Putin's
Re-election and Bible Prophecy:
Closing
In on Armageddon
by Pastor
Paul J. Bern
[Ezekiel
chapters 38 & 39, part 2]
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better small screen viewing click
here :-)
For
this week's message, we'll be moving on to part 2 of the recent
re-election of Russian president Vladimir Putin and what this means
for us in term of our understanding of Biblical prophecy about the
End Times in which we are living. Previously in part 1, I went over
the first 16 verses of Ezekiel chapter 38 as they apply to the modern
era. As I wrote last week (you can view that message from
here) concerning the “Gog-Magog War” of Ezekiel chapters 38
and 39, based on what is contained in the text, Gog is Vladimir Putin
and Magog is Russia. And Russia, at some point in the fairly near
future, together with the armies of Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Syria,
Lebanon, Libya and Somalia, will attack Israel. This is exactly the
portrait that the prophet Ezekiel paints of this End Times scenario
known as the “Gog-Magog War”. And so today we'll continue near
where we left off last week, starting at verse 18.
“This
is what will happen in that day; When Gog attacks the land of Israel,
my hot anger will be aroused, declares the sovereign Lord. In my zeal
and fiery wrath I declare that at that time there shall be a great
earthquake in the land of Israel. The fish of the sea, the birds of
the air, the beasts of the field, every creature that moves along the
ground, and all the people on the face of the earth will tremble at
my presence. The mountains will be overturned, the cliffs will
crumble, and every wall will fall to the ground. I will summon a
sword against Gog on all my mountains, declares the Sovereign Lord.
Every man's sword will be against his brother. I will execute upon
him plague and bloodshed; I will pour down torrents of rain,
hailstones and burning sulfur upon him and on his troops and on the
many nations with him.”
(Ezekiel 38, verses 18-23)
Notice
in the first sentences (verses 18-19), two things: First, God never
lets anger get the best of him, but anyone who attacks His land and
its people (see Joshua 1: 2-4 and chapters 13-20) enrages the Lord!
Second, when the Holy Land and its people are attacked by a foreign
invader, God exercises his vigilance on behalf of his people. Israel
does not have to call out its army to defeat the Russian and Arab
armies. This is one that God will handle personally. I suspect the
reason will be to come to Israel's defense, possibly because her
chief ally, the US, may be unable to at this point for reasons that I
have written about fairly extensively in the past (see my blogs on
either Blogger,
Goodreads
or Wordpress.) So
instead of the IDF marching off to war, look what God does instead!
“In my zeal and
fiery wrath I declare that at that time there shall be a great
earthquake in the land of Israel. The fish of the sea, the birds of
the air, the beasts of the field, every creature that moves along the
ground, and all the people on the face of the earth will tremble at
my presence. The mountains will be overturned, the cliffs will
crumble, and every wall will fall to the ground.”
Evidently
there is going to be a big enough earthquake to stop the invading
armies in their tracks. That would have to entail an extremely
violent earthquake, a magnitude 9.0 or above on the Richter scale,
and maybe as much as a 10 plus. The extreme violence of the temblor
will scare the daylights out of the entire population, and even the
animal kingdom will be affected. Apparently a lot of camels will be
thrown off their feet, that's for sure. Mountains will collapse,
towering cliffs will be turned into hills, and the walls of every
structure will be leveled. The casualties will number in the hundreds
of thousands dead and millions injured. “I
will summon a sword against Gog on all my mountains, declares the
Sovereign Lord. Every man's sword will be against his brother.”
To restate those last two sentences in modern English, “It's on!!”
Nobody is going to get left out of this fight, sometimes whether they
like it or not!
“I
will execute upon him plague and bloodshed; I will pour down torrents
of rain, hailstones and burning sulfur upon him and on his troops and
on the many nations with him.”
This battle is not going to stop just because of an earthquake.
Moreover, this doesn't appear to be an ordinary earthquake, but
rather one of a supernatural nature. That's God's signature right
there, an authentic supernatural occurrence of very mysterious
origin. Besides the bloodshed of battle, Gog of Magog's troops will
be struck with a plague, with torrential rain and giant hailstones
and with burning sulfur that will presumably be the by-product of the
prophesied earthquake of Biblical proportions, although I'm not
entirely sure how that will come about. We'll just have to wait and
see when the time comes, and I doubt that we're going to have a very
long time to wait. And now let's move on to part 2 of this week's
message, starting at Ezekiel 39 and verse 1.
