Latter Day Victory Promised
Text Ezekiel 39 Time 12/10/08 Place Childs Hill Baptist Church
We began last week to look at Ezekiel 38 and 39. We just looked at Chapter 38 on that occasion. Chapter 39 develops and expands on what we find in Chapter 38. Both chapters are about Gog of Magog. I suggested to you last week that we can identify this character with the Antichrist or Man of Sin spoken of in the New Testament. I drew your attention to Revelation 20:7-10 which is really like a short summary of Ezekiel 38 and 39. There we read
When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth - Gog and Magog - to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God's people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulphur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Last week we described the Antichrist on the basis of this chapter as powerful, well equipped and warlike and with plenty of resources and many allies too. We also pointed out that God is implacably opposed to him. The prediction here is that he will fight against God's people. He will fight, intent on plunder, against the innocent and blessed. He will fight powerfully and extensively against God's people. Such fearful warnings remind us that it is no easy thing to be a Christian. This Satan inspired opposition is vicious and strong and multi-faceted. It is clear from the New Testament that there are many Antichrists just as Gog has many allies and so we must be strong and look to the Lord at all times. However, we should remember that God knows all about his enemies and one day he will in zeal and in wrath change everything. God will bring judgement on his enemies. It is on this final point that Chapter 39 almost exclusively dwells. However, at the end of the chapter there is also more hopeful material that we also ought to take note of.
1. Hear this future promise concerning God's enemies, God himself and God's people
In verses 1-10 we have a series of reiterated promises regarding Gog, God himself and God's people. These again refer to what was for Ezekiel the distant future though they no doubt have partial fulfilments on the way. We need to get hold of these sure and certain promises. “You cannot starve a man who is feeding on the promises of God.”
1. Realise that Gog will be defeated
Ezekiel has been told before to prophesy against Gog and declare what the Sovereign LORD says. Here in Chapter 39 God again says I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. As before he says (2) I will turn you around and drag you along. First I will bring you from the far north and send you against the mountains of Israel. (3) Then he will overthrow him. Several images are used.
God will disarm him I will strike your bow from your left hand and make your arrows drop from your right hand. The weapons he used against God's people will be taken.
God will bring him down 4 On the mountains of Israel you will fall, you and all your troops and the nations with you. The whole army drops to the ground – like sacks of potatoes.
God will feed him to the birds I will give you as food to all kinds of carrion birds and to the wild animals. You will fall in the open field, for I have spoken, declares the Sovereign LORD.
God (6) will send fire on Magog and on those who live in safety in the coastlands, (those who may not have fought with Gog and his armies but who gave moral support). A familiar sign of judgement.
We must realise as Christians that God's enemies are powerful but we must recognise above everything else that they will be defeated. They cannot last. Judgement day is fast approaching – for them and for all of us.
2. Realise that God will be glorified
This point is also made at the end of Chapter 38. Here it is underlined. Verse 6 reads and they will know that I am the LORD. God then says (7, 8) I will make known my holy name among my people Israel. I will no longer let my holy name be profaned, and the nations will know that I the LORD am the Holy One in Israel. It is coming! It will surely take place, declares the Sovereign LORD. This is the day I have spoken of. There is a day. It is in the future but it is still definite – a day when God will be glorified among his people. The New Testament speaks of it as the day when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.
Are you aware of that day? Are you ready for that day? Don't let it take you by surprise. If it was a date we knew, we'd all have it marked in our calendars. We can't do that but we can think about it and get ready.
3. Realise that God's people will be victorious
That will be part of the character of that day. In verses 9 and 10 we have a strange but powerful picture Then those who live in the towns of Israel will go out and use the weapons for fuel and burn them up - the small and large shields, the bows and arrows, the war clubs and spears. For seven years (a symbolic number of completeness) they will use them for fuel. They will not need to gather wood from the fields or cut it from the forests, because they will use the weapons for fuel. And they will plunder those who plundered them and loot those who looted them, declares the Sovereign LORD.
Today so often Christians are persecuted. They are picked on and taken advantage of. One day the boot will be on the other foot. One day our day will come and we must be patient until that day.
2. Hear these future promises of complete victory
In verses 11-21 we get more detail about what is going to happen. The words are quite specific and quite gruesome but it is clear that these verses are symbolic. These are pictures of the complete victory that God's people will one day know. So we say
1. Realise that God's people will one day bury the opposition
11 On that day God says I will give Gog a burial place in Israel, in the valley of those who travel east toward the Sea. (Probably the Dead Sea and the Jordan Valley). It will block the way of travellers, because Gog and all his hordes will be buried there. It's name will be the Valley of Hamon Gog (multitude of Gog). 12, 13 For seven months (again a symbolic number of completeness) ... Israel will be burying them in order to cleanse the land. All the people of the land will bury them .... In verses 14 and 15 we have the extra detail that men would be employed to complete the clearing up. At the end of the seven months they will begin their search. As they go through the land and one of them sees a human bone, he will set up a marker beside it until the gravediggers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon Gog. There is also a note in verse 16 Also a town called Hamonah will be there. The word again means multitude.
