For thus said the Lord of Hosts, after [His] glory had sent me [His messenger] to the nations who plundered you – for he who touches you touches the apple or pupil of His eye: (9) “Behold I will swing my hand over them and they shall become plunder for those who served them. Then you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me. Sing and rejoice, O Daughter of Zion: for behold I come, and I will dwell in the midst of you”, says the Lord. (Zecharia 2:8-9 Amplified Bible Classic Edition)

I humbly submit that the above verses about defending Jerusalem may be relevant to the unending influx of millions of Muslim refugees into Europe, as well as to Britain’s leaving the European Union – even to the EU’s grossly hypocritical failure to apply an international law!

Could this be the real reason behind our getting out of the EU?

AN INSIGHT UPON SCRIPTURE

When using the above verses to open the first part of this Zecharia 2 Update (on EU Supports Palestine Against Israel) I was going to refer to the original Hebrew. However, the website wouldn’t open and so I opened my NKJV Study Bible but got nudged for some reason to grab the classic edition of the Amplified Bible from my bookshelf.  During the course of drawing attention to European hostility towards Israel, I noticed this Bible’s verse 9 hints at a very subtle nuance: one that may explain the consequences upon Europe of the EU’s policy!

Chapter 2 covers the third vision prophet Zecharia received, which is of the measuring and rebuilding of Jerusalem and of the Temple. Although set in the decline of the Babylonian Empire it foreshadows the eschatalogical New Jerusalem. YET I WAS STRUCK THAT IT MAY APPLY TODAY TOO!

Historically, verse 9 describes the Lord’s retribution upon the Babylonians, yet it could also promise that happening any time in the future. BUT AHA! – it’s already been happening!!  That is, the consequences of EU hostility are already ongoing, or have been so for at least the past couple of years in the massive migration of refugees into Europe!

My quick reading of that short text led me to colour it to distinguish between what I thought is the writer’s narrative (v.8) and the Lord’s words (v.9), but later I learned that translation of v.8 is difficult. The New Bible Commentary’s opinion is ‘The speaker is the Messiah, who is sent to the Jews, to whom pertains the glory (cf Rom 9:4) to be their Protector…(repetition of) ‘sent me’ emphasises the importance of the commission…to protect His own from all hostile powers that menace this precious possession. Others, however, think that the pronoun refers to the enemies of Israel and means that they endanger their own safety by hostility towards the elect‘ (emphases mine).

In fact, both option could now be in play: ie. not only to protect His own from all hostile powers menacing His people but also to act specifically against them!

Historically, the colonial empires of Britain, France, Spain, Germany, Italy and Holland had taken control of lands across Africa, Asia and the Middle-East and used their populations as a source of labour, servants and military personnel.

Verse 9 clearly implies that such servants of European colonial empires will come and ‘plunder’ those empires, either there or back on home territory, as a Divine directive. Why? Because they’ve ‘touched the apple of His eye’ – His Jewish people and His holy city – Jerusalem!

That is, nations which permit their citizens to insult and denigrate the Jewish people and their state – and making others boycott Israeli goods and services! – would eventually find that the Lord’s declared intention gets applied in their own lands, which is what we’ve been seeing before our very eyes.  And this is despite many European nations subscribing to the Laws of Holocaust Denial.

EU PREFERS DESCENDANTS OF PHILISTINES TO THOSE OF ISRAELITES

As mentioned in the previous Update, not only the Palestinian leadership but also that of the European Union refuse to recognise and stand resolutely against the Word of God.

On his December visit to Europe Israel’s PM Netanyahu encouraged its leaders to be open to Donald Trump’s recognising the reality of Jerusalem being Israel’s capital, but Europe’s foreign policy chief rejected his plea outright. That’s hardly surprising in view of the EU’s parliament building in Strasbourg being specifically built like the Tower of Babel, as described in UK/EU in/out #2 cont’d – Significant Spiritual Signs.

Here’s this week’s events that contribute towards a scriptural judgement; headlines and extract as on Koenig World Watch Daily homepage:

Abbas urges EU to swiftly recognize Palestine, says it will encourage peace

‘Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday urged the member states of the European Union to “swiftly” recognize the state of Palestine, arguing such a move would preserve the Palestinians’ hope for peace.

“We truly consider the European Union as a true partner and friend, and therefore we call its member states to swiftly recognize the state of Palestine and we confirm that there is no contradiction between recognition and the resumption of negotiations,” Abbas said in an address in Brussels. 

‘Abbas, who gave his remarks alongside EU High Representative Federica Mogherini, called on the EU to play a larger role in the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. “The EU should play a political role in this Middle East peace process in order to reach a just solution on the basis of internationally recognized terms and decisions,” Abbas said.’

EU promises to back Abbas’ demand for Jerusalem

Council of Europe to vote on condemning Trump’s Jerusalem recognition

Why is the EU warmly welcoming this rabid racist and Holocaust denier?  He should have been arrested as soon as he set foot in Europe!

Maybe the Lord regards Abbas as a modern-day Haman, as intimated in the opening minutes of the prophetic words for 2018 and beyond delivered by John Kilpatrick. (We’d not heard them prior to my completing this post – so this sentence has only been added at the last minute before publication.)

