Woke up again at 3:30 a.m. like a cannon. Went to bed like any other night, and you know how it is when you wake up with thoughts swirling around your head. You can lay there and try to go back to sleep, or toss and turn and hope you fall back asleep, or just lay there awake staring at the ceiling. Finally, I position myself to be ready to listen, perhaps God is trying to say something to me. Today was that day. Several times in the last few weeks, the words of Jeremiah, Isaiah, and the Psalms have flashed across my thoughts like the high beams of a car driving too fast down the street at night. It is not a direct or clearly visible light that peers through the sides of the curtain and into the room, it is the indirect glare of the fast-moving traffic that awakens you. This is how it is with the Lord Adonai at 3:00 a.m. - He knows how to get your attention. Not a shout, not a light that blinds you, but a hint of something flashing across your soul that you can't put your finger on, but you can't leave it alone either. I believe, I truly believe, if we could learn to give God just those few moments in the night, or in the day, we would hear things coming out of heaven's newspapers before they hit the front pages on earth. We just don't give God the time to tell us what He so much wants to. Don't know what else to do but pray, and not sure how to pray this through. I sense I am to read Isaiah 19. It is a prophecy about Egypt. I read from the Complete Jewish Bible to understand this text in the original.
"Look! ADONAI is riding a swift cloud, on his way to Egypt. Before him Egypt's idols tremble, Egypt's courage melts within them. 2 "I will incite Egypt against Egypt, brother will fight against brother, friend against friend, city against city, kingdom against kingdom. 3 The courage of Egypt will ebb away within it, I will reduce its counsel to confusion. They will consult idols and mediums, ghosts and spirits. 4 I will hand over the Egyptians to a cruel master. A harsh king will rule them," says the Lord, ADONAI-Tzva'ot. 5 The water will ebb from the sea, the river will be drained dry. 6 ...continue ' 17 Just mentioning the land of Y'hudah to the Egyptians will throw them into panic; they will be afraid because of what ADONAI-Tzva'ot has planned for them. 18 On that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Kena'an and swear loyalty to ADONAI-Tzva'ot; one of them will be called the City of Destruction. 19 On that day there will be an altar to ADONAI in the middle of the land of Egypt, as well as a standing-stone for ADONAI at its border. 20 It will be a sign and witness to ADONAI-Tzva'ot in the land of Egypt; so that when they cry out to ADONAI for help because of the oppressors, he will send them a savior to defend and rescue them. 21 ADONAI will make himself known to Egypt; on that day, the Egyptians will know ADONAI. They will worship him with sacrifices and offerings, they will make vows to ADONAI and keep them. 22 Yet ADONAI will strike Egypt, both striking and healing, so they will return to ADONAI. He will listen to their prayers, and he will heal them. 23 On that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Ashur. Ashur will come to Egypt and Egypt to Ashur, and Egypt will worship with Ashur. 24 On that day Isra'el will be a third partner with Egypt and Ashur, a blessing here on earth; 25 for ADONAI-Tzva'ot has blessed him: "Blessed be Egypt my people, Ashur the work of my hands and Isra'el my heritage."
I know in my spirit I am living in and through a time in history that the Old Testament prophets, kings, and psalmists wrote about. CNN, MSNBC, and cable news outlets may not know that, and media bloggers and talking heads filling up tv air-space may never know the truth of this, but to those who know the voice of their Messiah, we know how this will play it. God knows the The End (Tav) from the Beginning (Bereshit). He knows how this all will play out. He recorded the events on parchment, all before it happened. He saw time and all of history in His heart, before it ever came to be. He else can write the news before it happens? Just last week, I was awakened with Isaiah 37 resting on my kishkas (my inward gut), and I knew God was telling me that He will destroy Assyria's pride, and reveal the Glory of His Son. In fact, Isaiah 37 makes it all so clear, even as to how He will protect Jerusalem from Assyria.
