#223

Looking At The Big Picture Of The Coming Prophesied Wars

Hindsight Is 20/20

One of my wife’s favorite sayings, and one I have adopted, is that hindsight is 20/20. If you’re not familiar with it, it basically means we can only understand clearly what happens looking back at it later. Beforehand, you can try and predict how things will go and you might be accurate, but it is guesswork overall. There is a whole segment of society that makes money from betting how sports events will turn out and the whole hindsight is 20/20 plays out there, sometimes to the regrets of those who bet. However, for the rest of us who either aren’t into sports or know better than to predict how games will go before they happen, hindsight does help us learn from our mistakes. At least it should help if we let it. Unfortunately, as the quote attributed to the American philosopher George Santayana “Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it,” we rarely learn. Ironically it should be accurately quoted as “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” as stated in his work, The Life of Reason: Reason in Common Sense. We can’t even use hindsight to correctly quote it.

The Next Three Prophesied Wars

As I’ve taught before, I see prophecies of three wars on the horizon, the Psalm 83 war, the war of Gog and Magog described in Ezekiel 38 and Armageddon that happens at the end of the Tribulation and is detailed at the end of the book of Revelation. While you can make a case for another war at the end of the Millennium, I’m only going to address these three and really, only the first two since there is some debate over when they will happen. A lot of folks who teach on Bible prophecy tend to just describe the actual wars without trying to look at the events leading up to them and what happens after them. For my money (no, I’m not betting now) addressing the before and after of these wars actually helps us get the timing of them. I’m not talking about the precise days, months, or years, but the climate of the world. You see, there are questions about them that could be explained by getting the timelines clarified and that’s what I intend to attempt now. Wish me luck (see, I brought up gambling again).

Let’s Look At The Ezekiel 38 War First

Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, set your face against 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, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal. 4 I will turn you around, put hooks into your jaws, and lead you out, with all your army, horses, and horsemen, all splendidly clothed, a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords. 5 Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya are with them, all of them with shield and helmet; 6 Gomer and all its troops; the house of Togarmah from the far north and all its troops—many people are with you. (Ezekiel 38:1-6, NKJV)

We see the setup for this war and we see the list of nations that will attack Israel. And we see that God is against them, which is a major point of this war and how it turns out. Right now, these nations are not part of the nations currently bordering them. Let’s see the next verses and what they reveal:

Prepare yourself and be ready, you and all your companies that are gathered about you; and be a guard for them. 8 After many days you will be visited. In the latter years you will come into the land of those brought back from the sword and gathered from many people on the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate; they were brought out of the nations, and now all of them dwell safely. 9 You will ascend, coming like a storm, covering the land like a cloud, you and all your troops and many peoples with you.” (Ezekiel 38:7-9, NKJV)

In these verses we know that the time it will happen, “the latter years” refers to the end times, times close to the Second Coming of Christ. And we also know that Israel needs to be nation, something that wasn’t fulfilled until 1948. Both of these point to the days we live in, now.

Why Are They Coming Against Israel?

‘Thus says the Lord God: “On that day it shall come to pass that thoughts will arise in your mind, and you will make an evil plan: 11 You will say, ‘I will go up against a land of unwalled villages; I will go to a peaceful people, who dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates’— 12 to take plunder and to take booty, to stretch out your hand against the waste places that are again inhabited, and against a people gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who dwell in the midst of the land. 13 Sheba, Dedan, the merchants of Tarshish, and all their young lions will say to you, ‘Have you come to take plunder? Have you gathered your army to take booty, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to take great plunder?’ ” ’ (Ezekiel 38:10-13, NKJV)

To discover the why, other than the hook in the jaws of Russia we read that Israel somehow has things these nations need. The evil plan that was cooked up has everything to do with plundering what Israel somehow has. Silver, gold, livestock and whatever “booty” is, although the translation could be misleading on that specific wording. The word for “booty” refers to plunder obtained from a previous military conquest. That could be very important to our discussion.

