This is the sixth and last message that Ezekiel received from the Lord the night before the refugees reached the exiles with the message that Jerusalem had fallen (cf. 33:21-22). It too deals with God's plans for Israel in the distant future, when He would restore her to her land. It answers the question, What about future enemies of Israel? This section of the book consists of seven messages each marked by the introductory phrase, "Thus says the Lord God"(38:3, 10, 14, 17; 39:1, 17, 25). This is another apocalyptic passage.
"In Ezekiel 38-39 the prophet used parallels from Israel's first Exodus to describe God's new' exodus preceding the kingdom era. All that God intended for Israel during the first Exodus will be accomplished in the new' one.
• Destruction of Gentile oppressors (Exod. 5-12; Ezek. 38-39)
• Plans for building God's house (Exod. 20-40; Ezek. 40-43)
• Climax: God's glory enters His house (Exod. 40:35; Ezek. 43:5)
• Instructions for worship (Leviticus; Ezek. 43-46)
• Land boundaries for Israel (Num. 34; Ezek. 47)
• Division of land among the tribes (Josh. 14-21; Ezek. 48)"485
38:1-2 The Lord commanded Ezekiel to utter an oracle of judgment against Gog (cf. 1 Chron. 5:4; Rev. 20:8), who was the prince (king) over Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal. His land was Magog (cf. Gen. 10:2; Rev. 20:8).
The identity of this ruler has been the subject of much study and speculation. The possibilities include a Reubenite prince (1 Chron. 5:4), a former king of Lydia named Gugu (or Gyges), an unknown "dark"figure (from the Sumerian word gug, "darkness"), a man named Gagu who ruled over Sakhi (an area north of Assyria), an unspecified official ruler (taking "Gog"as a title) of a particular land (Magog), a general personal name for an otherwise unidentified enemy of Israel, or a code name for Babylon.486It is probably safe to say that "Gog"refers to the name or title of a ruler who will emerge in history while Israel is dwelling safely in her land (cf. v. 8). Perhaps Ezekiel referred to this unnamed future enemy of Israel as a dark figure (unknown and evil) calling him "Dark"much as we might refer to such a person as a new Hitler.487This may be the future Antichrist (cf. Dan. 11:40-45). I think it is, but Gog also represents another important eschatological figure.
The land of Magog probably refers to the former domain of the Scythians, who lived in the mountains around the Black and Caspian seas (modern southern Russia).488Gog will also have authority over Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal. Rosh (lit. "head"or "chief") has not been identified either by biblical or extrabiblical references. The idea that it refers to Russia rests on etymological similarities, but the name Russia only came into existence in the late eleventh century A.D.489Thus a linguistic connection with Russia is very tenuous.490Rosh may be an adjective describing the ruler of Meshech and Tubal. Meshech and Tubal occur together in Scripture (27:13; 32:26; Gen. 10:2; 1 Chron. 1:5) and apparently refer to regions of Anatolia (modern western Turkey), the areas that became known as Phrygia and Cappadocia.491The whole region would be what is now parts of southwestern Russia, Turkey, and Iran.
38:3-4 Ezekiel was to announce that Yahweh was opposed to Gog. The Lord would reverse the fortunes of this ruler, take him captive, and bring him and his vast, impressive army out of his homeland. Putting hooks in his jaws pictures control that he would not be able to resist. The Lord would be the first cause of this action, but doubtless there would be secondary causes as well, such as Satan's influence and human decisions (cf. 2 Sam. 24:1; 1 Chron. 21:1; Isa. 10:5-19; Hab. 1:5-11).
38:5-6 Along with Gog, the Lord would take Persia, Ethiopia, Put, Gomer, and Beth-togarmah captive, vast numbers of soldiers. Persia lay to Israel's northeast, Ethiopia to her southwest, Put to her southeast (on the African coast of the southern Red Sea), Gomer to her northwest (in the Taurus mountains of Anatolia and possibly farther northwest in modern western Europe), and Beth-togarmah to her northwest (southeast of the Black Sea in Armenia). Thus peoples all around Israel would unite against her under Gog's leadership. As Babylonia sought to destroy Israel in the past, so this latter-day Babylon will seek to destroy her in the future (cf. Rev. 16:13-14; 17:5).
38:7-9 The Lord told Gog to be ready with his allies. He would summon Gog to attack the Promised Land when the Israelites were back in it having been regathered in the end times (cf. Jer. 32:14; Dan. 8:26). The Israelites would be living securely in their land at this time enjoying peaceful conditions (cf. 37:26). Gog and his allies would descend on the land like a storm cloud.
