This evening, if you have your Bibles in front of you, turn with me to Ezekiel chapter 36. Ezekiel chapter 36, I mean chapter 38, I’m sorry. Ezekiel chapter 38, and we’re also going to be taking a look at Psalm 83.
So, you can also put your finger in Psalm 83. So, we’ll be looking at Ezekiel, some of the verses out of Ezekiel chapter 38, and then we’ll look at a little greater in depth at Psalm 33. As we come this evening, the Lord has spoken through Ezekiel what he’s going to do in the last days with the nation of Israel.
And it’s a blessing that we live in a day in which we’re seeing much of what he prophesied about the nation of Israel come about. What we studied in chapter 37, how Israel would come back into the land that God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their descendants forever. And that he would bring them back into the land and they would become one nation again.
But as God does that, Satan comes against them. And this evening we’re going to begin to look at, and we won’t get through all of chapter 38 by any means this evening, but we’ll start to look at it. And that is the war that’s prophesied by Ezekiel that’s going to occur in the last days.
Now, a lot of Bible scholars debate on when this war will actually occur. And there’s people that say that, well, this is a war that will occur before the rapture. And others say it will occur right after the rapture.
Others people say that, well, this is a war that would occur at the beginning of the tribulation. And then others say, well, this war is really the same war that’s referred to in the book of Revelation as when all the nations of the world come against the nation of Israel. As we look at Ezekiel’s text this evening, and also we’re going to be looking at Psalm 83.
You see that this is not all the nations of the world that are referred to here. Although there are similarities in what happens here as to what is referred to in the book of Revelation, when all the nations of the world would come against Israel at the end of the great tribulation. Let’s begin by just reading a few verses out of Ezekiel chapter 38.
Ezekiel 38:4-8
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. 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.
Let’s just bow in a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father as we come before you this evening, Lord I pray that you just speak to us through your word tonight. And Lord help us to understand as we look at events that are transpiring in the world today, we see things falling in order for this prophecy to be fulfilled with the nations that are spoken of here, as well as those spoken of in Psalm 83. Lord I pray that you just help us as we look at your word tonight to understand your word, and help us to be encouraged as we see who’s in control. And Lord be with us we pray now in Jesus name, Amen.
As you look at this map that I’ve got up here, this is a modern map, but we’re going to be looking at trying to point out the countries that are spoken of in the text this evening, as well as when we get to Psalm 83.
Now it talks about, it starts out, and if you look at verse 1, or verse 2 rather, it says, Son of man, set thy face against Gog and the land of Magog, and chief prince of Meshach and Tubal, and prophesy against him. Now a lot of Bible scholars have always said that Meshach and Tubal would be referring to cities in Russia, and that Gog would be the leader of Russia, and Magog would be the nation of Russia. Now Magog is really referred to in scripture, and it makes reference to the Scythians.
Now the Scythians were people that live up in this area here. If you look at the Scythians, they’re referred to in Paul’s letter to the Colossians. He refers to the Scythians, he refers to them, and they’re also referred to in other portions of scripture, and in history they’re acknowledged as being a very cruel and wicked people.
And they were known for doing some very wicked and evil things, and they did not worship God, they worshipped false gods. And also, Ezekiel talks about, besides Meshach and Tubal and Gog and Magog, he talks also down in verse 5, he says Persia, which is Iran, which is right here, and that’s in the news today. He also talks about Ethiopia, and Ethiopia in scripture is really the lands that are south of Egypt, and it would be more than what is just Ethiopia down here, but it actually includes Sudan and this whole area right in here, and that would be referred to as Ethiopia in this verse.
And then also if you look at it, he says Libya, which is right here, on the other side of Egypt, and these nations, it’s interesting they have one thing in common, they’re all Muslim countries. And it’s also very interesting, none of these nations really were aligned until just recently. Within the last few years, you’ve seen that, for example, Russia is supporting Iran, they’ve been sending stuff to Iran during this current war, they’ve been having a hard time doing it now because right now they’re fighting in their war against Ukraine, but the Caspian Sea here, they’ll ship things down into Iran, so that they can help them get armaments against the United States.
