Ezekiel 38

CHAPTERS 38 AND 39THEME: Russia’s (Gog’s) invasion of IsraelIf there is any section in the prophecy of Ezekiel that is familiar, it is chapters 38 and 39. These two chapters tell of the repudiation of Gog and Magog. I am going to attempt to handle these chapters just a little differently than I generally do because I am anxious to lift out certain great truths for our consideration. Unfortunately, these chapters have been interpreted by men who apparently have no knowledge of the prophecy of Ezekiel and what goes with it. As a result they have come up with some very odd interpretations. They remind me of the advertisement that was put in the Mines Magazine in El Paso, Texas, by some fellows who were mining experts and engineers.

They put an ad in that magazine in a deadpan way, as though it was serious. “Wanted: Man to work on nuclear fissionable isotopes, molecular reactive counters and three-phased cyclotronic uranium photosynthesizers. No experience necessary.” Well, it is equally as humorous to try to interpret Ezekiel without knowing what the entire book is about. We saw in chapter 37 that God has a definite purpose for Israel in the future, and these two chapters deal with that subject. They tell about the final enemy that will come against Israel in the last days. In chapters 38 and 39 I believe that the enemy mentioned is Russia. When I entered the ministry, I did not believe that it referred to Russia. I refused to accept that interpretation because I had attended my denominational seminary which taught amillennialism. They did not believe that Russia was being referred to in this portion of Scripture. Even after I had worked for my doctoral degree, even at the time of my graduation, I still had not accepted it. Finally I came to the conclusion that I had better study the subject on my own, and I am convinced that the enemy of chapters 38 and 39 is Russia. Three points of contact make me know this in my own heart and mind: You have here what is known as the linguistic phenomenon, the geographic phenomenon, and the philosophical or idealogical phenomenon.

Ezekiel 38:1

LINGUISTIC PHENOMENONGog is a word for ruler, meaning roof, which actually means “the man on top.” I can’t think of a better name for a dictator than Gog. If he is not on top, he is not a dictator, and if he is on top, he is a dictator. Magog means “head”; it is the Hebrew word Rosh, which means head. Dean Stanley, in his exhaustive History of the Eastern Church, published half a century ago, has a note founded on Gesenius, the great Hebrew scholar, to the effect that the word Rosh should be Russia. Then Dean Stanley adds that this is the only reference to a modern nation in the entire Old Testament. This is indeed remarkable. Bishop Lowther made the statement that Rosh taken as a proper name in Ezekiel signified the inhabitants of Scythia from whom the modern Russians derive their name. You see, Russia was first called Muscovy, derived from Meshech. Ivan the Fourth, a czar of Russia, who was called Ivan the Terrible, came to the Muscovite throne in 1533. He assumed the title of Czar, which was the first time the title was used. I am sure you detect that the names Meshech and Tubal certainly sound like Moscow, and Tobolsk, which is way over in Siberia. The linguistic phenomenon certainly leads us to believe that Ezekiel is talking about Russia in this passage. GEOGRAPHIC PHENOMENONNow the second proof that identifies Russia is the geographic position. Here we have mentioned the nations which will be with Russia in the last days: “Gomer, and all his bands: the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee” (v. Eze_38:6). “Gomer” is Germany, and “the house of Togarmah” is Turkey. “Of the north quarters” gives us the geographic location. Again in verse Eze_38:15 we read: “And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts,” and in chapter 39 verse Eze_39:2 the same location is given: “and will cause thee to come up from the north parts.” Whenever I give an illustrated message on this passage in Scripture, I always show a map of Israel and Russia. The literal meaning here is the “uttermost parts of the north.” If you look at a map, you will find that Russia is directly north and northeast. In fact, it covers Israel just like that picture you have seen of the fellow under a great big sombrero.

