Ezekiel 39:1

The Bible says in Ezekiel 39:1-8, “Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:[2] And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:[3] And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.[4] Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.[5] Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.[6] And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.[7] So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.[8] Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken.” Some people think that Gog and Magog refer to Russia. Verse 2 says that Gog “from the north parts.” This would be some nation that is further north of Israel than the typical nations near Israel that are always mentioned by name such as Syria or Lebanon. That leaves Turkey, Europe, or Russia. This nation will come against Israel sometime in the last days, but it will be destroyed. In verse 2 God says that he will “leave but the sixth part of thee.” In other words 83% of the people in that nation will be killed. That is a terrible destruction, and God makes clear why He does it: God gives three reasons in verse 7. God says, “So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.” 1. God will make His holy name known in Israel. 2. God will not let them pollute His holy name any more. 3. The heathen shall know that God is the LORD, the ever-existent One, the Holy One. Two of these reasons have to do with God making Himself known. The other reason has to do with God’s holiness and God taking away the free will of man. Right now human beings have freedom and a free will. But most people have polluted and ruined and wasted the opportunities to use their free will for God’s glory. The time will come when God will get tired of that, and He will stop it. The day will come when God will not allow the wicked ways of man to proceed any further. Righteousness shall cover the land even as waters now cover the sea. Even so come Lord Jesus.

The Bible says in Ezekiel 39:9-16, “And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the handstaves, and the spears, and they shall burn them with fire seven years:[10] So that they shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forests; for they shall burn the weapons with fire: and they shall spoil those that spoiled them, and rob those that robbed them, saith the Lord GOD.[11] And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea: and it shall stop the noses of the passengers: and there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude: and they shall call it The valley of Hamon-gog.[12] And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land.[13] Yea, all the people of the land shall bury them; and it shall be to them a renown the day that I shall be glorified, saith the Lord GOD.[14] And they shall sever out men of continual employment, passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search.[15] And the passengers that pass through the land, when any seeth a man's bone, then shall he set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the valley of Hamon-gog.[16] And also the name of the city shall be Hamonah. Thus shall they cleanse the land.” These verses continue with the theme of what will happen to the nation from the north in the last days. The armies of the nation from the north will be destroyed. There will be so many deaths that it will take people seven months to bury everyone who is killed. At the end of verse 16 God says about the result of all this death: “Thus shall they cleanse the land.” There is a judge in the earth. Judgment must come because God is holy. That is what the last days are all about. Finally justice will be done. By the way, no one will get away with anything. The good Lord will see to that. You might see the need to escape your own judgment. Turn to Jesus before it is too late.

Notice that the place in Israel where the destruction of God takes place is called in verse 11, “The valley of Hamon-gog.” No one knows exactly where this place is unless it is the same place where the Battle of Armageddon will take place. Obviously, it is either the same battle or another one very similar to it. It certainly is easy to see why it might take more than one battle to bring all the judgment that needs to be brought to the armies of the world in the last days.

The Bible says in Ezekiel 39:17-22, “And, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD; Speak unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood.[18] Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan.[19] And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.[20] Thus ye shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord GOD.[21] And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them.[22] So the house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God from that day and forward.” Continuing with the theme of the destruction of Gog when it came from the north, this time God describes how the birds of prey will feed upon the dead corpses. There will be plenty of opportunity for this feast because of the number of dead bodies, and because it will take seven months to bury them all. Once again we are told why God brings this judgment. It says in verse 20 and 21, “And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them.[22] So the house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God from that day and forward.” At the end of verse 22 God says that Israel will know Him “from that day and forward.” Right now Israel does not know the one true God. They are in the same spiritual situation that Gentiles are in: they can get saved one at a time as they repent of their sins and turn to Jesus. Unfortunately, just like the Gentiles, most Jewish people do not turn to Jesus. But the day will come when the entire Jewish nation will turn to the Lord Jesus and believe on Him: at least the Jews that are left after the terrors and deaths of the Great Tribulation. They shall look on Him whom they have pierced. All Israel shall be saved. Israel shall be a nation throughout eternity, and they will be God’s people like God had always planned.

