Ezekiel (Session 19) Chapters 38-39

well we are in the Book of Ezekiel and we are in chapters 38 and 39 many Christians are startled to discover their other chapters in Ezekiel 2 but everybody knows about Ezekiel 38 and 39 and which is one reason we have such a packed house tonight I guess ok but in the outline of Ezekiel the first three chapters are called the prophets then we had 24 through 24 the God's judgment on Jerusalem then we had this interlude from 25 to 32 which is God's judgment on the surrounding nations the Muslim nations and that moved us into the upbeat part of the whole program which is the restoration of the Jews the restoration of the nation Israel starting from 33 on and 33 36 we had the the the whole called back to the land which led of course to the valley of the dry bones last time that was what we talked about that this famous vision that we've watched be fulfilled in our lifetime many of us in this room may remember that prior to my prior to my May 14th of 48 there's a big debate do you take the Bible literally the Israel is really gonna be back in the land yeah and those days was a very very minority view and yet after May 14th of 48 that debate should have ended but okay so that's where we were last time now we are going to get into the invasion of Israel by Magog and his allies it's interesting to realize where it is placed in the Book of Ezekiel because when we get to chapter 42 the end of the book from 40 through 48 that's the Millennium that is a period of time that in itself is very controversial we'll deal with that then of course but many many churches the traditional denominations treat that just as sort of an allegory not not they don't take it seriously intense of God Jesus coming back literally to rule on the planet Earth that's because they don't embrace the Davidic covenant the unconditional gets the fulfillment the Davidic covenant the irony to me is that that view is called covenant theology but it really isn't embracing the covenant there are four unconditional covenants the Abrahamic covenant of course is the one that we're all beneficiaries of but the Davidic covenant was also unconditional and we'll talk much about that as we get through 40 and we get into this whole business of the Mayan Kingdom but I want you to notice where the chapters are that we're dealing with it's after the valley of dry bones which we recognize is fulfilled in May 14th 48 and on Israel is in the land Isaiah said can a nation be born in the day yeah it was and so uh okay so that's where we are if there's a major event that occurs once they're in the land and yet before the Messiah sets up his kingdom and that's this peculiar event that we're going to explore here the Magog invasion there are two reasons that these chapters are so well known to most Bible buffs first it's the occasion in which God Himself intervenes to quell this ill-fated invasion of Israel by Magog and his allies make organiz going to squelch that invasion it's the very fact that God is intervening in histories is theologically noteworthy of course and the Allies are all listed there we'll talk about those the second reason this is so well known is because the passage seems to anticipate the use of nuclear weapons and we'll explore the reasons that some people hold that view as we go here so let's just jump right in as zekiel chapter 38 verse one two and three and the word of the Lord came unto me Ezekiel saying son of man set thy face against GOG the land of Magog the chief Prince of Meshech and tubal and prophesy against him and say thus saith the Lord God behold I am against the GOG the chief Prince of Meshech and tubal will get into Michigan tubal and these other things here but the first thing that hits us if you've been studying your Bible it's very very strange to have gog whoever he is suddenly introduced with no background usually where somebody is very significant there's a grout there's a foundation laid somewhere maybe not right away but somewhere GOG seems to be come from nowhere is it a title is it a person is it a nation what is it face against GOG , the land of mega we infer from the grammar that GOG is the leader of a people called Magog but it turns out you can go through a lot of commentaries and they all puzzle inconclusively about who GOG is he's the chief Prince of Meshech and tubal it seems and there's a big debate among linguists because the word Rosh can mean chief Prince it also could be a proper name and they're good experts some of the greatest experts in linguistics Ksenia sand others have opinions about that will touch on that's not a big deal but we'll talk about it you'll find some of your modern translations will say the prince of Rosh they'll treat the word Rosh not as a title but as a proper name and there are records that seem to support the possibility that you actually won't learn anything distinctive there will we're going to the things you learn from that we're going to confirm anyway by another mean so don't worry about it first questions who's Gog now the point I'm trying to get across it's uncharacteristic if you study your Bible for some key personage to be introduced without some kind of background that's okay but there's a very strange verse in your Bible in the prophesies of Amos and that's the first three verses of chapter 7 of Amos and if you look at that nearby but it'll say something along these lines thus hath the Lord God is Amos speaking thus the Lord God showed unto me and behold he formed grasshoppers in the beginning of the shootin up of the latter growth and lo it was the latter growth after the Kings moins well that's what what what's that about the word behold is a very abrupt participle there but what does that verse mean don't know makes no sense that's because we're translation hears from the Massa retic text most year Old Testament leans heavily on the master mathematic text which solidified about 900 AD we also have access to a translation of the Old Testament into Greek a thousand years earlier and by the way this continues the Amos for this is and came to pass that when they had made the end of eating the grass of the land then I said Oh Lord forgive I beseech thee by whom show Jacob our eyes for you small and the Lord repented for this and said it shall not be said the Lord so that was prophesied Amos says G please don't let that happen and God says okay we won't let it happen well now we're even more puzzled than before because whatever refers to it has been nullified okay why is it here in the first place the rabbi's teach us another interesting thing that when you see some apparent unnecessary detail that's called the Ramez it's a hint of something deeper there's a reason that's here but anyway Amos here in this thing he intercedes like Moses did back in numbers 14 same kind of thing and God says okay God repents he changed his mind it shall not be so whatever this prophesied it's an event that that occasion and never happened so why is it all here well here's a clue it turns out that if you look at this verse not in the Masoretic but in the in a translation in Greek a thousand years earlier which you know if Ptolemy Philadelphus and pop and paneled the best Jewish scholars to translate their Old Testament into Greek in about 25 BC finished about 270 BC that's called the Septuagint fancy word for 70 and