Gog's Invasion in Ezekiel's Prophecy--Part 2

So far we have focused primarily on Ezekiel's reference to Togarmah, because I believe it is the key to understanding Gog's invasion of "the mountains of Israel." Most prophecy teachers know little or nothing about Togarmah. Most have not even heard of the Khazar kingdom, which flourished for many centuries a thousand years ago and for centuries was the Jewish buffer nation between the Christian West and the Muslim East.

Ezekiel specifically associates Togarmah with his uncles: Magog, Javan, Tubal, and Meshech. Javan is Ionia, or Greece, because the "J" is a relatively modern letter of the English alphabet which was derived from the letter "I". The others are believed to have settled north of Palestine in Turkey and beyond the Black Sea in southern Russia. Arthur Koestler says that Togarmah is "the ancestor of all Turkish tribes."

We can say with some degree of certainty that Togarmah's uncles (the sons of Japheth) settled in the north lands after the flood of Noah. Prophecy teachers are fond of telling us that Meshech is today's Moscow, and that Tubal is modern Tobolsk. Other than the similarity of the names, historic proof is virtually non-existent. In historical sources, Moscow is first mentioned in 1147, and Tobolsk was not founded until 1585 as the capital of Siberia.

Regardless of this, we may extrapolate from their association with Togarmah and from Ezekiel's prophecy that they were all located somewhere north of Palestine and north of the Black Sea. But their location in the territory of the old Soviet Union does not automatically mean that they represent the Russian people. The Soviet Union was made up of diverse ethnic groups, including, as we have shown, millions of Ashkenazi Jews who were descendants of the Khazars converted to Judaism in 620 or 740 A.D.

The Ashkenazim of Eastern Europe spoke Yiddish, while the Sephardim of Spain and North Africa spoke Ladino. Jewish sources identify Germany as Ashkenaz, and they tell us that the Ashkenazi Jews refer to "German Jews." But they have no evidence that Germany is the Ashkenaz of Genesis 10:3. This is a bit like calling Rome or Christianity by the name of Edom.

http://www.jewfaq.org/ashkseph.htm

During the Cold War, it seemed obvious to prophecy teachers that the Soviet Union would attack the Israeli state. After all, when the West backed the Israelis and refused to sell arms to most Arab states, the arms market was left to the Soviet Union. But when the Soviet Union broke up in the early 1990's, such an invasion became a strategic impossibility. Prophecy teachers were left with a sizeable omelet on their faces.

Yet I believe they were correct in identifying the general geographic source of the invasion. Their mistake was in assuming that the Russians would do the invading. They did not recognize the true identity of Togarmah, by which they might have understood Ezekiel's prophecy. Once we see that Togarmah was the ancestor of the Khazars, who in turn formed the bulk of Eastern European Jewry, we can see how this "invasion" has already taken place.

The invasion came in a form that was unexpected, and the general blindness that God has imposed upon the people prevented them from seeing this until it had already occurred. Prophecy is not usually understood clearly until after it has been fulfilled. History ultimately settles all matters of prophetic interpretation.

Ezekiel 38:5 speaks also of Persia (Iran), Ethiopia, and Libya ("Put" or "Phut"). Once again, prophecy teachers have assumed that these nations would join with the Soviet Union in attacking the Israeli state. But in fact, these are countries where Sephardic Jews had lived for centuries, and these Sephardic Jews also immigrated to the Israeli state as Zionists. Essentially, Ezekiel was speaking of a great Zionist invasion of "the mountains of Israel," Ashkenazim from the North and Sephardim from Africa and from as far as Iran.

About one percent of the Israeli population is from the Falashas, who are black Jews from Ethiopia.

Ezekiel 38:6 mentions Gomer in association with the House of Togarmah. It shows this Gomer to be the father of Togarmah (Gen. 10:3), not the Israelites of later times who were called Gimirri by the Assyrians. The two Gomers were part of God's very ingenious plan to blind the prophecy preachers of the meaning of the prophecy.

You see, the original Gomer of Genesis 10 was the first to arrive in that area north of the Black Sea. More than a thousand years later, the Assyrians used a similar name for the house of Israel (Beth-Ghomri). The Assyrians deported these Ghomri to the area around the Caspian Sea. They later migrated north and west through the old territory of the original people of Gomer on their way into Northern Europe. In so doing, the prophecy preachers assumed that these dispersed Israelites were from the Gomer of Genesis 10.

This served to "lose" the lost sheep of the House of Israel, while at the same time it came to be assumed that these same ex-Israelites would be Israel's enemy! How ingenious was that?!? Thus, Dr. Bullinger says in his notation for Gen. 10:2,

"Gomer. In Assyrian Gimirri (the Kimmerians of Herodotus). Progenitor of the Celts."

This note in The Companion Bible would have been absolutely true if he had placed it as a notation explaining Hosea 1:3, "So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim." Instead, Bullinger put this notation in the wrong place.

What we see, then, is that the Zionist state of "Israel" is the fulfillment of at least THREE sets of biblical prophecies, each having its own unique character. In earlier articles I showed how Zionism was the fulfillment of Esau-Edom's goal of returning to the old land and rebuilding (Mal. 1:1-3). God allowed this because of Jacob's sin in Genesis 27, where he deceived his blind father in order to obtain the blessing.

Secondly, after Jesus cursed the fig tree in Matt. 21:19, He prophesied that this fig tree would again come to life and bring forth more leaves (Matt. 24:32). The Zionist state fulfills that prophecy, given to those Judeans who rejected Jesus as the Messiah. They have indeed brought forth more fig leaves. Fig leaves have been the problem since Adam and Eve. Fig leaves represent a false covering for sin--that is, self-justification, excuses instead of being covered by the blood of Christ.

So both Esau and the unfruitful fig tree of Judah had Zionism in common. Now to these we can add a third stream of prophecy--that of Gog, Magog, Togarmah, etc. Their motive, according to Ezekiel 38:12 is "to capture spoil and to seize plunder." Though their motive is different from Esau's and from the people of the unfruitful fig tree, they all have in common a desire to conquer the old land. It is incredible how God is able to merge all three streams of biblical prophecy into one at the end of this age.

But for God to do this without anyone knowing what is happening--well, that is truly mind boggling. The only explanation is divine blindness imposed upon His people and a veil upon all nations. Because Jacob took advantage of his blind father in Genesis 27, God has imposed blindness upon Jacob's descendants so that they would be sure to give Esau his due.

But we are now fast approaching the end of this time of blindness. The veil is being lifted. The majority of Christians, however, must remain blind to the divine plan in order for it to finish without interruption. Even so, Paul says, there is a remnant of grace who have the ability to see and understand when presented with the truth (Rom. 11:7).