Ezekiel 39:1 - Meaning and Application

This prophecy begins the same way as the one before it, with the words, “I am against you, and I will turn you back” (Ezekiel 38:3, 38:4). God repeats himself because his warnings must be driven home, both to expose Israel’s enemies and to comfort Israel’s friends.

As before, God says he will bring this enemy from the far north. Long ago, the Babylonians came from the north (Jeremiah 1:14), and much later the Roman Empire was overrun by northern nations. God will bring this foe onto the mountains of Israel (Ezekiel 39:2), first as a place where his evil plans reach their full limit, and then as a place where he is destroyed.

The first blow is that his soldiers will be disarmed, so they can no longer carry out their attack. Even if strong men are ready to fight, what good is that when God takes away their power to do harm and smashes their bows and arrows (Ezekiel 39:3)? The weapons made against Zion, God’s people, will not succeed.

Next, he and most of his army will be killed in battle (Ezekiel 39:4). He will fall on the mountains of Israel, the very place where he sinned, and there he will die on God’s holy mountains. There God broke the bow of the enemy long before (Psalm 76:3). The mountains of Israel will even be stained and enriched by the blood of their enemies.

He will fall in the open field too (Ezekiel 39:5), and he will have no way to escape. On the mountains, he will find no path he can hold, and on the plain, no road by which he can get away. He and his bands, both his trained soldiers and the crowd that followed for plunder, will fall with him. Those who join themselves to wicked people, hoping to share their gains (Proverbs 1:14), must expect to share their ruin as well. The slaughter will be so great that only a sixth part will remain (Ezekiel 39:2). No army was ever so completely defeated. To add shame to their defeat, the birds of prey will feast on their bodies (Ezekiel 39:4). See also Ezekiel 39:17. God has spoken it, and what he says will stand. The most famous princes, even one called “Epiphanes,” meaning “the illustrious one,” and the largest armies, will fall before any word of God fails.

His own country will also be laid waste. God says, “I will send a fire on Magog” (Ezekiel 39:6), and among those who live safely in the islands, that is, among the Gentile nations. He meant to destroy the land of Israel, but he will not only fail, he will lose his own land to some consuming judgment. Those who steal from others justly lose what is theirs.

By all this, God will make his own name more honored. Among his people Israel, they will learn more of God’s name, his power, his goodness, his care, and his faithfulness. His ways with them will lead them into a better knowledge of him. Every providence should do that, just as every sermon should. God says, “I will make my holy name known in the midst of my people.” In Judah, God is known, but those who know him should come to know him better. Above all, they should grow in knowing his name as holy.

They will know him as perfectly pure and right, one who hates all sin. Then God says, “I will not let them pollute my holy name any more.” Those who truly know God’s holy name will not dare treat it lightly. People sin against God’s name because they do not know him as they should. God’s way is first to open the mind, and then to shape the whole life. He first teaches us to know his holy name, and then he keeps us from dishonoring it and moves us to honor it.

This is the blessed result of God’s glorious acts on behalf of his people. In this way, he finishes his gifts, makes them holy, and turns them into real blessings. Through them he teaches his people and reforms them. “When the Almighty scattered kings for her, she was white as snow in Salmon” (Psalm 68:14).

Among the nations too, even those who never knew God or refused to admit him, they will know that he is the Lord, the Holy One in Israel. They will learn by painful experience that he is a God of power, and the God who saves his people. It is useless for the strongest rulers to fight against him. No one has ever hardened himself against God and prospered.