The Gog-Magog Invasion of Israel
Copyright © 1998-Eternity - www.tribulation.com - All Rights ReservedUnderstanding Bible Prophecy
Israel, Russia, Iran and Certain Arab / North African Nations in Prophecy
March 27, 2018
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"... Art thou come to take a spoil? ..." (Ezekiel 38:8-13 KJV)
Ezekiel chapters 38-39 prophesy that several Arab and North African nations will rally together in the Latter Years and mount a massive military operation against the Nation of Israel. Despite the fall of the Berlin Wall and the "collapse" of communism, Ezekiel prophesies that a "hook in the jaw" will be placed in Russia's mouth and she will be dragged into this war virtually against her will. It will not be her smartest move. It will be the end of her armed forces.
As with most of Bible Prophecy, Ezekiel's prophetic language is symbolic, requiring an enlightened view of all Scripture. Therefore, we must carefully examine the prophetical books of the Bible and compare them with other Scripture. Prophetical books are not meant just for "filler" material ... they are intended to guide generations by revealing the future *before* it occurs. All of Bible prophecy will be fulfilled. The only question is when?
Generally prophecy books are arranged in chronological sequence. Occasionally, prophecy will take quick jumps backwards or forwards to make a point. In this case, the prophecies in Ezekiel 38-39 are dependent on the prophecies of Ezekiel 36-37 being already fulfilled. In other words, Russia and the Arabs cannot attack the Nation of Israel until after the Nation of Israel had been restored. In the 20th century, the Nation restored, just as prophesied in Ezekiel 36:24, Ezekiel 37 and Isaiah 66:8.
Although the Russian-Arab invasion of Israel is foretold in the prophecy of Ezekiel (38, 39) after Israel is restored as a nation (Ezekiel 36, 37) this invasion is not the Battle of Armageddon. While the prophetic language in Ezekiel seems to describe Armageddon in many ways, there are several reasons to differentiate this invasion from the Battle of Armageddon (Prophecy Watch, 212-214). Drs. Thomas Ice and Timothy Demy quote Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum in assessing the Ezekiel invasion as a pre-tribulational event, though not necessarily pre-rapture:
First, in Ezekiel there are definite allies mentioned and they are limited in number while other nations stand in opposition. In the Campaign of Armageddon all nations are allied together against Jerusalem without exception.Secondly, the Ezekiel invasion comes from the north, but the Armageddon invasion comes from the whole Earth.
Thirdly, the purpose of the Russian [38:6] invasion is to take spoil; the purpose of the Armageddon Campaign is to destroy all the Jews.
Fourthly, in the Ezekiel invasion there is a protest against the invasion; in the Armageddon Campaign there is no protest since all the nations are involved.
Fifthly, the Ezekiel invasion is destroyed through convulsions of nature; the Armageddon invasion is destroyed by the personal second coming of Jesus Christ.
Sixthly, the Ezekiel invasion is destroyed on the mountains of Israel; the Armageddon Campaign is destroyed in the area between Petra and Jerusalem
Seventh, the Russian invasion takes place while Israel is living securely in the land; but the Armageddon Campaign takes place while Israel is in flight and in hiding.
(Ice and Demy, Prophecy Watch, 1998, p.213, reformatted for emphasis)
Now Israel is back as a viable nation once again. An internal meltdown in Russia and trouble occurring in many former Soviet republics like Kosovo and Chechnya are creating unstable, unpredictable situations. North Africa has no shortage of issues, from war in Sierra Leone, to the battles between Ethiopia and Eritrea, to ongoing persecution in Sudan, Algeria, Togo and Burkina Faso. Libya is busy constructing chemical and perhaps biological weaponry. And now, due primarily to AIDS, most South African teenagers have an average life expectancy of just 33 years; down from 70 years a scant 5 years ago.
