Ezekiel 38:1-4 - Homiletics

Gog and Magog.

If we take these names as representing the Scythians and their king, we have a description of God's judgment of the most wild and remote heathen tribes and of their relation to Israel.

I. THE BIBLE IS FOR ALL NATIONS . It contains a message even for Gog and Magog—it is intended to reach the Scythians. It has to do with all people in the world. The Hebrew prophet was not permitted to narrow his thoughts to the parochial mind; His vision was world-wide. A Jew of the Jews, he was nevertheless a preacher to mankind. Much more is the Christian apostle a preacher to all men. Here is a great motive for circulating the Scriptures among all nations.

II. GOD HAS DEALINGS WITH ALL PEOPLE . His influence extends to Gog and Magog. God's hook will be put in the jaws of the distant prince. The heathen are under God's notice and affected by his supreme authority. To be far from the Church of God is not to be far from the power of God. The ends of the earth feel his great energy. The arms of God are long. This is a reason for our seeking to enlighten the most remote and heathenish people; for they all belong by right to God.

III. GOD TAKES ACCOUNT OF SAVAGES . The Scythians of ancient times were about the wildest known people; they were to the Easterns of the past what the cannibals of Central Africa are to modem Europeans. It was difficult to make civilized nations feel that they belonged to the same species with such wild men of the Northern forests. Yet God knew these people. God does not ignore the most degraded savages. They, too, are naturally made in the image of God. Judged according to their poor, obtuse, perverted consciences, even they will have to give account to the God of all. They are not responsible for the ignorance and degradation in which they are born, and surely God will deal very leniently with these unhappy races. Yet for their acknowledged evil even they must be punished. But if there is a judgment of Gog, much. more must there be a judgment of Israel; if the savages of Africa must give an account of the deeds done in the body, much more must the Christians of Europe appear before the judgment-seat of God.

IV. CHRISTIANITY BRINGS A GOSPEL OF SALVATION AND UNION FOR ALL NATIONS .

It even includes Gog and Magog in its gracious outlook; for St. Paul taught that the Scythians were to share in the common brotherhood of the Christian Church ( Colossians 3:11 ).

1. The gospel is suited to the lowest heathen . This fact is proved by its effects. While the dreamer at home pronounces the Christianizing of savages to be an impossibility, the worker in the missionary field answers effectually by quietly accomplishing the so-called impossible feat. Charles Darwin was so struck with the good work of missionaries in civilizing the inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego, whom he regarded as about the most degraded savages on the face of the earth, that he subscribed to the society from which the missionaries had gone forth.

2. The gospel should be spread among the lowest heathen . We have no excuse to despair of any. The very dedication of heathendom is a call to Christians for help. Rousseau's fancy of the innocence and happiness of the simple savage is not justified by experience. Oppressed with cruelty and superstition, degraded in uncleanness, the savage greatly needs the liberty and salvation of Christ.