Global War - The times of the end Part 2 - The main antagonists

In part 1, we discussed the broad parameters of the times of the end and the global conflict that will ensue. By definition, if the conflict is global, it will encompass most nations on the earth. However, it's possible to identify the main players from scripture and to set out in broad strokes how things will play out. In this post, we will talk about those who are part of the invading army. In part 3, we will talk about the opposing army that supports Israel.   

Before we do that, however, let's put all of this into its appropriate context.   

The Kingdoms of men and the times of the Gentiles - Nebuchadnezzar's image 

The times of the end is actually the times of the end of the era of the Kingdom of men, otherwise known as the times of the Gentiles. The return of Christ to the earth comes at a time of great violence in the earth but also with the intent of forever destroying the all the architecture of man's self government and the establishment of the Kingdom of God.  Let's go back to the image shown to Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 2. A great stone was cut out of a mountain, struck the image on its feet and then slowly ground it to a fine powder which was blown away as dust. Daniel concludes his interpretation of the dream to Nebuchadnezzar with these words, starting at v44.   

And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.   

So, what we must understand is no matter the nations involved in the final troubles, ultimately, they will all be subsumed within the Kingdom to be set up by Christ on earth.  

The invaders 

We started the last post with heavy references to Daniel 12. Now, let's go back to Daniel 11 and look at the prophecy of the King of the North and the King of the South. This prophecy covers many hundreds of years and refers to the rulers who held power of the lands to the north and south of Israel from the time after the collapse of the Persian empire.   

In verses 1-5, we have foretold the rise and then abrupt fall of Alexander the Great who cut a swathe through the Persian empire and established an empire even more vast in extent, stretching from Greece all the way to India. Yet, he died unexpectedly and his kingdom, as foretold in Daniel, was divided between four different people, being his four generals. Two of these generals established empires which bordered or coveted the land of Israel. These generals were Ptolemy and Selucus. Their descendants fought over the land of Israel in a series of wars that devastated the land and the Jewish inhabitants.   The empire of the Ptolemys had their power base in Egypt, to the south of Israel. They are the first power described as the King of the South in this chapter of Daniel.   

The empire of the Selucids established a city called Antioch. From 240BC, this city served as the capital of the Selucid empire. Antioch is north of Israel in now what is modern day Syria. Logically, this power is that described as the King of the North.   

The prophecy of Daniel 11 up to v35 describes the conflict over the land of Israel and the behaviour of the Selucid kings in relation to the land, including the cruelty of Antiochus IV, known as Antiochus Epiphanes who was a sworn enemy of the Jews. It was in his reign that the temple was defiled when he offered a pig on an altar in sacrifice to Zeus. It was this desecration that provoked the Jewish uprising under the Maccabees and the partial return of the land of Israel to self-government until the time of the Romans.   

The point of laying this out is to say that the identity of the King of the North and of the South does not rest in a particular person. It rests on who controls the territories to the North and South of Israel. Many Selucid and Ptolemaic rulers would have been described in their day as the Kings of the North and South and each passed off the scene as the prophecy of Daniel unfolded.  

The time of the end in Daniel 11 

Prophecies in the Bible span long periods of time. This one in Daniel is no exception. Let's skip to Daniel 11 v 40:  

And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape. But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps. But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him. (Daniel 11 v 40-45)  

We are introduced here to new players, north and south of Israel. The king of the south is said to push at and provoke the king of the north to come and once again, invade the land of Israel. The king of the north goes further though and sweeps down through into northern Africa with only the land to the east of the Jordan river and to the south and east of the dead sea being outside of his control.   So, who is this modern day king of the north who will come against Israel?  

Russia 

The identity of Israel's assailants is given in the 38th chapter of Ezekiel which we've set out below.   

And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords: Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet: Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee.  

There is a lot to unpack in Ezekiel 38 and the prophecy goes on in quite a lot of detail about the exploits of this invading force. Before we do that, let's pause for a minute to look at the identity of those here described.  

Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. Gog here is a title, the name of the leader of the force of nations. He is described, in the King James as the chief ruler of the territories, Meshech and Tubal. In the original Hebrew the word we know as chief is "Rosh". In the biblical account it is used elsewhere to denote the head or the ruler. Interestingly, enough, the word itself chosen by Daniel is significant in that it helps us link back to the identity of Meshech and Tubal.   

