The Jewish State’s Deadly Wound

Practically the whole world is against the Jewish state of Israel as it strikes back against Hamas. Israel’s effort to rout this murderous terrorist group after its brutal attack on Oct. 7, 2023, is provoking serious backlash. This is stunning, given both the barbaric nature of what Hamas did and the restraint Israel has shown in its response. No matter how much Israel has limited itself, the closer it comes to actually breaking Hamas’s power, the more the rest of the world, even the United States, tries to stop it through rhetoric, diplomatic pressure and negotiations.

One notable exception has been Germany. As I wrote last month (“As You Watch Gaza—Watch Germany,” theTrumpet.com/28621), Germany has expressed firm support for Israel, and embraced this as an opportunity to boost its presence in the Middle East. This development has seismic geopolitical and prophetic implications.

Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, said Germany’s “amazing” response to the Hamas attack has helped vault Germany past Britain to become Israel’s closest ally in Europe. In a Dec. 23, 2023, interview with the Telegraph, he hinted that Israel and Germany might soon announce a new defense pact.

Israel is at a crucial decision point right now, and for many reasons it is extremely vulnerable. It is actually walking into a deadly trap!

In their 75-year history, the Israelis have won great victories against alliances of powers far stronger than Hamas. Today, they have many times the military strength of Hamas. And Hamas has committed reprehensible acts that should make it repulsive to the whole world. Yet Hamas and other Islamic terrorists remain, and the Israelis fail to conquer them. It is as if the strength of the Jewish people of Israel is being sapped by a hidden, serious wound.

In fact, that is exactly what is happening. This nation is suffering a deadly wound—and it was specifically prophesied in your Bible thousands of years ago! That prophecy shows that when the Jews recognize this wound, they will seek help to cure it—help from the worst possible source.

The Fight

A special hatred for the Jewish people permeates this world. (Read last month’s article “Truth and Lies About Anti-Semitism.”) It erupted into the open in southern Israel on October 7.

It has erupted before throughout history. In the 1930s, it spread across the “sophisticated” nations of Europe and showed its fullest form in the systematic, mass-scale extermination of Jewish men, women and children in death camps and hundreds of mass graves, not only in Germany but also in Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Croatia, Czechoslovakia, Estonia, Finland, France, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Yugoslavia and beyond. Germany devoted enormous resources, even diverting them from the war, to murder 2 out of 3 Jews in all of Europe (1 in 3 Jews worldwide): a total of 6 million men, women and children.

The Jews who survived World War ii and the Holocaust had nowhere to go. Many desired to return to the land that they had possessed beginning in the 15th century b.c.: the land of Israel (read “Who Has the Historic Right to the Holy Land?”, theTrumpet.​com/28631). The Ottoman allies of Germany had lost the Holy Land in World War i to Britain, and many supported giving the Jews their ancestral home. Many were opposed as well, but the Jews declared the State of Israel in 1948.

The same day, Islamic Arabs from Egypt, Jordan, Palestine and Syria attacked the newborn state.

The Jewish people had suffered persecutions for lifetimes, culminating in the Holocaust, their nation was only hours old, and now they were being attacked by three neighboring nations at once, plus people inside their borders. They fought back, but they barely had anything you could call a real military. The Jewish people were thrilled to have a nation, they were willing to fight and die, and they had a certain faith in God—but within a few weeks, they were physically worn down and running out of armaments.

Then suddenly, the attacking Arabs declared a ceasefire. The Jews miraculously received the reprieve they desperately needed to rest and rearm. And when the Arabs resumed their attack, the Jewish nation stunned the world by winning the war!

This was a miracle from God, and people everywhere knew it. The Jews (who are descended from ancient Judah) knew it. People in America, Britain and other related nations (which are descended from the other tribes of ancient Israel) knew it.

The Bible prophesied that the Jewish people would have a nation in the end time (you can find proof of this in our free booklet Jerusalem in Prophecy). They hadn’t had a sovereign nation since about the time the Bible was completed, roughly 2,000 years ago. This miracle of 1948 is how the prophecy of a Jewish nation was dramatically fulfilled!

