Chapter 6: Ezekiel 39: Invasion’s Aftermath

The first eight verses are a quick review of chapter 38.

1“And you, son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal; 2and I will turn you around and lead you on, bringing you up from the far north, and bring you against the mountains of Israel. 3Then I will knock the bow out of your left hand, and cause the arrows to fall out of your right hand. 4You shall fall upon the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops and the peoples who are with you; I will give you to birds of prey of every sort and to the beasts of the field to be devoured. 5You shall fall on the open field; for I have spoken,” says the Lord God. 6“And I will send fire on Magog and on those who live in security in the coastlands. Then they shall know that I am the Lord. 7So I will make My holy name known in the midst of My people Israel, and I will not let them profane My holy name anymore. Then the nations shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel. 8Surely it is coming, and it shall be done,” says the Lord God. “This is the day of which I have spoken.”

As a review, this is quite clear. God stresses the point that obviously He is the one who protects Israel, and that man is powerless against Him. He makes it clear that this is His doing, and no one else’s.

9“Then those who dwell in the cities of Israel will go out and set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and bucklers, the bows and arrows, the javelins and spears; and they will make fires with them for seven years. 10They will not take wood from the field nor cut down any from the forests, because they will make fires with the weapons; and they will plunder those who plundered them, and pillage those who pillaged them,” says the Lord God.

These verses begin to discuss the aftermath of the failed invasion. There are some items of interest to point out here. First of all, the list of weapons is not intended to say these are the specific weapons used by the invaders. We go back to the issue from chapter 1 of, “how does God describe a computer to a man living in the year 1000 BC? Or an airplane? Or a nuclear bomb?” The listing of weapons is intended to signify that Israel uses everything, without wasting any of it. Every weapon used against Israel get plundered, and used to aid Israel.

The wood is another item to discuss. In Ezekiel’s day, there was no electricity. Every home had a fireplace, and burning wood was used to heat the homes in the winter. That was the extent of society’s energy needs. Everything else was done through brute force labor. So the wood here represents a source of energy. Again, how would God have described electric power stations, automobiles, tanks, airplanes, and so on to Ezekiel, who lived almost three thousand years ago? The idea here is that the weapons that were intended to be used against Israel become a power source for Israel.

This brings up another point. If, for the sake of argument, we were to take this to the absurd extreme, and say that every weapon and every piece of equipment the invading army brought with them was made entirely from wood, there still wouldn’t be enough wood to keep a fire burning for seven years given today’s modern energy needs. NO amount of weaponry or fuel to supply the invading force could be enough to power the nation of Israel for seven years, unless the fuel we are talking about is nuclear fuel. Radioactive elements are said to burn radioactively, and most isotopes used in weapons can also be used in power production. These isotopes typically have half lives of over a hundred years. So, if the invading armies brought nuclear weapons with them, intending to use them, whether they did so or not, the nuclear material could be extracted and used in nuclear power plants. This would fit in perfectly with a prediction that the weapons would be plundered by the Israelis, and used to produce power for seven years.

But there is a problem. With all of the calamities that the invading armies go through, as described in the previous chapter, the nuclear weapons would be destroyed along with the armies. The invaders would be contaminated with radiation, and there would need to be a massive radiologic accident clean-up. As we will see, this is what Ezekiel predicts. Portions of the rest of Ezekiel 39 are almost word-for-word identical to the standard hazmat protocols for cleaning up a nuclear accident.

11“It will come to pass in that day that I will give Gog a burial place there in Israel, the valley of those who pass by east of the sea; and it will obstruct travelers, because there they will bury Gog and all his multitude. Therefore they will call it the Valley of Hamon Gog.

