We now come to two chapters that are apocalyptic in nature. Ie they talk about stuff that is at least partly related to the last days. This also means there will be more nonsense spoken about these chapters than others.
These two chapters have several oracles, each introduced by "This is what the sovereign Lord says ..", or something similar. The first oracle is verses 1-9. It tells of a future time when God will call out a vast army that will attack Israel. Attempts have been made to identify Gog with Russia, but these are speculative at best. Revelation 20 refers to Gog and Magog, and this is Satan's last attempt to attack Israel after the millennium. This is almost certainly what Ezekiel is referring to here. Note that it refers to the people having returned to Israel, and "living in safety". This means that it cannot refer to now, as although there has been a return to Israel, they are not living in safety at the moment.
The land would be at peace, and would seem to be vulnerable, not having any walls to protect its villages. The people will have been living at peace. The evil king would see this as an opportunity to loot and plunder. But all this would be according to the Lord's plan. Now in the rest of Ezekiel God has already spoken of Him bring Babylon against Israel. That time it was to execute judgement on Israel, this time it will be radically different as we shall see, and it will demonstrate God's glory to the nations.
These two chapters have several oracles, each introduced by "This is what the sovereign Lord says ..", or something similar. The first oracle is verses 1-9. It tells of a future time when God will call out a vast army that will attack Israel. Attempts have been made to identify Gog with Russia, but these are speculative at best. Revelation 20 refers to Gog and Magog, and this is Satan's last attempt to attack Israel after the millennium. This is almost certainly what Ezekiel is referring to here. Note that it refers to the people having returned to Israel, and "living in safety". This means that it cannot refer to now, as although there has been a return to Israel, they are not living in safety at the moment.
The land would be at peace, and would seem to be vulnerable, not having any walls to protect its villages. The people will have been living at peace. The evil king would see this as an opportunity to loot and plunder. But all this would be according to the Lord's plan. Now in the rest of Ezekiel God has already spoken of Him bring Babylon against Israel. That time it was to execute judgement on Israel, this time it will be radically different as we shall see, and it will demonstrate God's glory to the nations.
No comments:
Post a Comment