Ezekiel 39-The Results of the Destruction of the Russian Led Invasion of Israel During the Middle of Daniel's Seventieth Week
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday April 6, 2008
The Day of the Lord: Ezekiel 39-The Results of the Destruction of the Russian Led Invasion of Israel During the Middle of Daniel’s Seventieth Week
Lesson # 12
Please turn in your Bibles to Daniel 9:24.
This morning we will temporarily suspend our studies in the book of Romans as is our custom the first Sunday of every month in order to continue our study of the prophetic subject called “the Day of the Lord.”
“The Day of the Lord” is “not” a literal twenty-four period but rather is an extended period of time beginning with God’s dealing with Israel after the rapture at the beginning of the tribulation period and extending through the 2nd Advent and the millennial age unto the creation of the new heavens and the new earth.
Last month, we studied Ezekiel chapter thirty eight, which reveals that Russia, (Rosh, Meshech and Tubal from the land of Magog), Georgia, and Ukraine (Gomer) and Turkey (Togarmah) will invade Israel from the north.
Iran will come from the east, Ethiopia and Sudan from the south while Libya (Put) from the west, thus Israel will be surrounded.
This Russian led invasion of Israel will take place during the midway point of the Tribulation period, which is also called by students of biblical prophecy, “Daniel’s Seventieth Week.”
“Daniel’s Seventieth Week” refers to the last seven of the four hundred ninety prophetic years of Israel’s history, which is called by students of prophecy, “The Seventy Weeks of Daniel” and is recorded in Daniel 9:24-27.
A “week” in the prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27 refers to seven prophetic years of three hundred sixty days; therefore, the prophecy of the seventy weeks of Daniel refers to four hundred ninety prophetic years of Israel’s history.
Daniel 9:24, “Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place.”
These “seventy weeks” or 490 years are divided into three periods: (1) 7 weeks=49 years (2) 62 weeks=434 years (3) 1 week=7 years.
Daniel 9:25, “So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress.”
“The issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem” refers to the decree issued by Artaxerxes Longimanus’ decree in 444 B.C. (Nehemiah 2:1-8).
“Seven weeks” refers 49 prophetic biblical years beginning with the decree of Artaxerxes in 444 B.C. (Neh. 2:1-8) to the completion of the rebuilding of Jerusalem (Dan. 9:25).
“Sixty-two weeks” refers to 434 prophetic biblical years beginning with the completion of the rebuilding of Jerusalem to Christ’s Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem and crucifixion in 33 A.D. (Dan. 9:25-26).
Daniel 9:26, “Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.”
The statement “after the sixty-two weeks” refers to the completion of 69 of the 70 weeks of Daniel, 483 prophetic years and “the Messiah will be cut off” refers to the death of Christ.
“The people” refers to the Romans who destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 A.D. and the phrase “the prince who shall come” refers to the Antichrist.
Daniel 9:27, “And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.”
The statement “he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week” refers to Antichrist making a 7 year covenant with Israel, which actually begins Daniel’s 70th week (See 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4).
Sixty-nine of these seventy weeks, four hundred eighty-three prophetic years, has been fulfilled in human history.
However, the seventieth week has not but will take place after the rapture of the church and will begin with Antichrist’s peace treaty with Israel and will last seven years and will end with the Second Advent of Christ.
Thus far, we have studied the following major events that will take place during the first three and an half years of Daniel’s Seventieth Week:
(1) The rise of the Ten Nation Confederacy called the Revived Roman Empire at the beginning of Daniel’s 70th week (Dan. 2; 7).
(2) Antichrist rises to power as the King of the Western Confederacy in Europe (Dan. 7:20, 24; 9:27; Rev. 13:1-10).
(3) The rise of the revived form of the Roman Empire under Antichrist during the first three and a half years of Daniel’s Seventieth Week will be accompanied by the formulation of a false religious system under the false prophet (Rev. 13:11-18).
(4) Antichrist’s peace treaty with the leadership of Israel, which takes place after the rapture of the church and actually begins Daniel’s Seventieth Week.
(5) Toward the middle of Daniel’s 70th week, Michael the archangel and his legions of elect-angels will expel Satan and his legions from heaven (Rev. 12:7).
Once Satan is thrown down permanently on the earth, he will inspire the leader of Russia and her allies to invade Israel during the midway point of Daniel’s Seventieth Week according to Ezekiel 38-39.
This morning we will study Ezekiel 39, which records the results or the aftermath of this destruction by the Lord Himself of this Russian led invasion of Israel during the middle of Daniel’s Seventieth Week.
Ezekiel 39:1-6, “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 I will drive you forward, and I will cause you to depart from the remotest parts of the north and I will cause you to be brought against the mountains of Israel. I will cause your bow to struck from your left hand and I will cause your arrows to fall from your right hand. You will fall on the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops and the peoples who are with you; I will give you as food to every kind of predatory bird and beast of the field. You will fall on the open field; for it is I who have spoken,’ declares the Lord GOD. ‘And I will send fire upon Magog and those who inhabit the coastlands in safety; and they will know that I am the LORD.’”
