Ezekiel 39:1

"And thou, son of man, prophesy against Gog, 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 I will lead thee on, and will cause thee to come up from the uttermost parts of the north; and I will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel; and I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand. Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy hordes, and the peoples that are with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured. Thou shalt fall upon the open field; for I have spoken it, saith the Lord Jehovah. And I will send a fire on Magog, and on them that dwell securely in the isles; and they shall know that I am Jehovah. And my holy name will I make known in the midst of my people Israel; neither will I suffer my holy name to be profaned any more: and the nations shall know that I am Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel. Behold, it cometh, and it shall be done, saith the Lord Jehovah; this is the day whereof I have spoken."

RECAPITULATION OF THE JUDGMENT OF GOG (Ezekiel 39:1-8)

Practically all of the previous chapter is repeated here, namely, Ezekiel 39:2-4,14-17, and Ezekiel 18-22. "The writer is describing not a second invasion by Gog but the same events from a different perspective. He especially elaborates the numbers of the enemy, shown by the quantity of weapons left behind and the long time required to bury the dead."

As Skinner stated it, "These chapters anticipate a world-judgment as the final scene of history."[16] This obvious certainty relative to the meaning of these chapters leads to the deductions that the mention of firewood for seven years and the required time for burying the dead are both inert features of the prophecy, designed to indicate the numbers of Gog's host and nothing else.

"I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured ..." (Ezekiel 39:4). This corresponds to the judgment scene given in Revelation 19:17,18, in which the mighty angel of God invites the birds and beasts to the "Great Supper of God"!

"And my holy name will I make known in the midst of my people Israel; neither will I suffer my holy name to be profaned any more ..." (Ezekiel 39: 7). This is an astounding statement, and it explains everything else in the prophecy. Why would it be necessary for God to make his name known in the midst of his people Israel? Simply because the Israel of that final period will no longer know the name of God in any real understanding of it. They shall have ignored God's Word, contradicted it, perverted it, mistranslated it, gone beyond it, forgotten and profaned it to the extent that the Final Judgment itself would he necessary to make known to the apostate Second Israel of that day even the holy Church of the Messiah, such an elementary thing as the name of God.

It was impossible, really, that Ezekiel could have recognized the complete meaning of such a prophecy as this.