======================================================================== ISRAEL, WHAT NEXT？ by Keith Malcomson ======================================================================== Summary: This sermon delves into the current events surrounding Israel, highlighting the prophetic significance of the situation in light of the Bible, particularly focusing on Ezekiel 38. It emphasizes the importance of knowledge, prayer, and wisdom for the church in responding to the ongoing conflict, urging believers to pray for all involved, seek God's intervention, and approach the situation with discernment and understanding. Topics: "Prophetic Significance", "Prayer and Discernment" Scripture References: 1 Timothy 2:1, Romans 13:1, Matthew 5:44, James 1:5, Proverbs 2:6, Ephesians 6:18, 1 Thessalonians 5:17, Psalm 122:6, 1 Peter 3:15 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This sermon delves into the current events surrounding Israel, highlighting the prophetic significance of the situation in light of the Bible, particularly focusing on Ezekiel 38. It emphasizes the importance of knowledge, prayer, and wisdom for the church in responding to the ongoing conflict, urging believers to pray for all involved, seek God's intervention, and approach the situation with discernment and understanding. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I would like you and your Bibles to turn to Ezekiel chapter 38. Ezekiel 38 in the Old Testament. And I'm just stopping for a moment on our series on the Antioch Church. And I'm so eager to preach on the Antioch Church tonight, but it would be wrong for me in the light of world events with Israel, with the nations, with what's happening in the Middle East. I just can't do that. I want to preach a contemporary message. And by that, I don't mean compromise. By contemporary, I mean what is happening right now in the light of our Bibles. And so I want you to go to Ezekiel chapter 38, reading from verse 1. And you listen very carefully. This is my message tonight. Israel, what next? You see, I believe our Bible is so up to date. It's way past up to date. This book not only tells you how to be born again, how to walk with God. It actually tells you what will be in the newspapers tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, in the next decade. It gives exact details, accurate details in such a way that only God could know this. Only God. And I believe what we're dealing with tonight, we've dealt with it many times, but we're dealing with it just from a different angle. We're getting closer. I believe everything is getting lined up. And so our message, Israel, what next? Reading from Ezekiel 38, verse 1. And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face against God, the land of Magog, and the chief prince of Meshach and Tobel, and prophesy against them, and say, Thus saith the Lord God, behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshach and Tobel, and I will turn thee back and put hooks in thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armor, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords. Notice it names nations here. This is a prophecy given 2,600 years ago. It's never happened, never been fulfilled in world history. Persia, that's Iran. Ethiopia, that's Sudan. Libya, it's the same name. With all of them with shield and helmet, Gomer and all the bands, the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands and many people with thee. Be thou prepared and prepare for thyself, thou and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them. After many days thou shalt be visited. In the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, that is gathered out of many people against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste, but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely, all of them. Thou shalt ascend, come like a storm. Thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou and all the bands and many people with thee. Thus saith the Lord God. It shall also come to pass that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought, and thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages. I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates, to take a spoil and to take a prey, to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods that dwell in the midst of the land. Notice this verse. This is my verse here tonight, verse 13. Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? Hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey, to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil? Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto God, Thus saith the Lord God. In that day, when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt not know it. Let's pray. Father, we do thank you for your word. It is a book of prophecy, but for this one reason, that it might reveal the Lord Jesus Christ down on the cross. You speak of nations, you speak of judgments, you speak of wars, you speak of bloodshed, you speak of hostilities. Lord God, all of these things you've inspired of the Holy Spirit, who in this prophecy 2,600 years ago knew nations, where they would be, how they would be aligned. Even right now, you know in the days to come what's about to happen, how nations are about to change and align and cement themselves together against your chosen physical people, Israel. Lord God, for this one reason, that we might know that you are God, that this isn't an ordinary book filled with stories and fairy tales and myths, but Lord God, it's a very accurate book. Yet, this is only one simple, short prophecy amongst thousands upon thousands concerning kings and nations, concerning generations and events. Lord God, we bow the knee knowing that you're a God of prophecy, you're a God of detail, you're a sovereign God of the nations who knows all things and knows all individuals. And Lord God, we submit to you tonight and ask, oh God, that even in this hour that our hearts wouldn't be afraid, that we wouldn't be disturbed in this hour, but that we would function as the church, even as we see Israel and the nations and many voices and many opinions of world media centering on this little nation. Lord God, we pray again that we would be confirmed and established and settled, known that our God, the God of the Bible, the God of the Lord Jesus Christ who died on the cross is Lord of all, in control of all. We bless you and love you and worship you. And even tonight, Lord God, help us to love you all the more in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. I've got so many scriptures I want to bring to you, but I want to start here. I don't know if this is a one-off message. If I do two, three messages or 20, I haven't got a clue, but I do know I can't ignore what is happening that is set before every person across our world at this time. It is remarkable. I have preached from this verse and this chapter many times. I have dealt with it in different ways. I have laid out and named the nations for you. I have explained and proved from history, secular history, from maps and from the Bible, who they are. I'm not going to do that tonight apart from one nation. You see, I've already proved in other messages, and you can go back and listen again, how Magog mentioned in this chapter, God of Magog, it's talking about a nation that one day will invade Israel. There is no doubt, no question, no other possibility that Magog in Ezekiel 38 is Russia. It isn't any other nation. It is Russia. It's not Turkey. It's Russia because Meshach, Tobol and Gomorrah are Turkey. It names three regions of one nation because it's so important. So the first nation it mentions is Russia. It's talking about a war, an invasion of the nation of Israel that's never happened in history, but