Horns of Light 9- From Petra to North Vietnam

Welcome to the Horns of Light Chronicles. Peter Berbalis chronicles his family story, prophecy, and testimony. God's story unfolds, from his grandfather in Lithuania, Nazi Germany, the Russian Revolution, to Ronald Reagan in the fall of the Berlin Wall, the gospel spreading across Eastern Europe, how God called Peter to Petra, Jordan, and so much more as prophecy and testimonies unfold.

And now, the Horns of Light Chronicles. And how that's led to so many different things. And all of this is, when you think about it, washed all of our eyes as we make these connections to see his majesty. And I think that describes a lot of it, doesn't it, Pete?

Yeah, I really do. I mean, it's just amazing when, you know, the two or three the Lord brings together, and just all the stories that give us a greater picture, and that's kind of the beauty of the gathering of the body of Christ, is that we get to see more of that picture. We get to see less of the dim and more of him, I guess, in some ways when we gather as a group and bring these stories together.

So I guess we'll start by kind of backtracking a little bit going into last week. And just what really stuck out to me is after we talked, I went through and listened to all of your recordings related to the Song of Solomon. And one thing that really hit me was you kind of mentioned kind of this crush you had on a girl and how it related to Song of Solomon. And what I really felt struck by, not only is that how the Lord feels towards you, but that's really how the Lord feels towards the nation of Israel and his people.

That was his first love. And just, you know, that he has a plan for Israel and for gathering his people back together towards him. And what was also interesting to me in reading that comment or listening to those clips that you have was just that one of them, you pointed out the King James version when it talks to dwelling in the cliffs of the rock. And what was really interesting to me about that is it mentioned stairs. And when you address that verse you talked about stairs. And what's really significant about Petra is there's tons of stairs carved into the rock to get you.

And I guess backing up that morning of Habakkuk 3 that led to me going downstairs with my wife and that kind of quick sketch that she did about the Lord bearing his bow. What stuck out to me out of that was Habakkuk 3-3 and the earth is full of his praise. And I really felt like this next time when we went to Israel and Jordan that I was supposed to go to the high place of sacrifice where, you know, for God only knows what happened at that place thousands of years ago, and that I was supposed to release a praise to the Lord from that place.

So there was just such a lot of just interesting stuff that ended up playing out to me and kind of bringing kind of a clear picture of Petra. And also in our last time we talked mentioned Obadiah. And what's interesting to me is Song of Solomon talked about cliffs of the rock. And then when you go to Obadiah, Obadiah talks to you who dwell in the cliffs of the rock. But that's specific to Edom and Petra being the capital of Edom, a place of Esau. So that really links the kind of parabolic into an actual place. And as I studied that out a little bit more, it went also to Jeremiah 49-16, which kind of talks about that final day of wrath and judgment to the nations. Edom is listed as one of those places where God's judgment comes. So it's just interesting that there's just more of linking it to a specific place from Song of Solomon.

And that scene also is part of what Habakkuk 3.3 led into Song of Solomon 2.12, where it talks about the time for singing has come. And in your thing you talked about the doves and a new season. And what was strange, even a couple years ago before I went to Israel the first time, two doves on my way to work, two white doves came flying across the road. And the very next day, two white doves again, and never happened again. And it was very noteworthy because it's in the middle of farm fields where you wouldn't expect to see in that area the colorful gray doves, but not the white doves.

No, I agree. That's wild. And then I went into a prayer room and they were singing about doves eyes, you know, related to Song of Solomon and that's when kind of that connection came. And so there's just, it's kind of that big swirl, and it was just really interesting to me on how kind of that, you know, that very first crush that you have or whatever there's all these feelings and emotions that are tapped into and conjured up.

It doesn't mean that you love your current wife any less. It's just that there's those emotions that are stirred up for that very first time. And that just, I think, is just representative of, you know, the Gentile church and the Jewish people that the Lord loves dearly.

So that's kind of a lot. And then what was also interesting to me in studying the Cliffs of the Rock, it's not the exact same word that you didn't have the kick, but it took me to Moses, and where he desires to see, to have the Lord show him his face, and the Lord places him in the Cliffs of the Rock. So that's where the Lord kind of reveals his glory or himself to Moses, you could say, so it just kind of continues that this kind of, to me, being possibly the place where, you know, the Jewish people recognize their need for Jesus, and that he was the Messiah, as at least one of those places, if not the place.

So that was interesting to me. And maybe just one other side note to go down to is to talk about Paul and Petra. What we can kind of know from Galatians 1 verses 12 through 17 is that after Paul, he talks about after, you know, his experience with the light, being engulfed by the light, he didn't go to Jerusalem to meet the other disciples, he said, I went to Arabia.

Well, at that time, Arabia, the capital of Arabia was Petra, and King Aretas is mentioned in 2 Corinthians 11 verses 32 to 33, who actually likely built that stadium where that beam of light came down in that picture when went there in 2019. And it's just interesting to me, because Paul usually went to the center of a city and preached the gospel, he was an evangelist to the core, so to think that he was, as he was receiving this revelation from the Lord that he just remained silent over these, I forget how many years, I think, three years in Arabia, I don't remember that to be exact. But that likely, you know, he was preaching the gospel and it's just interesting to surmise that maybe he was standing at that very location, because that is the stadium area that was built to hold a few thousand people. And he had done something to upset King Aretas, so much so that in 2 Corinthians 11, it talks, I think that's the passage where he has to be kind of taken out on with a basket or he's fleeing from him. So it's just more interesting stuff that that's also where Paul receives possibly, you know, his revelation of Christ, and then he goes up to meet Peter in Jerusalem after that, and he talks about, I think that's Ephesians, I can't remember exactly where he talks about that, that might be Ephesians. And then what's also interesting to me is just that in Romans 9, at the start of, I think started Romans 9, where Paul talks about wishing that he could lose his salvation for the sake of Israel, his brothers. So that's how passionate his desire was to see the nation of Israel, or his Jewish brethren come to Christ.

