Ezekiel 39:1-24--Prophecy Against God (Cont.)

Ezekiel 39:1-24
English Standard Version

39 “And you, son of man, prophesy against Gog and say, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. 2 And I will turn you about and drive you forward, and bring you up from the uttermost parts of the north, and lead you against the mountains of Israel. 3 Then I will strike your bow from your left hand, and will make your arrows drop out of your right hand. 4 You shall fall on the mountains of Israel, you and all your hordes and the peoples who are with you. I will give you to birds of prey of every sort and to the beasts of the field to be devoured. 5 You shall fall in the open field, for I have spoken, declares the Lord GOD. 6 I will send fire on Magog and on those who dwell securely in the coastlands, and they shall know that I am the LORD.

7 “And my holy name I will make known in the midst of my people Israel, and I will not let my holy name be profaned anymore. And the nations shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel. 8 Behold, it is coming and it will be brought about, declares the Lord GOD. That is the day of which I have spoken.

9 “Then those who dwell in the cities of Israel will go out and make fires of the weapons and burn them, shields and bucklers, bow and arrows, clubs and spears; and they will make fires of them for seven years, 10 so that they will not need to take wood out of the field or cut down any out of the forests, for they will make their fires of the weapons. They will seize the spoil of those who despoiled them, and plunder those who plundered them, declares the Lord God.

11 “On that day I will give to Gog a place for burial in Israel, the Valley of the Travelers, east of the sea. It will block the travelers, for there Gog and all his multitude will be buried. It will be called the Valley of Hamon-gog. 12 For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them, in order to cleanse the land. 13 All the people of the land will bury them, and it will bring them renown on the day that I show my glory, declares the Lord GOD. 14 They will set apart men to travel through the land regularly and bury those travelers remaining on the face of the land, so as to cleanse it. At the end of seven months they will make their search. 15 And when these travel through the land and anyone sees a human bone, then he shall set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon-gog. 16 (Hamonah is also the name of the city.) Thus shall they cleanse the land.

17 “As for you, son of man, thus says the Lord GOD: Speak to the birds of every sort and to all beasts of the field: ‘Assemble and come, gather from all around to the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you, a great sacrificial feast on the mountains of Israel, and you shall eat flesh and drink blood. 18 You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth—of rams, of lambs, and of he-goats, of bulls, all of them fat beasts of Bashan. 19 And you shall eat fat till you are filled, and drink blood till you are drunk, at the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you. 20 And you shall be filled at my table with horses and charioteers, with mighty men and all kinds of warriors,’ declares the Lord GOD.

21 “And I will set my glory among the nations, and all the nations shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid on them. 22 The house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God, from that day forward. 23 And the nations shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity, because they dealt so treacherously with me that I hid my face from them and gave them into the hand of their adversaries, and they all fell by the sword. 24 I dealt with them according to their uncleanness and their transgressions, and hid my face from them.

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The prophecy against God continues here in chapter 39 for nearly the entirety of this chapter.  The LORD lets the leader of Magog, known here as Gog, that the LORD is against Him (because he is against the LORD and His people).  Though the armies that advance with this king will be strong in number, their weapons will be useless against the LORD's people.  (See Isaiah 54:16-17).  The dead carcasses of this army will be food for the unclean birds (see Revelation 19:17-21).  It will not just be the soldiers that are destroyed, but their homelands will be destroyed in judgment as well.  Those who thought they were safe because they were far away from the battle lines will feel the fire of the LORD's wrath and will know that He is the LORD.

Again, we see that the reason that the LORD acts is primarily for the sake of His holy Name.  Secondarily, He acts for the good of His people (though, those two idea are closely connected as God has staked His reputation on His ability to fulfill His covenant promises to His covenant people).  These future events are coming and are a certainty that we should prepare for by making sure we make a wise choice to be a part of the people of God whom the LORD protects and not the enemies of God whom the LORD destroys.

The people of God will have no need for weapons of war anymore as there will be perfect peace once all the enemies of the LORD and His people are destroyed and His Kingdom is established forever.  It will take them seven years to burn all of the weapons of war and destroy them .  They will plunder those who sought to plunder them and everything that had belonged to Magog and those who allied themselves with Gog will become the possessions of the people of Israel.

The very place where the army intended to bury the dead of Israel will be the place where the LORD will stop their advance and they will die.  It will take seven months to bury all the dead.  Israel will even send men through the land in search parties to make sure they didn't miss anyone and it will take them the entirety of seven months to make a complete search to make sure that there are no corpses or bones or other human remains left to defile the Beautiful Land.  The people will mark any human remains they find in the Land so that they can be collected and receive a proper burial (which is more than the enemies of God deserved, but the people of God will honor those made in the image of God, even if they decided to become the enemies of God and His people).

The unclean animals (not just the birds) will have a feast on the flesh and blood of the dead soldiers and all who die in the LORD's judgment against the ungodly.  Jesus will speak and all of His enemies will be destroyed--not just the troops marching against Jerusalem and Israel.  It will be a "feast" so massive for them that the text says they will be gorged with flesh and drunk with blood because they will eat and drink to excess.  All the horses and other animals that were used in the war effort will also die and the unclean animals will feast on them as well.

All the peoples of the earth from all nations that remain (it would seem all the remaining people would be the LORD's people) will see the glory of the LORD revealed in this way and will worship Him.  Israel will know He is the LORD, the righteous from the other nations will know He is the LORD and even the wicked will know that He is the LORD and will be forced to confess it.  Yea, even the demons will join in the declaration that "Jesus Christ is Lord" to the glory of God the Father.  Those that chose to be dealt with according to their own works have been judged by their merits and the wrath of God was poured out on them.  Those who chose to have the LORD deal with them based on the merit of Christ will be safe because God's wrath was already poured out on Him for their sakes. You can make a choice and try to pay the penalty for your infinite sin debt yourself (you can never pay it) or you can let the only one with infinite righteousness and the ability to cancel your sin debt and impart His righteousness to you.  It is not fair, but it is just. as someone other than you paid the penalty that you deserved.  That is what penal substitutionary atonement is all about and why it is at the center of the gospel.  "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Corinthians 5:21)