But hatred for the Jews, resentment toward the Jewish nation, and the desire to conquer their land remained. In 1967, the Soviet Union was allied with Egypt and pushed it to mount another attack on Israel. Egypt, Jordan and Syria, plus Iraq and Lebanon, expelled United Nations monitors, blocked all southern Israeli shipping, and prepared to invade again. Egyptian tanks rolled into the Sinai Peninsula, not far from Gaza. But Israel struck first. In a few hours, Israeli forces destroyed hundreds of Egyptian warplanes still on the ground, and it won the war in six days! This was another astounding miracle!

After the Six-Day War, Israel was built up significantly as a nation and became a nuclear-armed power. But in late 1973, Egypt and Syria, plus Algeria, Cuba, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Morocco, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia, attacked again. They did so on Yom Kippur, the most solemn Jewish holy day, when religious Jews go without food and water for 25 hours. The Jews miraculously won this war as well.

A Genuine Push for Peace

Not long after the 1973 war, something extraordinary happened.

President Anwar Sadat had led Egypt against Israel in the 1973 war, and he was praised by his people for it. But then something amazing happened in the mind of this man. He offered peace to Israel. He stood up against many of his own people, risking his life, to extend peace to the Jews.

In November 1977, Sadat went before Israel’s lawmakers, showing that he recognized their right to exist as a state. In that landmark Knesset speech, he said, “You would like to live with us in this region of the world, and I tell you in all honesty that we welcome you among us in serenity and peace.”

Despite threats of violence to himself, Sadat set an example of peace. In a world and a region where people are suffering horrible violence and are absolutely desperate, he was pointing the world to at least a beginning of peace.

In the audience for Sadat’s speech was Israel’s prime minister, Menachem Begin. These two men were unique in the history of Arab-Israel relations. And they were both friends of a man named Herbert W. Armstrong.

Mr. Armstrong was known as an “unofficial ambassador for world peace.” He visited heads of state all over the world with a message about the true way of peace from the Bible. He not only knew both Sadat and Begin personally but was also personally involved in this extraordinary situation. He called Sadat’s speech a “genuine peace offer,” and he was in a position to know!

A few years later, in 1981, Mr. Armstrong wrote about a specific idea Sadat had: “He plans to build at the base of Mount Sinai a world peace center, emblematic of peace among all nations and religions. The concept is unique—a total departure from any previous peace undertaking” (Quest, May 1981; emphasis mine). This effort showed these two nations’ “extreme willingness to give extraordinary sacrifice in this start toward peace in their region,” he wrote. (Request your free copies of Ambassador for World Peace and The Way of Peace Restored Momentarily.)

At this point in his life, Mr. Armstrong was visiting hundreds of kings, presidents, prime ministers, legislators and other world leaders. He participated in humanitarian initiatives, including donations to this effort for world peace. His involvement, this peace center and the location of Mount Sinai made this an utterly unique effort.

Mount Sinai is where God Himself descended with thunder and lightning and gave the Ten Commandments! It is where He made His covenant with the children of Israel as a nation. It is where He gave His crucial, incredible, holy law to mankind through that nation. Nothing in the founding or history of any nation compares with God’s covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai, recorded in Exodus 19-20. In 1973, Israel had won control of the entire Sinai Peninsula, which contains the very mountain of God where this happened and where their ancestors first became a nation.

In a world riven by divisions, conflict and warfare, people ought to be scrambling to find real peace that will work. It is clear that despite man’s best efforts, “[t]he way of peace they know not” (Isaiah 59:8). The prospect of a peace center, jointly built by Jews and Arabs at the foot of Mount Sinai, is as close as this modern world has come to a genuine solution to our conflict and strife. Such a project would have directed people’s attention to that mountain, that law and that God, who alone knows the way of peace!

Anwar Sadat risked his life for peace—and he lost his life for it. During a 1981 military parade celebrating his military’s successes in the 1973 war against Israel, radical Islamists inside his own army assassinated him. Mr. Armstrong mourned the loss.

Even this small, symbolic gesture toward the right way to world peace was snuffed out by horrible violence.

Surrendering Land

Years later came another peace offer. This was not initiated by an Arab leader genuinely interested in peace with Israel, but a man unrepentant for perpetrating terrorist murders, and who was deceiving Jewish leaders for personal gain.

