The Christ in Prophecy Journal

The Gog-Magog Battle – Ezekiel 39:9-20

Burning Weapons

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Ezekiel 39:1-8 describes the tremendous aftermath of the foiled Gog-Magog invasion. Before the massive coalition army can fire a single shot from their launching point on the mountains of Israel, God steps in and supernaturally devastates not only the invaders but also their homelands as well. Russia, Iran, Turkey, the ‘Stans, Sudan, Lybia and other Muslim nations are reduced to a wasteland, and only one-sixth of their combined army remains, exiled to Siberia (Joel 2:20).

For the nearly three-quarter million to a billion corpses left by God’s hand to rot in the land of Israel, the biggest cleanup process in all of history is ready to begin. Ezekiel 39:9-20 unearths the gory funeral purification ritual.

Ezekiel 39:9-10 — Plunder Those Who Plunder

“9’Then those who live in the towns of Israel will go out and use the weapons for fuel and burn them up—the small and large shields, the bows and arrows, the war clubs and spears. For seven years they will use them for fuel. 10They 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.'”

There will be so much armament left over by the dead Gog-Magog armies that Israel will be able to use the very same weapons meant to destroy them as fuel.

Now, it’s left to wonder in a modern day scenario how one burns a machine gun. What good are burning bullets? Who would be crazy enough to throw RPGs into a fire?!

Some have pointed out that Russian tanks are made out of something called lignastone, a composite that burns so hot that one can actually burn a tank as fuel. Can you just picture two Jewish men sitting by a roaring fire and one asks the other, “Moshe, go throw another tank on the fire,” that kind of scenario? That’s hard to picture, but what is very reasonable is that the fuel could be taken out of the tanks and other warcraft and be used as fuel.

Another source of fuel from weapons could be nuclear in nature. Wouldn’t it be ironic and so typical of God that Israel could end up using the nuclear material Iran is so hot to develop right now into a bomb?

Ezekiel is writing 2,600 years ago and so may not have understood the details of what exactly is being burned. And, indeed, there could be many wooden weapons to go along with all the metal-based weapons. But, what we do know for sure is that the people of Israel will make fuel out of the hordes weaponry and consume it for seven whole years.

In essence, the plunderers — Gog and his forces — will provide their own armaments to be plundered by the Israelis. Bitter irony!

Ezekiel 39:11-16 — The Buried Hordes

“11’On that day I will give Gog a burial place in Israel, in the valley of those who travel east toward the Sea. It will block the way of travelers, because Gog and all his hordes will be buried there. So it will be called the Valley of Hamon Gog. 12For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them in order to cleanse the land. 13All the people of the land will bury them, and the day I am glorified will be a memorable day for them, declares the Sovereign LORD. 14Men will be regularly employed to cleanse the land. Some will go throughout the land and, in addition to them, others will bury those that remain on the ground. At the end of the seven months they will begin their search. 15As they go through the land and one of them sees a human bone, he will set up a marker beside it until the gravediggers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon Gog. 16(Also a town called Hamonah will be there.) And so they will cleanse the land.'”

Skulls

Can we calculate how many invaders there are from the time indicators in this section of verses? These passages state that it will take Israel seven months to bury all the dead invaders. Statistically, today there are between five to six million Israelis living in Israel. Let’s say just a million of them go out and start burying bodies. Take one million burying for seven months, subtracting the Sabbath days, and we can estimate that if they each buried just one body per day — 180,000,000 bodies would be buried! If each buries two a day, the invaders would number 360,000,000 bodies. But, verse 13 tells us that “all the people of the land” will go out to bury the dead, so 360 million is highly conservative. We can conclude then that the hordes of Gog are truly massive, and yet God leaves alive only one-sixth of that impressive number.

While the Israelis cleanse the land from the defilement of dead bodies, they’ll create a new mass grave in the Valley of Hamon Gog (“the hordes of Gog”), a new name given to an existing valley most likely down by the Dead Sea. Also, like the mining towns of early American history that went up almost overnight in their search for gold, a town will quickly be built called Hamonah to manage the burying process.

The Israelis act as a sort of priesthood, going out and cleansing the land. Throughout the Bible God demonstrates that He likes ceremonial cleanliness and holiness. With the newfound faith in God, the Jews will seek to follow the cleanliness laws and rituals once more.

Ezekiel 39:17-20 — The Great Sacrifice

“17Son of man, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: Call out to every kind of bird and all the wild animals: ‘Assemble and come together from all around to the sacrifice I am preparing for you, the great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel. There you will eat flesh and drink blood. 18You will eat the flesh of mighty men and drink the blood of the princes of the earth as if they were rams and lambs, goats and bulls—all of them fattened animals from Bashan. 19At the sacrifice I am preparing for you, you will eat fat till you are glutted and drink blood till you are drunk. 20At my table you will eat your fill of horses and riders, mighty men and soldiers of every kind,’ declares the Sovereign LORD.”

