On the last page, we outlined Ezekiel chapter 39. When we covered both chapters 38 and 39, we identified all the main players and the events they would be involved in. We talked about the standard belief and translation from the main view-point. Now I will talk about my viewpoint concerning these two chapters.

The first observation I have is there is no mention of Israel’s immediate neighbors. The countries that surround Israel’s borders are not mentioned in this text. The Egyptians, Syrians, Palestinians, Jordanians, Iraqis, Saudi Arabians and the Lebanese are all left out even though they border Israel. Yet as of this writing, they are major players and Israel needs to secure peace with these neighbors. These nations form an iner circle around Israel. The invading nations found in ezekiel chapters 38 and 39 actually form an outer circle or ring a little further away from Israel.

There are about four things that need to happen before the events in Ezekiel can happen.

1. According to Ezekiel 38 and 39 Israel needs to be reestablished as a nation. (That part is done)

2. They are a nation with some sort of restored fortune.

3. Israel is at peace with all of its neighbors. (This is far from being complete)

4. Israel has a great army and they are militarily secure. (They are almost to that point)

Ezekiel 38:8 says that Israel is dwelling in peace. They are a land that is brought back by the sword. Ezekiel 38:11 says that they are dwelling without walls. They are dwelling safely. There is a wall today in Israel that is 25 feet high and 430 miles long.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Peace/fence.html

The invading nations form an outer ring and the goal of the invading nations is to take a spoil. It is not to wipe Israel off the map. None of the invading nations found in Ezekiel 38 border Israel. As of this writing, Israel is surrounded by countries that hate them and their goal is to wipe Israel off the map. These nations create an inner-ring. The goals of these two groups of nations are different.

It seems that this outer-ring of nations is motivated by greed and power. It seems that the inner-ring of nations is motivated by an irrational hatred for Israel. This leads me to speculate that there may be some event or series of events that happen before the events described in Ezekiel 38 and 39. Israel is the land that has come back by the sword according to Ezekiel 38:8. They are living in peace beyond any Palestinian conflict. Something must happen to bring peace to the region. Maybe a battle or an invasion equivalent to the 6-day war.

Eze 37:9 Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.
Eze 37:10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood up upon their feet, an exceedingly great army.

Notice Exceedingly is not an adjective it is an adverb. While Israel’s army is good it is not to a status where they are a major power in that area. They are really only for defensive purposes. So looking at the conditions of that region today a question comes to mind. Is there an event that precedes the events in Ezekiel 38 and 39? An answer may be found in Psalms 83

Psa 83:1 A Song or Psalm of Asaph. Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God.
Psa 83:2 For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head.
Psa 83:3 They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones.
Psa 83:4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
Psa 83:5 For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:

This language is reminiscent of the language found in Islam today. They want to wipe Israel off the map. They hate the God of the Jews. They hate the Christian religion.

Psa 83:6 The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes;
Psa 83:7 Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre;
Psa 83:8 Assur also is joined with them: they have holpen the children of Lot. Selah.

If you take the time to trace the genealogy of all these names mentioned above you will find that all the peoples mentioned in this portion of the chapter represent all the nations that surround Israel today. I can go into detail but for the sake of time, I will move on. This is a tremendous study in itself.

Psa 83:9 Do unto them as unto the Midianites; as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook of Kison:
Psa 83:10 Which perished at Endor: they became as dung for the earth.
Psa 83:11 Make their nobles like Oreb, and like Zeeb: yea, all their princes as Zebah, and as Zalmunna:
Psa 83:12 Who said, Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession.
Psa 83:13 O my God, make them like a wheel; as the stubble before the wind.
Psa 83:14 As the fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire;
Psa 83:15 So persecute them with thy tempest, and make them afraid with thy storm.

The psalmist is asking God to do to them what he did in past victories that can be found in other places in the bible. The goal can be found in the next three verses.

Psa 83:16 Fill their faces with shame; that they may seek thy name, O LORD.
Psa 83:17 Let them be confounded and troubled for ever; yea, let them be put to shame, and perish:
Psa 83:18 That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.

JEHOVAH is God, not Allah (which is actually a reference to the moon-god). The world will know this when the event described in Psalms 83 happens and God moves in Judgment. All the groups listed in verses 6 through 8 are Islamic today. This is the one thing that unites them together.

