Sermon - AudioEzekiel 38-39 - Audio
Ezekiel 38-39 - Reading
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*Warning, this passage is hard to understand even for scholars. Don't say I didn't warn you:
2-3 = In the NT, Gog and Magog are the names of the nations led by Satan to attack Jerusalem at the end of the “thousand years” (Rev. 20:8). Although the other geographical names in this passage can be identified (see notes on Ezek. 38:5; 38:6), “Gog” and “Magog” remain enigmatic, perhaps because the intention of the prophecy is simply to point to a yet-unknown future leader of a great attack against God’s people, one whose identity will not be known until the prophecy is fulfilled. No time is specified in the prophecy either, except the vague “In the latter years” in v. 8 and “In the latter days” in v. 16. (As the ESV footnote indicates, an alternative translation of v. 2 is “Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal,” but no place named “Rosh” can be clearly identified either.) Meshech and Tubal, first named in Gen. 10:2, are in Asia Minor (see note on Ezek. 27:13). -ESVSB-
3 - Or “I challenge you.” The phrase “I am against you” may be a formula for challenging someone to combat or a duel.
5 - Persia, Nubia (or Ethiopia), and Put (Libya) are distant lands from throughout the ancient Near Eastern world.
6 - The seven-nation coalition represents the north (Meshech, Tubal, Gomer, Beth-Togarmah), the south/west (Ethiopia, Put) and the east (Persia). The use of the sevenfold list suggests completeness.
7-9 - The theme of Yahweh’s control stated in v 4, is here stylistically developed in a summons to make preparations for Yahweh’s signal to mount a future campaign. With rhetorical generalization reference is made to God’s people duly returned from exile and resettled in a land that had been ravaged by destruction. The area is identified by the phrase “mountains of Israel,” which is Ezekiel’s standard way of referring to the Judeans’ homeland. -WBC-
8 - mustered = "summoned"
10-13 = God portrays Gog’s intentions to plunder nations.
10-16 = A fresh, supplementary oracle reiterates and develops the themes of Gog’s invasion and Yahweh’s overwhelming control.
14 - The Hebrew text is framed as a rhetorical question: “will you not take notice?”
16 - God is always concerned with the fact that the nations will know Him.
17-23 = The Lord GOD portrays the defeat of Gog as a cosmic event that was announced by the prophets. This suggests that by the period of Ezekiel, a collection of prophetic works was available to be studied. -JSB-
19-20 = Upheaval in nature, reflecting the cosmic outpouring of God’s wrath, consequently affects God’s own people. Such phenomena are also part of Jeremiah’s vision of the future (cf. Jer. 4:23–26).
23 = The nations will know that God is God alone.
Ezekiel 39
1-6 = God’s opposition to Gog is reiterated as the invasion of Israel proceeds, only for Gog’s army to fall solely by the hand of God. -ESVSB-
9 = Again the #7 is shown for completeness. God will be complete in His judgment against the nations.
12 = 7 months, also the amount of time shows the multitude of this.
16 = This name appears to be a feminine form of the word “horde,” used in the name Hamon-Gog.
18-21 = These actions enable God to display the divine glory to the nations.
25-29 = The final element of the oracle attends now to Israel rather than to Gog. These brief verses echo many of the restoration passages in chs. 34–37, including the themes of renewal for the whole house of Israel (39:25), the turning away from previous treachery (v. 26), and the gathering and return of those once scattered (vv. 27–28). -ESVSB-
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