point.  This is, again, the Daniel 11 aspect and it will occur during the 70th Week under the reign of the Roman Antichrist.

What all of this illustrates is just how close this Earth is to the start of the 70th Week.

Focus on Ezekiel 38:5 - Kuwsh

UPDATE 07 September 2011: An enlargeable map of the world circa the 10th century BC that is also quite useful in locating ancient Kuwsh can be accessed HERE.

2 September 2011: In this post I hope to provide some Scripture-based insight to correct a long-held misidentification of the land of Cush. This is an important distinction that directly relates to current events and what will shortly transpire, I believe, following the fulfillment of Psalm 83 and just prior to the commencement of Daniel's 70th Week.

To begin with, who was Ezekiel? Ezekiel was born in Jerusalem around 622 BC, he was a Kohanim Judean priest of Yahweh and was His prophet. Ezekiel was inspired directly from God. Therefore, Ezekiel directly and infallibly spoke the LORD God's prophetic word.

What we know as the country of Ethiopia is not mentioned whatsoever in Ezekiel 38:5. I believe the naming of Ethiopia in this context is a long-standing interpretive and eschatological error.

Ezekiel 38:5, written in the original Hebrew, is as follows: "Persia (Parac - pronounced Pah-rass), Cush (Kuwsh - pronounced Koosh), and Put (Puwt - pronounced Poot), with them, All of them [with] shield and helmet."

These peoples are, firstly, the original eastern Persians, as opposed to the Elamites who lived just east of Mesopotamia, or the Medes who lived to the north. We also have the Puwt who are the North Africans to the west of Egypt all the way to present day Mauritania. Yet it is the Kuwsh who are our focus here, and they are the direct descendants of Ham's son Kuwsh, the grandson of Noah. Isaiah 18:1 tells us where they lived "along the rivers of Kuwsh" which are located in the modern-day nation of Sudan directly to the south of Egypt. The "rivers of Kuwsh" are: (see map below)

1.) the Nile River,
2.) the White Nile River
3.) the Blue Nile River

Again, at present time there is a direct anti-Israel military connection between Iran (Persia), Sudan (Kuwsh) and the newly emergent Islamists of Libya (Puwt), Tunisia and Algeria (North Africans). We don't have to wait for anything to occur in Ethiopia as the southern branch of Gog's military alliance already exists today.

In ancient times this land was also known as Nubia (as seen in the map at the top) and in many respects was as advanced as the Egyptians of that ancient era. The Nubians were allies of Israel as proven by Isaiah 37:9-38 and 2 Kings 19 which both are a record concerning the invading Assyrians and the alliance between King Hezekiah and King Tirhakah of Kuwsh.

This is the ancient land of Kuwsh (Cush) identified in Ezekiel 38/39.

UPDATE 5 September 2011: In these last days is it not an obvious manifestation of the LORD God's Divine will that this land has been divided into two distinct nations? Of course it is, but how many have made note of this occurrence? It came about after the course of events of the past 55 years, with active armed rebellion and resistance between 1955 and 1972, and from 1983 to 2005. The LORD's will became manifest just about two months ago, on 9 July 2011.

The northern part of Kuwsh, a land divided by the three rivers identified above, is an Arab Islamic-ruled abomination which fervently seeks Israel's destruction, as mentioned above and ultimately to be manifest in the prophecy of Ezekiel 38/39.

The southern part, now known as "South Sudan" with a population of over 8 million souls and its capital city further to the south at Juba, is a fervent supporter of Israel. This nation is largely the product of Christian missionaries - Christian soldiers - who over the past century of time literally executed the Great Commission of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And now another relevant and obvious question for us all to consider:

1.) Does this new fact in our world not have a direct link and provide new insights to the prophecy of Isaiah 18? Is the harvest spoken of in Isaiah 18:3-5 a reference to the Harpazo/Rapture?

The Perplexities Involving Iran and Israel in These Last Days

6 September 2009: "... and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity..." Here we have one of the most often overlooked descriptives provided by Jesus in his authoritative discourse on what will happen or be existent in these last days. In these few words tucked into the middle of Luke 21:25 the Lord provides us with a geopolitical and military snap shot depicting that the nations in existence in the period of time immediately preceeding His return will be in a state of synochē and aporia, which translate as being in distress or anguish and not knowing what to do or in doubt about what to do. I believe the Lord then, in His following two words, told us exactly where on planet earth the epicenter of this distress, anguish and perplexity of the nations would be extant. Jesus said "thalassa" meaning "the sea" or more precisely the Mediterranean, Red, Dead, Galilee and other seas of the Middle East, including the Persian Gulf. Does this not precisely describe the geopolitical and military situation in the Middle East today, from Libya to Iran and from Turkey to the Horn of Africa? Embedded smack dab in the middle of this international maelstrom is the State of Israel.

And on top all of this, I cannot help but to apply the prophecy of Isaiah 22, and particularly to verses 5 and 6 wherein the prophet speaks directly to the nations of Elam and Judah, or as we know them today, to the Islamic Republic of Iran, the State of Israel, the last days and the coming of the Lord. Certainly to the secular world at large, but also to the Jews and the Islamists, these are days of trouble. Israel is surrounded by enemies whose conspiratorial desire is to destroy her as a nation so that the name Israel be remembered no more. These "inner ring" enemies of Israel are clearly listed in Psalm 83, yet among them we find no mention or reference to Iran.

The issue of why Iran is omitted from Asaph's Psalm 83 prophecy has many Christians perplexed to the point that it has become a key issue many are continually asking eschatologists to address these days. We have discussed this issue previously within various entries on Eschatology Today, as have many others on their websites. Yet, the issue remains. Once again it is my distrinct pleasure to direct your attention to Israelestine author Bill Salus blog, Prophecy Depot, to read his latest article entitled "When Israel Dwells Securely Iran Intends to Invade" as it relates to Israel and Iran and the timing involved in the coming last days conflict between them.