Damascus, on the bottom central bright area, at 690 metres above sea level surrounded by the Al Ghutah Oasis,  bordered by the Anti-Lebanon Mountains to its west (top) – Synthetic Aperature Radar (SAR) multipemporeal color composite image satellite imaging

 

“The God of Israel wants Damascus to be One of His “Zions”

The Oracles of God in Zechariah 9-14 and the Beginning Days of Redemption

Translation of text by the New English Bible

Translation of text and Rabbinic Commentary by Maggid ben Yoseif

www.torah-voice.org

Biblical Commentary - Robert D. Mock MD (revised)

robertmock@biblesearchers.com

Read archived article - September 6, 2002

Rewritten and Graphics July 30, 2006 – Reedited June 2008

 “Zechariah 9:1”

Part Two

  

Topics

Introduction

The Lord of hosts lays claim to Damascus in the Land of Hadrach

The “Zions” of the Lord

Mount Hermon as the “First Zion” and the “Gateway to Heaven”

Damascus: The Mother of International Terrorism

The Judgments of the Lord upon Damascus

The Judgments of the Lord upon Israel and the Nations surrounding Her Land

Kidnappings by Hamas and Hezbollah in the Prelude to the War

“Qassam Rockets in Ashkelon are a Sword of Vengeance against Immodesty and Promiscuity”

Shabbatean Destruction of Israel - “The Disengagement from the Shomron (“The Fields of Ephraim”)

 

Introduction

 

Before we begin this awesome Oracle of the God of Israel and study it in depth, it is important to stand back and look at it from the viewpoint of the eagle soaring in the heavens, the astronauts circling our globe or trying to reach into the vision of the Almighty One. The Lord of hosts will be re-introducing His “Word” into the lives and consciousness not only of Israel, the entire Middle East but the entire world.  The land of Israel is the stage for the Grand Finale as all the streams of prophesies that were given to the prophets of Israel reach their final conclusion. 

 

We find the written “Word” given to the Israelites at the base of that mount called Sinai. We later find the “Word” in the flesh given to the remnant of the Israelites, the Jews in Judea at the apex of the last great empire of the ancient world: Rome.  The hand of the Lord that molded the geo-political stage of the world into the greatest era of peace, the Pax Romana of Caesar Augustus, sent His Son on a “salvation” mission to this planet earth.  At that time something happened:

 

Luke 2:1 – “And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.”

 

John 1:14, 16-19 – “And the “Word” became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth…and of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.  For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.  No one has seen God at any time.  The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” 

 

Now this is the testimony of John (the Baptizer), who was an authentic Torah observing Jew, who came from the regions of the Essene settlement in Qumran. He practiced in words and actions the entire halachah (how the Torah is applied to everyday life) of the Jewish people.   At the same time, he carried the mantle of Elijah and preached of the “Kingdom-Repentance (Tshuva) message” of the coming Kingdom of God; “Prepare ye the Way of the Lord.”

 

The Jewish people in the province of Judea were in a state of political and spiritual crisis.  The disciples of Hillel, the true Torah voice of the Jewish people, had fled into the wilderness about 20 BCE.  There they lived with the disciples of Menahem the Essene, the former Bet Ad Bin (Vice President) of Hillel’s Sanhedrin who also had exited Jerusalem due to Jerusalem’s state of spiritual corruption.  Out of the land of the Essenes came forth two cousins, Yochanan (John) and Yahshua (Jesus) bringing forth the Kingdom Repentance Message to the Jews, “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand.”

 

At that same time the School of Shammai (Beit Shammai) became the ascendant group of Pharisees who controlled the educational and religious activities of the Jewish people.  As the brooding, rigid and isolationist camp of the Pharisees, they began to build up religious “apartheid” walls around the Jews in order to separate the Jewish people from the Gentile world.  They were concerned about religious and physical assimilation of the Jewish people into the Gentile world.  They developed a theology that despised the Gentiles while the School of (Beit) Hillel sought to open the gates of Judaism to bring the knowledge of the Creator God of Israel and share it with the entire gentile world.  It was the Beit Hillel that believed that the Righteous Gentile did have merit to share in the world to come.  It was the Beit Shammai who believed that no gentile could obtain the privilege of eternal life, resurrection or could become a participant in the future messianic kingdom.

 

Like their ancestors in ancient Egypt, the Jewish people in this era of rampant priestly corruption descended to the 49^th level of personal degradation. It was in this era where the high priest’s office was no longer held by the family of Zadok, the divinely authorized lineage of the high priest of King David.  The religious and political governance of Judea was “owned” by the wealthy aristocratic families of the Sadducees.  They bought the office of the high priest from the Roman procurators and governors.  The Temple of Herod Inc. was the largest and most corrupt money laundering enterprise in the entire Roman world. 

 

The most famous of these Sadducee families was the House of Ananus.  It was Ananus the Elder who came to rule as the high priest in the year that Yahshua ben Yosef (Jesus son of Joseph), the Davidian prince, came to visit the temple of Herod at Passover in the year of His Bar Mitzvoth in 6 CE.  It was the son in law of Ananus the Elder, Caiphas, who along with Ananus staged a trumped up mini-court of the Sanhedrin in the middle of the night to illegally prosecute the charges against Yahshua, the rabbi in defense of the School of Hillel.  Jesus proclaimed that he came as an emissary (messenger) of His “Abba” in heaven to restore spirituality to the Jewish people.  He was to bring to their consciousness the divine concept of the coming of the “Kingdom of God” by repentance (Tshuva).

 

The House of Ananus also had a “blood libel” against the House of Joseph son of David.  After the death of Yahshua, it was the son of Ananus the Elder, Jonathan ben Ananus who became the high priest in Herod’s Temple.  It was he who framed Stephen the Deacon of the Hebrew Nazarene Ecclesia (Jerusalem Church in the Book of Acts) and stoned him to death. 

 

It was Jonathan ben Ananus (son of Ananus) who authorized the Shammaite influenced Pharisee student, Shaul of Tarsus to persecute the Nazarenes (the proto-Christians) all the way to the gates of Damascus.  It was here that the future Apostle Paul met His Lord, Jesus the Messiah, and with Jesus’ instructions remained under the tutelage of the Nazarenes-Hillel-Essenes in Arabia for the next three years.  It was then that the Shaul, now the Apostle Paul received a letter of authorization from James, the brother of Jesus, now the leader of the Nazarenes.  With James’ letter, Paul embarking on the bold Hillel inspired Jewish mission to bring the message of the God of Israel to the gentile races. 

 

At the same time, it was the Apostle Peter who took the Kingdom-Repentance (Tshuva) message of Yahshua (Jesus) to the Lost Tribes of the House of Israel.  These were the former Israelites that had now assimilated into the gentile world to such an extent that many of them had lost their own identity.

 

It was Theophilus the son of Ananus the Elder who also became the high priest of Herod’s Temple.  During his reign, he cast Peter, John and the other apostles in prison.  Under the advice of Gamaliel, the grandson of Hillel the Elder, the apostles were released.  According to Gamaliel, their actions would become the cause of their own demise or success. 

 

It was later Ananus the son of Ananus the Elder who framed the brother of Jesus, James the Just (Yakov haTzaddik), now as the Nasi (President) of the Nazarene Sanhedrin.  He incited the temple priests to stone James the Just, beat his head with the “fuller’s club” and then threw to his body over the walls of the temple to the Kidron Valley below. 

 

The Jewish people in the first century CE were like their ancestors, the Israelites of Egypt.  They left the land of Egypt in what is called today by the Jews, the forty-ninth state of degradation.  For the next forty nine days fleeing on the road towards the mount called Sinai, they daily had to re-learn a new lesson of spiritual sanctification as they embarked on the path of becoming right with their Creator, the God of Israel.  These lessons are yearly rehearsed by the Jewish people today in the forty-nine days from Passover to the fiftieth day of Pentecost.  The Israelites had to learn to leave behind all the cultural entrapments of Egypt.  The “golden calf” of Egypt and the Erev Rav, the “mixed multitude” that came with them out of Egypt had to be conquered and eliminated before they could stand in the Presence of the Almighty One of Israel.

 

Today, the Jewish people are in the process of learning to conquer and eliminate the entrapments of the modern world global assimilation that they call the modern “Golden Calf.”  Those that survived the horrors of the holocaust were given their freedom when at the end of the 2300 Hundred Days (years) prophetically told to their prophet Daniel, the National Home of Israel rose out of the ashes of Hitler’s crematoriums.  There in 1948, they immediately had to face the five largest Arab nations of their cousins the Ishmaelites that tried to drive them from the land of Roman Palestine.  Yet on that day, May 15, 1948, the Land of Roman Palestine became not the Province of Judea but the Land of Israel. 

 

Today also, the Jewish people find themselves in the same corrupt state as their ancestors in Egypt and later in Roman Judea. Today, they have to come into the realization that they, as a national people, again are in the “forty-ninth state of degradation.”  The government of Labor Zionist Israel is truly corrupt through and through.  The concept of the “State of Degradation” is explained clearer from the words of the Hassidic Master, Rabbi Shalom Noach Berezovsky Z’’L, Rebbe of Slonim as he spoke on the verse in Proverbs:

 

Proverbs 3:11 – “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord,

Nor detest His correction;

For whom the Lord loves He corrects,

Just as a father the son in whom he delights.”

