God we thank you for your word. Thank you for Giving it to us and what it tells us about the future and the confidence that we can have knowing that you are in control of all things and as we look at this prophecy from Ezekiel and it's one that There's just a lot of ways to understand it and to interpret it and especially where to put it on a timeline Just pray that everything I would say would be true to what your word says and when we're just kind of speculating and saying how things could happen that that would be clear as well that we would know what your word says and how it can help us to be confident in knowing what will happen in the future. And just pray that you would guard my words to say only what is true. We give this time to you in your name. Amen. Okay, we are taking a little detour from Revelation to talk about this prophecy of Gog and Magog. It's found in Ezekiel, so you can be turning there if you haven't done so already. Ezekiel chapter 38 And I purposely kind of left this prophecy for towards the end of our time together because it's so tricky to put on a timeline that I thought it'll be easier to to reference all of that once we've hopefully all gotten in our brains now a little bit of the prophetic timeline the events are going to happen and how this all comes together and So this event, we're going to read these chapters, talk about some of the details, who's involved, what happens, then we'll talk about the timing of it. It's an event called the War of Gog and Magog. It's also sometimes referred to as the Ezekiel War. And there's just a lot of debate and differing views when it comes to this particular prophecy. And that's OK. I mean, there's some places where I would adamantly disagree on people who say certain things, like the church has replaced Israel, things like this in prophecy. But this is one of those where, when you approach it from a pre-tribulation and a pre-millennial view, which that's what LBC teaches and that's what we believe because it adheres to the literal interpretation of the Bible, You can approach this prophecy that way and still come up with a lot of different answers. So that's okay There's a lot of solid Bible scholars who see this a little differently. I And we are not going to have the time to present all the different views and all the reasons behind it. Later in the lesson, I can refer you to some articles online or to some books if you want to go a little deeper into this prophecy and about how all those things are taken a bit differently. OK, we'll get started in Ezekiel chapter 38, starting at verse 1. The word of the Lord came to me, son of man, Set your face toward Gog of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Mishesh and Tubal, and prophesy against him. And say, thus says the Lord God. Behold, I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Mishesh and Tubal. And I will turn you about and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed in full armor, a great host, all of them with buckler and shield-wielding swords. Persia kush and put are with them all of them with shield and helmet Gomer and all his hordes best togar ma torga ma From the uppermost uttermost parts of the north with his hordes Many people are with you Okay, we'll stop there for a minute This prophecy starts off by listing the nations that are going to be involved in a coordinated massive attack the nation of Israel they come together to wipe them off the map and Almost all of these names can be found in Genesis chapter 10 Because they are the names of either grandsons or great-grandsons and in a couple of cases the great-great-grandsons of Noah and we can know pretty accurately from history that where these people settled, because a lot of times, so these men would go out, you know, after the Tower of Babel, and they're scattered, they went out and they settled in different areas of the globe. And a lot of times, the first person to kind of settle and establish an area, it took on his name. So we know, based on these people's names, where they're coming from. So you can see Gomer, Magog, Tubal, Mishesh, Togarmah, Kush, Put. These are all mentioned in our verses. In Ezekiel, Gog is the odd word out on this list. Gog is not the name of a nation, but it's rather a personal name or title. So that goes in your first blank. Gog is a personal name or a title for the man who leads this invasion force. It's kind of like calling someone king or president. And Gog is often a figurative term used in the Bible for a leader who is opposed to God and to his people. And we can see in this prophecy that this force is definitely opposed to God and to his people. So Gog is the reference to the political leader who is going to be in charge of this attacking coalition. The rest of these names we can trace to nations or regions of the world. So Magog is commonly understood to be the modern-day Stan countries. And aren't you glad I didn't make you write any of these down? Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and perhaps Afghanistan, that is the region that Magog is referring to. So those are those nations. Mishesh and Tubal is modern-day Turkey, so it goes in your blank. Number three, that is the nation of Turkey. Now here's where we get a little bit of a snag when we come to Rosh. The name Rosh is not found among Noah's descendants, and it's not even in all of our versions. So in the ESV, it's not there. In the ESV and other, that's just an example, other translations, it says, the chief prince of Mishesh and Tubal. In the NASB and other translations, it takes the word differently. So it's not the chief prince, it makes it another nation, the prince of Rosh, Mishesh and Tubal. And the reason for that is because the word Rosh can be used kind of in two different capacities. It can be used, like the ESV uses it, meaning chief or head. So if the ESV is correct, and it's the chief prince of Mishas and Tubal, and we know that Mishas and Tubal is Turkey, then the head honcho of this future coalition is going to be the president of Turkey. That will be the person leading this coalition. However, there's another way that we can take that word Rosh. Rosh can be a proper name, which means that like the other words that are all found in those verses in Ezekiel, that it's talking about the name of a country. So