GOG AND MAGOG: WILL ISRAEL BE ATTACKED?

 The war in Ukraine is influencing gas prices. Food costs have risen. Ukraine and Russia make up 30 percent of global exports of wheat.  

Televangelist Pat Robertson has warned that end times are upon us, and Christians wonder if the Russia-Ukraine conflict will lead to a “Gog and Magog” attack on Israel?

“It should have been easy to predict that Russia was going to invade Ukraine,” says David Parsons, an attorney, ordained minister, and Middle East specialist. “It also was quite predictable that many Christians would instantly start connecting this conflict to the ‘War of Gog and Magog,’ the last days’ global confrontation described in Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39.”

Chapters 36 and 37 give prophecies of the great regathering of Israel in the last days. 

“Ezekiel’s vision of the ‘Valley of Dry Bones’ in chapter 37 depicts it as if the nation is literally resurrected from the dead – which in many ways aptly describes the miraculous rebirth of Israel [in 1948] as a nation just three years after the nadir [lowest point] of the Holocaust,” he says.

So what is the War of Gog and Magog? 

In Ezekiel 38, the prophet is told to deliver a warning to “Gog and Magog.” Gog is an individual and Magog is his land. (Other nations also will join in attacking Israel.)

“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 … ” (Ezekiel 38:1-4 KJV). 

“Ezekiel is clear the attack comes from the north, and those supposing biblical prophecy is being fulfilled note that that Moscow is directly north of Jerusalem. Thus, it is claimed the Ukraine war heralds the beginning of the end times,” says Dr. Calvin Smith of King's Evangelical Divinity School.   

Speculation about Gog and Magog has largely centered on Russia, or the former Soviet Union, and their allies coming against tiny Israel, Parsons says. 

Some appear to think the move against Israel can happen any day now. Others combine the war of Gog and Magog with the Battle of Armageddon, arguing that they are the same conflict. Others place the Gog-Magog aggression at the end of the Millennium, relying on additional prophetic passages found in the New Testament.

“Chapter 39 continues describing this same battle against Gog [Israel against Gog], while adding that the victory at God’s hand will be so complete, Israel will need seven months to bury the dead and seven years to burn the weapons of warfare,” Parsons says. 

Does the war in the Ukraine mean that events described in Ezekiel 38 and 39 are about to happen now?

Parsons appears to believe that the “Gog and Magog” war may take place after the Millennium, “the thousand years mentioned in Revelation during which holiness is to prevail and Christ is to reign on earth.” In the Revelation to John, the names Gog and Magog are applied to the evil forces that will join with Satan in the great struggle at the end of time (Revelation 20:7–10), after the Millennium, he says.

7 “And when the thousand years are expired,  Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,

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.

9 “And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.

10 “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever” (Rev. 20:7-10 KJV).

Dr. Calvin Smith says, “Biblical prophecy has an important role to play in the life of the believer, demonstrating how God is in control of events and human history. … Yet the Bible is not a commentary on current affairs and attempts to utilize it in this manner are often sensational and false, turning many believers away from studying biblical prophecy. … It is best to avoid being dogmatic in identifying current events with biblical prophecy. We do not know how today’s scenario in the Ukraine will play out.”

EAT HIS FLESH? DRINK HIS BLOOD? ... JESUS TALKED BOLDLY

 What type of fish did Jesus multiply when he used “two small fishes” and five barley loaves to feed a crowd on the shores of the Sea of Galilee (John, chapter 6)?  

Writer Mohan Anthony says it’s better that the Bible didn’t tell the kind of fish Jesus multiplied because some folk would have made that kind of fish into an idol, or erected shrines to it, or held feasts for it, much to God’s displeasure.

John 6 also tells that the disciples boarded a ship without Jesus, who stayed to pray. Night fell and the sea roiled as a strong wind blew. The disciples rowed three or four miles and then saw Jesus walking on the water. Frightened, they heard Jesus say, “It is I, do not be afraid.” They took him into the boat.  

In Feb. 1999, the L.A. Times printed this headline: “You Too Can Walk on Water: Tourists will soon be able to simulate Jesus’ walking on water on the Sea of Galilee.”

The article says, “Israel’s National Parks Authority authorized construction of a submerged bridge in the lake, which has been a pilgrimage site since at least the 3rd century.”

They planned to build a 13-foot-wide, 28-foot-long, crescent-shaped floating bridge to be submerged two inches below water, able to accommodate up to 50 people. To enhance the “walking on water” effect, the bridge was to have no rails, but lifeguards and boats were to be on hand in case a walker slipped off.

I don’t think that bridge was built. It sounded like a bad idea for a tourist trap — and was perhaps sacrilegious. “Sacrilege” is “a violation or misuse of what is regarded as sacred.” 

In John 6, Jesus also said, preaching in the Capernaum synagogue, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe” (ESV). 

That didn’t sit well with the Jews. They grumbled about Jesus saying he was “the bread that came down from heaven.” 

They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”   

Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.” 

Jesus said again, “I am the bread of life.” (Jesus was born in Bethlehem. “Bethlehem” means “house of bread.”)

Then Jesus told them that their ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, and they died, but that he was the bread that came down from heaven — the bread they could eat and NOT die.

“If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh,” Jesus said.

That threw the Jews into a tizzy. They said, among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 

Jesus went further, raising some of their blood pressures!  

“Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you,” he said. “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”

That sounded like cannibalism: the practice of eating the flesh of one’s own species. But Jesus was speaking about spiritual matters. 

Many disciples quit following Jesus after his talk about eating his flesh and drinking his blood. Jesus said to his chosen 12 disciples, “Do you want to go away as well?” 

Simon Peter answered, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

  Some may follow Jesus for loaves and fish. Some may be intrigued by his miracles and his walking on water. But Jesus is the Living Bread. “Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever,” he said.