That, in a nutshell, is what Ezekiel 38 and 39 is all about. This is a prophecy of a war that has yet to happen. And we believe that it is different from the Psalm 83 war and will take place after that war. Exactly when, we are not certain. It can be prior to the Rapture or sometime after the Rapture but it is after Israel clearly establishes its wealth for the world to see.
After the Psalm 83 war, the resulting Israel geography is believed to become bigger than it is today. Israel will possibly occupy extended land into Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Lebanon. This larger land may resemble closer to the geography of the Promised Land at the time of David. Again, remember, we are speculating as these wars have not yet happened. But clearly the stage is being set even now.
Mapping the Nations
The reason that the Ezekiel war is different from the Psalm 83 war is because the players in the two wars are different. In fact, the ones in the Psalm 83 war is conspicuously absent from the Ezekiel list.
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| Ezekiel list of nations on today's map |
Ezekiel 38
38 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 (Rosh) 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 (Rosh) 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 (Cush), and Libya (Put) 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.
13 Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof,
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince (Rosh) 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 (Cush), and Libya (Put) 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.
13 Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof,
Let us list out the players here.
- Gog - possibly the name of an individual, not a nation
- Magog - Central Asia covering Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, etc (Ancient Scythians – Islamic southern republics of the former Soviet Union with a population of 60 million Muslims. This territory could include modern Afghanistan and Southern Russia north of the Black Sea.)
- Meschech - Turkey (Ancient Muschki and Musku in Cilicia and Cappadocia.)
- Tubal - Turkey, southern Russia and northern Iran (Ancient Tubalu in Cappadocia.)
- Persia - Iran (Name changed from Persia to Iran in 1935.)
- Cush-Ethiopia - Sudan, Ethiopia (Ancient Cush, south of Egypt.)
- Put - Libya - Libya, Algeria (Ancient Put, west of Egypt.)
- Gomer - Turkey (Ancient Cimmerians – from the 7th century to 1st century BC in central/western Anatolia.)
- Togarmah - Turkey (Til-garimmu – between ancient Carchemish and Haran, southern Turkey.)
- Sheba and Dedan - northern Arabia
- Tarshish - Cyprus, England(?)
We have attempted to map the names of the ancient nations to the present day countries. We find that the list of nations are all Islamic nations today with the exception of Russia which is still a communist nation. And if England is included in the list, they are supposedly a Christian nation. However, recent news gives us an alarming perspective that Islam could be a dominant religion in England in 10 years and Russia could be a Muslim country in 50 years. If this trend persist, the entire Ezekiel list of nations will all be Islamic.
Russia
In today's political scene, Russia is already a close ally of Iran, Syria and many other middle eastern nations. Russia supplies a vast amount of arms to these countries and in return gets to participate in their oil and gas business.
According to Ezekiel 38:4, Russia appears to be an unwilling party and God influences the changing of Russia's mind to take charge of the attack. In today's world, Russia is already a formidable leader from a technology and a military might for the confederation of Islamic nations. The stage is certainly ready.
Iran
Watch out for Iran in their pursuit for a nuclear ready missile. Their goal to enrich uranium is not for power generation but to be equipped with a nuclear warhead. The missile technology is already obtained from North Korea. Nothing will stop Iran from getting their nuclear weapon in the coming years.
Sheba and Dedan and Tarshish
These nations are not directly involved in the conflict but they appear to be the backend supporters of the confederation to share the spoils of the victory.
Israel living in Peace
For the war to take place, Israel must first be in real peace. They are currently not having peace at all.
Eze 38:11 "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,"
Strangely, this prophecy foretold the walls that Israel has put up in recent years, about 500 miles of it.
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| Israel erects 500 miles of walls for security |
This is the great walls of Israel and they built it for their daily protection against trouble from the Palestinians and her neighbors.
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| Concrete walls |
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| Barbed fences |
Ever since Israel's independence as a nation on 14 May 1948, there have been war after war and the on-going Intifada. Even when Israel gave the Sinai Peninsula back to Eygpt, there has been no real peace. There are 3 peace treaties with Egypt, Jordan and Syria, none of them have ever been enforced. Not even Egypt as President Anwar Sadat was assassinated for his willingness to negotiate peace with Israel.
