Ezekiel 38:14 - Meaning and Application

The latter part of this chapter repeats what came before. The dream is doubled because the matter is certain and must be noticed carefully. Again it is foretold that this cruel enemy will make a powerful attack on the land of Israel (Ezekiel 38:15). He will come out of the north parts, with Syria lying to the north of Canaan, with a great army, coming like a cloud and covering the land of God’s people Israel (Ezekiel 38:16).

These words, “When my people Israel dwell safely, shalt thou not know it?” can be understood in two ways. First, they may show what leads Gog to this attack. He hears that Israel is living securely, and he also sees them as careless, so this becomes the spark for his plan. When he sees that they are not only rich, but also seem easy to attack, he decides to move against them. We should notice God’s providence even in small openings, even in the first thoughts from which great plans begin. God allows people to learn things they will misuse, as he does here, in order to carry out his own purposes.

Second, the words may point to Gog’s disappointment in the attack. When God’s people Israel dwell safely, not only in their own mind but in truth, because they are under God’s protection, Gog will find out that his effort fails. He will learn by experience that no magic power can stand against Jacob, and that no weapon made against God’s people will succeed. He will know, to his shame, that though they have no walls, bars, or gates, they have God himself as a wall of fire around them. Whoever touches them touches the apple of his eye, and whoever meddles with them harms himself. God will bring this mighty enemy against his people to show this truth to the whole world. Those who gathered against Israel said, “Let us take the spoil and take the prey,” but they did not understand the Lord’s purpose (Micah 4:11-12).

“I will bring thee against my land.” This is striking news. God will not only allow his enemies to come against his children, but will himself bring them. Yet when we see his purpose, we can accept even this. He does it so the nations may know that he is the only living and true God, when he is shown holy in Gog, that is, in Gog’s defeat and destruction before their eyes. Then all the nations will see and say that there is none like the God of Jeshurun, who rides on the heavens to help his people. God often brings his people into danger and trouble so that he may have the honor of delivering them. He allows the enemies of his church to succeed for a time, even while they dishonor his name by their sin, so that he may at last prevail and make his own name holy in their ruin.

This is said to happen in the latter days, meaning the later days of the Old Testament church. The harm done to Israel by Antiochus fits this pattern. In the later days of the New Testament church, another enemy of the same kind would rise and be defeated in the same way. So God has already stored up firm help in his word against troubles and dangers that may face the church far into the future, even in the latter days.

There is also a reference here to the predictions of the earlier prophets (Ezekiel 38:17). “Are you the one I spoke of long ago?” Moses spoke of this in his prophecy about the latter days, saying that God would repay his enemies (Deuteronomy 32:43). David spoke of it in Psalm 9:15, and often elsewhere in the Psalms. Isaiah spoke of this leviathan, or great sea monster, in Isaiah 27:1. Joel spoke of the gathering of the nations in Joel 3:1. Many prophets may have spoken especially of this event, even if their words are not all written down. In any case, they all spoke and wrote things that fit it. There is a beautiful harmony among the Lord’s prophets, though they lived in different ages, because they were all guided by the same Spirit.

It is also foretold that this fierce and threatening enemy will be completely cut off in his attack on Israel, and that his own ruin will come from it. Many think this was fulfilled in the many defeats the Maccabees, Jewish rebel leaders, gave to the forces of Antiochus, and in the severe judgments God brought on Antiochus himself, who died in painful sickness. But the prophecy uses figurative language, so we should not expect every image to be fulfilled in a strictly literal way, though it may have been fulfilled more closely than we know.

God will be deeply angry with this bold invader. When Gog comes up in pride and rage against the land of Israel, thinking he can sweep everything away with force, then God’s fury will rise in his face (Ezekiel 38:18). This uses the image of a human face turning red when someone is deeply insulted and ready to show anger. God will speak against Gog in jealousy for his people and in the fire of his wrath against him and against their enemies (Ezekiel 38:19).

This shows how God’s allowing sin, placing opportunities for sin before people, and using sin to serve his purposes, can still fit with his hatred of sin and his anger against it. God brings this enemy against his land, letting him see Israel as an easy target and using that to glorify himself. Yet when the enemy comes against the land, God’s fury rises, and he speaks to him in the fire of his wrath. If anyone asks why God still finds fault, since no one can resist his will, the answer is simple: “No, but who are you, O man, to answer back to God?”

His armies will fall into the greatest confusion and fear imaginable (Ezekiel 38:19). There will be a great shaking in the land of Israel, a wide disturbance that affects the fishes and birds, the beasts and creeping things, and much more the people on the earth, who are quicker to feel fear. There will be such an earthquake that the mountains, the natural high places, will be thrown down, along with towers and walls, the man-made high places. They will all fall to the ground. Some take this to mean the fear that Israel would feel because of the enemy’s fury. But it is better understood as the fear that the enemy will feel because of God’s wrath. Everything they have built up and everything they rely on will be shaken down, and their hearts will fail them.

If the people of Israel have no strength or courage to resist him, God will call for a sword against him (Ezekiel 38:21). God always has swords ready, like weapons washed and sharpened in heaven (Isaiah 35:5). Across the mountains of Israel, where Gog expected to find plunder and gain wealth, he will instead meet swords that destroy him. If needed, every man’s sword will turn against his own brother, as in the day of Midian (Psalm 83:9).

The great men of Syria will bring each other down, accuse each other, and even fight duels with one another. God can, and often does, make the destroyers of his people destroy themselves and each other. Yet he will also destroy them directly, taking the matter into his own hand so the judgment is complete (Ezekiel 38:22). He says, “I will argue my case against him with plague and blood.” When God acts against someone, he also shows the reason for his judgment. That leaves people without excuse, and God is shown to be just when he judges.

The weapons of heaven will also be sent against them: “I will pour out on him a flooding rain” (Ezekiel 38:22). Gog comes against Israel like a storm (Ezekiel 38:9), but God will come against him like a storm as well. He will send great hailstones like those that struck the Canaanites (Joshua 10:11), fire and sulfur like what fell on Sodom, and a terrible storm (Psalm 11:6). In the same way, the Gog and Magog in the New Testament will be destroyed by fire from heaven and thrown into the lake of sulfur (Revelation 20:9-10). That will be the lasting end of all stubborn, unrepentant enemies of God’s church and people.

In all this, God will be glorified. The purpose he planned for will be fulfilled (Ezekiel 38:16, 23): “Thus I will show my greatness and show my holiness.” When sinners are destroyed, God makes it clear that he is great and holy, and he will make that clear forever. If people do not glorify and honor him as they should, he will glorify and honor himself. That is what we should want and pray for every day: “Father, glorify your own name.”