Gog and Antichrist

Funny, how the elephant really is able to hide for so long right there in your own living room.  Except, there's nothing at all funny about the fact.  Not in this case, at least.

We know, from Scripture, that God is going to divinely intervene to protect the nation of Israel, in a great war (oftentimes referred to by students of the Bible, as "Ezekiel's War", or the "battle of Gog and Magog") that is soon going to occur in the Middle East.  And yet, after God miraculously saves Israel from utter destruction in that war, He is then going to allow that same nation of Israel to be decimated by the demonic hatred of Antichrist ~ literally within a handful or so of years following Ezekiel's War.

How can that be?  What can it mean?

Why would God divinely intervene to save Israel from destruction, and then turn right around and allow that same nation to be overrun?  Though that question may appear as an enigma ~ the elephant in the room, if you will, yet we know that God is neither unrighteous nor is He capricious in His dealings.  Indeed, the solution to that seeming enigma is to be found in consideration of God's righteous judgment.

The intended result of God's divine intervention on Israel's behalf, in Ezekiel's War, is clearly stated in Scripture: "So the house of Israel may know that I am the LORD their God from that day and forward" (Ezekiel 39:22).  Israel, that is to say the Jews, shall then have no excuse for not seeking unto the true and living God, the One who saved them from their mortal enemies.

But will the Jews then turn to God in truth?  Will they in any way or measure suggesting a national movement, demonstrate something like genuine repentance toward the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob?  They will not.  But what will they do, instead?

Although Israel's deliverance, in Ezekiel's War, shall come by divine intervention, yet, God oftentimes uses natural means in supernatural ways to accomplish His ends.  With respect to Ezekiel's War, we read the following in Scripture:

"I [God] will call for a sword against [Gog] throughout all my mountains" (Ezekiel 38:21).

The Bible uses the term "mountains" to represent kingdoms and/or nations.  In other words, God is going to use multiple nations' armies to defeat the enemies of Israel, in Ezekiel's War.  It is widely supposed, amongst Bible prophecy students, that Ezekiel's War shall set the stage for the appearing of the Antichrist.  It seems plausible that Antichrist may even be one of the leaders amongst those nations which God will use to deliver Israel, in Ezekiel's War.  How ironic that would be!

In the very near future, someone is going to step forward and present himself as being Israel's protector; whom the Jews will embrace as their "Messiah".  But why will they attribute such extraordinary esteem to that individual, whomsoever he may be?  Could it be because he may appear to have played an important role in Israel's deliverance, in Ezekiel's War?  Might he even take such credit to himself?  Quite possibly so.

Jesus long ago said, concerning the Jews: "I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive" (John 5:43).

At any rate, we know that Israel, as a nation, is going to embrace some leader ~ that is to say, some man other than Jesus Christ ~ as their savior, their Messiah.  Therefore, because of such betrayal, God is going to give Israel over into the hands of that Wicked individual who will then seek to annihilate the Jews.

God knowing beforehand that the Jews of Israel, following their miraculous deliverance in Ezekiel's War, will turn right around and embrace the Antichrist: Why, then, would God grant to that nation such wonderful deliverance prior?  That is the real mystery.

As I was recently contemplating that question, I recalled a sermon that I heard some time ago, in which the preacher (the late David Wilkerson) explained how that God deals with individuals as well as with nations, in His attempts to bring them to repentance.  Initially, Wilkerson said, God tries to reason with people, by sending them prophets (messengers) who will proclaim God's truth, in love; by which means God gives warning and instruction.  But when those warnings go unheeded and repentance is not forthcoming, God next proceeds to send stronger warnings in the form of chastening; doubtless in the hope that unrepentant souls may learn there are serious consequences due to their sins.  But when that approach also fails to bring to repentance, what else can God do?  God expressed, in His Word, His exasperation regarding that very same question, as follows:

"Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.  Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint."  (Isaiah 1:4,5)

Wilkerson then went on to say that, in a last-ditch effort to save souls (and nations), God may at last pour out unto them great manifestations of goodness and grace in mercy, thus showing God's goodwill and long suffering toward those who nevertheless persist to be God's enemies.  Failing the willingness of such people to repent and turn to God, however, God then has absolutely no other recourse but to enter into judgment against such recalcitrant rebels.

Wilkerson's explanation, it seems to me, provides the only reasonable solution to the "enigma" I have been discussing in this essay.  In other words, God's willingness to divinely intervene to save the Jewish nation, in the soon-coming Ezekiel's War, may likely be a last-ditch effort on God's part, to bring that nation to repentance ~ before God must then enter into judgment against that nation.

Great mercy poured out before judgment: is a pattern discernible in Scripture.  More than once in the Old Testament, we find that God raised up godly kings who sought, but failed, to bring the Jewish people back to God.  After which God then judged that nation.

Many Christians throughout the world have lately expressed the belief that God has shown great mercy to America, by raising up Donald Trump to be President.  But for what purpose has God given a reprieve to this sinful nation?  Why would God delay the judgment which, it seems to me, is already long past due to America?  For many months, I have hoped and prayed that the reason had to do with Revival.  And I am sure that has been the Lord's hope, too: That the Church in America would realize what a great opportunity has been given to us, to rouse from slumbering and to begin with all seriousness to labor to bring a final harvest of souls into the Kingdom of God.

But I have thus far seen no signs of that happening.

Now, I am starting to wonder whether this season of grace and mercy is not rather the final harbinger of impending judgment.