38:10-12 At that time Gog would devise an evil plan against the Israelites. He would plan to invade the Israelites while they are at rest and to plunder them. Israel would seem to be completely defenseless relying on her God to protect her and not fortifying herself. Israel has never in her past or present history enjoyed such an ideally peaceful situation. She would be living then at the center of the world as far as God's purposes for the world are concerned (cf. 5:5; Deut. 32:8), namely, the Promised Land.
38:13 Other nations would also inquire about Gog's intentions and clarify his purpose to take much spoil from the Israelites. Sheba was in eastern Arabia, Dedan in Arabia, and Tarshish was southern Spain or Sardinia.
38:14 The Lord wanted Ezekiel to tell Gog that on the day the Lord would call him up for service (v. 4) he would know that Israel dwelt securely in her own land.
38:15-16 He and his allies would descend on Israel from the north and cover her like a storm cloud (cf. v. 6; 39:2; Dan. 11:40-45).492God would bring Gog against His people "in the last days"(cf. vv. 8, 14, 18; 39:8, 11) to teach the nations to acknowledge Yahweh. They would do this when God used Gog do demonstrate His holiness (unique deity) in their eyes. Yahweh would raise up Gog as He had raised up the Pharaoh of the Exodus to demonstrate His power when He overthrew him.
38:17 The Lord asked rhetorically if it was Gog about whom He had spoken through His other servants the prophets many years earlier. "Are you he of whom the prophets spoke?"Yes, he was. This was not the first revelation of a powerful enemy whom God would bring against the Israelites (cf. Deut. 30:7; Ps. 2:1-3; Isa. 14:24-25; 26:20-21; 29:1-8; Jer. 4:5; 6:26; 30:18-24; Joel 2:20; 3:9-21; Zeph. 1:14-18; 3:8, 15-20).
38:18-19 God would become very angry with Gog when he attacked Israel (cf. Gen. 12:3). He would send a great earthquake in the land that would express His anger.
38:20-21 Every living thing on earth would feel this earthquake, the sign of God's presence. Mountains would fall down as well as cliffs with their steep pathways as would the walls that people had erected. Gog's allied forces would even turn on each other and fight one another (cf. Judg. 7:22; 1 Sam. 14:20; Hag. 2:22; Zech. 14:13). Apparently the sword that God would call for to defeat Gog would be that of his own allies rather than that of Israel (cf. Rev. 20:9).
38:22-23 The Lord would shower hailstones, lightning, and burning sulfur, probably from erupting volcanoes, on Gog and his allies (cf. Gen. 19:24). He would also attack his armies causing bloodshed and disease. This would result in great glory for God among the nations. They would recognize Him as the only true God when He revealed Himself in this way.
"Chapter 39 retells the story of God's attack and defeat but with a slightly different emphasis from that of the prior chapter. Not much attention is given to the attack itself (merely vv. 1-2), whereas a great deal of space is devoted to describing the massive slaughter of Gog's forces. In a sense, then, Chapter 38 concentrates on the threat from the powers opposed to God and His people, while Chapter 39 concentrates more on the deliverance of God's people from that threat. The end of the chapter dwells at length on Israel's restoration (vv. 21-29), especially on the immediate (pre-Gog) era of that restoration. Thus the chapter starts with the distant future but ends in the nearer future with the promise of return from captivity to the land of Canaan and the greater truths which that return points toward."493
39:1-2 The Lord again announced His antagonism toward Gog (cf. 38:2-3). He repeated that He would turn him around and bring him from the remotest parts of the North against the mountains of Israel (cf. 38:4-9, 15).
39:3-4 The Lord promised to defeat Gog there; it would be as though He knocked his weapons out of his hands. Yahweh did not reveal whom He would use to do this or how He would do it, but 38:21 suggests that at least part of the defeat would be a result of Gog's soldiers killing one another (cf. Judg. 7:22). Gog and his army and allies would fall in the Promised Land, and birds and beasts would eat their corpses (cf. vv. 17-20; Rev. 19:17-21). Such a fate was the ultimate indignity in the minds of the ancients (cf. 2 Kings 9:35).
39:5-6 Gog would fall in the open fields because the Lord had decreed His judgment. Yahweh would also destroy Gog's homeland, Magog, and the remote homelands of his allies (the coastlands, cf. 26:15, 18; 27:3, 6-7, 15, 35), and those who safely inhabited these regions. This would teach them that He is God.
