I’m
sure that by now most of you are familiar with the term “fake news”, which has
in the past year or so actually become “real news”. The truth is, the news we watch and read is
almost always edited by someone who is in the position to decide what we are
told either by print or television. I
began many years ago to make it my habit to read news from around the world in
order to be aware of what it was that we were not being told, as well as
becoming familiar with how other countries choose to report the news. It quickly became apparent that what many in
this country believe is complete and unbiased reporting is in fact nothing of
the sort.
This
past week a situation has arisen in the Middle East which has serious
implications for those familiar with Biblical eschatology, and surprising even
to me, it has hardly been reported on at all in this country. The nation of Turkey, which many understand
is a partner in the coalition of nations which rise against Israel in the Gog
Magog prophecy of Ezekiel 38-39, has embarked on a war to exterminate the Kurds
living in Northern Syria using the excuse that they are “terrorists” which
threaten the sovereignty of Turkey. The
Kurds are supported by the US government, and our response to this aggression
is yet to come, but in any case, my personal belief is that the Kurds are the
last people on earth anyone should consider taking on.
Today’s
post is a repeat of one I wrote a couple of years ago which explains exactly
why I feel this way, and also why I feel this might be the beginning of a
series of events which ultimately lead to the period we know as the
tribulation. All of the nations which
are foretold to rise against the nation of Israel before and during the seven
year tribulation are currently present and positioned exactly as predicted in
scripture. A new mid-east peace treaty
is being proposed, and of course, rejected, setting up the possibility of this being
the covenant of peace between Israel and its enemies which the coming man of
sin “enforces”. As often said, the
Middle East is a tinderbox and all that has to happen is for someone to light
the match. Could this conflict between
Turkey and the Kurds be that match? Only
time will tell.
“The
burden against Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw. “Lift up a banner on
the high mountain, Raise your voice to them; Wave your hand, that they may
enter the gates of the nobles. I have commanded My sanctified ones; I have also
called My mighty ones for My anger— Those who rejoice in My exaltation.” The
noise of a multitude in the mountains, Like that of many people! A tumultuous
noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together! The LORD of hosts musters
The army for battle. They come from a far country, From the end of heaven— The
LORD and His weapons of indignation, To destroy the whole land. Wail, for the
day of the LORD is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty.
Therefore all hands will be limp, Every man’s heart will melt, And they will be
afraid. Pangs and sorrows will take hold of them; They will be in pain as a
woman in childbirth; They will be amazed at one another; Their faces will be
like flames. Behold, the day of the LORD comes, Cruel, with both wrath and
fierce anger, To lay the land desolate; And He will destroy its sinners from
it. For the stars of heaven and their constellations Will not give their light;
The sun will be darkened in its going forth, And the moon will not cause its
light to shine. “I will punish the world for its evil, And the wicked for their
iniquity; I will halt the arrogance of the proud, And will lay low the
haughtiness of the terrible. I will make a mortal more rare than fine gold, A
man more than the golden wedge of Ophir. Therefore I will shake the heavens,
And the earth will move out of her place, In the wrath of the LORD of hosts And
in the day of His fierce anger. It shall be as the hunted gazelle, And as a
sheep that no man takes up; Every man will turn to his own people, And everyone
will flee to his own land. Everyone who is found will be thrust through, And
everyone who is captured will fall by the sword. Their children also will be
dashed to pieces before their eyes; Their houses will be plundered And their
wives ravished. “Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, Who will not
regard silver; And as for gold, they will not delight in it. Also their bows
will dash the young men to pieces, And they will have no pity on the fruit of
the womb; Their eye will not spare children. And Babylon, the glory of
kingdoms, The beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride, Will be as when God overthrew
Sodom and Gomorrah. It will never be inhabited, Nor will it be settled from
generation to generation; Nor will the Arabian pitch tents there, Nor will the
shepherds make their sheepfolds there. But wild beasts of the desert will lie
there, And their houses will be full of owls; Ostriches will dwell there, And
wild goats will caper there. The hyenas will howl in their citadels, And
jackals in their pleasant palaces. Her time is near to come, And her days will
not be prolonged.” Isaiah 13 NKJV
Many
of you will recognize this passage from Isaiah as the prophesied destruction of
Babylon which we are told about in the Book of Revelation. Other references to it can be found in Isaiah
14, and Jeremiah 50 and 51. When
speaking on the end times, and speculating on how close we may be to the events
in Revelation, a popular quote we often hear is this; “when you see the Christmas
decorations going up, you know that Thanksgiving is near”. So too, we can recognize the signs of the
nearness of the rapture by the preparations going on all around us for the
events we are told will occur during the tribulation.
