Revelation 20, Ezekiel 38,39
Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison and will go to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them
together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of
heaven and devoured them.
(Revelation 20:7-9)
Sitting between verses about the millennial reign of Christ (v. 4-6) and the final judgment of the dead (v. 11-14), and followed by chapter 21 which is about the new heavens, the new earth, the new
Jerusalem and the eternal state where God makes his home amongst men, the placement of Gog
and Magog in the timeline of prophecy is unmistakable. Nevertheless, there are prophecies in
scripture that have more than one fulfillment, so the real puzzle when looking at the chapters on
God and Magog in the book of Ezekiel is to determine whether or not they correlate only to
Revelation 20. Furthermore we need to ask whether Ezekiel chapters 38 & 39 speak of the same
event, or of two separate fulfillments of a prophetic pattern.
It would be impossible to count how many prophecy teachers have used the account of Gog and
Magog in Ezekiel to predict that the Russians will attack Israel, usually in the context of it being at any moment, and that the Russians will then be nuked off the face of the planet. While we should
allow a shred of possibility that they may be right, there are a few things about this interpretation that really don’t seem right. First, the judgment against Gog and Magog is in all cases described as being personally poured out by God as a divine judgment. Note that it is “I will, I will, I will, I will”: And I will bring him to judgment with pestilence and bloodshed. I will rain down on him, on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him, flooding rain, great hailstones, fire and
brimstone. Thus I will magnify Myself, and I will be known in the eyes of many nations. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.
(Ezekiel 38:22-23)
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While God has at times used the agencies of man to execute judgment on a nation, usually
unwittingly such as Israel going into captivity in Babylon, God is also able to pour out his own divine wrath as He did on Sodom and Gomorrah. In the case of Gog and Magog, there is a strong indication
that this is God executing his judgment himself. He didn’t need nuclear weapons to judge Sodom,
and he won’t need them to judge Gog and Magog. One might also ask how the use of mans weapons
would magnify God and make him “known in the eyes of many nations”. There is a real danger that
some Christian interpretations could actually help fuel despotic thinking in governments and fool
Christians into going along with it. It is probably a corrupt vision of Christianity when men start to think that they, and their technology, are instruments for metering out divine judgment on this
earth.
The second thing that is bothering about the “nuke the Russians” interpretation is that it never
seems to mention the verse we started with from Revelation. This is because it is always preached
on as being something that occurs at the start of, or during, the tribulation, whereas the verses in Revelation suggest that these events occur at the end of the millennial reign. Even if we come to the conclusion that the Ezekiel prophecy has more than one fulfillment, wouldn’t it be honest to at least talk about what would seem to be the primary interpretation of the chapter 38 prophecy.
Thirdly, the connection to Russia is not proven at all. In Ezekiel 38:3 it says that Gog is the prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal. However despite a wide range of speculative views on where in the
modern world these ancient names refer to, no one actually knows for sure. The Revelation account
actually says that they will be gathered from “the four corners of the earth”, indicating that Gog and Magog may just be a type based on some historic enemy, but expanded to describe something much
greater.
So, putting aside the common “cold war” view of the prophecy, let’s go back to the question of
whether Ezekiel 38 appears to fit with the account in Revelation 20. The key points of the Revelation account are that:
1. It is referred to as “Gog and Magog”
2. The army is huge, like “the sand of the sea”
3. It surrounds the beloved city (Jerusalem)
4. Fire comes down FROM GOD out of heaven
5. The placement in the timeline of events is at the end of the millennial reign, just before final judgment and the new heavens and new earth.
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The Ezekiel 38 passage does align with point one:
“Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog…
(Ezekiel 38:2)
It also aligns with point two:
You will ascend, coming like a storm, covering the land like a cloud, you and all your troops and many peoples with you.”
(Ezekiel 38:9)
And point three:
You will come up against my people Israel like a cloud, to cover the land…
(Ezekiel 38:16)
And point four (bear in mind the Revelation account is highly summarized):
…I will rain down on him, flooding rain, great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.
(Ezekiel 38:23)
Only point five is unclear, and yet the character of the land they come up against seems far more
relevant to the millennium kingdom than today’s world:
“You will say, ‘I will go up against a land of unwalled villages; I will go to a peaceful people, who dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls and having neither bars nor gates’…against a people gathered from the nations…
(Ezekiel 38:11-12)
Does this sound like the modern, heavily fortified, state of Israel? Clearly not.
