This article explores whether there is a connection between the Gog and Magog War in Ezekiel 38 and 39 with Isaiah 2, specifically in regards to elements surrounding the Day of the Lord. Ezekiel 39:9-29 is touted as describing the Day of the Lord events in the same manner as does Isaiah 2:1-4.
Further, this article explores whether there is a connection between the Gog and Magog War in Ezekiel 38 and 39 with Revelation 20 which also describes a Gog and Magog War.
Are these three sets of scriptures related to each other?
Ezekiel 38/39 Connection to Isaiah 2:4 – is there one?
Should Ezekiel 38 and 39 be considered as part of the Day of the Lord that is described in Isaiah 2:4? Is the Gog/Magog war of Ezekiel 38 and 39 the Battle of Armageddon?
Many people believe that the scriptures of Ezekiel 39:9 onward talks about the Day of the Lord when the Armageddon battle is fought which ushers in the millennial reign of Yeshua. They base this understanding on the wording of Ezekiel 39:9 concerning the weapons from Gog/Magog (that Israel uses as the spoils of war) as describing the same event in Isaiah 2 about the Day of the Lord where the nations turn their swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks.
But there is a very big difference between these two events. The weapons used for domestic purposes in Ezekiel 39:9 are solely gathered from Gog/ Magog and their regional cohorts. Verse 10 is very specific that the weapons which Israel has as their own property are not utilized; “They will not need to gather wood from the fields or cut it from the forests, because they will use the weapons for fuel. And they will plunder those who plundered them and loot those who looted them, declares the Sovereign Lord.”
The weapons that are being used for domestic purposes in Isaiah 2:4 are from all the nations of the world who come to the mountain of the Lord. As we think about what is meant by ‘all nations’ this will include the weapons that Israel has.
The source of the weapons is one reason these are two separate events.
Another reason is the context. As we read through Isaiah 2, the context is immediately clear that the people of the world are saying they willing want to go up to the mountain of Adonai to worship Him. As a precursor to going up to the mountain, they willingly turn their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.
That is clearly not the case in Ezekiel 39:9 onwards. Yes, Ezekiel describes the willingness of people to come to The Land, but it is not until Elohim INVITES them with the ingathering – Ezekiel 39:25-29. The people of Gog and Magog and their cohorts come to The Land with weapons to wage war, not to turn into plowshares and pruning hooks.
Thus context is another reason these are two separate events.
A third point; both scriptures describe people coming to Adonai to worship. But again, there is a significant difference. In Ezekiel 39:25-29 Adonai gathers the people of Israel back to The Land. Specifically in verse 27 which states “When I have brought them back from the nations and have gathered them from the countries of their enemies, I will be proved holy through them in the sight of many nations.” (NIV). Clearly, Ezekiel 39 is speaking ONLY ABOUT THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL, while the rest of the world is excluded at that time. One further event is unique to the end of the Gog/Magog war; Adonai pours out the Ruach haKodesh upon Israel.
In Isaiah 2:1-4, verse 2 specifically speaks about the people streaming to the mountain of Adonai as people from the nations of the world; “Now it will come about that In the last days The mountain of the house of the Lord Will be established as the chief of the mountains, And will be raised above the hills; And all the nations will stream to it. “ (NASB)
Thus, the people gathered back to The Land are different in these two events and another reason Ezekiel 38/39 and Isaiah 2 are two separate events.
A point of interest regarding the gathering of the people of Israel back to The Land as described in Ezekiel 39 involves the vision that Moses had before he died (Genesis 15:18-21 plus Numbers 34:1-15; Deuteronomy 1:7, 11:24; Ezekiel 47:13-20). The Ezekiel 38 and 39 war against Gog and Magog (and their cohorts), plus the judgment of Mt. Seir/Esau (at the same time) brings about Israeli control over a vast region of land that stretches from the Nile River to the Euphrates River. This vast region of land is the same land that Moses sees in his vision. There is a modern movement that desires to fulfill this vision which they express with the term ‘Greater Israel’. The sovereignty of Israel over this much larger area of land will be the manifestation of this vision. What is going to happen with all that extra land? Many of Elohim’s people will understand the fulfillment of prophecy concerning the Ezekiel 38/39 war, and the prophecies about Elohim gathering the people back to The Land. They will make Aliyah to Israel and its newly acquired lands. The altar will be erected and the Third Temple will be constructed.
It is this war and the subsequent gathering of Elohim’s people back to The Land that triggers the onset of the pre-tribulation prophetic events, such as the 7 years of plenty followed by the 7 years of famine of the hearing of the word of Elohim. Within this 14 year stretch of time will be the uprising of the little horn who transitions into the King of the North. It is at the start of the 7 years of ‘famine’ that the Great Reset inaugurates their Fourth Industrial Revolution. At the end of this 7 year period is when the King of the North battles the King of the South and then ultimately is victorious. This victory means he is supreme ruler of the world and transitions into being the prince of the people (of the world). In his self-exalted state of mind he stops the sacrifices which initiates the start of the 3 ½ years of tribulation (see chart near the end of this article for information about the transition of the little horn.
