A Prophetic Reading of the Ancient Scriptures
Ezekiel, and Psalms
PART I: THE PROPHETIC FRAMEWORK
The ancient scriptures of Ezekiel and the Psalms form a prophetic architecture that students of eschatology have long regarded as foundational to understanding end-times geopolitics. Written across vastly different eras — Ezekiel during the Babylonian captivity (approximately 593–571 BCE) and the Psalms spanning the Davidic monarchy through the post-exilic period — these texts converge on common themes of divine sovereignty, the judgment of nations, the regathering of Israel, and a climactic confrontation between the forces of God and the armies of the earth.
In the 21st century, a prophetic reading of these texts against the backdrop of current geopolitical developments — including Iran’s missile programmes, Russia’s military posturing, and the rise of a multipolar order — calls for careful, measured discernment. This document is written not as sensationalist speculation but as a serious examination of what these biblical texts say, what scholars have interpreted them to mean, and how those readings might intersect with Singapore’s singular geopolitical position.
PART II: EZEKIEL AND THE WARS OF GOG AND MAGOG
A. The Vision of Ezekiel
Ezekiel was a priest-prophet writing to a people in exile, tasked with delivering both words of judgment and extraordinary visions of national restoration. From chapters 36 through 48, the book builds toward an eschatological climax — the valley of dry bones, the reunification of Judah and Israel, the great battle of Gog and Magog, and ultimately the vision of a new temple and a transformed land.
- Ezekiel 37: The Valley of Dry Bones
“The hand of the LORD was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones… He asked me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?'” — Ezekiel 37:1-3
The valley of dry bones is among the most powerful prophetic images in all of Scripture. Theologically, it signifies a resurrection — not merely of individuals but of a nation. The plain interpretation speaks of Israel’s national reconstitution after exile. But many prophetic readers see a double fulfilment in the modern re-establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 and subsequent waves of Jewish immigration — the ‘breath’ of nationhood entering what had been spiritually dormant for millennia.
The prophetic significance here is stark: an event that seemed humanly impossible — the reconstitution of a scattered people after nearly two thousand years of diaspora — occurred within living memory. To prophetic readers, this is not coincidence but the literal enactment of Ezekiel 37. And if chapter 37 has been fulfilled, it becomes a lens through which chapters 38 and 39 acquire renewed urgency. - Ezekiel 38–39: Gog, Magog, and the Great Coalition
“Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshek and Tubal; prophesy against him… I will turn you around, put hooks in your jaws and bring you out with your whole army.” — Ezekiel 38:2-4
These two chapters describe a massive military coalition descending upon a restored Israel ‘living in safety.’ The coalition is led by ‘Gog from the land of Magog’ and includes Persia (modern Iran), Cush (parts of Africa), Put (Libya), Gomer, and Beth Togarmah — identified by many scholars as corresponding to territories in modern Turkey, Central Asia, and parts of Eastern Europe.
The identification of Magog with Russia — popularized by 19th century commentators such as Wilhelm Gesenius and later by Hal Lindsey — remains contested but widely influential in prophetic circles. The argument is linguistic and geographic: Magog appears in Genesis 10:2 as a son of Japheth, and ancient sources associate the descendants of Japheth with the Caucasus region and the steppes north of the Black and Caspian Seas, corresponding broadly to Russia and the surrounding former Soviet nations.
Persia is identified explicitly by name in Ezekiel 38:5 — and this is significant, for Persia is today Iran. In the current geopolitical climate, Iran is actively developing long-range missile capabilities, has publicly called for the elimination of Israel, and is conducting joint military exercises with Russia. The NOTAM issued by Iran on February 19, 2026, authorizing rocket launches across its southern territories — even as Iran conducts naval drills in the Strait of Hormuz and prepares for a joint Russian naval exercise — reads, to prophetic interpreters, as the sound of preparations. - The Attack and Divine Intervention
“This is what will happen in that day: When Gog attacks the land of Israel, my hot anger will be aroused, declares the Sovereign LORD… There will be a great earthquake in the land of Israel.” — Ezekiel 38:18-20
“On the mountains of Israel you will fall, you and all your troops and the nations with you… I will send fire on Magog and on those who live in safety in the coastlands, and they will know that I am the LORD.” — Ezekiel 39:4-6
The outcome of the Gog-Magog war, according to Ezekiel 39, is not won by Israeli military might but by direct divine intervention: earthquake, confusion among the armies, fire and brimstone, and ultimately the destruction of the coalition. Seven months are spent burying the dead; seven years burning the weapons. For prophetic readers, this is not metaphor — it is the described mechanics of a supernatural defeat of an anti-Israel coalition.
