Eze. 39:3-6

3 And I will smite [nakah] thy bow [qesheth] out of thy left [samo'wl] hand [yad], and will cause thine arrows [chets] to fall [naphal] out of thy right [yamiyn] hand [yad].

4 Thou shalt fall [naphal] upon the mountains [har] of Israel [Yisra'el], thou, and all thy bands ['aggaph], and the people [`am] that is with thee: I will give [nathan] thee unto the ravenous [`ayit] birds [tsippowr] of every sort [kanaph], and to the beasts [chay] of the field [sadeh] to be devoured ['oklah].

5 Thou shalt fall [naphal] upon the open [paniym] field [sadeh]: for I have spoken [dabar] it, saith [na'um] the Lord ['Adonay] GOD [Yahovih].

6 And I will send [shalach] a fire ['esh] on Magog [Magowg], and among them that dwell [yashab] carelessly [betach] in the isles ['iy]: and they shall know [yada`] that I am the LORD [Yahovah]. KJV-Interlinear

3 And I shall strike your bow from your left hand, and dash down your arrows from your right hand. 4 You shall fall on the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops, and the peoples who are with you; I shall give you as food to every kind of predatory bird and beast of the field. 5 You will fall on the open field; for it is I who have spoken, declares the Lord GOD. 6 And I shall send fire upon Magog and those who inhabit the coastlands in safety; and they will know that I am the LORD. NASB

The other day, we saw that the King of the Northern forces, would be led, or should we say, enticed into attacking Israel and the Middle East. His own attitude and lust for power and wealth will cause him to want the prosperity that Israel has.

Several weeks ago, we saw that God would lead his forces into the battle, as one would lead a wild animal to the slaughter, with hooks in his mouth.

This is the path of anyone who rejects, to the maximum, Gods word.

All but a sixth part of the northern forces will participate in that invasion. What dos that mean. And yes, I know that this reference was in our study of the other day, but not mentioned. All for good reason.

The attitude, of the Northern King and its leadership and its people, is all the same. They all have rejected God, Christ, doctrine, their spiritual lives, and they all have the similar lust for the loot of the Middle East. They do not have the same prosperity, as does the Middle East. They cannot figure out how to earn that same prosperity. So what option is available? Well one has to steal what one wants. And so it is that the forces of the North, in the Tribulation, will invade the Middle East, with the intentions of taking by violent force, all that the Middle East has.

Now remember the state of the world.

This is the time of the Tribulation. This is the end of that seven year period. Over six years prior, the Rapture took all believers out of the world. Over six years prior, the restraining ministry of the Holy Spirit, was removed from the world. Sin was given the green light, and it took it.

During the next six plus years, following the Rapture, the anti-christ will try to turn a troubled world into a utopia. He will fail in every effort. Crime, poor economic policies, bureaucracies, famine, bad weather, disasters of every type will plague the world. Over half of the world s population will die. Inflation, shortages, diseases and every imaginable problem that could happen to humanity, will happen.

The kings of the north, south, and east, will lose their confidence, if they ever had any, in the anti-christ. They won t trust him, and well they shouldn t. He is indwelled by Satan himself.

On his own, man cannot cure any of his own problems in the world.

And by the way, I am going to make one more speculation here. Recall that I have always said that I believe that the Rapture will not actually occur for another hundred years. Although it could occur at anytime. But my reasoning is that, I think that there will be a huge population in the world, which will create insurmountable problems, because of an over-population of the planet.

But too, if that presumption is correct, then in the next hundred years, technology will make huge leaps, too. I would bet that we will see many cures for many diseases and even some pretty remarkable advances in many other areas affecting our daily life. These advances will have a tendency to make people believe that man can cure all of his problems.

The Rapture, among other things, will quickly prove that belief, wrong.

Now, at the end of the Tribulation, things are not going so well. The King of the North is committing nearly all of his nations resources to the invasion. All but a sixth part. It is an all or nothing gamble.

Once the invasion is under way, then the anti-christ, who is the King of the West, and the kings of the east, will counter attack. The southern power has already been annihilated, by the North, by this time.

From both his left hand and his right hand, the King of the North will be attacked on his eastern and western flanks, in the vicinity of Israel. His troops will die in many fields of battle, throughout the Middle East.

Not only this, but his homelands to the north, will be rained upon by furious attacks from both the west and the eastern powers. We naturally interpret this as long range missile attacks, nukes, and whatever else happens to be in their combined arsenals. That will end the existence of the nations to the north.

The only people who will survive in the north, will be any believers who happen to be hiding up there.

Any remaining forces of the Northern army will be engaged in the fighting that will only escalate in the Middle East, in Israel, when the armies of the east and the west get there, and then everyone will be fighting everyone. Needless to say, things will be total chaos, engulfed in furious violence.

Hummm! Wouldn t this make a great action movie?

Now is the time to post a prayer.