Israel Coming Under Attack

Transcript

GR 2046
07/01/2018
Israel Coming Under Attack
Ezekiel 36-39; Revelation 17-18
Gil Rugh

We’ve been working through the Book of Revelation together and we’ve been just through chapter 17 and talking about what’s going to be unfolding in the coming days in God’s prophetic plan. Then I want to take a break from Revelation and fit some other material in if we could. Let me first put up our chart, the “Seventy Weeks.” If this is new to you, you haven’t been here for a long time. This is the chart we look at every week to put things in perspective, this is the timeline God has set out for the nation Israel, 490 years, 70 seven-year periods. The first 69 weeks, 483 years, came to a conclusion right about the time of the crucifixion of Christ, so right about in here with the death of Christ, shortly before His crucifixion. Then we have a break in God’s plan and program for the nation Israel. It’s not a change in His plan. It’s not an alteration. It’s something that was not revealed in the Old Testament.

Back in Ephesians, chapter 3, Paul said the fullness of revelation regarding this church age period was given to him, so God had chosen not to reveal, the matters relating to the church, the period of time in which we live until after the death of Jesus Christ and His resurrection. But there were seven years that had not been yet completed on God’s plan, this comes out of Daniel chapter 9, so what the Book of Revelation is basically about, is this seven-year period right here, divided into two 3½-year segments. Everything in Revelation chapter 6 to chapter 19 is included right here. Then we’ll have chapters 20 and following with the return of Christ in chapter 19 and the establishing of the kingdom, so this period of time is where we have been focusing our attention, and we noted that in this time we have a revival of the old Roman Empire, a 10-nation confederacy of nations that will characterize these first 3½-years.

In the middle of that time, that period, there are some major changes. We saw in Revelation 17 what we refer to as the apostate church, the religious system that has been a key part of this 10-nation confederacy, is destroyed and several things happen in the middle of this period of time, we saw in chapter 13 of Revelation and furthermore in chapter 17. With the changing of things here, this 10-nation confederacy yields all their power to one man and all religious activity is ended except the worship of this one man. He is the one we know as the Antichrist. He is the one who, the devil has raised up, to usurp the place that God had promised to His Son. Satan’s attempt is to establish his own kingdom, in this world ruled by his man, and that’s what takes place in the middle of this seven years and goes on until the last 3½-years.

We’ve gotten several overviews of this period of time. What the Book of Revelation is doing is putting the events of this period in order. There have been prophecies in the Old Testament and the New Testament regarding this coming period of time but the putting of these events in proper sequence does not take place until the Book of Revelation. The Book of Revelation does not change anything. It just arranges it now, chronologically, in sequence, so that what God has prophesied now becomes more clear to us.

I want to direct your attention to Ezekiel chapter 38, because some of you have asked with the Antichrist coming to power here in the middle of this seven year period, and becoming the sole focus of worship, what about issues like the Muslim religion. We know what’s going to happen to the Western religion in the revived Roman Empire. It was destroyed in chapter 17, but what about these other religions that are so key in the part of the world where Israel is? Remember with the rapture of the Church here, we return to God’s focus on the nation Israel, so we’re going to be talking about events here in Ezekiel 38 and 39. We know what happens. There’s not complete agreement on the timing of what happens since this is not mentioned in the Book of Revelation. We have to decide where does it fit? Some put Ezekiel 38 and 39 at the beginning of this seven-year period. Some put it at the end, some put it all the way at the end of the millennial kingdom. I’m going to say that I think it fits best right here in the middle, of this seven-year period, so keep that in mind that’s where we are.

Let me say a little bit about the Book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel is prophesying during the time of the Babylonian captivity. Now remember what happened? The kingdom had split into two divisions, northern kingdom and southern kingdom, under Solomon’s son. That happened in 931 B.C. so we have 10-nations, the northern part of the kingdom, some call it just Israel and then you had Judah and Benjamin in the southern, sometimes called Judah because Benjamin is a very small nation itself, family in Israel, tribe in Israel. In 722 B.C., the northern 10 tribes were conquered by Assyria. They were carried away, into captivity, deported from their land, and scattered in the Assyrian empire. That left the southern, two tribes, Judah and Benjamin.

