Today’s Israel in Psalm 83 and other Old Testament Prophecies

Now, when we look at this, there are a number of prophetic passages which come to mind. I am going to go through some of them.

The first one is Psalm 83, a Psalm of Asaf. I’ll read from the first verse. It says,

Psalm 83

Do not keep silent, O God!
Do not hold Your peace,
And do not be still, O God!
² For behold, Your enemies make a tumult;
And those who hate You have lifted up their head.
³ They have taken crafty counsel against Your people,
And consulted together against Your sheltered ones.
⁴ They have said, “Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation,
That the name of Israel may be remembered no more.”

⁵ For they have consulted together with one consent;
They form a confederacy against You:
⁶ The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites;
Moab and the Hagrites;
⁷ Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek;
Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre;
⁸ Assyria also has joined with them;
They have helped the children of Lot. Selah

⁹ Deal with them as with Midian,
As with Sisera,
As with Jabin at the Brook Kishon,
¹⁰ Who perished at En Dor,
Who became as refuse on the earth.
¹¹ Make their nobles like Oreb and like Zeeb,
Yes, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,
¹² Who said, “Let us take for ourselves
The pastures of God for a possession.”

¹³ O my God, make them like the whirling dust,
Like the chaff before the wind!
¹⁴ As the fire burns the woods,
And as the flame sets the mountains on fire,
¹⁵ So pursue them with Your tempest,
And frighten them with Your storm.
¹⁶ Fill their faces with shame,
That they may seek Your name, O Lord.
¹⁷ Let them be confounded and dismayed forever;
Yes, let them be put to shame and perish,
¹⁸ That they may know that You, whose name alone is the Lord,
Are the Most High over all the earth.

Psalm 83

Some would say this is a general Psalm which speaks about the hostility of these nations. All of these nations, if you check them out, are countries which surround Israel. Moab is Jordan and Philistia is obviously Palestine and areas with Palestinian inhabitants, that’s Lebanon, Assyria that’s Syria and the north of Iraq.

So, you’ve got countries which are surrounding Israel and these come against Israel. You could say that’s happened already in this war of independence in 1948 and in 1967 all these forces came against Israel.

There are some who say that this is a future war as well; it’s speaking about some event which is going to happen. It’s possible.

One thing you notice about this is that say they are enemies. Your enemies … those who hate you have lifted up their head. So, the people behind this are not just Israel’s enemies, they’re God’s enemies, which tells you that something of the spirit of anti-Semitism, of hatred against Israel is not just a political or a humanistic force, there is a spiritual power behind it. It’s a demonic power and there is power behind Satan who hates God, who hates Israel, and who hates believers in Jesus behind this force which is coming against them.

The enemies make crafty counsel against the Lord, they consult together and their aim is very clear: they said, “Come, let us cut them off from being a nation that the name of Israel may be remembered no more“. The purpose behind this is not just to get a Palestinian state to live alongside Israel. The purpose behind this is to remove Israel from the map.

One of the things you need to know about the current political situation in the Middle East is: you have two approaches from the Palestinians. One is the ‘Peace Program’ which goes along with the Oslo Accords, which is now motivating the Palestinian Authority, up to a point. I have to say that ‘not totally but in theory’ they believe that their aim is to have a Palestinian State alongside Israel.

If you look behind the scenes you find that once they get the Palestinian State they want to use that to destroy the rest of Israel and to have a Palestine from the Jordan to the Mediterranean (From the river to the Sea). There’s evidence that even Arafat had that idea at the time when he made the Oslo Accords back in 1993. In principle however, they say that they want a Palestinian State alongside Israel.

Hamas rejects it. They don’t want a Palestinian State alongside Israel. They want a Palestinian state to replace Israel and not just a Palestinian State, an Islamic fundamentalist State. So, they want to have a state which will remove Israel from the land. That’s what Hezbollah wants, that’s what Iran wants as well.

