by Ephraim Frank
Shalom Fellow Israelite,
The barrage of rockets falling on Israel for the past number of weeks, with relatively low collateral damage, has been eliciting responses of “ey’zeh mazal” (“how lucky”) and thankfulness to the Iron Dome interceptive system, and at times also “toda la’El” (“thank God”), though not as often as it should.
In more recent days, when the tunnel threat has materialized into a horrifying reality (which has claimed the lives of at least 7 soldiers), an even greater miracle took place, namely that the terrorists did not use those tunnels before our army was down in that area. One cannot imagine the carnage that they would have left behind in the Israeli towns and communities along the border, had they put those tunnels into use, let alone the many that they would have captured and taken into the Gaza hell hole. It is only by YHVH’s mercy in the midst of His judgments that this did not happen.
Now that our soldiers are fighting the Jihadists in Gaza they are shocked to see the young children (boys and girls) who are involved in the fighting, armed with weapons, strapped with explosives, or used as human shields by gun wielding terrorists whose other hand clings to a child. Women are also used in a similar manner.
This war with Islam is not confined to the Middle East, it is worldwide. We must ask ourselves and take stock as to the reason for this war. I have written articles in the past about the prophet Habakkuk’s warning, but the present situation and its escalation is forcing me to do so once again.
It wasn’t but days (and for years) before the military operation started, that many in Israel were engaged in discussing the corruption, violence, greed, sexual perversion, lying, moral decline and general wickedness prevailing here, deeming it to be an existential threat, even greater than Hamas. (By the way, the above list does not include abortion, which although common, is tragically not even an issue for discussion by most.) How sad that after two thousand years of absence, being now restored by YHVH back to the land as a nation, our people find themselves in such a low moral state! We groan with the watchman of Habakkuk as the daily news brings to light the corruption in high places, businesses and elsewhere. Can this continue without some kind of consequence? I believe that the following prophecy is coming true right before our eyes.
The Watchman cries out: “How long, YHVH, will I call for help, and You will not hear? I cry out to You, ‘there is violence in our midst!’ Yet You do not save. Why do You make me see iniquity, and cause me to look on wickedness? Yes, destruction and violence are before me; strife exists and contention arises. Therefore, the Torah is ignored and justice is never upheld. For the wicked surround the righteous; therefore, justice comes out perverted” (Habbakkuk 1:2-4, emphasis added).
Unfortunately this describes the condition in our country. (How about yours?)
YHVH’s answer to the watchman needs to be taken seriously, as it is not the devil, nor Hamas, or Islam who is behind our current circumstances: “Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days– You would not believe if you were told” (Habakkuk 1:5). YHVH has sent a deluding spirit, a lying spirit, so that the iniquitous and wicked of His people will be deceived and not see reality for what it is. Hence they are not able to discern that YHVH has raised up the hunters to judge the sinners of His people, and yet there is no outcry for repentance. Our present condition is nothing more than the fulfillment of this prophetic word.
It is hard to bring this into the light, when our young men are being killed in Gaza, but we have to face YHVH’s righteous justice, when it comes to sin and iniquity. I have altered somewhat and paraphrased the rest of the chapter in order to get the point across. YHVH continues:
“For indeed I am raising up the Chaldeans (who are from the spiritual heartland of Islam), a bitter, vicious and hasty, impetuous nation which marches through the breadth of the earth; they possess dwelling places that arenot theirs. They are terrible, dreadful and fearful; their judgment (justice) and their dignity (self-righteous pride) proceed from themselves… They hasten to devour. They all come for violence (hamas, being the Hebrew word used in that excerpt); their faces are set like the east wind. They gather captives like sand. They mock at leaders of the U.N., E.U. G.B and U.S. They despise these leaders of the West. They ridicule every stronghold (military power), for they heap up ruins and seize them. Then their mind changes and they transgress; committing offenses, their strength and power are their god.”
The watchman continues his lament: “Are You not from everlasting, YHVH my Elohim, my Holy One? Shall we not die? YHVH, You have appointed them to execute your judgments upon us; O Rock, You have marked them to correct us, Your people, both Judah and Ephraim. Your eyes are too pure to behold our evil, and You cannot look on our wickedness. But why do You look on those who deal treacherously, and hold Your tongue when the wicked devour those that are more righteous than they? Why do You make men like fish of the sea, like creeping things that have no ruler over them? These hunters take us up with their hook, they trap us in their net, and gather us in their dragnet (a hunter’s net). Therefore they rejoice and are glad. They dance and hand out sweets in the streets when they take one of us captive or have a successful hunt. Therefore they sacrifice themselves to their god (Allah), and burn incense to their religion, because by them their share is sumptuous and their food plentiful. Shall they therefore empty their net, and continue to slay nations without pity?”
Notice the last statement “slay nations without pity.” These hunters are present in many nations, wielding the sword. The news media calls them “rebels”, legitimate freedom fighters attempting to establish “justice” (that is “Muslim justice”) in corrupt political regimes. They are infiltrating western nations under the disguise of a persecuted people.
One of their banners proclaims, “First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people.”
As Judah and Ephraim, believers in the sovereignty of the Elohim of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, we must take this prophet seriously. YHVH is not tolerating wickedness and therefore the call is to repent, not unlike Daniel and Nehemiah. The prodigal son (Ephraim) is to return home, but too many are only looking for the hug from daddy, the ring, the change of clothes and the party. Many are standing in judgment of their brother Judah and think that they are more righteous and knowledgeable about the Scriptures. The hunters are already in your backyard and buying up land that can never be wrested from the hands of Islam. This is why, according to their beliefs, the Jewish State must be eliminated.It is Muslim land that has been desecrated by the unbelievers (demies). The greatest injustice to Islam was for the UN to establish this nation. Thus what Hamas and other Jihadist are doing is to right the wrong.
Take heed, Israel will have to pull out of Gaza, just like the US did in Iraq; Islam will celebrate a victory over their enemies and begin to prepare for the next advance on their call to eliminate Israel as a nation (Psalm 83), and that includes Ephraim. YHVH’s mercies and miracles have been seen in all of our wars, including this one, but for what purpose – just to continue in sin, or is it for our nation to wake up and come to repentance?
Shalom,
Ephraim
www.israelitereturn.com
PS
Listen to the music and read the lyrics [in this short video] but watch it through to the end.
Ephraim and Rimona
http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-4551010,00.html
