INTRODUCTION
PRELUDE: USHERING IN MILLENNIAL PEACE
Yet, as the millennial age draws to a close, it will be revealed—starkly,
horrendously—that there are many—far too many—who do not truly
grasp this reality, along with many other realities about the
God who has been proclaimed from Zion for nearly a thousand years!
GOG'S EVIL PLAN
The purpose is plunder [we have to ask ourselves why; what
do the people of God in the Holy Land have that this multitude
of (also supposedly godly) humanity does not have (or thinks it
does not have, and/or covets? Eph 5:5 tells us that covetousness
is idolatry, and the idolater does not know the true God)], for
the people of Israel are rich and vulnerable, for they dwell in
towns and villages without walls.
Persia, Cush, Put and Gomer are listed as allies with Gog in this
massive invasion force, an army of horsemen, equipped with swords,
shields and helmets (vv. 5-6), described as advancing like as
storm from the north (v. 9), just as the Babylonian advance against
Jerusalem was described by Jeremiah in his day (4:13). The enemies
of Israel have always been depicted as coming from the "north",
be they Assyria, Babylon or Syria. Verse 15 has "from the
far north", rendered by the NRSV as "out of the remotest
parts of the north".
GOG IDENTIFIED
So while in Ezek 38:4 and 39:2l the armies of Gog are described
as being drawn and sent by God, here in Rev 20:8 we have
confirmation that they are deceived [the evil thoughts
of the mind of Gog that the omniscient God rehearses back to him
in Ezek 38:10-12] and so gathered by Satan. What is the
nature of this deception that envelops the multitudes, we may
ask?
Furthermore, Gog and Magog, rather than being a particular land
or location, are equated with the nations from "the four
corners of the earth", as many as "the sand on the seashore"—the
"cloud covering the earth" of Ezek 38:16. Whereas in
Ezek 38:1, Magog is depicted as the territory over which Gog is
ruler, here in Revelation, as in Sibylline and rabbinical literature
(where Gog and Magog are symbols for forces that oppose authentic
religion), Gog and Magog are parallel names, symbolic of those
nations and people of the world who, as the Millennium comes to
an end, band together to defy God and His saints.
From the Catholic Encyclopaedia comes the following quote:
Renowned and feared for their ruthless cruelty, the Scythians
came like a flight of locusts, devouring the countryside, consuming
crops, slaughtering livestock, burning homes and villages, and
massacring the inhabitants of the land. They were fierce tribesmen
who were paid no wage unless they could produce scalps of enemy
soldiers killed. Every Scyth owned at least one horse used for
riding into battle. All carried a double curved bow, shooting
over the horse's left shoulder. Arrows and bow were carried in
a case slung from the left side of a belt. The Scyths also carried
swords, knives and daggers and wore bronze helmets and chain mail
jerkins lined with red felt. They bore round shields decorated
with central gold emblems in the shape of an animal. Accomplished
horsemen, their approach was always unnaturally sudden and gave
them the great advantage of surprise attack. The Scythians advanced
quickly southwestward as far as Palestine, striking fear into
the hearts of the people of every nation that lay in their path.
Yet quite amazingly, as one historian puts it "Within ten
years the[se] Asiatic horsemen had disappeared again like an evil
apparition." (Werner Keller, The Bible As History, p.
273).
The Scythians were regarded by the more civilized nations of antiquity
as the wildest of barbarians, by the Roman world as the absolute
example of paganism, the climax of barbarity. We can note the
use of the term by the apostle Paul to the Church to illustrate
that Christianity transcends all racial, religious, cultural or
social barriers:
THE JUDGMENT OF GOG
What makes this end-time generation so readily corruptible? Has
God's Name not been proclaimed in all the earth over the past
one thousand years? Yes, indeed, just as it was proclaimed in
the whole land of ancient Egypt by the mighty miracles of God
in the deliverance of His people Israel. But was the sovereignty
of the great God acknowledged—willingly—by those who experienced
His acts of intercession? No, neither by the Israelites delivered
from their bondage, nor by the Egyptians who tasted His wrath
and judgment. And neither, it seems, by vast multitudes of this
final generation living in this peaceful, millennial age. When
tested, most will be found sadly wanting!