Therefore, you have this force which is calling for the destruction, the end of the State of Israel, that ‘the name of Israel may be remembered no more’. It is interesting to note that the name of Israel, ‘Israel’ ישראל [yšrʾl], means ‘Prince with God‘. Israel is the only country which has the name of God in its name. Again, you’ve got this force against Israel, the only country which has its history written about prophetically in the past, and which is being fulfilled today.

You have prophecies in Ezekiel and Jeremiah, and other prophecies which speak about the scattering of Israel to the nations, and the return of the Jews at the end of days. The reason why many Christians are interested is not just because of the prophecy, but also because of our identification with the Jewish people, our prayers for them, because we see the fulfilment of Bible prophecy in the return of the Jews to the land of Israel.

Part of the program to remove Israel is also part of the program to stop the Second Coming of Jesus. There is a connection here; we have people who are against Jesus, who are against God, and who are also against Israel.

And if you study the philosophy behind Islamic fundamentalists, you find that they’re all against the God of the Bible, they’re against Israel, and they’re against the true believers in Jesus the Messiah.

They’ve got another god, they’ve got another Jesus (Isa) but it’s not the real God. These people are coming against Israel, and they’re coming against God.

The Psalm goes on to speak about Zebah and Zalmunna in interesting little verse which says,

¹¹ … Yes, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,
¹² Who said, “Let us take for ourselves
The pastures of God for a possession.” Psalm 83.11-12

What does that mean? It means: ‘Let’s take for ourselves what God has given to somebody else and make it ours’.

Can you see that? ‘Let’s take what God has given to Israel’. Now, you could ask: ‘Why should God give the land to Israel?‘ Well, it’s up to God, isn’t it? The Bible does say that God made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that He would give to Abraham and to his descendants the title deeds of ownership over the land of Israel. The Bible also says that, even if they’re scattered to the ends of the earth, He is going to bring them back to the land of Israel. It’s God’s business. If God says that that’s what He says, and God has preserved the Jewish people, He has brought them back to the land of Israel,

Now, we’ve got another group of people saying ‘let’s go against this, let’s take the pastures of God for ourselves, let’s make it our place‘. According to Islam, the Muslims believe that the world is divided into two main parts. One is called the Dar al-harb دار الحرب which means ‘the abode of the enemy’, the other is called the ‘abode of Islam’ or ‘the house of Islam’ Dar al-Islam دار الإسلام. In the house of Islam, Muslims rule over the country or territory and it has to accept Muslim rules. In the house or abode of the enemy, Muslims rule Muslims as people who are under a hostile force. The goal of Jihad جِهَاد is to turn the Dar al-harb, ‘the house of the enemy’ into the Dar al-Islam to make it Islamic.

But According to Islamic teaching, once a country has become Islamic, it should remain Islamic until the end of days.

So, in the house of Islam then, Muslims rule, Jews and Christians are allowed to have their position but they have to be under Muslim rule and have to do what the Muslims tell them. You can’t have Jews or Christians ruling over Muslims, it goes against their idea of history.

It’s also why one of the statements about the Six Day War from an Islamic fundamentalist at the al Azhar University, which is the high place of Islam, is telling, he said that ‘this (defeat of Islamic forces by Israel) is a contradiction of the march of History‘.

We now have Jews ruling over Jerusalem. ‘It’s ours, it’s Muslim‘, Muslims say. ‘They (Jews) can’t rule over Jerusalem, it has to return to the Muslims‘, they keep repeating. That is why actually there can never be a total peace between Islam and Israel. There can be those who will go along with it but, ultimately, because there’s an ideology behind Islam which says that ‘this is our place, this is the house of Islam’ and now you have Jews ruling it, ruling over Muslims, it all goes against the march of History.

You these guys, Zebah and Zalmunna, saying ‘let’s take to ourselves the pastures of God for a possession‘. Who were Zebah and Zalmunna? Probably not a regular subject in Bible teaching but you will find that, actually, Zebah and Zalmunna were the kings of Midian who came against Israel in the days of Gideon. In Judges chapter 8 you read how Gideon fought against them and, in the end, Gideon was successful and defeated them.

