Ezekiel 36-39: Ezekiel 39 Exegesis and Exposition April 24

We also have instances where the immediate and far-future fulfillment seems to be blended, as in Jeremiah 50-51. Here the 2 chapters predict the destruction of Babylon.

Lamar Cooper, in his commentary, notes that the description in Jeremiah extends considerably beyond the magnitude of destruction by Medo-Persia in 535 BC.

Jeremiah 50

1 The word that the Lord spoke against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet. 2 “Declare among the nations, Proclaim, and set up a standard; Proclaim—do not conceal it— Say, ‘Babylon is taken, Bel is shamed. Merodach is broken in pieces; Her idols are humiliated, Her images are broken in pieces.’ 3 For out of the north a nation comes up against her, Which shall make her land desolate, And no one shall dwell therein. They shall move, they shall depart, Both man and beast. 4 “In those days and in that time,” says the Lord, “The children of Israel shall come, They and the children of Judah together; With continual weeping they shall come, And seek the Lord their God. 5 They shall ask the way to Zion, With their faces toward it, saying, ‘Come and let us join ourselves to the Lord In a perpetual covenant That will not be forgotten.’ 6 “My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray; They have turned them away on the mountains. They have gone from mountain to hill; They have forgotten their resting place. 7 All who found them have devoured them; And their adversaries said, ‘We have not offended, Because they have sinned against the Lord, the habitation of justice, The Lord, the hope of their fathers.’ 8 “Move from the midst of Babylon, Go out of the land of the Chaldeans; And be like the rams before the flocks. 9 For behold, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon An assembly of great nations from the north country, And they shall array themselves against her; From there she shall be captured. Their arrows shall be like those of an expert warrior; None shall return in vain. 10 And Chaldea shall become plunder; All who plunder her shall be satisfied,” says the Lord. 11 “Because you were glad, because you rejoiced, You destroyers of My heritage, Because you have grown fat like a heifer threshing grain, And you bellow like bulls, 12 Your mother shall be deeply ashamed; She who bore you shall be ashamed. Behold, the least of the nations shall be a wilderness, A dry land and a desert. 13 Because of the wrath of the Lord She shall not be inhabited, But she shall be wholly desolate. Everyone who goes by Babylon shall be horrified And hiss at all her plagues. 14 “Put yourselves in array against Babylon all around, All you who bend the bow; Shoot at her, spare no arrows, For she has sinned against the Lord. 15 Shout against her all around; She has given her hand, Her foundations have fallen, Her walls are thrown down; For it is the vengeance of the Lord. Take vengeance on her. As she has done, so do to her. 16 Cut off the sower from Babylon, And him who handles the sickle at harvest time. For fear of the oppressing sword Everyone shall turn to his own people, And everyone shall flee to his own land. 17 “Israel is like scattered sheep; The lions have driven him away. First the king of Assyria devoured him; Now at last this Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has broken his bones.” 18 Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, As I have punished the king of Assyria. 19 But I will bring back Israel to his home, And he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan; His soul shall be satisfied on Mount Ephraim and Gilead. 20 In those days and in that time,” says the Lord, “The iniquity of Israel shall be sought, but there shall be none; And the sins of Judah, but they shall not be found; For I will pardon those whom I preserve. 21 “Go up against the land of Merathaim, against it, And against the inhabitants of Pekod. Waste and utterly destroy them,” says the Lord, “And do according to all that I have commanded you. 22 A sound of battle is in the land, And of great destruction. 23 How the hammer of the whole earth has been cut apart and broken! How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations! I have laid a snare for you; 24 You have indeed been trapped, O Babylon, And you were not aware; You have been found and also caught, Because you have contended against the Lord. 25 The Lord has opened His armory, And has brought out the weapons of His indignation; For this is the work of the Lord God of hosts In the land of the Chaldeans. 26 Come against her from the farthest border; Open her storehouses; Cast her up as heaps of ruins, And destroy her utterly; Let nothing of her be left. 27 Slay all her bulls, Let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to them! For their day has come, the time of their punishment. 28 The voice of those who flee and escape from the land of Babylon Declares in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God, The vengeance of His temple. 29 “Call together the archers against Babylon. All you who bend the bow, encamp against it all around; Let none of them escape. Repay her according to her work; According to all she has done, do to her; For she has been proud against the Lord, Against the Holy One of Israel. 30 Therefore her young men shall fall in the streets, And all her men of war shall be cut off in that day,” says the Lord. 31 “Behold, I am against you, O most haughty one!” says the Lord God of hosts; “For your day has come, The time that I will punish you. 32 The most proud shall stumble and fall, And no one will raise him up; I will kindle a fire in his cities, And it will devour all around him.” 33 Thus says the Lord of hosts: “The children of Israel were oppressed, Along with the children of Judah; All who took them captive have held them fast; They have refused to let them go. 34 Their Redeemer is strong; The Lord of hosts is His name. He will thoroughly plead their case, That He may give rest to the land, And disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon. 35 “A sword is against the Chaldeans,” says the Lord, “Against the inhabitants of Babylon, And against her princes and her wise men. 36 A sword is against the soothsayers, and they will be fools. A sword is against her mighty men, and they will be dismayed. 37 A sword is against their horses, Against their chariots, And against all the mixed peoples who are in her midst; And they will become like women. A sword is against her treasures, and they will be robbed. 38 A drought is against her waters, and they will be dried up. For it is the land of carved images, And they are insane with their idols. 39 “Therefore the wild desert beasts shall dwell there with the jackals, And the ostriches shall dwell in it. It shall be inhabited no more forever, Nor shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation. 40 As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah And their neighbors,” says the Lord, “So no one shall reside there, Nor son of man dwell in it. 41 “Behold, a people shall come from the north, And a great nation and many kings Shall be raised up from the ends of the earth. 42 They shall hold the bow and the lance; They are cruel and shall not show mercy. Their voice shall roar like the sea; They shall ride on horses, Set in array, like a man for the battle, Against you, O daughter of Babylon. 43 “The king of Babylon has heard the report about them, And his hands grow feeble; Anguish has taken hold of him, Pangs as of a woman in childbirth. 44 “Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the floodplain of the Jordan Against the dwelling place of the strong; But I will make them suddenly run away from her. And who is a chosen man that I may appoint over her? For who is like Me? Who will arraign Me? And who is that shepherd Who will withstand Me?” 45 Therefore hear the counsel of the Lord that He has taken against Babylon, And His purposes that He has proposed against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out; Surely He will make their dwelling place desolate with them. 46 At the noise of the taking of Babylon The earth trembles, And the cry is heard among the nations.

We also have instances where the immediate and far-future fulfillment seems to be blended, as in Jeremiah 50-51. Here the 2 chapters predict the destruction of Babylon.

Now last week, we sufficiently covered vs. 20-26

Jeremiah 51:25–26

25 “Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, Who destroys all the earth,” says the Lord. “And I will stretch out My hand against you, Roll you down from the rocks, And make you a burnt mountain. 26 They shall not take from you a stone for a corner Nor a stone for a foundation, But you shall be desolate forever,” says the Lord.

Jeremiah 51:27–33

27 Set up a banner in the land, Blow the trumpet among the nations! Prepare the nations against her, Call the kingdoms together against her: Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a general against her; Cause the horses to come up like the bristling locusts. 28 Prepare against her the nations, With the kings of the Medes, Its governors and all its rulers, All the land of his dominion. 29 And the land will tremble and sorrow; For every purpose of the Lord shall be performed against Babylon, To make the land of Babylon a desolation without inhabitant. 30 The mighty men of Babylon have ceased fighting, They have remained in their strongholds; Their might has failed, They became like women; They have burned her dwelling places, The bars of her gate are broken. 31 One runner will run to meet another, And one messenger to meet another, To show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on all sides; 32 The passages are blocked, The reeds they have burned with fire, And the men of war are terrified. 33 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor When it is time to thresh her; Yet a little while And the time of her harvest will come.”

We also have instances where the immediate and far-future fulfillment seems to be blended, as in Jeremiah 50-51. Here the 2 chapters predict the destruction of Babylon.

Jeremiah 51:33–44

33 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor When it is time to thresh her; Yet a little while And the time of her harvest will come.” 34 “Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon Has devoured me, he has crushed me; He has made me an empty vessel, He has swallowed me up like a monster; He has filled his stomach with my delicacies, He has spit me out. 35 Let the violence done to me and my flesh be upon Babylon,” The inhabitant of Zion will say; “And my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea!” Jerusalem will say. 36 Therefore thus says the Lord: “Behold, I will plead your case and take vengeance for you. I will dry up her sea and make her springs dry. 37 Babylon shall become a heap, A dwelling place for jackals, An astonishment and a hissing, Without an inhabitant. 38 They shall roar together like lions, They shall growl like lions’ whelps. 39 In their excitement I will prepare their feasts; I will make them drunk, That they may rejoice, And sleep a perpetual sleep And not awake,” says the Lord. 40 “I will bring them down Like lambs to the slaughter, Like rams with male goats. 41 “Oh, how Sheshach is taken! Oh, how the praise of the whole earth is seized! How Babylon has become desolate among the nations! 42 The sea has come up over Babylon; She is covered with the multitude of its waves. 43 Her cities are a desolation, A dry land and a wilderness, A land where no one dwells, Through which no son of man passes. 44 I will punish Bel in Babylon, And I will bring out of his mouth what he has swallowed; And the nations shall not stream to him anymore. Yes, the wall of Babylon shall fall.

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 25:15–26

Who or what is Sheshach? Most scholars believe that the word is a cryptogram or atbash for Babylon. An atbash was a code in which the letters of a name counted from the end of the alphabet are substituted for the letters counted from the beginning. For example, in English the letter “z” would replace the letter “a,” the letter “y” would replace the letter “b,” etc. The word “Abby” as an atbash would become “zyyb.” If “Sheshach” (ššk) is a Hebrew atbash the consonants become bbl, which is the spelling for Babylon (cf. Jer. 25:1). God would judge Babylon after judging the other nations. Because he had mentioned Babylon’s judgment already (cf. vv. 12–14), it is unclear why Jeremiah would put such a message in code. Still this seems to be the best explanation of Sheshach.

Jeremiah 51:45–48

45 “My people, go out of the midst of her! And let everyone deliver himself from the fierce anger of the Lord. 46 And lest your heart faint, And you fear for the rumor that will be heard in the land (A rumor will come one year, And after that, in another year A rumor will come, And violence in the land, Ruler against ruler), 47 Therefore behold, the days are coming That I will bring judgment on the carved images of Babylon; Her whole land shall be ashamed, And all her slain shall fall in her midst. 48 Then the heavens and the earth and all that is in them Shall sing joyously over Babylon; For the plunderers shall come to her from the north,” says the Lord.

Jeremiah 51:49–58

49 As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall, So at Babylon the slain of all the earth shall fall. 50 You who have escaped the sword, Get away! Do not stand still! Remember the Lord afar off, And let Jerusalem come to your mind. 51 We are ashamed because we have heard reproach. Shame has covered our faces, For strangers have come into the sanctuaries of the Lord’s house. 52 “Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “That I will bring judgment on her carved images, And throughout all her land the wounded shall groan. 53 Though Babylon were to mount up to heaven, And though she were to fortify the height of her strength, Yet from Me plunderers would come to her,” says the Lord. 54 The sound of a cry comes from Babylon, And great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans, 55 Because the Lord is plundering Babylon And silencing her loud voice, Though her waves roar like great waters, And the noise of their voice is uttered, 56 Because the plunderer comes against her, against Babylon, And her mighty men are taken. Every one of their bows is broken; For the Lord is the God of recompense, He will surely repay. 57 “And I will make drunk Her princes and wise men, Her governors, her deputies, and her mighty men. And they shall sleep a perpetual sleep And not awake,” says the King, Whose name is the Lord of hosts. 58 Thus says the Lord of hosts: “The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, And her high gates shall be burned with fire; The people will labor in vain, And the nations, because of the fire; And they shall be weary.”

Isaiah 17

1 The burden against Damascus. “Behold, Damascus will cease from being a city, And it will be a ruinous heap. 2 The cities of Aroer are forsaken; They will be for flocks Which lie down, and no one will make them afraid. 3 The fortress also will cease from Ephraim, The kingdom from Damascus, And the remnant of Syria; They will be as the glory of the children of Israel,” Says the Lord of hosts. 4 “In that day it shall come to pass That the glory of Jacob will wane, And the fatness of his flesh grow lean. 5 It shall be as when the harvester gathers the grain, And reaps the heads with his arm; It shall be as he who gathers heads of grain In the Valley of Rephaim. 6 Yet gleaning grapes will be left in it, Like the shaking of an olive tree, Two or three olives at the top of the uppermost bough, Four or five in its most fruitful branches,” Says the Lord God of Israel. 7 In that day a man will look to his Maker, And his eyes will have respect for the Holy One of Israel. 8 He will not look to the altars, The work of his hands; He will not respect what his fingers have made, Nor the wooden images nor the incense altars. 9 In that day his strong cities will be as a forsaken bough And an uppermost branch, Which they left because of the children of Israel; And there will be desolation. 10 Because you have forgotten the God of your salvation, And have not been mindful of the Rock of your stronghold, Therefore you will plant pleasant plants And set out foreign seedlings; 11 In the day you will make your plant to grow, And in the morning you will make your seed to flourish; But the harvest will be a heap of ruins In the day of grief and desperate sorrow. 12 Woe to the multitude of many people Who make a noise like the roar of the seas, And to the rushing of nations That make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters! 13 The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters; But God will rebuke them and they will flee far away, And be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, Like a rolling thing before the whirlwind. 14 Then behold, at eventide, trouble! And before the morning, he is no more. This is the portion of those who plunder us, And the lot of those who rob us.

Psalm 83

A Song. A Psalm of Asaph. 1 Do not keep silent, O God! Do not hold Your peace, And do not be still, O God! 2 For behold, Your enemies make a tumult; And those who hate You have lifted up their head. 3 They have taken crafty counsel against Your people, And consulted together against Your sheltered ones. 4 They have said, “Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, That the name of Israel may be remembered no more.” 5 For they have consulted together with one consent; They form a confederacy against You: 6 The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites; Moab and the Hagrites; 7 Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek; Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre; 8 Assyria also has joined with them; They have helped the children of Lot. Selah 9 Deal with them as with Midian, As with Sisera, As with Jabin at the Brook Kishon, 10 Who perished at En Dor, Who became as refuse on the earth. 11 Make their nobles like Oreb and like Zeeb, Yes, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna, 12 Who said, “Let us take for ourselves The pastures of God for a possession.” 13 O my God, make them like the whirling dust, Like the chaff before the wind! 14 As the fire burns the woods, And as the flame sets the mountains on fire, 15 So pursue them with Your tempest, And frighten them with Your storm. 16 Fill their faces with shame, That they may seek Your name, O Lord. 17 Let them be confounded and dismayed forever; Yes, let them be put to shame and perish, 18 That they may know that You, whose name alone is the Lord, Are the Most High over all the earth.

Jeremiah 51:59–64

59 The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And Seraiah was the quartermaster. 60 So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that would come upon Babylon, all these words that are written against Babylon. 61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you arrive in Babylon and see it, and read all these words, 62 then you shall say, ‘O Lord, You have spoken against this place to cut it off, so that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but it shall be desolate forever.’ 63 Now it shall be, when you have finished reading this book, that you shall tie a stone to it and throw it out into the Euphrates. 64 Then you shall say, ‘Thus Babylon shall sink and not rise from the catastrophe that I will bring upon her. And they shall be weary.’ ” Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.

Other prophecies are purely of the future, and only focus on the end-time events as in Zech 14:1-21, Rev 18:1-24, and our own Ezekiel 38-39.

Zechariah 14:1–21

1 Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, And your spoil will be divided in your midst. 2 For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem; The city shall be taken, The houses rifled, And the women ravished. Half of the city shall go into captivity, But the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city. 3 Then the Lord will go forth And fight against those nations, As He fights in the day of battle. 4 And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, Which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, From east to west, Making a very large valley; Half of the mountain shall move toward the north And half of it toward the south. 5 Then you shall flee through My mountain valley, For the mountain valley shall reach to Azal. Yes, you shall flee As you fled from the earthquake In the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Thus the Lord my God will come, And all the saints with You. 6 It shall come to pass in that day That there will be no light; The lights will diminish. 7 It shall be one day Which is known to the Lord Neither day nor night. But at evening time it shall happen That it will be light. 8 And in that day it shall be— That living waters shall flow from Jerusalem, Half of them toward the eastern sea And half of them toward the western sea; In both summer and winter it shall occur. 9 And the Lord shall be King over all the earth. In that day it shall be “The Lord is one,” And His name one. 10 All the land shall be turned into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be raised up and inhabited in her place from Benjamin’s Gate to the place of the First Gate and the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s winepresses. 11 The people shall dwell in it; And no longer shall there be utter destruction, But Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited. 12 And this shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the people who fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh shall dissolve while they stand on their feet, Their eyes shall dissolve in their sockets, And their tongues shall dissolve in their mouths. 13 It shall come to pass in that day That a great panic from the Lord will be among them. Everyone will seize the hand of his neighbor, And raise his hand against his neighbor’s hand; 14 Judah also will fight at Jerusalem. And the wealth of all the surrounding nations Shall be gathered together: Gold, silver, and apparel in great abundance. 15 Such also shall be the plague On the horse and the mule, On the camel and the donkey, And on all the cattle that will be in those camps. So shall this plague be. 16 And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. 17 And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain. 18 If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. 19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. 20 In that day “HOLINESS TO THE LORD” shall be engraved on the bells of the horses. The pots in the Lord’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar. 21 Yes, every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holiness to the Lord of hosts. Everyone who sacrifices shall come and take them and cook in them. In that day there shall no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts.

