Ezekiel 38-39 - The Gog-Magog War

Ezekiel 38 and 39 — The Gog-Magog War

A Faithful Performance Prophecy Teaching

March 2, 2023

Thank you for joining us. My name is Chadwick Harvey. You are with Faithful Performance. Tonight we are going to walk through the prophecy of Ezekiel 38 and 39, the war widely known as Gog and Magog. This prophecy has gained significant attention since the Russian-Ukrainian war began, with many teachers arguing that Russia is Gog and that the invasion of Ukraine is a precursor to an invasion of Israel. We are going to examine the biblical text carefully, consult the ancient atlases, and allow scripture to interpret scripture — and what we find may surprise you.

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HOW TO READ THIS PROPHECY

Before we open Ezekiel, we need to establish a methodology. When the biblical prophets received visions without an interpreting angel — as Daniel and John often had — they necessarily spoke through the world they understood: the geography they knew, the table of Nations in Genesis 10, the covenants God had made. Ezekiel wrote between approximately 593 and 571 BC. He was a Hebrew prophet standing in Israel, looking north, prophesying through the lens of a man who would have known where Persia was, where Meshech and Tubal were, where Gomer and Togarmah were — because those were the nations of his world. He would not have known Russia. Russia did not acquire that name until December 25, 1992, when the Soviet Union dissolved. The word Rus referred to a region of Kiev settled by Vikings, located north of the Black Sea, and it became the basis for the name Russia approximately 2,400 years after Ezekiel wrote this prophecy. A man prophesying through the table of Nations in Genesis 10 cannot be giving you a country that did not yet have a name.

The two things any biblical prophet would have had in mind are geography and covenants. Every major war in the prophets is about the same thing: the Everlasting Covenant — the Abrahamic grant of the land to Israel — and who will possess it. This is Jacob versus Esau, Isaac versus Ishmael, the covenant promise versus the ancient enemy who has always sought to break it. If you understand that, the geography of Ezekiel 38 and 39 falls into place naturally.

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EZEKIEL 38:1-6 — THE ALLIANCE

Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, and say, thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal. I will turn you around, put hooks into your jaws, and lead you out, with all your army, horses, and horsemen, all splendidly clothed, a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords. Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya are with them, all of them with shield and helmet; Gomer and all of his troops; the house of Togarmah from the far north and all of his troops — many people are with you.

Several names require identification. Gog is the leader. He is called the prince of Rosh — and here is the first critical point: the Hebrew word rosh in Strong's Dictionary entry 7218 means chief or head. The phrase is better translated the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. Rosh appears over five hundred times in the Hebrew Bible, and in virtually every case it means chief or head — as in Rosh Hashanah, the head of the year. It is not a proper noun referring to a nation. The translators who render it as "the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal" are treating rosh as a place name, which is not supported by its consistent use throughout the Hebrew scriptures.

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THE BIBLICAL ATLASES: FIVE OF EIGHT NATIONS ARE IN TURKEY

Where, then, is the land of Magog? Where are Meshech, Tubal, Gomer, and Togarmah? To answer this, we must go to the ancient biblical atlases — not to the internet, where Gog and Magog get placed anywhere based on who a teacher believes is America's current enemy, but to the reputable scholarly resources that map these names according to their positions in the table of Nations.

The New Moody Biblical Atlas places Magog, Meshech, Tubal, Gomer, and Togarmah all in the nation of modern-day Turkey. The Holman Biblical Atlas places them in Turkey. The HarperCollins Bible Atlas places them in Turkey. The Zondervan Biblical Atlas places them in Turkey. The IVP Atlas, the ESV Atlas, Baker's Bible Atlas, and the MacMillan Bible Atlas all place these same names in Turkey. Five of the eight nations named in Ezekiel 38 — the names unfamiliar to us, the ones from the ancient world — are located in the territory of modern Turkey without exception across every reputable biblical atlas available.

This is not a small point. Someone who wants to place Gog in Russia would have to argue not only with this interpretation but with every ancient biblical atlas produced by scholars who have no geopolitical agenda. They simply mapped the names where Genesis 10 placed them.

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THE THREE CONFIRMING NATIONS: DANIEL 11 AND THE ANTICHRIST'S ALLIES

The other three nations in the alliance are Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya. Persia is modern Iran. Ethiopia in this context is a mistranslation — the Hebrew word is Kush, which refers to Sudan, not modern Ethiopia, which is a predominantly Christian nation. And Libya has been in chaos since Gaddafi's forty-year rule ended in 2012. So the alliance consists of Turkey, Iran, Sudan, and Libya.

