God will mark the prosperous security of the people, and rise up against them as an easy prey.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

In that day: see Eze 38:8.

Dwelleth safely: see Eze 38:11; 34:25.

Shalt thou not know it? thou wilt be informed how weak, yet how rich, how easy it is to make them a prey, and thou wilt believe and try it.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

14. shalt thou not know it?tothy cost, being visited with punishment, while Israel dwells safely.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Therefore, son of man, prophesy, and say unto Gog,…. Since these are his thoughts and designs, and those his big words, and which he will endeavour to put in practice, and be applauded for it by others; deliver this prophecy to him, or concerning him:

thus saith the Lord God, in that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shall thou not know it? that Israel are returned to their own land? that they dwell in it safely? that they have abundance of cattle, gold, and silver that they have no walls, gates, and bars to protect them? that they live without fear or suspicion of any enemy to annoy them, and therefore may be easily surprised and taken? this, when it comes to pass, will soon be known by the Turks, through their spies and informers: or, “shall thou not know?” q or experience the divine vengeance for thy wicked thoughts, intentions, and attempts against Israel? he should. So the Targum,

“shalt thou not know the vengeance of my power?”

or shalt thou not know that all attempts to make them uneasy and uncomfortable will be in vain?

q “experturus esses”, Junius Tremellius “experieris, scil. poenam meam”, Piscator.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

      14 Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it?   15 And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army:   16 And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.   17 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring thee against them?   18 And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, that my fury shall come up in my face.   19 For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel;   20 So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.   21 And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord GOD: every man’s sword shall be against his brother.   22 And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.   23 Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the LORD.

      This latter part of the chapter is a repetition of the former; the dream is doubled, for the thing is certain and to be very carefully regarded.

      I. It is here again foretold that this spiteful enemy should make a formidable descent upon the land of Israel (v. 15): “Thou shalt come out of the north parts (Syria lay on the north of Canaan) with a mighty army, shalt come like a cloud, and cover the land of my people Israel,” v. 16. These words (v. 14), When my people Israel dwell safely, shalt thou not know it? may be taken two ways:– 1. As intimating his inducements to this attempt. “Thou shalt have intelligence brought thee how securely, and therefore how carelessly, the people of Israel dwell, which shall give rise to thy project against them; for when thou knowest not only what a rich, but what an easy prey they are likely to be, thou wilt soon determine to fall upon them” Note, God’s providence is to be acknowledged in the occasion, the small occasion perhaps, that is given, and that not designedly neither, to those first thoughts from which great enterprises take their original. God, to bring about his own purposes, lets men know that which yet he knows they will make a bad use of, as here. Or, 2. As intimating his disappointment in this attempt, which here, as before, the prophecy begins with: “When my people Israel dwell safely, not in their own apprehension only, but in reality, forasmuch as they dwell safely under the divine protection, shalt not thou be made to know it by the fruitlessness of thy endeavours to destroy them?” Thou shalt soon find that there is no enchantment against Jacob, that no weapon formed against them shall prosper; thou shalt know to thy cost, shalt know to thy shame, that though they have no walls, nor bars, nor gates, they have God himself, a wall of fire, round about them, and that he who touches them touches the apple of his eye; whosoever meddles with them meddles to his own hurt. And it is for the demonstrating of this to all the world that God will bring this mighty enemy against his people. Those that gathered themselves against Israel said, Let us take the spoil and take they prey, but they knew not the thoughts of the Lord,Mic 4:11; Mic 4:12. I will bring thee against my land. This is strange news, that God will not only permit his enemies to come against his own children, but will himself bring them; but, if we understand what he aims at, we shall be well reconciled even to this: it is “that the heathen may know me to be the only living and true God when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog! that is, in thy defeat and destruction before their eyes, that all the nations may see, and say, There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, that rides on the heavens for the help of his people.” Note, God brings his people into danger and distress that he may have the honour of bringing about their deliverance, and suffers the enemies of his church to prevail awhile, though they profane his name by their sin, that he may have the honour of prevailing at last and sanctifying his own name in their ruin. Now it is said, This shall be in the latter days, namely, in the latter days of the Old-Testament church; so the mischief that Antiochus did to Israel was; but in the latter days of the New-Testament church another like enemy should arise, that should in like manner be defeated. Note, Effectual securities are treasured up in the word of God against the troubles and dangers the church may be brought into a great while hence, even in the latter days.

      II. Reference is herein had to the predictions of the former prophets (v. 17): Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time, of whom Moses spoke in his prophecy of the latter days (Deut. xxxii. 43, He will render vengeance to his adversaries), and David, Ps. ix. 15 (The heathen are sunk down into the pit that they made) and often elsewhere in the Psalms? This is the leviathan of whom Isaiah spoke (Isa. xxvii. 1), that congress of the nations of which Joel spoke, Joel iii. 1. Many of the prophets had perhaps spoken particularly of this event, though it be not written, as they all had spoken and written too that which is applicable to it. Note, There is an amiable admirable harmony and agreement between the Lord’s prophets, though they lived in several ages, for they were all guided by one and the same Spirit.