Revelation 18:1–24

1 After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory. 2 And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird! 3 For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.” 4 And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. 5 For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. 6 Render to her just as she rendered to you, and repay her double according to her works; in the cup which she has mixed, mix double for her. 7 In the measure that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, in the same measure give her torment and sorrow; for she says in her heart, ‘I sit as queen, and am no widow, and will not see sorrow.’ 8 Therefore her plagues will come in one day—death and mourning and famine. And she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her. 9 “The kings of the earth who committed fornication and lived luxuriously with her will weep and lament for her, when they see the smoke of her burning, 10 standing at a distance for fear of her torment, saying, ‘Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come.’ 11 “And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise anymore: 12 merchandise of gold and silver, precious stones and pearls, fine linen and purple, silk and scarlet, every kind of citron wood, every kind of object of ivory, every kind of object of most precious wood, bronze, iron, and marble; 13 and cinnamon and incense, fragrant oil and frankincense, wine and oil, fine flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and bodies and souls of men. 14 The fruit that your soul longed for has gone from you, and all the things which are rich and splendid have gone from you, and you shall find them no more at all. 15 The merchants of these things, who became rich by her, will stand at a distance for fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, 16 and saying, ‘Alas, alas, that great city that was clothed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls! 17 For in one hour such great riches came to nothing.’ Every shipmaster, all who travel by ship, sailors, and as many as trade on the sea, stood at a distance 18 and cried out when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, ‘What is like this great city?’ 19 “They threw dust on their heads and cried out, weeping and wailing, and saying, ‘Alas, alas, that great city, in which all who had ships on the sea became rich by her wealth! For in one hour she is made desolate.’ 20 “Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets, for God has avenged you on her!” 21 Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “Thus with violence the great city Babylon shall be thrown down, and shall not be found anymore. 22 The sound of harpists, musicians, flutists, and trumpeters shall not be heard in you anymore. No craftsman of any craft shall be found in you anymore, and the sound of a millstone shall not be heard in you anymore. 23 The light of a lamp shall not shine in you anymore, and the voice of bridegroom and bride shall not be heard in you anymore. For your merchants were the great men of the earth, for by your sorcery all the nations were deceived. 24 And in her was found the blood of prophets and saints, and of all who were slain on the earth.”

In reading Ezekiel’s progressive unfolding of the prophetic, it might come as a surprise to stumble on chapters 38-39, the first time, because the message has seemingly been about deliverance from war, and not being victims of the nations any longer, of living securely in the land forever more.

Ezekiel 34:25-29, 36:12-15, 36:30, 37:25-28

Ezekiel 34:25–29

25 “I will make a covenant of peace with them, and cause wild beasts to cease from the land; and they will dwell safely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. 26 I will make them and the places all around My hill a blessing; and I will cause showers to come down in their season; there shall be showers of blessing. 27 Then the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase. They shall be safe in their land; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I have broken the bands of their yoke and delivered them from the hand of those who enslaved them. 28 And they shall no longer be a prey for the nations, nor shall beasts of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and no one shall make them afraid. 29 I will raise up for them a garden of renown, and they shall no longer be consumed with hunger in the land, nor bear the shame of the Gentiles anymore.

Ezekiel 36:12–15

12 Yes, I will cause men to walk on you, My people Israel; they shall take possession of you, and you shall be their inheritance; no more shall you bereave them of children.” 13 ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Because they say to you, ‘You devour men and bereave your nation of children,’ 14 therefore you shall devour men no more, nor bereave your nation anymore,” says the Lord God. 15 Nor will I let you hear the taunts of the nations anymore, nor bear the reproach of the peoples anymore, nor shall you cause your nation to stumble anymore,” says the Lord God.’ ”

Ezekiel 36:30

30 And I will multiply the fruit of your trees and the increase of your fields, so that you need never again bear the reproach of famine among the nations.

Ezekiel 37:25–28

25 Then they shall dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob My servant, where your fathers dwelt; and they shall dwell there, they, their children, and their children’s children, forever; and My servant David shall be their prince forever. 26 Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them, and it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary in their midst forevermore. 27 My tabernacle also shall be with them; indeed I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 28 The nations also will know that I, the Lord, sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.” ’ ”

Once Gog’s invading army is conquered, it will be demonstrated how secure and safe Israel will be in their land.

In the progression of Ezekiel’s prophetic messages, the reader is surprised at first by this announcement of a coming battle. One of the occurring themes of the previous chapters is that following the Lord’s restoration and reformation of Israel, they will “no longer” be victims of the nations or any other calamities but will live securely in their land “forever” (cf. 34:25–29; 36:12–15, 30; 37:25–28). There is considerable confusion when one realizes that the land the Lord will bring Gog’s army against is Israel’s (vv. 8–9). The solution must be that a significant purpose for the invasion will be to demonstrate just how secure Israel will be in their land.

Gog’s army would be well equipped, having a mounted calvary, shields, swords, and many soldiers who were called a “great horde” (v. 4). Ezekiel 38:4

Ezekiel 38:4

4 I will turn you around, put hooks into your jaws, and lead you out, with all your army, horses, and horsemen, all splendidly clothed, a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords.

The army would be allied with Persia (Iran), Cush (Ethiopia), Put (Lybia), Gomer (Armenia), and Togarmah (also Armenia). See Ezekiel 27:10–24 .

Ezekiel 27:10–24

10 “Those from Persia, Lydia, and Libya Were in your army as men of war; They hung shield and helmet in you; They gave splendor to you. 11 Men of Arvad with your army were on your walls all around, And the men of Gammad were in your towers; They hung their shields on your walls all around; They made your beauty perfect. 12 “Tarshish was your merchant because of your many luxury goods. They gave you silver, iron, tin, and lead for your goods. 13 Javan, Tubal, and Meshech were your traders. They bartered human lives and vessels of bronze for your merchandise. 14 Those from the house of Togarmah traded for your wares with horses, steeds, and mules. 15 The men of Dedan were your traders; many isles were the market of your hand. They brought you ivory tusks and ebony as payment. 16 Syria was your merchant because of the abundance of goods you made. They gave you for your wares emeralds, purple, embroidery, fine linen, corals, and rubies. 17 Judah and the land of Israel were your traders. They traded for your merchandise wheat of Minnith, millet, honey, oil, and balm. 18 Damascus was your merchant because of the abundance of goods you made, because of your many luxury items, with the wine of Helbon and with white wool. 19 Dan and Javan paid for your wares, traversing back and forth. Wrought iron, cassia, and cane were among your merchandise. 20 Dedan was your merchant in saddlecloths for riding. 21 Arabia and all the princes of Kedar were your regular merchants. They traded with you in lambs, rams, and goats. 22 The merchants of Sheba and Raamah were your merchants. They traded for your wares the choicest spices, all kinds of precious stones, and gold. 23 Haran, Canneh, Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Assyria, and Chilmad were your merchants. 24 These were your merchants in choice items—in purple clothes, in embroidered garments, in chests of multicolored apparel, in sturdy woven cords, which were in your marketplace.

These nations would be called to battle “after many days” and “in future years” against Israel (v. 8). Use of phrases such as “the Day of the Lord,” “in that day,” “in the latter days,” “in future years” were all typical of eschatological passages. These prophetic idioms, “after many days” and “in future years,” were used nowhere else in Ezekiel and clearly mark this passage as an eschatological reference to end-time events. The future is suggested again in the expression in v. 16, “in days to come,” which is more literally “in the latter days.” Exodus 38:16

Exodus 38:16

16 All the hangings of the court all around were of fine woven linen.

Ezekiel envisioned a future time when Israel will have recovered, regathered in the land, and will be dwelling in security (v. 8; cf. 36:33–36).

Ezekiel 38:8

8 After many days you will be visited. In the latter years you will come into the land of those brought back from the sword and gathered from many people on the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate; they were brought out of the nations, and now all of them dwell safely.

Ezekiel 36:33–36

33 ‘Thus says the Lord God: “On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will also enable you to dwell in the cities, and the ruins shall be rebuilt. 34 The desolate land shall be tilled instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass by. 35 So they will say, ‘This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden; and the wasted, desolate, and ruined cities are now fortified and inhabited.’ 36 Then the nations which are left all around you shall know that I, the Lord, have rebuilt the ruined places and planted what was desolate. I, the Lord, have spoken it, and I will do it.”

The armies of Gog would advance like a “storm” and a “cloud” covering the land (v. 9).

Ezekiel 38:9

9 You will ascend, coming like a storm, covering the land like a cloud, you and all your troops and many peoples with you.”

Gog at that time would come against the “mountains” of Israel (cf. 36:1).

Ezekiel 36:1

1 “And you, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel, and say, ‘O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord!

Zimmerli, in his commentary, Ezekiel 2, 307. Use of the phrase “mountains of Israel” was intended to indicate all of the restored nation.

There are at least seven views of the time when the invasion of Gog will take place.

One view regards this passage as entirely symbolic.

Another considers that the battle will occur before the tribulation either just prior to or at the time of the rapture of the church.101

A third view is that the battle will occur in the middle of the tribulation and is associated with Rev 14:14–20 and Dan 11:40–41 .

Revelation 14:14–20

14 Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud sat One like the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. 15 And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, “Thrust in Your sickle and reap, for the time has come for You to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” 16 So He who sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped. 17 Then another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. 18 And another angel came out from the altar, who had power over fire, and he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, “Thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe.” 19 So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. 20 And the winepress was trampled outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress, up to the horses’ bridles, for one thousand six hundred furlongs.

Daniel 11:40–41

40 “At the time of the end the king of the South shall attack him; and the king of the North shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter the countries, overwhelm them, and pass through. 41 He shall also enter the Glorious Land, and many countries shall be overthrown; but these shall escape from his hand: Edom, Moab, and the prominent people of Ammon.

Fourth, the battle will occur at the end of the tribulation and is equated with the battle of Rev 19:11–21 .

Revelation 19:11–21

11 Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. 12 His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. 13 He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. 15 Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. 16 And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS 17 Then I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, “Come and gather together for the supper of the great God, 18 that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great.” 19 And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. 20 Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. 21 And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh.

Fifth, the battle will occur during a transitional period that is between the end of the tribulation and the beginning of the millennium to destroy the weapons of Babylon and cleanse the land prior to the advent of the millennium.

Sixth, the battle will occur at the end of the millennium and should be equated with Rev 20:7–8 .

Revelation 20:7–8

7 Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea.

A final view combines the fourth and sixth views and considers that the battle will occur at the end of the tribulation (Rev 19:17–21 ).

Revelation 19:17–21

17 Then I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, “Come and gather together for the supper of the great God, 18 that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great.” 19 And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. 20 Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. 21 And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh.

It will be held in pause for one thousand years, after which it will resume and be concluded as the battle of Rev 20:7–8 .

Revelation 20:7–8

7 Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea.

We have been in the book of Ezekiel, primarily in chapters 36 to 39.

We took some time to look at Jeremiah 50-51 where we have the great prophesy or woe against Babylon. There is a great deal of irony throughout this chapter as God is reflecting the same type of judgments back on Babylon that Babylon itself commited against Judea.

We haven’t studied through Jeremiah, so you may not realize that Jeremiah warns his fellow Israelites to repent of their heathen idolatry or judgement would come from Babylon.

To be aware of how the Oracle against Babylon fits in, I wanted to review a few things.

Jeremiah, Lamentations 2. Jeremiah: A Prophet for the Times

There are four distinct periods in Jeremiah’s ministry: (1) 627–609, from the date of his call to the death of King Josiah; (2) 609–597, from Josiah’s death to the deportation of King Jehoiachin to Babylon; (3) 597–587, the years of the reign of King Zedekiah to the fall of Jerusalem; and (4) from the fall of Jerusalem in 587 to Jeremiah’s involuntary flight to Egypt, where the story abruptly ends. The reader is told nothing about his final years or his death.

The World of Jeremiah.

Jeremiah, Lamentations 1. The World of Jeremiah

Jeremiah can never be understood apart from the historical currents that swirled about him from the time of his childhood until those tumultuous events that took him to Egypt after forty years of faithfully proclaiming God’s words. The closing years of the seventh century B.C. proved to be a turbulent era in the ANE. That period can only be described as a time of crisis and transition. The stability that had characterized the years of political and military domination by Assyria in northern Mesopotamia came to an abrupt end in 609 with Assyria’s capitulation to a coalition of nations led by the emerging city-state Babylon, fifty miles south of Baghdad. Assyria had been one of the most powerful empires of the ancient world. Few would have anticipated that its fall could come so quickly after reaching the zenith of its political and cultural achievements under the able ruler Ashurbanipal (668–627 B.C.).

Assyria was overextended, its wars were exhausting its resources, its vassals were beginning to test its power, and it was under God’s judgment (Isa 10:12; 14:24–25; Nah 2:8–3:19). Psammetichus I of Egypt (664–610) withheld tribute, ca. 655, and declared his independence from Assyria. The Medes were becoming a potential threat as were hordes of barbarian Cimmerians and Scythians. Ashurbanipal’s brother and king of Babylon, Shamash-shum-ukin, led a revolt against Assyria in 652 that was put down only after a bitter struggle. After Ashurbanipal’s death in 627, a Chaldean prince, Nabopolassar (626–605), took advantage of general unrest and civil war in the empire to declare Babylon’s independence. Nineveh fell to the Babylonians and Medes in 612, and the last Assyrian resistance ended in 609 at Haran.

Babylon’s emergence as the major world power did not go unchallenged. Egypt saw the upstart nation as an even greater threat than Assyria and challenged them at the Battle of Carchemish in 605. Babylon emerged from that conflict as the undisputed ruler of the ANE (Jer 46:2–12). Smaller nations like Judah transferred their loyalty to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar, Nabopolassar’s son and general of the victorious army at Carchemish, was called home when his father died that same year and assumed rule of the now-powerful Babylonian Empire.

Judah had been under Assyrian domination since the days of King Ahaz (735–715 B.C., 2 Kgs 16:7–8; Isa 7:1–8:18). With the coming of Assyrian weakness during the days of good King Josiah (640–609), Judah was able to maintain its independence (Jer 22:1–17). Assyria was helpless to challenge Josiah’s annexation of much of Northern Israel (2 Chr 34:6–7). Then Judah became ensnared in the power struggle between Egypt and Babylon. After Josiah’s untimely death at the Battle of Megiddo (609) as he tried to halt an Egyptian army from reaching the last remnant of Assyria’s resistance at Haran (2 Chr 35:20–24), control of Judah fell to the Egyptians under Pharaoh Neco II (610–594). Neco appointed Josiah’s son, Jehoahaz, as Judah’s new king. Recognizing after three months that Jehoahaz supported the anti-Egyptian party in Judah, however, the Egyptians deposed him and took him to Egypt as a prisoner. Neco replaced him with another of Josiah’s sons, wicked Jehoiakim (609–598). After Egypt’s defeat at Carchemish in 605, Jehoiakim transferred his allegiance to Babylon (2 Kgs 24:1).

Encouraged by the promise of Egyptian military help (cf. Jer 2:36–37), Jehoiakim renounced his vassalage to Babylon in 601 (2 Kgs 24:1). In December 598 Nebuchadnezzar sent an army to quell the revolt lest other vassals entertain similar aspirations for independence. Jehoiakim died before a protracted siege of Jerusalem became a reality. Some of his own people may have assassinated him in order to negotiate more favorable peace terms with Nebuchadnezzar. His son, Jehoiachin, occupied the throne for only three months. Nebuchadnezzar deposed him and took him to Babylon in 597 (2 Kgs 24:8). There he remained until his release in 562 by Nebuchadnezzar II’s successor Amel-Marduk (the biblical Evil-Merodach).

Nebuchadnezzar placed Zedekiah (Mattaniah), another of Josiah’s sons, on the throne. However, Zedekiah did not learn from his brother’s disastrous attempt to sever ties with Babylon. He was encouraged to rebel by an insurrection in Babylon in 595/594 and by the promise of Egyptian help from Pharaoh Hophra (589–570), successor of Psammetichus II (594–589). Nebuchadnezzar quickly responded to the threat by sending an army to squelch the revolt. He placed Jerusalem under a siege that ended after eighteen months when the defenders, weakened by hunger, disease, and low morale, were no longer able to hold out. The walls were breached; Jerusalem was taken and destroyed, including the revered temple. Nebuchadnezzar carried away a number of the people to Babylon as hostages (2 Kgs 25:1–21).

Nebuchadnezzar was unwilling to allow the rebellious nation any further semblance of independence under its own kings. He incorporated Judah into his empire as a province and appointed Gedaliah, a member of a noble Judahite family, as governor (2 Kgs 25:22–26; Jer 40:1–12). It is uncertain how long he governed before being assassinated by a certain Ishmael (41:1–3). A number of Gedaliah’s supporters, fearing Babylonian retaliation, fled to Egypt, taking Jeremiah with them (2 Kgs 25:26; Jer 42:1–43:7). Jeremiah 52:30 mentions a deportation in 582, which may have been Nebuchadnezzar’s punishment for Gedaliah’s murder.

Jeremiah was born and raised in Judah under Assyrian domination during the reign of wicked King Manasseh (687–642 B.C.). Manasseh could not have been unaffected by the pagan religious practices fostered there. Early in his reign Manasseh began reintroducing and multiplying the paganism his father, Hezekiah, purged from Judah. He rebuilt the high places Hezekiah had destroyed, erected altars to Baal, and made an Asherah pole. He worshiped all the starry hosts and built altars to pagan gods in the temple itself. He offered his own son as a burnt sacrifice and practiced sorcery and divination (2 Kgs 21:2–9; 24:3–4; Zeph 1:4–5).