Here, the armies are being called by the name of their spiritual leader, Gog. So, the dead bodies of the invaders will be buried in Israel. There is nothing too unusual about that. This will likely be the largest single army ever assembled, so sending the bodies back to their homelands will be such a monumental task that performing it would be unrealistic. The strange part here is that the burial grounds will “obstruct travelers.” Most people, when asked, could not think of even just one single cemetery that will not allow people to pass through it. While will this one be blockaded and made off limits to people? The best answer I can think of is that this is a standard procedure for any place where radioactive materials have been buried.

12‘”For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them, in order to cleanse the land. 13Indeed all the people of the land will be burying, and they will gain renown for it on the day that I am glorified,” says the Lord God. 14“They will set apart men regularly employed, with the help of a search party, to pass through the land and bury those bodies remaining on the ground, in order to cleanse it. At the end of seven months they will make a search. 15The search party will pass through the land; and when anyone sees a man’s bone, he shall set up a marker by it, till the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon Gog. 16The name of the city will also be Hamonah. Thus they shall cleanse the land.” ’

Here is the cleanup protocol. In a biological, or a hazardous chemical cleanup, people in standard hazmat suits go looking for the items to be cleaned up. When they see such an item, they somehow pick it up and place it in a special, sealable container. That container is then taken to a facility where it can be disposed of safely. Proper disposal usually means it gets incinerated. Cleanup at a nuclear accident is different.

Radiation exposure is determined primarily by three factors: How much radiation is present, how much shielding is between the person being exposed and the source of the radiation, and how long the person being exposed is in proximity to the radiation. So, if a person must be near the radiation for an extended period of time, they can reduce their exposure by increasing the shielding between them and the radioactive material. On the other hand, if very little shielding is available, exposure can be decreased by limiting the amount of time spent near the radioactive source. In the case of cleaning up a nuclear accident, those cleaning it up will need to spend an extended period of time around the source of the radiation. They therefore need to wear special hazmat suits with heavy shielding against the radiation. These suits weigh a lot, and are very bulky and difficult to work in.

So, for these reasons, the protocols for cleaning up a nuclear accident are unique. They go like this. First, a nuclear cleanup hazmat team is hired and trained. They are separated into two main groups. The first group is the search party. They wear hazmat suits with light shielding, and go around looking for sources of radiation. When they find a source, they put a marker by it, and get away from it quickly to minimize their exposure. Then, they report to the cleanup group where the marker was placed. The cleanup group then goes in wearing hazmat suits with very heavy shielding, and clean up the source of the radiation. The cleanup procedure of radiation is to somehow pick it up, and place it in a sealable container made from thick radiation shielding material. The container is then buried deep underground. Knowing this, let us review verses 14 and 15. “They will set apart men regularly employed, with the help of a search party, to pass through the land and bury those bodies remaining on the ground, in order to cleanse it…The search party will pass through the land; and when anyone sees a man’s bone, he shall set up a marker by it, till the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon Gog.”

There is one more point in these verses that is easy to miss. Verse 12 begins with, “For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them.” This part of the verse tells us how long the cleanup process takes, after it has been started. The end of verse 14 tells us, “…At the end of seven months they will make a search.” This is telling us that after the invasion, they wait seven months before the cleanup process gets started. So from the invasion until the end of the cleanup is a fourteen month period. The question here is, “Why do they wait seven months before starting the cleanup?” This goes back to the first of the three main factors determining radiation exposure, how much radiation is present. Radioactive materials decay. So, a radioactive object gives off less radiation as time passes. If the radiation levels are high enough right after an accident, the area may be quarantined for a time, until the radiation levels decrease to the point where it is safe to send in a cleanup team. Nuclear weaponry uses the most highly purified radioactive materials in existence, meaning that they will be giving off a very high level of radiation at first. The waiting period before the cleanup gets started is very likely there to allow the radiation levels to drop to a point where it is safe to proceed with the cleanup.

17“And as for you, son of man, thus says the Lord God, ‘Speak to every sort of bird and to every beast of the field:

“Assemble yourselves and come;

Gather together from all sides to My sacrificial meal

Which I am sacrificing for you,

A great sacrificial meal on the mountains of Israel,

That you may eat flesh and drink blood.