      III. It is here foretold that this furious formidable enemy should be utterly cut off in this attempt upon Israel, and that it should issue in his own ruin. This is supposed by many to have its accomplishment in the many defeats given by the Maccabees to the forces of Antiochus and the remarkable judgments of God executed upon his own person, for he died of sore diseases. But these things are here foretold, as usual, in figurative expressions, which we are not to look for the literal accomplishment of, and yet they might be fulfilled nearer the letter than we know of. 1. God will be highly displeased with this bold invader: When he comes up in pride and anger against the land of Israel, and thinks to carry all before him with a high hand, then God’s fury shall come up in his face, which is an allusion to the manner of men, whose colour rises in their faces when some high affront is offered them and they are resolved to show their resentment of it, v. 18. God will speak against them in his jealousy for his people and in the fire of his wrath against his and their enemies, v. 19. See how God’s permitting sin, his laying occasions of sin before men, and his making use of it to serve his own purposes, consist with his hatred of sin and his displeasure against it. God brings this enemy against his land, letting him know what an easy prey it might be and determining thereby to glorify himself; and yet, when he comes against the land, God’s fury comes up, and he speaks to him in the fire of his wrath. If any ask, Why does he thus find fault? for who has resisted his will? It is easy to answer, Nay, but, O man! who art thou that repliest against God? 2. His forces shall be put into the greatest confusion and consternation imaginable (v. 19): There shall be a great shaking of them in the land of Israel, a universal concussion (v. 20), such as shall affect the fishes and fowls, the beasts and creeping things, and much more the men that are upon the face of the earth, who sooner receive impressions of fear. There shall be such an earthquake as shall throw down the mountains, those natural heights, and the steep places, towers and walls, those artificial heights; they shall all fall to the ground. Some understand this of the fright which the land of Israel should be put into by the fury of the enemy. But it is rather to be understood of the fright which the enemy should be put into by the wrath of God; all those things which they both raise themselves and stay themselves upon shall be shaken down, and their hearts shall fail them. 3. He shall be routed and utterly ruined; both earth and heaven shall be armed against him (1.) The earth shall muster up its forces to destroy him. If the people of Israel have not strength and courage to resist him, God will call for a sword against him, v. 21. And he has swords always at command, that are bathed in heaven, Isa. xxxv. 5. Throughout all the mountains of Israel, where he hoped to meet with spoil to enrich him, he shall meet with swords to destroy him, and, rather than fail, every man’s sword shall be against his brother, as in the day of Midian, Ps. lxxxiii. 9. The great men of Syria shall undermine and overthrow one another, shall accuse one another, shall fight duels with one another. Note, God can, and often does, make the destroyers of his people to be their own destroyers and the destroyers of one another. However, he will himself be their destroyer, will take the work into his own hand, that it may be done thoroughly (v. 22): I will plead against him with pestilence and blood. Note, Whom God acts against he pleads against; he shows them the ground of his controversy with them, that their mouths may be stopped, and he may be clear when he judges. (2.) The artillery of heaven shall also be drawn out against them: I will rain upon him an overflowing rain, v. 22. He comes like a storm upon Israel, v. 9. But God will come like a storm upon him, will rain upon him great hailstones as upon the Canaanites (Josh. x. 11), fire and brimstone as upon Sodom, and a horrible tempest, Ps. xi. 6. Thus the Gog and Magog in the New Testament shall be devoured with fire from heaven, and cast into the lake of brimstone,Rev 20:9; Rev 20:10. That will be the everlasting portion of all the impenitent implacable enemies of God’s church and people. 4. God, in all this, will be glorified. The end he aimed at (v. 16) shall be accomplished (v. 23): Thus will I magnify myself and sanctify myself. Note, In the destruction of sinners God makes it to appear that he is a great and holy God, and he will do so to eternity. And, if men do not magnify and sanctify him as they ought, he will magnify himself, and sanctify himself; and this we should desire and pray for daily, Father, glorify thy own name.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

PROPHECY AND THE RED RUSSIAN MENACE

Eze 38:14 to Eze 39:22.

THOSE who have given audience to this pulpit, for thirty-five years now, will consent that it has never strained prophecy in its interpretation of the same.

Some expositors can see types and symbols and prophetic certainties where we fail entirely to find them; but in the treatment of this text it seems to us that the Scripture selected demands the consideration of its relation to the future of Russia.

For the last thirty years, or since this Century began, the eyes of the world have been upon Russia. First we looked at her with compassion as we saw her suffering under Czarist control. When the Great War came on, her central place in, and her poor equipment for the same, excited the pity of all peace-loving people. The War over, the Revolution immediately following, flung her into such shadows, sorrows, and suffering that the civilized nations of the world were moved at one and the same time to both sympathy and disgust; sympathy with her murdered and oppressed peoples, and disgust with her crass and cruel rulers.

But our purpose in this discussion is not a further delineation of present-day Russian conditions, but rather a careful inquiry into the place assigned her by the prophetic Word of God.

Ezekiel seems to have been that Prophet to whom God gave this revelation in its greater fullness; and present-day Russia is now such as to show how easily the fulfilment of the prophetic Word may come to pass.

In our last address we called attention to the back-gathering of Israel in unbelief to the Land of Promise, and showed how the prophetic Word indicated that that gathering would greatly increase and in the course of time the old borders of Promise would be literally and perfectly filled by the chosen people.

Another step in prophetic history, therefore, involves for that land,

THE RUSSIAN INVASION

Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord God; In that day when My people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it? And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army:

And thou shalt come up against My people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall he in the latter days, and I will bring thee against My land, that the heathen may know Me, when I shall he sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.

This description of Russia is quite definite.

The name Gog first appears in the Bible as a descendent of the tribe of Reubenthe son of Shemai, the son of Joel; but according to no less an authority than the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, He is the prince of Rosh (or Russia) Meshech and Tubal (Eze 38:2 f. and Eze 39:1-16). His territory was known as the land of Magog, and he was the chief of those northern hordes who were to make a full onslaught upon Israel.

Dr. Scofield, whose Reference Bible is among the best of all present-day Scripture productions, says, ness; and present-day Russia is now such as to show how easily the fulfilment of the prophetic Word may come to pass.

In our last address we called attention to the back-gathering of Israel in unbelief to the Land of Promise, and showed how the prophetic Word indicated that that gathering would greatly increase and in the course of time the old borders of Promise would be literally and perfectly filled by the chosen people.

Another step in prophetic history, therefore, involves for that land,

Dr. Scofield, whose Reference Bible is among the best of all present-day Scripture productions, says, That the primary reference is to the northern (European) powers, headed up by Russia, all agree. The whole passage should be read in connection with Zec 12:1-4; Zec 14:1-9; Mat 24:14-30; Rev 14:14-20; Rev 19:17-21. Gog is the prince; Magog his land. The reference to Meshech and Tubal (Moscow and Tobolsk) is a clear mark of identification. Russia and the northern powers have been the latest persecutors of dispersed Israel, and it is congruous both with Divine justice and with the covenants (e. g. Gen 15:18, note; Deu 30:5, note) that destruction should fall at the climax of the last mad attempt to exterminate the remnant of Israel in Jerusalem. The whole prophecy belongs to the yet future day of Jehovah (Isa 2:10-22; Rev 19:11-21), and to the battle of Armageddon (Rev 16:14; Rev 19:19, note), but includes also the final revolt of the nations at the close of the Kingdom-age (Rev 20:7-9).

The time of this approaching event is fixed.

It is the end of this age, and while that date is indefinite, so far as mans knowledge is concerned, it is fully known to God. That is the peculiar characteristic of every inspired prophecy. Possibly this indefiniteness is not due to the arbitrary will of God, nor yet to His mere disposition to retain for Himself prophetic secrets. It may, in a large part, rest upon the circumstance of the uncertainty of mans action. While God knows what man will do, He does not compel his action. The individual is free to follow his own will, and nations to mark out their own way, and God, who sees the end from the beginning notes those human actions that constitute history.

It certainly is a marvelous and suggestive thing that Russia is just now the object of world-interest; the subject of world-wide study.