The manner of God's judgment of these nations arrayed against
His people will be no different from His acts of judgment of earlier
oppressors of His people, verse 17 tells us (the annihilation
of the armies of Sennacherib of Assyria [Isa 37:36]; the overthrow
of the final "king of the North" of this age [Da 11:40-45]).
Had this vast army intent on evil and destruction completely forgotten
what must surely still be recorded in the annals of history, if
not in the folklore and epics of that millennial age: that some
thousand years ago, the Son of God and the vast armies of heaven
obliterated the forces of the nations who had likewise come against
God's holy city and against His Christ (Rev 19:11-21)? Apparently
so, for these fallen multitudes of Gog will provide a sacrificial
feast for the birds and beasts of prey (Ezek 39:17-20), just as
was provided for the birds who fed on the rotted flesh of the
armies of the beast and the false prophet (Rev 19:17-18).
THE DEVIL'S LAST PLAY: THE PURIM LINK
Firstly, notice what God will allow this massive army of rebellious
humanity to actually do before it is dealt with:
The term "the beloved city", referenced in Ps 78:68;
87:2, seems to be as much an illusion to spiritual Mount Zion
as it is to the millennial city of Jerusalem, site of the Temple
of God (Ezek 40-44); so is this as much a battle inspired by the
Devil against Christ, and the holy mountain of God, as it is a
quest for plunder on the part of rebellious human beings? What
was put into the heart of the masses of Gog by the Devil—the desire
for physical plunder in "the land of unwalled villages [Ezek
38:12]"—may not have been exactly synonymous with Satan's
real aim: the launching of a plot to topple Christ and end His
rule on earth from Jerusalem!
Israel will call the valley where Gog is defeated the "Valley
of Hamon-Gog"—the Valley of "the hordes or multitudes
of Gog" (Ezek 39:11,15; cf. v. 16). The Hebrew word hamon
is spelt almost exactly like the name Haman, who engineered
the attempt to eradicate the Jews in the Book of Esther. In Hebrew,
both words have the same triliteral root hmn. Only
the vowels are different—although in the word hamon, the
vowel o is indicated by the letter vav.
Just as in Ezekiel 39 and 39 Gog is to attack when God's people
are dwelling securely in the land (Ezek 38:11), so in the Book
of Esther were the Jews living in a time of peace. Yet young and
old, women and children, they were all to be annihilated and their
goods plundered (Est 3:13) by the forces of the Persians, the
rulers of the "127 provinces stretching from India to Cush"
(Est 1:1), even as the hordes of Gog had similar intentions (Ezek
38:12). Eventually granted the right to defend themselves against
their enemies and to plunder the property (Est 8:11) of those
who sought to plunder them (3:13), the Jews in Esther's time did
not lay their hands on any spoils (Est 9:10,16). The servants
of God have the same prerogative with regard to the fallen of
Gog, yet seem not to literally avail themselves of this, except
to use their discarded weapons as firewood for the next seven
years (39:9-10):
All these points considered together would seem to indicate that
this attack by the forces of Gog is nothing less than the Devil's
final attempt to destroy the people and the faith of the true
God! Could the words of Haman to King Xerxes of Persia correspond
to future words or thoughts of Satan inculcated into the minds
of the nations symbolized by Gog:
Amazingly, no attempt has been made to stop this mass of humanity
until it has encompassed the Holy City itself! For
who knows how long, these armies have been traversing, unhindered,
it would appear, the four corners of the earth towards their common
destination in the Holy Land! We are not told how much damage
is wreaked upon the earth, both in the lands of passage as well
as in the land of final destination, how much plunder is seized,
how much harm and suffering is inflicted by these hordes on their
way to Jerusalem. The millennial peace is suddenly shattered and
a massive army, seemingly equipped with the most primitive of
armaments, has encircled the city of Jerusalem itself.
THE TESTING OF THE NATIONS
Another cause for God's delayed reaction must surely be that for
this end-time age, these events are a necessary part of the testing
and refining of God (Mt 25:32-33).
