As of 2004, the national dividing wall being constructed by Israel is being put in place in the historical city of Jerusalem. Many believe this wall is destined to become a unilaterally declared border by Israel which will define and subsequently isolate a permanent Palestinian territory.
The global concern over this wall as it progresses has taken on such dangerous dimensions that Israel was called upon to defend its construction and legality in February, 2004, before the International Court of Justice ("Relief - more grief - grip Israel," Colo. Spgs., Gazette, 1/30/04). Israel declined to attend.
The significance of this wall in Bible prophecy and its placement in the time of the last days has led us to review our 2002 Rapture Watch message titled, "Looking over the Walls of Fear & Glory."
The Old Testament prophet Ezekiel had some fascinating insights to share with this present generation about walls.
In Ch. 38:11 of the book that bears his name, Ezekiel prophesied about the day when Israel would be a land of unwalled villages. It is to be during that time of lowered defenses when Magog (that is Russia) will lead an invasion against Israel according to the prophetic narrative found in Chapters 38 & 39 of Ezekiel. (For greater details on Russia's role in these last days, please review our Rapture Watch message, "The Scythians Victory & Defeats").
As we have made note of in the past, the specific mention that Israel will be dwelling in unfortified cities is a major key to unlocking the time line for when this Russian invasion will take place.
Quoting verses 10 & 11 of Ezek. 38 we read, "Thus says the Lord God: "On that day it shall come to pass that thoughts will arise in your mind, and you will make an evil plan: "You will say, ‘I will go up against a land of unwalled villages; I will go to a peaceful people, who dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates."
Through the process of elimination the time frame for the Russian assault can be satisfactorily determined in our estimation.
It first can be proven by Scripture that this invasion cannot take place during the final 3 ½ years of the 7-year Tribulation Period.
It takes no more than a casual reading of the Book of Revelation to find proof that Israel will not be dwelling safely during that time. Israel's fearful suffering under the attacks of Satan and the forces of the Anti-Christ will be beyond comparison to any other time in history during those final years which Jesus described as "Great Tribulation" in Matthew 24:21.
One can also just as easily eliminate our present day before the Rapture of the Church to Heaven and the start of the final 7 years for the time of this Russian invasion.
Again, it would be naive for anyone to suggest that Israel is currently dwelling safely in unfortified cities. It is essential that a decisive Israeli victory over the surrounding Muslim nations take place before such a time of tangible peace can come into existence.
Even a short-lived peace could never be established in the present climate of confident Arab hostility towards the Jews, and a Muslim victory would mean the death of Israel.
In verse 11 of Ezek. 38, God repeatedly made mention of the fact that Israel will be dwelling without walls at the time of the Russian invasion. This is a far cry from the situation in Israel back in 2002 when construction of a 215-mile anti-terrorist wall began at a cost of $1.6 million per mile.
Quoting from a July 5, ‘02 Denver Post article which headlined, "Israel's ‘bombproof' wall rising rapidly" we read, "On a leisurely morning in a sun-splashed square, Israelis sip Starbucks coffee under giant green umbrellas. Barely 2 miles away, the entire Palestinian town of Qalqiliya is under curfew as Israeli soldiers patrol the silent streets.
Between these two worlds, a construction crane groans as it hoists another giant slab of concrete into place, part of the 30-foot-high wall that is rapidly formalizing the separation.
After 71 Palestinian suicide bombings in less than two years, Israel is attempting to make itself bombproof with an impregnable barrier between itself and the West Bank.
"Before all the trouble, we didn't need a fence," said Ziva Schmidt, a resident of Kfar Saba. "I thought there could be a peaceful solution. I used to go shopping in the Palestinian areas, and I felt safe."
Before the violence that erupted in September 2000, you could easily drive between Israel and the West Bank, often without realizing it. The dividing line was marked on road maps, but rarely on the roads themselves. Once the barrier of walls and fences began, there was no mistaking which side was which.
Israel intends the wall eventually to cover the entire length of the West Bank, a distance of abut 215 miles. But the job, expected to cost at least $350 million, was estimated to take a couple of years, and the main focus was on the two most vulnerable patches - the northern West Bank and Jerusalem.
A Palestinian attacker leaving Qalqiliya by car could reach the center of Kfar Saba in less than five minutes, or just walk there across the farm fields.
As construction workers put the two story concrete barriers in place, they are shadowed by Israeli troops and security guards, lest any Palestinians take aim from nearby homes. Similar walls are going up outside other Israeli towns close enough to the border to be targeted by Palestinians gunfire.