18You shall eat the flesh of the mighty,

Drink the blood of the princes of the earth,

Of rams and lambs,

Of goats and bulls,

All of them fatlings of Bashan.

19You shall eat fat till you are full,

And drink blood till you are drunk,

At My sacrificial meal

Which I am sacrificing for you.

20You shall be filled at My table

With horses and riders,

With mighty men

And with all the men of war,” says the Lord God.

These verses were originally written as Hebrew poetry. For the purposes of our discussion here, they can be summarized by saying that during the seven month waiting period, birds and other animals will be eating the flesh of the dead invaders.

21“I will set My glory among the nations; all the nations shall see My judgment which I have executed, and My hand which I have laid on them. 22So the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day forward. 23The Gentiles shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity; because they were unfaithful to Me, therefore I hid My face from them. I gave them into the hand of their enemies, and they all fell by the sword. 24According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions I have dealt with them, and hidden My face from them.”

These verses describe a pattern seen mostly in the Old Testament. The Israelites turn away from God, so God uses one of the other nations of the earth to punish them. Often it was the Assyrians or the Philistines, but sometimes other people groups. These people would defeat the Israelites in war, and oppress them. Some of these people groups would go overboard, and be unnecessarily harsh to God’s people. After the Israelites had turned back to God and been restored, God would then punish those who oppressed the Israelites. These verses are spelling out that pattern as it applies to the Gog and Magog Invasion.

Verse 22 tells us that Israel will turn back to God. Verse 23 says that the rest of the world will know that Israel exiled from their homeland from 70 A.D. until 1948 A.D because they had turned away from God. The second half of verse 23 and all of verse 24 tell us that God was allowing His people to be punished for the wrong they had done. Now, these verses don’t finish the description of the pattern, but God’s reference to the pattern tells us that the failed invasion is about Him punishing those who mistreated His people: Russia, with the early twentieth century pogroms; Germany, with the WWII Holocaust; and several Islamic nations that have been strongly anti-Israel.

25“Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Now I will bring back the captives of Jacob, and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for My holy name— 26after they have borne their shame, and all their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, when they dwelt safely in their own land and no one made them afraid. 27When I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, and I am hallowed in them in the sight of many nations, 28then they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who sent them into captivity among the nations, but also brought them back to their land, and left none of them captive any longer. 29And I will not hide My face from them anymore; for I shall have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel,’ says the Lord God.”

These verses are a declarative statement by God that He has restored Israel, they have paid for their unfaithfulness, and that payment is complete. He will now bring them to a complete knowledge of faith in Him, and the destruction of this invasion is His sign that this word is from Him.

Chapter 7: The Tribulation

To some who study Bible prophecy, jumping from the Gog and Magog invasion to the Tribulation seems to follow the natural flow of events, while to others, it does not. But, as we have seen earlier, the Gog and Magog invasion is not the Battle of Armageddon, and it is not the battle at the end of the Millennial Reign. That leaves two possibilities. Either it occurs during the Tribulation, or it occurs shortly before the Tribulation. So, we look to the Bible for clues as to when it will occur.

Transition Between Events

First, looking at Daniel, chapter 11, we see that most of the chapter is concerned with wars between the king of the north and the king of the south. As was noted in chapter 2, “The northern kingdom is primarily Europe and the northern portion of the Middle East, and the southern kingdom is northern Africa, primarily Egypt. These wars cover thousands of years, going back to Ancient Rome, and culminating in the tribulation.” We also notes that the antichrist will be leader of the kingdom of the north, Europe. The attack against Israel during the Tribulation comes from the antichrist, just after ships from the west come to the defense of the king of the south, Egypt.

The Gog and Magog invasion is led by Russia, and comes out of Asia. This is one of the most significant attacks against Israel ever. There is only one significant attack against Israel that comes during the Tribulation. This attack begins halfway through the Tribulation, and lasts three and a half years, but it is clearly not the Gog and Magog invasion. This greatly decreases the likelihood of the Gog and Magog invasion occurring during the Tribulation, however, one would like to see additional hints to back this up.

