Monday 20 June 2016

#2. A Tale of 3 Cities - TYRE

A coastal town in Lebanon was once the market capital of the world??   Yes!                                          
Tyre was described by Jewish prophet Isaiah as…           
‘the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth’    
High praise?...let’s see…

Tyre supplied timber and tradesmen for King David’s house and the first Jewish temple, plus navigators for King Solomon’s ships. However, Tyre was proud: “I am of perfect beauty…” and when Jerusalem was under siege, they gloated:“I shall be replenished, now she is laid waste.”

God was not impressed and told them so…                
“I will bring upon Tyre, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, a king of kings, from the north”  “I will send a fire on the wall…which shall devour the palaces”
Many Tyrians fled to other countries: ‘her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn … ‘ while others moved to their offshore island.                                                     
After a 13 year siege, Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the city in 586BC.                                                                          
‘Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years….. (but then what?) …sing as a harlot!’                                                
True to plan, by 516BC Tyre had revived in time to supply the second temple in Jerusalem… but will it be business as usual?       
“Her merchandise shall not be treasured nor laid up…many nations shall come up against thee…I will also scrape her dust from her and make her like the top of a rock. Thou shalt be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea.”

In 332BC,  Alexander the Great used the ruins on the mainland to build a causeway to the island of Tyre to utterly destroy it, while his ships from many nations took Tyre’s merchandise. The Muslim Mamluks finished the job in 1291AD!

Ancient Tyre is no more. For centuries the off-shore Tyre lay bare like a rock, where fishermen cast their nets of course! 


       
“Thou shalt be no more…yet shalt thou never be found again.”                                               
Ancient Tyre's mainland ruins

Why did God do this to Tyre?
‘To stain the pride of all glory and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth’


2 cities wiped off the map forever: Nineveh & Tyre. Next we look for Babylon!
http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2016/07/3-tale-of-3-cities-babylon.html

Thursday 16 June 2016

#1. A Tale Of 3 Cities - NINEVEH


Remember Jonah swallowed by a whale?                            
In ~830BC he was sent to ancient Nineveh, the huge capital of the Assyrian Empire, to warn them of their idolatry but God graciously showed mercy when they repented - much to Jonah’s disgust. 

Nineveh in its glory days
Assyrians impaling Jews
In 722BC, God used the Assyrians as ‘the rod of Mine anger’ to destroy the idolatrous kingdom of Israel but their cruelty was extreme and they finished up besieging Jerusalem and blaspheming God….only to lose 185,000 army officers in one night!

Nineveh needed to be taught a lesson but God mercifully devoted all of Nahum’s prophecy to again warn them… 
  • The gates of the rivers shall be opened
  • The palace shall be dissolved
  • Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold
  • The sword shall devour thy young lions 

…and that is exactly what happened! God made ‘an utter end of the place’.
After Cyaxares of Media had besieged the city for 2 years, heavy rain in 612BC caused the River Tigris to flood, the city walls began to collapse, the palace was torched, the treasures were looted and the lion zoo destroyed.

Alexander the Great passed over Nineveh later without even realizing it – “a desolation, as dry as the wilderness” – just as Jewish prophet Zephaniah had predicted.
Nineveh today!
It was not found by Europeans until the 18th Century and archaeologists did not begin digging until 1842. 


Well, so much for idols! 


Where was Nineveh?
Right beside the city of Mosul in Iraq.


NEXT CITY: Tyre
http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2016/06/2-tyre-tale-of-3-cities.html

Saturday 11 June 2016

#7. MY HOLY NAME

So Israel is back on the map since 14th May, 1948.


Did that catch God by surprise?


Of course not!  Way back in ~571BC - that’s 150 years after most of Israel had been marched off by the Assyrians - Ezekiel a Jewish priest held captive in Babylon prophesied that... 
one day Israel would be restored to their land...
...that’s ALL ISRAEL!                               
Israel as a nation no longer existed even then and had not been united since 992BC!


Israel restored just because Jews think they deserve a homeland?                                                                                         
No!  ‘The mountains, hills, rivers, valleys, desolate wastes and forsaken cities’ belong to GOD’S LAND – it had been shamed long enough by Israel profaning His Holy Name, so it’s time.
Even the national airline tells the whole world that Israel is back in business – just as Ezekiel prophesied over 2,500 years ago.


Now we have God’s Land still profaned and His Holy Name on every El Al airliner. In unbelief they like to think El Al means ‘upwards’...but their sacred text really means: ‘To the Most High’!        
"...to the MOST HIGH (El Al), none at all would exalt Him." Hosea 11:7  Remember we found Daniel’s timeline of 490 years left the Messiah crucified, Jerusalem sacked by Rome, and 7 years still to run. 

