Three Trials?

I had a very interesting thought earlier today. I have been slowly reading a book called Israelestine (you try getting a lot of reading done with a toddler in the house). In most eschatological circles, there is a general feeling that since Israel has returned to the land, the next major event that would happen is the Battle of Gog and Magog (Ezek. 38-39). This book instead advocates that before the Battle of Gog and Magog can occur, Israel must defeat the grand alliance of nations arrayed against her in Psalm 83. This makes a great deal of sense to me as I have always been very curious at the absence of Syria in the Gog and Magog alliance, which has always led me to speculate that the Burden of Damascus (Isa. 17) has occurred prior to the Gog invasion. If Damascus is destroyed during the war with the Psalm 83 nations, it would clear up a lot of things.

Very little is holding back the Psalm 83 alliance at the moment. The only participants listed who are not chomping at the bit to destroy Israel at the moment are Egypt and Jordan, and I believe that they would enter in a heartbeat if thought they could destroy Israel in a single stroke. I have been idly wondering if the grand test that Mr. Biden alluded to last month, might be a major assault on Israel by these powers through a promise of support by Iran. If it is and it does escalate into the grand war with the Psalm 83 powers and Israel feels that they have no friends in the world, they might feel it is in their better interests to openly destroy her enemies rather than kick the can down the road as they did in the 2006 Lebanon War.

Once her enemies were destroyed, Israel would probably consolidate all the conquered territory, much to the rage of the rest of the world. But since none of them would probably raise a finger to help Israel during the war, I doubt Israel would feel overly inclined to respect the wishes of the world. It will take time to consolidate and settle the land they have taken. There would probably be a large migration of Jews to the new Israel as land will be freely available and the public relations outcome of the war would probably cause a nasty spike in anti-Semitism. With this new population and resources, Israel would probably become very wealthy and powerful. The rest of the nations would eventually be forced to trade and make peace with her just to share in the wealth.

I believe the next three Sabbatical Cycles observed by Israel will be of great importance, due to their following the 40-year period of testing running from 1967 to 2007. This first Sabbatical cycle began September 30, 2008 and will run until September 13, 2015. My thought is that this great Psalm 83 War will occur during this space of time (I think more towards the beginning of it). The next Sabbatical Cycle runs from September 14, 2015 to September 25, 2022. It is quite possible that the Gog and Magog War will not occur until this second cycle, giving Israel time to possess and develop their new found wealth as well as to start letting their guard down before being swooped down on by the Russians, Iranians, etc.

If these two possibilities come to pass, it sets up a very interesting suggestion of what might occur during the third Sabbatical Cycle, which runs from September 26, 2022 to September 9, 2029. After all, things do seem to come in threes.