Sons of Issachar Newsletter: December 3, 2025
1. Israel, Gaza, and the Dividing of the Land
UN General Assembly demands Israel withdraw to 1967 lines
The UN General Assembly passed yet another resolution calling on Israel to withdraw from all territories occupied since 1967 — including East Jerusalem — and affirming the “inalienable rights” of the Palestinian people, including statehood and a “just solution” for refugees (151 nations in favor, 11 opposed). See coverage at IMEMC and Jordan News.
The nations continue to pressure Israel toward a partition that resembles the “international consensus” on a Palestinian state. For believers, this resonates with warnings about those who “divide up My land” (see Joel 3:1–3) and with Zechariah 12:2–3, where Jerusalem becomes a burdensome stone for all peoples.
Knesset symbolically endorses Trump’s Gaza peace plan
In Jerusalem, the Knesset held a symbolic vote to endorse President Trump’s 20-point plan to end the two-year war in Gaza. Prime Minister Netanyahu’s governing coalition largely skipped the vote to avoid internal splits, but the motion still passed with 39 votes in favor and none against; opposition leader Yair Lapid immediately hailed it as Israel officially adopting the plan. See Reuters.
The framework includes ceasefire arrangements, future governance questions, and language about Palestinian statehood — all in the land where God has sworn specific promises to Israel. It is hard not to think of end-times “peace” proposals that ultimately set the stage for a deceptive covenant (see Daniel 9:27; 1 Thessalonians 5:3).
Rafah crossing set to reopen under ceasefire framework
Israel announced that the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt — Gaza’s main gate to the outside world — will reopen in the coming days. Thousands of Palestinians needing urgent medical care are waiting to leave, and the reopening is framed as part of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire plan that has largely halted open warfare since October. The crossing is to be operated in coordination with Egypt and supervised by an EU mission, similar to earlier arrangements this year; see Reuters.
This is a reminder that even in judgment and war, humanitarian concerns and mercy still matter to God. At the same time, the fact that movement in and out of an entire territory can be switched “on” or “off” by a handful of officials foreshadows the kind of control envisioned in Revelation 13:16–17, where buying, selling, and basic life functions are tightly regulated by an end-times system.
Plan to divide Gaza into “green” and “red” zones
Reporting this week highlighted U.S.-backed plans for “alternative safe communities” in Gaza — compounds of container housing that could hold tens of thousands of people each. Under this concept, Gaza would effectively be divided into an Israeli-controlled “green zone” and a Hamas-controlled “red zone,” with reconstruction focused on the Israeli-controlled areas. Critics warn this could lead to a permanent partition and create pressure on Palestinians to relocate into tightly controlled zones. See Al Jazeera.
Again, we see the land carved up, populations displaced, and “safe zones” managed by outside powers. The Bible warns about nations scattering Israel and tampering with the land (see Joel 3), and more broadly, we see a pattern of technocratic management of people groups that mirrors the kind of top-down control anticipated in final-generation prophecy.
2. Wars and Rumors of Wars: Venezuela and Beyond
U.S. air and naval buildup around Venezuela
Prophecy-oriented sites picked up on growing U.S. military pressure on Venezuela this week. End Time Headlines reports that President Trump has declared the airspace over Venezuela “to be closed in its entirety” as the U.S. ramps up lethal strikes and threatens further action. The piece notes warnings to airlines, pilots, and traffickers to steer clear of the area as tensions rise.
At the same time, mainstream outlets like Al Jazeera and Reuters describe both Trump’s airspace declaration and a parallel tug-of-war over deportation flights and sanctions. The result is an unstable mix of military posturing, migration politics, and control over vast oil reserves.
Jesus warned that in the last days “nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom” (Luke 21:10–11). While believers should avoid sensationalism, it is prudent to recognize that great-power confrontations over resources and strategic regions are exactly the sort of flashpoints that could rapidly reshape the global order.
3. Earthquakes and Birth Pains
Nearly 500 earthquakes in Alaska in seven days
Newsweek notes that Alaska has experienced nearly 500 earthquakes in just one week, including a magnitude 6.0 quake near Susitna that rattled the Anchorage area around Thanksgiving. While seismologists stress that Alaska is naturally active and this week is not unprecedented historically, the raw number — hundreds of quakes, several felt by residents — has caught attention.
