NOTES ON THE DRUMS OF WAR: FIVE STAGES ON THE ROAD TO ARMAGEDDON – PART IV: EZEKIEL’S WAR

SCRIPTURE. “Son of dust, face northward toward the land of Magog and prophesy against Gog, king of Meshech and Tubal. Tell him that the Lord God says: ‘I am against you, Gog. I will put hooks into your jaws and pull you to your doom. I will mobilize your troops and armored cavalry and make you a mighty host, all fully armed. Persia, Cush, Put shall join you too with all their weaponry, and so shall Gomer and all his hordes and the armies of Togarmah from the distant north, as well as many other …. A long time from now you will be called to action. In distant years you will swoop down onto the land of Israel that will be lying in peace after the return of its people from many lands.’” – EZEKIEL 38:3-6, 8, TLB

QUOTATIONS

“As a nation, we began by declaring that ‘all men are created equal.’ We now practically read it ‘all men are created equal, except negroes.’ When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read ‘all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics.’ When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty – to Russia, for instance, where Despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.” – ABRAHAM LINCOLN, “Letter to Joshua F. Speed,” Aug. 24th, 1855

“But even Peter the Great never dreamed of legislation like Stalin’s. To turn ordinary children into enemies of their own parents—everything in him revolted against that. The new Children’s Law was very clear, though. Any child who discovered counterrevolutionary tendencies in either parent should report him or her. He had grinned at the idea.” – EDWARD RUTHERFURD, ‘Russka: The Novel of Russia,’ 1991

“Do you ever read the Scriptures?” “Every day,” I said enthusiastically, “not a moment passes that I don’t have a quick read of Jeremias or dip into Ezekiel.” She smiled, amused. “What a barbarian you are!” – BERNARD CORNWELL, ‘The Flame Bearer,’ 2016; edited

BARBARIAN. “A man in his rude, savage state; an uncivilized person. A cruel, savage, brutal man; one destitute of pity or humanity.” – Noah Webster, ‘American Dictionary of the English language,’ 1828

1. FIRST THOUGHTS

Now we come to what I consider the next to the last Battle of the End Times, taking place inside the Seven Year Time of Jacob’s Trouble. This is the Conflict that most Bible scholars and students have closely examined for centuries now, traditionally referred to as The War of Gog-Magog. Most conventional treatments regard this War as a Russian-led and Turkey-assisting attempt to once and for all eliminate the State of Israel, which constitutes the overarching purpose of this massive attack “from the north” of Israel.

But before diving into the deep weeds and root systems of all this, permit me first to introduce you to some Contextual Information that will help us all to understand the unique and mighty nation that will very probably lead this massive attack on Israel in the days ahead.

THE RUSSIAN ‘ENIGMA.’ for centuries on end, countless scholars, historians, theologians, and even scientists have labored to get their intellectual arms around this uniquely cast character in the great Story of Nations. There is even a Folk Proverb about it that originated with WINSTON CHURCHILL in a radio speech in 1939 at the beginning of the Great War:

“I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. ‘It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma;’ but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.”

Politically speaking of course, “National Interest” might be easily translated into another adage: “I will do everything in Russia’s power to get everything Russia needs to be safe and prosperous and dominant, in the interests of furthering her legacy of conquest and unmatched strength.”

NOAH WEBSTER (1828) defines the key term this way: “ENIG’MA, noun [Latin ‘oenigma’; Gr. ‘to hint’]. ‘A dark saying,’ in which some known thing is concealed under obscure language; an obscure question; a riddle. A question, saying or painting, containing a hidden meaning, which is proposed to be guessed.”

A noted scholar pins down the deeper meaning of what Churchill apparently meant. GABRIEL GORODETSKY is Quondam Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and emeritus professor of history at Tel Aviv University, wrote this:

“Churchill in fact went on to solve his own Riddle: ‘But perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest. It cannot be in accordance with the interest of the safety of Russia that Germany should plant itself upon the shores of the Black Sea or that it should overrun the Balkan States and subjugate the Slavonic peoples of South-Eastern Europe. That would be contrary to the historic life-interests of Russia.’” – ‘RT,’ Oct. 10, 2015; edited

TWO PERSONAL LESSONS. The quote from Edward Rutherfurd at the beginning of this essay begins to point us toward a uniquely devastating and deadly characteristic of Russian history and the Russian soul. My 12-day visit there in 1993 on behalf of a fledgling organization, Children of Chernobyl, were to ever infuse these ideas into my own soul as I discovered first-hand just a bit of what makes Russia, the Great Enigma of our time. Indeed, perhaps of all time.