Judges 8

And in judges 8.21 it says,

²¹ So Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Rise yourself, and kill us; for as a man is, so is his strength.” So Gideon arose and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and took the crescent ornaments that were on their camels’ necks. Judges 8.21

That little detail about the crescent ornaments is interesting. It only comes in the New King James Version, but the Hebrew word is saharon הַשַּׂהֲרֹנִים [haśśahărōnîm] which does mean crescent ornaments.

Why would they make ‘crescent ornaments’? Was it a dedication to their God, the crescent moon?

Interestingly, Allah, in pre-Islamic times, was the moon God in that part of the world.

So, Muhammad took this name for his god and you have these guys who are coming against Israel with a crescent moon as their symbol.

Today, you have people coming against Israel in the name of Allah with the Crescent Moon as their symbol. Is it just a coincidence? I think it’s part of the whole situation.

² Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.

³ And in that day will I make Jerusalem a מַעֲמָסָה אֶבֶן [maʿămāsâ ʾeben] burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it. Zechariah 12.2-3

And these people want to take possession of Jerusalem particularly, and of the al-Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount. That is why, as I said already, Jerusalem has become the burdensome stone

Daniel 9

Let’s get back to the idea of the ‘al-Aqsa Flood’ and why the ‘flood’ in Daniel chapter 9 is interesting.

In Daniel chapter 9, you have one of the most remarkable prophecies in the Old Testament which gives you a clear indication that Jesus is the Messiah. There’s only one person who can fit the profile outlined in Daniel 9.26, that is Jesus. It says,

²⁶ And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. Daniel 9.26

The prophecy there says (I won’t go into all the details of it but just explain the basic point) that someone is going to come called ‘Messiah’ who is going to be cut off יִכָּרֵ֥ת מָשִׁ֖יחַ [yikkārēt māšîaḥ] in Hebrew.

He is going to be cut off as a judgment but not for Himself, that is, He’s going to die as a judgment but not for his own sins but for the sins of others. This could only apply to Jesus.

Following His coming, 40 years later, the people of the prince that shall come again to destroy the City (Jerusalem) and the sanctuary (Temple). What happened 40 years after Jesus came? There was a Jewish revolt against the Romans and they put down the revolt. In so doing they destroyed the city of Jerusalem and they destroyed the Temple. They burnt it with fire so that not one stone was left standing upon another.

Jesus also prophesied that in Luke

⁵ Then, as some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and donations, He said, ⁶ “These things which you see—the days will come in which not one stone shall be left upon another οὐκ ἀφεθήσεται λίθος ἐπὶ λίθῳ that shall not be thrown down.”

⁷ So they asked Him, saying, “Teacher, but when will these things be? And what sign will there be when these things are about to take place?”

⁸ And He said: “Take heed that you not be deceived. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He,’ and, ‘The time has drawn near.’ Therefore do not go after them. ⁹ But when you hear of wars and commotions, do not be terrified; for these things must come to pass first, but the end will not come immediately.” Luke 21.5-9

And, in Matthew, Jesus also uses the comparison of the Flood to speak about the manner in which His Second Coming will take place in the last days,

³⁶ “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. ³⁷ But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. ³⁸ For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, ³⁹ and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. ⁴⁰ Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. ⁴¹ Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. ⁴² Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. ⁴³ But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. ⁴⁴ Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Matthew 24.36-44

So, what is ‘the flood’? The flood represents an invasion. So, what Daniel 9.26 speaks of is the invasion which is going to take place, which is going to lead to wars and desolations till the appointed time in Daniel’s prophecy.

I haven’t time to go into this but there’s a long period of time between the fulfilment of verse 26 and verse 27 which says,

²⁷ And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. Daniel 9.27

What does that mean? In Bible terms, I said the flood is an invasion followed by desolations and wars over Jerusalem. There have been ‘desolations’ in Jerusalem perpetrated by different powers ruling over it until our time when Israel regained possession of the Old City of Jerusalem in 1967.

Verse 27 speaks of one of who it says, he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week. Who is ‘he’? Some people say ‘he’ is the Messiah / Jesus, that He makes a covenant, but this covenant only lasts for 7 years. Jesus made a covenant which goes on forever; so, that doesn’t really add up.