In 1905, Richard Hayes McCartney published a little volume through the press of Chas. C. Cook, New York, entitled That Jew! and on page 47 of that edition he referred to the beginnings of the Zionist Movement, and said,

This Movement will hardly die. If it should, it will soon be replaced by another-more determined movement that will most surely be the means of taking back part of the people scattered and peeled to the home of their forefathers.

How marvelously that statement has since been fulfilled! At that time there was little prospect of the World War; and yet it came, and through it the prophetic Scriptures found their way of fulfilment. The city surrendered from Gentile hands back to the administration of a Jew, and the land was opened to the incoming of their hordes.

No one would charge God with the responsibility of the World War. Germany is still seeking to escape that indictment, but even she does not intimate that God was to blame for it. But while God did not bring on the War, acting upon that principle which is consonant with His character, He made it to work together for good for the people of His promise, and that which is begun, will, in the course of human events, move on until the land is again in possession of the people to whom God pledged it, well-nigh forty centuries ago.

There is also another most significant fact to be faced here, namely,

The present preparation for the fulfilment of this prophecy. Who would have believed at the beginning of this Century that Russia would so quickly pass into the most flagrant revolution experienced by any country in fifty centuries?

Of all the Imperialistic governments of the world it endured the most arrogant and dictatorial rule. The slightest wish of the Czar was the exacting law of the land. He who was at the head of the administrative end of the government was also a dictator in its executive branches. The martial powers, fitly armed for the enforcement of his will, were supposed to be subject to his command, and the preacher of 1900 who would have prophesied a Soviet rule for the north country by 1920, would have been laughed at as an idle dreamer whose words were the mere products of a distempered imagination.

But, history is stranger than fiction. In the vast territory of Russia, covering as it does one-seventh of the worlds surface, the only memorials of that former Imperialism left to the eye of the present-day tourist of Russia are the desecrated castles, the commercialized church houses, and the cheap slabs that mark the burial places of the decapitated aristocracy.

Just as might be expectedthe former Russian home has been destroyed, family ties dissipated and despised, the former forms of law stripped of their authority, and one hundred and fifty million of people brought into a new slaverythe outrages, sufferings, and hardships of which have never been equalled by any nation of kindred size within the limits of human history.

The program adopted by the rulers denies God, seeks the annihilation of the church, defies world opinion, and super-induces a spite against all suggestions of holiness that may result for the generations to come in a hatred against Israel as intense and destructive as has been Israels retention of the name of God and determination of worship.

One writer says, Communism in Russia has resulted in depravity, anarchy and immorality in forms hitherto unknown in humanitys history.

John Haynes Holmes, a writer whose socialistic tendencies are well understood, a man whose reception in Russia has been sufficiently cordial to cause all American conservatives to suspicion his loyalty to our forms of government, evidently expects that Russia will mark progress in spite of all these things, and play a conspicuous part in future history, for he says,If I had to gamble on the future of the various European nations a decade or a quarter of a century hence, I would place my stakes on Soviet Russia, every time.

If there be any basis whatever for this prophecy of Holmes, then the peril of its fulfilment must be appreciated by all civilized men, for it is simple stupidity to disregard the statement of Russias Red Dictator in these words,

Our industry is putting into practice the mechanization and motorization of the Red Army. The practical work to ensure armaments and other requirements from our industry will soon reach the highest pitch of perfection. All the orders placed by the army authorities will be executed. Every effort is being made also to make full use of our chemical resources for war needs. The difficulties shall be overcome and our fighting capacity raised to the highest in the world.

There are sleepy Americans who have an idea that Russia is engaged in the quiet, peaceful endeavor of socializing the state; and such have not heard of the 1,776,687 murders of which the Reds had been guilty by 1924; nor yet the latest butchery of fifty Ukraine Christians who, but yesterday, dared object, when the police came to take down their church bells to melt them up for bullets.

It is another one of those internal proofs of the authority, integrity, and inspiration of the Word of God that prophecy so perfectly outlines for us the rising Red terror of present Russia.

But, the same prophecy that depicts it, tells of its final failure, its complete overthrow; and so, we call attention to what the Scriptures have to say upon

THE DIVINE REPROOF

Thus saith the Lord God; Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by My servants the Prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring thee against them?

And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord God, that My fury shall come up in My face.

For in My jealousy and in the fire of My wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel;

So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at My presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.

And I will call for a sword against him throughout all My mountains, saith the Lord God: every mans sword shall be against his brother.

And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will ram upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.

Thus will I magnify Myself, and sanctify Myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the Lord.

Surely these Scriptures clearly suggest the following lessons:

The Lords Offense Will Amount to Fury,

God Himself Will Eight Through the Forces of Nature, and

The Russian Slaughter Will Pale That of All Past Centuries.

The Lords offense will amount to fury!

And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord God, that My fury shall come up in My face (Eze 38:18).

For in My jealousy and in the fire of My wrath hade I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel (Eze 38:19).

The Russian himself, at this present moment, is inviting God to battle. Again and again Red leaders have defied Him. Some of them have even taken their guns and pistols and fired them toward Heaven to express their challenge to combat.

The official publication some years ago presented a cartoona Russian with a sledge hammer in his hands, smiting a whiskered old man, named God, in the head, and with an oath saying to Him, We have rid ourselves of the Czars of the earth, and now, damn You, we will brain You.

God is not a petulant tyrant. His patience has been tested again and again by the sins and insolence of men. He is, indeed, long-suffering, not willing that any should perish; but, on the other hand, He is not a drooling old grandfather, incapable of fury, or a doting old grandmother who can see nothing wrong in the conduct of the children of men.

In the Person of the Son He names Himself The Prince of Peace, but in the interest of justice, He is also called A Man of War.

There comes a time when patience has had its perfect work. The hour can arrive when even the proffer of Divine Grace can be tried to the point of fury, and if history illustrates anything, it illustrates the fact that Gods fury is a storm before which none can stand.

The worlds first murderer faced that frown, and went out from the Garden of Eden, a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth. The antedeluvians presumed on the patience of God until the day * * the flood came, and took them all away. Sodom and Gomorrha laughed in the Divine face and shook their fists in derision in the same, and went on with their iniquities until the fire fell and only Lot and his house were left alive. Pharaoh continued his oppression of Gods people until the Red Sea claimed not only his dead body, but the bodies of his entire army as well.

And the God of yesterday is still on the Throne! The World War illustrated the fact that He is neither dead nor indifferent to the conduct of nations. Once more His arm was bared and while, as is always true, all involved nations and even the innocent by-standers suffered by reason of that bloody experience, the deepest afflictions endured voiced the Divine judgment, and God proved Himself again capable of rebuking the wrong.