Babylon came on the scene and in 605 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Babylonians, conquers Israel. Now there’s a staging here. He conquers them, but he leaves them somewhat intact. He deports some of the people, Daniel in that time, some of the more important people, but he leaves more of the people. He has to come back in 597 B.C. because there’s been a rebellion to put that down. Then he has to come back a third time, and you know what we say, three strikes you’re out. When he comes back the third time in 586 B.C., he says, “enough is enough,” and he really destroys the kingdom. The temple’s destroyed, the items in the temple are deported to Babylon, all the significant people are deported from the land, and what he’s doing is he’s not going to leave anything here for another rebellion.

Now Ezekiel and Daniel are writing during this time. Daniel was, as I mentioned, deported to Babylon. Daniel was in 605 during the first deportation. Ezekiel was in the second deportation in 597, so he’s writing, he’s been deported to Babylon. Jeremiah also writes during this time, but Jeremiah was never taken to Babylon. He could have gone in the third one. Nebuchadnezzar gave him his choice because Jeremiah in effect had prophesied favorably, toward Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar, and counseled the people not to rebel, but they didn’t listen.

The Book of Ezekiel is what I want to look at with you, just let me give you the breakdown of it. The first 24 chapters, Ezekiel is writing about God’s judgment on Judah, the southern part of the kingdom that’s left. God bringing judgment on them for their unbelief. Then in chapters 25 to 32 he gives prophesies regarding the judgment on other nations, and then from chapter 33 to 48 he prophesies the restoration of the nation Israel that God’s not done with them totally.

Come back to Ezekiel chapter 10 just for a little review and reminder. Ezekiel chapter 10, and here Ezekiel sees the glory of God’s presence leaving the temple in Jerusalem, and this shows how serious the judgment being brought on Israel is. God’s presence will no longer reside on earth in the temple in Jerusalem, so just for time, pick up with verse 4 of chapter 10 of Ezekiel. “Then the glory of the LORD went up from the cherub to the threshold of the temple.” He’s moving out of the temple now, this visible presence of God. “The temple was filled with the cloud, the court was filled with the brightness of the glory of the LORD.”

Come down to verse 18 “then the glory of the LORD departed from the threshold of the temple and stood over the cherubim. When the cherubim departed, they lifted their wings, rose up from the earth in my sight, with the wheels beside them; they stood at the entrance of the east gate of the LORD’S house, and the glory of the God of Israel hovered over them.” Come to chapter 11 verse 22. “Then the cherubim lifted up their wings with the wheels beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel hovered over them. The glory of the LORD went up from the midst of the city and stood over the mountain which is east of the city,” which is the Mount of Olives, which remember, is where Christ, when He returns, will come down onto the Mount of Olives. Here you see God’s glory departing from Israel. Judgment is upon the nation.

Now when we come over to Ezekiel chapter 43 verse 1. “Then He led me to the gate, the gate facing toward the east; and behold, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the way of the east.” Verse 4 “and the glory of the LORD came into the house by way of the gate facing toward the east . . . and behold, the glory of the LORD filled the house.” Verse 7 “He said to me, ‘Son of man, this is the place of My throne, the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell among the sons of Israel forever,’” so you see we’ve gone in Ezekiel 10 and 11 from the glory leaving Israel, to now in Ezekiel 43, the glory coming back to Israel.

There is a lot of time in-between. Here we are, in 2018, the glory of the LORD has not returned to Israel. What we have when we get to chapters 40 to 48, we have the kingdom that will be established at the second coming of Christ to earth at the end of that seven year period we talked about, and the establishing of the kingdom with the presence of the LORD there to remain forever. Important to keep in mind when we talk about God’s judgment on Israel, He also talks about the restoration.

Come back in Ezekiel, we’ll just stop before you get to chapter 38, look at chapter 36 verse 22, you’re familiar with the new covenant. It would be the foundation would be laid in the death and resurrection of Christ, which enabled God to bring final and full forgiveness, to all those who trust in Him. His promise that that new covenant will experience its full realization for the nation, at a coming time and verse 22 of chapter 36 and people fail to appreciate this. They think God is done with Israel, and Israel doesn’t deserve, to be restored and they don’t, but verse 22.

“Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went. I will vindicate the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst.’” Israel by their unfaithfulness, their godlessness, and God’s judgment on them, because of that the nations of the world have said see the God of Israel is not anything. He couldn’t protect them.

He had no power, so God’s name was profaned because of the unfaithfulness of His people, so God says in the middle of verse 23. “’Then the nations will know that I am the LORD,’ declares the Lord GOD, ‘when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight. For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you. You will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart put a new spirit within you; remove the heart of stone . . . give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you cause you to walk in My statutes . . . you will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, I will be your God,’” that has not yet been realized.

