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With December 7, 1941 again fresh in the memory –the time of the dastardly attack on Pearl Harbor that brought the U.S. into World War II—recent rumblings from the "Road Map To Peace" thinking are worth consideration. There looms ahead war in the region that threaten far greater consequences than did the actions of the empire of Japan on that Sunday so long ago.
Building tensions between the Israel-hating regime of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the leaders of the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) are infinitely more ominous than were the tensions of the build-up to war of the times more than a half-century ago. The potential now includes the threat of nuclear war that could quickly engulf the whole region, then the world. There is agreement among all but a few of the most appeasement-minded in Israel. The vast majority of Israeli leadership holds to the common declaration, “Never again!” This meaning, of course, that never again will the Jews let any entity commit genocide against them without all-out resistance. They even have a term in the eventuality that their situation becomes hopeless. If it looks as if their Jewish state can’t be saved from destruction, Israel will invoke the “Samson Option.” They will unleash all-out nuclear war against their enemies and bring everyone and everything down with them, as did the Israelite judge Samson, when he pulled down the edifice where his captors were making sport of him.
In my view, Samson represented Israel in microcosm. He did things apart from God’s directive for his life. He was chosen to be a Nazarite–a judge in Israel who was expected to keep certain vows and carry out certain duties. He was to live a life free from involvement with the carnality of life around him. He strayed from God’s chosen way for him. He paid the price for his disobedience, and died with his enemies. Israel was a dramatic study in worship of God and living in His ways for a time, then straying. Always, Israel paid the price. Wars and diasporas (scatterings and captivity) were the results of the people’s depending on other than Jehovah God for their national prophetic fulfillment –to be the head of all nations, and to manifest God as their God.
We’ve looked at the Scriptures many times that foretell the results of a false peace Israel will make with the humanist forces that surround them, rather than depending upon their God for peace and protection: “Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem. Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves… And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it” (Isa. 28:14-15, 18).
These words of prophecy for Israel by the prophet Isaiah involve the future covenant Antichrist will make with them, falsely assuring the nation’s peace and safety. This, of course, is found in Daniel 9:26-27. Here is what God, through Paul the apostle, says further about this peace that will destroy many (Dan. 8: 25): “For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape” (1Thess. 5:3).
Israel will at some future point depend upon humanistic geopolitical entities, rather than their God, to establish peace and safety. This is clear by Bible prophecy. We have long been watching the build-up in that process. A recent report, part of which follows, gives a glimpse at the continuing movement toward that false peace that God’s Word forewarns will eventually bring the entire world to Armageddon.
“NATO forces in the West Bank as part of any Obama-era peace deal [are]quickly gaining advocates in both Washington and the Levant. Former U.S. national-security advisers Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brezinski both recently endorsed the idea. The president-elect's nominee to head the National Security Council, Gen. James Jones—a former NATO supreme commander—is also said to favor such a force. Israelis and Palestinians have raised tepid protests, but even they seem to be realizing increasingly that a strong international presence will be critical if any deal is to be struck—and if it's to stick. "A principle that appeared to be out of bounds I think is now in bounds," says Tony Blair, the Mideast envoy of the Quartet (made up of the United States, the EU, the U.N. and Russia)…” ("A Brokered Peace: Israelis and Palestinians seem to realize that a strong international presence will be critical to any deal," Kevin Peraino, Newsweek, 12/2/08).
The United Nations forces have lost most all of the credibility they might have once had. The forces are so proven to be ineffective and with the recent plundering and rapes by U.N. blue-helmeted troops in some African regions they were sent to help, they are out of favor even with the Quartet. NATO might just be the force chosen to try to put together a “peace” with teeth.