if versions like the NASB are correct, then Rosh is an additional country in this list, and Rosh is Russia. So that's number four in your blanks. Rosh is Russia, and then it would mean the prince of Rosh. So Gog, the guy, will be the prince of Rosh. So in that scenario, the leader of this attacking coalition is the president of Russia, not of Turkey. So we can't really honestly be dogmatic either way. It was my impression as I studied this that most Bible scholars believe that Russia should be included in this list. So does that mean that Vladimir Putin is GOG? We don't know. It depends on where it falls on the timeline. It's possible. I mean, the guy certainly fits the mold of what this GOG is going to do. And Vladimir Putin has made it very clear that he is all about wanting to resurrect the former glory of the Soviet Union. He wants to reunite it all. He wants to be a world power and player and most powerful man in the world, always making power grabs and that kind of thing. So it could be, but it depends on, again, where it fits on the timeline and if it's the leader of Russia or whether it's the leader of Turkey. Personally, I think it's a very strong possibility that Russia is in this mix and that Russia will be heading up this showdown. Then we have Persia listed. Persia is Iran. Not so long ago, they were called Persia. It's only fairly recent history that they changed their name to Iran. Then there's Cush or, again, that's depending on the translation. Some say Cush, some say Ethiopia. And actually, ancient Ethiopia is modern-day Sudan. So Sudan goes in your blank. The only country really on the list that kind of retains that same name, though some translations say Put, others say Libya, that is Libya. So there's an African country now in the mix, though Sudan is kind of in that area too. And then Gomer, we've already talked about Turkey. You're gonna see Turkey a few times, because it's just talking about different regions of Turkey. So Gomer is Turkey. Though there is, and we can't get into it, and I can't give you all the details, but there's some interesting arguments and some ways that you could potentially think that this could be referring to Germany. So Germany goes in your blank. which makes things a little bit interesting because Germany and Israel certainly have their history, do they not? And then Beth Tamar Tagarmah, also again a reference to Turkey and possibly including Azerbaijan and or Armenia. So there's our cast of characters. These people who are going to come against Israel, there's a couple of maps. The one includes Germany, the other does not, depending on how you take Gomer. Also in verse 6, it says, many peoples are with you. That word peoples, that could be translated nations or troops. So it's very possible that this coalition goes beyond the named nations. So maybe these are just the bigger players, but there could be more that certainly are involved in this. The bottom line is that Israel is well and truly surrounded by its enemies, but of course that's nothing new for the Jewish people. If we put this earlier in the timeline, and we will get to that timing a little later, but if this is earlier, clearly this is a war against radical Muslim terrorists. Because these countries are the very heart, they're the very stronghold of Islam. This is where Islam is at its greatest power. So very much part of this motivation, if this happens, like I said earlier in the timeline, these countries already hate Israel just for existing. Because they are Islamic people and they want to wipe them off the map. The exception to that Islamic rule would be Russia. They have Muslim people there, but you wouldn't necessarily call them a Muslim nation. But we're going to see that there are other motivations, not just religious hatred, behind this attack. And those other motivations would certainly apply to Russia. OK. We'll continue in verse 7. Be ready and keep ready, you and all your hosts that are assembled about you. and be a guard for them. After many days, you will be mustered. In the latter years, you will go against the land that is restored from war. This is Israel. It's been restored. The land whose people was gathered from many peoples among the mountains of Israel, which has been a continual waste. So we know that Israel, if we were here for Israel lesson, Israel laid waste for so long until the Jews started going back and God started drawing them back and making them a nation. Its people were brought out from the peoples and now dwell securely, all of them. You, this is talking to the invasion force, you will advance coming on like a storm. You will be like a cloud covering the land, you and all your hordes and many people with you. Thus says the Lord God on that day, thoughts will come into your mind and you will devise an evil scheme and say, I will go up against the land of unwalled villages. I will fall upon the quiet people who dwell securely, all of them dwelling without walls and having no bars or gates, to see spoil and carry off plunder, to turn your hand against the waste places that are now inhabited and the people who were gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who dwell at the center of the earth. Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish and all its leaders will say to you, have you come to see spoil? Have you assembled your host to carry off plunder, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to seize great spoil? Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to God, thus says the Lord God, on that day when my people Israel are dwelling securely, will you not know it? You will come from your place out of the uttermost parts of the north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great host, a mighty army. You will come up against my people, Israel, like a cloud covering the land. In the latter days I will bring you against my land that the nations may know me, when through me, O Gog, I vindicate my holiness before their eyes." Okay, we'll stop there for a little bit. We've got a couple more nations in here now that we need to identify. It talks about Sheba and Dedan. This verse 13 is talking about nations that are opposed to this invasion. They say, hold on, what are you guys doing? You shouldn't be doing this. These are great, great grandsons of Noah. They're found in the following verse in Genesis, Sheba and Adan. So we know where they went and where they settled, what countries this is talking about. Sheba and Adan is referring to Saudi Arabia. You can put that in your blank. Saudi Arabia. and the Arab Gulf states. And again, it's just so amazing. Obviously, this shouldn't surprise us. God knows the end from the beginning. He knows all things. Most of the nations in the Middle East are constantly distancing themselves from Israel. Even if they're not openly hostile toward them, they keep their distance because they're Arab and they're Jewish and they don't get along. Saudi Arabia is actually becoming friendlier. Saudi Arabia has better terms with Israel than maybe any other Middle East nation. And that's built on a mutual threat of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons. Because we know that Iran hates Israel. They call Israel the little Satan. We know that Iran hates us. They hate the United States. They call us the big Satan. But what we may not know is as much as they hate us and they hate Israel, they actually hate Saudi Arabia more. because they hate their brand of Islam. In Iran, they have Shiite Muslims, while in Saudi Arabia, they practice Sunni Islam. And so they consider, the Iranians consider the Saudi Arabians heretics. So heretics are even worse than the infidels, because they should know better, according to their, you know, their Islamic teachings. So honestly, if Iran acquired nuclear weapons, which seems they could very much be on the cusp of that, Israel may not be the first target. It could be Saudi Arabia. So Saudi Arabia knows that a strong Israel is in their best interests because a strong Israel has deterred Iran for a long time now and has stopped them from becoming a nuclear power. So, and of course the Bible is saying, here's a nation that will be against this invasion. Then they also, it also mentions Tarshish. So that could be, and I had a kind of one and two for different views. View number one would be Spain because that's where you find Tarshish. If you remember, that's where Jonah tried to flee. He got on the ship to go to Tarshish because at that point that was the end of the world. That was all the way in Spain. So he wanted to get as far away as he could and that's as far as he could go at the time. If it's Spain, so then you talk about these leaders and its leaders. In other versions, it talks about its villages or its young lions. It seems to be talking about kind of offspring or offshoots of Tarshish. So if Tarshish means Spain, then your next blank, number three, along with number one, the leaders or the villages or the young lions are likely Europe. That goes in your first blank there behind the one in parentheses. If it's Spain, then it's Europe, because you go beyond Spain and you get to all of Europe. So Europe is opposed to this invasion. However, number two, up there, Tarshish, some people think, is a general term for Europe. So that goes in your blank, the general term for Europe, just because that's where it was located. So if it's Europe, Potentially, the young lions, the villages, or the leaders it's talking about, this could be the one place in all this Bible that I could throw the United States of America a bone that maybe this is the United States. So the United States would go in your blank. If Tarshish refers to Europe, it could be that her young lions mean the United States, because the United States is of European descent. We were birthed out of Europe. And that would fit that we would, at least historically, be opposed to an invasion of Israel. So these nations are going to object to this attack, but either they are unwilling or they're just unable to do anything about it. Because no one's going to come to help, but they will object to it. We're also going to talk about some of the notable details. We certainly don't have time to talk about it all, but we're going to hit the high points. Number one is that God is the one who lures these nations into making this attack. We've already read it in a couple of verses. I love the description in verse four where God says to this coalition, I will turn you about and put hooks into your jaw and I will bring you out all of your army. God's in control here. God is the one doing this. They think they're doing it. They're not. They're just pawns in God's hand. And he's going to take them exactly where he wants them to go. Number two, this invading army is massive and it's fast. It's described like a storm cloud over Israel that goes near blank. It is like a storm cloud rolling over the land. One of those storms that just comes up so fast. That's what this invasion force is going to be like. Then one of the most perplexing bits of information in this prophecy is that Israel is going to be dwelling in peace and security. Peace goes in your blank. At the time of this invasion, Israel dwells in peace and security. So much so that it says in that one verse we've already read, they don't have walls, they don't have bars, they don't have gates. What in the world? I mean, that's really hard to wrap my mind around. How would Israel ever let their guard down that much? I mean, they're constantly being threatened. They're constantly, you know, they're never that safe. So we'll talk about that a little bit more later. And we also see a motivation here. Number four, the invading armies are motivated by a desire to plunder Israel's wealth. They want to take something of value that Israel has. And this is where, again, if it's earlier in the timeline, This is where I can see Russia really coming into play. What does Israel have that Russia wants? Energy. Natural resources. That's what Russia wants. You know, around 2013, Israel discovered trillions of cubic feet of natural gas off of their Mediterranean shoreline. Shortly thereafter, Vladimir Putin made a state visit to Israel asking for partnership in this massive energy reserve. Israel said thanks, but no thanks. And Putin doesn't seem like the kind of guy who likes no for an answer. You know, and it takes a while, obviously, to tap into this and develop it all and all of these things. Israel is currently looking to try to send some of this gas to Europe through Turkey, which is one of the last things that Putin wants, because he wants