THE ONLY THING STABLE IS INSTABILITY

Sorry that I have not been posting much. I have been so occupied with finishing up work on my study on Zechariah (see cover photo at left) that I have not been up to writing much else. But I have been keeping an eye and an ear on what is taking place in the Middle east and gthe name of the game seems to be instability. Look at the news from just the last few days.

Qaddafi was finally taken out as the leader of Libya. Question now is what kind of government will replace him? We are certain that Iran has been waiting in the wings to help push the decision. They talk of democracy of which they have not the foggiest notion. Big concern is whether Muslim Brotherhood will come to the front and take power.

A terrorist plot to take out the Saudi ambassador and two Embassies on US soil show how close to home the terrorist attacks are. We surely owe a lot to the folks who are breaking up some of these plans. This attack looked to me to be planned to drive a wedge between US and Saudia Arabia. Their Crown Prince died in a NY hospital last week. Now the instability of who will succeed to power there arises.

Our President has announced a pull-out of almost all our troops in Iraq. Most of us are tired of the war, but again instability in that country will be paramount. In all likelihood, soon after we are gone the situation will be so chaotic that Iran will come in and overtake at least part of the country. What will that do? It will give Iran then a straight shot across Iraq and Syria directly to the border of Israel.

Israel last week showed how much they value one of their soldiers when they traded 1,000 Palestinian criminals for the one Israeli soldier that had been held for over five years after he was kidnappedd by Hamas in Gaza. Don't expect any progress in peace talks. The Palestinians have no interest or desire for peace. Their definition of peace is when there are no more Jews in the world to have talks with.

Keep your eyes on Jordan. Things have been very quiet there, but they share the longest border with Israel of any nation. If the Arab "spring" comes into play there, it is hard to tell what is likely to happen.

I write all this to remind you that we are indeed living in days that the Bible speaks of with precision and clarity. The world is gearing up for the final showdown between the forces of evil and the power of God. The terrible time we know as the Tribulation could be closer upon than we think. Jesus said to keep ourselves abreast of the Signs of the Times and our spirits in tune with His so that are not taken by surprise when the end times begin to be fulfilled.

LOST JEWS COMING HOME TO ISRAEL

It was reported this week that a large group from one of the "lost tribes" of Israel will soon be allowed to emigrate to Israel. There are more than 7,200 remaining members of the Bnei Menashe community. Their name means "children of Menasseh." They live in two of India's northeast states. The Jerusalem Post wrote this week that the Ministerial Committee on Immigration and Absorption has approved the bringing to Israel these remaining members.

The Bnei Menashe community claims that they are the descendents from the tribe of Menasseh, one of the ten tribes of Israel, often called the lost tribes, who were exiled the the Assyrians invaded Israel's northern kingdom in the 8th Century B.C. The tribe probably traveled through Persia, Tibet and China before arriving in India where they have existed relatively unknown until recently.

Why am I reporting this? As I have been writing my study on the prophet Zechariah for my new book, The God Who Remembers, I have found a key teaching there that is directly connected with this story. That is, God says very clearly that in the end time He will bring back His people from the far reaches of the earth to dwell in Israel. "I will signal for them and gather them in. Surely I will redeem them; they will be as numerous as before. Though I scatter them among the peoples, yet in distant lands they will remember me. They and their children will survive, and they will return" (Zechariah 10: 8f).

It can't be much clearer than that. These supposedly lost tribes have not been lost to God. He has known where every one of them has been through all these nearly 3,000 years. Now, He is sending out the signal to come back to the land of Israel. Surely, He is about to do something very significant in the near future. It is amazing and encouraging to our faith to see these evidences of prophecy come to fulfillment in our days.