Ezekiel 38.1-6-The Nations Involved in the Invasion of Israel After the Rapture and Before the Seventieth Week (Doctrinal Bible Church in Huntsville, Alabama)
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Doctrinal Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday April 24, 2024
The Day of the Lord Series: Ezekiel 38:1-6-The Nations Involved in the Invasion of Israel After the Rapture and Before the Seventieth Week Begins
Lesson # 20
The following is an outline of Ezekiel 38:1-39:24: (1) The identification of the invading force (Ezekiel 38:1-6). (2) When the invasion will take place and who will be attacked (Ezekiel 38:7-9). (3) The objective of the invasion (Ezekiel 38:10-13). (4) The objective of God in permitting the invasion (Ezekiel 38:14-16). (5) The destruction of the northern confederacy by God (Ezekiel 38:17-23). (6) The place of the destruction (Ezekiel 39:1-6). (7) The sanctification of God’s Name (Ezekiel 39:7-8). (8) The seven years of burning weapons and the seven months of burying the dead (Ezekiel 39:9-16). (9) The Lord’s sacrificial banquet for the bird and animal kingdom (Ezekiel 39:17-20). (10) The eight-fold result of the destruction of the Russian led invasion of Israel (Ezekiel 39:21-24).
Ezekiel 38:1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshek and Tubal; prophesy against him 3 and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against you, Gog, chief prince of Meshek and Tubal. (NIV)
The statement “the word of the Lord came to me” indicates that Ezekiel 38:1-39:24 is divine in origin and that Ezekiel was inspired to write this passage.
“Set your face” is a phrase used by Ezekiel to express God’s anger toward a nation and is used throughout Ezekiel’s book as an expression of opposition (cf. 4:3; 6:2; 13:17) and it was also part of the Levitical language of warning against idolatry and disobedience and is used by Jeremiah (Jer. 21:10).
The Lord is announcing through the prophet Ezekiel His opposition against Gog who is the leader of this Northern Confederacy that will invade Israel before the seventieth week of Daniel.
The name “Gog” is a title for a ruler like Caesar or Pharaoh and means, “the man on top,” i.e. the dictator and the name “Magog” means, “land of Gog.”
Magog was the second son of Japheth according to Genesis 10:2 and his descendants inhabited exclusively the region of the Caucasus and of northern Armenia.
It is interesting that the name “Caucasus” means, “Gog’s fort.”
Josephus says that Magog “founded those that from him were named Magogites but who by the Greeks were called Scythians.”
The Japhetic race comprised those whom the Greeks and Romans called Sarmatians, but who in modern times are called Slavs or Russians and it is interesting to note Jewish commentaries identify Magog as Russia.
Also, the Great Wall of China in the Arabic language means, “the wall of Al Magog” because the Great Wall was built to keep out the invading armies from Russia.
The descendants of “Magog” include Russians, Ukrainians, Hungarians, Finns, Siberians, Yugoslavians, Croatians, Bosnians, Serbians, Slovenians, Slovakians, Bulgarians, Poles, and Czechs.
Ezekiel 38:2-3 states that Gog, from the land of Magog is the leader of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal.
“Prince” is the noun nā·śî(ʾ) (נָשִׂיא), which means, “exalted one” and denotes Gog is the leader of a particular nation and “Rosh” is the proper noun rō(ʾ)š, (רֹאשׁ), which means, “first, head, chief.”
The well-known nineteenth century Hebrew lexicographer Gesenius says, “Rosh is the proper name of a northern nation…probably equated with the Russians” but this linguistic evidence is uncertain and presumptive and so therefore, we cannot base our interpretation here that Gog is the prince of Russia.
But the geographical and contextual evidence is overwhelmingly in favor that the “Rosh” was indeed located in Russia.
The geographic and contextual evidence clearly indicates that “Rosh” is Russia since it is said to be located to the extreme north of Israel and remember, Ezekiel 38:6, 15 and 39:2 clearly state that these invading armies are coming from the extreme north of Israel.
If one takes any map of the world and draws a line north of the land of Israel he will inevitably come to the nation Russia.
As soon as the line is drawn to the far north beyond Asia Minor and the Black Sea it is in Russia and continues to be in Russia for many hundreds of miles all the way to the Arctic Circle.
Russia today spreads east and west some 6,000 miles, and one cannot escape Russia if he goes north of the Holy Land and on the basis of geography alone, it seems quite clear that the only nation which could possibly be referred to as coming from the far north would be the nation Russia.
The suggestion that the nation is ancient Assyria revived is rendered improbable by the geographic description.
The ethnic evidence links the prince of Rosh with Meshech and Tubal who like Magog were sons of Japheth according to Genesis 10:2 and this is repeated in 1 Chronicles 1:5.
