END TIMES TEACHING
THE GENTILES SHALL KNOW
Ezekiel 39:23 “The Gentiles shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity; because they were unfaithful to Me, therefore I hid My face from them. I gave them into the hand of their enemies, and they fell by the sword.”
Ezekiel 38 and 39 speaks of an end time invasion against the nation of Israel, this invasion is initiated
by God’s prompting for a purpose.
Ezekiel 38:16 “You will come up against My people
Israel like a cloud, to cover the land. It will be in the latter days that I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may know Me, when I am hallowed in you, O Gog, before their eyes.”
Prophecy tells us that in the latter days God will bring His final judgments upon the earth, His judgments will last for seven years, and it is called the Day of the Lord’s Wrath, that judgment will culminate in the final battle of Armageddon, where all the armies of the nations of the world will meet their final judgment.
Revelation 19:19, 21 “And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army...And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse…”
Before that final judgment takes place, God in His mercy, will reveal Himself to the nations of the world, so that those who are foolish enough to take a stand against Him will do so in full knowledge of who the real God is. In order for God to show Himself holy to the nations before His seven years final judgment begins, He has to do something that only an all Mighty God can do, wipe out an entire army in an instant, for that will leave no doubt in the mind of the world as to who the real God is.
About twenty five hundred years ago God revealed to Ezekiel the name and the location of the nation that would lead a confederacy against the nation of Israel, the nations that would be part of that confederacy and that Israel would cease to be a nation for a season, for He told them through Ezekiel that He would give them over into the hand of their enemies because of their unfaithfulness.
Think of it from our present day perspective, were we to have a world wide vote right now to let the people of the world decide who they believe the real God is, the God of the nation of Israel would not fair very well, for the nation of Israel, and the Jews in particular, are the most hated people by the Gentile world of today.
Even in some Christian teachings we find that they do not believe that the present day nation of Israel has any heritage left in biblical prophecy, they call it replacement theology, for they teach that Israel forfeited all of their rights of inheritance when they rejected Jesus as their Messiah, and that the church is now the beneficiary of all the promises that the nation of Israel had coming their way for the latter days.
When God entered into His covenant with Abraham, the covenant was two-fold, as the sand of the seas meant a physical inheritance, and as the stars of the sky meant a spiritual inheritance. The law came through the ministry of Moses but grace came through our Lord Jesus Christ, Israel and the church are both part of the covenant.
So that clearly both Israel and the church play a vital role in end time prophecy, even if one does not accept the heritage of the other, as it is the case in many instances today, so that God has to set the record straight.
Before Ezekiel is told that in the latter days the Gentiles will know that God has a place and purpose for the nation of Israel, He lets Israel know that they have a vital role to play along with the church.
Ezekiel 39:22 “So the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day forward.”
From which day forward? From the day that He reveals Himself holy to the nations of the world by destroying their invading army, and removing the church to her spiritual inheritance, and restoring the nation of Israel to their physical inheritance, which is the Holy Land.
Ezekiel 39:28-29 “Then they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who sent them into captivity among the nations, but also brought them back to their land, and left none of them captive any longer. And I will not hide My face from them anymore; for I shall have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel, says the Lord God.”
The house or nation of Israel can only be sealed after the church is removed, for that is on whom the Spirit of God is resting right now.
Ezekiel 37:11, 14 “Then He said to me, ‘Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say, “Our bones are dry (without the Spirit), our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!”...I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land (most of the world today see Israel as occupiers, they won't after God intervenes on their behalf). Then you shall know (along with the rest of the world) that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed it,’ says the Lord.”
In verses twelve and thirteen there is a reference to the resurrection from the dead, and we know that when the resurrection from the dead takes place that is when the faithful Philadelphia church will be removed.
Ezekiel 37:13 “Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up from your graves.”
Since the first stage of the first resurrection from the dead includes all the saints of old, and since it is Jesus who will bring them all back to life, the Jewish nation will know then that Jesus Christ is the Lord, God’s Anointed One, as Moses had clearly told them a long time ago.
The nation that leads the army that attacks the nation of Israel is identified as coming from the uttermost north, and it is called Gog, the prince of Rosh, which means head. Part of their confederacy will be the nations of Persia, Ethiopia, Libya, Gomer, and Togarmah. These are their ancestral tribal names, Persia is today's Iran and they have made it clear that they want the nation of Israel to be wiped off the map.
And that brings us to our present day alignment of nations; Russia and Iran have a vested interest in the government of Syria remaining in power, for they are allies, and as of this writing, the US is contemplating the use of military force against the Syrian nation for using chemicals weapons in their war against the insurgents that want to overthrow the present Syrian government that is in bed with Iran and Russia.
This conflict of it self, as it stands right now, does not in my opinion constitute enough reason for the northern confederacy to be activated against the nation of Israel, but it is ripe for the last major prophetic event that has to happen before the invasion takes place, to maybe come to pass before all of this is over.
Isaiah 17:1 “The burden against Damascus (the capital of Syria). ‘Behold, Damascus will cease from being a city, and it will be a ruinous heap.’”
Damascus is one of the oldest city in the world and has been continuously inhabited for most of its history, which means that Isaiah’s prophecy has never been fulfilled, and it awaits its fulfillment today.
It does not take much to imagine that if in our present situation a weapon of mass destruction was to be leveled against the city of Damascus, for that is what it would take to wipe out an entire city, and if it was blamed on Israel, that would be reason enough for the allies of Syria to come to her rescue and avenge those whom they blame for such a catastrophe.
Could it be that God Himself brings judgment against that city in order to draw Russia and their compatriots into the slaughter end time feast that He has prepared on the mountains of Israel?
Ezekiel 39:17-21 “And as for you, son of man, thus says the Lord, ‘Speak to every sort of bird and to every beast of the field: assemble yourselves and come; gather together from all sides to My sacrificial meal which I am sacrificing for you, a great sacrificial meal on the mountains of Israel, that you may eat flesh and drink blood. You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams and lambs, of goats and bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan. You shall eat fat until you are full, and drink blood till you are drunk, at my sacrificial meal which I am sacrificing for you. You shall be filled at My table with horses and riders, with mighty men and with all the men of war,’ says the Lord God. I will set My glory among the nations; all the nations shall see My judgment which I have executed, and My hand which I have laid on them.”
Five times the Lord uses the words sacrificial and sacrificing, the point is clear, before the Lord ushers anything new He always requires a blood sacrifice, six million Jews were sacrificed in Nazi camps before the nation of Israel could be established once again, now the world is going to provide the meat for the sacrifice that is going to let all the world know who the real God is once and for all.
This is how close we might be to the end of our journey here on earth.
If God is able to tell Ezekiel twenty five centuries ago the geopolitical alignments of today, and every detail of the events that are about to happen, then we can be sure that we can trust Him when He tells us that He is coming back soon to redeem us to Himself.
Ezekiel 37:27-28 “My tabernacle also shall be with them; indeed I will be their God, and they shall be My people. The nations also will know that I, the Lord, sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.”