The first link reports that, for the first time ever, the nation of Egypt is sending military forces to participate in scheduled military exercises by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) headed by Saudi Arabia. This may seem like a simple announcement, but it reveals more than what is stated in that simple announcement. The GCC military exercises, hosted this year by Bahrain and attended also by the USA, the UK and Jordan, also include participation by Pakistan and Turkey. What is noteworthy is that only Sunni Islamic nations will be participating in these exercises. The Shiite-led or dominated nations such a Iran, Iraq, Syria and Azerbaijan are not invited. The GCC is the Saudi-led Sunni Islamic alliance whose primary current purpose is to defend against the threat from Iran.
Now for some background information. When Hosni Mubarak ruled Egypt, I did several posts which included links documenting that an informal, anti-Iranian alliance had formed which included the nations of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Israel. Those links revealed that the intelligence chiefs of these four nations were meeting regularly to share information about Iran and Iranian-sponsored activities in the Mideast, and to coordinate responses to them. Egypt and Saudi Arabia even held joint military exercises in Egypt to coordinate how the Egyptian military could reinforce the Saudis in any war vs. Iran. When you look at a map, the only way Egyptian tanks and army units can reach Saudi Arabia by a land route is via the Israeli Negev region and Jordanian territory. Given that Israeli intelligence leaders were meeting with Egyptian, Jordanian and Saudi intelligence leaders, it seemed evident that if such a Saudi-Iranian war occurred, the Israelis were apparently willing to allow Egyptian tanks to cross Israeli territory to fight Iran.
Iran was doubtlessly aware of the above facts and knew these four nations would be more than a match for any Iranian-dominated Mideast alliance so it, I believe, took decisive action to destabilize Egypt by deposing its pro-Saudi leader, Hosni Mubarak. The Muslim Brotherhood took power in Egypt via a democratic election, but then quickly was morphing into a radical Islamic dictatorship under Muhammad Morsi. The Egyptian economy and nation was being wrecked by Morsi’s rule, and the Egyptian military dethroned Morsi and took power to save and stabilize Egypt. There is still a low-level insurgency going on in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula where Islamic Jihadis attack Egyptian police and military personnel and facilities, but Egypt is mostly stabilized under the rule of the Egyptian military. A fairly recent post I did included a link that under the Egyptian military’s current interim government, the Egyptian and Israeli militaries are working even closer together now than they did when Mubarak was in power. This fact, combined with the attendance of Egyptian and Jordanian military elements in the GCC exercises, indicate that the informal, anti-Iranian alliance of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel has been re-established, and that the Iranian effort to break it up has failed. Indeed, the deployment of an Egyptian military unit so close to Iran’s border in the GCC military exercise may be an “in-your-face” gesture by Egypt against Iran.
It has been no secret that Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel have all been hugely disappointed with (and alienated by) actions taken by the USA under President Obama. The second link, written prior to a recent visit by Obama to the Saudi kingdom, details the anger of the Saudis at Obama’s Mideast policies. The last link, a brief public reference to a subscription service analysis of this subject, states simply that efforts to reconcile Saudi-American differences have failed. The failure of the Saudis to reach any reconciliation with the Obama administration can only hasten and deepen any de-facto alliance between Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel and other GCC nations in their joint opposition to Iran. The participation, for the first time, of Egyptian military units in a military exercise so close to Iranian territory affirms this conclusion.
From a biblical point-of-view, what we are seeing is the rearrangement of alliances in the Mideast to place them in the positions that are consistence with biblical prophecies. Ezekiel 38:5 makes it clear that Iran (“Persia”) will be a key member of the latter-day Gog-Magog alliance. However, “Ishmael” is, significantly, not mentioned in Ezekiel 38 as a member of that alliance, and, as the Arabs themselves do affirm, the Sunni Arab nations are descended from Ishmael, the son of Abraham and Hagar. This lack of any mention of Ishmaelites being a part of the Gog-Magog alliance argues that Saudi Arabia and the other Sunni Arab nations descended from Ishmael will not be allied with Russia, China or Iran in the latter days. This is a very logical expectation in modern geopolitics as Saudi Arabia and Iran lead Sunni and Shiite alliances that are very opposed to each other.
It is also my belief that the latter-day Gog-Magog alliance is the same latter-day alliance called “the kings of the east” in Revelation 16:12. That verse identifies the River Euphrates as a kind of jumping-off location for an invasion by the “kings of the east” headed westward which will conclude with the age-ending battle of Armageddon (Revelation 16:16). I think it is significant that Baghdad, the capital of Iraq which is very near the Euphrates River, is now in the hands of a Shiite-dominated government so that location is, therefore, now under the domination of Iran, a named member of the Gog-Magog alliance. It is especially important, in my view, to note that in the Ezekiel 38:2-6 prophecy about the nations composing the Gog-Magog alliance, that not one nation descended from Abraham is included in it. The modern nations descended from Abraham include all the Israelite nations in Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand, the Israelis and Jews, the Arab nations, Turkey and other nations descended from Edom-Esau, the nations descended from Abraham and his final wife, Keturah (which are found mainly in eastern Europe in my opinion) and the sons of Abraham’s concubines which were sent to the far east from the old Holy Land (Genesis 25:6). I think we can find at least one piece of evidence in the modern world where the eastern location is that the sons of Abraham’s concubines settled. The ruling caste of India is called the “Brahmins.” When we recall that vowels were not written in many ancient world’s languages, the initial ‘A” of Abraham’s name does not appear in the word “Brahmin,” but when we add it in we have the name “Abrahmin,” a very clear form of the name, Abraham. Notably, India is very threatened by China, a key member of the Gog-Magog alliance, so India is not at all likely to be part of the Gog-Magog alliance. We need to recall that the nations descended from Abraham include far more nations than just the Israelite nations in the modern world.
The above is a digression from the presence of Egyptian military forces in the GCC military exercises, but it is one more piece of evidence that God is guiding modern geopolitics to keep the Sunni Arab nations (“Ishmael” in the modern world) out of the Gog-Magog alliance. It is also clear that Egypt (also called “Mizraim” sometimes in the Bible) is not included in the list of the nations of the latter-day Gog-Magog alliance in Ezekiel 38 and that God is also guiding modern events to keep Egypt out of the Gog-Magog alliance. The events of modern geopolitics are affirming the truth of biblical prophecies and the sovereignty of God in all matters.
- http://www.worldtribune.com/2014/04/29/first-egypt-joins-gcc-military-exercise-bahrain/
- http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/25/us-obama-saudi-idUSBREA2O0QU20140325
- http://geostrategy-direct-subscribers.com/obamas-visit-failed-to-ease-saudi-concerns-about-iran-iraq-syria/
