Global SITREP A9-16: Rise of the Prophetic Assyria?

Critical Update 9 March 2016: The U.S. CENTCOM Commander, General Lloyd Austin, informed the U.S. Congress yesterday that the failure of Mosul Dam (ancient and Biblical Nineveh) is a catastrophe waiting to happen: "If the dam fails, it will be a catastrophic. There will be thousands of people downstream that will either be injured or killed, certainly displaced. And the damage could extend all the way down to -- close to Baghdad, or into Baghdad"

 According to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad the "unprecedented" catastrophe would be of biblical proportions with the resultant 200-mile long flood potentially killing 500,000 to 1.5 million of the people who live in Mosul, the Tigris Valley towns of Tikrit and Samarra and southwards to Baghdad. The Mosul hydroelectric dam holds 2.2 cubic miles of water behind it in Lake Dahuk. These flood waters could reach depths of 45 or more feet during their rampage to the south. Mosul itself could suddenly find itself under 70 feet of water within an hour of the dam's failure.

Since the dam was build in the 1980s is has required a constant maintenance practice known as 'grouting' to keep it from collapsing completely. The process of grouting essentially shores up the ground underneath the dam with millions of tons of concrete. In 2014 when forces of the Islamic State over ran Mosul and took control of the dam all of the maintenance workers fled for their lives and have never returned. For two years now the critically essential grouting maintenance has not occurred and the dam is now in imminent danger of collapse.


27 February 2016:  There are a couple OSINT items that need to be part of an update to this SITREP. The first is from Bloomberg Business News which reported early this morning that all Kurdish leaders have agreed to proceed with a national referendum. In this referendum the issue of Kurdistan's independence from Iraq is an issue that will be decided by the Kurdish people themselves. 

An independent Kurdistan will be born with a Kurdish-developed petroleum production infrastructure sitting on 45 billion barrels of crude oil reserves according to British Petroleum (BP Plc) data. The Iraqi government, for its part, says the planned referendum is illegal without coordination and approval from itself. Kurdistan has been exporting its own oil and reaping the financial benefits through a pipeline into Turkey for the past six months. These profits has largely been consumed by a collapsing oil market as well as the increasingly successful prosecution of the war against Islamic State invaders.

A report in The Economist supports what has been posted below, Kurdish independence is a virtual fait accompli among the resident 6 million Iraqi Kurds. What they have yet to determine is when independence will occur and where the national borders will be fixed. All of the factors necessary for a successful independent nation exist in Kurdistan. A hundred years after the Kurdish people were divided up by European colonial powers (principally Britain and France) into four artificially created national borders of the former Ottoman Turkey, Iran, Syria and Mesopotamia (Iraq) self-determination will be begun by the Kurds in Iraq. The rise of the Islamic State has been central to the drive for Kurdish self-determination and, ultimately, independence as a nation-state.

 

25 February 2016: There are strong indications that a specific but rarely discussed Bible prophecy from the Book of Isaiah may actually be in the process of becoming a reality in the world.

Isaiah 19:23-25 (KJ21)

In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians.
In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land, whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, “Blessed be Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel Mine inheritance.”

As clearly indicated by the map above, I think this prophecy may be directly related to the emergence of an independent Kurdistan, which for all intents and purposes is occurring in de facto fashion due to the fracturing of Iraq and the ongoing war against the islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Compare the above map with one which depicts the same area as it was circa the time that Isaiah lived gave this prophecy.

The point of this map is the area of the in the darker shade of green. You will notice that the intended future state of Kurdistan is virtually identical to that which was the central homeland of Assyria in Isaiah's day, or roughly 800 to 750 BC.

In the past several weeks an increasingly loud call for an independent Kurdistan has been made not just by Kurdish leaders, but also by an array of international voices. Notable among them is the State of Israel, in particular its Justice Minister, Ayelet Shaked, who one month ago called for an independent Kurdistan. Her call was more or less specific to Iraqi Kurdistan given that the rest of Iraq is currently under the Ayatollah Khamenei's domination.

But what is perhaps one of the driving forces at present is an American reliance on the Kurds in the war against the Islamic State. Iraqi Kurds are fighting to free themselves and others who live in the region from IS tyranny, such as the Yazidis and native Assyrians. It is highly unlikely the Kurds will relinquish a de facto independence they have purchased with their own blood.