Eze 28:25 Thus saith the Lord GOD; When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the heathen, then shall they dwell in their land that I have given to my servant Jacob.
Eze 28:26 And they shall dwell safely therein, and shall build houses, and plant vineyards; yea, they shall dwell with confidence, when I have executed judgments upon all those that despise them round about them; and they shall know that I am the LORD their God.

I believe Israel will defeat all those that have aligned themselves with the purpose of destroying Israel as a nation. What about Syria? why is there no mention of them in Ezekiel 38? Apparently, something happens to Damascus.

Isa 17:1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
Isa 17:2 The cities of Aroer are forsaken: they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid.
Isa 17:3 The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria: they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, saith the LORD of hosts.
Isa 17:4 And in that day it shall come to pass, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean.
Isa 17:5 And it shall be as when the harvestman gathereth the corn, and reapeth the ears with his arm; and it shall be as he that gathereth ears in the valley of Rephaim.
Isa 17:6 Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it, as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost fruitful branches thereof, saith the LORD God of Israel.
Isa 17:7 At that day shall a man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel.

Isa 19:16 In that day shall Egypt be like unto women: and it shall be afraid and fear because of the shaking of the hand of the LORD of hosts, which he shaketh over it.
Isa 19:17 And the land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt, every one that maketh mention thereof shall be afraid in himself, because of the counsel of the LORD of hosts, which he hath determined against it.

Isa 11:12 And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
Isa 11:13 The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.
Isa 11:14 But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them.

Jer 49:20 Therefore hear the counsel of the LORD, that he hath taken against Edom; and his purposes, that he hath purposed against the inhabitants of Teman: Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out: surely he shall make their habitations desolate with them.
Jer 49:21 The earth is moved at the noise of their fall, at the cry the noise thereof was heard in the Red sea.

Eze 25:13 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; I will also stretch out mine hand upon Edom, and will cut off man and beast from it, and I will make it desolate from Teman; and they of Dedan shall fall by the sword.
Eze 25:14 And I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel: and they shall do in Edom according to mine anger and according to my fury; and they shall know my vengeance, saith the Lord GOD.

According to the scriptures above Israel will regather and be brought back. They will be at peace with its surrounding neighbors. Damascus becomes a ruinous heap. The thing we see now is that most of these nations that are in the inner ring all along Israel’s border are aligning against Israel. It is my suspicion that they are going to attack Israel. When this happens a series of events greater than the 6-day war will take place and a great army will emerge from Israel, or maybe everything will happen in one event. Right now everything is lining up.

The countries surrounding Israel are going to be motivated by Islamic hate. They are going to invade in an effort to wipe Israel off the map. The territories in the Middle East will be redrawn after this battle or series of battles and Israel will be victorious. They will be the land brought back from the sword! The hook that God inserts in Gog and Magog to pull them down may very well be the destruction of Damascus.

Eze 38:4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:

When will the prophecies found in Ezekiel 38 and 39 happen?

That is a really good question. Let me just say that no one knows for sure. From what we do know we can eliminate some possibilities. So let’s narrow things down.

First, I don’t think it will happen in the near future. It will not be the next major biblical event to happen simply because of the condition that Israel is in today. As of this writing, Israel is not at peace with its neighbors and they have a massive wall. The united states will protect Israel and a Russian invasion would be equivalent to starting world war III. So the world stage would need to change a little bit before this can happen.

Second, I don’t believe it will happen after the thousand year reign of Christ. Some claim that this will be the time it happens because of a scripture in Revelation that says

Rev20:7 and when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Rev20:8 and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog, and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

Careful examination will reveal that these two events are not the same. Ezekiel 38 reveals that the invasion comes from the north. the invading countries are near Israel. The invasion in Revelation says that it will come from all over the earth or the four corners of the earth. This means the invading countries are different.

The book of Ezekiel is structured in such a way as to suggest that the event will be before the 1,000-year reign of Christ. The book of Ezekiel begins with the destruction of Israel and the dispersion of Israel throughout all the world. It then talks about the regathering of Israel. From there it goes into the Battle of Gog and Magog. Finally, the rest of the book goes into detail about a temple that operates during the thousand year reign of Christ.

All of this seems to suggest a timeline, and if that is true then the invasion found in Ezekiel will happen before the thousand year reign. We will talk about where it fits as we learn more about biblical events.