Let us use the analogy of temptation and sin provided by the apostle
James to illustrate the point:
For months and months no doubt this end-time generation of the
Millennium will witness the upheaval of the entire earth as nations
and people decide to amass in support of this ungodly cause, this
vast movement that the Devil and his cohorts have portrayed as
a cause celebre, a noble quest. Satan has provided, promised,
an evil alternative to the good promises of God, just as he did
for Adam and Eve, an alternative that will, however, stand in
stark contrast to the true Word of God. Indeed, perhaps that same
old line will have again been insinuated into the minds of this
movement by the Father of lies: "You will not die!"
(Ge 3:4). The pressure will be enormous as men and women throughout
the world are pressed to make choices, for good or for evil. Who
will stand up for God when it seems that humanity as a whole is
prepared to resist Him?
Yet is God unfair? Is this situation any different from the choices
that had to be made by our first parents, Adam and Eve, or indeed
by any human being who has truly come face to face with the Word
of God? Does this final generation prior to the Great White Throne
Judgment have any less clear-cut alternatives than Adam and Eve
had? Sadly, however, it seems that the vast majority will nonetheless
make the wrong choice, a stark testimony to the eternal truth
that "many are called but few are chosen" (Mt 22:14)!
"If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become
of the ungodly and the sinner?" (1Pe 4:18)
The lesson of the Israel so often scattered and so often restored—that
is, how God deals with and purifies His errant people—will also
be finally understood:
The overthrow of Gog will confirm and indelibly ingrain onto the
psyche of God's people the lessons still imperfectly understood
through the mists of the memories of past scatterings and restorations.
The promised blessings of God are summarized and re-confirmed
in verses 25-29 [for instance, verse 27 reiterates a re-gathering
from exile that obviously occurred long ago, before the advent
of Gog (Ezek 38:8)], but this time the message will stick:
CONCLUSION
The account of the overthrow and judgment of 'Gog, of the land
of Magog' is a sobering reminder of the ever-present threat of
the power of evil and of the Evil One who would undermine the
good things which God wants to do for His people. It recalls for
us also the patience and mercy of the great God who intervenes
mightily for His saints and who "desires all men to be saved
and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1Ti 2:4)—but
not merely some academic, text-book knowledge half-heartedly embraced
or even later repudiated, as is seen to be the case for that last
generation of the millennial age, but a knowledge built upon a
living faith and the personal experience of the goodness of the
God of Israel.
The invasion of 'Gog, of the land of Magog', recounted in Ezekiel
chapters 38 and 39, cannot be identified with any known historical
event. The account is reminiscent of God's acts of judgment upon
Pharaoh and Egypt and offers comparisons with His deliverance
of His people at the time of Esther. The lesson of Gog is sobering
as well as encouraging: God will judge all evil and evil-doers,
but He also gives men space to repent and delivers and perfects
His people. In the story of Gog and Magog is a salutary message
very pertinent to the meaning of the Last Great Day.
It is the indication of Scripture that after Christ has destroyed
His enemies gathered against Him at Jerusalem, a period of education
in the ways of God is ushered in over the earth:
Zec 14:16-19 And it shall come to pass that everyone who
is left of all the nations which came [that is, whose armies 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 [so the hand of God touches everyone].
18 If the family of Egypt [as an example] 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.
With the Devil and his demons restrained (Rev 20:1-3), the millennial
age is therefore a time when obedience to the Way of God is taught
to and learned by the nations—and all nations are affected:
Isa 2:2 Now it shall come to pass in the latter days
[the terms "latter day", "last days", "that
day", "those days" are generally pre-millennial
or millennial ones: Isa 2:17; 2:2; 10:20; 11:9-11; 27:13; Jer
25:33; 30:7,24; Hos 3:5; Joel 2:29; 3:1; Zec 14:4,9; Acts 2:17]
that the mountain of the Lord's house [Mount Zion: the worship
of the LORD, in other words] shall be established on the top
of the mountains [above all other forms of worship], and shall
be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow
to it.