But the Kurd's are taking their quest for statehood a step further than just de facto existence. Masoud Barzani, President of the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq has announced that the time has come for a popular referendum of Kurdish independence. There is little doubt that the referendum will pass with 98% of the people voting for independence.

To be sure there are other important factors involved. Chief among them from the eschatological point-of-view are the fulfillment of prophecies regarding Syria (Isaiah 17, and Jeremiah 49:23-27), Iran (Jeremiah 49:34-39), as well as Psalm 83 and Ezekiel 38/39. What all of these prophecies make clear is that, with the exception of Israel, the majority of current nations which these prophecies directly involve will have ceased to exist in the not too distant future. That leaves a vacuum in the region, one that a new country such as a Kurdistan, or as the Bible prophetically calls it, Assyria, to fill those territories north and east of the Euphrates River.'

This is another of the rapidly changing dynamics in the Middle Est that could have been part of SITREP A8-16, but I believe warrants a SITREP of its own given that the Bible prophecy of Isaiah 19:23-25 clearly foretells the rise of a new nation north of a greater Israel in the near future.

Global SITREP D10-14: Get Ready... Get Set... Big Changes Are Coming!

30 October 2014: On the calendar that we use the last two months of the year 2014 and the start of the year 2015 have taken on the appearance of being quite critical in the prophetic scheme of things. The Lord has many appointed times as one reads through the many 'last days' prophecies, and as has been discussed here over the past few years these prophetic appointments are stacked up and ordered in such a way that our world will become more and more unrecognizable from what we have known in the past few decades as each event comes to pass.

I have gotten the sense that the proverbial can has been kicked in complete darkness just about as far down the road as is possible. And it is now its hard to see where it will be kicked next because, as the image above so brilliantly illustrates, the sun has risen and is directly in our eyes. Just as the sun is low in the sky this time of year, it's glare making it that more difficult to see where one is going on foot or in a vehicle, that is the sense I am getting that what is about to occur around the world, but especially in the Middle East, will change all manner of things in ways that no one has anticipated with any accuracy.

That said, I am going to repeat what I have posted here before, and have recently reiterated privately to one of the readers here who had some significant questions about the sudden quietness that has come about in September and October after a very tumultuous spring and summer (Crimea, Ukraine and Gaza). I reminded this reader of the over-arching prophetic scenario that is occurring and we are eyewitnesses of; that we must constantly remind and reassure ourselves that these last days events are like the female's birth pangs exactly as Jesus foretold to us they would be in the Olivet Discourse.

There are finite spaces of time between each pang, but they are always increasing in severity and the space of time between the pangs gets narrower as we move forward. Then, just as in real childbirth, the amniotic sac bursts and a flood of water occurs as the travails of labor give way to the actual birth. This is precisely how the angel Gabriel described the coming event in Daniel 9:26c, and I quote, "The end of it shall be with a flood." I think we all understand the use of these "birth pangs" and "flood" metaphors very well indeed.

Here comes the kicker, and I have also stated this before as well, but probably not as clearly as I am going to say it this time. And for heaven's sake, this is not date setting, it is rather the stating of the understanding I have and am convicted of regarding the season were are in, and I'm using the inspired prophetic words of the Bible to do so as unambiguously as possible. 

Three Times I Say "I Believe"

I believe that the start of this generation commenced in 1948 with Israel's rebirth in a single day, as stated in the magnificent and critically important prophecy of Isaiah 66:8. 

I believe we are living in the last generation, and this last generation is a generation of strength, the precise number of which is 80 literal years as stated in Psalm 90:10. 

I believe the Harpazo will occur in a completely unknown microsecond prior to the start of the 70th Week as promised by our Lord Jesus Messiah in Revelation 3:10 to the faithful church.

Therefore, based upon these Scripture-specific beliefs, the 'last days' number crunching is a very basic matter in order to determine what portion remains of the season that Jesus told us to be watching for at all times. What I am talking about is the number of years left during which the sudden catching away of the Bride of Christ will occur. 

According to the ancient Jewish betrothal custom, which is our template and our teaching tool for a greater understanding of the Harpazo of the Bride of Christ, did the bride know the very moment when her groom was coming for her? Even though it was a surprise for the Jewish bride, she and her bridal party were always - always - at the ready in anticipation of the shout of the messenger whose task it was to loudly announce the coming of the groom. Then the groom arrived and away the all went!

