Ezekiel 38:3—Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal. (R.V.)
It is startling to meet with these three names, which are found in modern maps as Russia, Moscow, and Tobolsk, and to feel that we may be reading words that are shortly coming to pass. So far as we can see, they have not as yet been fulfilled. Within the hearing of the present generation, Russia may resolve to go up to the land of unwalled villages, such as those that abound in Palestine, and may be challenged by the merchants of Tarshish in the far West. Some have even found an allusion to the English standard in the reference to the young lions of Ezekiel 38:13.
The shrewdest among us cannot guess what may await the world in the near future. Peer as we may into the dim mist, we cannot descry the events which are coming upon the earth. But we may be thankful that we have this word of prophecy, to which we "do well to take heed, as unto a light shining in a dark place." It is like the illustrated railway-table, which contains a list of the stations through which we must pass ere we reach the terminus. And as the porters call out the names, and we find that they correspond to the route as detailed on the tables, we come to place more implicit trust in our guide-book, and to count with absolute certainty on our ultimate emergence at our destination. "When ye see these things coming to pass, know ye that He is nigh, even at the doors" In the meanwhile let your loins be girt, and your lamps burning, and ye as those that wait for their Lord.
"Surely He cometh, and a thousand voices
Shout to the saints, and to the deaf and dumb!
Surely He cometh, and the earth rejoices,
Glad in his coming, who hath sworn, ‘I come.’"