Will God really put the screws on Israel during those 7 years still ahead?



Sunday 5 June 2016

#6. TIMELINE - IN ADVANCE!

The Babylonian Empire is now just a memory but the Jews are still captive and Jerusalem lies in ruins, so old Daniel is on his knees again, only to get another tap on the shoulder from archangel Gabriel…(this must be important!)...

It is going to take 70 ‘sevens’ or 490 years to right all the Jewish wrongs, starting with…
  • From the order to rebuild Jerusalem (taking 49 years) up to the Messiah coming (a further 434 years) …a total of 483 years
  • Then the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing!
  • People of another coming prince will destroy the city (again!) and the sanctuary (again!) – leaving it desolate…….
No wonder poor old Daniel was left speechless!

That is EXACTLY what happened, of course…
              
Artaxerxes Longimanus emperor of Persia sent Nehemiah to rebuild Jerusalem. 483 years later the Jewish Messiah, Jesus Christ, entered the city only to be crucified, with not even His own clothes!                             

Just as He prophesied, the Roman army sacked Jerusalem in 70AD and no temple has stood on the Temple Mount ever since, as seen today on television world-wide!


Israeli Prime Minister to U.S. Congress: “We the Jewish people can defend ourselves…even if Israel has to stand alone, Israel will stand.”                                                           
In God We Trust??
Excuse me Mr Netanyahu, your own sacred text says there is still 7 years to go – the Tribulation or ‘time of Jacob’s trouble’…maybe just around the corner!
What happens next...
http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2015/08/who-is-anti-christ-desolator.html


Did Israel catch God out on 14th May, 1948? Of course not!
http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2016/06/7-my-holy-name.html

Friday 3 June 2016

#5. DAN GETS THE SCOOP!

Daniel knows there are 3 empires to follow Babylon…but who are they?  He is about to find out…

Like a journalist getting the news scoop, Daniel dreams he is in Persia and sees this ram spreading his territory west, north and south – exactly the way the coming Persian Empire did spread!
Look out! Next comes this one-horned goat charging at full speed – exactly the way Alexander the Great utterly defeated the Persians in 334BC!                     

Alexander the Great
Alas the horn breaks and is replaced by 4 noticeable horns – Alexander died at only 32 and his Greek Empire split into four. Who gets to control the Jews’ Promised Land that Babylon had destroyed?  The Seleucids of Syria - eventually headed by the evil Antiochus IV Epiphanes (‘God manifest’) who will trample the sanctuary and stop the daily sacrifices – as prophesied!                                                         
“Not again!?”  No wonder poor Daniel can’t cope with this news.                                              
How long for?  2,300 evenings and mornings  (i.e. days)
The temple was cleansed and re-dedicated on 25th Kislev 164BC, as celebrated in Hanukkah: the Festival of Lights, to this day!                                                                                                       
What happened to Antiochus? He died of disease, in Persia in 164BC - just as prophesied: “He shall be broken without human hand.”



We even have the madman's coins today!
So Daniel learns from archangel Gabriel that it is Persia then Greece who will take over Babylon… but what about his people, the Jews, who have been captives of Babylon for many years? And what about that fearsome 4th beast?    
Daniel decides it’s time to get serious with prayer….


You find that hard to cope with, Daniel?
Wait til Gabriel gives you a 'heads-up' for 2,500+ years!....NEXT
 http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2016/06/6-timeline-in-advance.html

Wednesday 1 June 2016

#4. DANIEL'S HEAVENLY DREAM

The Babylonian king has pensioned off elderly Daniel but heaven hasn’t finished with him – he is given a dream…

  • Out of the sea came first a winged lion standing like a man…


  • …next came a lop-sided bear chomping on 3 ribs…


  • …followed by a magnificent leopard with 4 wings and even 4 heads!





Last of all came this dreadful beast with fearsome iron teeth and… not 1 but 10 horns!  


No wonder Daniel was scared out of his wits – with its blasphemous spokesman it will devour the WHOLE EARTH! 
                                         

Daniel knows from King Nebuchadnezzar's dream nearly 50 years ago (!) that 3 empires will follow Babylon but doesn’t yet know their identity like we do now:
  • The Persian bear will chomp on Babylon, Media & Persia
  • Alexander the Great will conquer as if his army had wings but the Greek Empire will split between 4 generals
  • Words fail Daniel trying to describe this  fearsome beast: the Roman Empire might fragment into ‘iron/clay’ but….we haven’t seen the end of it yet!                                                                                 

Heaven sees the empires that get to rule over the Jews as mortal beasts…so universal dominion forever belongs to who?                                      
The Son of Man!


Two years later Daniel gets the scoop!...
http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2016/06/5-dan-gets-scoop.html