Oy Vey…Is It That Time Again?

How many times a day are asking the question, “What time is it?”

Time is like a slippery eel. It’s hard to grab hold of. Time is like a rare commodity where there just isn’t enough of it. Time is a dimension that can boggle the mind. Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein wrestled with the concept of time. Perhaps we can borrow from Churchill and identify time as “…a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma…”¹

Time hems us in all matters of earthly life which makes heaven even more desirable since it is outside of time.

Today, we woke up to a specific time promised us in the Bible in Ecclesiastes 3:8b A time for war and a time for peace. These two cycles of a fallen world define human history. A time for war captures heroisms and horrors of unprecedented proportions. And we give pause to wonder why it is that we have to endue this kind of time.

This time it is that time with the Islamic Republic of Iran as our current host enemy. Why Iran this time around? We need only to look back 47 years ago to February 1979 when the clock was set. A revolution was brewing in that country against the leader, the Shah of Iran. The U.S. put him power in 1941. As such, Iran was favorable to the west, even though the Shah wasn’t real solid on human rights. Conversely, President Jimmy Carter was all about human rights to a fault because his geo-political thinking was blurred.

The CIA was asleep at the wheel and misjudged the momentum of the revolution. The Shah was deposed and came down with cancer. We took him into our country for medical treatments which angered the revolutionaries. So did the fact that we froze Iranian assets. In November of that year, Iranians took 52 American hostages. Those poor souls would be held captive against their will for 444 long days and nights.

Things went from bad to worse as President Carter sent a rescue team under the moniker Operation Eagle Claw. Tragically some of our rescue helicopters and a transport plane crashed in the desert killing 8 of our servicemen. The mission was complete failure.

The loss of a western friendly Iran is very arguably the greatest single foreign policy disaster in the history of our nation. Iran has been responsible for terrorist bloodshed, murder, mayhem, and destabilization around the globe ever since.

Fast-forward (when we look at history, we can cheat time by going back and forth instantly) to today. A joint U.S. and Israel operation attacked Iran in the daylight hours this morning. The Iranian response, in turn, was directed at several other Arabic nations. They almost always stayed on the sidelines when we, and or Israel, would mix it up in the Middle East. This time Iran has angered them such they will no doubt enter the fray. It will be Shia (Iran) vs Sunni’s.

Biblically, this is a very interesting time. Jermiah 49:34-39 describes a future prophecy of Elam which is modern day Iran. We read in VV35-37:
³⁵ “Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘Behold, I am going to break the bow of Elam, The finest of their might.
³⁶ ‘I will bring upon Elam the four winds From the four ends of heaven, And will scatter them to all these winds; And there will be no nation To which the outcasts of Elam will not go.
³⁷ ‘So I will shatter Elam before their enemies And before those who seek their lives; And I will bring calamity upon them, Even My fierce anger,’ declares the Lord, ‘And I will send out the sword after them Until I have consumed them.

This could be the fulfillment of this prophecy or a partial. The phrasing of the four winds means the enemies will come from all directions. Iran has teed it up for that to happen.

Amid the folly of war, we often seek some ray of hope. Well, here it is for Iran in Jeremiah 49:39 ‘But it will come about in the last days That I will restore the fortunes of Elam,’”
Declares the Lord.

In the meantime, let us pray for our men and women uniform who have answered the call of the nation-prepared to give the last full measure. And let us pray for “a time for peace”.

¹Churchill on a 1939 radio broadcast about Russia, “I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key.”

NASB ‘95.