Carrion Bird

God calls together every kind of animals to participate in what is significantly called a “great sacrifice.” While Israeli clean-up crews work tirelessly to bury the dead, the birds and animals will feast on the sacrifice of the Gog-Magog armies. These animals will gorge themselves on princes and mighty men, the best of the best of their soldiers, from the highest official to the lowliest of conscript — they become nothing. The hordes of Gog that were wiped out instantly by God have become nothing more then bird food, fulfilling their decimation and abject humiliation.

For the nearly three-quarter million to a billion corpses left by God’s hand to rot in the land of Israel, the cleanup process is under way. But, a new process is in the making. A national reawakening to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob commences. In the next part of this “Impending Invasion of Israel” series we’ll study Ezekiel 39:21-29 and witness the greatest Jewish revival since King Josiah (2 Kings 23:25).

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Dr. Nathan E. Jones

As the Internet Evangelist at Lamb & Lion Ministries, Nathan reaches out to the over 4.5 billion people accessible over the Internet with the Good News of Jesus Christ. He also co-hosts the ministry's television program Christ in Prophecy and podcast The Truth Will Set You Free.

27 CommentsLeave a Comment

  • If it takes 7 years for the clean-up, and if these 7 years are not during the Tribulation, and there is possibly a Psalm 83 event, and the antichrist needs to rise and take over with all his world economics, and the Rapture, and the rebuilding of the Templet and all the rest, then it looks to me like the "end of the world" isn't as close as I thought.

    Though still close, it isn't going to all come down tomorrow. There's still a bit of pre-Jesus returning history to play out.

  • That's what I think, Billy. Ezekiel 38 could take place 3 1/2 years before the signing of the covenant with Antichrist. And who knows when Psalm 83 could happen. We could be looking for a while. Or we could be taken today!!!

  • I will admit I'm not as well versed in prophecy as I'd like, but I've heard many good teachers and men of God state that there is nothing that has to be fulfilled before Christ's return. So it could happen any day. I couldn't give you the details they gave to back that up (I'm good to remember my name most days ;), but it seems to be a pretty common belief among many believers.

    Anyway, I did want to say that I really look forward to Mondays! I always come to the blog on the weekend and forget there are no posts published then and I'm bummed about it! So I'm happy when the week rolls around and I can start reading again 🙂

    ~Rachel (aka ~R)

  • billy and thunder: a few things to consider 1)we dont know how long the gap is between the rapture and tribulation 2)tho isreal flees 3.5yrs into the tribulation there could be many (up to 2/3)apostate jews who accept anti-christ and still burn fuel in the land 3)since jordan/petra will be isreali terrotorry at the time the weapons will likely fall on those mountains to so the place they flee will also have weapons.

  • so you see, thes 7yrs could easily be in the tribulation so in theory, and reality actually, the rapture could come today, psalm 83 occur this summer, Gog/magog within 6 months from psalm 83 and the tribulation shortly thereafter.

  • Wow, Rachel, thanks for those kind words! I'm glad the blog can make your day.

    If you'd like Bible prophecy discussions 24/7, click the Facebook Group banner on the top right.

  • i wish my phone could access facebook. everytime i try it says "unsupported content type" i`d love to see what goes on there. it takes me 15 minutes just to post a comment on this site sometimes. i keep getting "server error" or something. i have to post it 3 times for it to appear. too broke for a computer tho.

  • To clarify my opinion, I do think Jesus could Rapture us today. I was thinking that the Tribulation period may be a bit further off than it seems based on the events of today. It seems there is still an awful lot of events that need to occur before the 7 year countdown begins.

  • billy, lets clarify cuz i think this will help. there are events that need to happen but after Gog/magog they will occur in rapid succession. here is a timeline as i see it 1)psalm 83/isaiah 17 2)rapture(tho that could happen 1st 3)gog/magog 4)10 nation (horns/toes)confederacy (regional,not global)5)rise of anti-christ 6)tribulation. so in my opinion thats the order of occurence and after the rapture and gog/magog things will occur at an accelerated pace. does that make sense?

  • so yes there are things that need to occur but we're still close. i dont think there needs to be a 3.5yr gap between gog/magog and the tribulation but there could be.

  • dawg,

    I have no idea how it will come down. It may all happen in a short accelerated period of time or we may have another 25 years to go.

    Now that I think about, what did it say/does it mean about the generation seeing the rebirth of Israel…

    That generation is getting old now so perhaps things are going to starting happening bam-bam-bam-bam.

    (Please no Flintstones jokes)

  • whether the rebirth of isreal is the final generation or not i`m still undecided but look at the world situation now. now imagine things in 25yrs. noone will be left. he`s coming soon, i`m pretty sure we dont have 25yrs left. maybe 3-5. we`re going home soon. YABBA DABBA DOO! sorry i couldnt resist.

  • Love the vulture picture.

    Lesson: Don't act like a vulture.

    Vultures are magnificient flyers that can spot the dead from high up in the sky. They are very big birds, about 30 lbs, and huge wing spand, around 6 feet. They can glide on the air currents…like Eagles…CHRIST FOLLOWERS SHOULD BE EAGLES! or a dove! Of course look at the context in each story of the Bible.

