Healing Tones

STILLNESS SPEAKS

SHIFTING GEARS A BIT — or a whole lot — I have been pondering a Biblical event foretold by the prophet Ezekiel in chapter 38 of his book in the Old Testament. He speaks plainly of a show down between God and Satan, and between good and evil, in the last day, when the enemies of God shall be destroyed and sin will be forever ended. Now, this is a colossal and controversial topic . . . and I may get in over my head in my interpretation and application to current world events.

(Before I get into the history of the phrase “Gog and Magog,” bear in mind that the only place in the Bible where the two names are mentioned together is in Revelation 20:7-9.)

Ezekiel, a prophet and priest in Solomon’s temple, records the greater part of the story; Genesis and Chronicles record its origins; John of Revelation brings the saga to a dramatic climax, the likes of which film director and producer Cecil B. DeMille would have enjoyed dramatizing on the big screen.

I would invite you to read Ezekiel’s entire chapter 38 and into a bit of 39, along with John’s chapter 20, having in the background of your mind current events in the Middle East. Of course the characters and peoples in this story have been waring since the beginning of their journey through the Old Testament when Cain killed his brother Abel. Upon a bit of research on the internet, I found this:

Gog and Magog are figures mentioned in the Bible and the Qur’an, often associated with apocalyptic prophecies and eschatological themes.

“Gog and Magog are mentioned in four books of the Bible—Genesis, 1 Chronicles, and Ezekiel in the Old Testament and the Book of Revelation in the New Testament. They have become linked in our minds so that we actually think of them together as an inseparable pair—or at least individually who lived at the same time. But a careful look at the verses in which they appear indicates otherwise.”

The first mention of one of these characters is in the Book of Genesis where Magog is mentioned as one of Noah’s grandsons. There’s no mention of Gog.

“Now this is the generation of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And sons were born to them after the flood. The sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras.” (Genesis 10: 1, 2) So, Magog was a real person, born after the flood to Noah’s son, Japheth.

1 Chronicles 1:5 simply repeats what Genesis says word-for-word. That is the last we hear of Magog until he appears again in the Book of Ezekiel and later on in the Book of Revelation.

Gog’s name appears a few chapters later in in a detailed genealogy of Jacob’s sons—the forefathers of the twelve tribes of Israel. Listing the families of Reuben, 1 Chronicles 5:4 says: “The sons of Joel were Shemiah his son, Gog his son Shimei his son. . . .” So, according to this verse, Gog was the grandson of someone named Joel, who was a descendant of Reuben, the son of Jacob.

Gog and Magog: Hundreds of Years Apart

Now Jacob and his twelve sons lived a long time after the flood—centuries later, in fact (see Genesis 11). So Gog, a descendant of Reuben, would have been born later. Therefore, Gog could not have been living at the same time as Noah’s grandson, Magog; they were separated by hundreds of years. So how did the two become linked in our minds—and in other Bible verses.?

What Ezekiel Says About Gog and Magog

Chapter 38 and 39 of Ezekiel refer to Gog several times but mentions Magog only twice. God told the prophet Ezekiel: “Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshach, and Tubal, and prophesy against him, ‘Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I am against you, O Gog'”

The Prophesy went on to say of Gog:

“You will come up from your place out of the far north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great company and a mighty army. You will come up against My people Israel like a cloud, to cover the land. It will be in the latter days.” (Ezekiel 38:15, 16).

God also says that He will bring Gog “to judgment with pestilence and bloodshed” for his attacks against God’s people (verse 22).

Ezekiel 39 continues to describe the destruction that will come to Gog and his forces when they make war and attack Israel. Verse 6 mentions Magog again: “And I will send fire on Magog and on those who live in security in the coastlands [Gaza?]. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.”

Ezekiel lived during the time the Jews were carried captive to Babylon. He told his fellow Jewish captives that their exile in Babylon was God’s punishment for turning away from Him. But he assured them that God would restore them when they repented and followed Him faithfully. He prophesied that Gog and his enemies would attack a restored Israel, but that God would destroy Gog and preserve His people. Who was Ezekiel talking about — this “Gog of the land of Magog” (Ezekiel 28:2)?

Ezekiel’s prophecies could not be referring to the characters mentioned in Genesis and Chronicles, as the Babylonian exile took place much later than either Noah’s grandson, Magog, or Ruben’s descendant, Gog. In fact . . . and being more specific . . . looking closely at the two verses from Ezekiel 38 and 39, they suggest that they may not be referring to a person at all but to a place or a nation. Verse 38:2 refers to “the land of Magog,” and 39:6 says that God “will send fire on Magog and on those who live in security in the coastlands.”

