MORE REFLECTIONS
ON THE GAZA WAR
MORE REFLECTIONS
ON THE GAZA WAR
JAN LILLEBY
I ‘launched’ my fresh idea…or reflection, in that first ‘Gaza-article’ – that it may be fully probable that the ‘Great Tribulation’ will start, as God intervene at an ongoing future Gaza-war.
Referring to His sending the two witnesses or prophets down to punish and reform the Zionist state; and the two are Moses and Elijah.
When we have this scenario – that of an already ongoing war being interrupted by God – maybe it will come more understandable to us when reading the Revelation Book.
Rev. 11:5, 6, NASB,
“And if anyone wants to harm them, fire flows out of their mouth and devours their enemies; and so if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this way.
6 These have the power to shut up the sky, so that rain will not fall during the days of their prophesying; and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with every plague, as often as they desire.”
Verse 5 was a main quote in the first article, but here we shall dwell a bit in verse 6 – the two witnesses performing frightening signs of punishment, using the elements of nature, the air (sky) and the waters.
Remember, it is war in Gaza, and the place is probably planned for total extinction…Israel’s army are ordered to kill and destroy them once and for all.
So, what happens?
HELL ON EARTH IS WHAT WILL HAPPEN!
Verse 6 tells of two gigantic moves of God through His prophets of doom: The first is that they will SHUT UP HEAVEN FOR RAIN, FOR THE NEXT 3 ½ YEARS!
Who was it, in the Old Testament times, that had the heavens shut up for rain? Yes, my dear reader, it was ELIJAH. In other words this has happened before.
We need to let a quote from Jesus come to our remembrance. He and Peter, James and John came down from the Tabor mountain. They had witnessed the appearance of Elijah and Moses, talking with Jesus. And in the explanation given by Jesus – on the presence of these two known prophets of God, Jesus remarked about Elijah, Mat. 17:10, 11, NASB,
“ And His disciples asked Him, “Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?”
11 And He answered and said, “Elijah is coming and will restore all things”.
In Mat. 14, we learn that John the Baptist was killed by Herod Antipas. He was a metaphor of the coming of Elijah before the day of the Lord. John was not the real live Elijah. But, as we find Jesus in Mat. 17 – several weeks after John died – then He talked (prophesied) of the real Elijah, the prophet. He shall then come to Israel together with Moses…as we see foretold in Rev. 11.
In Elijah’s days we learn of a famine which struck the land. And in that situation we find the miracle of the jars always filled with flour, and one with olive oil, for baking bread, for the widow at Zarephath in Sidon.
1 Kings 17:1-24 NASB,
“ Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was of [a]the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall certainly be neither dew nor rain during these years, except by my word.”
2 Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying,
3 “Go away from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is [b]east of the Jordan.
4 And it shall be that you will drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to provide food for you there.”
5 So he went and did everything according to the word of the Lord, for he went and lived by the brook Cherith, which is [c]east of the Jordan.
6 And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he would drink from the brook.
7 But it happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land.
8 Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying,
9 “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there; behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide food for you.”
10 So he arose and went to Zarephath, and when he came to the entrance of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks; and he called to her and said, “Please get me a little water in a [d]cup, so that I may drink.”
11 As she was going to get it, he called to her and said, “Please bring me a piece of bread in your hand.”
12 But she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have no food, only a handful of flour in the [e]bowl and a little oil in the jar; and behold, I am gathering [f]a few sticks so that I may go in and prepare it for me and my son, so that we may [g]eat it and die.”
13 However, Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go, do as you have said. Just make me a little bread loaf from [h]it first and bring it out to me, and afterward you may make one for yourself and for your son.
14 For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: ‘The [i]bowl of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil become empty, until the day that the Lord provides rain on the face of the earth.’”
15 So she went and did everything in accordance with the word of Elijah, and she and he and her household ate for many days.
16 The [j]bowl of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil become empty, in accordance with the word of the Lord which He spoke through Elijah.
17 Now it happened after these things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became sick; and his [k]condition became very grave, until at the end [l]he was no longer breathing.
18 So she said to Elijah, “[m]Why is my business any of yours, you man of God? Yet you have come to me to bring my wrongdoing to remembrance, and to put my son to death!”
19 But he said to her, “Give me your son.” Then he took him from her [n]arms and carried him up to the upstairs room where he was living, and laid him on his own bed.
20 And he called to the Lord and said, “Lord, my God, have You also brought catastrophe upon the widow with whom I am [o]staying, by causing her son to die?”
21 Then he stretched himself out over the boy three times, and called to the Lord and said, “Lord, my God, please, let this boy’s life return [p]to him.”
22 And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah, and the life of the boy returned [q]to him and he revived.
