One of the continual ascriptions of praise offered to God in the Old

Testament is that He is the Strength of His people, the same word maoz being

'He is the saving strength of His anointed' (Psa. 28:8).

'He is their strength in the time of trouble' (Psa. 37:39).

The Man of Sin is opposed to God and all His ways, and naturally turns

elsewhere for strength.  Psalm 52, while speaking in the first place of Doeg

the Edomite, is prophetic also of the Man of Sin:

'This is the man that made not God his strength (maoz) ... and

strengthened (azaz) himself in his wickedness' (Psa. 52:7).

Psalm 68 is also prophetic of the time of the end.  It speaks

prophetically of Christ's ascension.  'Thou hast ascended on high' (verse

18), and also of His Second Coming: 'His strength is in the clouds' (verse

In the blessing pronounced by Moses, when he looks down the ages to the

time of the end, he says:

'There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, Who rideth upon the

heaven in thy help, and in His excellency on the sky' (Deut. 33:26).

This is the prophetic answer to the world's cry at the empowering of

the Beast: 'Who is like unto the Beast?  who is able to make war with him?'

If the power of the Beast is the power of the 'air', it is equally true that

the Deliverer of Israel 'rides upon the heaven ... and on the sky'.  In Psalm

68 also, we read: 'Him that rideth upon the heavens' (Psa. 68:4,33). For the

same reason the Second Coming is often associated with 'clouds'.

Isaiah speaks of the day to come when Israel will be tempted to trust

in chariots and horses, instead of looking to the Holy One of Israel (Isa.

31:1).  This will be following the policy of the Man of Sin, 'the man who

made not God his strength' (Psa. 52:7).  After rebuking Israel for their

trust in the arm of flesh, the passage goes on to speak of the deliverance

that will be accomplished by the Lord:

'... so shall the Lord of hosts come down to fight for mount Zion, and

for the hill thereof.  As birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts

defend Jerusalem; defending also He will deliver it; and passing over

(hovering over) He will preserve it' (Isa. 31:4,5).

We are anxious not to fall into the mistake of misusing the prophets by

attempting to prophesy ourselves.  We simply draw attention to a series of

facts, which have an obvious bearing on the subject before us, and leave the

reader to draw his own conclusions.  It is clear that the great world power

at the time of the end will be considered invincible.  Its leader will

receive power from Satan, and will worship one god only, a 'god of munitions'

(Dan. 11:38 margin).  As we also know, he will worship Satan and so it seems

clear that this god of munitions must be Satan himself.  The Scriptures refer

to Satan as 'the Prince of the authority of the air', and it is the general

conviction among all nations that supremacy in the air and worldwide dominion

will, in the future, go together.  It is clear that the allusions to the

deliverance of Israel by the Lord, Whose 'strength is in the clouds', Whose

excellency is 'on the sky', and Who will at length defend Jerusalem 'as birds