Many of Judah’s priests were wicked, but there were surely some who lamented what they saw taking place and did all they could to protect their families from such practices. Jeremiah’s priestly parents (1:1) probably were among this minority and were careful to observe the Shema (Deut 6:4–9) in their home. Men and women with profound religious convictions can often trace the factors that molded their character to the teachings and influence of godly parents. Such may have been Jeremiah’s fortunate background. At any rate he was prepared to hear the call of God in 627 (1:2) when just a youth, probably in his late teen years. The previous year King Josiah had begun his reforms (2 Chr 34:3–7). That same year, 627, witnessed the death of Ashurbanipal and the end of Assyrian dominance in the ANE. The rapid disintegration of the Assyrian Empire after Ashurbanipal’s death must have provided Jeremiah food for thought, but he provided no record of his inner thoughts of that event. Perhaps he was too absorbed with trying to understand his call and what God was doing in his life to try to interpret international events.

The finding of the law book in 622 (2 Chr 34:8–28) must have affected the young prophet profoundly, though he left no record of his reaction to its discovery. He must have admired the efforts of King Josiah to restore the religious purity that had characterized Josiah’s great-grandfather Hezekiah. It may have been those discovered Scriptures that brought Jeremiah to his unshakable conviction, so frequently reflected in his later messages, that continued disobedience to God’s laws would spell the doom of Judah.

This became a major focus of Jeremiah’s ministry as chief spokesman for the Lord after Josiah’s death in 609 and Jehoiakim’s accession. He became the bitter adversary of Josiah’s successors throughout the remaining years of Judah’s independent existence.

It cannot be ascertained when Jeremiah first came to understand that the upstart nation of Babylon was going to be God’s instrument of judgment on his own people. However, when he realized what was to be, he unflinchingly warned his people that judgment was imminent. His efforts to turn them back to God were of no avail. His only reward was to be branded a traitor, threatened, and imprisoned.

Jeremiah’s troubles did not end when he was vindicated as a true prophet by Jerusalem’s fall in 587. He loved his people too much to abandon them, so he made a decision to remain with them to help rebuild the nation (40:1–6). Even that desire was thwarted when he was forced to go to Egypt (43:1–6). Jeremiah’s latter days are a mystery.

The Lord wove Jeremiah’s ministry and message into the fabric of his world. In order to understand Jeremiah’s book it is necessary to understand the events surrounding the prophet. Nevertheless, Jeremiah’s message speaks beyond his world because it was the message of the transcendent Lord of all worlds. It speaks to every world in which there is pride, rebellion against God, spiritual blindness, and God’s people in need of encouragement and hope

Last week we picked up in our text in Ezekiel 38 working on our exegesis of Ezekiel 38:4-9

Ezekiel 38:4–9

4 I will turn you around, put hooks into your jaws, and lead you out, with all your army, horses, and horsemen, all splendidly clothed, a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords. 5 Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya are with them, all of them with shield and helmet; 6 Gomer and all its troops; the house of Togarmah from the far north and all its troops—many people are with you. 7 “Prepare yourself and be ready, you and all your companies that are gathered about you; and be a guard for them. 8 After many days you will be visited. In the latter years you will come into the land of those brought back from the sword and gathered from many people on the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate; they were brought out of the nations, and now all of them dwell safely. 9 You will ascend, coming like a storm, covering the land like a cloud, you and all your troops and many peoples with you.”

These verses present answers for two additional questions.

When will these events happen?

What was the main point of 38:1–39:29?

One of the Key points that is central to our understanding of Ezekiel 38-39 and the description surrounding the Gog/Magog conflict is that God has promised and demonstrates that He will be taking care of Israel. Israel’s safety and security always have and always will come from YHWH.

This is the key throughout History for Israel. God has chosen to demonstrate His plan for mankind via His engagement and plan for Israel. But Israel is kept and will return to the land, as we have studied in Ezekiel 37 with the Valley of Dry Bones, and the unification of the nation with the Oracle of the Two Sticks.

Ultimately, per the setup of Ezekiel, God is going to be moving to the Gog/Magog campaign against Israel after Israel is reunited.

Because the prophecies indicate the complete unification of Israel with all Jews being returned from across the face of the earth, this gives us a criterion to compare to other passages. Gog/Magog cannot set their sites on Israel and invade until after there is a complete unification.

and Rev 18:1–24. Ezekiel 38–39 was concerned with immediate events as well as end-time events.

In the progression of Ezekiel’s prophetic messages the reader is surprised at first by this announcement of a coming battle. One of the occurring themes of the previous chapters is that following the Lord’s restoration and reformation of Israel they will “no longer” be victims of the nations or any other calamities but will live securely in their land “forever” (cf. Ezekiel 34:25–29 ; 36:12–15 , 30 ; 37:25–28 ).

Ezekiel 34:25–29

25 “I will make a covenant of peace with them, and cause wild beasts to cease from the land; and they will dwell safely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. 26 I will make them and the places all around My hill a blessing; and I will cause showers to come down in their season; there shall be showers of blessing. 27 Then the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase. They shall be safe in their land; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I have broken the bands of their yoke and delivered them from the hand of those who enslaved them. 28 And they shall no longer be a prey for the nations, nor shall beasts of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and no one shall make them afraid. 29 I will raise up for them a garden of renown, and they shall no longer be consumed with hunger in the land, nor bear the shame of the Gentiles anymore.

Ezekiel 36:12–15

12 Yes, I will cause men to walk on you, My people Israel; they shall take possession of you, and you shall be their inheritance; no more shall you bereave them of children.” 13 ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Because they say to you, ‘You devour men and bereave your nation of children,’ 14 therefore you shall devour men no more, nor bereave your nation anymore,” says the Lord God. 15 Nor will I let you hear the taunts of the nations anymore, nor bear the reproach of the peoples anymore, nor shall you cause your nation to stumble anymore,” says the Lord God.’ ”

Ezekiel 36:30

30 And I will multiply the fruit of your trees and the increase of your fields, so that you need never again bear the reproach of famine among the nations.

Ezekiel 37:25–28

25 Then they shall dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob My servant, where your fathers dwelt; and they shall dwell there, they, their children, and their children’s children, forever; and My servant David shall be their prince forever. 26 Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them, and it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary in their midst forevermore. 27 My tabernacle also shall be with them; indeed I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 28 The nations also will know that I, the Lord, sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.” ’ ”

When one realizes that the land the Lord will bring Gog’s army against is Israel’s (Ezekiel 38:8–9 ), there is considerable confusion. The solution must be that a major purpose for the invasion will be to demonstrate just how secure Israel will be in their land.

Ezekiel 38:8–9

8 After many days you will be visited. In the latter years you will come into the land of those brought back from the sword and gathered from many people on the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate; they were brought out of the nations, and now all of them dwell safely. 9 You will ascend, coming like a storm, covering the land like a cloud, you and all your troops and many peoples with you.”

Gog’s army would be well equipped, having a mounted calvary, shields, swords, and many soldiers who were called a “great horde” (Ezekiel 38:4 ).

Ezekiel 38:4

4 I will turn you around, put hooks into your jaws, and lead you out, with all your army, horses, and horsemen, all splendidly clothed, a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords.

The army would be allied with Persia (Iran), Cush (Ethiopia), Put (Lybia), Gomer (Armenia), and Togarmah (also Armenia). These nations would be called to battle “after many days” and “in future years” against Israel (Ezekiel 38:8 ).

Ezekiel 38:8

8 After many days you will be visited. In the latter years you will come into the land of those brought back from the sword and gathered from many people on the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate; they were brought out of the nations, and now all of them dwell safely.

Use of phrases such as “the Day of the Lord,” “in that day,” “in the latter days,” “in future years” were all typical of eschatological passages. These prophetic idioms, “after many days” and “in future years,” were used nowhere else in Ezekiel and clearly mark this passage as an eschatological reference to end-time events. The future is suggested again in the expression in Ezekiel 38:16 , “in days to come,” in the NIV which is more literally “in the latter days” as used in almost all of the other translations.

Ezekiel 38:16

16 You will come up against My people Israel like a cloud, to cover the land. It will be in the latter days that I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may know Me, when I am hallowed in you, O Gog, before their eyes.”

Ezekiel envisioned a future time when Israel will have recovered, regathered in the land, and will be dwelling in security (Ezekiel 38:8 ; cf. Ezekiel 36:33–36 ).

Ezekiel 38:8

8 After many days you will be visited. In the latter years you will come into the land of those brought back from the sword and gathered from many people on the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate; they were brought out of the nations, and now all of them dwell safely.

Ezekiel 36:33–36

33 ‘Thus says the Lord God: “On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will also enable you to dwell in the cities, and the ruins shall be rebuilt. 34 The desolate land shall be tilled instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass by. 35 So they will say, ‘This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden; and the wasted, desolate, and ruined cities are now fortified and inhabited.’ 36 Then the nations which are left all around you shall know that I, the Lord, have rebuilt the ruined places and planted what was desolate. I, the Lord, have spoken it, and I will do it.”

The armies of Gog would advance like a “storm” and a “cloud” covering the land (Ezekiel 38:9). G

og at that time would come against the “mountains” of Israel (cf. 36:1).

There are at least seven views of the time when the invasion of Gog will take place. One view regards this passage as entirely symbolic. Another considers that the battle will occur before the tribulation, either just before or at the time of the rapture of the church.101 A third view is that the battle will occur during the middle of the tribulation and is associated with Rev 14:14–20 and Dan 11:40–41. Fourth, the battle will occur at the end of the tribulation and is equated with the battle of Rev 19:11–21. Fifth, the battle will occur during a transitional period that is between the end of the tribulation and the beginning of the millennium to destroy the weapons of Babylon and cleanse the land before the advent of the millennium. Sixth, the battle will occur at the end of the millennium and should be equated with Rev 20:7–8. A final view combines the fourth and sixth views and considers that the battle will occur at the end of the tribulation (Rev 19:17–21). It will be paused for one thousand years, after which it will resume and be concluded as the battle of Rev 20:7–8.

None of these suggestions is problem-free. The first suggestion fails because a purely symbolic battle would hardly be described in such detail. The second suggestion does not correlate with the scheme of end-time events in which Israel already would have begun to enjoy its “covenant of peace” (Dan 9:27). The third suggestion does not fit since no battle is mentioned at mid-tribulation. It also would be difficult to classify the mid-tribulation as a time of security (Ezekiel 38:14). The fourth suggestion fails to explain the battle of Rev 20:7–8 and what its relation would be to the other apocalyptic battles as well as the use of the name Gog. The fifth suggestion is unacceptable because there is no biblical evidence to suggest that a battle occurs in the transition period mentioned in Dan 12:11–12.

The sixth suggestion places the battle at the end of the millennium. This seems to have fewer problems than the previous ones. Not all the elements of Ezek 38–39 fit neatly into Rev 20:7–8. The information in fifty-two verses would hardly fit into two verses. But Revelation does have the critical feature of exact name identity with Gog and Magog. The seventh view has the advantages of both four and six and is strongly suggested by John’s use of Ezek 39:4ff in Rev 19:17–18.

This battle probably occurs at the end of the tribulation, bringing it to a conclusion and ushering in the thousand-year reign of peace. The battle starts again, however, at the end of the thousand years. Revelation 20:2–3 refers to the binding of Satan in the abyss for the thousand years “to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time.” Revelation 20:7–8 adds that “when the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—to gather them to battle.” This seems clearly to suggest a second stage of the Gog-Magog battle that began in Rev 19 at the coming of Messiah and the conclusion of the tribulation. The purpose would be the final defeat of Satan before the beginning of the eternal state.

clearly suggests

One of the Key points that is central to our understanding of Ezekiel 38-39 and the description surrounding the Gog/Magog conflict is that God has promised and demonstrates that He will be taking care of Israel. Israel’s safety and security always have and always will come from YHWH.

This is the key throughout History for Israel. God has chosen to demonstrate His plan for mankind via His engagement and plan for Israel. But Israel is kept and will return to the land, as we have studied in Ezekiel 37 with the Valley of Dry Bones, and the unification of the nation with the Oracle of the Two Sticks.

Ultimately, per the setup of Ezekiel, God is going to be moving to the Gog/Magog campaign against Israel after Israel is reunited.

Because the prophecies indicate the complete unification of Israel with all Jews being returned from across the face of the earth, this gives us a criterion to compare to other passages. Gog/Magog cannot set their sites on Israel and invade until after there is a complete unification.

Now if Ezekiel is not written as consecutive calendar prophecies, then we can’t make that assertion.

IS IT?? —Research

We are picking back up with our study through Ezekiel 38-39, working on our exegesis of Ezekiel 38:4-9

Ezekiel 38:4–9

4 I will turn you around, put hooks into your jaws, and lead you out, with all your army, horses, and horsemen, all splendidly clothed, a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords. 5 Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya are with them, all of them with shield and helmet; 6 Gomer and all its troops; the house of Togarmah from the far north and all its troops—many people are with you. 7 “Prepare yourself and be ready, you and all your companies that are gathered about you; and be a guard for them. 8 After many days you will be visited. In the latter years you will come into the land of those brought back from the sword and gathered from many people on the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate; they were brought out of the nations, and now all of them dwell safely. 9 You will ascend, coming like a storm, covering the land like a cloud, you and all your troops and many peoples with you.”

These verses present answers for two additional questions.

When will these events happen?

What was the main point of 38:1–39:29?

Ezekiel was not the first prophet to envision a future apocalyptic battle against the people of God. Several other Old Testament prophets as well as John in Revelation used apocalyptic language and style to describe future battles

Some of these prophecies referred to battle in the immediate purview of the prophet, such as the destruction of Jerusalem or Babylon (e.g., Isa 13:1–22; Jer 4:5–6:30; Zeph 1:1–13 ).

Zephaniah 1:1–13

1 The word of the Lord which came to Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah. 2 “I will utterly consume everything From the face of the land,” Says the Lord; 3 “I will consume man and beast; I will consume the birds of the heavens, The fish of the sea, And the stumbling blocks along with the wicked. I will cut off man from the face of the land,” Says the Lord. 4 “I will stretch out My hand against Judah, And against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. I will cut off every trace of Baal from this place, The names of the idolatrous priests with the pagan priests— 5 Those who worship the host of heaven on the housetops; Those who worship and swear oaths by the Lord, But who also swear by Milcom; 6 Those who have turned back from following the Lord, And have not sought the Lord, nor inquired of Him.” 7 Be silent in the presence of the Lord God; For the day of the Lord is at hand, For the Lord has prepared a sacrifice; He has invited His guests. 8 “And it shall be, In the day of the Lord’s sacrifice, That I will punish the princes and the king’s children, And all such as are clothed with foreign apparel. 9 In the same day I will punish All those who leap over the threshold, Who fill their masters’ houses with violence and deceit. 10 “And there shall be on that day,” says the Lord, “The sound of a mournful cry from the Fish Gate, A wailing from the Second Quarter, And a loud crashing from the hills. 11 Wail, you inhabitants of Maktesh! For all the merchant people are cut down; All those who handle money are cut off. 12 “And it shall come to pass at that time That I will search Jerusalem with lamps, And punish the men Who are settled in complacency, Who say in their heart, ‘The Lord will not do good, Nor will He do evil.’ 13 Therefore their goods shall become booty, And their houses a desolation; They shall build houses, but not inhabit them; They shall plant vineyards, but not drink their wine.”

Some seem to blend immediate and long-range eschatological fulfillment. Jeremiah 50- 51 are good examples. These two chapters predict the destruction of Babylon, but their description extends considerably beyond the magnitude of destruction by Medo-Persia in 535 b.c. One may conclude that the reference is to some later time.

Other predictions of end-time warfare are purely eschatological and are concerned only with end-time events such as Zech 14:1–21

Zechariah 14:1–21

1 Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, And your spoil will be divided in your midst. 2 For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem; The city shall be taken, The houses rifled, And the women ravished. Half of the city shall go into captivity, But the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city. 3 Then the Lord will go forth And fight against those nations, As He fights in the day of battle. 4 And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, Which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, From east to west, Making a very large valley; Half of the mountain shall move toward the north And half of it toward the south. 5 Then you shall flee through My mountain valley, For the mountain valley shall reach to Azal. Yes, you shall flee As you fled from the earthquake In the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Thus the Lord my God will come, And all the saints with You. 6 It shall come to pass in that day That there will be no light; The lights will diminish. 7 It shall be one day Which is known to the Lord Neither day nor night. But at evening time it shall happen That it will be light. 8 And in that day it shall be— That living waters shall flow from Jerusalem, Half of them toward the eastern sea And half of them toward the western sea; In both summer and winter it shall occur. 9 And the Lord shall be King over all the earth. In that day it shall be “The Lord is one,” And His name one. 10 All the land shall be turned into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be raised up and inhabited in her place from Benjamin’s Gate to the place of the First Gate and the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s winepresses. 11 The people shall dwell in it; And no longer shall there be utter destruction, But Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited. 12 And this shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the people who fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh shall dissolve while they stand on their feet, Their eyes shall dissolve in their sockets, And their tongues shall dissolve in their mouths. 13 It shall come to pass in that day That a great panic from the Lord will be among them. Everyone will seize the hand of his neighbor, And raise his hand against his neighbor’s hand; 14 Judah also will fight at Jerusalem. And the wealth of all the surrounding nations Shall be gathered together: Gold, silver, and apparel in great abundance. 15 Such also shall be the plague On the horse and the mule, On the camel and the donkey, And on all the cattle that will be in those camps. So shall this plague be. 16 And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. 17 And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain. 18 If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. 19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. 20 In that day “HOLINESS TO THE LORD” shall be engraved on the bells of the horses. The pots in the Lord’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar. 21 Yes, every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holiness to the Lord of hosts. Everyone who sacrifices shall come and take them and cook in them. In that day there shall no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts.