23 Elijah then took the boy and brought him down from the upstairs room into the house and gave him to his mother; and Elijah said, “See, your son is alive.” 24 Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.”
This fabulous story of Elijah and his very dramatic eventful ministry is well known not only inside Christendom, but in the entire world.
Notice the exact words spoken by Elijah to the Baal worshipping ungodly king Ahab – I have emphasized this verse 1.
He used same pronouncement as found in Rev. 11:4,
“These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.”
Elijah was one who stood before the Lord….that is, he was always ready and in ministry for the Lord. At all times, and in the meaning of eternity.
It will be by Elijah’s orders and prophecy that God shall let the heaven above be shut up, and there shall be a famine in Israel in the start-up of the tribulation…soon to happen.
THE OVERRULING INTERVENTION OF GOD
If it were not for the fact that it will be God Who rules and decides regarding that Great Tribulation, the famine in Israel could be broken by the rest of the wealthy nations sending food aid, including water.
But this will not be happening, since God through His two prophets will ‘seal off’ Israel for such aid. It will be impossible to break the strict famine falling on Israel for her ungodliness.
Secondly, God is not just making the rain stop for 3 ½ years, but He has another prophet there in company with Elijah, - the ‘king of prophets’ - MOSES.
Rev. 11:6 – added to Rev. 16:3, 4, says that in same instance as rain is stopped, all waters in Israel will be ‘turned into blood, as that of a dead man’. This frightening sign was performed through Moses before Pharaoh Ramses II as he prepared Egypt for letting the Hebrews free of slavery.
“And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea. And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.” (Rev. 16:3, 4).
My conclusion must therefore be that God makes an instant effect of ‘no water’ policy: Rain is stopped at the same time as all waters become undrinkable; it has been made into blood.
The world watching this in the TV news after it happen will be shocked and shaken beyond our wildest imagination.
The warriors in that particular future ‘Gaza conflict’ will be paralyzed and scared in a total panic…they will quickly understand that this is not just hitting them, as soldiers, but their families will starve and suffer. The effect will be as if they had the roof over them fall down!
No wonder then, that we find these two prophets armed to their teeth – that super-weapon of flashy fire by which they kill every person (these are soldiers) who dare go up against them in the 1260 days of ministry. Rev. 11:5.
THE DEATH OF THESE PROPHETS CAUSES
CELEBRATION SCENES AND JOY IN ISRAEL
Rev. 11:7-10 NASB,
“ When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them, and overcome them and kill them.
8 And their dead bodies will lie on the street of the great city which [f]spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.
9 Those from the peoples, tribes, languages, and nations will look at their dead [g]bodies for three and a half days, and [h]will not allow their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb.
10 And those who live on the earth will rejoice over them and celebrate; and they will send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who live on the earth.” (Editor’s emphasize)
The beast mentioned (v. 7), is Anti-Christ of course. He arrives in the middle of the seven years tribulation, as the 1260 days of the two prophets are fulfilled, and the 42 months of the rule of Anti-Christ starts up. The last 3 ½ years will happen without the two witnesses present. But their disciples, the 144 000 of the twelve tribes of Israel will be present, and many of these (if not all?) become martyrs for Jesus Christ. (See Rev. 20:4 telling of their resurrection at the Second Advent.)
The effect and damages caused by the two witnesses must have been awesome, and therefore we learn of the people’s great relief when they are killed by the beast. People are so frightened that they dare not go close to their dead bodies; neither will they try to remove their bodies from the street in Jerusalem. They watch that street scenario for 3 ½ days. The prophets tormented those who lived in Israel. A shallow translation here in NASB may mislead readers to think that these signs and punishments were happening all over the earth. Earth here should really have been translated the land.
It all happens in Israel. It starts up in Jerusalem with its new temple, the water-embargo hits only Israel, and all the other super-natural punishments and signs seen in Rev. chapt. 6 -16 …asteroids and meteors falling on the land, and in Rev. 9 we find the monsters of the Abyss, stinging Israelites with their scorpion tails for five months (tormenting them!) so they try to commit suicide, but death will not occur. I am personally convinced that those who get tortured by these monsters, they are soldiers and not regular civilians. God shall really whip and flog these brutal Israeli soldiers! God will paralyze and stop the Israeli war-machine in their tracks. It does not happen out in the world and in all the nations; it will only hit Israel as the Great Tribulation is going on. We can trust Jer. 30:7 which clearly prophesied that it will be ‘The time of Jacob’s trouble’ – which was his name before it became Israel.
The government of Israel as well as their armed forces will be completely paralyzed and knocked out and unable to decide anything regarding all that is going down during the ‘Great Tribulation’!
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