The Magog Invasion: An Alternate View - Session 2 - Chuck Missler

Well, we're going to take the second session.

In the first session, of course, we reviewed the text of Ezekiel 38 and 39 and just highlighted some of the primary insights from that text.

That gives rise to this fascination that so many of us have with the so-called Magog invasion.

And it may surprise you from time to time that I'll make some discoveries that'll cause me to change my view.

I'm not quite there yet, but there certainly are some things that I think we have failed to really examine carefully enough.

There's a possibility that there is a prelude event that precedes the invasion in of Ezekiel 38 and 39.

And we're going to explore that in this coming session.

So let's open with a word of prayer.

Father, we thank you for who you are, we thank you for your word.

We pray, Father, that you would guide our thoughts through your Holy Spirit.

That you would help us to understand what you would have of us in the days that remain.

As we commit ourselves into your hands in the name of Yeshua.

Our coming king.

Amen.

Okay, I'm going to it may sound strange.

I'm calling the second part a prelude because I think we've overlooked a a prelude.

That has to precede the circumstances that we encounter in Ezekiel 38.

As you may recall that we have all these ancient tribal names of a far-flung group of allies.

That organize themselves to take spoil to attack to invade Israel to take advantage of gold, silver, and cattle and goods and what have you.

And Sheba and Dedan are strangely on the sidelines, interestingly enough.

Sheba being Yemen and Dedan being Saudi Arabia.

Now, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Iranian nuclear emergence, the oil discoveries that in the Caspian, all these things keep this whole activity in the front pages of our newspaper.

And they all appear as if they're preparatory to steps in advance of the big climax.

Okay, but why is there no mention of Israel's immediate neighbors in any of the allusions here?

Where are the Palestinians?

Where are the Lebanese?

Where are the Syrians?

Where's Iraq?

Where's where the Jordanians?

Where the Egyptians?

The Saudi these are not mentioned in Ezekiel 38 and 39 and yet they're major, major players in the situation right there in Israel.

Now, these nations are either immediately adjacent or even indigenous to parts of Israel today.

And so we're going to take a look at these.

And there's four prerequisites that have been established.

The nation's reestablished as a sovereign state.

We understand that.

The nation is presented in Ezekiel as militarily secure.

They're not really quite there yet.

A nation at peace in the Middle East.

I don't think so.

A nation of restored fortunes.

Not yet.

They're doing well in many ways.

Are they really dwelling in peace as Ezekiel 38:8 says?

Are they dwelling without walls as verse 38:11 says?

We know about the historical walls, the Chinese wall, of course.

And the Berlin Wall in 1961.

What about the wall today in through Israel that's 25 feet high and 430 miles long?

Certainly not describing the text today.

Well, there's some contrasts.

In Ezekiel 38 and 39 and there's a Psalm I want to explore, Psalm 83.

In Ezekiel 38:9, the players are allies from an outer ring of non-bordering nations.

Every one of the nations in Ezekiel 38 and 39.

Are from a distant ring of nations around Israel.

We got that so far?

Okay.

In Psalm 83, we're going to discover there's a group of nations that confederate with the express purpose of wiping Israel off the map.

And they're the bordering nations of Israel.

Now, in Ezekiel 38 and 39, the motivation of the the nations there are spoil and plunder.

They're after gold, silver, cattle and goods in Ezekiel 38:12-13.

The motivation in Psalm 83 is to wipe Israel off the map.

Do you understand the difference?

One's exploitive, sure, in the form of greed.

The other one is irrational hatred.

They're very different creatures.

So, there's another something else before we even get to Ezekiel 38.

We encounter Ezekiel 37, the Valley of the Dry Bones.

And it's a it's an idiomatic way of explaining the re-re-assembly of the nation Israel, right?

Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the winds.

Thus saith the Lord God, come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.

And it's speaking of Israel nationally, of course, there.

The breath of life is breathed from the four winds of heaven, it's a symbol of universal life-giving of the Spirit of God.

No surprise with the idioms.

But I want you to notice verse 10 because we all miss this.

As we read 37, the dry bones.

Verse 10 says, so I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived.

And stood up upon their feet, an exceedingly great army.

In your King James, it'll say exceeding great army.

But it's an adverb, not an adjective.

There's three steps.

They're scattered.

They came together with flesh and skin, but they're still dead in a sense.

They came to life.

And the word there is meod, which is exceedingly.

It's an adverb.

They became a great army.

Are they a great army today?

You could defend that.

They've had a pretty interesting record.

But they're really skirmishes, aren't they?

Are they really an army that everybody terrifies?

No, they're a defensive unit, aren't they?

And yet are they?

That's going to be something we want to think about here a little bit.

An exceedingly great army.

We may be in for a big surprise.

I suspect that Netanyahu has a backbone.

And that's part of an anatomy that's conspicuously missing from prime ministers for some years.

Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir were exceptions, but since then it's been a pretty sad lot.

And Netanyahu is a refreshing, possible exception.

So the question I want to pose for this evening, is there a possibly an overlooked event that precedes the ill-fated invasion attempt by Magog and his allies featured in Ezekiel 38 and 39?

That at the best of my knowledge is missed by not all, but most authorities.

I want to explore the Book of Psalms, and it's amazing to most students to discover.

How much of our prophecies are anchored in the Psalms.

If you're talking about Messianic prophecies, it's astonishing.

But there are many other nuggets hidden all through here.

And Psalm 83 may be a hint of a forthcoming scenario that most of us have either overlooked or presumed are part of the Millennium or part of the Second Coming or what have you.

Maybe not.

It's one of the last of the song Psalm of Asaph.

Keep not thou silence, O God, hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God.

For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult, and they that hate thee have lifted up the head.

Wow, now these aren't just enemies.

These are theologically adversaries.

Okay.

This is the last Psalm of the Asaph series and a rather puzzling one.

Whoever these enemies are here, they hate God and are lifting their head.

Whatever that means.

Okay.

They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones.

Who's that?

Israel.

They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones.

Wow.

I wonder who they are.

The hidden ones.

That can have any of several meanings.

There are some tribal groups that are really hidden from the eyes of most people.

I'll show you some of that.

Or it may be even an allusion to a rapture that has taken place.

Who knows?

Just a guess.

Is it post-Harpazo?

I think it is for a number of other reasons, but let's go on here.

They have said, come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.

For they have consulted together with one consent.

They are confederate against thee.

Wow.

That's the very commitment of Islam, isn't it?

To wipe Israel off the map.

That is not the motivation of the Ezekiel 38 gang.

They're there to just take advantage of spoil.

No, these guys are motivated by hatred.

That's their primary basis of confederation.

They remind you of somebody?

Okay.

He happens not to be one of them, but you he he articulates what they're after.

Let's just jump in and take a look at Psalm 83.

The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites, of Moab, and the Hagarines, Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek, the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre.

Assur also is joined with them, they have holpen the children of Lot.

Selah.

Boy, a handful.

Three little verses there.

The first identity are the tents of Edom, the tabernacles of Edom.

Now, this is probably the most important one of the bunch.

And we will have a whole series of articles and studies on identifying them more carefully.

But to keep this moving here, I'm going to suggest that Edom, if you understand your Bible.

Is idiomatic of the traditional enemies of Israel.

All through their history.

More so than any other specific group, probably.

The tents of Edom, I suspect, are the Palestinian refugees and the Southern Jordanians.

Not limited to them.

But they're included in that group, okay?

The tents of Edom.

You want a picture of the tents of Edom?

Take a look at any of the camps.

That are around that are being used cynically by the Arabs to let them be the pawns for their political shenanigans.

Countries and this is 96,000 of them.

It's one example in the Bekaa Valley.

The tents of Edom.

And the more you know about that background, the more cynical it becomes.

Because the countries that could easily absorb them chose not to because they're more convenient as a political instrument.

To get the the sympathies of the world on the myth of the Palestinian issue and all that.

So who are the Palestinians?

Well, the Gaza Strip.

West Bank.

Golan Heights.

But what about the ethnics?

You go down the list that includes, gee, Edomites, Egyptians, Assyrians, Philistines, Sidonians, Ammonites, Moabites, Yemenites, Saudi Arabians, Moroccans, Christians from Greece, Muslim Sherkas from Russia, Muslims from Bosnia, et cetera.

But the ones that are the critical ones, interestingly enough.

I beginning to understand are those that you probably don't even wouldn't even recognize if you saw one.

And I want to talk a little bit about the everlasting hatred.

Olam Eybah.

The eternal hatred.

It started in the womb between Jacob and Esau.

And it continues to this day.

It started in Genesis 25, verse 19, and these are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son, Abraham begat Isaac.

And Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to Laban the Syrian.

And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife, because she was barren, and the Lord was entreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.

Oh, boy, the children struggled together within her, and she said, if it be so, why am I thus?

And she went to inquire of the Lord.

And the Lord said unto her, two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels.

And the one people shall be stronger than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger.

And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.

And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment, and they called his name Esau.

And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau's heel, and his name was called Jacob.

And Isaac was threescore years old when she bare them.

And the boys grew, and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field.

And Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents.

And Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison, but Rebekah loved Jacob.

Esau.

Fascinating wordplays were used to describe the first twin.

The name Esau has a loose connection with the word Seir, the early name for Edom to the southeast of the Dead Sea, where Esau later lived.

Genesis 32:3, 36:8.

The Hebrew word red, admoni, is related to the word Edom, Edom, cf. 25:30, and hairy, se'ar, is similar to Seir.

Those words were carefully chosen to portray in the lad the nature of Edom, a later archrival of Israel.

