SIGNS OF THE TIMES

As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many.  You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.  Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.

“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

Matthew 24 :3-4

It is yet another wet rainy Shabbat here in Israel. Praise God for every drop of rain!! The weather pundits are saying this is probably the last winter storm before the Spring sets in. We’ve already had our first Spring sharav (hot dry East wind) and all the lovely spring flowers are adorning our beautiful Land.

MASSACRE IN NEW ZEALAND

Yesterday morning I rose and turned on the TV news and was stunned that the leading headline was about the massacre of 49 Muslim worshipers in two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. More than 40 others were wounded. My condolences go out to the survivors and family members of those who were victims of this appalling act. As a New Zealand citizen, and a former resident of Christchurch, I am deeply shocked and saddened, though not surprised, that this has happened.

A few years ago I was boarding an internal flight in New Zealand and was horrified that there had been absolutely no security check of our hand luggage. When I remarked upon this to the man in the queue beside me, he said “Oh no, we don’t need that here. We don’t have any problems with security”. I was appalled. What sort of bubble was he living in? Just a few days earlier there had been a terrorist shooting attack in Sydney, Australia. I wondered just how close did it all have to get before New Zealanders woke up to the reality of the world in which we live?

As we landed in Wellington airport we were greeted by a large sign proclaiming ” Welcome to the Middle of Middle Earth”. I felt it was very appropriate, not just because the movie trilogy “Lord of the Rings” was filmed in NZ, but because in many ways New Zealand was truly like The Shire, the town of the Hobbits in that film. It was a beautiful, simple, innocent culture, concerned with their own everyday matters, blissfully unaware of the dark evil bearing down on them from every direction. I am truly heartbroken that that innocence has now been forever lost.

MISSILES OVER TEL AVIV

The reason I had turned on the TV that morning, was that the night before two Iranian supplied Fajr-type middle-range missiles had been fired from the Gaza Strip towards Tel Aviv. I knew that, during the night, Israel’s Defense Forces would be retaliating and was concerned that this incident would signal the beginning of a new Gaza war. Both the missiles fired appeared to explode before hitting the ground (see the video below) although the IDF say no anti-missile rockets were fired. There were no injuries nor damage in the Tel Aviv region, although some large pieces of metal from the rockets fell in built-up areas. Overnight the IDF bombed some 100 Hamas military targets in the Strip and on Friday morning another 9 rockets were fired at Israeli settlements near the border. Six of these were shot down by the Iron Dome antimissiles. Some of the shrapnel landed in a school yard but fortunately no students had yet arrived at the school.

In the following hours Hamas claimed that the missiles fired at Tel Avi were a ‘mistake’. They say some low-level group fired them off without proper authorization. This sounds unlikely to me and all the more so since in October last year Hamas claimed that similar missiles fired ‘accidentally’ at Beer Sheva had been set off by lightning. Hamas seems rather ‘accident prone’ and it does not explain why the missiles were all set up, and aimed at Tel Aviv in the first place. I also do not believe a ‘low-level’ Hamas group would be given access to such a missile. Firing a sophisticated missile of this kind requires rather more than a match and a fuse. I don’t think anyone really believes this version of events, but it is a convenient face-saving story, both for Israel and for Hamas. Hamas does not want a war right now and was in fact in the midst of cease-fire negotiations with Israel, brokered by an Egyptian delegation that was actually in the Strip at the time. Israel also wants to avoid an escalation so the story permits us to carry out only a limited attack in response.

Hamas is in a weak position right now, starved of funding by the Palestinian Authority and facing riots at home. Over the past few days, the citizens of Gaza have been rioting in the streets demanding economic relief, something that Hamas is not in a position to give. If indeed a ‘low-level’ unit of Hamas fighters did set off the missiles without authorization from the top, it indicates a fragmentation of Hamas forces and disintegrating control. Indeed Iran has been encouraging the more extreme Hamas fighters to attack Israel, even contrary to orders from Hamas leadership, in order to influence the upcoming Israeli elections.