What is particularly notable is the phrase ‘those who live in safety in the coastlands’ in Ezekiel 39:6, upon whom fire is also sent. The Hebrew word ‘iyim’ (coastlands, islands) has long fascinated interpreters: who are these distant coastal and island peoples who will be affected by the divine judgment that accompanies the Gog-Magog war?
PART III: THE PSALMS AND THE GEOPOLITICS OF DIVINE KINGSHIP
A. Psalm 83: The Inner-Ring Conspiracy
“Come, they say, let us destroy them as a nation, so that Israel’s name is remembered no more. With one mind they plot together; they form an alliance against you.” — Psalm 83:4-5
Psalm 83 lists a specific coalition of Israel’s immediate neighbours — Edom, Moab, Ammon, Philistia, Tyre, Gebal, Amalek, and Assyria — conspiring for the annihilation of Israel. Many scholars, including Bill Salus in his work on what he calls the ‘Psalm 83 war,’ argue that this describes a separate, prior conflict from Gog-Magog — an inner-ring war involving Israel’s immediate Arab neighbours that precedes the outer-ring Ezekiel 38-39 invasion.
Whether one accepts this interpretive framework or not, the Psalm captures something that has remained geopolitically constant across millennia: the persistent regional hostility toward Israel, now manifested in Hamas, Hezbollah, and their state sponsors. In this reading, the events of October 7, 2023, and subsequent Israeli military operations in Gaza and Lebanon, may be seen as at minimum consistent with, if not a fulfilment of, this ancient text.
B. Psalm 46: God as Refuge Amid Geopolitical Chaos
“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.” — Psalm 46:1-3
“Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts.” — Psalm 46:6
Psalm 46 is the text that inspired Martin Luther’s great hymn ‘A Mighty Fortress.’ Its eschatological vision is striking: it does not deny geopolitical tumult but places that tumult within a theological frame. ‘Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall’ — this is not pastoral poetry about personal peace; it is cosmic geopolitics rendered in doxological form. The nations rage, kingdoms rise and collapse, and yet the God who commands the LORD of Hosts causes wars to cease ‘to the ends of the earth.’
Prophetically, this Psalm functions as a theological anchor for the believer confronting the possibility of regional or global war. It acknowledges the terror of what is coming — the earth giving way, the mountains falling into the sea — while asserting divine sovereignty over the chaos.
C. Psalm 2: The Nations Rage
“Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the LORD and against his anointed.” — Psalm 2:1-3
“You will break them with a rod of iron; you will dash them to pieces like pottery. Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth.” — Psalm 2:9-10
Psalm 2 has long been read as messianic and eschatological — describing the final reckoning between the kingdoms of the earth and the kingdom of God. In prophetic interpretation, the ‘nations conspiring’ finds contemporary resonance in the geopolitical alignments forming around the Middle East: the Russia-Iran axis, the weakening of Western deterrence, the growing multipolarity of global power. The ‘rod of iron’ imagery anticipates the eschatological judgment that Ezekiel 38-39 describes in geographic and military detail.
PART IV: THE PROPHETIC SIGNIFICANCE FOR SINGAPORE
A. Singapore in the Biblical Cosmography
The Hebrew Scriptures do not mention Singapore by name. The city-state did not exist as a political entity until the British colonial period, and its modern form dates only to 1965. Yet the absence of a specific name does not preclude prophetic relevance. The broader category of ‘coastlands’ (Hebrew: ‘iyim’) and ‘distant nations’ (Hebrew: ‘goyim rechoquim’) appears repeatedly in the prophetic corpus as a catch-all for the nations beyond the immediate Near Eastern horizon.
