The Locust King, Satan, & God’s War with Chaos | Ezekiel 38-39 Part III

#ezekiel #prophecy #endtimes

In this part of our Ezekiel study we focus on 38:7-9 “Be prepared and get yourself ready, you and your whole assembly that has been mobilized around you; you will be their guard. After a long time you will be summoned. In the last years you will enter a land that has been restored from war and regathered from many peoples to the mountains of Israel, which had long been a ruin. They were brought out from the peoples, and all of them now live securely. You and all your allies—a vast and awesome army—will roll down on them like a storm and cover the land like a cloud.”

Gog invades like a swarming horde. This brings to my mind locust imagery. In fact, a scholar named Hugo Gressmann considers Gog to be a “locust giant.” We have discussed locust imagery before on the channel, but we will recap it briefly in this study.

In the gathering of Gog and his horde, the words of the prophet Micah comes to mind. Micah 4:12 “But they do not know the LORD’s intentions or understand his plan, that he has gathered them like sheaves to the threshing floor.”

We also discuss the importance of Ezekiel 38:8’s use the phrase “the latter years” and it’s possible connection to Satan being let out of the abyss.

Ezekiel 38:16 You will advance against my people Israel like a cloud covering the land. It will happen in the last days, Gog, that I will bring you against my land so that the nations may know me, when I show myself holy through you in their sight.

The outcome of this war with chaos is that all the nations will know who the true God is. This knowledge the Lord desires us to have of him is not cognitive but experiential. And this should be the desire of us all.

Join us as we continue our study of the famous Gog and Magog prophecy!

Select sources:

Blenkinsopp, Joseph. Ezekiel. Interpretation Commentary. John Knox, 1990

Cook, Stephen L.  Ezekiel 38-48: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary.  Anchor Yale Bible 22B.  Yale, 2018

Eichrodt, Walter. Ezekiel. OTL. Westminster, 1970

Heiser, Michael S. Ezekiel 38-39 Part 1, Episode 152. Naked Bible Podcast Transcript. April 1, 2017. https://nakedbiblepodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/NB-152-Transcript.pdf

Heiser, Michael S. Ezekiel 38-39 Part 2, Episode 153. Naked Bible Podcast Transcript. April 8, 2017. https://nakedbiblepodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/NB-153-Transcript.

Holy Bible. NLT. Filament Edition. Tyndale. 2022

Kaiser, Otto. Isaiah 1-39. 2 vols. OTL. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1983, 1974

van der Toorn, Karel, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst eds. Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible. Brill, 1995. 2nd ed, 1998

Zimmerli, Walther. Ezekiel 25–48. Hermeneia. Fortress, 1983

If you like the content be sure to like, share and subscribe to help the channel grow.

Thank you and God Bless!