According to the Ezekiel prophecy, Israel will one day remove these walls and shall declare real peace. They shall dwell safely in the land. There will no longer be walled villages. And when that day comes, watch out for the fulfillment of this prophecy.
What is there for Russia and Confederation to plunder in Israel?
From the time of Israel's independence in 1948, the land that was assigned to them by the United Nations after the British Mandate expired was very much a land which no one desired. It was largely in waste and sheer wilderness.
Today, Israel has transformed the land to one that is the most fertile in the region. They are a world exporter of citrus fruits and flowers. Wine is also sought after. But this is not worth a massive military attack to plunder.
But things have changed in recent days.
Since March of 2013, Israel has started putting the Tamar gas field online. The expected production is sufficient for Israel for another 20 to 30 years. Israel is looking to put a bigger gas field online soon next to the present one called Leviathan. This has caused some to moot a strategy of "gas-for-peace".
Since March of 2013, Israel has started putting the Tamar gas field online. The expected production is sufficient for Israel for another 20 to 30 years. Israel is looking to put a bigger gas field online soon next to the present one called Leviathan. This has caused some to moot a strategy of "gas-for-peace".
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| Israel's natural gas field locations on the Mediterranean Sea |
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| The associated estimated gas production capacity of Israel's gas fields |
Furthermore, unverified reports that Israel may have up to 250 billion barrels of recoverable shale reserves putting them third behind US and China. If this is true, then this will be the booty that everybody wants in the prophesied attack on Israel one day in the future.
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| Israel's shale oil deposits is an unverified 250 billion barrels of recoverable reserves |
Nuclear Carnage
Ezekiel 39 alludes to a post-war nuclear carnage. There appears to be allusions to reusing the nuclear weapons as fuel for 7 years, special instruction to burying the dead, only designated people can do that and it will take up to 7 months to finish burying them.
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.
Is this the Armageddon of Rev 19?
Some Bible commentators feel that Ezekiel 38 and 39 provides the expansion of details to the Armageddon of Revelation 19. The main reason being that in Eze 39:17-20 speaks about the the fowl participating in the cleansing of the land. This appears similar to Rev 19 Supper of God where the fowl came to clean up after Armageddon.
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.
Although there is this particular similarity, it appears the time for Israel to use the fuel for 7 years and that Israel was in their own land at the time of the attack indicates that it is not speaking about Armageddon. From Rev 13, we can see that in the last 3 1/2 years, Israel will be running away to hide as the Anti-Christ causes the Abomination of Desolation of Daniel 9:28 that Jesus spoke about on the Olivet Discourse.
Furthermore, it is Jesus Christ who fights the Armageddon and in Ezekiel 38:14 through 39:8 shows that it is God who defeats Russia and the Confederation. The Israeli Defense Forces do not feature in this war. The events do not quite parallel each other in their details.
Unless, not all of Israel abandons the country during this time, then it puts Israel in the position of peace as the Anti-Christ confirms the peace treaty with them for 7 years at the beginning of Daniel's 70th week. And the fuel for 7 years apply to the 7-year tribulation period. But it will place the war at the beginning of the 7-years and not at the end when Armageddon happens.
The Stage is being set
We feel that the Ezekiel 38 & 39 war is still in the future and is not Armageddon but a different combat possibly during the Tribulation years or right prior to that. No matter when this happens, we are seeing the stage being set. The wealth of Israel is quickly coming true. All of a sudden, Israel will become a very rich and power nation from the standpoint of oil and gas, essentially a world power in that sense.
So watch the news as Israel brings their gas and then their oil online. Oil should come online in the next 10 years when shale oil production becomes cheaper or oil becomes so much more expensive that it warrants shale oil recovery in bulk.
Next is also to watch the peace treaties and when the walls will come down. We already have the walls up and the prophecy tells us they must come down.
At present, do not lose sight on Iran securing their nuclear weapon. All the pieces must come together for the fulfillment of this prophecy.
Clearly, we are living in the season of the return of Jesus Christ. Watch and pray!
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