Now go to Daniel 11:40-43, where the prophet gives us the names of three of the Antichrist's conquered kings. At the time of the end, the king of the South — Egypt — attacks the king of the North — Turkey. The king of the North comes against him like a whirlwind and overwhelms him. He enters the Glorious Land. He stretches out his hand against the land of Egypt, and the Libyans and the Sudanese follow at his heels. Egypt, Libya, and Sudan — the exact same three nations that appear as partners with Gog in Ezekiel 38, the three that Daniel identifies as nations falling under the Antichrist. This is not coincidence. Ezekiel and Daniel are describing the same alliance.

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REVELATION 2:12-13 — WHERE SATAN'S THRONE IS

The final confirmation is in Revelation 2:12-13, the letter to the church at Pergamum: I know your works and where you dwell, even where Satan's throne is. That is present tense language. Not where Satan's throne was. Not where it will be. Where it is. The throne of Satan is in Pergamum — which is Bergama, Turkey. The seven churches of Revelation are all in what is modern-day Turkey. Satan's throne is in Turkey. The names in Ezekiel 38 are in Turkey. Daniel's end-times geography points to Turkey. The Ottoman Empire — the wounded head of Revelation 17, wounded in 1923 and awaiting its revival — is Turkey. Prophet by prophet, atlas by atlas, the scripture consistently points to the same nation.

Russia does not appear in this picture. Russia has no covenantal claim to the land of Israel and no ancient enmity with the Jewish people rooted in the Abrahamic controversy. The ancient enemies of Israel — the ones who have openly declared their desire to destroy her from generation to generation — are the surrounding Islamic nations. That is who the prophets are describing.

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THE TIMING: LATTER YEARS AND THE LAND DWELLING SAFELY

Ezekiel 38:8 establishes the setting: after many days you will be visited; in the latter years you will come into the land of those brought back from the sword and gathered from many peoples, on the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate; they were brought out of the nations, and now all of them dwell safely. The land of Israel was desolate for approximately 1,900 years. In 1948 the State of Israel was established and the Jewish people began returning. That is the condition Ezekiel describes: a land long desolate, now inhabited, with its people dwelling in it.

Jeremiah 16:14-18 illuminates the process. God declares: I will send many fishermen, and they will fish them; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks. The fishermen began their work in 1948. The Jewish Agency, the various organizations supporting Aliyah — the return of Jewish people to the land — have brought more than four million Jewish people back to Israel from the nations. There are an estimated fifteen to eighteen million Jewish people in the world, and nearly half of them live in Israel. The fishermen have been working.

In 2014 and 2015, something shifted. There was a blood moon tetrad — four consecutive blood moons on Passover and Tabernacles in two successive years. This pattern has appeared only four times in the last five hundred years: at the Spanish Inquisition of 1492-93, when Jewish people were expelled from Spain; at Israel's founding in 1948-49; at the recapture of Jerusalem in 1967-68; and in 2014-15. Each time this pattern appeared, a major movement of Jewish people occurred. In 2014-15, the largest Aliyah from Europe in decades took place. In my understanding, that is when the hunters were released — the rising anti-Semitism across Europe and the world that drives Jewish people toward the land not by invitation but by pressure. Jeremiah promised that both fishermen and hunters would be used.

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EZEKIEL 38:18-23 — GOD'S RESPONSE AT THE BATTLE

When Gog comes against the land of Israel, God responds directly. Ezekiel 38:18-23: And it will come to pass at the same time, when Gog comes against the land of Israel, that My fury will show in My face. For in My jealousy and in the fire of My wrath I have spoken: surely in that day there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel, so that the fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, the beasts of the field, all creeping things that creep on the earth, and all men who are on the face of the earth shall shake at My presence. The mountains shall be thrown down, the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground. I will call for a sword against Gog throughout all My mountains. Every man's sword will be against his brother. 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.

At My presence — every living creature on the face of the earth will shake at His presence. That is the second coming of Yeshua. This is confirmed by Revelation 16:17-21, where the seventh bowl produces a great earthquake unlike any since men were on the earth, and great hailstones weighing eighty to ninety pounds fall upon men. Zechariah 14:12-13 provides the most vivid detail: their flesh will dissolve while they still stand on their feet, their eyes will dissolve in their sockets, their tongues will dissolve in their mouths. That is the description of a nuclear detonation. And at the same time He sends all of this, He turns them against each other — the same pattern as the battle of Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20, where God caused the enemy to destroy themselves and Israel did not have to lift a sword. The battle is not ours. It is His.

