| Time | Text |
|---|---|
|
Troubling Negotiations Still Threatening
00:02:18
|
|
| Let's start on what's going on with this Iran prophecy. | |
| Yeah, and I'm interested in presenting the biblical perspective. | |
| Yes. | |
| You know, people are so concerned about what's been going on geopolitically in Iran right now, and rightfully so. | |
| I mean, this radical regime is trying to get a nuclear weapon, threatening to wipe Israel off the map, threatening, if attacked, to shut down the Strait of Hormoz, to which about a third of the oil still comes through, which is only at its narrowest point, about 21 nautical miles. | |
| Easy for them to do. | |
| They're threatening global terrorism if they're struck. | |
| And of course, Israel's probably threatening to strike. | |
| 2011, they had plans on the table to strike Iran's nuclear program. | |
| So there's a reason why, with all this geopolitical stuff going on over the last four or five years, that there's been negotiations with Iran, that there were sanctions, and the negotiations were very important because it's a troubling, troubling issue. | |
| So, you know, when your viewers are watching the news networks and the mainstream news, they're getting the military analysts and the news pundits, and everybody's wanting to hear what they have to say because this is a troubling issue. | |
| They could certainly attack not only Israel, but they could attack America with an EMP if they have a nuclear weapon, electromagnetic pulse. | |
| They could attack parts of Europe, et cetera, with the intercontinental ballistic missiles they're developing as well, which are not affected by this deal that's been put on the table. | |
| They can still build those and develop those with this $150 billion that they're going to get. | |
| So things are still very dangerous over there. | |
| But what I like to do is say, well, does the Bible have a perspective that we can look at, something prophetic? | |
| And when it comes to Iran, it sure does. | |
| Iran actually has two prophecies dealing with them in the end times. | |
| They're clearly listed in Ezekiel 38, 5 as Persia. | |
| But a separate prophecy that we're going to talk about today and introduce your viewers to, Ezekiel wrote that, but his contemporary Jeremiah actually wrote about a decade before Ezekiel wrote his prophecy. | |
| He wrote about Elam. | |
| Now, where is Elam on a map versus Persia, that type of thing? | |
| We'll lay that out. | |
| A little brief history. | |
|
God's Plans for Elam
00:06:18
|
|
| Elam was the grandson of Noah, the son of Shem. | |
| He settled in the area by the Persian Gulf. | |
| So when you look on a map today of modern-day Iran, about one-fifth of it is Elam, and the other four-fifths is ancient Persia. | |
| And they're separated by this mountain range called the Zagros Mountains, and they've always served as a geographical barrier between Elam and Persia. | |
| Well, Elam right now is a very strategic area where you've got the Bashar nuclear reactor in there. | |
| It was Iran's crown jewel of its nuclear program. | |
| It was built 40 years ago, and it's a nuclear disaster waiting to happen. | |
| So as we get into the prophecy and look at the geopolitics of what's going on, we're liable to connect the dots and go, oh, my goodness, we're talking about a prophecy for now that is dealing with that area, that dangerous area over there, and it's a strategic target to be struck, and it's got all kinds of implications as we unfold this prophecy. | |
| So should we get into the prophecy at this point? | |
| Let's go. | |
| Let's give them the biblical perspective. | |
| Let's go. | |
| Okay. | |
| Well, it's only six verses. | |
| And in those six verses, seven times God says he will do something. | |
| And then he gives us what I call detail-added assertions in the book. | |
| In other words, well, what will he do? | |
| Well, fortunately, he tells us in the same sentence pretty much what he's going to do as he does something. | |
| Okay, so it begins in verse 34. | |
| It talks about this prophecy being issued in the early reign of King Zedekiah, which we look on our timetables and we see that would be about 596 B.C. Zedekiah was the last king of Judah. | |
| But what is going to happen there? | |
| It says that God is going to break the bow of Elam at the foremost of their might. | |
| So he will break the bow of Elam, verse 35, at the foremost of their might. | |
| And I'll come back and explain what that possibly means. | |
