Before Gog/Magog... BIG news!!

As I get older I am noticing how my thinking has changed and continues to change on Bible passages I have known for years. Things that were mysterious now seem more obvious. In some cases, I think that youthful enthusiasm was driving the interpretation of what I was reading and trying to understand. It resulted in overlooking the obvious. The Gog-Magog War of Ezekiel 38,39 is a good example. All the excitement of battle and God's rescue of Israel on the blood-soaked plains makes it easy to overlook a huge event in the days just before the war. More on that later...

The story actually begins in Ezekiel 37. God brings Ezekiel into a valley filled with bones. Human skeletons! "Very many" and "very old", dry bones! God asks, "Can these bones live?" Ezekiel wisely answers, "Lord, You know." It turns out that God is showing the prophet what is going to happen to the nation of Israel in the distant future (2,500+ years!). Having suffered great national loss and destruction, they will wander for many, many years... a skeleton of a nation... spirit and hope gone... dried up! Then, their fortunes change. God foretells,

"Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life. I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin and put breath in you that you may come alive; and you will know that I am the Lord.”

He continues, making it crystal clear what He has in mind.

"Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel; behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope has perished. We are completely cut off.’ Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, My people. I will put My Spirit within you and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken and done it,” declares the Lord.’”

Are you paying attention? Long ago God, through the prophet Ezekiel, said that the nation of Israel was going to go through an extended period of time in which they would, for all practical purposes, be considered a historically extinct nation. They would be like walking skeletons with no homeland and non-existent hope. Then, after many years, God would resurrect the entire nation and return its people to their homeland... Israel! "I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people; and I will BRING YOU INTO THE LAND OF ISRAEL." Emphasis mine.

Students of Bible prophecy often say that "Israel is the key to prophecy." This passage in Ezekiel is at the heart of that belief. What other nation in history can point to that kind of national story? But, that is not the end, neither of the story nor of the woes to be faced by this miraculous risen-from-the-grave people.

In chapter 38 God reveals a scenario to Ezekiel... a war that will take place in Israel. The prophet is told the who, what, when, where and why of the coming conflict.

WHO?

Verses 3-6. Israel...the target nation. Then, the aggressors:

Rosh, Meshech, Tubal (nations from "the remote parts of the North". Some say Russian, others, Asia Minor. ) Persia (today's Iran/Iraq region) Ethiopia (today's northern Sudan region) Put (today's Libya) Togarmah and Gomer (parts of Asia Minor) Gog is the organizing demon of the entire enterprise. He is "the prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal.")

WHAT?

A massive, coordinated invasion. "You (Gog) will go up, you will come like a storm; you will be like a cloud covering the land, you and all your troops, and many peoples with you.” vr.9

WHEN?

Three important clues. "After many days" vr.8; "in the latter years" vr.8; in the days after Israel "(has) been gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel which had been a continual waste; but its people were brought out from the nations," vr.8.
This prophecy was fulfilled in 1948 after 2,500 years!
WHERE?

The nation of Israel. "you (Gog) will come into the land that is restored from the sword, whose inhabitants have been gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel."

WHY?

Gog is evil and creates an evil plan for Israel. Beyond the fact that he is demonically jealous he invades Israel "to capture spoil and to seize plunder, to turn (his) hand against the waste places which are now inhabited, and against the people who are gathered from the nations, who have acquired cattle and goods, who live at the center of the world." Note: Gog hates the LAND and he hates the PEOPLE.

So, what happens?!? The Bible says that this confederation of nations WILL invade and seek to destroy Israel BUT will come up against an Israeli "weapon" they could never have imagined. Again in Ezekiel 38:

"It will come about on that day, when Gog comes against the land of Israel,” declares the Lord God, “that My fury will mount up in My anger. In My zeal and in My blazing wrath I declare that on that day there will surely be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. The fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, the beasts of the field, all the creeping things that creep on the earth, and all the men who are on the face of the earth will shake at My presence; the mountains also will be thrown down, the steep pathways will collapse and every wall will fall to the ground. I will call for a sword against him (Gog) on all My mountains,” declares the Lord God. “Every man’s sword will be against his brother. With pestilence and with blood I will enter into judgment with him; and I will rain on him and on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him, a torrential rain, with hailstones, fire and brimstone. I will magnify Myself, sanctify Myself, and make Myself known in the sight of many nations; and they will know that I am the Lord.”’

God knows how to protect those who are His! And that is just what He does. Gog is utterly defeated, along with his allies and Israel returns to peace and safety, cleaning up their war-stained land following the fighting. Did I say they return to "peace and safety"? This brings me to the point of this writing. The "Before Gog/Magog...BIG news!!". The often-overlooked stage that exists in the weeks, months, years(?) before Gog makes his fateful move.

Is there a way to find out what is happening in Israel just before the great invasion? Yes. All we have to do is move back a little on the timeline given in Ezekiel 38. Two verses make it clear what the tiny nation looks like leading up to Gog. Verses 11 and 12

"...and you (Gog) will say, ‘I will go up against the land of unwalled villages. I will go against those who are at rest, that live securely, all of them living without walls and having no bars or gates,...against the people who are gathered from the nations, who have acquired cattle and goods, who live at the center of the world.’"

The description of life in "pre-Gog" Israel is unmistakable. God says the same thing four different ways in verse 11!

At the time immediately before the attack:

Israel is made up of "unwalled villages"

Israel is "at rest"

Israel is "living securely"

Israel has "no walls,...no bars or gates."

Okay! Here we are. Do you see the point already? Today Israel is back in the land. Today the players are all in existence and already in agreement as to their opinions of Israel. But, one thing is lacking.

ISRAEL MUST BE DWELLING IN PEACE... SECURELY, WITH NO WALLS, BARS OR GATES"

Do we need to talk about the security condition of the nation of Israel since its coming into existence in 1948? Do we need to cover the facts of the Iron Dome, the constant dangers from rocket attacks and the security wall that has/is being constructed across the land? So, here is the "BIG news."

We are on the edge of days just before, not the Gog/Magog war, but rather, when it is announced that a great "peace" has been worked out. A peace that will be so comprehensive and verifiable that Israel will literally take down all of her walls.

Now, that is BIG news. Unbelievable news!! But, if the scriptures are true...(and they are!!) this is the way it must and will happen. Read it for yourself! (For those of you who have been waiting for Gog to show up at any moment... it is not for now. You must wait.)

My prediction? There may soon be an interim war that so traumatizes the Mid-East that all parties come to realize that peace MUST be made or else everyone's survival will be in question! But, no matter how it comes... Peace is coming to Israel. BIG peace!! But, a short-lived, deceitful peace.