Ezekiel 38:10, commentary and pictures

At the same time points to the latter years, the time of the end, the appointed time when the plan enters the mind of the one addressed. The evil thought is a mischievous, hostile, greedy plan formed as forces gather to sweep down like a storm upon a peaceful, prosperous people dwelling safely without walls and seize their wealth as spoil. In its first setting it was a conditional promise to Israel after the captivity, offering full restoration, destruction of northern enemies, gathering to the mountains of Israel, surpassing glory and God's dwelling among them if the people repented and obeyed, which was never fully realized because they did not comply. Gog is the northern ruler and confederacy under Satan's control, identified with Russia and the powers of the north, whose lifelong dream is world dominion. In its final and greatest fulfillment, after the thousand years and the second resurrection, Satan leads the resurrected wicked in that same evil purpose against the New Jerusalem where the redeemed dwell safely, only to be utterly defeated and destroyed by God so the nations may know Him.

Phrase and Historical Setting

The evil thought is a mischievous, hostile plan that comes into the mind of Gog and is formed as his forces gather to invade. It denotes a mischievous purpose applied to policy toward other nations, especially weaker neighboring nations and those obstructing its designs. At the same time places that evil plan in the latter years, the time of the end, the appointed time when it enters the mind of the one addressed.

The evil thought is a greedy plan to sweep down on a peaceful, prosperous people dwelling safely without walls and seize their wealth and possessions as spoil. It belongs to the prosperity that would have been given if the people had met the conditions, not to a literal fulfillment in the last days. After the thousand years the great rebel leader conceives this evil, mischievous purpose, believing he can attack the people dwelling safely in the city of God and seize the New Jerusalem. After the second resurrection he leads the resurrected wicked against the city to take spoil from its inhabitants, as part of the final deception and rebellion ending in destruction.

The prophecy presents the descendants of Noah by name and by country, giving instruction about the origin of the Russian Empire going back to the division of the nations over the face of all the earth after the Flood. It bears on the Russo-Eastern question with its American complications.

Conditional Promise to Israel

Ezekiel 38 belongs with chapters 36 through 48 to the promises given to Israel after the Babylonian captivity, setting forth what God would have done for His people if they had been faithful, obedient, repentant and yielded to Him and met His requirements. In its first setting the chapter concerns the northern nations and the confederacy under Gog that would gather against Israel, with an evil plan arising in the mind of the enemy who would attack, and that attack would have been defeated and the victory manifested if Israel had obeyed and accepted the promises. Its details are not all predictions of last-day events, and the promised details as originally offered will not all be fulfilled as described.

What was offered was full restoration on the mountains of Israel, with all scattered Israel gathered back from the nations from Babylon, with enemies and northern nations and kings of the north far and near destroyed and brought into subjection, with surpassing prosperity and glory and God dwelling among His people and His glory manifested in them in the sight of the nations. It included raising from the dead the faithful in Israel who slept, making Jerusalem a praise in the earth, building within that city a new and far greater sanctuary and temple as promised in the closing chapters, newly dividing the land, and bringing God's life and healing power upon Palestine and the earth as never before. This would have been fulfilled then in far larger measure if the Jews had complied with the conditions.

Fulfillment was conditional under the universal principle of Jeremiah 18:8-10 and the conditions laid down in Ezekiel 43:9-11, requiring Israel to turn and yield to God, to forsake sin and return to Him, to put away wickedness and iniquity and to be ashamed of iniquities. Because Israel did not comply, did not fully repent, was not ashamed and did not put away iniquity, but returned from Babylon half-heartedly and in disobedience with only about forty thousand, the victory and restoration were only partial, small and limited. The promised details were not realized in their fullness, the northern nations represented by Gog and Magog were not destroyed before Israel as pictured, and in that sense the prophecy as a whole was never fulfilled in its original setting.

That promised restoration was never literally fulfilled and will not be fulfilled literally. Only Zerubbabel's lesser temple was built, animal sacrifices ended forever when Jesus died on the cross, God cannot go back to typical sacrifices that pointed forward to Jesus Christ since the Lord Himself suffered and fulfilled all types, and the sanctuary of those chapters never was built and never will and never can be built. What remains belongs to the future under different, broader, stronger and more glorious conditions according to later revelations, with the promises concerning true Israel fulfilled in the full immortal inheritance, faintly typified by what God will restore in the new heavens and new earth by His mighty power, including God's final punishment of those who seek to destroy His people.

Gog and Northern Confederacy

Gog is the ruler or czar of Magog and prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal, names linked to the peoples who settled the territories of Russia, Tartary and Siberia, and the prophecy is applied to Russia and its ruler as playing an important part in the closing work of world history. In its first setting Gog represented the northern Scythian nations and their confederacy that would gather against Israel, whose attack would have been defeated if Israel had obeyed God and accepted His promises. Because Israel failed to meet God's requirements, that victory was only partial and the full promised outcome did not occur then.

