God’s prototype nation continues to point the way into prophesied, troubled times. Jesus said it would eventuate in the worst times of all human history (Luke 21: 25). Jeremiah the prophet called it the time of Jacob’s trouble (Jeremiah 30:7).

Just as the Lord’s dealing with His chosen people throughout millennia past, the cause for His dealing in the future with Israel revolves around the same problem: The people have forgotten Him. They depend upon strange gods–upon others—for their protection and salvation.

While Israel’s modern leadership recognizes only military power as central to the nation’s defense, they nonetheless seem to propose miraculous protective measures that almost mimic Old Testament acts of the God they no longer depend upon for their peace and safety.

The following news item is an interesting development in this regard. I think you will agree.

On Tuesday evening, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced that Israel will be fast-tracking the development of a laser defense system that will be used to defend against attacks from Gaza and Hezbollah. The lasers, using an autonomous detection and tracking system, will superheat drones and rockets which the developers claim will catch on fire within a few seconds. The system will supplement the Iron Dome that operates against short-range projectiles with the lasers concentrating on smaller projectiles.

The Defense Ministry said the laser uses a “highly advanced optical targeting system, with tracking capabilities and artificial intelligence” to locate a target “at highly precise levels of accuracy.”

Israel also uses David’s sling-and-arrow systems against long-range ballistic missiles.

“Within a year already the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) will bring into action a laser-based interception system, first experimentally, and later operationally, first in the south, then in other places,” he said in a speech at Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies. “And this will enable us, as the years advance, to surround Israel with a wall of lasers which will protect us from missiles, rockets, UAVs and other threats.”

The new laser-based system will drastically reduce the cost of defending against the frequent rocket attacks that target Israeli cities…. The Iron Dome systems deployed around Israel to protect its cities cost $50 million per battery and $100,000–150,000 per interception. Hamas fires low-tech missiles that are inexpensive and inaccurate. (“Wall of Lasers; A ‘Biblical Pillar of fire’ that protected Israelites from Egypt” by Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz, 2/2/22, Biblical News)

The story of the modern “miracle” continues, with one of Israel’s rabbis weighing in.

When he heard of the innovation, Rabbi Aryeh Weingarten was unsurprised.

“Innovations and inventions are simply the mind of Man reflecting the aspect of God that is in nature,” he said. “Bennett’s vision of a ‘wall of lasers’ is a reflection of the Biblical pillar of fire that accompanied the Children of Israel in their Exodus, protecting the Jews from Egyptian arrows.”

The Israel Bible described the pillar in a manner that modern missile defense systems would do well to emulate:

According to Rashi, the pillar of cloud that led the Jewish people in the desert during the day moved behind the camp, and obscured the Egyptians’ vision as they progressed in their bloodthirsty pursuit of the Jewish people. The cloud protected Israel as they fled and absorbed the arrows shot by the Egyptians at the fleeing nation. Today, the soldiers of the Israeli Defense Forces are a pillar of defense, shielding Israel from her enemies. May the God of Israel continue to protect His people through His modern-day pillar of defense, just as He did long ago. (Ibid.)

It might be easy to give God glory for protecting His chosen nation in providing this modern warfare capability. However, the nation as a whole–particularly Israeli governmental and military leaderships—has all but replaced the God of their salvation with their own efforts in producing “miracle” weaponry and defense systems. Sadly, the price will yet have to be paid for the nation’s usurpation of the miraculous power of Israel’s God.

The following is a stunning heavenly opinion of this chosen nation when it casts its God to the side.

“And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith. They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.

For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them. They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust. The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs.

I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men: Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely, and lest they should say, Our hand is high, and the LORD hath not done all this. For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them. O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!

How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up? For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges. For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter: Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps. Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures? To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste” (Deuteronomy 32:20-35).

This condemnation of Israel is what will bring on the Tribulation. God will call the nation back to Himself through great trouble–Jacob’s trouble. But a remnant will turn to their true Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, and God will restore His people and make them the head of all nations in the Millennial Kingdom.

Just imagine, based upon this condemnation of the fifth Book of Moses turned toward God’s chosen people, what awaits the Tribulation-world of earth dwellers, the rebels totally turned against Israel’s God!

You don’t want to be part of that world destined for God’s wrath and judgment. Here, once again, is how to become right with that God, who sent His Son to die for our redemption.

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10: 9-10).

