We concluded Prophecy Update Number 29 with an exposition of Ezekiel 38:6, which had been continuous from Ezekiel 37:1.  We will now continue our exposition, beginning with 38:7 -- “Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.” This is a specific warning to Satan and his antichrist to get set, to be ready, and to be prepared to protect his armies as a guard or big brother.  This is the showdown between God and Satan at the end of the age of the Gentiles, and God is literally saying, “This is it!  You had better be ready.”

Ezekiel 38:8 – “After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.” The “after many days” have piled up to some twenty-six hundred years since Ezekiel wrote these words.  “Thou” refers to Gog, the anti-Christ.  “Be visited,” means to muster, or to be called to arms.  The rest of the verse identifies the general time, the place of the battle, and the people he will attack.  The time (latter years) represents the closing years of the age of the Gentiles.  The land is the restored nation of Israel that has been “brought back from the sword” (that has been restored from war).  “And is gathered out of many people” refers to the residents of the land that is “brought back from the sword,” which have been gathered out of many nations across the face of the earth.  “Against the mountains of Israel, which have always been waste” gives a topographical description of the land of Israel into which the anti-Christ will plunge southward.  “Which has always been waste” refers to the hundreds of years between A.D. 135 and 1948 that the land of Israel was, compared to her former years of productivity, virtually a barren wasteland.  “But is brought forth out of the nations” is exactly how the present nation of Israel was formed – by Jews brought forth from virtually every Gentile nation on this planet.  Thus far, I am confident that all this has already been fulfilled.  However, the last expression in verse eight has yet to be fulfilled, but I am convinced it is very likely to occur before 2005.  The last phrase in verse eight, “And they shall dwell safely all of them,” has not happened since the temple was destroyed in A.D. 70.  Israel has not had a single year, since she became a nation in 1948, that she has not had the constant possibility of war, or a conscious awareness of a terrorist act at any given moment.  They have most assuredly not dwelled “safely all of them.”  In many of my previous Prophecy Updates, which you may bring up by clicking on the Prophecy Archive button on this page, I have detailed what I believe will cause peace to finally come to the Mid-East, in spite of what is currently going on in the region.  But it will be a false peace, and of short duration.  It will abruptly end with the forces of Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Iran pulling off a surprise blitzkrieg attack from the north.  The Palestinians will attack Israel from within at the same time, and Israel will be forced to withdraw into the Negev.  There will be five other Islamic nations involved in the peace of deceit, but the five aforementioned nations will provide the bulk of the force.