JERUSALEM, ISRAEL — Prior to October 7, the future seemed so bright for Israel.
We had just signed our sixth Arab-Israeli peace and normalization agreement.
We seemed to be on track to sign a seventh agreement with Saudi Arabia.
Our economy was booming, tourism was hitting record levels, and Israel was building increasingly close and warm ties with nations and governments all over the globe.
But October 7 and the war that ensued changed everything.
Israel is now in our darkest hour since the War of Independence in May 1948.
And the world is increasingly turning against us.
Indeed, the situation has gone from bad to worse in recent weeks, as I’ll describe in a moment.
But the big question is this: Are Israelis just going through a bad patch and our fortunes will brighten again soon, or are we beginning to see Bible prophecies unfold in which the entire world turns against Israel and Jewish people in the “last days”?
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WHAT I SAW WHILE TRAVELING OUTSIDE OF ISRAEL
I’m back in Israel now after six and a half weeks traveling throughout the United States.
During that time I was speaking at churches and the National Religious Broadcasters convention, giving interviews to various media outlets, and meeting with a range of Evangelical leaders.
In the course of responding to hundreds of questions—and listening to the observations and concerns of so many people—one thing has become painfully clear.
After six months of fighting against Hamas in the Gaza Strip—and against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon—Israel may be winning on the military battlefield but it is most definitely losing the global public relations battle.
Consider a few examples:
- South Africa has put Israel on trial at the World Court in The Hague, charging the Jewish state with “genocide,” and few nations or world leaders are coming to Israel’s defense.
- The United Nations is consistently and overwhelmingly voting to condemn Israel.
- The President of the United States recently refused to veto one such anti-Israel resolution at the UN Security Council, instructing his ambassador to “abstain” instead, allowing the resolution to pass.
- President Biden is openly opposing Israel’s planned military operation in Rafah—the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip—to finish off the final group of Hamas forces pinned down there.
- President Biden is openly and repeatedly castigating how the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are fighting in Gaza and defending Israel from future October 7-style invasions, calling the IDF’s operations and tactics “over the top.”
- President Biden is also openly blasting Israel’s prime minister with obscenities, calling Benjamin Netanyahu—the only truly democratically elected U.S. ally in the Middle East—a “____-ing bad guy” and an “ahole.” By contrast, Biden never speaks so brazenly or crudely about enemies of the U.S. like Russian President Vladimir Putin or Chinese communist leader Xi Jinping.
- Meanwhile, other countries—including Canada and Turkey—are beginning to impose military and trade embargoes on Israel.
- And the global media—especially TV news programs around the world—keeps painting Israel as a monster that destroys the lives and homes of innocents in Gaza and tries to starve millions of Palestinians, as well.
WHAT DOES THE BIBLE PROPHET EZEKIEL TELL US?
This is as bad as I’ve seen Israel’s global reputation suffer in my lifetime.
There have certainly been other tough times—the IDF’s response to the eruption of the first Palestinian intifada in December 1987 comes to mind, as does Israel’s response to the eruption of the second intifada in September 2000.
In my estimation, this is worse.
But is it prophetic?
Throughout the Bible, there are repeated prophetic warnings that when we get to the eschatological season known as the “last days” the entire world will turn against the nation of Israel.
For example, in the Old Testament—in Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39—it becomes painfully clear that no nation comes to Israel’s defense when the “War of Gog and Magog” begins in the “last days” (Ezekiel 38:16).
Many pastors and Bible scholars believe that Ezekiel is describing a Russian dictator who will lead the attack on Israel in an alliance with the military forces of Iran, Turkey, Sudan and several other Central Asian and African nations.
Yet the prophecy makes it clear that when such an invasion comes, Israel will be all alone, utterly abandoned even by its closest friends and allies.
WHAT DOES THE BIBLE PROPHET ZECHARIAH TELL US?
In the writings of the ancient Hebrew prophet Zechariah, we find another Old Testament example of all nations turning against Israel in the End Times.
Consider this passage from Zechariah 12:2-3.