Caroline Glick, the internationally respected editor and journalist with first-hand experience of coordinating negotiations with the PLO, writes of Mahmoud Abbas’ personal history in Time for Trump to cut the cord on the Palestinians:

‘Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said that Abbas’ remarks (in Cairo at PLO conference on 19th January) harken back to “things that led him to be accused years ago of anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial.” Abbas’ PhD. thesis, which he wrote for a Soviet university controlled by the KGB in the 1960s denied the Holocaust.

‘Over the past 25 years, the Western and Israeli leaders that have hailed Abbas as a moderate dismissed the significance of his doctorate – which he later published in Jordan as a best-selling book – saying it was a relic of the PLO’s former rejection of Israel’s right to exist…

‘Contrary to Rivlin’s view of Abbas racist assault on Jews as a throwback to an earlier time, antisemitic diatribes have been a consistent feature of Abbas’ public statements, whether he is speaking to Arab or Western audiences.

‘In a speech before the European Parliament in 2016, for instance, Abbas recycled the medieval blood libel that Jews poison the wells of Christians. That blood libel incited the death of thousands of Jews through the ages.

‘Speaking to European lawmakers, Abbas said, “Certain rabbis in Israel have said very clearly to their government that our water should be poisoned in order to have Palestinians killed.”

‘As for his Holocaust denial being a thing of the past, Abbas posted his doctoral thesis on his official website. His lies are taught as fact in Holocaust education in the Palestinian school system – which he controls.’ 

For more well-informed commentary on PLO claims and strategy  read:

• David Greenfield in Sultan Knish: The Big Palestine Lie
• Greg Roman in The Hill: Moving the Palestinian Leadership from Rejectionism to Recognition

BREXIT – OUR ‘GET-OUT-OF-JAIL’ CARD!

Clearly, Britain’s departure from the EU will help us avoid what the Lord will bring upon Europe – although we are not an entirely innocent party!  Doubtless, the verses we’ve considered is a very small portion of all scriptures behind the Lord’s warning to Britain to “Come out!” that David Noakes received in November 2015, part of which reads:

“Rather than rely on Me and my faithfulness to you, you chose, for worldly purposes, to join yourself to an institution which has denied my Name and refused to acknowledge Me in its councils. My fierce anger is upon that institution on account of its rebellion, its defiant rejection of me and its hardness of heart towards my ancient people Israel.

“I warn you now that the European institution will not repent, even though I bring disaster and destruction upon it. I urge you, O Britain still beloved by Me for the sake of your godly forefathers, come out of her, so that you may not be caught up in that same destruction, for I am even now arising in judgment to bring to nothing what she has sought to achieve. If you will separate yourself from her declared rejection of God, I will have mercy upon you and restore my hand of protection; and I will use you once again to bring light to many lost in the darkness which is now steadily increasing.

Thus, the Lord’s deep desire is for the UK to avoid the judgement He’s already bringing upon the EU (latest at Davos 2018 re France and Ireland on Brexit deal).

To enable a fuller understanding of the immense importance of this End-times matter (v11 ‘in That Day’ cf Obadiah 1:15) to ALL nations TODAY, I recommend carefully and prayerfully reading the whole of chapter two of Zecharia, as appended below (emphases added): 

ZECHARIA 2: 

(Amplified Bible – AMP. Differs from Classic by insertion of quotation marks)  

 God’s Favor to Zion [NKJV: Vision of the Measuring Line]

2 And I looked up, and saw a man with a measuring line in his hand. ² So I said, “Where are you going?” And he said to me, “To measure Jerusalem, to see how wide it is and how long it is.” ³ And behold, the angel who was speaking with me was going out, and another angel was coming out to meet him, ⁴ and he said to the second angel, “Run, speak to that young man, saying, ‘Jerusalem will be inhabited [like villages] without walls [spreading out into the open country] because of the great number of people and livestock in it. ⁵ For I,’ declares the Lord, ‘will be a wall of fire around her [protecting her from enemies], and I will be the glory in her midst.’”

[NKJV: Future Joy of Zion and of Many Nations]

⁶ “^[a]Hear this! Flee from [Babylon] the land of the north [which shall come under judgment],” declares the Lord, “for I have scattered you like the four winds of the heavens,” declares the Lord. ⁷ “Hear, Zion (Jerusalem)! Escape, ^[b]you who are living with the daughter of Babylon!” ⁸ For thus says the Lord of hosts, “After ^[c]glory He has sent Me against the nations which plunder you—for he who touches you, touches the apple of His eye. ⁹ Behold, I will wave my hand over them and they shall become plunder for their own slaves. Then you shall know (recognize, understand fully) that the Lord of hosts has sent Me. ¹⁰ Sing for joy and rejoice, O Daughter of Zion; for behold, I am coming, and I will dwell in your midst,” declares the Lord. ¹¹ Many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day and shall be My people. And I will dwell in your midst, and you shall know (recognize, understand fully) that the Lord of hosts has sent Me to you. ¹² The Lord will take possession of Judah as His portion in the holy land and will again choose Jerusalem.

¹³ “Be still before the Lord, all mankind; for He is roused (raised up) from His holy habitation [in response to His persecuted people].”