this is it's up to it here's the way it reads in the Septuagint translated this in the Septuagint is what it looks it's in Greek of course it's over a thousand years older than the mass errect X which is the basis of our English translation here's what translates to be the Lord has shown me and behold a swarm of locusts were coming and behold one of the young devastating locusts was gog the king now turns out in the Hebrew a subtle mark can change the grammar and then change the structure so that's why it seems like this bears no resemblance to the Masoretic rendering I won't get into those details but this is anyway the way it is now this in tells us something this tells us apparently that in this case one of the young devastating locust was God the king now if you've done your homework you know that the locusts don't have a king okay they have no king from proverbs 30 27 proverbs 30 verse 27 it says the locusts have no king yet they go forth all of them by bands why would that be familiar in mind if you studied the book of Revelation you know that the the demon locust in revelation 9 first 11 verses do have a king if you look at revelation 9 starting verse 1 and the fifth angel sounded and saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit and he opened the bottomless pit and there arose a smoke out of the pit the smoke of a great furnace and the Sun in the air were darkened by a reason of the smoke of the pit and there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth and unto them was given power as the Scorpions of the earth have power sounds like they're natural locusts so far doesn't it and was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth neither any green thing neither any tree but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads and then was given that they should not kill them but that they should be tormented 5 months and the torment was as the torment of a scorpion when he striketh as a man and in those days shall men seek death-that shall not find it Wow and shall desire to die and death shall flee from them and the shapes that locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold and their faces were as the faces of men and they had hair as the hair of women and their teeth were as the teeth of lions and they had breastplates as it were breastplates of iron and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle well that's graphic description you think it's very tangible air just about the time you think you understand it it hits you between the eyes they said they had tails like unto scorpions and there were stings in their tails that their power was to hurt men five months and they had a king over them so if you're studying Revelation you come across that you discover you get to proverbs 3:27 tears but natural locusts will navigate so these aren't natural locusts let's go on then king over them which is and the Angel of the bottomless pit whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon and in the Greek tongue hath his name apollyon one woe is past bill that come two more ever and it gets it gets worse okay but out of Revelation fanatic you may recall from that the exercise they had a king over them which means that these are not natural locusts they're demons of course despite the graphic descriptions there these are not the kind of the kind that you'd spray for in your garden right okay so the demon king if if Gog then in Isaiah in as in Ezekiel chapter 38 is a demon king that starts to solve a couple of other problems that first of all getting this would be the missing background that we need to understand GOG into Zika 38 that's why this is useful I think it also would explain how Gog and Magog can reappear a thousand years later because they show up in Revelation 20 verse 8 and many people get this passage confused because they remember it's in Revelation 20 verse 8 they try to make this description fit there and it doesn't because their circuit circumstances are very different and it's really a reproducible may God can show up if a years later that's name of a people as we'll find out in a minute GOG is a demon king and it's a title so it could be the same guy or a guy in as in the shoes I might mention something that's kind of interesting I have vivid memories of this because I was I was I had stumbled by the grace of God I'd say by accident but obviously the Spirit was involved here discovered this passage in Amos 7 1 and in those days I had a routine where I would come down from the mountains teach at Hal Lindsey's church Sunday night and after the service at state that night at Hal's house do some work the next day and other things but so I would after the church service I'd be with him in a study for a couple hours we just wrap about whatever and I happen to mention hey have you seen this Amos 7 one thing no head looked at so we pulled off the references off his shelves and we and checked it all out and I was flabbergasted because that something like this a passage like this that is so traveled by so many experts that this doesn't show up in the commentaries that why would a layman just stumble onto this he wasn't surprised at all he says that's Daniel 12:4 I said what do you mean Daniel 12:4 many shall go to and fro and knowledge shall be increased which many people use to mean knowledge in general hell argues the way I would too that refers knowledge of the Word of God as that what that predicts is as we get closer to the end you should not be surprised if in your small study group some discovery is made that has been overlooked by experts for hundreds of years because knowledge is going to be increased of the Word of God and so I was a member that so vividly because I was flabbergasted how it was none plus at all well no wow that's great cool you know and anyway so so anyway may cause of people gog as a demon title Meshach and tubal we'll talk more about in a minute but basically identified as people thus martens and the Muscovites who lived in ancient province of potterson in northern Asia Minor Asia Minor being the Roman term for the reason we consider today as Turkey and this is recursive record by Herodotus who talked more about him in a minute some people argue that Muscovy and fab lights are were founded by michigan tubal and linguistically they may have given their names to some of the russian cities but that's that's speculation judge Josephus talks about that and but the mesh yet we're a barbarous people known as the muskie who dwelt in the muscular mountains and some people feel it's that route from that word can be where Moscow gets his name guess it William Casillas is the Hebrew scholar of the 19th century that developed a the authoritative lexicon of the Hebrew language and so Kyle also Kyle and Ilic have the the one of the most reputable commentaries on the Old Testament and ten-volume thing and they also point out that Ross or Ross's could be it can mean that chief but it also can be a proper name and they feel it they treat it as a proper name and drawing north of the Taurus Mountains so you get to the same place there now if you ever wondered why the Bible uses all these weird names where always it's always a strange names and the reason the Bible does it's our fault you and I keep changing the names of things you know there was a city called st. Petersburg and then for