My entire life has changed, writes one follower of Jesus in a recent email. Since I’ve started studying God’s Word with you, everything is different. New truths, new ideas, new understandings, new blessings have come into my life as never before.
I am a new person. Welcome to Thru the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.
I’m your host, Steve Shwetz. And this letter, interestingly enough, came from a listener in Russia, but it easily could have been written by any of us who know and follow Jesus and make a habit of studying His Word. And you know, that’s you today.
And good for you for making the choice to study God’s Word for yourself. So while you grab your Bible and turn it to Ezekiel 38, welcome Thru the Bible’s president, Greg Harris, who joins me in sharing about our ministry in Russia. A country Dr. McGee will talk a lot about today in our study.
So hi, Greg.
Hey, Steve. And of course, both of us in different times and places have been to Russia, parts of Russia, and it’s an amazing ministry we have. But we have some great letters, so why don’t we jump right in?
That sounds good. The first one’s from Yelena. She writes an amazing story of recovery.
Here it is. I was addicted to alcohol, she says, which by the way, as an aside, is very common in Russia, very common. My loved ones thought I was lost forever.
I listened to you both while I was very drunk, and while I was only a little drunk. And sometimes when I was sober, your program seemed to treat me my broken soul. I began to notice that the more I listened, the more I didn’t feel like drinking.
Sometimes I listened for more than half a day. Last month I stopped drinking completely. My family is in shock.
Thank you so much. Your programs give me strength. I know that it is because you speak about God.
I am believing you about the hope of Jesus.
And I know both of us, again, separately, have visited rehab centers where people listen to Thru the Bible, and it’s very powerful, and there’s the fruit of it. Now, I love this. I love it when it says, a Muslim listener named Chingiz writes, your teaching is great.
I’ve been looking for something like this for a long time. You’re giving me answers to questions that no one else could answer. God is supporting me through you, even though you are a Christian and I am a Muslim.
I have begun to secretly read the Bible. Pray that I understand it. Oh, man.
This aspect of the ministry, of the impact that we’re having in the Islamic world, is, I think, certainly my top three most encouraging things that God is reaching people in that way. Here’s another one. This is a listener writes this, I’ve told many of the people around me about your program, and quite a few are watching them.
I watch as they gradually become kinder, softer. I want you to know that you are making a difference. A couple of my friends opened up to me and told me that they had stopped wanting to live.
I knew they were going through difficult times, but I had no idea they were so close to the edge. Thank you for helping change hearts and change futures. When I study with you, it sometimes feels like I am having a real conversation with God.
Man, I mean, and we can’t make this stuff happen. We can’t make it up. God is at work, and we’re just, as Dr. McGee says, I haven’t said this for a while, we’re just flinging the seed and look at what happens when the seed of God’s Word hits the soil of a receptive heart.
It’s really overwhelming.
Yeah, and there’s so much going on right now in Russia. They need our prayers. They need the systematic teaching of God’s Word.
So pray that it would continue to go out. Greg, would you do that for us now?
Father, we really feel in a holy place as we consider that you have chosen to use us, just vessels of clay, to get your Word all over the world and then to see what you do in the lives of people, the transformation, the changes in dark, dark places like Russia. Thank you, Father. We just pray you will continue to use us to get your Word to more hungry hearts.
And now our hearts are hungry, Lord, to grow and to know Jesus better. And we pray in His name. Amen.
Now, Dr. J. Vernon McGee will lead us through Ezekiel 38 on Thru the Bible.
I suppose that if there is any section in the prophecy of Ezekiel that is familiar, it’s now these two chapters that we’re going to look at, chapters 38 and 39. Now, I’m going to attempt to handle them just a little bit differently than we generally do because I’m anxious here to lift out certain great truths for us, and I think that that will probably be the best way to get a hold of the truth that is here. Now, these two chapters, unfortunately, have been interpreted by men who currently have no knowledge of the prophecy of Ezekiel and what goes with it.
And as a result, they come up with some of the oddest interpretations of it that I think I’ve ever heard. And therefore, that’s the reason we’re dealing with this as we are. In this connection, I always think of the advertisement that was put in the Mines magazine over in El Paso, Texas, by a few fellows over there.
They were mining experts and engineers, and they published an ad in that paper over there, and they published it as has been said deadpan, as if it’s very serious. Will you listen to this? Wanted man to work on nuclear, fissionable isotope, molecular reactive counters, and three-phase cyclotronic uranium photosynthesizers.
