Ezekiel 39:19, commentary and pictures

The verse summons the birds of heaven and wild beasts to devour the bodies of the slain after God defeats His enemies, and its eating of fat till full and drinking of blood till drunken portrays the scale and completeness of that slaughter, which is called His sacrifice because He appoints the judgment and makes the defeated armies His offering. It describes the same event as the supper of the great God in Revelation 19:17-21, the last great battle of Armageddon at the coming of the King of kings when the wicked destroyed by the brightness of His appearing are left to be devoured while the earth lies desolate during the thousand years. It belongs to the prophecies of Ezekiel 36 to 48 which promised restoration and defeat of threatening nations if Israel repented and obeyed, but because Israel failed the promise was fulfilled only in very small part and cannot be fulfilled literally in the last days with wooden shields and spears for fuel and cleansing by human hands. Its future glory will instead be fulfilled for true Israel under the new covenant in a more glorious setting faintly pointing to the new heavens and new earth, and its plagues and judgments must be read in light of Revelation 16 to 19 and of the gospel by which Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body. Those who identified Gog as the ruler of Russia saw the verse as the final scenes of his career and the gathering of the northern confederacy against Palestine, while in its broad promise of final punishment it points also to Revelation 20 and 21 when Satan gathers the nations against the camp of the saints.

Feast Imagery Explained

The verse pictures a sacrificial feast prepared after God defeats His enemies, to which the birds of heaven and the wild beasts are summoned to devour the bodies of the slain. It is a terrible supper at the King's coming, in which kings, captains, and mighty men of the earth become food for the birds. After the wicked rush against the mountains of Israel they perish at His presence amid fire and brimstone, and the birds are called to feast on their corpses. In that last-day conflict the defeated armies, seen as the Russian army, are made prey under God's judgments. The same event is the last great battle fought prior to the Lord's return, the war of Armageddon, when the slain in that war together with all the wicked destroyed by the brightness of Christ's appearing are left to be devoured while the earth lies desolate during the thousand years.

Those gathered for the feast eat fat until full and drink blood until drunk from the sacrifice God has made for them. Eating the fat until full and drinking blood until drunk vividly portray the scale of the slaughter and the complete defeat of the mighty, rulers, and armies. The feast is applied to the immense number of battle dead left unburied in the land.

The slaughter is called God's sacrifice because He appoints this judgment and makes the defeated armies His offering. It is a feast of judgment after His victory, the supper of the great God connected with the coming of the King of kings. The birds and beasts summoned to consume the slain are pictured as eating their fill of fat and drinking blood from what God has sacrificed.

God summons beasts to a supper where they prey on people and satisfy their hunger, as part of the famine and destruction that follow when the earth, sea, and trees are hurt. The Lord invites all the birds of the air to feast on the fat and blood of His sacrifice, which is the flesh and blood of the slain of the Lord at the second coming of Christ. That gathering of carcass and eagles is a worldwide event, not local, when the nations are gathered to war in the last great gathering immediately before Christ comes. The feast of the fowls is the supper of the great God that culminates all the signs of distress and war preceding His standing at the door.

Conditional Promise to Israel

Ezekiel 39:19 belongs to the prophecies of Ezekiel 36 to the end of the book and of chapters 38 and 39, which promised restoration after the return from Babylon, defeat of the threatening nations, and subjection of Israel's enemies if Israel repented, returned to God with all the heart, forsook sin, and met His requirements of faith and obedience. The predictions of those chapters do not all have the same fulfillment, for some events were possible in Israel's past, some remaining events belong before Christ's second coming, and some relate to the final battle after the thousand years. The verse stands within the prophecy of a victory feast after God defeats the northern nations attacking Israel, as part of the promised restoration and of what God would have done for Israel after their return from Babylon. The promised restoration depended on Israel returning to God and being faithful, and the verse's feast imagery was among the details that would have been fulfilled in that restoration.

