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

SOUTH

Rest of the NORTH

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

 

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.

The rapture

The Temple



The Purpose of the Last Jihad

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

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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

Two Returns

Now a Chronology of Ezekiel!

A near and far view of Two Temples!

Ezekiel 34

Ezekiel 35

Ezekiel 36 & 37

Ezekiel 38 & 39

Ezekiel 40 - 48

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.

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.

 


 

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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Last Updated January 18, 1997 by DDSrail
minor editing May 14, 2000