Background Reading:
The Obedience of Faith
"they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them" -- During the Millennial Kingdom, the Lord Jesus Christ will rule from Israel, and all the nations will submit to His authority. If they do not obey Him, they will be punished. The people of Israel at that time will rule over the peoples of the nations that previously oppressed them, as it is written:
For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors. (Isaiah 14:1-2)The mention of Edom, Moab, and the children of Ammon in Isaiah 11:14 is similar to a statement in Daniel, chapter 11:
He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. (Daniel 11:41)The passage in Daniel, chapter 11 does not refer to the time of the Millennial Kingdom, but rather to the time of the Great Tribulation. The Antichrist invades the glorious land (Israel), but Edom, Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon escape out of the hand of the Antichrist. At the mid-point of the Great Tribulation (3 1/2 years), the Antichrist defiles the temple, at which point the Jews are warned to flee into the mountains:
When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains (Matthew 24:15-16)In the MacArthur Study Bible, the following note appears for Matt. 24:16:
the mountains. Probably a reference to the region SE of Jerusalem, particularly the Dead Sea area, where there are many caves and places of refuge. David hid from Saul in this area (1 Sam. 23:29). This would also include the hills of Moab and Edom. (MacArthur Study Bible fn. Matt. 24:16)Thus, during the time of the Great Tribulation, once the Antichrist invades the land of Israel, it is possible that the Jews flee to the land of Moab and Edom and are there protected from the Antichrist. This view is further supported by the account in Revelation, chapter 12:
And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. (Revelation 12:6)Here again we see Israel (the woman) flee into the wilderness during the time of the Great Tribulation where the people of Israel are protected from the acts of Satan. The MacArthur Study Bible makes the following comment:
wilderness. God will protect Israel from Satan by hiding her in the wilderness, perhaps in the region of Moab, Ammon, and Edom, east of Palestine. Interestingly, those countries will be specifically spared from the Antichrist's attack against the Holy Land (cf. Dan. 11:41). (MacArthur Study Bible fn. Rev. 12:6)Thus, the land where perhaps the Jews seek refuge during the time of the Great Tribulation, they will rule over during the time of the Millennial Kingdom.