 

Rabbi Shalom Berezovsky Z’’L, Rebbe of Slonim – “Do not despise the rebuke of Hashem, my son as follows: The rebuke that Hashem gives Israel is, “You are my son—a child of the King! Do not despise yourself through unfitting conduct.” This is the most effective manner of rebuke and the Blessed Holy One used it while the people were still in Egypt. They were sunk in the lowest levels of degradation—the forty-ninth level of defilement—yet the Blessed Holy One called them My first-born (Exodus 4)—a term of endearment the likes of which we do not find anywhere else in the Torah. Through this the Blessed One elevated them to a status that entails responsibility. This is also the meaning of the words that the Blessed Holy One communicated to the people prior to the giving of the Torah. I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to me.

 

Where do we see that the Holy One carried the people on eagles’ wings? The intent of the verse, however, is that the Holy One caused the people great elevation by calling them My firstborn son. Through this endearment I brought you to me—to hold close to Me. During the exodus the impetus for this relationship of closeness came from Above. After the exodus, however, the impetus must come from below.

 

Now if you listen to My voice and keep My covenant—this refers to Hashem’s covenant between the Blessed Holy One and Israel, a covenant in which Israel is to hold close to the Blessed One—you will be My treasure…In his commentary on the Torah, Nachmanides writes, “You will be as something dear to Me—something that the King will not give away.”  In the Midrash Mechilta we read, “You shall be mine—I am not placing any intermediate authority over you; rather I am the Authority.” The verse concludes, You shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

 

As we will learn through the 2006 War between Israel and Hezbollah, the Jewish people are coming into a new awakening no different than the Israelites encamped around about Sinai waiting impatiently for Moses to come down from the mount.  He was to bring to them the revelations from the Almighty God of Israel. In their frustrations, they decided to go alone without HaShem their God.  With the prodding and assistance of the Erev Rav, the “mixed multitude” from Egypt, they built the “Golden Calf” trying to bring salvation through material prosperity. 

 

Today, National Israel, who left Egypt after the holocaust is now again spiritually at the foot of the mount called Sinai.  Ariel Sharon and now Ehud Olmert, the last two Prime Ministers of Israel have become recognized by many rabbis to be the last of the Erev Rav, the “mixed multitude.” They can now be seen as protégées of that messianic heritage of Shabbatai Zevi that became foundation for the union of the international banking house of the Rothschilds, the Roman Catholic Jesuit “Illuminate” inspired by Jesuit Adam Weishaupt and the Frankists, the most prominent disciples and heir of Shabbatai Zevi, Jacob Frank. 

 

Known as the Shabbatean Jews, the “American Neo-Cons” and the “Labor Zionists Jews” are in control of the Nation of Israel today.  They are seen as the children of the “Golden Internationale,” the economic internationalists and transnationalists of the European Union and the United States who carry the pedestal with the “Golden Calf.” 

 

Today, the government of Labor Zionist Israel is fully in the hands of the Council on Foreign Relations in the United States and the Bilderbergs of the European Union.  It has been documented by veteran Israeli journalist, Barry Chamish in his books, “Israel Betrayed”, “Traitors and Carpetbaggers in the Promise Land” and “Shabtai Tzvi, Labor Zionism and the Holocaust” that almost ninety percent of the national media of Israel is owned by the Council of Foreign Relations.  Up to ninety percent of the military and domestic industry is also owned by members of the Council of Foreign Relations.  

 

The problem with the prophets of Israel is that the Jewish people who represented the majority of Israel who voted for the “Last Zionist Government” of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert have sunk to such a degraded spiritual state that they no longer recognize that their legitimacy to the Land of Israel only comes from the God of Israel, not George Bush, the State Department of Condoleezza Rice, the European Union, the United Nations nor Russia.  The chastisement of their Lord is now upon them.

 

These were the Jewish people who voted for the expulsion of all the orthodox Jewish Gaza residents at Gush Katif as the sun was setting over the horizon on the 9^th of Av 5765 (August 2005).  These were the Jews along with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his wife who invited the International Gay Pride Parade called the “Impurade” by the orthodox Jews, to the city of Jerusalem.  Here they could cast their spell of sexual degradation within “God’s Holy Land,” around the site that the God of Israel calls “His Dwelling Place” in the vicinity of the Wailing Wall of the Temple Mount, up and down the streets of Old City Jerusalem and in the halls of the Knesset of Israel in Jerusalem. 

 

This parade was temporarily postponed because of the 2006 “9^th of Av War” in Israel. Now today, the War of Israel and Hezbollah that reached its apex on the 9^th of Av 5766 (August 2006) when a million plus Jews had fled Galilee, the Jews of the Shomron were still facing immediate eviction from their land and dwellings from the “Fields of Ephraim” in the Shomron or the former land of Samaria had now received the verdict of the World Court of Opinion, it’s the Jews that are responsible for the war and the destruction of the land of Lebanon.

 

At the same time, the vegetative state of their last Prime Minister Ariel Sharon still cast an aura over the Nation of Israel.  In the land there was a rumor that there was a pasuk (verse from the Torah) about a “shepherd” that would “die” yet his body would lie near the gates of Jerusalem.  His body would not decompose for many days before it was finally buried.  According to the pasuk, as long as the body of Sharon rested near the gates (city limits) of Jerusalem, the enemies of Israel would fear and not attack Jerusalem.

 

On August 13, 2006, the Nation of Israel declared a “cease fire,” imposed by the United States, France, Russia and the United Nations.  This “Cease Fire” will allow the Nation of Lebanon to police the land of Lebanon south of the Litani River with Lebanese troops that are imbedded with Russian-Iranian fronted military Hezbollah terrorists.  These troops were initially to monitor the northern border of Israel along with 15,000 troops from the international forces from the Vatican controlled former Roman province of France. 

 

This may have been a ruse as by August 18, 2006 the promised forces from France began to diminish down to 200.  Turkey and Germany backed out but the Nation of Italy, according to Italy’s foreign minister Massimo D’Alema, had now approved 3,000 “peacekeeping” troops.  According to Premier Romano Prodi, Italy has been trying to become a major international player to end the conflict between Israeli soldiers and Hezbollah warriors.  It now appears that the Vatican will now be able to guard the gates to Jerusalem. 

 

North of the Litani River, the Hezbollah will reign supreme, given the opportunity to restore their military losses with more powerful and potentially more lethal chemical or nuclear tipped rockets. There they can imbed their military organization with the Russian, Iranian and Syrian officers and advisory staff.  This was the military high command that engaged this war from the Syrian city of Anjar at the Syrian Army 10^th Division base opposite the Lebanese town of Az Zabdani.  According to DEBKAfiles on August 7, 2006,

 

DEBKAfiles – “While Israeli officials keep on insisting that Syria must be kept out of the conflict, the fact is that the Assad regime is already in it up to their ears – with a leading role in the Hizballah rocket attacks on northern Israel. The command which coordinates the pace of those attacks is located at the Anjar base of the Syrian Army’s 10th Division opposite the Lebanese town of Az Zabdani. It is manned by Iranian and Hizballah officers, who take their orders from a Syrian military intelligence center in Damascus to which Iranian Revolutionary Guards intelligence officers are attached. It is headed by a general from one of Syria’s surface missile brigades. This joint command is provided with the most up-to-date intelligence and electronic data available to Syria on targets in Israel and IDF movements. The timing and tempo of Hizballah rocket strikes are set according to that information. To keep the rockets coming without interruption, the joint Hizballah-Syrian-Iranian command is also responsible with keeping Hizballah supplied with an inflow of rockets and launchers. They use smuggling rings to slip the supplies into Lebanon by mule and donkey which ply the 5,000-7,000 feet mountain paths that straddle the Syrian-Lebanese frontier.”

 

The “hand” of God will wait for round two as the “fires of tribulation” begin their refining the “gold” and “silver” and cast away the chaff from the Land of Israel. The water has been tested, the Israeli military was prevented a victory because the people of Israel would not enter into a state of repentance (Tshuva).  The “vaulted” military force of the Goliath of Israel is now seen to be vulnerable and conquerable by the Arabs. They will lust to destroy her.  The Oracle of Zechariah will wait for the timing of the God of Israel to mark its next deadline.                                                                                                                                                                                            

 

The Lord of hosts lays claim to Damascus in the Land of Hadrach

 

Zechariah 9:1 - The Burden of the Word of the Lord

Against the land of Hadrach,

And Damascus its resting place.

(For the eyes of men) And all the tribes of Israel

Are on the Lord.”  (NKJV)

 

Zechariah 9:1 - An Oracle:  The Word of Yahweh against the Land of Hadrach (the Burden of the Word of HaShem)

And Damascus (shall be) a resting place for Him (a place of repose or domicile for Yahweh),

For on Yahweh (shall be) the eye of humanity

(that is, all humans will turn their eyes toward Yahweh in Damascus)

And all of the Tribes of Israel (shall also turn their eyes

toward Yahweh in Damascus).” (transliterated by Archeologist Ernest Martin)

 

Zechariah 9:1  - “The burden of the word of Hashem in the land of Hadrach

(Northern Regions of Syria and the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon where the WMD are located),

And Damascus the rest thereof;(The “rest” of Syria where Lebanon resides within Syria’s political boundaries);

When the eyes of man as of all the tribes of Israel,

Shall be toward the Lord.”

(transliterated by Maggid ben Yoseif)

 

 The God of Israel is now focusing His eyes upon the Middle East. He is looking at one place He wants to be His own and that place is not Jerusalem.  So, the ”burden of the Lord” is now upon that place called the “Land of Hadrach.”  So we ask, where is the Land of Hadrach? 

