A Step Back

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December 16, 2016

A Step Back

I sit here writing this and after reading and researching I find the whole world affair thing to be quite mind numbing.

Take Syria for example.

Every day there's a new twist coming to fruition about Syria. Some new town that's been liberated or captured, some new weapons system that's been introduced or destroyed. Some group that's been supplied or screwed over.

Its a never ending see saw of death and horror. Its confusion and hopelessness.

It's a war between two houses of the same family. A struggle that began with Abraham and has continued to this day.

The Beverly Hillbillies of the MidEast

Lets look at it.

Genesis 17: 17-22

¹⁷ Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” ¹⁸ And Abraham said to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!”
¹⁹ Then God said: “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him. ²⁰ And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. ²¹ But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year.” ²² Then He finished talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.

So we see God telling Abraham that a son will be born to Sarah, and God will establish His covenant with him. Abraham prays for his son Ishmael, and God says He will bless him also.

Now rewind back a few years;

Genesis 16: 1-12

16 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. ² So Sarai said to Abram, “See now, the Lord has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai. ³ Then Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan. ⁴ So he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes.

⁵ Then Sarai said to Abram, “My wrong be upon you! I gave my maid into your embrace; and when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. The Lord judge between you and me.”
⁶ So Abram said to Sarai, “Indeed your maid is in your hand; do to her as you please.” And when Sarai dealt harshly with her, she fled from her presence.
⁷ Now the Angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. ⁸ And He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?”
She said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.”
⁹ The Angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hand.” ¹⁰ Then the Angel of the Lord said to her, “I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude.” ¹¹ And the Angel of the Lord said to her:

“Behold, you are with child,
And you shall bear a son.
You shall call his name Ishmael,
Because the Lord has heard your affliction.
¹² He shall be a wild man;
His hand shall be against every man,
And every man’s hand against him.
And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.”

Sarah is trying to have a child, and it's not happening...so she has an idea that her 'hand maiden' Hagar will be the surrogate. Abraham agrees and gets Hagar pregnant. Sarah then gets jealous of the situation...go figure, right?

So Hagar leaves and The Angel of the Lord catches up with her, gives her a blessing and then pronounces a word about Ishmael, which characterizes his line that is absolutely stone cold true to this day.

Now the scholars guesstimate Abram time was about 2100 B.C., meaning this was about 4,100 years ago...definitely a long time ago.

Modern, if that is not an oxymoron I don't know what is, Islamic worship began around 650 A.D. or about 1350 years ago, give or take. The schism between the two groups of Islamists happened over a central point.

Ok so what's the difference? Lets let the BBC explain

The Prophet Muhammad

When the Prophet died in the early 7th century he left not only the religion of Islam but also a community of about one hundred thousand Muslims organised as an Islamic state on the Arabian Peninsula. It was the question of who should succeed the Prophet and lead the fledgling Islamic state that created the divide.
The larger group of Muslims chose Abu Bakr, a close Companion of the Prophet, as the Caliph (politico-social leader) and he was accepted as such by much of the community which saw the succession in political and not spiritual terms. However another smaller group, which also included some of the senior Companions, believed that the Prophet's son-in-law and cousin, Ali, should be Caliph. They understood that the Prophet had appointed him as the sole interpreter of his legacy, in both political and spiritual terms. In the end Abu Bakr was appointed First Caliph.

You see, this is about what group would lead the Muslims. That's it. All this is about who gets to lead. Millions of deaths, wars, and unspeakable tortures all from this...who in their right mind would get behind this?

So tell that family in Aleppo, who have had their males executed, who have had their women and girls raped before themselves being executed...tell them that this is Gods way of fighting over and choosing who gets to lead.

The Saudis and the Iranians are no different. There are no innocent hands here. The Qataris, the Saudis, the Iranians, Hezbollah, The Turks and yes ISIS and Al Nusra and any of those other thugs like Boko Haram or whatever.

This is a huge heads up for President Trump. Frankly I don't want any part of them, and I don't think he does either.

How do we think its going to play out? What I think and what the Bible says are usually two separate things. We see in Syria that Damascus will become a major focal point. We will see the first nuclear weapon used since 1945 in Damascus.

Let me repeat. We will see the first nuclear weapon used since 1945, being exploded in Damascus Syria.

The prophet Isaiah was told to give us this message about Damascus.

Isaiah 17:1

17 The burden against Damascus.

“Behold, Damascus will cease from being a city,
And it will be a ruinous heap.

then again we read in verse 12-14
² Woe to the multitude of many people
Who make a noise like the roar of the seas,
And to the rushing of nations
That make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!
¹³ The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters;
But God will rebuke them and they will flee far away,
And be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind,
Like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.
¹⁴ Then behold, at eventide, trouble!
And before the morning, he is no more.
This is the portion of those who plunder us,
And the lot of those who rob us.

This prophecy has been on the minds of Bible scholars for hundreds of years. It has only been recently that we are really starting to see the pieces being put together.

Trust me, there is no Bible teacher that wants to promote this stuff. However, for those of us who do...its all we can think of. God has put it on our hearts and in our minds,...we cannot help but to pass it forward. Not to scare or fear monger, but to prepare.

There are a few things coming in a relatively short period of time. Our lives are going to change. It's coming.

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Shalom
Jerry