Morning Light – August 1st, 2017 – Ezekiel 38: Is WWIII Looming?

Morning Light – Ezekiel 38
Today: [Ezekiel 38] Is WWIII Looming? In Ez. 38 the prophet speaks of an invasion of Israel in the “latter days” that could very easily be the time we are living in. During this invasion, the United States seems to be absent as an ally, which speaks ominously to those of us who wonder where America is in end time prophecy. Nonetheless, the victory is assured for God’s people when the Father himself intervenes to turn them against themselves in battle.
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[Eze 38:1-23 KJV] 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?
In Ezekiel 38 the word of the Lord instructs Ezekiel to set his face against Gog and Magog. The only thing we can say with certainty about the identity of this nation is that they lay to the north, the direction from which all major invasions against Israel has consistently come from. In the first century, Gog and Magog were understood to be the Romans and the emperor. Following the fall of Rome the nation of Lydia or perhaps the Goths or the barbarian hordes beyond Hadrian’s wall were targeted. The Turks, or perhaps modern day Iran have been suggested but more than any other nation the lands of the former Soviet Union are considered to be the Gog and Magog spoken against here in Ez. 38.
In verse 3 the Lord God declares Himself to be against Gog and the chief princes of Meshech and Tubal. Meshech is thought by some to be suspiciously akin to Moscow. They are described as coming against Israel from the north but being turned back (v. 4) because God will put a hook in their jaw and cause them to return from whence they came. This was the case in 2 Kings 18 when Sennecherib of Assyria besieged the city of Jerusalem but was turned back by receiving word of insurrection in his own capital, and consequently died before he could leave the encampment. Whatever the case may be, we see that in a future time a hostile force from the north will come against the nation of Israel (reestablished as a nation in 1948) and will be turned back by the sovereign hand of God.
Verse 5 gives us further suggestions as to this alliance of forces against Israel, being confederate with Persia (Iran), Ethiopia and Libya. Considering the deep anti-Semitic sentiments that have existed in these countries for generations we could easily see this happening in our time. We might ask when shall these things happen. It isn’t something to take place in Ezekiel’s day. It is spoken of in v. 8 as in the latter times. What could the latter times be? We know from study of scripture that human history seems to be playing itself out in seven 1000 year epochs beginning with Adam and Eve. Whatever you believe about creation and the age of the earth it is interesting that the boundary between pre-history and human history is set by anthropologists and historians as approximately 6000-7000 years ago. True scientific inquiry will always line up with God’s word. The 7th 1000 year period in described as a 1000 year direct reign of Christ enforced upon all mankind. We are crossing the threshold of that period of time as of this writing, hence it is not beyond the pale of accuracy to suggest that this is the latter time that Ezekiel 38:8 describes as the time when Gog, Magog and her affiliated allies, including Libya and Iran will come against the Holy Nation in the south.
The climate politically and militarily at this time according to verse 11 will be a time of peace when there will be no walls in the cities of Israel and peace is the expectation of the population. This then, is a barometer for us of the coming of these events. When we look in Israel and see the protective walls no longer seen as a necessary deterrent to terrorism, and relative peace reigns within Israel’s borders, this is when these armies come like a great storm cloud covering horizon to horizon to destroy Israel. Where will America be in all of this. Apparently, whatever the state of affairs in the US, she will not be seen as a threat to these confederated nations who move down on Israel expecting no opposition from NATO or the United States. Thus we can know that as America’s status as a superpower wanes and will wane we are drawing closer to the time that the events of Ezekiel 38 will come to pass.
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.
This cloud of foreboding will come down from the north as a conventional army. This will not be the launching of a nuclear attack upon Israel. These nations do not want to destroy Israel or render it uninhabitable. They want to rout the people and destroy the power of the nation that they might occupy it fully. From the point of view of Ezekiel this isn’t fully understood but we know that Islam holds the city of Jerusalem as sacred to its religion and would never endorse or participate in its destruction, but would move to liberate it from its ancient enemies the Jews in a conventional war that would remove the people but save the city of Jerusalem intact.
When it seems that all would be lost, in v. 18 we see the fury of God moving against Gog and her allies when every other help from other armies or nations is completely lost. There will come an earthquake that will shake in the northern borders of Israel and Lebanon just as the nations are staging their intial assault. In the resulting chaos the allied armies of the Russian Federation, Libya, Syria and Iran will interpret the earthquake to be connected with an assault from their partner nations and they will launch retaliatory strikes against one another and thus turn on each other for destruction by the hand of God while the nation of Israel looks on at the sovereign deliverance wrought by the hand of God alone.
When will these things be? Since the refounding of Israel as a nation these things could have quickly taken place at any given moment with just a few shifts and changes in the geopolitical balance of the world. It could have happened already but didn’t. Things could shift and in a matter of weeks or months these things could come to pass, all signally the final convulsions of lost humanity’s rebellion against God before the ultimate peace signaled by the return of Christ to rule and reign 1000 years upon the earth.