Ezekiel 39:24, commentary and pictures

God dealt with Israel according to their uncleanness and transgressions, punishing them and hiding His face from them. What He offered them after the Babylonian exile was cleansing, mercy, gathering from their enemies' lands, dwelling among them, and a far greater sanctuary and temple vision. All of that was conditional on faithfulness, obedience, repentance and putting away iniquity, but they were not ashamed of their sins and refused to return with all the heart, so it was fulfilled only in very small part as a mere shadow. What was not realized then will be fulfilled in greater glory through redemption and the earth made new, pointing in general terms to God's final punishment of those who destroy His people. That last-days fulfillment is not literal in its ancient setting, with no literal burning of weapons for seven years or cleansing of the land by human hands, and the chapter is not to be used for fanciful predictions about current events or a literal return of the Jews to Palestine.

Israel's Sin and Conditional Restoration

According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions God dealt with Israel, bringing punishment upon them and hiding His face from them. Their captivity displayed their iniquity before the nations, and only after they should bear their shame would He show mercy, gather them from their enemies' lands, and promise never to hide His face from them again. These blessings were offered on condition that they put away iniquities, turn from wickedness, and return to Him to receive the promised good.

The verse stands in Ezekiel 33 to 48, from Ezekiel 36 onward and into the later section to the captive people, which gives restoration, consolation and promise. Ezekiel 38 to 40 belongs within that compass, and the whole reveals God's love for His house. It describes what God would do for His people if they yielded to Him.

Its setting is what God was prepared to do for literal Israel after the Babylonian exile and return to Palestine to their own land. That included cleansing the land, defeating the nations that threatened them, restoring all His people and bringing back those scattered through all nations, restoring them to the mountains of Israel, dwelling among them with glory never seen before, building a new and far greater sanctuary, manifesting His glory among His people in sight of the nations, holding a glorious state of prosperity and favor in store for them, and introducing the city and temple vision of chapters 40 to 48 as what then lay in prospect for them as they were faithful in representing truth in the earth. All of this was conditional on Israel's faithfulness, obedience, repentance, and yielding to God and putting away iniquity. The promised deliverance, restoration, and defeat of enemies depended on their meeting those conditions and allowing Him to establish them in their land.

Israel did not meet the conditions. They were not ashamed of their sins, refused to heed the prophetic word, failed to forsake their sins and to return to the Lord with all their hearts at the restoration from Babylon, did not fully repent and yield to God, and only about forty thousand returned from captivity. The prophecy of Ezekiel 36 to 48, including Ezekiel 38 and 39, was therefore fulfilled only in a very small part, in a very limited way, as a mere shadow and faint shadow of the promised glory and joy of the whole earth, with the temple dwindled to Zerubbabel's smaller temple instead of full deliverance, glory and joy. What God would have done if they had yielded and heeded was to conquer their enemies both near and far, cut off all their enemies, give complete victory over the northern host sweeping down from the north, and cleanse the land. Because they failed, the full detail was not realized then as originally offered, and God's purposes for His people will instead be fulfilled through redemption and the inheritance of the earth made new, in the fuller glory shown in later revelations.

Last-Day Prophecy and Fulfillment

Ezekiel 39:24 belongs to the general outline of the gathering for Armageddon, concerning a hostile confederacy and great horde from the north led by Magog invading the land God intended Israel to occupy. It is a prophecy of a final northern apostasy that will sweep over the Holy Land with great power and destruction, the great Gog and Magog war pointing to a tremendous conflict close at hand. Applied to the present scattering of God's people throughout the world, it concerns the confederacy's attempt to secure that territory and destroy them.

The prophecy of Ezekiel 38-39 concerns Russia as chief prince of Meshech and Tubal and her international policy and ultimate destiny. Part of that prophecy has been fulfilled, but much of it is yet to come to pass in the immediate and near future, foretelling present conditions in European affairs. It is fulfilled in the present war in which Russia is turned back and brought forth, with Japan in view as one means God uses to turn Russia back. It is a warning to be applied before fulfillment, a light shining in a dark place for those upon whom the ends of the world are come.

One position holds that its national judgments involve divisions and aggregations of nations while national boundaries remain, taking place before Christ comes and not at the end of the thousand years when all the dead of all ages are raised and national distinctions are eliminated. In that pre-Advent judgment the plagues brought to view in Ezekiel 38:22 fall. Another position places the final doom pronounced upon Gog and Magog who in past days oppressed God's people after the thousand years are expired, when Satan is loosed from his prison and the wicked are brought back to life. Then Satan goes out to deceive the nations in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle against the camp of the saints and the beloved city. Still another position holds that the prophecy, fulfilled only in a very small part in Israel's history because of failure to meet God's requirements, has parts fulfilled in events revealed more clearly in Revelation, including events after Christ's second coming and at the end of the thousand years, and will yet be fulfilled in greater glory in the second coming and events connected therewith under different, broader, and more glorious conditions.

That last-days fulfillment is not literal in the ancient setting, without the local conditions of the prophet's day. There will be no literal burning of wooden bows and arrows and shields and bucklers for seven years and no cleansing of the land by human hands, because the fires of the last day will consume sin out of the world and melt the earth with fervent heat. The sanctuary described in Ezekiel 37-48 will never be built, and the judgments against powers coming against God's people and the plagues and other judgments associated with Ezekiel 38-39 belong instead to the setting disclosed more fully in Revelation. In general terms Ezekiel 39 points to God's final punishment of those who destroy His people, by a destruction that will occur in another place, not in Gehenna in the valley of Hinnom.

The chapter should not be used to make definite predictions from current events through fanciful or arbitrary interpretations. It should not be used to predict a literal return of the Jews to Palestine or to announce Russia's destiny, since interpretations of the prophecy conflict and it is safer to wait for more light. It does not teach a special future work for the Jews in the Christian dispensation, and its use for that theory is overthrown by the taking of the saints to heaven at the second coming of Christ and the desolation of the earth.