Samuel Bochart was a French theologian in the 17th century. He wrote a book titled Sacred Geography. In this book, he wrote that that Rōs, or Rōsh, is the most ancient form under which history makes mention of the name of Russia. He contended that Rosh and Mĕshekh, properly denote the nations of Moscovy and Russia.   

“It is credible”, says he, “that from Rosh and Meshekh (that is, the Rhossi and Moschi) of whom Ezekiel speaks, descended the Russians and Muscovites, nations of the greatest celebrity in European Scythia”. 

We have indeed ample and positive testimony that the Russian nation was called Rōs by the Greeks in the earliest period in which we find it mentioned, as, “the Rosh are a Scythian nation bordering on the northern Taurus”. And their own historian says, “It is related that the Russians (whom the Greeks called Rōs, and sometimes Rōsos) derived their name from Ros, a valiant man, who delivered his nation from the yoke of its tyrants”.  

From this, it is not hard to discern the modern names of Russia and Moscow in the Bible names adduced by Ezekiel. It is not difficult also to recognize in Tubal, the modern day town of Tobolski. The river Tobol gives its name to the city, with the city being the ancient capital of the region of Siberia, the vast area of land that extends into Asia and up into the Artic, eastward of the Ural mountains. Russia annexed these lands over a period of hundreds of years beginning in the 1500s and so now occupies all of the lands that previously would have been referred to by these names.   

Others involved 

While its clear that Russia is the head of the invading force, it is not the only power present. Ezekiel 38 refers to other lands and peoples who will line up alongside / with/ under Russia as part of this group.  The interesting thing about the reference in Ezekiel 38 is that many of the nations referenced in the original text are actually direct descendants of Noah. This makes sense when you think about who the prophecy was given to - i.e. Ezekiel. Ezekiel would have been well aware of the story of Noah and of the spread of his descendants throughout the earth and would not have failed to miss these references. In the antagonists, there's five all up, all of which are historical people directly connected with/ descended from Noah and referenced elsewhere in the Biblical account. Whether the record is deliberate in referencing these names for a purpose or whether they are referenced just because the names endured, the fact remains that someone with an understanding of the history and geography of the Noahic line would be well placed to interpret this record.   

[Note/ disclaimer - Where we stand today, the records are fuzzier because of the time that has elapsed. Below is an outline of what I consider a good overview of the participants but we will only know for certain when it all goes down]   

{a} The land of Magog (v1) / Gomer(v6)  

Magog and Gomer are mentioned in Genesis as two of the sons of Japheth, the son of Noah so we'll deal with them together.  Flavius Josephus, the Jewish historian from the 1st century AD (contemporary with the fall of Jerusalem) records that Japheth's sons went north and west into the regions of Europe and beyond.   

Gomer founded the land of Gomerai which at the time of Josephus was called "Galate" by the Greeks.   Magog founded the land of Magogae which at the time of Josephus was called "Scythae", again by the Greeks.   

Gomer = France 

The area known as Galate by the Greeks was also known to the Romans as Gallis and to us nowadays as (ancient) Gaul. This is France, or at least the territory of France before the Franks had overrun it and changed its name from Gaul. (Note that a portion of these Galate peoples also emigrated from Europe and settled in Asia Minor, keeping their name of "Galatians" which we know in our Biblical record today but this is not the territory commonly understood to be where Japheth's sons settled).   Magog = Germany +? The area known as Scythae by the Greeks is a little more tricky. By the time of the Romans, the term "Scythian" referred to many different groups of people. From where they came and where they went very much depends on who you read as conflicting theories abound today. Diodorus Siculus, the renowned Greek historian who lived about a century prior to Josephus, traces the area of Scythia into Europe, past the Danube and to the area north of Galatia (which we referred to above as roughly the region of France today). This would suggest that Gomer implies the area of Western Europe to the north of France which may include Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and possibly the Nordic countries. If this is a correct interpretation, a vast swathe of territory in Western Europe is confederate with Russia in its eventual attack on Israel.   