to be the exclusive supplier of gas and oil and energy to Europe. He wants that to be Russia. He wants to have total control over the European market. And once Israel can fully tap into this huge reserve of gas and compete in the energy market, then that's going to drop prices because there's other sources for this. And that would be disastrous to Russia and to Turkey and to some of these other nations who rely so heavily on oil and gas in order to fuel their, to be honest, Russia has a pretty struggling economy already. So we can't know for sure that this is what the attacking nations will plunder. That's just a possible scenario should it fall earlier in the timeline. But I could certainly see that being a motivation. Number five, God will use the destruction of this invasion force to demonstrate his holiness and his power to the nations. As it said in that last verse we read, I will vindicate my holiness, the nations may know me. Okay, we'll continue with the verses, verse 17. Thus says the Lord God, are you he of whom I spoke in former days by my servants, the prophets of Israel, who in those days prophesied for years that I would bring you against them? But on that day, the day that Gog shall come against the land of Israel, declares the Lord God, my wrath shall be roused in my anger. For in my jealousy and in my burning wrath, I declare on that day, there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. The fish of the sea and the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the field and all creeping things that creep on the ground and all people who are on the face of the earth shall quake at my presence. And the mountain shall be thrown down, and the cliffs shall fall, and every wall shall tumble to the ground. I shall summon a sword against Gog in all my mountains, declares the Lord God. Every man's sword will be against his brother. With pestilence and bloodshed I will enter into judgment with him, and I will rain upon him and his hordes and the many peoples who are with him torrential rains and hailstones, fire and sulfur. So I will show my greatness and my holiness and make myself known in the eyes of many nations, then they will know that I am the Lord. And you, son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus says the Lord God. Behold, I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Mishesh and Tubal, and I will turn you about and drive you forward and bring you up from the uttermost parts of the north and lead you against the mountains of Israel. Then I will strike your bow from your left hand and will make your arrows drop out of your right hand. You shall fall on the mountains of Israel, you and all your hordes and the people who are with you. I will give you to the birds of prey of every sort and to the beasts of the field to be devoured. You shall fall in the open field, for I have spoken, declares the Lord. I will send fire on Magog and on those who dwell securely in the coastlands, and they shall know that I am the Lord. my holy name I will make known in the midst of my people Israel and I will not let my holy name be profaned anymore and The nation shall know that I am the Lord the Holy One of Israel Behold it is coming and it will be brought about declares the Lord God That is the day of which I have spoken He will stop there again for just a minute we see that Israel will be saved, but they will not be saved by their own strength and In your blank there, they are saved by the hand of God. It is very clear with all these things, hailstones and fire and the men's swords turning against each other and pestilence, the earthquake, all of these things. It is clearly the hand of God. This army is going to be defeated in such a devastatingly catastrophic and supernatural way that there will be no room for doubt for anyone on the planet. that the God of Israel has come through for his people, and he will defeat their enemies in a very Old Testament kind of way. The IDF won't have to lift a finger. I'm sure they'll appreciate that, because they do a lot of fighting. And the verses here following try to give us a picture of how incredibly massive the scope of this defeat will be. Verse nine, then those who dwell in the cities of Israel will go out and make fires of the weapons and burn them, shields and bucklers, bows and arrows, clubs and spears. And they will make fires of them for seven years so that they will not need to take wood out of the field or cut down any out of the forest for they will make their fires of the weapons. They will seize the spoil of those who despoiled them and plunder those who plundered them, declares the Lord." So in your blank, Israel burns the weapons from this invasion force as fuel for seven years. That's a lot of weapons. And I know it describes this in a very old, you know, ancient kind of way with horses and shields and clubs and bows and arrows and I mean it could be there's some old-school weapons there, but it could just be Ezekiel's just describing warfare He's describing the warfare of his day weapons of his day meaning it's going to be warfare and weapons of modern day Just using that imagery to try to help people of his day to understand that these are weapons of war Verse 11 On that day, I will give to Gog a place for burial in Israel, the Valley of the Travelers, east of the sea. It will block the travelers, for there Gog and all of his multitude will be buried. It will be called the Valley of Haman Gog. For seven months, the house of Israel will be burying them in order to cleanse the land. All the people of the land will bury them, and I will bring them renowned on the day that I show my glory, declares the Lord. They will set apart men to travel through the land regularly and bury those travelers remaining on the face of the land, so as to cleanse it. At the end of the seven months, they will make their search. And when these travel through the land and anyone sees a human bone, then he shall set up a sign by it until the buriers have buried it in the valley of Haman Gog. Hamanah is also the name of the city. Thus shall they cleanse the land. So your next blank, it will take seven months for the people of Israel to bury all of these dead bodies. It's massive. It says it's a place east of the sea. We don't really know where this place is where this