The forces of nature are often Gods instruments of battle. When San Francisco developed and encouraged the rotten heart, the earthquake and ensuing fires cleansed the same. When San Pierre became the most immoral city on the face of the earth, its holy mountain suddenly belched forth death, and in a few seconds reduced that city to ruins and ashes. When Florida became a haven of greed, and the rendezvous of all conceivable fleshly lusts, a storm came out of the ocean and swept it with such devastation that immediately its gambling profits ended and its songs of ribaldry, its music and dancing were silenced, and men who had long forgotten God, and women who had no other thought than passion and pleasure, were forced to their knees in prayer.

One day the Red Menace will find that God who created the world can shake it from its center to its circumference, that the mountain fastnesses that they have made the place from which to hurl their attack upon the Sacred City, and to which to retreat for recuperation and fresh attack, can be thrown down, and the very walls that constitute its barriers against the enemy, by action of cyclone can grind their creators to a pulp. Then famine and pestilence; who can measure their destructive power?

The fact is that when John, who stood nearer to this final overthrow of Rosh, nearer to the conclusion of this battle of Armageddon than did Ezekiel, looked on this last conflict that shall close the age and introduce the Millennium, he saw the Angel of the Lord thrust His sickle into the earth, and blood flowed even to the horses bridles.

He heard the angel who stood in the sun cry

with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;

That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great (Rev 19:17-18).

What opponent shall abide when fury comes into Gods face?

The slaughter of that day will pale that of past centuries. The last war was a holocaust of death. The cemeteries of Belgium and France make the heart sick as one looks upon the resting place of the millions dead! Perhaps in all the wars that preceded that of 1914-18 not more men had been destroyed, than were slain in that single four-year conflict; and yet, all intelligent observers know that the present-day indications are for a vastly greater slaughter when the next world war occurs.

But, only believers in the inspired Book, and intelligent students of prophecy have any conception of the staggering conflict that will close the present age. Military men who are looked to for leadership by the nations are studying with furious haste maps of seas and lands. They are marking out to the utmost of their ability the places and equipment of national defenses on sea and land. They are giving themselves assiduously to new forms of fighting material and to every scientific discovery that might yield to an individual nation some decided advantage in the great day for which each and every one of them is preparing.

But, strangely enough, with a few exceptions, they are utterly ignoring the one source of information, valuable above all others, the source, which if studied by some of them, would strike terror into their souls as they read prophetic defeat; and that source is the Sacred Scripture.

Daniel foretold the doom of Babylon, the rise and fall of Medo-Persia, the brief, but glorious day of Greece, and the final world-rulership of Rome. But alas! Most of those nations disregarded him, and, by their defiance of Gods Word, fulfilled its prophetic parts to the last letter, and since the day of Romes decline every foolish aspirant for the rulership of a fifth world monarchy has faced the inevitable,the declaration of the inspired Word, It cannot be! And after failure upon failure to disprove it or escape its clear announcement, both Napoleon of France and William of Germany, had to find out by bitter experience that the Word of God changeth not.

Oh, Russia! Your day of doom is written in the Divine Word of God! God may long and patiently wait, and proffer opportunity upon opportunity for repentance; but when the hour comes that you, as leader, assemble the sympathetic nations and call to your aid the islands themselves, and go up against the apparently puny land of Judea, and supposedly weak people of Israel, that day your slain will fill the ravines, cover the valleys, be piled in heaps on the mountain side, and the vultures of the world will find for themselves a feast the like of which has never been known since God created these consumers of carrion, that they might save the world from foul air and pestilence and further death.

Finally,

THIS IS THE WAR THAT WILL END WAR

There are some features of this prophecy before which modern man stands amazed. Because he cannot comprehend them, he holds them to scorn and explains them on the ground that the writer was ignorant of how the 20th Century would have marked material and scientific progress, undreamt by the prophets of the old day.

For instanceThe implements of this war are primitive. Shield, buckler, bow and arrow, hand stave and spear to be left by the dead, so that Israel, will need to take no wood of the field, nor cut down any out of the forest, but by burning these weapons shall find themselves before comfortable fires.

What is the explanation? Is it possible that our modern mechanical devices will be lost to us, as were lost the arts and sciences of the early civilization, and we will be forced back again to the primitive methods and instruments of warfare?

When one reminds himself what has taken place in history on this very point it certainly is a possibility. Still more possible is it that men will voluntarily give up their modern devices for destruction, and prompted by that humanitarianism which is now everywhere preached, being made even a substitute, by many, for Christianity itself, will adopt the old-time instruments.

In San Diego County, a year or two ago, I saw men working on the highway just north of San Diego City with picks and shovels, while the big caterpillar engine, sidetracked, was left to rust; and, when I asked the reason, the foreman responded, Sir, men are better than machines. The men must have work or become a social menace, and San Diego County has decided that not one road will be built this year by machinery because men need employment and the right to earn an honest living.

One who has studied the counsels of the League of Nations must be impressed with the fact that they have argued against many of the modern devices for destruction, and have even agreed unanimously to advise their nations to enter into a sworn purpose to put them away.

Still further, a friend gives me this scientific suggestion, namely

The nations are today deeply engaged in erecting the Frankinstine Monster that shall in the end destroy those who created it. All ingenuity of the modern laboratory is being directed against more deadly and super-efficient weapons of warfare. So terrible are some of the latest devices of mans ingenuity that it will soon be necessary for man to revert to primitive weapons of conflict, not only in order that a remnant might be saved from future wars, but by the very nature of the weapons now being perfected.

We recently saw a demonstration, from the laboratory of the greatest electrical research organizations in the world, of the broadcasting of power by the vacuum tube. This has been a dream of physicists for some years; but, like most of mans practical dreaming, it has now come to pass. Exactly as sound is broadcast by the radio, so now we have entered into an era of the broadcast of power.

At present the beam is so restricted in its field that it can only be picked up by certain types of alloys. These peculiar metal plates act for the broadcast beam as does the antenna for the radio.

In the first experiment a metal plate composed of the proper alloy was placed out in the open and a tea kettle, full of water, was set on the plate. Fifty miles away the laboratory broadcast the beam of power from its new vacuum tube, and in ten minutes the tea kettle was boiling.

Later, a second experiment was tried, when a tea kettle was made of this same metal alloy. This instrument was filled with water and frozen into the heart of an artificial cake of ice and laid out in the field, thirty-five miles away from the broadcasting station. The beam was directed and projected, and in less than fifteen minutes the tea kettle was so hot it had melted its way down through the cake of ice, and was steaming merrily.

