“For the Lord has a day of vengeance, a year of retribution, to uphold Zion’s cause.” (Isaiah 34:8)
We have just witnessed a peace treaty between Israel and the United Arab Emirates brokered by President Donald Trump that is to be ratified at a White House ceremony on September 15. It is hoped by President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu that other Arab states might seek to align themselves with Israel including Saudi Arabia. Of course historically the descendants of Ishmael and Esau, the fathers of the Arab nations, have been in conflict with the descendants of Isaac and Jacob, the Jewish people. When the Arabs are not fighting a common enemy they go to fighting each other. This goes all the way back to Ishmael. (Genesis 16:12)
Even though President Abbas has back peddled a bit on his anti-Israel rhetoric concerning this deal between Israel and the UAE he seems to have quietened down. However, he is not going away anytime soon from his stance to opposes such a treaty. Most certainly he will keep stirring up the Arabs in Gaza and if he can within Israel itself. Added to this Turkey and Iran are not pleased with this deal either. Now fundamentalist Islam sees Saudi Arabia and any other Islamic states located on the Saudi Arabian peninsula willing to deal with Israel, as part of the harlot of Islam. Primarily though, it is the City of Mecca that is in the sights of Iran’s missiles. This is why Saudi Arabia might consider brokering a ‘deal’ with Israel if they can see a solution to the so called ‘Palestinian’ cause. In their deep minds the Saudis are actually scared that Iran will hit them with missiles or possibly a nuclear warhead once Iran has that nuclear capability.
Iran and China have quietly drafted a sweeping economic and security partnership that would clear the way for billions of dollars of Chinese investments in energy and other sectors, undercutting the Trump administration’s efforts to isolate the Iranian government because of its nuclear and military ambitions. With the funding China supplies to the Iranian regime it will undoubtedly speed up the regime’s nuclear ambitions. We know that there are massive underground oil reserves on the Saudi Arabian Peninsula. The prophet Isaiah foresaw a time when the underground oil streams would burn out of control that would so pollute the Saudi Arabian peninsula that it would become uninhabitable for humans to live there.
And so Isaiah writes; “For the Lord has a day of vengeance, a year of retribution, to uphold Zion’s cause. Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch, her dust into burning sulphur; her land will become blazing pitch! It will not be quenched night or day; its smoke will rise forever. From generation to generation it will lie desolate; no one will ever pass through it again.” (Isaiah 24:8-10)
God is going to judge the very heart of the Islamic world for the way it has persecuted and killed His people the Jews and by extension and inclusion faithful Christians. It will be to uphold Zion’s cause which is to glorify Him. Zion in the Bible is the place where God tabernacles among his people. In Old Testament times Mount Zion in the City of David was the place where Yahweh, the God of Israel dwelt (Isaiah 8:18) (Psalm 74:2) the place where He was king (Isaiah 24:23) and where historically He had installed His king, David. Prophetically it is where God will install His Son the Messiah when He reigns from Jerusalem in the Messianic age to come (Psalm 2:6). Mt Zion was the seat of the action of Yahweh in history. In the Old Testament His presence dwelt in the Tabernacle in the wilderness and later in the Temple on Mt Zion in the City of David.
In the New Testament Zion is where the Lord tabernacles within all of those both Jew and Gentile who believe in the Messiah for salvation. His temple is made up of living stones. All believers both as individuals and corporately are the Temple of God in whom He dwells by His eternal Spirit, being the blessed Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 6:15-20) (2 Corinthians 6:14-18) (Ephesians 2:19-22) (1 Peter 2:5) Zion is also located in the heavenly Jerusalem where God sits with His heavenly council, with all of heavens hosts including the spirits of justified men made perfect and above all else where the mediator of the New Covenant, the resurrected and glorified man our Lord Jesus sits at God’s right hand as God the Son. (Psalm 82:1) (Hebrews 12:22-24)
For the sake of upholding the cause of Zion God will dispense retribution on all the nations that have rebelled against Him but especially on Edom being the Saudi Arabian Peninsula, the heart of the Islamic world. In Ezekiel 25:12-14 we have the same destruction upon Edom which is described as stretching from Teman to Dedan which in ancient times was the geographical land mass located in the Saudi Arabian Peninsula. Historically, Babylon was a city and an empire with its capital located on the Euphrates River in Iraq. Prophetically, Babylon is also a city but its location is described as being at the Red Sea. We are also told that the sound of its destruction will be heard at the Red Sea. (Jeremiah 49:21)
Mystery Babylon the mother of harlots is described in scripture as a city in a desert by the sea that is burned with fire. (Revelation 17:3, 16-18) In Revelation 18 the fallout of this conflagration will be so widespread that the merchants that have traded with this city via the sea will stand afar off lamenting its destruction most likely because its oil is no more. (Revelation 18:15-19) The prophet Jeremiah describes this same event prophetically. (Jeremiah 50-51) Now in the prophet Isaiah we are told that prophetically the last city of Babylon located in the wilderness (desert) by the sea will be brought to an end.
As Isaiah writes; “A prophecy against the Desert by the Sea: Like whirlwinds sweeping through the southland, an invader comes from the desert, from a land of terror. A dire vision has been shown to me: The traitor betrays, the looter takes loot. Elam, attack! Media, lay siege! I will bring to an end all the groaning she caused.” (Isaiah 21:1-2)
Elam today is Iran. Media today would be the Kurds. The city located in the wilderness (desert) by the sea would have to be Mecca which trades via the Red Sea with the nations. Rome and New York are not located in a desert by the sea. Mecca would have to be this harlot that sits on many waters being nations, peoples and languages. (Revelation 17:1, 15) Prophetically speaking it would seem that Iranian missiles will come out of the desert that will obliterate Mecca and the fiery destruction so intense that the oil reserves under the desert of the Saudi Arabian peninsula will burn out of control making it uninhabitable for humans to live. God remembers the cause of Zion.
This city of Mecca, being the heart of the Muslim world, has been drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of those who have born testimony to Jesus. (Revelation 17:6) Mecca’s religious roots go all the way back to the Babylon of Nimrod. No wonder Saudi Arabia most likely is considering a possible alliance with Israel as the Saudis are dead scared of Iran.
In closing it needs to be said that the Lord loves all Muslims and all men and is not willing that any should perish but come to repentance and to a saving faith in the Lord Jesus the Messiah. (2 Peter 3:9) (1Timothy 2:4) Today, right across the whole Islamic world unnumbered multitudes of Muslims are coming to salvation in the Lord Jesus the Messiah and this is a wonderful work of God’s unmerited favour. Once God has dealt with the City of ‘Babylon’ He will also deal with those who have destroyed the harlot. On the mountains of Israel the armies of the Islamic world will be annihilated and that by fire from the presence of the Lord in the heavens. (Ezekiel 38:19-23) (Zechariah 14:12-13) In that day it will mean destruction for God’s enemies but deliverance for God’s people! “For the Lord has a day of vengeance, a year of retribution, to uphold Zion’s cause.”