The math that the Lord's word has provided:

1948 + 80 years of strength = 2028
2028 - the 7 years of the 70th Week = 2021
2021 - 2015 = 6 years

So, unless I really don't know His word as well as I think He has taught me... I believe the time to be listening for the shout of the voice of the archangel is between right now this instant and at some unknown and still surprising point during the next 6 years.

Now there will undoubtedly be some who will say this is all just some numerical mumbo jumbo which has no context with anything in particular, or that it's just a straw man for (insert your straw man purpose ____here____.) How can we be sure this is the season? By paying even closer attention to the signs that point to this being the season of which Bible prophecy is speaking, that's how. Here's where a couple of very specific events become signposts if not billboards along the road to The Revelation of Jesus Christ.

In Luke 21:25 Jesus tells us "And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring..."  I know this is an oft cited sign, but lately the sun, our solar system's massive ball of blistering hot ionized gases held together by an immense magnetic field, has been displaying signs that mankind has never before seen. Signs such as massive voids, holes, linear tears and other very weird activity which astrophysicists have no reference point in order to explain these phenomena. For example, at the present time there is a massive sunspot of super intense magnetic energy which is producing lots of really, really big solar flares, as is normal, but not a single coronal mass ejection (CME), which is absolutely not normal. Normally, when a solar flare erupts and reaches its maximum height above the surface it then snaps back into the sun due to the overwhelming magnetic forces pulling on it and that's the event which creates a full-blown coronal mass ejection. This is, by definition, is what a sign is, something very much out of the ordinary. And these type of out of the ordinary events of our sun are happening a whole lot these days in the explicit context of what this post is about, Bible prophecy. Here below is a NASA image of a flare that occurred this morning. Click on it; look at it closely. Have you ever seen anything like this image of our sun. i know I haven't and I am a passionate observer of this kind of technological imagery. This is truly the real deal.

Here's another prophetic sign straight out of the Book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel 38:7 prophesies, "Prepare yourself and be ready, you and all your companies that are gathered about you; and be a guard for them."  Have we been paying attention to the way Russia is a primary cog in the wheel that is the long-running Iranian nuclear weapons program? Are we not fully aware of how Russia has been running active interference for Iran at the U.N. and as a participant member state in the E3/EU+3 nuclear talks with Iran? Without question the Russian Federation is actively guarding the foremost of the Islamic Republic of Iran's nascent nuclear weapons program, precisely as the Lord spoke it to the prophet Ezekiel thousands of years ago. And here the Bride of Christ are witnesses to this very specific fulfillment of a very specific verse within the Ezekiel prophecy; it is occurring right before our eyes - if we take note of it and not allow it to pass us by unnoticed. Russian Federation expertise built the primary Iranian reactor as Bushehr and provided the enriched uranium hexafloride fuel to power its nuclear core. Last December, the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin (a/k/a to myself as 'Gog of Magog') told the world that the Iranian nuclear program was going to be dismantled through the terms of the agreement being negotiated at the E3/EU+3 talks. Lest December he said this. Gog of Magog also said there would therefore be no need for a Western missile defense system to shield us from Iranian nuclear-armed missiles.

Gog of Magog would try to sell ice cubes to Eskimos. So, how many more specific signs do we really need to know what season it is and how through the literal fulfillment of Bible prophecy the world that will exist in the very near future will have only a passing resemblance to the one we see right now. And if you are one who has not yet decided that Jesus is the Son of God, the one and only Lamb of God whose shed blood covers and removes from the sight of God all sins and trespasses and guarantees you eternal life, then the time for a decision for Him is right now. Tomorrow may be too late, for who knows the future but Him who provides us with prophecies such as these being fulfilled before our eyes?

Marana'tha!

Addendum: One final historical and forward-looking observation regarding these United States of America. I also believe there are sweeping political changes that are coming to this country of the course of the next six years. The obvious preponderance of political power wielded by the radically leftist Obama Administration has all but run its course. From the mid-term election day of this coming Tuesday through to the November 2016 general election I believe we will witness a massive return to grass-roots Conservatism sweep into power at nearly every level of civil governance (federal, state, local) across this nation. The changes this political power shift will bring about are nothing short of massive in virtually any category imaginable. These changes will not occur without significant opposition from the Left which may not yet be ready to surrender their gains, real or perceived, of the previous 7 years.