Additionally, when you use the word ‘he’, it being a pronoun, it usually refers to the last person mentioned in the previous sentence. Here, the last person mentioned is the prince that shall come of Daniel 9.26.

Many people see ‘the prince to come’ as one of Daniel’s prophecies which applies to the Antichrist, not to the true Messiah.

At some point, the Antichrist, the false Messiah is going to come. He is going to make some kind of a peace deal, and he’s going to break that peace deal or covenant halfway through that period of time.

The prophecy speaks about a period of one week, that is a period of 7 years. And in the middle of the 7-year period, he’s going to put up an abomination of desolation in the Holy Place which act, according to Matthew 24, is going to set off the time of the final period of Great Tribulation which will lead to the consummation, the end, which is determined which will then be poured out on the one who makes desolate.

Therefore, this prophecy speaks about some kind of a agreement being made with Israel at this time of the end. Some have seen this as a kind of ‘peace agreement’ which comes back to my right for the last days peace with Saudi Arabia some kind of agreement which will protect Israel from Invasion but will actually turn out to be a deception.

It’s interesting that the Oslo Accords which were made in 1993, 30 years ago, were made as a deception. In fact, they were signed almost certainly as a deception by Yasser Arafat who made them with the idea that he would make peace with his enemy while they were stronger than they were, but when they (the Palestinians) became stronger than Israel, he would rip out the peace treaty, go to war with them, and wipe them out.

Arafat had precedence for this in a treaty which Muhammad made called the Treaty of Hudaybiyah, when he made peace with the Quraysh tribe way back at the beginning of Islam for a 10-year period when Quraysh’s forces their forces were stronger than Muhammad’s, he then built up his forces to be stronger than Quraysh’s and, once he was stronger than them, he ripped up the peace treaty, went to war with them, took Mecca, and established Islam in Mecca.

So, the idea that you can make a peace treaty with your enemy and then rip it up is there in Islamic thinking. Is the recent Saudi proposal something like that? Or, are they genuinely wanting to make peace with Israel?

I see some people shaking their heads, but the proposal was on the table before October 7.

And what’s interesting about this in this prophecy is that it says, he will make a covenant with many for one week and this particular covenant/peace treaty with Saudi which was under review before the massacre but which could still be considered after the Gaza conflict is over involves not just Israel, not just the Palestinians, but it involves Saudi Arabia, and along with Saudi Arabia will come much of the Muslim Sunni world. It also involves the United States which is behind it.

The proposal is to make a link between not just Israel and Saudi Arabia but right through the Middle East to India, and right through to Europe so that there’ll be a trade, commercial, and technical link between all of those countries to make peace in the region.

So, it’s much bigger even than Israel and the Palestinians, it’s a general peace for the region. When it come to pass, again, it is very much in question because the current war with Hamas and Hezbollah has certainly sabotaged it and some would want to believe, in fact, there are reports saying that the reason why Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 is because they don’t want this peace treaty to happen, they don’t want to have a peace agreement, they want to go for the war option, and are therefore sabotaging it so it won’t happen. We’ll see.

Isaiah 28

There is a prophecy in the Book of Isaiah which suggests that this will be a deception, and Daniel itself says the covenant is going to be broken halfway through the 7-year period which will lead to the abomination of desolation in the Holy place.

Isaiah 28 says,

¹⁴ Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scornful men,
Who rule this people who are in Jerusalem,
¹⁵ Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death,
And with Sheol we are in agreement.
When the overflowing scourge passes through,
It will not come to us,
For we have made lies our refuge,
And under falsehood we have hidden ourselves.” Isaiah 28.14-15

The prophecy there says that this covenant is going to be made with scornful men who rule this people in Jerusalem. In other words, the people ruling in Jerusalem are actually going to be scornful of something. I guess what they’re scornful of is the Word of God and particularly on the interpretation which we have that the Word of God is pointing to the Messiah being Yeshua who is going to come to bring the real peace at the end of days. They’re going to make an agreement to protect themselves from the overflowing scourge.

