I opened an article on Harbingers daily the other day with a sense of anticipation. The title is a question believers around the world have been asking since October 7, 2023 “Is The Prophetic Stage Being Set In The Middle East?” by Olivier Melnick. Maybe this time someone will dig deep and get it right, I thought.
In broad terms I can agree with his conclusion – yes the prophetic stage is being set in the Middle East! What we are seeing in the news every day is that the geo-political events going on around us are very definitely setting the stage for the bible’s End Times Prophecies! Let me add that I am so glad that there are Jewish Evangelists unashamedly preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ today! Praise God! Olivier Melnick has a ministry that is worthy of prayer and support! Having said that, it is important to note that having the gift of evangelism is not the same as having the gift of prophecy! Not only this but even if someone has the gift of prophecy, he still needs to study biblical prophecy, in order for the gift to be effective.
Mr. Melnick asks four questions and then answers each in sequence, and while he gets a lot correct, he also makes some errors.
“The war is ongoing, and many Bible students are wondering if it has any prophetic significance. Is it connected to any Bible events that are predicted for the future? Is it the war of Psalm 83? Is it the war of Gog and Magog? Is it the beginning of the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, also known as the Tribulation? Maybe it is also connected to the events described in Zechariah 12. Let’s look at all four possibilities.”
Psalm 83 is a cry unto the Lord by an Israelite about an attack against his people. It is a prayer about a war of existential implications for Israel, and it lists the antagonists by their Patriarchs and by their ancient names. Mr. Melnick correctly states that this war has never occurred in history; all these nations have warred against Israel from time to time, but never have they done so together, at the same time! So far so good.
Rather than use the quotes he gives from a modern bible, here is the AV rendering;
1 Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God.
2 For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head.
3 They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones.
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.
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;
7 Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre;
8 Assur also is joined with them: they have holpen the children of Lot. Selah. Psalm 83:1-8
Mr. Melnick correctly states that those who hate Israel also hate God. Their attack against Israel is really an attack against Israel’s God!
Something he doesn’t address is, who are God’s “hidden ones” in verse 3? This is a reference to the ones God deeply cares about in Israel, the Jews who believe in Jesus as Lord, Saviour, and Messiah! They look like Jews, are descendants of Jacob, and live in Israel, but they are His children in spite of all the pressure they get to reject Him! They are what the bible calls “the Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16), and if He intervenes it is because of them!
He answers the question “who are these people (the antagonists)?” thusly;
“In modern times, these ten nations are divided as follows: Jordan (Edom, Moab, Ammon), Saudi Arabia (Ishmaelites), Egypt (Hagarenes, Amalek), Lebanon (Gebal, Tyre), The Gaza Strip (Philistia), Iraq and Syria (Assyria.)”
Now, he gets the nations correctly, but the way he does it isn’t correct. The biggest issue I see is his claim that Egypt is represented by the Hagarenes and Amalek. The Amalekites have always lived in the Negev desert, south of Israel, which is a possession of Egypt today. So, the Amalekites will drag Egypt into the Psalm 83 war.
The problem is with the Hagarenes/Hagarites; it is true that Hagar came from Egypt, but the Hagarenes did not return to Egypt. Ishmael had 12 sons, who founded 12 tribes, and like Israel there was a conflict between two groups of Ishmael’s descendants; two and a half tribes of Ishmaelites left the main group in Saudi Arabia and moved north to the area the bible calls Gilead and the Golan. This group, probably out of anger toward their Ishmaelite brothers, chose to identify themselves by the name of Ishmael’s mother Hagar. The bible actually tells us where these people lived;
“And in the days of Saul they made war with the Hagarites, who fell by their hand: and they dwelt in their tents throughout all the east land of Gilead.” 1 Chronicles 5:10
The word in the Hebrew is “Hagari” and it is the same in Psalm 83 and in 1 Chronicles. One group of translators used “Hagarites” and the other used the word “Hagarenes” but the meaning is identical!
