STRATFOR – a private global intelligence firm has published an article showing that a Russian base has been attacked by ISIS in Syria.

In Ezekiel 38, God says to Gog (latter day Russia):

… I will put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords: Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet.

Hooks in Jaws: why did God choose to use a violent analogy?

The placing of ‘hooks in jaws’ was a brutal tradition conceived by the ancient neo-Assyrian’s.

The Assyrian’s typically put hooks in the jaws of defeated enemies, either for the purposes of humiliation or to deport them to other lands. This practices is often described in their annuls, and graphically depicted in their wall relief’s.

~ The IVP Bible Background Commentary

Why does God choose to use an ancient Assyrian practice to explain how he will drag Russia south to build a confederacy?

Perhaps because it would be an Assyrian like power – ISIS – that would provoke Russia to move South, and establish and guard a confederacy of nations.

Here is an article that deals briefly with some of the similarities between the Assyrian’s and ISIS:

Some similarities are listed here:

• Both powers are known for executing absolute and excessive barbarity, and subsequently advertising it to their enemies. For example, enemies of the ancient Assyrian regime were beheaded in public, and the walls of their cities were lined with impaled men, women and children in order to send a message to their enemies. In the 21st century, ISIS use social media and other technologies to project their gruesome decapitations to the world.
• The capital of the ancient Assyrian empire was located in Nineveh. Today, The Islamic States biggest city – Mosul – surrounds the ruins of Nineveh, and is the hometown of ISIS.
• The Assyrian’s wiped out virtual all culture prior to them as do ISIS today.
• Women were forced into slavery by the ancient Assyrian’s as they are today, under ISIS

So there are many indicators which show that ISIS bears many of the hallmarks of the ancient neo-Assyrian empire.

Is ISIS the Hooks in the Jaws that we are witnessing today?

Read more about this here.