As an aside, some Christian brethren are fond of saying that the election of Barack Hussein Obama II in November 2008 and again in 2012 was God’s way of bringing judgment upon this nation for its sins. Well, bringing national leaders to prominence is definitely within the Lord’s control, and Obama's time in power was to serve some purpose which may not yet be fully apparent to us all. However, I am all but convinced that political commentary maven Rush Limbaugh has gotten the basic reason for the political changes that have occurred between 2008 and the present spot-on correct. 

Simply put, the seven years of the “Obamination of America” was the direct result of both conservative Republican and Independent voters wanting to put to bed to the most pressing and divisive political issue this country has ever faced – race relations and everything that comes with that entire political "race card" paradigm. This bloc of America's enfranchised voted for Obama twice with the very best of intentions. The conservative and independent electorate cast their ballots along with a solid base of Democrat voters in believing that the election of the first 'black man' (actually, Obama is of mixed race parentage) to the highest office would bring the divisiveness of race relations in this constitutional republic to an abrupt end.

The unforeseen problem was that this electorate cast their ballots without one iota of consideration of the political and ideological baggage that Obama and his ilk would bring with them and then bring about through overwhelming political power. Perhaps they believed that America's strength lie in its ability to absorb or shrug off any detrimental effects brought to fruition through his leftist ideology? Whatever the case may be, Republicans, Independents and Democrats alike were aghast when they realized that Obama and his appointed administration's leadership was as anti-Israel as were his closest pre-election Chicago associates (i.e. the Palestinian terrorists Edward Said and Rashid Khalidi). 

These Americans were aghast when they realized the full-scope of the socialist agenda being brought to bear on healthcare, defense (OEF/OIF, Benghazi and the severe degradation of US military capabilities), foreign policy (pro-Islamist revolution designed to destroy Israel), and a plethora of Constitutional (Fast and Furious), states’ rights and economic (Keystone Pipeline) issues. The grassroots, non-partisan counter-revolution that began almost immediately in 2009 gave birth to the non-politically affiliated Tea Party which has been the tip of the spear in the changes that have been manifest in the last mid-term election and in the one we’re about to have. The American electorate has now seen seen and felt the pain associated with the costs of electing a president whose ideology and utter rejection of our checks and balances political system began to effect changes like a wrecking ball on the edifice of a basically sound structure.

Now, Obama is a liability to his political party like no political party has faced since Nixon and Watergate, and which pales in comparison to what Obama has wrought. In the coming several months after this mid-term election Obama’s penchant for ignoring the rule of Constitutional law could very well land him in the midst of an impeachment during his final year of office. Obama’s final months are likely to re-define what an American “lame duck” president is. A pendulum swing back to the right is already in progress, yet there are also indications that the violence-loving reactionary core of Obama’s Marxist-Socialist-Islamist base is still a threat to civil law and order, especially in places such as Ferguson, Missouri. This encapsulates my view that the struggle to control the world's preeminent power is just beginning against enemies both foreign and domestic and spiritual. For us there is much work to do and much more to endure for America and for Israel until He comes to take us home.

Global SITREP B20-14: Bible Prophecy Front and Center

4 April 2014: The purpose of this SITREP is to illustrate how Bible prophecy is literally being manifest in current world events. These are events which everyone who is being a watchman of world events relative to specific Bible prophecy can witness to with their own eyes and ears in living color via satellite and cable television broadcasts. Bible prophecy coming to pass in front of our eyes from verses almost no one has paid real careful attention to before now, plus other verses which clearly indicate a very clear sequence for these major events, and why we should be exuberantly looking up for our Harpazo by the Lord draws ever closer!

To begin with, lets take Ezekiel 38/39. I think all of us have read these two prophetic chapters as well as an endless stream of articles giving various interpretations on the basics, and that's all fine and dandy. However, it's when one pays attention to the little noticed details that one actually notices them occurring in real-time, as in right now real-time, that one can feel the Holy Spirit leap within you. This happened to me last evening.

The verse that I would like to call your attention to is Ezekiel 38:7 where the LORD God is speaking through the prophet Ezekiel directly to the man who is known as "Gog, of the land of Magog." and He says:

“Prepare yourself and be ready, you and all your companies that are gathered about you; and be a guard for them."

In this single sentence the LORD God has instructed Gog to prepare (Hebrew: kuwn qahal: meaning to be prepared as in a very high state of readiness for war or invasion) the military forces of his own country, the military forces of those countries he also has direct control over, as well as all those military forces of the other countries that are also in this military alliance with him, and to be a guard for them. The Hebrew word for guard here is mishmar, meaning a diligent ward or overwatch for their military capabilities.