Although the situation on the border is quiet at the moment it is very tense and any further accident or ‘mistake’ might cause a violent escalation which cannot be stopped. In view of this, Hamas called for a pause in the weekly border riots, which apparently was heeded, but as we come up to the first anniversary of the beginning of the so-called “March of Return” at the end of the month, and the Israeli elections on the 9th April, it is probable that the riots will continue to escalate. With the winter rains due to stop soon and the winter wheat ripening in the fields around the Strip, the risk of fires is again increasing. There have already been a number of incendiary balloons sent across the border into Israel in recent days.

THE GOLDEN GATE

In Jerusalem too there has been an increase in tensions recently, especially in the area of the Golden Gate. The Golden Gate has great significance for all three monotheistic religions. It is the eastern gate which faces the Mount of Olives and gives direct access to the Temple Mount, or would do so were it open. The existing gate was built in around 520 CE (AD) on the ruins of an earlier gate. In 810CE it was closed off by Muslims, and then reopened briefly by the Crusaders in 1102 only to be closed off again by Saladin after his conquest of Jerusalem in 1187. The Ottoman Sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, rebuilt it and walled it up in 1541 and it has remained closed ever since. The Ottomans also placed a Muslim cemetery in front of the gate to prevent the entry of any false Messiahs.

In Hebrew the Golden Gate is called Sha’ar HaRahamim, the Gate of Mercy, through which the shekinah glory, or the divine presence, would enter to rest on the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies of the Temple, and it is expected that the shekinah would appear again at the coming of the Prince, the Messiah, who would reopen the Gate.

Then the man brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, the one facing east, and it was shut.  The Lord said to me, “This gate is to remain shut. It must not be opened; no one may enter through it. It is to remain shut because the Lord, the God of Israel, has entered through it. The prince himself is the only one who may sit inside the gateway to eat in the presence of the Lord. He is to enter by way of the portico of the gateway and go out the same way.

Ezekiel 44: 1-3

The Muslims call the Gate, Bab el-Zahabi, or Bab el-Dhahabi, meaning the Golden Gate or the Gate of Eternal Life. In addition they name the southern door of the Gate, the Gate of Mercy and the northern door the Gate of Repentance. They believe that the Gate will be the site of Allah’s final judgement and the future resurrection.

For Christians, the Gate also has deep significance. It was through this Gate that Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey prior to his crucifixion (John 12: 12-15), thus fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9.

The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,

“Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the king of Israel!” Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written:

“Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion;
    see, your king is coming,
   seated on a donkey’s colt.”

John 12: 12 -15

Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!
    Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you,
    righteous and victorious,
lowly and riding on a donkey,
    on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Zechariah 9:9

Christians also believe that it is through this Gate that Messiah Yeshua (Jesus) will return as is prophesied in the Ezekiel passage quoted above.

In recent days a battle for the Gate has been raging. For decades the hall of the Gate compound, accessible only from the Temple Mount, was used by Muslims as offices and a community center hall hosting religious and other activities. In 2003 Israel closed off the area claiming it was being used by Hamas for political purposes and it has remained closed until the 25th of February this year when the Waqf, the Muslim authority in charge of the Temple Mount, illegally broke down the Israeli-built barrier, saying they were intending to carry out repairs needed because of rain damage. They stayed to pray in the hall, ostensibly making it a de facto Mosque, calling for the faithful to pray there. An announcement by the new head of the Islamic Waqf Council of the intention to rebuild the Gate of Mercy compound and repurpose it into a prayer site is a clear provocation and it is deemed by Israel to be a violation of the ‘status quo’. Palestinian propaganda claims that Israel is planning to turn the area into a synagogue. With both sides accusing the other of violations of the ‘status quo’ this site has become yet another flashpoint in the city, and since last Monday there have been violent confrontations between Muslim worshippers and Israeli police. On Thursday an Israeli policewoman was seriously injured by a Molotov cocktail during the riots.

It is not surprising then that such a significant site would be a focus of the spiritual warfare in which we are all engaged. Please pray for the peace of Jerusalem and also for the people of the God of Israel, wherever we may live, that we will stand strong and unified in these evil times. Jesus warned us of a falling away from the faith in the end times and that many false prophets and teachers would arise. Please pray that we will not allow our love to grow cold because of the increase in wickedness in the world.

At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.

Matthew 24: 10-13