Isaiah 49:1 opens with ‘Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations.’ Isaiah 66:19 describes God sending survivors to the distant nations — ‘Tarshish, the Libyans and Lydians (famous as archers), Tubal and Greece, and to the distant islands that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory.’ Ezekiel 39:6, as noted above, speaks of divine fire falling on ‘those who live in safety in the coastlands.’ Singapore, an island city-state positioned at the throat of the Strait of Malacca — through which approximately 40% of global trade passes — fits the biblical archetype of the maritime trading nation more precisely than almost any other modern state.
B. Singapore as a Maritime Commercial Centre
“You are situated at the gateway to the sea, merchant of peoples on many coasts.” — Ezekiel 27:3
This verse, addressed to Tyre in its original context, has been applied prophetically by some interpreters to Singapore. The structural parallel is striking: Tyre was the greatest trading port of the ancient Near East, situated on an island (originally), commanding sea lanes, and growing fabulously wealthy through commerce with peoples of many nations. Singapore today is the world’s second-busiest port by container throughput, its economy almost entirely dependent on international trade, finance, and the free flow of goods through the sea lanes it overlooks.
The prophetic warning to Tyre in Ezekiel 27-28 concerns the spiritual danger of a nation that has equated its commercial success with self-sufficiency and pride — ‘I am a god; I sit on the throne of a god in the heart of the seas’ (Ezekiel 28:2). This is not a prediction of Singapore’s destruction but a prophetic caution: that the theology of prosperity and the idolatry of meritocracy, efficiency, and commercial pre-eminence can become a spiritual vulnerability for a nation that has been sovereignly blessed with extraordinary strategic position.
C. The Strait of Malacca and Prophetic Geography
From a strategic standpoint, the Strait of Malacca is one of the most consequential waterways on earth. A conflict that disrupts free passage through the Strait — whether through Iranian-linked blockades in the Persian Gulf, Chinese naval manoeuvres in the South China Sea, or broader escalation in the Middle East affecting energy markets and shipping insurance — would have immediate and severe economic consequences for Singapore.
In the event of an Ezekiel 38-39-type conflict scenario — a major war involving Israel, Iran, and Russia — the economic shockwaves would be felt globally but with particular intensity in small, trade-dependent economies. Singapore imports virtually all of its energy, relies on the free flow of global trade for its port revenues, and maintains a financial centre that would be exposed to capital flight and market volatility in a major geopolitical crisis.
The prophetic reading here is not that Singapore is specifically targeted in biblical prophecy, but that Singapore — as a ‘coastland’ nation of extraordinary strategic significance — sits directly within the arc of consequence of the events described in Ezekiel 38-39.
D. The Question of ‘Living in Safety’
“You will say, I will invade a land of unwalled villages; I will attack a peaceful and unsuspecting people — all of them living without walls and without gates and bars.” — Ezekiel 38:11
The precondition for the Gog-Magog attack in Ezekiel 38 is that Israel is living ‘in safety’ and ‘without walls.’ This has been a significant point of debate among prophetic scholars — is this a future state of peace following a treaty, or does it reflect the relative security Israel currently enjoys under its military deterrence? In either case, the attack comes when it appears least expected.
Singapore’s own security doctrine rests on what has been called ‘total defence’ — the conviction that economic, social, psychological, and military resilience together constitute the nation’s shield. Singapore has no strategic depth, no natural resources, and no hinterland. It is, in many ways, a ‘land of unwalled villages’ in the modern sense: a highly open, highly connected, highly exposed economy that depends on the stability of the international order for its very survival.
A prophetic reading might suggest that Singapore’s greatest vulnerability is the assumption of safety — that the Pax Americana, the rules-based international order, and the free flow of global trade that have underwritten Singapore’s extraordinary success since 1965 will continue indefinitely. The scriptures suggest that no city or nation that trusts in its own wisdom and strategic cunning rather than the Lord is truly safe when the great upheavals come.
E. The Spiritual Dimension: What Does the Prophet Say to Singapore?
“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me.” — Ezekiel 33:7
The prophetic call in Ezekiel is fundamentally the call of the watchman — the one positioned to see the approaching danger and sound the trumpet before it arrives. For the believing community in Singapore, the prophetic reading of these texts carries a specific imperative: watchfulness, prayer, and spiritual preparation.