That hat covers him just like Russia covers the nation Israel. When you start going north of Israel, you end up in Russia, and when you get through Russia you will be among the icebergs. You and the polar bears are going to be the only ones there. Directions in the Bible are in relation to the land of Israel. North in the Bible does not mean north of California or north of where you live. In the Bible north is north of the land of Israel. South is south of the land of Israel. West is west of the land of Israel, and east is east of the land of Israel. In other words, Israel is the geographical center of the earth as far as the Word of God is concerned.

Ezekiel 38:3

PHILOSOPHICAL PHENOMENONFinally we come to the philosophical or ideological phenomenon which helps us identify Gog and Magog with Russia. This is strange language. Here in the Book of Ezekiel God has said several times that He is against certain nations. He said it about Babylon; He said it about Egypt; and He said it about the nations which were against His people and against His person. Now here is a nation that is to arise in the last days, a nation which is against God. The reason we know it is against God is because God says, “I’m against you.” This makes it different from any other nation, because God has said this about nations already in existence that have exhibited enmity and rejection of Him, but this nation hadn’t even come into existence when Ezekiel gave this prophecy. Yet God says He is against it. My friend, you and I have seen something that no generation in the past has seen. We have seen a nation arise whose basic philosophy is atheism. The political economy of Russia rests upon the premise that there is no God. It is atheistic. No other nation has assumed the dominant position of atheism. Someone may be thinking, “What about the heathen, pagan nations of the past? Weren’t they atheistic?” No, they were not. They were polytheistic. They believed in many gods. In the beginning men went off the track, but they did not become atheists. The reason they did not become atheists is, I think, easy to understand.

They were too close to the mooring mast of revelation. After all, in Noah’s day you did not have atheists. That was not the problem with that crowd at all. The problem with them was that they had gone off into sin, and they worshiped many gods. Man at that point was polytheistic. All the great nations of the past were polytheistic, and the judgments God has pronounced in this book are against polytheistic nations.

He said of Memphis that all of the idols would disappear, and they have disappeared. There were probably no people so given over to idolatrywith the possible exception of the Babylonians. Polytheism characterized the ancient world. But Russia is a nation whose basic philosophy is atheistic, a nation that is against God. Do you realize that God did not give a commandment against atheism at the beginning? He did, however, give the first two commandments against polytheism: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Exo_20:3); and “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth” (Exo_20:4). So, you see, there are commandments against polytheism, but none against atheism. When you reach the time of David, atheism is beginning to appear. In Psa_14:1 we read, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” How ridiculous atheism is! It is almost an untenable position for little man, and here is a nation that says there is no God! Concerning Russia, men in high places have warned, “You cannot negotiate with them.” Mr. Churchill said of Russia, “A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” Rube Goldberg, who drew one of those crazy cartoons years ago, called Joe Stalin, “The Great Upside-down Philosopher.” Underneath the cartoon was written: “Top is bottom, black is white, far is near, and day is night. Big is little, high is low, cold is hot, and yes is no.” Unreasonable?

Insane? But that has been the basic philosophy of Russia, and it is a nation that has risen in our day. Mr. Stalin once said, “We have deposed the czars of the earth, and we shall now dethrone the Lord of heaven.” When Russia put a rocket past the moon, called the Sputnik, and when it was nearing the sun, the following was heard on the radio in Russia: “Our rocket has bypassed the moon. It is nearing the sun. We have not discovered God. We have turned out lights in heaven that no man will be able to put on again. We are breaking the yoke of the gospel, the opiate of the masses.

Let us go forth and Christ shall be relegated to mythology.” I have often wondered what they had in mind when they said that. Did they think that God was playing peekaboo on the other side of the moon? Because they got a glimpse of the other side of the moon and did not see God, did that prove He did not exist? That is the reasoning of the upside-down philosopher. God, however, has beaten them to the draw. Before Russia even came into existence, God said, “I am against thee.” You can see how Gog and Magog may be identified with Russia by this threefold reason: (1) the linguistic phenomenon; (2) the geographic phenomenon; and (3) the philosophical or ideological phenonemon. These are the three points of identification, and when we get to chapter 39 of Ezekiel, God repeats once again that He is against Russia. This chapter will tell us that this nation in the north with other nations with him will come down against Israel.