it is shortly. And I don't know what I mean by shortly, but I mean shortly. If I continue my days and live to 70, I will see it. I'm fully persuaded of that. And so it begins to explain that Magog is going to have a great general who's going to be in charge of the armies of Turkey. And then who else is mentioned in this alignment? The third nation mentioned is Persia, which is the ancient name for Iran. It was only at last century that Iran changed its name from Persia. All through millennia, it was called Persia, as it is in our Bible. And so you begin to see named nations in detail. Don't go to Psalm 83. Don't get distracted with that. And I don't mean tonight. I mean in your thinking and understanding. That is not the prophecy of the hour. In fact, it's not a prophecy. It's a psalm. It's a song. It's not predictive. It's just stating things. This is a prophecy. And so it shows the alignment of Russia, Turkey, and Iran. And you know, we preached on this in this church when we were preaching on Jerusalem and Bible prophecy. That has never happened in world history until several years ago, just a few short years ago. And we preached at the time. Russia, Turkey, and Iran never aligned until a few years ago, during us having the church here. Never once before. It was the first time. And that has increased and deepened and strengthened. And those three nations have joined together. And what this chapter says is about a further alignment. Ethiopia is going to join them. That's the present day country of Sudan. It says Libya also. It's not in a fit state just to do that yet. There's Algeria, Armenia, which is to go more. And so you see an alignment of these nations, but not only them, we are told of many other peoples, not of actual nations, but of groups of armies that are all going to happen. And this great Muslim army is going to be led by the nation of Russia to go down and invade Israel. It's going to happen. It's never happened in world history, and yet it is going to happen. But I'm not dealing with that. I've dealt with that elsewhere in other messages. And you can go and hear those messages clearly. We have laid it out very clearly. But I want to deal with Ezekiel 38, verse 13. And there's something I want to point out to you. It's just a very simple point. You see, all of this is yet to happen. It's going to be in the future. And yet we know things still have to be aligned. This war isn't going to happen tomorrow. This is not going to escalate over the next week or the next month into Ezekiel's war. I do not believe that's going to happen. But I believe this war is absolutely vital, intrinsic. Some people said a year and a half ago when Russia suddenly invaded Ukraine, lots of people started to say, this is it. It's going to lead to Ezekiel's war. I said, not a chance. It's not going to happen. It's going the wrong way. It won't lead in that direction. It won't even align anyone in the right direction. But do you know what's happening at the minute? I believe the devil knows what the word of God says. I believe something was just about to take place that would have aligned things to fulfill this prophecy. And what has just happened on last Saturday actually came to stop that. It was a hindrance to it. I'm going to show you that, how that is. Look at Ezekiel 38 verse 13. It talks about the opposition. So I've talked about the nations that are going to join together militarily. All the nations armed there that you're told of, you're told that Magog arms them. Do you know I've gone through and researched all those nations. Russia is the primary armor of all these nations in our day, in our generation. Over the past 20 years, Russia has armed these different nations, supported them, stood with them against Israel. It is creating something. And now what do you have in our world over the past two years like never before since the Cold War? You've got Western nations, listen carefully, Western nations aligning themselves against Russia. You have Australia and Canada and America and Britain and Europe all aligning themselves against Russia like never before since the Cold War. You have something lining up. But listen, in verse 13, it talks about those who speak against Russia's invasion of Israel aligned with Turkey, aligned with Iran and these other countries. So you have the opposition to this invasion of Israel. Who is it? Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish with all the young lions thereof shall say unto thee, art thou come to take a spoil? And thou gather thy company to take a prey, to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil. This invasion led by Russia, Turkey, Iran is going to happen so quickly, no other nation will be able to intervene. But they do speak against it. We have dealt with this before. Who are the merchants of Tarshish? Tarshish is ancient Britain. That little tiny nation that used to trade with Israel 3,000 years ago, that's who Tarshish is. The Tin Isle. Ireland was included in it. They were called the Tin Isles. And Israel traded 3,000 years ago. Yet 2,600 years ago, Ezekiel prophesied that Tarshish here is going to have many merchants, businessmen, traders. Look at it. Who's going to stand against this invasion? The merchants of Tarshish, the businessmen that are connected to Britain. But it goes further with all the young lions thereof. And we dealt with an entire message on this. The young lions are nations connected to Britain that arise. She is the lion. The little lions or the young lions are young lions that have been raised up. They weren't always nations. Australia, as we know, it wasn't always a nation like it is. Neither was Canada. Neither was America. Neither were the Western nations. But there are young lions that have arisen that are aligned with Tarshish or Britain in this point in history. They're actually going to speak out against this. Who do I think all of these are? I believe it is Britain. Remember how Britain had a worldwide empire covering a quarter of the earth? The biggest empire in world history. How could Ezekiel have known that 2,600 years ago? That Tarshish, the little tin trading isle, would arise, raise up lions, and become one of the great forces to speak against an invasion. This little tiny island way out on the west of all known nations, and yet the Bible speaks about it. I believe today this includes the Western Europe. I believe it includes the British Commonwealth, which is a ginormous organization, a family of nations, or as they've been known in history, of young lions. That's what they're known in history. And so you have this. By the way, I don't believe in British Israel, just in case anyone gets worried. We're not the lost tribes of Israel. That is wrong. Heresy is false. It's unbiblical. No tribes of Israel got lost. Just read your New Testament. You'll find, was Peter right to the scattered tribes? He knew exactly where they were. They weren't lost. He knew he could write letters to them, so they were not lost. So I've dealt with all of this before, but now let me bring you to my message. Who are the first ones mentioned in the list? If Magog is mentioned first as the invasion force, that means that Sheba and Dedan are more important than Tarshish and her young lions in speaking out against an invasion of Israel. Who are Sheba and Dedan? They are present day Saudi Arabia. I actually believe you've got a prophecy here that the primary nation that's going to speak out against Russia, Turkey, and Iran, invade in Israel. The first, the primary, the main nation is going to be Saudi Arabia. It states it here clearly. That means before this, there's going to be an alignment where Saudi Arabia will not align with Iran. It won't align with Turkey or with Russia, but it'll align with the