That's going to play out in the drama that follows.

Now, Jacob.

May he God protect is one way.

Ya'aqob.

The aqeb, heel.

Aqob, deceitful, sly, insidious.

Thus, one who grabs the heel or one who trips up.

I love to ask this question, would you buy a used car from Jacob?

I don't know.

You know, that's that's a question.

Okay.

In Romans, New Testament, it speaks for the children have not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth.

It was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger.

As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

So that that starts the mystery.

For the early stage.

Getting back to Genesis 25, remember Jacob saw pottage, and Esau came from the field and was faint.

Remember Esau was the older brother, right?

He had the birthright.

Esau said to Jacob, feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage for I am faint.

Therefore was his name called Edom.

Because again, he was red when he was born.

It's the red pottage that just plays through the story here.

And Jacob said, sell me this day thy birthright.

Now that's an absurd proposal.

But it'll demonstrate the disdain that Esau had for his birthright.

Esau said, behold, I am at the point to die, and what profit shall this birthright do to me?

And Jacob said, swear to me this day, and he swore unto him.

And he sold his birthright unto Jacob.

Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils, and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way.

Thus Esau despised his birthright.

That offended God, of course.

The coveted Covenant.

You see that echo between Sarah and Hagar.

In Genesis 16 and 21.

Isaac versus Ishmael.

Genesis 16 and 21 again.

And to this day, the Arabs like to argue.

That it was really Ishmael, not Isaac that was offered and all that nonsense that underlies Islam.

And here, of course, we have Jacob versus Esau.

And I'm going to show you why the Esau hostility is co-melted with the Ishmael thing.

Forthcoming here.

The bypass of the firstborn is not a new topic in the Bible.

Seth and Cain being example.

Shem and Japheth being another.

Isaac and Ishmael being a classic one.

Jacob and Esau here.

Judah, Joseph versus Reuben.

He forfeited.

Moses and Aaron.

Aaron was his older brother.

And David and all his brothers.

Again, the bypass of the firstborn.

God showing his sovereignty in effect.

But the name derives, of course, Esau, red.

Is the term for Edom.

It is the name of the land occupied by Esau's descendants, formerly the land of Seir, it stretched from the Wadi Zered to the Gulf of Aqabah, extending to both sides of the Arabah, the great depression connecting the Dead Sea to the Red Sea.

That's a lot of space, guys.

Esau had already occupied Edom when Jacob had returned from Haran.

In the in the late parts of Genesis.

And the other key event when when Israel's trying to gain passage, Edom refused to allow them to use the King's Highway.

And again and again, they're stacking the they're stacking the chips against themselves.

By always taking the part of Israel's enemies.

Here it's mild.

They're blocking the way.

There's much more coming in.

Here's perhaps the most one of the most indicative things.

The destruction of Jerusalem.

The time is 586 BC.

The place is Jerusalem.

The event, the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonian armies.

Can you get the picture?

We see the angry soldiers as they wreck the walls, slay the people, and burn the city.

But we see something else, we see a group of neighboring citizens as they stand on the other side and encourage the Babylonians to ruin the city.

Raze it, raze it, they are calling.

Dash their little children against the stones and wipe out the Jews.

Who's this?

Who do you think's doing this?

The Edomites.

They're supposed to be Jacob's brother.

No, they're taking they're encouraging their enemies.

Take their babies and smash their brains on the rocks.

Is what they're saying.

When you get to Psalm 137, it ends very strangely.

If you don't know your history, it'll puzzle you when you read the Psalm.

Because the Psalmist says, remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem, who said, raze it, raze it, even to the foundation thereof.

O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed.

Happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us.

Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.

That's the last line in that Psalm.

When you read that, not knowing the background.

What kind of a Psalm is this?

You see.

No, it's just saying, do to them as they did to us.

Is what it's really saying.

Raze it, raze it.

That in the Hebrew, it's it's a, it's a make bare.

Level it.

So the Edomite history.

You know, they they ascent to the land, of course, see when Babylon is taking Jews into captivity.

What happens to the real estate they leave behind?

The Edomites move in.

Great stuff.

Hey, thanks, Babylon, boy, I just got a neat four-bedroom home.

Swimming pool, too.

Oh, wow.

Great, you know.

Whatever.

They occupied as their major center Hebron, 19 miles south of Jerusalem, that began their new frontier.

They're about 3,400 feet above sea level, established about 1,500 years earlier, unlike Jerusalem, they were left intact as prime real estate.

They weren't destroyed by the Babylonians.

So the Edomites really made that their pivotal capital.

The nomadic Nabateans, the Nabateans were to the east of Edom.

Migrated out of Arabia into Edom and drove the Edomites westward.

Directly west of Edom were established routes of passage.

Land was historically more prosperous and resourceful than the land of Edom, unfertile deserts and jagged mountains.

Land bore a family association because Esau was supposed to be Jacob's brother, right?