Gog and Magog represent the forces of the ungodly under the leadership and control of Satan, symbolized as coming from the North, the prophetic region of Israel's ungodly enemies and oppressors. They are ambitious northern powers whose spirit is like Satan's and whose aim is to rule over all others. The prophecy is thus a judgment against wicked nations that under Satan's control seek to destroy God's people, belonging to the graphic picture of the last effort of the wicked forces of this world to crush the redeemed in their own land. Its greater fulfillment will come at Christ's second coming and the events connected with it, not under the local conditions of Ezekiel's day, with no literal burning of weapons or cleansing of the land by human hands because the fires of the last day will consume sin and melt the earth.

Russia is the northern power heading a mighty confederacy in its conflict with the king of the south, whose head Revelation 17 outlines. She is identified as the guard or commander of the heathen powers associated with the dragon, or paganism, which are to take part in the world's crisis. A settled issue between the world's divisions must arise for the battle of Armageddon to be fought. The evil thought placed in the latter years, or the time of the end, means a mischievous plan, applied to Russian policy toward other nations, especially weaker neighboring nations and those obstructing its designs. Surrounding events place restraints on Gog before his final actions and downfall at the end of the world.

That evil thought is Russia's ruling desire to be mistress of the world and lifelong dream of world dominion. It began with the Magogian tribes joined with Meshech, Tubal and part of Gomer into the great Slavonic race, and has been carried on by artful, subtle and unscrupulous diplomacy. She will attempt to accomplish it but will not reach fulfillment, for when she goes forth to carry out this evil thought she will find the grave the prophet foresaw.

Target Land and People

The assault is a sudden, storm-like advance by a great army from the north against the mountains of Israel, a vast host of strong foes rushing onward to invade God's people as Gog forms his hostile intent and gathers his forces. When His people trust in Him He utterly defeats them, and they perish at His presence amid fire and brimstone with the fowls called to feast on their carcasses, so that the nations know God.

The land brought back from the sword, once waste and desolate and now inhabited and prosperous, where they dwell safely in unwalled villages without bars or gates, is America. Its waste places were America while still given over to savage, barbarous idolatry before God's people came, and its mountains of Israel are places of worship that had always been waste until the Israel of God arrived. The country received God's people from the clutch of the persecutor and became an asylum where God's professed people dwelt safely and worshiped according to conscience, until their liberties were again threatened and the fires of Revolution broke forth and brought it back from the sword. Gog carries out the evil thought that comes into his mind by coming into that land in pursuit of his own selfish ends, and the United States has a place in Scripture because of its connection with God's people as the salt of the earth.

The same assault is directed against Jerusalem and Palestine, which will bear the brunt of the nations' final attack just before Christ comes. It is a final northern apostasy sweeping over the Holy Land with great power and destruction, invading Palestine and laying siege to Jerusalem. Had Israel remained faithful and occupied Palestine as a separate people, the confederacy's plan would have targeted Israel and invaded its territory, and the same plan still seeks to secure Palestine and destroy God's people though they are now scattered throughout the world.

In its final application the attack is the last effort of the impenitent nations of earth to crush the redeemed people of God in their own land, the home of the redeemed. It occurs at the close of the thousand years of Revelation 20, after the unrighteous have been raised in the second resurrection and before their ultimate destruction. Then Satan conceives the evil, mischievous purpose and leads the resurrected wicked against the New Jerusalem and the city of God where the saints dwell safely without walls, believing they can seize the city and take spoil from its inhabitants and seize their possessions. Gog and Magog are the forces of the ungodly under Satan's leadership, symbolized as coming from the North as the prophetic region of Israel's ungodly enemies and oppressors, and their attack is part of his final deception and rebellion ending in destruction.

Timing of Fulfillment

The prophecy belongs to the closing years of the history of the world and describes in general outline the alignment of tribes, nations and peoples for the final conflict. It is the setting of the gathering for Armageddon, with a northern confederacy threatening God's people just before Christ comes. In its original setting it is a conditional prophecy concerning what God would have done for Israel if His people had been faithful, describing an evil plan arising in the mind of an enemy who would attack Israel. Its details are not all predictions of events in the last days. The combined armies it pictures may resemble forces involved in near-future revolutions, but their actions are not fulfilled in the setting described by Ezekiel, and the judgments on the wicked who attack God's people belong instead with the events of Revelation 16-19.