The name “Gog” is a title for a ruler like Caesar whereas the name “Magog” signifies the nation Gog rules and was located in what is now known as Russia.
“Prince” denotes Gog is the leader of a particular nation and “Rosh” is Russia since Ezekiel 38:6, 15 and 39:2 all clearly state that this invasion will come from the extreme north of Israel.
Ezekiel 38:3 records that “Magog” is composed of three parts, “Rosh, Meshech and Tubal,” all of which were located in an area that is now known as Russia.
Ezekiel is stating here that the Lord will send fire upon the nation of Russia, which implies destruction and military devastation (Ezek. 30:8; 14, 16; cf. Hosea 8:14; Amos 1:7, 10, 14; 2:2, 5).
Ezekiel 39:7-8 reveals that God’s purpose for permitting Russia and her allies to attack Israel during the Tribulation was to reveal His holiness to not only Israel but the entire world!
Ezekiel 39:7-8, “My holy name I will make known in the midst of My people Israel; and I will not let My holy name be profaned anymore. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel. Behold, it is coming and it shall be done, declares the Lord GOD. ‘That is the day of which I have spoken.’”
This annihilation of the Russian led invasion will serve notice to the nations that the Lord will no longer tolerate His Holy Person to be profaned.
The holiness of God is the aggregate of perfect divine attributes that form the nature of God and is the rule of all His actions and relationships with both men and angels.
Ezekiel 39:9-10 records that the weapons of the invading force will be burned for fuel for seven years.
Ezekiel 39:9-10, “Then those who inhabit the cities of Israel will go out and make fires with the weapons and burn them, both shields and bucklers, bows and arrows, war clubs and spears, and for seven years they will make fires of them. They will not take wood from the field or gather firewood from the forests, for they will make fires with the weapons; and they will take the spoil of those who despoiled them and seize the plunder of those who plundered them, declares the Lord GOD.”
Ezekiel 39:11-16 records that Israel will be burying the dead from the invading force for seven months.
Ezekiel 39:11-16, “On that day I will give Gog a burial ground there in Israel, the valley of those who pass by east of the sea, and it will block off those who would pass by. So they will bury Gog there with all his horde, and 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. Even all the people of the land will bury them; and it will be to their renown on the day that I glorify Myself," declares the Lord GOD. They will set apart men who will constantly pass through the land, burying those who were passing through, even those left on the surface of the ground, in order to cleanse it. At the end of seven months they will make a search. As those who pass through the land pass through and anyone sees a man's bone, then he will set up a marker by it until the buriers have buried it in the valley of Hamon-gog (literally meaning the valley of the multitude of Gog). And even the name of the city will be Hamonah. So they will cleanse the land.”
In Ezekiel 39:17-20, we have the Lord inviting the bird and animal kingdom to a banquet.
Ezekiel 39:17-20, “As for you, son of man, thus says the Lord GOD, ‘Speak to every kind of bird and to every beast of the field, ‘assemble and come, gather from every side to My sacrifice which I am going to sacrifice for you, as a great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel, that you may eat flesh and drink blood. You will eat the flesh of mighty men and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, as though they were rams, lambs, goats and bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan. So you will eat fat until you are glutted, and drink blood until you are drunk, from My sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you. You will be glutted at My table with horses and charioteers, with mighty men and all the men of war,’ declares the Lord GOD.”
This imagery of foreign armies being given as food to the birds and beasts of the field appears in other passages of Scripture: (1) Pharaoh’s Egypt (Ezek. 29:1-6); Antichrist and the Tribulation armies (Rev. 19:17-21).
Ezekiel 39:21-24, “And I will set My glory among the nations; and all the nations will see My judgment which I have executed and My hand which I have laid on them. And the house of Israel will know that I am the LORD their God from that day onward. The nations will know that the house of Israel went into exile for their iniquity because they acted treacherously against Me, and I hid My face from them; so I gave them into the hand of their adversaries, and all of them fell by the sword. According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions I dealt with them, and I hid My face from them.”
Ezekiel 39:21-24 reveals at least eight things that will result from the Lord’s great defeat over the Russian led Northern Confederacy: (1) It will vindicate God’s holiness and magnify Him among the nations by judging Gog’s willful pride. (2) It will glorify the Lord in the nation of Israel. (3) It will clarify as to why the Lord sent the nation of Israel out on the 5th cycle of discipline, which expelled them from the land for centuries and dispersed them throughout the nations of the world. Israel failed and not the Lord. (4) It will bring glory to His Holy Person. (5) It will be a magnificent display of the Lord’s concern for His reputation among the nations. (6) It will result in the regeneration of Israel. (7) It will result in their trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ for security and deliverance. (8) It will result in the Lord being set apart as sovereign over the nations through His restoration of the nation of Israel.
This leads us to the communion service and so therefore, could we have our ushers pass out the communion elements and let us take a few minutes to meditate upon the Lord and prepare ourselves for the Lord’s Supper.
1 Corinthians 11:23, “For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread.”
1 Corinthians 11:24, “and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’”
1 Corinthians 11:25, “In the same way {He took} the cup also after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink {it} in remembrance of Me.’”
1 Corinthians 11:26, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.”