The land was vacated due to the Jews being exported into captivity.

So what do you think happened?

This is the classic map.

It shows you the, you know, the Amorites.

Moab and Edom and so on.

The Nabateans are putting pressure on Edom.

So Edom crosses over and sets up a kingdom called Idumea.

That's the Greek way of speaking of Edom.

That's the Greek, Idumea.

And you can find even into the Roman period maps that have this rough outline for the land of Idumea.

Okay, Hebron remained under Edomite control until Judas Maccabeus retook the city under Jewish control in 164 BC.

38 years later, 126 BC, they had to be reconquered by the Jewish army under Prince and High Priest John Hyrcanus.

But here's something that most people miss.

The Idumeans were forced to die, flee or be proselytized in Judaism.

We're all very familiar with the Jews that were mercilessly forced to become Christians under the Inquisition.

That kind of abusive procedure never produces anything destructive, obviously.

What most of us don't realize.

The Jews did the same thing.

They forced Idumeans to become Jews.

They don't really become Jews.

They pretend to become Jews, right?

I have been puzzled in recent years as I discovered when I deal with a lot of rabbis.

When they speak of the globalists, these powerful people that are presumably trying to move the planet Earth to a global government.

There are people that hold those views.

They rabbis speak of the globalists as Edomites.

And I asked them.

I said, where do you get that?

Why do you call them Edomites?

They looked at me sort of surprised.

And they point out that there are people in very powerful circles that most people think are Jewish, but they're not.

They're Idumeans.

Most of us think of Rothschild.

We think of Rothschild.

We don't pronounce it properly.

It's Rothschild.

It's red shield.

It's as an Edomite root.

So does Rockefeller.

So does Roosevelt.

Red world and so on.

So, there's some undertones here, the Edomites are bubbling up through our society invisibly, sort of.

47 BC, Julius Caesar promotes the Idumean Antipater as procurator over Judea, Samaria and Galilee.

He's an Idumean.

He's an Edomite.

To a to a Roman, they can't tell the difference.

Jewish, Idumean, aren't they the same thing?

There's just one's like another.

You know.

Just like many people, you're Christian or you're Catholic.

Aren't they the same thing?

Well, not if you really know.

But you follow what I'm saying?

37 BC, the Romans named Herod, son of Antipater, as king over Israel.

They probably thought they were doing Israel a favor.

Not realizing that Israel isn't stupid.

They see him as an Edomite.

Not a almost Jew kind of thing.

His mother, by the way, was Nabatean.

Which is anyway.

The Idumeans had five centuries of prior history in Israel by the time of the arrival of the Messiah Jesus.

Mark 3:8.

Now this leads to the Olam Eybah.

The everlasting hatred.

The struggle between Esau and Jacob runs all through the Bible.

The Herods of the New Testament were Edomites.

One of them killed the Jewish babies in his attempt to destroy Christ.

Matthew 2:16-18.

Another Herod murdered John the Baptist.

Another one killed James the brother of John.

Acts 12.

The struggle between the Israelis and the Arabs today is but a continuation of this same battle that started back in Genesis 25.

And the word Arabs is a misnomer.

I'll come to that.

The fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD.

At the time of the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, there was civil turmoil among the Zealots, the Idumeans, and the Orthodox Jews.

And it wasn't cleanly divided.

20,000 Idumean infantry slaughtered many of the Orthodox Jews.

Really?

Wow.

Many fought with the Jews against the Romans.

You think the Romans were confused?

You bet.

Many were killed, sold into slavery, or enjoined among the 40,000 set free by Caesar.

You see some confusion here?

Now the Romans, of course, by the time they finally put it down, we get to Bar Kokhba and all of that.

They want to rename the land.

And they want to rename the land in the with a label that represents Israel's enemies.

Bar Kokhba, now we've moved on a century or so.

Bar Kokhba had about 200,000 men at his command, and had recaptured Jerusalem and many strongholds throughout the country.

Emperor Hadrian called legion upon legion to crush the Jewish insurgents.

Over 580,000 lost their lives.

This is a big deal, gang.

Hadrian purposed to stamp out the Jewish nationalism entirely.

Traditions such as circumcision, the Sabbath, and reading the Torah was forbidden.

In their choice of the Jews' worst enemy, the Romans had two choices.

Idumea.

That was an enemy of Israel.

And Philistia, the Philistines.

Now the Idumeans, that's kind of confusing.

Because some of them were in the in the Roman mind, Jewish.

They're practically like Jews in the Roman mind.

Idumeans were viewed as practitioners of Judaism, and not as great an enemy as the Philistines.

There are many who still appear today as Jews, but are really not.

I just mentioned that.

Maps until 135 AD, after the Bar Kokhba revolt, still displayed Idumea.

After the Romans chose to name the land Palestina, Idumea disappeared from future maps and history.

They didn't go away.

