The Arab Spring continues: Mali and the Tuaregs

On the Mount of Olives, Jesus sat with his disciples and answered their questions about the end of the age and the signs of His second coming. He answered in specific detail in Matthew 24 and 25, also Mark 13 and Luke 21. It is the longest answer He gave to any question the disciples asked. One of the signs He gave was:

"Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains." (Mark 13:8).

In the Greek, the words for kingdom against kingdom is ethnos against ethnos. Ethnos in the Greek means a race of people and usually refers to the Gentile world.

Such an example of people against people is occurring now.

We know that over the last year, the face of the Mid East and northern Africa changed dramatically, With the self-immolation of one Tunisian fruit vendor in January 2011, revolution broke out in that country. Then the revolutions spread among the Arab world to Lebanon, Syria, Morocco, Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Eritrea, Yemen, Algeria, Sudan (which split into North Sudan and South Sudan S. Sudan being recognized by the UN as the globe's 193rd nation) and other places.  It became known as the Arab Spring. Dictators toppled. Governments fell. Kings became worried. The political face of the nations around the Mediterranean and near environs swept the world as a shock wave.

In the book of Ezekiel, chapters 38-39 we read of a future war known as the Gog-Magog war. A coalition of nations surprise attack Israel and almost win. God shows Himself holy among the nations and supernaturally saves Israel. "Then they will know I am the LORD" He says numerous times in the two chapters. Eschatology scholars believe that another future war, the Psalm 83 battle, will occur just prior to the Ezekiel war, because the Psalm 83 war lists Israel's attackers and they are all Israel's nearer neighbors than are the ones listed in Ezekiel 38-39. It is surmised that the victory Israel gains in the Psalm 83 war leads to a fulfillment of prophecy because when those Psalm 83 nations are defeated, Israel re-inhabits all the lands given to her by God. If those nations were to attack, they think, they would do so in the Ezekiel battle. That they don't is seen as an indicator that they are defeated prior to that battle's start, and might well be the catalyst for it. Indeed, that once Israel soundly defeats the enemies in Psalm 83, and inhabits the lands of her enemies, she relaxes her guard and lives as a peaceful and unsuspecting people, (Ez 38:11) one of the conditions that will be in place when Ezekiel 38-39 comes around. Note that these are interpretations, because no one knows the exact timing of the Psalm 83 and Gog Magog wars in reference to each other or to the Tribulation.

The wars and rumors of wars have not stopped because the Arab Spring stopped. As a matter of fact, the Arab Spring is still going, because the revolution started in Syria last April is turning one year old by now. And let's take a look at another nation that fell this week, and its prophetic implications: Mali. First take a look at where Mali is:

Also note that the nations just to Mali's north, that African northern tier, are both Arab Spring nations, and also Gog-Magog nations, meaning, nations that are prophesied to ally with Russia and Turkey and Iran to attack Israel in the last days. Here is the news:

There was a coup in Mali last month. Yesterday, "A parliamentary official in Mali says the democratically elected leader of Mali, who has been in hiding ever since a coup last month, has turned in his resignation."

Meanwhile the military junta that toppled the President, has been wrangling about how to hold onto power, or if they should hold on to power. This past weekend, "Under intense international pressure, the soldiers who seized power on March 21 agreed over the weekend to begin the process of returning Mali to constitutional order."

Phew. Good news, that's over, right? Wrong.

While The governments of West Africa were still trying to decide how to deal with the military junta in the country that toppled the country’s president in March, and before the President had handed in his resignation, the Tuareg rebels took advantage of the governmental, diplomatic, and military confusion, crept in and took over the entire northern part of Mali and declared it the independent state of Azawad.

"Within the span of two weeks Mali experienced a military coup followed by a declaration of independence by the Tuareg in the north, leaving regional and international powers divided over who to support. Tuareg revolutionaries claimed they had complete control of north Mali from Kidal to Gao last week, including the capital of their historical homeland Azawad and Timbuktu. The general secretary of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), Bilal Ag Acherif, announced the creation of the “independent state of Azawad” yesterday. The president of its politburo Mahmoud Ag Ali spoke to Al-Akhbar after they had captured the lands populated by a majority of Tuareg and Arabs in the north on Thursday. He said that “the announcement of the independent state of Azawad is ready. Its capital will be the historical city of Timbuktu that celebrated its third millennium two years ago.”

Basically, Tuareg rebels claim the entire triangular part you see on the map. So who are these Tuareg people and why have they claimed half of Mali? They "are a Berber people with a traditionally nomadic pastoralist lifestyle. They are the principal inhabitants of the Saharan interior of North Africa" says Wikipedia. The Tuareg people are nomadic, mix Islam with animism (a belief that God is in everything), engage in the caravan trade, and descend from the ancient Berber tribes from the very northern tier of Africa. And they are fiercely independent, claiming it and the land. (Photos from Wikipedia Commons).

I just wanted to present this fresh news of another African nation going from order to chaos in the space of three weeks. Also I want to remind us all that as prophecy says nation is against nation and kingdom against kingdom, we see once again that prophecy is being fulfilled rapidly. This major change in Mali's governance (democratically elected President, to military junta to Tuareg rebels) taking place in so fast and unexpectedly is an example of how fast things are changing. Anything could happen at any time. Governments that look solid and stable, may not be. The President that is here today may be gone tomorrow in the prophetic "epicenter". As North and South Sudan split along religious lines last year (northern being Islam and southern being Christian) and the northern tier of Africa is prophesied to ally with the other Arab states and attack Israel in the last days in the Gog Magog war. The Mali situation is another indicator of rapid prophetic shifts in preparation for the end-game seismic shift we know as The Tribulation.