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Ezekiel 39:4 "You [Gog] shall fall upon the mountains of Israel, you and all your hordes and the peoples that are with you; I will give you to the birds of prey of every sort and to the wild beasts to be devoured."

 

I used to be very scared of zombie movies, Night of the Living Dead frightened me no end! The thought of being trapped in a fragile shelter while an unthinking horde, each one of whose sole purpose is to kill you and, worse, make you one of them, just felt so hopeless and terrifying! Later in life, though, and especially having experienced the ongoing madness of the last several years, I came to see zombie stories as instructive reminders of how we can lose our souls by following the masses, how meaningless life is without God, and where to find safe shelter in world that has largely turned from Him. 

 

Things are never hopeless for God's children. He is always looking out for us, always protecting us. We might feel overrun at times, but He is with us even then. The thing is, God loves the zombies, too, they are His wayward children. He wants to give them the cure, if they will only break out of the stupor they have allowed themselves to fall into long enough to hear His voice. So He keeps trying, even as they shuffle along in their mindlessness, causing all kinds of mayhem. And He offers us shelter in Him as He does so.

 

This scene of Gog and his hordes falling upon the mountains of Israel stands counter to so many scenes so many scenes from zombie movies where the undead hordes break through the protections the uninfected have sheltered behind and swarm over the formerly safe space (like this one from World War Z, in which Jerusalem itself was overrun). Ezekiel shows us that Israel, not as a place (as in WWZ), but as a stand in for the Church, is the only safe space, the only place the zombie hordes will never capture.

 

Those who refuse the Church's message, comfort, and outreach, and attack her and her children instead, will fall on her mountains. Their soulless bodies will be nothing more than food for wild beasts. The children inside the Church's walls need never fear that there is no escape, our way home to safety has already been earned and established. We may die (in fact, we all will), but we have a very different ultimate destiny. Our souls will survive and will eventually be reunited with our bodies in glory in Heaven, the ultimate safe space.