When will Ezekiel 38 be fulfilled—now, or at the end of the one thousand years? The plagues seem to be brought to view in verse 22. There are many theories regarding Ezekiel 38 and 39. Some Bible scholars contend that the prophecy will be literally fulfilled before our Lord comes, and that it must signify that the children of Israel will people Palestine, because it speaks of God’s people in the land of Palestine, and of the great horde from the north that sweeps down upon the ones whom the Lord calls “My people Israel.” It is thought that the only way this can be brought about is that the Jews will return to the Holy Land and build it up again, and upon them will come down the great confederacy from the north, led by Magog. There are others who believe this will not occur until the end of the one thousand years, when Gog and Magog are raised from the dead. Rev. 20:8. But this could not be, because there will be no such divisions of nations or aggregation of nations at the end of the one thousand years as are spoken of in Ezekiel 38 and 39. National judgments take place before Christ comes; and one has to stop and think but for a minute to know that when all the dead of all ages come up at the end of the thousand years, their national boundaries and distinctions will be completely eliminated. There is another view which to us seems reasonable. There are conditional prophecies in the Old Testament; many of them. The conditions are stated in Jer. 18:7-10. God laid before His people wonderful blessings that would have been fulfilled to them at that time under the old covenant—that is, during the time of literal, fleshly Israel. The sanctuary in the closing chapters of Ezekiel is an instance of that kind. Many of those who believe in the literal fulfilment of Ezekiel 38 before Christ comes, believe also that the sanctuary will be set up. But one can not consistently believe that; because sacrifices were to be offered in that sanctuary, and he who offers sacrifices makes of none effect the offering made once for all by our Lord Jesus Christ. The most reasonable explanation that can be made of the sanctuary prophecy in chapters 40-48 is that Israel never complied with the conditions; and consequently that sanctuary, with all its blessed fulness, was never built. The best thing they had was a shadow of it, the temple built by Zerubbabel, Ezra, and others. It seems to us that the prophecies of Ezekiel from the thirty-sixth chapter are just as truly conditional, as a part of the last great prophecy; and if God’s children had been faithful to Him, He would have brought them back upon “the mountains of Israel.” The enemy, Edom and others, had said against them, “Aha,” and boasted of having possession of the high places; but the Lord said, “O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to My people Israel; for they are at hand to come.” Verse 8. Verse 11 declares that God “will do better unto you than at your beginnings; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah.” He would cleanse them from their sins. He would make them great. What He asked of them was that they should “be ashamed and confounded” for their ways. Verse 32. If they had yielded to God, then the resurrection that is described in the thirty-seventh chapter of Ezekiel would have taken place. All the enemies that would have come down upon them from the north, as depicted in chapters 38 and 39, would have been destroyed. Plagues would have fallen upon their enemies, and Israel would have been able to build that marvelous sanctuary, and the presence of God would have dwelt among them in overpowering glory. The name of that city henceforth would have been, “Jehovah Is There.” Eze. 48:35. But Israel failed to meet God’s requirements, and the only thing He could do for them He did in the meager restoration from the Babylonian captivity. About 40,000 of His people returned, and a sanctuary was built that was far inferior to the glory of the temple of Solomon, to say nothing about that of Ezekiel. Nevertheless, all God’s promises of a glorious future will be fulfilled for His own people. This, while not stated in one passage, is given in others. Part of Ezekiel 38 and 39 will be fulfilled this side of the second coming of Christ, but in the clearer terms that are stated in the book of Revelation. Some of them will be fulfilled at the end of the thousand years, but we will understand this very much better if we take the unconditional prophecies given in the Revelation. In reading Old Testament prophecies, it is well for us to remember what the apostle Paul says in Eph. 3:3-6. He declares there that the gospel contains a fuller revelation than had ever been given before, “which in other generations was not made known unto the sons of men, as it hath now been revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to wit, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” He who ignores these instructions, and attempts to make a conditional mixed prophecy like Ezekiel 38 and 39 a prophecy of those times or of later times in all its details, will certainly go far astray.