This is a strange but powerful picture of Judgement day and the hell that will follow for God's enemies. God's people will judge the world and they will condemn God's enemies to hell.
Someone might speak about "burying the opposition". That is what will happen to God's enemies.
2. Realise that the opposition will be eaten up
In verses 17-20 another powerful picture is used. Ezekiel is told next to Call out to every kind of bird and all the wild animals to gather for a great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel. There they will eat the flesh of mighty men and drink the blood of the princes of the earth as if they were sacrificial sheep or goats or bulls - fattened animals from the grassy hills of Bashan. There will be so many of these that it will be like a glut of fat and enough blood to make them drunk. 20 At my table says God you will eat your fill of horses and riders, mighty men and soldiers of every kind.
It is a very gory picture, even more gory than the last. The point is the same. God's people will judge the world and they will condemn God's enemies to hell. It stands as a warning to the ungodly and an encouragement to those who trust in Jesus Christ. Someone may speak of "feasting on the carcasses of his enemies". That is what will happen to God's enemies.
3. Hear these now present promises of the new covenant
In verse 13 God speaks of the day I am glorified ... a memorable day for God's people. In verse 21 he says I will display my glory among the nations, and all the nations will see the punishment I inflict and the hand I lay upon them. This is developed in the closing verses of the chapter (22-29). In these verses Ezekiel appears still to be speaking about the future but at this point he begins to speak of a nearer time, a time before the judgement. There are four promises here then.
1. The promise of knowing God and of God's vindication
In verse 22 he says From that day forward the house of Israel will know that I am the LORD their God. That day is clearly that of Gog's defeat but, as we shall see, this "knowing God" will begin before then.
In verses 23 and 24 it goes on And the nations will know that the people of Israel went into exile for their sin, because they were unfaithful to me. So I hid my face from them and handed them over to their enemies, and they all fell by the sword. I dealt with them according to their uncleanness and their offences, and I hid my face from them. At the time in which Ezekiel wrote God's people were in exile and the nations mocked but a day is coming says Ezekiel when the nations will know why Israel were sent into exile. God has plans for Israel then – and for the nations.
We live in such days – days when God can be known and when he is at work vindicating himself before the nations of the world.
2. The promise of safety and of peace
In verses 25 and 26 we have the promise of the return from exile. Ezekiel is now really rounding off all he has said at least from Chapter 35 on. Imagine hearing this promise there in Babylon. God says I will now bring Jacob back from captivity and will have compassion on all the people of Israel, and I will be zealous for my holy name. They will forget their shame and all the unfaithfulness they showed toward me when they lived in safety in their land with no one to make them afraid. Once again they are going to live in safety and peace in the land.
This safety and peace pictures the safety and peace that belongs to life in Christ. To be a Christian is to come back from exile in Babylon and to know peace and joy in the Lord.
3. The promise of knowing God and of his salvation
If we jump to verse 28 we see these words Then they will know that I am the LORD their God, for though I sent them into exile among the nations, I will gather them to their own land, not leaving any behind. Of course, on the Day of Judgement God's people will know him but even before that, Ezekiel promises, they will know him because he will act on their behalf.
Today you can know God and you can know his saving power at work in your life. Have you known it?
4. The promise of God's holy presence and of his Spirit
Perhaps the most interesting verses in the chapter are verses 27 and 29. 27 When I have brought them back from the nations and have gathered them from the countries of their enemies, I will show myself holy through them in the sight of many nations. After the return from the exile God is going to show himself to be holy among them. When God's people returned from exile they were different. They no longer chased after idols. There was a holiness about them. Over the next 400 years this slowly deteriorated. The Pharisees are a prime example of a group that was once very holy but declined. But even as the pages of the New Testament open there is a godly remnant (Zechariah, Elizabeth, Joseph, Mary, Simeon, Anna) and among them is born Messiah – the holy Saviour and God shows himself holy through them in the sight of many nations, the nations of the world.