No experience necessary. And may I say to you, I feel about these two chapters as I do about this ad. It’s rather humorous, unless you’ve studied all of Ezekiel, to come to this chapter.
Now, we saw in the last chapter that God has a purpose for the nation Israel. And he has a very definite purpose for the nation Israel in the future. And in connection with that, these two chapters go, because they tell about the last enemy that will come down against them in the last days.
And we can, of course, take that over there of the Valley of the Dead Bones, and we can certainly make an application of it. This world that you and I live in today is a death valley. Dead bones, dead people, if you please.
Oh, they talk about that they are live and that they are really the ones where the action is, but they’re dead in trespasses and sins and no spiritual life, and that’s the reason that they have to have a drink or two or take a dope or they’ve got to do something to liven up the old corpse, you see. Now, God has made it very clear. He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son hath not life.
That is, he’s dead. And there are two kinds of people, live people and dead people. Ours, we say in Los Angeles, the quick and the dead.
And if you’re not quick here, you’re going to be dead because of the traffic condition. But he also says in John 3.36, he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. But he that believeth not the Son hath not life, but the wrath of God abideth in him.
That means he’s dead. Now, God is saying to you today, if you’re not a Christian, he’s saying, oh, ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord, you can come alive. It has that application.
But let’s be sure we’re talking about the nation Israel. Now, I believe in chapters 38 and 39, the enemy that’s mentioned here is Russia. I want to also add that when I entered the ministry, I did not believe that it referred to Russia.
I refused to accept that interpretation. I had been to a seminary that taught all-millennialism, my denominational seminary, and I would not accept it. And even after I worked for my doctor’s degree, I did not accept it, even at the time of my graduation.
But I came to the conclusion, I better study this on my own. And I have come up with this interpretation, and there are three points of contact that make me know in my own heart and mind that we’re talking about Russia. You have here what is known as the linguistic phenomenon.
You have the second, the geographical phenomenon, and the philosophical phenomenon. Now you have first of all here what we call the linguistic phenomenon. And that is the thing I think that’s rather important to know.
We want to read now the first three verses. The word of the Lord came unto me saying, Son of man, set thy face against Gog of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshach and Tubal, and prophesy against him. Now we have here actually this man Gog, and I understand that’s a Tartaric word that means roof.
That means the man’s on top. And I can’t think of a better name for a dictator than Gog, the fellow that’s on top. And if he’s not on top, he’s not a dictator, and if he’s on top, he is a dictator.
Now I have here Magog, the chief prince of Meshach and Tubal, and prophesy against him. Now you’ll notice that we’ve made here the translation that’s in our authorized version. Now this word chief here, actually, it should be change, because it really means a head, and the Hebrew word is Rosh, and it was the learned Dean Stanley, whose exhaustive history of the Eastern Church was published half a century ago, and in that was a note by Gassinius, the great Hebrew scholar, to the effect that the word Rosh is we have it here, the Hebrew is Rosh, that it in this passage of scripture here should be Russia.
And then Dean Stanley adds this, and this is something important to note, that this is the only reference that you have to a modern nation in the entire Old Testament. This is the only one that is referred to, a modern nation, and that is the nation of Russia. Now, Bishop Lother, he made the statement that Rosh taken as a proper name in Ezekiel signifies the inhabitants of Scythia from whom the modern Russians derived their name.
You see, Russia was first called Muscovy, and it’s a name derived from Meshek, and it was Ivan IV, and that was the ruler, the Tsar of Russia, who was called Ivan the Terrible. And he came to the Muscovite throne in 1533, and he assumed the title of Tsar of Russia. And that was the first time that this name was used.
And I’m sure you can note that the words of Meshek and Chubil, they certainly sound like Muscovite, and also Tobolsh way over in Siberia. I believe that here you have something quite remarkable. And I can’t see that when you look at the language, that you could come up with anything except this, that we’re talking about the modern nation of Russia.
Now the second proof that I think we have is the geographical phenomenon. And twice here, it’s mentioned of the North. And we have here the different ones that are going to be with Russia in that day.
Gomer, that’s Germany, and all its hoards, the house of Togarmah, that’s Turkey of the North Quarters. And there you have it, North Quarters. And then in verse 15, thou shall come from thy place out of the North parts.
