Ezekiel 38:1

EZEKIEL 38-39

GOG AND MAGOG

It is agreed by all scholars that these two chapters are a single oracle regarding Gog and Magog, only a short paragraph at the end of Ezekiel 39 having any reference to anything else.

We are a little embarrassed at the prevailing ignorance of scholars concerning who Gog is and who are the nations associated with him. There are many assertions of how difficult this chapter is, several referring to it as the most difficult in the Old Testament. We are repeatedly told that Gog is unknown, as are most of the other places mentioned in this oracle.

Adam Clarke's comment is typical: "This is allowed to be the most difficult prophecy in the Old Testament. It is difficult to us because we know not the king nor people intended by it: but I am satisfied they were well known in the times when the prophet wrote."[1]

Our embarrassment comes from the certainty we feel with regard to their identification; but we claim no originality whatever in the knowledge. The Lord has told us exactly who Gog and Magog actually are. After the thousand years reign of Christ has ended, after Satan has been loosed for a little while, prior to the Judgment of the Great Day, Satan will go forth to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war; the number of whom is as the sand of the sea (Revelation 20:7-10).

The New Testament is very specific about this. Gog and Magog are the heathen nations far out on the perimeter of the known world of that era, referred to here as "the uttermost parts of the earth."

And when the thousand years are finished, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall come forth to deceive the nations that are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up over the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved City: and fire come down out of heaven and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where are also the beast and the false prophet; and they shall be tormented day and night forever and ever (Revelation 20:7-10).

The identification of Gog and Magog here is certain. They are categorically stated to be the nations that dwell in the four corners of the earth, at the time of the end. The names here mean nothing at all except as symbols of that last company of heathen nations that, under the deception of Satan shall oppose God's people and be destroyed in the great holocaust that shall come at the end of time and the onset of the Day of Judgment.

As Plumptre noted, "All of the nations mentioned in these chapters are depicted as coming from the four quarters of the globe. Persia is from the extreme east; Ethiopia or Cush is from the south; Libya or Put represent the extreme west; and the house of Togarmah was in the extreme north."[2] Tarshish is also mentioned, and that city lay on the southwest coast of Spain on the extreme west. In fact, all of the places here fall into the category of being from the uttermost parts of the earth, or the four-corners of the earth.

The very great number of this host is another mark of its identification. Ezekiel's chapters here mentioned that they were so numerous that it took seven months to bury them and that their weapons left by their sudden death were enough to keep Israel in firewood for seven years! All of this is only another way of saying that, "The number of them was as the sand of the sea."

Notice also the instantaneous manner of the death of this vast host. Ezekiel mentioned no battle, no military engagement at all. God simply liquidated the whole multitude. The Revelation indicated that fire from heaven came down and devoured them. The fire and brimstone are even mentioned in both passages (Revelation 20:10; Ezekiel 38:22).

According to the passage in Revelation, the total and final destruction of Satan followed immediately upon the destruction of Gog and Magog. According to our understanding of this, as extensively outlined in my commentary on Revelation (Vol, 12, of the New Testament Series), false religion, called the False Prophet, false and oppressive government, called The Beast, and Satan himself called the Dragon, are all prophesied to be destroyed simultaneously at the end of the Millennium (which is nothing more nor less than the age of the reign of Christ, which has been in progress since the Day of Pentecost).

In Revelation, there are three other symbols under which these ancient enemies of God and his people are depicted. The Great Whore of Revelation 17 is false religion; the scarlet beast with seven heads and ten horns upon which the Whore rides is false and oppressive government; and the mighty Dragon which was cast out of heaven, drawing a multitude of stars with his tail, is none other than Satan himself. In the Apocalypse of the apostle John, these enemies are introduced as (1) the Dragon; (2) the scarlet Beast (the Sea Beast); and (3) the Great Harlot, (the Land Beast) (Revelation 12:13); and then the destruction of these continual enemies of God and his people is prophesied in the reverse order of their introduction! The Great Harlot is destroyed in Revelation 17-18; the Sea Beast, false and oppressive government was destroyed in Revelation 19; and Satan, the Old Serpent, the Dragon, the Accuser, the devil, met his doom in Revelation 20, his very last act, as depicted in these two chapters of Ezekiel, being an assault upon the people of God.

