Posted on 07/23/2012 1:22:06 PM PDT by pastorbillrandles
“And there shall be no more a pricking brier unto the house of Israel, nor any grieving thorn of all that are round about them, that despised them; and they shall know that I am the Lord God.”(Ezekiel 28:24)
In view of this series on the Arab nations in Bible prophecy, we must look at Psalm 83. This is a Psalm that is a prayer of Israel, in fact a desperate prayer to God for help in view of an overwhelming attack by a confederation of Israel’s near neighbors who vow to erase Israel from the map.
Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God. The desperate nation pleads with the LORD, not to be silent in the face of this assault, As though there had been a period of silence. The supplicant is pleading with God to behold and to take action, to make a declaration of war! For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head. Because the enemies of Israel happen also to be enemies of the God of Israel. They make a tumult, raising awareness of their claims, ominously calling for war, for annihilation and destruction. They feel at this point that it is their time, and in their confidence, they lift up their head. They are united as never before, (Islam has united this once Balkanized region). They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones. Much consultation has gone into this particular assault. Evidently unique circumstances have come together to allow them to believe the previously unthinkable, they really believe their time is come. They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance. We have all been hearing such ranting from the massed demonstrations of Muslims around the World. This expression could be lifted from any sermon on any given Friday in the Muslim world. Or perhaps it could also have been lifted from the countless textbooks by which the young are poisoned to hate the Jews. Most Arab maps have no name of Israel on them; Arab lobbyists have succeeded in de legitimizing Israel in the eyes of the world. But at this point in the prayer the enemy is poised to act, they believe they can do it now! *For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes;
These make up the super Alliance…The Tents of Edom… That is either the refugee camps of the Jordanian Palestinians, or the Jordanian Military .The Ishmaelites of Moab…This would be the Arab Muslims of central Jordan, The Hagarenes…would be Egyptian Arabs.
*Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre;
Gebal…is an area north of Beirut, Lebanon, Amman is north Jordan. Amalek is south of the dead sea in the Jordanian desert. Amalek is known for it’s cowardly warfare against the children of Israel, following the Exodus, and sniping at the weak, tired ,at the old and at children. Sounds like modern Islamic terrorists.
Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt, how he attacked you on the way, when you were faint and weary, and cut off at your rear all who lagged behind you; and he did not fear God. Therefore when the LORD your God has given you rest from all your enemies round about, in the land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget.” (Deuteronomy 24:17-19)
The Philistines...these are the ones who live in the terrorist state of Gaza, they are not direct descendants of the original Philistines, rather they are Arabs who as of 1967 declared themselves to be a nation disenfranchised by Israel, the “Palestinians’. Tyre would be southern Lebanon, now controlled by a rabid Israel hater named Nassralah, who is the spiritual head of Hezbollah.
*Assur also is joined with them: they have holpen the children of Lot. Selah. Assur, are the Arabs who are now known as “Iraqi’s”, Sunni Muslims who have recently been ‘liberated’ by America, but are destined to join with the children of Lot, that is Ammon and Moab, northern and central Jordan.
This is the coming Arab Invasion, they are already making their tumult, agitating and terrorizing with new-found zeal, partly because of the oil money, partly because of the retreat and collapse of traditional restraints.
Deal with them as you did with Midian, with Sisera, with Jabin, at the brook Kishon, who were destroyed at Endor, who became dung for the field.Treat their great men like Oreb and Zeev, Like Zeba and Zalmuna…cover their faces with shame that they may seek your name O Lord.(Psalm 83:10-14)
Because we believe that the Psalms are the God-given expressions of the hopes, aspirations, prayers and worship of Israel, and Israel’s Messiah, we believe that these prayers are as sure to be answered by God as any other promise,or prophecy of scripture. “The Word of the Lord is sure, enduring forever…”(Psalm 19)
Therefore the fate of Israel’s near neighbors is grim. God himself has inspired the requests of this desperate plea for deliverance and shall surely answer these cries in due time. What would such answers look like?
“Deal with them as you did with Midian, Sisera, as to Jabin at the brook Kishon”.
The Psalmist was led to pray for a repeat of the battle recorded in Judges 4 and 5 in which God used women in prominent roles to lead Israel’s hosts to destroy an Arab multitude. Deborah the prophetess mobilized the ragtag army of Israel, after they had suffered 20 years of grinding oppression.
She received the Word of the Lord, which was a battle plan to overcome the advantage the Arabs enjoyed in superior armor,(900 chariots). They were to be drawn into the swollen, flooded plain of the Kishon brook, thus nullifying the chariot mobility.
Sisera, the Arab commander, fled the battle on foot, to save his life, and came upon the tent camp of an ally. Jael, the wife of the ally invited the exhausted Sisera into her tent, seemingly to hide him, and plied him with warm milk . This put him to sleep, enabling her to drive a tent stake through his temple!
