“Thus says the Lord God: ‘Are you he of whom I have spoken in former days by My servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied for years in those days that I would bring you against them? And it will come to pass at the same time, when Gog comes against the land of Israel,’ says the Lord God, ‘that My fury will show in My face. For in My jealousy and in the fire of My wrath I have spoken: ‘Surely in that day there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel, so that the fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, the beasts of the field, all creeping things that creep on the earth, and all men who are on the face of the earth shall shake at My presence. The mountains shall be thrown down, the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground. I will call for a sword against Gog throughout all My mountains,’ says the Lord God. ‘Every man’s sword will be against his brother. And I will bring him to judgment with pestilence and bloodshed; I will rain down on him, on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him, flooding rain, great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. Thus I will magnify Myself and sanctify Myself, and I will be known in the eyes of many nations. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.’” Ezekiel 38:17-23.

It begins with a violent earthquake; one so great that the whole earth suffers from the trembling. It is also mentioned that the mountains shall be thrown down, steep places will fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.

This is problematic because it seems as if the destruction is worldwide, which it may be except the earthquake is said to be, “…a great earthquake in the land of Israel”, so the shaking may affect the entire earth, but the greatest damage will be on the mountains of Israel.

In which case the mountains may be thrown down, not flat, but have huge rock slides, some mountains heaving and settling and splitting open. While the steep places like cliffs would sheer off and fall.

The interesting thing about the walls falling is that this applies to city walls or walls in general indicating that while cities may receive structural damage they will not collapse entirely.

This becomes more logical when it is remembered that the armies of Russia will fall on the mountains of Israel.

“…every man’s sword will be against his brother”, it is not hard to see how this would happen, with the confusion of different languages and lack of cooperation between the commanders that would be in charge.

One incident of friendly fire from a misdirected missile would bring swift retaliation and then chaos.

There is a precedent to this in the account of Gideon who took an army of 300 men against about 135,000 Midianites 120,000 of whom died when they wound up slaughtering each other, see Judges chapters 6-8.

The Lord will also send pestilence (plague) among them, bloodshed, flooding rain, great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.

The flooding rain alone would make a great army nearly impossible to evacuate or mobilize. Tanks and other vehicles mired down in the mud, great hailstones begin to fall killing many who could not find shelter.

Hail, fire and brimstone is reminiscent of the seventh plague that God brought upon Egypt by the hand of Moses, see Exodus 9:22-25. Expect these three plagues to be literal, hail, fire, and brimstone not figurative.

“And you, son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I am against you, O Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal; and I will turn you around and lead you on, bringing you up from the far north, and bring you against the mountains of Israel.”’” Ezekiel 39:1-2.

The King James Version renders verse 2 in this manner:

“…and I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel…” Ezekiel 39:2.

The meaning here is that five sixths of the armies of Russia will perish on the mountains of Israel while one sixth will escape.

But the phrase, “…and leave but the sixth part of thee” is not in the original text and has been left out of later translations such as the New King James Version being used here, nor is it used in the New American Standard Version.

Simply put, all of the Russian army and the many peoples with them will die on the mountains of Israel. And as it says in verse 6, God will send fire on Magog and the coastlands, effectively wiping out Russia as any kind of world power.

“Then I will knock the bow out of your left hand, and cause the arrows to fall out of your right hand. You shall fall upon the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops and the peoples who are with you; I will give you to birds of prey of every sort and to the beasts of the field to be devoured. You shall fall on the open field; for I have spoken,” says the Lord God. “And I will send fire on Magog and on those who live in security in the coastlands. Then they shall know that I am the Lord. So I will make My holy name known in the midst of My people Israel, and I will not let them profane My holy name anymore. Then the nations shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel. Surely it is coming, and it shall be done,” says the Lord God. “This is the day of which I have spoken.” Ezekiel 39:3-8.

Again God affirms the purpose of this invasion; to show the world who the real God of the heavens and the earth is, and to confirm to Israel that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is very real and is concerned for the welfare of the nation He has called to Himself.

