While Turkey’s insanity is finally getting them into trouble, the crazy policies of a different country in the Middle East are creating problems. That country is Saudi Arabia, and they’re a lot closer to a full-blown implosion than you might think.
A short while back, Saudi Arabia began pumping more oil to push prices lower, and they haven’t stopped. With all due respect to the Saudis, this makes no sense. After all, Saudi Arabia is “the world’s largest oil exporter.” Why would they ever want to push prices lower? Apparently, they wanted to hurt their competitors. Back in February, The New York Times wrote “Saudi Arabia has been trying to pressure President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to abandon his support for President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, using its dominance of the global oil markets at a time when the Russian government is reeling from the effects of plummeting oil prices.” Bankrupting US shale drillers would be an added bonus of this pumping party, but unsurprisingly, the Saudi strategy is failing miserably.
Low interest rates in the United States has kept cheap credit available to US shale producers. Meanwhile, Russia decided to use their military bases in Syria to bomb ISIS and Syrian rebels in an effort to support Assad. Talk about completely backfiring, right? To make matters worse, the Saudis have begun “delaying payments to government contractors as the slump in oil prices pushes the country into a deficit for the first time since 2009.” Of course, starting a war in Yemen and exporting radical Islam probably hasn’t helped their budget. A recent editorial in The New York Times was called “Saudi Arabia, an ISIS That Has Made It.” The editorial stated that “The West’s denial regarding Saudi Arabia is striking: It salutes the theocracy as its ally but pretends not to notice that it is the world’s chief ideological sponsor of Islamist culture.”
Well, the Antichrist will be God’s judgment on Saudi Arabia, just like Assyria was God’s judgment on the Jewish people back in the day (Isaiah 10:5). The Antichrist will rise out of Syria, and it seems highly likely the Saudis are a part of the group that attacks him and loses (Daniel 11:21-22). They will be forced to make a deal with him (Daniel 11:23), and when he goes back on his word (Daniel 8:25), all they will be able to say is “Have you come to take spoil?” (Ezekiel 38:13)
The Bible says “Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that will he also reap” (Galatians 6:7). Jesus is coming back to establish His Kingdom in its fullness, and He “will repay every man according to his works” (Matthew 16:27). Turn your back on sin, and stop seeking the corruption of this world. Live for Jesus (Galatians 6:8), and do “not grow weary in doing good, for in due season we shall reap, if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9).