My friend Dr. J. R. Church used to end every TV program in Prophecy In the News with the words: “Keep looking up!” He was referring, of course, to Jesus’ command in Luke 21:28:

“And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.”

While the Lord was, without question, talking about being vigilant in watching for all the conditions He said would be prevalent as His time to call His Church to Himself neared, and, indeed, was pointing to His Second Advent, it is perhaps less than a stretch to ask if He was doing one more thing. Was He also alluding to the prophetic signal He mentioned a few verses previous?

“And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars” (Luke 21: 25a).

It is a worthy question, considering recent developments. Strange things are going on in the heavenlies, with interest stirred almost weekly with new signs discovered in the region of the sun, moon and stars.

There is more than good reason to be concerned enough to “look up” with regard to signs in the heavens.

Our friend Dr. Thomas Horn of SkyWatch TV has presented a number of programs pointing to astronomical reports from scientists that predict an asteroid of earth-devastating size coming our way. The space rock the size of a stadium, termed Apophis, is on track to possibly impact the earth April 13, 2029. Horn has conjectured whether this could be the space object prophetically scheduled to crash into an ocean during the Tribulation. Such an impact would certainly cause great destruction and cause the death of millions.

More recently, scientists are changing their estimated trajectory predictions to say that this visitor from deep space might only be detrimental to satellites orbiting earth, thus disrupting the planet’s communications, etc.

This seems a ludicrous conclusion, considering an asteroid of such monumental size. I’m no astronomer or otherwise an expert, but something this big coming this close seems to me to be a cause of possible danger dwarfing the mere disruption of communication by knocking out a few satellites.

And signals from space continue to grab attention of scientists, who seem genuinely baffled. Here’s one story:

[Excerpt]

A team led by astronomers in Australia has discovered a brand-new type of object in deep space that behaves in bizarre and mysterious ways never seen before.

Something about 4,000 light-years away, which is relatively close in our cosmic neighborhood, was seen spinning around and regularly blasting out a massive burst of energy that lasted a full minute. Even weirder, that bright beam of radiation occurred like clockwork every 18 minutes.

“It was kind of spooky for an astronomer because there’s nothing known in the sky that does that,” astrophysicist Natasha Hurley-Walker said in a statement.

The behavior is similar to that of a pulsar or magnetar, which spin around as they blast out pulses of energy that can be detected here on Earth. But pulsars pulse very quickly, usually every few seconds. An object that sends out longer bursts just a few times an hour has never been seen before. (“Astronomers spy powerful deep-space object unlike anything seen before,” CNET, Rapture Ready News, 1/28/22)

Just as deep-space signals are ramping up interest by the scientists who say they are “spooked” by things they’re seeing, the whole UFO thing is being opened up by those in government who have always been desperate to put a cap on such information.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government is finally getting back into the UFO business.

And depending on which UFO believer you ask, it’s either a historic step forward to getting to the bottom of conspiracies or a ploy to regain control of the narrative — and possibly even prepare for interplanetary war.

The establishment of a new office, signed into law just before New Year’s, to study “unidentified aerial phenomenon” has divided the loose community of activists, researchers and pseudo-scientists who hunt for proof that we are not alone in the universe.

Some hail the legislation creating the new office, tucked into section 1683 of the massive National Defense Authorization Act, for bringing new resources, rigor and officialdom to the investigation of a phenomenon — and a potential national security threat — that has long been stigmatized in a way that makes it difficult to study. (“Historic step forward or cover-up plot? Pentagon’s new UFO office splits ufologists,” Alex Seitz-Wald, 1/8/22, Rapture Ready News, 1/28/22)

With all this “looking up” by scientists and government, there must be something up, so this generation should be “looking out.”

Just as the powers that be have set in motion the machinery of generating fear through the microbial world of virus pandemic, so, too, I’m of the cynical opinion, they are beginning to raise the fear factor in pointing us to things to come from somewhere above.

I’ve pointed before to the thought that the “great delusion” of 2 Thessalonians 2 might involve the lie that extraterrestrial visitors will come to rescue us from planetary disaster. These will, the lie will include, be called down from space by the false prophet. In actuality, it might well be that Satan and his evil hordes are being ejected from the heavenlies for the final time in the war they have lost with God’s angelic forces.

Regardless of how it all plays out, it is time for all believers to be looking up while “watching” all going on around us, for our redemption—our Lord and Savior—must certainly be drawing near!