[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]
|
Status: Not Logged In; Sign In
Bible Study Title: The Restoration and Conversion of Israel - Part X No. 257, November, 1915, Vol. XXI., No. 11., pp. 124-125.
The last fourteen chapters (35-48) of Ezekiel contains such clear and concise prophecies concerning the restoration, conflicts, conversion, and establishment of Israel in their own land, on their own soil, that, were there no other testimony in the Word (and we have produced abundance), we venture to assert that no one, except by the most flagrant system of spiritualization, could deny that such restoration either had taken place, or must be relegated to the future. And that it is to the future we must look for the fulfillment is certain, for not only have such events as are foretold never yet happened, but with respect to certain of them, and therefore by contextual reading applicable to all, we are told it will be "after many days," "in the latter years," "in the latter days" (38.8,16); expressions which point to the future not only in the prophet's day, but as regards our own times.
The summary of the fourteen chapters referred to is briefly thus:----
Chap. 35. Judgments on enemies as represented by Seir.
Chap. 36. Prophecies unto the mountains of Israel with the promise of restoration (vv. 9-12).
Chap. 37. The vision of the valley of dry bones with emphatic promise of resurrection literal or spiritual, or both, and restoration (vv. 12-14); and the object lesson of the two sticks united in one, teaching that the two houses of Judah and Israel shall be one, which has not been so since the disruption in the reign of Rehoboam.
Chaps. 38 and 39. Invasion of the land and assault upon Israel by certain Gentile enemies, and the punishment God inflicts upon them.
Chaps. 40-48. A full and careful prophetical description of the wondrous Temple which shall be erected in the land of restored Israel, with its appointments, ordinances, and sacrifices.
Before going further there is one word used again and again by the prophet which is well worthy of our notice. It is the word "land" in our versions, a translation of two words in the Hebrew; eretz, the more common word used so frequently throughout the Bible, and many times by Ezekiel himself. But some twenty-six times he uses the word adamah, which means the soil, the very ground itself, emphasizing the fact that it is that particular portion of territory to which the people will be restored and which they will enjoy.
It would be quite outside the scope of these papers to dwell in detail on each of the concluding chapters of the book, much as we would desire it. But to chaps. 38 and 39 we would call particular attention for they give us certain details, at which we have already seen other prophets hint, namely, who the marauding hosts are, who under the leadership of Antichrist, shall invade and molest the chosen people.
Chap. 38 begins thus:----"And of 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" (vv. 1-3).
Now allied with Gog are certain others, "Persia, Ethiopia and Libya, Gomer and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands, and many people with thee" (vv. 5, 6).
These all conspire to go up and destroy Palestine; "I will go up to the land of unwalled villages. I will go to them that are at rest and dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls having neither bars nor gates, to take the spoil and to take a prey" (vv. 11, 12).
But there is a decided protest made by certain others named in verse 13, "Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lion's thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take the spoil? Hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? To carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?" The protest certainly implies "not without our consent."
Now the question before us is are we able to identify the people mentioned in this chapter, and the answer to that question is, we assuredly can. For the following geographical explanations I am much indebted, as also for many other suggestions in these articles to an exhaustive work on the same subject by my dear father in the year 1860.* In that work he devotes a whole chapter of some forty-six large closely printed pages to the discussion of the locality and genealogy of the peoples mentioned in these two chapters. Of course, it would be impossible to put before our readers all the details given, the barest epitome must suffice.
In the Hebrew, v. 2 reads, "Gog, the land of Magog, prince Rosh and Tubal and Meshech." GOG is the name given to the leader of the confederacy. Is Gog the Antichrist? This name occurs only here, in chapter 39, and 1 Chron. 5.4. ROSH in A.V. is translated "chief" or head, in accordance with many other passages in which Rosh is rendered "head," but the R.V., following the Septuagint, Vulgate, Aquila, and Jerome, take it is a proper name, "Prince of Rosh." If Rosh be taken as a proper name, it may point to the Rossi or Russia, but we need not insist on this in order to establish the identity, as we shall soon see when speaking of Meshech and Tubal.
Referring back to Gen. 10.2-5, we find that some of the names mentioned in Ezekiel are included in the descendents of Japheth, and "by these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations (v. 5).
Now, roughly speaking, Japheth's descendents inhabited Europe, Shem's Asia Minor, Ham's Africa. So Gomer, Magog, Tubal, Meshech, Togarmah, Javan, Tarshish, all belong to Europe.
MAGOG. "The country of Magog is placed by ancient authority on E. and N.E. of the Black Sea; and therefore comprehends a territory now forming part of the Russian Empire."
MESHECH AND TUBAL. "The name Meshech is translated by the Sept. Mesoch, and from this word the people called Moschi derived their Greek name. The Moschi were, therefore, descendents of Meshech, and inhabited the country round the Moschic mountains lying at the eastern part of the Black Sea." . . . "Such were the first settlements of Magog, Mesheck and Tubal, but their descendents penetrated into the wilds of Scythia, and peopled the dreary regions of the north for Meschech and Tubal are expressions in Ezekiel for that vast country."