 

Hadrach is mentioned only once in the TaNaKh (Old Testament), in Zechariah 9:1. 

 

The Map of Ḩarrākah and Hamah, Syria

 

Almost all Christian Bible Commentaries will admit that they do not know the location of Hadrach.  Most speculate that it is north of Damascus.  It has been suggested that Hadrach or Hatarikka (Ḩarrākah) are the same location.  This place lies south-southeast of Hamath and almost directly east of the most northern border of Lebanon and Hims in Syria.  Still the evidence is inconclusive.

 

The Nimrod Black Obelisk of Assyrian King Shalmanesaer III

 

This chapter is also associated with another place with a similar name called Hamath.  This city we know was and is in the land called Coel Syria (Land of Syria).  According to the partial remains of the battle monument called the Zakir Stele, we learn of the city called Hamath.  This stele commemorates the military battle between Zakir, the king of Hamath and Lu’ash against Ben-Hadan the son of Hazael, the kings of Damascus.  This battle was located at a place called Hazrack, or Hatarikka. 

 

This stele was discovered at Afis in 1907 and kept at the museum at Allepo.  This king called Ben-Hadan from Damascus on the Zakir Stele was a contemporary of the Prophet Elijah and King Joash (Jehoash) of Israel (2 Kings 13:24) about 755 BCE.

 

Israeli King Jehu paying homage to Shalmaneser III of Assyria on the Zakir Stele

 

One hundred years earlier, the “Nimrod” Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III (841  BCE) gives an account of the king of Hamath called Urhuleni, who was one of the conquered kings along the Orontes River.  They were conquered by the Assyrians at Qarqar on 854 BCE.  What is of interest to us is that King Urhuleni of Hamath was the ally of the Israeli King Jehu, both of which were conquered by the Assyrians.  We even get a picture of King Jehu who is depicted robed with the royal cloth cap.  The inscription on the obelisk states: "Tribute of Jehu, son of Omri; silver, gold, a golden bowl, a golden beaker, golden goblets, pitchers of gold, lead, staves for the bed of the king, javelins, I received from him."

 

Apamea Cham Palace and the Arabian Nights

 

Flowing north between the Lebanese and the anti-Lebanese Mountains, the waters of the Orontes River (Nahr Al-'asi) begin in Al-Biqa' (i.e., the Bekáa Valley) in central Lebanon along the border with Syria.  This gorgeous valley, once surrounded by the famed Cedars of Lebanon, is the home of the Hezbollah insurgent fighters, funded by Iran and ideologically guided by Syria, in their pathological hatred towards Israel.

  

Flowing north, the Orontes River is first dammed at Hims Lake.  It then continues its course towards the rich Orontes Valley beyond where it finally exits into the Mediterranean Sea in the Antakya region of Turkey.  Called by the Muslims, the “Rebellious River,” it gains this name of notoriety because it flows away from Mecca. 

 

There on the banks of the Orontes River is a beautiful palace that bequeaths the imagery of the 101 Arabian Nights; the Apamea Cham Palace.  Nearby along the river banks are the famed waterwheels that continue to use the irrigation traditions of ancient Mesopotamia.    

 

According to the late Archeologist Earnest Martin in an article he wrote in 1999 titled, “The Damascus Phase of End-Time Prophecy,” Martin wrote that the Land of Hadrach is the entire area of the Fertile Crescent.

 

Earnest Martin - These six chapters (Zechariah 9 to 14) can be called the "Damascus Prophecy," but the divine oracle itself was directed to what is called "The Land of Hadrach…"  The "Land of Hadrach" answers to the land in the Middle East that was promised to Abraham and his progeny. In a word, it means the "Area of the Fertile Crescent" (from Egypt in the southwest to the head of the Persian Gulf in the southeast, and also including all the Arabian Peninsula).

 

Hermon Mountain in Northern Israel and Lebanon

 

This land is described in the prophecy in Zechariah 9:10 as "from sea even to sea (that is, from west to east which means from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean), and from the River even unto the ends of the earth (that is, from north to south which means from the Euphrates River to the end of the Arabian Peninsula).” That was the exact land mass that Solomon understood to mean the "Land of Promise" for Abraham and his children.

 

Psalms 72:8 – “A Song of Solomon” on the “Reign of the Messiah” – “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.”

 

The reason the City of Damascus is selected to head the prophecy is because Abraham stated in Genesis 15:2 that if Isaac had not been born to be his heir, a righteous Gentile named "Eliezer of Damascus" would have become the one to inherit all his property and the lands promised to Abraham. In Greek, "Eliezer" means "Lazarus," the same "Lazarus" who was mentioned in Christ’s parable of "Lazarus and the Rich Man." ⁴ Had Isaac not been born and lived to manhood, it would have been Eliezer (Lazarus) who would have inherited this vast territory known as the "Land of Promise."

 

The "Land of Promise" is the area of the earth that God desires to live in more than in any other. That is the Land in which God chooses to reside when He is on earth. If God would have allowed it to happen in history (that is, if Isaac had not been born), God’s capital on earth could just as well have been Damascus, not Jerusalem.” 

 

As we re-look at this prophecy, we will concentrate on its pshat, (literal) interpretation.  It has been accepted by the Jewish people and the Christians who respect the legitimacy of the Jewish guardianship to the Torah that the prime dwelling of the God of Israel is at Jerusalem.  This is the one place on this planet earth that God calls his capital residence.  What is less known is that the important starting point in this prophecy is that it is directed “against the Land of Hadrach" because the Lord of hosts is preparing to claim it for His own the lands within the Fertile Crescent.

  

The Land of Hadrach appears not to be a city but a land.  Careful analysis suggests that the boundaries of this prophecy of judgment are also imbedded within the prophecy. The starting point of the judgments are “against Hamath” which is recognized by some scholars to be the northern border city in Syria on the Euphrates.  Others recognize these regions to be around Damascus that are under the influence of the land of Syria.  This would include: Lebanon, Baalbek and the Bekáa Valley, the cities of Tyre and Sidon and may also include the regions governed by the Palestinian Authority.

 

According to Earnest Martin, the “word "Hadrach" means "circuit" or something like the periodic return of the moon (from crescent to crescent). If we focus on the simple language of this prophecy in the six chapters at the end of Zechariah, we would then read the following: "An Oracle Against the Countries of the Fertile Crescent." 

 

"Mount Hermon" engraved by S. Bradshaw after a picture by H. A. Harper, published in Picturesque Palestine, about 1875. Steel engraved print with recent hand colour.

 

The overwhelming meaning of this text is that the Lord of hosts is laying claim to the regions of Lebanon and Damascus.  He intends to reside at Damascus in the area nestled and surrounding the Mountain of Herman on the borders of Syria, Israel and Lebanon. 

 

Our first reaction is: we thought Israel was the land in which the Lord of hosts claimed to be His own.  That is true.  Yet in the King James Version, it calls, “Damascus, its resting place”.  Whose resting place will it be?  It states it will be the resting place of the Lord of hosts.  Other translations call it the “Burden of the Lord” or the “Word of the Lord”. 

 

Is God enlarging His region of influence?  Is God setting His boundaries in that He will eventually call this land of Damascus His Holy Land?  Is the Lord of hosts enlarging His area of influence so that He will eventually reclaim all the “Zions” that once called His dwelling places?  If so, then we must then reconsider the fact that there may be more than one, yes, many Zions that the Lord of hosts claims to be His own.

 

The “Zions” of the Lord

 

The God of Israel is the “King of all kings” and the Lord of all lords.” Without this central fact in acceptance, any dialogue has no common focus of agreement. 

 

The typology of earthly kingship is taken directly from the ancient concept that God is the “King of kings” and reigns above all the kings that dwell on this earth. 

 

The prime residence of the king is in his capital city.  Yet the king (and president) does have other dwelling places such as the America’s official government retreat for the president of the United States at “Camp David.” Yet, President George Bush also has his summer home and official retreat for special international guests at the Texas White House at the Crawford Ranch.

 

The chief dwelling place of the God of Israel is “Zion” in the city of Jerusalem. 

 

Psalms 132:13 – “For the Lord has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His dwelling place: This is My resting place forever; Here I will dwell, for I have desired it.” 

 

Here is how God looks at His home:

 

Psalms 48:1-5 – “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in His holy mountain. Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.  God is in her palaces; He is known as her refuge.  For behold, the kings (of the whole earth were) assembled (in the presence of Mount Zion), they passed by together (in union and harmony before God).” (transliteration by Ernest Martin)

 

Yet the God of Israel has other homes or places where God desires to dwell called “Zion.”  These areas He gave His glory and divine presence.  

                            

1. Mount Hermon

Psalms 68:15 – “A mountain of God is the mountain of Basham (Hermon); a mountain of many peaks is the mountain of Basham….This is the mountain which God desires to dwell in; yes, the Lord will dwell in it forever.” 

 

2. Mount Sinai

Psalms 68:16 – “The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of thousands; The Lord is among them as in Sinai, in the Holy Place. You have ascended on high; You have led captivity captive; You have received gifts among men, even from the rebellious, that the Lord God might dwell there.”

 

3. Lebanon at Carmel and Sharon

Psalms 34:2 – “The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the excellence of Carmel and Sharon.  They shall see the glory of the Lord, the Excellency of our God.”

 

4. Mount Tabor and Hermon

Psalms 89:12 – “Tabor and Hermon rejoice in Your name.” 

