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Note: This blog post is part of a series titled "Studies in the Book of Revelation." To view all parts, click the link below.
Revelation 19:17, 18 says,
17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds which fly in midheaven, “Come, assemble for the great supper of God; 18 in order that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of commanders and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them and the flesh of all men, both free men and slaves, and small and great.”
The heavenly invasion is conducted according to the righteous mind and nature of God. For this reason, He invades the earth according to the laws of war that are found in Deuteronomy 20. One of those important laws is found in Deuteronomy 20:10-12,
10 When you approach a city to fight against it, you shall offer it terms of peace. 11 And it shall come about, if it agrees to make peace with you and opens to you, then it shall be that all the people who are found in it shall become your forced labor and shall serve you. 12 However, if it does not make peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it.
The divine law does not allow for an ambush without warning or negotiation. This is because the law of God considers war to be an enforcement of the decrees from the divine court. When men or nations refuse to comply with His decrees, it is contempt of court, which calls for the death penalty. This law is found in Deuteronomy 17:8-13. Verse 12 says,
12 And the man who acts presumptuously by not listening to the priest who stands there to serve the Lord your God, nor to the judge, that man shall die; thus you shall purge the evil from Israel.
The heavenly invasion of the earth in Revelation 19 presumes that the divine court case has already been filed properly and that God has already ruled in favor of the saints and against Babylon. Babylon’s authorized time to rule the earth has ended, but, as Jeremiah 50:33 prophesies, “they have refused to let them go.” For this reason, God musters the White Horse Company to invade and to take back His creation by whatever force necessary.
Ambassadors of Peace
But before such a war takes place, an ambassador must be sent to “offer it terms of peace.” The ambassador in this case is the “angel standing in the sun.” My personal revelation says that this is the Peace Angel. Though he is first revealed declaring war, his name (nature) is peace. When I asked our heavenly Father for the name of this angel, He told me that it was found in Luke 14:32, which says (in context),
31 Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and take counsel whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks terms of peace.
The word of the Lord, then, revealed that this was the Peace Angel and that he was charged with the responsibility to bring “terms of peace” according to Deuteronomy 20:10. I must admit that prior to receiving this revelation, I had overlooked the laws of war that demand terms of peace in order to make this a righteous invasion.
The Peace Angel is the angel of Christ’s ambassadors in 2 Corinthians 5:18-20,
18 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
The Greek word translated “reconciliation” is katallasso, which more properly means “conciliate.” A conciliation is where one person takes the initiative with a cease-fire and sends an ambassador for peace to ask the other side to stop fighting as well. A one-sided action is a conciliation. If both sides cease firing, then there is a RE-conciliation, or an apo-katallasso. The Greek word used in the passage above is katallasso, where God has taken the initiative by Himself, “conciliating the world, not counting their trespasses against them.”
During the entire Pentecostal Age, believers have been ambassadors for Christ insofar as the people of the world are concerned. Unfortunately, many of these ambassadors have preached threats of hell-fire for non-compliance, rather than passing on the message of conciliation. Yet at the end of the age, a new situation has arisen which again requires an ambassador of peace.
The Peace Angel is the divine ambassador to Babylon. He is sent to bring terms of peace, informing Babylon that its mandate to rule for a period of seven times has concluded, and that the divine court has decreed in favor of the saints of the Most High (Daniel 7:27). Babylon must relinquish its territory and release its slaves.
However, Babylon has refused to comply with the divine court ruling (2014), even after being given a one-year grace period according to the law in Leviticus 25:29. Therefore, the divine court has sent its heavenly armies (beginning in 2016) to enforce the decree and to set creation free (Romans 8:21).
The Great Supper
The Peace Angel not only declares peace, but is also an enforcer of the peace. Peace (that is, reconciliation) will be established one way or another. John hears the Peace Angel calling to the birds of heaven to “the great supper of God” (Revelation 19:17). The metaphor paints a picture of a great battlefield, where vultures gather to feast on the dead bodies of those slain in battle.
This prophecy is taken directly from Ezekiel 39:17-20, which is the conclusion of the battle that destroys Gog and Magog after their invasion. In that passage, the prophet himself was told to speak to the birds of heaven:
17 And 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. 18 You shall 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. 19 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. 20 And 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 is said to be God’s “sacrifice.” In Leviticus 6:26, “the priest who offers it for sin [i.e., a sin offering] shall eat it.” But in the case of Gog and Magog, God’s sacrifice is for the birds of prey, which eat dead carcasses that still have blood in them. Such birds are unclean (Leviticus 11:13-19) for that very reason, for God’s law forbids eating blood (Leviticus 17:10-13).
God created unclean animals according to spiritual principles in order to show us prophetic things. We are not to eat blood, because we are not to be bloodthirsty. Yet because Gog and Magog have been bloodthirsty, God will bring judgment upon them in accordance with their own ways. It is the same as we see in the divine judgment against Mount Seir, or Edom. Ezekiel 35:6 gives the divine verdict: “since you have not hated bloodshed, therefore bloodshed will pursue you.”
The same verdict, then, is decreed against Gog and Magog in Ezekiel 39, pictured graphically as a call to the birds of prey to come and feast on the carcasses of the invaders.
Because the Peace Angel refers to the prophecy in Ezekiel 39, it is clear that the heavenly invasion is designed to put an end to Gog’s occupation of “the mountains of Israel.” No doubt this prophecy has a broader application, but the focus is upon a specific situation. So who are these invaders of the mountains of Israel?
The Invaders
Most prophecy teachers today teach that Magog is Russia and Gog are the Russians. Ezekiel 38:3 says, “Behold, I am against you, O Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal.” Prophecy teachers usually teach that Rosh is Russia, Meshech is Moscow, and Tubal is Tobolsk, a city in Russia that was founded in 1587.
However, these names go back much farther in history, for they are the names of the sons of Japheth in Genesis 10:2,
2 The sons of Japheth were Gomer and Magog and Madai and Javan and Tubal and Meschech and Tiras.
We are then given the names of the family of Gomer in Genesis 10:3,
3 And the sons of Gomer were Ashkenaz and Riphath and Togarmah.
Togarmah in particular is said to be allied with Gog in Ezekiel 38:5, 6,
5 Persia, Ethiopia, and Put with them, all of them with shield and helmet; 6 Gomer with all its troops; Beth-togarmah [house of Togarmah] from the remote parts of the north with all its troops—many peoples with you.
The invaders, then, are identified as descendants of Japheth, with special emphasis given to the sons of Gomer, Japheth’s oldest son. The Rus (“Russians”), however, did not move north from the Mideast, but rather came south from Scandinavia. They were a Scandinavian branch originating in the dispersed House of Israel—not from Japheth.
In fact, while some of the invaders surely have come from Russia, this does not mean that they are Russians. The key is in looking at all of the names of the invaders as a whole, and if they can be identified in actual history, we will know the truth.
To be continued…
Note: This blog post is part of a series titled "Studies in the Book of Revelation." To view all parts, click the link below.