 The
Unfinished Desert Storm
By Yvonne Lewerke, RIP
[Editor: Written shortly after Desert Storm,
this sounds as though Yvonne is with us and writing for today’s events!]
Some believe the age of miracles is past.
Such is not the case among Israeli Jews and believing Christians. Recall the
miracles of lives saved during the “scud” attacks against Israel by the
Iraqis. The “scuds” were not armed with poison gas because the wind was in
the wrong direction and would have blown back on Iraqi armies. Who can say
this was accidental and not of the Lord? During one of the first attacks,
CNN News showed several young teenage [Israeli] boys surveying the damage.
One of the boys looked heavenward and smiling exclaimed, “They can’t really
hurt us because He is looking after us.” So many miraculous events happened
during the Gulf War that Israelis were heard to earnestly question, “Do you
think we can stand another miracle this year?”
Among the many miracles of the Gulf War is
the fulfillment of many Biblical prophecies forecast thousands of years ago.
What started out to be Desert Shield became Desert Storm. The 83rd
Psalm describes this in detail. “So persecute them with Thy tempest, And
make them afraid with Thy storm . . .” Psalm 83:15: “To the
end that the Lord God of heaven may be honored.”
Desert Storm is not finished yet. When or
how is in the Lord’s hands. He is the Lord of history.
Is
Hell Beneath
Enlarging? (Isaiah 5:14)
In conjunction with the War, the Kuwaiti oil
fields were set on fire at the instigation of the diabolical Saddam Hussein,
(read modern Haman). This was also foretold in the time of Isaiah. “And
the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into
brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall not be
quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up forever: from
generation to generation it shall be waste; none shall pass through it for
ever and ever” (Isaiah 34:9-10).
In Biblical symbolism smoke is sometimes
likened to memory. The memory of the Kuwaiti fires will always remain. The
smoke of them reaches as far as Hawaii and who knows how long it will remain
in the upper atmosphere? And if war breaks out again the same fires may be
re-ignited.
In the Gulf War, the American public was
touched by the tragedy that befell Israel and appreciated the sacrifice
Israelis had made by holding their fire after the severest provocation.
Sympathy for Israel reached record levels. The Administration praised
Israel’s restraint.
How many years ago was that again?
Israelis’ memories are not so short. They
remember what is was like to huddle with their children in sealed rooms,
wearing gas masks and praying for an all-clear siren.
For most Americans, the Gulf War was a great
victory. Our troops came home and the threats to our interests seemed to be
erased. Israelis did not share that sense of security. Scud missiles more
precise than those that fell on Tel Aviv are on launchers less than 200
miles from Israel. They could be armed with chemical warheads. And they are
in the hands Syria’s dictator.
“Return,
Come”
After the war, Israel was in desperate need
of emergency assistance. On top of the cost of war, Israel was faced with
the challenge of absorbing hundreds of thousands of Soviet and Ethiopian
Jews.
Consider the miracle of the Soviet Jews
coming to Israel in great numbers despite the difficulties. Even the Gulf
War did not greatly diminish the number of returnees. The Lord has said,
“Fear not for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and
gather thee from the west; I will say to the north ‘Give up’; and to the
south, ‘Keep not back: bring my sons from far and my daughters from the ends
of the earth:’” (Isaiah 43:5-6).
He adds, “Therefore, behold the days come
saith the Lord, that it shall no more be said the Lord liveth, That brought
up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; But the Lord liveth,
That brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from
all the lands whither He had driven them: And I will bring them again into
their land that I gave unto their fathers” (Jeremiah 16:14-15).
In the last days of May, 1990, fourteen
thousand Jews from Ethiopia were flown into Israel in less than forty-eight
hours. Seven or eight babies were born on the way. “From beyond the
rivers of Ethiopia My suppliants, even the daughters of My dispersed, shall
bring Mine offering” (Zephaniah 3:10).
There have been many theories about the
origin of the Jews of Ethiopia. Some believe that they originated with the
Queen of Sheba upon her visit to King Solomon, bringing him great treasures
of gold and exotic gifts. “And she gave the King an hundred and twenty
talents of gold, and spices, very great store, and precious stones: there
came no more such abundance of spices as these which the queen of Sheba gave
to King Solomon” (I Kings 10:10).
What did King Solomon give to her? Did she
have need of more wealth? “And King Solomon gave unto the queen of Sheba
all her desire, whatsoever she asked, beside that which Solomon gave her of
his royal bounty. So she turned and went to her own country, she and her
servants” (I Kings 10:13). There are those that hold to the theory that
she had no heir to her throne and she wanted one who would be wise and with
all the attributes of King Solomon. “And King Solomon gave unto the queen
of Sheba all her desire, whatsoever she asked.”
It is claimed there were three hundred
thousand Ethiopian Jews until recent times. They have suffered hard times
and much persecution. “Behold, I will bring them from the north country,
and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and
the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together:
a great company shall return thither. They shall come with weeping, and with
supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of
waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father
to Israel . . .” (Jeremiah 31:8-9).
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