God’s confirmation that this event is as inevitable as the sunrise tomorrow is in the words, “Surely it is coming, and it shall be done…”

“Then those who dwell in the cities of Israel will go out and set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and bucklers, the bows and arrows, the javelins and spears; and they will make fires with them for seven years. They will not take wood from the field nor cut down any from the forests, because they will make fires with the weapons; and they will plunder those who plundered them, and pillage those who pillaged them,” says the Lord God.” Ezekiel 39:9-10.

As for the prophecy of Israel burning the weapons of war for seven years the facts are that such a thing can be done now because of a Dutch invention called Lignostone.

Made of compressed wood, it was initially meant to be used as a fuel because it burns at an extremely high temperature. However, the Russians have found that this wood is light and as strong as steel, it is nearly invisible to radar, and resistant to nuclear radiation.

As a result they are using it in their weapons of war, so much so that Israel will be able to rely solely on these weapons as fuel for seven years.

The number seven years also gives us a hint as to when this invasion is to take place. Israel will not need to burn these articles during the millennium because Christ who will rule during that period would have renewed and replenished the earth after it had been scorched during the seven year period of the tribulation.

As a result of this, the Russian invasion of Israel could only be a short time before the beginning of the tribulation period.

“It will come to pass in that day that I will give Gog a burial place there in Israel, the valley of those who pass by east of the sea; and it will obstruct travelers, because there they will bury Gog and all his multitude. Therefore they will call it the Valley of Hamon Gog. For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them, in order to cleanse the land. Indeed all the people of the land will be burying them, and they will gain renown for it on the day that I am glorified,” says the Lord God. “They will set apart men regularly employed, with the help of a search party, to pass through the land and bury those bodies remaining on the ground, in order to cleanse it. At the end of seven months they will make a search. The search party will pass through the land; and whenever anyone sees a man’s bone, he shall set up a marker by it, till the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon Gog. The name of the city will also be Hamonah. Thus they shall cleanse the land.” Ezekiel 39:11-16.

The burial of the dead will take seven months, and they will be buried in a place east of the Mediterranean Sea, in the Jordan Valley above the Dead Sea. They will call it the Valley of Hamon Gog, which means, the multitude of Gog. The name of the city near this burial site will be Hamonah, which means, multitude.

It would not be surprising if Israel, in the subsequent power vacuum, occupied all of the land that the twelve tribes took when they entered the land as described in the book of Joshua on about 1400 B.C.

It is also possible that the Dome of the Rock which sits on the site of the old Israelite temple will be demolished by the earthquake described in Ezekiel 38:19-20 (opening quote to this post), enabling the Jews to rebuild their temple which is mentioned in the book of Revelation.

It is my belief that this catastrophe will be the end of Islam, or at least the end of their power, due to the loss of multitudes of its able bodied men. It is likely that the Palestinian Arabs, Hezbollah, terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood, and many others who will undoubtedly heed the call of Allah, through his Imam mouthpieces, to annihilate Israel.

Others will be dismayed when the God of the Christians and the Jews destroys the armies of Allah.

Allah, by the way is not the same God as the Christians and the Jews, rather several sources have indicated that he is the moon god that Muhammad worshipped at the time he was converted.

In Islam, God is considered to be inferior to Allah. They even mock the fact that God has a Son Jesus Christ, making their defeat in Israel even more humiliating. All this remains to be seen.

All of the events described in Ezekiel 38 to 39:1-20 occur before the beginning of the tribulation, and either just before the rapture of the Christians out of the world, or just after it.

The rapture of the church is imminent, it can happen at any moment; it is in no way dependent on the invasion of Israel.

The seven year tribulation period does not start with the rapture, they could be years apart. The tribulation begins when Israel signs a seven year treaty with the Antichrist (the prince who is to come), which is referred to in Daniel.

“Then he [Antichrist] shall confirm a covenant with many [Jews] for one week [7 years]; but in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, even until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on the desolate [Israelites].” Daniel 9:27.

Even after such a miraculous rescue from the Russian armies by God, there will still be unbelieving Jews in Israel, it is these who will sign the covenant with the Antichrist. How hard the human heart is.

An Evil Plan, Part 2 taken from godisrevealed.com updated on 10-7-15 reposted on 12-10-23.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.