GOMER. Originally Gomer and his three sons occupied at first the land of Asia Minor, but the sons of Gomer soon extended themselves beyond their original settlements, and now embrace three of the most numerous and civilized peoples of modern Europe, English, French and Germans. It may be that from the expression, "Gomer and all his bands" (v. 6), we are particularly to understand united Germany. [N.B. Is not the German the Gomer-man?]
TOGARMAH. The Jews maintain that in Ezekiel Togarmah stands for the Turk, so may we take Togarmah here as representing the Turcoman hordes of Central Asia in the immediate eastern quarters of Russia, in the sides of the north.
PERSIA, ETHIOPIA AND LIBYA. Read for these as in the original, Paras, Cush, and Phut.
PARAS. Little need be said. We take him to be Persia (see Dan. 8.20). "The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia" (Heb. Paras cp. 10.13; 11.2).
CUSH AND PHUT. Both sons of Ham (Gen. 10.6). Cush here is Africa, though there is also an Arabian Cush. Josephus asserts that the Cushites passed over the Red Sea and settled in Ethiopia (Ant. I. vi. 2).
PHUT inhabited that part of Africa from which the whole country took its name. "Phut is the same as Libya, North Africa, West of Egypt, the Tripoli, Tunis and Algiers of our times."
Such will be the confederacy against "my people Israel" in the "latter days." But there are certain others who protest, and would oppose them. "Sheba and Dedan were the sons of Raamah, the son of Cush, but mentioned in Holy Writ in connection with Arabia (Jer. 25.23, 24). The Queen of Sheba was the "Queen of the South," that is Queen of Yemen or right hand. The Jews reckoned their cardinal points when looking eastward; therefore the right hand would be the south. And connected with Sheba is also
DEDAN, the name of the city in Southern Arabia, which may be regarded as the Aden of modern times, at the entrance to the Red Sea.
TARSHISH is mentioned some twenty-one times in Holy Writ, and we know that there were certain places called by this name, three we are sure of, namely, Tarshish of Cilicia (the Tarsus of St. Paul's day); Tarshish is Spain (Tartessus, where the prophet Jonah essayed to flee to), the Tarshish in the Eastern Sea.
According to Gen. 10.4, Tarshish was a son of Javan, the son of Japheth, whose descendents occupied Europe, and Tarshish may therefore be taken as a distinctly European power. It is also mentioned in Psa. 72.10, and Isa. 60.9, as among the "isles," and therefore, again, European. It is spoken of as a mercantile and maritime people by Isaiah (60.9) and Ezekiel (27.25). Having merchant ships (Psa. 48.7; Isa. 2.16). Tarshish is not only mercantile, but also manufacturing (Jer. 10.9; Ezek. 27.12-25).
The writer of the work already referred to carefully traces the passages and meanings given to Tarshish in the Bible and shows that whereas it is the name of an actual place, it is also used in a typical sense, signifying a maritime, mercantile, colonizing, manufacturing, warlike people in these last days, among the sons of Japheth, i.e., within the limits of Europe. And in another shorter work on prophetical subjects he sums up his arguments in the larger book as follows:----"Putting altogether, Ezekiel requires us to find in Europe among the isles of the Gentiles, in these latter times, a mercantile, colonizing, manufacturing, warlike power, such as Tyre, a great world's mart, commanding the trade of East and West; but especially the trade of the Eastern Seas. That power, like Gog's confederates must be now before the world; and there is but one power that can answer such a description. It is England."
Thus we have depicted in this prophecy of Ezekiel the great future struggle which will take place in the Holy Land, and specially around the city of Jerusalem. We have focused our attention on those hostile alien adversaries of Israel, because at the present time when the principal belligerence are on the stage of the world, engaged in a desperate encounter for world-wide supremacy, such a careful survey is of intense importance and interest. England, Germany, and Russia will once more be in conflict, Russia and Germany seeking to conquer and overthrow the peaceable dwellers in "the land of unwalled villages," England with her Allies uttering at least a strong protest against the act of vandalism. All this, of course, if the interpretation here set forth be correct. But this is true as regards those peoples whose geography and topography, however briefly, has been established. With regard to Tarshish, it must be left a somewhat open question, but even in this case so closely do the various descriptions fit our own beloved land, that we are inclined to ask to what great power can they refer if not to England?
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: A K A Stone (#0)
"Keep Your Goddamn Government Hands Off My Medicare!" - Various Tea Party signs.
What is Richard the fool is wrong?
Jesus said he will judge which means a court case. In such a case Dawkins can present the argument that Jesus/God did not do such a good jib of proving he existed before the second coming, also if anyone wanted to become faithful since there are so many religions on earth and so many different churches to pick that you can't be expected as a human being to actually make such a decision. If Jesus is a just God and not a tyrant then that argument would work in Dawkin's favor and he would be found not guilty.
"Keep Your Goddamn Government Hands Off My Medicare!" - Various Tea Party signs.
|
|
[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]
|