When you get to chapter 37, it’s a familiar chapter because it’s the chapter of the dry bones, only transiently related to the song, but Ezekiel has a message and a vision. The Spirit comes upon him in verse 1, then He sets him down in a valley, and the valley was full of bones. They were on the surface of the valley, so these bones have been laying in this desert valley on the surface, and you know what happens, they dry out from the heat of the sun, they’re bleached. They were very dry the end of verse 2 says “and then God asks” Ezekiel a question. “Son of man . . .” which is the favorite name or title for Ezekiel in the book . . . “can these bones live?”

Ezekiel answers a very good reply, “O Lord GOD, You know.” From Ezekiel’s perspective of course not, but he understands he’s been asked by the God of life and of course, God can give life to dry bones, so. “GOD, You know.” I sure couldn’t do it but You know whether they’re able to live because You know whether You’ll bring them back, so God says verse 5. “Thus says the LORD GOD to these bones, ‘Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may live. Put sinews on you, flesh’” and so on, verse seven “so I prophesied as I was commanded; there was a noise, behold a rattling; and the bones came together bone to bone. Then they had flesh on them” and so on.

Verse 9 “then He said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath, son of man, say to the breath, Thus says the Lord GOD, Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain they may come to life.’ They came to life stood on their feet.” Verse 11. How will you interpret this? Well God does it for us. “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel; and, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up our hope has perished.’” The northern kingdom carried off, the southern kingdom carried off. There’s nothing left. We’re hopeless. We’re a dead people. The Spirit of God has left our land. We have been conquered by foreign pagan powers.

But verse 12, “prophesy, and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, I will open your graves, cause you to come out of your graves, My people; bring you into the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD . . . when I have done this.’” Verse 14 “and I will put My Spirit within you. You will come to life; I will place you on your own land.” Verse 21 “Behold, I will take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land. I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; one king will be king for all of them; they will no longer be two nations no longer be divided into two kingdoms.”

Basically, the northern and the southern kingdom that divided in 931 B.C. now are going to be united into one Israel, one kingdom. It will be a time of Israel’s salvation. You’ll note, He’ll “gather them into the land,” verse 21; Israel has come back into the land after being off the land for almost 2,000 years. In 1948, they were restored, recognized as a nation, but that’s not the fulfillment of all of this. That may be the preliminary. As we’ve talked about that seven-year period, is yet future. How we may get an idea, and a sense of how close we might be to those seven years is, we see things that God says will take place in those seven years beginning to happen now, so Israel will be back in the land in that seven year period. We’ve seen that in our study of Revelation.

The fact that they’re back in the land now may be a preparation for what God says will be true of them, as you begin that seven years. We’ve talked about that revival of the Roman Empire with a 10-nation confederacy. We’re told that will be in existence at the beginning of that seven year period, so we begin to see things may be pulling together in anticipation of what God said will be true in that seven year period, things like that are how we get—rather than something directly. The next thing in biblical prophecy for the Church is the Rapture. There’s nothing to be prophesied before that could happen.

It is reasonable to say if we see some of these things all coming together, we might expect that time is getting near for the Rapture, because that will happen before the seven years begins, with the signing of the covenant between this leader among the 10-nation confederacy of the revived Roman Empire.

The same with Israel in the land. Israel has to be existing for the covenant to be signed with the nation Israel, before the seven years could begin, so Israel being restored to the land, I’m not saying that’s the fulfillment, but you know is everything going to unravel? It could but I don’t think so, and we’re all going toward that time of the restoration of Israel. God reminds them you’re under judgment and He needs to remind us in the church, Israel is under judgment, but don’t think you have replaced Israel.

God’s plan with Israel will be completed, exactly as He says and note what verse 24 says, “My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd. At the end of verse 25, “David my servant will be their prince forever. I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant with them.” As we’ve talked about, I don’t know how people who claim to believe the bible can say God is done with Israel. Now its true Israel is under judgment today, and the worst is yet to come. That seven-year period is God completing His program with the nation Israel, and it will be a time of suffering for the nation Israel like they have never seen.

It will also be a time of judgment on an unbelieving world, like it has never seen, but the end of it is not to destroy Israel. The end of it is to restore Israel, so we come to chapter 38. Chapters 38 and 39 are interesting chapters because they talk about an attack that’s going to be made on Israel, by an alliance, and I think this may answer some questions that come to our mind as we’ve worked through the Book of Revelation. We establish this world empire, revived Roman Empire but what about the rest of the world. You understand, the rest of the world—can I put it like this, is nothing, what God is focused on in the bible is Israel.