At the present writing this beam can only be received by certain alloys. The process is in its infancy; but there is every reason to believe that when the development of this beam has caught up with the development of the radio we will be able to heat metals to an incandescent temperature at least fifty miles away.

Consider then the case of a foot-soldier whose rifle turns red hot in his hands, whose cartridges explode in his belt. Consider the case of the artillery who have gone into action with metal guns in the face of a beam of broadcast power that heats those guns to the melting point.

It would be impossible to have an ammunition dump or a caisson containing ammunition within a hundred miles of the scene of battle. Tanks will become obsolete as they are made of metal, and the broadcast beam, making them red hot, would cause them to be unmanageable by any human power.

The practical application of this amazing development will be that men will have to fight, if they do battle, with wooden weapons exclusively.

Then the light of science once more illuminates an obscure prophecy of the Word of God to show us how the ingenuity of man will bring to pass those things that God has foretold.

And yet, the slaughter by natures forces, of these men who came to battle with the primitive instruments of death is so great,

That many months will be required to bury them.

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

Yea, all the people of the land shall bury them; and it shall be to them a renown the day that I shall be glorified, saith the Lord God (Eze 39:12-13).

In the wars of the past the cover of night has commonly sufficed to bury the dead slain in the day. It is a rare thing that many bodies have been left to vultures; and if in this war it was merely destruction by the instruments of mans creation it would still be true that burial of the dead would keep pace with the on-going of the war itself. But not so, when natures forces are loosed at the Divine Word.

In Georgia, Alabama, several days now have been spent in finding and burying the dead swept down by the recent wind storm.

When San Pierre was destroyed by volcanic action, the fires and ashes covered and cleansed; and yet, months were required to dig out such bodies as lay near the surface.

Seismology is a practically modern science. The ancients tried to explain earthquakes, but their philosophies are supposed, by modern scientists, to have been altogether fanciful. Until the Middle Ages their occurrence was not accurately recorded; but since the great earthquake of Lisbon in 1755, accurate attention has been given to them all, and it is now pretty generally conceded by the scientists themselves that earthquakes are increasing in number and extent, confirming the prophetic Scriptures in placing the mightiest of them all at the end of this age.

John Newton must have been thinking of this very time when, in 1799, not so long after the Lisbon quake, he wrote:

Day of judgment, day of wonders,

Hark! the trumpets awful sound,

Louder than a thousand thunders,

Shakes the vast creation round:

How the summons

Will the sinners heart confound!

See the Judge, our nature wearing,

Clothed in majesty Divine;

You who long for His appearing

Then shall say, This God is mine:

Gracious Saviour,

Own me in that day for Thine.

At His call the dead awaken,

Rise to life from earth and sea;

All the powers of nature, shaken

By His looks, prepare to flee:

Careless sinner,

What will then become of thee?

But to those who have confessed,

Loved, and served the Lord below,

He will say, Come near, ye blessed;

See the Kingdom I bestow:

You forever

Shall My love and glory know.

Finally,

This war will indeed be the end of human wars. It will not be the last battle that the world will ever see, because the battle of Rev 20:7-9 is at the end of the Millennium; but the Millennium itself is parenthesized by the two. That battle is not human and natural,it is super-human and super-natural. The battle of Revelation 20 will end the Millennium and introduce Eternity; but this Armageddon will end this age and introduce the Thousand Years of Christs reign.

It is impossible to depict the fulfilment of this prophecy without perturbation of heart. The Prophet of God whose lips these words originally passed, must have felt that the words themselves scalded, as he spake them! But, as health is the more appreciated after one has passed through a burning fever, as the morning light is the more grateful after one has gone through the horrors of an anguished night, so the promised coming of the Lord of Glory to have mercy upon the whole House of Israel, to pardon their trespasses and sins, to save them and be sanctified in them, and openly acknowledged by them, and at the same time to close an age of blood and battle with the proclamation of a Thousand Years Peace, an age of sorrow, of suffering, with the sure promise of joy and rejoicing, an age of sin and death with the introduction of holiness and life in excelsis,ah, that is a prospect that makes possible even the anticipation of this agonizing day with both patience and hope.

It came upon the midnight dear,

That glorious song of old,

From angels bending near the earth

To touch their harps of gold:

Peace to the earth, good-will to man,

From Heavens all gracious King:

The earth in solemn stillness lay,

To hear the angels sing.

Still through the cloven skies they come,

With peaceful wings unfurled;

And still their Heavenly music floats

Oer all the weary world:

Above its sad and lowly plains

They bend on hovering wing,

And ever oer its babel sounds

The blessed angels sing.

O ye, beneath lifes crushing load,

Whose forms are bending low,

Who toil along the climbing way,

With painful steps and slow,

Look up: for glad and golden hours

Come swiftly on the wing;

O rest beside the weary road,

And hear the angels sing.

For, lo! The days are hastening on

By Prophet bards foretold,

When with the ever-circling years

Comes round the age of gold;

When peace shall over all the earth

Its ancient splendors fling,

And the whole world give back the song

Which now the angels sing.

Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley

11. THE OVERTHROW OF GOG 38:1423

TRANSLATION

(14) Therefore, son of man, prophesy, and say to God: Thus says the Lord GOD: in that day when My people Israel dwell safely, shall you not know it? (15) And you shall come from your place, from the uttermost parts of the north, you and many people with you, all of them riding on horses, a great congregation and a mighty army. (16) And you shall go up against My people Israel like a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the end of days that I will bring you against My land in order that the nations might know Me, when I shall be sanctified through you before their eyes, O God. (17) Thus says the Lord GOD: Are you he of whom I spoke in former days by the hand of MY servants the prophets of Israel who prophesied in those days for (many) years, that I would bring you against them? (18) And it shall come to pass in that day, when God comes against the land of Israel (oracle of the Lord GOD, that MY wrath shall rise up in My nostrils. (19) For in My jealousy, in the fire of My wrath I have spoken: Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking upon the land of Israel. (20) Fish of the sea, birds of the heavens, beasts of the field, and every creeping thing that creeps upon the ground, and every man who is upon the face of the earth shall shake at My presence, and the mountains shall be ripped open, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground. (21) And I will call against him throughout all My mountains a sword (oracle of the Lord GOD); every mans sword shall be against his brother. (22) And I will enter into judgment with him with pestilence, and with blood; an overflowing shower, great hailstones, fire and brimstone I will rain upon him and upon his bands, and upon the many peoples who are with him. (23) Thus I will magnify Myself and sanctify Myself, and make Myself known before the eyes of many nations; and they shall know that I am the LORD.

