Must Be Ready

“Therefore, keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So, you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” (Matthew 24:42–44, NIV 1984).

My Musings – A couple items caught my attention this past week.

Climate Emergency Day: Why the World Will Fall Silent At 5pm Today – “In the week that saw Europe and the US reach boiling point (quite literally), Friday July 22, 2022, marks a major moment in the countdown to keeping global warming at bay.

At 5pm, the ‘Climate Clock’ – which counts down the number of years until it’s no longer possible to keep global warming below 1.5°C – will chime to mark less than seven years until we reach an irreversible global warming deadline.” (Natasha Hinde, Huffington Post UK).

I don’t know much about the science of Global Warming. I do know that when I was in High School (1971), the big topic was whether we were on the verge of another Ice Age. One meteorologist even predicted that Europe “would be covered with the glaciers of a new ice age by the turn of the century.” But what caught my attention about the current climate “crisis” was the seven-year countdown to what is “irreversible.” The Bible speaks of a seven-year countdown to something much worse that will be irreversible.

Russia, Iran, and Turkey Forming a Biblical Alliance – “Vladimir Putin [met] with Iranian and Turkish leaders in Tehran this [past] week [picture posted on page one of the WSJ). 

So why should [we] care? [We] should care because more than 2,600 years ago, the prophet Ezekiel warned of a future time when a vast coalition of nations will attack Israel. The leader of this coalition is a man known as Gog, the ruler of Magog (Ezekiel 38:1).

According to Ezekiel this alliance will send an overwhelming force to invade Israel in the last days. And [this past week], for the first time in human history, we see this alliance forming. Ezekiel identifies the invading nations as “Magog, Rosh, Meschech, Tubal, Persia, Cush, Put, Gomer, and Beth-togarmah” (Ezekiel 38:1-6). If you look on a 2022 map of the globe, you won’t find any of these nations.

Below is a list of each nation, followed by its modern-day name: Rosh = Russia; Magog = Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Afghanistan; Persia = Iran; Cush = Sudan; Put = Libya; Meshech, Tubal, Gomer, and Beth-togarmah = Turkey.” (Britt Gilette, http://www.raptureforums.com).

I don’t know if the current alliance that may be forming is the one spoken of in Ezekiel, or if the modern nations involved are properly identified. I leave that to the Biblical scholars, which I am not. But some are already identifying Putin with Gog. What we need to be aware of is that some time, there will be an alliance, there will be a Gog and they will move against Israel. And in 1948, for the first time since the diaspora, there is once again an Israel to march against.

My Advice – Sometimes my Sunday Amusing’s are not so funny. The world seems to be coming around to the notion that the end of the world could be soon. In the “old days,” not many agreed, most laughed. They are not laughing now, although their reasons (and method) for “agreeing with us” are different than our reasons (and method).

I don’t know if the final countdown to the end of this world has started, but there is a date and time known only by the Father. We also do not know the time appointed for us individually. What we do know whether by death or Christ’s return, we best be ready. Because keeping watch is futile if we are not also ready.