The winds of war are blowing once again in the Middle East. Iran is developing and testing a Medium Range Ballistic Missile with Russian assistance. Iraq is defiant to weapons inspectors once again. Iran and her prot�g� Syria have purchased several Soviet fight-bomber aircraft in 1997. Syria has also purchased 1000 Kornet anti-tank weapons. Israel has not been idly watching their neighbors arming. Israel is currently accepting delivery of advanced American F-15I fighter-bombers. An anti-missile missile system is being deployed. Israel has received 3 new German Dolphin-class submarines to augment their navy. And Israel is now launching their own spy satellites. What is the outcome of all this military buildup? Here is the answer ...
Ezekiel Chapter 38 (KJV)
Ezekiel 38:1-7 Here God directs Ezekiel to prophesy against the land of Russia. Several nations are named such as Persia (mostly Iran but includes parts of Iraq), Ethiopia and Libya:
1 And the word of the LORD
came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of
Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him,
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief
prince of Meshech and Tubal:
4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee
forth, and all thine army, horses
and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company
with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
5 Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all
his bands: and many people with thee.
7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are
assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
8 After many days thou shalt
be visited: in the Latter Years thou shalt come into the land that is
brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the
mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out
of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover
the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time
shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go
to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls,
and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate
places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the
nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the
land.
13 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?
14 Therefore, son of man,
prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In that day when My people
of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it?
15 And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many
people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty
army:
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.
17 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by My
servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that
I would bring thee against them?
18 And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the
land of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, that My fury shall come up in My face.
19 For in My jealousy and in the fire of My wrath have I spoken, Surely in that
day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel;
20 So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of
the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the Earth, and all the men
that are upon the face of the Earth, shall shake at My presence, and the
mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall
shall fall to the ground.
21 And I will call for a sword against him throughout all My mountains, saith
the Lord GOD: every man's sword shall be against his brother.
22 And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain
upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an
overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.
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.
1 Therefore, thou son of
man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am
against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:
2 And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will
cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the
mountains of Israel:
3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to
fall out of thy right hand.
4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and the
people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every
sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
6 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.
7 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.
8 Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is the day
whereof I have spoken.
9 And they that dwell in the
cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons,
both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the handstaves,
and the spears, and they shall burn them with fire seven years:
10 So that they shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of
the forests; for they shall burn the weapons with fire: and they shall spoil
those that spoiled them, and rob those that robbed them, saith the Lord GOD.
11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give unto Gog a place
there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea:
and it shall stop the noses of the passengers: and there shall they bury Gog and
all his multitude: and they shall call it The Valley of Hamongog.
12 And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may
cleanse the land.
13 Yea, all the people of the land shall bury them; and it shall be to them a
renown the day that I shall be glorified, saith the Lord GOD.
14 And they shall sever out men of continual employment, passing through the
land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the Earth,
to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search.
15 And the passengers that pass through the land, when any seeth a man's bone,
then shall he set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the Valley
of Hamongog.
16 And also the name of the city shall be Hamonah. Thus shall they cleanse the
land.
17 And, thou son of man,
thus saith the Lord GOD; Speak unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of
the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to My
sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains
of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood.
18 Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of
the Earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of
Bashan.
19 And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of
My sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.
20 Thus ye shall be filled at My table with horses and chariots, with mighty
men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord GOD.
21 And I will set My glory
among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see My judgment that I have
executed, and My hand that I have laid upon them.
22 So the house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God from that day
and forward.
23 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.
24 According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions have I
done unto them, and hid My face from them.
25 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;
26 After that they have borne their shame, and all their trespasses whereby they
have trespassed against Me, when they dwelt safely in their land, and none made
them afraid.
27 When I have brought them again from the people, and gathered them out of
their enemies' lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations;
28 Then shall they know that I am the LORD their God, which caused them to be
led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own
land, and have left none of them any more there.
29 Neither will I hide My face any more from them: for I have poured out My
Spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.
Have you noticed the current exodus of the Jews from the former Soviet Union back to Israel?
Midi Music: "I Will Celebrate"