many years it was called Leningrad actually was originally Petrograd and then st. Petersburg and then Leningrad now it's st. Petersburg again what's it gonna be called next year who Russian friends tell me that in Russia even the past is uncertain thing so Constantine takes over the world in Rome he doesn't like the politics in Rome so he moves the capital of the world from Rome to Byzantium and renames it Constantinople the thousand years later the Muslims run over it and rename it Istanbul so it changes names see we can't change it remember Cape Canaveral right how many remember Cape Canaveral okay now it's called what Cape Kennedy right and be careful somebody may call it Cape Hillary hey look Isaiah has an interim dilemma he's called upon by God to speak of the Persian Empire a hundred years before it shows up in history how does he talk about it how does he deal with the Persian Empire before it happens you see there's one thing we don't change the names of them that's our ancestors so he speaks of it by their ancestors alum alum and so to get in that when you get into these kinds of things you go to the table of Nations in Genesis chapter 10 in Jesse's chapter 10 we have the table of we have Noah and his three sons right he had Shem and he had a series of sons ham had a series of sons and Japheth had a series of sons okay now all of us in this room are relatives did you know that that's why we don't get along any better probably we're all descendants of Adam of course no no we're also descendants of Noah Shem ham and Japheth it turns out that from Shem we have 26 different nations from ham about 30 nations and from Japheth 14 nations for a total of 70 nations that are listed there in Genesis 10 I find that fascinating because later on Abraham's descendants Jacob and his gang go to Egypt and they're 70 of them so Israel is represented by 70 and the whole world is represented by 70 seeing God's economy there's Israel and the nation's the Israelis just another nation it's Israel and the nation's and God has chosen to to to to develop his plan mankind through that nation but in any case these names then are from these names come to the sentence of anyone you'll run into and so under alarm we have the Persians and so forth and so let's take a look at Shem yeah we have Persia which today we call Iran and we assure our facts said and and and if you go down through this line let's back up from Peleg and so forth you end up finally with Abraham and and God deals with the planet Earth from that day on through Abraham every one of us that are beneficiaries of a blessing of Jesus Christ have that because we have been grafted in as a descendant of Abraham and that's the whole study in its own right but under ham you have mitzrayim that's that's the term for upper and lower egypt from them came the Philistines interestingly enough they later and that's the and by the way the Palestinians that's what the word Philistines tossed injury means Philistines notice they're not sons of Ishmael if they're true Palestinians which they're not but if they were they'd be sons of him cush is if you think of it as black Africa you're close Ethiopia sit down also the caste sites of worths theis cush settled south of the second cataract denial he also included Nimrod the first world dictator was a black man put settled west of Egypt translated Libya in your Bibles but it's actually all of just all of North Africa and Canaan of course and out of them comes the kid kid nights and the senate's which find their way of ultimately to the Far East China and the rest of it Japheth we have Gomer both we wrote eclipse Plutarch and others identify him as the forbear of the Sumerians which set along the Danube and the Rhine so if your visual eye from him comes at the ashkenaz which is really in effect Germany or East Germany anyway riffraff with Josephus another wise for us strangely you can't tell from this language but the name Europe came from Rufus from a pronunciation of the garment represents our Armenians today call themselves the house of togarmah but it also includes Turkey and Turkish town and some others and magog as the one we're interested in and we'll deal with them through their Greek name called the skiff Ian's and Hesiod who was a Greek didactic poet in the 8th century BC speaks of him and also who wrote it in the 5th century Hirota tha's also known as the father of history these two guys are quite prolific in their their their their identification is quite clear the Magog identity Hesiod nails it down calls the Magog and Skippy ins by the Greek name her own does he points out that they dominated the the that region in fact we know they dominate from the 10th century BC through the 3rd century BC all the way from the Ukraine all the way to China will show you that the map in a minute Philo Josephus and other writers make reference to the Great Wall of China they call it the ramparts of Gog and Magog we know a lot about their lifestyle because of the Soviet archaeologists they have discovered hundreds of kurgans or frozen tombs in which you've got you discover a body that's been frozen for almost 3,000 years so you can analyze the digestive tract there's still food you can understand you can the scientists can reconstruct their whole lifestyle from that stuff they also we know from the linguists I'll show in a minute they come from the uttermost parts the north you could look at Israel what's the most north of Israel obviously the skiffins or the Russians so prior to 1900 long before our current era commentators identifying rosh ascidians and so forth in the 1700 1800 s these are all writers je sais wrote his commentary on the book of revelation in 1860 before the civil over the Civil War United States and now they all identify the descendants here as predecessors of Russia and the the Great Wall of China is called pseudo Gogmagog the ramparts of gog and magog is the way Philo and Josephus refer to it other people in Japheth includes the may die the Medes today we call them the Kurds they have merged about 10th century in a coalition with Persia to Baal and Misha car got a prominent here they really were cities in eastern Anatolia which is on the just south of the Black Sea it's the northern part of Asia Minor which we would call today Turkey and Yvonne is Greece and tear us goes so the skiddy ins are thematic tribes which dominated the Russian steppes from the Ukraine to China from the 10th century to the 3rd centuries BC in Homer's Iliad they speak of the hippo moguy which were that mean the word means mayor milkers they re this is I was intrigued to find this there because when I was in the guest of the Soviet Union the deputy chairman Jenko had me one when I was his office one of his great delicacies I was offered some fermented horse milk that was it goes way back those traditions go have very very deep roots actually and the deputy chairman we had anyway so it was interesting so anyway after being repulsed from media many of the later skiffs settled it in the fertile area of the ukraine north of the Black Sea others went east to the Caspian Sea Hirota describes them as living in their own they are really a nomadic horse group but they did have for a time had their own country it was about twenty days during three and sixty miles on the side that's big in those days and it