So there is a relationship between Russia and Iran, there never was really that much of a relationship before. Not only that, recently Russia was up in Syria and had ports in Syria on the Mediterranean, however, and also not only in Syria, but also up in the area of where, I just lost my thought, Lebanon is located as well. They moved those ports and they moved them down to Libya, and Russia was not aligned with Libya either, and recently they’ve started doing more trading with Libya, and they’ve moved some of their ports down to Libya so that they have access to the Mediterranean Sea.
Then you also have Ethiopia, Sudan, these nations have begun to align themselves with Russia as well. And none of these nations were really aligned until just the last few years, where the alignment has become much stronger. Not only those countries, but also there’s Turkey, and Turkey is referred to a little later on in the text, we didn’t read about it, but it’s called Torgamuth.
And one of the things that you see happening as well is a relationship between Russia and Turkey, and Turkey also, their attitude has changed towards Israel within the last 10 to 15 years tremendously. About 15 years ago we had Menno Kalischer, who was a pastor in Jerusalem, spoke at our church, and at that time he said, we asked him, where do the people in Israel go when they want to take a vacation? He says, oh we go to Turkey, because they have a lot of good resorts along the Mediterranean Sea, and so we go to Turkey. Israelis do not go to Turkey today.
Erdogan is now the prime minister. Erdogan wants to do one thing, and that is to reestablish the Muslim caliphate around the world, and especially begin to take over the whole Middle East for Islam. And one of the main things in his way is the nation of Israel.
Not only that, what’s happening right now between Turkey and Israel, Turkey has developed this new strategy on how to gain control of the Middle East, and one of the things they do is the UN and the world nations have determined that there’s a certain area out into the ocean that is considered your territory, but beyond that it’s international waters. And what Turkey is doing is they’re spreading their territory into the Black Sea further, they’re spreading their territory into the Mediterranean Sea further, and they are trying to gain more control of the sea. Part of that is to gain more control of the area, but also right now there’s a lot of natural gas and some oil deposits in the Mediterranean Ocean, and Israel currently has control of them.
The prime minister before Benjamin Netanyahu, however, gave Turkey control or access to some of those natural gas deposits, which was really strange because Turkey is really an enemy of Israel today, not their friend. And so we see that those things are happening in the Middle East, and right now all the attention is being drawn on Iran. One of the things that’s happening in Iran right now is their leadership is being weakened, their armaments are being weakened by the war that’s going on, and Iran is not going to be the force that leads this attack against Israel, but rather it appears that it will be Russia and Turkey, with Turkey being the main one.
Now what’s happening in the Middle East right now is the Israelis themselves are saying, we don’t have to fear Iran, but we need to fear Turkey, and Turkey is going to be the next Iran for us. They view that Turkey is going to be the nation that’s going to give them trouble and going to come and attack them in all likelihood, just as Iran did. Erdogan has said those same things.
Well, why would he do that? Well, let’s take a look at Psalm 83. If you turn with me to Psalm 83, this is a very interesting psalm. Some Bible teachers say, well, this psalm has been fulfilled, but I think as you read this psalm, yes, it may have been fulfilled where God has defeated the enemies of Israel in the past, but as you look at these enemies, you’re seeing a new alignment come to fruition amongst all these nations that are listed in Psalm 83.
Let’s just take a look at Psalm 83. It says, Keep not thou silence, O God, hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God. For lo, thine enemies make a tumult, and they that hate thee have lifted up the hand.
Now I want you to see, this is also stated in Ezekiel. What is the cause of Russia, Turkey, Iran, Libya, Ethiopia, and the confederacy of those nations coming against Israel? Is it because they just don’t like Israel’s democracy? No, it’s because of the God of Israel. And it’s really Satan inspiring these people.
And if you look at the nations we’re going to see in Psalm 83, they have the same thing in common that all these nations do. One of the things I failed to mention about Russia up here, in all of these nations that are north of Iran in Russia, these are all Muslim nations. And the same thing, they have the same belief system as the other nations.
