Supporting the Troops but Not the War:

 The Believer and Politics

Already a presidential platforms have arisen that proclaims the support of our armed forces but not the goal they are trying to accomplish.  Several potential candidates plan to make a dash for the presidency on what appears to be exactly what opponents chide – a “cut and run” strategy.  Few want to “stay the course” in Iraq and the middle east, even though great ancient and occult powers are arising again after centuries, even millennia, of weakness.

A believer ought to make an opinion of which “side” to support based on Scripture and revelation.  A believer should be in supplication continually for the brave (or not so brave) who place themselves in harm’s way for the sake of a vision – that millions might gain the opportunity to witness the candle withdrawn from the bushel – or gain clear site of the city set on the hill.

U. S. Armed Forces in Scripture?

You Bet!  How does Scripture inform us in regards to our Armed Forces serving in the Middle East?  I have made available a study in detail of Isaiah chapters 9 – 19 that help us understand our time in salvation history, and I have distilled out of these difficult passages those particular parts that prefigure the headlines of news services.  If we believe that Yahweh still holds the keys to the nuclear earth, and the prophets of Scripture portray accurate summations of the events happening now and to come, then an informed believer is a secure believer.

 (You may study Isaiah 9 – 19 with the aid of my guides at this link.  http://jacksonsnyder.com/yah/message/burden4lebanon2.htm )

In this short study, let’s “zoom in” on the status of our forces oversees as portrayed by the prophetic word of Scripture.  What we find is the absolute assurance that they and we are part of a much greater and more beneficent plan than any politician dreamed.

Flee the Reapers

Jeremiah 51:2. I will send to Babylon winnowers, and they shall winnow her, and they shall empty her land, when they come against her from every side on the day of trouble.

   This is the saying of Yahweh, and Yahweh has sent forth winnowers – i.e. reapers – more than once.  Now reapers from every side are sent – dictators, coalition forces, insurgents, terrorists, militias – Babylon – modern-day Iraq – is being reaped again – with the vast majority of causalities of this reaping being the permanent erstwhile permanent residents of ancient Chaldea. What is the Covenant Keeper to do?

 6. “Flee from the midst of Babylon, let every man save his life! Be not cut off in her punishment, for this is the time of the Yahweh's vengeance, the requital he is rendering her.” 

 The covenant keepers, with the exception of those in the Armed Forces, have fled and are gone.  Those who are supposed to be there now remain.  This is reiterated in verse 45, and in 47 the reason is made clear.  Though Babylon was once a center of true worship (the “Antioch” of the New Testament is here), it is now a land with no Covenanters at all, only those who hold to the idolatrous practices of Islam, the worship of the moon and the moon stone idol.

 

What is The Portion of Jacob?

In this chapter we also find Great Britain, Australia and the United States:

19.  Not like these is he who is the portion of Jacob, for he is the one who formed all things, and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance; “Yahweh of Armies” is his name.  20. You are my hammer and weapon of war: with you I will break nations in pieces; with you I will destroy kingdoms ….”

 While investigating the following verses, one finds ten “I will”s.  Repetition is important in prophecy.  Ten stands for the lost tribes of Jacob – the portion or remnant – those who inhabit the second house of Israel.  Frederick Haberman, J. H. Allen, and more recently, Yair Davidiy, have made very strong cases for the migration of the ten tribes to Western Europe and from there to Britain, U.S. and Australia.   This portion of Jacob – the portion of ten – is the hammer and weapon of war in Babylon specifically.  We find the “remnant of Jacob as Yahweh’s hammer of vengeance” even more clearly in the Isaiah passages below.

Of course, the tribes missing from this retinue of ten are Judah and Levi – the Jews – who in great part make up modern-day Israel, who calls forth the remnant of two from the U.S. and the rest of the world into “Palestine.”

 

Our Troops in Babylon Described

Now we go to Isaiah 13 to find a description of “our troops” in Babylon:

3.  I myself have commanded my consecrated ones, have summoned my mighty to execute my anger, my proudly exulting ones. 4.  Hark, a tumult on the mountains as of a great multitude! Hark, an uproar of kingdoms, of nations gathering together! Yahweh of Armies is mustering an army for battle.  5.  They come from a distant land, from the end of the heavens, Yahweh and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land. 

 (Please find and note the translation corrections!  Yahweh is not destroying the whole earth!  Always make this correction in context with the passage.)

These, strong and proud are consecrated to Yahweh, summoned by Yahweh, a multitude from distant nations – even the ends of the sky!  I have pointed this text out to several officers of different branches of the Armed Forces – also to those who enforce the law and keep the peace. 

Whether these men and women know it or not, they are consecrated to do the will of Yahweh.  Despite political opinion or affiliation, and despite denominational or ethnic diversity, these men and women are mustered out together for the purpose of bringing forth Yahweh’s purpose in “the land.”

 

The Medes Are More Interested in Atomic Weapons

17.  Behold, I am stirring up the Medes against them, who have no regard for silver and do not delight in gold. 

In modern parlance, the “Medes” and their cousins, the Persians (Parthians), form the artificial nation known as Iran. 

Some scholarly Bible commentaries tell us that those consecrated to do the will of Yahweh are the Medes, herein mentioned.  And, in ancient times, the Medes conquered the Babylonian Empire for a time.  But the consecrated cannot represent the Medes in our time, for these Medes are destined by the same prophet to fall into civil strife – which is happening right now. 

