Andy Walton’s
Weekly World Watch
ARIEL SHARON – SPECIAL REPORT
“If the watchman sees the sword coming and
does not blow the trumpet to warn the people
and the sword comes and takes the life of one
of them, that man will be taken away because
of his sin, but I will hold the watchman
accountable for his blood.”
(Ezekiel 33:6, New International Version)
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To skip the introductory slides and go straight to this weeks developments click here.
What is a Weekly World Watch?
The idea is simple. It is to look at current events and compare them to
events spoken of in the Bible. .
I hope to build up a picture of God’s hand working in the affairs of this world.
God is bringing about a day when all nations will be gathered to Jerusalem
to battle. At that time God will send His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, back to
this earth. Jesus will then establish God’s kingdom on earth.
This kingdom will last for ever. This is our hope and the reason we watch.
The following six themes will appear repeatedly in WWW:
• Israel: The continuing conflict in the Middle East and focus on Jerusalem.
• Europe: Its developing union, both political and religious.
• Russia: Its return to anti-Western ways as Bible prophecy’s “king of the
north.”
• The UK and the US: Bible prophecy’s “king of the south.”
• Moral standards in decline and violence on the increase.
• Increasing natural disasters: including earthquake, famine etc
WWW presentations in PowerPoint can be ordered as audio/visual CDs by clicking here.
Move your mouse to place the cursor on the blue link and click.
What is in a Weekly World Watch?
Each WWW looks at a few key developments that have happened during the
past week. It is in no way meant to be exhaustive – just a look at those events
I saw as significant from a Biblical point of view.
Every WWW event slide has the following format. To reveal each block of text
just left click your mouse or press the space bar. You control when it appears.
HEADLINE
This is straight from a news report that caught my
eye because it looked significant from a Biblical
perspective, usually that of prophecy.
The source of the headline and the date are included.
EVENT
News
Photo
This is the reporter’s description of the event. It is always a direct
quotation from the news report and reflects the understanding of the
reporter and editors.
This is my comment on why the event is interesting to a Bible student.
COMMENT The intention of the WWW is to offer brief Biblical perspectives without
going into detail. If more detail is desired, please e-mail me:
(andy@weeklyworldwatch.co.uk). Please note that these are personal
thoughts and the aim is purely to stimulate Bible study.
This is normally one verse which backs up why the event that has occurred
BIBLE
is interesting from a Biblical perspective. Please read in its context.
QUOTE
Unless stated otherwise, all quotes are from the King James Version.
(Book, chapter, and verse)
This Week’s Developments
ARIEL SHARON – SPECIAL REPORT
• 'King of Israel,' Ariel Sharon, Dead at 85
• Sharon causes religious crisis over Gaza plan
• Prime minister plans to draw 'the final shape of Israel'
• Israeli-Palestinian peace talks at crunch time
• The Rabbi, the Note and the Messiah
• Ariel Sharon’s death sparks prophecy bombshell
To print any of the event slides that follow, click the picture on the upper right
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'King of Israel,' Ariel Sharon, Dead at 85
NewsMax, January 11, 2014
EVENT
Ariel Sharon — the military hero and prime minister who was among the most
controversial figures in the history of Israel — has died, eight years after the massive
stroke that left him comatose. He was 85. He died Saturday at Sheba Medical Center in
Tel Hashomer, outside of Tel Aviv, where he has been cared for since January 2006.
Over his long career Sharon served as Israel's 11th prime minister, headed several
ministries including Defense, and rose to the rank of general in the Israeli army, seeing
action in all four of Israel's major wars. Reviled by Arabs over his hardline policies and
viewed with a mixture of respect and suspicion by many Israelis, Sharon had been on
life support at the hospital far from the public gaze.
COMMENT In this WWW we are going to look at the possible significance of the death of Ariel
Sharon. Ariel Sharon was born in Palestine (as it was then known) in 1928. He was a
platoon commander in the Israeli military at the outset of the 1948 War of
Independence. He headed Israel's most powerful armoured division as a major general
in the 1967 Six-Day War. In the 1973 Yom Kippur war Sharon’s bold manoeuvre in
crossing the Suez Canal and encircling the Egyptian army was considered the key to
Israel’s victory. It led to the Israeli public giving him the nickname “The king of Israel”
and “The Lion of God”. Crowds swarmed the streets in 1973 singing a revised Hebrew
song called “David – King of Israel” and changed it to “Ariel – King of Israel.”
During the 70’s and 80’s as Secretary for Agriculture he encouraged building on the
West Bank. Eventually he became the head of the Likud party. In 2001 he became
prime minister of Israel. Two years later he promised to create a Palestinian state….
BIBLE
QUOTE
Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even gather you from the people, and assemble
you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.
