Ezekiel 38
Chapters 38 and 39 have to do with the last enemy that Will come up against Israel at the beginning of the Millennium.
Verses 2 and 3: “Gog” is a symbolic name, meaning “high” or “mountain”; it is also applied to the enormous host that Satan will deceive at the end of the Millennium to their own destruction (Revelation 20:7-97And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, 8And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. 9And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. (Revelation 20:7‑9)). In both passages, Magog is mentioned, but in our chapter it is “the land of Magog”; he was one of the seven sons of Japheth (Gen. 10:22The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras. (Genesis 10:2)); Meshech and Tubal were also Japheth’s children.
That Russia with its Asiatic dominions is meant here cannot be doubted, since it has long been known that “the chief prince”, in verse 2 is a mistake in translation, the true reading being “Gog, the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal.” These were three great tribes known to the ancients as Scythians, occupying the country north of the Black and Caspian seas and east of the latter.
“Rosh” has since given its tribal name to Russia; Meshech is represented now in the name of Russia’s capital, Moscow, and Tubal in the city of Tobolsk in western Siberia, formerly the administrative center of a Siberian province of the same name.
Verses 5 and 6: Under Russian leadership there will be Persia and Ethiopia (but not necessarily the country now so named, for Ethiopians settled on the Euphrates as well as upon the Nile (See Isaiah 18: 1); Libya (on the north African coast west of Egypt); Gomer (eldest son of Tapheth, a tribe whose geographic limits are not defined as they have spread over much of Europe, and include the Celtic peoples and others) “and all his bands.” Togarmah (Armenia) “and all his bands”; “and many peoples (N. T.) with thee.” An immense army is indicated here, and in chapter 39.
It is believed that Asia and that part of Europe which lies outside of the boundaries of the old Roman Empire, as it existed when the Lord Jesus was on earth will join with Russia, in this attack on the children of Israel.
The time of the invasion is, from verse 8, just after the twelve tribes are settled in the land. The Antichrist and those associated with him, together with the power of the Roman Empire will have met the consuming judgment of the Lord at His coming; the king of the north, or Assyrian, with his allies, will also have been destroyed, and we may suppose that Edom will already have been dealt with separately in promised judgments.
Verse 17: Isaiah 33 is the only other prophecy which appears to point directly to Russia, but that great power is included with its instrument, the Assyrian, or king of the north, in prophecies dealing with the latter (Turkey, it is believed, with nearby nations), so that those concerning the judgment of the latter look on to the more terrible scenes involving the former’s end.
Verses 19 to 23 promise an event without parallel in the history the world, when sea, earth and air, and their inhabitants, are mightily affected and disease bloodshed (Israel’s enemies killing each other), hail and fire and brimstone, bring to naught this mighty aggregation of the power of man.
ML 02/23/1936