The Arabs and Armageddon

Submitted by Michael S (United States), May 27, 2015 at 10:58

Hi, Tovey.

I'm with you, on the things you've said here. One of them was:

Psalm 83's chapter is not completely closed yet. The final promises to Hagar remain incompleted.

For the sake of casual readers of this, the pertinent passage is:

Psalms 83:
[5] For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:
[6] The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes...

The promise to Hagar, in turn, is found here:

Genesis 16:
[1] Now Sarai Abram's wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.
[2] And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.
[3] And Sarai Abram's wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife.
[4] And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived: and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes.
[5] And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee: I have given my maid into thy bosom; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes: the LORD judge between me and thee.
[6] But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thy hand; do to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face.
[7] And the angel of the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur...

[11] And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.
[12] And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.

The Arabs of Mecca, including the Quraysh tribe, including the clan of Banu Abd Manaf (to which Muhammed belonged), claim descent from Ishmael and Hagar.; so this prophecy goes a long way in explaining many of the otherwise confusing happenings in the Middle East -- especially the part about the Muslim Arabs being against all men. As for his ultimately "dwelling in the presence of all his brethren (including Israel)", this might refer to what Isaiah said:

Isaiah 19:
[17] And the land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt, every one that maketh mention thereof shall be afraid in himself, because of the counsel of the LORD of hosts, which he hath determined against it.
[18] In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan, and swear to the LORD of hosts; one shall be called, The city of destruction.
[19] In that day shall there be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the LORD.
[20] And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt: for they shall cry unto the LORD because of the oppressors, and he shall send them a saviour, and a great one, and he shall deliver them.
[21] And the LORD shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the LORD in that day, and shall do sacrifice and oblation; yea, they shall vow a vow unto the LORD, and perform it.
[22] And the LORD shall smite Egypt: he shall smite and heal it: and they shall return even to the LORD, and he shall be intreated of them, and shall heal them.
[23] In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians.
[24] In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land:
[25] Whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance.

Note that this is not to come about because of any "Middle East Peace Process", but because

the land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt, every one that maketh mention thereof shall be afraid in himself, because of the counsel of the LORD of hosts, which he hath determined against it.

Middle East peace, according to Isaiah, will come about because of the awesome power and success of the State of Israel -- particularly of the "Occupied Territories" of Judea and Samaria, which the world calls the "West Bank". What Mahmoud Abbas is attempting in the UN, to have the West Bank and Gaza declared part of Arab Muslim "Palestine", free of Jews, is therefore contrary to the spirit of the Bible and will not succeed.

Also for the casual reader, "Assyria" was centered near the Iraqi city of Mosul, where a small group of Arabic- and Aramaean-speaking Arabs called "Assyrians" still practice an ancient sect of Christianity. Between them and the Christian Copts of Egypt, I think there is a seed of hope in Arab-Israeli reconciliation that includes also the Arabic-speaking Christian "Arameans" of Israel and perhaps also Arab Christians in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

Abbas, on the other hand, is trying to stir up the United Nations (literally, the "United Goiim" or "United Gentiles", or "the Heathen") against Israel, as it says,

Psalms 2:
[1] Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
[2] The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,
[3] Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
[4] He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.
[5] Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.
[6] Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.

God, of course, is the original "Zionist". Pss. 83:17, which you allude to, says,

Psalms 83:
[13] O my God, make them like a wheel; as the stubble before the wind.
[14] As the fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire;
[15] So persecute them with thy tempest, and make them afraid with thy storm.
[16] Fill their faces with shame; that they may seek thy name, O LORD.
[17] Let them be confounded and troubled for ever; yea, let them be put to shame, and perish:
[18] That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.

That passage does not refer specifically to just the "Palestinians", nor to the Arabs in general, but to all the "United Gentiles". It will be fulfilled according to the later verses of Zechariah 14, which passage begins,

Zech 14:
[1] Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
[2] 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.
[3] Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.

Long before that happens, I think Egypt and Assyria (modern-day Iraq and Syria) will cease to be "nations" -- the culmination of what we see already today with the anarchistic "Islamic Caliphate". I also believe this will happen after Turkey, Iran, Sudan and Libya, the "outer tier" of Israel's near neighbors, have been defeated by Israel (as per Ezekiel 38-39).

My thinking is, of course, colored by current events in the Middle East. I look forward to "Middle East Peace" as well as nearly all Israelis and mankind in general, so I look forward with eager expectation to see the transformation of the Arabs into friends of Israel. Perhaps we are witnessing the embryonic beginning of this change, in the political alignment of the Saudis and other Arabs against Iran. If this reconciliation runs its course, Israel will be at peace with its near neighbors, but at war with the rest of the world. That will be the situation at the "Battle of Armageddon", which Zech. 14 seems to allude to, and which is described in the book of Revelation:

Rev. 16:
[13] And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
[14] For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.
[15] Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
[16] And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.

This "Battle of Armageddon" seems also to be what was referred to elsewhere in Rev.:

Revelation 9:
[15] And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.
[16] And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.
[17] And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.
[18] By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.
[19] For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.
[20] And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:
[21] Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

I asked you about this in another post, concerning the breastplates and the identities of the nations involved. The colors of the flags of Israel's Arab neighbors are, along with white, "red, green and black"; whereas those amassed for the earth-shaking battle alluded to above are "red, blue and yellow" (lit. "fire, jacinth and brimstone") -- colors found severally or together in the flags of most East and Central Asian nations, as well as many Western flags such as those of the US, Britain and France.

I notice that the prophecy says even after a third of mankind is killed in the horrible "Armageddon" war, mankind will not repent of its sins. That's why I wonder about the exact nature of the "MIllennium' that is to follow this war; The deat in Messiah will rise, and together with him rule the nations "with a rod of iron", and there will be world "peace" for 1000 years. After that, the nations of the world will revolt and be defeated, then judged for their deeds and thrown forever into the Lake of Fire.

That's a long time from now; but I notice that as my own years go by, time passes more quickly than it used to. God bless and keep you.

Shalom shalom.

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