comforts the lower reaches of these rivers are showing a map in the bug didn't neighbor and Don rivers and here's a here's a map give you a feeling for it the occupied the territory from the Danube Danube River to the dawn and as far north even north of Kiev actually and so that's that was the area known as 'kathy and it's interesting that Michigan 2-ball were in that area that we think of it today as Turkey just along the coast of the Black Sea there another geography piece it's kind of interesting is a place called Georgia that's me the news lately you see George is right in the way of Russia moving into the Middle East so there's a lot of a lot of a lot of issues there that you can take a look at so ascidians the squishy language developed from the iranian family of indo-european languages and again this is just the geography again pretty much the main point he gets all the way to the chinese border and so in the 7th century BC they swept it's just before the Ezequiel period here except across the area displacing the Sumerians from the steppes of the Ukraine east of a taper to flooding across the Caucasus even the name Caucasus by the way appears to some linguists to been derived from cognizant or gods fort interestingly enough but in fact Paul even makes reference to the skiffins in a letter to the Colossians he says there's neither Greek nor Jew circumcision or uncircumcision barbarian Scythian bond or free the word skin thean here is being used as the ultimate kind of barbarian and but Christ is all of all and so forth so this the depth of this background the depth of the skitty and background is what's endowed this vibrant people with the beauty of Pushkin Dostoevsky and - Tchaikovsky on the one hand but also given them the cruelty of Ivan the fourth the intensity of Lenin and the brutality of Stalin so that's the heritage we could talk more about that in modern times that let's go on with Ezekiel 38 he and God says his eagle I will turn the back or affecting God speaking to Gog and Magog I will turn the back and put hooks into thy jaws I will bring thee forth and all by an army horses and horsemen all of them clothes all sorts of armor even a great company with buckler's and shields all of them handling swords let's not get hooked hung up on vocabulary here you see horses now there might be literal horses but they don't need to be because the word in the Hebrew is Seuss it actually means leaper comes from a root meaning to skip in Jeremiah 87 that word is translated a bird in Exodus 14 9 that refers to a chariot writer so yeah if you understand how horses were used against infantry they were leapers and so that's the term then it lists the allies here in verse 5 of chapter 38 Persia Ethiopia Libya with them all of them with shield and helmet well Persia of course is alum in the Hebrew or refers to Iran Ethiopia is actually the word cush in Hebrew it's translated easy Opia but that's an approximation it would include the Sudan and some of cush settled south of the second cataract of the Nile upriver in other words and Libya that is the word in the Hebrew is actually put and it's translated Libya because he treats settled west of Egypt which of course is Libya but it actually includes really what you and I think of as North Africa okay the next one is Gomer in all his bands the house of togarmah the North quarters and all his bands and many people with thee who is Gomer well Horace Plutarch Josephus they all identify pretty well as the Sumerians which settled along the Danube and the Rhine it includes those regions that we think of today is Poland Czechoslovakia Germany and so forth and - garma of the North quarters Armenia of course but also there's some other related ethnic links there too with Turkey and Turkestan and so okay of the North quarters now here the Hebrew has been amended so as to emphasize it it really reads both here and in two other places in this passage as the uttermost part of the North the word for North has been modified to imply an extreme or uttermost parts of the North small point but it's useful because if you don't know any of this F that's not F analogical background if you just go to a globe put your finger in Israel and go north you know what what you're dealing with and so there's Israel and there's Magog Goldberg Messick to Baal there's the gang that we're look talking about and they all are going to try to invade Israel and God is going to prevent that from happening we're going to scupper there's two people that are gonna be mentioned here Deva d-10 and Sheba that are sort of on the sidelines they're not helping or hindering their sowing what's going on here then citrus Saudi Arabia strangely here doesn't seem to be part of the action which is kind of surprising in some respects but it would contain the passage beat out beat out prepare to prepare for thyself thou and all thy company that are assembled into under thee and be thou a guard unto them well the question is who is currently today providing the arms for Persia cush put Gomer to garment today Russia exactly they are not only leading them they're supplying them okay after many days thou shall be visited in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword that is gathered out of many people against the mountains of Israel which have always been waste but it's brought forth out of the nations and they shall dwell safely all of them watch out for that word safely at the word as Batoche it means in false confidence and false confidence so the land has been restored apparently from its desolation when this takes place that that should be represents it today thou shall descend and come like a storm speaking to a maid Gauguin's bands thou shall be like a cloud to cover the land vowing all by bands and many people with thee 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 fought and thou shall say I will go up to the land of unwalled villages and I will go to them that are at rest that dwell safely all of them dwelling without walls and having neither bars nor gates now many people with this passage get troubled by this because they said you did Israel is not today drawling safely and that's certainly true and certainly they are dwelling without walls and for Ezekiel probably never saw a place without walls in his day today they're obviously very common although they're building walls I guess all right to take a spoil to take a pray 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 cheap indeed and the merchants of Chargers with all the young lines there shall say unto thee no no it's cheap indeed and in turn will come to those people within but they're sort of they're saying it what are you doing guys Sheba knew the merchants of Tarshish with all the young lines thereof she'll say any art thou come to take a spoil pass now gather thy company to take a prey to carry away silver and gold to take away cattle and goods to take a great spoil it sounds like there critically kippot Singh from the sidelines now she been didn't these quite these are Saudi Arabia really are they questioning bystanders now Tarshish is another whole thing there are all kinds of theories about Tarshish many of your Bible helps will say well it was a place that darkness tortoises in Spain or Sardinia some say Britain well let's take a look at this where's Tarsus we know from the scripture