| And then once that bow is broken, in the next verse, he says, he will bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven and scatter those Elamites toward all those winds. | |
| There'll be no nations, plural, where this dispersion won't take place. | |
| So in other words, it won't be an isolated scattering. | |
| It'll be a worldwide dispersion. | |
| Other usage of that idiom with the four winds and the scattering is when the Jewish dispersion into the nations of the world. | |
| So we get a worldwide dispersion being mentioned there. | |
| Then he says, Iran, Elam will be dismayed, detail, before their enemies, plural. | |
| So at the time of the prophecy, we have to say, well, okay, Iran's going to have enemies. | |
| So we have to ask ourselves, does Iran have enemies today? | |
| We'll get into that. | |
| Then he says, I will bring disaster. | |
| And the detail is my fierce anger. | |
| Interesting. | |
| God is angry. | |
| That's why there's a disaster. | |
| And I'll tell you why I think that's now, and I'll tell you why I think he's angry in just a moment. | |
| He says, I will consume them with the sword. | |
| So that's the other thing. | |
| But then, those are four powerful verses that don't present very good news for Iran. | |
| The next two verses actually present really good news for Iran. | |
| And this is, to me, the bigger backstory, because you may not know this, but Iran is the number one growing evangelical population in the world right now, growing at a rate of 19.6% according to Operation World. | |
| Dreams, visions, miracles, and healings are taking place over there. | |
| Supernatural means. | |
| Because God knew in the end times, and this is why you find it in Joel 2, in the end times, one of the evangelistic items on the menu had to be not just eschatology and the good gospel about Jesus Christ, but God knew there'd be a time and place in certain areas where even missionaries couldn't get in or Jonah wouldn't even want to go. | |
| And he has to roll up his sleeves. | |
| And he has to do dreams and miracles. | |
| And when you see all these Iranians hear about their stories or the Syrians in the refugee camps, you find out that the common denominator amongst most of them is a dream or a vision or a healing. | |
| So we get into verse 38. | |
| We've gone through the first I wills. | |
| Verse 38 tells us that he will destroy from there the bad government, the bad leadership, the kings and the princes. | |
| And then he says something very interesting. | |
| I will set my throne in that area, in Elam. | |
| Interesting. | |
| What's that about? | |
| We'll get to that as well. | |
| But then he says, in the latter years, which is the tip off to this being a latter-day prophecy, same exact words used in Ezekiel 38, in the latter years. | |
| So we know these are latter years prophecies. | |
| He says, I will bring back the captives of Elam or restore the fortunes of them. | |
| Meaning that those dispersed Iranians will ultimately have a remnant that will be brought back into the Messianic kingdom. | |
| They will be restored back to that affected area. | |
| But that will be when Jesus comes and sets up his messianic kingdom. | |
| So what could he be talking about? | |
| In a nutshell, what we have to realize here is that there's going to come a time, Jeremiah was telling us 2,600 years ago, when the Lord was going to be infuriated with Iran. | |
| Absolutely, fiercely angry with them. | |
| And I believe as you look through history, you'll find that there was no time where all the details of this prophecy would have found fulfillment except right now. | |
| And the Lord is furious with Iran. | |
| And this is a really key point. | |
| Here we are, if this is true, if God is fiercely angry with Iran right now, and I'll tell you why, he's angry. | |
| Here we are trying to force a deal down with this Iran that the Lord is fiercely angry with. | |
| Now, Benjamin Netanyahu says, Prime Minister of Israel, this deal with Iran paves a pathway to a nuclear weapon. | |
| Our President Obama says it cuts off every pathway to a nuclear weapon. | |
| So we have one guy saying this and one guy saying that. | |
| Well, I'm telling you, if this prophecy is for our time, God is with this one, that this paves a pathway to a nuclear weapon, and that's a disaster, and he's not supporting this scenario over here that says there will be no nuclear weapon. | |
| Now, do you understand what that means for Americans? | |
| God is furious with Iran. | |
| He's got plans over there in the Middle East for his people Israel. | |