And then in chapter 39, verse two, I will turn thee back and leave but the sixth part of thee, and I will cause thee to come up from the North parts, and will bring thee up from the mountains of Israel. Now, this place is identified for us as the North part, you see. And you get a map.
When I give an illustrated message on this passage in scripture, I always show a map of Israel and Russia. And the literal of it, very frankly here, it means the uttermost parts of the North. Now, you get a map and Russia is Northwest, North and directly North and Northeast.
In fact, it just covers it like that picture that you’ve seen of the fella that’s under a great big sombrero. I take it he is a Mexican, but doesn’t say that. And he’s leaning up against the cactus.
I have a notion, and the reason his hat covers his entire face, so you can’t see him is you don’t want to hear what he says when he backs up on that cactus. But there he is. And he’s supposed to be enjoying a siesta.
I don’t see how he could do it, leaning that. But that hat covers him, just like Russia covers the nation Israel. And it’s from the North.
Now North in the Bible does not mean North of Los Angeles or North of where you live. In the Bible, North is North of the land of Israel. South is South of the land of Israel.
West is West of the land of Israel. And East is East of the land of Israel. In other words, it is the geographical center as far as the word of God is concerned.
Now we come to the philosophical reason that we believe. And that I think is one of the great proofs. And this is remarkable here.
And he says here in verse three, And say, thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I’m against the old Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. Now this is strange language. God now in Ezekiel has said it several times.
As we’ve seen, he has said it against Babylon. He said it against Egypt. He said it against these nations that were against his people and that actually were against God.
And here is a nation now that arises in the last days. And it is against God. And we know it’s against God because God says, I’m against you.
Now the strange thing about this that makes it different from any other nation, God said it about certain nations that were already in existence because of their great enmity and rejection of God. But this nation hasn’t even come into existence when Ezekiel gave this and yet God says he’s against it. Now that’s strange.
And I’ll tell you why. I think it’s strange. Have you ever noted that you and I have seen something that no generation in the past has seen?
That is a nation whose basic philosophy is atheism. The political economy of the nation rests upon the premise there is no God. It’s atheistic.
Now, no other nation of the past ever appeared quite like that with such a dominant position as to say there is no God. Now, somebody says, what about the heathen pagan nations of the past? None of them, friends, were atheistic.
They were polytheistic. You see, in the beginning, when men went off the track, they didn’t become atheists. The reason they didn’t become atheists is, I think, very easy.
To understand, they’re too close to the mooring mass of revelation. After all, in Noah’s day, you didn’t have atheists. That wasn’t the problem with that crowd at all.
The problem with them was that they’d gone off into sin, and they worshiped many gods. Man went off at that point. He was polytheistic.
All the great nations of the past were, and these judgments that God has given, he said of Memphis, all the idols would disappear, and they have disappeared. Probably no people so given over to idolatry, with the exception of the Babylonians, but that was the thing that characterized the ancient world. But here is a nation whose basic philosophy is, they’re against God, atheistic.
You see, at the beginning, no atheists. God never gave a commandment against atheism. At the beginning, you don’t have it.
For instance, he did give the first two commandments against polytheism, Thou shall have no other gods before me. That is the first commandment. The second one, Thou shall not make under the any likeness of anything heaven above earth beneath.
So that you have here commandments against polytheism, none against atheism. Now, when you come to the time of David, atheism is beginning to appear. And David said, the fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.
Now, that word fool is even worse than the word fool. It means really insane. It means a man that’s not in his right mind.
It means that it’s a man that doesn’t have a full deck, a man that’s lost some of his marble, that he has something loose up there in the bell frame. That’s the individual. And that’s the mark of atheism.
I had a friend that had a wonderful ministry among atheists. God wonderfully used him with these people. And he on one occasion heard a man say, I don’t believe there’s a God.
And I think when we die, we’re just like a dog. And that ends it all. This friend of mine waited till everybody left.
He didn’t want to embarrass the man. When everybody had left, he said to the man, did I rightly understand you that you do not believe that there’s a God? He said, that’s right.
He said, then you claim to be an atheist? He said, I am an atheist. Well, now he says, I have a question to ask you.
He says, the Bible says that the fool hath said in his heart, there is no God and that word fool is insane. Now, were you serious when you said, there is no God or are you insane? Must be one of the two and I’d just like to know which one it is.
