As I’m sure readers everywhere know, President Trump announced that the USA is recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The US Congress authorized this action over twenty years ago, but previous presidents signed special waivers every six months to delay its implementation. Trump signed one such waiver, but delayed the implementation no longer. Trump also began the process of moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. For those who have not viewed his announcement of this event, you can see it at the first link. Predictably, the Israeli Prime Minister warmly praised this action by Trump (second link) while Arab and Muslim nations criticized it.
I resisted the urge to post about this event right away to see what the Muslim nations’ reactions would be. As long-time readers know, I’ve made reference to the growing alliance of Israel with several key Sunni Arab nations in order to fight Iranian dominance in the entire Mideast region. I wanted to see if Islamic reactions to Trump’s announcement would be muted compared to what would have occurred in previous years. It was. There was very hostile opposition among the Palestinians and by the Iranians. However, that was entirely predictable. As I noted in a previous post, the Palestinians have positioned themselves as Iranian allies–forsaking their traditional alliance with Sunni Arab nations. As a result, the Sunni Arab nations owe the Palestinians nothing at this time. The third link and fourth link comment that the Sunni Arab world has not reacted with much vigor regarding this announcement. I think the Sunni Arab nations realize that while Israel has the power to save Sunni Islamic nations from being dominated or defeated by Iran, the Palestinians offer no meaningful strength to the Sunni Arab nations in fighting Iran. Indeed, the fifth link observes the Saudis and Israelis are working closely to develop a regional peace agreement, and it is likely the Palestinians will not like the result. It is remarkable that even the Palestinians themselves have staged far smaller protests than would have been expected in previous years (sixth link). Turkey and Jordan have supported the Palestinians with lip-service, but so far their reactions have been limited to that course of action.
Trump’s action has very important prophetic and historical significance. Trump’s announcement makes it a fact that the most powerful nation in the Western world recognizes that Jerusalem is the Israeli capital. This step means that the Israelis are “officially” in Jerusalem to stay–their presence there will not be removed by some global negotiation process. No nation has yet followed the US example, but the Czech Republic is hinting that it may be the first nation to follow the US action (seventh link). A very firm connection between the city of Jerusalem and the Jews (“Judah” in biblical terms) was prophesied to occur in the latter days. In Zechariah 12:1-7, a key prophecy about the Jews in the latter days refers to the city of Jerusalem and the Jews (“Judah”) almost as if they were synonymous or inseparably linked. In that prophecy, count how many times the terms “Jerusalem” and “Judah” are mentioned in conjunction with each other. It is clear that God determined that the Jews would be living in Jerusalem in the latter days. That prophecy also foretells that the city of Jerusalem would be a unique point of international controversy in the latter days (verses 2-3) and that the Jews would conquer the city of Jerusalem and take it from other nations to be a Jewish city (verse 6). That prophecy was fulfilled during previous Arab-Israeli wars. Zechariah 14, however, is a prophecy about a great war at the end of this age, and that war has not yet occurred. That battle will be at the very end of this age. It prophesies that when Jerusalem is partially occupied by a foreign invader, this age ends as God intervenes (verse 3-4) and personally destroys the invaders with the “Raiders of the Lost Ark” plague–their flesh consumes right off their bodies before they have time to fall over (verse 12). I see this war as being the same end-of-the-age war that is prophesied to occur in Ezekiel 38-39, Joel 2 and Revelation 19-20. These prophecies all address the same age-ending war, but they give details about that war as it will occur in different theaters of action in the world. I examine in great depth the details of this biblically-prophesied, age-ending war in my free article, What Ezekiel 38-39 Reveals about a Future World War III.
Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of modern Judah (to use biblical terminology) is incredibly important from a historical perspective. Can you name the last time that the leader of the most powerful nation/tribe of the house of Israel (the northern and non-Jewish ten tribes of Israel) last recognized Jerusalem as the capital of the tribe of Judah? It is a very long time, indeed. The last time that I can identify this occurring was circa 721 when the northern kingdom of the ten tribes fell to the Assyrians. At that time, Judah and Israel, though Israelite tribes from a common ancestor, had generally been enemies for over about two centuries but they both did recognize each other’s capital with no difficulty. While the Jews have had some periods of limited autonomy in the Holy Land, I can think of no time where the Jews were actually recognized as a sovereign nation with a capital at Jerusalem by any nation or empire descended from the scattered ten tribes of Israel. In the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, the Jews in Judea were a subject people of the Persian Empire with only some limited autonomy of their own. In the time of Jesus Christ, Judea was a captive Roman province with no sovereignty of their own. In the time of the Maccabees, there was a Jewish autonomy for a time, but it was not formally recognized by any Israelite empire or kingdom of that time to my knowledge. This means that Trump’s recognition of Judah’s sovereignty over Jerusalem as a Jewish capital city is the first time this has occurred since circa 721 BC. In other words, it has been over 26 centuries since such an event has happened. That is how significant this step is in world events! My books have abundant evidence that the USA was originally founded as a nation by the regathered Israelite tribe of Manasseh, but you can see the main bullet points of evidence confirming that identification in my free article, The USA in Bible Prophecy.
I feel this event is biblically significant for one other reason. The UN first voted to partition the British Protectorate of Palestine into a Jewish and Arab state in 1947. Trump’s announcement has occurred in 2017–seventy years later. The number seventy can have biblical significance (Daniel 9:24 for example), and the fact that there has been a seventy-year interval between those two key events convinces me that the Divine Creator who authored biblical prophesies is guiding modern events according to his timetables.
My thanks to a reader for sending me one of these links.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6U4Oq3kfbQ
- https://youtu.be/nc1d30mCHbo
- https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/06/world/middleeast/arabs-jerusalem-trump.html
- https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/12/how-upset-are-trumps-saudi-friends-really-about-his-jerusalem-move.html
- http://www.wnd.com/2017/12/u-s-israel-saudis-working-hand-in-hand-on-new-peace-deal/
- https://www.debka.com/abbas-lacks-important-arab-support-trumps-recognition-jerusalem/
- http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/239038?utm_source=activetrail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl
