The Time Has Come to Examine

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Ezekiel 38 &39

An Invasion of Israel

They Come From the North, the East, and the South Sorry, your browser doesn't support Java(tm).

I see a problem with the interpreters of Biblical prophecy today. They should be called speculators, not interpreters. God is the only one who knows all things from beginning to end. Man has to wait until the events take place before he can know what God already knows as fact. Ezekiel 38-39 present a need for speculation as we enter this new millennium. I believe it is a description of the last Jihad! I believe it happens after the rapture, and opens the door for the Two Witnesses of Revelations 11 to build the Third Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. I believe God is about to bring this present dispensation to an end, and establish Israel as the center of the next dispensation.

C.H. Spurgeon said in an 1862 sermon: "Although I do not despise prophesying, I entertain a very intense disgust of those who know nothing about them, and yet pretend to be their interpreters." Things haven't changed much over the years with self proclaimed experts in prophecy. Yet, there is a need for speculation or these events will come upon us in inexcusable ignorance. Let us remember something the Lord Jesus Christ said to a former generation:

Mat 16:3

And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?

Until these end time events take place or someone is given divine revelation, the best anyone can do in dealing with these passages is to compare current events with a speculation of compatibility. This is not interpretation. The recent Y2K prophetic experts have all been put to shame for their false claims of knowledgeable interpretation. As current events change, so must the speculation which is not interpretation.

The challenge in dealing with Ezekiel 38-39 is: When do these events take place in history? Who are the Gog? How does the roll of the 2 prophetic Witnesses of Revelations fit into this future invasion of Israel? How does it all tie together in the transition and end of our present dispensation, and the beginning of the next?

God may be about to change the responsibility and relationship we have had with Him for the last 2000 years?

Are you going to be ready?

Please read Ezek 38-39 (just click the hot links)

Ezekiel 38-39 reveals an end time invasion of Israel, and the total destruction of the invading army. It is often referred to as the coming war with Russia. Looking at current events, and making a comparison. I am going to make my speculation. Clearly there is a three pronged invasion of Israel by a large group of countries. One comes from the North, another from the East, and the third from the South. Most of their root names we have not heard since the times of Noah (Gen 10:2-6; 1Chr 1:4-8). They represent the peoples who inhabit the old homesteads of those first generations after Noah ( see the Anceint World map).

The main thrust is initiated by the Gog from the land of Magog (Ezek 38:2-3).

North of Israel the Caucasus Mountain range runs between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. The peaks are called the Gogh (Gog) of which Ararat (Noah's landing site) is a peak. The land of Magog (to the North of Ararat) must include those inhabitants north of the Caucasus. If present day Russia (after the demise of the USSR) were looked at as a rather lopsided funnel, the spout would run between the Black and Caspian Seas ending at the Caucasus Mountains. This spout or passage way also includes the traditional border between Russia and Turkey (The Caucasus Mountains). Today, the newly formed contries of Georgia, Azerbaijon, and Chechnya are in the spout north of the Caucasus! They are the break away Moslem contries which formed with the demise of the USSR.

NORTH

Watch the spout as an Islamic Gog prepares for it's final roll in Jewish history. The Gog are further identified in Ezek 38:2-3 as being "the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal" (some commentators like W..E. Heslop see Meshech and Tubal as Moscow and Tobolsk the twin capital cities of Russia). Russia has always been recognized as the King of the North. Mesheck and Tubal could also represent those Russian Moslems who join in with the Gog in this end time invasion. These invaders are first of all names of grandsons of Noah that settled North of the Caucasus, and are identified there by those who have traced the patriarchal progenitors. A chief prince shall rise out of Russia from the land of Magog.

1. The New King James Bible has an interesting translation of this same passage. It reads "the prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal" transliterating "chief" into its Hebrew word "rosh." Rosh is also the modern word used in Israel for Russia. "The prince of Russia."
2. The fact that the Gog are called a prince of Rosh, or even a chief prince convinces me that they are but a part of a whole population. The breakaway Russian Moslem countries could be looked upon as princes of their former ruler.
3. I can speculate that a part of old Russia (The Islamic Part) instigates an attack on Israel still leaving Russia the nation strong enough to be the King of the North to fulfill it's roll in future prophecy (Dan 11:40) during the Battle of Armageddon. The conflict with two Russian invasions of Israel is solved. The Islamic part of Russia is destroyed at the beginning of the Tribulation, and the Russia of Moscow and Tubolsk (King of the North) is destroyed at the end of the Tribulation at Armageddon.

   
   
   

EAST & South

• Much more certain is Persia (East) (Ezek 38:5) modern day Islamic Iran and Iraq east of Israel. What better cause could join these antagonists together then the thought to plunder a potentially defenseless Israel (Ezek 38:10-12)? No one can doubt they would participate once the North begins to move.

  
  
  

SOUTH

• The next two countries mentioned in Ezek 38:5 are south of Israel. They are Ethiopia/Cush and Libya (transliterated Put or Phut). Today the religious breakdown of Africa indicates South Africa is mostly professing Christianity, Central Africa is a mix of Islam and professing Christianity, and North Africa is mostly Moslem. The placement of these two grandsons of Noah are in North Africa. I speculate Cush and Put might represent the Moslem hoards of North Africa?
  
  

Rest of the NORTH

• Last mentioned is Gomer and Togarmah standing between the Gog and the erits (land) of Israel Ezek 38:6. This grandson and great grandson of Noah settled around the Black Sea. Gomer is found northeast of the Black Sea (near the spout). The modern day equivalent would be those Russians living just north of the Black Sea (a Moslem stronghold). Togarmah is Turkey a totally Moslem country. Today all these countries cup Israel putting its back to the Mediterranean Sea. The buffer countries are Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria. None of whom would be likely to make any objection to an Islamic invasion (Jihad) regardless of personal peace treaties with Israel. They would probably join in. These peoples are of different races, countries, and cultures. The only thing they share in common today is their religion. The participants of Ezekiel 38 & 39 today can only be Moslem! If this prophetic passage were to find it's fulfillment today, it could only be an Islamic invasion of Israel. It would not be a war with Russia (only an Islamic part of Russia). It would be the LAST JIHAD!

See: The Ancient World - the probable settlements of the decedents of Noah.

North - The Gog (Islamic hoards from former USSR).

Joined by Turkey and other Moslems around Black Sea.

East - Persia (Iran and Iraq).

South - Ethiopia & Libia (the Moslem hoards of North Africa).

The Big Picture

• The big picture of Ezekiel makes Ezek 35 interesting in the context of Ezekiel 38 & 39 because it is about a judgement of God on the Edomite neighbors of a former generation of Jews. The last recorded living Edomite was the infamous King Herod the Great. The Edomites are now extinct as a people. Their demise was due to an attitude of hate against Israel that infected the population: Not much different then the hate manifested by the Palestinians now living in Jordan (the old Edomite Kingdom).

• Hear what the Lord has to say about their hate toward Israel.

Ezek 35:11

Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will even do according to thine anger, and according to thine envy which thou hast used out of thy hatred against them; and I will make myself known among them, when I have judged thee.

• Today, modern representatives of the old Edomite neighbors of Israel seem to share the same infection of anger. The words of Ezekiel 39 may well be describing The Last Jihad, and the end of Islam!

The rapture

• These events of the Last Jihad may take place right after the rapture of the "born again" Christians (Mat 24:39-42).
• The focus of God would surely need to be recognized by the world as having shifted from the True Church to the Nation of Israel. Just as the events of the holocaust caused the world not to object to Israel reclaiming their land, so the reverse-holocaust events of Ezek 39:11 would cause the world to give no objection to the next logical step Israel must take - rebuilding their Temple.

The Temple

• The revival of the Jewish Temple is what the last section of Ezekiel (chapter 34 to the end) is all about.

• A built on Mount Moriah is where chapters 38 and 39 are focused. I see Ezek 38-39 as transitional. The possessing Church (the real "born again" Christians) with the power of the Holy Spirit is raptured (1Cor 15:51-54) taken out of this world, and up to heaven leaving only the spiritually powerless (unable to produce true conversion) professing Church identified as Apostate Christianity. It will thrive in the post rapture world.
• Spiritual impotence will not be a handicap to increasing membership. Liberal Christianity, Neo-evangelicalism, the cults, or the Roman Church well exemplify great membership rolls in this pre-rapture era. Christ will still be the major part of their Gospel message as He is today in Apostate Christianity, but true conversion never was, can, nor never will be able to be wrought through them. Without the Holy Spirit, the message becomes powerless.
• Ecstatic uncontrolled emotionalism and false mysticism characterized by the Roman Catholics and Charismatic Christians of today will be unrestrained with the Holy Spirit's departure at the rapture. It may well lead to the greatest explosion of professing Christianity Rev 17 the world has ever known, but it will be apostate and false!
• Something of monumental proportion will be necessary to prove God is not impotent in this Apostate religious world left after the rapture.
• The utter annihilation of Islam in Ezek 39 will show the world where it must now look to find salvation. The gospel message of Apostate Christianity (the leaven of man's works mixed together with lip service to the grace of Christ, and the probable absence of the doctrine of eternal security) will be powerless to produce true conversion during the tribulation.

• I believe Ezek 38-39 is the transition providing the post rapture world with a place to look for salvation. A place where Jesus Christ is about to come to rule the world. Just as it was in the 69 weeks of Dan 9, so also will it be in the 70th week - that a place will be the focus of God and His Children. The Jewish Temple in Jerusalem!

