Hashkama: Russia – Ukraine – Gog – Magog

When you look into the heart of Ukraine it is not pretty, and we might feel justified in pointing the finger.

Wikipedia take us back to WWII, between 1941 and 1944, and areas that are now part of Ukraine.  “More than a million Jews living in the “Soviet Union” were murdered by Nazi Germany’s Final Solution extermination policies.  Most of them were killed in Ukraine because most pre-WWII Soviet Jews lived there in the Pale of Settlement, of which Ukraine was the biggest part.”  “A number of Ukrainians had collaborated: According to German historian Dieter Pohl, around 100,000 joined police units that provided key assistance to the Nazis.  Many others staffed the local bureaucracies or lent a helping hand during mass shootings of Jews.  Ukrainians, such as the infamous Ivan the Terrible, were also among the guards who manned the German Nazi death camps.”  Perhaps that is why President Putin refers to Ukrainians as Nazis.  He might do better to look into Russia’s and the Soviet Union’s past to see man’s inhumanity to man there – and this is before American influence or that of NATO.

Continuing our view of Ukraine, on the one hand there was collaboration with Nazi Germany in German-occupied Ukraine between 1941-1945.  On the other hand, “By the time the Red Army returned to Ukraine, a significant number of the population welcomed its soldiers as liberators.  More than 4.5 million Ukrainians joined the Red Army to fight Nazi Germany, and more than 250,000 served in Soviet partisan paramilitary units.”  The National Geographic Magazine reported similarly on this subject.  This is a potted version of events that I am including here.  Anyone wishing to can go much deeper into the history of events during and after WWII.

In January 2011, The Simon Wiesenthal Centre reported: “Ukraine has, to the best of our knowledge, never conducted a single investigation of a local Nazi war criminal, let alone prosecuted a Holocaust perpetrator.”  Some therefore believe that God is using an evil nation (Russia) to punish the wickedness perpetrated by another evil nation – in this case, Russia attacking Ukraine.  There were reports of other anti-Jewish activities and murders by various groups.  “Until the fall of the Soviet Union, it was believed that about 900,000 Jews were murdered as part of the Holocaust in Ukraine” (See “The Destruction of the European Jews” by Raul Hilberg).  In the 1990’s, Dieter Pohl estimated the deaths to have been 1.2 million, while more recent estimates suggest up to 1.9 million.  One commentator that I read stated that, today’s action by Russia is “Nemesis in action.”  If we are going to consider the murder of the innocent, we must also look within our own nations, and the millions of murdered unborn children.  Most nations have a history and Ukraine is no different.

Writing about Ukraine, Edward Lucas said: “Ukraine is a country where ‘oligarchs run media empires, with politicians and officials on the payroll.  The judicial system is a festering mess where arrests, prosecutions and verdicts are used as score-settlers between political and commercial rivals.  Senior positions are bought and sold.  Healthcare and education are plagued by kickbacks.  The security service, the SBU, is infested with intrigue and sleaze – and penetrated by Russian agents of influence.”  Corruption is obviously rife:  As I understand it, the new, young Ukrainian leader, President Zelensky, has worked on clearing the swamp, and it could be this that has upset the Russian President.

There have been hundreds of civilian casualties, many inflicted by Ukrainian armed forces, in and near the breakaway regions in east Ukraine.  A report in 2020 by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe stated that between January 2017 and September 2020, there were 946 civilian casualties, of which 161 were fatalities.  100 children (73 boys and 27 girls) were included among the casualties.

Other suggestions for the invasion, is that Ukraine is a Christian nation, and another is that it is because the president of Ukraine is a Jew; and, another possibility is one of demographics – the Russian population is diminished so Russia is making a grab for both land and population.  Yet another suggestion is that because Putin has made it impossible for him to be voted out of office, he has been fed misinformation by his advisers so that he would attack Ukraine.  His unpopularity for doing so would be such that he is assassinated or thrown out of office.  So you have a wide range of reasons, and there are probably many more possibilities not listed here.