Because Israel failed to repent and did not meet the stated conditions, the prophecy was fulfilled only in a very small part and in partial victory, and not in detail as described. Only about forty thousand returned, so the promised restoration did not take place as written. Had Israel forsaken sin and returned to the Lord with all the heart in the restoration from Babylon, the enemies sweeping down from the north would have been conquered by Israel and the defeat would have been literal and local. Because they did not turn from wickedness, the promises received only a limited fulfillment and God’s purposes toward wicked nations and true Israel will instead be fulfilled in a different time and setting.

The sanctuary foretold in Ezekiel 37 to 48 will never be built, and the verse's sacrificial setting was not fulfilled in that temple because Christ's death fulfilled the sacrifices. The prophecy cannot be fulfilled literally in the last days with its original local conditions, without burning of weapons and without cleansing of the land by human hands, for the fires of the last day will consume sin out of the world and melt the earth with fervent heat. The land of Israel and the mountains of Israel must be inhabited by a people God calls His own gathered out from all nations, but Palestine is not so inhabited. The people must dwell safely all of them in villages without walls, but the people do not dwell safely, and they must have property and cattle and goods whose wealth arouses the cupidity of the northern powers to think an evil thought and sweep down to take great spoil, but Palestine is the poorest of all lands and there is no such wealth to tempt them. The invading powers carry wooden weapons, shields and bucklers, and hand staves and spears that Israel can use for fuel, but armies today are not equipped with weapons of that kind.

The future glory promised to God's people will instead be fulfilled for true Israel under the new covenant in a different time and setting, rather than by repeating every original detail. Because Israel did not meet those conditions, what would have been fulfilled under the conditions then offered to Israel will be fulfilled in the last days under different, broader, stronger, and more glorious conditions. Part of Ezekiel 38 and 39 will be fulfilled before the second coming of Christ but in the clearer terms stated in Revelation, and part will be fulfilled at the end of the thousand years, and the unconditional prophecies in Revelation give its true meaning. It will have a greater fulfillment in the glory of the second coming of Jesus Christ and events connected with it, and the promises point faintly to the restoration God will accomplish in the new heavens and new earth.

Final Conflict Foretold

Gog is the ruler of Russia, the land of the czar, identified through Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and this prophecy concerns Russia's international policy, its part in the closing work, and its ultimate destiny and ruin. The verse belongs to the final scenes of Gog's career and to the events leading to his ruin at the end of the world. A mighty northern army is to be destroyed on the mountains of the Holy Land, and that army is Russia, with its defeat placed in the events leading to the final worldwide conflict.

The same verses depict the gathering and judgment of the nations against Gog and point to the beginning of the final scenes of earth's history. That setting is linked to the nations' approach to Armageddon, and the great Gog and Magog war is a tremendous conflict of the nations close at hand. Persia is associated with the power from the north in this prophecy of gathering.

The enemy is a great horde and confederacy from the north led by Gog and Magog, sweeping down upon God's people Israel in the land of Palestine to take spoil. It is a great confederacy invading the land occupied by God's people with an evil plan to seize the territory once occupied by Israel and to destroy God's people even though scattered throughout the world. This last great northern apostasy sweeps over the Holy Land with great power and destruction, and a mighty northern confederacy headed by the power outlined in Revelation 17 will reinstate the Papacy and attack the southern power with combined armies and navies.

The chapters describe divisions and aggregations of nations under national judgments that take place before Christ comes, not the time at the end of the thousand years when all the dead of all ages are raised and national boundaries and distinctions are eliminated. They are judgments against the wicked nations which, controlled by Satan, seek to destroy God's people. When they rush against the mountains of Israel they perish at His presence amid fire and brimstone, with birds summoned to feast on their corpses, and the defeated armies become God's sacrificial feast with birds and beasts eating their fill of fat and drinking blood, applied to the Russian army as prey in the world's last-day conflict. The plagues, pestilence, hailstones, fire and brimstone poured out upon the wicked who come against His own people receive their end-time setting not from Ezekiel 38 and 39 itself but from Revelation 16-19.