The Purpose of the Last Jihad

• The purpose of Ezek 38-39 is no mystery when viewed in transition to the rapture and the beginning of Daniel''s 70th week. God is changing dispensations! His relationship with the Church has ended. His relationship with Israel of old is being re-established. He is making His intent clear to the post rapture world! Everyone will see God's hand in these events. They will see and acknowledge the power of the God of Israel! Even secular Israel will know it is the power of Christ the Messiah being manifested. Ezekiel 38 & 39 have a purpose clearly stated again and again. That the world should know where the real God can be found!

Ezek 38:16

and thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.

Ezek 38:23

Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the LORD.

Ezek 39:6-7

(See also Revelations 11:5 linking the Two Witnesses to these events)

And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.

So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.

Ezek 39:22-25

So the house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God from that day and forward.

And the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity: because they trespassed against me, therefore hid I my face from them, and gave them into the hand of their enemies: so fell they all by the sword.

According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions have I done unto them, and hid my face from them.

Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name;

Not War, but An Act of God

• Ezek 39 is not a war. The enemy comes for war, but the victory is an act of God; A picture to the whole world of things to come in some 7 short years (Daniel's 70th week ending in Armageddon). The tribulation starts with a regional judgment (The Last Jihad), and ends with a global judgement (Armageddon).
• A number of things might happen with the fall of the Islamic Arabs of Persia and their allies at the beginning of the Tribulation..
  

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Israel would increase in land possession (including those losses traded away for a secularized peace). She would be stratigically located between the powers of the North, South, East, and West. She would be courted by the Western World looking to the oil fields of the now devestated Islamic East.

The Anti-Christ

The Anti-Christ: (not Bill Clinton, but someone just like him) leading a 10 nation Western confederacy Rev 13:1 could see his control over the oil fields of Arabia becoming possible. He could see making Bagdad/Babylon (the material, not the religious whore) the banking capital of the new world order as it appears in Rev 18.

With his power in the West, and his potential wealth in the East (and Israel in-between), a treaty with Israel would become paramount.

The Tribulation (7 years) begins

1. The signing of such a treaty with secular heads of Israel would be the signal to a new faithful religious element in Israel that Daniel's 70th week (7 years) was beginning (Dan 9:27).
2. Because of Ezekiel 39, there will be no need for objection to a Jewish Temple. Islam's pride will be lying dead on the mountains of Israel (Ezek 39:4).
3. The Anti-Christ would be most likely to consider treaty rather then force at this time. He will be a man promoting a false secular peace for the first half of the tribulation.

The Two Witnesses of Revelations 11

• Here is a speculation about the mission of the TWO WITNESSES of Rev 11.
• They will be the future equivalents of Ezra's High Priest Joshua and head administrator Zerubbabel.
• They will have 42 months to build and establish Temple Worship (notice a link between the TWO WITNESSES and the Temple in Rev 11 One might be designated High Priest while the other would be the administrative Prince of Temple reconstuction?
• Like 2 olive trees ( Rev 11:4 and Zech 4:3) of an earlier time with the same mission. Their call to rebuild the Temple would be supported by 144,000 faithful, newly saved Jews (12,000 each living where the old tribes were located), and might well be the catalyst of Ezek 38-39. The reason why the Moslem world attacks Israel? The Two Witnesses announce God is about to build the Third Jewish Temple on Mount Moriah!
• With the end of Islam, the Jews would now be free to build Ezekiel's Temple (Ezek 40-42), and establish the chronology in the last section of Ezekiel. (Read: The Second Woe of Revelations)

Two Returns

• Ezekiel saw two returns. In the first (Ezra's day with Joshua and Zerubbabel) when there was no fulfillment of Chapters 38 & 39. And, in our day (culminating with the Two Witnesses) of the second return where a chronological fulfillment is possible.

  
  
  

Now a Chronology of Ezekiel!

A near and far view of Two Temples!

Ezekiel 34

• Beginning in Ezek 34 with an indictment against all secularized Jewish leaders applicable to those of the past and the present political secularized leadership of Israel today.

Ezekiel 35

• Ezek 35 about Israel's hate filled neighbors both the former and the modern neighbors who hate Israel.

Ezekiel 36 & 37

• Ezek 36-37 where the "dry bones" of both Ezekiel's day and today come together. These chapters are as relevant today as they were when Israel was promised deliverance from Babylon, and maybe more so.

Ezekiel 38 & 39

• Then the "last Jihad" of Ezek 38-39 that did not happen in Ezekiel's day, but is yet to be realized in our day.

