THE WAR THAT STANDS APART
The Great Tribulation, Part 2: The War of Gog, Ezekiel 38 and 39
Part 1 laid out the before stage, the things the Bible puts before the tribulation even starts.
The first thread was the wars, and this part takes it up.
One war stands at the head of them, the war Ezekiel saw, a named leader, named nations, and the whole war told from start to finish.
So we read it the way it is written, both chapters whole, passage by passage, in the order the Bible gives them.
Ezekiel's own time words for it are the latter years and the latter days.
In this series it stands with the wars that gather against Israel, not stamped before anything by its own words. In the fitted order it stands late, with the wars at the end, beside Zechariah 12, before the darkening, and the check at the end of this part will show plainly how much of it is here and how much is not.
1. Ezekiel 38:1-6, Gog and the nations named
1The word of the LORD came to me:
2"Son of man, set your face toward Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him
3and say, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal.
4And I will turn you about and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out, and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed in full armor, a great host, all of them with buckler and shield, wielding swords.
5Persia, Cush, and Put are with them, all of them with shield and helmet;
6Gomer and all his hordes; Beth-togarmah from the uttermost parts of the north with all his hordes, many peoples are with you."
(Note: the NKJV reads "the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal" in verse 2, as if Rosh were a third land beside the other two. The Hebrew word, rosh, means head or chief, and the KJV and ESV read "the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal." The word itself does not name a country.)
2. Ezekiel 38:7-9, the latter years and the land restored
7"Be ready and keep ready, you and all your hosts that are assembled about you, and be a guard for them.
8After many days you will be mustered. In the latter years you will go against the land that is restored from war, the land whose people were gathered from many peoples upon the mountains of Israel, which had been a continual waste. Its people were brought out from the peoples and now dwell securely, all of them.
9You will advance, coming on like a storm. You will be like a cloud covering the land, you and all your hordes, and many peoples with you."
(Note: the KJV and NKJV read "you will come into the land" in verse 8. The ESV reads "you will go against the land." The time words are the same in every version: in the latter years.)
3. Ezekiel 38:10-13, the evil scheme
10"Thus says the Lord GOD: On that day, thoughts will come into your mind, and you will devise an evil scheme
11and say, I will go up against the land of unwalled villages. I will fall upon the quiet people who dwell securely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having no bars or gates,
12to seize spoil and carry off plunder, to turn your hand against the waste places that are now inhabited, and the people who were gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who dwell at the center of the earth.
13Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish and all its leaders will say to you, 'Have you come to seize spoil? Have you assembled your hosts to carry off plunder, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to seize great spoil?'"
4. Ezekiel 38:14-16, from the uttermost north, in the latter days
14"Therefore, son of man, prophesy, and say to Gog, Thus says the Lord GOD: On that day when my people Israel are dwelling securely, will you not know it?
15You will come from your place out of the uttermost parts of the north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great host, a mighty army.
16You will come up against my people Israel, like a cloud covering the land. In the latter days I will bring you against my land, that the nations may know me, when through you, O Gog, I vindicate my holiness before their eyes."
5. Ezekiel 38:17-23, God answers with earthquake, fire and sulfur
17"Thus says the Lord GOD: Are you he of whom I spoke in former days by my servants the prophets of Israel, who in those days prophesied for years that I would bring you against them?
18But on that day, the day that Gog shall come against the land of Israel, declares the Lord GOD, my wrath will be roused in my anger.
19For in my jealousy and in my blazing wrath I declare, On that day there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel.
20The fish of the sea and the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the field and all creeping things that creep on the ground, and all the people who are on the face of the earth, shall quake at my presence. And the mountains shall be thrown down, and the cliffs shall fall, and every wall shall tumble to the ground.
21I will summon a sword against Gog on all my mountains, declares the Lord GOD. Every man's sword will be against his brother.
22With pestilence and bloodshed I will enter into judgment with him, and I will rain upon him and his hordes and the many peoples who are with him torrential rains and hailstones, fire and sulfur.
23So I will show my greatness and my holiness and make myself known in the eyes of many nations. Then they will know that I am the LORD."
6. Ezekiel 39:1-8, Gog falls and fire is sent on Magog
1"And you, son of man, prophesy against Gog and say, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal.
