Thus saith the Lord God; Because that Moab and Seir do say, Behold,
the house of Judah is like unto all the heathen; Therefore, behold,
I will open the side of Moab from the cities, from his cities which
are on his frontiers, the glory of the country, Beth-jeshimoth,
Baal-meon and Kiriathaim, Unto the men of the east with the
Ammonites, and will give them in possession, that the Ammonites may
not be remembered among the nations. And I will execute judgments
upon Moab; and they shall know that I am the Lord (verses 8-11).
Moab was the kin of Ammon.[17] Their country lay east of the Dead Sea.
Other interesting prophetic messages on Moab are contained in Isaiah xv
and xvi; Jer. xlviii and Amos ii:1. Jeremiah also gives a promise of
Moab's restoration. "Yet will I bring again the captivity of Moab in the
latter days, saith the Lord" (Jer. xlviii:47). Here the time of Moab's
blessing is stated; it will be "in the latter days," the days still to
come connected with the day of the Lord, the second Coming of Christ.
Where Ammon and Moab are now, among what nations their descendants
exist, is known to an omniscient God. How Moab will be brought back from
captivity and installed in their territory in the latter days, we
repeat, will be accomplished by the wisdom and power of God. The
teaching which one hears occasionally, that the Ammonites and Moabites
will be raised from the dead and restored physically is more than a
fanciful speculation; it is an evil, unscriptural doctrine. The Word of
God nowhere teaches a physical resurrection of ungodly nations of the
past for a second chance. Moab also sneered at the house of Judah and
mockingly declared "the house of Judah is like unto all the heathen."
They were a proud and arrogant people. "We have heard of the pride of
Moab, he is exceedingly proud, his loftiness and his arrogancy and his
pride and the haughtiness of his heart" (Jer. xlviii:29). Isaiah gives
the same description of their character (Isa. xvi:6). And the God of
Israel who governs the nations and deals with them in judgment humbled
them into the dust. The Bedouins are now likewise the possessors of
their country. "And I will execute judgments upon Moab; and they shall
know that I am the Lord." And these judgments upon proud,
self-exalting, God-forgetting nations, are not confined to the past.
Some nations of Europe, who claimed to be nations of civilization and
making for righteousness, so often called "Christian nations," have been
lifted up in pride, forgetting God in their prosperity, and now a
righteous God has put His hand upon them, so that they should find out
that He is the Lord.
[17] Moab and Ammon were the incestuous offspring of Lot. (Genesis
xix:37-38.)