young lions. It'll align with Tarshish. There's a remarkable, little, tiny prophecy in its statement. Now let me bring you to my message here. That's just by way of laying a bit of background. I've got four points here tonight as we deal with Israel, what next as we watch world events on our television, on our mobile phones. Point number one, what has just happened? What's just happened over the past days, week? It's been called the worst terror attack against the little nation of Israel since 1948 when it was created as a modern nation. That day, Saturday, less than a week ago is its darkest day. It's being called Israel's 9-11, the worst atrocity against the Jews since the Holocaust that Hitler perpetuated against the Jewish people. It was a dark day, an unusual day. I don't want you as a church to think that was just another attack on Israel. It wasn't. It's unique. It's very important. It's very strategic. You have world powers moving in around this. I don't mean physical nations. I mean powers and principalities. Everything is raging around this, and you ought to ask why. Last Saturday, beginning just before 6.30 a.m., on the 7th of October, last Saturday morning, a few days ago, five days ago, Hamas from the Gaza Strip attacked Israel in an unparalleled, unique way. No warning. Israel is always ahead of the game most of the time. It has the best security forces, the best intelligence. It is the best technology. A rabbit cannot move in that fence without them knowing it's moving, and yet here we are, a little nation that's superior in so many ways, militarily, scientifically, all these areas, yet it got caught off guard, absolutely caught off guard, utterly unique in Israel's history. Gaza attacked Hamas, a terrorist group, attacked them suddenly with one of the worst hits they've had in modern history. Hamas actually claimed that they had fired something like 4,000 to 5,000 rockets just within a 20-minute period. Israel actually denies that and says there was about 1,500 rockets within that time, but you know what? In that initial attack, 300 people died because of the rocket attack. It was a sudden attack by land, sea, and air. Again, utterly unusual for Israel. 15,000 terrorists invaded Israel, bloodthirsty, murderers, bitter, angry, religious zealots. They were religious. This isn't about culture. This isn't about prosperity. This isn't about national identity. It's an Islamic war. It's a religious war. It is religiously motivated, and so these 1,500 terrorists who invaded have now been neutralized, killed, or captured, and they say there's another 500 probably in there somewhere, and just lying low, waiting for the right time, waiting to be set into action. 1,500 terrorists put out of action. What sort of damage did they do from last Saturday? Well, they took over the home. Let me just give you an example. They took over the home of one very elderly couple, five of these terrorists. They went in there. That old Jewish lady, very wise, she sang to them, tended to their wounds, fed them, but secretly started passing information to her son, who was in the military forces, until the soldiers came in and killed all five terrorists. That old couple acted very wise, very courageously. You have about 1,300 Israelis dead, or those who they came against, 3,000 injured, many seriously, really seriously. 14 US citizens were killed, and this is only the beginning. You know the stories over these days. You've heard it. You've watched the news. 260 young people at a musical festival promoting peace in the Middle East. These terrorists come in and murdered them. They don't care whether you want peace or if you're pro-Palestinian. It doesn't matter. They are murderous. They find you on the border with Israel, and they will kill you. We've heard the horrific news just yesterday of a village where 40 children, small children, were killed just in one village. I heard the story of two parents as they seen the terrorists approach their house. They took their two little twin babies and hid them in a safe spot. They had this specially prepared safe spot. They hid the two twins in there. They were taken, probably killed, and later the Israeli forces come. When they come in, they find these two little twins and were able to rescue them. We've heard over the past couple of days of, I won't even go into all the details. I find it too horrific. Babies killed, laid beside their cots. 200 people killed in an entire kibbutz. An entire community wiped out. Many times over, entire families and family circles wiped out. No one left over. They have gone in. They don't care about old age. They don't care if it's children. They've either killed them, maimed them, captured them, and carried them away. Do you know how we knew so much? Because Hamas, these wicked terrorists, videoed it themselves. They actually are rejoicing. They're making sure you know it's Islam behind it, and that they consider this a victory. They glory in bloodshed. They're actually doing this for Allah, and they'll do the same in our nations if they got our way. This is how they think. This is real Islam. This is authentic Islam. Any other kind of Islam is compromised. This is real, genuine, religious Islam. They also took about 200 prisoners, they're estimating now. One old lady with dementia, they're making fun of her. There's a young nine-month-old baby that's in there, captured, one of the prisoners. We've seen videos, them taking videos, of young four- and five-year-old boys, and they're making fun of them. Little girls that they're holding captive, they're making videos, and they're sending this out. So it's not media. It's not Israel. This is the terrorists themselves showing what they have done, their attitude, their character, their nature, their motivation, and what they intend to do. The women, they have taken, they've actually said, we won't kill you. Of course they won't. Within the Quran, it gives you the right to take the women and rape them. That is allowed in Islam. That's why they've said publicly, we're not going to kill you. Calm down, young lady. Of course not. Of course not. You don't want them to be scared of Dan. This is how wicked this is in this hour, stirred up of the devil. And so they threaten, they kill. Within two days, it took two days for Israel, in their own nation, on their own land, in their own villages and towns, to actually take 21 hotspots back from these wicked, vile men. And there still could be 500 out there somewhere. Where are we going to? We know that the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, declared war immediately. This has not been done until or since 1973. Israel has not declared war until 1973. This was a unique event. And he called it Operation Iron Swords. Notice it's plural. Not sword. Swords. Iron Swords. He knows what iron represents in the Bible. Strength. And so you have the Israeli Prime Minister. Remember, he's a Bible believer. He's not a Christian. He's a Bible- believing Jew. He believes in Bible prophecy. He believes in what I'm actually saying here about Ezekiel 38. He actually believes it. I believe God put him right back into position for this time, this hour, to be there. And so he has named his operation. The nation is caught off guard. The nation has been reeling. It is in shock. Do you know what he has said? He has said they're going to continue incessantly until our goals are achieved. That means they've got goals and they'll not stop until this is finished. He also said the enemy will pay an unprecedented price. In other words, they're going to do something they've never, ever done before. They are going to do something so extraordinary that they would have imagined a year ago. They are going to accomplish and do. You know, Israel as a nation has been