Ezekiel 38 seems to see Israel restored in their land after “the great tribulation” because they are dwelling safely. I know most would disagree with this and see it describing more of their present state since their statehood in 1948. I believe the context better fits a restoration after the great tribulation. The problem is is that the condition of Israel at the time Ezekiel 38 describes is in contrast to the land being formerly “long desolate,” and if this is after the great tribulation, and Israel is already a state in the land during the late 20th century, it would require the present state to be ignored in the contrast between that restored state and the previous condition of the land.
Yet there are Scriptures that speak of a “second time” that Israel is regathered and restored, and that time has to be after the great tribulation. That would have to skip over the present state of Israel since the late 20th century. The land being long desolate in Ezekiel 38 would seems to skip over the present state and condition of Israel, but many would say the present state of Israel fulfills Ezekiel 38—and that's probably why they believe the “Gog” attempted invasion of Ezekiel 38-39 is in the near future, but I believe it is after the great tribulation.
Maybe the "second-time”
of Israel’s regathering should be understood to have 2 stages, the
first stage in the late 1800's to present as being preliminary for
the second stage which is after the second coming?
After the
Second Coming, we read that, "It shall come to pass in that day
That the Lord shall set His hand again the *second
time* to recover the remnant of His people
who are left, From Assyria and Egypt, From Pathros and Cush, From
Elam and Shinar, From Hamath and the islands of the sea. He will set
up a banner for the nations, And will assemble
the outcasts of Israel, And gather
together the dispersed of Judah From the four corners of the earth.
Also the envy of Ephraim shall depart, And the adversaries of Judah
shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not envy Judah, And Judah shall not
harass Ephraim." Isaiah 11.11-13
Also after Second Coming
we read that, "It shall be that I will
gather all nations and tongues; and they
shall come and see My glory. I will set a
sign among them [the nation]; and those [Jews] among them nations]
who escape I will he [Jews] send to the nations: to Tarshish and Pul
and Lud, who draw the bow, and Tubal and Javan, to the coastlands
afar off who have not heard My fame nor seen My glory. And
they [Jews] shall declare My glory among the Gentiles. Then
they [nations/ gentiles] shall bring all your brethren [Jews] for an
offering to the Lord out of all nations..." Isa 66.18-20
The
first stage of the second time, beginning in the late 1800s but being
realized in the 20th
century with the statehood of Israel, though I believe the ultimate
fulfillment of the “second time” is after the great tribulation:
"Prepare yourself and be ready, you and all your companies that
are gathered about you; and be a guard for them. After many days you
will be visited. In the latter years you will come into the land of
those brought back from the sword and gathered
from many people on the mountains of Israel,
which had long been desolate;
they were brought out of the nations,
and now all of them dwell safely. ...You will say, ‘I will go up
against a land of unwalled villages; I will go to a peaceful people,
who dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having
neither bars nor gates’— to take plunder and to take booty, to
stretch out your hand against the waste places
that are again inhabited, and against a
people gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and
goods, who dwell in the midst of the land.... Therefore, son of man,
prophesy and say to Gog, “Thus says the Lord God: “On that day
when My people Israel dwell safely, will you not know it? ... You
will come up against My people Israel like a cloud, to cover the
land. It will be in the latter days that I will bring you against My
land, so that the nations may know Me, when I am hallowed in you, O
Gog, before their eyes.” Ezekiel 38
The “long been desolate” period seems to look before the period of Israel's return from the late 1800's through the 20th century statehood—it seems to skip over this, if this text refers to the restoration after the great tribulation. But maybe there is a two-stage aspect to the “second time” return, and the long desolate state of the land looks to before the 1800's even though the return looks to the time after the great tribulation. Yet I know that many want to see Ezekiel 38-39 as applying to the present state of Israel and that the Gog attempted attack could happen in the near future with that present state of Israel in the land. I just think that that God event is after Israel is restored in the land after the great tribulation, and I think that fits with other text concerning her restoration the “second time.”
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