The Oslo Accords in 1993 were the beginning of the Arab-Jew “peace process.” Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin agreed to land (and prisoners) for a promise of peace from Palestinian Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat. When the two men shook hands on the White House lawn in front of a jubilant President Bill Clinton, the world got the snapshot of peace they wanted to see. But it was a facade.

Just months later, on May 10, 1994, Arafat spoke at a mosque in Johannesburg, South Africa. “In my eyes,” he said, “this agreement has no more value than the one signed by the Prophet Mohammed with the Quraysh tribe,” referencing a deceitful peace deal the founder of Islam forged with the original inhabitants of Mecca, only to later go to war against them and conquer the city.

In a Jan. 30, 1996, meeting with Arab diplomats, Arafat clarified what he meant: “We intend to destroy Israel and to establish a pure Palestinian state. … We will make the life of the Jews miserable and take everything from them. … I don’t need any Jews.”

Ignoring such statements, Israeli leaders kept negotiating with this man and surrendering land. In 1994, they gave up Jericho and Gaza. In 1995 they relinquished Bethlehem (the birthplace of Jesus), Jenin, Nablus, Qalqilya, Ramallah and Tulkarm. Then Hebron in 1997. Then more West Bank areas in 1998. Southern Lebanon was abandoned in 2000.

At the 2000 Camp David Summit, Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered Arafat a Palestinian state comprised of 95 percent of the West Bank, 100 percent of the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and more. Arafat rejected it. According to Suha Arafat, Yasser’s widow, soon after this summit he told her his plan to start the Second Intifada. “They want me to betray the Palestinian cause,” he reportedly said. “They want me to give up on our principles, and I will not do so.” The Second Intifada started on Sept. 28, 2000, and lasted until 2005, claiming over 1,000 Israeli lives. It was supposedly in response to Israeli politician Ariel Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount that day. But Israeli and Palestinian sources have since corroborated that the Intifada was premeditated and coordinated, with Arafat pulling the strings.

In 2005, Israel abandoned the rest of Gaza to the Palestinians. Now, watch what happens in Israel’s current effort to rout Hamas from Gaza. It is under tremendous pressure to cede that territory again.

It is as if the whole world, including the Jews, has forgotten that these areas were won in wars where the Arabs were trying to annihilate the Jews! Yet as the bombings, stabbings, rocket attacks and murders have continued, the Jewish people have continued to trust this “remedy” of giving their enemies land in return for promises of peace.

This is not a peace process. It has been deceptively misnamed. The goal of these enemies of Israel, especially the radicals led by Iran, remains unchanged: They want to wipe out the Jews.

And remember, too, that while radical Islamists call Israel “the little Satan,” they call the United States “the great Satan,” which shows that their hatred extends to Americans as well. This is because the U.S., along with Britain and other related nations, is literally a brother nation to the Jewish state called Israel. They all descended from the ancient Israelites! (Request your free copy of The United States and Britain in Prophecy, by Herbert W. Armstrong.)

The Wound

The same God who established Israel at Mount Sinai prophesied that one of those Israelite tribes at the foot of that mountain, Judah, would have its own nation in the end time. He also prophesied that this nation would suffer a deadly wound. Why? Because, like its ancestors, it turned away from the law of Mount Sinai and the God of Mount Sinai!

I emphasize this deadly wound in my booklet Jerusalem in Prophecy, first published more than 22 years ago. This is an ongoing prophecy. We can see how real and how tragically accurate this Bible prophecy is a generation later in the bloodstained homes of southern Israel and the rubble of Gaza!

You can read this prophecy in Hosea 5:13: “When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb: yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound.” In biblical prophecy, Ephraim refers to modern Britain; Judah is the modern Jewish state of Israel.

What is Judah’s “wound”? Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon says the root word refers to “the pressing together, binding up of a wound; hence used figuratively of a remedy applied to the wounds of the state.” Note that: The way this word is used, the remedy does not heal the wound—it is the wound.

This sense is reinforced in Obadiah 7, which uses nearly the identical Hebrew word: “All the men of thy confederacy have brought thee even to the border: the men that were at peace with thee have deceived thee, and prevailed against thee; they that eat thy bread have laid a wound under thee: there is none understanding in him.” This “wound” comes from the same Hebrew root word as in Hosea. Gesenius’ Lexicon defines the word here as “falsehood; hence, fraud, insidious dealing; … a net, or snare.” Here this wound is directly related to being deceived by a peace pact!

