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| The battle of Gog and Magog that is described in Ezekiels chapter 38 and 39 is the subject of a lot of speculation lately where some are saying this could start any day, or it may have even already started. But if we look directly in these two chapters, we find evidence that this battle is not something that can start now or even after the 1000 year millennial reign of Jesus Christ. But instead it has to be a battle that occurs during the last great seven year tribulation. But in fact not even at the beginning of that time but at the end. This is only one more description among many others such as Revelation chapter 19, of "The battle of Armageddon"- The final battle. We see two major proofs of this in the following passages: Ez. 39:7 reads: " I will make myself known among my people Israel, and I will not let myself be dishonored anymore. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel." Proof #1: God will not be dishonored anymore after this. We see through the entire seven year tribulation period that God is dishonored by most of the people of earth. This ends when he destroys all the ungodly. So this entire event must occur after they are all destroyed. Proof #2: Ez. 39:29: I will not turn away from them anymore, because I will put my Spirit into the people of Israel, says the Lord God." Here we see God is putting his spirit into the Jews so they will finally be his people. If this was done earlier than the final battle, then there would be no need for their time of testing known as 'Jacobs trouble,' or the great distress (tribulation). When we look at any prophesy, we cant look at it all by itself. Almost all prophecy we see in the bible connects to other scriptural prophesy, to make a more complete picture. If we take things on their own we will be confused and have to interject our own opinions and interpretations, which may or may not be scriptural. For instance, we can see throughout the Old Testament, prophesy that spoke of the coming messiah Jesus his first time 2000 years ago. If you only look at one or two of the many, you would not get the entire picture with all its detail. But if you look at all of it, it becomes amazing and we can look back and see that all prophesy about Jesus first coming, his birth, his death and resurrection have all been fulfilled literally and completely. This gives us confidence that all future prophesies will also come to pass literally as well. The 'major' and 'minor' prophets starting in Isaiah and going all the way through Malachi, are describing similar events that will happen to the Jewish people in the future, especially in the end times. If we look at the subheadings starting in Isaiah we see titles like, 'God will punish Israel, the king of peace is coming, Israel will return home, the Lord will punish the world, judgment is coming, God will send Israel away, the Lord will help Israel', etc. We see similar subheadings all the way through to the end of the Old Testament. The reason we see similar subheadings is because they all are talking about the same events, but with slightly different descriptions or language. Which events are we speaking about? Events such as the second coming of Jesus, the Jews being punished, tested, and then eventually saved. The world being punished for their treatment of the Jewish people, and finally a time when Jesus rules the entire world for the last 1000 years of mankind before the new heavens and new earth is made. When we look in chapter 39 of Ezekiel starting in verse 23, it says: "the nations will know Israel was taken away captive because they turned against me". Today we can see that Israel is not in captivity. So because of this we have to conclude that this is either describing a past captivity, or is describing a future one. Since we know that this is a battle that has not occurred yet, because it speaks of complete destruction of their enemies, we can eliminate this as being a past event even though they have had past captivities. Although Revelation 20: 8(at the end of the 1000 year reign of Jesus) speaks of Gog and Magog as well as in Ezekiel, Revelation's description does not describe a war. We know that during the 1000 years reign of Christ no one will train for war and there will be no wars of any kind because Micah 4:3 proclaims this clearly. Instead what we see is God simply calls the fire down from heaven to burn them all up with no war fought at all. However, the battle of Armageddon as it has been dubbed(because of the valley called Megiddo where God leads them to gather when it's time), and which is described in Revelation chapter 19, more resembles the battle described in Ezekiel 38 and 39 than anything else. We know that this battle of Gog and Magog cant happen now, because at the end of chapter 39, God puts his spirit into the Jewish people. From that time on they are saved and know God as he wants them to know him. So this cannot happen now, lest it would negate the time of 'Jacobs trouble' and Salvation for the Jews, that has to happen during the tribulation period. So this is a battle that has to occur during the tribulation period. Specifically this is a battle that has to happen at the end of the tribulation period, which just so happens to coincide with the battle of Armageddon, which is in Revelation chapter 19. Daniel is the only exception in that he describes many wars that will occur during the tribulation period between the 'king of the north' (the antichrist), and the king of the south in chapter 11. But none of these lesser battles in Daniel are describing the final battle of Armageddon. Daniel 11:45 does allude to the antichrist finally meeting his end, but it gives little to no detail. It gives more detail about all the smaller wars before Armageddon during the