One of the four major trends that you can find in the Word
of God for the last days, leading up to the Second Coming
of Jesus Christ – now, I’m not talking about that
"Rapture," when the Church is taken out of here – but I’m
talking about during that seven-year period of time
following the Rapture, leading up to the Second Coming of
Jesus Christ. One of those major trends would be an
alignment of the nations, a coalition of nations.
In Daniel 11:40-45 we start to see how the prophetic
scenario is laid out. Daniel is dealing with the king of
the north and the king of the south coming at "him."
Another significant word is him – "he" and "him" are used,
I think, 13 different times in this portion of Daniel 11.
But when it talks about the king of the north and the king
of the south, early on in chapter 11, it defines the king
of the north as Syria, and the king of the south as Egypt.
Remember, all direction in the Bible comes out of
Jerusalem – Ezekiel 5:5: Jerusalem, the center of the
earth. And so the king of the north "will come at him"
– that refers to the Antichrist; and the king of the south
"will come at him" as well.
Now, what is that talking about? Well, right after the
Rapture of the Church – I say right after; it could be a
week, a month, a year, whatever – after the revived Roman
Empire comes into existence, the Antichrist comes on the
scene, and he will confirm a peace agreement with Israel.
This will be a pseudo peace agreement, but the Jews
will accept this world leader as their Messiah and go
along with the confirmation of that peace agreement. And
so, he will go out of the region, actually go into Rome to
set up a false church. And in the region, the king of the
north, Syria, "will come at him."
Wait a minute, what does that mean? Well, if you have
guaranteed peace to the nation of Israel and someone
attacks Israel, it’s like coming at you. And so it says
that the king of the north, Syria, comes at Israel. The
king of the south, Egypt, comes at Israel, and verse 41
says, "He shall enter the glorious holy land."
Antichrist comes in, goes up to the north, destroys Syria,
comes through Ammon, Moab and Edom. That is the biblical
terms for modern-day Jordan. He doesn’t touch Jordan; then
he goes to the south, destroys Egypt, turns around, starts
back towards Jerusalem. And at his heels, according to
Daniel 11, are "the Ethiopians and the Libyans."
Now, when you talk about the Ethiopians, you’re talking
about basically Ethiopia, Somalia, and Sudan. And the
Libyans, of course, would be Colonel Qadaffi’s Libya. They
will be coming at him.
Interesting, the parallel passage over in Ezekiel 38 talks
about those nations mentioned in Daniel 11. In fact, it
also says in Daniel 11 that there will be some murmurings
out of the "north" – that’s not Syria, because Syria will
have been destroyed – and out of the "east." They are
defined, when you come to Ezekiel 38. Out of the north,
verse 2 says, "Gog in the land of Magog." Gog, the leader;
Magog, the country. And most likely all Bible scholars
would agree that would be Russia and probably the Ukraine
as well.
But then it mentions Meshach and Tubal; and verse 6 says "Gomer
and Togarmah." I was recently in Turkey doing a series on
the seven churches of Asia Minor. I picked up an ancient
Turkish map and when I looked at the map, I was amazed to
see that Turkey, ancient Turkey, was divided into four
parts: Meshach, Tubal, Gomer, Togarmah. So what the Bible
is talking about here is modern-day Turkey.
Finally, verse 5 mentions "Persia," which is modern-day
Iran. Then in some Bibles it may say "Cush." That would be
Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia. Or it may say "Put," and that
would be modern-day Libya.
So, these are the nations that form these coalitions in
the beginning of that seven-year Tribulation Period. They
come against Israel to try to wipe them off of the map.
