Last week we re-printed part of an interview with Lance Lambert, in which he gives a Messianic perspective on the future of the Jewish people. Interviewed by Gary Clayton, he concludes by assessing the significance of lsraeI's fortieth anniversary in the light of scripture and world events.
I believe that in many ways the fortieth anniversary of modern IsraeI's history has to be deeply significant. Indeed, there has hardly been a phase in the past forty years that has not been of significance.
It is surely noteworthy that most of the political and military analysts examining the Middle East situation in 1946 and 1947 — before the State of Israel was created — found it hard to believe that Israel would survive. Even after her first year it still seemed incredible that she could have lasted so long. There have been five wars in the forty year period, three of which could easily have seen the liquidation of both state and nation. lt is remarkable that every war has ended not only in Israeli survival, but in triumph — including the first, a war of independence.
Triumph and survival
People tend to attribute this survival to Jewish intelligence and ingenuity, but as someone who is both a Jew and an Israeli, living in and being part of the nation, I realise what a miracle it is that we have come through. But this is not the only miracle. Anyone examining the economy of Israel can see that it has been disastrously managed. Red tape and bureaucracy have caused enormous problems, which is surprising when we remember that throughout the world Jews are regarded as shrewd and successful businessmen.
Yet forty years on, despite such mismanagement, Israel has a viable economy. This to me is as great a miracle as the one of political stability. It is truly remarkable therefore that Israel has reached her fortieth year.
The question we need to ask is what this new phase actually signifies. Some believe that IsraeI's wars and troubles are over and that she is going to move into a period of peace and establishment, but l cannot subscribe to that view. My intuition and understanding of the prophetic word tell me that Israel faces further war and suffering in the years immediately ahead. I expect that this will herald the beginning of a much greater fulfilment of God's purposes for the nation. The fortieth anniversary is just the start.
My intuition and understanding of the prophetic word tell me that Israel faces further war and suffering in the years immediately ahead. The fortieth anniversary may herald a much greater fulfilment of God's purposes for the nation.
Hakhel: The Solemn Convocation
An event took place in Israel last year during the Feast of Tabernacles which went practically unnoticed by the outside world, yet it was one which I feel has great significance. This was the re-enaction of a ceremony which had not been held in Jerusalem for over 2,500 years, not in fact since the time when the last kings of Judah were in the land. It is called the Hakhel, a solemn convocation. This was always summoned in the Sh'mittah, or seventh year, when the land had to lie fallow.
During this ceremony the high priest would gather the people in the Temple and ask the king to read the law from the book of Deuteronomy. For the first time in two and a half millennia, the two chief rabbis gave notice that they were going to hold this ceremony at the western wall, and asked President Chaim Herzog if he would represent the king while they took the place of the high priest. I was present with a group of Messianic believers. It was a most moving and remarkable event with more than thirty-five thousand people present, the largest crowd I ever seen at the western wall.
In 1987 during the Feast of Tabernacles, the Hakhel ceremony was re-enacted in Jerusalem for the first time in over 2,500 years.
Unearthly Sounds
It began with a fanfare of military trumpets to announce the arrival of the president, and then a strange, unearthly sound suddenly filled the air. I wondered what it was, but looking up l saw seven men on the western wall dressed in the garb of Levites, blowing seven silver trumpets. From the south-west corner of the temple wall came the sound of a further seven blowing similar instruments, and the two groups echoed one another back and forth. These silver trumpets were being blown for the first time in thousands of years so as to call together the meeting, the solemn convocation.
The law was read and there was much prayer, which I found very moving. There was a strong sense of the Spirit of God and there could hardly have been one Messianic Jew present who was not deeply moved, even to tears. The prayer was for Israel to be given the gift of repentance; for her to return to the Lord and for the Lord to renew her so that she would be able to walk in his ways, forsaking all unrighteousness.
Moving prayers were said for Israel to be given the gift of repentance, for her to return to the Lord and for the Lord to renew her so she would be able to walk in his ways.
We all felt it was a most important event, and coming at the beginning of the new Jewish year of 5748, the fortieth anniversary of Israel, we could not help but wonder what it might herald. It could indicate the beginning of a movement of the Spirit of God to establish the Messianic community and turn the nation towards the Lord.
On the one hand this new phase in Israel's history may see even more war and suffering, on the other it may see the establishment of the nation in new and deeper ways than ever before, particularly on a spiritual level.