One teaching places its fulfillment before Christ comes, since it concerns national judgments and after the thousand years national boundaries and distinctions will be gone. Another teaching places the evil thought and the final attempt at the close of the thousand years of Revelation 20, after the unrighteous have been raised in the second resurrection and before their ultimate destruction. It is the graphic picture of the last effort of the wicked forces of this world to crush the redeemed people of God in their own land, the home of the redeemed, with the plan for that final attempt by the impenitent nations of earth coming into the mind. Gog and Magog are the forces of the ungodly under the leadership and control of Satan, symbolized as coming from the North, the prophetic region of the ungodly enemies and oppressors of Israel, to defeat the purpose of God. After the thousand years the great rebel leader forms this evil plan against God's people, leading him to believe he can attack the people dwelling safely in the city of God, and Gog and Magog are called into this service of Satan in gathering the wicked to receive the doom pronounced through Ezekiel.

A further teaching divides the fulfillment, holding that because Israel failed to meet God's requirements the prophecy was not fulfilled in its original setting as a whole. It would have been fulfilled in the restoration from Babylon if Israel had forsaken sin and returned to God, but Israel's failure meant it was fulfilled only in small part. Parts of Ezekiel 38 and 39 will therefore be fulfilled after Christ's second coming, as Revelation describes more clearly, and other parts at the end of the thousand years. The northern nations, Gog and Magog as ambitious northern powers whose spirit is like Satan's and whose aim is to rule over all others, will be punished partly in this world before and when Christ comes and ultimately at the end of the thousand years. Its greater fulfillment comes at Christ's second coming and the events connected with it, not under the local conditions of Ezekiel's day, with no literal burning of weapons or cleansing of the land by human hands, because the fires of the last day will consume sin and melt the earth.

Last-Day War and Signs

The prophecy is of the last universal war just before Christ returns. Present wars and rumors of wars, with earthquakes, pestilences and famines in divers places, and bloody strife and carnage, are its prelude and a sign of His near approach. When earth's madness and ambition are at their height the summoned nations will be gathered at Armageddon girt for battle and slaughter, and Christ Himself will appear for their discomfiture and ruin. Only then, but not till then, will wars cease and the weapons of war perish, when Christ as the true Solomon begins His reign and brings the long-expected Sabbath of rest to the weary world. Persia is included among the peoples gathering from the north under the Russian power for the final battle, and its growing alignment with Russia is fulfillment of the prophecy. While the nations align for the approaching battle of Armageddon the gospel message is to be carried among those nations and God's people gathered out from them.

The prophecy is partly fulfilled in Russia's international policy and ultimate destiny, with much still to come in the near future. The evil thought coming into the mind of Gog is the great Gog and Magog war now close upon us, discerned in the sure word of prophecy that points out the present position in relation to things past and things to come, seen in the darkening sky and portentous shaping of events for coming strife. A future campaign is foretold against Turkey, in which Russia and allied nations plan invasion to seize its territory expecting gain, power and prosperity. Their plans are interrupted by God, who speaks against the nations claiming His land. Russia's determination to occupy Manchuria with Mongolia to follow in order to settle the Chinese question so she can turn attention and power to European Turkey is followed by France taking the southern provinces, Great Britain acting on the Yangtse River, and Germany increasing her holding until the ancient Chinese empire is a thing of the past, in a final conflict between the Cossack and the Anglo-Saxon involving all the great nations of the earth and ending the era of war in one great collapse of navies and armies and national debts.

When the nations form their confederacy and move against God's people while invading Palestine and gathering at Armageddon, the evil plan becomes decrees against those refusing the confederacy's Sunday authority. When the nations enter the land of the Turk and press their campaign in the Mohammedan domains, the evil plan coming to their minds is to attack God's people, described in the prophecy as Israel dwelling securely in the latter days. Had Israel remained faithful it would have occupied Palestine as a separate people and the confederacy's plan would have targeted Israel and invaded its territory, and the same plan still seeks to secure Palestine and destroy God's people though they are now scattered throughout the world while invading Palestine and laying siege to Jerusalem. The attack proceeds first by confiscating their property and preventing them from buying or selling, and then by authorizing their death.

Judgment and Deliverance

The hostile intent enters at the time of the predicted attack on God's people, formed as forces gather to invade in a sudden, storm-like advance by a great army from the north in the latter days. The assault comes against God's people dwelling safely, and against the mountains of Israel, in last days of bloody strife, distress and carnage among the nations. When His people trust in Him He utterly defeats the vast host of strong foes from the north and cuts off Israel's enemies, and the attack serves to make the nations know God. Those enemies rushing onward from the north quarters perish at the presence of God amid a tempest of fire and brimstone, with all the fowls called to feast upon their carcasses.

The prophecy is a judgment against wicked nations that under Satan's control seek to destroy God's people. After the second resurrection Satan conceives the evil, mischievous purpose for the final assault, leading the resurrected wicked against the New Jerusalem in belief that they can seize the city and take spoil from its inhabitants, and their attack ends in destruction when they attempt to seize the city.

The destructions foretold in Ezekiel 38-39 are apparently to occur in places other than Gehenna, and those chapters do not identify Gehenna as the setting of those destructions. At the appointed time the evil plan enters the mind of the one addressed, in connection with the return of the Jews.