The sacrificial feast is the same event as Revelation 19:17-21, the last great battle fought prior to the Lord's return, the war of Armageddon. Eating fat until full and drinking blood until drunk vividly portray the scale of the slaughter and the complete defeat of the mighty, rulers, and armies, and the feast is called God's sacrifice because He appoints this judgment, linked to the last days and the destruction accompanying Christ's second coming. Wild beasts and birds of prey devour the bodies of those slain in that war together with all the wicked destroyed by the brightness of Christ's appearing, left to be devoured while the earth lies desolate during the thousand years.

The predictions do not all have the same fulfillment, for the prophecy is connected with the promises made for Israel conditional on faithfulness, with some events possible in Israel's past, some remaining events belonging before Christ's second coming, and some relating to the final battle after the thousand years. Part will be fulfilled before the second coming but in the clearer terms stated in Revelation, and part at the end of the thousand years, and it will not be fulfilled in all its Old Testament details. In its broad promise of God's final punishment of those who seek to destroy His people it points to Revelation 20 and 21, where the final doom pronounced on Gog and Magog is carried out when Satan is loosed and gathers the nations from the four quarters of the earth against the camp of the saints and the beloved city.

Parallel Passages Illuminated

The sacrificial feast is the same event as Revelation 19:17-21, the terrible supper of the great God at the coming of the King of kings. It is the last great battle fought prior to the Lord's return, the war of Armageddon, in which kings, captains, and mighty men of the earth become food for the birds of heaven. The fat and blood of the sacrifice are the flesh and blood of the slain of the Lord at the second coming, with wild beasts and birds of prey devouring the bodies of those slain in that war together with all the wicked destroyed by the brightness of Christ's appearing. The gathering of carcass and eagles is worldwide and not local, when the nations are gathered to war in the last great gathering immediately before Christ comes. Left to be devoured while the earth lies desolate during the thousand years, this feast of judgment after God's victory over the wicked culminates all the signs of distress and war preceding His standing at the door.

The plagues, pestilence, hailstones, fire and brimstone poured out upon the wicked who come against God's own people find their end-time setting not in Ezekiel 38 and 39 itself but in Revelation 16-19. The last part of Ezekiel must therefore be read in the light of the fuller disclosures in Revelation, which give its true meaning. It belongs to a conditional mixed prophecy that will not be fulfilled in all its Old Testament details, with part to be fulfilled before the second coming of Christ but in the clearer terms stated in Revelation, and part to be fulfilled at the end of the thousand years, the unconditional prophecies in Revelation giving its true meaning.

It must also be read in the light of the clearer New Testament revelation that by the gospel the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. There is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian nor Scythian. The prophecy of Ezekiel 37-48, to which the verse belongs, was conditional upon Israel's acceptance or rejection, its foretold sanctuary will never be built, and any interpretation that excludes God's worldwide gospel work for all alike is error.

Errors Refuted by Verse

The last nineteen chapters of Ezekiel, to which this verse belongs, are wrongly used to teach the return of the Jews, the reign of Christ, and the inheritance of the saints on earth. That use is false, because the saints are taken to heaven at the second coming of Christ when the earth is desolated. To admit that desolation overthrows the return-of-the-Jews theory drawn from this verse.

The destruction shown here is to occur in another place distinct from Gehenna, the valley of Hinnom. Gehenna has been and is to be a place of punishment, and may again be a place of punishment by fire, but Ezekiel 38 and 39 prove that punishment is not confined to Gehenna. Gehenna is not a place where the wicked are now being punished, nor a place where the wicked will ever be kept alive forever in torment.

Any interpretation that excludes God's worldwide gospel work for all alike is error. The verse belongs to the conditional prophecy of Ezekiel 37-48, whose fulfillment depended on Israel's acceptance or rejection, and the sanctuary foretold in that prophecy will never be built. It must be read in the light of the clearer New Testament revelation that by the gospel the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian nor Scythian. The prophecy associates Persia with the power from the north and describes God gathering His people from among the nations and bringing them to their land, its setting is linked to the nations' approach to Armageddon, and alongside this the gathering of God's people is applied to gospel missionaries reaching Persia and neighboring regions.