Ezekiel 40 - 48

• Culminating in building and worship at the Jewish Temple of Ezek 40-48. A Second Temple was built as Ezekiel prophesied (far short of the magnitude Ezekiel describes, but a fact of chronology). A Third Temple is yet to be built where Jesus Christ will sit on His throne Ezek 43:7.

  
  
  

Continuing to see the shift from the Church to the Nation of Israel and it's Temple.

The Levits (possibly 12,000 Cohen men from among the Jewish community) reappear in Rev 7, and would provide the High Priest with his Temple workers and priests during the first half of the 7 year tribulation.

Jacob's Trouble

1. The Anti-Christ kills the TWO WITNESSES (Rev 11:7) designating the beginning of Jacob's Trouble (Midpoint of The Tribulation). Their 42 month task of rebuilding and establishing Temple Worship will have been completed.
2. Faithful Jews (including the 144,000 of Revelations 7 and including gentile strangers (see How does the Gentile Fit in a Jewish Dispensation) converted to the Jewish Messiah (established in the past Lev 19:33-34 and continued in the future Ezek 47:23) flee Jerusalem and the Temple under the protection of God. It will be abandoned to the Anti-Christ, and secular Jews for the last 42 months.

Not every Jewish person gets saved. The Two Witnesses will contend with secular Israel as well as the gentile world. Their power is such that nothing can stop their building Ezekiel's Temple on the Temple Mount from either within or without. Their mission will be to build and establish kosher worship at the Third Jewish Temple in just 3 ½ years, or 42 months, or 1230 days. The invitation to come to Christ will be to come to Jerusalem and help build His Temple! A Jewish Temple. A Temple with a throne for the coming Jewish King. They accomplish the task in just 42 months. The Temple is built, sacrifice begins, and the kosher worship for the coming Jewish King is established.

Next the Anti-Christ desecrates the Temple.

He kills the Two Witnesses at the end of the first 42 months. He then spends the last 42 months of the 7 year tribulation (Rev 11-19) trying to destroy the faithful Jewish remnant [with converted Gentiles (the good strangers (read The Gentile in a Jewish Dispensation) of the Old Testament - Exodus 12:48)].

He is obsessed to out-do those miracles previously preformed through the TWO WITNESSES during their 42 month reign. The Anti-Christ spends the next 42 months (Rev 11:7 ff) daziling the world with magical Satanic powers.

He and the world only suffer the increasing wrath of God.

Zechariah's View

While I'm speculating, let me look at the events at the very end of Jacob's Trouble (last half of 7 year tribulation) from Zechariah's view.

• Those events might force the Anti-Christ to flee Jerusalem, or at least cause his power over the city to end.
• The converging armies that will gather for Armageddon (the King of the North, the King of the East, the King of the South, and the anti-Christ) might give the Jewish remnant hiding in the wilderness a momentary opportunity to return to the city and the Temple.
  
  

• The King of the North (Russia) would be the new invader of Jerusalem during those very last days of the Tribulation pressuring out the anti-Christ.
  
  

• Half the city will be captive by the King of the North on this last day of the events of Zech 12-14, but it would allow for one final revival among secular Jews who did not flee with the faithful. They will have suffered under the Anti-Christ as many Jews suffered under Antiochus Epiphany or the Nazi occupation .
  
  

• God will give one final plea for those who still haven't been circumcised in their heart.
  
  

Zech 12:10

And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.

Zech 13:6

And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.

Zech 13:9

And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.

Jesus Christ returns to Old Salem now called Jerusalem as the sole representative of the Melchizedek Priesthood, and sits on His throne in His Temple. The goats are cast into hell, and the sheep follow their Prophet/Priest/King into His Millennial reign.

 

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Although Islam's end is catastrophic, God still provides for the individual.

Ezekiel's Temple will also have an outer court (the peoples court) as did all the previous Jewish Temples.

The outer court is where the gentile is welcome. It will be the place where Moslem, Apostate Christian, or any other non-Jew, or secular Jew will be able to find the only eternal God of the Bible.

It is where they will find The Lord Jesus Christ, God's only begotten Son.

He alone is the King of the Jews, and Savior of any who will seek Him with all their heart, and all their soul, and all their might. When His Second Coming takes place, He will assume the position of the Jewish Prophet, Priest (Melchizedek), and King. His attitude toward worldly, hateful, sin-filled man remains unchanging. The invitation to come is still free.

Mat 11:28-30

28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

The final Victor shall be the Lord Jesus Christ!

This is not the only invasion of Israel and Jerusalem by the Gog recorded in the Bible. At the end of Christ's millennial reign another group which settle in the land of Magog repeat history again by rebelling against God. The first generation are saved saints much as our Puritan forefathers, but after 1000 years the Gog will exhibit the same hatred as we see in those who presently live in the land of Magog. They will have left God for their own interests.

Rev 20:7-9

7And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,

8And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

9And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.

KJV

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