“Thus declares the Lord who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him, ‘Behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling to all the peoples around; and when the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against Judah. It will come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who lift it will be severely injured. And all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it.'”
The eyes—and enmity—of “all the nations of earth” will be against Jerusalem, Israel’s eternal capital, the prophet tells us.
Why?
Because God is going to supernaturally “make Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling [or intoxication] to all the peoples around” in order that all of Israel’s enemies will be “severely injured.”
That is, in the last days, the Bible indicates that all of the leaders of the world will essentially get drunk on the notion that Israel—Jerusalem—is the problem that that the world must solve.
Yet, God also makes it clear that all the nations that turn against Israel will themselves face divine judgment and this be “severely injured.”
WHAT DOES THE BOOK OF REVELATION TELLS US?
We also find such sobering prophecies in the New Testament.
The Apostle John—who wrote the Book of Revelation—repeatedly prophesied that all nations will turn against Israel in the End of Days.
One example is found in Revelation chapter 12, where the Apostle writes that one day Satan will be thrown down to earth where he “deceives the whole world” to turn against Israel and the Jewish people and to persecute them terribly.
The prophecy goes on to tell us that Satan even forces the Jewish people to flee from the land of Israel “into the wilderness”—widely believed by many Bible scholars to be the Petra region of the current Kingdom of Jordan—but that God will protect them there “for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.” (Revelation 12:5-6)
Another example is found in Revelation 16.
There, the Apostle writes that demonic forces in the spirit world will gather together “the kings of the whole world” for terrible and apocalyptic “war” against Israel during the last days.
In that war, it is written, all the military forces of the world will converge “in the place which in Hebrew is called Har-Megiddo”—located in the Jezreel Valley in northern Israel—and which in English is called, famously, “Armageddon.”
The text is clear that God will supernaturally destroy and judge all of these enemies of Israel.
But before He does so, God will sovereignty allow the world to turn against Israel en masse.
ARE WE THERE YET?
So, are we there yet?
Have we arrived at the prophetic point in history in which the entire world is turning against Israel and the Jewish people?
No, not yet—but that’s definitely where we are trending.
The next prophetic war is not Armageddon.
That takes place during the what that the Old Testament calls Daniel’s 7th week (see Daniel chapter 9) or what the New Testament calls the “Tribulation” or the “Great Tribulation” (see the entire Book of Revelation).
The next prophetic war is the War of Gog and Magog, as described in Ezekiel 38 and 39.
Will those prophecies come to pass soon, much less in our lifetime?
No one knows but God Himself.
But they could.
So, we should be watching closely.
After all, it certainly appears that the chess pieces are being arranged on the board for just such a war.
The dictator of Russia is building alliances with the leaders of Iran, Turkey and Sudan, to name just a few.
The nations of the world are increasingly turning against Israel and the Jewish people.
Even the leaders of Israel’s most trustworthy ally—the United States of America—are abandoning Israel.
WHAT WILL THE CHURCH DO? OUR TEST HAS COME
In light of all that is happening spiritually and geopolitically in the world today, my question is this: What will the Church do?
Will true followers of Jesus Christ—and their pastors and shepherds who read and love and teach the Bible—stand with Israel in our darkest hour?
Or abandon Israel?
Will we embrace and unconditionally love and protect the Jewish people as antisemitism surges and more and more Jew hatred is unleashed?
Or will the Church flunk this test of history?
While there were many true Christian heroes during the Holocaust who protected the Jewish people at great risk to their own lives and freedom, much of the Roman Catholic Church and Lutheran Churches failed disastrously.
Now it’s your turn—and mine.
When you stand before the God of Israel one day soon, what will He say to you?
When our great test is over, will you have passed or failed?
This article originally appeared on ALL ISRAEL NEWS, and is reposted with permission.
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Joel C. Rosenberg is the editor-in-chief of ALL ISRAEL NEWS and ALL ARAB NEWS and the President and CEO of Near East Media. A New York Times best-selling author, Middle East analyst, and Evangelical leader, he lives in Jerusalem with his wife and sons.
