CHAPTER 39

(587 B.C.)

THE PROPHECY AGAINST GOG: THE SLAUGHTER OF GOGS ARMY

¹Therefore, you son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus says the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal (this Chapter proclaims Gogs defeat by the Lord Jesus Christ. As stated, it is the Battle of Armageddon, as described in Rev. 16:16):

²And I will turn you back, and leave but the sixth part of you, and will cause you to come up from the north parts, and will bring you upon the mountains of Israel (five-sixths of the army of the Antichrist will be killed by the Second Coming of the Lord. And will cause you to come up from the north parts, does not, as previously stated, refer to Russia. It instead refers to the invasion route being the same as it was for the Assyrians, Babylonians, Grecians, and others in the past):

³And I will smite your bow out of your left hand, and will cause your arrows to fall out of your right hand. (The Antichrist, called Gog, will think he is fighting Israel only, when, in Truth, he is fighting the Lord, a battle he cannot hope to win.)

⁴You shall fall upon the mountains of Israel, you, and all your bands, and the people that is with you: I will give you unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured. (The idea is that the defeat of the Antichrist and his armies will be so severe that vultures and beasts will feed upon the multitudes of dead bodies littering the mountains of Israel.

You shall fall, signifies not only the defeat of the man of sin, but also the collapse of corrupt human society, which includes corrupt human government.)

⁵You shall fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, says the Lord GOD. (Open field, refers to the time of the defeat of the Antichrist. It will be in the very midst of the Battle, with the Antichrist bearing down on Jerusalem, thinking that victory is within his grasp [Zech. 14:1-3].)

⁶And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them who dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD. (Send a fire on Magog, simply means that the Lord will personally use the elements of the heavens to destroy the vast Gentile armies following the Antichrist.

And among them who dwell carelessly in the isles, pertains to other nations of the world, which, in their minds, are neutral and are simply turning a blind eye to this wholesale slaughter against Israel by the Antichrist.)

⁷So will I make My Holy Name known in the midst of My People Israel; and I will not let them pollute My Holy Name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel. (This Verse captures all the Promises made by the Lord to the Patriarchs and Prophets of old!)

⁸Behold, it is come, and it is done, sa ys the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken. (This Verse pertains to the coming Great Tribulation, and more especially to these events at the very conclusion of that particular time, including the Battle of Armageddon [Zech. 14:7].)

⁹And they who dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the handstaves, and the spears, and they shall burn them with fire seven years (to think of something being burned with fire seven years allows us to know the extent of the destruction):

¹⁰So that they shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forests; for they shall burn the weapons with fire: and they shall spoil those who spoiled them, and rob those who robbed them, says the Lord GOD.

SEVEN MONTHS TO BURY THE DEAD OF GOGS ARMY AFTER ARMAGEDDON

¹¹And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea: and it shall stop the noses of the passengers: and there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude: and they shall call it The valley of Hamon-gog. (No doubt, several millions of men are going to be killed in that which is known as the Battle of Armageddon. Even employing modern equipment to hasten the burial of so many human bodies, still, the stench will stop the noses of the passengers.)

¹²And seven months shall the House of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land.

¹³Yes, all the people of the land shall bury them; and it shall be to them a renown the day that I shall be glorified, says the Lord GOD. (The Lord links this spectacle to the sanctifying of His Name.)

¹⁴And they shall sever out men of continual employment, passing through the land to bury with the passengers those who remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search. (The Executive Government of Israel will employ and pay the men described in this Verse to collect the human bones, wherever found, and bury them in the huge trench or area of Verse 11. This project, as stated, will require seven months.)

¹⁵And the passengers who pass through the land, when any sees a mans bone, then shall he set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the valley of Hamon-gog. (It seems that all the bones will be collected and taken to the valley of Hamon-gog, and there buried. If this is the case, it will be done for a reason, the portraying of such as a monument to Satans defeat, and the victory, even the great Victory, of the Lord Jesus Christ.)

¹⁶And also the name of the city shall be Hamonah. Thus shall they cleanse the land. (The name Hamonah means multitude. No doubt, it will be a city of graves, housing the silent dead, and not a city of the living.)

