Dead Flowers

By Jim Fletcher Prophecy Matters And you can send me dead flowers every morningSend me dead flowers by the mailSend me dead flowers to my wedding, AndI won't forget to put roses on your graveMick Jagger and Keith Richards would not share the same worldview that I do. I remember an interview the Stones' front-man gave in the 60's, in which he was asked his religious preference. Mick answered that he was Christian by culture.Of course.But every so often, the duo would pen lyrics that fit a certain circumstance beautifully, and so today I submit a snippet of a song, "Dead Flowers," as a way to convey Israel's present position in the world. Notice what is written above.The song's protagonist is having difficulty with someone who hounds him, harasses him. But in the end, he has the last macabre laugh.These lines are a wonderful description of where Israel is today, with enemies past, present, and future. For millennia, evil rulers have declared that they would be the ones to wipe out any memory of the Jews from history. It is faith-building, actually, to look at photos of the various "tels" around the Middle East-those heaps of earth that have suffocated the remains of ancient civilizations.As Walker Percy so astutely noted, where are the Hittites today? We see Jews, but no Hittites.The same can be said for Assyrians, Babylonians, Romans, Greeks, Persians, etc. Truly, those enemies sent dead flowers to Israel continually; in the end, though, the Apple of God's Eye walks over and places roses on her enemies' graves.So it is today, with all the saber-rattling from terrorists, rogue regimes, and political bodies.Just this week, the international community announced that direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians might begin soon. European Union policy chief Catherine Ashton issued a statement announcing that the PA's Mahmoud Abbas - the Holocaust denier - might be willing to meet the Israelis. Abbas, Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, and Jordan's King Abdullah met in Cairo to discuss the possibilities.Allow me to go off on a tangent, but one that is relevant.Ashton is a British politician who was a driving force in the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, which has greatly strengthened the EU. Lisbon amended the Treaty on European Union (or, the Maastricht Treaty).My point is, neither the EU or individuals like Ashton have Israel's best interests at heart. Let's consider Ashton, and do some speculating.Growing up in present-day England, she is no doubt superficially religious; almost the entire country has turned its back on conservative Christianity. In fact, the continent is in danger of becoming a new conquest of Islam.I seriously doubt Ashton grew up with biblical teaching, so, for her and her friends, hammering-out an agreement between Israel and her sworn enemies makes perfect sense. At the moment Israel is dealing with an increased rocket threat from Hamas, and political forces are buttressing Hezbollah in the north, malevolent governments are putting withering pressure on the Jewish state.Ashton grew up in the shadow and soot of Darwinian philosophy, which loathed and loathes the Bible. It is not hard to see that such a philosophy of death would not believe the biblical prophecies to the Jews.Which brings me to a topic that is increasingly on my mind. In my book, It's the End of the World as We Know It, I wrote about an encounter with an Israeli weapons expert, a retired IDF officer. We discussed the passages in Zechariah (14) that seem to indicate a nuclear confrontation over Jerusalem.In my research, I've discovered a fascinating fact. In the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Egypt and Syria made almost lethal advances in the first 24 hours of the war. Moshe Dayan gave Golda Meir his famous assessment: "The Third Commonwealth [Temple] is in danger."He meant of course that Jewish sovereignty over the ancestral lands was about to come to an end, so serious was Israel's position in the war.Dayan made a recommendation to the cabinet that Israel employ tactical battlefield nukes! Thirteen of them were prepared, to be placed on Jericho missiles. Henry Kissinger warned Anwar Sadat that Israel was about to go nuclear. Had it not been for a massive American airlift to re-arm the Israelis, Zechariah's prophecies might have come to pass 37 years ago.Politically, Israel's position today is much more threatened. In many ways, the Jewish state faces more dangers than it has before. The Third Commonwealth is again threatened.Oh, the site of the Jericho missile batteries that autumn in 1973?A moshav (agricultural community) in central Israel named … Zechariah. Founded in 1950, before Israel's nuclear program commenced, the site was key in defending Israel and Jerusalem.At the end of the day, at the end of the age, Israel will place roses on the graves of her enemies, because her Defender watches.Let us not think that Zechariah's prophecies are metaphor or symbolic of something else, like (absurdly) the Church. Liberals see these passages for anything other than what they are.Those of us who love Israel do not make the same mistake. And so we watch and wait.