F. Gog and Magog (38:1-39:29)

Few other passages in the Bible have been subjected to such a variety of interpretations as have these two chapters. One cause for such disparate meanings is the frequent failure to recognize the nature of the writing. First of all, these chapters reflect again Ezekiel’s characteristic use of highly symbolic language. Thus the reader must try to understand the meanings Ezekiel pictures. Also, since it is so symbolic, the message is not to be equated with any specific historical situation or personages, whether past, present, or future. To say that the message is symbolic is not to say that it is untrue. Rather, because of its nature it has a timeless message, one that may apply to any generation.

What then is this timeless message? Simply this: God has committed himself in covenant to his people, and he will not allow any enemy, no matter how great and powerful, to overcome them. This is a message Israel needed while in exile (vv.25-29), and it is a promise appropriate to any time or place when God’s people face an overwhelming enemy. Whether or not these two chapters should be categorized as apocalyptic might be debated. But in the manner of apocalyptic writing, Ezekiel clearly sees God in control of history and sees that God will bring his people to ultimate victory.

At the very outset Ezekiel set the pattern for interpreting these two chapters. By naming the enemy of God’s people as Gog, of the land of Magog (v.2), he obviously invented or made up the name of the king and his land. There simply is no historical record of a King Gog or a land of Magog. In fact, the place name Magog is clearly built on the name Gog, using the prefix ma-which is commonly used in Hebrew to mean “place of.” Interestingly, in Rev 20:8 both Gog and Magog symbolize the nations of the world that have joined in a great battle against God and have been annihilated.

Thus it is futile to try to identify Gog and the land of Magog. Since Ezekiel nowhere else gives a specific judgment against Babylon, it would be easy to speculate that these chapters are really a veiled word of God’s judgment against it. Still, these judgments could apply to any and all enemies of God’s people in any generation. Early rabbis pointed out that the numerical value in the Hebrew for the name Gog and Magog is seventy. They then defined the number seventy to mean the seventy nations of the world. Thus Gog and Magog may mean any or all nations of the world.

In the three oracles against Gog (38:3, 14; 39:1), Ezekiel clearly shows God’s sovereignty and superiority over all the forces of evil. Typically, they came from the north, the direction from which most of Israel’s enemies came. Even when the Assyrians or Babylonians came against Israel, they had to come from the north since they could not cross the great desert that lay between Israel and the Mesopotamian Valley. The destruction of Gog’s hordes is within God’s great plan as he brings them from the far north and even sends them against the mountains of Israel (39:2). The extent of the slaughter of the enemy is beyond comprehension, for it will take seven months (seven used as symbolic number of completion) to bury the dead (v.12). The last oracle (v.17) is given to the birds and animals that are called to take part in a final victory banquet to celebrate God’s victory over Gog and his forces.

This section ends with God’s renewed promise to restore the people to their land and to covenant relationship with him (39:25-29). Then God will be able to reveal himself to the nations through the people upon whom he will pour out his Spirit.