While feckless UN diplomats try to negotiate an agrement to stop Iran (which has Israel in its crosshairs) from developing nuclear weapons, Israel grows impatient. Some State Department diplomats feared that Israel might unilaterally strike Iran’s nuclear sites as early as last month. Failed diplomacy is forcing Israel’s hand.
But a senior Iranian cleric warned last week that Iran will destroy US military bases across the Middle East and burn Israel to ashes within minutes of being attacked. This Iranian threat is helping to set the stage for an apocalyptic scenario foretold in Ezekiel 38, in which Persia (modern day Iran) is one of the major players in an alignment of nations attacking the Jewish state. Ironically (and sadly), the coalition of Arab and Islamic states listed in Daniel 11:40-45 and Psalm 83 includes Syria, Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya—three of which the U.S. helped to become Islamic strongholds!
The turmoil in Syria, the advance of Islamic rule in Egypt, and Iran’s promise to destroy Israel further sets the stage for the prophecies of Ezekiel and Daniel to be fulfilled.
Imagine if God made a law: “Everyone must eat asparagus on Sundays.” I would dread Sundays. And knowing my gag-reflex for asparagus, I probably would NOT eat it. And then I would feel very guilty. It's not that I disagree with God’s commandment. I am sure it's a good commandment. After all, asparagus must be good for me—vitamins, fiber, and probably other nutrients you can get nowhere else! It’s just me. It's the way I am wired! I can’t do it! I wish I was an asparagus-eating-loving-kind-of-guy, but I am just not. I wish there were some way I could change that law. Woe is me!
And then one day God says” “Greg, I am going to change your appetite—I am going to change your desire so that you will love asparagus.” And from that day on, I am a changed man. Now I look forward to Sundays—because I get to eat asparagus. Of course, I can eat asparagus any day of the week, but knowing God is pleased when I eat it on Sundays in particular, I love Sundays.
And now when someone says, “Do you know that God has commanded you to eat asparagus on Sundays?” I say: “Yes, I know, and I just love Sundays." Whether there is a law or not doesn’t matter anymore. I don’t need a law to make me eat asparagus on Sundays. The law is inside of me; it’s in my heart. I am an asparagus-lover by nature.
I wanted to change the law, but instead God changed me. It’s not a new law I needed; it was a new nature.
“This is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people…I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone [asparagus-hater] from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh [asparagus-lover] ” (Jeremiah 31:33; Ezekiel 36:26).