it is a source of tin among other things it's interesting that Britannia was named from a word meaning tin and the Phoenicians in the Middle East brought ten in from Cornwall we know that as a matter of history it may surprise us to think of Britain as doing commerce with the Middle East but there's archaeological evidence indicating they they they did Stonehenge for an example was built in the Bronze Age period over a period of three hundred years and thanks to Gerald Hawkins research we discovered has the mathematical properties of predicting eclipses but it was abandoned after three hundred years and we also know from the mathematical it makes an error once every three hundred years can you imagine the priesthood that boasted that thing that could predict the eclipses they must had a lot of swag until it apparently blew it anyway there's all kinds of legendary folklore about the pin coming from Britain that leads to this these legends about British is realism I'll call it Jonah when he'd try eat when God called Jonah he wanted to go as far as you could the other way and he took he booked a ticket we think he we think we used the expression of slow boat to China meaning you know getting as far away as you can well Jonah bought a ticket to Tarshish that was as far away as he could conceive it he never got to see Tarsus he just saw the inside of the big fish button alright we do know this phrase ships of tarshish are all through the scripture and we infer from that that that was a term that was used for these long ocean-going voyage vessels that were designed to be at sea for two or three years and they were characteristic of that kind of trade and so that that's why that that's it's this background doesn't conclusively identify torches as Britain but there is a case that can be made that suggested anyway let's move on here therefore and see what happens here if that's if Tosh's is Britain and the Young Lions could be their colonies there's all kinds of fanciful conjectures derived from that Venn anyway moving on here verse 14 therefore Senate man prophesy and sand to Gog thus saith the Lord God in that day when my people of Israel dwell safely shall thou not know it now the fact that it's my people Israel here is the reason that some of us believe this is post-church because God we believe there's a lot of other evidence that God deals with Israel and the church mutually exclusively Israel was blinded and set aside to make possible the church there's a day coming when the church is complete and from that point on God is once again going to be dealing through Israel and that's why that phrase is one of the reasons that some of us not all of us but some of us believe this is a post rapture so for what it's worth God continued thou shall 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 from the north parts there again grammatically it's the uttermost parts of the north and thou shalt come up against my people of Israel as a cloud to cover the land and 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 VO God before their eyes 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 the against them this later all kinds of speculation is what he might be alluding to what pops into my mind one of those allusions maybe Amos chapter 7 verse 1 for that matter but that's the speculation it shall come to pass at the same time when God shall come against the land of his all saith the Lord God that my fury shall come up in my face whoo that my fury God speaking my fury shall come up in my face for in my jealousy and the fire of my wrath who have I spoken surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel this great shaking we'll see in verse the next verse is worldwide not just Israel it's a global phenomenon okay now take a look at it so 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 wow that sounds like it's global and the mountain shall be thrown down and the steep places shall fall and every wall shall fall to the ground all men that are on the face the earth shall shake at my presence I happen to have seen a classified study which points out that a twenty five Megaton motoric most of our weapons are for one to four megatons usually that large that doesn't doesn't do anything good one to four Megaton is a standard warhead twenty five Megaton war hands would could alter the orbit of the earth just to give you a feeling for what that means we've never made anything the Russians have made a couple 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 that that's reminiscent of Genesis 16 12 of Ishmael and he will be a wild man his hand will be against every man and every man's hand against him and he's will dwell in the presence of all his brethren not conclusive but let's move on and I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood and I will reign upon him and upon his bands and upon the many people are with him and overflowing reign and great hailstones fire and brimstone we're gonna hear reference to that in the next chapter being rained with fire and rail stones and so forth and thus will I magnify myself God speaking and sanctify myself and I will be known in the eyes of many nations and they shall know that I am the Lord well that's that that's Ezekiel 38 chapter 39 is the de numa they clean up after the battle in large measure it's very interesting it's the only place I know of in the scripture as a student of the Bible as a suit of military science I've been interested military in biblical battles and all through the Bible their battles some historical some prophetic a goes against be somebody wins and loses and the story goes on only here only in this one place does the Holy Spirit bother to talk about the clean up after the battle I wonder why and so I suspect I know why I'll show you why I think it innit so if chapter 39 therefore thou son of me and prophesy gives GOG and say thus saith the Lord God behold I am against thee o gog the chief prince of michigan to ball now these days is their key cities are come on the southern coast of the Black Sea in a place used to be called Anatolia it's the it accounts for about the eastern two-thirds of Turkey and that was one of the most powerful nations of Western Asia metric was the Syrians frequently war had wars with them from about 1100 a7 or BC then living in the east of the Taurus range in Cappadocia the inscriptions called them with sky the Tipperary to Bly which had the two ball and Messick always mentioned together and some not all but some attribute Moscow and to Boston these are names of cities in Russia as deriving their names from the Meshach and to Baal tribes and the two miles probably the tip or any of the Greek historian Herodotus of people of the Asiatic island west of the upper Euphrates and again we're dealing with the caucuses in the Black Sea region there and again most probably the Greek - brynee or and in Greek the most coy so so rota discovered identifies them that way God speaking I will turn the back and leave but sixth part of thee and I'll cause thee to come up from the north parts and we'll bring the upon the mountains of Israel the sixth part of me it's a Hebrew equivalent of what we might say of decimate I'm they were decimated well we're using the Greek root their destiny is one-tenth if you decimate somebody technically or getting rid of nine-tenths of them