The very tense and dangerous Middle Eastern situation has for some time threatened the peace of the world. The status-quo of the Arab states and Israel has been strained almost to the breaking point through the implacable hostility of the Arabs to the Jews' possession of much of their originally-God-given country. Border clashes between the Israelis and their neighbors are frequent and bloody.
The Western world is keenly aware of the seriousness of the situation, for it could inflame the whole Moslem world against the West; valuable and immense oil reserves are also at stake. They have therefore sought to curtail the outbreaks by seeing that neither side was equipped for a real war by limiting the armaments supplied to both Israel and the Arabs. Now, a new element of trouble has been injected into the already pre carious balance—Russia (who only a few months ago was loudly professing a desire for world peace) has entered the trouble and is hastening the day of open hostilities by supplying arms to Egypt. She also is offering them to other Arab nations.
Russia has a large stock of obsolescent and obsolete tanks, planes, and munitions because of her ever-increasing supply of armaments of more modern type. These she can use to foment trouble by supplying them to any probable trouble spot, and they now pose a most serious threat to the Jews in Palestine, and not too indirectly for the Western nations.
More and more the eyes of the world are going to be focused on that strip of land on the Eastern Mediterranean which God has called "the glory of all lands" (Eze. 20:66In the day that I lifted up mine hand unto them, to bring them forth of the land of Egypt into a land that I had espied for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands: (Ezekiel 20:6)), and on which His eyes rest continually (Deut. 11:1212A land which the Lord thy God careth for: the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year. (Deuteronomy 11:12)). In the end, it is to be the focal point of world tension and conflict, and thither God intends to bring all nations. He has said, "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." Joel 3:22I 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. (Joel 3:2). And, "I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle." Zech. 14:22For 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. (Zechariah 14:2). The potsherds may strive with the potsherds of the earth (Isa. 45:99Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands? (Isaiah 45:9)), but God is going to appear for His earthly people's deliverance and blessing after first purging them in the fires of the great tribulation and the all-searching judgment of the Son of man at His appearing.
Israel's present situation between hostile enemies on her north and east, and on her south, is nothing new for that unhappy people and land. Nor need we go to secular history for the accounts of her many adversities at the hands of enemies so located. Dan. 11, verses 5 to 35, describes in some detail the wars and intrigues of enemies to her north and to her south. Israel's land lay between the warring factions and was often the battlefield. Jerusalem and her environs always fell to whichever army was victorious. When these verses were written, their fulfillment was yet future, but all in them has been fulfilled to the letter. The minute details of a number of kings on both sides, some of their wives, relatives, and even their assassins, are so remarkable that the infidel has tried to dodge this voice to his conscience by saying that Daniel must have lived at some later date and written history, not prophecy. But the Lord called Daniel "the prophet," and the inclusion of the prophecy of Daniel in the Greek Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible settles the matter, for this translation was completed before many of these events were fulfilled.
During the days when Israel was especially ill-treated by a "king of the north," an enemy of this king suddenly appeared on the scene. The northern king was Antiochus Epiphanes of history. After successful forays to the south, he was intercepted in Egypt by a strong fleet from the rising power of the Roman Republic. The Roman consul ordered him to leave his prey in Egypt and return. Faced, as he was, with superior forces, he departed toward his own land. In verses 29 and 30 of this interesting chapter (Dan. 11), God foretold the intervention of a Western power against this antagonist of Israel:
"At the time appointed he shall return, and come toward the south; but it shall not be as the former, or as the latter. For the ships of Chittim shall come against him: therefore he shall be grieved, and return." "Chittim," or Kittim, is an ancient name for Cyprus which lay to the west, and it was from that direction that the forces which opposed "the king of the north" came.
Today we find Israel again in their land, and, as of old, Egypt to the south is an enemy, and the Moslem neighbors both east and north are hostile. Further, Israel is looking for and seeking protection from the West. Her leaders say that only a firm commitment from the Western powers guaranteeing that her borders will not be violated will secure her against the growing power and enmity of her neighbors. That this present situation should exist in latter times has been foretold in Scripture. In Numb. 24:2424And ships shall come from the coast of Chittim, and shall afflict Asshur, and shall afflict Eber, and he also shall perish for ever. (Numbers 24:24) we read:
"And ships shall come from the coast of Chittim, and shall afflict Asshur, and shall afflict Eber, and he also [the owner of the ships] shall perish forever."
There is yet to be a re-enactment of a Western power being a scourge to a Middle Eastern power. Asshur was the son of Shem, and Shem was called, "the father of all the children of Eber." Thus they were Shemites, and their descendents today are Mohammedans. It is likely that these very elements will come against the Jews in their land, and that Balaam's prophecy will be fulfilled by the Western powers dispatching forces to suppress the Mohammedan aggression and deliver Israel. If this is to be a future development, it may well be at the very door.