Over
time I have found that there are many things taking place that at first glance
are so small that they somehow escape notice.
One of those might well be found in this passage from Isaiah, and we
could do well to consider it in regards to current events. I am speaking of the mention towards the end
of the passage of the group of people called the Medes which are described as
having “no pity” as God uses them to implement His judgment on Babylon. So how can it be that Isaiah tells us that
they are present during the tribulation when they no longer exist today? Or do they?
In
the region of the Middle East where the countries of Iran, Iraq, and Turkey
co-join, there is a relatively small group of people known as the Kurds. These people number approximately ten million
or so, and at present find themselves in much the same position as Israel was
before 1948 in that they have no country of their own and desperately desire
one. Also, much like the Jews, they have
been persecuted in every country in which they have tried to live. Yet unlike the Jews, the vast majority of
Kurds are Muslim, which begs the question; why are they being persecuted in the
Muslim part of the world?
In
fact, it appears that the Kurds are descended from the ancient Medes, who at
one time partnered with the Persians to form the Medo-Persian Empire, which was
revealed by Daniel to be the second of the four great empires which were to
rule that part of the world. Cyrus the
Great, whom we meet during Daniels’ time, was part Mede and part Persian. He captured the city of Ecbatana (the modern
day city of Hamadan in Iran) which was the capital of Media, and created the
greatest empire to rule in the sixth century before Christ.
Eventually
Alexander the Great arrived on the scene and defeated them as part of his
campaign to conquer the known world at that time, and slowly the Medes
disappear from the annals of history.
Yet many of today’s Kurds believe they are descended from the ancient
Medes, and although there is some disagreement among scholars as to the
validity of this claim, the important point is that God tells us they will
exist at the time of Revelation. The
obvious conclusion then is that they are alive and well today, and considering
the venom of their revenge on Babylon, they must believe they have a serious ax
to grind.
As
I have studied this prophecy, that is essentially the conclusion I eventually
arrived at; it is revenge which motivates these people to destroy Babylon in
the way that they do. The Kurds of today
wish desperately for a homeland they can call their own, but neither Iran,
Iraq, Syria, Russia nor Turkey will allow that to happen. You see, in order to do so the land would
have to come from one or all of these countries and none of them is willing to
allow that to happen. So the situation
as it exists today is that there are ten million ethnic people descended from
the ancient Medes who desperately wish to have a land they can call their
own. However, not only is that dream
being denied, they are under the threat of extinction because of the hatred of
the countries surrounding them, especially Turkey.
You
could make the point that the total destruction of Babylon during the
tribulation period is one of the most significant events to occur in those
seven years. That city will be Satan’s
capitol on earth and the center of the anti-Christ’s power. Although its destruction is at the hands of
many nations, only the Medes are mentioned by name. I believe that this is God’s way of telling
us that this is personal for them. It is
a logical assumption that revenge is a very good motivation for the total lack
of compassion and extent of destruction which this passage describes as not
being seen on this earth since God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.
The
Kurdish army goes by the name Peshmerga, a term you will often find in the news
today. They are excellent, determined
fighters as opposed to many other so called armies in that region and would
fight to the death for their country.
They have a history of fighting as professional soldiers and
mercenaries, and a reputation as the fiercest fighting force in that part of
the world. Are the seeds of their desire
for revenge being sown right before our eyes?
Will the persecution they are receiving from the surrounding countries
provoke their desire to strike out at the center of the anti-Christ’s power
during the tribulation? According to
Isaiah it will, and if God said it, I believe it.
Keep
watching.