COMMENTS

The plan of God would utterly fail. He would take note of the unpretentious and peaceful people and think that he would have no difficulty in overwhelming them. With his vast armies coming from the north (Eze. 38:15) he would arise suddenly, ominously against Israel like a storm cloud. Little do the heathen realize that they are unwittingly carrying out the plans of God. He had brought them in the sense that he had permitted them to make this attack.[474] Through the destruction of this vast throng God would prove conclusively to all that He is king of the universe. He would be sanctified i.e., honored as holy, through the destruction of Gods forces (Eze. 38:16).

[474] Here, as throughout the Old Testament, the active or causative will of God must be distinguished from the permissive will. All things which happen do so because God either causes them to happen, or allows them to happen. Thus is removed the moral difficulty of having God lead these barbarians into a crime for which He must punish them.

What proof is there that the invasion of God was part of Gods foreordained scheme of self-vindication? The fact that long before it occurred the servants of the Lord predicted such an invasion. The prophecy here in Ezekiel is certainly in view, and possibly passages in Zephaniah (chap. 1) and Jeremiah Jer. 4:5 ff.) as well (Eze. 38:17). The fate of God as well as the fact of the invasion is announced by Ezekiel. The furious wrath of God would be manifested against God (Eze. 38:18). Divine jealousy or zeal was aroused whenever man outraged His immutable law. He would cause a great shaking i.e., an earthquake, in the land (Eze. 38:19) which would cause consternation and confusion in man and beast alike. Mountains and massive walls would crumble (Eze. 38:20). In the panic caused by this awesome display of divine power the enemy soldiers would lash out at and destroy one another (Eze. 38:21).[475]

[475] Cf. Jdg. 7:22; 1Sa. 14:20

In this judgment against God, God would employ pestilence and bloodshed. A violent, overflowing storm of hailstones, fire and brimstone (cf. Eze. 13:11; Eze. 13:13) would finally bring about the demise of God (Eze. 38:22). This stroke against God and consequent rescue of Israel would cause citizens of many nations to recognize the majesty and power of the Lord (Eze. 38:23).

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(14) Shalt thou not know it?The second part of this prophecy (Eze. 38:14-23), describing the doom of Gog, is introduced (Eze. 38:14-16) with a repetition of the peaceful security of Israel, and of Gods leading against her this great foe in whose destruction He shall be magnified before all people. The whole passage becomes clearer by omitting the question and reading simply, When Israel dwells securely thou wilt observe it and come, &c.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

14-16. Knowing that Israel “dwelleth securely” (Eze 38:14, R.V.), Gog comes against her (Eze 38:15), but knows not that he is really being brought thither by Jehovah himself, who rules and overrules all (Eze 25:4; Eze 25:7; Eze 26:3; Eze 30:25), in order that through his destruction the God of Israel may be sanctified, or “set apart” from all other deities in the eyes of the heathen, because of his holiness and power (Eze 38:16; Eze 28:22; Eze 28:25; Eze 36:23).

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Further Words to Gog.

God now, through Ezekiel, addresses further words to Gog. Gog is greedy for what he can extract from God’s people. But he has reckoned without God.

“Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to Gog, Thus says the Lord Yahweh, In that day when my people Israel dwell securely, will you not know it? And you will come from your place out of the uttermost parts of the north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great company and a mighty army, and you will come up against my people Israel, as a cloud to cover the land. It will come about in the latter days, that I will bring you against my land, that the nations may know me when I will be sanctified in you, O Gog, before their eyes.”

Gog is such that he is aware when God’s people dwell securely and are complacent. It is then that he makes his devious attack, and there follows a summary of Gog’s attack on God’s people with his mighty apocalyptic forces. The ‘uttermost parts of the north’ stresses the connection of Gog with the furthest north known to Ezekiel, the extremes of the world, and the north was where supernatural things could be found (Eze 1:4; Isa 14:13) . The far north is also regularly the source of great danger (Jer 1:13-14; Jer 4:6; Jer 6:1; Jer 6:22-24; Jer 10:22; Joe 2:20 see also Jer 25:32-33).

Once again his forces are said to come ‘like a cloud to cover the land’ (compare Joe 2:2; Zep 1:15; Jer 4:13). Usually it is Yahweh Who comes with the clouds and covers things with a cloud (Eze 1:4; Exo 24:16; Exo 40:34; Num 9:15-16; Psa 97:2; Psa 105:39). The idea may therefore be to indicate an other-worldly visitation of an imitative kind. We may see here a stress on spiritual warfare, intended by Ezekiel, but avoiding any thought of it connecting with the gods.

‘Riding on horses.’ Compare Eze 38:3. Such huge armies all on horseback would indeed have been a fearsome sight in those days, for most large armies were mainly on foot. This was an enemy indeed. In Revelation a great spiritual threat to mankind is likened to horses prepared for war (Rev 9:7-11 compare Joe 2:4).

But whatever the visitors may be the comfort is that they are finally under Yahweh’s control. It is He Who brings them against the land, even as He brought them forth with hooks in their jaws (Eze 38:4) and mustered them (Eze 38:8), even though they do not know it and would have loudly denied it. And through them He will reveal to the nations Who and What He is.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

We have here the Lord’s sore judgments denounced upon Gog. But as they are the same in greatness, and in multitude, as the Lord through the whole word of scripture uniformly holds forth to all the enemies of God’s Christ, I do not think it necessary to enlarge upon them in a way of comment. All the Lord’s judgments are to one and the same purport. Say ye to the righteous it shall be well with him. To the wicked it shall be ill with him. This is enough for our purpose. More than this, as the Lord hath not thought proper to explain, becomes not us to enquire. There is, it must be confessed, a strong propensity in every man’s heart, to enquire how the Lord will accomplish his latter day dispensations, and when the time shall be? But there is one general answer, and given by the Lord himself to the enquiry of Daniel, which men of curious minds would do well to regard. Dan 12:8-9 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Eze 38:14 Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know [it]?

Ver. 14. Prophesy and say unto Gog. ] Say it over again, that it may be the better considered, for the strengthening of the hands and hearts of my people.

Shalt thou not know it? ] sc., By thine intelligencers; and wilt thou not think to make thine advantage of it? The Pope hath his Coricaei in every corner of Christendom; the Jesuits’ colleges, placed upon the walls of cities, afford them passage into the city, or abroad into the world, at pleasure, to give or receive intelligence as occasion serveth.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Eze 38:14-16

14Therefore prophesy, son of man, and say to Gog, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, On that day when My people Israel are living securely, will you not know it? 15You will come from your place out of the remote parts of the north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great assembly and a mighty army; 16and you will come up against My people Israel like a cloud to cover the land. It shall come about in the last days that I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may know Me when I am sanctified through you before their eyes, O Gog.

