On Sunday, Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir visited the Temple Mount in Jerusalem (ref. 1). Palestinians called it an “attack”. Jordan said it was “a provocative step”. The UAE described it as “a storming of Al Aqsa mosque”. And Egypt also was displeased. The last time Ben Gvir did this, in January this year, there was also outrage from Islamists across the Arab world, and Jordon summoned Israel’s ambassador for a demarche.
“We are in charge here,” Ben Gvir declared (ref. 1), reflecting the reality of the Temple Mount since the Six Day War of 1967, the war of Psalms 83. The agreement with Jordan made in 1994 that a Jordanian Islamic Waqf would maintain religious authority atop the Temple Mount, a status quo that permits Jews and other non Muslims to visit the Temple Mount at certain hours but never pray there, is something that can be annulled at any moment, because the state of Israel physically controls access to the site and is responsible for policing it.
In these last days, at the appointed time, this status quo will be annulled. For the Bible prophesies that at some point, the two witnesses of Jesus Christ will arrive and they will help Israel set up the temple of God, and prepare Israel for the coming of God to his temple.
Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.
Malachi 3:1
One of the two witnesses will be Elijah, a witness from the Old Testament.
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
Malachi 4:5-6
The other of the two witnesses will be John of Patmos, the writer of the book of Revelation, and a witness from the New Testament.
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John… I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Revelation 1:1-9
John is one of the two witnesses, for in Revelation 11, it is written that a reed was given to him to measure the temple of God.
And there was given me [John speaking] a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months. And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
Revelation 11:1-3
More to it, John is told in the preceding chapter, Revelation 10, after eating the book from the angel’s hand – eating the book as in reading the book – that he must prophesy once again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.
And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.
Revelation 10:10-11
This preaching of the word of God to many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings is precisely what the two witnesses will do (ref. Revelation 11:9).
And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
Matthew 24:14
Of course, the arrival of the two witnesses will constitute unmistakable and irrefutable proof that this is the time of the end, and that at the sounding of the seventh trumpet and the pouring of the seventh vial – the day of the LORD – Jesus Christ will return to the earth along with his angels and his born again saints to establish a different kind of world.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Matthew 5:5-6
All Christians know that Jesus Christ as the Son of man (ref. John 1:14) was born in Bethlehem, which is in the Galilee.
But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.
Micah 5:2
In the mini series The Bible (2013), the chief priest of Herod’s temple quipped “Nicodemus, don’t worry. Nothing important ever came from Galilee. A miracle worker from Galilee?”
In Israel, some two thousand years ago, Simon bar Kokhba, a false Christ, a Jew who had changed his birth name to claim to be “the Star out of Jacob” as prophecied in Numbers 24:17, despised “the Galileans”, at the time the followers of the Son of man Jesus Christ, as opposed to the followers of the priests of Herod’s temple. We know this because modern archaeology has unearthed letters in sealed jars written around the time of Bar Kokhba saying this.
With those three things in mind, notice that someone such as Ben Gvir, a devout and militant Orthodox Jew in today’s Israel, has just said something to the effect that the Galilee is part of Israel’s “life force”.
The soundbite that the Galilee is Israel’s life force is all the more remarkable because the battlefield that is Armageddon is in the Galilee, and ultimately it will be at Armageddon and on the day of the LORD that all of Israel’s enemies will finally be defeated.
The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand: That I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden from off their shoulders. This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.
Isaiah 14:24-26
The LORD hath taken away thy judgments, he hath cast out thine enemy: the king of Israel, even the LORD, is in the midst of thee: thou shalt not see evil any more.
Zephaniah 3:15
There is also Ben Gvir’s mentioning of “the Negev”. In Daniel 11:40, the Negev is translated in the KJV as “south”. After the war of 1948, the Negev has been a part of Israel and not Egypt. This means, “the king of the south” today in 2023 is none other than Israel, whereas in antiquity the south was Egypt, as in the kingdom of Ptolemy, a Greek civilisation after the death of Alexander the Great that lasted until Cleopatra, the final Greek queen of the land of Egypt.
Today, in 2023, the Negev has become a stronghold of the IDF. Not only has the IDF in recent years relocated barracks and training facilities to Beersheba which is in the Negev, and not only does the Negev house Israel’s ultimate weapon of war, but geographically the Negev is also more or less Judah. Everything from Bethlehem to the desert of the Negev was once the land of Judah.
The LORD also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah.
Zechariah 12:7
Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies…
Genesis 49:8
So there is something to Ben Gvir’s soundbite this last Sunday, as he stood upon the Temple Mount, that “the Negev and Galilee are our life force” and “Jerusalem is our soul” (ref. 1). Ben Gvir might have been thinking about budgetary or settlement matters, but his remark has spiritual and even prophetic significance. More likely than not, he was inspired.
I suppose, now is good time to remind that God is coming to Israel soon. He will come first as a spirit around the time of the fulfilment of Malachi 3:1.
Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.
Malachi 3:1
And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi [Jewish priests], and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the LORD, as in the days of old, and as in former years.
Malachi 3:3-4
And then later, towards the end, once WW3 is almost over, the Holy Spirit will be given to the remnant and elect of Israel. This is before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced…
Zechariah 12:10
And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.
Joel 2:28-29
A preview of God’s grace in these last days happened to the apostles of Jesus Christ at Pentecost some two thousand years ago (ref. Acts 2:16-21).
To be clear, the chosen of the Jews in these last days will receive the Holy Spirit, not Christians generally as some American pastors have supposed. Christians already have access to the complete word of God: the Bible.
For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until [until is the key word here] the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob
Romans 11:25-26
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9
In this way will the elect of Israel be baptised and made holy.
And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem
Isaiah 4:3
Remember, John the baptist prophesied to Israel a coming baptism by the Holy Ghost.
I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: and he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
Matthew 3:11-12
This baptism will also be, as the expression goes, a baptism by fire.
References:
1. TOI (22 May 2023), “Ben Gvir visits Temple Mount, says it proves Israel in charge at holy site”, timesofisrael.com