The article on the Bayside Prophecies and my thoughts on the potential for Europe to become a future superpower are taking longer than I expected to write. In lieu of those two articles I’ll share with you my thoughts about Psalms 83, which is a chapter that has caught many Christians’ attention.
A few years ago author Bill Salus released a book called Isralestine which presented a revolutionary idea about an upcoming war in the Mideast where Israel would fight all of its Mideast foes simultaneously and vanquish them all before the start of the end times. After the war Israel would become the wealthy land without walls described in Ezekiel 38. The viability of Salus’s idea hinges on where the Psalms 83 war takes place in the prophetic timeline. If Psalms 83 describes an event before the beginning of the end times his idea is feasible. However, if Psalms 83 describes an end times event his entire idea would fall apart.
I initially thought Salus’s idea was very appealing and made a lot of sense. I was so enamored with Salus’s idea that I attempted to write a report that would independently confirm Salus’s idea that a major Mideast war was destined to happen before the start of the end times. However, after two weeks of attempting to write the report, I realized that Salus’s idea was an attempt to fit a square peg into a round hole. I noticed during my study of Psalms 83 that the chapter has a lot of allusions to other passages in the Bible that clearly describe end time events. Thus, I concluded that Psalms 83 describes an event that takes place during the end times rather than an event that takes place before the end times begin.
I believe Psalms 83’s describes an event that takes place some time during the 2nd half of the 70th Week of Daniel after some Jews have fled into the wilderness to avoid Antichrist’s persecution and after Antichrist’s initial attempts to attack these fleeing Jews (Revelation 12:14-15).[1] Some Jews who did not flee to the wilderness apparently will compromise with Antichrist in hopes they can be spared from the harsh treatment those who fail compromise will receive (Ezekiel 7). Antichrist apparently will temporarily spare compromising Jews and even allow them to live in Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:2). However, Antichrist will eventually betray them in an overall attempt to wipe out the Jewish race once and for all.
Psalms 83 describes a military attack coming from all the nations surrounding Israel. The motivation of the attack is twofold: (1) destroy the Jewish Race, which would include the extermination of the Jewish people hiding in the wilderness (the “hidden ones”)[2] (Psa 83:3, 5), and (2) take the land of Israel (Psa 83:12).
- Psa 83:2 For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head.
- Psa 83:3 They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones.
- Psa 83:4 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.
- Psa 83:5 For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:
- Psa 83:6 The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes;
- Psa 83:7 Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre;
- Psa 83:8 Assur also is joined with them: they have holpen the children of Lot. Selah.
- Psa 83:9 Do unto them as unto the Midianites; as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook of Kison:
- Psa 83:10 Which perished at Endor: they became as dung for the earth.
- Psa 83:11 Make their nobles like Oreb, and like Zeeb: yea, all their princes as Zebah, and as Zalmunna:
- Psa 83:12 Who said, Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession.
I believe Joel Chapter 2 describes the characteristics of the military force that the nations surrounding Israel will send. The description in verses 1-9 reveal that this military force is very determined and unprecedented. How the army is unprecedented is not exactly clear, but I suspect the military force will be unprecedented in terms of its determination and viciousness.
- Joe 2:1 Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand;
- Joe 2:2 A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.
- Joe 2:3 A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
- Joe 2:4 The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run.
- Joe 2:5 Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array.
- Joe 2:6 Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness.
- Joe 2:7 They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks:
- Joe 2:8 Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded.
- Joe 2:9 They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief.
Many compromising Jews caught in Jerusalem at the time of this invasion will be killed while others will be killed while trying to flee the oncoming forces.
- Eze 7:12 The time is come, the day draweth near: let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn: for wrath is upon all the multitude thereof.
- …
- Eze 7:15 The sword is without, and the pestilence and the famine within: he that is in the field shall die with the sword; and he that is in the city, famine and pestilence shall devour him.[3]
- Eze 7:16 But they that escape of them shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity.
- Eze 7:17 All hands shall be feeble, and all knees shall be weak as water.
- Eze 7:18 They shall also gird themselves with sackcloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be upon all faces, and baldness upon all their heads.
- Eze 7:19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.
Joel Chapter 3 informs us that the military forces from the nations surrounding Israel will eventually assemble in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, which is located nearby Jerusalem in the modern day site of the Kidron Valley and faces the wilderness where Jewish refugees will be hiding.
- Joe 3:1 For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,
- Joe 3:2 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.
- …
- Joe 3:9 Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up:
- Joe 3:10 Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.
- Joe 3:11 Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O LORD.
- Joe 3:12 Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about.
After the nations gather in the Valley of Jehoshaphat some Jews will begin to resist the Antichrist via guerilla warfare. In fact, the Book of Zechariah indicates that God will empower a Jewish resistance to battle Antichrist’s forces and to drive them back to Jerusalem.[4]
- Zec 12:6 In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem.
The description of how the Jewish resistance will dominate its foes in Zechariah 12:6 parallels the description of how Israel’s enemies are asked to be treated at the end of Psalms 83.
- Psa 83:13 O my God, make them like a wheel; as the stubble before the wind.
- Psa 83:14 As the fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire;
- Psa 83:15 So persecute them with thy tempest, and make them afraid with thy storm.
- Psa 83:16 Fill their faces with shame; that they may seek thy name, O LORD.
- Psa 83:17 Let them be confounded and troubled for ever; yea, let them be put to shame, and perish:
- Psa 83:18 That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.
Whether or not you agree with me on my placement of Psalms 83 in the end times puzzle, I hope you at least agree that Psalms 83 is one of the most intriguing chapters in the entire Bible.
Notes
[1] The primary wilderness region where Jews will take refuge is located in Southern Jordan in the biblical sites of Edom, Moab, and Ammon. This region will be off-limits to Antichrist even when he goes around the entire Middle East adding territory to his empire (Daniel 11:41).
[2] God instructs Moab to serve as a place where Jewish outcasts can literally hide from the Antichrist in Isaiah 16:4.
[3] Ezekiel 7:15 describes the moments prior to the forces entering the city versus Joel 2:1-9 that describes that the actual charging of forces into the city.
[4] Several verses indicate that Antichrist will be significantly weaken at this point in time; leaving him with little ability to stop the resistance.
