Astonishing Archeological Find--A Message from God?

Okay, this made the hair on my arms stand on end and cued the Twilight Zone theme music in my head.

I saw a link on Drudge to a news report about an ancient book of Psalms being discovered last week in a bog in Ireland. This 20 page book is from 1000 to 1200 years old.

The archeologist quoted in the article described its preservation and discovery as "a miracle."

Here's the really interesting part. . .

When the book was discovered (the same week that open war broke out in Israel), it was open to a page containing commentary on the 83rd Psalm. "What is the subject matter of Psalm 83?," you may be wondering.

It describes a conspiricy of Middle Eastern nations to wipe out the name of Israel.

It says, in part:
O God, do not remain quiet; Do not be silent and, O God, do not be still. For, behold, Thine enemies make an uproar; And those who hate Thee have exalted themselves.

They make shrewd plans against Thy people, And conspire together against Thy treasured ones.

They have said, "Come, and let us wipe them out as a nation, That the name of Israel be remembered no more." For they have conspired together with one mind; Against Thee do they make a covenant:

The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites; Moab, and the Hagrites; Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre; Assyria also has joined with them;

They have become a help to the children of Lot. Selah.

This Psalm becomes even more mind-blowingly relevant to the current conflict when you translate that list of ancient nations to modern-day geography. . .

The Tents of Edom— The Edomite kingdom sat on Israel's southern border, in modern-day Jordan and far-Northwestern Saudi Arabia.

Ishmaelites—Various Arab tribes.

Moab—Southern Jordan.

Hagrites—Arabian tribe.

Gebal—Modern-day Jbeil, a Phoenician city 20 miles north of Beirut, Lebanon.

Ammon—Jordan (Jordan, to its credit, is currently on the sidelines in the current conflict but there are elements of the Jordanian population whe are very much connected to Hezbollah.)

Amalek—A tribe in the area of modern-day Jordan.

Philistia--The Gaza Strip (terrorist militants in the Gaza strip got this whole thing started with the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.)

The Inhabitants of Tyre—Modern-day "Sur" a major Hezbollah stronghold which has come under intense Israeli attack.

"Assyria also has joined them..."—A kingdom that included modern-day Syria and Iraq.

I have not been able to determine the precise date the Psalm book was discovered, but it was very close to, if not on, the day hostilities began. How very interesting.

Posted by David at July 25, 2006 10:43 PM