Ezekiel 38:4

WHY RUSSIA WILL INVADE ISRAELNow the question is: Why will they come against the land of Israel? God says, “I will …put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth.” This has been interpreted to mean that God was going to put hooks in their jaws to get them out of Israel after they had invaded it. But that is not what He says. He makes it clear that He is going to judge them in the land of Israel, and that they will not come out alive. In chapter 39, verse Eze_39:11, He says, “And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel.” As we read this section, it becomes obvious that God is not going to lead out the invading nations, but there will be a slaughter the like of which probably has not been seen in the history of the world. Then what does God mean by saying that He will put hooks in their jaws? Well, it seems obvious to me that He is saying, “I am going to put hooks in your jaws and bring you down into the land of Israel.” When this time comes, Israel will be back in their own land. For centuries that land was not occupied by them. After the destruction by Titus the Roman in A.D. 70, the Jewish people were sold into slavery throughout the world, and they were scattered throughout the world. The land was no longer a land of milk and honey. We have seen in the Book of Ezekiel that even the Negev was at one time covered with forest. God said that He was going to burn that out, and He did. That is the place where Elijah went when Jezebel threatened to kill him. He kept going until he was so tired he stopped and crawled under a juniper tree. If Elijah were here today, he would have trouble finding a juniper tree to crawl under; he would have to find something else. The forests are gone. Mark Twain said concerning the land of Israel, “Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes, desolate and unlovely. It is a hopeless, dreary, heartbroken land. And why should it be otherwise? Can the curse of the Deity beautify a land? Palestine is no more of this work-day world. It is sacred to poetry and tradition. It is dreamland.” Dr. Theodor Herzl, the playwright from Austria who began the tremendous Zionist movement back to the land of Palestine, made this statement: “There is a land without a people. There is a people without a land. Give that land without a people to the people without a land.” Dr. Chaim Weizmann, the first president of Israel, speaking before the Anglo-American Commission of Inquiry, said, “The Jewish nation is a ghost nation. Only the God of Israel has kept the Jewish people alive.” David Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister and minister of defense in Israel, made this statement: “Ezekiel 37 has been fulfilled, and the nation Israel is hearing the footsteps of the Messiah.” Today Israel has turned from this thinking. I have a picture, taken on Israel’s twenty-first anniversary, of a motto in the auditorium at Tel Aviv, written in Hebrew and English. It said, “Science will bring peace to this land.” The Old Testament says that Messiah will bring peace to that land, so apparently they are chasing a new messiah today. Russia will invade the land of Israel. Lord Beverly made the statement that Russia would not move into western Europe but would move into Asia and the Near East. General Douglas MacArthur concurred with him in that viewpoint. At the time Lord Beverly made that statement almost everyone thought that Russia would move into western Europe after World War II, but they did not move into that area at all. In fact, up to this day they have not moved into that area. God says, “I will put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth.” Today I believe that we can already see three of the hooks that God could use to bring them down into that land:

1. Russia needs a warm-water entrance into the waterways of the world. Israel offers that, and Russia is moving in this direction. A few years ago I sat in the dining room on the top floor of the Hilton Hotel in Istanbul and watched Russian ships coming out of the Black Sea, moving through the Bosporus, and heading for the Mediterranean Sea. This took place after the Six-Day War, and Russian naval strength had increased tremendously. What are the Russians looking for?

They are looking for a warm-water port. Admiral Sergei Gorshkov made this statement, “The flag of the Soviet navy now proudly flies over the oceans of the world. Sooner or later the United States will have to understand that it no longer has mastery of the seas.” Russia is looking for a warm-water port. Where are they going? All I know is that they are headed for the Mediterranean Sea. What nation along the east side of the Mediterranean would be suitable as a port?