but that's not what we mean by we just mean they're clobbered got a decimal look it's the same there may not the sixth part of the can be just an idiom that there I'm not gonna quarrel with this one fifth it's left or one tenth but they they feel their pain right okay and from the north parts from the again that's the uttermost parts of the north and I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand and cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand now they may be using bow and arrows but they don't have to let's talk vocabulary for a minute our earlier point out the word Seuss is used for horses it's a leaper it's translated bird in Jeremiah 8:7 and chariot rider in Ex is 49 the word cherub means destroying instrument we use the word sword idiomatically to mean any weapon don't we you follow me that's called a synecdoche you the specific for the general or the general for the specific okay the word bow is cosh F which is a launcher of some kind of entity and the word ket's is a piercing missile in fact the primary missile of Israel is called the arrow incidentally okay so don't let the vocabulary if you're translating this in 1611 for King James of England well a piercing this was obviously an arrow and as that which launches it as a bow no problem but if you were translating it today I could say God is saying I will smite thigh launchers out of their left hand and the missiles out of a right and be just as justified in fact let me show you a picture of a merkava that's the gree that's the Hebrew word for chariot you want to see a merkava there's a merc of a mark for okay there's a Merc of a for okay most advanced tank on the planet Earth by the way and that's so that's the and we saw a live demonstration of these last time I have to tell you in my 30 years and I had never actually seen I've been in tanks but with the Marines in tank farms just horsing around never actually watch them fire and you watch those things bounce the land in that error that that barrel doesn't budge and while it's bouncing around is dropping shells two miles down into a six-foot circle yeah so that's a cherry okay first four thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel bow on all thy bands and the people that is with thee and I will give thee in unto the ravenous birds of every sword and to the beasts of the field to be devoured thou shall fall upon the open field for I have spoken and saith the Lord God 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 who are these people it's not Magog it's not Israel I will send fire on Magog okay said that and among them that dwell carelessly in the Isles this apparently appears this seems that we've heard of a third party not may God or Israel some third group but we'll come back to this a little later the word aisles or coastlands imply in the the farthest reaches of the known world we don't know quite more specifically what that means we're gonna return to this verse after we get through some other things here so will I make my holy name known in the midst of thy people Israel of my people Israel and I will not let them pollute my Holy Name anymore and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord the Holy One in Israel we hold in this comment is done saith the Lord God this is the day where of I have spoken and they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth you don't get this one and they shall set on fire and burn the weapons both shields and buckler's bows and arrows a hand state of spears all they that burn them with fire seven years I actually I've seen commentaries say this has to be allegorical because nothing can burn for seven years that was back in 1860 that was their viewpoint so they shall take no wood out of the field neither cut down any out of the forest and they shall burn the weapons with fire and they shall spoil those that spoil them and robbed those that robbed them said the Lord God in other words they'd only burn these weapons they need no other source of energy those weapons are going to provide all the energy needs for Israel for seven years the leftover weapons will provide all the energy needs for seven years goes on now finished it shall come to pass in that day that I will give unto GOG a place there ever graves in Israel the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea that's east of the Dead Sea and it shall stop the noses of the passengers and they shall bury there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude and they shall call it the valley of hemin gog the valley of hamon gog that's the valley of the hordes of gog is what the word means and seven months shall the house of this will be bearing of them that they may cleanse the land gate all the people the land shall bury them and it shall be to them a renown in the day that I shall be glorified saith the Lord God seven months they're gonna be burying these people and they shall sever out men of continual employment what does that phrase mean they sever out men of continued employment shall put it in common language they hire professionals this ever out men of continued employment passing through the land to bury the with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth to cleanse it after the end of seven months shall they search there's two views here some feel they spend seven months bearing them and they at the end of seven months they search to make sure they got them all other scholars looking at the grammar say know what this means is they wait seven months before they start then spend seven months bearing them kind of interesting technology if that's the case sever up men of continued employment Wow they employ professionals the end of seven months do they wait seven months before entering the area that's one possibility and the passengers that pass through the land when they see it the man's bone here's the one that I thinks are corker and the passengers that pass through the land when any when any see if a man's bone then they shall set up a sign by it till the barriers have buried it in the valley of hemming Gog and also the name of the city shall be Hama Noah thus shall he cleanse the land they'll set up a sign by it that's kind of strange till the barriers have come they wait for the professionals to deal with it then the city should we called heaven oil which is another word another form of the word horns now why do we say nuclear weapons well here the facts we have the leftover weapons provide all the energy needs of Israel for seven years why just seven years that's all another question but obviously what weapons technology could easily provide all the energy needs of a nation for seven years anyone nuclear of course then they hire professionals to clear the battlefield they wait seven months I believe and then clear for seven months they buried the dead east of the Dead Sea read that downwind that goes on says if a traveler finds something the professionals have missed he doesn't touch it he marks the location unless the professionals deal with it now you guys who have been briefed in an NBC warfare nuclear biological and chemical warfare you know the drill there are procedures for this sort of thing that are not that new the NBC with nuclear biological warfare let's go on here and thou son of man thus saith the Lord God speak unto every feathered fowl and 