Balaam's prophecy goes on to predict the final overthrow of the Western powers—the owners of the ships—which come against the Middle East, so that it has all the character of a prophecy of the end of this period—the destruction of the armies of the revived Roman Empire by the Lord Himself when He comes back as the warrior king (Rev. 19:11-1611And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. 12His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. 13And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. 14And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. 15And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. 16And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. (Revelation 19:11‑16)).
There is, however, another prophecy of Scripture which may be directly connected with the afflicting of Asshur and Eber by the Western powers. In the last verse of Dan. 9, we are told that the Western beast is to make a covenant to protect the Jews in their land for a period of seven years.
While we cannot definitely know what things may come in before the last prophetic events are fulfilled, yet it begins to look seriously as though these events are in the making. If the Arabs, or Moslem world, should war against Israel in their land, then the future head of the Roman Empire may emerge and strike suddenly and strongly against Israel's aggressors and make the prophetic league for the seven years—seven years that are to have their fulfillment after the Christians are taken to be with Christ at His coming. Well may we lift up our eyes. His coming may be much nearer than we anticipate; yes, even at the very door.
"The king" of Dan. 11:3636And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done. (Daniel 11:36) is the antichrist of Jerusalem. He is the Jew who will come in his own name (John 5:4343I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. (John 5:43)) and be their leader. He will work hand in hand with the head of the revived Roman Empire—"the god of forces," "a strange god." But as the Roman Empire reels under the successive strokes of judgment from God (foretold in Revelation) during the last part of the seven years, Egypt ("the king of the south") will be emboldened to strike against the antichrist and the Jews (v. 40). Then the Jews' last terrible scourge will fall on them. "The king of the north shall come against him [the antichrist] like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over." v. 40.
This same flood of destruction which will come from the north against the Jews under the antichrist in Jerusalem is also described by another prophet: "Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem. Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement [their contract with the Roman Empire for protection against the Moslem hordes]; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves." Isa. 28:14, 1514Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem. 15Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves: (Isaiah 28:14‑15). The Jews will then believe themselves to be fully safe by reason of their contract with the wicked and diabolic head of the revived Roman Empire. They will take refuge under him—the personification of wickedness—with no thought of trust in God.
But God has foretold what the end of this leaning on a wicked support will be: "Therefore thus saith the Loan GOD,... Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand." vv. 16-18. Men's agreements come to nothing when they run counter to the will of God. All the power of the beast—such power that the world will say, "Who is able to make war with him?"—will be impotent to save an apostate Israel under the antichrist from the devastating judgment of the Moslem hordes from the north.
God has thus described their incursion: "When the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it. From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning it shall pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report." vv. 18, 19.
The Jews have gone and are going back to their land in unbelief. They have not gone there as to "the holy land," but as to their national home. They have gone back to accept the antichrist, and be in league with Satan—with death and hell-and the apostate head of Christendom—the beast of the Western world. It is strange that some Christians should lend themselves to the work of sending Jews back there, for they are going back for the worse and not the better. They are going back to the scourge of the Moslem world, then the protection of the Western beast, and finally to the last, great, overflowing of the Moslems just before the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ to tread "the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God" (Rev. 19:1515And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. (Revelation 19:15)).
The beast and his armies (Rev. 19:19-2119And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. 20And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. 21And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh. (Revelation 19:19‑21)), the fierce king of the north and his armies (Isa. 30:30-3330And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall show the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones. 31For through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod. 32And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the Lord shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will he fight with it. 33For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it. (Isaiah 30:30‑33); Dan. 8:23-2523And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up. 24And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. 25And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand. (Daniel 8:23‑25)) will meet their doom in Israel's land when the Lord appears for their deliverance. But two-thirds of all the Jews in Palestine are going to be cut off and die during the dreadful time of "Jacob's trouble" (Zech. 13:8, 98And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. 9And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God. (Zechariah 13:8‑9)). Then after their Messiah reigns and Israel is dwelling safely in the land, Russia and her satellites will come down into Palestine and meet their complete overthrow. (See Eze. 38 and 39.)
There will be a small remnant of the Jews with faith in their coming Messiah who will not accept the antichrist. These will suffer from foes within and without, but at the appointed signal they will flee Jerusalem for a secret hideaway according to the Lord's own words in Matt. 24:15-2215When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) 16Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains: 17Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: 18Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. 19And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! 20But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: 21For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. (Matthew 24:15‑22).
Christians, the coming of the Lord for His own is IMMINENT.