Threatening Escalation in Israel

Never before in its 75-year existence has the Jewish state been so internally divided as it is at this moment. Especially since the inauguration of Netanyahu’s sixth cabinet at the end of 2022, the division has been drawing international attention on a daily basis. Two-thirds of the population even fear a civil war. For many years now, the trend has been that the Israeli population — including its youth — is becoming increasingly “right-wing” (read: more religious-Zionist). Now that this movement is also able to assert its influence in the Israeli parliament, it sees the opportunity to curb the Supreme Court. For many years, it had been a thorn in its side that this Court, seen as a leftist stronghold, could overrule the parliament. This week, the Knesset put an end to that and curtailed the powers of the Supreme Court. The opposition now clings to the last straw: that the Court might still reject the parliamentary decision as unreasonable. But that would make the deadlock even more complicated…

A new Jewish temple

It is mainly the voice of the secular opposition that is being heard in the international media. For example, this week the Israeli professor Yuval Noah Harari (frequently mentioned on this site) was interviewed by CNN and wrote the following in the Financial Times:

The establishment of a dictatorship in Israel would not only have serious consequences for Israeli citizens. The ruling coalition is led by messianic religious fanatics who believe in an ideology of Jewish supremacy. This calls for the annexation of the occupied Palestinian territories into Israel without granting citizenship to the Palestinians, and ultimately dreams of destroying the al-Aqsa mosque – one of Islam’s holiest sites – and building a new Jewish temple in its place.

Amidst all the political noise, what interests us especially is the prophetic signal. For the dream of “a new Jewish temple” that Harari refers to will, in any case, indeed be fulfilled before Israel’s “great affliction.” Whether this also implies the destruction of the al-Aqsa mosque, as Harari believes, remains to be seen. In any case, it is clear that the current developments may well accelerate the construction of the long-awaited temple. Everything necessary for it is already in place. All that is needed is political clearance. Incidentally, that Jewish temple will only function briefly, because Scripture teaches that “the Beast from the land,” also known as “the false prophet,” will abruptly terminate the sacrificial service and replace it with a new, godless religion. That will also mark the beginning of Israel’s “great affliction”: no Torah-faithful Jew will be tolerated (see this study).

Jewish supremacy

The scenario that Harari sketches — of what he calls “messianic religious fanatics who believe in an ideology of Jewish supremacy” — is also prophetically significant in another respect. Given current developments, he recently argued, we could…

… soon be dealing with a new militaristic dictatorship in the Middle East, not only armed with nuclear capabilities, but also with advanced cyber weapons capable of striking anywhere in the world.

Regardless of how Harari assesses this development, the Jewish state could indeed, with its high-tech and nuclear capabilities, begin to manifest supremacy in the Middle East. It is a scenario that strikingly corresponds to the description of the final world empire of this eon: ten states forming a federation, characterized as “iron mixed with potter’s clay.” And is potter’s clay not prophetically a depiction of the house of Israel (Jer.18:6)? It should also be noted that the three preceding world empires in Daniel 2 — namely the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, and Greek empires — each had Babylon as their capital, and this is explicitly said to be the case again in the final world empire. One should read Revelation 17, where the Beast with ten horns is ruled by the great city Babylon. But what is striking is that this city on the Euphrates will prove to be a branch or outpost of the Jewish state. It is no coincidence that the city is referred to as “the great prostitute,” which already indicates that it serves as a model for the unfaithful people of God. Also from the vision of “the woman in the ephah” (in Zechariah 5), we know that a godless Israel, driven by trade and money, will build a house in the plain of Shinar. That, too, confirms a “Jewish supremacy” in the Middle East. This is certainly no commendation, but nonetheless the situation that will take shape in the near future.

In short, with the continuing news about the escalating climate in the Jewish state, outlines are emerging that from a prophetic perspective may prove to be of great significance. We are watching it closely. And in the meantime, we become all the more aware of how clearly we hear in world events the footsteps of Him whose coming, according to His promise, is near!

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