Ezekiel 38:7  Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
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.
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.

In our text today God is continuing to speak to the prince of Meshech and Tubal. We know that the leaders of Russia have been very proud individuals. They are not alone in that sin. We know that our own P.M. is also a very proud man. He cannot stand to have anyone expose his foolishness. He refused to listen to the opposing voices of the truckers and now this weekend he is trying to keep the bikers from being able to meet on Parliament hill. He has also tried hard to shut down Parliament, hiding behind the virus to limit debate in the house. He has signed an agreement with the NDP to keep control of government and shut out any opposition.
God shows us in our text, that proud leaders are being judged by Him. They may assume they do not need to listen to anyone. They may assume they have power that no one can withstand. They will be dealt a fatal blow by God.
God told the prince He is speaking to to prepare himself. He needs to do all he can do to prepare for battle. In reality, that will be a futile effort, but God is taunting this proud, wicked man and his armies to prepare to stand against Him.
Verse 8 tells us that God is talking about a time in the future. This is a prophetic message that Ezekiel was given. We know this has not happened yet in our day. Israel is back in their land. They have been delivered from the oppressive German regime of Adolf Hitler. They have also been delivered from other oppressive regimes. As nations rise up against the Jews that live in their countries, God is bringing more and more Jews back to the land of Israel. God is going to draw this evil alliance to come against Israel in a time when they are living in relative peace. We know the anti-christ will come in as a peace-maker. He will be a master deceiver and Israel will fall for his deception. It will be a costly choice for them.
Israel does not have a stable government, but they do govern themselves. They are not under Roman rule. They are not under U.S. rule. They are not under Canadian rule. They are not under the U.N. rule. There are countries that think they can tell Israel where her boundaries should be. They think they can tell Israel that they need to share their land with the Arabs. They are under constant threat from Iran and her minions.
Verse 8 tells us that this attack against Israel will take place when they are dwelling safely in their land. We can look at the facts we see in Israel now and we can see as well that this alliance is building. This alliance does not interfere with the Lord’s return in any way. The removal of the New Testament saints is not dependent upon this alliance. There is no sign that we can look at and determine when the Lord’s return will be. God gave these words to Ezekiel to remind Israel that even though they were in exile at the time of this writing, there was hope for them. They were going to face much persecution due to their sin and their hard-heartedness, but there was still hope. God has not forsaken Israel.
In verse 9 we see that this prince and his armies will come upon Israel like a storm. We have had some storms in recent days. We have had quite a bit of snow and we have had blizzard-like conditions. No one can stop a storm. The storm can sometimes destroy buildings and kill people. People do not direct the storm.
This army that is coming will be like a storm. God also tells us this army will be like a cloud covering the land. This will be a massive army. It will be a strong army. Israel will be in severe danger.
In verse 10 we see again that God knows the thoughts of man. God is not keeping this prince from being saved. What God is telling us is that He knows what evil man will do. We can look at a wicked person and we can try to figure out what they will do. However, we are limited in our ability to figure out what they will do. We need to remember that even though men can be very wicked, God is still in control. We have seen wicked men make plans in the past, and all of a sudden their plans came to an end. Hitler had a plan to take over the world. He advanced into many lands, but he did not take over the world. His armies were stopped. Germany today is not under Hitler’s rule. It is still a wicked country, and it still has a wicked government, but it is not operating in the same manner that Hitler’s army did. Canada is becoming more and more like Hitler’s Germany. We have snitches in this land now. We have people who come around and tell us what we can and cannot do on our own property. We have health officials and police officers who try to interfere with those who love the Lord and want to worship and glorify Him. However, even though we have this wickedness today, we can still gather together and we can still serve the true God. Persecution is increasing, and we need to know how to function in the midst of the persecution. We are not told to go and hide. The Jews are told that in the Tribulation time, but we are not told to do that today. We are told not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is. We know that there are those who profess to be saved, but they refuse to assemble together in a God-honouring manner. We are seeing more clearly that there are indeed few that are on the narrow way.
In verse 11 we see the evil plan of the prince of Meshech. He will try to take advantage of the fact that Israel will be living with a false sense of confidence. Israel will think that they are safe, and this coalition that is spoken of in the first verses of this chapter will assume this is their opportunity to attack them.
Verse 12 tells us that they have a plan to plunder the land. They have a plan to take that which does not belong to them. They see that Israel is being blessed and they will try to take the blessing for themselves. Greed and theft are common among lost people. It is nothing new. There have been wars in the past that have been fought because of greed. God knows that. He knows that lost people are obsessed with doing evil things. Not all are the same, but those who make it to the place of leadership will do what they can to take from others that which they want for themselves.
God shows us as well here that wicked leaders do not have a free hand. There was a discussion recently about whether or not our P.M. is a dictator. Some have said he is not and others have said that according to the dictionary definition, he is. He is a wicked man for sure. He does not have absolute control. He is still subject to the will of God. He can only go as far as God will allow him to go. We know he is a puppet of men like Klaus Schwab and George Soros. Ultimately he is in his place because God put him there. He will be there until God says it is time for him to be replaced. We know that there will be no one better than him put in that place. We can see from those who are aspiring to be leaders, that there is no one better to replace him. There are those who boast of what they will do if they get to be P.M. We know no one man runs this country. They have to work with others and the training that is dominant in this country is anti-God.
Those who are saved need to understand this. We should not hope in this wicked system to save us. We should be drawing nigh to God and asking Him to strengthen us in the inner man to stand strong and true to Him in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation. We know that the Lord’s return is imminent. We know that we are not escapists. We do not need to be intimidated by those who do not know the Lord and are just looking for a way to mock Him. We just need to walk with God as Ezekiel did and we need to warn people of the danger of rejecting the truth and encourage others with the hope that is there for those who love the truth.
Pastor Bartel