THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

Ezekiel: Effective Ministry To The Spiritually Rebellious

Part LX: God's Judgment Of Gog Completed For His Glory

(Ezekiel 38:17-39:29)

 

I.               Introduction

A.    One of the most intriguing and misunderstood prophecies in Scripture is the invasion of Israel by "Gog."   

B.    We view Ezekiel 38:17-39:29, the prophecy of the completion of God's judgment on "Gog" to understand God's purpose in performing this great and dramatic punishment for our insight and edification (as follows):

II.            God's Judgment Of Gog Completed For His Glory, Ezekiel 38:17-39:29.

A.    God will defeat Gog and her allies when they invade Israel in a great, dramatic judgment, Ezek. 38:17-39:8:

1.      When Gog and her allies invade Israel, God will rhetorically ask if she was the one about whom He had predicted through His prophets of antiquity that He would bring against Israel, Ezekiel 38:17.  No specific prophecy about Gog's invasion occurs in Scripture except this prediction in Ezekiel 38-39, but the Lord may here refer to general predictions about His deliverance of Israel from Gentile invaders in passages like Joel 3:9-14 and Zephaniah 3:15-20; Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 1301.

2.      God will be aroused in great fury over Gog's invasion, expressing His anger in a great earthquake that will shake all life forms on the earth and in the sea and upset the landscape, Ezekiel 38:18-20.

3.      The Lord will cause the invaders to slay one another and He will kill them with disease, a great rain, hailstones and burning sulfur, magnifying Himself as the Cause for this destruction, Ezek. 38:21-23; Ibid.

4.      God had Ezekiel predict that He was against Gog, causing her to invade Israel and lose five-sixths of its army, for them to fall upon the mountains of Israel and have her forces destroyed as far as the distant coastlands from which the invaders had come, Ezekiel 39:1-8.

B.    The result of God's destruction of Gog will be His causing Israel to spoil those who spoiled her, Ez. 39:9-20:

1.      The people of Israel will go out to the battlefield and burn the weapons of the invaders, burning them for seven years in place of firewood from their forests, spoiling those who had spoiled them, Ezekiel 39:9-10.

2.      A valley east of the Dead Sea will be a burial plot for the dead, and there will be so many corpses that they will clog the valley, causing it to be named, "the Valley of the Hordes of Gog," Ezek. 39:11; Ibid., p. 1302.

3.      Israel will take seven months to bury the dead, setting up an extensive system to do so, and the extent of Israel's victory over Gog will be so great, the Gentiles will highly honor Israel, Ezekiel 39:12-16.

4.      The Lord will call for the birds of the air and the beasts of the field to feed on the corpses, Ezek. 39:17-20.

C.    By this event, God will glorify Himself before the world and cause Israel to return to Him, Ezekiel 39:21-29:

1.      The nations of the world will note God's extensive work to deliver His people Israel from Gog's hordes, and the Lord will thus glorify Himself as the true God before the Gentiles, Ezekiel 39:21, 23-24:

                         a.        Ezekiel wrote that the Gentiles will behold God's great destruction of God's hordes (Ezek. 39:21) and realize that Israel had gone into captivity not due to any weakness in her God, but for Israel's sin, v. 23a.

                         b.        Indeed, the Gentile nations will realize that Israel fell before her enemies throughout history only as punishment for Israel's own sins against her great Lord and God, Ezekiel 39:23b-24.

2.      Also, Israel will then turn back to God, recognizing Him as her God, Ezekiel 39:22, 25-29:

                         a.        The Lord predicted He would bring Israel back to her land out of her dispersion among the Gentiles to uphold the honor of His name in fulfilling His promises to bless her in the latter days, Ezekiel 39:25-26.

                         b.        Israel will then know that He is God, that He had caused her to go into captivity among the nations due to her sin, but that He was restoring her, not leaving any of her people in Gentile lands, Ez. 39:22, 27-28.

                         c.        In this regathering, God will no longer hide His face from Israel in punishment, but bless her, pouring out His Holy Spirit upon her, Ezekiel 39:29.  This event clearly occurs in the end time! (cf. Joel 2:28-32)

                                              

Lesson: When God punishes Gog and her allies, forcibly drawing them down into the land of Israel only to destroy their forces in a vast display of raw divine power, He will glorify Himself before the world, He will cause Israel to be highly honored and reveal to the Gentiles and Israel that her lack of blessing for so many centuries was the result of God's judgment for sin, but that He was forgiving, restoring and greatly blessing Israel in her own land.

Application: (1) May we realize that the Jewish people have suffered so much due to sin, not due to any weakness in God, and so depart from sin ourselves.  (2) May we rejoice in God's infinite love and faithfulness toward His people and of His desire to bless them, be they Hebrews who trust in Christ or we Gentiles who believe in Him!