Singapore has historically occupied a posture of pragmatic non-alignment. It maintains strong relations with both the United States and China, conducts trade with Iran (subject to sanctions frameworks), and has consistently positioned itself as a neutral hub. In the prophetic framework, this pragmatic wisdom is admirable but insufficient. The events described in Ezekiel 38-39 are not resolved by diplomacy — they are resolved by divine intervention. The appropriate response of the believing community is not panic but prophetic prayer.
“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: May those who love you be secure.” — Psalm 122:6
This Psalm has traditionally been interpreted as a call to intercede for Israel’s peace — and in the prophetic tradition, that intercession is understood to be both spiritually efficacious and geopolitically consequential. Communities of faith in Singapore who engage in such intercession are, in the prophetic framework, participating in the very dynamics that Ezekiel describes.
PART V: PROPHETIC TIMELINE CONSIDERATIONS
A. The Question of Sequence
Prophetic scholars hold varying views on the sequence of end-times events. Pre-tribulational interpreters typically place the Gog-Magog war either before the Tribulation period or in its early stages. Mid- and post-tribulational interpreters see it as a component of the great Tribulation judgments. Preterist and idealist interpreters understand these texts as having been fulfilled in the first century or as timeless spiritual archetypes rather than specific future events. This document does not adjudicate between these schools but notes that across virtually all prophetic traditions, the basic elements — a northern and eastern coalition attacking Israel, divine intervention, global consequence — remain constant.
B. Convergence Indicators
What many prophetic interpreters note in the current period is an unusual convergence of indicators: the existence of a modern State of Israel; the explicit hostility of Iran (ancient Persia) toward Israel; a deepening Russia-Iran military alliance including joint naval exercises; the proliferation of ballistic missile technology in the region; the weakening of deterrence as U.S. foreign policy undergoes reassessment; and the extraordinary strategic sensitivity of the Persian Gulf and Strait of Malacca to any escalation.
None of these factors individually constitutes prophetic proof. But their simultaneous convergence — in a period when the geopolitical architecture of the post-1945 world is visibly fracturing — gives the prophetic student reason for heightened attentiveness. As Jesus himself said in the Olivet Discourse, using language evocative of Ezekiel: ‘When you see these things beginning to take place, stand up and lift your heads, because your redemption is drawing near’ (Luke 21:28).
C. The Role of Repentance
“Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall… Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, people of Israel? For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!” — Ezekiel 18:30-32
Critically, the prophetic literature is never merely predictive — it is always also prescriptive. The purpose of the watchman is not to render inevitable the disaster he foresees, but to call the people to repentance so that the disaster may be averted or mitigated. Even in the most deterministic eschatological framework, the call of the prophet retains its ethical and spiritual urgency: repent, turn, live.
For Singapore, a prophetically informed community posture would include: sustained intercession for the peace of Jerusalem and the nations of the Middle East; spiritual vigilance against the idolatries of prosperity, self-sufficiency, and pragmatic amoralism; preparation of the believing community for potential disruption; and a recommitment to the prophetic task of being a witness to the nations — which is, after all, the calling of those who dwell at the crossroads of the earth.
CONCLUSION: THE WATCHMAN’S WORD
The prophetic scriptures of Ezekiel and the Psalms do not yield a precise map of coming events with verifiable dates and coordinates. What they yield instead is a theological framework — a conviction that history is not merely the record of human will and military power, but the outworking of a divine purpose that encompasses the nations, the coastlands, the islands, and even a small city-state poised at the fulcrum of global trade.
Singapore stands at the crossroads of the ancient world and the modern — the maritime gateway through which the commerce of civilisations flows. Whether or not one reads the current convergence of Iranian rocket launches, Russian-Iranian naval exercises, and Middle Eastern tensions as literal precursors to Ezekiel 38-39, the prophetic tradition calls its readers to sobriety, watchfulness, and prayer.
The watchman does not rejoice in the coming storm. He sounds the trumpet so that others may prepare. In the words of Ezekiel himself:
“Say to them, As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die?” — Ezekiel 33:11
The ancient prophet speaks still. The question is whether those who dwell in the coastlands are listening.
— End of Prophetic Reading —