39:7-8 Yahweh would also proclaim His holy reputation among the Israelites and the other nations. They would no longer regard Him as just another local deity but would recognize Him as the Holy One of Israel, the only true God who was Israel's God. This day of judgment of which the Lord had formerly spoken would surely come and what He had predicted would indeed happen (cf. 38:17).
39:9-10 After the Lord destroyed the forces of Gog, the Israelites would use the enemy's numerous implements of warfare for fuel for seven years. The Israelites would not need to burn traditional fuel because there would be so many old weapons and implements left to burn.494They would also take as spoil what the invaders had brought into the land when they came to despoil the Israelites. God would turn the tables on the invaders.
39:11 The Israelites would also bury Gog and his soldiers in a valley east of the Mediterranean Sea. This probably means that multitudes of the enemy would be buried there, not necessarily Gog personally (cf. Rev. 19:20-21; 20:10). The slaughter would be so great that it would take a large valley to accommodate all the corpses. This valley would become known as "The Valley of the Multitude of Gog."This cemetery would be so large that travelers would not be able to pass through that part of the land. Probably the Esdraelon Valley is in view since it is east of the Mediterranean Sea and since many travelers normally passed and still pass through it. Furthermore it is the only major east west valley in Israel.495In biblical times a major highway connecting Egypt and Mesopotamia ran through this valley. The Apostle John identified this valley as the location of the battle of Armageddon (Rev. 16:13-16).
39:12-13 It would take seven months to bury all the corpses and so clean up this valley (cf. Lev. 5:2; 21:1; Deut. 21:1-9).496All the Israelites would get involved in burying the corpses, and this would receive worldwide attention and result in glory for God.
39:14-16 Special men would be responsible to search the land after seven months. When they discovered an exposed bone they would mark it so others could bury it. The name of the nearby city would then be called "The Multitude"as a tribute to Yahweh's victory.
This message expands on one event that will take place at the end of the invasion (cf. v. 4).
39:17-18 The Lord also instructed Ezekiel to prophesy to the birds and beasts to come and feast on the flesh of the invaders who had died (cf. v. 4; Isa. 34:6; Jer. 46:10; Zeph. 1:7-8; Rev. 19:17-21). It would be like eating a great sacrifice for them, but those offered as sacrifices to the Lord would be great people of the earth rather than fat rams, lambs, goats, and bulls. Bashan, to the east of the Jordan River, consistently produced fat cattle because there was so much good pasture there.
39:19-20 These animals would be able to gorge themselves on the sacrifice that God would prepare for them. They would be able to eat the flesh of horses, chariot drivers, commanders, and soldiers. Normally people offered animals as sacrifices, but God would turn the tables and sacrifice people for the animals showing how little He regarded these enemies of Israel.
39:21-22 God's judgment of Gog would glorify Him greatly in the eyes of the rest of the world. Israel too would learn in a fresh way that He was their God (cf. the Exodus).
39:23-24 Then the nations would understand that it was not out of weakness that Yahweh permitted the Israelites to go into exile and die but because He was punishing them for their sins. That is why they had suffered as they had and the Lord had not responded to their cries for deliverance.
This message forms a fitting conclusion to the whole section of prophecies about Israel's restoration to the Promised Land (chs. 33-39) as well as to those about future invasion (chs. 38-39).
39:25-26 The Lord promised to restore the fortunes of Jacob, namely, the descendants of the devious patriarch who anticipated the corporate character of the Israelites. He promised to have mercy on all of them. He would do this because He wanted to maintain His reputation for holiness (uniqueness as the only true God). When He restored them to security in the land following this invasion they would forget their former disgrace and treachery against Him.
39:27-28 When He would bring them back into the land the other nations of the world would recognize that Yahweh was different from all other gods. Also Israel would acknowledge Yahweh as her God. She would see what God had done in sending her out of the land for her sin and bringing her back permanently by His grace.
39:29 The Lord would no longer prove inaccessible to His people because He would bestow His Spirit on all the Israelites.497
There are at least eight views as to the time of this future invasion.
1. The invasion is only symbolic of the attempts of evil forces to overcome God's people.498It does not describe a real battle but in the language of warfare pictures the triumph of good over evil, the forces of God over those of Satan. The amount of detail and specific references to places and times in this prophecy argue against this view.499
2. It will occur before the Tribulation, either before or at the time of the Rapture or just after it.500But the prophecy sets the time of this invasion after God has restored Israel to her land (cf. 38:8, 16). Ezekiel 36:26-28 and 39:26-29 indicate that Israel's restoration will involve spiritual regeneration as well as physical return, so the present return of Jews to the State of Israel is not the fulfillment.
