We are seeing a fulfillment of prophecy happening in Israel, yet again.
Zechariah 12:3 "It will come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who lift it will be severely injured. And all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it."
The word translated "severely injured" is sarat in Hebrew which means to cut. We should also make the distinction between "peoples" ha-amim which implies all mid-eastern people, descendants of Ishmael who was the firstborn son of Abraham - and nations -goy who gather against it.
Here is what rabbi Malbim wrote almost two centuries ago:
"And it shall come to pass on that day that I will make Jerusalem a stone of burden - The nations of the kingdom of Ishmael, in whose hands Jerusalem rests, will stand up against the nations who come to lay siege to Jerusalem and will want to lift Jerusalem up to their shoulders. That is to say that it will remain in their domain but this load will be a stone of burden for them, which will gash their flesh. This is like a load which is too heavy to bear, a sharp stone that cuts the flesh. The explanation of why they will be gashed by it is because all of the nations of the world will gather around Jerusalem, the armies of Gog and Magog will all gather to conquer it from the Ishmaelites who are burdened with it. The prophet called the Ishmaelites by the name 'peoples' and those that gather against them by the name of 'nations' because it is clear to me that a people is superior to a nation, because those that gather against them will at first be from the lowly masses and the kings of the Ishmaelites will fight against them"
Obviously he was under the paradigm of monarchy and thought the nations are foreign serfs, uneducated rabble and that Muslim kings would protect Israel which in turn would be a heavy burden for them. He does distinguish correctly that Ishmaelites - Palestinian people are the ones who will burden themselves. He didn't understand what the gathering of nations meant at that time since there was no united nations in his time and linked it straight to Gog-Magog war. Now we see that the nations gathering against it represents the United Nations Security Council who condemned Israel for killing peaceful Palestinian protesters while Jerusalem opens its embassy and is affirmed as Capital of the state of Israel by the US. Israel killed 58 protesters and injured about 2700 people, 1350 by gunfire.
We all saw it coming, the protests and the extremely agressive IDF tactics. The message is clear as always - don't burden yourself with Israel, if you do you will only cut yourself. I think what happened on monday is a perfect fulfillment of this prophecy, but prophecies can have multiple fulfillments. Palestinians should stop their protests at the borders and pray to the Lord because he will judge Israel as he always has.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/14/world/middleeast/gaza-protests-palestinians-us-embassy.html
US Embassy opening is the deadliest day in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since 2014:
UNSC emergency meeting on Gaza situation:
