Habakkuk 1:5 Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told. -LORD God
Ezekiel 25:15-17Thus says the Lord God, “Because the Philistines have acted in revenge and have taken vengeance with scorn of soul to destroy with everlasting enmity,” therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I will stretch out My hand against the Philistines, even cut off the Cherethites and destroy the remnant of the seacoast. I will execute great vengeance on them with wrathful rebukes; and they will know that I am the Lord when I lay My vengeance on them.”
Joshua 1:3-4 I have given you every place where the sole of your foot will tread, just as I promised to Moses. Your territory shall extend from the wilderness and Lebanon to the great River Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and west as far as the Great Sea.
🚨RIGHT NOW: Millions of Israelis are running to bomb shelters as sirens sound in central Israel. pic.twitter.com/hUjuXsS9cZ
Exodus 23:31 And I will set your border from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates, for I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you.
Ezekiel 38:10-12 Thus says the Lord God: “On that day it shall come to pass that thoughts will arise in your mind, and you will make an evil plan: You (Gog) will say, “I will go up against a land of unwalled villages; I will go to a peaceful people, who dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates to take plunder and to take booty, to stretch out your hand against the waste places that are again inhabited, and against a people gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who dwell in the midst of the land…”
With God’s help, Bibi can walk this tightrope. But now, at least the formation of the government hurdle is past the President’s office.
Many important strategic decisions will shake out of this. Regional allies (crazy age we live in that one can type that with respect to Israel) want to see a muscular, assertive Israel that acts with dignity. These would be the Abraham Accord partners. Rumor has it that if another weak Lapid like coalition government had come out of the elections that the Saudis would have continued fence sitting. The same set of speculation to Czekmate holds that with a reliably strong leader like Netanyahu, the Saudis are disposed to negotiating a more durable peace with Israel.
What is even more fascinating is that in partnership with Israel, the Arabs are prepared to go their own way on economic redundancies.
Much of the world’s energy must cross through three maritime choke points: – the Strait of Hormuz, where the Persian Gulf empties to the Indian ocean; – the Strait of Bab al Mandeb, where the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean meet; – the Suez Canal, joining the Mediterranean and Red Seas.
In the cases of Hormuz and Bab Al Mandeb, there are Iranian direct or proxy military hazards to free navigation. In Egypt, which is the custodian of the Suez Canal, there is a stirring of the Muslim Brotherhood within the country.
Among western oriented Arab elite, there is growing doubt over the attenuated strength of the US Navy and it’s enduring strategy to keep maritime sea-lanes and choke points open.
The remedy, since the Briben administration came into office, has been to work bilaterally with a strong Israel. But alas, they’ve had a downright epicene (and corrupt) specimen of a government in Jerusalem under Lapid. There was not much upon which to predicate a reliable diplomatic/economic partnership. Netanyahu’s success renews a dynamic that again invites serious, durable changes to the national economic postures of all concerned.
The credible rumor of what is ahead went on, that Saudi Arabia would be more inclined to negotiate a permanent peace with attendant economic measures. This includes, major capital investments in partnership with the UAE to build pipeline infrastructure from the Persian Gulf to the Israeli coast for onward export. This would bypass all three maritime chokepoints, diminishing the growing Iranian influence in all three places and hedge against the absence of a robust and ubiquitous US Navy upholding it’s tacit obligation to enforce freedom of navigation in those places.
Solution wise, is this a panacea? No. It presents a whole new set of problems.
Having Israeli gas online in concert with overland energy flows, you are now talking a supra-national energy output to Europe that rivals Russia. Russia and Iran have become more symbiotic than ever, especially since the Ukrainian mis-adventure. More on that at another time perhaps.
In the meantime, keeping an eye on Israeli government formation is the mission of the day.
Ezekiel 38:13 Sheba, Dedan, the merchants of Tarshish, and all their young lions will say to you, “Have you come to take plunder? Have you gathered your army to take booty, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to take great plunder?”
Isaiah 11:15 And the LORD will utterly destroy the tongue of the Sea of Egypt; and He will wave His hand over the River with His scorching wind; and He will strike it into seven streams and make men walk over dry-shod.
The Sea of Egypt is what we know today as the Red Sea. There are two tongues of the Red Sea. The northeast tongue is the Gulf of Aqaba. Israel, Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia share the tongue and have ports here.
The northwest tongue is the Gulf of Suez. This gulf solely belongs to Egypt. At the end of the gulf is the Suez Canal. The Suez Canal connects the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. It is the fastest path from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean. The canal’s history dates back to 1,874 BC. It has a depth of 66 feet. Without the canal, freight would have to go around the southern tip of Africa. 8% of the world’s cargo went through the Suez Canal in 2009 (Information provided by Suez Canal Authority).
There is some debate about the river in this verse. Some interpret this to be the Euphrates River. Some take it to be the Nile River. Take your pick. The Bible says both of these rivers are going dry during the Tribulation.
Revelation 16:12 The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates; and its water was dried up, so that the way would be prepared for the kings from the east.
Isaiah 19:5-7 The waters from the sea will dry up, and the river will be parched and dry. The canals will emit a stench, the streams of Egypt will thin out and dry up; the reeds and rushes will rot away.The bulrushes by the Nile, by the edge of the Nile and all the sown fields by the Nile will become dry, be driven away, and be no more.
The context of this verse is the Sea of Egypt. The Nile River delta branches into seven smaller tributaries before it empties in the Mediterranean Sea. I would lean towards this verse being about the Nile River going dry.
The grammar in Hebrew is direct. God will cause this to happen. There will be no doubt. It will be so dry, people will be able to walk across the River on dry land. His method will be a hot scorching wind. Keep in mind, the level of the Nile River is currently dropping due to weather and a dam being built on the Nile in the center of Africa.
Imagine what will happen to the price of oil when the Suez Canal goes dry. Combine that with all the money governments around the world are printing. Can you say massive inflation!
