Sons of Isaac Ezekiel 38:1-4a, “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...” From political leaders to pastors behind their pulpits to authors that write on this subject concerning last day events and eschatology, 99.9% have said what we read here in verse 2 (at least the Gog, the land of Magog’ part of it) has to be Russia. I have been saying it is not. I told you in the first message and reminded you in the second message that this whole concept started because of what Josephus wrote in one line of his works on the History of the Jews, saying that the Greeks claimed that the Magogites (the people from Magog) were Scythians. Now everyone knows the Scythians were a group of people that populated southern Russia. So that is how they make their Russian connection. And of course, that caught on especially in the 1800’s but it really took off about 70-80 years ago when Russia turned into a communistic nation. So it really gained in popularity to call the Russians the Magogites: “Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him—they are it, we finally have our explanation now who this is referring to.” So they are either just too plain lazy to do the homework or they just don’t care enough about history to look into who these Scythians were; because if they did, as I’ve been saying now for two messages, they would find the Lost Tribes of Israel were Scythians (the ten northern tribes that were either taken into captivity or they disbursed themselves to run from the captivity that was coming). The group that ran went north between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. The groups that were taken in the captivity were mostly populated in northern Iran, eastern Iraq. Then the Assyrian Empire eventually lost its power and the tribes migrated north east of the Caspian Sea. I told you last time that there were three major Scythian groups; and ones that went into captivity, and ones that ran from captivity before they were captive. With that short introduction, I am going to pick up where we left off last time. Most of the Israelite tribes [the northern tribes, because the tribes were not called Israelites in the south, they were the House of Judah] scattered into Asia circa 721 B.C. If you look in your encyclopedias, it records the Scythians arrived in the region of the southern Russian area about 700 BC. An historian of the Scythians wrote the following: "The Scythians did not become a recognizable national entity before the eighth century B.C. By the seventh century B.C. they had established themselves firmly in southern Russia. Assyrian documents place their appearance on the shores of Lake Urmia [just south of Armenia] in the time of King Sargon (722-705 B.C.) a date which closely corresponds with that of the first establishment of the first group of Scythians in southern Russia". These accounts (and others) record that the Scythians appeared in South Russia at the very time that the ten tribes of Israel were fleeing from the final Assyrian invasion. The account of scholars dates the Scythian arrival in Armenia and south Russia to the very time that the Bible states the Israelites were removed from their homeland. (Some of the tribes were already captive to the Assyrians and they had no choice re: where they were relocated). Scholars agree the Scythians were firmly established in south Russia by the 7th century B.C. The message of God to the ten tribes (Israel) found in Jeremiah 3 was given near the end of the 7th century B.C., and it indicates they were located north of Jerusalem. The Scythians lived straight north of Jerusalem in the Black Sea region Israel’s migration happened in different waves. There is a wave that went westward but I am not going to get into that now. Then we see a black line from Samaria going north into the Armenian area. Straight north of that, we see Scyths. You can also see Sacae, a name the Israelites became known as (even though they were at that time considered Scythians), which is a name that identifies them back to Isaac, which is scripturally sound. As they went westward, they became the Gauls, the Celts, and so-forth. Now the tribes that were taken before the final dispersion of the northern tribes, the ones that were running before they were conquered and taken into captivity, they went eastward. You can see the eastward line there, across the Euphrates, across the Tigress into the Medes area. They became known as the Cimmerians. Those were the ones that once they were released from their captivity went north, up on the east side of the Caspian Sea (though no arrow shows that). They went up and they met up with the rest of the Scythians up there, the Sacae, which were the northern tribes of Israel. With the above map you see a more completed migration of what happened to the Scythians. We see the launching point, Israel, and groups of Israelites going up between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. And of course the Cimmerians caught up and they are all considered Scythians then for the most part in southern Russia. Then as they migrated west, they became known as the Celts all the way until you get to Scandinavia and the western part of Europe, and then eventually to what we call the British Isles today. Now pre-captivity they also migrated, but like I said that is not part of this teaching. That is the green arrows that you see here that went westward through the Mediterranean Sea, through the pillars of Hercules, around Spain, around Portugal today (that is what they’re known as), and into the British Isles. The Scythians were also known as the Sacae or the Saka. The terms Saka [Sacae] and Scyths were regarded as synonymous. The famous Greek historian, Herodotus, wrote that the Persians call all the Scythians Sacae . In these accounts, it is apparent that the Scythian tribes are known by a form of the Hebrew patriarch, Isaac. The Scythian tribes known as the Sacae or Saka bore the name of Isaac upon them, fulfilling the prophecies in Genesis 21:12 and 48:16 that the Israelite tribes would bear that name. If this is all the evidence there was, the similarity could be a coincidence. However, there is much more evidence that the Scythian Sacae were the displaced Israelite tribes. One could argue that the emergence of the Scythians in the Black Sea region at the same point in history that the ten tribes of Israel fled the kingdom of Israel was just a coincidence. However, the presence of uniquely Israelite cultural traits and names among the Scythians confirms that the Scythians were, indeed, displaced and relocated Israelites from the ten-tribes of Israel. It has been noted above that the Scythians were known as Saka or Sacae, and that this name of Isaac would be imprinted on the ten tribes of Israel throughout history. The Scythians' homelands were not limited to just the Black Sea region. They began to expand eastward across the steppes quickly as their population burgeoned, and they also established themselves in Asia Minor and the Caucasus Mountains. An early Scythian capital was named Sakiz, again proclaiming to the world the significance of the name of the Israelite patriarch, Isaac, to their history. The Greek story of Xenophon mentions the Sacians of Asia who suffered very severely at the hands of the Assyrians, and a Roman writer, Pliny, stated the Scythians were descended from slaves. These accounts reveal strong linkages between the Scythians I.e. (the Sacians) and the Israelites. The Israelites were, indeed, descended from Israelite slaves in Egypt who were freed by Divine action via the Exodus in the time of Moses. They also had suffered severely at the hands of the Assyrians because Assyria repeatedly waged war against the kingdom of Israel in biblical times until its tribes were either taken captive by Assyria or were driven into forced exile. Herodotus noted the presence of Sacae in both the army and navy of the Persian monarch, Xerxes, which marched against the Greeks circa 480 B.C. And maybe, just maybe, that is why Josephus got confused, there were still some Greeks calling them Magogites because of their relationship with the Persian monarch Xerxes—not by choice more than likely because some were still enslaved. Then they march against the Greeks in 480 B.C. Now the Greeks were not going to say wonderful things about the Sacae, that was their enemy just as Xerxes was. One can find references to the Sacae of Herodotus as the Sacans. One writer who uses the term Sacans as synonymous with the Sacae is Paul Cartledge, who uses that term in his book, Thermopylae. Herodotus also recorded that the Scythians recoiled from using or keeping swine. He wrote: "They [the Scythians] make no offerings of pigs, nor will they keep them in their country" . Since the Scythians not only refused to allow pigs to be used in sacrificial purposes, but banned them entirely from their territory, it is evident that the Scythians did not eat the flesh of swine either.