very divided until Saturday, politically opposed with its political parties. Now suddenly the most extreme opposition within Israel, they're united as a nation. That attack has just unified them politically and that's amazing. They are going to act as one, as a nation. Do you know what Israel has now done to Hamas in the Gaza Strip? They have promised that they'll cut off their communications, stop their food, cut off fuel reaching them. They'll blow up any truck trying to take fuel into that country or food into that country or that bit of land. They have said they'll stop water. They've already cut off the electric. Israel supplies 80% of their electric. People say, isn't this horrendous? They get it for free. You've just had people attack you viciously wanting to destroy you. This is war. What are you going to do? Give electric to people who are killing your people, killing children who actually have 200 prisoners and they threaten that they'll keep killing them while you attack us back. This is utterly remarkable. You better not have mercy on wicked men, I want to assure you. Have mercy on Palestinian children by all means. Pray for all men that they get saved. But don't have mercy on wicked, vile men. I don't know how you could have. These are wicked, vile, demon-enforced men. And so you have this clamp down on this little area called Gaza. It only has one power plant and that closed down today. It ran out of fuel. It's a small country, a population of 2 million people. And so Israel moved into action. Their air force on Monday began to hit 130 targets within this small area within a three-hour period. Now they're saying in Gaza there's about 1,100 plus dead. 300 of them are children. Over 5,000 are injured. And listen, more than 200,000 people in Gaza have now lost their homes. They're displaced. That's one-tenth of the entire population have just been uprooted. They have got nowhere to go. Egypt on one side, Israel on the other side. Here they are. They have attacked and this is the consequence. They're now putting out evidence provided by Hamas showing their celebrations. Do you know there's now celebrations all across Europe? In Australia, in America, in UK. I'm sure they're doing it somewhere in Ireland where those who are pro-Palestinian. I'm not pro-Palestinian, I want to tell you. I am utterly against it. I'm against terrorism. I'm against lies. I'm against bloodshed. It's a wicked nation and Israel aligns herself politically with the Palestinians. God help her. That's asking for trouble, I want to tell you. Hamas has said they've been planning this for one year very carefully. And now you have all the immigrants, Muslim, Arab, across our nations. Let me give you an example from Australia. They're celebrating on the streets. They're putting their videos out. They're saying, gas the Jew. They're doing it in Iceland. They're doing it in Denmark, Sweden, other nations, Western nations. You've got people boldly in an organized fashion saying, let's stir everything up. We want to destroy the Jew. Don't tell me that there are people of peace or a religion of peace. They most absolutely are definitely not. You've got something extraordinary happening. Officials from Gaza, I've listened to them over these days. Immediately they come on and they begin to complain that their civilians are being killed. Hold on, you've just attacked and killed hundreds and hundreds of civilians, including little children in a bloodthirsty way. In a bloodthirsty way, a deliberate way. And now you start crying tears like a spoiled little child saying, Israel better not kill a civilian. What sort of stupidity is this? Do you know what they know? A lot of Western media fall for this stupid talk. Sorry for my words, but do you know what? I believe people in the West are in real danger of being brainwashed on this whole issue. You have the US very strongly standing with Israel saying, whatever you do, we're fully behind you. Do you know what that's caused? That's caused Russia now to come out and say, we're with the Palestinians. See, all that's happened for a year and a half. It's driven Russia to extremism. I tell you, two years ago, Russia would have been very slow to align itself. Very, very slow, just two years ago. Yet Russia says, we're with Palestine. We're against Israel acting. You know why? Because of Britain and America and Europe and the Western powers that have abused Russia. And so you've got this forced dynamic situation. Everything is getting lined up. Now today, we're on the fifth day of all of this happening. There are new attacks coming from the North, from Lebanon, which used to be the ancient nation of Tyre. Remember the city of Tyre used to trade with Solomon and with Tarshish. It's here, Lebanon. They're beginning to attack. Just a couple of hours ago, Hezbollah brought a massive drone attack from Lebanon and Syria. Notice who's very quiet at the moment. The West Bank. The Palestinians on the West Bank. They're very quiet. Do you know why? One reason could be they're being kept for an hour. They have to be in place for when Russia invades. And that's where Russia is going to invade. And it's going to fall on the mountains of Israel, which is the West Bank. That's why they're not involved with us just yet. Who knows what happens over the next days? That's my first point. What has just happened? I want to bring you step by step to make you think this through, to go to scripture, to understand what you do. Point two, who are Hamas and what is Gaza? Hamas, founded in 1987, a very new movement, is more extreme than what the PLO was. Remember Arafat with his headscarf? That was the PLO. They were always extreme, but they came to a point of making peace. But not Hamas. Hamas said they're compromisers. They have spoken with Israel. They want peace. And so they published in 1988 their charter calling for the utter destruction of Israel. It refuses to interact with Israel. In 1993, they started with suicide bombers, men going in strapped with explosives in the shops, city centers, places of civilian population in Israel, suicide bombers that are doing this for Allah. Hamas is a radical Islamic terrorist organization. They don't have peace in their hearts. They are liars. They are murderers. Their actual leader has said often that he's looking for the total annihilation of Israel, and after that, the Christian nations of the West. He said it. He's put it on record. Do you know someone who says, I want your utter destruction, how are you going to sit down and reason with that man? When you've got an entire culture or community that are raised from childhood saying, we want your blood, we want your annihilation, and there's no questioning of this, how are you going to reason with that people? And so the leader of Hamas, he come out and he called this attack on Saturday, Operation Al- Aqsa, I'm not Arabic, so forgive my Arabic here tonight, the flood or the deluge. Do you know what that term Al-Aqsa actually is? It's the name of the golden dome in Jerusalem, the mosque there in Jerusalem that's built over where the Temple Mount is. And so this is called after that, and it's called the flood or the deluge of that mosque. We are fighting you and attacking you because of the mosque in Jerusalem, because we want it to have freedom. You see, this is a jihad, this is a holy war. They want the annihilation of Jews and Christians. You know, many years ago, I knew an old missionary in Birmingham, and he had all these files, all these books, prophecy books from the Muslim community in Birmingham. Do you know they have prophecy books like we have prophecy books? You know, some of you guys, like you love your prophecy books, and you love to read about prophecy or listen to YouTube videos on prophecy. Do you know Islam is the same? Islam actually has teachings on prophecy. They have books on prophecy. They have expositions and videos. They have expert teachers within Islam who teach on their view of prophecy, and do you know what they say? There's going to be the second to end great war is going to be the annihilation of Israel. After that, it's all Western Christian nations. You better hope that Islam doesn't defeat Israel because you know what the next step is? It's Limerick, it's Ireland, it's Britain, it's America, it's Sweden, it's the Western nations. In their mind, they say these are Christian nations. You and I know better. They're not Christian nations, but in their prophecy books, they're looking for a holy war of utter annihilation of these nations. And so from the West, or sorry, from Gaza, where Hamas rules, Israel withdrew from it in 2005. It's part of Israel. It was under Israel, but Israel withdrew in 2005 and said, have your own elections, appoint your own leaders, build your own nation. And so in 2006, they had their own democratic election. Do you know how the vote went? 44% voted for Hamas out of the 2 million that were there. 