This time is also pictured as a one of universal peace:
Isa 2:4 He shall judge between the nations, and [as part
of this process of judgment] rebuke many people; they shall beat
their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall
they learn war [NIV: "train for war"] anymore.
The nations of the world, we are here told, will no longer learn
the art of warring against each other in this age of the rule
of Christ and the saints. Not only that but:
Isa 11:9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy
mountain, [Why not?] for the earth shall [in time] be full of
the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.
Psalm 98, among others, prophetically celebrates the joyous millennial
reign of Christ and the saints when God makes known His salvation
(v. 3) in fulfillment of His promises. Notice the latter part
of verse 3:
Ps 98:3 All the ends of the earth have seen the
salvation of our God.
There will be no soul in the world who, in time, will not have
heard of the victory, the deliverance, the salvation of God. In
Psalm 46:10, God addresses all the nations:
Ps 46:10 Be still, and know [acknowledge this,
for it will be obvious to all] that I am God; I will be
exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!
Ezekiel 36 records God's prophecy to the "mountains of Israel",
a time of conversion (vv. 25-27) and restoration for His people.
The chapter details:
This exaltation of God in the eyes of all nations will be achieved
through the fruits that attest to what He has done in the lives
of His saints, the Israel of God who will succeed where the Israel
of old failed: "…the nations shall know that I am the
LORD, says the Lord GOD, when through you I display my
holiness [God's manifestation of His holiness is a recurrent theme
in Ezekiel] before their eyes." (Ezek 36:23).
Ezek 36:33-35 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 [the Hebrew
can also mean "defenced", from "defended"]
and inhabited.'"
Are we then to believe that, at a time of universal peace, these
millennial cities require fortifications for protection? Let us
note the prophet Zechariah's vision of the Jerusalem of the future:
Zec 2:4-5 (NRSV) "…Jerusalem shall be inhabited
like villages without walls, because of the multitude of people
and animals in it. 5 For I will be a wall of fire all around
it, says the LORD, and I will be the glory within it."
God promises to defend His city from any threat, to shield and
protect her as He did His people in the wilderness (Ex 13:21).
With no visible wall for protection, God alone will be the One
to whom people will turn for their safety. He is the true fortification of His saints.
In Ezekiel 38:1-39:16 are penned a series of three oracles from
God against 'Gog, of the land of Magog' (v2). Beginning with the
first:
Ezek 38:1-4 (NIV) The word of the LORD came to me: 2 "Son
of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief
prince [the appropriate translation of the Hebrew "Rosh"]
of Meshech and Tubal; prophesy against him 3 and say: 'This is
what the Sovereign LORD says: I am against you, O Gog, chief prince
of Meshech and Tubal. 4 I will turn you around, put hooks in
your jaws [39:2] and bring you out with your whole army—your horses,
your horsemen fully armed, and a great horde…'"
Gog is described as being dragged along, as it were, by God from
"the far north" (v. 6,15), as though he had no choice
in the matter. "I will bring you against my land", God
announces to him in verse 16. But is God responsible for this
horde that seeks to invade and plunder His inheritance? Notice
verses 10-12:
Ezek 38:10-12 (NRSV) Thus says the Lord GOD: On that day
thoughts will come into your mind [your own thoughts, influenced,
as we will see, by the Evil One], and you will devise an evil
scheme [of your own volition]. 11 You will say, "I will
go up against the land of unwalled villages [for God alone is
the protection of those who trust in Him]; I will fall upon the
quiet people who live in safety, all of them living without walls,
and having no bars or gates 12 to seize spoil and carry off plunder;
to assail the waste places that are now inhabited, and the people
who were gathered from the nations, who are acquiring cattle and
goods, who live at the center of the earth [cf. Ezek 5:5: Jerusalem
was regarded as the center or 'navel' of the earth, literally
and spiritually]."
The thoughts and actions of Gog are foreknown and announced by
God in advance, just as He attested to the heart that Pharaoh
of ancient Egypt had hardened against the God and the people of
Israel.
Ezek 38:8 (NIV) After many days you will be called to arms.