So it's just, there's just a lot of things that kind of swirl. Yeah, I was going to say that, as I was listening, I mean, that's quite a Bible drill, by the way. For those of you trying to turn to all those passages, you know, I admire you, you know, you're gonna have to work at it because he's got them covered. But, you know, heading back to Song of Solomon 2.14, it's the secret place of the stairs.

Interesting. That, you know, as I'm listening to all this, that God is clearly pointing to a lot of things that all connect for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. And so like so many, that's why I love the Word of God Speak song, because it does wash your eyes to see what other people could not see. And when you see it, whatever that may be, when you're studying Scripture this morning, or maybe tomorrow, you know when all of a sudden God just washes your eyes so that you can see a secret. And then it's just, it's something special for you, right? Yeah.

That's your nugget, you cherish it. You go down that place with him, because he shares it with you in a secret place. And, you know, to just totally go off the subject, but it relates to me, one of my, probably would always be my favorite interview I've ever done on any show that I've ever done over 18 years in radio business, is one time the Billy Graham Association called me and they wanted me to do an interview with this Vietnamese pastor. They didn't tell me why, they just told me that he was coming and that he was coming with three interpreters, which I thought was a little bit strange.

Wow. And so here they came to the studio some Saturday, and I thought, you know, Billy Graham has lots of radio stations, so why in the world are they sending him to the Truth Network, which we're down in Winston-Salem down the hill from Billy Graham, so to speak in a lot of ways. And so here they come, you know, and so they didn't speak any English at all, and neither did the three interpreters much, okay? So, you know, I'm sitting there with him and I have no idea, and so I just opened with a question, I was like, pastor, you know, clearly the Billy Graham wanted you to come on, you know, my show, but what, you feel like God wants you to tell my audience. And he's speaking Vietnamese, and I don't mean to make fun of him in any way, it was just what it sounded like, he was like, you know, and all these noises that made no sense to me. And then, of course, the interpreters talking about it, and I know the listeners were like, what in the world, you know? And then the interpreter says one word of all this discussion that they've just had for the last two minutes, and he says, prison. And I was like, so he was in prison, and of course, they talked for another two minutes to tell me, yes, he was in prison. And so just being Robbie Dilmore, you know, I'm thinking through it, and I was like, okay, North Vietnamese prison, I'm thinking, you know, Rambo 2 or 3, whichever one it was where he was in the prison, you know, he was in this swamp with all these leeches on him.

I don't know if you remember the episode, but anyway, so I said, well, you know, when I picture a prison in North Vietnam, I picture, you know, Rambo in this swamp with the, you know, leeches, and they're like, well, yeah, lake. I said, so you were in a lake? Yeah, he was in a lake. How long were you in this lake?

And I could be wrong, but if I'm not mistaken, it was for seven years. Oh, my goodness. And you never got out of the lake?

No. He was in that lake. I said, what did you eat? What was in the lake? How did you sleep?

Standing up. What did you drink? What was in the lake? How many people were in there with you?

About a thousand. Oh, my goodness. I said, oh, and again, it was broken English and a very difficult conversation to have under the circumstances, but it was so powerful because it was like, what was it like? He said, well, people were dying, you know, they carried him out by the wheelbarrow every night because, you know, you can't eat that food and you can't drink that water. Right?

Because there's a thousand people been living in this thing for years. I'm just mortified in so many things, yeah. And the guy looked, I mean, he was small, but he was healthy looking and he'd only been out of it for about two months. And so I looked at him and I said, you know, anytime that God's had me go through anything like that, he gave me something really special. I said, what did he give you?

Because I know he gave you something. And he said, he gave him the 91st Psalm. And so if you want to treat, you know, since you've been doing a Bible drill, if you've been listening, go read the 91st Psalm if you've been standing in a prison for years, standing in a lake for years.

It will blow your mind. And the way he described it is he didn't know that Psalm when he went in, but he had it memorized when he came out. Of course, there was no Bibles in the... And then I looked at him and this was the pointed moment that I will never forget. And actually, due to time, I guess we're going to have to end the episode on this as you think about it. But this is what I said, what God revealed to me as I was sitting there talking to the man.

It was a secret that he shared with me. I said, Pastor, I'm not shocked that God could keep you alive in the lake for seven years like that. What makes me weep, and it did make me weep that day, and it still makes me weep to think about it, is there were 999 other people in that lake that probably deserved some of them to be there.

In other words, rapists, murderers, whatever else they were. If they were in that lake and they were probably going to die in that lake, God sent them a pastor. That's just amazing. Because I asked him, how did he get out? And he goes, well, I kept on leading these people.

And again, this was a long, extended conversation. He said the reason they took me out of the lake was because I was leading so many people to Christ. Oh my goodness. Right? Oh my Lord.

Wow. You see, all those people that he was leading to Christ, the grace of that is unbelievable. And it's like, when you think about it, Israel's turned his back on his son for years.

But it didn't matter. He's going to keep sending Pete or whoever to Petra or whatever we've got to do. Right? To continue to pray for Israel. You know, they may deserve to be in the prison and exile that they're in, but believe me, God's sending pastors.

He's absolutely doing it. I hate we're out of time, but thank you, Pete. Thank you. Awesome stuff. And we will be back next week. God bless. God bless.