Finally (29) God says I will no longer hide my face from them, for I will pour out my Spirit on the house of Israel. Again, this is just what has happened. After the death and resurrection of Christ and his ascension into heaven, he poured the Holy Spirit out on the Day of Pentecost, as prophesied here. The Holy Spirit is now at work among the nations bringing people to know God. Pray for the Holy Spirit. If you have him. Pray to know him at work more in you. If you don't, you need him to be saved. He will enable you to trust in Christ.
When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth - Gog and Magog - to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God's people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulphur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Last week we described the Antichrist on the basis of this chapter as powerful, well equipped and warlike and with plenty of resources and many allies too. We also pointed out that God is implacably opposed to him. The prediction here is that he will fight against God's people. He will fight, intent on plunder, against the innocent and blessed. He will fight powerfully and extensively against God's people. Such fearful warnings remind us that it is no easy thing to be a Christian. This Satan inspired opposition is vicious and strong and multi-faceted. It is clear from the New Testament that there are many Antichrists just as Gog has many allies and so we must be strong and look to the Lord at all times. However, we should remember that God knows all about his enemies and one day he will in zeal and in wrath change everything. God will bring judgement on his enemies. It is on this final point that Chapter 39 almost exclusively dwells. However, at the end of the chapter there is also more hopeful material that we also ought to take note of.
1. Hear this future promise concerning God's enemies, God himself and God's people
In verses 1-10 we have a series of reiterated promises regarding Gog, God himself and God's people. These again refer to what was for Ezekiel the distant future though they no doubt have partial fulfilments on the way. We need to get hold of these sure and certain promises. “You cannot starve a man who is feeding on the promises of God.”
1. Realise that Gog will be defeated
Ezekiel has been told before to prophesy against Gog and declare what the Sovereign LORD says. Here in Chapter 39 God again says I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. As before he says (2) I will turn you around and drag you along. First I will bring you from the far north and send you against the mountains of Israel. (3) Then he will overthrow him. Several images are used.
God will disarm him I will strike your bow from your left hand and make your arrows drop from your right hand. The weapons he used against God's people will be taken.
God will bring him down 4 On the mountains of Israel you will fall, you and all your troops and the nations with you. The whole army drops to the ground – like sacks of potatoes.
God will feed him to the birds I will give you as food to all kinds of carrion birds and to the wild animals. You will fall in the open field, for I have spoken, declares the Sovereign LORD.
God (6) will send fire on Magog and on those who live in safety in the coastlands, (those who may not have fought with Gog and his armies but who gave moral support). A familiar sign of judgement.
We must realise as Christians that God's enemies are powerful but we must recognise above everything else that they will be defeated. They cannot last. Judgement day is fast approaching – for them and for all of us.
2. Realise that God will be glorified
This point is also made at the end of Chapter 38. Here it is underlined. Verse 6 reads and they will know that I am the LORD. God then says (7, 8) I will make known my holy name among my people Israel. I will no longer let my holy name be profaned, and the nations will know that I the LORD am the Holy One in Israel. It is coming! It will surely take place, declares the Sovereign LORD. This is the day I have spoken of. There is a day. It is in the future but it is still definite – a day when God will be glorified among his people. The New Testament speaks of it as the day when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.
Are you aware of that day? Are you ready for that day? Don't let it take you by surprise. If it was a date we knew, we'd all have it marked in our calendars. We can't do that but we can think about it and get ready.
3. Realise that God's people will be victorious
That will be part of the character of that day. In verses 9 and 10 we have a strange but powerful picture Then those who live in the towns of Israel will go out and use the weapons for fuel and burn them up - the small and large shields, the bows and arrows, the war clubs and spears. For seven years (a symbolic number of completeness) they will use them for fuel. They will not need to gather wood from the fields or cut it from the forests, because they will use the weapons for fuel. And they will plunder those who plundered them and loot those who looted them, declares the Sovereign LORD.
Today so often Christians are persecuted. They are picked on and taken advantage of. One day the boot will be on the other foot. One day our day will come and we must be patient until that day.
2. Hear these future promises of complete victory
In verses 11-21 we get more detail about what is going to happen. The words are quite specific and quite gruesome but it is clear that these verses are symbolic. These are pictures of the complete victory that God's people will one day know. So we say
1. Realise that God's people will one day bury the opposition
11 On that day God says I will give Gog a burial place in Israel, in the valley of those who travel east toward the Sea. (Probably the Dead Sea and the Jordan Valley). It will block the way of travellers, because Gog and all his hordes will be buried there. It's name will be the Valley of Hamon Gog (multitude of Gog). 12, 13 For seven months (again a symbolic number of completeness) ... Israel will be burying them in order to cleanse the land. All the people of the land will bury them .... In verses 14 and 15 we have the extra detail that men would be employed to complete the clearing up. At the end of the seven months they will begin their search. As they go through the land and one of them sees a human bone, he will set up a marker beside it until the gravediggers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon Gog. There is also a note in verse 16 Also a town called Hamonah will be there. The word again means multitude.