This is when he transitions yet again, this time into the beast from the sea who is given power to rule for 42 months by hasatan as the red dragon. In answer to this, Yeshua’s Battle Plan that involves the Seals, Trumpets, Plagues and Woes is activated. When Yeshua returns on Yom Teruah which is the Feast of Trumpets (Tishri 1), He increases His assault against the scarlet beast (the merging of the beast from the sea with the red dragon) until Yom Kippur when He destroys hasatan’s scarlet beast army in the battle of Armageddon. From this moment on, is the description of Isaiah 2:1-4.
To better understand the timing of what has been described above, please see the Timeline of End Time Events presentation HERE.
Also, there are two charts below which show when each of the wars of prophecy take place. Except for the Gog/Magog invasion (in yellow). That prophecy has a less easily determined timeframe and thus two speculations are calculated of when the Gog/Magog invasion may take place However, the other prophetic wars (in blue) that are easily determined reveal how they bookend specific prophetic periods. The battle of Armageddon is not mentioned in the graphic but the event is located under the 2040/2041 column.
Ezekiel 38/39 Connection to Revelation 20 – is there one?
Since it takes the evidence of two or three to make a matter known (Deuteronomy 19:5 and 2 Corinthians 13:1), here are four scriptural evidences to explain how the Ezekiel 38 and 39 descriptions of the Gog/Magog war refer to a war that will happen in the near future, while the Revelation 20 description of the Gog/Magog war refers to a separate second war that will happen in the far distant future. Cutting to the chase; there will be two Gog/Magog wars at two distinctive times. Here are the points of evidence.
Firstly, in Ezekiel 38 and 39, it is Elohim (Abba and Yeshua) Who draws Gog and Magog and their hordes into The Land. That is clearly stated at the beginning of both chapters and reiterated throughout. In Revelation 20:7-9, it is hasatan (satan) who guides this army against the saints and the beloved city.
Secondly, many eschatology teachers who believe the war described in Ezekiel 38 and 39 refers to the same war in Revelation 20 arrive at this conclusion because of the wording in Ezekiel 38:22-23. These verses have similar wording to end times scriptures about the Day of Adonai (fire, brimstone and smoke). Both Ezekiel and Revelation use words such as fire, brimstone and smoke to describe end time events, however, these words are found in many other parts of scripture that are not associated with Day of the Lord – such as with Sodom and Gomorrah, Jericho and Isaiah calling on Elohim to send down fire to light the altar. Therefore, to make the leap that the words in verses 22 and 23 are end time related is unsubstantiated.
Thirdly, in conjunction with the second point, we have to ask; when is the Day of Adonai? This is identified as the ‘day’ when Yeshua returns and destroys hasatan and brings salvation to His people (actually, His betrothed). Then He begins His millennial reign.
The Gog/Magog war in Revelation 20 takes place AFTER the millennial reign of Yeshua and AFTER hasatan has been released from the bottomless pit.
The Gog/Magog war in Ezekiel 38 and 39 takes place BEFORE the Day of Adonai as noted already under the Isaiah 2:4 section above.
Therefore, this clearly shows that these two descriptions of the Gog/Magog war are about two different wars; one that will happen in the near future and a second one that will happen is the far distant future.
Fourthly, the invasion by Gog and Magog described in Ezekiel comes from the north. The invasion described in Revelation 20 involves nations from all over the earth coming against Israel.
Fifthly, the Gog/Magog invasion in Ezekiel requires seven years to dispose of their weapons. In the Revelation 20 account, the White Throne judgment takes place immediately after that invasion is crushed.
Sixthly, Gog and Magog are destroyed in the mountains of Israel. The location of the destruction of the forces of Gog and Magog in Revelation places them around Jerusalem.
Seventhly, it is clearly defined in Ezekiel that Gog is the leader and Magog is his land whereas in Revelation 20 Gog and Magog are defined as nations.
Eighthly, this evidence might be a bit lengthy. It is found in Ezekiel 39:2. All the Bible translations do not properly provide the real intent of this verse and have hidden a valuable piece of evidence from the reader – all except the King James Bible. Read the following renditions of this verse to understand what has happened.
Ezekiel 39:1-2 (NASB95) “And you, son of man, prophesy against Gog and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am against you, O Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal; 2 and I will turn you around, drive you on, take you up from the remotest parts of the north and bring you against the mountains of Israel.”
Ezekiel 39:1-2 (KJV) “Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: 2 And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:”
Take note of the underlined segments of each translation version. The NASB95 is the more popular translation in which the phrase “drive you on” appears in the majority of the other translations. Only the KJV uses the phrase “and leave but a sixth part of thee”. What we are seeing here is that the translators have difficulty is properly applying the right word or context with the underlined segment of verse 2. Many Bible versions leave a footnote stating the uncertainty of the Hebrew word. This means we should not take the translation given in most of the Biblical versions at face value.
