This morning we’ll finish our look at the prophecy contained in Ezekiel 38 and 39, so go ahead and turn into your Bibles to Ezekiel 39. As I mentioned last week, these two chapters contain one prophecy – one of the most difficult in the entire Bible to understand. There are just too many aspects of this attack on Israel that just aren’t revealed to us in enough detail to draw definite conclusions about these events. In particular, identifying the timing of these events with absolute certainty just isn’t possible. But those difficulties don’t mean that we can’t profit from a study of this passage.
If you read through both chapters, you will find that the overall structure of these events is outlined for us in chapter 38 and then chapter 39 expands upon some of the details of those events. For time’s sake I am not going to read all 29 verses in this chapter this morning, but rather I want to focus our attention on several key verses that will enable us to discern and apply principles that are relevant to us in our day-to-day lives.
Let’s begin by briefly reviewing what we learned in Chapter 38 last week:
• God is going to gather an alliance of Muslim nations for the purpose of attacking Israel.
• The attack will occur when at least some of the people of Israel are back in their land, living under a sense of false security and when the people have not yet recognized Jesus as Lord. We determined that the most likely timing was during the first half of Daniel’s 70th week.
• God will supernaturally rescue His people through the means of an earthquake, by causing infighting among the attackers, through pestilence and by raining down rain, hailstones, fire and sulfur on the attackers.
The aftermath
In chapter 39, we are given some additional details about the aftermath of these proceedings. There are two major events that will occur after God intervenes supernaturally that give us some idea of the magnitude of the death and destruction that will take place:
• The weapons of the attackers will be burned for seven years
9 “Then those who dwell in the cities of Israel will go out and make fires of the weapons and burn them, shields and bucklers, bow and arrows, clubs and spears; and they will make fires of them for seven years, 10 so that they will not need to take wood out of the field or cut down any out of the forests, for they will make their fires of the weapons. They will seize the spoil of those who despoiled them, and plunder those who plundered them, declares the Lord God. (vv.9, 10)
The weapons that are described here seem quite primitive compared to those generally used in war today. Instead of wood, we generally used hardened metals and space-age materials. So it’s hard for us to see how this part of the prophecy might be fulfilled. I’m sure that there are a number of ways this might come to pass, but two possibilities seem most likely.
The most likely explanation is that Ezekiel is describing what he saw in terms of what he knew about the weapons of war used in his time. In that case he would merely be describing what he saw in terms that his audience would understand. Also the Hebrew words can have meanings beyond how they are translated into English here. For instance, the word translated “bow” could be translated “launcher” and the word for “arrow” refers to any type of projectile, such as a missile. Although our modern weapons are not usually made of wood or other flammable materials, all we have to do is to look back at recent wars when the oil fields were set on fire for long periods of time to understand how this prophecy could be fulfilled in our day.
The second possibility is that conditions on earth will have deteriorated so much that armies will have literally reverted to using these more primitive weapons. We know from chapter 38 that this attack occurs after the land has recovered from previous wars and perhaps many of the more technologically advanced weapons have been destroyed during those wars.
But in any case, there will be so many weapons left on the battlefield that they will burn for seven years. If we are correct that this attack occurs during the first half of Daniel’s 70th week, that would mean this process will continue into the first part of the Millennium.
• The dead bodies will be buried for seven months
11 “On that day I will give to Gog a place for burial in Israel, the Valley of the Travelers, east of the sea. It will block the travelers, for there Gog and all his multitude will be buried. It will be called the Valley of Hamon-gog. 12 For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them, in order to cleanse the land. 13 All the people of the land will bury them, and it will bring them renown on the day that I show my glory, declares the Lord God. 14 They will set apart men to travel through the land regularly and bury those travelers remaining on the face of the land, so as to cleanse it. At the end of seven months they will make their search. 15 And when these travel through the land and anyone sees a human bone, then he shall set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon-gog. 16 (Hamonah is also the name of the city.) Thus shall they cleanse the land. (vv. 11-16)
After God kills the attackers, it is going to take seven months to bury all the dead and cleanse the land. This fact alone makes it clear that this prophecy in Ezekiel cannot be referring to the same event described in Revelation 20:
7 And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. 9 And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, 10 and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
Revelation 20:7-10 (ESV)
Although Gog and Magog are mentioned in this passage, we know that this event is immediately followed by the Great White Throne Judgment and the inauguration of the new heavens and the new earth, so there would be no need to bury the bodies. Therefore, it appears that Gog and Magog are used in Revelation 20 merely as a picture of the foes of God who will be similar in nature to the Gog and Magog of Ezekiel 38 and 39.
