Middle East Perspective … Fall 2003, Conclusion
Therefore hear the word of the LORD, you scoffers who rule this people in Jerusalem. You boast, “We have entered into a covenant with death, with the grave we have made an agreement. When an overwhelming scourge sweeps by, it cannot touch us, for we have made a lie our refuge and falsehood our hiding place.” -Isaiah 28:14-15
A Bible Study by Jack Kelley
Therefore hear the word of the LORD, you scoffers who rule this people in Jerusalem. You boast, “We have entered into a covenant with death, with the grave we have made an agreement. When an overwhelming scourge sweeps by, it cannot touch us, for we have made a lie our refuge and falsehood our hiding place.” (Isaiah 28:14-15)
I believe the passage above ultimately refers to Israel’s end-times relationship with the antichrist. According to Daniel, “He will confirm a covenant with the many for one seven. In the middle of the seven he will put an end to sacrifice and offering” (Daniel 9: 27). Daniel was earlier told that the antichrist will achieve power and influence over Israel as a peace maker (Daniel 8:25), probably after a fierce and enormously destructive battle, such as the one prophesied by Ezekiel 38-39, that if not brought to a halt would have world wide implications.
This man will have to be an influential world leader indeed to be able to bring peace to such a troubled region. But not only does he accomplish this, he also makes it possible for Israel to build a Temple and return to their Old Covenant form of worship. Every living Jew in the world will be desperate to return to Israel (Ezek 39:28), and this world leader will be hailed by many as the new messiah.
In the middle of those last seven years of human history he actually does proclaim himself to be God, puts an end to Israel’s Temple worship and starts a world war such has never been seen before nor ever will be afterward. Only the arrival of the true Messiah can defeat him and restore peace.
Who Are You Trying To Kid?
No informed observer of the Middle East today would predict such an outcome unless he had a whole lot more faith in God’s Word that in his own powers of observation. I mean who could imagine such a thing? Russia arming Iran and its Moslem coalition for a nuclear sneak attack on Israel? Israel living in such a perceived state of peace with its neighbors as to be taken by surprise? A man from outside the region bringing peace where there has been 4000 years of hostility that no leader has ever been able to overcome? The Arab world agreeing to permit a Jewish Temple in the heart of their most coveted area? And the whole thing orchestrated and played out by supernatural powers of good and evil that most people in the world today believe never existed outside the fantasies of our ignorant and superstitious ancestors?
Those Who Don’t Learn From History Are Condemned To Repeat It
At the time, we marveled at the speed with which the Berlin Wall came down and the Soviet Union crumbled. But looking back we can see the chain of events that over a decade combined to produce such a dramatic outcome. Individually they seemed unrelated, but taken together and viewed with proper perspective anyone could have predicted it. In that case we didn’t have the clear direction of prophecy to help us. But even so, serious students of prophecy wondered how God would get the USSR out of the way so Europe could rise. They might have been caught by surprise at the speed and timing, but certainly not by the outcome. It had to happen because God’s Word required it.
Just so, the world will be shocked by the rise of the antichrist and the apparent imposition of peace in the Middle East. Once again they will marvel at how quickly peace has broken out, as they did after the Wall came down. But again the Lord says they will shout “Peace, Peace,” when there is no peace. Deception will be the order of the day and those without a firm grip on Biblical Prophecy will be caught up in it to such an extent that they will eventually hunt down and kill those who cling to the Truth.
I Can See Clearly Now …
Unlike the fall of the Soviet Union, the events coming in the Middle East are undeniably clear in prophecy. Only those who won’t (not can’t) understand will be deceived. Among them, unfortunately, will be the leaders of Israel. It is they who will enter into this covenant of death, hoping in spite of all they see to avoid disaster. It won’t be a big or dramatic move. They will have allowed themselves to be persuaded little by little, sometimes by well intended but ill informed friends like the US and sometimes by devious and smooth talking enemies like the UN and Europe.
You can see hints of what’s coming in the way all Israel’s responses to the terror next door have to be approved in advance by outsiders and still risk international condemnation if they’re perceived to be the least bit excessive. If the world would stay out of their internal business, Israel would have solved the terror problem long ago, Jews would be free to walk the streets of their own neighborhoods in peace, and peace-loving Palestinians whose culture teaches them to respect strength and despise weakness, would be enjoying a peaceful co-existence with their Jewish neighbors.
A Covenant With Death That Brings Life
After a generation of deplorable failure to understand Middle Eastern culture, western leaders still impose with arrogance and impunity their unworkable peace plans, and Israel having abandoned the guidance of a loving and powerful Protector in favor of human “wisdom” pays the price with Jewish blood. For them each of these plans has turned out to be a covenant with death.
Tragically there is at least one more arrogant deceiver on the way with another plan that on its surface seems to be the answer and after decades of externally imposed solutions and excessive concern for world opinion, and lacking the spiritual discernment that comes only from the Holy Spirit, it will seem logical for Israel to enter into its final covenant with death.
But the Lord’s overtures are not so easily spurned, and soon thereafter He will pour out a Spirit of grace and supplication, and they will look to Him, the One they have pierced (Zech 12:10). On that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, living water will flow out from Jerusalem, and the Lord will be King over the whole Earth (Zech 14:4,8,9). Hallelujah.