• THE QUEUE. I was standing in a line for coffee and chai one day when a rather large elderly lady wearing a baboushka of course, firmly shoved me straight out of my place in the queue. Didn’t even look at me, just moved me aside and took my place. Oy! My dear friend and veteran of Russian visits, the late Jim Santo, laughed out loud and said to me: “Cliff this is Russia, you have to fight to keep your place.”

• THE CHECKPOINT. On another day, we were traveling South to the Kaluga Region to visit some monasteries and came to a checkpoint where there was standing there a single Russian soldier with an AK47 held in his hands in front of him. He signaled for us to stop, and I reached down and pulled out my trusty little Instamatic flash camera to take a shot of this amazing event. Ludmilla (“Ludy”), our translator, rather rudely slapped the camera from my hands and shouted this: “Cliff! You are in Russia now! No!”

So, yeah, that phrase drove deep into into me something I will never forget: “Cliff, you are in Russia now!” And in a very small way this will go a very long way to explain what follows today. There’s something about Russia that has been there, according to Mr. Rutherford’s compelling historical novel, since at least the 2nd Century AD, if not longer.

So, let’s explore history’s Great Enigma just a bit more with these things in mind.

1. THE TEACHING

SCRIPTURE. “Son of dust, face northward toward the land of Magog and prophesy against Gog, king of Meshech and Tubal. Tell him that the Lord God says: ‘I am against you, Gog. I will mobilize your troops and armored cavalry and make you a mighty host, all fully armed. Persia, Cush, Put shall join you too with all their weaponry, and so shall Gomer and all his hordes and the armies of Togarmah from the distant north, as well as many others …. A long time from now you will be called to action. In distant years you will swoop down onto the land of Israel that will be lying in peace after the return of its people from many lands.’” – EZEKIEL 38:3-6, 8, TLB

As always then, straight to a discussion of the KEY IDEAS underlying this historic Prophecy.

• AGAINST! I add the exclamation point to illustrate the smoldering vehemence with which the statement is made by Yahweh to Gog. And although I could not find the precise Hebrew term for this in the lexicons, I did find a superb rendering by JOHN GILL (1748-1763): “And say, thus saith the Lord God, ‘Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. Which is repeated for the confirmation of it, that so it would certainly be; that the Lord, the mighty God, and King of kings, would in His Providence frown upon him, and appear against him.” WEBSTER (1828) adds: “In opposition; noting enmity or disapprobation … noting contrariety, contradiction, or repugnance.”

• TURN YOU AROUND. As a direct illustration of that divine vehemence, one might even say outrage, God uses this phrase to make His point Unmistakably clear. From the Hebrew word, ‘Shub’ [שׁוּב]: “To turn back, or be turned back; to cease from or be stopped from one’s course.” Or in the vernacular of the Amplified Bible: “I will put hooks into your jaws and pull you to your doom.” MATTHEW POOLE (1685) adds: “‘I will turn thee back’ – The words seem to imply a diverting him from some other enterprise, or else intimate to us, when that mighty power come out, that they are still under God’s control, and He will turn them back from what they intended, that they shall not effect it.” Selah.

• AND LEAD YOU OUT. As if to re-emphasize the powerful point made above concerning God’s  absolute sovereignty over any power, the word used this time is ‘Yatsa’ [יָצָא]: “To go or come out, or be led forth; to send or be sent by command; of condemnation, to go out as a criminal, ‘toward a calamity from which they shall not be able to escape;’ a providential arrangement toward Divine Wrath; to take or draw out or down to a place for the achievement of a specific purpose, in this context, a prophetic and providential one of severest punishment.”

DK’S TAKE. At least two things stand out for me as I ponder these definitions of how God will deal with Russia in the last of the Last Days.

• THE WRATH OF YAH. The American Church has been teaching and preaching what I can only refer to as a ‘Soft and gentle Deity’ for so long, that when we consider the real anger and fury of the Godhead, many of us are perplexed. ‘Who is this God who would do such terrible things to a nation of people? I’ve never heard of Him before!’ that is, sadly and tragically and nearly unforgivable, correct. You have not heard of this God preached from our pulpits in generations. That ends today.

• THE SOVEREIGNTY OF YAH. Alongside the starting reality that yes, our God gets angry from time to time and expresses it in no uncertain terms, is the unmistakable imprint of God’s ‘Absolute Control’ over the nations and over all things in his Universe that he personally created and supervises. In the seeming violation of the Doctrine of Free Will, God draws Russia down into His Divine Purpose that will end with Russia’s utter destruction. WHY? In my own studied view, suggested first to me by Rutherford’s exquisitely researched novel, ‘Russka’ (1991) and confirmed by careful studies like those of JOEL OSTROW’S examination of Russian Authoritarianism, Russia has loved militant dictatorship over democracy for all of its history. Her nearly countless tens of millions of Russian casualties are grisly legacy to that Thesis.

