Ezekiel 38:1-6 - Set your face against Gog

38:1,2

Chapters 38 and 39 form a sort of interregnum between 33-37 and 40-48 and are somewhat apocalyptic in nature. They deal with Gog and Magog. There is no absolute agreement on who and what these are referring to. The best answer seems to be that Gog is associated with Gyges, king of Lydia, and Magog is the land where he lived. However, the most important thing to glean from these two chapters is how things work, how God’s plans are worked out, and what is going on in the world. The Bible is not intuitive. Israel is a basket case of a nation, morally beyond the pale, persistently rejecting God. Yet Israel is the heir to all the promises. How can this be? God acts against Israel, the nations act against Israel, yet God is Israel’s saviour. With our mere human wisdom we cannot work out how these things can possibly be. The Bible reveals God’s wisdom to us.

38:3-6

If we take Gog as representing the forces arraigned against Israel we see how God defeats them. First, He declares that He is against Gog. The imagery in 38:4 is probably taken from Assyrian practices. The Assyrians were a particularly violent lot, and one of their practices was to put hooks in the mouths of conquered prisoners and drag them along. Gog would gather a vast army, fully armed, but God would easily conquer them. “Many nations with you”. In Revelation we read of all the nations being gathered against God’s people. In society we can see many gathered against God’s ways. We should not fear, for they will come to nothing.