Israel certainly would be. Russia is interested in moving southward today. God has put a hook in their jaw. 2. God has a second hookoil. The oil deposits of the Near East are essential for the survival of modern nations. Russia needs oil. Today we are being constantly reminded that the world is running short of energy. Oil is one of the resources in short supply.

As a result the world is turning to the places where they can get oil. There is oil in the Near East. Whether or not the oil is actually in the land of Israel is not the important thing. The important consideration is that, in spite of the strained relations between the Arabs and the Jews, a great deal of that oil is going through the land of Israel. When ships were not able to go through the Suez Canal, they put the oil off at a port which had been taken by Israel, and then the oil was taken across the land of Israel to the Mediterranean ports. As far back as 1955 I delivered a message stating that Russia was hungering for the Arabian oil.

An editor of a paper in downtown Los Angeles heard my message and disagreed with it. Sometime later he made a trip over to the Near East area. When he returned, he wrote an article (and I have a copy of it) in which he said, “Russia hungers for Arabian oil.” He changed his viewpoint after he had been to the Near East and had seen things with his own eyes. It is a pretty good hook God has in Russia’s jaws because any modern nation must have oil. 3. The third hook concerns the Dead Sea. The mineral deposits in the Dead Sea are so great that they cannot be evaluated on today’s market. Chemicals saturated in the water represent untold wealth. It is estimated that the Dead Sea contains two billion tons of potassium chloride, which is potashneeded to sweeten and enrich the soil that is readily being depleted around the world, including our own area. The Dead Sea also contains twenty-two billion tons of magnesium chloride, twelve billion tons of sodium chloride, and six billion tons of calcium chloride. The Dead Sea, in addition to all of this, contains cerium, cobalt, manganese, and even gold. Believe me, friend, there is much effort being made today to extract this wealth from the Dead Sea. If you had been around a few million years ago and had seen the Lord forming this earth, particularly the Dead Sea, you would probably have asked Him, “Why are you damming up that sea? You are going to have a pretty salty place.” He would have replied, “I am baiting a hook.” Then you would have said, “Baiting a hook for what?” Then the Lord would have said, “In a few million years there will be a nation in the north that I am going to bring into the land of Israel. I am just baiting one of the hooks of a little ahead of time.” And that is what God has been doingbaiting a hook.

Ezekiel 38:8

WHEN RUSSIA WILL INVADE ISRAELThe question is: When will Russia come down? This is where many expositors disagree. There are those who believe that Russia will invade the land of Palestine at the end of this age, before the church is raptured. Others believe that Russia will come against Israel at the beginning of the Tribulation period, and others believe it will be at the end of the Tribulation. There are some who believe this will take place at the beginning of the Millennium. I am not going to discuss these different viewpoints in detail.

My particular viewpoint is this: Russia will come in the “latter days” (v. Eze_38:16); these “latter days” (as we have seen in the other prophets) is a technical term that specifically refers to the Tribulation period. These will be the days when the Antichrist comes to power, and he is going to come to power on a peace platform. As a result there will be a false peace for the first part of the Tribulation period; then in the midst of the seven years, Russia will come down from the north into the land of Israel. Russia will trigger the Great Tribulation by breaking the false peace made by the Antichrist and invading Israel. When Israel is back in the land, they will be under the domination of the Antichrist, who will make them believe that peace has come to the earth, that all of the problems of the earth are settled and they are entering the Millennium. But this is not true, and they will find in the midst of the Tribulation period that out of the north will come their enemy, Russia.

Ezekiel 38:16

Since Israel is dwelling in peace, and Antichrist has deceived everyone, God is Israel’s only source of help. He Himself will deal with Russia. War will break out. The Great Tribulation will begin (which is the final three and one-half years of the Tribulation period) in all of its frenzied fury. The whole earth will be a holocaust. Judgments, one right after the other, will come upon the earth. War will reign. Christ said concerning this brief period, “…except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved …” (Mat_24:22). I recommend that you read in your Bible the remainder of this chapter. This is God’s judgment upon the invading armies of Russia.