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 it's a graphic picture can you see the vultures hovering over that Valley and you shall eat the flesh of the mighty and drink the blood of the princes of the earth of Rams of Lambs of goats of Bullock's all of them fatlings of Bashan now there's so many similarities with this language here it says very similar to the language in revelation 19 verse 17 18 that causes some people to link these together they feel that that that's an argument that this event is occurring coincident with or at the heels of Armageddon and there are good scholars that hold that view I don't happen to but they may be right that's that's their view and you shall eat fat until you be full and drink blood until you be drawn my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you this he shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots and mighty men and with all the men of war saith the Lord God and I will set my glory upon among the heathen and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed and my hand that I have laid upon them so the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day and forward Wow and the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity because they trespassed against me therefore he died 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 that is up till now therefore thus saith the Lord God now will I give that bring again the captivity of Jacob and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel and will be jealous for my holy name remember chapter 36 that we went through last time after that they have mourn their shame and all the trespasses whereby they have trespassed against me when they dwelt safely in their land and none made them afraid when I have brought them again from the people and gathered them out of their enemies plans and I'm sanctified in them in the sight of many nations neither will I hide my face anymore from them for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel saith the Lord God so the ultimate result of this will be of this battle with GOG will be Israel's national repentance and spiritual restoration they're already in the land but this event is going to shake them into repentance national repentance and that's what Hosea 5 talks about 515 the kingdom will be fulfilled when the Millennial Kingdom is established wow I want to go back to this verse you had the broad brush let's take a look at verse 6 of chapter 39 this is the one that troubles many God says I will send a fire on Magog and among them that dwell carelessly in the Isles among them this is a three grupe it's not Magog it's some other bunch it's not Israel of course it's a third party and what party is it it's a it's it's somebody else it's a dwell carelessly in the Isles the word carelessly there is Batoche that means false confidence where's the Isles don't know this leads to a conjecture a speculation refresh your memory on the what's sometimes called the thirteen days you've ever saw the movie the thirteen days which had to do with the Cuban Missile Crisis and how Khrushchev planted the missiles there they were coming in our satellite photography revealed all this so we quarantined as you know quarantined the island and all the world watched hoping if the ships that were coming with turn around and I was with John ruble Assistant Secretary of Defense that afternoon when John F Kennedy went on the air and delivered a speech and that speech you need to read very private word because the the press didn't pick up the critical words it talked about the quarantine and so forth but while John F Kennedy was giving that speech all the Strategic Air Command assets were on station all the refuelers were ready all the Atlas and Titan missiles were fueled and they're ready and John F Kennedy told Khrushchev in that speech if any missile is fired anywhere in the Western Hemisphere it will result in the immediate full-scale retaliation against the heartland of the Soviet Union and Khrushchev could check the intelligence resources and discover that they were all ready to do that and at the last minute because to turn one eighth and it all fortunately de-escalated and the movie 13 days parameters that it's been very much studied on both sides of the pond anything less would not have worked but it was it's considered a brilliant handling of brinkmanship wasn't flawless they but anyway it fortunately it all worked imagine though if somebody some idiot in some technician in Cuba had fired some missile into Guatemala or something accidentally what would have triggered this suggests a similar situation possibly may gog is invading Israel and God sends hailstones of fire upon Magog and on somebody else here is it possible that as Magog moves the United States says no no we're on Israel's side don't do that or else and somebody on one side of the other does something stupid and there's a nuclear exchange and it's our nukes that God is using to wipe out Magog and his bands and God uses magog's nukes to lay an overdue judgment on America one of the questions the hardest questions we have to answer is why hasn't God judged America Billy Graham quipped it so cleverly God doesn't judge America's gonna have to apologize Sodom Gomorrah we've become the primary exporter everything got a horse and when we travel we travel across the country at them there's two questions our most common questions where's the United States and process I think everybody notices that study the Bible United States is invisible Iran is but in that stays is not but the second question is a close cousin that first question is why hasn't God judged America and what we usually answer is because of justice 12 as we've stood for Israel's right to exist and that's one reason so many of us get so nervous when we see our administration metal in the Middle East encouraging the partitioning of God's land God says a lot of a lot to say about those that would dare partition his land I don't worry about Israel as God's hand is on Israel I pray for his own cause he tells me too I do worry about America because we're not around at the end times apparently why could be economic could be geopolitical there's any of a number of conjectures we don't didn't dodge it but this is one of the scenarios that call it gives some scholars great pause we do most people who studies feel that mega invasion is imminent it's somewhere on a horizon all the allies listed are in position except one measure come to ball Turkey is not but is moving in that direction the other question that gets raised here is where does this event occur relative to what we do know is going to happen is it part of the Armageddon sequence there are good scholars some of your best scholars that believe that if Hal Lindsey was here this evening he would defend that view very articulate very competently and he may be correct he thinks that's part of the Armageddon sequence he may be right there's a group of us have a slightly different view we think its prior to the 70th week altogether and we do know the Kremlin has made their determinations that's taken for granted but if you take the 70th week an annual the six nine weeks it's Daniel 9 verse 25 the most phenomenal verse the entire Bible I assume you familiar with it there's an interval in verse 26 before you get to verse 27 which is defines