Ariel Sharon was instrumental in securing the whole land of Israel. His conquests in 1967 and
1973 ensured Israel’s survival in the land given to them by God. God was undoubtedly with him
in these victories. But in his old age Ariel Sharon trod a different path….
(Ezekiel 11:17)
Sharon causes religious crisis over Gaza plan
Daily Telegraph, August 15, 2005
EVENT
COMMENT
BIBLE
QUOTE
The decision by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to pull Israeli settlers out of the
Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank has shaken Israel's Orthodox Jewish
community to its foundations. Never before has an Israeli government relinquished
what the religious population universally regards as holy land, promised to the Jews
by God.
The move challenges core religious beliefs, leaving many Orthodox Jews - soldiers
among them - in spiritual turmoil and clamouring for guidance as to how to respond.
For the first time since the Jewish state was founded, Israel was voluntarily uprooting
its own people and preparing to transfer the land to the Palestinians. It was a turning
point for the Zionist project, when Israel admitted defeat in attempting to ensure a
Jewish majority across the whole of Eretz Yisrael, the land historically claimed by the
People of the Book. And who was the man behind this withdrawal? The Lion of God –
Ariel Sharon! What an amazing turn around. Sharon who had led Israel to such
amazing victories was now withdrawing from land given to Israel by God. We may ask
if Gaza is part of Israel that God had promised his people? Well we are told in Exodus
23 v 31 “I will set thy bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and
from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand;
and thou shalt drive them out before thee.” The sea of the Philistines = Gaza. The area
of the ancient Philistines WAS included in the land. Sharon sent in the soldiers who
physically pulled Jews out of the land (and parts of the West Bank). The picture above
shows soldiers weeping as they removed their own people. As Exodus 23 says it was
was God who drove out the inhabitants of the land. But now here was an Israeli leader
- the first in all history – to give away (voluntarily!) land given to the Jews by God....
Ought ye not to know that the LORD God of Israel gave the kingdom over Israel to David for ever,
even to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt?
Ariel Sharon should have known this – but it was about to get worse….
(2 Chronicles 13:5)
Prime minister plans to draw 'the final shape of Israel'
Daily Telegraph, November 27, 2005
EVENT
Sixty years after the state of Israel was created, Ariel Sharon is effectively
drawing its final borders, say his advisers, diplomats, friends … and the
cartographers. They believe that Mr Sharon, who as a general played a
leading role in the expansion of Israel's borders in successive wars since
1948, is now - as a politician - determined to set the country's hitherto elastic
frontiers in stone. What is more, judging by his track record and the way public opinion
is shifting, there is a real chance that he may succeed. In 2002, he ordered the
construction of the controversial barrier - an 18ft high combination of concrete wall and
chain fence that snakes through the West Bank. Over the summer his government
successfully oversaw the withdrawal of the thousands of Jewish settlers from Gaza.
COMMENT With the withdrawal of Gaza complete Sharon planned to complete the process by
finally dividing the land of Israel in two. And this is where is gets interesting…
All this is recorded in the Daily Telegraph…. At about 3pm on January 4 th 2006 a man
called Otniel Schneller was ushered into Ariel Sharon’s office. He was a senior
cartographer – known as the map maker. He had the final detailed plans for the future
borders of Israel. It detailed the withdrawal this time not of Gaza but of the vast majority
of the West Bank and some parts of Jerusalem. The meeting lasted 1 ½ hours – at the
end of it Sharon agreed the map would form the basis of Israel’s disengagement of the
West Bank and the creation of a Palestinian State. Two hours later Sharon suffered a
massive stroke and went into a coma. Coincidence? The coma lasted almost exactly 8
years. He died on Saturday 11th January 2014. Coincidence? Read on….
BIBLE
QUOTE
Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace;
and one built up a wall, and, lo, others daubed it with untempered morter:
Sharon promised peace. Sharon built a wall. Verse 13 tells us the wall will be destroyed by God.
(Ezekiel 13:10)
Israeli-Palestinian peace talks at crunch time
Washington Post, January 2, 2014
EVENT
The United States will help Israel and the Palestinians establish “fixed, defined
parameters” for a permanent peace deal, Secretary of State John F. Kerry said
Thursday, as troubled negotiations enter a new year and lurch toward a spring
deadline for an accord. Five months into the talks that he pushed both sides to begin
last summer, Kerry is stepping into a more direct role as mediator. The immediate goal
is an “agreed framework” to guide the final and most difficult phase of talks on how to
settle the decades-old conflict, he said. “This is not mission impossible,” Kerry said at
the outset of his 10th visit to Israel as the United States’ top diplomat. He arrived as
news spread that former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon is near death.