They just disappeared as an identity.

The Edomites, later known as Idumeans, which is the Greek term, became assimilated into the Palestinians of today.

That doesn't mean every Palestinian is an Edomite, but it certainly includes the Edomites as a in their composition.

Now the judgment against Edom is a fascinating study.

That we can't even summarize in this brief study.

The judgment against Edom specifically is mentioned in more Old Testament books than it is against any other foreign nation.

And you can go to Isaiah 11 and 34 and 63.

Jeremiah 9, 25, 49.

Lamentations.

Ezekiel 25 and 35 deal with this.

Joel 3.

Amos 1 and 9 and on and on.

The entire Book of Obadiah.

21 verses is all it is.

Is entirely about the judgment that's coming on Edom.

And I once tried to include this in the program, but I realized it's going to overload it.

So we'll do a separate set of studies on Edom and Obadiah separately.

Now.

We just started, that was just the first one, the tabernacles of the the tents of Edom.

Well, it says that.

And the Ishmaelites.

Okay, that's another group we think we know something about now.

You got to what you need to understand is that Esau became embittered.

Against his father as his family and everything else.

So he he he spitefully marries a daughter of Ishmael named Mahalah.

Continuing the Olam Eybah, the ancient hatred.

And I'll show you that.

Here is the descendants of Abraham.

He had three wives.

He had Sarah, of course.

From which he had Isaac.

Okay, Hagar had under which she had Ishmael.

And Keturah, which she had six sons.

Okay, we together so far?

Okay.

Now, under Isaac, we have Esau and Jacob, the twins.

But Esau is the one we're focusing on.

Esau is bitter because he got snookered out of his birthright.

And he hates his brother for all of that, of course.

So what does he do?

So Esau marries into the tribe of Nebajoth.

And he thus his descendants are both Edomites and Ishmaelites.

So the Edomites and Ishmaelites are now co-marrying.

Get the picture?

Now, under Ishmael, you have 12, you know, the whole whole series of tribes here, 12 tribes.

Under Keturah, you have a whole series, which includes Sheba and Dedan and Jokshan, which is what we think of as Saudi Arabia, primarily.

You have Midian and his descendants are really the Bedouins that we associate to them.

And so forth.

Now, one of the problems we have is the sloppy use of language.

We call this whole cast of characters Arabs.

That's a misleading label.

What do you mean by that?

Do you mean someone who's an inhabitant of Saudi Arabia?

Okay, that's one possibility.

Is it because you mean someone that's at a descendant?

Okay, of whom?

See, the point is, we get very imprecise in the use of that word.

And the people that are the least competent in using those terms is the press.

Okay, so that causes everybody else to get confused.

But these are all descendants.

And and what these people have in common is the hatred of Israel.

Okay, so we have the descendants of Moab.

All right.

He's a descendant of Lot.

And today, you find them as Palestinian refugees and Central Jordan.

The Hagarine.

Hagar.

Who were the descendants of Hagar?

Egyptians.

Not all the Egyptians, but the descendants of Hagar were Egyptians.

Okay.

Gebal has two possible identities.

It's probably referring to the Northern Lebanese.

The word Gebal means a line or natural boundary, like a mountain range.

There are two common scholastic identities here.

According to Josephus, primarily, it's a tract of land in Edom southeast of the Dead Sea, now called Djebal.

Called Gobolitis.

By Josephus Ant.

II, 1, 2.

It also there's reason to suspect it's a Phoeniciaan city, not far from the sea coast, to the north of Beirut.

Called by the Greeks Byblos.

Now Jbeil.

It's mentioned in the Amarna tablets.

The fact that in Psalm 83, it's positioned between the Hagarines and Ammon favors them being Idumeans.

Could be either way, it fits our model in any case.

Then we have Ammon.

Today, that's the Palestinian refugees and the Northern.

So you notice we have North, Central and Southern Jordan.

In those different categories here.

And the capital of Jordan is Amman, by the way.

And Amalek, of course.

Is the Arabs south of Israel.

And Agag, you may recall, was the king of the Amalekites.

If you will.

Remember Haman and Esther and so forth.

Those are all Amalekites, if you will.

And then, of course, we have the Philistines.

And today, they're the Palestinian refugees and the Hamas of the Gaza Strip.

Interestingly enough.

They're non-Arab Philistines, they were driven out of Greece and the Aegean Islands about 1300 BC.

They were unsuccessful attempting to invade Egypt, about 1200 BC, and migrated to the area now known as the Gaza Strip.

Ancient Philistia became established on territory belonging to the tribe of Judah.

Okay.

Tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites, of Moab, and the Hagarines, Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek.

The Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre.

Now we're moving up the coast, aren't we?

Today, that's the Hezbollah and the Southern Lebanese.

Fair enough.

Okay, we have Assur.

That's Assyria.

And today, it's Syria and Northern Iraq.