There is no historical record of a war or Israel being attached by the forces of a ruler named “Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshach, and Tubal” (Ezekiel 38:2). But whoever or whatever Ezekiel may have been talking about, it’s clear that he was talking about a force that was opposed to God and His people—an enemy who would fight against Israel only to be destroyed by God. And that’s what we also find in the last book of the Bible that mentions Gog and Magog. I will cite the entire section in Revelation 20 related to Gog and Magog.

“And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years. And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that be loosed a little season. . . . And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison. 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. And they went up on the breath 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 . . . .” (Rev 20:1-3, 7-9)

BACKGROUND HISTORY

The phrase “Gog and Magog” has more to do with territorial disputes and conquests than warring between God and Satan or good and evil — land, territories and property ownership. The Jews in Europe had become a people without their own land to occupy as an independent nation. England played a pivotal role in giving the Jews a “homeland” of their own. Here’s a little history from Wikipedia, well worth reading for clarity around how this all emerged out of the ancient dramatic history of the Jewish Nation.

During World War I, the British government issued the Balfour Declaration, favoring the establishment of a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine, and captured it from the Ottomans. The League of Nations gave Britain mandatory power over Palestine in 1922. British rule and Arab efforts to prevent Jewish migration led to growing violence between Arabs and Jews, causing the British to announce its intention to terminate the Mandate in 1947.

The UN General Assembly recommended partitioning Palestine into two states: Arab and Jewish. However, the situation deteriorated into a civil war. The Arabs rejected the Partition Plan, the Jews ostensibly accepted it, declaring the independence of the State of Israel in May 1948 upon the end of the British mandate. Nearby Arab countries invaded Palestine, Israel not only prevailed, but conquered more territory than envisioned by the Partition Plan. During the war, 700,000, or about 80% of all Palestinians fled or were driven out of territory Israel conquered and were not allowed to return, an event known as the Nakba (Arabic for ‘catastrophe’) to Palestinians. Starting in the late 1940s and continuing for decades, about 850,000 Jews from the Arab world immigrated (“made Aliyah”) to Israel.

After the war, only two parts of Palestine remained in Arab control: the West Bank and East Jerusalem were annexed by Jordan, and the Gaza Strip was occupied by Egypt, which were conquered by Israel during the Six-Day War in 1967. Despite international objections, Israel started to establish settlements in these occupied territories.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian national movement gained international recognition, thanks to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), under Yasser Arafat. In 1993, the Oslo Peace Accords between Israel and the PLO established the Palestinian Authority (PA), an interim body to run Gaza and the West Bank (but not East Jerusalem), pending a permanent solution. Further peace developments were not ratified and/or implemented, and relations between Israel and Palestinians has been marked by conflict, especially with Islamist Hamas, which rejects the PA. In 2007, Hamas won control of Gaza from the PA, now limited to the West Bank. In 2012, the State of Palestine (the name used by the PA) became a non-member observer state in the UN, allowing it to take part in General Assembly debates and improving its chances of joining other UN agencies.

My Take: A Land Grab

Essentially the “battle” between Gog and Magog is all about land gabbing: nations coveting border lands for their various riches or just simply to expand their territories. Russian President Vladmir Putin invaded Ukraine for land access to the waters of the Black Sea and beyond, along with its Lithium mines. He’s hellbent on creating an empire. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an act of retaliation, has laid waste the Gaza strip and pushed its inhabitants into a state of homelessness and starvation, ultimately bent on driving the Palestinians out of Gaza, with eyes set on the coastlands and access to the waters of the Mediterranean Sea and a potential commercial seaport. U.S. President Trump has his eye on the same coastlands for entertainment purposes and to fill his burgeoning coffers. The Biblical battle between Gog and Magog is nothing more, or less, than a land grab, the inhabitants sacrificed to the god of mammon. Money is the god of the mind made world.

It’s a fool’s endeavor, however, as the land cannot be bought, sold, or stolen, as Native American Chief Crazy Horse so eloquently stated when the US offered to buy their land. “How can we sell what is not ours to sell? One does not sell the land upon which the people walk.” He saw and respected the sacredness of the land and the importance of protecting it. As the psalmist proclaims: “The Earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein; for He hath founded it upon the seas and established it upon the floods.” (Ps 24:1).

We live on a water planet, the land providing boarders to contain its seas and floods. Man is a thief for stealing the land from its rightful Owner and Creator for real estate development and for its oil and mineral riches. The subtle serpent operating through the mind of man, male and female, endeavors to steal or destroy God’s Garden of Eden. The Earth is sacred. Let me remove my shoes as I walk with awe and profound respect upon this hallowed ground of our Home among the stars. Until my next post,

Be love. Be loved.

Anthony

Email: tpal70@gmail.com