Ezekiel goes on to describe how the birds of the air and the beasts of the field will feast upon the flesh of the dead bodies:
17 “As for you, son of man, thus says the Lord God: Speak to the birds of every sort and to all beasts of the field, ‘Assemble and come, gather from all around to the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you, a great sacrificial feast on the mountains of Israel, and you shall eat flesh and drink blood. 18 You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth - of rams, of lambs, and of he-goats, of bulls, all of them fat beasts of Bashan. 19 And you shall eat fat till you are filled, and drink blood till you are drunk, at the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you. 20 And you shall be filled at my table with horses and charioteers, with mighty men and all kinds of warriors,’ declares the Lord God. (vv. 17-20)
This certainly bears a resemblance a similar event described in Revelation 19 that takes place after the battle of Armageddon:
Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly directly overhead, “Come, gather for the great supper of God, to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great.”
Revelation 19:17, 18 (ESV)
As I pointed out last week, however, there seem to be too many differences between both the conditions that exist before the attack of Ezekiel 38 and 39 and the battle in Revelation 19, as well as the details of the battles themselves for the two passages to be describing the same event. But as I also cautioned last week, there is enough we don’t know that we also need to guard against being too dogmatic about the conclusions that we have drawn.
So instead of focusing our time on what we can’t know for sure, I’d like to spend the bulk of our time this morning focusing on what we can know as a result of our study. We must remember that in Ezekiel’s day, these words were more than just a source of speculation about the future. They were intended to help God’s people live their lives right there in exile in Babylon. They had relevance to the lives of Ezekiel’s audience in the 6th century BC and they also are relevant for us today. In particular, as I read through this passage over the last couple of weeks, I was struck by the focus on God’s holiness and its impact on worship. In fact, the main principle that we find in these two chapters is this:
THE HOLINESS OF GOD MUST DRIVE OUR WORSHIP
We can’t read this passage without coming face to face with God’s holiness. We use the word holy a lot when speaking of God, but I’m not sure that we have a very good understanding of what we mean when we use that term. In a sense, holiness is not capable of being described in human terms, but my favorite written exposition on the subject found in the book, Knowledge of the Holy, by A.W. Tozer. Let me share with you just a brief excerpt from that book that will help us put this passage from Ezekiel in its proper context;
Neither the writer nor the reader of these words is qualified to appreciate the holiness of God. Quite literally a new channel must be cut through the desert of our minds to allow the sweet waters of truth that will heal our great sickness to flow in. We cannot grasp the true meaning of the divine holiness by thinking of someone or something very pure and then raising the concept to the highest degree we are capable of.
God’s holiness is not simply the best we know infinitely bettered. We know nothing like the divine holiness. It stands apart, unique, unapproachable, incomprehensible and unattainable. The natural man is blind to it. He may fear God’s power and admire His wisdom, but His holiness he cannot even imagine.
Holy is the way God is. To be holy He does not conform to a standard. He is that standard. He is absolutely holy with an infinite, incomprehensible fullness of purity that is incapable of being other than it is. Because He is holy, His attributes are holy; that is, whatever we think of as belonging to God must be thought of as holy.
And it is the holiness of God that must drive our worship. The few times in Scripture that we are given a glimpse into the heavenly worship, it is God’s holiness that is the focus of that worship. In both Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4, we see the refrain, “holy, holy, holy is the Lord…” And here in Ezekiel, we also see that God’s holiness is the engine that drives true worship. There are three different demonstrations of God’s holiness here in this passage and each of them teaches us something about how that holiness must drive our worship.
1. We allow holiness to drive our worship when we glorify His name
I don’t know how many of you have seen some of the E-trade commercials that feature the talking babies. Here’s one of their latest commercials that first aired during the Super Bowl. [Play video]
Now believe it or not, Lindsay Lohan filed a $100 million lawsuit this week, claiming that the ad campaign was modeled after her and that it portrays her as an alcoholic, which damages her name. I’m not really sure how much of a case that Lindsay could have since it’s pretty hard to believe that any commercial, even if it is about her, could damage her name.