Prophecy of Conflict
Looking at Israel and the global situation, I recollect that it is now 14 or 15 years since I first began warning people that we could be in the run-up to the fulfilment of the prophecy in Ezekiel 38 and 39 concerning war against Israel:
In future years you will invade a land that has recovered from war, whose people were gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate. They had been brought out from the nations, and now all of them live in safety. You and all your troops and the many nations with you will go up, advancing like a storm; you will be like a cloud covering the land (Eze 38:7-9).
Viewing the Middle East through Israeli eyes, it seems clear to me that events are being moved into place in readiness for this prophecy to be fulfilled.
Reflections on the Gulf War
The Ayatollah has received something of a setback in the Gulf as a result of the involvement of Western powers, with lraq's re-arming by the French, the West Germans and the British naturally prolonging the war. The involvement of the United States in bringing its navy into the Gulf with 14 of its warships and the re-flagging of Kuwaiti ships under the Stars and Stripes have likewise prolonged the conflict, as has the Soviet Union's own massive military assistance to Iraq.
It is hard to believe that this war has gone on for more than eight years, resulted in over a million deaths and continues with still no sign of an end in view. Israeli intelligence believes that there will be at least another two years before there is any outcome. Had Iraq and Iran been left to themselves, lraq would probably have collapsed long ago. Her economy is in ruins and her second-largest city practically a ghost town, with no ships able to get in or out of her port. The oil fields in the north have been partially wrecked and Baghdad has been under continuous threat of bombardment by missiles. The Iranians number about 70 million people and are determined to win this war. Morale is quite high and although the economy has suffered it is still functioning.
Iraq, meanwhile, is in colossal debt. She numbers just under 16 million people and suffers from poor morale. I believe Iran will win this war, and so far every month that passes makes it seem even more likely. The other Arab and Islamic leaders are all afraid of Iran. An American intelligence report based on a three and a half month's study stated that it did not matter if there were forty American ships in the Gulf or a hundred, Iran would still win. Not long ago a number of unofficial delegations comprising high-ranking Soviet officials went to Tehran. This may be significant since the American presence in the Gulf is quite likely to trigger a Soviet response.
In the end, Iran may get desperate to conclude the war and so might decide to do some kind of deal with the Soviet Union. I am not predicting that this will necessarily happen, but we should watch out for such developments as they could be significant in the light of Ezekiel's prophecy in chapter 38, concerning the evil scheme of the 'country from the far north' to advance with many nations against Israel.
Agenda against Israel
For many years people have asked what would happen if Iran won the war. The answer is simple, since their oft-stated aim is the 'liberation' of Jerusalem and the liquidation of Israel. I have no doubt that once victory over Iraq is complete they will seek to thrust through Jordan and press on to the mountains of Moab and Gilead.
Iraq is also an enemy of Israel, and this is why the latter has been only too happy for Iran and Iraq to have been at each other's throats for so long. I believe that, once the war is over, the victors' attention will shift to Israel.
I believe that once the Gulf War is over, the victors' attentions will shift to Israel.
Syria, meanwhile, is in a quandary. Her economy is in ruins and she is dependent on Saudi Arabia to bail her out. The Kuwaitis, Saudis and other sheikhs have been pouring large sums of money into Iraq to keep her afloat and Saudi Arabia recently questioned whether she would continue to support Syria in view of the latter's antagonistic attitude towards Iraq. Not so long ago at the Islamic Conference at Amman Jordan's King Hussein tried to bring about a reconciliation between Syria and Iraq. The one thing Syria and Iraq have in common is that both are violently opposed to Israel.
Glasnost: real openness or window-dressing?
In Mikhail Gorbachev the Soviet Union has the youngest and most popular leader for decades. As a result of his glasnost ('openess') policy he has an excellent public image. He appears a much more open, contemporary and compassionate leader, yet it is hard to believe that a man who was for many years a leader in the KGB could ever really be as good as he sounds. I do not know of a single Jew released from Soviet Union who does not regard glasnost as little more than an exercise in window-dressing. Many of them are concerned that the West is being taken in by this new approach.
I believe that the Soviet Union's real plan is to let out some ten thousand or so Jewish activists who are considered to be trouble-makers but keep the remaining three million Jews where they are. There is no doubt, however, that this community will come home to Israel in the end, and that it will be by divine dictate. I am certain of this because of the prophetic words of Isaiah 43:3-6:
For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour...do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you up from the west. I will say to the north, "Give them up!" and to the south, "Do not hold them back". Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth.
Some good things are happening in Israel and we have to be thankful for them. We live in a country battling for its life, one in which most young people have been involved in at least one war before reaching their twenties, and which has problems no other nation has. If we have special problems, however, we have special promises as well; promises made by God through the prophets. They are promises no other nation has.
If Israel has special problems with conflict and survival, it also has special promises made by God that no other nation has.
