Prophecy revisited

Some very interesting modern-day facts are tied up in these words. This prophecy given through Isaiah did indeed come to pass, as we read in 2 Kings 19:35. God sent the angel of the Lord and killed 185 000 Assyrians in one night. Even the proud and lofty king of the Assyrians was murdered by his own sons as he worshiped in the temple of his god after attacking Judah. And Lebanon (under Assyrian rule) was destroyed, as prophesied.

The very next verse after this prophecy is Isaiah 11:1-2, which speaks about the coming Messiah, described as the Branch out of the roots of Jesse (David’s father). Remember that the dividing of Scripture into chapters and verses came later, the original text would have been read as one continuous scroll. This implies that the reader would see these two prophecies as somehow connected to each other, and indeed many rabbis consider it that way – they see the fall of Lebanon connected to the coming of Messiah.

Gematria (where words are assigned number values by adding up the numeric value of their individual letters) is used to back up their claim – the number value of the words Lebanon and of Branch both come to 138 and are therefore considered to be linked to each other. Ben Elohim (Son of God) also adds up to 138.

This is where Rabbi Jason Sobel points out some very interesting facts about the current conflict between Israel and Lebanon. The above verse says that Lebanon will fall by the “Mighty One” and be cut down by iron. The Hebrew word for mighty one is Adir. It so happens that the Israeli Defence Force gave the F35, its main fighter jet, the name Adir. Also, this ongoing conflict, which started as a response to the surprise attack by Hamas on 7^th October 2023, is called The Swords of Iron War. A remarkable coincidence, as names of battles in Israel are computer-generated, not chosen by the army generals themselves!

Can we revisit a prophecy, which has already been fulfilled, and predict it into the future? We surely can. Jesus said that the signs pointing to the end times would be like giving birth – the same pain is felt, but it will repeat and intensify. Can we then say that the possible fall of Lebanon in the current war will signal the return of Jesus, our Messiah? We can at best consider it to be a sneak preview of all that has been prophesied, one of those events in a chain of birth pangs that will happen before He returns. Certain prophecies are like key dominoes, their toppling over leads to others falling in very rapid succession. Could this be such a one?

Points to ponder: We are not walking head-on into eternity, i.e. purposefully walking to the front end of a cliff top and falling off at a certain appointed time known to us. Rather, we are walking along that cliff top, parallel to its steep sides, and our falling off can happen at any time! The question is not so much whether we know the exact time of Christ’s return, but whether we are ready to meet Him at any time?