41% voted for Fatah. These are the two different political groups. Fatah is the same as the PLO that rules the West Bank. They renounced violence and said, we want peace, we want our rights, we'll argue, we'll debate, we'll vote, but we don't want a bomb anymore. And so the two parties fought for Gaza. And you know what? Politically, you have to have a majority vote in democracy. 44% was not enough, but they got the majority vote. You're going to have a joint hung political party created then. Do you know what they've done? They began to remove the opposing party from positions of power and influence. Fatah should have held on to power, but this Hamas, this radical terrorist group removed its influence and it disbanded democracy, said we're not going to have another democratic vote. That went so bad for us. Even though we got the majority vote, we're not going to have democracy again. We're not going to have another vote. And they're hard against the opposing political party. Out of this came a civil war in 2007 in Gaza amongst two extreme Islamic groups within Gaza. They can't even live at peace themselves. And you know, as a result of that in 2007, a blockade was set up against Gaza. I want you to understand this. You need to understand for the next days because you're going to hear all sorts of ideas and opinions. I want you to understand what's going on. This is history. This is fact. And so in 2007, Israel and Egypt blockaded Gaza, not just Israel, Egypt, a Muslim nation also blockaded. Hamas said, we're not going to trade with you. We're not letting things in and out of your nation. Egypt done that in 2007. It's in the radical. They're crackpots. We can't work with them. They're bloodthirsty. They're a problem. Egypt done that, not just Israel. And so Israel and Egypt have done this because there's such a problem. Don't always point the finger at Israel. Believe me, anyone with some common sense will understand this. Who do you think aligned themselves with Hamas in Gaza since those days? Turkey and Iran. Do you see something lining up with Bible prophecy? We see Turkey, Iran, and Russia aligning themselves with Hamas. And in fact, over these years, Iran has supported Hamas in Gaza, $100 million every single year. And that's with many other nations denouncing Hamas as a radical, dangerous terrorist group. Notice that Hamas, what it does within its country when it attacks Israel, when it does things like this, it doesn't care about its own people. It doesn't protect its own people. It knows that any bombs coming into the small, tiny nation of Gaza is going to kill civilians. They actually plant their military headquarters in hospitals. They're renowned for it. They fire their guns from areas of heavy populated civilian areas. See, they want civilians to die. They want their civilians to die. They want their people to die and their children to die. They don't care about that. No defense. They don't hide their children and then attack. They don't do that. There's no attempt to do that. They didn't put their children in safe places where Israel couldn't touch them or bomb them. They're actually doing this, wanting such a reaction. And look at BBC at the moment. It refuses to call Hamas terrorists. It calls them the nice word militants. But it rejects, says we can't call them terrorists. Then what is a terrorist? Please define to me. If it's not bloodthirsty murders like this, killing children, what is a terrorist? Please tell me. Do you know in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, never reached the news media or newspapers what used to get done by men kidnapped by the IRA, carried across the border. It never got in the newspapers. You don't even know about it. How they tied their hands with barbed wire and abused them and tortured them. It never once got in the newspapers during the Troubles. You know why? They didn't want the families to know. They didn't want the population to know. They were very careful. But days have changed now. We hear everything. We see everything. You better realize terrorism and vile men, you can so soon, you don't even have a conscience anymore. You don't even have a thought what you do. How wicked, how vile. See Gaza, this little area called the Gaza Strip, it's 30 miles long, no more than five miles wide, such a small area for 2 million people. It's a short portion of coastal land right on the Mediterranean between Israel to the north and Egypt to the south, 2 million people. And until 1967, it was overseen by Egypt. But after the Six Day War in 1967, Israel took over that bit of the land. And let me tell you something. You know how they say, it's our land. Remember how this is the cry, our land. We had our land stolen in Israel or Jerusalem or somewhere else. We got put out of our homes. We got driven out. That's not true. Do you know that Palestinians, many Arabs in Israel, before the great armies invaded them in 1967, Russia and the Muslim nations warned the people on the ground, said, please leave your houses. We're about to invade. And when we massacre the Jews, we'll give you more land back. So they packed their bags. They moved out, waiting for the annihilation of Israel, and they moved back in. You know what happened? Israel didn't let those people back in. Do you think we're going to cry tears over people who pulled out saying, you're going to be destroyed as a nation. You're going to die. You're going to be massacred. That were pre-warned. That's why they don't get back into the land. Be very careful of propaganda. It's everywhere. You know that Gaza was the name in the Bible of one of the five Philistine cities. You read about Gaza, which is in present day Gaza. Gaza now is an area, a region. But in the Bible, it was a city. You read about it first in Genesis chapter 10. It was a border town between Israel and Egypt, just like it is today. In Numbers chapter 33, you read that Israel is commanded to drive out the inhabitants of Gaza. They're actually commanded by God through Moses. First it was the Canaanites, then the Philistines. Many enemies have resided in Gaza all through the centuries and been an enemy of Israel. God says, annihilate them. And I'm not justifying war. I'll get to this, okay? I'm just telling you what was in the Old Testament. Moses told Joshua, wipe out the Canaanites. They were a wicked people, a vile people. The Amalekites, remember on Sunday we dealt with it, destroy the Amalekites. King Saul said, I'll keep the king alive. Do you know God only says that about very vile nations and cultures that no longer operate with any conscience, any thought to safety? You know