Hello John and Doves,
I've often wondered about the destruction of Gog's
armies - was it God using His 'nature' or was it God
flinging down destruction from Heaven by His Mighty Hand?
God often uses 'nature' to bring judgment - the
flood of Noah's time, holding back the rain as in Elijah's
day, plagues of locust in Egypt are a few examples.
God can send floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, bears,
flies, the heat from the sun, etc.
In the Gog and Magog War, written about in Ezekiel
38, Ezekiel tells us God is furious with the invaders of
Israel - He proclaims there will be a great earthquake in
the land of Israel. "The mountains will be thrown
down, the cliffs will collapse, and every wall will fall
to the ground."
This earthquake is massive - The Lord says "all men
who are on the face of the earth shall shake at My
presence." Ezekiel 38:20
God said He will "pour out torrents of rain,
hailstones, fire and sulfur on him and on his troops and
on the many nations with him."
I have wondered how God might do this - if He used
'nature' to accomplish this. In Ezekiel, its
possible that He uses volcanoes to thwart the armies of
Gog, along with the massive earthquake. Does the
earthquake 'wake up' these dormant volcanoes? Or
does moving magma cause this massive earthquake?
In the below article, on the Yom Kippur War, I
found that there are a "series of dormant volcanic
cones, "tels", in the north and deep ravines in the
south on the Golan front."
Gog's armies come from the north - the mountains of
Israel - that would be the Golan Heights.
The Golan
Heights Volcanic Field:
"The basaltic Golan Heights volcanic field in the
Anti-Lebanon Mountains of SW Syria near the borders with
Lebanon and Israel contains numerous cinder cones of
Pliocene-to-Holocene age. The Golan Heights
volcanic field covers a broad area NE of the Lake
Tiberius (the Sea of Galilee) and SW of the city of
Damascus and includes the prehistoric cone of Majdel
Shams in the Golan Heights. The volcanic
field lies on a basaltic plateau that dips to the west and
SW, with steep slopes facing the Dead Sea rift valley."
Golan
Heights Volcano, Syria - Facts & Information |
VolcanoDiscovery
Could a
Volcanic Eruption Destroy Gog's Armies?
This article in Nature addresses this possibility.
"A number of explosive volcanic eruptions have been
likened to 'dirty thunderstorms' due to their powerful
convective updrafts, elevated water content and electrical
activity. All volcanic plumes contain some water
originating from the magma...However, wet eruption also
incorporate water from external sources, by interacting
with, for example, glaciers or aquifers.
This water involvement is important because cloud
microphysical processes - such as condensation
and ice formation - impact volcanic plume
development by scrubbing fine ash and sulfur from the
atmosphere....spherical pellets of ash created during
explosive eruptions are akin to hailstones due to their
similar size range, concentric structure and sometimes,
ice content. For example, ash-laden hailstones fell
during the Icelandic eruptions of Grimsvotn in 2011...and
ice-cold mudballs splattered when they landed within 20 km
of Mount St Helens on 18 May 1980.
Hail
formation triggers rapid ash aggregation in volcanic
plumes | Nature Communications
This could explain the rain and the hailstones
falling on the armies.
There just happens to be a 5,000-year-old
aquifer "deep below the Golan's mountains and Israel's
adjoining Hula Valley. The Shamir Drills
have bore down to depths of 1,500 meters - "thought to be
among the deepest such wells in the world." "Now,
the drills siphon that ancient geothermal water to the
surface for use by farming and aquaculture operations in
Israel's north. Before it can be used, however, the
water, which contains large amounts of caustic compounds,
must be treated."
This would explain the sulfur falling on the
armies. And the water deep in the ground that would
come up with volcanic activity is very corrosive. This water's temperature is 188 degrees Fahrenheit
upon extraction. It would be much higher if it was
involved in a volcanic explosion.
And volcanoes are extremely hot - exploding out
rocks and lava that are on fire. Thus the fire
pouring down.
Does the great earthquake 'wake up' these dormant
volcanoes? Or is it the movement of magma that
causes the quake? "A volcano tectonic earthquake or
volcano earthquake is caused by the movement of magma
beneath the surface of the Earth. The movement
results in pressure changes where the rock around the
magma has a change in stress..This seismic activity is
used by scientists to monitor volcanoes.
Volcano
tectonic earthquake - Wikipedia
However God gets all of this going results in the
destruction of the armies of Gog. But this massive
earthquake and all that is 'poured out on many nations'
must create a lot of damage in northern Israel too - and
Lebanon, Syria....etc.
There certainly all of the 'necessary ingredients'
in the Golan Heights for God to use 'nature' to accomplish
His will; it wouldn't have to be a 'supernatural down-from
Heaven' miracle - which could very well happen too.
The timing of this - however it comes about - is
definitely God. For an earthquake to hit right then,
for volcanoes to explode right then - when the armies of
Gog are on the mountains of Israel - that's God's timing.
"Thus I will magnify Myself and sanctify Myself and
I will be known in the eyes of many nations. Then
they shall know that I am the Lord." Ezekiel 38:23
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!
Maranatha!
Chance