Today we are picking up our 2nd of the Woes of Ezekiel 38-39.

Ezekiel 38:10–13

10 ‘Thus says the Lord God: “On that day it shall come to pass that thoughts will arise in your mind, and you will make an evil plan: 11 You will say, ‘I will go up against a land of unwalled villages; I will go to a peaceful people, who dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates’— 12 to take plunder and to take booty, to stretch out your hand against the waste places that are again inhabited, and against a people gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who dwell in the midst of the land. 13 Sheba, Dedan, the merchants of Tarshish, and all their young lions will say to you, ‘Have you come to take plunder? Have you gathered your army to take booty, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to take great plunder?’ ” ’

Verses 12-13 disclose the plan of the invasion.

Now Ezekiel 38:10–11 give further insight into the occasion for the battle.

Ezekiel 38:10–11

10 ‘Thus says the Lord God: “On that day it shall come to pass that thoughts will arise in your mind, and you will make an evil plan: 11 You will say, ‘I will go up against a land of unwalled villages; I will go to a peaceful people, who dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates’—

Verses Ezekiel 38:4 , Ezekiel 38:16 show that the battle will take place according to the plan and purpose of God.

Ezekiel 38:4

4 I will turn you around, put hooks into your jaws, and lead you out, with all your army, horses, and horsemen, all splendidly clothed, a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords.

Ezekiel 38:16

16 You will come up against My people Israel like a cloud, to cover the land. It will be in the latter days that I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may know Me, when I am hallowed in you, O Gog, before their eyes.”

According to Revelation 20:7–8, Gog was satanically inspired and hated both God and his people.

Revelation 20:7–8

7 Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea.

Verse 10 explains only the human experience, that “thoughts will come into your mind.” This is one of several cases in Scripture where several causes that seem to conflict are given for an event that is contrary to the revealed will of God. Pharaoh’s refusal to allow Israel to leave Egypt (cp. Exodus 7:3 and Exodus 8:15 ) and the crucifixion of Jesus (cp. Matt 26:20–25 ; John 6:70–71 ; John 10:18 ; John 13:2 ; John 14:27 ; and Acts 2:23 ) are two preeminent examples.

Exodus 7:3

3 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.

Exodus 8:15

15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and did not heed them, as the Lord had said.

Matthew 26:20–25

20 When evening had come, He sat down with the twelve. 21 Now as they were eating, He said, “Assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me.” 22 And they were exceedingly sorrowful, and each of them began to say to Him, “Lord, is it I?” 23 He answered and said, “He who dipped his hand with Me in the dish will betray Me. 24 The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.” 25 Then Judas, who was betraying Him, answered and said, “Rabbi, is it I?” He said to him, “You have said it.”

John 6:70–71

70 Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?” 71 He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve.

John 10:18

18 No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”

John 13:2

2 And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him,

John 14:27

27 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

Acts 2:23

23 Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death;

The viewpoint of Scripture is that neither human wickedness nor the powers of darkness can thwart God’s purpose. God’s sovereign power and infinite wisdom enable him to use even the schemes of the devil and of wicked individuals to achieve his ends. These chapters promise a day when God’s people will no longer need walled villages to be secure. And in order to demonstrate the greatness of his power and of his faithfulness and the powerlessness of evil to thwart his plans to bless his redeemed people, God will lure Gog to his doom.

Gog will notice that Israel is a land of unwalled and therefore unprotected villages (cf. Zechariah 2:4 , Zechariah 2:8 ; Esther 9:19 ), and he will think that the people are easy prey for a swift, formidable attack. God will allow this attack in order to bring swift and decisive judgment against Gog (Exodus 38:16 ) so that he may once and for all correct the damage his people have done to his name and may proclaim the greatness of his holy character to all the world.

Zechariah 2:4

4 who said to him, “Run, speak to this young man, saying: ‘Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls, because of the multitude of men and livestock in it.

Zechariah 2:8

8 For thus says the Lord of hosts: “He sent Me after glory, to the nations which plunder you; for he who touches you touches the apple of His eye.

Esther 9:19

19 Therefore the Jews of the villages who dwelt in the unwalled towns celebrated the fourteenth day of the month of Adar with gladness and feasting, as a holiday, and for sending presents to one another.

Exodus 38:16 (NKJV)

16 All the hangings of the court all around were of fine woven linen.

Ezekiel 38:12

12 to take plunder and to take booty, to stretch out your hand against the waste places that are again inhabited, and against a people gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who dwell in the midst of the land.

We return to our exegesis and exposition of verse 12. As we go through this verse, I’m going to point you to the term “midst” and the term “land.”

Ezekiel 38:12

12 to take plunder and to take booty, to stretch out your hand against the waste places that are again inhabited, and against a people gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who dwell in the midst of the land.

The term for land is inextricably linked to the promises of God, as there is a Land Covenant. The term is [אֶ֫רֶץ--ERETZ = land, earth, world] Notice this term in Genesis 12:7

Genesis 12:7

7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

This is the initial land-grant or land-covenant agreement put in place by YHWH.

In Genesis 13:15, we have the permanence of the land-covenant called out by YHWH.

Genesis 13:15

15 for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever.

and in Genesis 15:18, we have the boundaries of the covenant territory

Genesis 15:18

18 On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying: “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates—

In Genesis 17:8 emphasis is placed on the everlasting nature of the covenant.

Genesis 17:8

8 Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”

In Exodus 6:8, the Patriarchal promise is reiterated to Moses and the Sinai Covenant.

Exodus 6:8

8 And I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and I will give it to you as a heritage: I am the Lord.’ ”

In Leviticus 20:24, the land is described as abundant and prosperous

Leviticus 20:24

24 But I have said to you, “You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey.” I am the Lord your God, who has separated you from the peoples.

In Deuteronomy 6:10, fulfillment of the promise is linked to the faithfulness of the people.

Deuteronomy 6:10

10 “So it shall be, when the Lord your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build,

Joshua 5:6 reflects the consequence of disobedience and the significance of entering the land.

Joshua 5:6

6 For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people who were men of war, who came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they did not obey the voice of the Lord—to whom the Lord swore that He would not show them the land which the Lord had sworn to their fathers that He would give us, “a land flowing with milk and honey.”

Back to our verse:

Ezekiel 38:12

12 to take plunder and to take booty, to stretch out your hand against the waste places that are again inhabited, and against a people gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who dwell in the midst of the land.

Gog will seek to loot and plunder those who have resettled Israel in the “midst of the land”.

The word “midst” or “center” in NIV is tabbur, which means high place, lofty place, or summit. We find it in Judges 9:36-37

Judges 9:36–37

36 And when Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, “Look, people are coming down from the tops of the mountains!” But Zebul said to him, “You see the shadows of the mountains as if they were men.” 37 So Gaal spoke again and said, “See, people are coming down from the center of the land, and another company is coming from the Diviners’ Terebinth Tree.”

Here the meaning reflects the height of the earth. The Hebrews considered the Holy Land to be more loft than the other lands of the earth. Interestingly the Hebrew Talmud considers this word to be equivalent to “navel.” In fact the Latin translates it as AMBILICUS as though it were the summit of the belly

The idea is that the center of israel is the navel of the Holy Land, and the land, like the belly is the place of blessing, or in reverse the place were blessing is removed: Eze. 6:2 ; 33:28 ; 35:12 ; 38:8 .

Ezekiel 6:2

2 “Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them,

Ezekiel 33:28

28 For I will make the land most desolate, her arrogant strength shall cease, and the mountains of Israel shall be so desolate that no one will pass through.

Ezekiel 35:12

12 Then you shall know that I am the Lord. I have heard all your blasphemies which you have spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, ‘They are desolate; they are given to us to consume.’

Ezekiel 38:8

8 After many days you will be visited. In the latter years you will come into the land of those brought back from the sword and gathered from many people on the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate; they were brought out of the nations, and now all of them dwell safely.

Note that tabbur is similar to the name for Mount Tabor, located in north central Israel just north of the valley of Jezreel. The same area was associated with the battle of Armageddon based on Revelation 16:16 .

Revelation 16:16

16 And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon.

We see Tabor mentioned in Jeremiah 46:18-19

Jeremiah 46:18–19

18 “As I live,” says the King, Whose name is the Lord of hosts, “Surely as Tabor is among the mountains And as Carmel by the sea, so he shall come. 19 O you daughter dwelling in Egypt, Prepare yourself to go into captivity! For Noph shall be waste and desolate, without inhabitant.

Hosea 5:1–3

1 “Hear this, O priests! Take heed, O house of Israel! Give ear, O house of the king! For yours is the judgment, Because you have been a snare to Mizpah And a net spread on Tabor. 2 The revolters are deeply involved in slaughter, Though I rebuke them all. 3 I know Ephraim, And Israel is not hidden from Me; For now, O Ephraim, you commit harlotry; Israel is defiled.

Ezekiel 38:10–14

10 ‘Thus says the Lord God: “On that day it shall come to pass that thoughts will arise in your mind, and you will make an evil plan: 11 You will say, ‘I will go up against a land of unwalled villages; I will go to a peaceful people, who dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates’— 12 to take plunder and to take booty, to stretch out your hand against the waste places that are again inhabited, and against a people gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who dwell in the midst of the land. 13 Sheba, Dedan, the merchants of Tarshish, and all their young lions will say to you, ‘Have you come to take plunder? Have you gathered your army to take booty, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to take great plunder?’ ” ’ 14 “Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to Gog, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “On that day when My people Israel dwell safely, will you not know it?

Ezekiel 38:13

13 Sheba, Dedan, the merchants of Tarshish, and all their young lions will say to you, ‘Have you come to take plunder? Have you gathered your army to take booty, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to take great plunder?’ ” ’

The commodities of end-time Babylon would be of interest to Sheba, Dedan, and Tarshish, who are viewed as trading partners and always interested in plundered goods (vv. Ezekiel 38:12–13 ; cf. Ezekiel 27:12 , Ezekiel 27:15 , Ezekiel 27:22 ).

Let’s compare our Verses here with parallel references:

Ezekiel 38:12–13

12 to take plunder and to take booty, to stretch out your hand against the waste places that are again inhabited, and against a people gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who dwell in the midst of the land. 13 Sheba, Dedan, the merchants of Tarshish, and all their young lions will say to you, ‘Have you come to take plunder? Have you gathered your army to take booty, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to take great plunder?’ ” ’

Ezekiel 27:12

12 “Tarshish was your merchant because of your many luxury goods. They gave you silver, iron, tin, and lead for your goods.

Ezekiel 27:15

15 The men of Dedan were your traders; many isles were the market of your hand. They brought you ivory tusks and ebony as payment.

Ezekiel 27:22

22 The merchants of Sheba and Raamah were your merchants. They traded for your wares the choicest spices, all kinds of precious stones, and gold.

Ezekiel 38:14–16

14 “Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to Gog, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “On that day when My people Israel dwell safely, will you not know it? 15 Then you will come from your place out of the far north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great company and a mighty army. 16 You will come up against My people Israel like a cloud, to cover the land. It will be in the latter days that I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may know Me, when I am hallowed in you, O Gog, before their eyes.”

We have here a new Strophe, a new Woe or prophecy to our subject Gog.

Ezekiel 38:14–16

14 “Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to Gog, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “On that day when My people Israel dwell safely, will you not know it? 15 Then you will come from your place out of the far north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great company and a mighty army. 16 You will come up against My people Israel like a cloud, to cover the land. It will be in the latter days that I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may know Me, when I am hallowed in you, O Gog, before their eyes.”

Although Gog’s intention would be the elimination of Israel for the sake of greed, God would use this desire as an opportunity to confront evil. Gog was not a mindless pawn of Yahweh but one who imagined personal glory in defeating God. But the judgment of Gog was an act God turned to his glory. Divine purpose overrides human motive. The same lesson was given in Habakkuk’s message about the Babylonian invasion (Habakkuk 1:5–11 ).

Habakkuk 1:5–11

5 “Look among the nations and watch— Be utterly astounded! For I will work a work in your days Which you would not believe, though it were told you. 6 For indeed I am raising up the Chaldeans, A bitter and hasty nation Which marches through the breadth of the earth, To possess dwelling places that are not theirs. 7 They are terrible and dreadful; Their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves. 8 Their horses also are swifter than leopards, And more fierce than evening wolves. Their chargers charge ahead; Their cavalry comes from afar; They fly as the eagle that hastens to eat. 9 “They all come for violence; Their faces are set like the east wind. They gather captives like sand. 10 They scoff at kings, And princes are scorned by them. They deride every stronghold, For they heap up earthen mounds and seize it. 11 Then his mind changes, and he transgresses; He commits offense, Ascribing this power to his god.”

Ezekiel 38:17–23

17 Thus says the Lord God: “Are you he of whom I have spoken in former days by My servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied for years in those days that I would bring you against them? 18 “And it will come to pass at the same time, when Gog comes against the land of Israel,” says the Lord God, “that My fury will show in My face. 19 For in My jealousy and in the fire of My wrath I have spoken: ‘Surely in that day there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel, 20 so that the fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, the beasts of the field, all creeping things that creep on the earth, and all men who are on the face of the earth shall shake at My presence. The mountains shall be thrown down, the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.’ 21 I will call for a sword against Gog throughout all My mountains,” says the Lord God. “Every man’s sword will be against his brother. 22 And I will bring him to judgment with pestilence and bloodshed; I will rain down on him, on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him, flooding rain, great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. 23 Thus I will magnify Myself and sanctify Myself, and I will be known in the eyes of many nations. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.” ’

38:17–23 These verses reveal the purpose and outcome of the invasion.

Interpreters of v. 17 have offered many suggestions for the identification of the prophecy or prophecies from “former days.” Such prophecies include: Isa 14:24–25 ; 26:20–21 ; Jer 4:5 ; 6:26 ; 30:18–24 ; Joel 3:9–21 ; Zeph 1:14–18 ; 3:8 are possibilities.

Isaiah 14:24–25

24 The Lord of hosts has sworn, saying, “Surely, as I have thought, so it shall come to pass, And as I have purposed, so it shall stand: 25 That I will break the Assyrian in My land, And on My mountains tread him underfoot. Then his yoke shall be removed from them, And his burden removed from their shoulders.

Isaiah 26:20–21

20 Come, my people, enter your chambers, And shut your doors behind you; Hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment, Until the indignation is past. 21 For behold, the Lord comes out of His place To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; The earth will also disclose her blood, And will no more cover her slain.

Jeremiah 4:5

5 Declare in Judah and proclaim in Jerusalem, and say: “Blow the trumpet in the land; Cry, ‘Gather together,’ And say, ‘Assemble yourselves, And let us go into the fortified cities.’

Jeremiah 6:26

26 O daughter of my people, Dress in sackcloth And roll about in ashes! Make mourning as for an only son, most bitter lamentation; For the plunderer will suddenly come upon us.

Jeremiah 30:18–24

18 “Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will bring back the captivity of Jacob’s tents, And have mercy on his dwelling places; The city shall be built upon its own mound, And the palace shall remain according to its own plan. 19 Then out of them shall proceed thanksgiving And the voice of those who make merry; I will multiply them, and they shall not diminish; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small. 20 Their children also shall be as before, And their congregation shall be established before Me; And I will punish all who oppress them. 21 Their nobles shall be from among them, And their governor shall come from their midst; Then I will cause him to draw near, And he shall approach Me; For who is this who pledged his heart to approach Me?’ says the Lord. 22 ‘You shall be My people, And I will be your God.’ ” 23 Behold, the whirlwind of the Lord— Goes forth with fury, A continuing whirlwind; It will fall violently on the head of the wicked. 24 The fierce anger of the Lord will not return until He has done it, And until He has performed the intents of His heart. In the latter days you will consider it.

Joel 3:9–21

9 Proclaim this among the nations: “Prepare for war! Wake up the mighty men, Let all the men of war draw near, Let them come up. 10 Beat your plowshares into swords And your pruning hooks into spears; Let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’ ” 11 Assemble and come, all you nations, And gather together all around. Cause Your mighty ones to go down there, O Lord. 12 “Let the nations be wakened, and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; For there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. 13 Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, go down; For the winepress is full, The vats overflow— For their wickedness is great.” 14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. 15 The sun and moon will grow dark, And the stars will diminish their brightness. 16 The Lord also will roar from Zion, And utter His voice from Jerusalem; The heavens and earth will shake; But the Lord will be a shelter for His people, And the strength of the children of Israel. 17 “So you shall know that I am the Lord your God, Dwelling in Zion My holy mountain. Then Jerusalem shall be holy, And no aliens shall ever pass through her again.” 18 And it will come to pass in that day That the mountains shall drip with new wine, The hills shall flow with milk, And all the brooks of Judah shall be flooded with water; A fountain shall flow from the house of the Lord And water the Valley of Acacias. 19 “Egypt shall be a desolation, And Edom a desolate wilderness, Because of violence against the people of Judah, For they have shed innocent blood in their land. 20 But Judah shall abide forever, And Jerusalem from generation to generation. 21 For I will acquit them of the guilt of bloodshed, whom I had not acquitted; For the Lord dwells in Zion.