that Cromwell is thought of as worse than Hitler in Ireland. In your schools, traditionally with Catholicism, Cromwell is worse than Hitler, worse than the devil. And yet, do you know what Cromwell done when he besieged Limerick? It was normal to kill all the leadership. When you besieged the city, all across Europe, all the nations done it, you kill all the leaders of a city when you take it. Guess what Cromwell done when he took Limerick? He let all of the leaders live. He was more kind to the city of Limerick than you can ever imagine, than anyone else in warfare in the entirety of Europe was. That's by the way, okay? Don't let me get you distracted on that here tonight. But do you know what you have? You have Gaza mentioned in the Bible. It was to be destroyed. Its people were to be destroyed. And it was the tribe of Judah that inherited Gaza. It was the most southern point of Israel as a nation, one of the five cities of the Philistines. You know in the story of Samson, you read of Samson going to Gaza. When he went to the city of Gaza, he looked on a young lady called Delilah that would bring about his downfall. She was an inhabitant of Gaza. Remember how he lay upon her knee, and she betrayed him. That great anointed man of God entrusted himself to these Philistines. They lied. They took out his eyes. They cut his hair. They imprisoned him where? In Gaza. Samson was in prison in Gaza, and they gathered and they mocked him. When you begin to read the Old Testament, Jeremiah, Amos, Zephaniah, and Zechariah all prophesied judgment on Gaza as a city, as a people. My third point, I'm just taking you somewhere. Why did it happen now? See what happened on Saturday and over these days. Why now? Why on Saturday? Why at this time? Why have they been organizing this for one year so they had a set date, a set day, a set time, a set reason, a set motive? Why now? Why like this? Do you know last Saturday was the Jewish Sabbath. Saturday is the Jewish Sabbath. It's a day of rest. It's the best time to attack Israel. That's what they usually do. Attack on the Sabbath, the nation is shut down, especially the religious side of it. There's another reason. It was the last day of the week-long Jewish festival of Sukkot, or the Feast of Tabernacles, or the Feast of Booths. Remember Jesus, he said on the last day of the feast, he stood up. That's this day. That's Saturday. It's the day that celebrates the end of harvest. So you begin to say, so it's the Sabbath, but more than that, it's the annual Feast of Tabernacles, the last day of the feast that Jesus said, if anyone thirsts, come unto me. That's what he cried on the last day of the feast. And then there's some more. It was also the 50th anniversary. In fact, it was the day after the 50th anniversary of Yom Kippur War in 1973. So the day before the attack, Israel celebrating 50 years of Yom Kippur. That's one of the reasons. But here's now my main thing, and I'm bringing you right back to scripture and the timing of this. All of that's incidental. I'll give you the real reason why did this happen now. Up until a week ago, one week ago, articles were appearing in top newspapers, online, news media. Until one week ago of an event happening that was extraordinary. In all the newspapers, they were talking about the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, who for the first time ever was normalizing relations with Israel until one week ago. There's articles in big newspapers until one week ago saying, this is extraordinary what's about to happen. Do you know what the crown prince said just several weeks ago in an interview? He says, every day we get closer to normalizing relations with the nation of Israel. Newspaper headings and articles said, called it the deal of the century. Israel was saying, this is historic peace for us. This was started by president Trump. It was carried on by Biden and Biden was working on this. He wanted to reconcile Saudi Arabia and Israel. That's never happened. 10 years ago, it would have been thought utterly, utterly impossible. I think it's 2016 for the very first time, Saudi Arabia until then was outwardly, vocally opposed Israel. Then something happened in 2016. All across, it was organized, all across their news media, within their nation, all the newspapers suddenly went pro-Israel in 2016. It was organized. I told you about it in this church and I said, Saudi Arabia has just changed. Well, until one week ago, Saudi Arabia and Israel were right on the verge of signing an agreement, working towards it, where they were going to become aligned. Remember, Saudi Arabia is against Iran. Iran is its great enemy. It's opposed to Iran. This is Bible prophecy coming alive from 2,000, 6,000 years ago. You've got Iran on one side with Russia and you have Saudi Arabia aligning with Western nations and Israel. Do you hear me tonight? This Bible is dynamic. This is my God who says, you know what? Let me tell you what will be happening in 2,600 years. I'll give you the names of nations who will align with each other. What bedfellows. Imagine Saudi Arabia getting in bed to stand up, being the first country to stand up and speak against Russia, Iran and a Turkey invading Israel. This is extraordinary if you really understand what is happening. They were quietly preparing the deal of the century. Saudi Arabia had never had political relations with Israel. Never, never all through the centuries. It refused to recognize Israel, but there's a change coming. Why do you think that is? Because we are going somewhere in Bible prophecy. The stage is being set. Do you know what the prime minister has said? This is the day. Sorry, let me say that again. Do you know when they attacked Israel what they said? This is the day of the greatest battle to end the last occupation on earth. Do you know why it happened last Saturday? Because Iran has been making up secretly with Hamas in Gaza straight up until last Monday. Now there's reports starting to come out over the past 24 hours to say Iran last Monday gave the go ahead. Iran has aligned itself and said, no, go for it. We give the finance, we give the arms, we provide the support. Right up until last Monday. All of this is coming out and it's going to come out further. How Iran is aligning against Saudi Arabia and wants to stop Saudi Arabia joining with Israel. Who is Saudi Arabia? Sheba and Dedan. That's who she is. Sheba and Dedan are beyond any doubt this great nation of Saudi Arabia. Here's a prophecy 2,700 years ago about what she is going to say when Israel's attacked, led by Russia. Let me come to my fourth point. How will Israel respond? See at the minute, as of last Saturday, Israel has called up 300,000 soldiers to fight in this war. This is war. This is the next great war. 300,000. That's the biggest in 50 years of Israel's history. 300,000 armed soldiers. 