 

5. Egypt: Altar indicates a holy place and a Pillar indicates God’s presence

Isaiah 19:19 – “In that day, there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at its border. And it will be for a sign for a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to the Lord because of the oppressors, and He will send them a Savior and a Mighty One, and He will deliver them. Then the Lord will be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day.”

 

6. Mount Arafat east of Mecca  - Archeologist Ernest Martin also suggests that Mount Arafat on the eastern part of Mecca is a holy mountain to God.  As written:

 

Earnest Martin – “Mount Arafat east of Mecca – “Even the early Arabs (long before the time of Muhammad) knew that Abraham had given to the twelve tribes of Ishmael (the son of Abraham by his Egyptian concubine Hagar) a holy site at Mecca with Mount Arafat on the eastern part of Mecca as their holy mountain.  The Arabs long ago thought of the Ka’aba to be the "House of God" that God loved for the Arabs, and it was also located in Arabia on the border of the sea in the "Land of Promise." Where Muhammad made a mistake was imposing on the world a holy place was meant only for Ishmaelites as the "House of God" to be honored by the world. Muhammad was right, Mecca was a "House of God," but it was NOT the prime "House." God’s chief "House" was located in Jerusalem.”

 

Mount Hermon as the “First Zion” and the “Gateway to Heaven”

 

It is of interest that the majestic Mount Hermon was actually called the world’s first “Mount Zion.”

 

Moses was now dead and Joshua had assumed command of the children of Israel as they were preparing to enter their “Promised Land.”  There in the valley opposite Beth Peor, Joshua repeated the statutes and judgments of the Lord that were given to them on the mount called Sinai.  Then the children of Israel began their military campaign. 

 

Let us remind ourselves that in the days of the children of Israel, neither Moses nor Joshua sought the world opinion to conquer the lands surrounding the “Promised Land.”

 

Mount Zion which is Mount Hermon in Syria, Lebanon and Israel

 

The Israelites did not have UN Observers that were collecting evidence to prosecute them before the World Court at the Hague in order to charge them as criminals of the world’s military laws.  There were no CNN reporters giving eyewitness accounts of women and children kept hostage in buildings so that Joshua and the Israelites could be accused of ruthlessly killing women and children. 

 

We can assume that the ancient military warriors, with the exception of the Amalekites, had a code of ethics that they did not fight their battles surrounded and imbedded in homes filled with women, children and the aged.  Neither did Israel look to a higher national power such as the United States for permission to conquer the kings of Sidon, Bashan and the Amorites.  They entered the “Promised Land” with the permission of only one Source: the Almighty One of Israel.  

 

Their first military possessions gained were on the other side (east) of the Jordan River as they conquered the land of Sihon and the king at Heshbon, the land of Og the king of Bashan, and the two kings of the Amorites.  The Israelite chronicler for Moses describing the extent of this land identified for the first time the “first Mount Zion.” 

 

Deuteronomy 4:48 – “And they took possession of his land…who were on this side of the Jordan, toward the rising of the sun, from Aroer, which is on the bank of the River Arnon even to Mount Zion; which is Hermon.”  (called “Sion” in Christian interpretations)

 

To the citizens of the city of Damascus, the mount of Hermon was regarded to them as holy and sanctified.  As Ernest Martin explained: 

 

Earnest Martin – “We now come to Mount Hermon. Damascus also had a "high place" as its own "holy place" and it was a legitimate "holy mount." The people of Damascus had their own "holy mountain." It was the highest of the mountains from the Euphrates in the north all the way south to Egypt and down to the center part of the Sinai Peninsula. That mountain was "Mount Hermon." It was the greatest of the sacred mountains of the Middle East. It was considered the most holy mountain of the early Hittites, of all the Gentiles of Palestine and even by the Greeks and Romans (see Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol.5, p.876). Even in the Greek and Roman periods Mount Hermon’s sanctity was recognized as the central worship of all the Gods of the world (no matter who they were).

 

Map of Mount Hermon Ski Region

 

Look at this fact. At the bottom of Mount Hermon on the southwest side was a place called Panias by the Greeks after the time of Alexander the Great (it is the modern day, Banias) which was Caesarea Philippi in New Testament times.

 

This place was a very ecumenical "holy place" that was devoted "to ALL the Gods of the whole world" (NOT simply to the single "God" of any particular nation). Indeed, the word "Panias" at the foot of Mount Hermon in Greek meant that the place was devoted as a divine sanctuary to "All the Gods." On the northeast section of this "divine mountain" was the principal city of the area. That city was Damascus whose people in ancient times looked directly toward their Mount Hermon as the center place of their religious beliefs (and, not only that, this very mountain was believed to be in the eyes of most early peoples on earth as being the most important of all mountains in the world).”

 

Even to the ancients, Mount Hermon was known as a land of an even greater antiquity. We find in the sixth chapter of the Book of Enoch, it spoke of that day in antiquity in which the “Watchers from Heaven” were sent by God to this earth to instruct the children of Adam in the ways of divine civilization.  What is of interest is that the Book of Enoch accounted as one of the most numerous of the manuscripts fragments that were found in the caves at Qumran.  If we do consider that Khirbat Qumran (ruins of Qumran) was occupied by the secret ultra-orthodox sect of the Essenes, then we must also reconsider that the Book of Enoch was revered as part of the sacred scriptures to the Jewish Essenes.

 

Book of Enoch 6:1, 6 – “And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters.  And the angels, the children of heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: ’Come let us choose us wives from among the children of men and beget us children…” And they were in all two hundred; who descended in the days of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon, and they called it Mount Hermon, because they had sworn and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it.”

 

Damascus, Mount Hermon, Golan Heights and its relationship with Israel

 

 

Book of Jasher V, 1 – “And it happened , when the sons of the children of men commenced to increase over the face of the whole earth and daughters were born to them, that the angels of the Lord saw them in one year of this jubilee, that they were beautiful to look upon. And they took unto themselves wives from all of them whomever they chose, and they bore them sons, and these were giants.”

 

Mount Hermon, to the ancients, was called the “Gateway to Heaven.” Here the reports of antiquity claim divine emissaries as inter-dimensional beings could be seen moving from one dimension to another.  It we take their testimony literally, they could see beings, that they called angels or “Watchers”, appear out of nowhere and disappear as though they were walking through a “star-gate.”  Here on this mount called Hermon these “Watchers” entered the environment of this planet earth and then returned back to the heavens. 

 

Even before the time of the Tower of Babel in the Land of Shinar (Genesis 11:1-9) the “Sons of God” (Genesis 6) came down to this earth and in their union with the daughters of men procreated the “Giants” or “Titans” of old.  The testimony about Mount of Hermon as the “First Zion” was known from the days of the antediluvians (before the flood of Noah) in the days of the Patriarch Enoch.  

  

When the Tower of Babel was destroyed, Mount Hermon, according to Martin, became the most holy place on earth.  The citizens in the Middle East considered Mount Hermon as a “Bethel,” a house of God.  They also considered Mount Hermon as “Zion,” a favorite dwelling place of the Most High God.

 

As Deuteronomy continues in its summary, the ancient Israelites harkened back to the days of Babel when Moses, writing Deuteronomy, stated that when the ancients called Herman by a name more ancient to the children of Israel; Sirion and Senir.  Here we find a linguistic variation of “Shinar:”

 

Deuteronomy 3:8-9 (parts) – “And at that time we took the land ….from the River Arnon to Mount Hermon, (the Sidonians call Hermon Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir.”

 

The Biblical historians and archeologists have long thought that the Land of Shinar was in the land of the Euphrates River, in the region of the current Nations of Iraq and Iran.  Maybe we must reconsider again where the Land of Shinar was.  If the “Land of Hadrach” is the Land of the Fertile Crescent, then Damascus and Mount Hermon would be considered a part of the “Land of Shinar.”  

 

Damascus: The Mother of International Terrorism

 

And Damascus (shall be) a resting place for Him (a place of repose or domicile for Yahweh.)

 

Picture of “Damacus in Syrien” overlooked by Mount Hermon, dated 1668 CE, published in the Book, "Naukeurige beschryving van gantsch Syrie,

en Palestyn of Heilige Lant...", page 17, by Author Olfert Dapper and Publisher Jacob van Meurs from Amsterdam

Sitting at the base of Mount Hermon is one of the most beautiful cities of the world, the city of Damascus.  This is the site the Lord of hosts has His eyes upon.  Besides the city of Jerusalem, the Lord of hosts calls this city of Damascus His own.  Yet today, it is a den of terrorists. 

 

The “claim to fame” of the international city of Damascus is that it is recognized as “the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world.”  Three thousand years ago, it was known to be the capital city of the ancient Aramean Kingdom.  Here was the city where the roots of the Aramaic language was first used and written with a modified Phoenician alphabet. 

 

Aramaic became the imperial language of the Cyrus the Great’s Achaemenid successors in the Persian Empire. When Alexander the Great defeated Darius the Persian, Damascus became a Greek city and Aramaic lost it preeminence as the international language.  Under Rome, Damascus kept a leading role as the city where the Roman governors ruled the entire Middle East.  In 635 CE, the city of Damascus fell to the Muslim invaders. In 1200 CE, the city was sacked by the Mongols and during the Middle Ages.  Later, it was the Ottomans and the Mamelukes that made Damascus their home. 

 

Since the beginning of the War on Terror in the fall of 2001, the American diplomats have been putting considerable pressure on Syria to turn against the infrastructure of terrorist organizations that use Syria as their main operational bases.  Assad was handed a blunt ultimatum in 2002 that he close down the headquarter offices of the extremist Palestinian terrorist organizations operating under the guidance of the Syrian military intelligence services.