The Psalmist is asking God for a replay of this upon the Arab coalition! What a shame for an Arab to be slain by a woman! How humiliating for one in an honor /shame based culture to be killed this way! Somehow or other this will happen to Israel’s enemies again in the last days.
There is also an obvious connection with the primal prophecy in this story, for we are told that it is “the seed of the woman…” who will indeed “crush the serpent’s head”! Jael is praised in much the same way Mary was when she miraculously conceived the ultimate head crusher,
Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber be, blessed shall she be above women in the tent. He asked water, and she gave him milk, she brought forth butter in a lordly dish. She put her hand to the nail, and her right hand to the workman’s hammer, she smote Sisera, she smote off his head, when she had pierced and stricken through his temples” (judges 5:24-25)
There is no doubt in my mind that the confederacy forming against Israel is Satanic, it is being called in the name of a false God, a bloodthirsty pagan totalitarian System that seeks to enslave the whole world.
The Prayer for Israel is that as Deborah, Barak, and Jael were empowered to crush Sisera’s serpent head, so also would Israel prevail in the last days.
Make their Nobles like Oreb and Zeev – their princes like Zeba and Zalmuna (Psalm 83:11)
This is a reference to a later war, also fought to overthrow Arab conquerors. It was in the days when God raised up Gideon to be a Judge and a Saviour for Israel. But first God reduced the army to a mere 300 men. When the “innumerable hosts” of Arabs were utterly routed , they were chased out of the Holy land and scattered. Their leaders, the Arab princes, Oreb and Zeeb were beheaded.
Of particular interest were the Arab princes Zeba and Zalmuna, who were hunted down, captured and slain, by Gideon himself. We are then given the detail, that Gideon
“…Took away the crescent shaped ornaments off of their camels necks…”(Judges 8:21)
The crescent moon was the symbol of the pagan God Sin, who later was known as Bel, then Habul, the Nabatean moon-god who eventually morphed into Allah. The prayer is specific,”…Do unto them as you did unto Zeba and Zalmuna…”.The request involves the destruction both of the princes, and the symbol of the false religion those princes waged war on behalf of, against God’s “hidden Ones”.
Because the evil confederacy arrogates to itself the land which God gave to Israel, God is asked to “make them as the stubble before the wind”.
Who said let us take the houses of God for our possession, O My God make them like a wheel…as the stubble before the wind, as the fire burns a wood and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire.”(Psalm 83:13-14)
The inspired Psalmist asked that this conflict would not only bring judgment to the Arab confederacy, but that it would set “all of the mountains” on fire, (mountains are prophetic symbols of human governments).
The world leaders know full well that the Arab Israeli conflict has had the potential to set all of the world on a course of war, and destruction, this is why the U.N. spends more than a third of it’s time discussing it.
A horrible destruction is coming to the Arab world, but it shall eventually involve all of the world. In Joel 3 God says He will bring “all nations down to the valley of Jehoshaphat” to plead with them there for parting his land and “casting lots” to determine the fate of his people.
I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.And they have cast lots for my people; and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.(Joel 3:2-3)
The answer to these pleadings will provoke a conflict that will eventually lead to the total destruction of Arab capitols such as Damascus and Amman, and will eventually lead to the near destruction of Jerusalem, setting the whole world on a course of fire and destruction, which will necessitate the return of Jesus himself!
Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.(Zechariah 14:1-3)
The embattled Israel pleads with her God, the LORD to utterly shame those who unite against her very existence. Twice she prays that her enemies be shamed. This is interesting because the Arabic Islamic culture is a shame based society, and as the cartoon fiasco has shown us, there is nothing they fear more than being shamed.
Cover their faces with shame, that they may seek thy name ,O lord, let them be confounded and troubled forever; yea let them be put to shame, and perish …(Psalm 83:17)
Twice the Psalmist prays that the enemies who attack Israel be shamed, but I see a glimmer of hope even in these grim imprecations.
When he prays for them to be shamed the first time, it is that they may seek God’s name. In other words he is praying for their conviction and repentance unto salvation. It is my belief that there are millions trapped in the prison that is Islam who will yet be liberated and saved unto God by Jesus Christ.
But the second prayer that they be shamed has a more ominous ring to it, “Let them be confounded and troubled forever, let them be put to shame and perish…”. For those who are set in their ways, confirmed in the “Everlasting hatred”, sold out to the glory of the moon god, and the promise of 72 virgins, nothing awaits but the terror of “everlasting shame and contempt” spoken of by Daniel the prophet.
As for the Jews and for the Muslim world, so shall it be for the whole world, the next dreadful war shall force upon all nations a choice, neutrality will not be an option. By this fulfillment of this prophetic word, God is calling all men everywhere to repentance, as is brought out in the last verse of this Psalm,
That men may know that you, whose name is Jahweh are the most high over all the earth. (Psalm 83:18)
Very interesting information.
ping for later study. Some good stuff!
I pray that the Lord will not tarry but will soon come to judge those who mock HIM and slay his people.
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