This is a strange but powerful picture of Judgement day and the hell that will follow for God's enemies. God's people will judge the world and they will condemn God's enemies to hell.
Someone might speak about "burying the opposition". That is what will happen to God's enemies.
2. Realise that the opposition will be eaten up
In verses 17-20 another powerful picture is used. Ezekiel is told next to Call out to every kind of bird and all the wild animals to gather for a great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel. There they will eat the flesh of mighty men and drink the blood of the princes of the earth as if they were sacrificial sheep or goats or bulls - fattened animals from the grassy hills of Bashan. There will be so many of these that it will be like a glut of fat and enough blood to make them drunk. 20 At my table says God you will eat your fill of horses and riders, mighty men and soldiers of every kind.
It is a very gory picture, even more gory than the last. The point is the same. God's people will judge the world and they will condemn God's enemies to hell. It stands as a warning to the ungodly and an encouragement to those who trust in Jesus Christ. Someone may speak of "feasting on the carcasses of his enemies". That is what will happen to God's enemies.
3. Hear these now present promises of the new covenant
In verse 13 God speaks of the day I am glorified ... a memorable day for God's people. In verse 21 he says I will display my glory among the nations, and all the nations will see the punishment I inflict and the hand I lay upon them. This is developed in the closing verses of the chapter (22-29). In these verses Ezekiel appears still to be speaking about the future but at this point he begins to speak of a nearer time, a time before the judgement. There are four promises here then.
1. The promise of knowing God and of God's vindication
In verse 22 he says From that day forward the house of Israel will know that I am the LORD their God. That day is clearly that of Gog's defeat but, as we shall see, this "knowing God" will begin before then.
In verses 23 and 24 it goes on And the nations will know that the people of Israel went into exile for their sin, because they were unfaithful to me. So I hid my face from them and handed them over to their enemies, and they all fell by the sword. I dealt with them according to their uncleanness and their offences, and I hid my face from them. At the time in which Ezekiel wrote God's people were in exile and the nations mocked but a day is coming says Ezekiel when the nations will know why Israel were sent into exile. God has plans for Israel then – and for the nations.
We live in such days – days when God can be known and when he is at work vindicating himself before the nations of the world.
2. The promise of safety and of peace
In verses 25 and 26 we have the promise of the return from exile. Ezekiel is now really rounding off all he has said at least from Chapter 35 on. Imagine hearing this promise there in Babylon. God says I will now bring Jacob back from captivity and will have compassion on all the people of Israel, and I will be zealous for my holy name. They will forget their shame and all the unfaithfulness they showed toward me when they lived in safety in their land with no one to make them afraid. Once again they are going to live in safety and peace in the land.
This safety and peace pictures the safety and peace that belongs to life in Christ. To be a Christian is to come back from exile in Babylon and to know peace and joy in the Lord.
3. The promise of knowing God and of his salvation
If we jump to verse 28 we see these words Then they will know that I am the LORD their God, for though I sent them into exile among the nations, I will gather them to their own land, not leaving any behind. Of course, on the Day of Judgement God's people will know him but even before that, Ezekiel promises, they will know him because he will act on their behalf.
Today you can know God and you can know his saving power at work in your life. Have you known it?
4. The promise of God's holy presence and of his Spirit
Perhaps the most interesting verses in the chapter are verses 27 and 29. 27 When I have brought them back from the nations and have gathered them from the countries of their enemies, I will show myself holy through them in the sight of many nations. After the return from the exile God is going to show himself to be holy among them. When God's people returned from exile they were different. They no longer chased after idols. There was a holiness about them. Over the next 400 years this slowly deteriorated. The Pharisees are a prime example of a group that was once very holy but declined. But even as the pages of the New Testament open there is a godly remnant (Zechariah, Elizabeth, Joseph, Mary, Simeon, Anna) and among them is born Messiah – the holy Saviour and God shows himself holy through them in the sight of many nations, the nations of the world.
Finally (29) God says I will no longer hide my face from them, for I will pour out my Spirit on the house of Israel. Again, this is just what has happened. After the death and resurrection of Christ and his ascension into heaven, he poured the Holy Spirit out on the Day of Pentecost, as prophesied here. The Holy Spirit is now at work among the nations bringing people to know God. Pray for the Holy Spirit. If you have him. Pray to know him at work more in you. If you don't, you need him to be saved. He will enable you to trust in Christ.
