Did you know that Bible prophecy constitutes a whopping 31% of the Bible? God’s overall plan for the ages appears to be rather like a 100-piece puzzle, and so far, He has only provided 75 pieces. We can make out the outline of a picture, but until certain events unfold, which then add another new piece to the puzzle, the picture remains incomplete.
One such “incomplete” prophetic picture concerns the various wars prophesied in the end times, particularly as they relate to the nation of Israel. That’s why many are looking at Israel’s current war with Hamas as a potential prelude to the prophetic war described in Ezekiel chapters 38-39, called the War of Gog and Magog. But, is it? Wouldn’t the Psalm 83 War make more sense with Gaza being involved? Well, let’s see by comparing the two prophetic wars.
The War of Gog and Magog
The War of Gog and Magog foretells a massive attack on the rebirthed nation of Israel by an expansive coalition of nations first described in Genesis 10:2-7. These nations descend from the territories of ancient Rosh (Russia), Magog (the ‘Stan nations), Meshech (including Tubal, Gomer, and Beth-Togarmah now Turkey), Persia (Iran), Cush (Sudan and Ethiopia), and Put (Libya, Algeria, and Tunisia) (Ezekiel 38:2-6). Their leader is called “Gog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal” (Ezekiel 38:2-3, NKJV).
The battlefield is on “the mountains of Israel which had been a continual waste” (Ezekiel 38:8). The purpose of the invasion is to “capture spoil and to seize plunder” and attack the people of Israel (Ezekiel 38:12-16).
The result of such a massive invasion by a seemingly invincible army on an unprotected Israel ends up surprising the invaders and shocking the world. The invading nations are, in truth, being manipulated by God, pulled out of their lands with “hooks into your jaws,” so that those nations feel the Sovereign Lord’s fury (Ezekiel 38:4,18). God drags these specific nations to the “mountains of Israel” to “enter into judgment with him…and on the numerous peoples who are with him,” with “torrential rain, hailstones, fire, and brimstone” (Ezekiel 38:21-22). God explains His ultimate purpose for supernaturally obliterating the invading coalition: “I will magnify Myself, I will manifest Myself as holy, and I will make Myself known in the sight of many nations; and they will know that I am Yahweh” (Ezekiel 38:23).
God’s supernatural victory over the Gog-Magog invaders allows Him to reintroduce Himself to the world and declare in no uncertain terms that Yahweh is personally defending Israel. Should the people of the world doubt, they have only to look on Israel who will “go out and make fires with the weapons and burn them…for seven years” (Ezekiel 39:9).
As for the invaders’ corpses, “for seven months the house of Israel will be burying them in order to cleanse the land” in the newly named “Valley of Hamon Gog” by a newly built “town called Hamonah” (Ezek. 39:11-12,16).
The Psalm 83 War
Now let’s compare the War of Gog and Magog to another war prophesied by the seer (meaning prophet), Asaph—the Psalm 83 War.
Psalm 83 may be read as an imprecatory prayer, meaning that Asaph is calling down judgment and justice upon an enemy, but note that the writer is indeed a prophet. In Psalm 83:6-8, Asaph calls to God to bring His judgment upon all the nations that are listed that have modern-day equivalents to the nations that surround Israel. As eschatologist Bill Salus lists:
– Tents of Edom = Palestinians and southern Jordanians
– Ishmaelites = Saudis (Ishmael was the father of the Arabs)
– Moab = Palestinians and central Jordanians
– Hagrites = Hagarenes or Egyptians
– Gebal = Hezbollah and northern Lebanon
– Ammon = Palestinians and northern Jordan
– Amalek = Arabs of the Sinai Area
– Philistia = Hamas of the Gaza Strip
– Tyre = Hezbollah and southern Lebanon
– Assyria = Syrians and northern Iraq
Noticeably absent from the list of Gog and Magog nations are those Asaph noted that surround modern-day Israel: Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Gaza, and possibly Iraq and the Arabian peninsula nations. Why are these hostile bordering nations not also actively involved in the War of Gog and Magog? Their absence leaves a giant hole in the Gog-Magog invaders’ map.
No comments:
Post a Comment