Ironically, about half of the Bible Commentaries listed in Blue Letter Bible tend to agree with the KJV of the translation. It makes one wonder why that phrasing about the sixth part is not more prevalent in the other versions.
Therefore, since there is a discrepancy in the phrasing of this segment, it becomes necessary to go back to the original Hebrew word to understand the true meaning (without translator interference).
The Hebrew word in the underlined segment is “shaw-shaw” (H8338) – a primitive root; apparently, to “annihilate”: - leave but the sixth part [by confusion with H8341]. So now we have to dig deeper into what H8341 means.
“Shashah” (H8341) – a denomination from H8337; to “sixth” or divide into sixths – give the sixth part. So now we are going to dig a bit deeper yet to understand what H8337 means.
“Shishshaw” (H8337) – a primitive number; “six” (as an overplus [see7797] beyond five or the fingers of the hand); as ordinary sixth: - six ([-teen, -teenth]), sixth. We’ll just check out H7797 to get a total and complete picture of the the Hebrew word shaw-shaw.
“Suwa” or “Siys” (H7797) – a primitive root; to “be bright”, i.e. “cheerful”: - be glad, X [multiply] greatly, joy, make mirth, rejoice.
Clear as mud, right? After reading a number of the Commentaries, there are some that actually articulate the meaning of these Hebrew words to reveal the true intent of Ezekiel 39:2. Two are copied and pasted into this note.
Commentary #1
Turn thee back: see Ezekiel 38:4: or else, when Gog or his assistants shall go into their countries to compose disorders risen since this enterprise was set on foot, they shall return to the rest of the confederates. Leave but the sixth part of thee: some read, as our margin notes, I will draw thee back with a hook of six teeth, alluding to the drawing fish out of the water; others, I will strike thee with six plagues; others, I will kill five of six, and leave but the sixth part of thee: let me conjecture too, I will leave in thy country but one in six, and I will bring forth thy people with thee in so great numbers, that five of six shall march on this expedition. This runs more compliant with what follows. Commentary #2
And I will turn thee back,.... Not from the land of Israel; for thither it is said in the latter part of the text he would bring him; but the meaning is, that he would "turn him about", as the word (w) signifies, in his own land, and lead him about at his pleasure, and bring him out of it, unto the land of Israel; signifying hereby that the providence of God would be greatly concerned in this affair; and in which much glory would be brought unto him by the destruction of such a potent enemy of his people; which is the design of bringing him out; See Gill on Ezekiel 38:4,
and leave but a sixth part of thee; meaning, not that a sixth part only should escape the vengeance of God, and all but a sixth part be destroyed in the land of Israel; for it looks as if the whole army would be utterly destroyed, and none left; but that, when he should come out of his own country upon this expedition, a sixth part of his subjects only should be left behind; five out of six should accompany him; so numerous should his army be, and so drained his country by this enterprise of his. Some render the words, "will draw thee out with an hook of six teeth" (x); that is, out of his own land; and this clause stands in the same place and order as the phrase and "put hooks into thy jaws" does in Ezekiel 38:4 and so may be thought to explain one another, and agrees with what follows: for, as for the sense of it given by Joseph Kimchi and others,
The underlined sections tend to align in a more literal fashion to the Hebrew meaning and thus give a clearer understanding of what Ezekiel 39:2 is saying. The explanation of the hook with six teeth or the six plagues as punishment may have some merit but they both tend to ignore that Elohim will leave behind a sixth part.
Since verse two is actually referring to a sixth of the population of Gog and Magog and their hordes will be left behind during the Elohim initiated war, it clearly is showing that this war is different than the Revelation 20 war in which ALL of Gog and Magog are destroyed.
We know that Elohim is in control of everything, even the evil of this world (He is using it as character building for us so we will have the mind of Yeshua in us as it is in Him – Philippians 2:5). The purpose of leaving behind a sixth of the Gog/Magog peoples might be to allow them to be highly instrumental in the initial rise of the one known as the little horn who ultimately transitions through the prophecies into his final form as the beast (see chart).
As well, the descendants of those “one/sixth” left behind from the Ezekiel 38 and 39 Gog/Magog war might carry a grudge throughout the millennium – which clearly explains why the Revelation 20 war is referred to as the Gog/Magog war too.
Revelation 20:7-9 (KJV) “And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, 8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog, and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. 9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.”
Summary:
These points make it clear that the war described in Ezekiel 38 and 39 is not the same war as described in Revelation 20.
As well, the events of Ezekiel 38 / 39 represent a separate outcome from that of Isaiah 2:1-4.
And finally, this article shows that Ezekiel 38 / 39, Isaiah 2 and Revelation 20 are events that happen at different times in Elohim's plan for mankind. Ezekiel 38 / 39 happens before the tribulation, Isaiah 2 happens after the tribulation but at the start of Yeshua's one thousand year reign and Revelation 20 happens after His one thousand year reign.
Let this mind be in you that is in Messiah Yeshua.
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