Well, sir, now remember, in the 36th chapter
of Ezekiel, we saw the divine reason for the
worldwide dispersion of the Jews. I hope that
every one of you listening to me this very hour
heard when we had a heart -to -heart talk regarding
that covenant. that God made with Abraham and
his seed. And when God says, I will, whether
it's to an individual or whether it's to a nation,
God will keep his word for God cannot lie. It
is not in the nature of God to lie. It is impossible
for God to lie. When he makes a covenant, When
he gives his promise, under any and all circumstances,
when God gives his word, he'll keep his word.
Therefore, we should have known that when God
made this covenant with Abraham and Abraham's
seed, that he would keep it. And you and I are
living in that generation. Think of it. This
is the thing that's so amazing to me, that many
of the prophecies that were made 1 ,400 years
before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, those very
same prophecies are being fulfilled in this generation,
in our generation. Can you conceive of such a
thing? Oh, it's thrilling to be able to read
the New Testament and see how God kept his word
of prophecy to those who were living during the
New Testament dispensation. That is thrilling.
But when you realize that you and I are alive,
we're living now, when actually we are seeing
prophecy fulfilled that was prophesied that the
Holy Spirit gave to the Old Testament prophets
1 ,400 years before Jesus was born, that's almost
staggering. And in the 36th chapter of Ezekiel,
we saw the divine reason for the scattering of
the Jews. As long as they kept God's word, as
long as they were obedient to him, they had his
blessing. But when they became arrogant, when
they no longer obeyed his word, when they no
longer sought His face. We have apostasy after
apostasy. And they were scattered. And God turned
from the Jew to the Gentile. All right. We go
into the 37th chapter of Ezekiel. We saw there
the prophecy of the regathering of the Jews again.
uniting them as a nation. And you and I are living
in that day when we again saw the Jews as they
were gathered from the four corners of the earth
and became a nation. Now, we come to the 38th
chapter. Oh, and this is interesting. My friend,
if ever... You have studied a chapter in the
Word of God. Study this 38th chapter of Ezekiel.
I'm going to read, first of all, just three verses,
the first three verses of this 38th chapter.
And the Word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
Son of man, set thy face against Gog. Of the
land of Magog. We see immediately that the first
is a personality. Gog is a personality. Of the
land of Magog. One a personality. One a nation.
The Prince of Rush. Meshach Tubal. and prophesy
against him and say, and we know immediately,
watch now, just analyze this. On the very surface
of this thing, whoever Gog is of the land of
Magog, we see immediately that he does not have
God's favor. God is against him. He has God's
disfavor. He's called the Prince of Rush, Meshach,
and Tubal, and prophesy against him and say,
Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I am against
thee. Gog, Prince of Rush, Meshach, and Tubal.
Now the question for us is the identity of Gog.
That is the all -important thing. If we just
had the identity of Gog, then we had the key,
the unfolding of this entire 38th chapter of
Ezekiel. Who is this Gog referred to in this
passage? Who is he? And where is the land of
Rush? Most all Hebrew scholars agree that Rush
is identified with modern Russia. And since Ezekiel
tells us in verse 15 that Rush is in the uttermost
parts of the earth, there can be little doubt
of the correctness. of the interpretation. You
know, when God speaks of the king of the north
or the king of the south or the kings of the
east, he refers to them in their relation to
Palestine. Palestine was always a focal point
and always whenever you read your Old Testament.
Whenever... The word speaks of the kings of the
East. We always know that it refers to them in
their relation to Palestine, even as he said
unto Moses in the 32nd chapter of Deuteronomy.
When the Most High divided to the nations their
inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam,
he set... the bonds of the people according to
the number of the children of Israel. Therefore
we know immediately that when he says the uttermost
parts of the north, we know that it's north from
Palestine and it could only mean Russia. and
the countries that are in that direction from
the Holy Land. You know, if you have a Schofield
Bible, and I use a Schofield Reference Bible
very often, and if you have one, you'll see that
the Schofield Reference Bible has a very good
footnote on the very thing that I am saying.
I'm going to give it to you. I'm going to quote
it to you now, just in case you do not have one.
Quote, that the primary reference is to the northern,
the European, powers headed by Russia, all agree.