Come down to the end of verse 12 just before verse 13 and these people are going to come into the land of Israel, and God refers to the land of Israel and the people there as those who live at the center of the world. You have it in the margin, the navel, and other parts of the bible call it, the apple the pupil of His eye. It is the center of the world. What the bible talks about throughout all the Old Testament are the nations as we’ve seen relating to Israel. What about China? What about them? They don’t matter. Well you know how powerful they are. Well we’ve been through the first part of Revelation; over half of the earth’s population has been destroyed. We talked about; maybe those parts of the world are included in that destruction. God doesn’t tell us.

Everything He is going to focus on here are nations that have to do with Israel, so let me read some of chapter 38 for you. Then we’re going to put up a map so I want to just get the content of the chapter then we’ll look at the map. “The word of the LORD came to me, ‘Son of man set your face toward Gog of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, prophesy against him, Thus says the Lord GOD, Behold, I am against you, O Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshach, and Tubal. I will turn you about, put hooks in your jaws; bring you out, all your army, horses, horsemen all of them splendidly attired.’”

You’ll note verse 4 just to pick up “I will bring you out.” The Lord is sovereign even in the sinful acts of men, not that He causes their sin but He is in control, so He uses their sinful desires to accomplish His purposes. A great company, with them verse five, “Persia, Ethiopia, and Put” with them. Verse 6 “Gomer with all its troops; Beth-togarmah from the remotest parts of the north with all its troops. Many peoples with you,” so we’re going to have some names of nations here, peoples, but that’s not all there is in this amalgamated army. You’ll note He throws in “many peoples” with you, and He’ll say a similar kind of expression further down, “the villages” associated. In other words, I’m giving you names that will identify and place these peoples but then there’s others included with them here, and we’ll look at that when we see the map but what will happen?

They come from the remote parts of the north. Down in verse 8 “After many days you will be summoned; . . .” again I love the way the Lord puts it. This is just not working out. This is My plan and it’s time for you to be summoned. You’re going to come up to attack Israel because I’m summoning you. Now’s the time. “In the latter years” becomes a good timeline for us because the latter years carries us to that seven-year period, that we looked at. “You’ll come into the land that is restored from the sword, peoples who have been gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel, which had been a continual waste . . . .” If you read about in any books on the land of Israel, before Israel was established as a nation, what that was, that was just the land of the Bedouins, and that’s what it had been reduced to, but then Israel comes back, is established and all of a sudden, things change.

At the end of verse eight “. . . its people were brought out from the nations, and they are living securely,” that’s another key expression, they are “living securely.” “You will go up, you will come like a storm; you will be like a cloud covering the land, you, the troops the peoples.” Verse 10, “Thus says the Lord GOD, ‘It will come about on that day that thoughts will come into your mind and you will devise an evil plan . . .’” I just love the way Scripture puts it. You know we’re told in the Old Testament that before there’s a word on your lips the Lord knows it. He doesn’t wait to see what you’re going to say, He knows it before it’s said. Well here, it’s been 2,500 years since Ezekiel wrote this prophecy and yet verse 10, the Lord tells us what’s going to come into their mind. What they’re going to be thinking, and what they’re going to be devising in their evil plan.

There are no surprises for God, it’s all under His control and you will say, ‘I will go up against the land of unwalled villages.’ Note that unwalled villages, a time when Israel is defenseless. In those days you know how it was they built a wall around the city, and when an army was coming to attack the people that lived outside in farmlands and so on would all retreat into the city. There they would have stockpiles of food and hopefully a supply of water, and so on to ride out the siege. To hopefully, be able to outlast your enemy. I mean how long can he sit with his army out there? If he can’t get in the walls, he just has to sit and wait, so there are no walled villages anymore. Well if you were in an unwalled city, you would have no defenses.

“I will go up against those who are ‘at rest,’” another key description of Israel at this time. The end of verse 8 “they’re living securely,” in verse 11 “they are in unwalled villages.” They are at rest. Again, they’re told they live securely, all of them living without walls having no bars or gates. It’s not true today, they have one of the great defenses. They’re not afraid to attack the nuclear facilities in Iran, for example. They are a power to be dealt with. This invading force comes to capture spoil, seize plunder, take what Israel has, perhaps the mineral wealth of the Dead Sea, which is huge. Perhaps the gas reserves that have only recently been discovered, whatever. Then you have some other nations, Sheba and Dedan, the merchants of Tarshish with all its villages, so you see there’s more people than just what’s mentioned here. You say, “Have you come to capture spoil?”

