Here’s a brief summary of the history and prophecy concerning these three neighbors of Israel who always seem to wind upon the wrong side of things where the Lord is concerned.

Edom, Moab, and Ammon in History

The biblical people called by the names above once occupied the territory we know today as Jordan, the nation due east of Israel. Not many people realize that Edom, Moab, and Ammon were given their homelands by God himself (Deut. 2:5, 9, 19) just like Israel was. And just like Israel was told to clear the land west of the Jordan River of the people who lived there at the time, Edom, Moab, and Ammon were told to perform the same service for God on the Eastern side (Deut. 2:10-12, 20-22).

One of the people groups they eliminated was the Rephaites (Rephaim), an ancient group of loosely related tribes of giants who are often thought to be descendants of the Nephilim, mentioned in Genesis 6. In fact, when the 12 Israelite spies first went into the promised land they reported seeing Nephilim there (Numbers 13:33). The Rephaites were a mysterious people about whom the Bible says very little, except that Israel, Edom, Moab, and Ammon were all given the task of destroying them and taking their land.

Moab and Ammon were named after the children of the incestuous unions of Lot and his two daughters. Lot was an unknowing participant, having been made intoxicated by his daughters, who saw becoming pregnant by their father as their only way to produce any offspring. Every other man they knew had perished in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:30-38).

The Lord gave the Moabites and the Ammonites land east of Israel extending from the Jabbok River in the north to the Zered River in the south, with undefined eastern boundaries.

Edom was the name given to the descendants of Jacob’s twin brother Esau. Having patched things up after their split over the way Jacob had tricked Isaac into giving him Esau’s blessing (Genesis 27), they returned to the area near Kiriath Arba (Hebron) where Isaac and Rebekah lived. Upon Isaac’s death the two brothers buried him and divided up their inheritance.

Realizing they needed separate pasturelands because their herds would now be too large for them to remain together, Esau took his Canaanite wives and all he owned and moved some distance away into the hill country of Seir, east and south of the Dead Sea, just south of Moab and Israel. Later, the Lord told Moses He had given this land to Esau and his descendants. (Deut 2:5).

The relationship between Israel and its three neighbors to the East was never good, and they fought with each other frequently. Sometimes God used Israel to discipline them and at other times He used them to discipline Israel. Under King David, Israel conquered and subjugated all of them for a time (2 Samuel 8:1-14).

Four hundred years later, the Babylonians came as the Lord’s instrument of judgment against Israel. Edom, Moab, and Ammon all cheered for Babylon and made plans to carve up the Promised Land for themselves after the Babylonians carried Israel into captivity. This displeased the Lord and He had the Babylonians destroy them as well. Moab and Ammon ceased to exist as nations at that time (Ezekiel 25:10).

Edom was first welcomed as an ally in the Babylonian conquest of Judah, but Babylon soon turned on them and conquered them, too (Obadiah 1:7-9). God repaid Edom’s treachery against Israel (Obadiah 1:10-14) with Babylon’s treachery against Edom. The Edomites were destroyed and their lands were taken over by the Nabateans, a desert tribe from the south.

So Edom, Moab, and Ammon ceased to be nations at about the same time that Judah was carried off to Babylon. After 70 years of captivity, Israel was restored. In Jeremiah 48:47 the Lord promised one day to restore the fortunes of Moab as well, and in Jeremiah 49:6 He made the same promise to Ammon. But He made no such promise to Edom.

Edom, Moab, and Ammon in the End Times

Edom, Moab, and Ammon are listed in Psalm 83:6-7 among the participants in a scheme to destroy Israel and erase its name from people’s memories. By most accounts this battle has never taken place and will most likely be one of the next events on the prophetic horizon. The psalmist’s prayer is that the Lord will cause them to perish in disgrace.

Edom, Moab, and Ammon are also mentioned in a prophecy from Daniel 11:41. Speaking of the Antichrist and his end times conquest of the Middle East, Daniel said, “He will also invade the Beautiful Land. Many countries will fall, but Edom, Moab and the leaders of Ammon will be delivered from his hand.”

The Beautiful Land is Israel, and the timing of this prophecy is during the Great Tribulation. The fact that Edom, Moab and the leaders of Ammon will be delivered from the Antichrist’s hand indicates he will have intended to conquer them but will be unable to do so. Based on existing conditions in the world today we would interpret this prophecy as pertaining to Jordan. But this could all change with the Battle of Psalm 83 when Edom, Moab, and Ammon could come under Israel’s control again. Is that what will prevent the Antichrist from conquering them, or is there more to it?

