And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy
face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and
Tubal, and prophesy against him, And say, Thus saith the Lord God:
Behold, I _am_ against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and
Tubal: And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and
I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen,
all of them clothed with all sorts of _armour_, _even_ a great
company _with_ bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and
helmet: Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north
quarters, and all his bands: _and_ many people with thee. Be thou
prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that
are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them. After many
days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into
the land _that is_ brought back from the sword, _and is_ gathered
out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been
always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they
shall dwell safely, all of them. Thou shalt ascend and come like a
storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all
thy bands, and many people with thee. Thus saith the Lord God: It
shall also come to pass, _that_ at the same time shall things come
into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought: And thou shalt
say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to
them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwellings
without walls, and having neither bars nor gates, To take a spoil,
and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places
_that are now_ inhabited, and upon the people _that are_ gathered
out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell
in the midst of the land. Sheba and Dedan, and the merchants of
Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art
thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a
prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods,
to take a great spoil? (verses 1-13).
The first question which confronts us in giving an exposition of these
verses is, When does this enemy fall into Israel's land? At what time
does this invasion take place? We find the answer in the text. The
statement is made in verse eight that Gog and Magog and the other
nations with them invade the land "that is brought back from the sword,
and is gathered out of many people;" they come "against the mountains of
Israel, which have always been waste; but it is brought forth out of the
nations, and they shall dwell safely, all of them." In verse eleven the
evil purpose of the invader is made known. He says, "I will go up to
the land of unwalled villages, I will go to them that are at rest, that
dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls and having neither bars
nor gates." He comes "upon the people that are gathered out of the
nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of
the land" (verse 12). From all this we learn that the invasion takes
place at the time when the Lord has brought back His people and resumed
His relationship with the remnant of Israel.
The invasion will happen some time after the beastly empire with its
beasthead (the revived Roman empire), in its final ten kingdom form and
the clay, with the little horn as leader (Dan. vii; Rev. xiii:1-10) and
the false prophet, the personal Antichrist (Rev. xiii:11, etc.) have
been dealt with in judgment (Rev. xix:19-20). The stone out of heaven
has then fallen upon the feet of the great dream image of
Nebuchadnezzar, and as far as the Western confederated world power is
concerned it is now ended. But other nations gather now for an assault.
It is a Northern confederacy which sweeps southward to invade the land
as Antiochus Epiphanes did in the past, as well as the Assyrian in the
days of Isaiah. These final invading hosts, under the leadership of a
powerful king, come like a storm, and like a cloud to cover the land.
In verse 17 we read "Thus saith the Lord God: Art thou he of whom I have
spoken in old times by my servants the prophets of Israel, which
prophesied in those days for many years that I would bring thee against
them?" By the way, in these words we have a very clear statement
concerning the prophets of God. They all were the mouthpiece of Jehovah;
He has spoken through them. According to this verse other prophets
prophesied of the same enemy. Some expositors have stated their
inability to find a single prophecy elsewhere which would confirm
Ezekiel's vision and prophecy.
We believe the foe, of whom Isaiah speaks as the Assyrian, foreshadows
this one coming with his hordes from the North. The Assyrian in the days
of Isaiah, who threatened to cover the land like a cloud, was
Sennacherib. How the Lord dealt with him by wiping out his proud army
with a single stroke is known to every reader of the Bible. But he also
foreshadows the final Assyrian, the last King of the North. He is
described in Isaiah x. A significant statement is made in that chapter
as to the time when the Lord will deal with this Assyrian of the future.
It is this "Wherefore it shall come to pass that when the Lord has
performed His whole work upon Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish
the fruit of the stout heart of the King of Assyria and the glory of his
high looks" (verse 12). When the Lord has performed His work in judgment
and in mercy upon Mount Zion and in behalf of Israel and their enemies,
then He will also punish the last invader and spoiler of His people, the
one foreshadowed by the Assyrian.