100,000 of them right now are on the border with Gaza. 100,000. Listen to what their military leader has said. I'm telling you, what's Israel going to do next? What's going to happen next? The military leader of Israel's force said, our job is to make sure that at the end of this war, Hamas will no longer have any military capability to threaten Israeli citizens. Again, he said, in addition to that, we are able, we are also to make sure that Hamas will not be able to govern the Gaza Strip. Do you know what they're going to do? This is all-out war. This isn't like anything I've seen in my lifetime. They are actually going to bring an end to this dispute in the Gaza Strip. It won't look the same within a short period of time. They want the people to flee. They don't want to kill people. It was one of the Jewish prime ministers, many decades ago, says, after all this is over, there'll be a time when we, as Jews, will be able to forgive the Palestinians for killing our children. But what will be much harder is to find it within our hearts, to forgive them that they forced us to kill their children. That's what's going to be very hard. You see, the Jews of Israel think radically different than Palestinians, radically different. There's a big difference in going in and killing children in cold blood and parading it before the nation of Israel to try and provoke them. And the people who say, we don't want any children of our enemies to die, but what do we do? We're at war with the people who are very, very vile. It's one thing with Israel here I want you to understand before we close. Israel is not the church. Israel is in a different covenant. Israel is a physical nation. The next I'm going to tell you how should the church respond, but let me tell you, how will Israel respond? I have a great respect for Israel. You know why? You hit them, they'll hit you harder. An eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. You'll say, but aren't we meant to love our enemies? No, that's the church. That's the gospel. That's salvation. You're dealing with Israel. If it loses one battle at any point in its history, it's finished. It'll never recover. It's surrounded by enemies. All of them have vowed the annihilation of that nation. They're in a constant state of readiness. Do you know in Romans chapter 13, God gives the power of the sword to physical nations, and you need to hear me. This is so important. I've dealt with this at different times like during COVID going, you need to know you and I are citizens of two kingdoms. You're a citizen of a physical nation, Ireland or whatever nation you're a citizen of. You're also a citizen of the kingdom of God. They're two different kingdoms at the same time. As an Irish citizen, I've got the right to take up the sword, serve in the army. That's not for God. I'm going to tell you, I'm not a pacifist. I'm not one of these Christians that say, you can't be in the army, and you can't lift the sword, and you shouldn't fight in a war. You're going to have a great problem proving that from scripture. You know why? Jesus spoke to a Roman centurion. Do you hear me? Listen to me very carefully. If you're a pacifist, I challenge you to a biblical debate. I challenge you to show me the Bible, because I tell you what, you're going to get messed up in your theology. Jesus deals with centurions. They're part of an occupied army, the Roman empire. Do you think the Roman empire was righteous or wicked? Do you think the Caesars were righteous or wicked? In the New Testament, Rome had invaded Israel. They were an occupying force. The Roman centurion, both the one who said, you don't need to come into my house, just send the word, and you'll be healed, as well as the centurion at Caesarea, who Peter dealt with. These are military men in the Roman empire, in an invaded land. They're an occupying force. What did Jesus say to this centurion? I haven't found such faith in all of Israel. Amongst all you Jews, he's a Gentile. He's got faith. Didn't tell him to leave the army. What about John the Baptist? The soldiers come to him. John, you're calling us to repent. What should we do? Be satisfied with your pay. Man, he knew soldiers. I'm going to tell you, he really did, and treat people right. Did he tell him to get out of the army? Put your sword down, son. Real repentance means you won't be in the army. He doesn't say that. Now, that's not being a Christian, being in the army. But do you know what I want to tell you? God, in Romans 13, gives nations the right of the sword. If you get invaded as a nation, you can raise an army. You can be part of it. If I was in Israel, I want to tell you, I'll be there. They may not want me. I want to tell you, but I'll say, my trigger finger got bent when the devil tried to kill me in that car accident. I was a marksman. 400 meters, I could put 10 bullets within a small square, 400 meters. I went to Bisley and shot. I want to tell you that I could do a wee bit of damage, but my shooting days are over. I'm talking about a secular person. I'm not talking about a Christian. I'm talking about a national citizen. Israel has the right to have an army, to fight our enemies, to kill. Do you think if I was a Jewish citizen and I was born again, really born again, I would join the army. I would join the army. I'd go to war. I'd be one of those getting called up. I'd have no problem killing one of these bloodthirsty men. Thank God, as a Christian, I never want to kill anyone. I prayed many years ago. I wrestled, when I was 15 years old, I wrestled all through the night in prayer. I got the assurance on one night of prayer, I'd never be put in a situation where I'd have to kill a man. I got the assurance at 15 years old. I knew without a shadow of a doubt, and I've been in some situations, I want to tell you. But as a citizen before God, I've got the right, so does Israel. But let me finish. Number five, and I'm going to close with this. How should the church respond? Don't get these two mixed up. I said, how will Israel respond? Now, how should the church respond? See, as a Christian, remember what Jesus said? He said, if you're in my kingdom, in my kingdom, you don't take up the sword or take vengeance or kill anyone. Not in my kingdom, not as a Christian, not as a citizen of heaven. Don't think these two things are contradictory or opposed or you need to choose between the two. No, you can be in both. But don't think in joining the army, you're serving God. No, you're serving your nation. But don't think that being in the church, you're doing that for God. You're not. To extend God's kingdom, you'd never take vengeance. You'd never hurt anyone. You'd never shed blood as a Christian, never. But fifth and finally, how should the church respond at the minute? And we're right in it. Let me just give you a few quick points. Number one, knowledge. Make sure you have knowledge. You're looking at Israel. You're looking at war. You're looking at what's happening. Know the Bible. Know what I'm telling you tonight, and I'm only touching on things. Have a biblical knowledge. Understand Romans 13. Understand and believe that God has given the power of the sword to nations to punish wicked men. If I had my way, Ireland would have corporal punishment. In the schools, they'd have the cane. In the prisons, they'd have the death sentence for a murder. You take a life, you ought to have your life taken. You'd have far less murders in Ireland, I want to tell you. A life for a life. Do you know the Bible teaches that? That governments ought to have severe punishment for crime. Why do you think crime's breaking out across Limerick? Because there's no fear of authority. God says, if you take a life, you ought to have your life taken. That you ought to be punished to the degree that you're punishing someone. See, in Ireland, you could rape a child, go to prison a few years, and then you're out. You're free. You're scot-free. You've destroyed the parents' lives. You've destroyed the kids' life. You've destroyed hearts. But you're free. That's a wicked, corrupt system. I don't believe in that. See what God says in the Bible, you ought to be punished the way you've committed a crime. That's righteous. So you need a knowledge. You need to understand God has given the power of the sword to Israel to punish wickedness. But here, you need knowledge. As a Christian, you need to understand these things, or you get confused. You don't know the Word of God. Go and study the Word of God. Have an understanding. Second thing, prayer. What is our great task as the church right now? Prayer. It says in 1 Timothy chapter 2 and 1, I exhort therefore that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercession, giving