Some weeks ago President Vladimir Putin contacted
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and made an offer he believed
couldn’t be refused. Putin offered to guarantee the safety of Israel’s
newly discovered Leviathan gas fields using the full might of the
Russian military. Netanyahu politely declined.
The very next week on the direct orders of Vladimir Putin fighter jets,
tanks, sophisticated battlefield communications equipment and Special
Forces began landing in Syria. It has become an open secret that many
thousands of elite marines will follow shortly after.
After just one week the widely held belief is that Russian forces are
already engaged in real combat operations in Syria, carving out a safe
zone from which they can operate. Russian troops have already engaged in
active combat is an assumed reality because Russian R-166-0.5 (ultra)
high-frequency signals (HF/VHF) vehicles were spotted on Syria's Highway
4 just a few days ago. This highway links Homs and Aleppo.
These vehicles, called “mobile war rooms” by Western armies, were
accompanied by BTR-82 troop carriers transporting Russian marines. These
mobile communication centres provide up to the minute communication
relays to troops engaged in live combat operations up to 1000 kilometres
away. They are a crucial part of Russia’s war machine, strongly
indicating Russia is already actively involved inside Syria. “Boots” are
already on the ground.
Even more alarmingly, Russia has also deployed advanced S-300
anti-aircraft missile batteries to bolster their force. The question
though, is against whom exactly are these highly advanced missile
deployed? ISIS does not have an Air Force so who are they meant to
deter?
These missiles are clearly to deter Israel and they will seriously
impact upon the IAF’s ability to act in Syrian and Lebanese air space
should they so desire.
This impressive Russian arsenal is further augmented by the ominous
presence of a Russia nuclear submarine, off Syria’s coast in the
Mediterranean. This provides Russia with the ultimate deterrence, if it
were needed.
Clearly Russia is in Syria for the long game, not
the short.
Russia’s aims in Syria seem to be threefold. Firstly, defend the
Syrian naval port of Tartus. Although ostensibly a Syrian port, as
Al-Assad is a client ruler of Putin, the port is in effect Russian and
it is through this port that Russia has the absolutely crucial access it
requires to the Mediterranean.
This sea port is at the centre of Russian aspirations for this region as
it remains a key strategic goal for Putin to dominate the entire
Mediterranean basin area militarily. Without a functioning deep sea port
this is impossible.
The second aim is to maintain the power of Bashir Al-Assad. Assad is
a proxy ruler of Syria on behalf of Putin's Russia. Assad effectively
rules Syria on Putin's behalf. This might not have been so a decade
ago, but it certainly is now. Assad knows full well that the only reason
he and his family are still alive today is because of Vladimir Putin.
Assad’s government continues to exist because Russia have bolstered them
against ISIS; that is the only reason it still stands.
Recently, Putin has been taken aback by ISIS, their string of stinging
victories over Assad’s forces and now recognizes the genuine possibility
that without direct Russian intervention, Assad and Syria will fall to
ISIS.
If Assad falls Putin’s hold over Syria will fail and his influence over
the entire Middle East will have suffered a devastating blow. Russia's
real access to the Middle East is through Syria, therefore Putin will
not let Assad fall.
The final Russian objective relates to Israel and regards the “hook”
that God Himself will place in Gog’s jaw. At some point Gog will
have an “evil thought” and will determine to invade the beautiful land
to “take a spoil.” It seems increasingly likely that this “evil thought”
centres on the Leviathan gas fields of Israel, an oil field so vast it
could dwarf the existing Saudi and Iraqi fields making Israel, or
whoever owns them, the richest nation on planet Earth. These oil fields
also sit easily within what Russia perceives as their legitimate sphere
of influence. It is within their grasp.
To this aim Putin has allowed the establishment of
a separate front to open against Israel in the Golan Heights. Under the
cover of the Syrian army their ally Iran is trying to “build a second
terrorist front against us,” or so Benjamin Netanyahu has complained.
Iran is occupying Syria along with Russia.
We truly live in days of awe. We are blessed to see what we see today.
We are witness to the real time build-up of the horde that will seek to
vanquish Gods very own inheritance, as described in Ezekiel 38 and 39.
Multitudes past have gazed at these days from afar through the lens of
scripture yet we are privileged to see these events in real time as our
present day reality.
ISIS and the abject horrors they have wrought have forced the mass
migration of entire people groups clearing vast swathes of Syria before
them. This will make the Russian take over all the more simple. Iran,
now a legitimate player in the region because of Obama’s absence of any
form of Middle Eastern leadership, now enjoy a meaningful presence in
Iraq and Syria. The fruits of “leading from behind.”
At the very same time Israel have discovered a gas field that
potentially dwarfs all others in the Middle East, the Leviathan gas
field. In his vision Ezekiel saw a horde led by Gog attacking Israel so
that they may, "...take a spoil." This is that horde forming now.
The alliances necessary for Ezekiel 38 and 39 to come to pass are in
place, and functioning well. Russia and Iran are very close. Turkey have
become natural allies to Iran due to a hatred for Israel. Indeed, Recap
Ergogan, President of Turkey openly despises Israel, he is a vicious
hater of Israel who talks often of the need to free Al-Quds from the
hands of the Jews. Al-Quds is known in Arabic as Jerusalem.
Gog is taking up military positions right on
Israel’s border and has already expressed an interest in Israel’s
“spoil.” Gog is also bringing with him all the allies named in Ezekiel
38 and 39. We will now witness the full and rapid militarization of
Syria by Russia and Iran.
Israel must look tantalizing to Vladimir Putin. In the White House sits
a president who is openly hostile to Israel, a man well known for his
utter loathing of Benjamin Netanyahu, a president who does not care one
jot for the tiny Jewish State. The Middle East stands in ruins because
of the Arab spring, ISIS and failed military intervention from the West.
European nations that would stand against Gog if he were to move against
Israel are becoming swamped by their own crisis of humanity, threatening
their very way of life. These same European nations have also had their
stomach for a fight ripped out of them by more than a decade of failed
military intervention in this same region.
The world-wide economy is teetering on the brink of collapse and because
of this all Western NATO nations have significantly cut back on their
armed forces spending. The exception of course being NATO’s old foe
Russia, who have instead injected billions into their military machine,
completely revitalizing it and igniting a renewed militaristic optimism
within the Russian military apparatus.
Then there is little Israel, sitting all alone in the Middle East.
Little Israel sitting on an oil field of immense size and almost
incalculable value. Little Israel, hated and scorned by all nations of
the world, openly despised, seemingly without a true friend or a real
protector. Little Israel, isolated, alone, very exposed.
Or so Gog thinks.
Blessed be the Lord God, who has revealed these things to his servants!
He has not left us alone but has revealed to us what is shortly to come
to pass. Though the world will look on these things in days to come with
fear and dread we should not. We know the end from the beginning!
Israel is rapidly approaching her appointment with
destiny and it will not be man who comes to her aid in her hour of
desperate need. God Himself on that day will stand up and fight on her
behalf, and woe to Gog and his allies, for mighty is the Lord God who
will save her.
Ezekiel 38: 3-12
“And say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the
chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: And I will turn thee back, and put
hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army,
horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even
a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and
helmet:
Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters,
and all his bands: and many people with thee. Be thou prepared, and
prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto
thee, and be thou a guard unto them. After many days thou shalt be
visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is
brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against
the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought
forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to
cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee. Thus
saith the Lord God; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time
shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I
will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them
dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates, to take a
spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places
that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the
nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of
the land.”