Hooks in the Jaws

Energy companies appear to have discovered just off the Israeli Mediterranean coast the largest natural gas resource ever found. Prophecy watchers have often said that some sort of development such as this would have to happen for the Ezekiel 38-39 war to take place. We no longer have to wonder what that the hooks in the jaws of Gog will be (Ezekiel 38:4).

Ezekiel 38:13 makes it clear that coveting material wealth is the motivation of the coalition of nations that come against Israel in the "latter days," a reference to the time preceding the return of the Messiah. Israel has been blessed with technological prowess but that is less of a temptation for an attacker because it can not be exploited like mineral resources. So this discovery in Israel changes things.

However, there is yet another problem thinking we are on the verge of Ezekiel 38 being fulfilled. Ezekiel 38:11 says that Gog will seek to attack, "a land of unwalled villages... all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates" (NKJ). Since symbolic language is common in prophetic literature, I once rationalized that the security barriers in Israel today are nothing to a modern mechanized force but God put this detail in the Bible for some reason. And couple that with the fact that the nations listed in Ezekiel 38 do not include Israel's immediate neighbors. You would think they would be involved given all the rhetoric regarding the plight of the Palestinians today.

There is a growing body of prophecy watchers today saying that the problems with Ezekiel 38 being on the verge of fulfillment is explained by Psalm 83. The agenda and fate of the nations immediately adjacent to Israel are addressed in Psalm 83. I plan to study this more thoroughly in the coming few weeks but it looks very much like a Psalm 83 battle will precede Ezekiel 38. This certainly is reinforced by my recent conviction that Gog is another term for the Antichrist; besides Ezekiel 38-39, the only other reference to Gog in the Bible is Revelation 20:8, clearly a world leader that is allowed to emerge to oppose Christ.

As we can see the stage being set for the world-wide government of the Antichrist during the Tribulation, we can also see the ground-work being laid for the Ezekiel 38-39 war. I believe this war must happen during the Tribulation. This is reinforced by the fact that Israel will be living in a false peace at the beginning of the Tribulation as a result of a peace treaty guaranteed by the Antichrist (Daniel 9:27).

Since the Rapture of the true followers of Christ must occur prior to the Tribulation, we can see we're getting close. This massive gas discovery in Israel is just one more piece falling into place.