The whole passage should be read in connection
with Zechariah, the 12th chapter, the 14th chapter,
Matthew, the 24th chapter, beginning with the
14th verse, or Revelation, the 14th chapter.
Beginning with the 14th verse. Gog is the prince.
Magog his land. The reference to Meshach and
Tubal, Russia, and Tobolsk is a clear mark of
identification. You know, it's deeply significant
that Leningrad, which was formerly St. Petersburg,
is no longer the capital of Russia today. Within
recent years, the government was moved to Moscow.
And this is all the more striking because Russia
had every reason to keep Leningrad as the capital.
For there's no name in all of Russia so revered,
even today, as the name of Lenin. Therefore,
in this prophecy, Gog is without doubt the prince
of Russia. Tubal takes its name from the river
Tubal. It was the ancient capital of the eastern
division of the Russian Empire and may become
so again. Isn't that the most amazing thing?
Did you ever dream that the Bible could be so
up to date? I'm giving this to you from the 38th
chapter. of Ezekiel. It's there. Now in verse
3, God addresses this personage who is called
Gog, the prince or the ruler of Rush. Gog is
the great coming dictator of this vast northern
confederacy. And see again what he says. To this
great world leader. I am against thee. Oh, Gog.
The chief prince of Meshach and Tubal. Mm -hmm.
Now, who is Gog? The one that God reaches down
and shakes a fist at and says, I am a... Against
the old Gog. Gog is the mighty dictator. Who
rule over. All of these. Coalition. Of countries.
At the time. That the events of this chapter
take place. This is up to date. That's the reason
I say to you. The word of God is more up to date.
Than the last newscast that you heard. on your
television or your radio. Behold, I am against
the old Gog. God speaks against this prince and
his infamous regime. We hardly need to ask, why
is God against Gog? It's because it is blasphemous.
Blatant philosophy. Mm -hmm. He will eventually
belong in the class with the Antichrist. In fact,
the King of the North will be that man of sin.
But this northern dictator will be conquered
by the Antichrist. That's later for another...
heart -to -heart talk. All right. Now, let's
go to these nations who'll be aligned with the
leader, Gog. Who are the nations in the great
northern confederacy? A moment ago, you know,
we read from verses five and six of our chapter.
The God -given list of the allies of Russia at
the time when they come down to take a spoil.
And that spoil, of course, is Palestine. All
of Israel. Let me read it. Are you following
me now? And this is something in that fourth
verse. thee back. Of whom is he speaking? Of
this great prince, the one who is head of this
great confederacy. I will turn thee back and
put hooks into thy jaws. I will bring thee forth
and all thine armies. Horses and horsemen, and
all of them clothed with all sorts of armor.
Even a great company with bucklers and shields,
all of them handling swords. Now he names the
nations. Persia, Ethiopia, Libya with them, all
of them with shields and helmets. Komar and all
his bands, the house of Togarmah of the north
quarters and all his bands and many people with
them. Mm -hmm. Let's just take one country that's
mentioned. Persia is one of them. We need to
remember that. When Ezekiel wrote these words,
Persia was just about to reach world supremacy.
Persia was a great power there. Then after ruling
the world for a time, Persia was conquered by
Greece, which was in turn subdued by the mighty
legions of imperial Rome. Notwithstanding the
fact that Persia has been a weak, helpless country
from that time, yet she continued. to exist.
Just when it seemed that she was about to be
completely subdued and wiped out, she continued
to exist. And today Persia is well known to the
world's press as Iran. It's still there. I'm
going to tell you something. When you're dealing
with God, you better not mess around. He's there.
He'll always be there. He'll keep his word as
sure as can be. And Iran is going to take her
place with Russia and stay with Russia. She will
be one of Russia's allies. And every nation.
Gumar is Germany. You can ask any rabbi, if you
have a rabbi that you can talk with, you might
ask almost any Jewish rabbi about Gomer, this
term. And he would most assuredly tell you that
Gomer represents the Germans. Hmm? Furthermore,
almost all biblical scholars seem to be agreed
that this is the correct meaning of this term.
This is God's Word. Be with us in our next heart
-to -heart talk. God bless you.