Thus there is a reasonable case for saying that the primary application of the Ezekiel 38 prophecy
correlates to the passage in Revelation 20; at the end of the millennial kingdom immediately prior to the new heavens and the new Earth.
On the other hand, there are several things about Ezekiel 39 indicating that the chapter may relate to an earlier fulfillment of the prophecy, perhaps taking place right at the end of the tribulation period prior to the millennial kingdom.
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First of all, verses 17-20 correlate very closely with Revelation 19:17-21, which describes Christ and his army going to battle against the armies of the beast at his coming. In Revelation 19 all the birds are invited to “the supper of the great God” and in Ezekiel the birds and beasts are invited to “My sacrificial meal”. The events and imagery in both passages are nearly identical. (Especially compare Ezekiel 39:20 with Revelation 19:18.)
Also, after this scene of judgment Israel is gathered from all the nations, and even more importantly, they are from this point forward a believing nation and one on whom God’s spirit is poured out.
“So the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord from that day forward.
(Ezekiel 39:22)
…Now I will bring back that captives of Jacob, and have mercy on the whole house of Israel…
(Ezekiel 39:25)
And I will not hide My face from them anymore; for I shall have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel, says the Lord God.
(Ezekiel 39:29)
Ezekiel prophesied during the Babylonian captivity, however while this prophecy was no doubt given
partly as an encouragement to the captives, the circumstances of Israel’s restoration from captivity in Babylon where quite different from those in this prophecy of restoration following the judgment
of Gog and Magog. So while their more immediate restoration as a nation is no doubt part of the
prophetic pattern, there is also little doubt that the passage speaks primarily about a future, and much greater, restoration.
Another reason for believing that the Ezekiel 39 account relates to the point of judgment just prior to entering into the millennium is that the nature of the burial of the dead (in chapter 39) seems
more in keeping with this than with entering the eternal state of the new heavens and new earth.
Verses 11-16 describe the seven months of burying the dead of Gog and Magog in order to cleanse
the land. This would seem unnecessary if entering into the new earth of Revelation 21. When the
eternal state is ushered in it would seem out of line with the new order of things to still be burying dead bodies, whereas in the millennium there will still be death since it is Christ’s reign over this earth in its current post fall order.
Furthermore this interpretation of where Ezekiel 39 sits would seem to line up with events in
Zechariah 14, where all the nations gather together to battle against Jerusalem, and at which time it P a g e 80
says that the Lord himself will go forth and fight those nations. That Zechariah is speaking of the end of the tribulation, rather than the end of the millennium, seems clear from Ezekiel 39:16-17 which
record that from this point on the nations will come up each year to Jerusalem to worship the Lord
and that if they don’t they shall have no rain. This disciplinary action demonstrates clearly that the time following the battle is not that of the eternal state where all will be perfect.
Back to the question of whether Ezekiel 38 & 39 speak of the same events. Were we to decide that they do speak of exactly the same fulfillment of the prophecy it would be hard not to conclude from chapter 39 that Christ’s war against the armies of the beast at the end of the tribulation, and the subsequent bringing in of the millennial kingdom, were the primary meaning of the chapters.
However taking such a view would negate the passage on Gog and Magog in Revelation 20, and
would also mean ignoring the character of the nation of Israel in Ezekiel 38:11-12 where it is seen as at peace and totally undefended. It’s hard to be too dogmatic about such complex passages however
the best fit overall would seem to be to consider 38 & 39 as separate fulfillments of the same
prophetic pattern. Chapter 38 as the most significant in its scale and ultimate finality, and 39 as an earlier fulfillment at the end of the tribulation.
Of all instances where prophecy may have recurring pattern, few passages are more compelling for
this view of things than these. Time after time Israel is destroyed and gathered again. Taken captive by Babylon and later restored as a nation under the Persian Empire. Destroyed as a nation by Rome
and reestablished in 1948. Trodden under foot by the Gentiles for 42 months in the tribulation, but restored by God and established in the millennium. Under final attack at the end of the millennium, but saved from destruction and brought into an eternal kingdom.
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