Re: Naked Bible 152: Ezekiel 38-39 Part 1 and Naked Bible 153: Ezekiel 38-39 Part 2
We could spend weeks trying to counter the nonsense of Dispensationalism, but for just one lesson, we will look at Ezekiel 38-39 for a clear view of the Gog and Magog delusion of Dispensationalism.
One of the first things we must establish is the image of “Evil North” in the OT and broader ANE thinking. The compass direction is frankly incidental. From the perspective of people living in the ANE, that happened to be the mythical home of dark spirits. It’s not centered on any particular location, just a general perception. Trouble can come from any location, any direction, but this is a consistent reference for things that actually transcend geography.
It was regarded as the place where Baal had his home, the mysterious stormy mountains where he held court. The point here is typology, not factual details. It never really mattered who lived up in those mountains or beyond them. This is the key to understanding the Hebrew language and culture, as well as the broader ANE. We have certain images specific to the Hebrew people, but they take their cue on the use of language from the rest of the ANE.
As hard as scholars have tried, a historical identity for Gog is simply not possible. You’ll find any number of ideas, but none of them work for various reasons. I believe that’s as it should be; it wasn’t meant to be confined to a single individual. Rather, it’s a role that transcends any historical reference. Various rulers can be called “Gog” but so can Baal, the Devil, the Antichrist, etc.
Sidenote: The Beast (arising from the sea) is most closely identified with Leviathan. Oddly enough, this is the typology for “King of the South” in Hebrew prophecy.
However, if we are going to point to literal geographical references, it can’t be Russia. We know more about Tubal, Meshech, Magog, Gomer, and Togarmah. They refer back to the Table of Nations in Genesis 10 as various descendants from Japheth, who took up residence in modern Turkiye and Northern Syria. These are all well known to scholarship; there should be no question about those names. Any attempt to equate them to Russia is intellectually dishonest.
Additionally, the idea that “rosh” refers to Russia is grammatically impossible in Hebrew. It cannot be taken as a proper noun. In the context, rōʾsh is either a parallel label (“chief”) with the previous word meaning “prince” (nesiʾ), or it is used as an adjective (as is the case in other places in the Bible). There is zero historical reference to such a place name anywhere in any ANE language. The birth of the label “Russia” is from the Vikings long after biblical times; it would have had no meaning to Ezekiel and his readers.
It’s not as if the Hebrew people weren’t aware of people living in various places to their north. However, Mount Hermon, as the northernmost point in historical Israeli lands, became the symbol of the Gates of Hell. No one took that literally. But Jesus Himself took advantage of the symbolism in some of His comments, not to mention His Transfiguration. It had meaning because the Hebrew people were always being invaded from the north. It was a reference to things in the Unseen Realm, not geography.
The Rephaim (a tribe of the Nephilim giants) lived in Bashan on the approach to Mount Hermon. The whole area was regarded as the ancient nesting ground for the progeny of the Watchers. It symbolized the source of human depravity. The mythical home of Baal, Lord of the Underworld (a satanic figure), a spiritual being implacably hostile to Israel, was even farther north in Ugarit (today known as Jebel al-Aqraʿ) and was referred to simply as “North” — tsaphon or zaphon in Hebrew.
Any reference to a literal invasion from the north would be taken as just one more manifestation of an ongoing moral and spiritual threat from those in God’s court who oppose His agenda. Thus, the prophecy here in Ezekiel is God thundering at His own staff. Their plans will fail. Every time they pull this stunt, God will crush it in some way.
Thus, the current context in Ezekiel includes a list of nations at that time served the purpose of the Gog figure. In a literal sense, some of those enemies came from the south, east and west of Israel. However, they were allied with the mystical Dark Lord of the North. This is all echoed in Revelation 20 with much the same moral significance, but not the precise historical meaning it had for Ezekiel and his readers.
Nonetheless, when Ezekiel relays God’s promise to reunite the whole nation of Israel in Jerusalem again, we know that there has been on literal fulfillment, nor will there ever be. Rather, he has already mentioned pulling the northern tribes from the nations. Keep in mind: The northern tribes were already paganized before Assyria took them away. Away from their homeland, what happened was precisely what Assyria expected — the northern tribes dissolved into the pagan nations where they were dragged. Thus, the only possible fulfillment would be a new “Israel” drawn from the Gentile masses.
This is what Paul tells us in Galatians. The real identity of “Israel” was never based on Abraham’s DNA (as Jesus indicated with His comment about stones being turned into children of Abraham). It was always the Elect within the nation who were the true Israel. The Elect from among Gentiles were the new members of that ancient identity.
Ezekiel’s prophecy is couched in terms of bringing Israel back to the Holy Mountain, the “Mountain of Assembly” — Har Mo’ed — the source of the name “Armageddon” in English. Notice: That reverse apostrophe is vocalized as “gh” (not quite a hard “g”). It’s also not at all the same as Megiddo, because two “d” letters is a wholly different Hebrew word. The greatest spiritual battle of all time will take place at Jerusalem, because that city symbolizes God’s throne in Heaven, where every creature must assemble before God as His command.
All of this is quite certainly linked to the Day of the Lord. We have long taught that there have been, and will still be, many “days of the Lord” in the sense of how God does things. They all manifest in some sense that final “Day of the Lord” in which God will shut down all the resistance to His Word/Son and punish the rebellion among His divine staff. It is not, as dispensationalists insist, the beginning of the seven years of Great Tribulation. It’s the End.
Ezekiel refers to the Valley of the Travelers, AKA the Valley of Hamon-gog. The imagery is the same here and in Revelation 20. Heiser goes into great detail explaining how the Hebrew grammar here points to an army that includes the Rephaim and spirits that crossed the boundary line between the Spirit Realm and this world (“travelers”). It’s a reference to the Transjordan (“east of the sea”) where we have found evidence of a host of cults focused on the underworld, necromancy, the realm of the dead.
Thus, the Army of Darkness will end up buried in this place. The symbolism should be obvious. It’s not about the number of days it takes to bury the bodies. The number itself is symbolic of cleansing and making something sacred.
Notice something else here: There is the image of the enemies being consumed. Not locked up or tormented, but consumed. The whole army is an offering to God, consumed by birds and wild beasts as His proxy. In other places it’s consumption by fire.