When Israel was taken captive, these people moved into Gilead and the Golan, and they are still there today! In the time before the 1967 war Syria had possession of the Golan Heights, and used that position to shoot artillery shells on to the Israeli towns, villages and farms in the valley down below. During the 1967 war Israel took 30% of the Golan Heights, and the shelling stopped! Since that time the Hagarites have been agitating to force Bashar Assad, the president of Syria, to attack Israel and get the one third of the Golan back that Israel holds today. He has wisely resisted this pressure!
When I wrote my book I actually found photographs of Hagarites from the south of Syria! So, what this means is that the Hagarites are the people who will drag Syria into the Psalm 83 war! Despite the similarities in the names, Syria and Assyria are not descendants of the same man. Assur was the patriarch of Assyria, but Aram was the patriarch of Syria. Assyria is known as Iraq today, and Syria still has its ancient name.
Melnick says “Two of these countries, Egypt and Jordan, have official peace treaties with Israel and are currently not a threat to the safety of the Jewish people. Additionally, there has never been a conspiracy of all ten countries in the history of mankind.”
To which I have to reply, Mohammad set a precedent by breaking a treaty he had made with the people of Mecca (or perhaps Baka, or Petra), half way through its term, and his followers have followed his lead ever since! Trusting Muslim nations to keep a treaty is incredibly dangerous! Why would you expect them to reject the example of their hero?
There have recently been rumblings to the effect that if Israel attacks Rafah that Egypt and Jordan may cancel their treaties with Israel. Now since then Egypt has stated that they have no plans to cancel their treaty, but I think they have said this just so Israel is put off their guard!
His last statement is not logical; Just because these ten nations have never entered a conspiracy together does not mean it won’t happen; it will, and when it does it will be the fulfilment of prophecy! I expect it in the very near future possibly even this year (2024)!
8 I am the Lord: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.
9 Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them. Isaiah 42:8-9
Yes, our God declares things that have never been done before, so don’t be surprised when the Psalm 83 war occurs in real time!
My biggest argument is with his final statement: “Another way to look at Asaph’s lament is to see it as a literary device he used to express to his God that everywhere he looks, the Jews have enemies. It is akin to someone saying, “The whole world is against me” when many negative things simultaneously happen to that person. It is very likely that the war of Psalm 83 isn’t really a war to start with.”
The problem is that the God of the bible doesn’t often make generalizations in His prophecies. His prophecies are full of specific statements that can be verified; There were two Bethlehems in Israel in the first century, Bethlehem Ephratah, in Judea, and Bethlehem of Galilee; the prophecies of the Messiah (Micah 5:2) focus on Bethlehem of Judea, not just Bethlehem! No doubt God has given us Psalm 83 with very specific references so that when we see it we will know that God’s Word is true!
Melnick’s statement that Psalm 83 could just be a literary device used to express “The whole world is against me” is exactly the same type of obfuscation as what Liberal denominations say about the book of Revelation “the Book of Revelation is just an allegory about the struggle between good and evil”! “Move along! Nothing to see here folks!”
Sorry, the book of Revelation is prophecy from the beginning to the end! Its prophecies will come to pass exactly as written, to the Glory of God the Father! It appears that the generation alive today is the terminal generation of the Church-Age, so get ready!
Having said that, there is substantial evidence that the Psalm 83 war is a late Church-Age event, so it doesn’t even appear in the book of Revelation! Unless you are dead first, you will see this war! The Rapture of the Church will occur after this war, and even after the Ezekiel 38-39 war!
One detail I had overlooked is the final statement in verse 8 “they have holpen the children of Lot”. What this means is that when the Assyrians, or Iraqis get involved in this war, they do so to assist the children of Lot. These are the people known as Ammonites and Moabites, from northern Jordan. What happened is that in 70 AD, when the Roman armies took the Jews captive, the Ammonites and Moabites moved across the Jordan River into Judea and Samaria, and have been there until this day. I expect that when the current fighting extends to the “West Bank” (Judea and Samaria in actuality) we will see the Arab states who have been sitting this conflict out, will join, and then it will become the Psalm 83 war. Until that time, Mr. Melnick is correct that it is not yet the Psalm 83 war!
Melnick had more points on Ezekiel’s war, and Zechariah 12, but I will leave that analysis for another day!
housetops 