Posted on 07/12/2006 5:00:55 AM PDT by ohhhh
King James Version
The Book of Ezekiel Chapter 38
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him,
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:
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:
5 Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee.
7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.
13 Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?
14 Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it?
15 And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army:
16 And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.
17 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring thee against them?
18 And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, that my fury shall come up in my face.
19 For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel;
20 So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.
21 And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord GOD: every man's sword shall be against his brother.
22 And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.
23 Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the LORD.
Who is Gog from the Land of Mogog?
Enjoy!
Well, by golly, I'm convinced!
Israel is certainly one country which will fulfill prophecy to the letter of what God has declared about it.
Thanks.
Certainly things wax more interesting . . .
May God be with all those who love HIm.
Thanks.
Not exactly. Did you actually read the text?
"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:"
Why are literalists so quick to ignore the key time texts in these prophetic verses and jump thousands of years into the future, looking to and fro for fulfillment?
I'm super exceedingly skeptical of that.
Not at all prepared to believe that.
Such a position inferred from your post has never earned much credibility with me. Very few of the variables have ever been convincingly presented.
A rather meaningless phrase in the context of armies on horses with shields and swords. One needs a rather vivid imagination coupled with poor analytical skills to see Ezekiel 38 being carried out "to the letter" in our own day.
"Sheba, Dedan, the merchants of Tarshish, ..."
None of these peoples or places exist today, except in the imagination of some futurists. There is no army of Sheba to come against Israel.
"Every man's sword will be against his brother."
"Then those who dwell in the cities of Israel will go out and set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and bucklers, the bows and arrows, the javelins and spears; and they will make fires with them for seven years."
How do you see this fulfilled "to the letter"? Tell us plainly without twisting the Scripture.
Gog is Russia...someone needs to buy a clue.
One might infer from the alefbeit that "Gog" [gimel vav gimel] is "George" [gimel vav resh gimel] who's completely lost his head (resh/r'osh), so to speak.
And I've never even seen an internet analysis that has taken a leap forward with the initials [gimel vav bet]. It is certainly interesting in light of the LXX translation re the locust king (Amos 7:1).
Critics charge it could compromise national security
In a direct challenge to the U.S. government, military analyst Bill Arkin has published 3,000 U.S. code names — many of them "Top Secret" — along with brief descriptions of the Pentagon or CIA programs they represent.
They are code names like, "Telephone Booth," "Distant Phoenix" and "Blue Zephyr."
The former Army intelligence analyst and former senior Greenpeace researcher argues too much national-security information is hidden from the public and classified for political reasons rather than to guard vital secrets…
Among the code names Arkin reveals:
• West Wing: Two remote air bases in Jordan used for invading Iraq and now for clandestine military counter-terror operations in the Middle East.
• Oplan 4305: Contingency plan for the defense of Israel. Arkin also says the U.S. has quietly pre-positioned munitions and equipment on Israeli soil.
• Conplan 8022: Top-secret pre-emptive plans to take out nuclear facilities and other threats in Iran, Syria and North Korea.
Oplan 4305: Contingency plan for the defense of Israel. Arkin also says the U.S. has quietly pre-positioned munitions and equipment on Israeli soil.
And the weapons that will burn for seven years… Tick tock…
Assaults seem to multiply and disburse quite plentiful enough from . . . certain . . . TULIP planted regions . . . as is.
I don't know of any of the better modern prophecy sorts; end times sorts who twist the basic Scriptures much at all. They certainly don't AS MUCH and most certainly NOT MORE than the TULIP organizations do.
But, in terms of Scriptural prophecies still pending, much is still coded; through a glass darkly; obscure; oblique--and likely to remain somewhat so until fulfillment makes things crystal clear.
Nevertheless, God has a hobby, passion, affinity, attraction for, to literal fulfillments--often to the nth detail--of His Scriptures.
The one about Israel becoming a nation again IN A DAY comes readily to mind--as it did quite specifically and quite literally at the UN in 1948. Until then, the "in a day" seemed like a highly improbable literal specific.
Not to God--who cares not one whit about doctrines of man; doctrines of demons, private interpretations and the like.
Glad to see we have some umph still in support of Israel.
Wish it hadn't been published. Traitorous.
THE SEVENTEENTH OF TAMMUZ
Beginning of a 3-week national period of mourning, leading up to Tisha B'Av. The 17th of Tammuz is the first of four fast days mentioned in the prophets. The purpose of a fast day is to awaken our sense of loss over the destroyed Temple - and the subsequent Jewish journey into exile.
Reflecting and mourning over these events is meant to help us conquer those spiritual deficiencies which brought about these tragic events in the first place. Through the process of "Teshuva" - employing the unique human gift of free will to repent and commit ourselves to improve - Hashem has given us the tools to positively effect change in our lives and in our society. In fact, the Talmud says that after the future redemption of Israel and the rebuilding of the Temple, these fast days will be re-dedicated as days of rejoicing and festivity. For as the prophet Zechariah says: the 17th of Tammuz will become a day of "joy to the House of Judah, and gladness and cheerful feasts."
What do we remember as we fast tomorrow? Five great catastrophes occurred in Jewish history on the 17th of Tammuz:
Moses broke the tablets at Mount Sinai - in response to the sin of the Golden Calf.
The daily offerings in the First Temple were suspended during the siege of Jerusalem, after the Kohanim could no longer obtain animals.
Jerusalem's walls were breached, prior to the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE.
Prior to the Great Revolt, the Roman general Apostamos burned a Torah scroll - setting a precedent for the horrifying burning of Jewish books throughout the centuries. An idolatrous image was placed in the sanctuary of the Holy Temple, a brazen act of blasphemy and desecration
We will fast from dawn to dusk tomorrow, setting aside what time we can in our schedules to reflect on the tragedies that occurred on this day and the sins that brought about those tragedies about. We will search our own hearts regarding those particular sins, repent as needed and choose to follow Hashem's ways rather than our own.
Disobedience and 'loshon hora' (speaking evil of others) are two major sins which brought tragedy and hardship to the people of Israel. Let us examine our hearts particularly in these two areas and humble ourselves before our Father.
This was NOT original with me, but from another website.
The Gush Katif expulsion commenced the day after Tisha b'Av.
Only a person truly ignorant of history would make such an assertion.
Modern Israel (not Biblical Israel, BTW) was not born "in a day" any more than any other nation was born "in a day". The effort began generations before 1948 with things like the Balfour Declaration in 1917 and efforts of groups like the Zionist Federation. There was the UN Partition Plan of 1947. What happened on May 14, 1948 was a forseen consequence of the plan put in place by the British.
Of course all this political wheeling and dealing over decades is not what the Bible means by the term "in a day". Careless Bible readers of today simple assert the wrong meaning to underscore their faulty thesis about what the Scripture teaches.
Of course you can go on ripping verses out of context to support your theories. It's hard work to really interpret the Bible.
"When the history of the Scythian people is examined, it seem likely that they are the people described in Ezekiel's prophecy. By examining this passage in its historical and cultural context, it can be understood that Ezekiel 38-39 describes the Scythian invasions during the time of Ezekiel." (RUSSIAN INVASION OF ISRAEL? The Modern and Erroneous Interpretation of Ezekiel 38-39 By Jay Rogers)
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