burial is going to happen. It could be east of the Mediterranean. It could be east of the Sea of Galilee. It could be east of the Dead Sea. We don't really know which sea it's talking about. We do know that there's going to be so many dead bodies and weapons laying around that this can prevent people from traveling. It kind of gets this nickname, the Valley of the Travelers, because people can't travel through here because it's so blocked. They're prevented by this littering of bodies and weapons and this mass grave that is being dug. It's called the Valley of Hammond Gog, and there's no location that you can look at on a map and say, there's Hammond Gog. It exists as a name. So likely, this is kind of the designation it will receive at the time. So this is kind of the nickname that it comes up with, like, oh, there's the Valley of Haman Gog, because Haman or Hamanah means horde. So this is the Horde of Gog. This is the Valley of the Horde of Gog, because this is where they're buried. People will bury the bodies. There's people who will just walk through all this territory and search for bodies. Says they'll post signs so that later as the buriers come through, like, hey, found a human bone here. This still needs to be buried, because it's such a massive operation. Sometimes they will find only bones, because as we see in the next verses, they're going to get some help on disposing of some of these bodies, some help from the animals. Verse 17. As for you, son of man, thus says the Lord God, speak to the birds of every sort and to all the beasts of the field. Assemble and come, gather from all around to the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you, a great sacrificial feast on the mountains of Israel. And you shall eat flesh and drink blood. You shall eat the flesh of the mighty and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, of he goats, of bulls, all of them fat beasts of Bashan. You shall eat fats until you are filled and drink blood till you are drunk at the sacrificial feast that I'm preparing for you And you shall be filled at my table with horses and charioteers with mighty men and all kinds of warriors declares the Lord So like we read at the Battle of Armageddon where the birds are invited if you remember that lesson the birds are invited to feast on all the dead bodies and Here the birds and the beasts of the field are invited to feast on the corpses of people and of dead animals. The result of this is this was clearly divine intervention. So not only do all the nations of the world know that there is a God in Israel, but your other blank, Your last point there in number nine, after their deliverance, Israel will understand that Yahweh is their God. Israel will remember or will know that Yahweh, the God of the Old Testament, this God who saved them so miraculously many times in their past, Yahweh is still their God. Now they still need to take it another step. They still need to recognize Jesus as their Messiah. It's not enough to recognize the Old Testament God, Yahweh as your God. Jesus is the Messiah. You need to trust in Him. But they're at least shifting now to, wow, the God of the Old Testament is still here. He's still with us. He's still our God. He protected us. So let's wrap up this chapter, verse 21. And I will set my glory among the nations, and all the nations shall see my judgment that I have executed and my hand that I have laid on them. The house of Israel will know that I am the Lord their God from that day forward. And the nation shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity because they dealt so treacherously with me that I hid my face from them and gave them into the land of their adversaries, and they all fell by the sword. I dealt with them according to their uncleanness and their transgressions and hid my face from them." So that's when they were scattered among the nations. They have received a lot of punishment at God's hands, the people of Israel. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel and I will be jealous for my holy name. They shall forget their shame and all the treachery they practiced against me when they dwelt securely in their land with none to make them afraid. When I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them from their enemies' lands, which we've seen in modern-day history, the Jews coming back from the land, gathered them from their enemies' land, and through them have vindicated my holiness in the sight of many nations, then they shall know that I am the Lord their God, because I sent them into exile among the nations and then assembled them back into their own land. I will leave none of them remaining among the nations anymore, and I will not hide my face anymore from them when I pour my spirit upon the house of Israel, declares the Lord God." Okay, there's a lot more we could say about this war, but let's get to where the timing of this, where we would put this on the timeline. So we have some general timing clues. So the first is there's a phrase in verse 8 and 16, it's translated latter days or latter years. So that term indicates that this event takes place in the end times. That goes near blank. This takes place in the end times. There are some who make the argument that this Evicu War has already happened, that it's a battle that's been fought in the past. But that just doesn't work, because number two there, there's no battle in history that fits all of the details of Ezekiel's description. Therefore, this attack against Israel is yet to happen in the future. This is future. There's nothing that fits this description in history. Number three, our general timing clue, that the Jews must be regathered as a nation in the land of Israel. So that's done. Put a check mark next to that one. We've seen that. Israel became a nation again in 1948. And as we've mentioned so many times, so many end time prophecies hinge on that. Israel has to be a nation. The Jews have to be in their land. So that was a big, big deal when Israel was back on the map. Number four, the invading nations must be united in their cause against Israel. Again, you can kind of put a checkmark by that right now. Again, we'll get to the timeline in a minute. But this is one of the reasons why personally I put this event fairly soon. I think it would be very soon. And