In future years [a variant of "in the latter days"]
you will invade a land that has recovered from war, [how long
does a nation take to fully recover from war?] whose people were
gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel, which had
long been desolate. They had been brought out [a long time ago;
but God wants this fact remembered] from the nations, and now
all of them live in safety.
This then is hardly something that is to happen, as is the belief
of some, very shortly after the return of Christ and the beginning
of the epoch of the Millennium; rather, it is an event that occurs
much, much later, although the memory of their deliverance through
the mighty acts of God has been deeply imprinted into the record
of the history of the people of God. Yet they too, as we will
see, will come to know their God more perfectly through what is
about to unfold before their eyes.
This is the biblical language of war. Even the nations who will
fight the returning Christ outside Jerusalem are depicted as having
horses, mules, camels and donkeys in their camps (Zec 14:15),
and as riding horses (Rev 11:18). Yet in an era where men will
not "train for war any more" (Isa 2:4, NIV), and where
spears are beaten into plowshares, there would seem to be no call
for the modern armaments of our age.
In Rev 20:3, where the Devil [and all his demons: 1Enoch 88:1,3]
is portrayed as being bound up at the return of Christ and locked
away into an "abyss" that is "sealed over"
(NIV, NRSV) him, we are also told that, after a thousand years,
"he must be set free for a short time" (NIV). So Satan
will be released because this is according to the Plan of God!
Why? Let us note verses 7-8:
Rev 20:7-8 (NIV) When the thousand years are over, Satan
will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive
the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog [so
Gog and Magog typify these nations]—to gather them for
battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore.
The binding of Satan and his demons has been a restraint on evil,
but has of course not extirpated it, and the minds of this end-time
generation are especially susceptible, so it would seem. Satan,
again unrestrained on the earth, does what he has always done,
and resumes his previous deception of the nations. The "deceiver
of the whole world" (Rev 12:9, NRSV) prior to the millennial
age is about to re-enact the same deception—but this time, in
blitzkrieg style! The lesson of his corruptness and of his unwillingness
and inability to repent is about to be demonstrated to the entire
world.
"From the number and variety of the peoples mentioned in
this connection some writers have inferred that the name Gog may
be only a generic appellation, or figure, used in Ezechiel [Ezekiel]
to designate the host of the enemies of Israel, and in the Apocalypse
[the Book of Revelation] to denote the multitude of the foes of
the Church. Others conjecture that it may be a local title expressing
the royal dignity, such as the name Pharaoh in Egypt."
(Article: Gog and Magog)
While "Gog" is symbolic of these masses of humanity
who oppose God, it seems quite valid also to take the name as
the title, again symbolic, of the leader of these forces
who rise up to rebel against God. From The New John Gill's
Exposition of the Entire Bible:
"Gog signifies 'high' and eminent, one in a very exalted
station: it comes from the same root, and has the same signification,
as Agag, to whose height and exaltation there is an allusion
in Num 24:7 [it appears that Agag was a general name for the king
of the Amalekites, the perpetual enemies of ancient Israel, as
Pharaoh was for the king of the Egyptians], where the Samaritan
and Septuagint versions read Gog: it is the same with Arabic,
'Jagog', by which name the Arabians called the Scythians…"
From the New Standard Bible Dictionary by Jacobus, Lane and
Zenos, p. 307:
"The fact that the definite location of the "land of
Magog" is left uncertain and indeterminate to us in the Bible
(as well as in secular history), along with the prophet's reference
to the final part of the years (Ezek 38:8) and the fact that the
described invasion is not known to have taken place literally
upon Israel, provides the basis for viewing the prophet as relating
to a future time in the Biblical time of the end. Thus many commentators
see in it a forecast of the final attack of the world powers upon
the kingdom of God, and the land of Magog as representing the
world as hostile to God's people and kingdom."
HISTORICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Historically, the nations mentioned in this passage—Magog, Meshech,
Tubal, [Meshech and Tubal are mentioned in Ezek 27:13 as being
sellers of slaves to Tyre; and in 32:26 as peoples who spread
terror; in Ps 120:5-6, the psalmist, besieged by slanderers, describes
himself as living in Meshech, among those who hate peace]
Gomer and Beth-togarmah—were a barbarous, nomadic people known
generally in ancient literature as the Scythians who had moved
from central Asia to southern Russia between 800 and 600 B.C.