a seventh week you'd think those are contiguous weeks except for verse 26 clearly there's an interval during in which Christ is executed and the temple is destroyed that interval is at least 38 years we've experienced it to be almost 2,000 over to two thousand but the 70th week a day is the most documented period of time in the old new testament it's split in the middle of that week with this strange event called the abomination of desolation and Jesus himself labels the last half of that week the Great Tribulation if those halves of the week are labeled three and a half years 42 months 1260 days in both the old and the New Testament most documented for your time in the entire Bible realize that the seven-week is defined by that covenant being enforced by a world leader okay we know the temple is standing by the middle of it because that's what's desecrated with the abomination of desolation we don't know what's going to be rebuilt all we know is it will be standing by then okay the the week climaxes with the Battle of Armageddon and that of course is interrupted by the second coming of Jesus Christ the establishment of his kingdom on the earth and the classical placement of the Ezekiel event Magog invasion would be as part of that Armageddon build-up and that's the way how Lindsey and many other good scholars would present it and they may be correct there are a few of us that have a slightly different view we have our reasons for believing that it occurs prior to the 70th week I'll go over those some in a minute what we all happen to agree on is that the entire thing is post rapture so that may be academic for all of us in here if you're in Christ praise God for that why do I think it's part of seventh week well because the mega invasion forces come from the north Armageddon they come from the whole earth make garden sama has come to take spoil and Armageddon they come specifically destroy the Jews inspect specifically the believing Jews the seven-month cleanup would seem to be inconsistent with Israel's flight to Basra Petra on all that business that's in Isaiah 63 and so forth the seven years energy requirement seems inconsistent with the establishment of the millennium why does he why do they need to I didn't need energy for seven years you know and there's no mention of other key factors like the coming world leader called the Antichrist no mention of Babylon they're whole bunch of things that are conspicuous in not being mentioned that's an argument from silence but that's what influences our perspective doesn't mean we're correct but that's why we hold that I won't call it a view as suspicious anyway so there we are we have Magog we have those allies they're all going through they're all in place except one Iran is there of course that's interesting that we're not in Iran is that's a little disturbing and there's turkey turkey is there in spades Turkey's been trying for 80 years to be part of the West they even changed their alphabet from Arabic - to Latin and alphabet and so forth they've joined all the third member of NATO and the IMF and on and on and so forth but they were trying to join the EU and installed install installed until the Treaty of Treaty of Lisbon you may recall that the the in December of 2007 the the European Union reformed tree was signed by Europe's leaders the hopes of flying this thing they were attempting to do an end run on their failure in 2005 to get approval for a constitution it's their ways of trying to avoid accountability and they thought they had it made except for one group that saved the day for everybody and that's Ireland and on June 13th of 2008 Ireland's referendum rejected the Treaty of Lisbon which through a corkscrew and all their plans and the impact right here of course is that Croatia and Turkey's accession talks are now on hold turkey is getting increasingly impatient they've been doing this for decades the political profile in Turkey is increasingly arguing let's go back to the old days let's go back to Islam let's go back to our destinies to the east not the west and the welfare party which is the Islamic party grows in percentages in every election cycle so Turkey is swinging in that direction and the Russia meanwhile is moving its Black Sea Fleet into the Eastern med that's why we're sending more care what do you got five carriers there now and on it goes there they weren't scheduled withdraw until 2017 but they they're moving now there's no expression among the rabbis when you see that Russians go through the Dardanelles put on your Sabbath garments and the Zayas coming so they're modernizing ports and all that stuff so there that's the region Russia is moving its Black Sea Fleet from the Ukraine to the eastern myth and we have I think five carriers in there and the Persian Gulf put together I mean just astonishing now you talk about missiles the missile range of medium-range ballistic missile that covers that whole area and there are nuclear warheads available in that area remember Pakistan is a nuclear power financed by Saudi Arabia and then we have this character Ahmadinejad understand he's not like the typical rogue dictator he's not looking for more territory he's not he lives simply but he is deeply convinced that God has called him to create the event that will usher in the 12th Imam to create the global up turn and so he is he feels destinated and he's committed to cause the appearance of that okay this is a picture of the modulus there were the iranian parliament taken three years ago in october 247 of the 290 members are voting on the nuclear program they're voting in favorite by standing and shouting death to the united states death to israel I think the intrat the order of that's very interesting the Israel meanwhile is getting all kinds of deliveries from us including the long-range f-16s and a 117 on loan Israel's existence is at risk they apparently 120 aircraft at the ready to 47 47 tankers there's an f-117 on loan and apparently there is a general it's been given the green light to go when the winds are favorable whatever that means if Israel attacks Iran does that mean Ezekiel 38 is happening absolutely not don't assume a big disruption the Middle East is necessarily a Zika 38 I don't think so whatever may happen this month next month whenever something I think will may do nothing more than set the stage I do believe is equal 38 is on our near horizon but that isn't like next week or next few months donors don't don't confuse the intelligence we're getting visa V Iran and the US and Israel on electromagnetic pulse on all that business don't confuse that with Ezekiel 38 they don't fit but I think is eco 38 is on the horizon okay so we've been through the Magog invasion the next with this now opens the final section of Ezekiel to us the Millennial Kingdom and you want to talk about controversy we're going to hit it head-on as we get into the next nine chapters and so the grand finale the Millennium so I want you to read chapters 40 through 48 we will get them all next time of course but you might also refresh your visibility of Revelation 20 and Isaiah 65 most of what we know about the Millennium is from Isaiah and that revelation so let's stand for a closing word of Prayer

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Length: 67min 6sec (4026 seconds)

Published: Sat May 02 2020