Merchants of Tarshish

With reference to Ezekiel 38:2,13—The land being covered with the northern hosts as with a cloud, the Russo-Assyrian Gog is the lord ascendant of the country, with none to dispute his authority, but "Edom, Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon," south and east of the Dead Sea, and the river Arnon. In this region, his power is contested. "Sheba and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof," protest against the invasion of the land, but without effect. Doubtless, he will feel too strong to be deterred from a grand solution of the Eastern Question in his own behalf. But "he shall be broken without hand:" the stone-power is near ready to fall upon him, and grind him to powder -- the power of the kingdom embodied in the rainbow organization (Matt. xxi. 44; Dan. ii. 45; viii. 25). The northern Gog pays no respect to the young lions and merchants of Tarshish; but invades the country, and dominates it with an iron rule, as exemplified in the history of daemonial and idol worshipping Poland. The fate of this province of the papal empire was a punishment due to them as worshippers of the beast and his image; but the people "dwelling in the midst of the land," in central Palestine, in peace and prosperity, belong to the Rainbowed Angel; and to invade and oppress them will not be tolerated: "for thus saith YAHWEH Tz’vaoth, after the glory," manifested in the land, "hath he sent me unto the nations who spoiled you; for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye" (Zech. ii. 8).