one of the reasons for that is that the nations who hate Israel in this attack, enough to want to wipe them out, hate them now. And they're also friendly towards each other right now. They're making alliances with each other right now. I follow Amir Sarfati for updates on current events. These are just a couple, just in the recent weeks of bits of information he's put out. A political leader in Russia, Alexander Dugin, says Jerusalem will be a Russian city or will not exist at all. Russia wants Israel. Up there at the top, a senior officer in the Sudanese army, this was just yesterday that he put this out, revealed that Russia asked Khartoum, that's the capital of Sudan, to get a refueling station in the Red Sea and in return Moscow will supply them with weapons and ammo. He says the deal between the parties is expected to be signed soon. Interesting. Sudan and Russia. There's another one, Iran has transferred advanced attack UAVs of these different types to the Sudanese army on several occasions in recent months. Sound familiar? Iran, Sudan. Now this is just, I find it interesting. That's not to say, you know, maybe tomorrow we could wake up and these alliances have crumbled. That doesn't mean the war of God and Magog isn't going to happen. It just means those alliances will come together at some point in the future. What I'm telling you is they exist right now. Also, number five, Israel must be experiencing economic prosperity, because clearly they're going to get plundered for their wealth, so they need to have something worth taking. Again, there's another checkmark. Israel's prosperous right now. They're a wealthy nation right now, and like I said, They found this natural gas and other, and despite, I mean it's amazing, despite all these Middle East conflicts and everybody, all their neighbors always seeming to want to wipe Israel off the map, they just keep prospering. Their economy, their society, it just keeps growing. Clearly this is God's hand of blessing on them. Now this is the sticky one, number six. Israel must be experiencing a time of such peace that they let their guard down. That goes in your blank. They let their guard down. And they're caught completely by surprise with this attack. That one's hard. It's hard to think of Israel letting their guard down that much. Unless you put it in a different spot on the timeline, which we'll get to in a minute. So, here's your options on the timeline, okay? And these go in your blanks. I've got it on your timelines here. So, War of Gog and Magog, where do we put this thing? Some people put it before the rapture, and that could happen. Rapture goes in your blank. It doesn't have to happen before the rapture. Nothing has to happen before the rapture because the rapture is imminent, okay? There's nothing that has to happen in order for the rapture to happen. It could happen any day, but it could. Some people put it in this little spot between the rapture and the very beginning of the tribulation. Remember, the tribulation is started by the peace treaty between the Antichrist and Israel. So there's going to be this time frame between the rapture and the treaty. We don't know how long that is. It could be just a few months. It could be a couple of years. We don't know. But some people put it there. Some people put it at the first half of the tribulation. So sometime when all the judgments were really starting to come in, you know, with the sealed judgments and things that we've talked about in Revelation, that it happens in the first half of the Tribulation. Some people put it at the end of the Tribulation. And if you put it here, that means that this war that Ezekiel describes is the Battle of Armageddon. Does that make sense? So we talked about Jesus returning. He faces all of those armies in Israel, the Battle of Armageddon. Some people say this is the Battle of Armageddon, just described in different ways, different details. So some people put it there. And there are some similarities, like the birds being invited to eat and a dramatically supernatural defeat. Some people put it in this little space between the Tribulation, and the beginning of the Millennial Kingdom. If you were here last week, remember how we talked about those extra 75 days that seem to be in there where Jesus establishes his government? He's judging the nations. He's setting up his government. There's like this frame of 75 days that Daniel talks about. So some people put it in there. Well, before Jesus has, you know, gone through all the judgments and established his government. Some people put it right at the beginning of the Millennial Kingdom, which means the judgments are done, Jesus has set up his government, but then the battle happens, which I don't really get that one because all the unbelievers have been taken care of at that point and there isn't enough time to have given birth to a bunch more people who are going to become unbelievers, so I don't get it, but okay. And then there are those who put it right at the end. right at the end of the Millennial Kingdom. Did you get all those blanks, by the way? Beginning of Millennial Kingdom. What's the last one? Between. Did you get them all? Okay. End of the Millennial Kingdom. And this is the view that would put this as the same battle as Satan's final rebellion. If you remember, we talked about this last week. There's a verse in Revelation, and it does say Gog and Magog. When the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison, will come out to deceive the nations. This is when those who have lived during the millennium and had to obey Jesus, but never trusted in person as their Savior, they only obeyed outwardly, they never gave him their hearts, they are going to follow Satan. Their number will be like the sand of the sea. They march up against Jerusalem, the beloved city. Fire comes down from heaven and consumes them. So some people put the Ezekiel War, that this is the same as that final rebellion led by Satan. And just to demonstrate, like I said, that it's okay to be in different places of this issue, no matter where you put it, there are things that fit well and there are things that don't fit well. If you put it, really we're kind of revolving around two of the key details. There's more details, I'm just really boiling it down. The two key