Ezekiel 39:23, commentary and pictures

The heathen were to learn that the house of Israel went into captivity for iniquity and trespass against God, because they were unfaithful to Him, so He hid His face from them, withdrew His protection, gave them into the hand of their enemies, and they fell by the sword. The declaration belongs to promises of mercy and restoration to the whole house of Israel, to gather them from among their enemies into their own land, to dwell safely there, and to manifest His glory among them in the sight of the nations. That offer from Ezekiel 36 onward was conditional on faith, obedience and putting away sin according to Jeremiah 18:8-10, and because those conditions were never met it was never fulfilled as first given. Israel failed and received only a small return and a faint prosperity after Babylon, so what remains will be fulfilled toward the true Israel under broader and more glorious conditions, in the gathering for Armageddon and the final judgments on the nations that seek to destroy God's people.

Sin, Captivity and Restoration

The heathen were to know that the house of Israel went into captivity for iniquity and trespass against God, because the people were unfaithful to Him. Therefore He hid His face from them, withdrew His protection, gave them into the hand of their enemies, and they fell all by the sword. Their defeat and captivity would make the nations recognize the connection between Israel's sin and God's judgment.

The verse belongs to prophecies of restoration and to blessings God Himself promises in the salvation of Israel His people, and in the glory He would put upon the land, the city and the sanctuary. After they had borne their shame He would have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, gather them from their enemies' lands and from the peoples among whom they are scattered unto their own land leaving none behind, and bring them to dwell safely in the land given to Jacob. He would dwell among them with surpassing glory, build a new and far greater sanctuary, give them victory over their enemies, put glory upon the land, and manifest His glory among His people in the sight of the nations.

That glorious state of prosperity and favor was shown while in captivity to be enjoyed after the seventy years' captivity on returning from Babylon to their own land in Palestine. After they had borne their shame God would hide His face no more from them, and they would know that He is the Lord their God. Receiving it depended on their being ashamed of iniquities and putting them away, and upon their faithfulness in representing truth in the earth.

Conditional Offer to Israel

The prophecy running from Ezekiel 36 onward, including chapters 37-48 and chapters 38-39, was conditional upon Israel's faith, obedience, and acceptance or rejection, according to the principle stated in Jeremiah 18:8-10. Because those conditions were never met, the prophecy was never fulfilled as originally offered. Its sanctuary will never be built.

If Israel had complied and yielded to God, had forsaken sin and returned with all the heart, God would have restored Israel and delivered them from all enemies far and near in connection with the sanctuary. He would have brought the kings of the North into subjection and cut off all enemies, defeating the northern enemies under Gog sweeping down and destroying them by plagues while Israel conquered. He would have made Israel the joy of the whole earth and built a far greater and grander temple than Zerubbabel's, a wonderful structure with water of life and glory of God making Israel a light to the world.

Israel failed to meet God's requirements, was not ashamed of sins and did not put them away as laid down in Ezekiel 43:9-11, so the promised victory and restoration came only in a very small part with faint prosperity after Babylon. Only a small number, about forty thousand, returned, and only a mere shadow of the temple was built instead of the glorious structure promised. Israel later came under Roman power before the nation was destroyed, and the full vision was not fulfilled for them.

The details suited only to ancient warfare will never be fulfilled literally as originally described. There will be no literal burning of wooden bows, shields, bucklers, hand staves and spears for fuel, and no cleansing of the land by human hands. There will be no literal Old Testament setting of mountains inhabited by God's own gathered out of all nations dwelling safely in unwalled villages with cattle, goods, property and wealth tempting northern powers to sweep down for spoil. Modern Palestine is poor, unsafe, and thinly settled by Jews under Turkish control without such wealth, and is faced by modern armies without wooden weapons. The fires of the last day will consume sin and melt the earth with fervent heat.

Future Judgment and Fulfillment

Chapters 38 and 39 are prophecies of national judgments against the wicked nations which, controlled by Satan and led by his spirit with ambition to rule in place of all others, seek to destroy God's people. Their general pattern points to God's final punishment of those who destroy His people. What was promised is now only faintly typical of what will take place in the new heavens and new earth when God restores all things.

Gog is the ruler of Russia, and Rosh, Meshech and Tubal are the czar's land, Russia as the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, presenting that power as having an important part in the closing work of world history. Japan is a means the Lord is using to turn Russia back. The prophecy of the great Gog and Magog conflict reveals Russia and her international policy and her ultimate destiny. It illuminates the international conflicts of the present and shows where current events stand in relation to past and future events.

Part of that prophecy has been fulfilled, but much of it is yet to come to pass in the immediate and near future amid events of worldwide import and distress of nations. It is given as warning beforehand and must be applied before fulfillment, not only after, and is to be carefully and prayerfully considered because it concerns eternal salvation to some and everlasting destruction to others. The general outline concerns the gathering for Armageddon and the bloody conflicts of the last days. Divisions of nations and an aggregation of nations in a great horde and confederacy from the north led by Magog sweep down upon God's people Israel in the land of Palestine to seize the territory once occupied by Israel.

God pours out plagues, pestilence, hailstones, fire and brimstone upon the invaders, and they perish in a storm at God's presence. The setting for those judgments is given more fully not in Ezekiel 38 and 39 but in Revelation 16-19, which gives the fuller, clearer disclosure by which the last part of Ezekiel is to be read. The mighty confederacy is connected with the power outlined in Revelation 17, which will come against the king of the south. What remains to be fulfilled must be fulfilled toward the true Israel of God in harmony with conditions existing on the earth.

It will be fulfilled in the last days under different, broader and more glorious conditions, without the local conditions of the prophet's day, in the way later revelations describe, with details suited only to ancient warfare never fulfilled literally. Some place part of the fulfillment before Christ's second coming with full fulfillment in the greater glory of the second coming of Jesus Christ and events connected with it, and part in the last great battle on the other side of the thousand years. One position holds that these national judgments take place before Christ comes and will not be fulfilled at the end of the thousand years when all the dead of all ages are raised, because then national boundaries and distinctions are completely eliminated and no such divisions or aggregations of nations exist.

Another position holds that Ezekiel 39 pronounces the final doom on Gog and Magog, who in past days oppressed God's people, fulfilled after the thousand years are expired when Satan is loosed and the wicked are brought back to life and gathered from the four quarters of the earth to battle against the camp of the saints and the city of God. The destruction described is a divine judgment in a different location from Gehenna, the valley of Hinnom, and does not describe punishment in Gehenna.