The part that Gog and Magog will play is clearly indicated in these Scriptures. The identification of these names seems very plain. For purposes of clearness we set alongside the rendering of Ezekiel 38:22Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, (Ezekiel 38:2) and 3 in the Authorized Version and in J. N. Darby's valuable New Translation.
“Son of Man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, and say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal.” (Authorized Version).
“Son of Man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the Prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, Prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal.” (New Translation).
Gog is distinctly the ruler; the land of Magog, the people ruled; Rosh, we believe, stands for Russia; Meshech, for Moscow, the ancient capital of European Russia. One remarkable result of the Revolution in Russia has been the decay of Petrograd, and the transfer of the capital to Moscow. Tubal, we believe, stands for Tobolsk, the capital of Asiatic Russia, that is of Siberia.
In Russia there still live several million Jews. They have been terribly ill-treated and persecuted in that country for centuries. Russian “pogroms” against the Jews were notorious in their blind hatred of God's ancient people.
The strongest movement of the Jews to their own land has been on the part of the Russian Jews. This movement is likely to prove a second exodus. Just as the Israelites of old were ready to leave Egypt because of the rigor of the Egyptian taskmaster, so the Russian Jews will be glad to exchange their life of hardship and persecution, for the freedom of their own land under the aegis of the British Government.
We need not wonder that God will punish Russia for all her persecution of His ancient people. Words cannot describe the sadness and evil of their lot, and it is but fitting and just that her punishment will take place in Palestine, and will unite two things: (1) God's chastisement of His people for their sin; (2) God's chastisement and overthrow of Russia's might in punishment of their sin carried on for centuries against His people.
Russia has gone through the throes of revolution. We expect in time a Czar of some sort will again sit on the throne, for the mention of “Gog, the chief prince of Rosh,” warrants us in this expectation. We should not be surprised if Prussia, inhabited by Slays and not by Teutons, should join hands with Russia in a future day.
Russia, with her enormous territory, man-power, and vast actual and potential agricultural resources, is capable of immense efforts, if rightly organized and exploited.
Ezekiel 38 describes graphically how God will bring about the destruction of the persecutors of His people.
A great army with confederates such as Persia, Ethiopia, Libya, Gomer, and Togarmah will assemble, and come like a cloud on the Holy Land.
At the latter end Palestine, relying on the plighted word of the nations, shall be resting securely within her borders. But an evil thought shall come into the mind of Gog. The defenseless condition of the country, its prosperous unwalled villages, its wealth in cattle and goods, will excite Russia's cupidity, and behind it Satan's implacable hatred against God's people will be used in furtherance of this fell design.
When this great army falls upon the land, God's fury shall come up in His face. A terrible earthquake will affright man and beast, mountains shall be thrown down, steep places and walls shall fall to the ground. Jehovah will call for a sword, every man's sword shall be against his brother, pestilence, overflowing rain, great hailstones, fire and brimstone will complete the work of destruction.
Five-sixths of this vast horde of warriors shall meet with their graves in Israel. Seven months will it take to bury their bodies, and cleanse the land. Men will be appointed exclusively to this gruesome task.
For seven years the abandoned munitions of war will afford enough fuel for the whole nation. They will not need to cut down the wood in the field, or in the forest, for that long period.
Thus God will testify to the nations that Israel's long dispersion among the nations was for their iniquity, that His power has gathered them into their own land, that He signally punished Israel's chief and most powerful foe upon the very mountains and fields of Palestine.
All this will occur at the end of Daniel's seventieth week, and at the close of the great tribulation.
The last verse of Ezekiel 39 tells of God's Spirit to be poured upon the house of Israel, answering to Zechariah 12:1010And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. (Zechariah 12:10), as Zechariah 14:1-51Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. 2For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. 3Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. 4And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. 5And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee. (Zechariah 14:1‑5) describes the doom of Russia and the nations at this time when the Lord Himself shall intervene on behalf of His people, for how else could the little band of God's people stand against such hordes? It reminds us of the passage,
The geographical and climatic conditions of Palestine lend themselves to the fulfillment of Scripture in a remarkable way.
Years ago an Inspector of Fortifications and an accomplished geologist, Captain Hawes, was entrusted by the British Government with the task of investigating and reporting on the nature and conditions of the frontiers in Palestine.
As a student of Scripture he knew of the predicted earthquake of Ezekiel 38 and Zechariah 14, and in the light of Scripture examined the district. He knew that whether the conditions of the strata were favorable or not made no matter to God. God is omnipotent, and can carry out His will whatever the conditions may be.
Captain Hawes wrote: “Naturally my thoughts dwelt much on the prophecy in Zechariah 14, and as I contemplated the scene my 'official instinct' led me to consider the probable difference in the contour of the country where the valley would cleave. Having an intimate acquaintance with geology, I carefully examined the surrounding district, and was deeply interested to find there was a narrow, deep vein of strata of a peculiar character stretching in the direction of the Dead Sea. Following this up I took the trouble to ascertain that it continued in the same form the whole distance to the sea, so that it would need only the slightest tremor of the earth to bring about the cleavage of that great valley to the sea, thus making a channel for the living waters to flow in accordance with the prophetic word.”