{b} Persia, Ethiopia (Cush) and Libya(Put) (v5) 

The reference to Persia here is fairly self-explanatory. Iran is Persia. The Iranians, as distinct from the Arabs are the descendants of the Persians. Iran occupies territory previously controlled by Persia.   Libya here would appear to refer to an area broader than our modern day Libya. In the times of the Greeks, Libya referred to the area of the northern African coastline. Herodotus (484-425BC) writes of this area in his Histories and maps have been created of the world as described by him in which Libya occupies this region.  The term Libya in the original text is "Put" or "Phut". Phut is recorded in Genesis as the son of Ham and his settled territory is considered to be the area noted above. Wikipedia has a good summary of this as well.   

Ethiopia seems to be an area or band below Libya in this regard if you follow the same map. This would translate to an area of sub-saharan Africa.  The term Ethiopia in the original text is "Cush". Cush is also recorded in Genesis as a son (indeed the eldest son) of Ham. His kingdom or territory is traditionally held to be in this area of Africa.   

{c} The house of Togarmah of the north quarters(v6) 

Togarmah is the fifth reference to a Noahic descendant. There are various suggestions as to where his people settled but the answer that seems to fit best is the area of Turkey. In the Biblical account it talks about "of the north quarters" or of the northern flanks. So, Turkey would quite possibly fit if we are talking about the Anatolian region of Turkey which in Biblical times was called Asia Minor. Turkey today has become more and more hostile to Israel so it's entirely plausible as an explanation.  Note that v6 also adds "and all his bands" which implies a larger force with Turkey at the head.   

The relationship of Russia to the confederacy 

Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them (Ezekiel 38 v 7)  

Thus says Ezekiel in v7 of the 38th chapter. Russia is said to be both the leader of and a guard for the confederacy according to the record.   

It remains to be seen how all these nations line up with Russia and what will trigger that. At present, Russia is struggling to impose its will upon its smaller neighbour, Ukraine in a brutal war of attrition. It's not clear how it goes from this position of relative weakness to a position of clear strength to be able to take its place as the leader of a confederacy of nations but it will most surely happen.  

A link back to Nebuchadnezzar's image - proof of the antagonists  

As noted above, the historical records of the location of ancient peoples are difficult to properly discern due to the length of time that has elapsed. However, it's worth mapping the countries in the Russian confederacy onto a map to see what area they cover and to determine if it makes sense. Take a picture in google maps and draw a big oval around the Mediterranean, covering both the northern and southern land masses. Then overlay the Turkish and Mesopotamian regions as well and stand back and look at what you've drawn.  

What you find when you do so is that you have basically covered the area that was previously ruled by the four great empires of Nebuchadnezzar's image in Daniel. Everything from Western Europe through to Africa and Mesopotamia is covered, plus likely more, representing the continuation of smaller mixes of strong and weak empires and nations through the ten toes of the feet.   

Now, why is this relevant? Well, the invading force in Daniel 11 comes against Israel and threatens to wipe out the nation. This force is executing the final judgement by God on the Jews for their sins, in the same way as the Assyrians, Babylonians and Romans before it. However, once that judgement is completed in God's estimation, then he will step in to save the remnant of his people from total destruction. This is the the point at which the armies of Christ take up the battle and destroy the invading force.   

The parallel in Nebuchadnezzar's dream is when the stone hits the image on its feet, the feet here representing the end state of the empire under the Russian confederacy that has united against the Jews. And the total destruction of this army is foretold in the stone smashing the image up and grinding it to powder to be blown away by the wind.   

Conclusion 

In summary, it appears that a vast confederacy of nations led by Russia will come against Israel and in the process, oppose themselves against Christ. The exact names of all the confederate states are not known but it can reasonably be surmised to include France, Germany, most of Western Europe (that previously under Roman control), Northern Africa, Turkey and its surrounding areas (all areas previously under Greek, Persian or Babylonian control). In short, all the areas / territories which were covered by the great empires referred to in Nebuchadnezzar's image.   

We do not know the circumstances which lead to this great force coalescing but we know that it will indeed happen. Next time, we will set out who are those who support Israel in this final battle.