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Ezekiel 38:18. "But on that day, when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, says the Lord God, my wrath will be roused."

 

This prophecy of Ezekiel's concerns Gog, a prince who God intends to bring against Israel "in the latter days". (Ezekiel 38:16). The people of Israel will be unsuspecting when Gog rises up ("on that day when my people Israel are dwelling securely, you will bestir yourself" God says to Gog (Ezekiel 38:14)). Despite the fact that His people are living peacefully, which is usually a sign that they are in communion with Him, God will raise up Gog in His "jealousy and... blazing wrath." (Ezekiel 38:19)

 

As Gog advances, God promises "a great shaking in the land of Israel", which will cause "the fish of the sea, and the birds of the air, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things ... and all the men that are upon the face of the earth" to quake at God's presence. Further, mountains shall be thrown down, and cliffs will fall. (Ezekiel 38:19-20) Every kind of terror will be summoned against Gog, including pestilence, bloodshed, torrential rains and hailstones, and fire and brimstone. (Ezekiel 38:22). 

 

Gog is not the leader of a "power player" nation of the Bible, in fact he is not an identifiable historical figure at all. Gog is only mentioned in any meaningful way in Ezekiel and then later in Revelation Chapter 20, where he and Magog represent the nations at the four corners of the earth who are gathered for the final battle by Satan when he is loosed from his thousand year imprisonment (Revelation 20:7-8). So Ezekiel seems to be prophesying here about the end times, something supported by his use of the term "in the latter days." (Ezekiel 38:16). This explains why Israel was living in peace when Gog was stirred up against her. In Revelation, there have been a thousand years of peace when Satan is loosed and makes his last stand. Gog and Magog are gathered by the devil and march "over the broad earth" to surround "the camp of the saints and the beloved city" (Revelation 20:9) where God destroys them.

 

Why would God raise up such an enemy against His peaceful people in the first place, though? Perhaps the peaceful thousand years has made people complacent, or perhaps it is just time for the end, a time that we know will eventually come. Ultimately, the real reason for these forces to be raised up is to bring about God's ultimate vindication and show His glory to all nations. God's victory will be quick and complete - the forces of Gog and Magog are annihilated, and the devil defeated, in just one line in Revelation: "but fire came down from heaven and consumed [Gog and Magog], and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone." (Revelation 20:10).

 

This final showdown, then, in both Ezekiel and Revelation, is meant to show God's greatness and holiness to all the nations through the complete destruction of evil, so they all know that He is the Lord. (Ezekiel 38:23). Ultimately, all nations will come to worship God, as we are told in Revelation 15:4 and elsewhere in the Bible. That will happen, it seems, when they see God's wrath against Gog and Magog, stand-ins for the forces of evil, after whose destruction God says "the nations shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel." (Ezekiel 39:7).

 

We usually don't know why "bad things happen to good people," or why malevolent forces seem to rise up in opposition to us when we are just living our lives and minding our own business, as Israel was doing when God raised up Gog against her. But from Ezekiel's prophecy, and from Revelation, we can see that one reason this happens is to show God's glory to the world. Knowing that Israel is special to the Lord, when other nations see a vast army marching against her, and then see that army being utterly destroyed by "pestilence and bloodshed ... torrential rains and hailstones, fire and brimstone" (Ezekiel 38:22), they will realize that God is protecting His people. When that vast enemy falls on the mountains and open fields of Israel and is given over to wild beasts and birds of prey, while fire falls upon them, the spectacle will be so great that no one will be able to deny that God is behind it and is working for His glory.

 

The dire circumstances we do not understand but trust God to handle are often the very things that make others realize who God is and how He loves and protects His people. That is why we should never fear, even if we are living in times of great distress, or facing such distress individually. God is always working for His glory and vindication, and He always wins, it's not a fair fight.