There is an end-time prophecy in Ezekiel 38–39 that has fascinated me since I first started studying the Bible 55 years ago. Gog, along with Meshech and Tubal and several nations including Persia (Iran), Ethiopia, and Libya attempt to invade Israel and are supernaturally destroyed by God so that He “will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the LORD” (Ezekiel 38:23).
The prophet Ezekiel records the very words God spoke to him. In the “later years,” Israel will be attacked from the north through Togarmah (Turkey) by a large federation of nations under the headship of Magog (Caucasian descendants of Japheth) who dwell in the “north parts.” Magog, Meshech, and Tubal will be assisted by “a great company, and a mighty army” of “many people” from the north with three additional countries: Persia from the east (Iran), and two countries from the south: Ethiopia and Libya.
The driving force, Magog, Meshech, and Tubal, are not the names of countries, but of ethnic groups—the descendants of Japheth through his son Magog (Genesis 10:2). After Noah’s flood, Japheth’s sons begin a northwesterly migration, eventually spreading out to occupy all of Europe, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, the Slavic states, Great Britain, and eventually the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, etc.
It is also noteworthy that whereas the prophet named the countries of Persia and Libya, he did not name a particular country as the driving force from the north; rather, he goes all the way back to the table of nations in Genesis 10, immediately after the flood, and references the Japhetic line as opposed to the Hamitic and Semitic. Genetics place the origin of Russians in the Slavic peoples, Poland, and Eastern Europe. It appears that Russia may be a significant part of the invading force, having descended from Japheth as did Europe, Great Britain, and the United States.
Ezekiel 38:6 names two more descendants of Japheth, Gomer and Togarmah (Genesis 10:3). There is no objection to the fact that Gomer refers mainly to Celtic peoples, including Gauls, Britons, and Irish, which now represent not only the Western European nations but also the United States. By the fourth century BC, they spread over much of what is now France, Belgium, Switzerland, Southern Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic, and southern Russia. The prophet said, “the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee” (Ezekiel 38:6). Ancient Jewish sources list Togarmah as the father of the Turkic peoples. This fits the text’s geographic reference of the people north of Israel.
You can read Ezekiel 38–39 to see the drama unfolding. In the “latter days” a large force of many nations will come “like a cloud to cover the land” (Ezekiel 38:9). He tells of “the land that is brought back from the sword [war], and is gathered out of many people [nations where they were dispersed], . . . which have been always waste [the land was waste before the Jewish People settled it]: but it is brought forth out of the nations [United Nations], and they shall dwell safely all of them” (Ezekiel 38:8). There are six specific details in the prophecy. How could the prophet know 3500 years beforehand that Israel would be “brought forth out of the [United] nations”?
What the invading force does not realize is that God has seduced them into taking this action against His people Israel. For God says, “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” (38:16). God brings them against Israel so he can destroy their invading forces in such a manner that everyone knows God did it, thus glorifying Himself.
I don’t think that God intends for us to know precisely when the Magog invasion of Israel is to occur. In the past few months, conditions have rapidly aligned with the potential fulfillment of this 2600-year-old prophecy.
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Source: Israel in the News
