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Psalm 83
lists ten modest kingdoms surrounding the Holy Land that take special counsel
and make a deceptive covenant to destroy Israel,
that the name of Israel be
remembered no more. Jewish and Christian scholars agree that this diabolical
pact has never taken place. There had been alliances against Israel
in the days this Psalm was written, but never all of these ten together. This
Psalm pleads for the invaders to be miraculously routed, imploring the LORD
for His supernatural salvation of Israel,
that these surrounding nations might know the LORD alone is Most High over
all the earth. The psalmist foretells an event which has not yet happened.
Moreover, this Psalm equates the visionary invasion to a vast Midianite
invasion centuries earlier. That invasion was overthrown at the brook of
Kishon and En Dor, both of which are only a short distance from the city of
Megiddo, the scene of the final invasion of Israel,
according to Revelation 16:16.
Contrary to what is often taught about a
revived Roman Empire in Europe, this Psalm lists ten of Israel's
enemies which were located on or near her borders. They are not found in the
fifteen nation EC, but in the modern Islamic domain.
This list
also roughly corresponds to the locations of the "Palestinian
Diaspora," where exiled Palestinians have settled, and who, according to
the PLO Covenant, seek to destroy Israel
to be able to return to all of Palestine. At the time of writing this, more
than two years after the Oslo peace accords between Israel
and the PLO, those sections of the PLO Covenant calling for Israel's
destruction have still not been removed. Even if they are removed, it will
not change the attitude of Muslim terror groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad,
who seek Israel’s complete
destruction.
We do not
see ten states at the present time, but Iraq's
brutal invasion of Kuwait in 1990
and its repeat threat in October, 1994, as well as Syria's
takeover of Lebanon, demonstrate
instability of regional borders. Growing religious unrest could also cause
changes, as Keegan and Wheatcroft remark on page 158 of Zones of Conflict, An
Atlas of Future Wars, "Militant Islam in the Middle East could quite
easily redraw the political geography of the whole region." At the
present time Jordan is particularly
vulnerable to this phenomenon. Where are these ten today? The 1980 fourth
revised edition of Geography of Israel by Israel Universities Press says on
page 279,
"A certain part of Israel's
Arab-Moslem population may be assumed to be descendants of the country's
ancient inhabitants (Canaanites, Samaritans, Jews, Edomites, Helleno-Syrians,
etc.), who converted to Islam, most of them in the first centuries after the
Islamic conquest, some as late as the 19th century. The conquerors from the
Arabian Peninsula, in contrast, seem to constitute only a fraction of their
parentage."
While this
speaks of Muslim inhabitants in modern Israel
the surrounding Muslims must be of similar background. In others words, the
tribes of Psalm 83 did not simply vanish. Their descendants remain, though
well-mixed by now.
The modern
nation of Israel can provide a clue
for the make-up of the ten invaders. There is diversity of physical
characteristics among Israelis due to many centuries of marriage to
proselytes in distant countries. Yet Israel
remains Israel, both in its national
consciousness and in biblical prophecy. In the same way, the ten of Psalm 83
still exist, though mixed and not distinct, and cling to the antagonism
prophesied against them. And with Palestinians clamoring for a state of their
own in the territories captured by Israel
in 1967, the possibility of ten Arab nations joined with Israel
in a Middle Eastern "Common Market," based on a "comprehensive
peace of the brave" is certainly within reason. In fact, certain
government officials in Israel
forcefully promote this idea of economic cooperation as the only basis for
establishing peace among Middle Eastern neighbors.
The
diabolical covenant of the ten to destroy Israel
will be divinely overturned, and they will be defeated and humbled when the
LORD is exalted in the day His glory is revealed.
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