Then, again, the extraordinary configuration of the valley of the Jordan is unique. The Hebrew word for the river, Yarden, means, The Descender. It rises in three sources, the highest being 1,700 feet above sea level. These streams unite in the waters of Merom, which is only seven feet above sea level. Ten miles lower the river reaches the Sea of Galilee, which is 682 feet below the sea level. When it finally enters the Dead Sea, a further distance of about sixty-three miles as the crow flies, it is 1,292 feet below the level of the sea.
The Dead Sea is the lowest lake in the world, and at its deepest part is 1,300 feet deep, making the bed of the lake at that point 2,592 feet below the level of the sea. It is fifty miles long and from ten to twenty miles broad.
Its waters are far more salt than those of the ocean—100 lb. weight of its water will produce 41 lb. of salt; whereas the same weight of ocean water will yield about 6 lb. It is believed that the Lake covers the once fertile Vale of Siddim, and the sites of Sodom and Gomorrah, the guilty cities of the plain.
Scripture prophesies in Zechariah 14 of great physical changes to take place in the Holy Land as the result of earthquake or volcanic eruption. Living waters are to go from Jerusalem in two streams, one to the Mediterranean, the other to the Dead Sea, the latter no longer to be destitute of animated life in that day, but teeming with fish. Wherever the living waters flow they will carry healing.
The contrast between that day and this will be a constant testimony to God's power, and the blessing of Messiah's personal reign. A traveler, Lamartine, observes of the Dead Sea: “The shores are completely deserted; the very air is infected and unhealthy. The surface of this sea is transparent, it glitters, it pours upon the desert which surrounds it the reflection of its waters; it is dead, motion and noise are no more. Its waves, too heavy for the wind, are still, and no white foam plays on the pebbles of its shore; it is a sea of petrification.”
It is believed that before Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed the river Jordan flowed through the fertile vale of Siddim and beyond it. Burckhardt, who investigated the neighborhood, obtained very satisfactory information, that, at the southern extremity of the lake, there is an opening leading into the Valley of El Ghor, which, with its southern continuation, termed El Araba, descends uninterruptedly to the Elamitic Gulf of the Red Sea, which it joins at Akaba, the site of the ancient Ezion-Geber. This is supposed to be the prolongation of the ancient channel of Jordan. There seems to be a fault in the geological strata starting at Mount Lebanon, running down the valley of the Jordan, and traceable as far as Abyssinia.
Seeing the tongue of the Egyptian sea is to be utterly destroyed, that the river thereof is to be smitten into seven streams, that men may travel dryshod as in the days of the Exodus, that there is to be a highway between Assyria and Egypt (see Isa. 11:15-1615And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod. 16And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt. (Isaiah 11:15‑16)), and that great geographical alterations are to take place in the Holy Land (see Zech. 14:1010All the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem: and it shall be lifted up, and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin's gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananeel unto the king's winepresses. (Zechariah 14:10)), and that the Lord's feet standing on the Mount of Olives will be the signal for a great earthquake that is likened to one in the days of Uzziah, King of Judah (see Zech. 14:4,54And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. 5And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee. (Zechariah 14:4‑5)), we are prepared to read that when the seventh trumpet shall sound there shall be “lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail” (Rev. 11:1919And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail. (Revelation 11:19)); likewise when the seventh vial is poured out, synchronizing, we believe, with the seventh trumpet, we read of “voices and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great” (Rev. 16:1818And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. (Revelation 16:18)), resulting in Rome being fissured into three parts, and the cities of the nations falling.
Great earthquakes have affected a single city like Lisbon, San Francisco, Messina, Tokyo, Quetta, and their immediate neighborhoods, but this earthquake of earthquakes will level the great capitals of the nations, and will at once lay low the enemy's power.
As to the predicted “great hail,” we have records of great storms of this nature in Palestine. On Feb. 8th, 1801, the hail, or ice stones were as big as large walnuts. The storm contiued uninterruptedly two days and nights. A torrent two feet deep swept everything before it. No human language could convey an adequate idea of such a tempest, reminding us of the Psalmist's words: “He casteth forth His ice like morsels: who can stand before His cold?” (Psa. 147:1717He casteth forth his ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold? (Psalm 147:17)).
Whether we take the language as literal or “symbolic” to read of a hailstone weighing about a talent (see Rev. 16:2121And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great. (Revelation 16:21)) bespeaks of something infinitely worse than what has ever been in the way of such storms, even surpassing the terrible storm detailed in Exodus 9:22-2622And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch forth thine hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, upon man, and upon beast, and upon every herb of the field, throughout the land of Egypt. 23And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt. 24So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. 25And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field. 26Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail. (Exodus 9:22‑26).
We believe all this can happen whatever the local conditions may be. Nothing can withstand God's purpose. But it is deeply interesting to see how God has been pleased to arrange that the state of things prevailing in that part of the world should present a silent, but eloquent, testimony that His Word shall be fulfilled.
All these things will usher in the Millennium, the thousand years of the personal reign of Christ.