And so on, verse 14 “say to Gog, ‘On that day when My people Israel are,’ (here we go again) ‘living securely. You will come from your place out of the remote parts of the north, many peoples with you . . . . You will come up against My people Israel like a cloud to cover the land. It will come about in the last days . . .’” So you see the time setting, the last days, the latter days, that’s that seven-year period. That’s this time leading up to the coming of Christ to establish His kingdom. Again, as we saw earlier in Ezekiel, chapter 36, He’s not doing this because Israel deserves to be delivered. They don’t, any more than you and I, deserve to be forgiven, but God in His grace has made promises to the nation Israel. He has claimed them as the nation that belongs to Himself, so to vindicate His holiness, as the God who keeps His promises, the God who is powerful and able to do what He promised.

So down in verse 23, “I will magnify Myself,” sanctify Myself, “make Myself known in the sight of many nations; they will know that I am the LORD.” He’s going to bring down His judgment on these coming nations. He will destroy them with earthquakes, with fire from heaven. “He’ll call,” verse 21, “for a sword against him on all My mountains. Every man’s sword will be against his brother.” Keep in mind this is an amalgamation of different nations. All of a sudden, you’ve got all kinds of “natural disaster” earthquakes, the earth shaking, fire, thunder, lighting and everything, all of a sudden there is confusion, and now you’ve got these armies comprised of all these different nations, pretty soon they’re fighting against themselves. We’ve seen that in other situations in the Old Testament. You don’t know who the enemy is and who the friend is so they’re just now at war with one another. When all’s said and done, He’s destroyed them.

Verse two, chapter 39 verse 2, “. . . drive you on, take you from the remotest parts of the north and bring you to the mountains of Israel. I will strike the bow from your hand the arrows. You’ll fall on the mountains of Israel.” At the end of verse 6, “you will know that I am the LORD.” At the end of verse 7 “all the nations will know I am the LORD.” Down in verse 22 “The house of Israel will know that I am the LORD . . . .” Verse 25 “I will restore the fortunes of Jacob have mercy on the house of Israel; I will be jealous for My holy name.” Verse 29 “I will not hide My face from them any longer, for I will have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel,” so all this is part of God’s plan of salvation for the nation Israel.

We have a map. What we’ve done is take a more modern map of Israel and place the names, those large names like yellow on a green background; those are the biblical names, put on the present countries, because sometimes countries change names. The most obvious one here is Iran. In the bible it’s called Persia and everyone called it Persia until the 1930’s, 35, 37, I forget offhand when they changed the name, to Iran, but it was known as Persia so nobody questions, so that’s what we’ve done, you see on this more modern map we have the more current name. We want to identify what countries. Part of this goes, we’ve done it on other studies, they’ve become more extensive, but I just want to do an overview. We’ve put these names where they go with the country.

For example, Magog here covers the countries that would be the “stan” countries. I have a nephew that was a missionary over in this region for a number of years. He’s now in Turkey but Magog would cover the region with countries that are presently, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan perhaps even the Ukraine, so what they do is go back to the table of nations in Genesis 10. Noah’s three sons and out of those three sons come the nations of the world, and they track where they go, and what parts of the world they settled and that’s how we identify much of this. You can pick up material that goes into detail down at Sound Words or you can get the studies we’ve done earlier.

Look at this region in here, you may not be able to see it. We put Turkey out here and put Iran in because there’s so many of these countries. They would all be within what we know of as modern day Turkey here. Beth-togarmah, Meshech, Gomer, Tubal, out of the countries mentioned here in Ezekiel 38 would be here. Of course Persia is Iran, Magog as I mentioned would be these countries over here, which we identify as part of the Soviet Empire that they have been reasserting themselves. You have down here, called Put; it’s Libya, down here south of the Mediterranean next to Egypt. The king of the South is not mentioned here but we’re going to look in Daniel 11 in a moment. Egypt is the king of the South it will be mentioned I think in the same alliance in Daniel 11 that’s here. Cush, some have called it Ethiopia. Ethiopia is down off the map here but its better Sudan. What you’ll notice in all the countries we’ve mentioned, they have a characteristic. Just about all of them are Muslim countries.