Much of the barrier runs alongside empty spaces and consist of an electronic fence with sensors monitored in a control room, said Izhar Dekel, general manager of Magal Security Systems. The company's systems are in place along 95 percent of Israel's frontiers.
Perhaps its best advertisement is its fence along the Gaza Strip. Although Gaza is a center of Islamic militancy, no suicide bomber has come from there.
Still, Palestinian attackers have found inventive ways to enter Israel, including hang gliders. In March of 2002, a pair of gunmen infiltrated the fenced -off Lebanese border and shot six people to death. It later emerged that they went over the fence using a ladder and chute and avoided touching it and triggering alarms.
Dan Schueftan, an Israeli professor, predicts Palestinians will try hard to show they can get through the barrier.
Still, "the positive elements of the fence far overshadow the negative ones," said Schueftan, author of the book "Disengagement," which argues that Israel should take unilateral steps to separate itself from the Palestinians.
Construction of the 215-mile barrier began in June of 2002. The first section stretched about 70 miles, from outside the West Bank city of Jenin to a point northeast of Tel Aviv. Another 30-mile fence will eventually cut Jerusalem off from the West Bank.
With the ongoing construction of the walls of Israel, we are left with only one other option for the time period when Russia will invade Israel. This time must be during the first 3 ½ years of the Tribulation Period after the confirming of the 7-year covenant by the Anti-Christ as is prophesied in Daniel 9:27. Only then could Israel be experiencing the time of peace and safety that is to be so readily in evidence when Russia attacks.
In Ezek. 38:14-15 God says to the leader of Russia for that time, "...In that day when My people Israel dwell safely, will you not know it? "Then you will come from your place out of the far north you and many peoples with you..."
Of that awesome day God declarers in Ezek. 38:20, "...every wall shall fall to the ground." Israel will have previously taken down her walls in foolish trust of men. God will in turn bring down the walls of all who aroused His fury.
It seems reasonable to assume that it will be immediately after the 7-year covenant brings an authoritative illusion of lasting peace to the region that the defensive walls of Israel will be dismantled as a gesture and commitment to the conditions laid out.
In a dovetail of Scripture, Russia and its allies will then take advantage of Israel's lowered guard at some time during the first 3 ½ years of this covenant, before the Anti-Christ exchanges his cloak of friendship with Israel for an armor of betrayal and death. At first the Anti-Christ will appear as a savior of Israel, then a monster.
After the Anti-Christ fulfills his reign of terror during the remaining 3 ½ years of the broken 7 year covenant, Jesus Christ and His glorified saints will return to bring true peace to Israel and the world (Zech. 14:3-11).
We are told in Isaiah 9:7, "Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end..."
Ezekiel tells us that once more a great wall will be found in Israel after the return of Christ, but it will not be a wall where the elect will hide behind. It will be a monumental wall of glory and triumph which will define the earthly temple of the Lord.
The functional splendor of this wall is revealed to the curious in Chapters 40 & 41 of the Book of Ezekiel. In verses 6-7 of Ch. 41 God tells us through Ezekiel, "The side chambers were in three stories, one above the other, thirty chambers in each story; they rested on ledges which were for the side chambers all around, that they might be supported, but not fastened to the wall of the temple. As one went up from story to story, the side chambers became wider all around, because their supporting ledges in the wall of the temple ascended like steps; therefore the width of the structure increased as one went up from the lowest story to the highest by way of the middle one." As a believer in Jesus Christ, whose citizenship is in Heaven (Phil. 3:20 - NKJV), no message about walls would be considered adequate without sharing the vision that the Apostle John had of the wall that surrounds the "heavenly Jerusalem."
In the Book of Revelation Ch. 21:12 we are first told of this great, high wall where twelve angels are stationed at its twelve gates. Verses 18-21 then reveal that, "...the construction of its wall was of jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. And the foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones...And the twelve gates were twelve pearls: each individual gate was of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass."
Our hearts go out to those who have not been born again by the Spirit of God and can only regard the wall of heavenly Jerusalem with visions of disillusionment and the doubt filled railings of an unredeemed spirit.
The boundless, eternal glory which awaits every person who has put their belief in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins can confidently be glimpsed inwardly at any time on the wings of heavenly bought hope. The promises are unwavering, the places are real and faith in these truths will bring forth everlasting freedom in the now and then.
This very moment, if you can give your heart in complete faith, you can have every sin forgiven and washed away by the atoning blood of Jesus Christ. He died on the cross and rose again so that He now sits at the right hand of His Father ready to make intercession for anyone who calls on His name.
For those who have faith, it is written of them about the once impregnable wall that separated man from God, "But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been made near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of division between us, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one spirit to the Father" (Eph. 2:13-18).