Russia from a worldly perspective

Commentators say that there are two sides, the Western perspective, and that of Russia.  I suggest that there are three sides; the third perspective is that of God.  Before we go on to the more well-known issues, let me just say that Russia sits outside the world or western bubble.  I think a reason for this in the present time is because President Putin has refused, as far as I understand, to entertain the non-binary, homosexual, LGBT++ lobby, and all the other fancy sexual issues that the West love so much.  As far as I know, one cannot marry a broomstick or a candelabra in Russia, that is a Western prerogative.  Putin is reported to have said, “The terms ‘father’ and ‘mother’ will remain as long as I become President… and there will never be gay marriage in this country as long as I’m in power… if we’re here, it’s good because a Man and a Woman came together…”  During his two decades in power, Putin has closely aligned himself with the Orthodox Church and sought to distance Russia from liberal Western values, and attitudes toward homosexuality and gender fluidity.  Russian authorities rejected a European Court of Human Rights order to recognise same-sex union.  In June 2013 Putin signed into law measures that stigmatised gay people and banned children being given any information about homosexuality.  The ban on “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations” was part of an effort to promote traditional Russian values over Western liberalism.  It has not gone down well in the corrupt Western world, and is another reason why Putin is so despised in the West.  The danger now for Russia, I suggest, is that if President Putin loses this war against Ukraine or is ousted as president for any reason, a new president, with western-style morality, might replace him.  Maybe if Russia turns queer, and falls in love with the Climate Change fabrication, just maybe Russia would be accepted into the expansionist and corrupt NATO.  Ukraine has made an application to join the EU – joining one monster to escape another.  We do tend to look at the West as the good guys, and Russia as the bad guys and rogue nation.  It is a false and far-from-the-truth perspective.  The USA, UN, and EU have been coercing the West into Godless ways for years – “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19b).  We do not look to any leader or nation, but to God alone.  Western nations are in a state or moral and spiritual poverty.  The world has not yet united into an empire of iron and clay, but it is perhaps very close to doing so.  The outcome of the war in Ukraine might help to clarify things – even if it’s only who is the 21^st Century world power.

The West and Putin

Putin has a criminal disregard for law.  He is a man of lawlessness and he behaves like a thug.  His opponents disappear and are never seen or heard of again; and, he sends assassins abroad to execute political opponents and those who offend him.  That is the Russian leader.  If we look at the USA, the Clintons are pretty much on par with Putin – read the “Hillary and Bill” trilogy by Victor Thorn.  They are just one example of corruption in the West.  The world lies in the power of the evil one (1 John 5:19) – But, what is concealed will be revealed, Matthew 19:26, Luke 8:17; and – The man of sin will be revealed, so what has been hidden will be seen (2 Thessalonians 2:3).

Since 1992 it appears to have been Washington’s policy to humiliate Russia and to treat it with contempt.  The American neo-conservative politician Paul Wolfowitz invented this policy.  He also crafted the disastrous Iraq War.  In March 1992, The New York Times reported on a Pentagon document believed to be the work of Paul Wolfowitz.  The document stated that from now on there should be only one superpower.  It stated “Our first objective is to prevent the re-emergence of a new rival, either on the territory of the former Soviet Union or elsewhere, that poses a threat on the order of that posed by the Soviet Union.”  At that time the former Soviet Union was a bankrupt mass of scrap metal, rust and corruption.  It had an economy the size of Italy’s, and suffered an ageing, ill, diminishing population.  Communist expansion and aggression was dead; and it might have been buried for good had power-mad Washington not developed the strategy it did.  There was opposition to the language of the document and so it was toned down.  Then, a few years later along came Bill.  Under Bill Clinton and expansive lobbying by US arms manufacturers, the USA began the eastward expansion of NATO.  That was a big mistake, and has led us to the present-time troubles in Ukraine.  NATO has never said who it is defending its members against – as someone said, such an admission would be an act of aggression in itself.  It appears to have simply been the idea of keeping Russia down, and reminding it of its place in the world…a humiliated, defeated animal.  A retired diplomat by the name of George Kennan protested.  He said that NATO expansion was folly, and that it would create nationalist backlash in Moscow.  Russia could see that it was being targeted by the neo-cons policy, and like any nation Russia guards its interests.  Out of this realization came Vladimir Putin.  His rise was a direct consequence of the Wolfowitz doctrine.  Frankenstein created his monster.  Wolfowitz and Clinton were disastrously wrong.  The real danger was China.  In 1989, the Soviet Empire was giving way to mass demonstrations in Prague and East Germany.  It could have massacred protesters in Leipzig, Dresden, and Berlin, but it didn’t.  Russia gave up its enormous empire in Europe and Asia, and was treated like a pariah by the EU and NATO.  Russia sought to have a civilised relationship with them – eventually even applying for NATO membership, which was refused.  Between 1999 and 2003 Putin reportedly made it clear that he wanted Russia to be part of Western Europe.  “They wanted to be part of that secure, stable prosperous west that Russia was out of at the time.”