In very recent news and as a direct result of the Russian invasion and annexation of the Crimean Autonomous Republic from Ukraine, the United States and our NATO allies in the EU have taken various economic measures known as sanctions. Most important of them was the one which resulted in kicking the Russian Federation out of the exclusive economic club, formerly known as the G8, but now just being the G7 (yes, 7 nations in a Trans-Atlantic and Global economic alliance which also includes Japan!).

In direct retaliation for these sanctions the Russian's have served notice to the G7 that they will henceforth act as guardian of the Iranian nuclear program in the upcoming round of talks which resume shortly following a 6-month hiatus during which Iran was supposed to have accomplished some benchmark reductions and shutdowns of its nuclear program. Now that the time has arrived for a viable Western military option to strike Iran to be raised, Russia has now openly committed to defend Iran's military-purposed nuclear weapons program against the US and Europeans.

Putting aside for a moment the billions upon billions worth of Russian weapons systems sales that are arming all of the the Ezekiel 38/39 Magog military confederation, is this new direct Russian defense of the Iranian nuclear weapons program not a literal fulfillment of Ezekiel 38:7? I absolutely believe it is, and this is why the Holy Spirit leapt inside me when I read about it. This will shortly be, or at least it should be, front page news or the lead story when the "E3/EU+3 Iran Talks" reconvene

Well, everybody knows the Iranians never intended per the negotiated E3/EU+3 interim agreement to reduce their growing nuclear weapons capabilities by even so much as a single spinning centrifuge. But what everybody may not know is the the United States and European Union made a hard promise to Israel to keep the Iranian military strike option on-the-table. This promise is what directly prevented Israel from launching their own well-planned and  devastating unilateral strike against Iranian nuclear infrastructure targets in the summer of 2012. Now Russia's actions in Crimea and the very real Indications and Warnings (I&W) of an even larger Russian invasion of the rest of Ukraine probably have Israel's military commanders pounding on the conference table even before Bibi Netanyahu strolls into the room. If those IDF commanders understood Bible prophecy they'd know that God has a pair of hooks from which there is no escape in His hand that He will soon put to use. The appointed hour approaches.

Now to another item which I have posted on and written about many times in the past 5 years or so. Isaiah 17. And as much as I have read that prophetic chapter, and have believed it would be the event which launches the final battles of the ongoing Psalm 83 war (1947 to the present), it wasn't until very early in the morning the other day that I noticed something in those texts which even more directly points to a sequence of Isaiah 17 preceding Psalm 83.

We're all very aware of what occurs in Isaiah 17. The focus is always on the total destruction of Damascus, then of the cities of Aroer, and then of central Israel (Ephraim). It is the end result of the military action which results in the destruction of Damascus that I noticed is more profound and prophetic than I previosuly saw it to be.

Isaiah 17:12-13 reads:

"Woe to the multitude of many people
Who make a noise like the roar of the seas,
And to the rushing of nations
That make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!

The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters;
But God will rebuke them and they will flee far away,
And be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind,
Like a rolling thing before the whirlwind."

Who are those many gentile people who are making a noise like the roar of the seas that Isaiah prophesies about? A rushing of gentile nations going where and to do what?

Of course, they are the gentile Arab Shi'a and Sunni Muslims nations and peoples from Lebanon, Jordan, the West Bank, Gaza and the Sinai in a headlong jihad rush to attack and destroy Israel so "the name of Israel may be remembered no more" (Psalm 83:4). Why do they suddenly rush in to do this? Because Israel has just destroyed to the point of complete obliteration the oldest Arab Islamic capital city in the world. But what happens when they come rushing in? The result is that these nations God rebukes them, they are chased like chaff off mountains before a wind, like a rolling thing before the Cuwphah (Sufa).

So why do I conclude that Isaiah 17 precedes the finale of Psalm 83? Because of the very specific language the singing prophet (chozeh) Asaph was inspired of the Lord's Spirit to use in his description of the military result of Psalm 83. This military result was nearly achieved in 1948, and again 1967 and again in 1973. This next time it will absolutely be achieved. Asaph's specific prophetic language in Psalm 83:13-15

"O my God, make them like the whirling dust,
Like the chaff before the wind! 

As the fire burns the woods,
And as the flame sets the mountains on fire, 

 So pursue them with Your tempest,
And frighten them with Your storm."