COMMENT So we are now back up to date. 8 years ago Ariel Sharon with huge public support was
pressing ahead to divide the land of Israel. 60% of the people in the land were in favour
of what he was doing. He was then struck down by a stroke and remained in a coma
for 8 years. Now look at the headline and article again in the Washington Post… Here
we are again 8 years later with exactly the same situation. America is pushing Israel to
establish “fixed, defined parameters (borders)” for a permanent peace deal. At the very
time Kerry arrives in Israel to persuade Israel to do this Sharon’s health takes a turn for
the worse. Just days later he is dead. Coincidence? NO. Surely God is warning those
who would divide His land of what happens to those who try. Sharon tried – he went
into a coma. 8 years later they try again – this time Sharon dies. Ariel Sharon’s name is
significant. Ariel is a name for Jerusalem. Sharon means “level” or a “field or plain”.
Jerusalem like a field or levelled. That is exactly what is to happen to Jerusalem when
the nations try to divide it. It will be levelled and ploughed and made like a field!!
BIBLE
QUOTE
yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon
us. Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps,
(Micah 3:12)
The Rabbi, the Note and the Messiah
Israel Today, April 7, 2007
A few months before he died, one of the nation’s most prominent rabbis, Yitzhak Kaduri,
wrote the name of the Messiah on a small note which he requested would remain
sealed until now. When the note was unsealed, it revealed what many have known for
centuries: Yehoshua, or Yeshua (Jesus), is the Messiah. A few months before Kaduri
died at the age of 108, he surprised his followers when he told them that he met the
Messiah. Kaduri gave a message in his synagogue on Yom Kippur, the Day of
Atonement, teaching how to recognize the Messiah. He also mentioned that the
Messiah would appear to Israel after Ariel Sharon’s death. (The former prime
minister is still in a coma after suffering a massive stroke more than a year ago.) Other
rabbis predict the same, including Rabbi Haim Cohen, kabbalist Nir Ben Artzi.
2005 while Sharon was at the height of his power and busy withdrawing from Gaza,
COMMENT In
Israel’s most loved and prominent Rabbi pronounced that the Messiah would return
AFTER the death of Ariel Sharon. Kaduri died just a few months after Sharon in 2006 at
the age of 108. Over 300,000 people attended his funeral. One year before his death
Kaduri wrote a note that he requested should only be opened one year after his own
death. In the note he revealed that the Messiah was in fact Jesus! All this was reported
in Israel Today. By the time the note was opened Ariel Sharon was in a coma. Now at
his death 8 years later many in Israel are asking whether the Messiah will come soon.
We mentioned on the previous slide about Ariel meaning Jerusalem. Ariel is mentioned
in this context in only one chapter in the Bible. Isaiah 29. It speaks of Ariel being the
city where David lived. It speaks of Jerusalem being bought down to the ground
(Leveled).
But amazingly it also speaks of the leaders falling into a deep sleep….
Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt!.... Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be
EVENT
BIBLE
QUOTE
heaviness and sorrow: and it shall be unto me as Ariel. …For the LORD hath poured out upon you
the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he
covered.
(Isaiah 29:1-2-10)
Ariel Sharon’s death sparks prophecy bombshell
WND, January 18, 2014
EVENT
The death of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon last week
has drawn attention to the prophecy of a venerated Jewish spiritual
leader. When Sharon was still in office, vibrant and in command of his faculties,
a venerated rabbi, who claimed he had met the Messiah, predicted the Messiah
would not come until after Sharon’s death. Rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri died shortly after
Sharon suffered a stroke that left him comatose in 2006. But before the beloved
Kaduri died, he wrote a cryptic note in which he named the Messiah with whom he
claimed to have had a mystical encounter. On the 108-year-old rabbi’s instructions,
the note was to be released a year after his death.
COMMENT We cannot know for certain what the Rabbi Kaduri saw or heard. We do know he said
that the Messiah would return after Sharon’s death. We do know in his note he
revealed Jesus to be the Messiah.
We also know one scriptural precedent for a significant death before worldwide
judgment. There has only ever been one worldwide judgment before. The next one is
coming soon. The first one was at the time of the flood. BEFORE the flood came a man
died. His name was Methuselah. His name means “his death shall bring judgment.”
He definitely died in the year the flood came and before the flood came. His own name
spelt out judgment was coming. Ariel Sharon might be a similar person. His own name
predicts what is coming. Judgment concerning Jerusalem. The leveling of Jerusalem.
Sharon who led Israel to capture the land became the leader who gave some of it away
and tried to divide it in two. He dies at the very time the world is pushing for division
again. Is all this pure chance? – or is God’s hand behind these things? – you decide….
BIBLE
QUOTE
the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. But by His word the present
heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of
ungodly men…God is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to
repentance.
(2 Peter 3:6-7)
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