The Mediterranean — an on-again, off-again geopolitical hot spot since before the pyramids were built — is emerging anew as a sea of division and instability, with powers including Russia, China, Turkey and Israel jostling aggressively for influence, natural resources and military advantage.
In your King James Bible, we see the term 'great sea' mentioned 13 times, and it is referring to, of course, the massive Mediterranean ocean. Scripture also tell us that the
full size of the land God gave to Abraham borders on the Mediterranean, and Daniel further tells us that this is where the 4 beasts who are political end times kings originate from. This is referring to nations that will rise to power in the time of Jacob's trouble. So is it any wonder that right now we are seeing many key players from end times prophecy all trying to take control of the region?
"Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart was given to it. These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth." Daniel 7:2-4,17 (KJB)
When we understand the role of the Mediterranean ocean in bible prophecy, and we look around and see who the players are - Russia, Turkey, China, Greece, Israel - we understand that we are on the cusp of Ezekiel 39. In that chapter, we read about the nations of the world that will come against Israel in the time of the great Tribulation. So if we are as close as we think we are, then all the key players would be busy preparing themselves to fulfill end times bible prophecy. They absolutely are, and it is a joy to watch.
Flight #777 on Titus213 Airlines...last boarding call.
THE BIBLE BELIEVER’S GUIDE TO THE TWO DIFFERENT WARS AS FOUND IN EZEKIEL CHAPTERS 38 AND 39
Sea of troubles: Tensions flare across Mediterranean as world powers jockey for power
FROM WASHINGTON TIMES: Moscow is eyeing a possible military base along the oil-rich shores of
Libya. China is seeking investment deals across the region.
Turkey is clashing with
NATO partner
Greece over drilling rights and militarized islands. Newly discovered offshore natural gas deposits have nations scrambling to stake their claims. Even the Trump administration on Wednesday partially lifted an arms embargo with Cyprus in what was widely interpreted as a shot across
Turkey’s bow.
Analysts generally agree that
NATO is failing to ease regional tensions. The U.S., despite multiple interests, lacks leverage in many of the disputes, with President Trump accelerating a U.S. pullback begun under President Obama that opened a power vacuum that others are now scrambling to fill.
While a range of unsavory players are making moves — Iran, Hezbollah and the Islamic State are among those seeking to exploit the situation — many in Europe and Washington are pointing the finger at
Turkey for escalating the crisis by threatening to use force to take possession of natural gas finds beneath a string of Mediterranean islands that most in Europe say belongs to
Greece.
The two
NATO member states are now locked in a dangerous maritime standoff that is shaking the alliance to its core, with mediation attempts by Germany and others in the European Union so far going nowhere while the Trump administration warily monitors the situation.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday that Mr. Trump has held private discussions with Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and that the White House is “urging everyone to stand down.”
Mr. Pompeo also sought to downplay the appearance of serious U.S. engagement, asserting that the administration’s decision to lift a 33-year arms embargo on nearby Cyprus — a move that triggered outrage in
Turkey — was something U.S. officials had been working on “for an awfully long time.”
The current
Turkey-
Greece standoff was sparked weeks ago when Ankara sent a research ship accompanied by Turkish warships to search for energy reserves off
Greece’s coast. It has since seen the two engage in competing military exercises at sea — exercises that came dangerously close to devolving into an all-out clash in mid-August when a Turkish and a Greek warship collided.
Dangerous as the standoff has become, analysts say it is just the latest in a pattern of incendiary developments unfolding on a fabled body of water in which it is no longer clear who’s in charge.
“The broader story here has to do with this growing U.S. isolationism and disengagement from the region at large,” said Aykan
Erdemir, a former opposition member of Turkish parliament now serving as a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington.
“
Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin are among a slate of actors trying to take advantage of the vacuum created by U.S. disengagement from the Middle East, North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean,” Mr.
Erdemir said in an interview this week.
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