It appears to me that these two prophets, first Asaph and then Isaiah, were inspired by the same Holy Spirit to prophesy about the same event but from slightly different perspectives and about 400 years apart from each other. It is these two distinct perspectives about this great military defeat that is strongly suggestive of and reinforces what I have come to understand about their place in the sequence in events preceding the fulfillment of Ezekiel 38/39 which immediately precedes the start of the 70th Week. In this these verses sequence provide an explanation of why the resultant rushing of the Arab nations in Isaiah 17 occurs only after Damascus is obliterated, and why Aram-Syria-Damascus does not appear at all within the nations and peoples specified in Psalm 83.

Addendum: As a final note to the sequence of Isaiah 17 immediately followed by Psalm 83 being thereafter followed by Ezekiel 38/39, I again submit the confirming prophecies found in Isaiah 11:12-14 and Ezekiel 28:24-26.

Ezekiel!

2 December 2012: In the 6th Century before Jesus Christ the LORD God raised up by the Holy Spirit a priest to become a great prophet and a watchman for the whole house of Israel. We know him as Ezekiel. Just prior to Israel's captivity and exile to Babylon this priest-prophet Ezekiel became the literal voice of God to Israel, reminding Israel of why they were sent into captivity and promising their restoration to the land in the future. The key point to remember when reading this prophetic work is that when Ezekiel spoke he spoke as the LORD God who put the words in his mouth. Where Ezekiel wrote 'Thus says the Lord God," it is literally the Lord God speaking, and Ezekiel is charged by the LORD God to speak these words irregardless of whether Israel will listen and heed them or whether Israel will ignore them.

This is a look at Ezekiel in a manner that is slightly different than has been traditional and will treat chapters 20 through 28 as a cohesive unit of prophecy. In these chapters, which many overlook because of the perceived all-importance of the Battle of Gog-Magog in chapters 38 and 39, there is much to learn from as I believe they set the prophetic stage for events which immediately precede that final and critical pre-70th Week event. In these chapters Israel has been partially restored to the land and as the LORD God continues to set the conditions by which He ultimately will turn His full attention to Israel; when He will have ceased to hide His face from them and will have poured out His Spirit on the house of Israel.

65 years ago Israel's restoration to the covenant land began as Israel was still in rebellion and, for the most part, Israel remains in that rebellious condition to this day. However, this rebellion is irrelevant to the Lord in going about His purposes prior to the coming of His Kingdom on this earth and fulfilling the promises of His covenant with Israel. So the same conditions exist today, as they did 65 years ago, as they existed when Moses informed Israel of the additional covenant of Moab (Deuteronomy 29: see verse 4). This is the focus of the Lord's word to Israel through Ezekiel in chapter 20; the LORD God is telling the Israel we know today that they are currently no different than when He brought them out of Egypt. Nothing has changed, and will not change until the LORD God pours out His Spirit upon Israel - Israel will remain hard of heart, spiritually blind and deaf even though they no longer wander in the wilderness of the nations of this world (Ezekiel 20:23-24).

Yet the promise of the Lord for Israel's restoration to the land began and remains in progress, for it is in the land of Israel that the LORD God shall accept them as a sweet aroma and pour out His Spirit upon them for His name's sake.

Beginning in Ezekiel 25 and continuing through Ezekiel 28 we find prophetic proclamations against the same groups - Ammon, Moab, Edom, Philistia and Lebanon - that are found in Asaph's Psalm 83. The concluding verses of Ezekiel 28:24-26 provide both the time frame and the result of the prophetic proclamations against the peoples: prior to the prophetic events described in Ezekiel 38 and 39!

“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.‘Thus says the Lord God: “When I have gathered the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and am hallowed in them in the sight of the Gentiles, then they will dwell in their own land which I gave to My servant Jacob. And they will dwell safely there, build houses, and plant vineyards; yes, they will dwell securely, when I execute judgments on all those around them who despise them. Then they shall know that I am the Lord their God.”

 We are witnessing each day the threshold of these prophecies fulfillment, a process of fulfillment which began 65 years ago with the first Arab vs. Israel battles of November 1947.

Psalm 83 Verse 8: Assur - Syria or Iraq?

Assyria also has joined with them;
They have helped the children of Lot.
Asaph, Psalm 83:8

19 July 2012: Although this may seem redundant to some readers, we're going to look at Psalm 83:8 once again with the intent to firmly affiliate the modern-day nation that God inspired the Levite priest Asaph to include as the tenth of the confederated enemy peoples and regions who have come against Israel in these last days.  As essential backgrounders for this topic I invite the reader to also take the time to review "All these things be fulfilled... Part I and Part II" posted in 2009 as well as "The Psalm 83 Inner Ring Solidifies" posted 2010 to this blog.