 

The channel of intelligence command from the President Bashar Assad to the terrorists groups was pinpointed to be Syria’s deputy chief of staff, General Ali Aslan.  He was soon retired on January 22, 2002.

 

Pulpit from which Imam Zaynul Abidin delivered sermon before Yazid

 

Ten of the largest terrorist organizations in the Middle East today call Damascus home.  These included the following in part:

 

• The Islamic Hamas and Jihad Islami, the foremost planters of human suicide bomb against Israeli civilians,
• The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine under the leadership of George Habash,
• The Naif Hawatmeh’s Democratic Popular Front,
• The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine called the General Command, headed by Ahmed Jibril and
• The noted violent Kurdish Democratic Party called the PKP. 
• The most powerful terrorist organization in the Middle East, a member of the Lebanon Parliament, a government within a government and the largest military force in the land of Lebanon are the Hezbollah, military clients of Iran and Syria.

 

Damascus, the largest and leading city state in Aramea, was the capital of the arch-enemy of Israel, the nation of Syria.  Is it not interesting that the first national empire after Egypt that took control of the fate of the Israelites was Assyria; the ruthless military imperialists whose strategy of pacification was to displace all peoples from their homeland and scatter them across the extent of the lands they controlled?

 

Today Damascus is the capital of the Nation of Syria, the sister Ba’athist Party government to Saddam Hussein’s Party in the Republic of Iraq that was formed with the collaboration of the Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem in exile and Khairallah Tulah from the Syrian Nazi Party.  The leader of Syria is President Bashar Assad, the former president of the UN Security Council for the year of 2002 is in control of the Palestinian terror labyrinth that weaves itself like an amoeba throughout the entire area of Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank. 

 

It was in April 1, 2003 that Syrian President Bashar Assad in interview just prior to the invasion into Iraq was recorded by World Net Daily in the article titled, “Syria: Israel will Never be Legitimate” will these words”

 

Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem

 

World Net Daily – “In an interview in a Lebanese newspaper, Syrian President Bashar Assad has lashed out at Israel, saying as long as the Jewish state exists it will be a threat….Israel has a vested interest in dividing Iraq into small ethnic, national and ethnic mini-countries, so that Israel could enjoy legitimacy. There are countries in the Middle East with diverse nationalities, but they have social and historic cohesiveness. Despite the ethnic diversity within each nation, the social fabric of the region by and large is one. On the other hand, the [social] structure in Israel is an anomaly. It is a country with one characteristic, which is a religious characteristic. Its democracy stems from this characteristic. It is not a democracy based on the state's boundaries. Therefore, it is inconceivable that Israel will become a legitimate state even if the peace process is implemented, because its structure deviates from the region's norm, and maybe from the whole world…

 

The City of Damascus at Sunset

 

Asked if Syria feels threatened, Assad again referred to Israel: "As long as Israel exists, the threat exists. As long as there is aggression against an Arab country, and as long as there is a war close to our borders, the danger continues. Anyone who does not worry in such circumstances does not see reality. Worry does not mean fear, but readiness for the confrontation. ...None of us and none of the Arabs trust Israel. It is natural that we should always expect an Israeli attack, even when it does not threaten. It should be known that Israel is based on treachery. This is a point to be considered thoroughly. We are dealing with treachery and threats, which accompanied the establishment of Israel. Since its very inception, Israel has been a threat. It is the Israeli nature, and for that Israel was established.

"Based on this understanding of Israel's nature and role, we should deal with the possibility of protracted aggression. ... Israel does not care about the international public opinion. The U.S. is unable to reign it in; to the contrary, the Israelis are the ones who control [the U.S.] now through their lobby. ..."

 

Yet as a charter member, Syria has remained on the list of the “state sponsors of terrorism” by the State Department of the United States since its inception in 1979.  It was first implicated in 1986 with the attempted bombing of an Israeli El Al flight.  The Arms Export Amendments Act of 1989 defined Damascus along with any other terrorist states as “those that allow their territory to be used as a sanctuary; provide logistical support to terrorists or terrorist organizations; provide safe haven or headquarters for terrorists and their organizations; plan, direct, train, or assist in activities; and/or provide financial support for activities. 

 

For five years, the Syrian government has maneuvered like a chameleon to stay out of the reach of the Western globalist’s War on Terror against the Islamic states of Afghanistan and Iraq. According to the Hichcock’s Bible Names Dictionary, “Damascus” means a “sack full of blood; the similitude of burning.” How appropriate for the city that is known as a “sack full of blood” to be leading the Islamic assault against the Land of Israel in the blood-Red Seal of Revelation.      

 

The Judgments of the Lord upon Damascus

 

It was the apocalyptic prophet Isaiah that gave another “Burden” or Oracle against the city of Damascus before the days of Zechariah.

 

Isaiah 17:1 – “Behold, Damascus will cease from being a city, and it will be a ruinous heap.”

 

Some Biblical scholars claim that this prophecy has never been fulfilled.  And so it may.  Yet even as a ruinous heap in past destructions, it may have been inhabited.  Yet for a moment in time, it did cease to be a city when the forces of Tiglath-pilesar “went up against Damascus.”  The fate of Damascus was tied to the fate of the tribe of Ephraim and the cities of Aroer that were built by the tribe of Gad to the east of Jordan. 

 

Mausoleum of Lady Zaynab daughter of Hazarat Ali

 

Isaiah 17:2-3 – “The cities of Aroer are forsaken; they will be for flocks which lie down, and no one will make them afraid.  The fortress also will cease from Ephraim, the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria; they will be as the glory of the children of Israel,’ says the Lord of hosts.” 

  

As BibleSearchers, it is our prophetic assumption that every prophecy given to the children of Israel and their descendants did have literal application, in part, in the days in which they were prophesied. Yet the final conclusion of all the prophecies of the ancient prophets of Israel will converge into a large river of prophetic fulfillment at the time of the end. 

 

Here Zechariah and Isaiah point to the fate that again, “Damascus will cease from being a city” and the ruins of this mighty city will become as a “ruinous heap.” The prophet Amos brings to the prophetic table a new understanding that might be applicable to this present era.  As stated:

 

Amos 1:3 – “Thus says the Lord: “For three transgression of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment, because they have threshed Gilead with implements of iron.

 

But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, which shall devour the palaces of Ben-Hadad.  I will also break the gate bar of Damascus and cut off the inhabitant from the Valley of Aven (“sin”), and the one who hold the scepter from Beth Eden (House of Eden).  The people of Syria shall go captive to Kir (walled place),” says the Lord.”

 

Damascus has attacked the modern Nation of Israel in three major wars since her birth in 1948.  The first attack by Syria came as the “The War of Independence in1948” when the fledgling Nation of Israel in her infancy declared her independence on the day that the British Mandate expired on May 15, 1948.  Immediately, the Arab countries of Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon formed an Arab coalition.  Together they invaded the homeland of the newborn State of Israel.   This invasion had one purpose: to declare genocide for the Jews under the mantra, “to push the Jews into the sea.”  The leader of the Arabs, who lived in the former British Mandate of Palestine, was Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem. He was the military organizer of the Arab wing of Hitler’s Nazi Army and was to have been arraigned for charges at Nuremberg when he escaped with British assistance in 1946. 

 

The second attack on the Nation of Israel by Syria was the “The Six-Day War in 1967.”  According to Samuel Katz, in “Battleground: Fact and Fantasy in Palestine” he wrote:

 

Samuel Katz – "Never in human history can an aggressor have made his purpose known in advance so clearly and so widely. Certain of victory, both the Arab leaders and their peoples threw off all restraint. Between the middle of May and fifth of June, world-wide newspapers, radio and, most incisively, television brought home to millions of people the threat of politicide bandied about with relish by the leaders of these modern states. Even more blatant was the exhilaration which the Arabic peoples displayed as the prospect of executing genocide on the people of Israel ... In those three weeks of mounting tension people throughout the world watched and waited in growing anxiety--or in some cases, in hopeful expectation--for the overwhelming forces of at least Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Iraq to bear down from three sides to crush tiny Israel and slaughter her people."

 

With the Egyptian troops gathering along the Israeli border in Sinai, Syrian forces massing on the Golan Heights 3000 feet above the farms and villages along Galilee, the nation of Israel went into complete mobilization.   Egyptian President Nasser ordered the United Nations Emergency Protection forces out of the Sinai Peninsula.  The inflammatory Arabic rhetoric shocked the international airwaves.

 

Egyptian President Gamal Nasser (May 18, 1967) – "As of today there no longer exists an international emergency force to protect Israel. We shall exercise patience no more. We shall not complain any more to the UN about Israel. The sole method we shall apply against Israel is total war, which will result in the extermination of Zionist existence."

 

Syrian Defense Minister Hafez Assad (May 20, 1967) – "Our forces are now entirely ready...to initiate the act of liberation itself, and to explode the Zionist presence in the Arab homeland....The time has come to enter into a battle of annihilation."

 

Iraqi President Abdur Rahman Aref (June 4, 1067) - "The existence of Israel is an error which must be rectified. This is our opportunity to wipe out the ignominy which has been with us since 1948. Our goal is clear - to wipe Israel off the map."

