Christ is coming soon..

Today starts a skirmish, or an all out war in Lebanon.
 Nation Held Hostage ; Lebanon at War ; Start of the War?

Besides that this tiny country is on the far side of the world.  What does it have to do with me in the USA?  Or in Japan?  Or in China?  It has plenty to do with you!

Lebanon borders Israel to the north.  It is an enemy to Israel.  Unlike Christians, the teaching in many other cultures (including Judaism) encourages the notion of "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth".  All the problems in the middle east seem to have a common root in the hearts of the Muslim community, the Jews. 

Could the war spread to Israel?  Yes, it could.  The Christian community knows that a time of unrest, the Tribulation, will come soon.  The Jews suspect that the Messiah will come, unsuspecting that He already has come once 2000 years ago to die on a cross on Passover as a Solar Eclipse and and earthquake all marked the passing of Jesus from life to death.

And Joash king of Israel sent to Amaziah king of Judah, saying, "The thistle [pierced, Christian] that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar [prideful by stature] that was in Lebanon, saying, `Give your daughter [sinners] to my son [Jesus-savior] as wife' [Christian evangelizing]; and a wild beast [devil] that was in Lebanon passed by and trampled the thistle. (2 Chronicles 25:18)

Indeed Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon... (Ezekiel 31:3) a reference to the fathers of the current Arab nation.

Isaiah 41 discusses the judgment of Lebanon and how cedars (Assyrian, Arab, Muslims perhaps), will be left in the wilderness wondering and desolate without Him for missing the message of the coming Messiah.  How much worse, today, in the Muslim world where the Koran recognizes Jesus the Prophet but does not heed His Biblical words.  Knowing the Messiah has come and refusing to receive His message of hope, and comfort [Examine in text Isaiah 41: 28-29] is a self imposed fate of refusing God Himself.

Howl, fir tree; for the cedar [Lebanon] is fallen; because the mighty are spoiled: (Zechariah 11:2)

Today, we look at Zechariah 11:

[Declaration of the Fall of Lebanon]
1. Open your doors, O Lebanon, that fire may devour your cedars.
2. Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen, because the mighty trees are ruined. Wail, O oaks of Bashan, for the thick forest has come down.
[Fall of the leadership]
3. There is the sound of wailing shepherds! for their glory is in ruins. There is the sound of roaring lions! For the pride of the Jordan is in ruins.
[Fall of the people for lack of sympathy for each other]
4. Thus says the Lord my God, "Feed the flock for slaughter,
5. "whose owners slaughter them and feel no guilt; those who sell them say, `Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich'; and their shepherds do not pity them.
6. "For I will no longer pity the inhabitants of the land,'' says the Lord. "But indeed I will give everyone into his neighbor's hand and into the hand of his king. They shall attack the land, and I will not deliver them from their hand.''
7. So I fed the flock for slaughter, in particular the poor of the flock. I took for myself two staffs: the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bonds; and I fed the flock.
[ Fall of the church leadership ]
8. I dismissed the three shepherds in one month. My soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred me.
9. Then I said, "I will not feed you. Let what is dying die, and what is perishing perish. Let those that are left eat each other's flesh.''
[ Covenant with Isaac/Jews and Ishmael/Muslims ended ]
10. And I took my staff, Beauty, and cut it in two, that I might break the covenant which I had made with all the peoples.
11. So it was broken on that day. Thus the poor of the flock, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the Lord.
[ Final rejection of Jesus the Christ ]
12. Then I said to them, "If it is agreeable to you, give me my wages; and if not, refrain.'' So they weighed out for my wages thirty pieces of silver.
13. And the Lord said to me, "Throw it to the potter'' that princely price they set on me. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord for the potter.
[ True church/Judah not forgotten.  Secular Jews/Israel abandoned ]
14. Then I cut in two my other staff, Bonds, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
[True church given instruction to continue on...]
15. And the Lord said to me, "Next, take for yourself the implements of a foolish shepherd.
[Anti-Christ]
16. "For indeed I will raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for those who are cut off, nor seek the young, nor heal those that are broken, nor feed those that still stand. But he will eat the flesh of the fat and tear their hooves in pieces.
[Wound of the Anti-Christ that will herald him as "raised from the dead"]
17. Woe to the worthless shepherd, who leaves the flock! A sword shall be against his arm and against his right eye; his arm shall completely wither, and his right eye shall be totally blinded.

Could this be the beginning of the time of Tribulation?  Is God, in His prophetic time table, talking to this End Times world and giving us a message of what is to come?  Will you prepare your heart to NOT follow the ways of the anti-christ?

 And they that understand among the people [Believers] shall instruct many: yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days. (Daniel 11:33)

And such as do wickedly against the covenant [followers of anti-christ] shall he [anti-christ] corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God [Believers] shall be strong, and do exploits. (Daniel 11:32)

Are you prepared?  Who is your Lord and Savior.  Confirm your heart to Jesus Christ who died for your sins and has not abandoned nor forsaken us.

God loves you.

He is so merciful.