Sheba and Dedan in the News

By Gary Stearman

In an Associated Press report, datelined Bangkok, October 8, 2009, leaders of Saudi Arabia are beginning to show distress at late developments in the world of oil production:

"There are plenty of needy countries at the UN climate talks in Bangkok that make the case they need financial assistance to adapt to the impacts of global warming. Then there are the Saudis.

"Saudi Arabia has led a quiet campaign during these and other negotiations – demanding behind closed doors that oil-producing nations get special financial assistance if a new climate pact calls for substantial reduction in the use of fossil fuels.

"That campaign comes despite an International Energy Agency [IEA] report released this week showing that OPEC revenues would still increase $23 trillion between 2008 and 2030 – a fourfold increase compared to the period from 1985 to 2007 – if countries agree to significantly slash emissions and thereby cut their use of oil. That is the limit most countries agree is needed to avoid the worst impacts of climate change."

This report shows that in the final analysis, the Saudis are still linking their future wealth with Western Capitalists, not the uncertain alignments of Islam. Where the "financial assistance" would come from is anybody’s guess.

But this development directs us to look again at the biblical background of the Arabs, and of their future prophetic outcome. With this in mind, we look back at their historical roots:

In the tenth chapter of Genesis, we are given the genealogy of Noah’s three sons. One of them – Ham – earlier mentioned as having sinned against his father, gives birth to a line of leaders who reflect their patriarch’s tendency to faithless and degenerate behavior.

"And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan.

"And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtecha: and the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan.

"And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.

"He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD.

"And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar" (Gen. 10:6-10).

This line of humanity populated the territories that became Assyria and Babylon. They were also the forerunners of the Arab stock that inherited the desert country around the Persian Gulf.

Isaiah later sees Dedan as the people who live in the Arabian oases and travel in caravans:

"The burden upon Arabia. In the forest in Arabia shall ye lodge, O ye travelling companies of Dedanim" (Isa. 21:13).

When Moses compiled the history of Abraham’s offspring, he recorded the descent of a later line, through Keturah, who was apparently related to the offspring of the earlier line of Cush. Her descendants named their children for his children:

"Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah.

"And she bare him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah.

"And Jokshan begat Sheba, and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were Asshurim, and Letushim, and Leummim.

"And the sons of Midian; Ephah, and Epher, and Hanoch, and Abida, and Eldaah. All these were the children of Keturah.

"And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac.

"But unto the sons of the concubines, which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, eastward, unto the east country" (Gen. 25:1-6).

Finally, we see that the descendants of Sheba and Dedan are alive and well in the latter days, in other words, today. In his well-known prophecy of Gog’s invasion from the north, Sheba and Dedan are mentioned as being in league with the "merchants of Tarshish," the global trading market of the end times:

"Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?" (Ezek. 38:13).

Here, viewing these two tribes as forerunners of Arab countries, we find that when Gog invades, these oil-producing countries will still be allied with Tarshish, the biblical title for the Western powers.

Today, the Arabs are definitely worried about global agreements that would limit the "carbon footprints" of industrialized countries. This would cause a drastic decline in oil consumption.

The report above quoted the words of their complaint:

"The head of the Saudi delegation Mohammad S. Al Sabban dismissed the IEA figures as ‘biased’ and said OPEC’s own calculations showed that Saudi Arabia would lose $19 billion a year starting in 2012 under a new climate pact. The region would lose much more, he said."

The AP also reported that last December in Copenhagen, during negotiations for a treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol, Al Sabban said,

"We are among the economically vulnerable countries."

The old Kyoto Protocol will be replaced in 2012.

"This is very serious for us," he continued. "We are in the process of diversifying our economy but this will take a long time. We don’t have too many resources."

Biblical prophecy tells us that in the end, the Saudis will look to the West, not to Russia, China or Iran to stabilize their economy.

When the northern invasion comes, they will tightly cling to the merchant bankers of the world for their security.

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