“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
The news this past week that the United States has decided
to pull its troops from the country of Syria has taken many by surprise. Our presence there has quite obviously helped
allay the fears of the nation of Israel, as well as contribute to the stability
of the region. The decision to pull out
will leave a void that someone is sure to try and fill, and it goes without
saying that someone is going to pay the price for the aggression which is sure
to follow. The most vocal candidate to
fill this role emerged this past week in the form of the nation of Turkey. This country, which many understand is a
partner in the coalition of nations which will rise against Israel in the Gog
Magog prophecy of Ezekiel 38-39, has embarked in the past on a war to
exterminate the Kurds living in Northern Syria using the excuse that they are
“terrorists” which threaten the sovereignty of Turkey. Yet again recently, the leader of Turkey has
made it plain he intends to continue to pursue this end. The Kurds have been supported by the US
government in the past, but our intent to pull out raises some serious
questions about their future. One would hope that the United States would not
abandon these people, but in any case, my personal belief from what we read in
the Bible 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 few 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.
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 the countries of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Russia and Turkey will not 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 are 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, with 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.