Now we have Rosh and we put that up here in Russia. There’s a discussion whether Rosh should be translated Russia as a noun as a name or it should be, “Chief.” You may have that in the margin of your bible. Now we’re not going into it but you can get material. I went back all the way to 1968. It’s interesting because there was an article in Bib Sac a theological journal of Dallas Seminary by a man who lived in Lincoln Nebraska, John Ruthven, some of you may know him. He had an article in Bib Sac on Ezekiel 38 showing that Rosh is Russia, and there are other journal articles, a lot of material written on this, but I think the best analysis, both by the name Rosh, is Russia and then you’ll note they come from the remote parts of the north. We’ve seen that a couple of times.

Now I want to show you where Israel is here. It’s a little brown spot. How big is it on that map? It’s a little bigger, you know you can see it and the little white spot in the brown spot is the West Bank and we all know, if Israel would give back the west bank to the Muslims, there could be peace in the world because all these countries, all here, there’s not enough. The real problem is they don’t have this, but we know what the real problem is, right? From God’s perspective, this is the center of the earth. From Satan’s perspective, this is the place God promised to His people, Israel. That’s why it all comes back to this. Why didn’t they create a place for these people called the “Palestinians Now,” which was a name given to the six day war, I believe. Why didn’t they just give them the land of Jordan or cut off part of Saudi Arabia, they got a lot, or have something else. Because we have to keep the turmoil going here.

Well, all of that, this little spot. If you keep going to the remotest parts of the north—wow! Where are we, and that name there in red; you can pretty much read it, that’s Moscow. If you’re going to go to the remotest parts of the north—any doubt where we are. Whom is Russia aligned with? They’ve even moved into this patch right here, which is Syria, which we could assume would be part of the Alliance of Nations, all those peoples.

One other we have to mention, Tarshish. Now why do we mention that? In chapter 38 verse 13, it says Sheba and Dedan. Sheba and Dedan are Saudi Arabia, so that’s over here, Sheba and Dedan. Tarshish is Spain and that would be the far west. Here’s Italy, this was the capitol of the Roman Empire.

Remember we’re talking about the revived Roman Empire. This is about the revived Roman Empire and Israel. If you’re going to the far west, you’re going to Spain. Remember we looked, at the end of Romans when Paul wanted to go to an unreached part of the world. Rome already had a church here in Italy, so he says I haven’t made a special attempt to get there, but I’m going to be going to Spain. I’ll stop in Rome on my way but my real ministry is to go where nobody has ever been with the gospel. He’s going to the far west here as they have it. The Roman Empire here encompasses this and down around the Mediterranean, capitol in Italy in Rome. There’s going to be a revival of this empire.

How do we deal with the Muslims? Well what happens is they attack Israel, and get destroyed. Come over to Daniel 11. You’re in Ezekiel just after Ezekiel is Daniel, chapter 11, and you talk about the king of the North. Now what happened with this map, when armies were going to attack Israel down here, this is all desert as you’re aware, so Babylon is over here. It’s not on this map but Baghdad’s here and Babylon would be right about here. When armies were going to attack Israel, whether it was the Persian armies, the Assyrian armies, they didn’t come across the desert into Israel. That’s too hard to take an army across that desert. That’s a large desert. They would go across what you’d call the Fertile Crescent. You’d come up and around, and down into Israel from the north, so the north become, a lot of times that the bible talks about, coming from the north.

That becomes anticipatory for that one who will come from the remotest parts of the north, in Ezekiel so that preliminary enemy that has often come. In fact I talked about Nebuchadnezzar, when Nebuchadnezzar invaded Israel, 605 BC, while he was here his father died back in Babylon, so instead of going back around the Fertile Crescent to get back to Babylon to make sure his throne was secure, he took a contingent of soldiers and went across the desert, because that’s much shorter. He had to get home fast because you know what happens, the king dies, he’s your father but if you’re not there to secure your throne, somebody else usurps it while you’re gone, and then you’re in trouble, so has nothing to do with Ezekiel 38 I just thought it was interesting so this is the west here.

They have a question in verse 36 with the Saudi’s asking this army attacking, “what are you doing?” This is interesting since sometimes Saudi Arabia has been more aligned with the West even though they’re Muslims yet maybe that will remain the same. At any rate, this comes in an alliance, now you come to chapter 11 of Daniel and the first 30-some verses down through at least verse 32 are about something that’s been fulfilled in history, but verse 36 carries us to the future, and that’s not unusual in biblical prophecy, because remember the Church Age is not here. We have to deal with judgments taking place at times in Israel’s history that are all ultimately anticipatory for the final seven-year period when God will bring ultimate judgment on Israel, on the world, and ultimately bring about the salvation of the nation Israel by the time we get to the end of that seven-year period.