Just about the same time that Ezekiel was born, it seems, they
terrorized southwest Asia and the Middle East, with even an incursion
into Judah, and thus may have served as a type of the far more
immense invasion to come by Gog and his masses which the prophet
was asked to record. Apparently Josephus identifies these hordes
historically with the Scythians, an identification that appears
to be generally accepted, although the term "Scythian"
came to be used vaguely to denote almost any northern population
about which little was known.
Col 3:11 where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised
nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ
is all and in all.
The fact that the term "Scythian", with which Magog
is usually associated, came to be used in the Scriptures as a
synonym for that which is brutal and beastlike (2Pe 2:12; Jude
10), also gives credence to the identification of these end-time
hordes as having fallen from grace and so opposed to God and those
who are God's.
In Ezek 38:16, at the beginning of His second oracle against Gog,
God announces His purpose in "bringing" Gog and his
masses against the land of His inheritance:
Ezek 38:16 "You will advance against my people Israel
like a cloud that covers the land. In days to come, O Gog, I will
bring you against my land, so that the nations may know me
when I show myself holy [NRSV: "when I display my holiness"]
through you before their eyes."
It seems ironic and almost unbelievable that in the final days
of the millennial age of peace with an abundance of the Word and
of the knowledge of God covering the earth "as the waters
cover the sea" (Isa 11:9), God will once more—one final time
more—have to do what He has always done in times past: illustrate
more fully His way and His holiness through His mighty acts of
judgment by intervening for His people! As God said to Pharaoh
of old, so He now in effect says to Gog, to all those nations
and people intent upon doing the bidding of the Devil: "I
have raised you up for this very purpose ["but you are doing
what you want to do!"], that I might show you my power
and that my name [and all that the Name of God stands for] might
be proclaimed in all the earth." (Ex 9:16; Ro 9:17).
Rev 20:9 (NRSV) They marched up over the breadth of the
earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city.
And fire came down from heaven and consumed them.
Their punishment recalls the language of the plagues of God's
fury upon Egypt, with all the forces of nature (v. 20) mobilized
as instruments of the divine judgment against Gog, as Ezekiel illustrates:
Ezek 38:18-19,20,21-22 (NRSV) "On that day, when Gog
comes against the land of Israel", says the Lord GOD, "my
wrath shall be aroused. 19 For in my jealousy and in my blazing
wrath [NKJV: "the fire of My wrath"; cf. "fire
… from heaven"] I declare: On that day there shall be
a great shaking in the land of Israel.
Gog's homeland—those nations who have chosen this road of rebellion—will
also be visited in judgment:
20 (NIV) ….and all the people on the face of the earth will
tremble at my presence…. 21-22 (NRSV) I will summon the sword
against Gog in all my mountains", says the Lord GOD; "the
swords of all will be against their comrades [cf. Zec 14:13: just
as in the battle for Jerusalem a thousand years ago]. 22 With
pestilence and bloodshed I will enter into judgment with him;
and I will pour down torrential rains and hailstones, fire and
sulfur, upon him and his troops and the many peoples [NIV: "nations";
those not a part of this army but supportive of what is being
done here?] that are with him."
Ezek 39:6 (NRSV) "I will send fire on Magog and on
those who live securely in the coastlands; and they shall know
that I am the LORD."
And again, as a result:
Ezek 38:23 (NIV) "And so I will show my greatness
and my holiness, and I will make myself known in the sight of
many nations. Then they will know that I am the LORD."
For those who remain, there will be no more doubting this fact!
The fallen hordes of Gog and Magog are depicted—symbolically and/or
literally—as sacrifices of God:
Ezek 39:4 (NIV) "On the mountains of Israel you will
fall, you and all your troops and the nations with you. I will
give you as food to all kinds of carrion birds and to the wild
animals."