 

The Smoothness of the Armed Forces Described

These “consecrated of Yahweh” may be trustworthily interpreted as the Armed Forces of the “Coalition” of nations – the lost house of Israel, “found” and identified by noted anthropologists.  Furthermore:

Isaiah 18:1.  Whirring wings which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia 2.  that sends ambassadors by the Nile, in vessels of papyrus upon the waters! Go, you swift messengers, to a nation, tall and smooth, to a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide.  … 7.  At that time gifts will be brought to Yahweh of Armies from a people tall and smooth, from a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide, to Mount Zion, the place of the name of Yahweh of Armies. 

Again, scholars identify this land as Egypt because the Nile is mentioned.  But Egypt is also embroiled in civil strife, according to this same section of text.  And Egypt is not beyond Ethiopia – then thought to be as far west as one could go. 

So what nation has whirring wings – flight – ships of the Nile carrying important “papyrus” (paper) – tall and smooth – the most powerful in the world at present – feared – which is divided in half by a mighty river, the name of which we all learned to spell in the first grade.  (Let me remind you: M – I – S – S – I – S – S ….)  Tall and smooth – unbearded: Middle Eastern men (and some women) for the most part are bearded.

Genesis 27:11. Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man.” 

What else could this “smooth” be referring to?

 

The Fate of Iraq Revealed: Democracy?

What is the fate of Iraq then?  Will we ‘win’ and will Iraq become a democracy? 

Well, that is our plan; but the plan of Yahweh is that the idolaters of Islam turn and destroy each other.  I’m sorry – that’s not my plan.  But isn’t that how Yahweh always works against the enemies of his people (according to Scripture)?  He puts them in confusion by means of an outside power, and the enemy combatants turn on themselves. 

It is Yahweh’s plan, according to this same section, to make this happen so as to START ALL OVER in Babylon and make something worthwhile out of it.

Jeremiah 18: 3.  So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel.   4.  And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.   

 This is exactly what the strife in the Middle East is to finally accomplish – a complete remaking of the vessel, to be “the work of my hands” (Isaiah 19:25). 

 

The Amazing Result of Intervention and Sacrifice

At the end of the extended prophecy of Isaiah 9 – 19, the most amazing result of the investiture of the “nation tall and smooth” is that

Isaiah 19: 23.  “In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria,

(The map in your Bible will show you that Assyria included regions as far east as the Euphrates River in Iraq.)

and the Assyrian will come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.  24.  In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth,  25.  whom Yahweh of Armies has blessed, saying,

 

LOOK!

 

“Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my heritage.” 

Can you imagine this to be the outcome of the “war on terror”?  If not, consider:

(1) The extent of greater Israel (for all twelve tribes, not just two): Yahshua 1:4.  From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory.  The promised land is from Egypt to Iraq, from Kurdistan to Sinai.

(2) Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, outside the perimeter of Greater Israel, are allies.

(3) Iraq is stirred up and some action will undoubtedly happen there soon – either an attack or a civil war.

(4) Iraq is a conquered nation, occupied by the remnant of Jacob, and consuming itself.

(5) Syria and Lebanon have capitulated.

(6) Gaza and the Palestinian Authority are in civil war (Hamas vs. Fatah; Violence vs. Conquest – see Zephaniah 2.)

(7) Egypt, which is the last link in the chain according to Scripture, is now trying to become a democracy of sorts, which takes it out of the ring of opponents.

Then there is the Abraham Path Initiative, which I mentioned last time.  Go here is you missed it.  (http://jacksonsnyder.com/yah/message/burden4lebanon2.htm)

So that brings us back to the topic at hand – Our Armed Forces at this stage in Salvation History.  The prophet makes it as clear as day that these men and women or the armed forces in Iraq and elsewhere, plus the advisors and police trainers, are the remnant of Jacob, the consecrated host of the Almighty Yahweh.  Now, we do not get that idea from far right politics or war-mongering patriots, but directly from Scripture – with the interpretation so clear a Cave Man could see it.

You who have friends and family in the armed forces – you are privileged to know someone who is among the consecrated of Yahweh.  Admire his or her, and lift him or her up daily.

You who have lost friends or family in the armed forces – I know it’s easy for me to say it, but take heart; your loved one was in the service of Yahweh the King.  And he will take care of his own.

Finally, if you are in the service or working to help in a foreign country – you simply must come to understand the importance of your role in salvation history.  And now you may rightly see what all this is leading up to – the great highway that unites a millennial state ruled by Messiah.  May Yahweh’s hand be on your heart!

 (Download Music Here)

Father, we lift up your mighty host
engaged in the battle for truth.
Protect and empower from coast to coast
each brave overcomer and youth.
Father, grant wisdom, to all who lead
in planning the strategy wise
May the war be won and your righteous will be done
so our Savior and King may arise.

Father, we lift up your mighty ones
commissioned for dangerous lands;
O grant them the courage of Jacob's sons:
miraculous strength in their hands!
Father, may victory win the peace;
may peace mean diablo's defeat!
With each terrorist chained then shackled wrist to wrist,
cast before our new King, at his feet!

May we remember the blessed few
Fighting great battles for He who is so true.
O Father, reveal, and show yourself real
to all those who soldier for you, you, you;
for those who have sacrificed for you.

Elohymn #84  (http://jacksonsnyder.com/yah/music/)