Ezekiel 38 - Introduction

XXXVIII.

Chapter s 38 and 39 form one continuous prophecy, divided into four main parts by the renewed command to the prophet, “Son of man” (Ezekiel 38:1; Ezekiel 38:14; Ezekiel 39:1; Ezekiel 39:17), and these again into smaller divisions by the repetition of the form, “Thus saith the Lord” (Ezekiel 38:3; Ezekiel 38:10; Ezekiel 38:14; Ezekiel 38:17; Ezekiel 39:1; Ezekiel 39:5; Ezekiel 39:8; Ezekiel 39:10; Ezekiel 39:13; Ezekiel 39:17; Ezekiel 39:20; Ezekiel 39:25). The whole passage is to be looked upon as one sustained prophetic parable, in which vividness and force are given to the truth the prophet would set forth by the introduction of so many concrete details that one would be tempted to understand them literally, were it not that they carry within themselves the evidence that they were not so intended. The general meaning will be better understood after considering such obscurities as occur in the names mentioned and in the language used, and is therefore deferred to the Excursus G at the end of this book. Meantime, the details of both Chapter s may be very rapidly examined.

It is to be remembered that this prophecy immediately follows Ezekiel 37, in which God’s people are represented as united in one fold, purified from their sins, and dwelling in perpetual covenant with Him, under the care of His “servant David.” It is also not to be forgotten that a final conflict is described in Revelation 20:7 between the saints and their enemies, under the names of Gog and Magog, in which those enemies, as here, are destroyed by the immediate Divine interposition.

EXCURSUS G: ON Chapter S 38 AND 39.

Various indications of the nature and intent of this prophecy have been already given in commenting upon its verses in detail, but it is desirable to gather up these indications and combine them with others of a more general character.
It is not at all unlikely that the starting-point of the prophecy may have been in some recent events, such as the Scythian invasion already spoken of. It is also plain that a prophecy of such a general character, concerning the struggle of worldliness against the kingdom of God, and its final overthrow, may have had many partial fulfilments of a literal kind, such as in the contest between the Maccabees and Antiochus Epiphanes, because such struggles must always be incidents in the greater and wider contest. It is further evident from the prophecy itself that the restoration of the Jews to their own land, then not far distant, was constantly before the mind of the prophet, and formed in some sort the point of view from which he looked out upon the wider and more spiritual blessings of the distant future. But these things being understood, there are several clear indications that he did not confine his view in this prophecy to any literal event, but intended to set forth under the figure of Gog and his armies all opposition of the world to the kingdom of God, and to foretell, like his contemporary Daniel, the final and complete triumph of the latter in the distant future.

The first thing that strikes one in reading the prophecy is the strange and incongruous association of the nations in this attack. No nations near the land of Israel are mentioned, and few of those who, either before or since, have been known as its foes. On the contrary, the nations selected are all as distant from Palestine and as distant from each other (living on the confines of the known world) as it was possible to mention. The Scythians, the Persians, the Armenians, the Ethiopians and Libyans, the tribes of Arabia, Dedan and Sheba, and the Tarshish probably of Spain, form an alliance which it is impossible to conceive as ever being actually formed among the nations of the earth. Then the object of this confederacy, the spoil of Israel (Ezekiel 38:12; Ezekiel 39:10), would have been absurdly incommensurate with the exertion; Palestine, with all it contained, would hardly have been enough to furnish rations for the invaders for a day, far less to tempt them to a march of many hundreds, or even thousands, of miles. Further, the mass of the invaders, as described in Ezekiel 39:12, is more than fifty times greater than any army that ever assembled upon earth, and great enough to make it difficult for them to find even camping ground upon the whole territory of Palestine. This multitude is so evidently ideal, and the circumstantial account of their burial so plainly practically impossible, that it is unnecessary to add anything farther to what has been said in the Notes to this passage. Finally, in the statement (Ezekiel 38:17) that this prophecy was the same which had been spoken in old time by the prophets of Israel, we have a direct assurance that it was not meant to be literally understood, because no such prophecies are anywhere recorded; but prophecies of what we conceive to be here pictorially represented, the struggle of the world with the kingdom of God and its final utter overthrow, do form the constant burden of prophecy, and constitute one of the striking features of all Revelation.

To this is to be added the fact that, however the passage in Revelation 20:7 may be interpreted, the author of the Apocalypse, by the use of the same names, and a short summary of the same description, has shown that he regarded this vision of Ezekiel as typical, and its fulfilment as in his time still future.

The prophecy, thus interpreted, falls naturally into the place it holds in the collection of Ezekiel’s writings. There has been in the last few Chapter s, especially in Ezekiel 37, an increasing fulness of Messianic promise; then follows, in the closing section of the book, a remarkable setting forth of the perfected worship of God by a purified people under the earthly figure of a greatly changed and purified temple-worship, with a new apportionment of the land, a purified priesthood, and other figures taken from the old dispensation. But these things are not to be attained without trial and struggle; and, therefore, just here is placed this warning of the putting forth of the whole power of the world against the kingdom of God under the symbol of the gathering of the armies of Gog, with the comforting assurance, given everywhere in Revelation, that in the ultimate issue every power which exalts itself against God shall be utterly overthrown, and all things shall be subdued unto Him.