A little history on 'who is Assyria'. Back in Genesis 10:22, we see that Shem's sons (Asshur and Aram) founded what the bible calls calls Assyria. Aram (originally known as Syria) conquerd the Northern Kingdom of Israel (730 BC). The Babylonians did conquer Assyria, and the remnant of Aram was no more. So the Assyrian homeland is now part of what is now Northern Iraq, part of the North of Iran, and Turkey to the south, and Northwestern part of Syria. (Ninevah, which was the capital Assyria, that famous city) is found in Mosul, a city in Iraq today. Damascus, the capital of Syria, was once the capital of Aram. No matter what the news reports show, we know that God Will Protect Jerusalem From Assyria. And we know from (Isaiah 37:21-36), that God will surely defend Jerusalem, He will defend the nation of Israel. Allow me license here to excerpt from the first few lines of the Oath of Enlistment that all U.S. Armed Forces military say upon being sworn into active duty. It is as if the Lord Adonai is telling us......... "I (Lord Adonai) do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the (Nation of Israel) against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same". Talk about not wanting to get on the wrong side of the law. World leaders and world governments that mess with God's property are sliding down a slippery slope, and fast. How can I make such a bold statement? For starters: I am quoting the Highest Authority in the Universe, from His own handbook. Psalm 122:6, Genesis 12:3, Zechariah 12: 1-14, Isaiah 60:12, Psalm 83: 1-18, Zechariah 2:8, to name a few.
From Isaiah 37:21-36 "21
Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, "Thus says the
LORD God of Israel, 'Because you have prayed to Me against Sennacherib
king of Assyria, 22
this is the word which the LORD has spoken concerning him: "The virgin,
the daughter of Zion, Has despised you, laughed you to scorn; The
daughter of Jerusalem Has shaken her head behind your back! 23
"Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised
your voice, And lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of
Israel. 24
By your servants you have reproached the Lord, And said, 'By the
multitude of my chariots I have come up to the height of the mountains,
To the limits of Lebanon; I will cut down its tall cedars And its choice
cypress trees; I will enter its farthest height, To its fruitful
forest. 25 I have dug and drunk water, And with the soles of my feet I have dried up All the brooks of defense.' 26
"Did you not hear long ago How I made it, From ancient times that I
formed it? Now I have brought it to pass, That you should be For
crushing fortified cities into heaps of ruins. 27
Therefore their inhabitants had little power; They were dismayed and
confounded; They were as the grass of the field And the green herb, As
the grass on the housetops And grain blighted before it is grown. 28 "But I know your dwelling place, Your going out and your coming in, And your rage against Me. 29
Because your rage against Me and your tumult Have come up to My ears,
Therefore I will put My hook in your nose And My bridle in your lips,
And I will turn you back By the way which you came."' 30
"This shall be a sign to you: You shall eat this year such as grows of
itself, And the second year what springs from the same; Also in the
third year sow and reap, Plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them.
31 And the remnant who have escaped of the house of Judah Shall again take root downward, And bear fruit upward. 32 For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, And those who escape from Mount Zion. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this. 33
"Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: 'He shall
not come into this city, Nor shoot an arrow there, Nor come before it
with shield, Nor build a siege mound against it. 34 By the way that he came, By the same shall he return; And he shall not come into this city,' Says the LORD. 35 'For I will defend this city, to save it For My own sake and for My servant David's sake.'" 36 Then
the angel of the LORD went out, and killed in the camp of the Assyrians
one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when people arose early in
the morning, there were the corpses -- all dead. 37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went away, returned home, and remained at Nineveh. 38
Now it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his
god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the
sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Then Esarhaddon his son
reigned in his place.
It only took one night for the Angel of the Lord to wipe out the whole Assyrian fighting army 700 years B.C. What would God do today if He went to defend Israel? I think we would all be watching it on the evening news! So the moral of the story here is; whether this nation (and I pray she does, for her own good!) stands with Israel or not, whether the United Nations lives up to its credo and defends those being unjustly persecuted, or whether all the nations of the world believe all the lies of her enemies, God will not sleep, He will not forget, and He will not allow Israel to be destroyed. The Messiah and King called 'The Son of God' will one soon day enter into Jerusalem to sit upon King David's throne, and He Himself will rule this planet. Do you think for a moment the Father in Heaven is about to allow Israel to be nearly wiped out again? Never! If you are wise you will remember the words of Genesis 12:3 "I will bless those who bless you (Israel), and curse those who curse you."
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