Zephaniah 1:14–18

14 The great day of the Lord is near; It is near and hastens quickly. The noise of the day of the Lord is bitter; There the mighty men shall cry out. 15 That day is a day of wrath, A day of trouble and distress, A day of devastation and desolation, A day of darkness and gloominess, A day of clouds and thick darkness, 16 A day of trumpet and alarm Against the fortified cities And against the high towers. 17 “I will bring distress upon men, And they shall walk like blind men, Because they have sinned against the Lord; Their blood shall be poured out like dust, And their flesh like refuse.” 18 Neither their silver nor their gold Shall be able to deliver them In the day of the Lord’s wrath; But the whole land shall be devoured By the fire of His jealousy, For He will make speedy riddance Of all those who dwell in the land.

Zephaniah 3:8

8 “Therefore wait for Me,” says the Lord, “Until the day I rise up for plunder; My determination is to gather the nations To My assembly of kingdoms, To pour on them My indignation, All My fierce anger; All the earth shall be devoured With the fire of My jealousy.

The Gog-Magog message is very similar to Zech 12:3–9 ; 14:1–8 , but these do not come from “former days” (the dating of Joel is controverted).

Zechariah 12:3–9

3 And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it. 4 In that day,” says the Lord, “I will strike every horse with confusion, and its rider with madness; I will open My eyes on the house of Judah, and will strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. 5 And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, ‘The inhabitants of Jerusalem are my strength in the Lord of hosts, their God.’ 6 In that day I will make the governors of Judah like a firepan in the woodpile, and like a fiery torch in the sheaves; they shall devour all the surrounding peoples on the right hand and on the left, but Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place—Jerusalem. 7 “The Lord will save the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall not become greater than that of Judah. 8 In that day the Lord will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; the one who is feeble among them in that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the Angel of the Lord before them. 9 It shall be in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

Zechariah 14:1–8

1 Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, And your spoil will be divided in your midst. 2 For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem; The city shall be taken, The houses rifled, And the women ravished. Half of the city shall go into captivity, But the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city. 3 Then the Lord will go forth And fight against those nations, As He fights in the day of battle. 4 And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, Which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, From east to west, Making a very large valley; Half of the mountain shall move toward the north And half of it toward the south. 5 Then you shall flee through My mountain valley, For the mountain valley shall reach to Azal. Yes, you shall flee As you fled from the earthquake In the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Thus the Lord my God will come, And all the saints with You. 6 It shall come to pass in that day That there will be no light; The lights will diminish. 7 It shall be one day Which is known to the Lord Neither day nor night. But at evening time it shall happen That it will be light. 8 And in that day it shall be— That living waters shall flow from Jerusalem, Half of them toward the eastern sea And half of them toward the western sea; In both summer and winter it shall occur.

Dr. Lamar Cooper, Lamar Eugene. Ezekiel. Vol. 17. The New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1994.

Dr. Lamar Cooper says the following: “D. I. Block has made a cogent argument that none of these prophecies would fit Ezek 38:17. Nor does he find acceptable a reference to general prophecies of “the final destruction of the enemies of God’s people.”110

Equally unconvincing are the attempts of Zimmerli and Fishbane to see Ezekiel’s prophecy as a reinterpretation and reapplication of earlier prophecies, especially Jeremiah’s “foe from the north.” Block’s most significant argument is that the question in v. 17 should be translated, “Are you he of whom the prophets spoke?” This is the clear reading of the Hebrew text as it stands. It is frequently emended to a statement, “You are he,” but this is unnecessary. The translation “are you not” assumes an introductory particle (hǎlō), which is not in the text. Block notes the striking similarity between Ezek 38:17 and 2 Sam 7:5, “Are you the one to build me a house to dwell in?” This expects a negative reply, confirmed by the parallel in 1 Chr 17:4, where it is a statement, “You are not the one.” The point of the Lord’s question in Ezek 38:17, then, may be that Gog is not a divinely commissioned agent of judgment like Jeremiah’s “foe from the north” (though Gog may have thought so) but strictly an enemy of God and his people to p 340 be dealt with in “zeal and fiery wrath” (v. 19).”

When God allows Gog to come against Israel, several events will take place. First, the hot, fiery anger of God will be released (v. 18). Ezekiel 38:18

Ezekiel 38:18

18 “And it will come to pass at the same time, when Gog comes against the land of Israel,” says the Lord God, “that My fury will show in My face.

Second, there will be an earthquake of major force (vv. 19–20). Ezekiel 38:19-20

Ezekiel 38:19–20

19 For in My jealousy and in the fire of My wrath I have spoken: ‘Surely in that day there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel, 20 so that the fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, the beasts of the field, all creeping things that creep on the earth, and all men who are on the face of the earth shall shake at My presence. The mountains shall be thrown down, the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.’

An earthquake sometimes was a sign of a theophany, but the “day of the Lord” was also a theophany. Third, the sword will be summoned against Gog. The attack is a picture of confusion and demoralization in which the army of Gog attacks itself (v. 21). Ezekiel 38:21

Ezekiel 38:21

21 I will call for a sword against Gog throughout all My mountains,” says the Lord God. “Every man’s sword will be against his brother.

Fourth, other signs of divine judgment follow, including rain, hailstones, blood, and burning sulfur that will descend on Gog and the many nations who fight with him (v. 22). Ezekiel 38:22

Ezekiel 38:22

22 And I will bring him to judgment with pestilence and bloodshed; I will rain down on him, on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him, flooding rain, great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.

These are obvious signs of a supernatural divine judgment. This demonstration of divine power will result in two things. One is the deliverance of Israel from the invading forces of Gog. Another is the universal recognition of the sovereignty of Yahweh.

Chapter 39 is a continuation and expansion of details concerning the destruction of Gog. The details given in 39:1–29 are more vivid and numerous, and they reiterate the same purposes presented in chap. 38.

In Block’s analysis the two chapters of the Gog prophecy comprise two parallel panels, each consisting of four units and having a conclusion.

Panel A in chap. 38 he titles “The Disposal of Gog.”

The first panel concludes in 38:23 and

the second panel in 39:21–24.

The final message in 39:25–29 is the conclusion to the whole oracle.

Although not without problems, this analysis directs attention to the five “acknowledgment” passages (“that … may know”) that reveal God’s purposes.

Each panel has two acknowledgment passages, the second being its conclusion (38:16, 23; 39:6–8, 21–24); the whole prophecy ends in a final acknowledgment passage (39:25–29).

Ezekiel 39:1–16

1 “And you, son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal; 2 and I will turn you around and lead you on, bringing you up from the far north, and bring you against the mountains of Israel. 3 Then I will knock the bow out of your left hand, and cause the arrows to fall out of your right hand. 4 You shall fall upon the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops and the peoples who are with you; I will give you to birds of prey of every sort and to the beasts of the field to be devoured. 5 You shall fall on the open field; for I have spoken,” says the Lord God. 6 “And I will send fire on Magog and on those who live in security in the coastlands. Then they shall know that I am the Lord. 7 So I will make My holy name known in the midst of My people Israel, and I will not let them profane My holy name anymore. Then the nations shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel. 8 Surely it is coming, and it shall be done,” says the Lord God. “This is the day of which I have spoken. 9 “Then those who dwell in the cities of Israel will go out and set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and bucklers, the bows and arrows, the javelins and spears; and they will make fires with them for seven years. 10 They will not take wood from the field nor cut down any from the forests, because they will make fires with the weapons; and they will plunder those who plundered them, and pillage those who pillaged them,” says the Lord God. 11 “It will come to pass in that day that I will give Gog a burial place there in Israel, the valley of those who pass by east of the sea; and it will obstruct travelers, because there they will bury Gog and all his multitude. Therefore they will call it the Valley of Hamon Gog. 12 For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them, in order to cleanse the land. 13 Indeed all the people of the land will be burying, and they will gain renown for it on the day that I am glorified,” says the Lord God. 14 “They will set apart men regularly employed, with the help of a search party, to pass through the land and bury those bodies remaining on the ground, in order to cleanse it. At the end of seven months they will make a search. 15 The search party will pass through the land; and when anyone sees a man’s bone, he shall set up a marker by it, till the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon Gog. 16 The name of the city will also be Hamonah. Thus they shall cleanse the land.” ’

These verses in Ezekiel 39:1-8, restate the divine initiative in the invasion and elaborate upon the fall of Gog and God’s purposes.

Ezekiel 39:1–8

1 “And you, son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal; 2 and I will turn you around and lead you on, bringing you up from the far north, and bring you against the mountains of Israel. 3 Then I will knock the bow out of your left hand, and cause the arrows to fall out of your right hand. 4 You shall fall upon the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops and the peoples who are with you; I will give you to birds of prey of every sort and to the beasts of the field to be devoured. 5 You shall fall on the open field; for I have spoken,” says the Lord God. 6 “And I will send fire on Magog and on those who live in security in the coastlands. Then they shall know that I am the Lord. 7 So I will make My holy name known in the midst of My people Israel, and I will not let them profane My holy name anymore. Then the nations shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel. 8 Surely it is coming, and it shall be done,” says the Lord God. “This is the day of which I have spoken.

The repetition in vv suggests the parallel nature of the two chapters. 1–2 from 38:2–4. The identity of Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, has been discussed (vv. 1–2; see 38:2–4).

Ezekiel 39:1–2

1 “And you, son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal; 2 and I will turn you around and lead you on, bringing you up from the far north, and bring you against the mountains of Israel.

Ezekiel 38:2–4

2 “Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him, 3 and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal. 4 I will turn you around, put hooks into your jaws, and lead you out, with all your army, horses, and horsemen, all splendidly clothed, a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords.

Gog came from the “far north” mountains, a designation associated with Meshech and Tubal. God promised that the weapons of Gog would be taken from him (v. 3);

Ezekiel 39:3

3 Then I will knock the bow out of your left hand, and cause the arrows to fall out of your right hand.

he would lose his power and fall on the “mountains of Israel” (v. 4).

Ezekiel 39:4

4 You shall fall upon the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops and the peoples who are with you; I will give you to birds of prey of every sort and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.

The AV or KJV refers to a “sixth part” of the armies of Gog in v. 2.

Ezekiel 39:2

2 And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:

This was based on a mistranslation of the verb rendered here “drag you along” (ššʾ).

Ezekiel 39:2

2 I will turn you around and drag you along. I will bring you from the far north and send you against the mountains of Israel.

God will “drag” the army of Gog to a stunning and miraculous defeat.

The defeat would be so tremendous that the bodies of the soldiers would become food for the birds of prey and the wild animals of the land. Verses 4–9 are similar to Rev 19:17–18, possibly referencing the same event.

Ezekiel 39:4–9

4 You shall fall upon the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops and the peoples who are with you; I will give you to birds of prey of every sort and to the beasts of the field to be devoured. 5 You shall fall on the open field; for I have spoken,” says the Lord God. 6 “And I will send fire on Magog and on those who live in security in the coastlands. Then they shall know that I am the Lord. 7 So I will make My holy name known in the midst of My people Israel, and I will not let them profane My holy name anymore. Then the nations shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel. 8 Surely it is coming, and it shall be done,” says the Lord God. “This is the day of which I have spoken. 9 “Then those who dwell in the cities of Israel will go out and set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and bucklers, the bows and arrows, the javelins and spears; and they will make fires with them for seven years.

Revelation 19:7–8

7 Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” 8 And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

Alexander reached the same conclusion in his Ezekiel commentary a lengthy parenthetic study (what we call an excursus) that explains the “birds of prey” passage as unique to Ezek 39 and Rev 19. He concludes that Rev 19 was at least a partial fulfillment of Ezek 39:4 . The idea of the “birds of prey” in 39:4 is discussed more fully in 39:17–20.

Ezekiel 39:4

4 You shall fall upon the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops and the peoples who are with you; I will give you to birds of prey of every sort and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.

Another clue for fixing the location of this battle is given in v. 5. Gog will fall along with his army in the “open field” (v. 6).

Ezekiel 39:5

5 You shall fall on the open field; for I have spoken,” says the Lord God.

As noted in the discussion of 38:12, this event may take place near Mount Tabor in north-central Israel where the valley of Jezreel is situated.

This valley also called the plain of Esdraelon, would certainly qualify as a large open area suitable for a battlefield. Gog will be destroyed, and destruction will come even on his homeland and the surrounding “coastlands” so that they, too, will know that Yahweh is God.

Wevers references the “coastlands” to the western end of the Jezreel Valley, which will witness the awesome fiery destruction portrayed in v. 6.

Ezekiel 39:6

6 “And I will send fire on Magog and on those who live in security in the coastlands. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.

Still, Allen is more likely correct that Gog’s neighbors in western Asia Minor are in view.

Recognition of the holiness of God’s name and character (v. 7) echoes 36:20–23, which mentions Israel’s profaning the name of Yahweh (see also 20:39; 39:25; 43:7ff.).

Ezekiel 38:7

7 “Prepare yourself and be ready, you and all your companies that are gathered about you; and be a guard for them.

Ezekiel 36:20–23

20 When they came to the nations, wherever they went, they profaned My holy name—when they said of them, ‘These are the people of the Lord, and yet they have gone out of His land.’ 21 But I had concern for My holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations wherever they went. 22 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for My holy name’s sake, which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went. 23 And I will sanctify My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst; and the nations shall know that I am the Lord,” says the Lord God, “when I am hallowed in you before their eyes.

Israel’s profaning the name of Yahweh (see also Ezekiel 20:39 ; 39:25 ; 43:7ff .).

Ezekiel 20:39

39 “As for you, O house of Israel,” thus says the Lord God: “Go, serve every one of you his idols—and hereafter—if you will not obey Me; but profane My holy name no more with your gifts and your idols.

Ezekiel 39:25

25 “Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Now I will bring back the captives of Jacob, and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for My holy name—

Ezekiel 43:7ff

7 And He said to me, “Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever. No more shall the house of Israel defile My holy name, they nor their kings, by their harlotry or with the carcasses of their kings on their high places. 8 When they set their threshold by My threshold, and their doorpost by My doorpost, with a wall between them and Me, they defiled My holy name by the abominations which they committed; therefore I have consumed them in My anger. 9 Now let them put their harlotry and the carcasses of their kings far away from Me, and I will dwell in their midst forever. 10 “Son of man, describe the temple to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and let them measure the pattern. 11 And if they are ashamed of all that they have done, make known to them the design of the temple and its arrangement, its exits and its entrances, its entire design and all its ordinances, all its forms and all its laws. Write it down in their sight, so that they may keep its whole design and all its ordinances, and perform them. 12 This is the law of the temple: The whole area surrounding the mountaintop is most holy. Behold, this is the law of the temple. 13 “These are the measurements of the altar in cubits (the cubit is one cubit and a handbreadth): the base one cubit high and one cubit wide, with a rim all around its edge of one span. This is the height of the altar: 14 from the base on the ground to the lower ledge, two cubits; the width of the ledge, one cubit; from the smaller ledge to the larger ledge, four cubits; and the width of the ledge, one cubit. 15 The altar hearth is four cubits high, with four horns extending upward from the hearth. 16 The altar hearth is twelve cubits long, twelve wide, square at its four corners; 17 the ledge, fourteen cubits long and fourteen wide on its four sides, with a rim of half a cubit around it; its base, one cubit all around; and its steps face toward the east.” 18 And He said to me, “Son of man, thus says the Lord God: ‘These are the ordinances for the altar on the day when it is made, for sacrificing burnt offerings on it, and for sprinkling blood on it. 19 You shall give a young bull for a sin offering to the priests, the Levites, who are of the seed of Zadok, who approach Me to minister to Me,’ says the Lord God. 20 You shall take some of its blood and put it on the four horns of the altar, on the four corners of the ledge, and on the rim around it; thus you shall cleanse it and make atonement for it. 21 Then you shall also take the bull of the sin offering, and burn it in the appointed place of the temple, outside the sanctuary. 22 On the second day you shall offer a kid of the goats without blemish for a sin offering; and they shall cleanse the altar, as they cleansed it with the bull. 23 When you have finished cleansing it, you shall offer a young bull without blemish, and a ram from the flock without blemish. 24 When you offer them before the Lord, the priests shall throw salt on them, and they will offer them up as a burnt offering to the Lord. 25 Every day for seven days you shall prepare a goat for a sin offering; they shall also prepare a young bull and a ram from the flock, both without blemish. 26 Seven days they shall make atonement for the altar and purify it, and so consecrate it. 27 When these days are over it shall be, on the eighth day and thereafter, that the priests shall offer your burnt offerings and your peace offerings on the altar; and I will accept you,’ says the Lord God.”

Through this act of miraculous judgment on Gog and deliverance of Israel, Yahweh will vindicate his name, and everyone will know he is the Holy One in Israel (v. 7).

Ezekiel 39:7

7 So I will make My holy name known in the midst of My people Israel, and I will not let them profane My holy name anymore. Then the nations shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel.

The certainty of these events was confirmed by the declaration, “It is coming!” (v. 8).