of thanks be made for all men, for Palestinians, for Russians, for Iranians. You do know revival's going on in Iran right now. More people are getting born again in Iran. Revival is happening in Iran. It's an underground church than maybe any other country at this moment. Iran. And yet as a nation before God, God is going to judge her. She is a corrupt nation, a Muslim nation, but within her is a spiritual revival. We pray for all men. I pray for Russians. I pray for Hamas. I pray for Palestinians. I pray for Israel. Is there anyone you couldn't pray for? You need to check your heart. The Lord says, pray for all men, for kings. We are the church. We have power on our knees. We have power with God. Pray for the prime minister of Israel. Pray for Biden. You know, I got the shock of my life yesterday. The first time I heard him talk any sense, that man Biden. He's the most powerful man in the world, so they say. I've had to listen to his blunderings for two years plus, his confusion. It enraged me for the first time. Praise God for once in his life, he's got one single thing right, and it's in relation to Israel. You know what that shows me? God must be in control because Biden couldn't do that. He didn't get Afghanistan right. He can't get anything right. He can't even walk out on the stage or leave a stage, but here he is. He's speaking about Israel. I hear clarity. I hear truth. I hear righteousness. I go, who is this man? That's definitely a double. This has definitely got to be a double or is he the real one? I don't know anymore. Do you know what I'm saying? We need to pray for kings and for all that are in authority that we might lead a quiet and a peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. I'm praying for peace, the end of war. Lord, stop the bloodshed. Lord, protect the prisoners. You see the videos of those kids that were taken, four or five years old? What about that nine-month-old baby? What's going to happen to it now? That old lady that survived the Holocaust, survived Nazi Germany, and here she is in the hands of wicked, vile men mocking her. Let's pray for them. Let's pray for peace in this hour, for the peace of Jerusalem. It goes on, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our Savior, who will have all men to be saved. Do you want to know God's will for Hamas? Save them, Lord. Save terrorists, Lord. Surely there's some bloodthirsty man, some young man in there, doesn't know the gospel. Let's pray for some souls. You know, during the Troubles, do you know how many terrorists from Northern Ireland, from Belfast, got born again during the Troubles? Do you know how many? Maybe more terrorists got saved in Belfast than any other city in the world during my lifetime. I knew them. I knew guys. They were getting bullets, they were just about to be killed. All sorts of things went on. I could tell you stories, make your hair stand on end. God saved terrorists, IRA men, UVF men, men that just wanted to murder, that had anger in their hearts. God saved them. And you know, most of those terrorists become preachers. Did you know that? Ministries that went out preaching, evangelizing. Why shouldn't God do it again? Raise up some Hamas terrorists to be a preacher of the gospel, a soul winner. Maybe he'll go evangelize in Jerusalem. Saints of God, it's the gospel. Pray that all men may be saved, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men. The man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. Can I tell you what you, the church, are to do? You're to pray in this hour. You've got power with God. You can touch Hamas. You can pray for the children, pray for the weeping mothers. Terrible things are going to happen over the next days, the next hours, the next weeks. Terrible things. Thousands potentially are going to die, if not hundreds of thousands. Children on both sides. I don't rejoice in the death of any individual, never. Now's our day to love all men. Love all men. I love the Palestinians. I wish I could go and evangelize to them. It's not my calling. You can have faith to believe God, while others fight, why don't you believe God? Remember other attacks on Israel? There was miracles. Do you know many in Israel have turned to God through the miracles that happened? Remember the minefield where it was all there, they prayed, and the wind blew, and the sand dissipated, and all the mines are just sitting there on the surface. What about the Israeli generals who talked about great angels coming and fighting on their behalf? Lots of strange things happen. Why don't we believe again that God moves to prepare a people that his name might be known? And last of all, have wisdom. Who you speak to, how you speak about this, have wisdom as the church of Christ. Don't say what I'm saying to you to the wrong person. Don't tell some Arabic Muslim down the street, well I just think this, please be wise. Don't get pulled in. You know when I'm evangelizing, I don't get pulled into politics. I'll never defend Israel. I'm not pro-Israel. I'm not. I'm pro-God. I'm pro-the Bible. I'm pro-righteous. And when I'm evangelizing a Muslim, and they start ridiculing Israel, I'm not going to defend Israel. I'm after their soul. I'm not trying to prove something about Israel. I'm not a defender of Israel. I go, I'm after your soul. I want to see you born again. Be wise, church. Sing to God. I know we're in a crisis, and unusual are. Israel, what next? I don't know where we go from here. What happens over the next days? What I preach next week? I don't know. Whether this dissipates into nothing, or whether Gaza and Hamas will be annihilated. This is history making, and you're a part of this. You're the church. You're born again. You know the Bible, and you know where all of this is going. This was an attack to stop Saudi Arabia aligning with Israel against Iran. That's why it happened last Saturday. But I'm telling you, Russia one day very soon is going to invade. And when that happens, when that incident actually takes place, you're going to see some of the most remarkable events. And it's for this reason that you might know that God is real. Please stand with me. Father, we thank you, Lord God, here tonight. We stand in the gap. Let's pray here tonight together online here in this meeting. Just begin to pray. Begin to ask Him for these children, for these families, for this nation, that God will have His way, that He'll bring forth plans that His name might be glorified. Father, we're asking for a testimony before our eyes, Lord God, that we're going to see history making events. My God, we stand in the gap. Lord God, we don't care about nations and wars and rights and wrongs. Lord God, we're asking of you for a spiritual revival amongst the Palestinians, amongst the Iranians, amongst the Americans. Lord God, in Israel, O God. Lord God, in all of these nations, we're asking for the salvation. Lord, protect the children. Protect the mothers, O God. Lord God, have mercy in this hour. Lord God, in a dark and a wicked and a vile hour. Lord God, we know that you're a sovereign God. Lord God, we know multitudes are praying across the nation. Lord God, and we ask of you right now. Lord God, use us as a church to be on our knees to plead with you. At home, O God. Lord God, in the mornings, late at night, O God, in this church and our prayer meetings. Lord God, make us a power that we could be moved, that we'd be sensitive to you, our God. In Jesus' mighty name. ======================================================================== Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/ZRqmGjDscSQ.mp4 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/keith-malcomson/israel-what-next/ ========================================================================