tribulation period. So we need to seek more detail from the other OT prophets and there is plenty of it. Since Revelation is the fulfillment of all previous prophesy, then it gets the final word. All we have to do is plug in previous prophesy into Revelation and when we do that we see a complete picture. Because the battle described in Ezekiel is so detailed and large, it has to be found in Revelation and if we look at the detail of both the Revelation account and Ezekiel, we find many similarities. The biggest one is how the birds of the air will be called to come and feast on the dead bodies of great rulers, but no less important is in Revelation 16:12, where we are told how the river Euphrates is dried up to prepare the way for the kings of the east to come and fight against Israel. The reason the river has to dry up, is likely because God at the sixth seal took out much of the military might of the world powers, especially the air forces. We see descriptions of military campaigns fought in Revelation and here in Ezekiel 39:9 with primitive weaponry and on horseback. There are no descriptions of anything flying through the air whatsoever. 9 ??Then those who live in the towns of Israel will go out and use the weapons for fuel and burn them up?the small and large shields, the bows and arrows, the war clubs and spears. For seven years they will use them for fuel. 10 They will not need to gather wood from the fields or cut it from the forests, because they will use the weapons for fuel. And they will plunder those who plundered them and loot those who looted them, declares the Sovereign LORD: The countries/territories in Ezekiel 38 &39 are not only countries from the north and far north, but the kings of the east will also include Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, Turkey as well as Russia to the far north. All of these countries are to the east of the Euphrates River. Many people have just assumed China, without looking at a map, but the bible says kings of the east, not just one king or country. This could even include India, Pakistan and others. On an ancient map of the Mid east, Gomer as described in Ezekiel 38 & 39 is north and south of the black sea with Turkey being the largest country south and Ukraine being north. Magog is north of the Caspian Sea which is certainly Russia. Cush is to the south of the red sea and southwest of the Gulf of Aden which is today's Sudan and Ethiopia. Togarmah is just to the south of the black and Caspian seas which is the area of Turkey but also Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia the former USSR republic. Meshech and Tubal is modern day Persia. Put is south of the Mediterranean and west of the red sea which is most likely Egypt. All of these countries at least and probably many more will be involved in the final battle and they will be looking to take a spoil. Some are saying this spoil may be soon to be discovered oil that Israel is about to find and geologists and other experts have already said it is there, now all they have to do is get it out of the ground. But this spoil will not only be oil. Israel is already being blessed by God in many other ways. Israel today is one of the most fertile lands in the entire world and their farming and agriculture department is fast becoming the envy of the world. In fact they are feeding much of Europe today, while Russia and other countries that are against God and Israel are experiencing drought, famines and other ecological disaster. So another more important spoil than even oil, will likely be food. Zechariah 10:11-17 is another amazing picture of a future event tied in with Ezekiel 38 & 39 and Armageddon in Revelation 19. But first we see an important passage in Zechariah 13:8, where two thirds of the Jews are killed in all the land and only one third is left. Now some have said this is talking about a future event, while ignoring the historical fact that this is what happened during the holocaust to fulfill this scripture. Six million Jews out of nine million, were killed to fulfill this prophesy literally. The three million that were not killed have been tested severely as Zechariah 13:9 said would happen and they still are under extreme pressure and testing today. Since the holocaust their numbers have replenished back to 13 million or so and soon they will be tested one last time by being scattered again as the Antichrist and his armies, will enter Israel to take a spoil and they will enter Jerusalem and take half the city as captives back to many other lands again, while at the same time the other half will be left in the city. Zechariah 14:2 speaks of this, and then it says God will go to war against those nations. Though it does not speak specifically of which nations, Ezekiel does and is why we need to put all like prophesy together. Finally in Zechariah 9:14, we see why half of the city is left behind. It says the Lord will appear above them and his arrows will shoot like lightning. This is of course describing both Ezekiel 38 & 39 and Revelation 19 as well. Trying to figure out prophecy is not rocket science. It only takes time and due diligence to do so and I firmly believe even a child of a mere 12 years old can put biblical prophecy together the way it needs to be, and come up with a complete picture as was meant by God to be understood. There can't be dozens of interpretations to something so important. Only one can be correct the one that is already written. In fact it does need to be interpreted at all, it only needs reading it, and believing it literally, then putting it together almost like a puzzle. Though there are some mysteries of God that will never be known until we see him, biblical prophecy which has already been written is not one of them. |
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