The State Of Israel Before They Come Down

Note in verse 11 that Israel is dwelling in peace and safety and a land without walls, nor bars and gates. Currently Israel is probably the most security walls of any nation in the world. The nation of Israel will need a very good reason to get rid of those protective barriers, barriers that up until recently did a good job of keeping terrorists out and did it so well that Israelis lived right next to Gaza and did so believing it was safe to do so. I believe that Israel really hasn’t seen conditions like this even after 1948 when they were declared a nation once again, a nation born in a day. Why God gave us this specific description I believe was to alert Israel so they would be ready for it and recognize that it was prophesied. It will also be a warning to Russia and all those who decide to come down, that God knew they would do it long before they actedas we read in the next verses:

“Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to Gog, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “On that day when My people Israel dwell safely, will you not know it? 15 Then you will come from your place out of the far north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great company and a mighty army. 16 You will come up against My people Israel like a cloud, to cover the land. It will be in the latter days that I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may know Me, when I am hallowed in you, O Gog, before their eyes.” 17 Thus says the Lord God: “Are you he of whom I have spoken in former days by My servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied for years in those days that I would bring you against them?

A Huge Judgment Comes Next

And I believe these words of prophecy were written for the marauding group of nations so they might pause before coming against His chosen people, although it won’t stop them. But more importantly it has just as much to do with what His chosen people who will know that God will defend them as we read next:

And it will come to pass at the same time, when Gog comes against the land of Israel,” says the Lord God, “that My fury will show in My face. 19 For in My jealousy and in the fire of My wrath I have spoken: ‘Surely in that day there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel, 20 so that the fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, the beasts of the field, all creeping things that creep on the earth, and all men who are on the face of the earth shall shake at My presence. The mountains shall be thrown down, the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.’ 21 I will call for a sword against Gog throughout all My mountains,” says the Lord God. “Every man’s sword will be against his brother. 22 And I will bring him to judgment with pestilence and bloodshed; I will rain down on him, on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him, flooding rain, great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. 23 Thus I will magnify Myself and sanctify Myself, and I will be known in the eyes of many nations. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.” ’

Israel has never faced this kind of military onslaught and only God can save them. And these nations will be devastated. They will fight against each other perhaps blaming each other for the predicament they are in. And some kind of plague will hit only the armies wanting Israel to be destroyed much like the Egyptians in the book of Exodus. And the last thing is that everyone will know that God did this and is that powerful, including the Jews who will turn to Him in droves.

This Might Cause The Antichrist To Make A Deal With Israel

Could it be that this massive show of God will make the Son of Perdition to avoid trying to conquer them for the first half of the Tribulation? I think that could be a major part of it. It could also explain why Iran and the rest of the Middle East are easy to overcome as well as a massively weakened and humiliated Russia. Even the Muslim nations will be humbled and devastated to the point of giving fealty to the new world ruler wannabe. And if there was ever a reason for the Jews to return to their Old Testament worship and temple activities in full, this would be it as well. I feel that Israel will be in the process of building the third temple and building it would mean that the ark of the covenant will be found and seen by the world. As superstitious as nations are about that artifact, that could be one of the main reasons these nations come after Israel all by itself if only to make sure Israel doesn’t have it on their side again. I mean, these people read the Bible or know of how important the ark was to them in battle.

Looking At The Psalm 83 War Now

This conflict can easily set the stage for the War of Gog and Magog in a quite a few ways. Israel will have won a major victory against the surrounding Arab nations for starters. The Jews will think, and rightly so, that they are invincible again. They will have Jerusalem all to themselves and so building the third temple will not be an issue. They will proudly show off the ark of the covenant as they build and that artifact has gold all over it. And by expanding their borders they will most likely have all the land they want to expand the livestock mentioned in Ezekiel 38. And with no terrorist right next to them, the walls will come down. Add to that no terrorist shooting rockets at them because those nations will all be under Israeli rule and you get a justified feeling of peace and safety. It makes too much sense to ignore in my thinking. Prophetically, the Psalm 83 war nicely leads to the conditions we see in Ezekiel 38 if you take into consideration both of them and the descriptions each is given prophetically. Am I stretching things to make my points? I really don’t think so. The IDF will have it’s mystique back after being embarrassed by the October 7th attacks and rightly so. What do you think? The floor is all yours, now.