Vintage

Iraq is constantly in the news, and we should examine its place in the Bible.  It occupies the territory of Cush, the father of Nimrod, who built Babylon.  The modern city of Mosel, ancient Ninevah, was built by Asshur.

A well known prophecy in the Bible concerns an invasion of Israel, after the Jews have been re-gathered. The invader comes from the north, and brings several countries with it. The invader has the title “Gog”:

“And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,  Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, 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”. (Ezekiel 38:1-6)

The countries that will align with Gog, are, in the Hebrew text, Parsis, Cush and Phut. In the AV they appear as Persia, Ethiopia and Libya. 

The word 'Ethiopia' originates from the Septuagint (Greek) version of Ezekiel 38.  This is misleading.  In the NIV, the word ‘Sudan’ appears, and this is also misleading, but less so than ‘Ethiopia’.

Josephus explained in his Antiquities of the Jews, chapters 4-6, that the Greeks re-named the ancient races with Grecian names, to make the Greeks themselves sound as though they were from ancient times.  He said that the Magogites were re-named Scythians, and the Cushim were re-named Ethiopians.

Strabo, the Greek historian ( about 300BC), said that the Ethiopians were divided.  Some were north of the Arabian Gulf (now known as the Red Sea), and some were south of that gulf.  There was a kingdom of Kush on a bend in the Nile River in the modern country called Sudan.  The capitol was Meroe.

In Eureka Vol 3, brother John Thomas explained that there were Ethiopians north of the Persian Gulf, in Asia, as well as those in Africa.  In his days, there was no country called ‘Ethiopia’ as there is today.  That region was then called Abyssinia.

The land to the north of the Persian Gulf, where the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers meet, has been called Cushistan (or Kushistan) for many centuries.  The area over which the Iran/ Iraq war was fought, was Cushistan.  Time magazine actually had a map showing that name in the 80's when the Iran/Iraq war started.  ‘Stan’ means region, and other examples are Kurdistan, and Afghanistan.  There is also a mountain range in Afghanistan, called the Hindu Kush.

So, this means that in the Gogian invasion of Israel, the leader of the land of the Magogites (Scythians, the Russians and Ukrainians) will invade Israel with modern Iran (Parsis) and Iraq (Cush), not with Ethiopia from Africa.

The Phutim, renamed Libyans by the Greeks, may not be modern ‘Libyans’.  This is still being researched.  Their country may be somewhere north of Israel, like modern Syria or eastern Turkey, or even Pakistan.

The first references to Cush (Strong’s Heb.#3568) occur in Genesis, with regard to the Garden of Eden and the nations after the Flood.

Genesis 2:10

And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. 11 The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; 12 And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. 13 And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.  14 And the name of the third river is Hiddekel (Tigris): that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.  15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

Genesis 10: 6-11

And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan. 7 And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtecha: and the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan. 8 And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. 9 He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD. 10 And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.  11 Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah.

That land of Cush, was where Cush incited his sons to do evil, according to Josephus. Their first act was to build the tower of Babel.  It has spawned the opponents of Yahweh, and His people, for millennia.

The inhabitants of that land were mainly descendants of Shem.  There were pockets of others, including the descendants of Ham.  A map of the dispersion of the nations should be consulted.

Genesis 14 records the war waged by Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of nations against the 5 kings of  the cities of the lower Jordan valley.  After 14 years' warfare and subjection, Lot was taken captive, and Abraham and his men had to rescue them.

This opposition has continued with a succession of  persecutors like Chushanrishathaim (Cushan of double wickedness Heb.#3573)

Judges 3:8-10

Therefore the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Chushanrishathaim king of Mesopotamia: and the children of Israel served Chushanrishathaim eight years. And when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer to the children of Israel, who delivered them, even Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother. And the Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he judged Israel, and went out to war: and the LORD delivered Chushanrishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand; and his hand prevailed against Chushanrishathaim.

Mesopotamia (Heb.#763) and Chaldea (Heb.#3778) are also names used for this area

Nimrod's land is also mentioned in regard to prophecy relating to the Lord Jesus Christ:

Micah 5:2-6

But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. 3 Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth: then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel. 4 And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God; and they shall abide: for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth.  5 And this man shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men.  6 And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders.

The new leader of Iraq will probably have another go at Israel.  But he is only a bit-player in the scheme of things.  He may be the latter day Assyrian, but it would appear that Iraq is only one of three of the main confederates. They will come at a time when the land of Israel is at peace with her neighbours, it is a land of ‘unwalled villages’.

Ultimately it will be the Lord Jesus Christ who leads the battle that destroys the leaders of  the nations that come against Israel.