In verses 17-20 the fallen army is described in terms of sacrificed
animals: rams and lambs, goats and bulls. Fat and blood, not eaten
by the Israelites, and normally reserved for God (Lev 3:17), presents
no such scruples to these animal and winged feasters at what God
calls His "table"! These fallen enemies of God are devoted
to destruction by His edict, just as was the ancient city
of Jericho (Josh 6:17) and all the tribes of the Canaanites (Dt
20:16-18). The imagery is as harsh as that of the previously-mentioned
great supper of God of the armies who had fought Christ
(Rev 19:17-18) at His return. And yet this is supposed to be the
civilization of God, is it not? Why then is the judgment of God
so final and His wrath so complete upon this generation which
resists Him? Let's revisit Rev 20:9 to attempt to answer this
question and in the process, to consider the lessons that we too
need to learn.
Rev 20:9 (NRSV) They [the nations of the earth; all
nations, it would appear; remember that Satan deceives the nations
"from the four corners of the earth" (v. 8)] marched
up over the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp
[the Septuagint uses this Greek word to describe the congregation
of Israel in the wilderness, e.g. Ex 29:14] of the saints and
the beloved city. And fire came down from heaven and consumed
them.
There seems no reason to suppose that this is even an organized
army, drawn thoughtfully and methodically from all over the world.
The nations, symbolized by Gog [even if this is a title denoting
authority] are motivated by the Devil's deception to band together
in a common cause: an invasion of the Holy Land. The imagery of
a "cloud covering the land" (Ezek 38:9,16), "advancing
like a storm" (Ezek 38:9), "in number … like the
sand on the seashore" (Rev 20:8) is suggestive of a massive,
worldwide movement of humanity which has suddenly been beguiled
by the Devil to strike out against God. It is a storm-like attack.
Ezek 39:10 (NRSV) "….they will despoil those
who despoiled them, and plunder those who plundered them",
says the Lord GOD.
Those who seek to assail and plunder the heritage of God will
themselves be plundered, for "whoever touches you, touches
the apple of My eye", God warns (Zec 2:8, NRSV; cf. Dt 32:10).
This was the lesson commemorated by the Feast of Purim in Esther's
day, and it will likewise be one of the lessons eventually learnt
by all the nations of the earth.
Est 3:8 …."There is a certain people scattered
and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of your kingdom;
their laws are different from all other people's, and they do
not keep the king's laws. Therefore it is not fitting for the
king to let them remain." ["and they are thus fruit
for the picking!"]
Again, we may ask: what renders the people of the end-time Millennium,
recipients of the Word and the Law of God for so many generations,
so instantaneously susceptible to the deception of Satan the Devil?
So why is this evil not checked at its inception, before it spreads
across the face of the whole earth? Surely one reason will be
because God has not changed. He is, as ever, "longsuffering
toward us [you], not willing that any should perish but that all
should come to repentance." (2Pe 3:9). God graciously gives
even overtly rebellious men time to repent, as has been the pattern
of His dealings with the Church:
Rev 2:21 "And I gave her time to repent of her sexual
immorality …."
No doubt this is the only way the lessons of obedience and faith
can be learnt by those of this generation who are foreordained
to learn them. As to how long rebellious activity of this nature
can continue to go on with the divine warnings unheeded is for
God alone to say. Jesus Christ held out the hand of forgiveness
and reconciliation to Judas Iscariot till the very end, although
fully cognizant of his reprobacy (Jn 6:64,70-71; 13:18). Nonetheless,
throughout the weeks and months of this mass resistance against
Him, the patience and longsuffering of our great God is eminently
displayed to all with eyes to see. Do we, as His saints, even
now fully appreciate this attribute of our heavenly Father as
it is exhibited towards us?
Let us consider the dynamics that may well be at work as the entire
earth gears up to resist the Almighty God and His saints. The
reasons for the assembling of this mighty invasion force are questioned
by some of the nations and their peoples not—at least at this
stage—participants in this massive plot, but spectators whose
motives may or may not be honorable—for the lure of plunder would
without doubt be an ever-present temptation:
Ezek 38:13 Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish
and all her villages [NSRV: "young warriors"] will say
to you, "Have you come to plunder? Have you gathered your
hordes to loot, to carry off silver and gold, to take away livestock
and goods and to seize much plunder?" ["Is this what
it's really all about?"]
