September 23, 2009
Obama and Judea
By: Pastor Bill Randles
“Then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let Him who is on the house top, let him not come down to take anything out of his house: neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe to them that are with child and to them which give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in winter, neither on the Sabbath day: for then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no nor shall ever be.” (Matthew 24:16-21)
“We continue to call on Palestinians to end incitement against Israel, and we continue to emphasize that America does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements.”
(Barack Obama speech to UN General Assembly 9/23/09)
President Barack Hussein Obama delivered a highly significant speech today, an address to the UN General Assembly which has been aptly called by John Bolton a “post American speech made by the first post American president”. I will leave it to others to comment on the speech from an American perspective. Our interest is in his comments on a subject of particular interest to the Obama administration, that is the region known by the UN as the “occupied territory” of the West Bank of the Jordan river, but Biblically referred to as Judea and Samaria, the very heart of Israel.
Obama, his friends in the UN, Russia and the EU among others, have a very definite vision for the region Jesus referred to as Judea. They see it as being earmarked for a “Palestinian state”. They believe the only way to accomplish peace in the middle east is to establish a “two state solution”, and hand over the heart of Biblical Israel to the “Palestinians”, thus dividing the land.
That is why the Obama administration has been adamantly insistent on imposing a “no natural growth” policy on the Jewish “settlements “ erected in Judea. This is an excerpt from an August 3rd Haaretz article, “US Turns up Heat on Israel over Settlement” by Barak Ravid,
“Israel is under increased pressure from the United States over settlement construction. In the past months, since Barack Obama was sworn in as US President, Israel has received four official complaints from members of the administration regarding various issues linked to West Bank settlements. A senior gov't official in Jerusalem told Haaretz that the complaints represent a gradual increase in American pressure vis a vis settlement activity. This is going to be one of the main issues that the Obama administration will be dealing with in the coming weeks and months.”
The four complaints lodged by the Obama administration were that Israel had destroyed illegal squatter homes in East Jerusalem, and was planning the construction of new housing in Jerusalem, as well as the relocation of an outpost and the construction of housing units in the settlement of Ephrat.
Here the increasing US applied pressure is documented in an article from the June 23, 2009 online edition of the Jerusalem Post, entitled, “US: Settlement Freeze Must Include Jerusalem”.
“Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem are included in the US demand that Israel halt "settlement" construction, including for natural growth, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told The Jerusalem Post during a press briefing on Monday.”
‘We're talking about all settlement activity, yes, in the area across the line,’ he said, referring to neighborhoods in Jerusalem over the Green Line, or pre-1967 armistice line, in response to a question on where America's calls to halt construction in the settlements would be applied.”
It is stunning to realize that the Obama administration would arrogate to itself the authority to demand that Jewish “natural growth” cease, not only in Judea, but even up to and including East Jerusalem! No Jewish legitimacy, no Jewish housing, no Jewish settlements, no Jewish immigration, and no increase of Jewish population. Obama is literally setting himself up to be the next Pharaoh and the US to become the next Egypt! God help us!
Another example of the consistent pressure building comes from the Sept 4, 2009 UK Times online article by Sheera Freakel entitled, “US Fury as Israel Defies Settlement Freeze Call.”
"We regret the reports of Israel's plans to approve additional settlement construction," Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman, said. "As the President has said before, the United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued settlement expansion and we urge it to stop."
"In the end, America will be forced to do what is necessary to bring the Israelis and the Palestinians back to the negotiation table. But the Netanyahu government has proven difficult to work with," said another US official.”
As in today’s speech before the UN General Assembly, once again Obama emphasized what he, Hillary Clinton, the State Department, and special mid east envoy, George Mitchell also echo, that the US doesn’t accept the “legitimacy of the settlements in the West Bank”.
Jesus predicted that the issue of Judea would become a catalyst for the coming of “Tribulation such as the world has never seen before”. Zechariah the prophet also foretold that the last days would see a worldwide “siege” against both Jerusalem and Judea.
“Behold I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all of the people round about, when they shall be in siege both against Judah and Jerusalem. And in that day I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut into pieces, though all of the earth be gathered together against it.” (Zechariah 12:2-3)
The prophet Ezekiel devoted an entire chapter of prophecy to “the mountains of Israel”, that is Judea, assuring them that in spite of being “Taken up in the lips of talkers, and are an infamy of the people.” (Ezekiel 36:3)
Those mountains shall yet yield their fruit to “My people of Israel, who are at hand to come”.
“For behold I am for you and I will turn unto you, and you shall be tilled and sown: And I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it: and the cities shall be inhabited, and the wastes shall be builded, And I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bring fruit and I will settle you after your old estates, and will do better to you than at your beginnings: and you shall know that I am the Lord. Yea, I will cause men to walk upon you, even my people Israel, and they shall possess thee, and thou shalt be their inheritance and thou shalt no more henceforth bereave them of men.” (Ezekiel 36:9-12)
Hmmm, I think we have a conflict brewing - Obama, the UN, the EU, the Arab states and Russia have one vision for Judea - the God of Israel and His Son Jesus Christ have another vision. This is going to get intense!
