Israel and the Gog-Magog Deception

It seems to me looking back that every time Israel gets into a war it invariable starts the talk is this the Ezekiel 38-39 Gog--Magog end times battle? No its not for the simple reason that battle has already happened in the book of Esther.

I don't want to do a major prophecy study here but for those of you wanting to have an alternate view I will give you a shortened outline for you to study further to help you in your Bible study.

This is important. I am working on 40 year generational vision for the church and in my scenarios the nation state of Israel in Palestine is not only not in my planning scenario but the Israeli state does not survive this evolving Middle East crisis....at least not for long.

If the battle described in Ezekiel 38–39 does not refer to modern-day nations that will attack Israel, then when and where in biblical history did this conflict take place? Instead of looking to the distant future look into the past. In fact it is in the book of Esther that we see a conspiracy to plunder the Jews, which backfires with the result that the Jews plundered their enemies. This event is then ceremonially sealed with the institution of the annual Feast of Purim.

In the context for Ezekiel 38 and 39 Ezekiel describes the attack of Gog, Chief Prince of Magog, and his confederates. Ezekiel states that people from all over the world attack God’s people, who are pictured dwelling at peace in the land. God’s people will completely defeat them, however, and the spoils will be immense. The result is that all nations will see the victory, and “the house of Israel will know that I am the Lord their God from that day onward” (Ezek. 39:21–23).

The problems and issues that modern day prophecy writers can't answer from these scriptures are numerous:

- Who and from where are these people who attack Israel, Russia, Germany, Libya, Turkey, Really? Russia launches a long overland march of armies to invade Israel? This is totally unrealistic. Fact: Putin has good relations with Jews in Russia and with Israel.
- They all invade to "take great spoil". What great wealth does Israel have that would want them to invade Israel? Oil,gas? Russia, Iran etc have plenty of that. Israel is a desolate dry land, little resources and its great resource are its very clever resourceful people.
- The scripture says this event takes place when the Jews are living peacefully in "un-walled villages." Current Israel has huge walls of protection because they are not living peacefully. Since 2006, the Israeli government has built more than 435 miles of walls in Israel.

The events of Esther took place during the reign of Darius and Ahasuares after the initial rebuilding of the Temple under Joshua the High Priest and Zerubbabel and shortly before rebuilding of the walls by Nehemiah. Thus, the interpretive hypothesis I am suggesting is this: Ezekiel 34–37 describes Israel as a valley of bones and God asks Ezekiel "can these bones live? Ezekiel was in mourning because while he was in exile in 586 BC Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed by the Babylonians and the land emptied and sent into exile.

For Ezekiel the dream of Israel had died. How can these bones live? And yet from that desolation God kept His word. The Jews will return. The nation and Jerusalem and the Temple will be rebuilt.

This is not referring to 1948. It is referring to 534 BC when Cyrus released the Jews from captivity to return to the land. the first return of the exiles was under Zerubbabel, the governor and Joshua the High Priest. Fulfilling Ezekiel 34-37. Ezra organized the new Temple and the law and the priesthood.

Ezekiel 38–39 describes the attack of Gog (Haman) and his confederates against the Jews.

Finally, Ezekiel 40–48 describes in figurative language the situation as a result of the work of Nehemiah.

Ezekiel 38:5–6 tells us that Israel’s enemies come from “Persia, Cush, and . . . from the remote parts of the north,” all within the boundaries of the Persian Empire of Esther’s day. From Esther we learn that the Persian Empire “extended from India to Cush, 127 provinces” in all (Esther 8:9). Ethiopia (Cush) and Persia are listed in Esther 1:1 and 3 and are also found in Ezekiel 38:5. The other nations were in the geographical boundaries “from India to Ethiopia” in the “127 provinces” over which Ahasueras ruled (Esther 1:1).

In other words, the explicit idea that the Jews were attacked by people from all the provinces of Persia is in both passages, and the nations listed by Ezekiel were part of the Persian empire of the prophet’s day. The parallels are unmistakable. Even Ezekiel’s statement that the fulfilment of the prophecy takes place in a time when there are “unwalled villages” (Ezek. 38:11) is not an indication of a distant future fulfilment. The Jews were living in peace and in unwalled villages in the Persian empire.

