10/25/2007
Ezekiel 39:7 - 10 (HCSB)
7So I will make My holy name known among My people Israel and will no longer allow it to be profaned. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel. 8Yes, it is coming, and it will happen.” ëThis isû the declaration of the Lord GOD. “This is the day I have spoken about. 9“Then the inhabitants of Israel’s cities will go out, kindle fires, and burn the weapons—the bucklers and shields, the bows and arrows, the clubs and spears. For seven years they will use them to make fires. 10They will not gather wood from the countryside or cut ëitû down from the forests, for they will use the weapons to make fires. They will take the loot from those who looted them and plunder those who plundered them.” ëThis isû the declaration of the Lord GOD.
To this point, Ezekiel has been prophesying against those nations that would plunder Israel after her fall. And each of those prophecies has been fulfilled. But this prophecy takes on a more profound meaning. This prophecy is against Gog and Magog (from the north), and this prophecy is clearly seen (to us) as an event still to come.
I have not included the entire passage but it states that when Gog and Magog come against Israel, their loss will be so devastating that there will be no one to retreat. God declares that this will be so, not necessarily for the sake of the Israelites, but primarily to exalt His own name. So we get the sense that the defeat of Gog and Magog is divine in nature. (the exact location of Gog and Magog is up for conjecture but is consistently said to be from the north)
After the defeat, Israel will go out and plunder the weapons of war. Although Ezekiel mentions spears, swords, and shields, we can take this to simply mean weapons of war. And from those weapons, whatever they happen to be, tanks, planes, trucks… there will be fuel for 7 years. Additionally, it will take 7 months to bury all the dead of Gog and Magog. Such incredible defeat.
But what we gain from this is, God is sovereign and powerful. We sometimes forget that He can, with the mere sweep of a hand, erase the entire universe. Modern religious movements want us to believe that God is merely a natural force that does not have the will or desire to be recognized as sovereign. Some will suggest that all things are divine so that there is no unique and omnipotent God.
There will come a day, however, when God will make his name known. For all the world will see the destruction of Gog and Magog and be amazed at how this massive force could have been defeated without Israel lifting a finger. It will be because God has done it – and He will do it to show that He is Lord.
He is the Lord of all, will you let him be the Lord of your life?
Jeff Justus
Cleff Publishing
www.cleffpublishing.com
©2007 Cleff Publishing, all rights reserved.
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