3. It will happen during the Tribulation (cf. Dan. 11:40-41; Rev. 14:14-20). For three and a half years Antichrist will encourage the Jews to return to Palestine, but then he will break his covenant with them and begin to attack them (Matt. 24:15-22; Dan. 9:27; 11:40-41). Thus Israel will enjoy a period of peace in the Tribulation.501However the context of Israel dwelling safely in her land in Ezekiel 33-39 appears to describe millennial conditions. Her security under the Antichrist's covenant will be a false, illusory peace. Also 39:7 says that following this battle the Lord's name will be profaned no longer, but during the Tribulation it will be profaned (cf. Rev. 13; 16:9, 11, 21). It also seems unlikely that the Jews could bury corpses for seven months and burn weapons as fuel for seven years following an invasion in the middle of the seven-year Tribulation. The last half of the Tribulation will involved unparalleled persecution for the Jews (Dan. 9:27).
4. It will take place at the end of the Tribulation (the battle of Armageddon; cf. Zech. 12; 14:1-4; Rev. 19:11-21).502Some of Ezekiel's descriptions of Gog's invasion recur in Revelation 19:17-21, which describes the end of the Tribulation. But other aspects appear in Revelation 20:7-10, which describes the end of the Millennium. Israel is dwelling securely in the land that Gog will invade, but at the end of the Tribulation Israel will have been under intense attack for over three years (Dan. 9:27).
5. It will happen between the end of the Tribulation and the beginning of the Millennium. Since Jesus Christ's return to the earth will end the Tribulation and begin the Millennium it does not seem that there will be enough time for the invasion of Gog and its consequences then (cf. 39:1-16; Matt. 13:41). Furthermore some of the allusions to this invasion in Revelation suggest a time at the end of the Millennium (Rev. 20:7-10).503
6. It will happen at the beginning of the Millennium. This seems highly unlikely since all who enter the Millennium will be believers who have assisted the Jews (Matt. 25:31-46). Moreover all weapons of war will be destroyed at the beginning of the Millennium (Mic. 4:1-4).
7. It will occur at the end of the Millennium.504Revelation 20:8 refers specifically to Gog and Magog in a context describing the end of the Millennium. Israel dwelling in safety in her land, the situation described repeatedly in Ezekiel 33-39, fits conditions at the end of the Millennium. Rabbinic writers identified Gog and Magog as the final enemy that will attack Israel in the messianic age.505Critics of this view say, Why bury the dead for seven months following the battle when the resurrection of the unsaved will follow immediately (cf. Rev. 20:11-13)? This objection assumes that these events will follow one another immediately, but the text does not say so explicitly. Why would the Israelites burn the weapons for seven years since it appears that God will create a new earth immediately after He quells the rebellion described in Revelation 20:7-10 (cf. Rev. 21:1-4)? Again, there may be time between these events that the Bible does not reveal anywhere but here. Another problem with this view is the description of the Lord calling the birds to a great feast in Revelation 19:17-21, which occurs at the end of the Tribulation.
8. The best solution seems to be a combination of views 4 and 7. Apparently the fulfillment will take place in two phases, first at the end of the Tribulation and then at the end of the Millennium, when Isreal is dwelling securely (cf. Rev. 19:17-21; 20:7-8).506Ezekiel evidently described the invasion of Israel's enemies into the Promised Land as a single event, but later revelation clarifies that it will happen on two separate occasions. Part of Ezekiel's prophecy describes one of these invasions, part the other, and some of it describes both incidents. Gog then does not describe a single individual but two people both of whom share similar plans.507
It seems unnatural for God to describe as one battle one that will have two parts separated by 1, 000 years, and there is certainly no indication in Ezekiel that Gog's invasion will have two phases. However, in view of later clarification in the Book of Revelation, we apparently have another instance of two events widely separated in time viewed by a prophet as one. The prophets' descriptions of the near and far destruction of Babylon (Isa. 21; Jer. 51), the two advents of Messiah (Isa. 61:1-2), and the coming of two persecutors of the Jews (Antiochus Epiphanes and Antichrist; Dan. 11:21-35, 36-44) are other examples of this "foreshortened view."