Rev. 12:13-17 tells us that after Satan is confined to Earth he will go after “the woman”, symbolic of Israel. But the woman will be given the wings of a great eagle, enabling her to flee into the desert to a place prepared for her, where she will be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, which is 3 ½ years, the duration of the Great Tribulation. This agrees with Matt. 24:15-21 where the Lord warned the believing remnant of Israel to flee to the mountains to escape the Great Tribulation. The closest mountains to Jerusalem are in Moab and Edom.

And concerning the time of the 2nd Coming, Isaiah wrote;

Who is this coming from Edom, from Bozrah, with his garments stained crimson? Who is this, robed in splendor, striding forward in the greatness of his strength?

“It is I, proclaiming victory, mighty to save.”

Why are your garments red, like those of one treading the winepress?

“I have trodden the winepress alone; from the nations no one was with me. I trampled them in my anger and trod them down in my wrath; their blood spattered my garments, and I stained all my clothing. It was for me the day of vengeance; the year for me to redeem had come.

I looked, but there was no one to help, I was appalled that no one gave support; so my own arm achieved salvation for me, and my own wrath sustained me. I trampled the nations in my anger; in my wrath I made them drunk and poured their blood on the ground” (Isaiah 63:1-6).

Bozrah was the capitol of Edom. The name can mean either sheepfold or fortress. It’s often associated with the abandoned city of Petra, which is only twenty miles away.

Combining these prophecies we have the Antichrist, now indwelt by Satan, determined to rid the world of God’s people once and for all. Heeding the Lord’s 2,000 year old warning, the believing remnant will flee to the mountains of Edom where the city of Petra has been standing empty for centuries, as if in preparation.

The phrase “wings of a great eagle” in Rev. 12:14 is reminiscent of Exodus 19:4 where the Lord used the same phrase to describe the way he delivered Israel from the Egyptians. This implies the same kind of supernatural assistance, such as when Satan spews out a river of water to sweep the woman away. But the Lord will open the earth to swallow the river and save the woman. This will enrage Satan, but he will leave the woman and go after other followers of Jesus (Rev. 12:15-17).

This helps us understand how Edom, Moab, and Ammon could escape the clutches of the Anti-christ. The Lord has chosen Petra as the city of refuge where He will protect His people throughout the Great Tribulation. In doing so, He will make sure the whole area stays out of the hands of His enemy. It also explains why, when He returns, He will first go to Edom to clear the way for His people to return to Jerusalem (Isaiah 63:1-6).

Edom, Moab, and Ammon in the Millennium

On several of our visits to Israel we crossed into Jordan near Jericho. We used its capital city, Amman, as our headquarters, from which we visited other parts of the country. Amman is a modern city of 4 million inhabitants that we always found to be very hospitable.

Our various destinations always included the ruins of Jerash (Gerasa). It was a prominent city of the Decapolis in the Lord’s time (Matt. 4:25), and is located about 30 miles north of Amman. Traveling through the ancient land of the Ammonites, we found it to be quite beautiful in places, with green valleys and numerous villages.

We always spent a day in Petra, as well. We traveled south from Amman down the eastern side of the Dead Sea, through ancient Moab and into Edom. As we journeyed south we soon found ourselves in desert country, but it’s still far from being a wasteland. The highway was wide and well maintained, with light to moderate traffic in both directions, and we passed through several villages with pleasant rest stops before reaching Petra.

But all that will change in the day God brings His vengeance on the lands east of the Jordan river and south of Israel. When He’s finished with them, Moab and Ammon will resemble Sodom and Gomorrah.

“I have heard the insults of Moab and the taunts of the Ammonites, who insulted my people and made threats against their land. Therefore, as surely as I live,” declares the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel,“surely Moab will become like Sodom, the Ammonites like Gomorrah—a place of weeds and salt pits, a wasteland forever. The remnant of my people will plunder them; the survivors of my nation will inherit their land” (Zeph. 2:8-9).

Here’s another hint that Moab and Ammon will yet fall back under the control of Israel.

And Edom will receive an extra portion of the Lord’s wrath.

“My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens; see, it descends in judgment on Edom, the people I have totally destroyed. The sword of the Lord is bathed in blood, it is covered with fat—the blood of lambs and goats, fat from the kidneys of rams. For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah and a great slaughter in the land of Edom. And the wild oxen will fall with them, the bull calves and the great bulls. Their land will be drenched with blood, and the dust will be soaked with fat.