details that we think about a lot is that Israel is dwelling in secure peace and then the time frame for burning the weapons and burying the dead. So if you put it towards the end, like if you're here, you put it at the end of the Millennial Kingdom, which by the way, this is where Pastor Mike puts it. He's wrong, but that's where he puts it. Pastor Mike puts it there. So we were talking about this, I'm like, okay, so that solves the peace problem, right? Because in the Millennial Kingdom, Israel is dwelling in perfect peace, because Jesus is ruling and reigning. So that makes a lot more sense that they don't have walls, and they don't have bars, and they don't have gates. But as I was talking to Pastor Mike about it, after the Millennial Kingdom, the next thing that happens is God destroys the original creation, he creates the new heavens and the new earth, and we go into the eternal state. Why are they burning weapons for seven months? And why are they burying the dead for seven years? When, by that point, those dead should have been resurrected anyway to face Jesus at the great white throne. So why are we spending all this time burying and burning when you're going to burn up the whole world anyway? So that part doesn't make sense to me. And so I'm talking to him about that, and he's like, yeah, that's a problem. Yeah, it is. But honestly, anywhere you put it, there's a problem. I put it here. I put it in this, if I had to pick, I would put it in this window of time between the rapture and the peace treaty. But now I've created the problem with how can Israel be dwelling in peace? I can't imagine them letting their guard down that much. And by the way, Adam is teaching this same passage in his class today. And so I texted him yesterday. I said, so do you have any newly formed opinion about where we put Gog and Magog on the timeline? Thinking he might be like my tiebreaker. And he's like, well, I can kind of see it at the end of the millennium with Pastor Mike. But I can also kind of see it in between the rapture and the tribulation. I'm like, that is so Adam. I mean, come on, so diplomatic. He's going to side with both of us. Give me no tie break here. If you want to dive into it more, I put on the very bottom, there's a website that gives a really great article on all the pros and cons. If you put it here, here's the pros and cons. If you put it here, here's the pros and cons. If you put it here, here's the pros and cons. Some have more pros, some have more cons. But it's just an interesting thing to read. So if you're interested in that and going into that deeper, check out that article. Also, I would recommend to you books. One is, if you haven't gotten a book list, by the way, of good authors on prophecy, I still got them up here every week. One is on your list, Northern Storm Rising by Ron Rhodes. That's all about the Ezekiel War. And then also, this one's not on your list, though the author is, a book by Mark Hitchcock. which is Russia Rising. So that's, like I said, he's an author on the list, but that book I didn't put on the list, Russia Rising, if you want to know more about the Ezekiel War. So I wrote, and again, emphasis on the possible scenario. Possible scenario, okay? I could be way off. We could get to heaven, and Hellency's gonna come up to me and say, like, yeah, I told you it was at the end of the Millennial Kingdom. You told those ladies I was wrong. Possible scenario. I've been thinking through this a lot this week. So here is my possible scenario. The rapture of the Church happens, which of course devastates the world, especially those nations that have more Christians, that have more believers. And I've really tried to think then, what will the world be like after the rapture? I mean, I just, I really don't know. Obviously, the nations that have more Christians will be more affected, but the whole planet will be affected. And not only will the millions disappear, but you've got to think that thousands will die. Because there's going to be cars without drivers, trucks without drivers, airplanes without pilots. There's going to be, you know, crane operators disappearing. Maybe surgeons in the middle of an operation who've disappeared. Power going off because somebody's not there doing the job that they're supposed to do. You know, there's just... So there's going to be a lot of missing people and a lot of dead people. And we've never had an event like that that affects the entire world. And I kind of thought about the days of 9-11. You know, when our nation was hit on 9-11, and it was temporary, but it felt like it brought us together, didn't it? We felt actually the United States of America because we knew that we had a common enemy and that there were more important things out there than maybe what we think of as the important things in life. And so I can kind of see the rapture having either effect. So the first thing I put is that maybe the world is briefly united. Maybe the world comes together and they're like, this affected all of us. What is going on? Do we have aliens out there? I mean, what is happening? Coming together unified and like, guys, we got bigger problems than each other. We got to work together as mankind. And maybe if that's sort of the feeling, then maybe Israel feels a little bit safe, a little bit secure because maybe nations are getting along better than they are now. I don't know. Otherwise, I also thought Israel could maybe suppress her enemies after the rapture because that's the, I mean, Israel has the firepower right now to take out all their enemies. I mean, they could do it. They absolutely could do it. But of course, they're the only nation in the world who isn't allowed to defend themselves and to actually win a war. because they're constantly being taken to court, and everybody's nitpicking, and they're committing genocide, blah, blah, blah, and all these lies multiply. And maybe once the rapture happens, it's just kind of every man for themselves. And Israel, along with other nations, are going to be like, I don't care what anybody else tells us to do. We're doing what's best for us. And maybe Israel throws down, and they subdue their enemies to the point where they feel secure. I don't know. Like I said, I just really don't know what it's going to be like. It's just a possibility. So