What is the overflowing scourge? Some kind of invasion? It says, we have made lies our refuge, under falsehood we have hidden ourselves. There is an implication here that whatever peace agreement comes out of this, and if a peace agreement does come after this, then it will be based not on truth but on lies and deception. There will be some people who won’t buy it.

And the prophecy continues in the very next verse,

¹⁶ Therefore thus says the Lord God:

“Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation,
A tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation;
Whoever believes will not act hastily.
¹⁷ Also I will make justice the measuring line,
And righteousness the plummet;
The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,
And the waters will overflow the hiding place. Isaiah 28.16-17

So, some people will not buy this, they will not act hastily. Now, if you act hastily, you’re acting rashly, you’re not acting according to understanding of God’s Word. They are going to believe something. What are they going to believe?

This is interesting because the prophecy then speaks about a tried stone, a precious cornerstone and a sure foundation. What could that be?

If you go to Psalm 118, you find a reference to the stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner a prophecy which is repeated five times in the New Testament and applied to Jesus.

¹⁰ All nations surrounded me,
But in the name of the Lord I will destroy them.
¹¹ They surrounded me,
Yes, they surrounded me;
But in the name of the Lord I will destroy them.
¹² They surrounded me like bees;
They were quenched like a fire of thorns;
For in the name of the Lord I will destroy them.
¹³ You pushed me violently, that I might fall,
But the Lord helped me.
¹⁴ The Lord is my strength and song,
And He has become my salvation.

¹⁵ The voice of rejoicing and salvation
Is in the tents of the righteous;
The right hand of the Lord does valiantly.
¹⁶ The right hand of the Lord is exalted;
The right hand of the Lord does valiantly.
¹⁷ I shall not die, but live,
And declare the works of the Lord.
¹⁸ The Lord has chastened me severely,
But He has not given me over to death.

¹⁹ Open to me the gates of righteousness;
I will go through them,
And I will praise the Lord.
²⁰ This is the gate of the Lord,
Through which the righteous shall enter.

²¹ I will praise You,
For You have answered me,
And have become my salvation.

²² The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone.
²³ This was the Lord’s doing;
It is marvelous in our eyes.
²⁴ This is the day the Lord has made;
We will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118.10-24

Jesus is the rejected stone who is going to become the head stone or cornerstone. He was despised and rejected to be exalted by God at the resurrection, to ascend to the right hand of the Father, and to come back in power and glory and take up his rule and reign over Jerusalem and over the world at His Second Coming.

There are going to be people going to believe in Jesus, and there are those who are going to be taken in by this peace deal.

It also says in the following verse of Isaiah 28,

The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,
And the waters will overflow the hiding place.
¹⁸ Your covenant with death will be annulled,
And your agreement with Sheol will not stand;
When the overflowing scourge passes through,
Then you will be trampled down by it.
¹⁹ As often as it goes out it will take you;
For morning by morning it will pass over,
And by day and by night;
It will be a terror just to understand the report.” Isaiah 28.17-19

Something is going to happen to sweep away this covenant with death which will cause the agreement with Sheol not to stand.

And,

²² Now therefore, do not be mockers,
Lest your bonds be made strong;
For I have heard from the Lord God of hosts,
A destruction determined even upon the whole earth. Isaiah 28.22

The prophecy says that God is going to do something to bring an end to this, and to save His people from this scourge which goes through before it happens and that just to understand the report is going to be a terror. In other words, the news is going to be terrible.

I guess the news yesterday was terrible. So that’s just a taste of what’s to come.

It also says that God has made a destruction determined upon the whole earth. The Hebrew word there is כָלָה [kālâ] kalah which is better translated as a ‘determined end’ and means that God has a determined end for these things.

We can see chaos, we can see confusion, we can see suffering, we can see war, but God has an end which is going to bring the opposite, is going to bring peace and justice at the return of Yeshua / Jesus the Messiah.

There is a hope in all of this, but only One hope in the stone which has been rejected but is now exalted to the highest place where Jesus is.

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