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 sulfur; 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. The desert owl and screech owl will possess it; the great owl and the raven will nest there. God will stretch out over Edom the measuring line of chaos and the plumb line of desolation” (Isaiah 34:5-11).

Isaiah’s descriptive language calls up images of hell itself and has led more than one commentator to suggest Edom as the location of the Lake of Fire, where the unbelievers of all ages will spend eternity in torment.

From the above we can see that it won’t be out of any consideration for Edom, Moab, and Ammon that God will protect them from the Antichrist, but out of a need to preserve the believing remnant of Israel. After the 2ndComing the homelands of these three antagonists of Israel will become desolate wastelands forever.

Edom, Moab, and Ammon stand as witnesses to the terrible end that comes to countries who take their stand against God and His people. It truly is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God (Hebrews 10:31).

I’ve studied what the Bible says about healing for years and years, and two things remain clear to me.  One is that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). Another is He said anyone with faith in Him would do the things He did (John 14:12). But the results we’re experiencing in much of the Western church today are far different from those attributed to Him in the Bible. A logical mind can only conclude that something has changed. Since it can’t be Him, that leaves only us.

I’ve concluded that many of us have formed our opinions about healing either from hearsay or personal observation rather than God’s Word, while the Bible tells us to live by faith and not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7).  To prove my point, count the number of times when you’ve personally witnessed someone being healed. Not heard about, but personally witnessed. If you’re like most people you won’t know of very many, maybe not any.

Maybe we don’t see people being healed because we no longer expect to.  Somewhere along the way there’s been a disconnect to the point where many believers are convinced that without giving us any warning God simply stopped healing people.  Some of those who promote this idea say it happened once the New Testament had been compiled. They base this on 1 Cor. 13:8-10 which says in part:

“…where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.”

The Greek word for perfection in this passage also means complete, so they interpret what Paul wrote to mean that once the New Testament was complete, the gifts of the Spirit ceased.  The problem I have with this interpretation is that it never appeared anywhere in the church record until about 1900 AD when it was used as a rebuttal against the appearance of spiritual gifts in the Pentecostal movement. Many protestant denominations (those where spiritual gifts are not in evidence) hold this view today. It should not surprise us that supernatural healing does not occur in those denominations.

Then there are believers who call themselves mid-Acts dispensationalists. They assert that healing and other spiritual gifts were signs to the Jews that Gentiles could receive the Holy Spirit, and as soon as Israel was officially set aside and the gospel went to the Gentiles these signs ceased. They say the epistle of James, which contains the most direct promise of healing through prayer anywhere in the New testament (James 5:14-16), was not intended for us today but was written only to Jewish believers in the early days of the church.  Some of these folks hedge their bets by assuring us that God can heal people and sometimes does, so we can still pray for healing. But we shouldn’t be surprised it doesn’t happen. Our healing may not come until the resurrection. At least they leave the door open for God to heal someone if He decides to.

Got Faith?

Many of us think all believers have great faith, so if we don’t see anyone being healed it must be that the Lord no longer heals people. But we only have those around us with which to compare ourselves, and maybe the average faith of a person today is not as strong as we think. For example, do you know anybody alive today whose faith could qualify them for inclusion in Hebrews 11, called: “The Hall of Faith” by many?

Here are a few who did qualify so you can see the standard. Abraham agreed to sacrifice his son, even though God’s promise to him had not come true. He reasoned that God would raise Isaac from the dead rather than break His promise. Elijah challenged the 400 priests of Baal to a public test of faith before a crowd of thousands. As an old man Daniel faced the lions all night long as they got hungrier by the minute.

According to tradition, John preached the gospel while being lowered into a cauldron of boiling oil, and then kept on preaching while it bubbled away around him. Paul walked into city after city knowing that he would likely be beaten severely enough to require supernatural healing before he left. Could even our most successful “men of God” pull off anything like that today? Name the mega pastor, Christian author, or televangelist whose work would qualify them if Hebrews 11 was being written today. Now think of the growing number of pastors who won’t give an altar call to their own congregation for fear of offending someone!

Do you suppose Jesus was looking at mankind’s steadily weakening faith between His day and ours when He asked, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8).  Faith grows from a day by day dependence on God to fulfill his promises to us. We’ve had things so good for so long that we haven’t needed even a faith the size of a mustard seed to prosper.