IN SUM. Almighty God had every right and duty in the aftermath of 1,800 years of bloody brutality, including endless Pogroms against and hatred of the Jewish people, to finally lay her waste at the end of history. Perhaps think of the evil heart of Pharaoh here, who after repeated warnings to let God’s people go, “hardened his heart and would not let the people Go.” Therefore, God subsequently hardened the Egyptian ruler’s heart according to his own will. – cf. Exodus 8: 32; 9:12

KING DAVID said it best: “God loves justice” (cf. Psalm 33:5; Isaiah 61:8) – ‘Tsedaqah’ [צְדָקָה]: “That which is straight, just, and true.” And He hates its opposite! Selah.

III.    THE PROPHECY  

So now prepare yourselves for a rapid fire, unavoidably pedantic, bullet point REVIEW of the essential ingredients of the Prophecy.

Russian-Turkey Coalition. This Alliance consists of those ‘left-over’ Arab nations which will include the all those listed in the following section. Largely adapted from Dillon Burroughs, “Who Are the Nations of Ezekiel 38?” Blogos, May 4, 2013; John Ankerberg, “What Nations Will Be Involved? Jashow, Oct. 2020; and good boyEditors, Oxford Bible Church articles on identity of each region, ret. Nov. 2021. 

• Gog: The land north of the Black Sea. This is a reference to modern Russia or at least major parts of it. Though scholars still wrestle with the identity of this nation (or individual, or “Chief”), the preponderance of evidence strongly suggests Russia as Gog-Magog, that presents an entire history of Jewish Antisemitism by her many Pogroms in centuries past. In addition to the poisonous authorship of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion in 1903, a false and savage Antisemitic harangue about the Jews’ ostensible plan for global domination. Presumably still governed by hardline President VLADIMIR PUTIN or his hardline successor in 2022, Russia is currently forming military alliance with Communist China, clearly troubling but right-on-schedule developments for the Last Days world conflicts. [NOTE: As of this writing in a late edit of the text, March 11, 2022, Putin’s massive military assault on Ukraine was initially successfully resisted by the Ukranian forces at Kiev, but Putin just this week announced a vicious, new resolve to never stop fighting. In any case it figures heavily in the Last Days scenario for matters of World War. more will be said of this as I close. 

• Magog, Meshek, and Tubal. To consolidate three names in this passage, DR. ROGER BARRIER, writing for Crosswalk (“Gog and Magog,” June 17, 2021), observes that Magog, Meshech, and Tubal were all sons of Japheth, who was one of the three sons of Noah. According to the biblical record, Japheth and his family migrated to the area of modern-day Russia (Gen. 10:2-3). “Gog” then is a person who rules over the land of Magog (Russia). Magog means the “Prince of Rosh.” Gog, or Rosh, is the old root word for the land of Russia, though Meshek and Tubal also have historic reference and relationship to Turkey.

• Persia: Modern-day Persia is broadly defined by the severely militant Islamic Republic of Iran. Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, wresting the power from Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, longtime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has been issuing decrees and making the final decisions on the economy, environment, foreign policy, education, national planning, and everything else in the country. Currently ramping up its nuclear capability in the aftermath of President Trump’s abandonment of the Iran Nuclear Accord in May 2018, this nation shall prove central to the upcoming assault on the northern hills of Israel.

• Cush: The second nation named in verse 5 is Cush, or Ethiopia. The nation known as Ethiopia back in Ezekiel’s day is not the same nation that we know as Ethiopia today. The nation known as Ethiopia in Ezekiel’s day is more likely the nation that we know today as the Sudan, another present-day hotspot for that region, historically Coptic Christian, but today well over 90 percent Muslim. An Islamic military junta has recently taken control of the country, and the religious strife continues to both simmer and explode periodically in its long-term civil war between Muslims in the north, and Christians largely situated in the south.

• Libya: The third nation named in verse 5 is Libya. Libya is located due west of Egypt in North Africa. Since the years under the leadership of Mu’ammar Qaddafi ended in the Battle of Sirte on October 20, 2011, his son, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, is considering a run for president of Libya. Though not likely to win the presidency, he brings old longings for national greatness to the fore once again. More broadly, Wikipedia reports that the Politics of Libya is in an uncertain state of turmoil due to the collapse of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya in 2011, and a recent civil war between the House of Representatives in Tobruk and its supporters, and the New General National Congress in Tripoli and its supporters, along with various jihadists and tribal elements controlling parts of the country.