The Bible says in Ezekiel 39:23-29, “And the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity: because they trespassed against me, therefore hid I my face from them, and gave them into the hand of their enemies: so fell they all by the sword.[24] According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions have I done unto them, and hid my face from them.[25] Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name;[26] After that they have borne their shame, and all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against me, when they dwelt safely in their land, and none made them afraid.[27] When I have brought them again from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies' lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations;[28] Then shall they know that I am the LORD their God, which cause them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there.[29] Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.” What problem did the Jewish people have? That is made very clear in verses 23 and 24. Notice the words that are used: “iniquity,” “trespassed,” “uncleanness,” and “transgressions.” In other words they sinned against God. Some actions that human beings do are sins against God. You must avoid such actions whenever you can because God knows, God sees, and God is Judge. There are negative consequences to sin because there is a God. That is the problem that the entire human race has: the sin problem. But because of Jesus and the kindness and love of God, we can find forgiveness for our sins. This is all explained in many places in the New Testament, such as Romans 6:23 that says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” In Ezekiel 39:25 God said about the Israelites and their sins, “Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel.” God has a plan for salvation. Just as He had a plan to save Israel, God also has a plan to save every person on the earth. The Spirit of God works in every person’s heart to bring them to see their need of a Savior. Those who see that need in themselves simply need to do what Romans 10:13 says, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Whoever does this and calls upon Jesus will have their future secured forever in heaven. What a blessed future for everyone that gets saved. Concerning the future of Israel, God has a plan, and much of Biblical prophecy has to do with this plan. Right now God is preserving the Jewish people and has been preserving them for centuries, until the day that He gathers them all back into their land, and those who survived the judgments of the Great Tribulation look upon Jesus at His return and believe on Him. Then and only then, will God’s plan be fulfilled. Jewish people who are spiritually wise can get into the Kingdom of God ahead of time by believing on Jesus now.

The Bible says in Ezekiel 40:1-9, “In the five and twentieth year of our captivity, in the beginning of the year, in the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after that the city was smitten, in the selfsame day the hand of the LORD was upon me, and brought me thither.[2] In the visions of God brought he me into the land of Israel, and set me upon a very high mountain, by which was as the frame of a city on the south.[3] And he brought me thither, and, behold, there was a man, whose appearance was like the appearance of brass, with a line of flax in his hand, and a measuring reed; and he stood in the gate.[4] And the man said unto me, Son of man, behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears, and set thine heart upon all that I shall shew thee; for to the intent that I might shew them unto thee art thou brought hither: declare all that thou seest to the house of Israel.[5] And behold a wall on the outside of the house round about, and in the man's hand a measuring reed of six cubits long by the cubit and an hand breadth: so he measured the breadth of the building, one reed; and the height, one reed.[6] Then came he unto the gate which looketh toward the east, and went up the stairs thereof, and measured the threshold of the gate, which was one reed broad; and the other threshold of the gate, which was one reed broad.[7] And every little chamber was one reed long, and one reed broad; and between the little chambers were five cubits; and the threshold of the gate by the porch of the gate within was one reed.[8] He measured also the porch of the gate within, one reed.[9] Then measured he the porch of the gate, eight cubits; and the posts thereof, two cubits; and the porch of the gate was inward.” In verse 1 Ezekiel points out that he had received another vision from God after the Israelites had been in captivity for twenty-five years. That is a long time to be in that situation away from the promised-land. They would have gotten used to their new life. Children would have been born and raised to adulthood. They probably would have thought that they would never return, and that they would never get their nation back. And they probably would have been right if it had not been for the intervention of God. In order to inform the Israelites that God still had a plan for them in their original land, God gave this extremely detailed vision to Ezekiel about a new temple that would be built in Israel. For the Jewish people the temple was the most important building in their nation. God has a plan, and His plan involves all the details of your life also. Surrender your heart and life to Jesus, and in addition to the saving of your soul, you will enter into the best of lives because it will be all planned by your Savior and your heavenly Father.

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