Ezekiel 39:1-20
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; 2 and I will turn you around and lead you on, bringing you up from the far north, and bring you against the mountains of Israel. 3 Then I will knock the bow out of your left hand, and cause the arrows to fall out of your right hand. 4 You 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. 5 You 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. 7 So 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. 8 Surely it is coming, and it shall be done," says the Lord GOD. "This is the day of which I have spoken.
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. 10 They 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.
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. 12 For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them, in order to cleanse the land. 13 Indeed 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. 15 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. 16 The name of the city will also be Hamonah. Thus they shall cleanse the land."'
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.
18 You 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.
19 You shall eat fat till you are full,
And drink blood till you are drunk,
At My sacrificial meal
Which I am sacrificing for you.
20 You shall be filled at My table
With horses and riders,
With mighty men
And with all the men of war," says the Lord GOD.
The armies of the enemy Gog would be utterly defeated by God and their carcasses in the battlefield eaten by the buzzards. A triumphal feast would follow their defeat. God would make His holy name known in the midst of His people, and He would stop them from profaning His holy name. Then the nations would see and know that He alone is the LORD, the Holy One in Israel. This victory over sin was for the glory and honor of the LORD! Likewise, the final battle of the Judgment Day will ring out His glory of the deliverance of all His people in Christ as He defeats the enemies who live against Him and His Word. As for the defeat of Israel’s enemies then when He said, “This is the day of which I have spoken,” so will the Final Day (John 11:24) to come happen as He has spoken when death and sin are defeated (1 Corinthians 15:24-26) at the resurrection of the just in Christ and the unjust (Acts 24:15) who rejected Him and chose to love for idolatry and immortality instead. God was defeated then and will be again (Revelation 20:8-9) to again be destroyed by fire from the Lord. Their final torment which they earned will be unending (Revelation 20:10) in that burning lake of fire as God’s land is permanently cleansed from the presence of sin and not merely its power over us or to its penalty already removed for all who are in Christ through repentance and faith before that Day. The valley of Hamon Gog took an extremely long time to bury the dead; the final battle in the Jezreel Valley which is also that known as Armageddon in Revelation 16:16 as a shadow of the final battle against sin and the devil. There the bodies will fill the valley but not be buried there, but in the lake of fire to follow. This is a warning for all to repent of their rebellion against the Lord and turn from sin to Him before that great and terrible day of the Lord described in Joel 2:10-12 for us. The victory gained by God will be followed by a feast celebrating the defeat of His enemies and ours who are in Christ. That sacrificial meal (Zephaniah 1:7, Revelation 19:17-18) with celebration (Psalm 22:26) will be one of eternal refreshment of spiritual enjoyment with spiritually lasting results of our victory in the Lamb who was slain and who overcame our death sentence. Rejoice, for we shall dine with Him in the end because of His victory in the wedding feast of the Lamb!
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