Ezekiel 38:17

"Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Art thou he of whom I spake in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, that prophesied in those days, that I would bring thee against them? And it shall come to pass in that day when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord Jehovah, that my wrath shall come up into my nostrils. For in my jealousy, and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken. Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel; so that the fishes of the sea, and the birds of the heavens, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground. And I will call for a sword against him unto all my mountains, saith the Lord Jehovah: every man's sword shall be against his brother. And with pestilence and with blood will I enter into judgment with him; and I will rain upon him and upon his hordes, and upon many peoples that are with him, an overflowing shower, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. And I will magnify myself, and sanctify myself, and I will make myself known in the eyes of many nations; and they shall know that I am Jehovah."

GOD ANNOUNCES THE OVERTHROW OF GOG (Ezekiel 38:17-23)

"Art thou he of whom I spoke in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel ..." (Ezekiel 38:17). Note that this verse teaches that the prophets of Israel spoke, not their own words, but the Word of God.

"That prophesied that I would bring thee (Gog) against them (Israel) ..." (Ezekiel 38:17). Some believe this is a reference to prophecies that may have been lost;[10] but Keil stated that, "It is evident enough that there is no reference here to lost prophecies about Gog and Magog, but to general prophecies that are met with throughout the Old Testament."[11] Moses, the greatest of the Old Testament prophets specifically prophesied of the overthrow of Israel in case of their apostasy (Deuteronomy 28); and there are many other examples of God's prophecies to bring the heathen against Israel in case of their disobedience. Among these are the following cited by Alexander: Deuteronomy 30:7; Isaiah 26:20-21, and Jeremiah 30:18-24.[12] Cooke has stated concerning this prophecy of Gog's overthrow that "the writer may have been thinking of Zephaniah 1:3."[13] Such a comment points up the difference in thinking between the authors of the International Critical Commentary and those of this writer. We believe that God is the one who had Zephaniah in mind here; and it is by no means certain that Ezekiel fully understood exactly what God was saying. The apostle Peter states categorically in 1 Peter 10-12 that such prophets did not understand the full meaning of their prophecies; and we feel certain this applies especially to Ezekiel in this chapter.

Yes indeed, Zephaniah is a prophecy of the final judgment day; and that passage is supplementary and parallel to this prophecy through Ezekiel in Ezekiel 38-39. If there had been any doubt of it, Ezekiel 38:17-23 make it obvious.

"There shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel ..." (Ezekiel 38:19). "Of course, this refers to an actual earthquake,"[14] often referred to in both the Old Testament and the New Testament as an invariable accompaniment of the Final Judgment Day (Revelation 6:12-17).

"The fishes ... the birds ... the beasts ..." (Ezekiel 38:20). The prophet Zephaniah spoke of the destruction of all of these, along with mankind as a feature of "The Day of Jehovah," that is the Great and Final Day of God's judgment of the rebellious and apostate race of Adam (Zephaniah 1:3-5).

"The mountains shall be thrown down, etc. ..." (Ezekiel 38:21). See again the passage in Revelation 6:12-17.

"With pestilence and with blood will I enter into judgment with him ..." (Ezekiel 38:22). This is one of several ways in which God will destroy the whole heathen world (Gog and Magog) at the end of probation for the human family, at which time God will execute his wrath upon evil; and there will be fulfilled and carried out the sentence against Adam and Eve, the parents of all living, which God passed upon them in consequence of their eating of the forbidden tree in Eden. That sentence shall be executed upon Adam and Eve "in the same day they sinned," namely, the seventh day of Creation, the day that is still going on and has not ended yet. The sentence shall result in the death of Adam and Eve in the person of their total posterity, the sole exceptions being the redeemed of all ages and dispensations "in Jesus Christ."

"Every man's sword shall be against his brother ..." (Ezekiel 38:21). As Cooke noted, "This refers to a situation as in a panic, such as that in Judges 7:22."[15] The panic mentioned there, it will be remembered, resulted in the victory of Gideon over the Midianites.

"With pestilence and with blood will I enter into judgment with him ..." (Ezekiel 38:22). Medical scientists are striving constantly to deliver mankind from the scourge of all kinds of diseases; but, as any medical doctor knows, there are hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of potential diseases, any one of which could develop in epidemic proportions at any time. Back in the middle of this century, Dr. Hans Victor Reisser, writing in An American Doctor's Odyssey, very convincingly stressed this potential development of diseases. As soon as Medical science triumphs over one disease, another suddenly appears, as, for example, in the development of AIDS in our own generation. At the proper time, God will call forth just the correct disease for destroying Gog and Magog.

"Hailstones, fire, and brimstone ..." (Ezekiel 38:22). These also are usually cited in scripture as appearing in connection with the Final Judgment of Adam's race (Revelation 16:20-21).

"And I shall make myself known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am Jehovah ..." (Ezekiel 38:23). This also fits into the Final Judgment scene. See Revelation 6:12-17, where the kings, the princes, the chief captains, the rich and the poor, every bondman and every freeman cried for the rocks and the mountains to fall upon them and hide them from the wrath of the Lamb. Thirty seconds after the onset of the Eternal Judgment Day, there will remain no more in the whole world, either an agnostic or an infidel.