Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Before the Invasion (Ezek. 38:1-13)


SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/21/2015 4:56 PM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  Before the Invasion

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ezekiel 38:1-13

            Message of the verses:  “1 And the word of the LORD came to me saying, 2 “Son of man, set your face toward Gog of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him 3 and say, ’Thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I am against you, O Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal. 4 "I will turn you about and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out, and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them splendidly attired, a great company with buckler and shield, all of them wielding swords; 5 Persia, Ethiopia and Put with them, all of them with shield and helmet; 6 Gomer with all its troops; Beth-togarmah from the remote parts of the north with all its troops-many peoples with you. 7 “Be prepared, and prepare yourself, you and all your companies that are assembled about you, and be a guard for them. 8 "After many days you will be summoned; in the latter years you will come into the land that is restored from the sword, whose inhabitants have 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, and they are living securely, all of them. 9 “You 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." 10 ’Thus says the Lord GOD, "It will come about on that day, that thoughts will come into your mind and you will devise an evil plan, 11 and you 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, 12 to capture spoil and to seize plunder, to turn your 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.’ 13 “Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish with all its villages will say to you, ’Have you come to capture spoil? Have you assembled your company to seize plunder, to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to capture great spoil?’"’”

            Now as I look at these verses I have to say that to my best way of thinking about who these countries are I believe that Rosh is speaking of Russia and for many years Russia has been against the Jewish people.  Now I am certainly not saying that God does not have many, many believers in Russia today and I am thankful that they have had the opportunity to have the Word of God given to them now without persecution like in former times.  What we see here is Russia and other nations coming down upon the newly formed country of Israel.  God says that He is going to go fishing as He states through Israel that He will put hooks in the jaws of these nations and bring them down against Israel in the “latter days.”  Many of the nations listed here can be identified today and they form a collation with a purpose of destroying Israel.  As I listened to Dr. Jay Vernon McGee on this section and he named three hooks that God could possibility use to bring them down.  Oil is one of the hooks that can be used by God is what Dr. McGee says as even though at this time there is not much oil that has been found in Israel they are at this time drilling for oil and perhaps they will discover a great deal of oil in Israel as they are drilling very deeply into the ground to try and find oil.  Another hook is that of a warm water port as Russia does not have one.  The Dead Sea is the last hook that Dr. McGee speaks of and the Dead Sea has many millions of pounds of chemicals that are needed in the world today.  Now other things that I have read or heard of is that when we look at the word “Rosh” I have been told that in Israel that is how they pronounce Russia.  Next we see that Ezekiel says that this will happen in the last days, so this prophecy has not taken place yet but certainly will at some point in the future.  We see in verse six that the nation that will come down on Israel is to the North, and the verse means the utter North and Russia is to the utter North of Israel. 

            One more thing that I want to say and it comes from one of Joel Rosenberg’s novels as in, and I am not sure which one that I read this from, but the scenario that is found in this novel is about these prophecies in Ezekiel 38-39 and he has a man in that book explaining as best as he could who these nation were in these chapters and when the battle begins between these countries and Israel in his view they are Muslin nations that God destroys who are a part of this section.  Now not all of them are Muslin nations as in his view Russia and Germany are a part of this group and they too are destroyed.  Let me say something about Rosenberg and that is he has had an uncanny way of writing in his novels things that soon take place after he writes about them.  His first novel came out on September 11, 2001, or at least it was set to come out then but after the attacks were made on the United States the postponed it for a while.  “The Last Jihad” begins with a kamikaze attack on the United States, and his next novel speaks of Iran trying to get a nuclear weapon before they made it known that they were trying.  In his last novel he writes about ISIS and when he began his research he had never heard of it and neither had we.  I do take stock in the things that he writes about.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  God knows the nations and the time of this attack as He knows everything and that is enough for me, however I think that it is very profitable to study all parts of the Scriptures.  The prophetic parts get my spiritual juices flowing as I enjoy studying about them.

4/21/2015 6:03 PM  

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