The Antichrist, who opposed the heavenly rights and glory of Christ, has
then already been overthrown by the brightness of His coming; and next
this last enemy who opposeth the earthly rights of the King of kings
will also meet his defeat. Notice that in the same chapter of Isaiah the
Lord comforts His people in view of the invader, showing thereby that He
is with them and on their side. "Therefore, thus saith the Lord God of
hosts, O my people that dwelleth in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian"
(Isa. x:24).
The prophet Micah bears a similar testimony to the same person. In
chapter v we have a prophetic announcement of the birth of Christ in
Bethlehem Ephrata. We also read of His rejection: "they shall smite the
judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek." Then the nation is seen as
rejected--given up, set aside--till Israel brings forth in travail pains
a godly remnant during the end of the age. Then the Lord returns. "And
He shall stand and rule in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of
the name of the Lord His God; and they shall abide, for now shall He be
great unto the ends of the earth" (verse 4).
When this has come to pass then the Assyrian appears on the scene,
invading the land. But Micah tells us: "And this man (Christ) shall be
the peace when the Assyrian shall come into the land" (verse 5). All
this confirms the story of Ezekiel xxxviii. The reader may also turn to
Isaiah xxxiii, to Joel and find there a description of the same invading
forces which Ezekiel describes and their judgment.
But some will find a difficulty here. If the Lord has returned and His
people Israel are being gathered to dwell in safety in their own land,
if the Lord has revealed His glory, how is it possible that such an
invasion can take place? Is not Satan to be bound at once after Christ
has come back? And if Satan is put into the pit of the abyss to seduce
the nations no more, how is it that these nations are so blind to come
up into Immanuel's land to challenge the earthly rights of the King of
kings?
Satan will be bound for a thousand years, but the last act by which he
attempts to oppose Christ will be through Gog and Magog. The evil
thought the leader, the prince of Rosh, thinks (verse 10) is inspired by
Satan. He stands behind this wild company of nations and blinds them as
he blinded the kings of the Roman Empire and their armies to make war
against Him that sat upon the horse. (Rev. xix:19). But then Satan has
spent his last arrow. He has completely failed and is then put into the
prison for a thousand years to seduce the nations no more. His last
attempt was through the prince of Rosh with the nations mentioned in the
beginning of this chapter.
And when the Lord looses him, after the thousand years, he is still the
same old devil, as he always will be forever and ever; once more he gets
a Gog and Magog, this time from the four quarters of the earth, to put
up his very last fight. How that will end we know from Revelation
(xx:7-9).
Still another question is raised, and this one in connection with the
judgment of the nations, as revealed by our Lord in Matthew xxv:31, etc.
After the Lord has returned He will receive His own throne and begin to
judge the nations He finds then upon the earth. That this is not what
has been termed the final--universal judgment of the quick and the
dead--must be apparent to all who divide the Word of Truth rightly. It
is the judgment of the living nations. Now the question is asked, if the
Lord judges at once all living nations when He comes, how is it that
these nations can invade the land? Why were they not also consigned to
the place of eternal punishment? Why are they still unjudged?
We do not believe that the judgment of the living nations takes place on
a single day. Such a judgment of necessity covers a longer period of
time. Nation after nation will have to come up for judgment. This will
consume considerable time. There is no question the millennial reign of
our Lord will have two sides. There is first the Davidic aspect. He will
begin to reign first as David did; His people are with Him and blessed,
but all their enemies are not yet subdued and overcome. He will have to
rule first with a rod of iron. And then when this final enemy is dealt
with, He begins to reign as Prince of Peace, foreshadowed in the
Solomonic reign. Gog and Magog, etc., complete and end the judgment of
the nations. They are the last enemies to disappear.
After we have ascertained the time when this prophecy concerning Gog
and Magog will be accomplished, we inquire next who this final enemy is.
