Ezekiel 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.

We began this study in Ezekiel with the words of God given in:

I Chronicles 12:32  And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their commandment.

God blessed David with some men who could help him to make wise decisions during his reign as king of Israel. A leader needs wisdom to make wise decisions. The Bible shows us of many leaders who did not have wisdom and they made very foolish decisions. We know that king Saul rejected God’s wisdom and he wasted his time and the time of his army as well as the taxes of the people to chase after David, a man he was never going to capture and kill. He chose to reject the wise counsel of Samuel and it ended up costing him his life. It also caused others in his army to be killed and there was a time where the Philistines could oppress the nation of Israel due to his foolish choices. We know that the Pharaohs were lacking in wisdom as well. They could build things, but they could not govern in a way that was a blessing for their people. They were godless leaders who did things that caused hardships for the people. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon for a time, certainly did not know how to make wise decisions. He wasted time and money building a tall statue that he demanded people bow before. He lost several soldiers because he coerced them into turning up the heat on a furnace and then they went too close to that super hot furnace to throw three God-fearing men into it. They died, but those three men survived to witness of God’s power over a wicked king.
Today, we do not have wise leaders on the political front in Canada. We have leaders who are making extremely foolish choices that are costing us as a nation in many ways. More importantly, there is a shortage of Godly spiritual leaders in this country at this time. There are a few and we can be thankful for them. Godly pastors are called of God to give direction to their membership as well as those who visit their local church. They are also called upon to sound warnings to the political leaders of our country.
We have mentioned before that our country prides itself in a distorted belief of separation of church and state. They have developed that belief over the years to try to push God out of every aspect of public life, and are even trying to interfere with the private life of the citizens of this country. Too many people are giving in to this wicked plan, to their own detriment.
The times we are living in are interesting times. On the world stage, we know there is turmoil right now between Russia and Ukraine. It is difficult to know the details of what is going on there. The main stream media is telling us what they want us to hear, but they are certainly not giving us the truth. Several countries are placing sanctions against Russia, suggesting that they are punishing Russia for “invading” Ukraine. Some of those countries have been involved in goading Russia for years. There are some countries that have assumed the role of being the policemen for the world. The U.S. has taken that position and Canada is currently behaving that way as well. It is true that both countries have intelligence agencies, however from what we can see, those intelligence agencies are not very intelligent. I do not work for the CIA, or for any intelligence agency. However, God has given us some insight into the future that we would be wise to pay attention to.
As we noted in Ezekiel 37, God is at work to bring Israel back to Himself. We have mentioned before that it is important to pay attention to what is happening in the Middle East, and in particular in Israel. Israel is the nation that God has chosen to work through to show the world His attributes. Israel has suffered greatly for many years because of her rejection of Him. God has temporarily set Israel aside from the important task it was given by Him. He has grafted born again Christians (Jews and Gentiles) into the stump of the nation of Israel. This grafting does not make born again Christians Jews. New Testament Churches have not and will not replace Israel. God has chosen to use true local churches as the vehicle through which He is presently seeking to make Himself known throughout the world. Five times in the New Testament Jesus Christ gave a direct command to true born again Christians to go and tell others around the world about Him. As we do that, we need to keep an eye on what God is doing in the Middle East and how that affects the rest of the world.
We do not need to get into date setting. There are too many who have done this in the past and are doing it now as well. That is a fruitless venture. We need to help people to see God’s hand at work and we need to help people to see that the hope of man is to turn to God and not trust in man for hope and blessings. Today we hear much about “mother nature”. We have earth day on the calendars. We have other events taking place that draw attention away from the truth.
The situation we are witnessing right now with Russia and Ukraine is all a part of God’s dealings to help people see the need to know Him. The current president of the Ukraine is supposed to be a Jew. Some people assume that because of that, he is a good guy and the Russians are the bad guys. There are what appear to be credible reports that this president has done some very evil things as well. He is a lost man and lost Jews can be just as evil as lost Gentiles.
In Ezekiel 38, God tells us of an alliance that will form in the last days that will come together for the purpose of going after Israel. As we watch the situation in Europe now, we need to keep that in mind. There is an aligning of nations in preparation for an attack against Israel. That attack will not succeed, but the world powers think it will. They are ignorant of the facts and thus they are moving into position for what they think will be a victory. Some of the players in this matter may well be ignorant of what is taking place at this time. They have selfish ambitions, but they are none the less being put in place by God for another time where God will reveal His omniscience and His omnipotence over world affairs.
In our text, God gave Ezekiel some information regarding a future alliance that would bring a major threat against His people, the nation of Israel. We see from these verses that the head of that alliance will be Russia. It is important that we note that God does not put a name to the leader of this nation. He tells us of the nation, but not who the leader will be. Leaders can be changed out very quickly. They can die. They can be overthrown. They can step down. There are different possibilities. God obviously does not want us to be distracted by the leaders, but rather to pay attention to the nations and what they are doing.
We notice from verse 3 that God is against Gog. God is going to use the chief prince of Meshech for His glory. He will do that even though this prince does not want to know the true God. God gives all people the opportunity to turn to Him and worship Him. Those who refuse to turn to Him, can still be used of Him for His glory. As we noted earlier, true Christians are commanded to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. People need to hear and be reminded of the truth. That command is still applicable to us today. We need to be faithful at home and abroad, as God leads. With the development of the Internet it is easier to reach into the various parts of the world. This is not a substitute for personal evangelism. God is still calling faithful servants to go into all the parts of the world.
In verse 4 God tells us that He is going to take the chief prince of Meshech and put hooks in his jaws and he will bring him out with his armies. God describes those who will be in this alliance as being equipped for battle. The alliance that will come together will include Persia which is present day Iran. It will include Ethiopia and Libya as well as Gomer, which includes the Germanic peoples of northern Europe. Togarmah is the people in the region of the Black Sea and includes the nation of Turkey.
We can see some of those nations aligning themselves with Russia now already. This alliance will not need to be a long standing alliance. In fact it will end in disaster for them. They will be equipped and they will have a goal of destroying Israel, but they will not succeed. They will be foolish as king Saul was. He chased after David but he had no hope of ever killing him. He assumed he could, but God was in charge.
This alliance will join together with the hope of destroying Israel, but they will not succeed. There are ventures that many people get involved in that are a complete waste of time. The communists have tried for years to destroy the Word of God and to destroy Christianity. They have failed. The Catholics have been involved in this venture as well and they have failed. Iran and the Muslims are also involved in this futile effort. Lost people are blind. They have plans. They strategize to work their plan. They seem to make some success for a time, but they will fail every time. God shows us over and over again, that it is foolish to fight against Him. It is wise to know Him and serve Him.
Ezekiel was a faithful servant of God. He was blessed, even while a captive, in being able to encourage his people to turn to God and trust in Him. He was also directed to write these words to help further generations to see the importance of trusting in the true God.
That is still the great need for today. Far too many people are going through life assuming that God is a puppet on a string. They assume they can make Him to be what they want Him to be. We can all be guilty of that. We need to humble ourselves and let God be God and we need to learn how we fit into His plan and how we can be blessed of Him in the short time we have on this earth. He has blessed us with His sure Word. Let us be sure to follow Him.
Pastor Bartel