It just so happens that such a hint does exist, in the midst of Ezekiel 39. Recall that verse 9 tells us, “Then those who dwell in the cities of Israel will go out and set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and bucklers, the bows and arrows, the javelins and spears; and they will make fires with them for seven years.” As we saw in the last chapter, God caused the Gog and Magog invasion, He fought for the Israelites, and He is using this battle to provide for His people. He provides Israel with energy independence for a seven year period. Why seven years, and why Israel? Israel may be a young nation, but it is a strong nation. The only reason they would need this type of provision is if the rest of the world were aligned against them, and they were not able to readily provide energy by another means. These criteria will be the prevailing conditions during the Tribulation. God’s perfect provision gives us what we need, when we need it, for what He knows is coming.

For these reasons, the Gog and Magog invasion seems to come shortly before the Tribulation. But my suggestion is that this invasion is what causes the initiating event of the Tribulation.

One Event Leads to the Other

Daniel 9:27 tells us that the antichrist enters into a seven year peace treaty with Israel. Who does that? Who makes a temporary peace with someone? Throughout history, Peace treaties between nations have always been, “going forward from this point, a peace will exist between our nations as defined here…” to paraphrase. The treaty then defines the relationship between those nations until one of them decides to break the treaty. So why would someone suggest a specific, seven year peace treaty, and why would Israel agree to it?

To answer these questions, we must consider the state of the world after the Gog and Magog invasion. Recall Ezekiel 39:11, “It will come to pass in that day that I will give Gog a burial place there in Israel, the valley of those who pass by east of the sea; and it will obstruct travelers, because there they will bury Gog and all his multitude. Therefore they will call it the Valley of Hamon Gog.” Pay particular attention to the phrase “…and all his multitude.” This doesn’t leave anyone out. Now recall Ezekiel 38:4, “I will turn you around, put hooks into your jaws, and lead you out, with all your army…” We are talking about the entire Russian army, Iran’s army, Turkey’s army, Ethiopia’s army, Libya’s army, and Germany’s army. When combined, this will be the largest attack force ever, in the history of the world. And it will be completely wiped out. After Syria is destroyed in Isaiah 17, this army will represent the sum total of Israel’s active enemies.

After the world sees all of Israel’s active—as opposed to passive—enemies wiped out by an act of God, there will be considerable cause for concern among the nations. The immediate response, at an almost unconscious level, is “I want to get on Israel’s good side, so their God doesn’t do that to me!” The Middle East, which has always been in turmoil, will be in the greatest turmoil it has ever known, and Israel’s military will by far be the most superior force in all of the Middle East.

With Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan destroyed (Isaiah 17), and the armies of Israel’s strongest enemies wiped out, the world will be begging for a cessation of hostilities. Six nations with very strong militaries will suddenly have no military. From the secular world’s point of view, should Israel decide to go on the offensive, there would be very little in the way to stop her.

So, a “brilliant” leader from Europe will have an original idea. Working out a permanent peace is very difficult when there is so much history involved, and when there are so many details to be worked out. So, instead of getting bogged down in all of that, why not just say, “We agree not to go to war with anyone, and everyone agrees not to go to war with us, for a specified time period. We also agree to use that time period to work on negotiating a permanent peace.” Such an agreement would serve the secular world’s need to contain Israel, would bring an immediate peace rather than waiting for endless negotiations to be completed, and would serve Israel’s desire for peace. All of this without requiring that all the normal details of a peace agreement be worked out right now.

For all of these reasons, it only makes sense that the Isaiah 17 destruction of Damascus leads to the Ezekiel 38-39 Gog and Magog invasion, which leads to the Daniel 9:27 signing of the seven year peace treaty, which is the initiating event of the Tribulation.