"And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of Man, set thy face
against Gog, the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal,
and prophesy against him, and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold I
am against thee, O Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal. And I will
turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee
forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them thoroughly
equipped, a great assemblage with targets and shields, all of them
handling swords. Persia, Cush, and Phut with them, all of them with
shield and helmet; Gomer and all his bands; the house of Togormah from
the uttermost north, and all his bands--many peoples with thee." Here
then we have a confederacy of nations. The leader is the Prince of Rosh
(not as the authorized version has it "the chief prince"), of Meshech
and Tubal. This prince is the head of the confederacy, and with him
allied are Persia, Cush, Phut, Gomer and Togormah. They come out of the
north, or, as it is in Hebrews, "out of the uttermost north" (verse 15).
Inasmuch as the Prince of Rosh is addressed in verse 3 as Gog, we take
it that Gog is the name given to this prince and leader of these
nations. His dwelling place is in the land of Magog. We know from
Genesis x:2 that Magog was the second son of Japheth. Gomer, Tubal and
Meshech were also sons of Japheth; Togormah was a grandson of Japheth,
being the third son of Gomer. Magog's land, was located in, what is
called today, the Caucasus and the adjoining steppes. And the three
Rosh, Meshech and Tubal were called by the ancients Scythians. They
roamed as nomads in the country around and north of the Black and the
Caspian Seas, and were known as the wildest barbarians. We learn from
this that the invading forces, which fall into Israel's land in the
future, when Israel has been regathered, come from a territory north of
Palestine, which today is in the hands of Russia. And here we call
attention to the prince, this northern leader, or king, who is the head
of all these nations. He is the prince of Rosh. Careful research has
established the fact that the progenitor of Rosh was Tiraz (Gen. x:2)
and that Rosh is Russia. All students of Prophecy are agreed that this
is the correct meaning of Rosh. The prince of Rosh, means, therefore,
the prince or king of the Russian empire. But he also is in control of
Meshech and Tubal, which are reproduced in the modern Moscow and
Tobolsk.[33] Russia, we may well conclude from this, will furnish the
man who will lead this confederacy of nations. We write this at a time
when Russia is passing through horrors upon horrors. A revolution
changed the autocratic government into a democracy and that given way to
anarchy, produced by the satanic treachery of Germany. From what is
written in this chapter we learn that Russia will ultimately return to
the old regime and will once more become a monarchy to fulfill her final
destiny as made known in this sublime prophecy. Well known it is that
Russia has been in the past the most pronounced and bitterest enemy of
the Jewish people. What she passes through today is but a fulfillment of
what the Lord has spoken: "I will curse them that curse thee." Today the
Jews in Russian may have bright hopes of getting their rights and
complete emancipation at last. For a time this may come to pass, but
ultimately Russia will turn against them and like Pharaoh did, when
Israel had left his domain, so this coming King of the North, the prince
of Rosh, when Israel is back in the land, will turn against them.
[33] The Septuagint translates, "Mesoch and Thobel."
With him come the other nations. Persia, which is even now in part
occupied by Russia, will finally be a vassal to this prince of Rosh.
Ethiopia and Phut are also in this confederacy. There also is Gomer and
all its bands. Gomer, says Delitsch, "is most probably the tribe of the
Cimmerians, who dwell, according to Herodotus, on the Maeotis, in the
Taurian Chersonesus, and from whom are descended the Cumri or Cymry in
Wales and Britain, whose relation to the Germanic Cimbri is still in
obscurity." Valuable information is given in the Talmud; Gomer is there
stated to be the Germani, the Germans. That the descendants of the Gomer
moved northward and established themselves in parts of Germany seems to
be an established fact. All this is of much interest. Germany did not
belong to the Roman empire, at least the greater part of Germany was
never conquered by Rome. She will therefore not participate in the
Western confederacy. Will she then become united to Russia and march
under the prince of Rosh into the land of Israel? We cannot be sure
about all these things. This, however, we know, that a powerful
confederacy of nations, under the leadership of the prince of Rosh,
Meshech and Tubal, will come up against Immanuel's land, when Israel has
been restored and dwells safely.