So when you get to verse 36 you see then the king will do as he pleases, and we noted this. This is one of the titles of the Antichrist. We looked at this when we were in Revelations 13, the beast out of the sea, the little horn, in Daniel 7 and the other titles, the lawless one of 2 Thessalonians 2. The king, this is the man who is leading the Western Revived Roman Empire. He will exalt himself, magnify himself above every god, speak monstrous things against the God of gods; he will prosper until the indignation is finished that will bring us to the end of the seven years. He will show no regard for the gods of his fathers. In other words, we saw when you get to the middle of that seven-year period, all religions are done away with.

There’s only one religion, worship of the Antichrist, and he’s the one who has supreme power and might and authority. Come down to verse 38 “he’ll honor the god of fortresses, a god whom his fathers did not know; he’ll honor him with gold, silver. . .” and it’s all become the worship of him and his power, his supreme power and authority. Remember Revelations 13, anyone who does not worship him must be executed. “He’ll take actions against the strongest of fortresses . . . he’ll give honor to those who will acknowledge him, cause them to rule over the many, he’ll parcel out land with a price,” so that seven year period.

The first 3½-years he solidifies his power, works in harmony with the religious system and the 10 nations, but the last 3½ he’s absolute. Verse 40 at the end time, the king of the South and that’s Egypt. That’s why we put it on the map down here. The king of the North, will storm against him with chariots, horsemen and so on and enter countries, and he’ll be allied with the king of the South. They will enter the Beautiful Land, many countries will follow but they’ll be rescued. Verse 42, then he will stretch out his hand against other countries the land of Egypt will not escape. He will gain control over the hidden treasures gold, silver, the things in Egypt, the Libyans the Ethiopians will fall at his heels.

Rumors from the East and the North will disturb him. He’ll go forth, pitch his tents of his royal pavilion between the seas and the beautiful Holy Mountain. Chapter 12 “now at that time Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation . . .” Now remember there were no chapter divisions, there were no verse divisions when this was originally written, so this just flows. Now at that time, when, well verse 40 at the time of the end. When does Michael stand up on behalf of the people? We saw that in Revelation chapter 12. There was war in heaven, Michael and his angels against the devil and his angels, and Satan is cast out and he comes down on the earth with great wrath, and remember that last 3½-years is the worst of the worst. The first 3½ were the worst the last 3½ were the worst of the worst. A time of distress and for Israel it will be the worst of times because now in that concentrated 3½-year period the devil and all of his people, which are all the peoples of the world who are not of the elect will join in trying to annihilate the Jews.

So at that time, your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued. “Those who have their names in the book of life and those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven; lead many to righteousness, like the stars.” What’s going on? For time here, down toward the end of verse 7, would be for a time, times, and a half time. Time, times, and a half time we saw that in Revelation 12. It was also said to be 42 months, 1,260 days, so we’re talking about what’s going to be happening here, in the middle of this tribulation, which enables the Antichrist to take full power. Verse 11 Daniel can’t understand it because it’s going to take later revelation. When he asked in verse 8 he says I heard but I couldn’t understand, and the angel says to him, verse 9, Daniel, “Go your way,” these are concealed, sealed up for the end time, so not until we get to the Book of Revelation does this get clear, really clear and how this all will unfold.

“From the time the regular sacrifice is abolished, the abomination of desolation is set up . . . that happens in the middle of the seven years, . . . will be 1,290 days.” That’s an extra 30 days, and then we’re going to have extra days. Blessed is the one who keeps waiting until the 1,335 day! We’ll talk about that when we get into chapter 19 and chapter 20, but you can see we’re right around the 3½-year period even there but we added time for things that have to take place, for the setting up of the kingdom. The judgments and so on that will take place, so I take it, this in Daniel 11 with this attack, what happens these armies that have assembled in Ezekiel 38 and 39 come pouring down to attack Israel. An attack on Israel is what, what would it be considered today, well someone attacks Israel, the United States would come to their defense.

The revived Roman Empire under the leadership of the Antichrist has inked an agreement, a covenant with Israel. Why can they be living in unwalled cities, without defenses, no bars no gates? I mean there are no kinds of defense for this city because they have put their full confidence and trust in this man now who’s leading the revived Roman Empire. When this confederacy of Ezekiel 38, which we have on the map comes together to attack, what’s the Antichrist do? Well this is an attack on him, his power, his kingdom that he’s assembling, so he moves his armies into Israel but what happens. In all of this God destroys the attacking armies, so what’s left? The Antichrist and his armies.