And if you look at the Muslim religion, it’s really a religion of Satan and it stands against Biblical Christianity. Now back to chapter 83, verse 3. They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones. And they truly have taken crafty counsel.
They’re constantly making plans. And if you look at what happened back on October 7th, when the nation of Israel was attacked by Hamas out of Gaza, one of the things was it was a crafty plan. Now why do I say it was a crafty plan? Because the people of Gaza that attacked Israel, pretended to be Israel’s friends.
Many of those that were working in Israel along the Gaza border at the time, said they wanted to help the people, wanted to give them work, pretended to be their friend, or the people opened their homes to them, and these people pretended to be their friends. Well at the time, many of those that were working for them, were discovering where their hiding rooms were, where the layout of their home, where they could go to try and get away. And they gave all this information to those that would be attacking, so that when they went in, they knew exactly where the layout of the kibbutzes, the layout of the houses, how to find people, so they could kill them.
And it was done very craftily. They pretended to be something, but the whole time they were doing something else. And the whole intent was they wanted Hezbollah from the north to attack, Iran from the east, at the same time they attacked.
But Yair Sinwar couldn’t wait, and he attacked early, and had they waited, it would have been very, very devastating for Israel. But they didn’t wait, they attacked, and it was still over a thousand people killed. But we see that they planned craftily, and they’re really planning against God.
And ultimately the attacks are against people, but the motive is really against the Lord. They have said, come, let us cut them off from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance. Now, is that a familiar statement? Is that something you’ve heard before? You hear that from Iran, from the leadership of Iran.
You hear that from the leadership of those that are in Hezbollah. You hear that from the leadership of Hamas. You hear that from other Muslim countries.
Let’s cut off Israel, we want to wipe out Israel. And even the whole concept of the people that are Muslims within the nation of Israel, that live in Judea and Samaria, which they refer to it as the West Bank, but it’s really not the West Bank, it’s Judea and Samaria, part of Israel. But they that live there have the same attitude.
Their goal is ultimately to destroy the nation of Israel and get rid of all the Jews. In our country, one of the things that you heard college kids saying is, from the ocean to the sea, let Palestine be free. Well, what does that mean? That means from the, what ocean? The Mediterranean ocean, from river to the sea.
I’m sorry, thank you. From the river to the sea. What river is it? It’s the Jordan River.
It’s from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, let Palestine be free. And what does it mean by Palestine be free? All the Jews gone. And that they control the whole land.
And the kids in America that say that don’t even know what they’re saying. But we see here that as you look at that, this little tiny nation of Israel, they want to take it over and why would they want to do that when you look at all the Muslim nations around here and all the land mass, why don’t these people that are in Gaza and in the West Bank, why don’t they just go and live in those countries where there’s all kinds of land? Because it’s not about the land, it’s about fighting against God and destroying God’s people. So we see that they have a desire to kill them.
And it says, verse 5, For they have consulted together with one consent, they are confederate against thee. Now who is thee? That is the Lord. They’re really, their confederacy is against God.
Now I want you to remember, we just got done studying, who’s in control? Who brings about and is enabled to fulfill what he says he will do? The Lord. And the Lord has said that he’s ultimately going to judge. And so Satan is trying to raise his people up in an attempt to prevent that and to destroy God’s people so that God will not be able to fulfill his promise towards the nation of Israel.
Now he talks about those nations that have gathered together in Psalm 83 and we see that these were nations that have always been the enemies of Israel. And once again, they are listed not only in this psalm, but as well as in the book of Ezekiel. It says, The tabernacles of Edom and the Ishmaelites of Moab and the Hagareens and Gebel and Ammon and Amalek and the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre.
Asher also shall join with them. And they have helped them, the children of Lot, Selah. Do unto them as unto the Midianites as to Sisera and to Jabin and to the brook of Kishon.
So the psalmist is saying, under inspiration of God, do and judge them as you did those people that tried to destroy Israel. I just want to share with you all of these people that he is talking about. First of all, he says Edom.
Edom would be right down here in southern Jordan. Jordan is right here. And remember, Edom is down in this area here.
