Gog and Magog

Dear Readers,

It has been a while since you have heard from me. I apologize for my silence.

I have been busy getting things in order. We have been planning to go to Israel for quite some time, but it seems we just got the green light a few weeks ago.

Things don’t look pretty. There has never been a time since the Second World War that the world has been so positioned for global war than today.

A friend of mine reminded me that the Second World War began when the Nazis invaded Czechoslavia under the pretext that Hitler used that it was only to safeguard the Germans who lived in that part of Czechoslovakia, which was called the Sudetenland. However Hitler did not stop at that, but used his German co-patriots as a pretext for conquering the whole country.

A few days ago Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin made the same statement Hitler made: that his brutal invasion during the present Olympic Games - when the whole world was watching the other side - was only to safeguard the Russian populations of South Ossetia and Abkhasia. However just like the Sudetenland for Hitler, it seems as if these territories are just Putin's staging ground, to again the whole of Georgia under Russian control.

More than 20 Russian journalists who have dared criticize Putin publicly have mysteriously died or were murdered. Putin does not want a pro-Western, truly democratic state like Georgia on his southern doorstep.

And the world is watching, as it did when Hitler equally brutally invaded Czechoslovakia 70 years ago - an invasion which was soon followed by the invasion of Poland - leading eventually to the outbreak of the Second World War.

Today Russia is openly threatening the USA if they put the missile defense in Poland. Russia is also promising Syria more military aid and Assad is on his way to Moscow to buy those weapons with only one thought in mind, to destroy Israel.

The London Arabic Daily “Al Quds” warned Tehran that an attack is impending by the US, some European nations and Israel.

The battle of Gog and Magog is an event, which plays a prominent role in Islamic, Jewish and Christian eschatology. Although the scenarios have different results, all three faiths see Gog and Magog as a major event. Now just what are Gog and Magog is the subject of this blog.

In short, the battle of Gog and Magog is war in the latter days when a confederacy of nations attacks Israel, which has been restored in the last days. These nations, which attack Israel (Ezekiel 38-39), include nations which are Muslim and have a clear animosity to Israel. Along with these Muslims nations, a northern kingdom, called Gog and Magog, which the Bible identifies as the land Russia, will ally itself with Muslim nations, to oppose Israel in the last days.
This confederacy of nations comes against Israel, but G-D, who through Ezekiel foretells the event, defeats them. This conflict establishes Israel and restores them to the land in preparation of their redemption. The conflict also reminds the world why Israel went into captivity for the last two-thousand years. (Ezekiel 39:28).

What a time to live in. It seems that the times in which we are living require that we redouble our efforts to please our Creator. Our world has never been in greater peril than it is today.
You can read the newspapers or the Bible. Lay them side by side and read tomorrows headlines in the Tanach today.

Shalom - Lilo