Rebel gods & The Garden of Eden | Ezekiel 38-39 Part IV

#ezekiel #prophecy #endtimes

Ezekiel 38:10-12 “This is what the Lord GOD says: On that day, thoughts will arise in your mind, and you will devise an evil plan. “You will say, “I will advance against a land of open villages; I will come against a tranquil people who are living securely, all of them living without walls and without bars or gates”  —  in order to seize spoil and carry off plunder, to turn your hand against ruins now inhabited and against a people gathered from the nations, who have been acquiring cattle and possessions and who live at the center of the world.”

Gog, the chaos dragon, targets the defenseless.
The description of Israel as a nation of unwalled villages is a typical messianic feature. For example, Zechariah 2:4-5 “Jerusalem will be inhabited without walls because of the number of people and animals in it.” The declaration of the LORD: “I myself will be a wall of fire around it, and I will be the glory (kavod) within it.”

Ezekiel is using cosmic language to describe Israel. The mountains of Israel in 38:8 and Israel’s dwelling at the center of the earth in 38:12 are both statements of cosmic geography. The Septuagint renders the phrase “the navel of the earth.” This is the axis Mundi, the cosmic center, often depicted as the cosmic mountain or the cosmic tree; the attachment point of heaven and earth, the focal point of creation.

Ezekiel 36:35 “And when I bring you back, people will say, ‘This former wasteland is now like the Garden of Eden! The abandoned and ruined cities now have strong walls and are filled with people!’”

Gog desires the cosmic center, the Mountain of God.

And just like Smaug, the dragon that took the Lonely Mountain to seize its wealth, we see Gog, the sleeping dragon rouse himself to go in search of plunder. The greed of the dragon is clear.

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

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