That rather shook the individual. May I say to you, that’s what the word of God said. I think that we got quite a few that are running around today that somebody ought to get the butterfly net and put on them, as they deny the existence of God.
That is almost an untenable position for a little man. But now here is a nation that has arisen, and that has been its basic philosophy. As a result, it’s been a nation that men in high places have said you can’t negotiate with these people.
Mr. Churchill said of Russia, a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. That’s Russia. And then it was Rube Goldberg who drew one of these crazy cartoons years ago, and he called it the great upside down philosopher, and he was speaking of Joe Stalin, and underneath he had this.
Top is bottom, black is white, far is near, and day is night. Big is little, high is low, cold is hot, and yes is no. Unreasonable, insane if you please.
But that’s been the basic philosophy of this nation, and it’s risen in our day. Now God already beat them to the draw before they turned against God. And they did.
Mr. Stalin said, we have deposed the czars of the earth, and we shall now dethrone the Lord of heaven. And I could give quotation after quotation, but when they put a rocket past the moon, the Sputnik, you remember, in orbit, and then they put the rocket out, and as it was nearing the sun, they went on the radio in Russia. Our rocket has bypassed the moon.
It’s nearing the sun. We’ve not discovered God. We’ve turned out lights in heaven that no man will be able to put on again.
We’re breaking the yoke of the gospel, the opium of the masses. Let us go forth, and Christ shall be relegated to mythology. Now, I’ve often wondered what they had in mind.
Did they think God was playing peek-a-boo on the other side of the moon? And because they got a glimpse of the other side of the moon, they didn’t see God, and somehow or another, he doesn’t exist. May I say to you, that is the upside down philosopher.
Now, here you have these three points of identification, and when you get to the 39th chapter, God repeats it again, that he’s against them. Now, he says that they’re going to come down against his people, and we have that again and again, and he’ll have these nations with him, and I’m not going in to detail there, but notice verse eight, after many days, thou shall be visited in the latter years. Thou shall come into the land that is brought back from the Soad, and it’s gathered out of many peoples against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste, but it’s brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
Now, here again is what I believe is something that’s quite remarkable. It was actually right after World War II, Lord Beverly was visiting General Douglas MacArthur at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City, and the reporters were there and wanted to have a press conference, but both of these men refused. The reporters waited downstairs.
After two or three hours, Lord Beverly came down, and he did answer a few questions, and one of them had to do with Russia, of course, at that time. And everybody was saying, Russia is going to move, take East Berlin and will make a move into Europe. And Lord Beverly said, I do not believe that Russia will move to the West.
I believe that Russia will move to the South. And General MacArthur agrees with me in that. That was an interesting statement.
And about that same time, and it’s been repeated many times since then, the only place where there’s a real honest to goodness crisis is in the Middle East. And friends after man have forgotten all about Vietnam. They’re going to know about the nation Israel.
It’s been in the headlines now for many, many centuries. They’re going to come down into that land, Russia will come down into the land of Israel. Now, why will they come down into the land of Israel?
Well, God says he’s going to bring them down there. Verse four, God says, I will turn the back. I’ll put hooks into thy jaws and I’ll bring the fourth and all thine army.
God says, I’m going to put hooks in your jaws and I’m going to bring you down into that land whether you like it or not. And next time, I want to look at the three hooks that we see today and I think there’ll be more of them as we go along, but God has three hooks in the mouth of Russia that are going to force them to come down into that land. It’s one of the most amazing things that you’ll find in the word of God.
So until, well until next time, friends, may God richly bless you.
Dr. McGee’s enthusiasm for God’s prophetic word has made this a great study in what’s really a rarely read book of the Bible. Do you agree? Well, next time we’re gonna wrap up our study in Ezekiel, and we’re gonna return to the New Testament to spend some time in Paul’s letter to Titus.
Until then, if you’d like to be in touch, just call us at 1-800-65-BIBLE or visit ttb.org. Again, that’s 1-800-65-BIBLE or ttb.org. And may God bless you as you walk with him this week in the power of his Spirit and in the truth of his Word.
Our story on the Bible Bus today is just one step in a five-year journey through the entire Word of God. Come along for the ride, and you’ll study both the Old Testament and New Testament, discovering God’s great redemption story. Is this your story too?
