With the times the way they are, I believe it is time to review what the Bible says about certain end time events. One of these is the Ezekiel war. The specifics of this war are found in Ezekiel 38 and 39. To better understand the timetable, we will start with Ezekiel 37. Ezekiel was a prophet of God during the Babylon captivity, circa 570 BC. He saw wonderful visions of God and prophesied of many things.
Ez 37:1 ¶ The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which [was] full of bones, 2 And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, [there were] very many in the open valley; and, lo, [they were] very dry. 3 And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest. 4 Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. 5 Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: 6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I [am] the LORD.
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. 8 And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but [there was] no breath in them.
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. 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. 11 Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. 12 Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. 13 And ye shall know that I [am] the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, 14 And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken [it], and performed [it], saith the LORD.
God is clear that the dry bones was Israel. In the remaining verses of Ez 37, God describes to Ezekiel that He would bring Israel home to the land He promised Abraham, united and from all over the world. He also says that they would have a King over them from David.
Israel was made a nation on May 14, 1948. Despite constant persecution they have become a world power. The prophecy of a King over them from David is referring to Jesus of Nazareth, who will soon return and fulfill this. Jesus is God's son from Mary, who was from the Davidic line (Luke). His earthly father, Joseph, is also from the Davidic kingly line (Matthew).
Ez 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.
Photo from Prophecy Watchers
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.
The latter years are the time we are living in. Again the time for this invasion is after Israel has come home and a nation again.
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.
For years I have wondered what the great spoil is. Is it oil? Israel is still looking for oil. The Leviathan Gas Well in the Mediterranean is the largest gas deposit ever found. They will probably find oil as well.
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?
Sheba and Dedan are both in Saudi Arabia. The merchants of Tarshish is Great Britain and the young lions thereof would be Britain's colonies; United States and Australia. Notice that these countries question this invasion, but do not do anything. With the recent Abraham Accords started by President Trump and the alliances formed by the same, this scripture makes sense.
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.
Many times in Ez 38 and 39 God says that He is the cause of the destruction of the armies attacking Israel, and that the world will know that He is the God of Israel and protects them. The pagans of the world and Israel will know that He is the LORD.
Some believe that this is Armageddon, I do not think so. Jesus' 2nd coming is at Armageddon, and there is no mention of that here in Ezekiel.
Some think that this is during the Tribulation, I do not think so. There is no mention of the Antichrist or of a world government, etc. No, I believe that this will happen before the Tribulation and that possibly before the Rapture. More about that later.
Ez 39:1 ¶ Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I [am] against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: 2 And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel: 3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand. 4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and the people that [is] with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and [to] the beasts of the field to be devoured. 5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken [it], saith the Lord GOD. 6 And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I [am] the LORD.
7 So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not [let them] pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I [am] the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.
We again see that Israel will know the Holy Name of God, and that the rest of the heathen world will know that the I AM is the LORD, the Holy One of Israel. LORD in all capitols in the KJV is the Holy Name of God or Jehovah. This is the Tetragrammaton, Yud Hey Vav Hey, יהוה. Jesus is the man form of this Holy Being comprised of 3, yet all one, the Trinity.
8 ¶ Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this [is] the day whereof I have spoken. 9 And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the handstaves, and the spears, and they shall burn them with fire seven years: 10 So that they shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut down [any] out of the forests; for they shall burn the weapons with fire: and they shall spoil those that spoiled them, and rob those that robbed them, saith the Lord GOD.
Technology will allow Israel to "burn" and recycle all of the weapons of those armies that came against them that God destroyed.
Pictures of destroyed tank from the 1991 gulf war.
Piles of guns that have been collected.
11 And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea: and it shall stop the [noses] of the passengers: and there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude: and they shall call [it] The valley of Hamongog. 12 And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land. 13 Yea, all the people of the land shall bury [them]; and it shall be to them a renown the day that I shall be glorified, saith the Lord GOD.
Medieval mass grave
14 And they shall sever out men of continual employment, passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search. 15 And the passengers [that] pass through the land, when [any] seeth a man’s bone, then shall he set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the valley of Hamongog. 16 And also the name of the city [shall be] Hamonah. Thus shall they cleanse the land.
Mass grave
17 And, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD; Speak unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, [even] a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood. 18 Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan. 19 And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.
20 Thus ye shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord GOD. 21 And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them. 22 So the house of Israel shall know that I [am] the LORD their God from that day and forward.
23 ¶ And the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity: because they trespassed against me, therefore hid I my face from them, and gave them into the hand of their enemies: so fell they all by the sword. 24 According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions have I done unto them, and hid my face from them. 25 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name; 26 After that they have borne their shame, and all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against me, when they dwelt safely in their land, and none made [them] afraid.
Here the LORD is speaking of a future event that has happened. Israel forsook God and went after other gods and God sent the Assyrians to take them away into the other parts of the world as captives. God can use pagan governments to do His will. God then sent Babylon to take Judah captive in 586 BC and thus ended the nation of Israel. After 70 years, King Cyrus of Persia (who had conquered Babylon) let the people go back and rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. Only a small percentage actually went back to Jerusalem. God has made Israel a nation in one day as prophesied after 2500 years of dispersal with Jews coming to Israel from all over the world.