Jesus specifically mentioned earthquakes in “various places” as part of the birth-pain pattern leading up to His return (Matthew 24:7–8). On their own, any one quake swarm may be ordinary geology. But in a world already marked by war, pestilence, and moral chaos, these repeated reminders of creation’s groaning (see Romans 8:19–22) are worth noting.
4. Surveillance, Kill-Switches, and the Rising “Beast System” Infrastructure
Facial recognition’s “trust problem” and the risk of abuse
A detailed piece at SecurityWeek explores why public trust in facial recognition remains so low. It distinguishes between two primary uses: mass surveillance in public spaces versus controlled access to buildings and secure areas. In particular, it highlights how surveillance systems often scrape images without consent, store them in vast databases, and share them with agencies and companies in opaque ways — sometimes in violation of privacy laws, as seen in the case of Clearview AI in Europe. We’ve previously covered how cameras are now prevalent along interstates, how ring cameras have been defaulted to opt in for sharing your video in the past, and how governments can buy data they can’t legally gather firsthand.
Even when companies tout “privacy-first” systems that convert faces into non-reversible blobs of data for access control, the broader reality is that millions of cameras and watchlists now track people’s movements in real time. Such systems are attractive tools for any future authoritarian regime. For believers, this sounds uncomfortably close to the kind of pervasive identification and tracking infrastructure that could undergird a mark-of-the-beast economy (Revelation 13:16–17).
Remote vehicle “kill-switches”: Porsche cars in Russia turned into bricks
Another story this week illustrates how technological control can move from the digital realm into physical reality. In Russia, hundreds of Porsche owners suddenly found their vehicles undriveable after a failure in the factory-installed satellite-based security system. Reports from The Moscow Times and UNITED24 Media describe engines shutting down, fuel delivery blocked, and cars effectively “turning into bricks” as the Vehicle Tracking System went offline.
Technicians say the only fix, for now, involves manually rebooting or disabling the alarm modules. Dealers have acknowledged the possibility that the system could be deliberately used to immobilize vehicles, even if in this case they have not proven intentional sabotage.
Canadian anti-corruption advocate and former police officer Donald Best highlighted the story on X, warning that this kind of remote control could easily be turned against citizens in Western countries. In his words: “Engines dead. Electronics locked out. No warning. Speculation is that the German automaker acted on EU orders. Porsche isn’t denying it.” (Donald Best on X)
Whether or not EU authorities actually ordered this specific shutdown, the bigger point is clear: modern cars, appliances, phones, thermostats, light bulbs, air conditioners, humidifiers, teddy bears, and even farm equipment and more are increasingly “software-defined” and remotely controllable. The same circuitry that can locate a stolen vehicle can, in principle, disable a non-compliant one. In the wrong hands, (Governments hackers, disgruntled employees, AI…) that becomes a powerful lever for coercion.
It does not take much imagination to see how such technological kill-switches fit into a broader “beast system” — a world where access to transportation, energy, communication, and commerce can be turned off with a keystroke for those who refuse to bow to the prevailing ideology.
Closing thoughts
These headlines can feel overwhelming: Israel under pressure to retreat to pre-1967 lines while new “peace plans” redraw Gaza; great-power tensions from the Middle East to Venezuela and heightened tensions in Ukraine; earthquakes reminding us of creation’s groaning; and the ever-expanding web of surveillance, biometric systems, and remote kill-switches that make up the emerging control grid.
Yet Scripture tells us at least three crucial things:
None of this surprises God. He declared the end from the beginning (see Isaiah 46:9–10). History is not spinning out of control; it is converging toward His appointed purposes.
These are birth pains, not the final word. Jesus said, “When you hear of wars and tumults, do not be terrified… these things must first take place” (Luke 21:9). Birth pains are real and painful, but they point to something glorious: the coming kingdom.
Our response is watchfulness, holiness, and witness. We are called to be sober-minded, not naive; hopeful, not panicked; and bold in the gospel, not silent. While the world scrambles for counterfeit security, we hold out the true refuge: Jesus Christ crucified, risen, and returning.
“See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet” (Matthew 24:6). May we be like the men of Issachar, understanding the times and knowing what God’s people ought to do — not merely as news consumers, but as disciples on a mission and the clock is running.