This passage provides a key as to why we are seriously disturbed by the issue under discussion. At first glance, we felt it made little difference what one thought on the subject. What difference does it really make whether a coalition of Arab nations or one led by Russia is the final desolator of Israel? The critical issue is to realize no one, including Israel, will be saved without first repenting of iniquity and calling upon God.
As we have looked more carefully, however, at the key passages purported to support the Arab argument, we have been increasingly convinced of the weakness of the case. In one instance after another, the support passages do not, hold up under any kind of careful examination, as the verses don’t come close to saying what they are alleged to prove: Psalm 83 speaks of threats but no invasion and is not clearly a last-day passage; Obadiah and Amos have already been fulfilled; Edom (Idumea, Esau) is clearly used as a pseudonym for the Gentiles; Joel is parallel to Ezk. 38 and 39 and encompasses far more than Arab states. We find we are constantly asking ourselves the question — why would good Bible students hold to this conclusion?
Biblical terminology misrepresented
In addition, a right reading of the prophets is clouded by a misrepresentation of commonly used phrases and concepts. For example, statements of direct divine action and acknowledgments that the LORD is God are taken to be unique to latter-day prophecies. That is obviously incorrect. When God overthrew Egypt by the forces of Nebuchadnezzar, He declared, “I will break Pharaoh’s arms…I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and the arms of Pharaoh shall fall down; and they shall know that I am the LORD” (Ezk. 30:2425).
As pointed out in earlier articles, this is very common scriptural language. Why is it being misrepresented as being uniquely latter-day?
Zephaniah 2,3 don’t come close
Arab nations are referred to in Zephaniah chapters 2 and 3 — the Philistines, Moab, Ammon, Ethiopia and Assyria are all mentioned as suffering the judgments of God. But the prophecy does not come close to stating that these nations overrun and annex Israel.
The prophet says nothing at all about hostile actions on the part of Ethiopia, Assyria and the Philistines. The most he says is that God punishes Moab and Ammon because, “I have heard the insults of Moab and the taunts of the Ammonites, who insulted my people and made threats against their land” (NIV).
Surely, this should never be used as a proof text that the Arabs will overrun and desolate Israel.
History ignored
We are further mystified at the consistent ignoring of the historical fulfillment of the prophecies.
For example, the spirit reveals through Zephaniah that the area of the Philistines would be devastated and become agricultural land for the Jews (Zeph. 2:4-7). Josephus records how the area was ravaged by the combined forces of Egypt and Syria (Antiquities, XIII.13,357-364) and Acts 8:26 terms the place a “desert.” Evidently Zephaniah’s prophecy was fulfilled centuries ago.
Zeph. 2:9 is another case in point. Of Moab and Ammon (who lived east of Jordan in Gilead) it is said, “the residue of my people shall spoil them, and the remnant of my people shall possess them.” In the Apocrypha, an extended description is given of successful Jewish campaigns against this very area in the second century B.C. Following are a few of the highlights: “And Judas…passed over to the children of Ammon…and he fought many battles with them, and they were discomfited before his face; and he smote them, and gat possession of Jazer, and the villages thereof…from thence he removed, and took Casphor, Maked, Bosor, and the other cities of the land of Gilead” (I Macc. 5:3,6-8,36). For an extended period, the cities of Ammon were destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah. (“A perpetual desolation,” Zeph. 2:9, indicates an “indefinite time” (Young’s Concordance) and does not mean forever. Ammon and Moab will exist in the kingdom age, Jer. 48:47; 49:6.)
The judgment of Assyria described in Zeph. 2:13-15 certainly has been fulfilled. By 350 B.C., the desolation of Nineveh (capital of Assyria) was so complete that it was but a legend from the past (Westminster Bible Dictionary).
When interpreting the details of specific prophecies, history should not be ignored. Over the years, the strength of our position on the return of the Jews, their revival in the land and the defeat of their final invader is that we know from history that the culmination of these events is still future. Therefore, to be convincing in our exposition, we should not take every prophecy and assume it has a latter-day application until we determine there has not already been a historical fulfillment.
Past assures future
God’s past judgments assure His future ones. Scoffers will say that is not so. They will say that “all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation” (II Peter 3:4). In saying that, however, they are ignoring the cataclysm of the flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the multitude of prophecies that have been continually fulfilled over the centuries.
Therefore, when Ammon was devastated by the remnant of the Jews under the Maccabees it was living proof that, “The LORD will be terrible unto them: for he will famish all the gods of the earth; and men shall worship him, every one from his own place, even all the isles of the heathen” (Zeph. 2:11).
An appeal for accuracy
We would appeal to those who propound the view that the Arabs will be the final desolator of Israel to re-examine their proof texts. Under careful scrutiny, they are not holding up. There is no value in a cursory presentation of prophecy or suggesting new ideas which cannot be substantiated by the full weight of prophetic revelation unless they are really there.
On the other hand, there is no value is propounding past ideas if they are unsound. But when they are sound, it is most unsettling to the community to have long-held views unnecessarily challenged.
There is a great need for a clear, loud trumpet to be sounded in these last days to invigorate the brethren and to warn the world. Let us not unnecessarily mute the sound of that trumpet by prophetic interpretations that do not hold up under close examination.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One