then, the Gog-Magog battle number three makes the world aware of God's presence. It restores Israel's belief in Yahweh. And it would pave the way for the construction of the Jewish temple. Because the Islamic world is eradicated in the Gog-Magog battle. Islam is taken out. because this is all made up of the Islamic world. So they are no longer an issue. They're no longer a power. So that mosque that's in the way could be torn down, and the temple could be built because there's no Muslims, or at least no powerful Muslims around anymore, to complain about this. Then the Antichrist could make a peace treaty with Israel to start the Seven-Year Tribulation. With Russia and the Islamic world wiped out, European power fills the vacuum and gives birth to the revived Roman Empire. At that point, the only remaining world power would be Far East Asia, generally China, which we know from prophecy will be under control of the Antichrist and the kings of the East will rise at the end of the Tribulation, which we saw in a previous lesson. So that kind of makes the world powers fall into place. You know, I always thought that when the Antichrist makes this treaty with Israel, that Israel is elevated by it. That, wow, this guy, the Antichrist, he's come and he's made a treaty with Israel and it kind of boosts their prestige. And that could happen. But I wonder, could it be the other way? Like, if Gog Magog has just happened, Israel could be regarded as the most powerful nation on the planet. And you better not mess with Israel, because look what just happened to all these people who tried to mess with Israel. So maybe the Antichrist sweeps in and uses Israel to elevate himself. You know, that Israel is the most powerful nation on the world. Antichrist comes in like, hey guys, let's be friends, and uses that to climb his way up the political ladder. Number five, with Israel or with Islam defeated and the church gone, all believers are gone, all remaining religions could much more easily integrate into the one world religion of the false prophet that we talked about in previous lessons. The only monotheistic religions left to reject the Antichrist would be Judaism, because now they're paying attention to Yahweh, and to the newly growing Jesus movement, because there will be those becoming saved after the rapture happens, because they realize what the truth is. And we know both of those groups of people are going to be intensely persecuted by the Antichrist. Then Israel spends the seven years in the Tribulation burning the weapons. I thought the seven years just feels good to me in the Tribulation. You know, it just fits. And I think, and that's the time frame where there might need some alternative fuel sources. We've talked about the judgments where trees are being destroyed and infrastructures falling apart. So it could be, you know, people are just basically in survival mode. What do we have that we can use as fuel? Oh look, here's all these weapons that have been laying here. So that to me would be a good time frame and why they would be using these weapons as fuel. Then Jesus returns at the end of the seven years to defeat his enemies at Armageddon, resulting in Israel acknowledging Jesus as their Messiah. As we've talked about, Jesus guides his people from all the world for the sheep and goat judgments, resulting in only believers entering the Millennial Kingdom. And then at the very end of the Millennial Kingdom, so again this verse that talks about that moment, At the end of the Millennial Kingdom, a final rebellion takes place, it's led by Satan, and it's reminiscent, that's why I think those words are there, it's kind of reminiscent of that battle. Meaning, in this scenario, it's calling them Gog and Magog, because in this scenario, Satan is Gog, because he's leading them, and Magog is going to be all those nations that will follow after Satan, And it talks about how fire comes down and destroys them. And that's one of the things that happens in the Ezekiel war, is that fire comes down. So maybe it's just making a comparison. Hey, remember that battle out there that happened in the past? It's going to be kind of the same type of thing that happens at the end of the millennium. Clearly all the pieces of this prophecy aren't going to come together to complete the picture until it actually happens. There are too many variables to get too dogmatic, but what we can know is that no matter how unlikely or impossible a Bible prophecy might seem, it will happen. Even if I can't figure out with my puny brain how can all of this happen, it will happen because God says it's going to happen and it will happen exactly the way he says. But it's just really important that we know what the Bible says about these things so we can spot truths from deception. Because one thing I've noticed is that every time a conflict, a new conflict, erupts in the Middle East, which is a lot, I see on social media and other places, people start, oh, it's Gog and Magog! It's Gog and Magog! We're in it! We're there! This is it! No, it's not. Could it happen before the rapture? Yes, it could. Could it happen tomorrow? No! Because Israel is not living in peace right now. So just know what the Bible says. Don't always be jumping on that bandwagon as soon as you see something on social media. Know what the Bible says about these things and how we can best understand them, because that's our job. It's to study, to understand to the best of our ability. And like I said, if we get some of those details wrong, it's one of those things where we can agree to disagree. But hopefully, we at least have a better understanding of what this battle is going to look like, that it hasn't happened yet, and it will happen in the future. Next week, we're talking about the new heaven and the new earth. And next week, ladies, I'm telling you, I got something special planned. I'm not going to tell you what it is, because it's a secret. But you don't want to miss it. I'll tell you that. Also, I do think I've gathered enough questions that we'll have a Q&A session. So we have two more Sundays. We'll do this one and then a Q&A. But I'm still happy to take more questions. So if you have questions and you haven't gotten them to me yet, Get them to me and we will address those that last Sunday. See you next week.