Sheba, Dedan and Tarshish may well be types of people who, when
confronted by this awesome spectacle in ages to come, start to
ask questions, begin to take stock and who come to realize that,
in the light of this great evil rapidly overtaking all nations,
a decision must be made—either for good or for evil.
Jas 1:13-15 (NRSV) [James has been writing about the outward
trials being undergone by the Church; now he passes on to inward
trials or temptations] No one, when tempted [the Greek also means
"tested" or "tried"], should say, "I
am being tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil
and he himself tempts no one. 14 But one is tempted by one's
own desire, being lured and enticed by it [consider a picture
of a hunter or a fisherman luring his prey from its safe retreat];
15 then, when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin,
and that sin, when it is fully grown [and now unrestrainable],
gives birth to death.
'Tempt' and 'test' represent the same Greek word, which strictly
speaking means 'to test'. God tests, as He did Abraham in Ge 22:1,
'to prove', to bring out the good; Satan tempts to bring out the
bad. Yet God uses both to refine those who are His. The true source
of temptation is the evil heart within, fed by the lusts of the
Devil, who will provide and/or feed the evil desire which opposes
the will of God. This unlawful desire—and for this end generation
it will, it seems, essentially be covetousness—has a child called
sin which, when it is 'full-grown', gives birth to death. Yet,
as every Christian has experienced, more often than not there
are several steps before the evil desire becomes the full-fledged
sin, and at each of these stages the decision can still be made
to resist and flee the temptation and so avoid the sin.
Those of this final age of the Millennium who may have not personally
experienced the true God of Israel and tasted His ways in their
very hearts can still, if they are willing to heed the lessons
to be learnt through this great calamity, become fully aware of
the goodness and righteousness of the God they have always had
proclaimed to them, and recognize and abandon the error of their
ways and thinking. The promises and purposes of the Devil will
be seen for the futility that they are, and that they have always
been. As has been mentioned, the nations will come to truly know
God through the destruction of Gog and his forces (38:16, 23).
Never again will a rebellion of this nature take place.
Ezek 39:23-24 (NRSV) "And the nations shall know that
the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity, because
they dealt treacherously with me. So I hid my face from them and
gave them into the hand of their adversaries, and they all fell
by the sword. 24 I dealt with them according to their uncleanness
and their transgressions, and hid my face from them."
LESSONS FOR THE PEOPLE OF GOD
The judgment meted out by the God of Israel is not for wayward
distant nations alone. The Israel of God will also have been further
educated:
Ezek 39:7 (NIV) "'I will make known my holy name among
my people Israel. I will no longer let my holy name be profaned
[from within and without], and the nations will know that I the
LORD am the Holy One in Israel.'"
Do we uphold the sanctity of the Name of our God—His holy Name—in
words and in deeds? It would behoove us to do so, would it not?
22 "From that day forward [and forever more!] the house
of Israel [the people of God] will know that I am the LORD their
God."
Note verse 29:
Ezek 39:29 "'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."
Ideal preparation for the breath-taking event now just ahead:
the Great resurrection and the White Throne Judgment!
Rev 20:10 would seem to indicate that immediately after the quashing
of this worldwide rebellion Satan is thrown in the Lake of Fire
and the time of the White Throne Judgment has arrived (Rev 20:11-15),
the fulfilment of the meaning of the Last Great Day in the Plan
of God. A question—yet another question—therefore to be posed
is: Are the vast multitudes then raised to physical life confronted
by the evidence of this last rebellion of mankind and the final
deception of the Devil, evidence that would be both an awesome
testimony against evil as well as a powerful witness to the majesty,
mercy, patience and righteousness of the God whom even greater
masses of humanity are about to confront for the first time? If
so, the desolation that has so recently engulfed the earth would
serve another great purpose, one that is so pertinent to us today
as we are here assembled before God to observe and consider the
meaning of this day at the conclusion of this Feast of Tabernacles.