THE FIFTH EXILE AT THE END OF DAYS

Martin M. van Brauman

. . . when the earth was bewilderment and void, with darkness upon the surface of the deep, and the breath of God was hovering upon the surface of the waters . . . Genesis 1:2.

 From the second verse of the creation story, there is an allusion to exile and redemption.  There appears a connection between a dark and incomplete stage of creation and the concept of exile and redemption.  The allusion is to the four future exiles of the Jewish people scattered to the four corners of the earth until the Messianic period.  “Bewilderment” refers to the Babylonian exile (423-371 BCE).  “Void” refers to the Median exile (371-356 BCE, Darius the Mede and Cyrus the Great of Persia) and the “darkness” represents the Greek exile (318-138 BCE).  “The surface of the deep” is the fourth exile of Rome (70 CE, destruction of the Second Temple), which is in the last stages as the world witnesses the rebirth of Israel and Jerusalem by the ingathering of the Jewish people and their redemption of the Land.  The “the breath of God” refers to the Messianic period at the End of Days.  The first four exiles have occurred and we are witnessing the ending of the fourth exile of Rome by the ingathering.

 It shall be on that day that the Lord will once again show His hand, to acquire the remnant of His people, who will have remained, from Assyria and from Egypt and from Pathros and from Cush and from Elam and from Shinar and from Hamath and from the islands of the sea. He will raise a banner for the nations and assemble the castaways of Israel; and He will gather in the dispersed ones of Judah from the four corners of the earth. Isaiah 11:11-12. 

 The Fifth exile is when the descendants of Ishmael will go up at that time [End of Days] with the nations of the world against Jerusalem. Zohar 1:119a. Today, we are witnessing a foreshadowing of the barbaric destruction that will be waged by the descendants of Ishmael against the descendants of Isaac.

Behold, I am against you Gog, the prince, leader of Meshesh and Tubal. I will lead you astray, and I will place hooks into your cheeks and bring you out with your entire army, horses and riders, all of them clothed in splendor, a vast assembly with buckler and shield, all of them wielding swords.  Persia, Cush, and Put will be with them, all of them with shield and helmet; Gomer and all her cohorts, the house of Togarmah in the uttermost parts of the north, and all its cohorts – many peoples will be with you. . . You will be repaid for [your sins] of ancient times; in the end of years you will come to a land restored from the sword, gathered from many nations, upon the mountains of Israel that had lain desolate continuously, [to people] who had been brought out from the nations, all of them dwelling in security [the ingathering of the Jewish Diaspora only recently has resettled the Land in an island of security].  You will attack; like a storm you will come; you will be like a cloud covering the earth, you and all your cohorts and the many nations with you . . . You will say, ‘I will advance against a land of open towns, I will come up against the tranquil people who dwell securely, all of them living without a [protective] wall; they have neither bars nor doors’ – to seize booty and to take spoils, to turn your hand against resettled ruins, against a people gathered from the nations, which possesses livestock and property, who dwell upon the navel of the earth [Israel is considered the navel, the center of the world] . . .

 . . . on that day that Gog comes against the soil of Israel . . . My raging anger will flare up . . . I will punish . . . and I will make Myself known before the eyes of many nations; then they will know that I am the Lord. Ezekiel 38:3-23.   

 During the Rome exile, Christian Europe persecuted the Jewish people and drove them from country to country, while in Muslim countries there were peaceful co-existences in second-class status. The culmination of centuries of European persecutions drove the Jewish communities to near extinction with the Holocaust.

The Wandering Jew Comes to the Wall

Passing between the stumbling generations

of nations on the heel of nations,

the Jew came to the place of Lamentations.

On the Twelve Tribes by the Wall of Tears

death drifted, veiling

the crippled captives of the stolen years

with his shadow falling.

With naked hands they tore the granite,

and the centuries with them

echoed their sorrow, murmuring in it,

“O lost Jerusalem.”[1]

 The hatred of anti-Semitism has now moved from the Christian communities to the Muslim communities with the vengeance of Satan against God’s ancient people.  As the world moves from the Fourth Exile to the coming Fifth Exile, the persecutor is changing with the evangelical Christian communities around the world supporting Israel and the Jewish communities. Unfortunately, the mainline churches still spread replacement theology and mask their anti-Semitism behind their hatred for Israel.  The continued existence of the eternal Jewish people and the rebirth of Israel and Jerusalem after 2,000 years of the Rome exile prove without doubt the very existence of God, who the world hates.

Daniel through God’s revelation informed Nebuchadnezzar of the king’s dream about the huge statue with a head of gold (the first kingdom Babylonia), breast and arms of silver (the second kingdom of the Persians and Medes), its belly and thighs of copper (the third kingdom of the Greek empire of Alexander the Great), its legs of iron and its feet partly of iron and earthenware (the fourth kingdom of Rome). The lands of the Roman Empire came to be dominated by Edom and Ishmael, represented by Christianity and Islam. During the fourth exile or fourth kingdom, Christianity was strong as iron and Islam was weak as pottery.

The fourth kingdom will be as strong as iron: Just as iron crumbles and flattens everything, and as iron shatters all these, it will crumble and shatter. The feet and toes that you saw, partly of potter’s earthenware and partly of iron: It will be a divided kingdom and will have some of the firmness of iron, just as you saw iron mixed with clay-like earthenware.  As for the toes, partly of iron and partly of earthenware: Part of the kingdom will be powerful and part of it will be broken.  Daniel 2:40-42.

 In the King’s dream of the End of Days, Daniel tells of “a stone was hewn without hands and struck the statue on its feet of iron and earthenware, and crumbled them . . . They became like chaff . . . and the wind carried them away and no trace was found of them.  And the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the entire earth.” Daniel 2:34-35.

The final battle will be with Ishmael during the Fifth Islamic Exile when God’s “stone” will strike the “ten toes” of Nebuchadnezzar’s statue.  We are witnessing the beginning of a war that will be waged against the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The Land of Israel is the “navel” of the Middle East and of the world. Ezekiel 38:12.  The Ishmaelites shall become the “ten toes” of the Nebuchadnezzar’s statute that was made of iron and ceramic clay in the End of Days. Daniel 2:42