Ezekiel 39:1-5

1-5. The prophecy continues against Gog, who is still represented as the leader of the heathen hordes who occupy “the uttermost parts of the north” (Ezekiel 39:2, R.V.), and who in the far distant future will rise up against the new Israel (see notes Ezekiel 28:2-3). He comes with a vast army (Ezekiel 39:9; Ezekiel 38:15), and supposes himself to be able to fulfill his will against Israel without any reference whatever to an overruling Providence; but Jehovah says, “I will turn thee about, and will lead thee on” (Ezekiel 39:2, R.V.; see notes Ezekiel 38:4; Ezekiel 38:14-16). God never interferes with a man’s free choice of good or evil, but he is able in his wisdom to so “turn” and “lead” the evil-wisher that even the wrath of man is made to serve a divine purpose. He smites the invaders with death (Ezekiel 38:21-22), and the weapons drop from the hands of the fierce warriors (Ezekiel 39:3), and they fall upon the mountains and the open fields which they expected to be such an easy prey (xxxviii, 11, 12), and their dead bodies become the spoil of the vultures and jackals (Ezekiel 39:4-5). As John Wesley says: “Gog came to take possession, and so he shall, but not as he purposed and hoped. He shall possess the house of darkness in the land which he invaded.”