Not Syria, don't confuse Syria and Assyria.

Assyria is a larger domain, including part of Iraq.

Okay.

And then we they have holpen.

That's an old English term, meaning been an arm to.

The children of Lot.

And we've already talked about the children of Lot.

They would be Moab and Ammon.

So here we have this gang of characters, they all have in common, they border on Israel.

And they hate Israel.

And they're sworn to wipe Israel off the map.

Really?

Okay.

What does the Psalmist say to God, do unto them as unto the Midianites, as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the Brook of Kison.

Which perished at Endor, they became as dung for the Earth.

The Psalmist here is making reference to previous victories.

Over these kinds of enemies.

Do unto them as unto the Midianites.

That was the Arabian tribe that descended from Midian.

The fourth son of Abraham by Keturah.

They inhabited principally the desert north of the peninsula of Arabia.

And but Sisera.

As to Jabin.

Sisera was the captain of the host of Jabin.

The Canaanite king who reigned in Hazor.

Routed by the army of Barak on the plain of Esdraelon and killed by Jael.

Judges 4 and 5.

And they perished at Endor.

You all remember Endor, of course.

The northern slope of Little Hermon, about 7 miles from Jezreel.

It's the place in the territory of Issachar near the scene of the great victory gained by Deborah and Barak over Sisera and Jabin.

So it's like it's sort of using a history lesson.

To say, Lord, give us victories like you gave us back then.

Is what he's saying.

He says, make their nobles like Oreb and like Zeeb.

Yea, like their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna.

Well, who are they?

The Oreb and Zeeb were the prince generals of Midian.

Zebah and Zalmunna were their kings.

They were defeated by Gideon, the men of Ephraim intercepted the Midianites and slew them with a great slaughter.

That's why the Psalmist is saying.

Do that again like you did back in the history.

Want to do that to these people that are about to attack us here.

He said, let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession.

That's the mistake they made.

They got theirs.

And the Psalmist continues then, he says, oh my God, make them like a wheel.

As the stubble before the wind.

As the fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire.

So persecute them with thy tempest, and make them afraid with thy storm.

Fill their faces with shame, that they may seek thy name, O Lord.

Really?

Let them be confounded and troubled forever.

Yea, let them be put to shame and perish.

That men may know that thou, whose name alone is Jehovah, art the most high over all the Earth.

What's the point of all this?

Who who do these people?

What do they have in common religiously?

Who do they worship?

What?

Allah.

Yeah.

Jehovah.

In contrast to Al-Illah, the Moon God.

Apparently, the only way this world is going to know that God is God is for him to move in judgment.

And that's what the Psalmist is calling for.

Really?

Now, it's interesting that Ezekiel from chapter 25 through 32.

Lists these seven groups, Ammon, Moab, Edom, Philistia, Tyre, Sidon, Egypt.

What do these seven have in common?

They're all different ethnologically.

They have one thing that motivates them together.

They're all Muslims.

They're all challenging the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Ooh.

Back in Ezekiel 28, thus saith the Lord God.

When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the heathen.

Then shall they dwell in their land that I have given to my servant Jacob.

When we mess around in the Middle East, we're messing poking our finger in the eye of God.

That land does not belong to the UN.

It belongs to Israel.

And they shall dwell safely therein, and shall build houses, and plant vineyards, yea, they shall dwell with confidence.

When I have executed judgments upon all those that despise them round about them.

And they shall know that I am the Lord their God.

Wow.

That's what it's really all about, gang.

So the enemies.

See, at the present time, Israel is surrounded by immediate neighbors committed to wiping them off the map.

It is misleading to represent them as Arabs.

They are Muslims.

It would appear that a prerequisite victory for Israel will set the stage for the subsequent ill-fated attempt of the outer ring nations seeking spoils.

Here's the order of events that I I suggest is a possibility.

Israel regathered in the land.

Ezekiel 37:12.

Isaiah 11:11, 12.

Deuteronomy 30:3-5.

Ancient cities rebuilt and inhabited.

Ezekiel 36:1-5, 8-10.

They meet Muslim Arab resistance.

Jeremiah 49:16.

Zephaniah 2:8.

Ezekiel 25:12, 32:5.

36:2.

Obadiah 1:10.

Israel establishes an army for defense.

Okay.

Ezekiel 36:6, 7, 38:8.

The adjacent Muslim nations confederate as described in the first eight verses of Psalm 83.

Okay.

The confederacy is committed to the destruction of all Israel.

Psalm 83:1-5, 12.

War starts between Confederacy and Israel.

Jeremiah 49:2, 8, 19.

One could say it already has.

When is Israel going to say enough already?

Jeremiah 49.

I think the title somewhere along the way here is regained.

My people Israel.

They lost that title, according to Hosea chapter 1, they are no more not my people.

The day is coming when they will be my people.

So declared again.

Israel decisively defeats the Confederacy.

