“I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves” (Zechariah 12:3, NIV).
On January 28, 2020, the White House Released the “Peace to Prosperity Plan” for Israel. The plan includes a divided Jerusalem, the city where Christ Himself will reign during the Millennium. On January 29, POTUS established the Coronavirus Task Force.
At the same time, also January 29, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Arab Palestinians they could make a counteroffer for parts of Israel and Jerusalem they want. On January 31, POTUS declared a national public health emergency.
This is like what happened when the U.S., under the Bush 43 administration, encouraged the forced evacuation of Jews from Gaza. Just under 10,000 Jews were displaced in late August of 2005, and we were immediately slammed with Hurricane Katrina. 1,800 Americans lost their lives, and the FEMA report indicates over 96,000 square miles of the Gulf Coast were completely devastated.
Before the season was over, a total of four million Americans were displaced, some permanently. Katrina still was largely a regional event, even though it impacted the entire country. The events of these recent months in early 2020 are affecting the entire nation. Time to listen up!
There’s more history here, too, if one looks back in time. For instance, on March 26, 1979, the Israel-Egypt peace treaty was signed in Washington, D.C. as a result of the efforts of the Jimmy Carter administration. Within 30 days of the signing, the Federal Emergency Management Agency declared seven natural disasters nationally. This was an unprecedented number of declarations at that time, for such a short period.
On May 22, 1989, the U.S. Secretary of State James Baker chided an American Israel Public Affairs Committee (a pro-Israel lobby group) audience and said that Israel should abandon its “expansionist policies.” This was a major change of policy and tone from the Reagan administration years, previously thought to be among the most pro-Israel in U.S. history. Within the next seven months, FEMA declared 19 national disasters. Two of the biggest were Hurricane Hugo that made landfall on September 22, and the Loma Prieta earthquake in California on October 17. Hugo was a Category 5 hurricane with winds as much as 160 miles per hour, devasting much of the Carolinas and southeastern U.S., making it the 12th most damaging storm in U.S. history. It killed 67 people in direct deaths, with additional indirect deaths in the aftermath.
The 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake, also known as the San Francisco quake because of the live television broadcast from Candlestick Park, killed 67 people, collapsed a 1.25-mile segment of the two-level Cypress Street Viaduct along the Nimitz Freeway (Interstate 880), and a portion of the upper deck of the Bay Bridge–which had been scheduled for a retrofitting the following week—collapsed onto the lower level. The very ground under the Marina liquefied, collapsing structures, and fueling raging fires. All this happened in just 15 seconds of shaking. It was the largest quake in the United States since the historic San Francisco quake of 1906.
Notice that both events resulted in 67 direct deaths. Disasters tend to be so random that it is highly unusual to have the same number of deaths in two disasters in the same year, let alone within less than a month of each other. It’s interesting to note that 1967 was the year Israel won back much of the covenant lands in the Six Day War. Even more significantly, they won back control of Jerusalem. Is it possible that we are to see the connections?
Also, did you happen to note that Hurricane Hugo struck the east coast and the Loma Prieta quake struck the west coast? ““The coastlands have seen and are afraid, the ends of the earth tremble.” (Isaiah 41:5). Later in the same passage, God is speaking to Israel and says, “Behold, all who are incensed against you shall be put to shame and confounded; those who strive against you shall be as nothing and shall perish” (Isaiah 41:11).
After the failure of the Camp David accords, and before he left office, President Clinton appointed a former U.S. Senator to head an international fact-finding committee that later released the Mitchell Report on April 30, 2001. Asking Israel to cease settling their own covenant lands was just one of the provisions. Curiously, in a discussion with a Christian sister about this in June of 2001, the words “we are about to get absolutely hammered and it will be soon” blurted from my mouth before I even knew they were formed. They came as if someone else had physically opened my lips and forced breath from my lungs. When I heard these words I was struck, not with fear, but with an undeniable conviction that true tragedy was coming soon, and there was nothing that would stop it now. Then came September 11, 2001, and the deadly terrorism attack on our country.
There are other instances that could be cited. However, it’s important to note that it hasn’t mattered whether a stance hurtful to Israel, and what God has ordained for her and her lands, happened as a result of the leadership of one political party or another. This is not about politics; it’s about God’s word. It always comes back to Israel, God’s timepiece — and also His test of whether the other nations of the world are listening. “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12 ESV).
“And on that day, I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem” (Zechariah 12:9).
The level of division, strife and troubles that are upon our nation are a warning. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, for our leaders, and for the people of this nation to hear the voice of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Pray like your life depended upon it — because it does.
April Kelcy
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