Ezekiel 39:8

8 Surely it is coming, and it shall be done,” says the Lord God. “This is the day of which I have spoken.

39:9–16

Ezekiel 39:9–16

9 “Then those who dwell in the cities of Israel will go out and set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and bucklers, the bows and arrows, the javelins and spears; and they will make fires with them for seven years. 10 They will not take wood from the field nor cut down any from the forests, because they will make fires with the weapons; and they will plunder those who plundered them, and pillage those who pillaged them,” says the Lord God. 11 “It will come to pass in that day that I will give Gog a burial place there in Israel, the valley of those who pass by east of the sea; and it will obstruct travelers, because there they will bury Gog and all his multitude. Therefore they will call it the Valley of Hamon Gog. 12 For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them, in order to cleanse the land. 13 Indeed all the people of the land will be burying, and they will gain renown for it on the day that I am glorified,” says the Lord God. 14 “They will set apart men regularly employed, with the help of a search party, to pass through the land and bury those bodies remaining on the ground, in order to cleanse it. At the end of seven months they will make a search. 15 The search party will pass through the land; and when anyone sees a man’s bone, he shall set up a marker by it, till the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon Gog. 16 The name of the city will also be Hamonah. Thus they shall cleanse the land.” ’

These verses describe the disposal of Gog’s army and offer two illustrations of the magnitude of Gog’s defeat. First, Gog’s weapons will supply Israel with fuel for seven years (Ezekiel 39:9–10 ).

Ezekiel 39:9–10

9 “Then those who dwell in the cities of Israel will go out and set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and bucklers, the bows and arrows, the javelins and spears; and they will make fires with them for seven years. 10 They will not take wood from the field nor cut down any from the forests, because they will make fires with the weapons; and they will plunder those who plundered them, and pillage those who pillaged them,” says the Lord God.

Gog came to plunder Israel (Ezekiel 38:12 ) but instead will become Israel’s plunder (Ezekiel 39:10 ).

Ezekiel 38:12

12 to take plunder and to take booty, to stretch out your hand against the waste places that are again inhabited, and against a people gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who dwell in the midst of the land.

Ezekiel 39:10

10 They will not take wood from the field nor cut down any from the forests, because they will make fires with the weapons; and they will plunder those who plundered them, and pillage those who pillaged them,” says the Lord God.

Second, the debacle will be such that a valley in Israel will be required as a graveyard for the slain soldiers of the army of Gog. The valley is not identified other than that it was a route for those traveling “east toward the sea” (Ezekiel 39:11 ).

Ezekiel 39:11

11 “It will come to pass in that day that I will give Gog a burial place there in Israel, the valley of those who pass by east of the sea; and it will obstruct travelers, because there they will bury Gog and all his multitude. Therefore they will call it the Valley of Hamon Gog.

Most interpreters identify the “sea” as the Dead Sea since it is the one sea that lies to the east of Israel.

Wevers, in his research notes that the use of the word “travelers” (ʿōběrîm) is similar to the name of the mountains of northern Moab (“Abarim”) with a large valley on the east side of the Dead Sea.

Wever fully identifies this valley in the central area east of the Dead Sea as the valley of 39:11. He admits that this territory is outside the land of Israel. It was not part of post-exilic Israel but was part of the Davidic empire. Yet the geographical location of this valley to the east of the Dead Sea creates the same problem as with Jezreel. It would be impossible to travel east toward the sea (39:11) that lies due west of this valley. Second, the size of this valley would accommodate neither the battle nor the burial mentioned in 39:11–16.

The Jezreel Valley near Mount Tabor was mentioned in the discussion of vv. 5–6 runs east/west, but the Mediterranean or Great Sea is at the western end, not the eastern end. East of the Jezreel Valley was the Jordan River and the Sea of Galilee, usually called Lake Gennesaret, and probably was not the “sea” of v. 11.

A more straightforward solution lies in translating “East of the Sea.” This translation would allow for the travelers’ movement east from the sea, which would be to their rear. Then, the sea could indeed be the Mediterranean and the Jezreel Valley.

The Jezreel Valley is the only central east/west valley in Israel. It has at least three names, including the Valley of Jezreel, the plain of Esdraelon, and the Valley of Megiddo.

This valley was identified by the apostle John in Rev 16:13–16 as the location of the battle of “Armageddon.”

Revelation 16:13–16

13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. 14 For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. 15 “Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.” 16 And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon.

The valley is a natural battlefield and could even serve as a large graveyard, as mentioned in v. Ezekiel 39:11 . This site also has the proximity to Mount Tabor, mentioned in 38:11 as the “navel of the earth.”

Ezekiel 39:11

11 “It will come to pass in that day that I will give Gog a burial place there in Israel, the valley of those who pass by east of the sea; and it will obstruct travelers, because there they will bury Gog and all his multitude. Therefore they will call it the Valley of Hamon Gog.

Ezekiel 38:11

11 You will say, ‘I will go up against a land of unwalled villages; I will go to a peaceful people, who dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates’—

At the time of the burial, the valley will be renamed the valley of “Hamon Gog,” meaning “hordes of Gog.” A city in the valley will be named Hamonah, Hebrew for “multitude,” a reference to the scope of the destruction (Ezekiel 39:16 ).

Ezekiel 39:16

16 The name of the city will also be Hamonah. Thus they shall cleanse the land.” ’

The devastation of this battle will be so great that the burial of the dead will proceed for seven months. All the dead will be buried to cleanse the land.

An unburied corpse was considered unclean (Deut 21:23 ), and burial was done as soon as possible after death.

Deuteronomy 21:23

23 his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God.

Though everyone participated in the burial of Gog’s army (Ezekiel 39:13 ),

Ezekiel 39:13

13 Indeed all the people of the land will be burying, and they will gain renown for it on the day that I am glorified,” says the Lord God.

a full-time burial corps was employed (Ezekiel 39:14 ).

Ezekiel 39:14

14 “They will set apart men regularly employed, with the help of a search party, to pass through the land and bury those bodies remaining on the ground, in order to cleanse it. At the end of seven months they will make a search.

Anyone who found a bone, skeleton, or any human remains placed a marker on it for the burial corps to find and bury in the valley of Hamon-Gog.

The Feast of Gog and the Glory of the Lord (Ezekiel 39:17–24 )

Ezekiel 39:17–24

17 “And as for you, son of man, thus says the Lord God, ‘Speak to every sort of bird and to every beast of the field: “Assemble yourselves and come; Gather together from all sides to My sacrificial meal Which I am sacrificing for you, A great sacrificial meal on the mountains of Israel, That you may eat flesh and drink blood. 18 You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, Drink the blood of the princes of the earth, Of rams and lambs, Of goats and bulls, All of them fatlings of Bashan. 19 You shall eat fat till you are full, And drink blood till you are drunk, At My sacrificial meal Which I am sacrificing for you. 20 You shall be filled at My table With horses and riders, With mighty men And with all the men of war,” says the Lord God. 21 “I will set My glory among the nations; all the nations shall see My judgment which I have executed, and My hand which I have laid on them. 22 So the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day forward. 23 The Gentiles shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity; because they were unfaithful to Me, therefore I hid My face from them. I gave them into the hand of their enemies, and they all fell by the sword. 24 According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions I have dealt with them, and hidden My face from them.” ’

Last week we began our study of The Feast of Gog and the Glory of the Lord (Ezekiel 39:17–24 ).

Ezekiel 39:17–24 Verses 17–20 develop the “birds of prey” theme from v. Ezekiel 39:4 .

Ezekiel 39:4

4 You shall fall upon the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops and the peoples who are with you; I will give you to birds of prey of every sort and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.

God speaks through Ezekiel to the birds and animals, inviting them to a sacrificial meal at which Gog will be the only item on the menu (vv. Ezekiel 39:17–19).

These birds and animals are invited to feast on the dead corpses of the army of Gog. Bodies will lie in the open as the burial corps proceeds with their work for seven months (cf. v. Ezekiel 39:12 ).

Ezekiel 39:12

12 For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them, in order to cleanse the land.

Little imagination is needed to realize the gruesome fact that the birds of prey and wild animals will feed on carrion. Reference to setting a marker by a bone (v. Ezekiel 39:15 ) suggests that often, by the time burial took place, there was not much remaining to bury in the valley called “Hamon Gog.”

Ezekiel 39:15

15 The search party will pass through the land; and when anyone sees a man’s bone, he shall set up a marker by it, till the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon Gog.

The army of Gog will be eaten as if it were consumed by the altar fires like a sacrificial animal. God said he was preparing his sacrifice, and the birds and animals at his table would eat their fill (vv. Ezekiel 39:17–20).

The idea of the Lord’s sacrifice as a divine judgment also may be found in Isa 34:6–17 ; Jer 46:10 ; Zeph 1:7–18 ; and Rev 19:17–21 .

Isaiah 34:6–17

6 The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, It is made overflowing with fatness, With the blood of lambs and goats, With the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah, And a great slaughter in the land of Edom. 7 The wild oxen shall come down with them, And the young bulls with the mighty bulls; Their land shall be soaked with blood, And their dust saturated with fatness.” 8 For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance, The year of recompense for the cause of Zion. 9 Its streams shall be turned into pitch, And its dust into brimstone; Its land shall become burning pitch. 10 It shall not be quenched night or day; Its smoke shall ascend forever. From generation to generation it shall lie waste; No one shall pass through it forever and ever. 11 But the pelican and the porcupine shall possess it, Also the owl and the raven shall dwell in it. And He shall stretch out over it The line of confusion and the stones of emptiness. 12 They shall call its nobles to the kingdom, But none shall be there, and all its princes shall be nothing. 13 And thorns shall come up in its palaces, Nettles and brambles in its fortresses; It shall be a habitation of jackals, A courtyard for ostriches. 14 The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the jackals, And the wild goat shall bleat to its companion; Also the night creature shall rest there, And find for herself a place of rest. 15 There the arrow snake shall make her nest and lay eggs And hatch, and gather them under her shadow; There also shall the hawks be gathered, Every one with her mate. 16 “Search from the book of the Lord, and read: Not one of these shall fail; Not one shall lack her mate. For My mouth has commanded it, and His Spirit has gathered them. 17 He has cast the lot for them, And His hand has divided it among them with a measuring line. They shall possess it forever; From generation to generation they shall dwell in it.”

Jeremiah 46:10

10 For this is the day of the Lord God of hosts, A day of vengeance, That He may avenge Himself on His adversaries. The sword shall devour; It shall be satiated and made drunk with their blood; For the Lord God of hosts has a sacrifice In the north country by the River Euphrates.

Zephaniah 1:7–18

7 Be silent in the presence of the Lord God; For the day of the Lord is at hand, For the Lord has prepared a sacrifice; He has invited His guests. 8 “And it shall be, In the day of the Lord’s sacrifice, That I will punish the princes and the king’s children, And all such as are clothed with foreign apparel. 9 In the same day I will punish All those who leap over the threshold, Who fill their masters’ houses with violence and deceit. 10 “And there shall be on that day,” says the Lord, “The sound of a mournful cry from the Fish Gate, A wailing from the Second Quarter, And a loud crashing from the hills. 11 Wail, you inhabitants of Maktesh! For all the merchant people are cut down; All those who handle money are cut off. 12 “And it shall come to pass at that time That I will search Jerusalem with lamps, And punish the men Who are settled in complacency, Who say in their heart, ‘The Lord will not do good, Nor will He do evil.’ 13 Therefore their goods shall become booty, And their houses a desolation; They shall build houses, but not inhabit them; They shall plant vineyards, but not drink their wine.” 14 The great day of the Lord is near; It is near and hastens quickly. The noise of the day of the Lord is bitter; There the mighty men shall cry out. 15 That day is a day of wrath, A day of trouble and distress, A day of devastation and desolation, A day of darkness and gloominess, A day of clouds and thick darkness, 16 A day of trumpet and alarm Against the fortified cities And against the high towers. 17 “I will bring distress upon men, And they shall walk like blind men, Because they have sinned against the Lord; Their blood shall be poured out like dust, And their flesh like refuse.” 18 Neither their silver nor their gold Shall be able to deliver them In the day of the Lord’s wrath; But the whole land shall be devoured By the fire of His jealousy, For He will make speedy riddance Of all those who dwell in the land.

Revelation 19:17–21

17 Then I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, “Come and gather together for the supper of the great God, 18 that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great.” 19 And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. 20 Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. 21 And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh.

Gog’s army will be a glorious sight when it appears with horses and “horsemen fully armed,” a “great horde with large and small shields, all of them brandishing their swords” (38:4). An alliance of many nations, it will come against Israel like a storm cloud. God’s people will be helpless before them (Ezekiel 38:9 ).

Ezekiel 38:9

9 You will ascend, coming like a storm, covering the land like a cloud, you and all your troops and many peoples with you.”

A compassionate observer would wince at the prospect of such an imminent slaughter of “a peaceful and unsuspecting people” (Ezekiel 39:11 ) .

Ezekiel 39:11

11 “It will come to pass in that day that I will give Gog a burial place there in Israel, the valley of those who pass by east of the sea; and it will obstruct travelers, because there they will bury Gog and all his multitude. Therefore they will call it the Valley of Hamon Gog.

But just as disaster is about to strike God’s people, they will see a massive and spectacular display of the power and wrath of God against their enemies. They will stand by and watch in amazement as the great army of Gog is annihilated by earthquake, flood, hail, fire, and their own swords (Ezekiel 38:19–39:6).

The amount of plunder will be awesome, and the stench of bodies will be overpowered as the birds of prey devour the flesh of what was perhaps the greatest army ever assembled (Ezekiel 39:9–20 ).

All the nations of the world will see and learn as all the pretense of human glory is extinguished before the pure and ineffable glory of the Holy God of Israel. No longer will the accusation be heard that Israel’s God had abandoned them in unfaithfulness or proved unable to defend them against the nations and their gods. It will be clear to all that it was Israel’s sin and unfaithfulness that led to their exile, that their troubles had been recompense for their uncleanness and their offenses.

The Epitaph of Gog’s Defeat (Ezekiel 39:25–29 )

Ezekiel 39:25–29

25 “Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Now I will bring back the captives of Jacob, and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for My holy name— 26 after they have borne their shame, and all their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, when they dwelt safely in their own land and no one made them afraid. 27 When I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, and I am hallowed in them in the sight of many nations, 28 then they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who sent them into captivity among the nations, but also brought them back to their land, and left none of them captive any longer. 29 And I will not hide My face from them anymore; for I shall have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel,’ says the Lord God.”

Ezekiel 39:25-29

Ezekiel 39:25–29

25 “Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Now I will bring back the captives of Jacob, and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for My holy name— 26 after they have borne their shame, and all their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, when they dwelt safely in their own land and no one made them afraid. 27 When I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, and I am hallowed in them in the sight of many nations, 28 then they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who sent them into captivity among the nations, but also brought them back to their land, and left none of them captive any longer. 29 And I will not hide My face from them anymore; for I shall have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel,’ says the Lord God.”

In these verses, the focus shifts back from the eschatological future to the situation of the exiles in Babylon. This passage provides a conclusion to the Gog-Magog passage and the six restoration messages of Ezekiel 33:1–39:29. In this summary, Ezekiel listed seven purposes that God would achieve by ending the exile.136

First, God would initiate a new era in relationship with Israel, hence the use of “now.”

Second, God had demonstrated the discipline of love by chastening his people (Prov 3:11–12 ; Heb 12:5–8 ).

Proverbs 3:11–12

11 My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor detest His correction; 12 For whom the Lord loves He corrects, Just as a father the son in whom he delights.

Hebrews 12:5–8

5 And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; 6 For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.” 7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? 8 But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.

He would show the compassion of love by restoring them to their former place.

Third, God would be zealous for his holy name’s sake. He would reverse the profaning of his name reported in Ezekiel 36:20–23 and promote the sanctification of his name among the heathen (Ezekiel 36:23).

Ezekiel 36:20–23

20 When they came to the nations, wherever they went, they profaned My holy name—when they said of them, ‘These are the people of the Lord, and yet they have gone out of His land.’ 21 But I had concern for My holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations wherever they went. 22 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for My holy name’s sake, which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went. 23 And I will sanctify My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst; and the nations shall know that I am the Lord,” says the Lord God, “when I am hallowed in you before their eyes.

Fourth, Israel would forget their shame and unfaithfulness (v. Ezekiel 39:26 ) in that their time of disgrace would be past (Ezekiel 36:30–31 ).

Ezekiel 39:26

26 after they have borne their shame, and all their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, when they dwelt safely in their own land and no one made them afraid.

Ezekiel 36:30–31

30 And I will multiply the fruit of your trees and the increase of your fields, so that you need never again bear the reproach of famine among the nations. 31 Then you will remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good; and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight, for your iniquities and your abominations.

Fifth, God would demonstrate his holiness by regathering Israel from the countries of their enemies and re-establishing them in their land (v. Ezekiel 39:27 ).

Ezekiel 39:27

27 When I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, and I am hallowed in them in the sight of many nations,

Sixth, Israel would know that Yahweh is their God, for he would leave none in exile but return everyone to the land (v. Ezekiel 39:28 ).

Ezekiel 39:28

28 then they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who sent them into captivity among the nations, but also brought them back to their land, and left none of them captive any longer.

Seventh, God would pour out his spirit on the house of Israel as he promised (Ezekiel 36:27 ; Joel 2:29 ),

Ezekiel 36:27

27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.

Joel 2:29

29 And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.

a promise that was associated with the messianic age (v. Ezekiel 39:29 ).

Ezekiel 39:29

29 And I will not hide My face from them anymore; for I shall have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel,’ says the Lord God.”

These verses are very similar to the concluding verses of the preceding section (Ezekiel 39:21–24 ).