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THE TIMING ARGUMENT: WHY THIS IS NOT BEFORE THE TRIBULATION

Many prophecy teachers place the Gog-Magog war before the seven-year tribulation period. The text of Ezekiel 39 refutes this on two points.

First: Ezekiel 39:9 says those who dwell in the cities of Israel will burn the weapons of war for seven years. If this war occurs before the tribulation, then Israel is burning weapons through the most weaponized seven years in human history. Why would anyone burn weapons in the opening years of the tribulation, when more weapons are being deployed than at any point in history? The only time Israel burns weapons for seven years in peace is the first seven years of the Millennial Kingdom, when there is no war — when, as Isaiah 2 and Micah 4 declare, the nations beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, and the Torah goes forth from Zion.

Second: Ezekiel 39:11-16 says the house of Israel will spend seven months burying the dead in order to cleanse the land. If this burial occurs before the tribulation, then the land is cleansed — and then defiled again for seven years by the Antichrist — and then cleansed again. Nothing in the text suggests a double cleansing. The land is cleansed once, at the beginning of the Millennial Kingdom, and the Garden of Eden era described in Ezekiel 36 follows immediately.

The battle of Gog and Magog begins at the three-and-a-half-year mark — when Michael steps out of the way, the Antichrist reveals himself in the temple, and the great tribulation commences — and it concludes at the second coming of Yeshua. The weapons are burned in the first seven years of the Millennium. The bodies are buried in the first seven months of the Millennium. The land is then cleansed and, as Ezekiel 36:35 declares, it will be like the Garden of Eden.

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EZEKIEL 36: THE NEW COVENANT AND THE LAND

Two chapters before Gog and Magog, Ezekiel gives us the New Covenant — the passage that runs parallel to Jeremiah 31:31-34. The Lord declares that He scattered Israel among the nations because of their iniquity, but He will gather them back — not for their sake, but for His holy name's sake, which they profaned among the nations. He will take them from among the nations, gather them out of all the countries, and bring them back into their own land. He will sprinkle clean water on them. He will give them a new heart and put a new spirit within them. He will take out the heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. He will put His Spirit within them and cause them to walk in His statutes.

This is the New Covenant of Ezekiel. Notice who it is made with: the house of Israel. And notice what it produces: walking in His Torah, dwelling in the land, becoming His people with Him as their God. That has not happened yet. The Millennial Kingdom is the full fulfillment of the New Covenant — when all Israel will be saved as Romans 11 declares, when the nation receives Yeshua as its Messiah at the second coming, when the Holy Spirit is poured out on the house of Israel and they look upon the One they have pierced and mourn.

The order of Ezekiel is deliberate: New Covenant (chapter 36), dry bones resurrection of Israel (chapter 37), Gog-Magog war (chapters 38-39), Millennial Kingdom (chapters 40-48). God is not disorganized. The war ends at the second coming. The Millennium follows. And from Zion goes forth the Torah.

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EZEKIEL 39:17-20 — THE BIRD FEAST

The final passage of Ezekiel 39's prophecy is the great sacrificial feast: God calls every bird and every beast of the field to assemble and eat — the flesh of the mighty, the blood of the princes of the earth. This is the Lord's sacrifice. Revelation 19:17-18 describes the same event: I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried with a loud voice to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, come and gather together for the supper of the great God, that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great. There is only one bird feast in the End of the Age. Ezekiel and John are describing the same event at the second coming.

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CLOSING

The Gog-Magog war is a real, future, end-times event. Its geography is the nation of Turkey and its Islamic allies — confirmed by every reputable biblical atlas, confirmed by Daniel 11, confirmed by Revelation 2 where Satan's very throne is located. Its timing is the second coming of Yeshua, when at His presence every creature on the face of the earth will shake, when He comes alone from Bozrah in Isaiah 63, when the armies of heaven follow Him on white horses in Revelation 19. The land will be cleansed. The weapons will be burned. The bodies will be buried. And then the Garden of Eden will return to the promised land, the Torah will go forth from Zion, and all the nations will come to worship the King in Jerusalem.

Watch the prophetic geography. Watch the nations of the Middle East. Watch Turkey. Watch the Aliyah of the Jewish people. You are watching Ezekiel 38 and 39 being set up in real time, prophet by prophet, covenant by covenant, atlas by atlas.

May YHWH bless you and keep you. May He make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May He lift up His countenance upon you and give you His everlasting shalom. My name is Chadwick Harvey. You are with Faithful Performance.