This is the big surprise.

I don't think they get help from the United States.

I think they just do it.

Obadiah 1.

Ezekiel 25.

Jeremiah 49 is full of this.

Isaiah 11.

This is the Isaiah 17 event where Damascus gets theirs.

Everybody asked me, where's that fit in?

I think this is where it fits in.

Israel becomes an exceedingly great army.

As predicted in Ezekiel 37:10.

And also in Jeremiah 49:21.

Israel takes prisoners of war.

Jeremiah 48 and 49 and so on.

Their whole region is reshaped.

In accordance with the Abrahamic Covenant.

Israel expands its borders.

I was reminded about the T-shirts.

You can get in the shops in Israel.

Attack us again, we need the real estate.

And that's when Israel dwells securely in the land.

They're prosperous and they're secure.

That's that sets the stage that is described in Ezekiel 38.

Magog, so they they see an opportunity here.

Not realizing that God is not going to let them succeed at it.

Because there's a new regime afoot.

Okay, well, this is just I'm not here to sell this idea.

What I'm really anxious for is for us all to do.

Is to set aside our presuppositions.

All of us have studied the Bible for years and we've picked up ideas.

And some of them are are corroborated by cross-checks.

And some of them are actually presumptions on our part.

Be careful for those.

You know, our trademark for more than 40 years has been Acts 17:11.

Be like the Bereans.

In that they received the word with all readiness of mind.

But search the scriptures daily to prove where those things be so.

That's why I say, Luke tells you, don't believe anything Chuck Missler tells you.

But check it out for yourself.

You know, I always thought the emphasis there was on studying the word of God.

To prove where those things be so.

No, that's the easy part.

You know what the tough part of that is?

To approach it with an openness of mind, a readiness of mind.

Because we all have these blinders on.

Because we've all been taught by good teachers, things that may be not quite right.

And I have taught Ezekiel 38 from a conventional point of view.

For many, many years.

And I'm now standing back to say, wait a minute, maybe I've missed something here.

You know, I did that with Luke 21.

Everybody that teaches the Olive Discourse.

Includes Luke 21 as part of the Olive Discourse.

Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21.

And it was a few years ago that I realized, no, Luke 21 is not the Olive Discourse.

It's very similar, but it's different.

And you can prove that just by diagramming it and putting it in.

And and when and then people were so surprised because I put out the thing.

By the way, I was wrong.

Here's the way it is.

Gee, you're changing your point of view.

Yes, I sure hope so.

It would be I would be a pathetic teacher if I force-fed you on things.

That I had outgrown and didn't tell you about.

I'm learning, too.

I've been teaching it for what?

60 years?

Whatever.

And I'm still on a learning curve.

And and when and I'm not saying I'm right here, but I think there's enough here to say, wait a minute.

Time out.

Let's step back.

There are a couple of writers, Bill Salus is one of them, and Walid Shoebat.

A breath of fresh air in the in the in the commentary community.

I don't agree with all of Walid's views.

But I stand back in awe because he comes at it freshly.

He does his homework.

And he has a different point of view.

And I think we need to respect that and take a look at it and weigh it and so forth.

And Bill Salus has some has highlighted some of these things.

Other other commentators about the Middle East have no grasp of any of these things.

Okay, that doesn't mean one or the other is right or wrong.

That's not the point.

Let's stand back, see what the word says.

And see how it fits together.

The more I look at this, the more I discover, we need to understand Edom better than we do.

Because it's hidden, sort of.

It's bubbling up through into the globalists.

And they're they're in a sense, they're almost like in disguise.

So here's a challenge.

I like to put this on the screen.

And if you accept what I put on the screen, you flunk the course.

I'm going to put something I sincerely believe on the screen.

But if you accept it, you flunk.

Because I want you to challenge this preposterous statement.

I believe that you and I are being plunged into a period of time about which the Bible says more than it does about any other period of time in history.

Including the time that Jesus walked the shores of Galilee or climbed the mountains of Judea.

Now you're probably tired of hearing me say it because I'm adding this to a lot of our messages.

But I really believe this is a fundamental here.

I believe there's a period of time about which the Bible says more than it does about the Gospel period.

Now that's preposterous.

To challenge that, you've got to do two things.

First of all, you got to find out what the Bible says.

That's too important to delegate to anybody.

You need to find out yourself what the Bible really says.

And Jesus admonishes you in Matthew 5:17.

To take it very, very literally.

Now, you and I live in the most unique environment in the history of the planet Earth.

The word of God is more available today than it ever has been in the history of the planet Earth.

You can get at the original Greek and Hebrew without knowing Greek or Hebrew.

There's software around that you put your little cursor over a word and it'll tell you, pop up and it'll tell you what the word is, what it means, what the part of speech and the five conditions that the verb meets and all that stuff.

It'll diagram the sentence if you want to.

And on the internet.

