One of the most discussed topics in the Jewish and prophetic world at this time is the tragic, although not shocking, death of Ariel Sharon.
Sharon was a highly admired Israeli for numerous reasons. His military career began early, fighting with his unit at the Battle for Jerusalem in 1947, with his career following into the Suez War and the Six-Day War.
Sharon began his political career aligning himself primarily with the Likud, or the center-right political party. In 1975 he became a special aid to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. He planned his own run in the 1977, although both the Likud and the Israeli Labour Party (The Social-democratic, Zionist political party) turned down his bid to run. Sharon in turn formed a new group, the Shlomtzion, winning two seats in Knesset (The legislative branch of the Israeli government.) Immediately after the elections, he merged his party with the Likud party, in turn awarding him a seat as the Minister of Agriculture.
When Sharon began his career, he had very little political experience. He used his influence at this time to support Israeli settlements in “occupied territories” to stop the return of the Palestinians. During this time, the number of Jewish settlements on the West Bank and Gaza Strip doubled. Sharon is quoted as saying: “Everybody has to move, run and grab as many (Judean) hilltops as they can to enlarge the (Jewish) settlements because everything we take now will stay ours. … Everything we don’t grab will go to them.”
Sharon went on to hold many offices, including Minister of defense (1981-1982), a minister without portfolio (1983–1984), Minister for Trade and Industry (1984–1990), and Minister of Housing Construction (1990–1992). During Netanyahu’s 1996-1999 regime, he was made Minister of National Infrastructure (1996-1998) and Foreign Minister (1998-1999).
In 1998, Bush travelled to Israel on tour. It was there he met Ariel Sharon, Foreign Minister at the time. That morning, Bush had prayed at the Wailing Wall, and 3 individuals approached him, insisting that he run for office, believing he would be elected the next President of the United States. That evening, Sharon hosted Bush on a helicopter flying over Israel. It was during this meeting that Bush made a strange prediction: Bush declared Sharon would become the next Prime Minister of Israel, and Bush would become the next President of the United States. These words, although perhaps brash at the time, would later come to pass.
Sharon served as Prime Minister from 2001 to 2005. His lifestyle consisted of a poor diet, and he was well known in Israel for his obesity. On Dec 18, 2005, Sharon was hospitalized after suffering a stroke. During his hospital stay he was diagnosed with severe heart problems that would require treatment. The day before surgery, Sharon suffered from another, more severe, stroke; although the doctors managed to stop the bleeding in his brain, but could not stop the ensuing coma. The announcement of Sharon’s death came on January 11th of this year, 2014; and although it is always a sad event to lose such a great man, it is said his brain and other organs would have been severely affected by the coma even had he recovered.
But how does Ariel Sharon’s death have anything to do with prophecy? To answer this question we must examine the final years of Rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri. Yitzhak Kaduri was a widely honored, brilliant sage, who offered two prophecies upon his death. First, “[The Messiah will return to his people shortly after the death of Ariel Sharon].” (This is a rough interpretation, as the original Jewish wording could not be found.)
The second, a more controversial prophecy, was his announcement of the Messiah. Kaduri prepared a note upon his death, to be opened a year after. The note reads:
ירים העם ויוכיח שדברו ותורתו עומדי
“He will raise the people and confirm that his word and law are standing.”
This message is, again, referring to the Messiah. In Hebrew, the acronym suggests the name Yehoshua, or Yeshua, the Hebrew version of Jesus. Thus, Kaduri prophesied that the Messiah would return and raise his people and that this would happen after Ariel Sharon’s death. Of course, this goes against the belief of traditional Judaism, which stands by the belief that Jesus was emphatically not the Messiah. One reason for this is because Judaism teaches that God and man are so fundamentally different, that God is so beyond humanity, that he could not possibly become a human.
I do not have an answer to these prophecies; however, I will say that as of 5:14 PM on January 13, 2014, the Messiah has yet to come. Therefore you still have time to get right with the Messiah, who a man much greater than I stated was Yeshua, or in the English, Jesus.
-Jonathan Stone
Alex Infohub 