Ezekiel 39:21–24

21 “I will set My glory among the nations; all the nations shall see My judgment which I have executed, and My hand which I have laid on them. 22 So the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day forward. 23 The Gentiles shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity; because they were unfaithful to Me, therefore I hid My face from them. I gave them into the hand of their enemies, and they all fell by the sword. 24 According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions I have dealt with them, and hidden My face from them.” ’

They both declare what the Lord was going to do and how Israel and the nations would respond, and they both refer to the exile and the Lord hiding his face. Both passages mention the nations seeing what the Lord does, but the Lord’s actions in vv. Ezekiel 39:21–24 involves only judgment on the army of Gog, while in vv. Ezekiel 39:25–29 includes all aspects of the restoration of Israel.

Let’s read it.

Ezekiel 39:25–29

25 “Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Now I will bring back the captives of Jacob, and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for My holy name— 26 after they have borne their shame, and all their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, when they dwelt safely in their own land and no one made them afraid. 27 When I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, and I am hallowed in them in the sight of many nations, 28 then they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who sent them into captivity among the nations, but also brought them back to their land, and left none of them captive any longer. 29 And I will not hide My face from them anymore; for I shall have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel,’ says the Lord God.”

Both passages stress the resultant revelation of the knowledge of God for both Israel and the nations. For Israel, receiving the Spirit (v. Ezekiel 39:29 ) will be “a sign and seal of the covenant,” representing “the divine mark of ownership” (cf. Isa 32:15 ; 44:1–5 ; Joel 3:1 ; Zech 12:10 ), the “guarantee of new life, peace, and prosperity.” It will be “the definitive act whereby he [Yahweh] claimed and sealed the newly gathered nation of Israel as his own.”

Isaiah 32:15

15 Until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, And the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, And the fruitful field is counted as a forest.

Isaiah 44:1–5

1 “Yet hear me now, O Jacob My servant, And Israel whom I have chosen. 2 Thus says the Lord who made you And formed you from the womb, who will help you: ‘Fear not, O Jacob My servant; And you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen. 3 For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, And floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, And My blessing on your offspring; 4 They will spring up among the grass Like willows by the watercourses.’ 5 One will say, ‘I am the Lord’s’; Another will call himself by the name of Jacob; Another will write with his hand, ‘The Lord’s,’ And name himself by the name of Israel.

Joel 3:1

1 “For behold, in those days and at that time, When I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem,

Zechariah 12:10

10 “And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.

We haven’t talked about it much, but there are those who think that Pentecost is the final fulfillment of this prophecy and that the church has replaced Israel in the plan of God.

But when looking at this section of Ezekiel, they must reckon with the stress of these chapters on the need for an eschatological vindication of God’s name in his dealings with Israel.

These prophecies call for Israel’s literal return to the land in peace and prosperity, followed by the threat of massive invasion and a spectacular annihilation of Israel’s enemies. Only then will the revelation of the uniqueness and glory of God be complete, and will the purpose of Israel as a light to the nations be fulfilled.

Dr. R. L. Saucy has written, “It is not that God simply chooses to reveal to all people his grace and power in the reestablishment and blessing of his people.” More than that, “God’s reputation is at stake.”

Thus, just as his holiness required him to judge Israel for rebellion, it also required him to regather and restore it.

So “the restoration of Israel is not only a display of God’s love and power in behalf of his people but also ‘an event necessary to the preservation of the honor of the true God.’ ”

This great section of hope and restoration, beginning in Ezekiel 33:1, presents three significant themes crystallized in chaps. 38–39.

Whenever individuals set themselves against God, they always fail. God will judge those who oppose him and chasten those who love him but stray. He may grant the brief illusion of success, but ultimately judgment will come.

In the end, God will be the victor who will establish his name, glory, and people at the end of human history. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Rom 8:31 ) .

Romans 8:31

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

The corollary is seen in the opposite statement, which is, If God is against us, who can be for us? (Ezekiel 38:3 ).

Ezekiel 38:3

3 and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal.

When Israel approaches Him in humility, repentance, and faith, He will provide a “new heart” and a “new spirit” (Ezekiel 36:26–27 ).

Ezekiel 36:26–27

26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.

The salvation offer is an ever-present possibility he offers to the human predicament of sin. The shadow of Calvary was cast in two directions. It stretched from Christ back to creation to embrace all those saved by faith, looking forward to the salvation he provided.

It stretched from Christ to the end of creation, providing salvation to all people in all ages of human history.

The Jews have an unending offer to participate in the faith in the atoning sacrifice which God through Abraham founded a nation on.

But in a future dispensation, the Messianic Age, all of Israel will participate in this faith to the glory of their covenant God, YHWH.

Salvation will be available as long as people are lost and human history continues. That salvation includes security insured by divine power, resulting in victory over all that opposes God and his people (Ezekiel 39:26 ).

Ezekiel 39:26

26 after they have borne their shame, and all their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, when they dwelt safely in their own land and no one made them afraid.

Whenever the judgment of God comes upon ungodliness and unrighteousness, his holiness and righteousness are established (Ezekiel 39:7 ).

Ezekiel 39:7

7 So I will make My holy name known in the midst of My people Israel, and I will not let them profane My holy name anymore. Then the nations shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel.

God’s character is vindicated by evil-doers when He brings evil-doers to justice.

One day every knee will bow and every tongue confess the glory of Yahweh and Jesus Christ his son (Phil 2:9–11 ).

Philippians 2:9–11

9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Ideals of Eden vs. Loss Due to Sin vs. Restoration

According to premillennial dispensational conservative Bible scholars, the Gog-Magog war, the Armageddon war, and the final Battle are distinct events with different characteristics. Here are some of the differences:

Gog-Magog War (Ezekiel 38-39): The main enemies are specific named countries – Russia (Gog) & Islamic confederacy (Iran, Turkey, Libya, Sudan).

The battle location is in the mountains in northern Israel or north of Israel1.

The purpose of the attack is to take wealth1.

This event is believed to occur before the Antichrist appears, i.e., before the Rapture1.

God’s weapons of destruction include fire & brimstone, hail, torrents of rain, pestilence, self-inflicted wounds1.

The immediate result is that Israel uses the enemy army weapons for fuel for 7 years.

Israel cleans up the enemy army dead bodies from the mountains for 7 months1.

The end result is that the nations & Israel will know that Yahweh has done this & is Israel’s God1.

2. Armageddon War (Revelation 16:14-16; 19:1-21; Zechariah 14:1-17):

The enemies are most nations of the world led by the Antichrist and the Kings of the East (China)1.

The battle location is the Valley of Jezreel1.

The purpose of the attack is to obliterate Israel once and for all1.

This event occurs at the end of the 7-year Great Tribulation when Jesus returns in the 2nd Coming1.

The weapon of destruction is the glory coming from Jesus’ face & a sword coming from his mouth which will directly destroy all the evil armies1.

The immediate result is that the bodies & blood of the armies of the world fill the entire Jezreel valley up to the horses bridal. No cleanup is mentioned. Birds will eat their flesh1.

The end result is that Jesus sets up his 1000-Year Millennial Kingdom Reign based in Jerusalem & Israel repents & receives Jesus as their Messiah & God1.

Long ago, Habakkuk wrestled with the question of why God would use the wicked Babylonians as instruments of judgment for Israel.

He discovered that even the wicked will bring glory to God by receiving the life-transforming gift of a new heart and new spirit or by receiving judgment to establish his holiness, righteousness, and name (Hab 1:1–2:20 ).

Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah Outline of Habakkuk

Can any book be more up to date than one which questions the prosperity of the wicked and the demise of the righteous?

Habakkuk stands unique among the prophetic books of the Old Testament in both form and content. Formally, Habakkuk’s book records a dialog with God and a concluding hymn. Instead of speaking to the people for God, Habakkuk spoke to God for the people. In content, Habakkuk focused on the problem of injustice in God’s world. He saw that evil never seemed to be punished and asked what God’s response to such evil and suffering would be.

In his dialog with God, Habakkuk asked God directly how the wicked could go unpunished. God answered: You must wait to see the work I am about to do on the stage of world history. Next, the prophet asked, How could God use an evil instrument like Babylon to punish his own poor people, who were surely more righteous than Babylon? Habakkuk’s message is set within a backdrop of real people facing fundamental questions about real human suffering. The prophet’s questions prompted God’s revelation.

The revelation centered on words that have repeatedly transformed the world: the righteous shall live by their faithfulness to God.

No records remain to tell us of Habakkuk except his book. His book reveals at least one thing: “a prophet with an unorthodox approach … the role of the philosopher of religion.” The prophet’s name means “to embrace” or “to caress.” The book gives no personal information about Habakkuk except to say he prayed courageously to God and was a nabiʾ, a prophet. Did this indicate an “official position in the religious community,” that is what often has been called a cult prophet? Szeles uses the simple word nabiʾ (“prophet”) to conclude: “He was the Lord’s spokesman then, called, trained, and commissioned to be his messenger. He had received his prophetic calling through the instrumentality of the liturgy in public worship, had grasped it as it applied to himself, as it was visually and audibly mediated to him. Thereupon he communicated it to the worshiping congregation (2:1–5).” This leads to the conclusion that he was a “cultic prophet” at the Jerusalem temple.

Habakkuk was a contemporary of Jeremiah, Nahum, and Zephaniah. Each prophet served during a pivotal era in Judah’s history: 625 b.c. to 575 b.c. In this fateful historical moment, Judah lost her national life and her religious center. Assyria faded from the historical scene, and Babylon took over. “Because she was a vassal of Egypt and a friend of Babylon, it seemed as if nothing could threaten the progress of Judah’s prosperity.”

Habakkuk’s ministry probably revolved around the two most significant events in the last quarter of the seventh century b.c. in the history of the ancient Near East—the fall of Nineveh to a coalition of Medes and Babylonians and the establishment of Babylon as the greatest power of the region. Israel, the Northern Kingdom, faced the Assyrian menace shortly after 740 b.c. and succumbed to it in 721 when the Assyrians destroyed the northern capital at Samaria and exiled the leading citizens across its vast empire (2 Kgs 17). Judah began facing Assyria seriously when King Ahaz of Judah refused to join Israel and Syria in a coalition against Assyria. Rather, Ahaz appealed to Tiglath-pileser of Assyria for help (2 Kgs 16:2–9 ; Isa 7:1–17 ; 8:4–8 ).

2 Kings 16:2–9 NKJV

2 Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; and he did not do what was right in the sight of the Lord his God, as his father David had done. 3 But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel; indeed he made his son pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had cast out from before the children of Israel. 4 And he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree. 5 Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to make war; and they besieged Ahaz but could not overcome him. 6 At that time Rezin king of Syria captured Elath for Syria, and drove the men of Judah from Elath. Then the Edomites went to Elath, and dwell there to this day. 7 So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son. Come up and save me from the hand of the king of Syria and from the hand of the king of Israel, who rise up against me.” 8 And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the Lord, and in the treasuries of the king’s house, and sent it as a present to the king of Assyria. 9 So the king of Assyria heeded him; for the king of Assyria went up against Damascus and took it, carried its people captive to Kir, and killed Rezin.

Isaiah 7:1–17 NKJV

1 Now it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to make war against it, but could not prevail against it. 2 And it was told to the house of David, saying, “Syria’s forces are deployed in Ephraim.” So his heart and the heart of his people were moved as the trees of the woods are moved with the wind. 3 Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-Jashub your son, at the end of the aqueduct from the upper pool, on the highway to the Fuller’s Field, 4 and say to him: ‘Take heed, and be quiet; do not fear or be fainthearted for these two stubs of smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and the son of Remaliah. 5 Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah have plotted evil against you, saying, 6 “Let us go up against Judah and trouble it, and let us make a gap in its wall for ourselves, and set a king over them, the son of Tabel”— 7 thus says the Lord God: “It shall not stand, Nor shall it come to pass. 8 For the head of Syria is Damascus, And the head of Damascus is Rezin. Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be broken, So that it will not be a people. 9 The head of Ephraim is Samaria, And the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son. If you will not believe, Surely you shall not be established.” ’ ” 10 Moreover the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying, 11 “Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God; ask it either in the depth or in the height above.” 12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord!” 13 Then he said, “Hear now, O house of David! Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. 15 Curds and honey He shall eat, that He may know to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16 For before the Child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that you dread will be forsaken by both her kings. 17 The Lord will bring the king of Assyria upon you and your people and your father’s house—days that have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah.”

Isaiah 8:4–8 NKJV

4 for before the child shall have knowledge to cry ‘My father’ and ‘My mother,’ the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be taken away before the king of Assyria.” 5 The Lord also spoke to me again, saying: 6 “Inasmuch as these people refused The waters of Shiloah that flow softly, And rejoice in Rezin and in Remaliah’s son; 7 Now therefore, behold, the Lord brings up over them The waters of the River, strong and mighty— The king of Assyria and all his glory; He will go up over all his channels And go over all his banks. 8 He will pass through Judah, He will overflow and pass over, He will reach up to the neck; And the stretching out of his wings Will fill the breadth of Your land, O Immanuel.

This led to the defeat of Israel in 733 and the capture and exile of Damascus in 732. Ahaz had to pay tribute as a vassal of Assyria.

In 704 Sennacherib became king of Assyria, leading to widespread revolt. Hezekiah of Judah led in the revolts, was pinned like a bird in a cage in Jerusalem, but finally experienced miraculous divine deliverance (2 Kgs 18–20; Isa 39). The Bible crowns Manasseh as the most evil of Judah’s kings (2 Kgs 21). Manasseh introduced Canaanite and Assyrian gods into the official Judean worship, even offering his own son as a burnt sacrifice to the Ammonite god Molech (2 Kgs 21:6 ).

2 Kings 21:6 NKJV

6 Also he made his son pass through the fire, practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft, and consulted spiritists and mediums. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger.

As an Assyrian vassal, he contributed forces to Ashurbanipal when the Assyrian king invaded and captured Egypt in 667 b.c. In 663 b.c. Ashurbanipal destroyed the Egyptian capital of Thebes (see Nah 3:8 ).

Nahum 3:8 NKJV

8 Are you better than No Amon That was situated by the River, That had the waters around her, Whose rampart was the sea, Whose wall was the sea?

Manasseh’s fifty-five year reign ended with his death in 641 b.c. The two-year reign of his son Amon (641–639 b.c.) was no better religiously or politically.

When Josiah (640–609 b.c.) came to the throne, the powerful Assyrian Empire had begun to crumble, allowing a new era of hope to dawn in Judah. Lack of leadership, particularly after the death of Ashurbanipal in 627, sent Assyria reeling. This placed all the Near East in ferment. “With a self-conscious and ambitious Egypt in the south, and with the movements of Scythian and other hordes in the north, everything was in the melting pot, and no one could have foreseen who would inherit the might of Assyria.”

Josiah came to the throne as an eight-year-old (2 Kgs 22:1 ).

2 Kings 22:1 NKJV

1 Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath.

Not much is known of his early years. Apparently, wise and trusted advisors governed, steering Josiah and the nation to the dawning of a new era. Josiah’s leadership toward political independence and religious reform coincides almost exactly with Assyria’s decline as the leading world power. “Josiah rules during years in which Assyria fades but also those in which Babylon is not yet ready to rule as far west as Judah and in a time when Egypt does not yet attempt to rule the smaller nations north of the border. Judah thereby gets a rest from its constant role as a political football.” In 627 b.c. Ashurbanipal died, and Josiah began to make major policy changes as he “began to seek the God of David his father” (2 Chr 34:3 ).

2 Chronicles 34:3 NKJV

3 For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the wooden images, the carved images, and the molded images.

Josiah’s reform had at least three components: (1) a consistent purge of foreign cults and practices, (2) destruction of the high places in the territory of the former Northern Kingdom as well as in the South, and (3) centralization of public worship in Jerusalem (2 Chr 34:3–7 ).

2 Chronicles 34:3–7 NKJV

3 For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the wooden images, the carved images, and the molded images. 4 They broke down the altars of the Baals in his presence, and the incense altars which were above them he cut down; and the wooden images, the carved images, and the molded images he broke in pieces, and made dust of them and scattered it on the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. 5 He also burned the bones of the priests on their altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. 6 And so he did in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, as far as Naphtali and all around, with axes. 7 When he had broken down the altars and the wooden images, had beaten the carved images into powder, and cut down all the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem.

Josiah renounced Assyria's gods and completely rejected the syncretistic policies of his grandfather, Manasseh.6 By removing the elements of the Assyrian state religion from the sanctuary, Josiah, in effect, revoked his vassal relationship. Religious reform became, at the same time, political reform.

In 621 b.c. while repairing the temple, workers found the Book of the Law, most often identified as all or part of the Book of Deuteronomy. This added impetus to the reform movement, providing evidence from ancient sources that such reform pleased God. Josiah called the people to the temple for a covenant renewal ceremony, where they made a covenant before the Lord to walk after the Lord and be obedient to his commands.

Thus, Josiah carried out the most thorough reform in Judah’s history. He transformed “the little state of Judah” into “the largest nation in western Palestine in the later part of the seventh century BCE.” One problem! “The leaders of the people ignored the spiritual reasons for their material prosperity and thought God’s favor could be enjoyed without interruption.”

While Judah was asserting its independence and purifying its religion, Babylon and Assyria were changing positions of authority in world politics. After the death of Ashurbanipal, Assyria’s fortunes immediately plummeted.

Nabopolasser of Babylon sought and gained his independence. For the next ten years (626–615 b.c.), Babylon and Assyria attacked and counterattacked each other over Assyria’s holdings in southern Mesopotamia.

Eventually, Nabopolasser took Nippur and freed all of Sumer and Akkad. This same year a coalition of Medes and Babylonians systematically began to reduce the Assyrian Empire by destroying its major strongholds. By 614 b.c. Cyaxares, the Mede, had defeated Ashur, one of Assyria’s capitals. Nineveh, the empire’s main city, did not collapse until 612. Finally, in 610/609 b.c. the final bastion of Assyrian resistance crumbled as the Medes and Babylonians captured Haran.

