9: The Invasion of Israel [Excerpt]

“Son of man, set your face toward Gog of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him and say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold I am against you, O Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal. I will turn you about and put hooks into your jaws…”” (Ezekiel 38:2-4)

Many readers will have spent time in Israel and marvelled at the sophistication of society, industry, transport, culture, agriculture and infrastructure. All this in a land which only gained its independence as recently as 1948. The ugly prospect of marauding destructive forces invading the “Beautiful Land” is almost unthinkable. Yet we cannot ignore, and must reluctantly digest, the prophetic picture painted in Ezekiel 38-39 and Zechariah 12-14.

The invaders listed by Ezekiel come from places that sound strange to our ears. Broadly speaking, the nations which will lead this invasion are situated to the north of Israel and are descended from Noah’s son Japheth. The powerful military leader of the invasion is “Gog of the land of Magog.” There is a divergence of opinion as to the location of Magog, even in the Jewish world. Moses Maimonides took the view that the term referred to an area on the border between Turkey and Syria. Josephus placed Magog within Russia. We read in Ezekiel that the leader Gog is “the prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal.” Some expect Gog to originate from a place called Rosh, which they identify as Russia because of the similarity of sound. Others take the view that rosh suggests that Gog will be a head prince or leader because the Hebrew word for head is rosh. We see this in the Hebrew phrase for the Jewish New Year, Rosh HaShanah, which literally means head of the year. The areas of Meshech, Tubal, Gomer and Togarmah are generally considered to be within modern day Turkey. Persia is plainly modern day Iran. Cush and Ethiopia point to northern Sudan. Put is Libya and may also include other parts of North Africa. We are told that many peoples are with Gog...

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