If you haven't discovered the Blue Letter Bible.

And there are many others like it, not maybe as thorough, but it's it's our favorite.

It's one we helped start.

And on the internet resources.

Now the other thing I think we also should take advantage of.

It's not obvious.

But I think it becomes obvious if you think about it.

In the 60 years I've studied the Bible, the place I've seen people grow is always in small groups.

Small enough to be able to ask questions without embarrassment.

Small enough to hold each other accountable.

And you don't have to be a teacher to lead a small group.

Not today.

You get a DVD, pop it in the player.

And discuss it.

And just make sure in one person doesn't dominate.

You know, lead it to a.

And the Holy Spirit will take over if you give it a chance.

Small groups.

And you can do all that for college credit if you want.

That's what the that's what the our our institute's all about.

The second thing you've got to do, and that's not as obvious.

In fact, it's a totally different set of skills.

Find out what's going on.

You won't on your 10 o'clock news.

Because pilot challenged you.

So cynically, perhaps.

What is truth?

That's the challenge.

What is really true?

You know what we're dealing in corruption in every segment of our culture.

We live in the age of deceit.

All the more reason to be diligent in find out what's really going on.

So what do we do?

Okay, fair enough.

Good question.

That's the that's the so what question.

You have some interesting diagrams and stuff.

What what do we do about all that?

Well, the first thing you do is you decide what's your action plan.

You're plunged into the area.

Into the age of deceit.

What are you going to do about it?

Well, what you the great discovery you need to make.

And only you can.

Is what is God calling you to do?

How many of you are saved?

Can I see a show of hands?

What have you been doing with it?

What fruit have you borne?

Why did God save you?

Well, to magnify his name.

Sure, that's a nice broad brush.

What did he save you for?

He saved you for a purpose, a specific purpose.

And the greatest adventure in life is to discover specifically what he's calling you to.

Once you discover that, all life takes a different set of priorities.

It gets really it's a great adventure.

And I'm going to suggest that every one of God is not through with any of us in this room.

Me included.

All of us are on a growth curve of some kind.

Some of us will go through 10 years having one year's experience repeated 10 times.

That's not progress, guys.

That's called, you know.

Anyway.

Now what we each need to do, every one of us, is to raise the bar on our personal walk with him.

How do you do that?

I don't know.

I know what it'll include.

For sure.

It will include your committing to a systematic program.

To really learn your Bible.

Well, I read it every day.

That's devotional reading.

I take that for granted.

That's not what I'm talking about.

I do, too.

But that's not where I grow.

That's where I just.

Show some devotion.

And they're wonderful times.

But I'm talking about a systematic study to really understand your Bible.

Verse by verse, chapter by chapter, cover to cover.

And then start again.

And the more you do that, the more you learn.

And the more you learn, the more you are able to learn.

And it's astonishing how that escalates.

And the more you know, the more you love it.

And the more you love it, the more you learn.

Now, one way to do this.

Some people could do it on their own.

Most of us benefit by being in a small study group.

Not a big group.

You got more than 12, you got too many, probably.

There's not hard and fast rules about this.

But I think.

Small groups is where the power is.

If you can't find one, start one.

You don't have to be a teacher to do one.

You get a DVD, pop it in the player and discuss it.

And just make sure one person doesn't dominate.

You know, lead it to a.

And the Holy Spirit will take over if you give it a chance.

Small groups.

And you can do all that for college credit if you want.

That's what the that's what the our our institute's all about.

But whatever you choose to do, I'm going to urge you.

For lots of reasons, I won't try to elaborate in our brief closing here.

Is I believe the time is really urgent.

We have a welcome package.

It's free.

If you just contact us, you get a year subscription to our monthly journal.

Free of charge.

We're not being generous, we're just adopting the marketing strategy of narcotics.

The first year's on us.

We hope you get addicted to it.

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So there we are.

Let's stand for a closing word of prayer.

Father, we just praise you for who you are.

We thank you, Father, that you've chosen to reveal the future.

In your word.

We pray, Father, that through your Holy Spirit, you will guide us to assemble these things.

In the way that you would have us assemble them.

Give us understanding, Father.

That in all these things, not only will your name be magnified, but that we might be more discerning as to what you would have of us.

In the days that remain.

As we seek to be more effective stewards of the opportunities that are unfolding before us.

Indeed, Father, we live in troubled times.

And we recognize that the the tumultuous times are going to get more and more intense.

As the months pass by.

And we recognize that in that turbulence.

Our opportunities for the kingdom.

Oh, Father, we pray that you'd help us prepare for those days.

That you'd help us be effective.

Not by power, nor by might, but by your spirit, Father.

That through your spirit and your word, we might grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and King.

That we might be more pleasing in thy sight.

As we commit ourselves into your hands.

In the name of Yeshua.

Our Lord.

Our Redeemer.

Our coming king.

In whose name we do pray.

Amen.