Israel has worked desperately to end its conflict with the Arabs through negotiations and agreements with people who won’t even acknowledge its right to exist! Now people worldwide are chanting radical Islamist slogans like “from the river to the sea,” explicitly calling for Israel to be wiped out! Clearly their efforts for peace have been disastrous!

“Judah saw his wound,” Hosea 5:13 foretells. For years, the Jewish people have seen the effects of this wound, but when this prophecy is fulfilled they will acknowledge the cause. But what will they do about it?

The Hebrew indicates that both Ephraim (Britain) and Judah “went … to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb.” In biblical prophecy, “the Assyrian” refers to the Germans (prove this from our article “Is Germany in Bible Prophecy?”). “King Jareb” literally means a warlike monarch.

Yes, God prophesies that when Israel recognizes its deadly wound, it will look for help from Germany! The relationship developing between Israel and Germany today is fulfilling Hosea’s prophecy. But the Germans certainly will not be able to heal this wound. In fact, prophecy warns that they will do very much the opposite.

A Warning

The Telegraph reported that “Germany and Israel have recently embarked on a major new security partnership which includes the sale of the Israeli Arrow 3 air defense system, which will be used to defend Europe’s skies from Russia” (op cit).

Germany is supporting Israel in its hour of need, and Israel is returning an increasing measure of trust in Germany. This is a stunning development, given that Germany was the primary perpetrator of the Holocaust just 80 years ago—within living memory!

In that Telegraph interview, Israeli ambassador Prosor said Germany had “scrutinized its past in an amazing way and looked themselves in the mirror on all dimensions.” However, the Telegraph wrote, he also “expressed concern about a ‘worrisome’ surge in support across Germany for the hard-right AfD [Alternative für Deutschland] party.” That truly is worrisome! If the Jews would look at Germany honestly, they would see that anti-Semitism is still rampant today! As much as the German mainstream and the world want to deny it, the Nazi spirit still lives. This is an alarming truth the Jews should not brush aside.

Even without the warning of prophecy, there is plenty that should concern the Jews about this relationship. And Bible prophecy gives a blaring warning: The Germans are about to double-cross the Jewish state in a devastating way! Read about this in last month’s cover story (theTrumpet.com/28621) or in Jerusalem in Prophecy.

One point Israel’s ambassador made to the Telegraph was especially interesting: “[Prosor] also stressed that the relationship had grown much deeper because of an ‘awakening’ in Germany about the threat posed to European security by Iran, which funds Hamas operatives on the Continent and supports Russia’s war against Ukraine,” speaking of Russia using Iran-made drones against Ukrainian soldiers. The Germans are awakening to the threat from Iran! Their response to Iranian provocations is prophesied as being the trigger to a nuclear World War iii!

The Way of Peace

The Jews are desperate for peace, but the way of peace they know not. Who knows the way? Only God! Peace cannot be obtained by negotiation and surrender, nor by ignoring warning signs and trusting your historic enemies.

Look at this promise from God in Leviticus 26:6-7: If you obey me, He says, “I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land. And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.” That is an ironclad guarantee from God if people will obey Him!

Even in recent history, the Jewish state was an absolute terror to any enemy that tried to destroy it. Today the situation is reversed. What happened? Well, rather than looking to God, the Jews have been trying to forge peace pacts. According to the Bible—even the Jews’ own Bible, the Old Testament—that is not the way to deal with such an existential crisis.

Jeremiah 8:11 prophesies of a time when people would be saying, “Peace, peace; when there is no peace.” Why no peace? The solution to this crisis is faith in God—the way the Jews really won their nation in the beginning!

God truly does know the way of peace. Read the prophecy in Isaiah 9:6-7, of Jesus Christ coming to this Earth in glory as “The Prince of Peace”! It says, “Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.” God is zealous to bring peace to this world! There will be no end to “the increase of his government and peace”! Very soon, He will establish His government on Earth, headquartered in Jerusalem. Then this world will never lack peace again!