2And I will turn you about and drive you forward, and bring you up from the uttermost parts of the north, and lead you against the mountains of Israel.
3Then I will strike your bow from your left hand, and will make your arrows drop out of your right hand.
4You shall fall on the mountains of Israel, you and all your hordes and the peoples who are with you. I will give you to birds of prey of every sort and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
5You shall fall in the open field, for I have spoken, declares the Lord GOD.
6And I will send fire on Magog and on those who dwell securely in the coastlands, and they shall know that I am the LORD.
7And my holy name I will make known in the midst of my people Israel, and I will not let my holy name be profaned anymore. And the nations shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.
8Behold, it is coming and it will be brought about, declares the Lord GOD. That is the day of which I have spoken."
7. Ezekiel 39:9-16, seven years of burning and seven months of burying
9"Then those who dwell in the cities of Israel will go out and make fires of the weapons and burn them, shields and bucklers, bow and arrows, clubs and spears; and they will make fires of them for seven years,
10so that they will not need to take wood out of the field or cut down any out of the forests, for they will make their fires of the weapons. They will seize the spoil of those who despoiled them, and plunder those who plundered them, declares the Lord GOD.
11On that day I will give to Gog a place for burial in Israel, the Valley of the Travelers, east of the sea. It will block the travelers, for there Gog and all his multitude will be buried. It will be called the Valley of Hamon-gog.
12For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them, in order to cleanse the land.
13All the people of the land will bury them, and it will bring them renown on the day that I show my glory, declares the Lord GOD.
14They will set apart men to travel through the land regularly and bury those travelers remaining on the face of the land, so as to cleanse it. At the end of seven months they will make their search.
15And when these travel through the land and anyone sees a human bone, then he shall set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon-gog.
16(Hamonah is also the name of the city.) Thus shall they cleanse the land."
8. Ezekiel 39:17-24, the nations see His judgment
17"As for you, son of man, thus says the Lord GOD: Speak to the birds of every sort and to all beasts of the field: Assemble and come, gather from all around to the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you, a great sacrificial feast on the mountains of Israel, and you shall eat flesh and drink blood.
18You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of he-goats, of bulls, all of them fat beasts of Bashan.
19And you shall eat fat till you are filled, and drink blood till you are drunk, at the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you.
20And you shall be filled at my table with horses and charioteers, with mighty men and all kinds of warriors, declares the Lord GOD.
21And I will set my glory among the nations, and all the nations shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid on them.
22The house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God, from that day forward.
23And the nations shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity, because they dealt so treacherously with me that I hid my face from them and gave them into the hand of their adversaries, and they all fell by the sword.
24I dealt with them according to their uncleanness and their transgressions, and hid my face from them."
9. Ezekiel 39:25-29, God restores Israel and pours out His Spirit
25"Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel, and I will be jealous for my holy name.
26They shall forget their shame and all the treachery they have practiced against me, when they dwell securely in their land with none to make them afraid,
27when I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them from their enemies' lands, and through them have vindicated my holiness in the sight of many nations.
28Then they shall know that I am the LORD their God, because I sent them into exile among the nations and then assembled them into their own land. I will leave none of them remaining among the nations anymore.
29And I will not hide my face anymore from them, when I pour out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, declares the Lord GOD."
The order of events, as the text gives them:
God puts hooks in Gog's jaws and brings him out with his whole army, and the nations with him are named.
In the latter years he comes against the land restored from war, whose people were gathered from many peoples and dwell securely.
He devises an evil scheme, to seize spoil from the quiet people in the unwalled villages, and Sheba, Dedan and Tarshish question him about the spoil.
He comes from the uttermost parts of the north, like a cloud covering the land.
God's wrath is roused, and there is a great earthquake in the land of Israel, every man's sword turns against his brother, and God judges him with pestilence, bloodshed, torrential rains, hailstones, fire and sulfur.
Gog falls on the mountains of Israel, and God sends fire on Magog and on the coastlands.
Israel burns the weapons for seven years and buries Gog and his multitude for seven months in the Valley of Hamon-gog, to cleanse the land.
The birds and beasts are called to the sacrificial feast on the mountains of Israel, the nations see God's judgment, and Israel knows He is the LORD their God from that day forward.
God restores Jacob, gathers Israel from the nations, pours out His Spirit on them, and hides His face from them no more.