Eze 38:16 Notice the purpose of God allowing this treacherous invasion. God will manifest Himself, His power, glory, and holiness for all to see (cf. Isa 43:8-13)! This theme (i.e., know Me) is recurrent! God wants His highest creations to return to Him (cf. Eze 36:23; Eze 37:28; Eze 38:23).

in the last days This phrase is used of a future period (cf. Isa 2:2; Eze 38:16; Dan 2:28; Dan 10:14; Hos 10:14; Mic 4:1). In the NT this phrase becomes the time between the first coming of the Messiah and His glorious return (i.e., the overlapping of the two ages).

SPECIAL TOPIC: THIS AGE AND THE AGE TO COME

My land By creation all the earth is YHWH’s (cf. Exo 9:29; Exo 19:5; Deu 32:8), but Canaan/ Palestine was uniquely His (cf. Lev 25:23; 2Ch 7:20; Isa 14:25; Jer 2:7; Eze 36:5; Joe 1:6; Joe 3:2). It was the special place for the manifestation of Himself to the world (cf. Rom 9:4).

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

shalt thou not know it? The Septuagint reads “wilt thou not rouse thyself? “

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

in that: Isa 4:1, Isa 4:2

dwelleth: Eze 38:8, Eze 38:11, Jer 23:6, Zec 2:5, Zec 2:8

shalt: Eze 37:28

Reciprocal: 1Ch 5:4 – Gog Isa 2:11 – in that day Dan 11:40 – the king of the south Joe 3:1 – when Zep 2:10 – and magnified Zep 3:8 – to gather

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Eze 38:14. Therefore . . . prophesy is the proper form of speech because the things that Ezekiel is to write are to take place many years in the future. Shalt thou not know it is another expression in question form, but the thought is that the good condition of Israel will be known by Gog. We know that such is the meaning, for the following verse proceeds with the activity the heathen country will manifest on account of that knowledge.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Section 3 (Eze 38:14-23).

The revelation of Jehovah to the nations in the judgment of Gog.

The interrogation of the merchant princes represents them as expressing surprise at Gog’s multitude. Can it be simply for the taking of spoil? The greatness of the attack appears out of proportion to the smallness of the object. Thus might it appear to human eyes, but the deep underlying reason is given in Jehovah’s answer. He draws forth all this army, that, as He says, “The nations may know Me when I shall be hallowed in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.” The magnitude of Gog’s undertaking would seem to the observant eyes of all the “young lions” of Sheba, Dedan, and Tarshish without any prospect of adequate compensation, but all is clear when God’s purpose is known. In this we get an example of how the wheels of divine government go round, carrying forward the throne and its glorious Occupant.

We have now a reference to former prophecies relating to these events. This at first may present a difficulty, for we do not find any previous prophetic announcement under the nation’s names here given. The interrogative form rather excludes the thought of Gog being mentioned before. It is rather that the prophets for many years announced a great consummation in judgment, executed upon the nations having special relations with Israel, while also her pronounced enemies. The question is then, “Art thou he” in connection with whom this will find its full accomplishment? The answer is given affirmatively in the next verse, coupled with the declaration of Jehovah’s wrath, and the terrible shaking which will be caused by His stroke of judgment.

It may be well to mention here several of the prophecies which point to this consummation. The name “Assyrian” is given to the last great enemy of Israel. He is associated with the north in Zep 2:13; and Assyria is the land of the north from which Israel will be gathered (Isa 27:12-13; Hos 11:11; Zec 10:10; Jer 16:15; Jer 23:8). Though “Assyria” and “Gog” seem names so very different, there is a similarity in their meaning which suggests moral identification, as well as that of locality, while the prophecies we shall refer to establish identity as to time, scene, and the character of judgment. Gog means either “extension” or “the topmost,” both suggesting the ambition, pride and avarice which mark his conduct as given in our chapters. Assyria, from Asshur, means “a footstep,” as going forward successfully, and this in boasted self-sufficiency, as Isaiah says (Isa 10:8-11; Isa 10:13-14). In this very chapter Isaiah makes plain that the invasion and the consummation in judgment of which it speaks is not only future, but after the restoration and when Messiah is present (vers. 12, 17, 20, 21, 27). Thus he stands up against the Prince of princes as Dan 8:1-27 states, and this is more emphatically affirmed by Micah (Mic 5:1-9). We know how direct the reference here is to Christ (vers. 1, 2), and then “He shall stand and shall feed His flock in the strength of the Lord,” this being in beautiful accord with what Ezekiel has told us (Eze 36:24-26). Following this we have the remarkable statement, “And this Man shall be the Peace when the Assyrian shall come into our land. . .and He shall deliver us from the Assyrian when he cometh into our land” (vers. 5, 6). And Jehovah says in reference to this time, “I will execute vengeance in anger and in fury upon the nations, such as they have not heard.” This agrees with what we have considered to be the time of Gog’s invasion, giving us good reason to link the prophecies regarding the Assyrian of the last days with those of Gog in Ezekiel. This we will find further strengthened by such passages as Isa 17:12-14; Isa 25:1-12; Isa 26:21; Isa 30:18-33; Joe 2:15-27; Nah 1:1-15; Nah 2:1-13; Nah 3:1-19, especially Nah 1:11-15 and Nah 3:9; and Zec 12:1-14. A careful consideration of these scriptures will lead us to see that, no matter what application they may have to the days which close the seventieth week of Daniel, they look on for full accomplishment in Gog’s great gathering, though his name does not appear. Similarity of moral character and purpose, coincidence in time and characteristics of judgment, prevail throughout. They are in that way of the same generation as the Assyrian of Sennacherib’s day, whose coming and defeat gave the text for many prophecies, while undoubtedly it was the foreshadow of the final consummation.

From these considerations we may conclude that Jehovah’s words (ver. 17) indicate the wide scope to be attributed to the prophecies. They not only have an application to the action of Assyria at the time when that ancient empire flourished, but also to the King of the North, or Assyrian of the future, who shall be the desolator, or overflowing scourge, in the closing scenes of the seventieth week, God’s battle-axe then as before upon a rebellious and idolatrous people; and finally the day when he shall come again as Gog from the north, to be utterly broken upon the mountains of Israel (Isa 10:26-27; Isa 14:24-27 with our present chapters. Compare also Isa 10:26; Jdg 7:22 with ver. 11).

