The Russo-Eastern Question Prophetically and Historically Considered
By Bryn Mawr
THE RUSSO-EASTERN QUESTION PROPHETICALLY AND HISTORICALLY CONSIDERED. NO. 2.
BY BRYN MAWR. (Continued.)
[The following exposition of the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth chapters of Ezekiel is presented for the study of our readers. The writer feels the profound conviction that the views as set forth in the articles which follow are truth. For these views the editors are not responsible. The prophecy is an open one, one about which various opinions exist, and much uncertainty; therefore we give these articles space. Let the prophecy be carefully, prayerfully considered. If there are decided objections, let us hear from you. —ED. S. OF T.]
Gog, in pursuit of his own selfish ends, comes into the land brought "back from the sword." Considered in connection with Eze. 38:11, 12, there is no nation or country which meets the requirements of these scriptures except the United States. The only thing that causes a nation to be mentioned or considered in Holy Writ, is the connection of that nation with the "salt of the earth," God's people.
This country, then, while it was yet "waste places," received God's people from the clutch of the persecutor, and became an asylum where "they dwelt safely," and worshiped God according to the dictates of their own conscience. The prophet also foresaw that the "mountains of Israel" (Isa. 2:2)—places of worship—"always have been [heretofore] waste;" that is, until the "Israel of God [His people] came in." Given over to savage, barbarous idolatry, the country was waste indeed! Isa. 42:15. He foresaw the people of God dwelt safely, till their liberties were again threatened; till the fires of Revolution, forced upon them, broke forth, and the land—America—was brought "back from the sword."
And again he foresaw, after many days—nearly a century later—the same land rescued from the throes of rebellion, for sweet Liberty's sake—truly brought back from the sword.
It was "gathered out of many people;" and again, it is "brought forth out of the nations"—surely a graphic description of the birth of this nation, and most peculiarly true of this nation. And they—"God's people"—"shall dwell safely," for God will move the universe before harm shall come to a single soul that puts his trust in Him. See Psalms 57 and 91; Deut. 33:27-29.
Verses 9-16: "Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands [hordes, R. V.], and many people [allies] with thee.
And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army; and thou shalt come up against My people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against My land, that the heathen may know Me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes."
Verse 15 is an interpretation of verse 9, in that it describes the place from, and the manner in, which he shall come. In verse 9 he "ascends;" in verse 15 he comes out of the uttermost parts of the north—Siberia,—showing plainly that he will bring "his hordes" from the "sides of the north," via Siberia, Alaska, etc., "like a storm," suddenly, with little warning, and with the rapidity and fury of "a storm," "like a cloud to cover the land." A cloud, whatever its size, does not stand still, but covers the land as it moves with the momentum of the storm.
"I will bring thee." God sometimes causes kings, or nations, through their rulers, to do His will (Rev. 17:17), "that the heathen may know Me [See Rev. 14:7], when I shall be sanctified." See Eze. 36:23; 28:25—equivalent to saying, "Before My people Israel, whom thou seekest to destroy, I will be sanctified by thy tardy acknowledgment of My word and power."
Verse 10: "Thus saith the Lord God; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time [in the latter years, or in the time of the end, at that day, R. V.] shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought" (margin, "conceive a mischievous purpose"). This is an eminently correct description of Russian policy toward the rest of the world, especially of the weaker contiguous nations, or those who act as a bar to her schemes.
Verse 11: "And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely [margin, "confidently"], all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates." In Ezekiel's day there was no nation that could be distinctively spoken of as a nation of "unwalled villages," nor were any towns, cities, or villages of his time without "walls," "bars," or "gates." Nor is there now any modern nation in any land but can show ruins of defenses—"walls," "bars," and "gates"—save one, and that one, America; or, more definitely, the United States. Of no other nation can it be said—in the same sense—that they are "at rest,"-in peace,-or unmolested,-dwelling "confidently,"-too confidently, perhaps, for real safety; for it is often an American boast that "no five nations could whip her on her own ground." And yet a day of humbling awaits "proud Columbia."
Verse 12: "To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land." Her purpose is to prey upon those so confident of their own strength and prowess, and despoil them of their accumulated wealth. If the prophet were living with us now he could not have given a better description of the great American industries,—"cattle and goods,"—great cattle ranges, with millions of cattle and horses and sheep (all come under the head of cattle), and immense factories producing millions of dollars in goods annually; and the largest mining interests in the world, producing millions in "gold and silver," as mentioned in the next verse. Desolate places;—i. e., when the prophet wrote these things, this country was most desolate; but now, in the day of fulfilment, those places are inhabited. He also gives us another mark of identification for this nation, it is gathered out of all other nations, to being one of the most prominent characteristics of this country; no other nation can successfully lay claim to this distinguishing feature. And this nation, that is gathered out of "all other nations," "dwells in the midst of the land;"—which expression almost exactly describes the geographical position of this country, relative to the whole continent.