In revisiting the subject of Psalm 83 I have learned that according to a commentary by Matthew Henry and the article "Who was Asaph?" (an excellent "must read" study) written in 2005 by Richard Thompson, what we know as Psalm 83 is the last of the total of twelve Psalms that bear Asaph's name as the composer. We know that Asaph lived circa 1020-920 BC, and that Psalm 83 was most likely composed near to Asaph's 100th year during the reign of king Rehoboam and following the twin disasters of the rending of Israel into Israel and Judah and the invasion by Egypt's pharaoh Shishak. These historical details date Psalm 83's composition to about 925 BC.

What was Asshur's (Assyria's) situation circa 925 BC? At this specific point in Assyria's history the king was a man by the name of Ashur-dan II. Ashur-dan II's reign endured for all of 23 years, from 935 to 912 BC, wherein the year of 925 BC pretty much falls smack dab in the middle.  Now, for the previous hundred years Assyria had been subject to Aramean invasions to such an extent that by the end of those 100 years Ashur-dan II was completely preoccupied with securing the Assyrian heartland against these Aramean invasions. His primary task was in "rebuilding Assyria within its natural borders" according to Assyrian historian Peter BetBasoo. The British ancient history website historyfiles.co.uk concurs, saying  of the same time period "Recent Aramean migrations into Mesopotamia increase to the point where Assyria is seriously weakened and begins a decline and a century of total obscurity, reduced to its heartland." Reduced to its heartland, which means there was no such thing an an Assyrian Empire during this time. Total obscurity.

So the totally obscure Assyrian heartland was geographically located where? In the north-central part of modern-day Iraq, as seen in this Goggle Earth satellite image below and in the image at the top of this post. This region is also known as the Assur-Nineveh-Arbela triangle which survive to this day, respectively, as the modern Iraqi cities Qala'at Sherqat, Mosul and Erbil.  Assur in Psalm 83:8 is Iraq.

That issue settled, we now move into a more detailed analysis of what Iraq actually is, and what it is likely to become in the days ahead.

Iraq is an artificial, man-made construct that is geographically divided between the Sunni populated northern and western three-fourths of the country and the Shi'a southeastern quadrant. Ancient Assur lies wholly within in the northern Sunni section; the remainder is Shi'a dominated and closely tied to Shi'a Iran and ancient Elam.

We are informed in verse 8 that Assur helps Lot's progeny. Lot's children constitute modern-day Jordan, and there are real-world ethnic and tribal links that cross over the equally artificial Iraqi-Jordanian frontier. In fact, as mentioned in earlier posts referenced above as an essential part of this post, the help (zĕrowa`) provided by Iraq dates back to the 1948 war and every war since then in which Israel squared off on the battlefield against Jordanian forces there were Iraqi battalions and their commanders also in the fight.

It would seem that something also needs to occur respective to the cohesion of the present Iraqi nation. Perhaps that something is related to Jeremiah 49:34-39, or perhaps to the Sunni-Shi'a civil war that is ongoing in Aram-Syria at this time, or both. In any event, the Lord specifically identified Assur in verse 8 and the expected paradigm-shifting events are likely more widespread that we currently are able to envision.

  

Current Events: Russia and Iran

15 January 2012: The current conditions in Israel do not merit talk of the imminent fulfillment of Ezekiel 38/39. There is much to be fulfilled prior to those conditions being met.

In fact, one need not bother to ask the residents of Sderot, Be'ersheva, Ashdod or anywhere in Judea or Samaria if any of the five following conditions are true as they are plainly evident as untrue:

1.) All Israel is not dwelling securely (yashab betach) at the present time;

2.) Israel is not a land of unwalled villages ('erets pĕrazah);

3.) Israel is not at undisturbed rest, dwelling without walls, bars or gates (shaqat yashab chowmah bĕriyach deleth) (Ez. 38:11);

4.) With no one to make them afraid (charad) (Ez. 39:26);

5.) Nor is Israel yet in possession of the valley of the passengers east of the sea (gay' `abar qidmah yam) (Ez. 39:11).

When ALL 5 of the above prophetic conditions are plainly evident, then talk about the imminence of Ezekiel 38/39 fulfillment will be appropriate.