 

On June 5, 1967, Israel launched a pre-emptive strike against Egypt.  The Sinai sector of the war collapsed and the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip were captured by Israel. The Nation of Jordan was urged to stay neutral, but also attacked Israel.  The final conclusion was that Jordan lost the West Bank and the western side of Jerusalem.  When the war was over on June 10, Israel had also captured the Golan Heights and was on the road to Damascus.

 

The third attack on the Nation of Israel by Syria was “The 1973 Yom Kippur War” On October 6, 1973, the nations of Syria and Egypt attacked Israel on a two pronged assault trying to force Israel to surrender the lands she had captured in the 1967 Six Days War.  This attack came on the holiest day of the Jewish festival year; Yom Kippur.

 

The Nation of Israel, caught by surprise, was reeling in her human and military losses.  On October 17, 1973, Saudi Arabia led the Arab dominated OAPEC (Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries to call an oil embargo against the United States and any country supporting Israel like the Netherlands.  When the cease fire ended on October 22, 1973, the United States and Russia were almost in full confrontation with each other. Israel captured 165 square miles from Syria while encircling the entire Egyptian Third Army on the west bank of the Suez Canal.

 

Gas Lines at an American Filling Station on June 15, 1979

 

The premeditated attack upon Israel was only highlighted that on August 23, 1973, six weeks prior to the Yom Kippur War, Saudi King Faisal met with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat at Riyadh to secretly negotiate a pact to use the “oil weapon” against the United States, Western Europe and Japan prior to the military assault by Egypt and Syria on October 6, 1973. The Oil Embargo against the United States put that nation into an economic recession in 1974 while the American citizens waited in line for hours for gasoline. By 1979, the world price of oil reached US$80 a barrel (2004 prices). 

 

The question that must be asked, will Syria for the fourth time attack Israel?  Will she be willing to reap the promise of the God of Israel:

 

Amos 1:3 – "...For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four,
I will not turn away the punishment thereof..."

 

The Judgments of the Lord upon Israel and the Nations surrounding Her Land

 

The “judgment” against Damascus then moves over the Land of Lebanon to the Mediterranean Sea.  It goes down the Lebanese coast towards Tyre and Sidon.  It then moves past the Israeli coastline to the Palestinian regions of influence: Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, Ashdod.  Then the judgment goes beyond to Assyria and Egypt. 

 

Zechariah 10:11 – “Then the pride of Assyria shall be brought down, and the scepter of Egypt shall depart.”

 

Finally the judgments will end up in Judah and Israel as noted in these words: 

 

Zechariah 9:8 – “I will camp around My house because of the army, because of him who passes by and him who returns.”

 

What is the Lord of hosts saying?  Will He not be dwelling in My house at Zion in Jerusalem?  Will the Lord of hosts rather be found “camping” around My house as like David when he went into temporary exile?  Has the God of Israel removed Himself away from the approaching satanic “dark forces that will surround Jerusalem at the time of the end?  Will this act of God provoke the return of the Messiah and the Battle of Armageddon? 

 

Has the Lord of hosts also withdrawn Himself from His own people who have lowered themselves to the lowest 49^th level of degradation?  Have they done this by allowing the vicinity of His house and His Land to be desecrated by those who hate His Holy Name?  Are these Jewish people the ones that the Lord of hosts is withdrawing Himself from the same ones who were willing to bring the “Impurade” (World Gay Pride Parade) into the Land of Israel and also into vicinity God’s very own home in Jerusalem? 

 

A careful reading suggests that in the near future a great internal struggle will sweep the Land of Israel, not by the enemies that surround the land of Israel but by what may be a destructive “civil war” that will break the “two staffs; ”the “Beauty” and the “Bonds.”

 

These “dark forces” that are surrounding Israel was alluded to in the blog titled, “Tisha B’AV, 5766” written by Rabbi Lazer Brody on August 3, 2006:

 

Rabbi Lazer Brody - “Barely 24 hours ago, Olmert came out with an insane statement that the war in Lebanon is preparation for giving back more Jewish settlements. If that's not enough, today he expressed his willingness to post Egyptians and Saudis on our northern border. Double national suicide or gross stupidity?

 

Olmert is far from from stupid. He's highly intelligent and cunning. But, though it may seem to you strange, from a spiritual standpoint, he and Nasrulla play for the same team - the Sitra Achra, or dark side that opposes holiness. My main lamentation on Tisha B'av 5766 is that Israel as a whole hasn't yet made tshuva and therefore remains in the clutches of dark-side leadership, rather than meriting the leadership of the generation's true tzaddikim. If we all really knew what we were lacking, our eyelashes would fall out from so many tears. Tisha B'Av is a beam of light from within a dark cloud. Our lamentations are designed to connect us to Hashem in a greater bond.

 

Just as a seed is buried in the ground and rots before it sprouts into a beautiful, fruit-bearing tree, so are we, the Jewish people; for years, our martyrs have been buried in sanctification of Hashem's name. Now, the leadership of Israel is completely rotten, both morally and spiritually, across the board. Now that we've been buried and our leadership is rotten, we shall soon sprout into the People of Hashem and the generation of the renewed Beis haMikdash, speedily and in our time, amen.”

 

And then who is “Him who passes by and him who returns.”  Are the nations of the earth who have passed in and out of Jerusalem in over twenty five destructions the emissaries of that former angelic representative of the Almighty to the spiritual world of creation?  Is it not amazing that each one of these nations that took possession of Israel, not one of them claimed it as their permanent residence? 

 

The historical fact exists, the Islamic people, who had hegemony over Israel and Jerusalem for almost fifteen centuries, never sought to claim Jerusalem and this “Land” as their national homeland.  Only when the Jewish people began to “return” to the Land of Israel did their Muslim cousins erupt in a fit of “brotherly jealousy.” Since then they have sought to annihilate their own genetic relatives by “driving them into the sea?”  Is “Him who passes by” actually the inciter of all the hate and venom that flows from the “blood oaths” of the terrorists, HaSatan (Satan) himself?  As the Lord of hosts portrays: 

 

Job 1:6 – “And the Lord said to Satan, ‘From where do you come?’ So Satan answered the Lord and said, ‘From going to and fro on the earth and from walking back and forth on it.”

 

So begins our study of Zechariah 9 and “The Oracle of Terror against the Palestinians, the Lebanese and the Syrians.”

 

Kidnappings by Hamas and Hezbollah in the Prelude to the War

 

Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit

 

The 2006 Israeli – Hezbollah War began on the 17^th of Tammuz, yet the preparatory entrance to this war began a few weeks earlier.  It was June 25, 2006 in the middle of the night, members of the Hamas' Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades and the previously unknown Islamic Army came across from the Gaza area.  They were sighted on the Israeli army’s electronic screens and an alert was sent out from the tank commander for permission to fire upon them and abort their terrorist mission. That permission never came.  In the aftermath of the Palestinian cross-border raid, 19 year old Israeli, with owl-eyed glasses, Corporal Gilad Shalit was lightly wounded by three shrapnel wounds.  He was captured and taken hostage to Gaza in what would be a bid for ransom.  Two other members of his tank  unit were killed in battle. 

 

 Israeli Reservist Eldad Regev from Kiryat Motzkin, Israel

 

About three weeks later, on the 12^th of July, two Israeli reservists soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser, 31, from Nahariya, and Eldad Regev, 26, from Kiryat Motzkin were abducted in an unprovoked attack by Hezbollah terrorists who entered into Israeli territory and soil along the Northern border of Israel and Lebanon in an intentional raid much like the commando raid along the Gaza border.  Both soldiers were students who had been called to service as Israeli reservists, were taken alive, but eight of their military unit were killed by Hezbollah soldiers who were planted to ambush any Israeli coming to retaliate during that day. 

 

Israeli Reservist Yair Goldwasser

 

The capture of the Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit led to the Hamas demands that all Palestinian women and youth be released from Israeli prisons plus an additional 1000 Palestinians that were incarcerated. The abduction of Reservist Eldad Regev and Yair Goldwasser led to the demands by Hezbollah that up to 9000 prisoners be released from Israeli jail.

 

The renewed confrontation with Hamas in Gaza firing hundred of katyusha rockets led to the first military front of engagement with the Palestinian terrorists in Gaza after months of relative quietness. 

 

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh with his Cabinet

 

By July 2, two missiles were fired by the IDF and the office of the Hamas Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh went up in flames. Hundreds of Israeli shells were fired upon Kassam launch sites and supply routes used to supply or launch the Kassam rockets as they sought to prevent the movement of Shalit’s abductors.  The Israeli military offensive called “Summer Rain” began.

 

A day later, in a limited IDF offensive, a house was targeted that was used by the Al Aqsa martyrs’ Brigades, a violent offshoot of the Fatah Organization under the control of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. 

 

Nine days after Shalit’s abduction, on July 4, a security sweep in Israel netted eight cabinet members of the Hamas government.  This was followed one week after a similar sweep that netted 64 Hamas government officials, located in Jerusalem, Judea and in Samaria.  With the government portfolios given to the remaining government leaders, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh sent his remaining ministers into hiding. 

 

During that week, the Israeli Knesset came to the full realization that one of their own members, an Arab Israeli Knesset MK, had committed treason to the Nation of Israel.  He had advised the Palestinian Authority to kidnap an Israeli soldier.  As written on July 9, 2006 by the Lekarev Report, in the news note titled, Arab MK: I Asvised PA to Kidnap Soldier, it states:

 

Israeli Knesset Member Wasal Taha

 

Lekarev Report – “Knesset Member Wasal Taha, corresponding publicly with internet surfers on the Arabic-language IslamOnline site, said he repeatedly advised PA terrorists to battle and kidnap Israeli soldiers…According to a report in Maariv today, Taha told surfers on Thursday…"We told them more than once that the Palestinians, who are subjected to murder and ongoing crimes on the part of the Israeli army, have two options: One is to explode and kill civilians - and these are much easier operations. The second option is the military option, in the framework of which a military unit from the resistance [i.e., terrorist infrastructures - ed.] is established in order to break into a military camp, clash with the soldiers and battle them and take them and the conquest into captivity."