“Son
of man, prophesy against Gog and say: 'This is what the Sovereign
Lord says: 'I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshach and
Tubal. I will turn you around and drag you along. I will bring you
from the far north and send you against the mountains of Israel. Then
I will strike your bow from your left hand and make your arrows drop
from your right hand. On the mountains of Israel you will fall, you
and all your troops and the nations with you. I will give you as food
to all the carrion birds and to the wild animals. You will fall in
the open field, for I have spoken, declares the Sovereign Lord. I
will send fire on Magog and on those who live in safety in the coast
lands, and they will know that I am the Lord.”
(Ezekiel 39, verses 1-6)
As
I wrote in part 1 from last week, 'Meshech' in the original Hebrew
roughly translates as the area around Moscow, Russia today. Not just
the city, but the entire surrounding countryside, probably an area
comprising hundreds of square miles. “Tubal” is generally
considered to be the geographical area around modern Tobolsk, Russia.
There are some who say that Meshech and Tubal are in modern Turkey.
They could be right, but then why does Ezekiel include both Turkey
and Russia in his prophecy? “This is what the Sovereign Lord
says: 'I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshach and Tubal. I
will turn you around and drag you along. I will bring you from the
far north and send you against the mountains of Israel.”
Russia
is nearly twice as far from Israel than Turkey is, and yet both are
prophesied to be part of the multi-pronged military assault on
Israel. Moreover, Russia has 2 allies in the Middle East – Iran and
Syria. And so it appears that the Gog-Magog War will go down
something like this – the confederation of nations and peoples, all
of whom are mentioned by Ezekiel in this prophecy as it was dictated
to him by God, will launch a full scale military assault on Israel.
Iran and Syria, the two Russian allies, together with Turkey, Iraq,
the Muslim countries of southwestern Russia (Kazakhstan, etc.), plus
Somalia and Libya (and possibly Ethiopia), will all be included in
this vast army. Curiously, Egypt is not mentioned at all by Ezekiel,
nor does it say how Libya and Somalia will get their troops to the
battlefield. In my opinion – this part isn't in the Bible –
neither of those last two countries will be able to get their troops
to the battlefield without some professional assistance. Undoubtedly
they will be able to get the help they need – it could come from
Russia, or more likely Iran, there's no way to tell for sure at this
point.
“Then
I will strike your bow from your left hand and make your arrows drop
from your right hand. On the mountains of Israel you will fall, you
and all your troops and the nations with you.” Those who
purport to attack Israel and its people will be disarmed – not by
Israel, but by God! The attack for which Israel's enemies have
meticulously prepared will never finish being carried out. It will
start off strongly enough, that's for sure, but the well-planned and
hyper-coordinated military assault of the combined nations will
evaporate like a puddle of water on an August afternoon. At this
point, Russia will come to the aid of its allies Iran and Syria,
probably aided by Turkey and possibly other countries as well. I'm
pretty sure that's what Ezekiel meant when he wrote, “I will
turn you around and drag you along. I will bring you from the far
north.... against the mountains of Israel.....” “The far
north”, I conclude, could only be Russia.
“You
will fall in the open field, for I have spoken, declares the
Sovereign Lord. I will send fire on Magog and on those who live in
safety in the coast lands, and they will know that I am the Lord.”
In the open fields on their way to “the mountains of Israel” and
coming back again in retreat, the armies of Russia, Iran, Syria,
Turkey and all the remaining armies with them, they will all perish.
God will send “fire on Magog”, which appears to be a nuclear
attack, presumably coming from Israeli military forces as part of the
counterattack that drives back all the nations I have mentioned here.
But it won't just be Israel all by herself. She will have divine
intervention from the Lord, as we have already seen. I'm sure you all
would like to know how in the world can itsy-bitsy little Israel, a
country roughly the size of New Jersey, defeat all those armies when
it will be pitifully outnumbered, right? OK, then you will have to
come back for the conclusion to this 3-part series next Sunday. In
the meantime, enjoy your Easter weekend....
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