But the conduct of the people of Israel, on the other hand, had certainly damaged God’s name, as we see clearly in verse 7:
And my holy name I will make known in the midst of my people Israel, and I will not let my holy name be profaned anymore… (v. 7)
Later, in verse 25, which is in the section that describes the restored commonwealth of Israel subsequent to these events, we see just how concerned God is about protecting His holy name:
Therefore thus says the Lord God: 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. (v. 25)
We can see from our passage that the people of Israel had been profaning God’s name. They had violated the fourth commandment:
You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
Exodus 20:7 (ESV)
I’m convinced that this is the most misunderstood of all the commandments. When most people think of this commandment, they immediately think of cursing which includes the name of God or of His Son, Jesus. In fact, a group called Godspeaks launched a campaign in 1998 to erect billboards all around the United States with sayings that were intended to get people thinking about God. Here is one of those billboards [If you must curse, use your own name. – God]. Now I’m certainly not encouraging anyone to use the name of God as a curse, but that is not what the fourth commandment is all about and it certainly is not what God is condemning here in Ezekiel.
God’s holy name is profaned when we take His name as our own and then we behave in a way that is not consistent with His character. That is exactly what the people of Israel had done. God had given them the name Israel in order to identify them as belonging to Him. He had called them to be holy as He is holy. But the people had consistently behaved in a way that was not consistent with their calling as God’s people. And as a result, not only did they reap the consequences of their behavior, they also profaned the name of God.
As we saw last week, one of the purposes of this attack on Israel and God’s supernatural intervention was so that many nations would come to recognize that God is the Lord. Because God’s people no longer conducted themselves in a way that would bring glory to God’s name and point people to Him, God had to intervene in order to restore His holy name.
We either glorify God’s holy name or we profane it, not just with the words we use, but by the way we live our lives. Real worship is not just singing some songs and listening to a sermon and enjoying some refreshments with each other every Sunday. That can be part of our worship, but true worship is exhibited by the way we live our lives the other 166 hours each week. That’s exactly the point Paul was making in Romans 12:
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Romans 12:1 (ESV)
I’m convinced that A.W. Tozer had that verse in mind when he spoke these words in one of his sermons on worship:
If you cannot worship the Lord in the midst of your responsibilities on Monday, it is not very likely that you were worshipping on Sunday!
If we are going to bring glory to God’s holy name, then we must present our bodies as living sacrifices to Him 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That means every aspect of the way we live our lives either brings glory to His name or it profanes His name.
2. We allow holiness to drive our worship when we grieve over our sin
Because is a holy God, He grieves over sin. And the Bible consistently pictures God grieving over our sin because that sin separates us from God and damages the relationship that He desires to have with us. We see that clearly near the end of chapter 39:
22 The house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God, from that day forward. 23 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, and they all fell by the sword. 24 I dealt with them according to their uncleanness and their transgressions, and hid my face from them. (vv. 22-24)
As a result of their sins, God had hidden His face from His people. That is exactly what He had said that He would do all the way back in the days of Moses:
And I will surely hide my face in that day because of all the evil that they have done, because they have turned to other gods.
Deuteronomy 31:18 (ESV)
The people had indeed turned to other gods and as a result the Lord had hidden His face from them. But fortunately for us, that no longer has to be the case because, through His Son, Jesus, God has provided a way for our sins to be covered and forgiven so that He no longer has to hide his face from us.
But in order for us to come to the place where we can accept that forgiveness, we must first see our sin from God’s perspective so that we can grieve over it like God does. Although we are made right with God through faith, and not through our own good works, real faith requires that we first come to grieve over our sin and then repent of that sin before we are in a position to accept God’s gift of salvation. Here’s how Paul described that process:
As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
2 Corinthians 7:9, 10 (ESV)
Godly grief over our sin leads to repentance. Repentance simply means that we have a change of mind. We see sin from God’s perspective and grieve over it so much that we don’ ever want to engage in that sin again so we take the appropriate steps in our lives to avoid having our sin develop into a lifestyle. And then that repentance leads to a salvation with no regrets. There are no regrets because we can be assured that God will no longer hide His face from us. That will one day be the case with the nation of Israel as well, as we see in the last verse in Ezekiel 39:
And I will not hide my face anymore from them, when I pour out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, declares the Lord God. (V. 29)
As we’ve seen previously, God will one day pour out His Spirit on Israel when they recognize Jesus as the Messiah and commit their lives to Him. And from that point forward, God will no longer hide His face from them. Like those of us who have committed our lives to Jesus, their sins will have been forgiven and they will be considered to be righteous before God because of the blood of Jesus.
If you have placed your faith in Jesus and committed your life to Him, then God will no longer hide His face from you. However, since we are human, we will still sin and when we do, that sin does have an impact on our relationship with God because God still grieves over our sin.
