Ezekiel 38:16

38:14-23 The enemy should make a formidable descent upon the land of Israel. When Israel dwell safely under the Divine protection, shalt not thou be made to know it by finding that endeavours to destroy them are made in vain? Promises of security are treasured up in the word of God, against the troubles and dangers the church may be brought into in the latter days. In the destruction of sinners, God makes it appear that he is a great and holy God. We should desire and pray daily. Father, glorify thine own name.

And thou shall come up against my people of Israel,.... Which is repeated for the certainty of it; and not for his comfort, but his ruin; not to the terror of Israel, but for the glory of God: as a cloud to cover the land; the land of Israel, so great should be his army; See Gill on Ezekiel 38:9, it shall be in the latter days; of the Gospel state, or kingdom of the Messiah, when the Jews shall be converted, and are returned to their own land, Hosea 3:5, and I will bring thee against my land; not to possess it, nor to hurt it, or to any injury to the people of it: but that the Heathen may know me; the Pagan kingdoms of China, and others; who by God's judgments on the Turks will come to the knowledge of the true God, and acknowledge him, and will become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, Revelation 11:15, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes; that is, when God shall appear to be a holy and just God, in inflicting deserved punishment on the enemies of his people; when his omniscience and omnipotence, his power and faithfulness, and other perfections of his will be displayed, in fulfilling those prophecies concerning Gog or the Turks; infidels will be convinced of the truth of divine revelation; of the God of Israel being the true God; of Jesus being the Messiah; and of the Christian religion being of God, and shall profess the same.

16 . Cf. Ezekiel 38:9 . shall be sanctified ] Or, get me sanctifying, i.e. recognition as “holy”—“holy” having the meaning of all that which God alone is. The rendering “shew myself holy” is less natural, though the meaning is virtually the same. Jehovah shews his great deeds in the sight of the nations, and thus they recognise his Godhead, cf. Ezekiel 38:23 . He gets him sanctifying “in” or through Gog, as the object on whom his great operations of power are manifested. In these verses Jehovah is represented on the one hand as bringing up Gog in order that he may be sanctified in him in the sight of the nations; and on the other hand Gog is represented as coming up of his own will, prompted by evil purposes, by the hope of an easy conquest and by lust of spoil. The first representation must not be pressed as if this case of Gog were something special, as if Jehovah for no object but to shew his power brought up against his people a leader and nation from the ends of the earth, who otherwise would have remained in peace in their distant abodes. Because such a view of the episode of Gog forgets in the first place the other side of the representation, viz. that Gog comes up of his own will, and with evil intent. It is the hope of an easy conquest and lust of spoil that animates him as well as the merchant peoples who follow in his train.

This spirit of irreligious traffic on the part of these peoples is reprobated by the prophet and represented as antagonistic to the religion of Jehovah, just as it is in the case of Tyre (26–28). And secondly the view forgets the general teaching of the prophet, to the effect that Jehovah is in truth the author of all the great movements in the world, and that his operations have one great end in view, to reveal himself as that which he is to the nations of the world. His raising up Gog with this view is not a special thing, but one among many other similar things. To signalize it as something distinct and lift it out of the general current of the prophet’s conceptions creates an untrue impression of his teaching.

And thou shalt come against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the {k} latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the nations may know me, when I {l} shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes. (k) Meaning in the last age, and from the coming of Christ to the end of the world. (l) Signifying that God will be sanctified by maintaining his church, and destroying his enemies, as in Eze 36:23,37:28.

On the first part of the verse, see Ezekiel 38:9 . In the latter days: see Ezekiel 38:8 . I will bring thee: see Ezekiel 38:4 . That the heathen may know me: Gog gathers all from all quarters to be with him to take the spoil, God brings them together to do that among them which may make he heathen see and own his hand. They do it in proud contempt of God and his people, but God doth it to glorify his own name, and to vindicate his people. Sanctified; confessed to be a great God over all, a gracious and faithful God to his people, and a just though dreadful enemy and avenger against the wicked and proud tyrants. Before their eyes; in the sight of all the heathen that are with Gog in his expedition and much more in the sight of God’s own wonderfully delivered people.

Account of the motive by which Gog was induced to undertake his warlike expedition, and incurred guilt, notwithstanding the fact that he was led by God, and in consequence of which he brought upon himself the judgment of destruction that was about to fall upon him. - Ezekiel 38:10 . Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, It shall come to pass in that day, that things will come up in thy heart, and thou wilt devise an evil design, Ezekiel 38:11 . And say, I will go up into the open country, I will come upon the peaceful ones, who are all dwelling in safety, who dwell without walls, and have not bars and gates, Ezekiel 38:12 . To take plunder and to gather spoil, to bring back thy hand against the ruins that are inhabited again, and against a people gathered out of the nations, carrying on trade and commerce, who dwell on the navel of the earth. Ezekiel 38:13 . Sabaea and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, and all her young lions, will say to thee, Dost thou come to take plunder? Hast thou gathered thy multitude of people to take spoil? Is it to carry away gold and silver, to take possession and gain, to plunder a great spoil? Ezekiel 38:14 . Therefore prophesy, son of man, and say to Gog, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Is it not so? On that day, when my people Israel dwelleth in security, thou wilt observe it, Ezekiel 38:15 . And come from thy place from the extreme north, thou and many peoples with thee, all riding upon horses, a great crowd and a numerous army, Ezekiel 38:16 .