“Qassam Rockets in Ashkelon are a Sword of Vengeance against Immodesty and Promiscuity”

 

As the Kassam rocket attacks continued to hit the Israeli town of Sderot located south of Haifa, the Israeli Knesset was in turmoil.  The Knesset was not in dissention over how to respond to the military confrontation of the newly elected Hamas government in Gaza. 

 

They were not having dissention over how to protect the Israeli public from Kassam rocket assaults upon their homes.  They were having a stormy session on whether to allow the World Gay Pride Parade keep its first International meet in the Holy City of Jerusalem that was scheduled to begin on August 12, 2006.  The homosexual parade was scheduled to parade down the city streets of West Jerusalem.  When mentioned once that it should be changed to East Jerusalem, the Arabs refused, saying that they would kill the participants.  The parade attendees were scheduled to visit the Wailing Wall along the Temple Mount and walk down the streets of Old Jerusalem in the public attire of their choice.   

 

The rabbinic community was up in arms.  They not only garnered allies with the International Christian community coming in and out of Israel, but also allies that never shared a common discourse; the Muslim clerics. MK Yitzchak Levy from the National Union/NRP presented to the Knesset a survey that showed that a large majority of the public was against holding the gay pride parade in Jerusalem.  This survey showed that a surprising 63% of the secular public also opposed.  There was one problem; the newly elected Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Olmert and his wife were sponsors of the parade that was now being called in Israel, the “Impurade.” 

The Israeli Knesset in Jerusalem in Turmoil over “Gay Pride,” not God’s Will or the Protection of the Nation of Israel

 

Jerusalem councilman David Hadari speaking on Arutz-7, Israel’s National News claimed, "The municipality of Jerusalem has been prevented by the legal system from trying to stop the homosexual parade. This is a mark of shame for the court system, but that is the situation... At present, only the police can stop the parade, based on considerations of public peace and safety.” 

 

Other Knesset members considered that the march should be scheduled in Tel Aviv, but Arab and Jewish concerns came with the warning from the religious Zionist public, when Rabbi Yehuda Levin of New York leading the campaign to stop the World Pride anywhere in the Holy Land stated, “"This is a 'measure for measure' affair: If we allow the land to be raped, so to speak, by perverted sexual messages, then, as the Torah says, such Canaanite acts will be punished by having the Land 'vomit you out,' Heaven forbid."

 

As reported on Lazer Beams on July 5, 2006 in a discussion with the Melitzer Rebbe shlit’a from Ashdod in the article titled, "Qassam rockets in Ashkelon are a sword of vengeance against immodesty and promiscuity," Rabbi Lazer Brody, more affectionately called “Rabbi Commando” due to his years as an Israeli Commando, records this conversation:

 

Melitzer Rebbe shlit’a from Ashdod

 

Melitzer Rebbe shlit’a from Ashdod – “I briefed the Melitzer Rebbe shlit'a on the latest barrages (of Kassam rockets), only a few miles down the road from here in Ashdod. The Melitzer Rebbe's face turned a bright crimson then paled. With a trembling voice, he quoted the Torah's curse in Parshas Bechukosai of the licentious who break the holy covenant with lewdness and lack of modesty, "I will bring upon you an avenging sword, vengeance of the covenant (Leviticus 26:25)".

  

The Rebbe then told me with fire in his voice, "The immodest and unclad women are bringing this catastrophe on our heads. A woman should know that every tephach (approx. 4 inches - LB) of insufficiently clad flesh creates an angel of destruction. The Hamas and the rockets are the physical manifestations of the spiritual impurity created by Israel's immodest women." 

 

The Rebbe then quoted the Code of Jewish Law (Shulchan Oruch, Orach Chaim 75:A) that's based on the Gemorra (tractate Berachos 24a) that tephach b'isha erva, or a tephach of unclad flesh is considered nakedness and therefore strictly forbidden.

 

With fire in his eyes the Rebbe said that  tephach - spelled in Hebrew טפח - stands for טילים פיגועים חרבות - the three Hebrew letters of tephach stand for "t'illim, p'iguim, charavot", in other words rockets, terrorist attacks, and swords (of vengeance)… the Rebbe shlit'a said that people must know the root cause of the Qassam rockets. Melitzer Rebbe: "Qassam rockets in Ashkelon are a sword of vengeance against immodesty and promiscuity.”

 

On the same day that the Melitzer Rebbe shlit’a spoke out on Kassam Rockets and Immorality, Binyomin Goldin, a 35 year old autistic student who is known as the Autistic Rebbe spoke out for the first time in four and one-half years on the conditions of this planet earth.  It was September 2001 when he first gave this first communication by FC (facilitated communication), “God is Destroying the Lie”:

 

Benyomin (Ben) Goldin - "All over the Western World fear reigns. The fear of an unknown army of terrorists who have no real identity, an unknown enemy with no face, only one face known to the world - Bin Laden. But how can a whole army fight against one man? How could the whole Western World be afraid of one man? So what have we really learned from all of this? I will explain what you should be learning from all of this: HaKadosh Baruch Hu (The Holy One, blessed be He) is destroying the lie, the false world we've been living in, the excessive, decadent gashmius (reliance on physical things for pleasure and security) that has become our god.

 

God is destroying the false beliefs that security lies in the army, social security, the great insurance companies, a steady job and a big bank account. ...So, my dear Am Yisrael, if you want to save yourselves and the world, renounce the Egel Hazahav (golden calf - LB), its lies, its illusion, and come back wholly to your Father in Heaven. Destroy your false gods and come back! When will you learn? You're not frightened enough. Your hearts are not broken enough. A great selection has already begun. Each Jew, each Gentile, each living thing, will choose a side. Either with man, trusting in man himself, or with God, trusting only in Him.

 

 It will be a terrible battle, a very, very torturous fight, but those who hold on to their trust, their love and their belief in God will, with God's help, greet Moshiach (the Messiah). This letter is for every Jew, religious or not. This is the message. This is the truth. A letter from Heaven to tell you explicitly what is expected of you. I bless you all, every single Jew alive today, man, woman, of every age, that all of us together will merit to greet the Moshiach, speedily in our days. Amen. I want to reiterate: there is no time, no time. The world as you know it, the materialistic world as you know it, is crumbling...".   

 

Rabbi Lazer Brody wrote the next day (July 6, 2006) in the blog titled, Under Seige:

 

The former Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strips inhabited predominately by Orthodox Jews

 

Rabbi Lazer Brody - The Melitzer Rebbe knows what he's talking about. I have loads of angry emails asking me why I'm being such an alarmist, or why don't I call for improved modesty and purity in a nice way. That reminds me of an infantry platoon pinned down in a crossfire, and the sergeant yells at the machine gunner to reload faster. "Why aren't you polite, sarge?" Under fire, you don't ask others to be polite. Over here, we're under fire.

  

Amir Oren in this morning's (very liberal and far from right-wing) HaAretz writes that Israel is under siege and the Qassam rockets, "independent capabilities have shown that they can hit the center of Ashkelon, and their ambition will be to strike at the Hatzor air base or at Ashdod and the hundreds of thousands living in nearby cities. The explosive warhead may be replaced by basic chemical or biological agents, which will cause panic. And if yesterday it was Gaza, tomorrow may be the West Bank."

 

LazerBeams has been making you crazy lately with calls for help, writing letters and faxes, etc. That's because Moshiach is almost here, and we're fighting spiritual wars on all fronts. The Gay Parade, the Qassams from Gaza, and the war against Jewish settlements is all the same enemy - the Yetzer Hara. We have to fight him on every front, with no compromises. Cherished daughters of Israel, your modesty will protect the south of Israel. We need your help

 

It was July 7, 2006 that the 34-yr. old autistic “Rebbe of the Autistics” broke his silence of over four years.  Beneath the “veneer” of mental retardation, the spiritual stature of this Jewish mind that most people would fail to grasp was holding enormous depth of comprehension of the Divine Mind spoke.  To read his entire interview open the article titled, “Ben Golden breaks his silence - an exclusive FC interview with Lazer.”  Here is a brief synopsis of that interview:

  

Lazer Beams – “LB: I'm not ashamed to trouble you, because if today's message helps even one soul get closer to Hashem, then it's necessary for you to speak up. I often feel that the Tshuva (redemption) movement is taking a step forward, and the religious community as a whole is taking a step backward. Please tell me, why are we losing ground? What's wrong?

Ben: It's the Golden Calf. People must put aside their love of the material and transfer it to love of Hashem; there's little time left to do this. Also, there's a lack of tznius (modesty - LB) that tears our people from within. The third problem is of education - people lack emuna at heart (“faith”and a personal relationship with the Almighty that gives meaning to life). They serve Hashem like robots. Hashem wants their hearts.

 

Ben Golden, the autistic rabbi with Rabbi Lazer Brody

 

LB: What's the most important thing to instruct them?

Ben: Everything is important, but first - modesty and family purity. The opposite is the biggest threat to Am Yisroel today.

 

LB: How so?