In that same year, 1989, while the Soviet Empire was giving way to mass demonstrations, China’s communists murdered those on the streets of Peking who were demonstrating for freedom.  Look at China’s dealings within its own borders as well as Tibet, Taiwan, and the crackdown in Hong Kong and its broken promises there.  China has hugely increased its military and naval power, and is still repressing its own people including the Uighurs.  You can watch and listen to this in a You-tube video that a friend kindly sent to me.[i]

Gog and Magog

Working backwards from the present time, many Christian commentators believe Russia to be the biblical Gog in the land of Magog.  It is due to a mistranslation in some versions of the bible, one of which is found in Ezekiel 38:2. The word “Rosh”, or “Ros” in Hebrew is always translated as “Chief” or “Head”, like Rosh Hashana, meaning “Head” of the year.  So it is “chief” prince in verse 2.  It is never translated as Russia.  That is why some are more cautious in their interpretation.  Also, “Gog in the land…”, could be construed as, “Gog of the land…”.  Both names are mystifying and look quite foreign in the Hebrew.  It has given rise to much speculation and mythological understanding.  Gog is sometimes linked to a King Gugu of Lydia in Asia Minor, where he was known as Gyges.  Other scholars believe that Magog is probably only a variant of Gog.  What is important is that Gog comes from the far north, the direction from which destruction traditionally descends upon Israel, as is seen repeatedly in Jeremiah.  Persia, Nubia, and Put suggests a vast array of mercenaries are assembled by Gog from those areas.  Gog was the chief prince of the northern tribes (Ezekiel 38:2; Meshech and Tubal) who are to make the final onslaught upon Israel.  Some modern-day commentators, referring to Russia’s move against Ukraine, have said that God has put hooks into the jaw of the Russia bear, and is dragging Russia out for the final conflict where it will eventually fall on the mountains of Israel (Ezekiel 38-39).  Meanwhile Ukraine and the nations are facing turmoil.  This is the heavenly perspective from various Christians, and is why Russia has now attacked Ukraine.  It is a prelude to attacking Israel.  We have to wait in the side-lines to see if Putin is successful in this present strike.  Perhaps by the time this goes online we will know if this version of interpretation is the correct one.  Though all that is transpiring is in the purposes of God, and while I am not an expert on prophecy, I do think there might be some disappointed prophecy-buffs over this conflict… but they will pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and start all over again.  There are a lot of mistranslations going on to arrive at Russia being Gog and Magog.

In Ezekiel’s account, Gog’s vast army included, as we have seen, warriors from Persia, Cush, Put, Gomer (or the Cimerians) and Togarmah.  All are from the extreme north, and all are completely equipped for war.  There is no mistaking that they have bad intentions!  Perhaps Ezekiel had Zechariah 14 in mind.  Another perspective is that Gog and Magog in the book of Revelation, represent all the heathen opponents of the Messiah (Revelation 20:8).  The historian Josephus identified the Magogites with the Scythians, who were a sinister military power in the 6^th Century BC,

The Timing

Satan is let loose and goes to the nations at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to muster his army for the final battle against God (Revelation 20:7).  In Ezekiel the invasion of Gog occurs during the messianic age.  In Revelation it occurs at the close of the millennium.  In Ezekiel Gog and Magog are gathered by Yahweh for their destruction; in Revelation they are gathered by Satan.  God has more to do before we come to the final battle.  Be sure, He is working His purpose out: “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14).

Blessings and shalom

Malcolm [01.03.2022]

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[i] https://youtu.be/8X7Ng75e5gQ