I think that those of us who are parents can certainly understand that. When one of our children rebel against us, we still love them and we don’t hide our face from them, but we certainly grieve over that rebellion. And our relationship with our child is damaged and can only be fully restored when that child comes to grieve over that rebellion and seeks our forgiveness.
I’m convinced that during those times in my life when I struggle with sin the most, it is because I fail to see my sin from God’s perspective and understand just how serious it is and then truly grieve over that sin. But if I really want to worship God in His holiness, I must develop the kind of godly grief that leads to repentance.
3. We allow holiness to drive our worship by choosing to making Jesus our Lord
As we saw last week, the purpose for the events described in these two chapters of Ezekiel is so that both the attacking nations and Israel would come to know that God is indeed the Lord. However, there is a subtle, but significant difference between the response of Israel and that of the other nations. Let’s see if we can identify that difference as we read the four verses in this passage that refer to the people coming to know that God is the Lord. The first two refer to the nations other than Israel:
I will send fire on Magog and on those who dwell securely in the coastlands, and they shall know that I am the Lord. (v. 6)
..And the nations shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel. (v.7)
The final two refer specifically to Israel:
The house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God, from that day forward. (v. 22)
Then they shall know that I am the Lord their God, because I sent them into exile among the nations and then assembled them into their own land… (V.28)
Were you able to see the difference? [Wait for response]. That’s right. When He is dealing with Israel, God adds two words – their God. That might not seem all that significant at first glance, but those two words may in fact be the most significant in these two chapters. There is a huge difference between just recognizing that God is the Lord and making Him our own personal Lord.
The Bible is clear that one day, everyone is going to recognize that Jesus is indeed Lord. But not everyone will worship Him, because there will be many who have never made the choice to make Him the Lord of their life. All people fall into one of three groups:
• Those who refuse to acknowledge Jesus as Lord in this life
Even when confronted with the evidence that Jesus is Lord, these people will refuse to submit their lives to Him. We saw an example of that last week when we looked at the response of some when the sixth seal is opened as described in Revelation 6:
Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”
Revelation 6:15-17 (ESV)
Even though these people recognize that this judgment is from the hand of God, they choose to hide and even pray for the mountains and rocks to fall on them rather than submit their lives to Jesus.
• Those who claim Jesus as Lord, but who do not obey His commands
I’m afraid that a lot of people here in our country fall into this category. Although most polls show that around 75% of the people in the United States identify themselves as Christians, when you begin to probe their beliefs and actions more deeply, it is clear that they have not truly made Jesus their Lord.
A March 2009 survey by the Barna Group found that only 9% of American adults had a “Biblical worldview” and held to all the following basic beliefs:
o Absolute moral truth exists
o The Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches;
o Satan is considered to be a real being or force, not merely symbolic
o A person cannot earn their way into Heaven by trying to be good or do good works
o Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth
o God is the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the world who still rules the universe today
Jesus addressed this group of people when he said:
Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?
Luke 6:46 (ESV)
• Those who choose to make Jesus their personal Lord
These are the people who choose, during their life here on earth to willingly submit their lives to the control of Jesus and who demonstrate that decision is genuine by obeying His commands. Here is what Jesus had to say about this group of people:
...If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
John 14:23 (ESV)
If you are not in this third and last group, then it is impossible for you to truly worship God. That’s not my opinion; that’s what Jesus said:
I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 14:6 (ESV)
If you have never genuinely committed your life to Jesus and made Him your Lord by following his commands, I invite you to make that decision this morning, so that you can engage in true worship. So right now we’re going to give you the opportunity to do that right where you sit. I’m going to ask right now that everyone would bow their heads and close their eyes. If you’ve never made the decision to make Jesus your Lord, then in just a moment I’m going to pray a prayer and ask you to silently repeat the words of that prayer after me.
The exact words of this prayer are not magic, but if they reflect the desire of your heart, then I can promise you, based on the Word of God that God will indeed answer this prayer and give you the ability to worship Him.
Dear God,
I acknowledge that I am a sinner and that my sin grieves Your heart. Because of that I am also grieved by my sin and I ask you to forgive me for my sin based on the death and resurrection of Your Son Jesus. I am trusting in Jesus alone as the basis for entering into a personal relationship with you.
I also commit to make Jesus my Lord and give Him control of my life. I desire to follow His commands and ask you to help me do that each day of my life.
Thank you that as a result of my decision today that I can have a personal relationship with You and worship You as You desire.
In Jesus name,
Amen
