Dear RTB’ers,
First, a bit more on yesterday’s reading. Here is yesterday’s second verse: Son of man, set your face toward Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him and say, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. (v. 38:2-3) It turns out that these are familiar names for us; we saw them way back in Genesis 10, three of them as sons of Noah’s son, Japheth: The sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. (v. 2) So with these intended invaders God is going way back in time to tell us of events that will occur way future in time. How very interesting!!
In yesterday’s reading we saw these nations from afar attaching Israel and being defeated by the Lord God. Today we see the Israelites cleaning up the mess, burying their supposed invaders. It will take them seven months to do the burials and they will have firewood for seven years from the weapons of these armies, They will seize the spoil of those who despoiled them, and plunder those who plundered them, declares the Lord God. (v. 10b) A mighty defeat by the Lord God!
With all this God reveals His plan, And 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… I dealt with them according to their uncleanness and their transgressions, and hid My face from them… [But] 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.
Yesterday’s STS notes suggested that Ezekiel’s chapters 38 and 39 should be read in the context of Revelation 20:7-10, the thousand year reign of Christ and His people (Rev. 20:1-6), ending with Satan’s ultimate defeat. Again, as I noted yesterday, this is what we have to look forward to – especially if we presume that the mentions of “Israel” in these two chapters actually refer to Jesus and His redeemed people. Yes, His ultimate victory is our eternity! GLORY!!
Blessings.
Fred