Eze. 38:14

14 Therefore, son [ben] of man ['adam], prophesy [naba'] and say ['amar] unto Gog [Gowg], Thus saith ['amar] the Lord ['Adonay] GOD [Yahovih]; In that day [yowm] when my people [`am] of Israel [Yisra'el] dwelleth [yashab] safely [betach], shalt thou not know [yada`] it? KJV-Interlinear

14 Therefore, prophesy, son of man, and say to Gog, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, On that day when My people Israel are living securely, will you not know it? NASB

To prophesy means to foretell. To foretell, means to reveal something that is certain to occur in the future. It is not a prediction, not a guess, not just a possibility out of any number of possibilities.

Here God commands Ezekiel to tell what is exactly going to happen in the future. This is the second time that Ezekiel is stating this prophesy. There are numerous prophesies related to the end times, scattered throughout the Bible. These prophecies have been revealed repeatedly, again and again, throughout the centuries by way of their being read and studied, just as we are doing today.

When history gets to the Tribulation, then you can be sure that these prophecies will be gone over by lots of folks throughout the world. Even Herod, though he generally ignored the scriptures, knew of the prophecy of the birth of the Messiah.

So too, the leaders of the Northern Kingdom, will be aware of their role, or their foretold role, in their invasion of the Middle East. Only, they will listen only to their success, and not to their ultimate demise. They will probably figure that they can beat the odds and with foreknowledge of their own, knowing that they will be counter attacked from the east and the west, they will be prepared for it and therefore prevail. So they think.

Will you not know it? This is the statement of their thorough knowledge of the prophecy. They know what they intend. They know of their success. They know that they will eventually be defeated and not only defeated, but also thoroughly trounced, crushed, destroyed. They know all of this, and still they will continue with their plans, and attack.

We are not even done with our study of this chapter. There is far more yet to come regarding the nature of the attack and its aftermath.

Not only will the leaders of Magog know of the prophecies, but they will know of the relationship that God has with this nation of Israel.

Israel will live in safety. This also implies prosperity and comfort.

Since the rest of the world is living through the fires of judgment, and since Israel is not, then this also implies that Israel has an in with God. So anyone wanting to take on Israel will in effect be taking on God.

Pharaoh learned this the hard way. He lived through ten plagues. His country suffered while its slaves were blessed. In addition, even after the ten plagues were completed and the Israelites had left, Egypt still turned again to their stubborn hearts and ran after their own destruction.

This pattern of attitude will repeat itself at the end of the Tribulation.

This is a pattern of attitude which people throughout history repeat in their own personal lives. They ignore God, have difficulties in their lives, turn to God, get some relief, ignore God, encounter some difficulties, turn to God or begin the pattern of blaming Him, and so forth throughout their life.

Somehow, people get the idea that they live in a perfect world and that problems just should not be a part of it. Yet we have all heard of the Devil and the war that he is conducting with God. But, who really believes all of that? It is just a story, a prophecy, something for little children. We are all adults here. We are smart folks. We can obviously get around all of this prophecy stuff. Right?

Lets look briefly at something else.

In the Tribulation, Israel will apparently be prosperous to a degree. Certainly relative to the rest of the world, which is suffering greatly with well over half of the worlds population having died in just six years. And with Israel prospering in the midst of all of this calamity, wouldn t you think that folks would take notice?

In that future time, Israel will have a treaty with the anti-christ. Instead of Israel receiving financial aid, as they do from many countries today, they will be paying out, of their prosperity, for their foreign protection. They will be prosperous.

Recently, oil prices have been in the news. But I ll bet that most of you have missed the news regarding the worlds oil reserves. With just a little over one trillion barrels still underground, and with our world consumption rate of eighty-four million barrels per day (and growing), that leaves just a little under forty years worth of oil remaining on the planet. Hummm! Could be a problem, don t you suppose?

Oil could very well be the cause of huge inflation in the future, just as predicted (the inflation part) in Revelation.

Everyone seems to agree that there are many indicators pointing to our being very near the end of our own dispensation.

Oil is the principle resource for the production of forty percent of the world s energy. Perhaps nuclear power will replace some of it. Perhaps fuel cells will replace some of it. Perhaps new inventions will make our oil reserves last a little longer. But, even if we cut our use of oil in half, that means that it will still run out in this century.

And, remember that the world s population is continually growing. Our population could quadruple just in this century. What then? And after that, what then?

Is it possible that Israel will discover new oil reserves, which will be the foundation of their new prosperity? New reserves, making them (and Europe who has a treaty with them) the envy of the rest of the world, whose oil reserves are drying up?

Now is the time to post a prayer.