These Japhethites (Meshech and Tubal) migrated from Asia and later from Asia Minor to the north beyond the Black Sea, the Taurus Mountains and the Caspian Sea.
The name “Meshech” is the proper noun mě·šěḵ (מֶשֶׁךְ), which means, “led along” and the name “Tubal” is the proper noun tǔ·ḇǎl (תֻּבַל), which means, “you shall be led.”
The meanings of these two proper nouns coincide with the Lord’s intention to put hooks into the jaws of Gog, the leader of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal.
The descendants of “Meshech” include Muscovites, Lithuanians, Romanians whereas the descendants of “Tubal” include Georgians and Albanians.
Some expositors believe that “Meshech” refers to the city of Moscow and “Tubal” to the city of Tobolsk but this is not the case since Ezekiel was speaking of countries and not cities or in other words, Ezekiel had historical places in mind when he refers to “Meshech” and “Tubal.”
Meshech and Tubal are the Mushki and Tabali of the Assyrian monuments (Ezek. 27:13), in the ninth century B.C. located northeast of Cilicia in Asia Minor and by the time of Herodotus they had moved northward to the mountainous region of the Black Sea.
Geographic evidence indicates that the only nation in the territory to the extreme north of Israel and in fact extending to the Arctic circle is Russia!
Magog’s land was located in what is called today, the Caucasus and the adjoining steppes and these three, Rosh, Meshech and Tubal were called by the ancients, Scythians.
They roamed as nomads in the country around and north of the Black (located directly north of Turkey and along the eastern border of Russia) and Caspian Seas (located directly north or Tehran, Iran and along southern border of Russia) and were known as wild barbarians.
Josephus (Ant. 1.6.1) and Jerome, identify the Magog of Ezekiel 38:2 and Ezekiel 39:1,6, the land of which Gog was prince, with the land of the Scythians, who in Ezekiel’s time inhabited the region between the Caspian and Black seas.
The Scythians of the time of Herodotus and Ezekiel are believed to have been a Japhetic race and they were backward in civilization so that their name became proverbial for wildness or barbarity much as the Greeks used the epithet “barbarian” (cf. Col 3:11).
Thus, Meshech and Tubal were located in area where several Russian Republics are located, namely Chechnya, Stavropol, Krasnodar, Dagestan, and Rostov as well as the country of Georgia located south of these Russian Republics and the Ukraine.
Therefore, we can conclude that in Ezekiel 38:1-3, the name “Gog” is the title of the ruler and “Magog” signifies the land, which is composed of three parts, “Rosh, Meshech and Tubal,” all of which were located in an area that is now known as Russia.
Ezekiel 38:4 I will turn you around, put hooks in your jaws and bring you out with your whole army—your horses, your horsemen fully armed, and a great horde with large and small shields, all of them brandishing their swords. (NIV)
The imagery of “hooks in your jaw” is a graphic one that had a literal reality in the way captives were treated as they were taken away to the land of their captors (Ezek. 19:4, Jehoiahaz to Egypt and Ezek. 19:9, Jehoiachin to Babylon).
The hook was an instrument of domination or subjugation and is used to parallel the placing of a bit in a horse’s mouth to insure control of the animal and so Gog, the leader of Russia is described here as a wild animal that is out of control who is being led to his destruction.
Ezekiel 38:5 Persia, Cush and Put will be with them, all with shields and helmets, 6 also Gomer with all its troops, and Beth Togarmah from the far north with all its troops—the many nations with you. (NIV)
“Persia” is the proper noun pā·rǎs (פָּרַס), which means, “splendid, pure” and was located in what is now known as Iran and “Cush” is the proper noun kûš (כּוּשׁ), which means, “black” and was located in what is now known as modern Ethiopia and Sudan.
“Put” is the proper noun pûṭ (פּוּט), which means, “a bow” and was located in what is now known as modern Libya and “Gomer” is the proper noun gō·měr (גֹּמֶר), which means, “completion” and was located in what is now known as modern Ukraine and Georgia, which are south of Russia.
“Beth Togarmah” is the proper noun bêṯ tô·ḡǎr·mā(h) (בֵּית תּוֹגַרְמָה), which means, “you will break her” and was located in what is now known as Turkey.
The expression “many nations with you” indicates that other groups of people that are related to the one’s mentioned will also take part in this invasion since the term `am is used of people in terms of their being kinsmen, relatives or members of a tribe.
Therefore, this identification of the invading force is not exhaustive.
Therefore, Ezekiel 38:1-6 reveals that Russia, (Rosh, Meshech and Tubal from the land of Magog), Georgia, and Ukraine (Gomer) and Turkey (Togarmah) will invade Israel from the north, Iran will come from the east, Ethiopia and Sudan from the south while Libya (Put) from the west, thus Israel will be surrounded.