There follows a most graphic description of Jehovah revealed in judgment. It is a manifestation which while centering in the land of Israel reaches throughout the earth and affects all mankind. The overthrow is accomplished by internal strife, every man’s sword against his brother; by pestilence and blood, that is, violent death, and by the downpour of destruction from heaven. Thus man in proud self-will and vaunted sufficiency has his own weapons turned against him, corruption and violence assail, while heaven’s displeasure is revealed. Those who are against God must find that the forces of earth and heaven, combined with their own devices, carry them down to destruction. Self-will and pride must ever reap according to the sowing. It is an unvarying principle of the divine government. God has written this largely on the pages of history, but men in their folly will not learn, seemingly blinded by thinking that each successive effort will be the exception to the rule which prevails in all affairs physical, moral and spiritual.

Grace known by us in Christ does not deliver from this holy government of God. Rather, since it gives to us a higher place of favor than ever known to faith before, we have greater responsibility, and we become more directly subject to the action of such divine principles. The whole history of Israel enforces this lesson. It is the moral underlying the ministry of the prophets. It is pressed home upon the people by repeated strokes of judgment. David used the sword to accomplish his own sinful will, and the sword never departed from his house. Solomon consorted with strangers, his heart was led astray, and enemies arise in the very quarters from which he drew the means of pleasing himself (1Ki 11:1-43). Man’s. self-devised plans and wilful choice ever come back upon him with. a harvest of results, which if he would only hear the Voice speaking in them, would bring him down before God in confessed impotency and sinfulness to receive the uplifting that is always given to those who humble themselves under God’s mighty hand.

The divine purpose is clearly stated (vers. 16, 23). It is that Jehovah may be known, that “the earth shall be filled with the glory of Jehovah as the waters cover the sea” (Isa 11:9; Hab 3:14). “Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? for Thou only art holy; for all the nations shall come and worship Thee; for Thy righteous acts have been made manifest” (Rev 15:4). This alone can establish things in proper order, as the lack of it, or its refusal, only produces confusion and evil. It is to this end that judgment is brought in. Indeed, since sin came in it is alone through God’s strange work that men can be brought to know Him. From the very beginning this has been so. Through the woman’s sorrow and subjection, and the man’s toil striving against the curse and blight of sin, God becomes known in mercy, grace and deliverance. He might have been known to His creatures through the Garden of Delights, earthly abundance, and ever-extending dominion, but this avenue was closed forever as far as the old creation is concerned, because of man’s sin. It will be realized by the new creation on a higher plane and in intimate heavenly associations through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Thus does God triumph over evil, but by way of judgment, in which He is magnified, sanctified, and made known. And where more fully so than in the greatest of all judgments? -that of the Cross, at once the answer to every question raised by sin, the fullest manifestation of God in holiness, righteousness, and love, when indeed a greater than Gog is met and judged, even Satan, the prince and god of this world. In our individual experience it is still often through the Lord’s judgments that we come to know Him in growing measure. Judgments which are either chastening for our waywardness, the discipline of love, or the disposing contrary to our proposing, or even allowing our will to have its demands granted that the bitter fruit of our way may be tasted, and so the sweetness of subjection to His way be realized. But ever it is the same love that gave Christ, working with and for us, love nevertheless which must prove itself holy to the objects of its richest blessing -to us. Our failure may not bring open discipline, He by the Holy Spirit may produce exercise and distress of heart which leads to self-judgment before Him, yet the salutary lesson will be kept before the soul by results reaped from our sowing which cannot be avoided. God graciously makes all contribute to a better knowledge of Himself. He is magnified and sanctified in these ways of judgment.

It is not that the believer has sin imputed to him, for to such pertains the blessedness of Rom 4:1-25, that of non-imputation, so that he does not come into judgment (Joh 5:24). This has to do with eternal issues, it is put in relation to our possession of eternal life, so that from this viewpoint we have passed out of the region of judgment. It remains true, however, that as in this blessed position we call on God “as Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to each man’s work,” and are to pass the time of our sojourn in fear, conscious of the redemption we have through the precious blood of Christ, and responsible as obedient children to be holy in all our behavior, “Because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy” (1Pe 1:14-18). Thus we are under the Father’s government. Its principles find illustration all through Scripture, and that quite fully in the Old Testament, where we get the record of the various dealings of God with those who are given places of privilege and responsibility. Hence the value and importance of all Scripture, and its use for teaching, conviction, correction, and instruction (2Ti 3:16-17). Its essential unity is known by the exhibition of the same divine principles in the greatest possible variety of circumstance and instrumentality. This Word “endureth forever” -“Forever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in the heavens.” It is the heavens that shall rule for blessing to all creation. This will surely be exercised according to that Word which is now to rule us as born from above, born by that Word and the Spirit. The position of this verse in the psalm (Psa 119:89) offers an interesting numerical study. That psalm is an alphabetic acrostic “of the most regular and perfect kind,” and this verse opens its twelfth section -Lamed

being the twelfth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It is the number of divine government, heavenly in character and manifestly exercised over all creation (3×4), as the psalm expresses. But to this we may add that the letters of the Hebrew alphabet (as also the Greek) have a definite numerical value. In this case it is thirty (3×10), divine and heavenly manifestation in that completeness of divine order, both Godward and manward, which ten suggests. All of this is found in and through the Word, and the exercise of that holy government which is according to it and revealed in it.

Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary

Eze 38:14-16. In that day, &c. At that remarkable time, when I shall gather my people from their dispersions and bring them again to their own land, and they shall be established therein and dwell safely, without apprehension of danger from any enemy, and without any defence to prevent their being attacked; shalt thou not know it? Will they not be pointed out to thee as a people thou mayest easily conquer, and with whose spoils thou mayest without difficulty enrich thyself? And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts See on Eze 38:6; thou and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, &c. The character here given of this people may properly be applied to the Turks or Tartars, the strength of whose armies consists principally in their cavalry. As a cloud to cover the land See on Eze 38:9. It shall be in the latter days This is repeated to prevent the application of the prophecy to any event that should take place before the days of the Messiah: see on Eze 38:8. And I will bring thee against my land I will permit thee to come; that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee Shall be confessed to be a great God over all, a gracious and faithful God to my people, and a dreadful enemy and avenger against the wicked. Before their eyes In the sight of all the heathen that are with Gog, and much more in the sight of Gods own people. This signal victory over Gog and his associates shall be a means of bringing infidels to give glory to God.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

38:14 Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to Gog, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In that day when my people of Israel {i} dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know [it]?

(i) Will you not spy your opportunity to come against my Church when they suspect nothing?

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

The invasion of the enemy from the north 38:14-16

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

The Lord wanted Ezekiel to tell Gog that on the day the Lord would call him up for service (Eze 38:4) he would know that Israel dwelt securely in her own land.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)