• Gomer: The fourth nation named in verse 6 was Gomer. In Ezekiel’s day, Gomer was a tribal group of people who were located in the central part of what you and I know today as the nation of Turkey. Gomerites were the ancient Cimmerians, expelled in 700 BC from the southern steppes of Russia into the area we know today as Turkey. Today, of course, Turkish president RECEP TAYYIP ERDOĞAN wields anti-West, anti-Israel power with an iron fist, and if he or his ideological successor remain in politics, Turkey, of course, figures prominently in this great war.

• Togarmah: This is another country aligned with Russia. He was a son of Gomer, son of Japheth (Gen. 10:1-3), known in Assyrian records as Tilgarimmu, a city state in Eastern Anatolia (Asia Minor, modern Turkey). More specifically, it includes “the south-eastern part of Turkey near the Syrian border.” This identification is generally acknowledged by all. Once again, we have a region in present day Turkey as further evidence of Turkey as a key player in of the Ezekiel War against Israel.

OUTCOME OF THE WAR. In utterly spectacular fashion, Yahweh Himself directly and dramatically intervenes in what would otherwise be Israel’s utter defeat as a nation. This leaves no question of who He is, what He thinks of Israel, “the apple of His eye” (Zech. 2:8), or dramatically confirming the Jews’ deep structure recognition of the reality of God in their affairs.

“‘But when you come to destroy the land of Israel, my fury will rise! For in My jealousy and blazing wrath, I promise a mighty shaking in the land of Israel on that day. All living things shall quake in terror at my presence; mountains shall be thrown down; cliffs shall tumble; walls shall crumble to the earth. I will summon every kind of terror against you,’ says the Lord God, ‘and you will fight against yourselves in mortal combat! I will fight you with sword, disease, torrential floods, great hailstones, fire, and brimstone! Thus will I show My greatness and bring honor upon My name, and all the nations of the world will hear what I have done and know that I am God!’.” – (VV. 18-23, TLB)

“Every kind of terror” is unleased by a Furious Yahweh, including a massive earthquake,  human ordinance, a torrent of floods, huge, fiery hailstones reminiscent of ancient Egypt’s similar Judgments, and brimstone. In the confusion, the Coalition troops turn upon themselves, adding to the slaughter of those daring to touch The Beautiful Land.

Throughout Jewish and Christian history, we see the God of the Scriptures demonstrating His absolute authority and unlimited power to defend His people. As this next to the last war clearly illustrates, He shall always have the Final Word.

Always.

1. LAST THOUGHTS

THE UKRAINE. Despite Trumpian theologian DR. MICHAEL BROWN’S recent repudiation (Mar. 4, 2022) that Ezekiel 38 has anything at all to do with Russia (poor Dr. Brown hasn’t been right about much of anything for the last five years), there are some fairly responsible glimmerings here that Russia’s War against Ukraine may well be Harbinger of that which is yet to come.

Among the most responsible Bible expositors on this volatile subject is offered by an ailing DON KOENIG, battling cancer as I write these words. Here is his easy and wise comment, with which I strongly agree.

“Contrary to what some prophecy teachers are saying, I don’t believe this limited military action using only about 200,000 Russian troops will bring about the fulfillment of the Ezekiel Prophecy. ‘However, if Russia calls up greater forces it probably will lead to that.’” – ‘The Prophetic Years,’ Mar. 11, 2022

It is in that last part of his statement that I find indeed a prophetic voice in the midst of the unspeakable brutality that has been recently revisited by VLADIMIR PUTIN in just the last few days. Here’s a report of what is happening as Mr. Koenig had feared.

“‘We have continuously heard that the West is ready to fight with us until the last Ukrainian is left standing. This is a tragedy for the Ukrainian people. However, it seems like everything is going towards this,’ he said. ‘Today we hear that they want to defeat us on the battlefield. Well, what can I say? Let them try,’ Putin said during a meeting with the heads of the State Duma party factions that aired on state-run television channel Russia-24.” – CNN, July 8, 2022; edited

CODA. I have argued recently that the war in Ukraine holds every dangerous promise to become a flashpoint for World War III, and possibly even lead to what Putin has been saying for weeks now, the use of tactical nuclear weapons in Europe for the first time ever in human history.

For me at least, all the rapidly developing world events, international tensions, environmental and medical crises, and a nearly white hot, virulent Nationalism exploding around the world  one again gives me a most sober pause. As it should every Christian leader and pastor – but by every evidence, has not.

Consider this, therefore, still another Trumpet Blast in the direction of every single ear even remotely tilted in the direction of God’s Voice. Who is, I am fully convinced, virtually ‘shouting to us,’ appropriately enough, in the words of the Prophet Ezekiel:

“Therefore tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord God, I will put an end to this proverb, and they will no longer use it as a proverb in Israel.’ But say to them, ‘The days draw near as well as the fulfillment of every vision.’” – EZEKIEL 12:23, AMP

Ever your servant, DK

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