Verse 13: "Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold,4to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?" Sheba and Dedan, sons of Raamah, originally located in southern Arabia; later their descendants intermingled with the Semitic race, from which sprang the ancient Phoenicians. Sheba signifies "red man," or "turned red." At some time not definitely known, their descendants found their way to this continent, and settled in what is now known as the South American nations, and Mexico; and were conquered later by the Spaniards; and, by forms of worship (idolatry), architecture, and other archeological discoveries ethnologists have connected the American races overthrown by the Spanish in the sixteenth century, with these progenitors.
"Tarshish" was the ancient name of Spain as known to the Hebrews, and Ezekiel undoubtedly saw in the Tarshish of his time the Spain of the fulfilment of his prophecy, for he assuredly wrote only what he saw in the Word. Anciently the merchants were a ruling class as compared with the common people. And the merchant princes of Ezekiel's day are the "Dons" of to-day.
Significant and curious indeed is the fact that when Spain conquered the ancient Americans, she made war upon her own flesh and blood, and she, again commingling with them, later produced the Latin American nations, or "the young lions of Tarshish"—whelps of Spain—that Ezekiel saw were so amazed that they stand aghast at the audacity of Gog (Russia); hence the covert sneer. Another word in regard to the "spoil." The United States is fabulously rich in all the things enumerated above, and many other magnificent industries (Eze. 19:2-3) that would come under the head of a "great spoil," or "indemnity."
In verses 14 and 17 the Lord rebukes Gog with a comparative view of his insignificance and pretensions. "Therefore, . . . in that day when My people Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it?" We may as well present the fact here that the Israelitish nation is not meant by the expression, "My people Israel," but "My people Israel" contingently "dwelleth safely," at a certain time—"that day,"—in a nation that guarantees religious liberty. And in "that day" Gog comes against that nation "like a storm," to "take a spoil." After "that time" there will be no religious liberty; but it will not matter to God's people; for it is then that the end will have come; and God will deliver His people, every one whose name is written in the "Lamb's book of life." Rev. 21:27.
Verse 17: "Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by My servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years [ago] that I would bring thee against them?" It was long ago "spoken" of him, but the time of fulfilment is come, and Russia is identified as Gog of whom the things were spoken. And in the presence of My people the whole world shall acknowledge that "I am the Lord."
Verse 18: "And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord God, that My fury shall come up in My face." One would not be very angry if the anger did not show in the face; and one can not be full of "fury" and not show it in the face, and the Lord uses this familiar simile to show that His wrath is not dormant any longer, but is in action. Undoubtedly this is Ezekiel's view of the "Third" Angel's Message. Rev. 14:10.
Verses 19-23: "For in My jealousy and in the fire of My wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel; so that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at My presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground. And I will call for a sword against him [Gog] throughout all My mountains, saith the Lord God; every man's sword shall be against his brother. And I will plead against him [Gog] with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and up on his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. Thus will I magnify Myself, and sanctify Myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the Lord."
Beginning at verse 18, having seen that the Lord's anger is the final wrath which ends this world's history, and continuing with verse 19, in which begins a terse, compact description of the seven last plagues (more fully described by John in Revelation 16), the "great shaking in the land of Israel," whatever its "spiritual" application, is too palpably literal to be set aside on that ground, and is applied and explained by the Lord Himself in verse 20. It is evident that the "land of Israel" is the whole earth,—once typified by Palestine, or the Holy Land. The scenes described in verses 20-22 are the visitation of the last plagues and the culmination of the seventh. Verse 21 very amply sets forth the arming and universal engagement of all nations on the field of Armageddon (Rev. 16:16-21), a place of "slaughter," the root meaning of the word being "to cut off." Prov. 2:22; Ps. 37:34; Isa. 11:4; 66:15, 16; Jer. 25:30-33.
The above Scripture references are sufficient to define the nature of the controversy Ezekiel had in view. "Of one blood made He all nations;" so with all nations at war, it will be literally true that "every man's hand shall be against his brother."
Verse 23. In this manner, that is, by the awful events just enumerated, God will show forth His power and glory, and be sanctified by the acknowledgment of all that He is the Lord; for none in whom they trusted is able to deliver them out of His hand. But this acknowledgment of the one true God, and the vindication of His Word, that has so often been rejected and spurned with revilings, comes too late; for the "day of salvation" is over-past. Too late! for the edict of Rev. 22:11 will then be in full force and effect, without a possibility of changing; the great voice of Omnipotence has spoken, "It is done."