In analyzing what Ezekiel has here written about it, we must remember that there were many things, when Ezekiel received this prophecy, that God had not yet revealed. Ezekiel knew nothing about the New Israel that would replace the Old Israel, nor the New Jerusalem that in the future would be the true "Mother of all God's people" (Galatians 4:26), nor of the final apostasy of even the New Israel and of all mankind that would motivate God's leading Gog and Magog, under Satan, to attack God's sinful Israel, an attack that would precipitate the final end of the Christian dispensation. However, nothing that Ezekiel here wrote is in the slightest disagreement with any of this.

GOG'S PREPARATION TO ATTACK ISRAEL (Ezekiel 38:1-9)

Ezekiel 38:1-6

"And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face toward Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him, and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal: and I will turn thee about, and shall put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth and all thy army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed in full armor, a great company with buckler and shield, all of them handling swords; Persia, Cush, and Put with them, all of them with shield and helmet; Gomer, and all his hordes; the house of Togarmah in the uttermost parts of the north, and all his hordes; even many peoples with thee."

The personification of Gog here as the leader of all those terminal nations of mankind suggests his identification with Satan, in the same way that Jesus said to Peter, on an occasion, "Get thee behind me, Satan." Also, back in Ezekiel 28, Ezekiel referred to Satan as the "king of Tyre," despite the ruling monarch's identification as a human being. Certainly the whole campaign of Gog was instigated and motivated by the Evil One.

"Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal ..." (Ezekiel 38:2). "There is no evidence that a country named Rosh ever existed."[3] This is no problem at all. We believe all of these place-names are symbolical representatives of the the terminal nations of the human race at a time just prior to the Eternal Judgment; and it would appear that the true names of those nations at that time are not known to any one. The names of them, after all, are of no importance whatever.

Plumptre is one of very few scholars whom we have consulted who referred us to Revelation 20:8 as the place to seek light on this chapter.[4]

Beasley-Murray thought the time of this uprising and overthrow of God was "just prior to the Millennium";[5] but this cannot be true because the Lord has revealed that it will be after the thousand years reign of Christ (Revelation 20:7). On the contrary, it will occur as the terminal action of Satan's opposition to God and just prior to his overthrow in hell.

Keil called attention to the fact that, "Ezekiel gives prominence to the leading of God in causing the nations to come against God's people, whereas in Revelation 20:7-10, Satan is mentioned as the seducer of the nations."[6] This is no problem, because in the final hardening of all mankind that will be taking place at that very time, there are three sources of the hardening, (1) the willful sins of the people hardened, (2) God's `giving them up' to a reprobate mind. (3) and the active `blinding' by Satan, `the god of this world.'

Jamieson's comment on this was: "Satan thought to have his own way; but his will was bent by a superior power to turn upon a course that would end in his destruction. Satan, by an overruling providence, was permitted to deceive the nations unto their min."[7] Although none of this appears in Ezekiel's prophecy, the nations whom Satan deceived were by no means blameless but fully deserved the destruction that came upon them.

Feinberg enumerated half a dozen positions which various scholars have taken as to the time of which these chapters in Ezekiel prophesy. But Revelation 20:7-10 clearly places the time just prior to the terminal Judgment of the Great Day. As Keil put it, "It will be in the end of the days, the last time, not the future generally, but the final future, the Messianic time of the completion of God's kingdom."[8]

This mighty onslaught against the people of God will occur "after many years" at a time long, long after the return of racial Israel to Canaan, after their final hardening, after their rejection of the Saviour, after the formation of the New Israel, and after God's judgment and scattering of racial Israel a final time, and after the progressive hardening, blinding, and apostasy even of . the New Israel; and in that time of which Jesus asked, "When the Son of man cometh shall he find faith on the earth (Luke 18:8)?" At that time Gog inspired by Satan would make the final move against God.