Spiritual Context
Across the pages of The Bible, The Lord has repeatedly promised—and across the ages of human history repeatedly demonstrated—that He would use ‘the sword’ (warfare) as one of His 4 judgment henchmen against persistent, unrepented sinfulness in any land. Yet, in our push to deny Him any agency in human affairs, we foolishly ignore His warnings, even as we repeatedly suffer under the weights of what He promised, then activated! So when I read and hear of wars breaking out, my spirit ponders this promise.
Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine
In the 5th year of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, jaws are figuratively dropping around the world at the dramatic turn-around in Ukraine’s ability to defend itself, and greatly degrade Russia’s military and economy! As I pondered the spiritual implications of this war, my attention turned to a curious metaphor The Lord twice used in The Bible, as part of His judgments to humble regional hegemon nations---‘putting hooks in jaws’! As fishers (men and women) use baited hooks to attract and draw fish into their boats, The Lord would put spiritual hooks into spiritual jaws to draw persistent offenders into humbling and destructive situations. With just two specific Biblical references to this metaphor, I am pondering whether this spiritual tactic might be yet another of His demonstrated, repetitive patterns that I have perceived across The Bible? Perhaps…
The first reference to this metaphor is in Ezekiel 29:4. It is addressed to a person—the Pharaoh of Egypt, an ancient regional hegemon nation. The second reference, in Ezekiel 38:4, might not be to a person, but possibly a demonic spirit called Gog. In Gog of Magog (Q&A), I explain why Gog might be one of satan’s top demons,
The pending Ezekiel 38 invasion of Israel will be physically led by the nation in ‘the far north’ (presumably of Israel)—which currently is Russia—a regional hegemon and currently the largest nation on Earth. (See vv. 6 and 15)
Pondering this spiritual/physical framework, I ponder and perceive the following:
1. The Lord created both humans and angels with free-will. All devils and demons were once holy angels who used their free-wills to corrupt themselves. Yet The Lord God Almighty clearly has the ability to achieve His strategic objectives through the independent actions of humans and satan’s kingdom. As Sovereign, nothing can restrict or block achievement of His high objectives! And in no way does that absolve anyone in those groups of their sinful use of the gift of free-will!
2. Before their fall from Grace, satan and his cohorts likely had a long time to study The Lord’s repetitive patterns in managing the affairs of Heaven. As such, they may invert and mimic some of them for their evil advantages.
3. Since Gog will play a central role in instigating the Ezekiel 38 invasion, I pondered whether he may have also been featured in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and perhaps other conflicts as well. The following is what history reveals. If Gog is indeed an immortal spiritual ruler currently assigned over Russia, the nation in the far north of Israel, then one might reasonably ask whether similar strategic impulses have appeared repeatedly throughout Russia's history.
Historical Scenarios
Since the late 17th century, Russia became, and has since remained the largest nation on Earth. In the mid-18th century, it was ranked as a regional hegemon among the top global military powers. In the mid-20th century, it became a global hegemon with the absolute largest military on Earth. That’s quite a lot to boast and be prideful about!
The Bible persistently reveals the spirit of pride is
one of satan’s most effective demons!
During the early 1900s, Russia’s aggression over several years to conquer territories that were of high strategic importance to Japan, moved Japan to prepare aggressively for a possible military conflict with Russia. Japan eventually launched a surprise military strike. During the ensuing 18-month war, Japan thoroughly humiliated Russia! That was a key event that, 12 years later, led to the 1917 Russian revolution, overthrowing an 800 year-long ruling dynasty.
During early 2014, Russia seized control of the Crimean peninsula of Ukraine. Eight years later, in early 2022, Russia launched an anticipated, very short special military operation to conquer more or all of Ukraine. Five years later, Ukraine has apparently turned the tables on Russia!
Both cases clearly appear to be types of the ‘David vs. Goliath’ scenario—a massive, regional, and once global hegemon nation, bullying far smaller nations and militaries, only to be thoroughly humiliated on the world stage. Russia may have mistaken its temporary positional advantage for permanent strategic advantage. In both cases, its avarice for more territorial gains provoked its adversaries into becoming more clever, and eventually much stronger than Russia!
Spiritual Scenarios?
Of course, no human has clear insights into the ‘dark glass-like’ spiritual realm. Yet The Lord gave us His Holy Spirit and The Mind of Christ to intuit into the world of spirit, and to perceive the spiritual warfare therein. In this particular scenario, He also gave us Jeremiah 9:23-24, Ezekiel 9 and Ezekiel 38, which are akin to Him ‘pulling back the curtain’ for us to actually ‘see’ His repetitive patterns at work in the Earth! So applying these insights, it seems safe to ponder and perhaps even posit the following:
There are/will be emphatic similarities
between the Russo-Japanese War, Russia's invasion of Ukraine,
and, prophetically, the Russia-led invasion of Israel!
Whether all 3 events may be Gog-initiated is unknowable to us, but The Bible reveals it is plausible! Similarly whether all 3 events represent The Lord’s ‘hooks in jaws’ metaphor, is unknowable to us, yet The Bible reveals His burning hatred for human pride and avarice!
Interestingly, AI-reported similarities between Russia's final tsar and her current president are stark!
Reviewing these 3 scenarios, some of us may be tempted to conclude, ‘History is repeating itself!’ To that, I say, UNLIKELY, since history is merely humanity’s record of past events. History has no ‘agency’! But there is a power Who does have overarching agency in the affairs of humanity—Jesus, The Lord God Almighty! Moreover, He has patiently provided and reserved for us His perspectives on both our history and our future! So it’s ‘our bad’ if we mentally strip Him of any agency in His creation, and chalk such events up to ‘history repeating itself’.
What our secular minds call 'history repeating itself' is actually humanity falling for the exact same devilish temptations and deceptions our ancestors fell into. We repeat the cycle, not because history is a loop, but because—like hegemon nations, and folks who came before us—we lack the spiritual intuition to foresee devilish traps ...until we're trapped!
Imagine that...
