EZEKIEL, CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
A Bible student in California desires information about Ezekiel 38. Ezekiel 38 presents a graphic picture of the last effort of the wicked forces of this world to crush the redeemed people of God. It occurs in connection with the millennium of Revelation 20, which chapter I would urge the questioner to study carefully. If desired, literature on the topic of the millennium may be had from the publishers of this paper. In the previous chapters Ezekiel portrays the salvation of God’s people in their own land, the home of the redeemed. In this he shows the final attempt of the unrighteous at the close of the thousand years of Revelation 20 to defeat the purpose of God, after the unrighteous have been raised in the second resurrection and before their ultimate destruction. The mention of “Gog” and “Magog” in both of these chapters shows that they deal with the same events, Gog and Magog representing the forces of the ungodly under the leadership of Satan. Since this chapter of Ezekiel treats of the time of the final punishment of the wicked at the end of the thousand years, it must be patent that “Rosh” in verses 2 and 3 cannot refer to Russia. There will be no Russia when these events take place. Again, it is very debatable whether “Rosh” ought to appear in this prophecy. The expression “prince of Rosh” appears in the American Revised margin as the “chief prince of Meshech.” This is the way the King James translates the Hebrew, and many scholars maintain that this is the correct rendering. However, even if “Rosh” is properly translated, it proves nothing as to Russia. These names, “Gog,” “Magog,” “Rosh,” “Meshech,” and “Tubal” are used because they stand for people from the North, from the standpoint of Palestine; and in Old Testament prophecy the North is the region whence came the ungodly enemies and oppressors of God’s people, Israel. Therefore, in Ezekiel’s last-day prediction of the ultimate destruction of the impenitent nations of earth, these names of people who come from the North symbolize the forces of world evil opposed to God and His redeemed at the close of the thousand years. See Isaiah 41:25; Jeremiah 1:14, 15; 4:6; 6:1, 22-26; 10:22; 25:8, 9; Ezekiel 38:14-16; 39:1, 2. Mrs. F. A. Lynn of South Dakota is concerned about the “unpardonable sin.” A study of such scriptures as Matthew 12:31, 32; Mark 3:29; Hebrews 10:26-29; 1 John 5:16, 17 will make clear what the sin against the Holy Spirit is, and why it is the one sin that cannot be forgiven. As one well puts it, this sin commonly consists in “persistently slighting Heaven’s invitation to repent.” It is not to be regarded simply as an isolated act, but also as the external symptom of a heart so radically and finally set against God that no power that God can consistently use will ever save it. Therefore, it is the culmination of a long course of self-hardening and self-depraving. He who has committed it must be either profoundly indifferent to his own condition, or actively and bitterly hostile to God; so that anxiety or fear on account of one’s condition is evidence that it has not been committed. So long as we are concerned about our standing with God, so long are we without the commission of this sin. This ought to encourage us. There is no forgiveness for this sin, simply because the soul committing it has ceased to be receptive of divine influences, even when those influences are exerted in the utmost strength which God has seen fit to employ in His spiritual administration. In other words, the way to return to God is closed against no one who does not close it against himself. We are left to ourselves, because we have left God. For Biblical examples of this attitude of human willfulness, refusing to do the will of God and so committing this sin, see Genesis 6:3; Hosea 4:15-17; Matthew 23:37-39; Mark 3:22-30. This unpardonable iniquity is marked by a loss of spiritual eyesight. Just as the blind fish of the Mammoth Cave lost the power of sight because they chose darkness, so it is with us if we refuse the light of Heaven. It is marked by the loss of religious sensibility. Just as the sensitive plant loses its sensitiveness to the extent that it is frequently touched, so we lose our desire for divine things if we keep on ignoring them. This sin is also marked by spiritual hardness, inability to will and do the good. The lava of the volcano is soft and liquid and alive with power while it is in the crater. If it leaves the crater, it hardens and cannot return to the source from which it originally came. So it may be with us if we leave the Father’s love. May God help us to do His will, so that this evil state may not be ours. As to whether suicide is the unpardonable sin, God alone can answer that question. It is conceivable that a diseased mind, a diseased body, may put one in such an irrational state that, without any sense of moral responsibility, this terrible sin and crime may be committed. Such cases Heaven may not class as unpardonable. Where deliberate, morally abandoned attitudes lead to suicide, without sense of responsibility to God or man, it is not difficult to see that God may deny pardon.