The chief antagonist of the Jews in Esther is Haman, “the son of Hammedatha the Agagite” (Esther 3:1, 10; 8:3, 5; 9:24).[7] An Agagite is a descendant of Amalek, one of the persistent enemies of the people of God. In Numbers 24:20 we read, “Amalek was the first of the nations, but his end shall be destruction.” The phrase “first of the nations” takes us back to the early chapters of Genesis where we find “Gomer,” “Magog,” “Tubal,” and “Meshech,” and their father Japheth (Gen. 10:2), the main antagonist nations that figure prominently in Ezekiel 38 and 39. Amalek was probably a descendant of Japheth (Gen. 10:2).

Haman and his ten sons are the last Amalekites who appear in the Bible. In Numbers 24:7, the Septuagint (LXX) translates “Agag” as “Gog.” One late manuscript of Esther 3:1 and 9:24 refers to Haman as a ‘Gogite.’”

The only Agag mentioned in the OT is the king of Amalek (Num. 24:7; 1 Sam. 15:9) All Jewish, and many Christian commentators think that Haman is meant to be a descendant of this Agag. This view is probably correct, because Mordecai, his rival, is a descendant of Saul ben Kish, who overthrew Agag (1 Sam. 17:8–16), and is specially cursed in the law (Deut. 25:17). It is, therefore, probably the author’s intention to represent Haman as descended from this race that was characterized by an ancient and unquenchable hatred of Israel.

There is another link between Haman the Agagite in Esther and Gog in Ezekiel 38–39. “According to Ezekiel 39:11 and 15, the place where the army of Gog is buried will be known as the Valley of Hamon-Gog, and according to verse 16, the nearby city will become known as Hamonah.” The word hamon in Ezekiel is spelled in Hebrew almost exactly like the name Haman. In Hebrew, both words have the same ‘triliteral root’ (hmn). Only the vowels are different.

Haman is the “prince-in-chief” of a multi-national force that he gathers from the 127 provinces with the initial permission of king Ahasuerus to wipe out his mortal enemy—the Jews (Ex. 17:8–16; Num. 24:7; 1 Sam. 15:8; 1 Chron. 4:42–43; Deut. 25:17–19). Consider these words: “King Ahasuerus promoted Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him and established his authority over all the princes who were with him” (Esther 3:1). Having “authority over all the princes who were with him” makes him the “chief prince.” In Esther 3:12 we read how Haman is described as the leader of the satraps, governors, and princes

That corresponds to the description in Ezekiel of Gog as the "chief prince".

Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom [this included Israel]; their laws are different from those of all otherpeople and they do not comply with the king’s laws, so it is not in the king’s interest to let them remain. If it is pleasing to the king, let it be decreed that they be eliminated, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who carry out the king’s business, to put into the king’s treasuries….” Then the king’s scribes were summoned on the thirteenth day of the first month, and it was written just as Haman commanded to the king’s satraps, to the governors who were over each province and to the officials of each people, each province according to its script, each people according to its language, being written in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with the king’s signet ring. Letters were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces to annihilate, kill, and destroy all the Jews, both young and old, women and children, in one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to seize their possessions as plunder (vv. 8-9, 12-13).

From all over the Persian empire a confederation of various national groups described in Ezkiel 38-39 conspired with Haman under the decree to slay the Jews qho lived in peace in un-walled villages.

The events in the book of Esther are the events predicted in the battle described in Ezekiel 38-39. Here’s the clincher. The battle in Ezekiel 38 and 39 is clearly an ancient one or at least one fought with ancient weapons: All the soldiers are riding horses (38:4, 15; 39:20); these horse soldiers are “wielding swords” (38:4), carrying “bows and arrows, war clubs and spears” (39:3, 9); the weapons are made of wood (39:10), and it is these abandoned weapons that serve as fuel for “seven years” (39:9).

Esther's intervention with Mordecai changed the fortunes of the Jews. They were permitted by the king to arm themselves and fight back. They won a great victory over this league of nationalities led by Haman the Agagite (Gog) and received great spoil from the battle and defeat of their enemies.

Which is why the bookof Esther is in the Bible....to show how God's prophecies of Ezekiel were fulfilled: The miraculous return and rise of the dead bones, the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Temple, the peaceful life of the people in their promised land, the great attack of a confederation of nations under the rule of the Persian empire, the great victory from this great battle.

All prophesied in Ezekiel, all fulfilled in Esther.

The return of Jews to Palestine in 1948 was what Jesus described as the sowing of Tares in God's wheat field. They look the same until it is time to bear the fruit of the children of Abraham.

All leaves and now fruit. Jesus cursed that fig tree.

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