For Fun – And Prophet

Things aren’t dull in Israel.

Two days ago, at five minutes after midnight, Iran fired off a volley of 20 guided missiles from Syria to northern Israel. No-one was injured in the attack. Four missiles were shot down by Israeli missile-defense systems; the rest didn’t make it to Israeli territory.

Did you get that? NO-ONE WAS INJURED!

I scratched my head and contemplated this again. What do you mean, no-one was injured? What are the chances that a score of missiles sent to hit population centers would not find at least one person to kill or maim?

I am reminded of a simple fact from my earliest days in Israel nearly 30 years ago: During the First Gulf War, Iraq shot approximately 39 giant Al-Hussein Scud missiles into Israel’s most crowded population centers. One person died from a heart attack.

What? How could that be? The scuds destroyed entire city blocks of Tel Aviv and its suburbs!

“What is going on here?” I asked myself.

I decided to look through a trusty, dusty old source – my copy of the Hebrew Bible – to see if the ancient Hebrew Prophets had anything to say about the matter. Maybe there is something there that might explain this!

I opened up to the greatest of the Hebrew Prophets, Isaiah. Isaiah lived in Jerusalem some 2,700 years ago, and spent his time speaking his words before the Judean royalty, including his friend the king, Hezekiah. Look what I found:

“’Storm-tossed poor one, not comforted;
here – I am paving your stones in blue, and I will establish you with sapphires.

Every weapon formed against you will not succeed,
and every language arising against you in court – I will condemn;
this is the inheritance of the servants of HaShem,
and their righteousness from Me,’ spoke HaShem.”

(Isaiah, Chapter 54, Verses 11, 17)

Woah. What are we talking about here?

Doesn’t sound anything like the history of the Jewish Nation that I know, which was hunted down and humiliated in exile for all these centuries. Hell, for all that time, we didn’t even have a country to call our own, to live in and defend! Clearly this is talking about some other kind of reality, nothing that Israel has ever known.

Ahhh. Let’s turn to the Hebrew Prophet Ezekiel the son of Buzi for a moment. He lived far from Israel, in the Babylonian Exile, 2,500 years ago. Yet he constantly spoke prophecy about Jerusalem and Judah to his brethren in Babylon.

Ezekiel explains that though Israel would be sent into exile, one day HaShem would take them back to their land and make them into a new kind of Nation. Here are his words:

“Therefore say to the House of Israel:
so says the Lord, HaShem:
‘Not for your sake am I doing this, House of Israel;
but rather for My Holy Name,
which you profaned among the goyyim (the nations) that you came there.

And I will sanctify my Great Name that was profaned among the goyyim,
that you profaned among them;
and the goyyim will know that I am HaShem’,
spoke the Lord HaShem,
‘when I sanctify you before their eyes.

And I will take you from the goyyim;
and I will gather you from all the lands;
and I will bring you to your Land.

And I will toss pure water on you,
and you will be purified from all of your impurities;
and from all of your idols – I will purify you.

And I will give you a new heart,
and a new spirit I will place within you;
and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh;
and I will give you a heart of flesh.

And My spirit, I will place within you;
and I will make it so that you will walk in My statutes,
and my Laws you will guard, and do them.

And you will settle in the Land I gave to your ancestors;
and you will be for me a People,
and I will be for you the Lord.

And I will save you from all your impurities;
and I will call to the grain and increase it,
and I will not place on you famine.

And I will increase the fruits of the trees,
and the produce of the field,
in order that you will no longer take the disgrace of famine among the goyyim.’”

(Ezekiel, Chapter 36, Verses 22-30)

So, with a little cross-data analysis, we can ascertain that Isaiah is likely talking about the same future period that Ezekiel is. When the Jews return to the Land of Israel, and the Land becomes fruitful again – then those who oppose Israel and its role in the world will have no choice but to change their ways.

Could it be that we have arrived at that time, NOW? You be the judge. But two things can be done, no matter what you believe:

1. We can be very, very thankful for the incredible miracles that are taking place before our eyes – like the one that happened last night.
2. We can understand that if what our Prophets are saying is true, and we have indeed arrived at those special times – then Iran must understand that the more they oppose us, and the more they seek our harm – the deeper they are digging their own graves.

And that is just a plain, unnecessary shame. We have nothing against the Iranian people!

Stay tuned –