It’s perhaps in this body and this battle that the Antichrist is slain. Remember chapter 13 of Revelation, he is slain and he comes back to life. Now you put this all together the supernatural destruction without him having to go to battle with these armies that were attacking Israel, and him being resurrected from the dead. Is it any wonder now the false prophet can step up and say, “We have God on earth?” “Who can stand against him?” Second Thessalonians 2, he is sovereign power, so people wonder, what about the Muslims? How is all the world going to worship him? Well they’re taken care of by God, these are all wiped out. What about China way over here, and Japan and that. What can I say? I don’t want to be unkind, but they don’t count.

We don’t count. The only way we might fit ourselves in is over here with the West, Tarshish; it’s over there in Spain. You know in its villages, maybe we’re part of that Western Alliance. We hope, we hope, we hope, we hope, we hope because if not maybe, remember large parts of the world, a third part of the earth is destroyed here. A quarter part of the earth is destroyed there. As we’ve talked about, maybe the volcanos under Yellowstone go off. Reading, they’ve found some now on the east coast under Massachusetts and that, they didn’t even know were there but we’re safe. It’s going to be a long time until they go off, so they say. What if some of those things go off? All the catastrophes in the first 3½-years, well if the east coast is gone, and the west coast is gone, and the middle is being racked by, earthquakes disasters, I don’t think we’ll be much of a player. The same with China. I don’t know, God doesn’t say, because they looked powerful to us, and boy, how are we going to work this out, we’ve got to fit this in, but we don’t have to fit it in.

See where God’s focus is. This map tells you. This is where God’s focus is. This is what it’s about; we’re going to talk about the revived Roman Empire. Well the Roman Empire is included here. You see where Italy is, and the countries around it, what we call Europe, and down around the Mediterranean, that’s the Roman Empire of Paul’s day, John’s day. We’re going to revive that with a 10-nation confederacy. What about Muslim power? Ezekiel 38 and 39 say it’s gone, wiped out. They are destroyed in the earthquakes and the disasters God brought, and then, they killed themselves. They have, you know turned their swords against each other because you’ve got people from one country and they’re fighting against people of another country and they can’t understand them anyway, so they’re probably the enemy and so it all fits together.

I bring this up because before we go into chapter 18 with the destruction of commercial and political Babylon, it does fit here because in the middle of those seven-years the Antichrist destroys the false religious system that’s been helping to keep his empire solidified. He doesn’t need it anymore, and if the Muslims have been destroyed, you take the Christians, of all stripes, including Roman Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox and Muslims out of this region we have on the map what’s left? Well, it’s taken care of. All you’re left with is the apostate system, which is a form of Christianity because the Muslims are gone, and that system that’s been amalgamated is not needed anymore, so now we can have the Antichrist. That seems to me to be where it all fits together and how it will work out. So we’ll be ready and we have to face another issue next time.

We have to decide what Babylon is because you know what’s going to become the capitol, of the Antichrist, Babylon. Now some people say Babylon is a symbolic name for Rome, because John wouldn’t want to use Rome because he’s already exiled on the island of Patmos so we’ll use a code name. Peter mentions Babylon at the end of his letter and that’s probably because he was in Rome and didn’t want to cause trouble by mentioning Rome, or is Babylon, Babylon and would there be a rebuilt city of Babylon? You can see where Iraq is and Babylon would be right here and lest there be any confusion, we have another map for next time with Babylon, so we’ll leave it there. Let’s pray together.

Father we are in awe. You are the God that does not wait for events to happen. You determine what will happen. Even the vile sinfulness of mankind in persistent constant rebellion against You, the various nations of the world, the various religions of the world, they are nothing. The nations are not but a speck of dust on a scale. You know the thoughts of men thousands of years before they come into their mind. You know the evil they’re devising, and in Your sovereignty, You use their evil sinful desires to accomplish Your purpose. Lord, we are in awe of Your mercy, Your patience, Your love, Your kindness, with the nation Israel that persists to this day in their rejection of Christ, their rebellion, and we are reminded we are like them in the sinfulness of our heart, but for Your grace. The grace that will be poured out upon Israel, the grace that has been poured out upon us today, as Gentiles, undeserving, unworthy but Christ died to be the Savior of the world, not just the nation Israel but for Gentiles who also come to believe in the Savior. May we who believe, Lord, be living in light of these truths, realizing that we may be moving very close to the time when Christ will come to call us into Your presence. May we be faithful and diligent in all we do. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.