Global SITREP D3-17: Ezekiel 38/39 In Living Color

Professionally equipped Russian soldiers parade for 'Zapad (West) 17'

27 September 2017: The Union State (Russia and Byelorus) just completed the large-scale Zapad (West) 17 exercise in the region of Byelorus (i.e. Belarus) which possesses strong nationalist tendencies. This region constitutes the entire northern half of Byelorus; it stretches from Grodno in the west to the capital Minsk in the center to Vitebsk (Viciebsk) in the east. 

The western sector of Grodno is also known as the Suwalki Gap. It is this gap through which Russian force would penetrate into northern Poland and all of Lithuania as well as southern Latvia so as to create a contiguous land corridor between mother Russia and the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad (see clickable map below).

The size and scale of the Russian forces involved was not lost on the Byelorussian nationalist aspirants for whom the aggressive dismemberment of Ukraine remains an active memory. Nor was it lost on the NATO alliance, particularly NATO allies Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia who see this region and their lands as a potential near-term battleground. Zapad 17's importance was also paramount to Russian President Vladimir Putin who attended this exercise instead of going to the U.N. General Assembly last week. That's the gravitas of this situation among all concerned parties.

The Russian forces involved in Zapad 17 were formidable. The were commanded by and were filled with many of the same combat troops who've been battle tested in Ukraine and Syria between 2014 and the present. In fact, in my view, this force constitutes the type and size of an expeditionary invasion army that would be extremely likely to be participatory in the prophecy of Ezekiel 38. 

Looking at the soldiers (image at top) and the vehicles (images below), is to be looking at the force that will be drawn south onto the mountains of Israel when Gog of Magog finds the hooks placed in his jaws by the Lord to be an even more irresistible force than his army and his coalition allies armies combined.  

T-72B3M Main Battle Tank

BTR MDM Rakushka-M APC

BTR M3 Rakushka-M Tank

These armored vehicles were specifically designed in the last few years to accompany airborne troops into combat on a distant battlefield. The would literally "cover the land like a cloud." The Russian airborne insignia is clearly visible on the new BTR family of combat vehicles. The T-72B3M MBT at top is also decidedly lighter (aluminum vs. steel), cheaper to produce, yet just as lethal as the mainstay Russian T-90 MBT. 

This new type of Russian expeditionary force blends traditional airborne assault units (VDV) with conventional infantry for specialized operations which will also includes the airlift of artillery, tanks and entire motorized rifle brigades. This is an Indication and Warning (I&W) that both the type and the manner in which this force is turned around as prophesied by Ezekiel is no longer the stuff of imagination or conjecture. You are looking at it in living color on your computer screen.

This is the equipment that Israel will one day end up using as fuel; to despoil those who intended to take the land of Israel and its accumulated wealth as a spoil. Ezekiel 39:9 tells us that after this brief one-sided battle the people of Israel will leave their cities and set fire to all of this military equipment. These fires will burn for seven years. Ezekiel 39:10 says Israel "will not take wood from the field nor cut down any from the forests, because they will make fires with the weapons."

This last prophetic statement appears to date this event a time to prior to the 70th Week. It's also a curious statement at that. You see the trees that are in Israel today were all planted by human hands; the hands of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) to be precise. When this land was ruled by the Ottoman Empire it had been completely deforested; the timbers were used to build railroads all over the Ottoman Empire. To date the JNF has planted over 240 million trees in Israel.

So these are the tree Israel will not have to cut down. But then I realized there's a time crunch... right after Ezekiel 38/39 is fulfilled we have the start of 70th Week to consider. There's just 42 months in the first half, and Israel will have fled from the Antichrist in the final 42 months, so when would Israel have the time to burn the weapons for a total of seven years?

Could Israel possibly burn them for the first 42 months and the remainder during the Millennium Kingdom of Christ? Perhaps. But the world, and Israel in particular at the start of the Millennium, will not have the forests that are present today. 

The first trumpet of Revelation 8:7 causes one-third of all trees upon the earth and all of the green grass to be burned up. Then there's war on an unimaginable scale, as well as more trumpet judgments and then the bowl judgments follow. What could possibly remain of the military weapons spoils taken from the Magog Confederation much less the the natural tree forests of Israel? If those days were not shortened by the Lord we know that no life on earth would have survived.

By this process of deduction we can learn, and it seems reasonably clear, that Ezekiel 39:10-11 has to find fulfillment prior to the 70th Week, because this is a time when Israel's forests are abundant and when the people are free of 70th Week persecution by the Beast to engage in a continuous 7 years of burning the weapons. This must take place to completely fulfill this prophecy as it is written. 

This brings to mind something I wrote down some time ago: God does not do His works in coincidences. The works of God, such as Ezekiel 38/39, are deliberate and at an appointed time as part of His all-encompassing plan.