Here’s How It All Began

When preparing the Children of Israel for entry into the promised land, God had Moses tell them these things.

“He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers. He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land-your grain, new wine and oil-the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks in the land that he swore to your forefathers to give you. You will be blessed more than any other people; none of your men or women will be childless, nor any of your livestock without young. The LORD will keep you free from every disease. He will not inflict on you the horrible diseases you knew in Egypt, but he will inflict them on all who hate you” (Deut. 7:13-15).

It’s our nature to look to God when we have nothing and are struggling, and He blesses us in return. When I first became a believer, I concluded that one of the most popular products my company sold was not pleasing to God so I stopped selling it. Finding a way to make up for this huge loss in revenue was stressful, so I began getting up early in the morning to pray for guidance and give thanks for the blessings I’d received. Each morning I spent an hour on my knees in the living room before anyone else got up. The Lord blessed me through that time and brought me Christian clients with needs I could meet in a way that pleased Him. The lost revenue was more than replaced.

Remember Who Got You Where You Are

Someone wrote that religion gives birth to prosperity and the daughter consumes the mother. I believe he meant that God has always promised abundance to those who follow Him, but eventually man will make prosperity his religion and abandon God. Here’s how God warned His people against this:

“Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God” (Deut. 8:11-14).

“You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.’ But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today” (Deut. 8:17-18).

As the blessings multiply and we become more secure it usually becomes harder to take the time to pray. We begin to feel that we no longer need to spend valuable time asking the Lord for direction. Also our confidence grows and we begin to believe our success is self-generated. That means we don’t spend as much time giving thanks. As I got busier and began traveling more, it was harder to devote that hour each day so I began trying to do two things at once, praying while I exercised or while I drove to work. It wasn’t the same, and I saw how easy it would be to justify stopping altogether.

I was saved by a series of contracts with out of town clients the Lord sent me. They gave me an uninterrupted hour each day on flights to various cities in the Western US when I could pray and read my Bible.  In a 10 year period I logged nearly 2 million miles into my frequent flier account, almost all of them on flights 60-90 minutes long. I often wonder how different things would have been had I simply convinced myself that I was too busy to pray any more, or that my success was due to my own talent and skill so I no longer needed to thank the Lord or seek His direction.

It Doesn’t Take Much

The generation of Israelites who came into the promised land experienced many of the most faith building miracles of all time. But in Judges 2:10 we read this incredible statement.

After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel.

Within a span of one generation the people had forgotten the Lord and the powerful miracles He had performed for them. The book of Judges records one of the lowest points in their history. It shows us that it doesn’t take much to destroy the faith of a nation. For Israel it only took one generation of neglecting the Word of God.

With individuals it happens even faster. Stop praying for a day or two and you’ll miss it. Stop for a month and you’ll forget it. Oh, you’ll still be going to church and may even be involved in a project or two, or serve on a committee or board. Maybe you’ll go around looking for people to minister to and pray for. You may even refer to yourself as a follower of Jesus, not just a believer.

Sometimes we call this “maturing in the faith” meaning we’re not so dependent on God any more. But the most powerful believers among us never “mature” that way. They never get to the point where they don’t ask for His guidance or feel the need to express their gratitude. They never substitute works for faith.  Remember, Paul said everything that was written in the past was written to teach us (Romans 15:4).  If we don’t learn the lessons of Israel’s history, we’ll be doomed to repeat them.

We Need More Exercise

In all likelihood we’re entering a time when the world we grew up in will be no more. Our security will be shaken, our freedoms will be restricted, and our faith will be tested. Some of us will find ourselves back at square one after it’s too late to start over. Now’s the time to begin exercising our faith.

The faith to be saved was a gift from God (Ephes. 2:8) and keeping you saved is His job (2 Cor. 1:21-22). But you can exercise your faith to make it stronger by reading your Bible daily (Romans 10:17) and talking with the Lord about what you’ve read, asking for guidance in how to apply it. Faith only gets stronger when it’s accompanied by action (James 2:17).

After praying for direction, do something you believe God is calling you to do. You can begin with something as little as talking about Him with someone, helping out in a food kitchen or a rescue mission, or visiting a sick person. He’ll point you to bigger things from there. Each time you take a step of faith, your faith will grow to prepare you for the next step.  As your faith grows you’ll be more likely to witness a miracle, even a miraculous healing.

Above all, pray about everything, be fearful of nothing, and give thanks for anything. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:7).