It is in the southern part of Jordan and over into just under the southern portion of Israel. The Ishmaelites. The Ishmaelites would be those that would be the descendants of Ishmael.
They would live over more towards Egypt and also in the northern area of the Saudi Arabian Peninsula would be where the Ishmaelites are. Moab. Moab is part of Jordan.
Remember when we talked about Moab and also not only the Moabites but the Ammonites and how they were against Moab and Ammon. Ammon is down there later. They are the descendants of Lot’s daughters and Lot.
And they also comprise part of Jordan today. So between the Edomites, the Moabites, and the Ammonites, that is where their countries are is what most of Jordan is today. The Hagarines.
The Hagarines are really, they are a people that are between the Dead Sea and Petra in Jordan. Other involved would be descendants of Edomites and Moabites and those. Gable.
And then Amalek. We talked about Amalek before. Amalek would be, they inhabited the area right south of Israel.
And it would be kind of right here, right going down to this portion of the Sinai Peninsula and over into here would be the nation of Amalek. They were also descendants of the Edomites. The Philistines.
It’s interesting he refers to the Philistines. Who is called the Philistines today? They are the Palestinians. They are referred to as the Palestinians.
They are the ones that inhabited the Golan Heights and that area of what is inhabited by the Palestinians today. Tyre, which is in southern Lebanon. Assyria, which is the nation of Iraq today.
Assyria, the Assyrian Empire. The Assyrian Empire was in Iraq. And then we also have again Jordan where it’s the children of Lot.
And then as we saw earlier, you have Iran, which is Persia. And then you have this nation, the Sudan and Libya. But if you look at Psalm 86, all of these nations that we listed, it says in verse 10, Which periteth at Endor, they became as dung to the earth.
And so he is speaking of what judgment God should bring against them. Make their nobles like Orib and Zeb, Yea, all of the princes as Zeba and as Zamuna. And these were all leaders that stood against Israel and attempted to destroy them.
And God conquered them as the people were coming into the promised land. Who said, let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession. Oh my God, make them like a wheel, as a stubble before the wind.
And as the fire burneth of wood and the flame setteth the mountains on fire. So persecute them with the tempest and make them afraid with thy storm. Fill their faces with shame, that they may seek thy name, oh Lord.
And let them be confounded and troubled forever. Yea, let them be put to shame and perish. That men may know that thou whose name alone is Jehovah, Yet the most high over all the earth.
Now I want you to see just a couple of things there. First of all, as you look back in Ezekiel, and keep your finger in chapter 86, because we’ll come back to it in just a second for a minute. But if you go back to Ezekiel chapter 38, it says that who is the one that is going to cause these people to come against the nation of Israel in Ezekiel’s war.
It says in Ezekiel chapter 38, that the Lord is going to put a hook in the mouth of Gog, the prince chief, and bring him of the land of Magog, and cause him to come down. Now as you look at, and later on we’ll get into chapter 38 next week, or on Sunday, and we’ll see specifically what they’re coming for. But right now, Russia is interested in things that Israel has got.
And they would love to take them over. And one of the things that Russia has done, is they have moved some of their troops down into Syria and Lebanon, as far as advisors and weapons and such. It’s been hampered because of what’s happening in Ukraine.
But they had been doing that, and had quite an influence on Hezbollah, and the Muslims that were fighting against Israel in that area. And also it talks about here, that God is going to use these nations that are in rebellion against him, for the same purpose that he brought Israel back into the land. He’s going to cause these nations to rise up, and attempt to come against him because of their hatred for the Jews, and hatred for him.
And the purpose is to ultimately show the world who’s God. And the Lord said that he brought Israel back into the land, that by him fulfilling the prophecies he had made about Israel, the world would know that he is God. And likewise, by his ability to defend the nation of Israel, against a force that is so much greater than them, he is also going to show the world that he is God.
So as we close this evening, I just want you to see, this is not something that is new, but it is going to grow more and more hatred against Israel. And the war is going to be intensifying, as far as throughout history, until it culminates in the last war of Ezekiel, and then the final war, when the whole world comes against Israel at the end.