NOTES for Eze 38:1-23
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, |
2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, |
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: |
4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords: |
5 Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet: |
6 Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee. |
7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them. |
8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them. |
9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee. |
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought: |
11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates, |
12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land. |
13 Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil? |
14 Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it? |
15 And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army: |
16 And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes. |
17 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring thee against them? |
18 And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, that my fury shall come up in my face. |
19 For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel; |
20 So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground. |
21 And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord GOD: every man's sword shall be against his brother. |
22 And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. |
23 Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the LORD. |
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Through Ezekiel and other prophets, God repeatedly denounced false prophets who predicted prosperity to suit the desires of their listeners. One can say that the distinguishing feature of true prophecy, which comes from the Spirit of God, is the fullness of truth and an astonishing combination of tragedy and hope. This combination is based on the fact that people's real life is filled with suffering, and only the Cross of Christ brings light into it. And true prophets, messengers of the Almighty, never smooth over their words. Therefore, after the promise of the resurrection of the dead in the Kingdom of God, the prophet Ezekiel does not stop, but speaks the whole truth to the end.
Having seen the wondrous vision of dry bones being clothed again with flesh and filled with life, we together with the prophet seem to step back into the distance and see a picture depicting the meaning of history. It is a battle, a clash of God and His people with the forces of evil. So that we could see this and not die, and not despair in horror, the Lord speaks clearly of victory and resurrection, and only then shows us this battle. It takes place in history always, and continues after the victory of God has already become reality.
The people delivered by God do not hide in the cozy shelters of the garden of paradise - no, the saved people of God become a bastion in the battle with evil, and without this the fullness of God's plan cannot be opened to us. Ancient rulers of northern peoples, whose raids inspired terror in those who lived long before the era of the Babylonian exile, are taken as a symbol of the forces of evil. Faceless and terrible, this force comes against the land of Israel, but in the battle with it all the actions are performed by God Himself. The people of God, properly speaking, participate in the battle by their faithfulness to the God who saved them.
Since apostolic times, the Church has spoken of those who have accepted baptism as soldiers of Christ. This idea is most closely connected with the global battle against evil of which the prophet Ezekiel speaks to us here for the first time. We are all called to take part in it, and this participation consists in not surrendering to evil, in keeping faithfulness to the covenant of peace by which God saved us and gave us new life. As the Fathers of the Church emphasized more than once, the field of this battle is human hearts, and God acts in them when we open our hearts to Him.
"Without Me you can do nothing," the Lord Jesus Christ said to the disciples (and to us). These words apply first of all to the battle described by the prophet Ezekiel: none of us can withstand it by human strength. But, abiding in Christ as branches on the vine, we give Him the opportunity to conquer in us and through us.
Both in genre and in content, the prophecy about Gog's invasion is most closely connected with the Revelation of John the Theologian. Both of these witnesses of God, Ezekiel and John, speak of this as an inevitable, terrible, and difficult battle, in which our suffering is united with the suffering of the Son of God on the Cross. It is precisely in the sorrow and anguish of this battle that our suffering acquires meaning; it is precisely here that it becomes life-giving, because we are beside God, together with Him. And, of course, the most important thing for both Ezekiel and John is the good news that God has conquered.
Readings for 15 September 2025
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