Using the Tigris River as the boundary for dividing the Assyrian holdings, the Medes took everything to the north and east while the Babylonians received the territory to the west and south. The marriage of the daughter of Cyaxares to Nebuchadrezzar, the son of Nabopolasser, completed the political alliance in typical Near Eastern style.

Egypt could not ignore the realignment of international power. In 609 b.c. Pharaoh Necho II went to Assyria’s aid at Carchemish, where Ashur-ballet made one last effort to recapture Haran from the Babylonians. Egypt hoped to halt the Babylonian march westward and wrench control of Syria-Palestine for itself. This placed Josiah in a difficult position. He apparently saw Egypt and Assyria as a serious threat to his religious reforms and desires for political independence.15

Josiah’s attempts have been described as “suicidal” and “foolish.”17 They resulted in death on the battlefield at Megiddo (2 Kgs 23:29 ).

2 Kings 23:29 NKJV

29 In his days Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt went to the aid of the king of Assyria, to the River Euphrates; and King Josiah went against him. And Pharaoh Necho killed him at Megiddo when he confronted him.

His army took his body back to Jerusalem in his chariot amid great lamentation (2 Chr 35:20–24 ).

2 Chronicles 35:20–24 NKJV

20 After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Carchemish by the Euphrates; and Josiah went out against him. 21 But he sent messengers to him, saying, “What have I to do with you, king of Judah? I have not come against you this day, but against the house with which I have war; for God commanded me to make haste. Refrain from meddling with God, who is with me, lest He destroy you.” 22 Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself so that he might fight with him, and did not heed the words of Necho from the mouth of God. So he came to fight in the Valley of Megiddo. 23 And the archers shot King Josiah; and the king said to his servants, “Take me away, for I am severely wounded.” 24 His servants therefore took him out of that chariot and put him in the second chariot that he had, and they brought him to Jerusalem. So he died, and was buried in one of the tombs of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.

Rowton has tried to rescue Josiah’s reputation, saying he succeeded in detaining Necho long enough that he could not aid the Assyrians: “Thus it seems very probably that the last of the great Jewish kings laid down his life in a truly heroic and entirely successful bid to avenge the dreadful wrongs his nation had suffered at the hands of Assyria.”

The people of the land selected Josiah’s son Jehoahaz as king rather than Eliakim, the firstborn. Evidently, they thought Jehoahaz would continue the struggle for independence. At the same time, Eliakim would submit to Egypt.20 Pharaoh Necho probably thought the same thing since after only a three-month reign, Jehoahaz was summoned to Necho’s headquarters at Riblah in central Syria. From there, the Egyptians imprisoned Jehoahaz and took him to Egypt, where he lived until his death (2 Kgs 23:33–34 ).

2 Kings 23:33–34 NKJV

33 Now Pharaoh Necho put him in prison at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and he imposed on the land a tribute of one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. 34 Then Pharaoh Necho made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in place of his father Josiah, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. And Pharaoh took Jehoahaz and went to Egypt, and he died there.

Necho installed Eliakim on the throne of Judah, where he served as an Egyptian vassal. Necho changed his name to Jehoiakim (2 Kgs 23:34–35 ), another way of exercising control and establishing that Jehoiakim served the pharaoh.

2 Kings 23:34–35 NKJV

34 Then Pharaoh Necho made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in place of his father Josiah, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. And Pharaoh took Jehoahaz and went to Egypt, and he died there. 35 So Jehoiakim gave the silver and gold to Pharaoh; but he taxed the land to give money according to the command of Pharaoh; he exacted the silver and gold from the people of the land, from every one according to his assessment, to give it to Pharaoh Necho.

Jehoiakim was certainly not a worthy successor to his father. Second Kings 24:4 describes him as a tyrant who shed innocent blood in Jerusalem.

2 Kings 24:4 NKJV

4 and also because of the innocent blood that he had shed; for he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, which the Lord would not pardon.

Jeremiah described him as an unjust and brutal despot whose chief interest was in the sumptuous enlargement of his palace (Jer 22:13–19 ).

Jeremiah 22:13–19 NKJV

13 “Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness And his chambers by injustice, Who uses his neighbor’s service without wages And gives him nothing for his work, 14 Who says, ‘I will build myself a wide house with spacious chambers, And cut out windows for it, Paneling it with cedar And painting it with vermilion.’ 15 “Shall you reign because you enclose yourself in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink, And do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him. 16 He judged the cause of the poor and needy; Then it was well. Was not this knowing Me?” says the Lord. 17 “Yet your eyes and your heart are for nothing but your covetousness, For shedding innocent blood, And practicing oppression and violence.” 18 Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: “They shall not lament for him, Saying, ‘Alas, my brother!’ or ‘Alas, my sister!’ They shall not lament for him, Saying, ‘Alas, master!’ or ‘Alas, his glory!’ 19 He shall be buried with the burial of a donkey, Dragged and cast out beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

Available records show him as the only king of Judah who put a prophet of Yahweh to death. Not even wicked Manasseh could claim such notoriety.

For years after the Battle of Megiddo, Necho maintained control over Syria and Palestine, primarily because the Babylonians were busy strengthening their positions in the Armenian mountains. In 605 b.c. Nabopolasser entrusted his army to his son Nebuchadnezzar, who attacked and defeated the Egyptian army at Carchemish: “The king of Egypt did not march out from his own country again, because the king of Babylon had taken all his territory, from the Wadi of Egypt to the Euphrates River” (2 Kgs 24:7 ).

2 Kings 24:7 NKJV

7 And the king of Egypt did not come out of his land anymore, for the king of Babylon had taken all that belonged to the king of Egypt from the Brook of Egypt to the River Euphrates.

Nebuchadnezzar chased the Egyptians across the Euphrates River to Hamath in Syria. The significance of this event must not be underestimated. With the victory, Babylon firmly established itself as the dominant world power. Also, it left all of Syria and Palestine open to Babylon’s armies. Tiny Judah had a new overlord. Jehoiakim quickly changed his obedience from Necho to Nabopolasser.

An Aramaic letter found at Saqqara in Egypt in 1942 indicates that a neighboring king did not submit so readily. King Adon requested urgent help from the Pharaoh for his beleaguered city. He described Nebuchadrezzar’s advance as far as Aphek and warned Necho that the Babylonians were on the verge of setting a governor over the land. Nebuchadnezzar might have pushed into Egypt had it not been for his father's death. Instead, he quickly returned home in 605 to be proclaimed king. In 602 b.c. Jehoiakim rebelled, apparently supporting an Egyptian attempt that led to the defeat of the Babylonian army in 601. Babylon reacted quickly (2 Kgs 24:1–2 ; 2 Chr 36:6 ).

2 Kings 24:1–2 NKJV

1 In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years. Then he turned and rebelled against him. 2 And the Lord sent against him raiding bands of Chaldeans, bands of Syrians, bands of Moabites, and bands of the people of Ammon; He sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord which He had spoken by His servants the prophets.

2 Chronicles 36:6 NKJV

6 Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against him, and bound him in bronze fetters to carry him off to Babylon.

During the winter of 598/597, Babylonian troops, apparently strengthened by contingents from Israel’s neighbors (2 Kgs 24:2 ), entered Judah and captured Jerusalem on March 16, 597 b.c.

2 Kings 24:2 NKJV

2 And the Lord sent against him raiding bands of Chaldeans, bands of Syrians, bands of Moabites, and bands of the people of Ammon; He sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord which He had spoken by His servants the prophets.

In the meantime, Jehoiakim had died. Nebuchadnezzar took Jehoiakim’s son Jehoiachin, the new king, captive to Babylon and placed another son of Josiah on the throne, naming him Zedekiah.

These “catastrophic events of the last decades of the seventh century b.c. and the first decades of the sixth century b.c. left many people reeling and disillusioned. It was an agitated time characterized by rapid political change, international turmoil, bloody military encounters, and a growing rebellion against the demands of the covenant by the great majority in Judah. Prophetic activity was feverish, not only with the ministries of people like Jeremiah, Nahum, Zephaniah, Huldah, and Ezekiel, but also with false prophets in abundance.”

Habakkuk 1:1–2:20

1 The burden which the prophet Habakkuk saw. 2 O Lord, how long shall I cry, And You will not hear? Even cry out to You, “Violence!” And You will not save. 3 Why do You show me iniquity, And cause me to see trouble? For plundering and violence are before me; There is strife, and contention arises. 4 Therefore the law is powerless, And justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; Therefore perverse judgment proceeds. 5 “Look among the nations and watch— Be utterly astounded! For I will work a work in your days Which you would not believe, though it were told you. 6 For indeed I am raising up the Chaldeans, A bitter and hasty nation Which marches through the breadth of the earth, To possess dwelling places that are not theirs. 7 They are terrible and dreadful; Their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves. 8 Their horses also are swifter than leopards, And more fierce than evening wolves. Their chargers charge ahead; Their cavalry comes from afar; They fly as the eagle that hastens to eat. 9 “They all come for violence; Their faces are set like the east wind. They gather captives like sand. 10 They scoff at kings, And princes are scorned by them. They deride every stronghold, For they heap up earthen mounds and seize it. 11 Then his mind changes, and he transgresses; He commits offense, Ascribing this power to his god.” 12 Are You not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O Lord, You have appointed them for judgment; O Rock, You have marked them for correction. 13 You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, And cannot look on wickedness. Why do You look on those who deal treacherously, And hold Your tongue when the wicked devours A person more righteous than he? 14 Why do You make men like fish of the sea, Like creeping things that have no ruler over them? 15 They take up all of them with a hook, They catch them in their net, And gather them in their dragnet. Therefore they rejoice and are glad. 16 Therefore they sacrifice to their net, And burn incense to their dragnet; Because by them their share is sumptuous And their food plentiful. 17 Shall they therefore empty their net, And continue to slay nations without pity? 1 I will stand my watch And set myself on the rampart, And watch to see what He will say to me, And what I will answer when I am corrected. 2 Then the Lord answered me and said: “Write the vision And make it plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it. 3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry. 4 “Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faith. 5 “Indeed, because he transgresses by wine, He is a proud man, And he does not stay at home. Because he enlarges his desire as hell, And he is like death, and cannot be satisfied, He gathers to himself all nations And heaps up for himself all peoples. 6 “Will not all these take up a proverb against him, And a taunting riddle against him, and say, ‘Woe to him who increases What is not his—how long? And to him who loads himself with many pledges’? 7 Will not your creditors rise up suddenly? Will they not awaken who oppress you? And you will become their booty. 8 Because you have plundered many nations, All the remnant of the people shall plunder you, Because of men’s blood And the violence of the land and the city, And of all who dwell in it. 9 “Woe to him who covets evil gain for his house, That he may set his nest on high, That he may be delivered from the power of disaster! 10 You give shameful counsel to your house, Cutting off many peoples, And sin against your soul. 11 For the stone will cry out from the wall, And the beam from the timbers will answer it. 12 “Woe to him who builds a town with bloodshed, Who establishes a city by iniquity! 13 Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts That the peoples labor to feed the fire, And nations weary themselves in vain? 14 For the earth will be filled With the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, As the waters cover the sea. 15 “Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbor, Pressing him to your bottle, Even to make him drunk, That you may look on his nakedness! 16 You are filled with shame instead of glory. You also—drink! And be exposed as uncircumcised! The cup of the Lord’s right hand will be turned against you, And utter shame will be on your glory. 17 For the violence done to Lebanon will cover you, And the plunder of beasts which made them afraid, Because of men’s blood And the violence of the land and the city, And of all who dwell in it. 18 “What profit is the image, that its maker should carve it, The molded image, a teacher of lies, That the maker of its mold should trust in it, To make mute idols? 19 Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Awake!’ To silent stone, ‘Arise! It shall teach!’ Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, Yet in it there is no breath at all. 20 “But the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him.”

Ideals of Eden vs. Loss Due to Sin vs. Restoration

According to premillennial dispensational conservative Bible scholars, the Gog-Magog war, the Armageddon war, and the final Battle are distinct events with different characteristics. Here are some of the differences:

Gog-Magog War (Ezekiel 38-39): The main enemies are specific named countries – Russia (Gog) & Islamic confederacy (Iran, Turkey, Libya, Sudan).

The battle location is in the mountains in northern Israel or north of Israel1.

The purpose of the attack is to take wealth1.

This event is believed to occur before the Antichrist appears, i.e., before the Rapture1.

God’s weapons of destruction include fire & brimstone, hail, torrents of rain, pestilence, self-inflicted wounds1.

The immediate result is that Israel uses the enemy army weapons for fuel for 7 years.

Israel cleans up the enemy army dead bodies from the mountains for 7 months1.

The end result is that the nations & Israel will know that Yahweh has done this & is Israel’s God1.

2. Armageddon War (Revelation 16:14-16; 19:1-21; Zechariah 14:1-17):

The enemies are most nations of the world led by the Antichrist and the Kings of the East (China)1.

The battle location is the Valley of Jezreel1.

The purpose of the attack is to obliterate Israel once and for all1.

This event occurs at the end of the 7-year Great Tribulation when Jesus returns in the 2nd Coming1.

The weapon of destruction is the glory coming from Jesus’ face & a sword coming from his mouth which will directly destroy all the evil armies1.

The immediate result is that the bodies & blood of the armies of the world fill the entire Jezreel valley up to the horses bridal. No cleanup is mentioned. Birds will eat their flesh1.

The end result is that Jesus sets up his 1000-Year Millennial Kingdom Reign based in Jerusalem & Israel repents & receives Jesus as their Messiah & God1.

Ezekiel 36-39: Ezekiel 39 Exegesis and Exposition April 24

Wednesday August 30, 2023

Ezekiel 36-39: Gog v. Babylon - When?

Wednesday September 06, 2023

Ezekiel 36-39: Gog v. Babylon - When? Review of Jeremiah 50:33-51:64

Ezekiel 36-39: Gog v. Babylon - When? Review of Jeremiah 50:33-51:64

Wednesday September 20, 2023

Ezekiel 36-39: Gog v. Babylon - When? Consideration Jeremiah 50:33-51:64

Ezekiel 36-39: Gog v. Babylon - When? Jeremiah 50:41-51:14

Wednesday September 27, 2023

Ezekiel 36-39: Gog v. Babylon - When? Consideration Jeremiah 50:1-51:64

Ezekiel 36-39: Gog v. Babylon - When? Jeremiah 50:41-51:14

Contemporary or Future ?

Wednesday October 4, 2023

Ezekiel 36-39: Gog v. Babylon - When? Consideration Jeremiah 50:1-51:64

Ezekiel 36-39: Gog v. Babylon - When? Jeremiah 51:15-59

Contemporary or Future ?

Wednesday October 11, 2023

Ezekiel 36-39: Gog v. Babylon - When? Consideration Jeremiah 50:1-51:64

Jeremiah 51:20-64

Contemporary or Future ? Continuing in Jeremiah 50-51

Wednesday October 18, 2023

Ezekiel 36-39: Gog v. Babylon - When? Consideration Jeremiah 50:1-51:64

Jeremiah 51:45-64

Contemporary or Future ? Continuing in Jeremiah 50-51

Further Description of Babylon’s Fall (51:36–44)

An Appeal to Flee from Babylon (51:45–48)

Another Warning of Babylon’s Coming Destruction (51:49–58)

Wednesday October 25, 2023

Ezekiel 36-39: Gog v. Babylon - When? Consideration Jeremiah 50:1-51:64

Jeremiah 51:45-64

Wednesday November 1, 2023

Ezekiel 36-39: Gog v. Babylon - When? Consideration Jeremiah 50:1-51:64

Jeremiah 51:45-64

Contemporary or Future ? Continuing in Jeremiah 50-51

Seraiah’s Symbolic Act Against Babylon (51:59–64)

Prophecies of Future

Contrast of Invasion and Security

Wednesday November 8, 2023

Ezekiel 36-39: Gog v. Babylon - When?

Wednesday January 03 2024

Ezekiel 36-39: Gog and Magog

Wednesday January 17 2024

Wednesday February 14, 2024

Ezekiel 36-39: Gog and Magog - When?

Ezekiel 36-39: Gog v. Babylon - When?

End of February 14, 2024

Wednesday February 28, 2024

Ezekiel 36-39: Gog and Magog - Exposition Details

End of Teaching 2/21/2024

Wednesday February 28, 2024

Ezekiel 36-39: Gog and Magog - Exposition Details, v12 —

Ezekiel 38:12

End of Teaching 2/28/2024

Wednesday March 6, 2024

Ezekiel 36-39: Gog and Magog - Exposition Details, v12 —

Review

Ezekiel 38:13

Ezekiel 38:14-16 - New Strophe

Ezekiel 38:17-23

End of Teaching Wednesday 3/6/2024

Wednesday March 13, 2024

Ezekiel 36-39: Gog and Magog - Exposition Details, v12 —

Review

Ezekiel 39:1-6 - The Magnitude of Gog’s Defeat

End of March 13, 2024

Wednesday March 20, 2024

Ezekiel 36-39: Gog and Magog - Exposition Details 39:—

Review

Ezekiel 39:1–8

Wednesday March 27, 2024

Ezekiel 36-39: Gog and Magog - Exposition Details 39:—

Review

Ezekiel 39:9–16

End of 3/27/2024 Class

Wednesday April 3, 2024

Ezekiel 36-39: Gog and Magog - Exposition Details 39:—

Review

End of Wednesday April 3, 2024

Wednesday April 10, 2024