Ezra's Vision of the Eagle

 Greetings in the Lord~

Today's word comes from Mark chapter 14 and 2 Esdras (Ezra), which is packed full of the events leading up to Jesus' death, and quite possibly, events leading up to His second coming.  The chapter in Mark begins with a woman anointing him with very expensive perfume, and his disciples sternly rebuking the woman for wasting the perfume rather than selling it to give the money to the poor.  

But Jesus replied, "Leave her alone.  Why criticize her for doing such a good thing to me?  You will always have the poor among you, and you can help them whenever you want to.  But you will not always have me.  She has done what she could and has anointed my body for burial ahead of time.  I tell you the truth, wherever the Good News is preached throughout the world, this woman's deed will be remembered and discussed."  Mark 14:6-9.

From Jesus' foretelling statement about his death, the passage in Mark continues with Judas going to the religious authorities to agree to betray Jesus into their hands, for they are looking for a way to kill him.  Judas knows as an insider he could be very instrumental in their plot and get paid handsomely for this betrayal--and being a greedy thief, the temptation proves to be too much for him.  But Jesus is not fooled and announces at the Last Supper later that evening that he will be betrayed by one of his disciples.  Then, after supper, while Jesus and the rest are praying/sleeping in Gethsemane, Judas goes to get the religious police to come and arrest Jesus.  After He is arrested, the disciples scatter, Peter denies even knowing Jesus three times, and the religious authorities interrogate and abuse Jesus and sentence him to death.  Whew--so much drama in that one chapter!  But I discern, that is the rollercoaster ride we are in for for the rest of the year.

Soon, I discern, many intense events will take place in the U.S. and Israel as wicked forces ramp up to carry out their evil plots---"it's now or never!" they say, casting aside all restraint.  At this point, like Judas, the deals have already been made and paid for, it's just a matter of opportunity and the execution of the details.  Most definitely, significant deaths are just around the corner and darkness will come over the "justice" systems as these evil plans are carried out.  Why?  The U.S. elections are very near and time is running out to thwart them by other, less dramatic means.  Nothing has worked so far to stop the momentum of Trump, it's just that simple.  And frankly, too many enemy nations of the United States have a vested interested in a Harris presidency---yes, it's going to get ugly.  I expect a change at the helm before the election, but time will tell.  

It's along these lines that I lay out the second passage for today from 2 Esdras. Recently, I listened to a podcast about a vision given in an apocrypha book called 2 Esdras.  Twenty years ago I took a summer to study extensively the collection of apocrypha books and found that they were very relevant to the time period we are living in now.  These books encompass the roughly three hundred years before the coming of Christ the first time, and we are living in the time period before His second coming.  Similar characteristics of these time periods are: the violent clash of the Antichrist and his agents and the widespread apostacy of believers against those standing faithfully for God (books of the Maccabees), the corruption of judges and judicial system (book of Susanna), the rise of female leaders to combat injustice (book of Judith), and the overt interaction of angelic beings and demons with humankind, and the protective impact of almsgiving and the partnering of believers with angels (book of Tobit).  Much more could be said of the significance and relevance of these books, but I find it interesting that I did not study out 2 Esdras, only the first one.  In my heart, I believe that it was not ready to be revealed prophetically, as "apocrypha" means "hidden" (until time for revealing).

However, this time around I have taken time to study it out, especially the vision of the eagle found in chapters 11-12, and well, I was shook for 2 weeks.  Even now, it is with much trepidation that I discuss the implications of Ezra's vision of the eagle and frankly, am still not fully prepared to do so.  Why, you may ask?  Because I believe the book and vision has some merit.  And while we prophesy in part, and no one knows the day or time of the second coming Jesus, this book has given me a renewed sense of urgency and purpose in my faith walk because we are surely in these End Times.  

The vision of the eagle in 2 Esdras gives us more details about the fourth beast/empire that rose out of the sea and its transition to becoming not just a totalitarian state, but one that would rule the world.  This global, tyrannical, antichrist government exerts its power through blinding lies and fierce oppression.  Michael Rush has written a book about this vision which I have not read, but I can relate to his near jittery explanation of the vision in the podcast I listened to.  

First, let's summarize his explanation of the vision of the eagle with 3 heads, 12 long feathers and 8 short feathers.  Rush contends that the three heads of the eagle are the Deep State (Babylon system), with one big head in the middle, and two smaller ones to its right and left.  All three heads are seen as sleeping because their activities and influence are not readily seen at first, Rush says.  

Next, the 12 long feathers are the U.S. presidents from Hoover to Obama who ruled unobstructed by the Deep State, and its 8 short feathers were those presidents whose tenure was obstructed or had their presidencies cut short by the Deep State.  The vision starts with 2 short feathers on the right side; Rush believes these two short feathers to be JFK and Nixon---meaning their presidencies were cut short by the Deep State.  Interestingly, recent news stories accuse the Deep State of being involved in Nixon's scandal that led to his impeachment, and JFK's assassination has been under scrutiny by conspiracy theorists for decades who say it was an inside job, i.e. the Deep State.

Moving over to the left side of the eagle, there are 4 short feathers, with the two remaining short ones under the right, smaller head of the eagle.  Now things get interesting, as these 4 short feathers are to current times.  The first feather on the left side, which he says is Trump, is cut short--meaning that the election was stolen from him the second time and his re-election bid denied by the Deep State.  The second feather was cut short even sooner, meaning that the Deep State ended Biden's chances at re-election even before he left office.  The next two short feathers are eaten by the big head of the eagle--meaning that they may run for office, but they will not even have a chance to rule (or that they are not elected as such, but are appointed by the three heads directly?).  It is at this time the three heads wake up, meaning that they are in full control and no longer ruling from behind the scenes.  

This awakening is the rise of the fourth evil empire, now revealed to the world as the global totalitarian government of the antichrist mentioned in the book of Daniel, and the Babylon Whore from the book of Revelation, and also from this vision of the eagle from 2 Esdras.  Either way, all three books talk of a fourth evil empire to arise from the sea which will usher in the End Times and the second coming of Christ, who eventually overthrows this evil empire.  

Now, the most interesting verse I came across in this vision was from 2 Esdras 12:18: In the midst of this kingdom's time, great conflicts will arise.  It will be in danger of falling; it won't fall then but will be restored again to its beginning.  This verse sounds to me like Trump's presidency and his MAGA movement of restoring the country again to the greatness of its beginning and return to its original providential purpose.  However, if the vision is correct, the Deep State will again seek to obstruct the next election and will instead look to implement a totalitarian regime; Lord help us.

Well, there is a lot to digest from this small apocrypha book, so I will end here for today and pray as always: Lord, You alone know the end from the beginning and we trust in You; I pray that Your good and perfect will be done on earth as it is in heaven; give us the comfort and understanding we need in order to be fully prepared for the coming days; to continue to work boldly and steadfastly for Your kingdom and be found busy doing what you called us to do.  In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.