Where these nations sit today:
Magog (the far northern land of Gog, placed in this series on the peoples of the Anatolian plateau, called Turkey on the map today), and with it Meshech and Tubal (peoples of that same plateau, called Turkey today), Gomer (a people of the north, on the land called Turkey today), and Beth-togarmah (named from the uttermost parts of the north, on the land called Turkey today).
Persia (the empire east of Babylon across the Persian Gulf, called Iran on the map today).
Cush (the land south of Egypt along the upper Nile, called Sudan and Ethiopia on the map today).
Put (the land west of Egypt along the North African coast, called Libya on the map today).
Sheba and Dedan (peoples of Arabia, on the peninsula called Saudi Arabia on the map today, Dedan in its northwest), and the merchants of Tarshish (the traders of the far western sea, the western Mediterranean).
The map that goes with this part shows every one of them on the modern map, the same nations, in the same places, around the same Israel.
Now the check, the same honest check this series runs on everything.
We lined these two chapters up against the record of our own day, element by element, and this war has NOT happened yet.
The geography is here. The lands are all on the map, in the places Ezekiel names them, and the nations of those lands are the Islamic nations around Israel today, and they have attacked her again and again in our own lifetime.
But the war itself is missing, piece after piece.
There is no Gog. The named nations have never assembled as one host and come down out of the north in one invasion. Israel does not dwell in unwalled villages today, she dwells behind walls and the Iron Dome, the opposite of the picture in the text.
And none of the endings have happened. No great earthquake of judgment on that day, no fire and sulfur rained on the host, no fire sent on Magog, no seven years of burning weapons, no seven months of burying, no valley of Hamon-gog.
So the pieces stand where they have always stood, and the hatred in these chapters is the hatred we watch on the news every week, and Persia, Iran, has now fired on Israel from its own soil three times since April 2024 after twenty five years of firing through the armies it arms.
That is the present edge of it, standing beside the text. The war itself is still ahead, and this series will say so plainly until the day the elements are actually here.
And notice who wins this war when it comes. Not Israel's army. God Himself fights it, with an earthquake, with their own swords turned on each other, with fire and sulfur rained down, and with fire sent on Magog itself.
Israel's part afterward is burning weapons and burying the dead, and knowing that He is the LORD their God, from that day forward.
This is not the war in Revelation 20, and the two should never be run together.
Revelation's war comes after the thousand years, when Satan is released and gathers the nations from the four corners of the earth, as many as the sand of the sea. Satan is never even mentioned in Ezekiel's war.
Ezekiel's war is one named coalition, from named lands, coming down from the north against one land. Revelation's is the whole earth, from every direction, against the camp of the saints and the beloved city.
And the endings are not alike. Ezekiel's war is followed by seven months of burying and seven years of burning weapons, and Israel knowing the LORD from that day forward.
Revelation's war is followed at once by fire from heaven and the judgment of the dead, because the thousand years are over and the end of all things is next.
Same names. Two different wars.
And this war stands apart from every other war in the Bible, not just that one. It does not look like any of the rest of them.
In every other war, Israel has an army in the field, even when God fights for them. Here Israel does not fight at all.
God summons a sword against Gog, turns the host's own swords against each other, and pours out earthquake, pestilence, flooding rain, great hailstones, fire, and sulfur (38:19-22).
The people invaded are a people at rest, in a land of unwalled villages (38:11), and their only work in the whole account comes afterward, burning weapons and burying the dead.
No other war leaves an aftermath like it. Seven years burning the weapons of one army for fuel (39:9-10), seven months burying the dead, and a valley renamed for the burial, the Valley of Hamon-gog (39:11).
And no other war ends the way this one ends, with the nations knowing that He is the LORD (38:23), and Israel knowing it from that day forward, never to be sent away among the nations again (39:22, 28).
Parallels: Psalm 83 names a confederacy of the lands around Israel counseling together to wipe her out as a nation; its place in the order is still open, and it will be read whole where it belongs.
Zechariah 12 gathers all nations against Jerusalem; in the fitted order it stands before the darkening, and this war stands beside it in that same place in the order. It gets its own part there.
Part 3 will take up the second thread of the before stage, the nations turning, people coming to the Lord before the end comes.