Ben: The Gay Parade planned for Yerushalayim. This is the real reason I'm allowed to speak, because the evil has become so great and so brazen that Hashem has to allow a small revelation from the pure side. If this tragedy is allowed to take place, and if those people - the lowest and most dangerous order of Amalekites - are allowed to reach the Wall, then no army will be able to prevent the disaster that awaits Am Yisroel, heaven forbid.

 

LB: We've been doing everything to stop this. What else must we do?

Ben: 900,000 Jews - religious and non-religious - must block the way to the Kotel with their bodies. This must be stopped, Hashem won't forgive such a blatant desecration of His courtyard...

 

LB: May we cooperate with the other religions, who are also against the gay parade?

Ben: Yes, if the poskim (rabbinical authorities - LB) allow it. Just be careful - they're attempting to reach the Wall. Don't let that happen under any circumstances. Hashem demands mesiras nefesh (total dedication) on this matter.”

 

Shabbatean Destruction of Israel - “The Disengagement from the Shomron (“The Fields of Ephraim”)

 

As Israel was under the onslaught to make Jerusalem into another Sodom and Gomorrah and the “fires of brimstone” were raining overhead with Kassam rockets from Northern Gaza laying siege towards Haifa and soon Tel Aviv, the Shabbatean Jews who despise the God of Israel in this secular capital of Israel began to cry for help.  The help they sought was not the God of Israel but their “gods” the Erev Rav, the “mixed multitude” from spiritual Egypt that were running the government of Israel.  The call for the Jews to make Tshuva, the repentance of the Jewish people and the time to make amends for one’s wrong doings, began to resound over the internet.  This clarion call with the “shofar” for Tshuva (Repentance) was apply stated in the blog: “North Gaza Revisited – It is Time for Tsuva.” Read carefully:

 

Rabbi Lazer Brody – “It doesn't help us much to tell the Government, "We told you so!" Anybody in Israel with any sense at all is now bemoaning the disengagement (from Gaza). The Army has returned to Dugit, Nitzanit, and Elei Sinai - 3 strategic settlements so critical to Israel's security. People's year-old wounds are being torn wide open again. If the Government would admit their mistake and make tshuva, Hashem would surely help them succeed.

 

Two types of people never learn from their mistakes - the fools and the haughty. That's what scares me about the politicians over here. May Hashem stop the insanity of giving any more Jewish territory and homes to murderers, or to anyone else for that matter. The Land of Israel belongs to Hashem and to His chosen People of Israel.

 

The searing memory of that day, one year earlier as the 9^th of Av was setting on the western horizon, was engaging again the minds of the Jewish people when the Gaza Disengagement began.  Recalling the memory of that moment of time, Lt. General (ret) Moshe Yaalon, who was the IDF Chief of Staff until the implementation of the Gaza withdrawal, made these comments on July 6, 2006 near the year anniversary date of the Gaza Withdrawal with Israel National News.  Read with Caution:

  

Israel National News – “Lt.-Gen. (ret.) Moshe Yaalon, IDF Chief of Staff…says that the entire Disengagement was conceived to save PM Sharon from legal troubles. ‘The Disengagement was not the result of thorough strategic analysis, but the result of [then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s] political distress…

 

It was a disengagement from reality and a disengagement from the trust which was not planned strategically and practically. The disengagement was mainly a media spin. Those who initiated it and led it lacked the strategic, security, political and historical background. They were image counselors and spin doctors. These people put Israel into a virtual spin, disconnected from reality, using a media spin campaign which is imploding before our eyes. There is no doubt that the Disengagement failed.’

 

Lt. General Moshe Yaalon, former Chief of Staff of Israel’s Defense Forces

 

The entire withdrawal and expulsion of 10,000 Jewish residents from Gaza and northern Samaria, ‘was an internal Israeli game that ignored what's going on outside Israel….The Israeli public backed the disengagement because it was blinded and drugged and because it really wanted to free itself from the burden of the conflict and divide the land. But we have to understand that although we are trying to shake the Palestinians off our backs, they refuse to get off our backs and stab us instead. We shouldn't fool ourselves.

 

We live in the Middle East. We cannot barricade ourselves behind walls and fences. There is no such thing as unilateralism. Even when we refuse to talk with our neighbors there is interaction with them…

 

The Disengagement was a strategic mistake of the first order…It brought about the Hamas victory. It emboldened terror groups. It has fueled the Palestinian struggle for years. It created a feeling among the Iranians, the Muslim Brotherhood, and al-Qaeda that Israel can be beaten, that Israel is a society of spider webs as Nasrallah said or a rotten tree as Ahmadinejad said. And therefore the disengagement not only harmed us badly, but also harmed America's strategic war on terror in the region. It created a feeling among Muslim extremists that as it defeated the Soviets in Afghanistan, it defeated us in Gaza and it will defeat us in Tel Aviv. As such, as they destabilized a super power, they will destabilize the west by defeating Israel."

 

In spite of the strong words of warning from the former IDF Chief of Staff with former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert gave a most insightful to the fact that he was not in control of the destiny of Israel.  The Prime Minister was neither feeling the need for repentance (Tshuva) nor the desire to call upon the God of Israel for insight and wisdom to Israel’s day of need.  Four days after Lt. General Moshe Yaalon’s harsh criticism on the results of the media spin by Sharon to withdraw from Gaza, Olmert stated that he was “Absolutely Determined” to Carry Out Withdrawals.  As reported on Lekarev Report:

 

Lekarev Report - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert today said he is "absolutely determined" to carry out his planned West Bank withdrawal, despite heavy fighting with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Olmert also ruled out negotiations or a prisoner swap with the Hamas- led Palestinian government to win the release of a captured Israeli soldier, calling the Islamic militant group a "terrorist bloody organization."

 

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert

 

Speaking to foreign reporters, Olmert said separation between Israelis and Palestinians is "inevitable," adding the current round of violence in Gaza won't prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel…Olmert wants to withdraw from most of the West Bank by 2010 to allow the Palestinians to gain independence and to enable Israel to finalize secure borders. "I haven't changed my basic commitment to the realignment plan," he said, referring to the pullout. "I am absolutely determined to carry out the separation from the Palestinians and establish secure borders."

 

The war for the soul of Israel between the God of Israel and Israel’s accuser HaSatan (Satan) and the complete control of God’s Holy Land by the western globalists of the Golden Internationale is now becoming transparent.  The War between Israel and Hezbollah brought this fact into virtual reality.

 

Index for the Commentary on the Prophecies of Zechariah

 

The Redemption and Restoration of Jerusalem and Israel

Zechariah 1 - God remembers and God blesses at the Appointed Time

Zechariah 2 – God sets His sights to Rebuild Jerusalem

Zechariah 3 – The Priesthood is Re-consecrated for the Temple

Zechariah 4 – God sends Israel His Anointed Ones and His faithful Eyes

Zechariah 5 – The Flying of the Megillah and the Cleansing of the Land

Zechariah 6 – The Four Chariots, Temple is Built and Israel is a Theocracy

Zechariah 7 – Replace Feasts of Fasting with Obedience, Justice and Mercy

Zechariah 8 – Let us Feast with Joy – God returns to Dwell with His People

 

The Oracles and Judgments of the God of Israel

 Zechariah 9 - Part One – The Burden of the Lord on the Fertile Crescent

Zechariah 9 - Part Two – The God of Israel wants Damascus to be One of His Zions

 Zechariah 9 - Part Three – The Prelude to the 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah War – Global News

Zechariah 9 - Part Four – The Israeli-Hezbollah War in the Summer 2006

17 Tammuz to the 9^th Av 5766 – Global News

 Zechariah 9 - Part Five – The Oracles of HaShem against the Palestinians

Zechariah 10 – Latter Rain - Restoration of the Houses of Judah & Joseph

Zechariah 11 – Part One – The Good Shepherd and the Oracles against Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and the Palestinians

Zechariah 11 – Part Two – The Good Shepherd and the Unification of the Houses of Judah and Israel

Zechariah 12:1 – The Creator and the Throne of the God of Israel

Zechariah 12:1 – The Creator, the Worlds of Creation, the Spirit of God, and the Souls of Man

Zechariah 12:1-2 –    Jerusalem, a Cup of Trembling

Zechariah 12:3-14 – Jerusalem, a Burdensome Stone

Zechariah 13 – The Gihon Fountain flows from the Temple of the Lord

Zechariah 14 - I will gather all Nations to battle at Jerusalem

The Lord’s feet will stand on the Mount of Olives

 

Message from BibleSearchers

 

BibleSearchers scans the world for information that has relevance on the time of the end.  It is our prayer that this will allow the believers in the Almighty One of Israel to “watch and be ready”.  Our readiness has nothing to do trying to halt the progression of evil on our planet earth.  In our readiness, we seek to be prepared for the coming of the Messiah of Israel so that goodness and evil will be manifested in its fullest.  Our preparation is a pathway of spiritual readiness for a world of peace.  Our defender is the Lord of hosts. The time of the end suggests that the Eternal One of Israel’s intent is to close out this chapter of earth’s history so that the perpetrators of evil, those that seek power, greed and control, will be eliminated from this planet earth.  The wars of the heavens are being played out on this planet earth and humans will live through it to testify of the might, power, justice and the love of the God of Israel.  In a world of corruption and disinformation, we cannot always know what the historical truth is and who is promoting evil or mis-information.  We cannot guarantee our sources but we will always seek to portray trends that can be validated in the Torah and the testimony of the prophets of the Old and the New Testament.

 

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