27 When I have brought them again from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations; 28 Then shall they know that I [am] the LORD their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there. 29 Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.
Paul tells us that all of Israel will be saved. They will come to know their Messiah, Jesus. This is a not to distant future event.
Rm 11:26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: 27 For this [is] my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
Neighboring Wars
In Ps 83 there is a prophetic thread that describes Israel's neighbors and their push against the nation. Israel's neighbors attacked them in 1948 as soon as they declared themselves a nation. In 1967 they attacked again, but Israel defeated them by the Grace of God and took lands from them: Golan Heights, West Bank, and the Gaza Strip. The push of the United Nations and even the United States over these lands called the "occupied territories" made Israel to give up parts of this land they had conquered from a war against them. Parts of the West Bank have changed the borders of Israel much since 1967. The Gaza strip was given back to Egypt, who have attacked Israel many times with rockets and terrorism. President Trump told the world that Israel did not have to give up the Golan Heights. He is the only President who declared Jerusalem the eternal Capitol of Israel and moved our embassy there from Tel Aviv. President Trump was also instrumental in the Abraham Accord which caused peace in the Middle East with Islam nations and Israel whose leader then was Benjamin Netanyahu. It may be fleeting, but it was a first in many decades. Trump and Netanyahu were lights in a world that is filled with darkness.
Israel coin depicting President Trump and King Cyrus, both who recognized Jerusalem as the eternal Capitol of Israel.
Israel coin depicting President Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu as sons of light.
Here is the inner circle and the countries which are mentioned in Ps 83, from Prophecy Watchers. There may be an further expansion of Israel by wars with their neighbors in the future.
Here is Psalms 83:
1 ¶ «A Song [or] Psalm of Asaph.» Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God. 2 For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head. 3 They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones. 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. 5 For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee: 6 The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes; 7 Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre; 8 Assur also is joined with them: they have holpen the children of Lot. Selah.
Edom, Moab, and Ammon are all in modern Jordan. Ishmaelites are from modern Saudi Arabia. Gebal and Tyre are in modern Lebanon; sea ports. Philistines are in modern Gaza. Amelek is in modern Sinai, Egypt. The Hagarenes were in Egypt and in Syria. Assur is in modern Iraq. The children of Lot were the children of his 2 daughters fathered by himself; Moab and Ammon. All of these countries hate Israel today.
9 ¶ Do unto them as [unto] the Midianites; as [to] Sisera, as [to] Jabin, at the brook of Kison: 10 [Which] perished at Endor: they became [as] dung for the earth. 11 Make their nobles like Oreb, and like Zeeb: yea, all their princes as Zebah, and as Zalmunna: 12 Who said, Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession. 13 O my God, make them like a wheel; as the stubble before the wind. 14 As the fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire; 15 So persecute them with thy tempest, and make them afraid with thy storm. 16 Fill their faces with shame; that they may seek thy name, O LORD. 17 Let them be confounded and troubled for ever; yea, let them be put to shame, and perish: 18 That [men] may know that thou, whose name alone [is] JEHOVAH, [art] the most high over all the earth.
The Midianites were nomads in Northern Arabia of whom Moses was told to take vengeance on by the LORD and Joshua and the Israeli army killed all the males, Nu 31. Sisera was a general under Jabin, King of Hazor of the Canaanites, who came against Israel and under Judge Deborah and was loosing this war and ran for refuge to the tent of Heber the Kenite and Jael, his wife, drove a tent spike through his temples while he slept, Jd 4. There was another Jabin (title) in Joshua 11 who gathered all the Kings in Canaan and Joshua defeated them. In Jd7-8 the Midianites came again against Israel and were defeated by Judge Gideon. Oreb (raven), Zeeb (wolf), Zebah (sacrifice), and Zalmunna (shade denied) were Midianite Princes that were defeated.
Summary
I believe that the Ezekiel war will take place prior to the 7 year tribulation. The countries that are prophesied to attack Israel are becoming allies with each other. Anti Semitism is growing in the world.
I also believe that the Rapture of the Church will happen before the tribulation. Whether it will be before, during, or after the Ezekiel war, I cannot say. (see my blog: Resurrection, Rapture, and Rescue)
I tell you this; there is no better time to ask Jesus to come into your life. If you won't ask Jesus to be your Savior in good times, you won't ask Him in when the tribulation is going on and being a Christian will be illegal with penalty of death. If you have Jesus, get closer to Him and the Father. Fellowship with them every day.
I did not publish this program to scare you, but that you might let your trust be in our Father. For in Him are all the needs of this life supplied, all the protection you will need, and an eternity of being with God. We have the Bible and all it's treasures to know God's mind, his plan, his promises, and to recognize times that the scriptures predict. They have never been wrong.
All scriptures are from the AKJV. All pictures are from the Internet, no infringement intended.
My book, The Plan: A Biblical Adventure is available at Amazon.com