THE BIRDS AND ANIMALS GATHERED FOR A SACRIFICIAL FEAST

¹⁷And, you son of man, thus says the Lord GOD; Speak unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to My Sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great Sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that you may eat flesh, and drink blood. (This is the same command as Rev. 19:17-18, 20.)

¹⁸You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the Earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan. (The words, The mighty and princes, signify the military and political elite of the army of the Antichrist. As well, the rams, lambs, goats, and bullocks signify the same!)

¹⁹And you shall eat fat till you be full, and drink blood till you be drunken, of My Sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you. (The idea is that if they would not accept the Sacrifice of Christ at Calvary, then they would be made a sacrifice, which they were, but which would not save their souls, but would serve as a part of the salvation of the world.)

²⁰Thus you shall be filled at My Table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, says the Lord GOD. (The Antichrist will think to set a table is portraying the defeat of Israel, but instead he and his army will be the table, i.e., My Table, i.e., the Table of the Lord.)

THE PURPOSE OF GOD

²¹And I will set My Glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see My Judgment that I have executed, and My Hand that I have laid upon them. (The Bible regards as the heathen all who do not accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour. Therefore, that includes almost all the world.)

²²So the House of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God from that day and forward. (Along with the heathen seeing this glorious spectacle, likewise, the House of Israel will now know exactly Who the Messiah is. They will know that the One they rejected and crucified is actually the LORD their God. They will know it from that very day and forward.)

²³And the heathen shall know that the House of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity: because they trespassed against Me, therefore hid I My face from them, and gave them into the hand of their enemies: so fell they all by the sword. (The dispersions under the Assyrians and the Romans having been effected by the sword, as well as all who have been exiled through the centuries, and more particularly the terrible Holocaust of World War II, it can justly be stated: they all fell by the sword.

They trespassed against Me, refers to Israels rebellion from the very beginning, which finally necessitated their destruction and dispersion; however, the crowning trespass of all was their rejection of Christ and His Crucifixion. As a result, they were given over into the hand of their enemies, where they have remained for nearly 2,000 years.)

²⁴According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions have I done unto them, and hid My Face from them. (As they did not desire Him, He hid His Face from them. This was all He could do! Regrettably, this scenario has not yet ended. Continuing to reject Him, Israel will instead accept another as their messiah [Jn. 5:43]. This will happen in the very near future, and will bring Israel yet another Holocaust! [Mat. 24:21-22].

However, and finally, Israel will come out of the darkness into the light, and will accept Christ as their Saviour and Messiah. The next Passages tell us how!)

ISRAEL TO BE RE-GATHERED AND CONVERTED

²⁵Therefore thus says the Lord GOD; Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have Mercy upon the whole House of Israel, and will be jealous for My Holy Name (He will have Mercy because of their Repentance, which will take place at the Second Coming. The phrase, And will be jealous for My Holy Name, is a fearsome statement. His Holy Name stands behind His Word. He is jealous that His Honor be protected and that every single Prophecy be fulfilled);

²⁶After that they have borne their shame and all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against Me, when they dwelt safely in their land, and none made them afraid. (The idea of this and succeeding Verses is the explanation of the word now in the previous Verse. The shame resulting from the trespasses is now over. Now they can dwell safely in their land, and none shall make them afraid.)

²⁷When I have brought them again from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations (this great gathering will take place after the Second Coming of Christ, and will include every Jew from every country in the world, who will be brought, and gladly, to Israel. And am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations, refers to His Plan for them finally being realized);

²⁸Then shall they know that I am the LORD their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there. (So certain is the future Restoration of Israel that the past tense is used here in predicting it.)

²⁹Neither will I hide My Face any more from them: for I have poured out My Spirit upon the House of Israel, says the Lord GOD. (This Passage and many others emphatically state that Israel will never again go astray because of the poured out Spirit of God upon them. This Vision opens and closes with a valley of dry bones. The first Vision saw the resurrection of those bones [Chpt. 37]; in the second part of the Vision, nothing but bones will remain, signifying the catastrophic end of the armies of the Antichrist.

So these two valleys contrast the one with the other the one, a testimony to Gods Faithfulness and Love; the other, to His Fidelity and Judgment.)