    Vultures gulp down flesh with their sharp beaks very quickly. They don't sing like most birds…they "hiss, wheeze, and cackle"…and stick their long necks into bodies to devour the flesh and with in minutes nothing is left but bones.

    Not trying to gross anyone out…just those vulture images are put in the Book of books for a reason.

    Gross…is a lot like vulgar…a lot like vulture????

    Take care,
    Jill

  • Have any of you researched the birds of prey in Israel? That is really interesting… they are protecting them!

    C in Salem

  • Lingostone sp?

    Three of my uncles worked with this stuff, they called it Permali.

    They were employed making aeroplane propellers. To save money on fuel, they would bring home the off-cuts to burn on the fire. It’s true, it burns extremely well yet is as tough as steel!
    EI

  • Speaking of what's next (like we really know for sure): Are the players in the current build-up to war all the ones listed in Psalm 83?

    I was just thinking that if they're not all present, then the next war might be similar to the last few small wars in Israel, which I think we can agree, did not fit the Psalm 83 scenario.

    That thought kinda depresses me. I'm ready for Israel to kick butt and stop being the scapegoat for/ villain of the surrounding countries.

  • The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes; Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre; Assur also is joined with them: they have holpen the children of Lot. Selah. Do unto them as [unto] the Midianites; as [to] Sisera, as [to] Jabin, at the brook of Kison:

    Laura I THINK these are the ancient names for the nations directly adjacent to Israel today that are missing from the Gog Magog list in Ezekiel. Russia, Iran/Persia etc are further away from Israel’s borders.

    Edom and the Ishmaelites may be southern Jordan?
    The Philistines may be the ‘Palestinians’ of Gaza?
    Ammon may be in northern Jordan?
    Sisera was king of Syria.
    Lebanon may be Tyre; I’m not sure?

    I think all these are and were key players against Israel. It may be because they fail and are knocked out of action, that the Gog battle attacks to finish Israel off – not!? Don't despair – its definitely coming soon.

    Now don’t laugh; I’ve had a go! It is a very interesting question so if anyone can provide the correct info; that would be great.
    EI

  • C in Salem…they are protecting the vultures. That is interesting, I had never heard that. Hmmm…the dove population is high in South America and rising in some places…so countries, Argentina for one but there are countries as well, offer unlimited dove hunting as an all inclusive vacation…meals, lodging, etc…for a couple thousand dollars. …maybe this is something…maybe not.

    Take care,
    Jill

  • As for 7 years of burning weapons, any part of a year is considered a year. So the time line is true. Rapture, invasion (and destruction) of Gog, burning weapons for 6 years plus any part of the 7th year.

    Surely if the entire trib period is a short 7 years, God can accomplish this invasion in the first few months after the Rapture. AMEN

  • Thank you all for the discussion on the burning weapons. I never realized that there were so many different ways that weapons, or their supporting structure, could be burned.

    As far as the timing of the rapture, can i caution all who are pre-trib in their view? Our hope is in the certainty of Christ's appearing and then being with Him forever, not in the eminency of that return. Where do we get the idea of eminency? From the passage that says that He will come as a thief? But Paul says in 1 thess 5:4 that this day will not catch those who walk in the light unaware and Jesus says in Luke of that day, "look up, for your redemption draws near," all in the context of believers witnessing the events of the tribulation. 2 thess 2:8 says of the rapture, "that day will not come unless there comes a falling away first and the man of sin is revealed." How can Jesus return if that day will not come until some time after the midway mark? If you say that 2 Thessalonians is referring to Christ's 2nd coming, then that causes all sorts of contextual problems. Please study these things for yourselves and do not just accept the idea that Jesus is going to prevent us from witnessing some of the judgments coming on the Earth. We simply do not know the exact timing of these events; it is fun to speculate but dangerous to force scripture into saying something that is not explicit.
    Jesus is Lord. He died for our sins. This we know for certain. We must not must couple the uncertainty of the timing of the rapture with the certainty of the message of the gospel; otherwise many will fall away in disappointment if things do not pan out as they hoped.
    I thought I just heard the argument that the timing is coupled with our salvation because Christ will save us from God's wrath both eternally and from the tribulation. We are not appointed to wrath in either case. True. But where does the Bible call the 70th week of Daniel, "the tribulation"? There is only one place that the Bible refers to tribulation and that does not begin until after the midway mark called "great tribulation". Also, in Revelations there is not mention of God's wrath until the 6th seal of Revelation when the "great day of His wrath" arrives. I could go on and on, but I hope you at least see that the matter is far from settled.
    Put your hope in Christ alone. Yes, you will escape the fires of God's wrath and you will be with Him forever! Let that be your hope and comfort. And yes, that day will come with a catching up of the church. When? Nobody really knows for sure!

  • There's no reason why the weaponry can't be burnt in the millenium post 2nd coming. It certainly would be an inexpensive way to get fuel whenever it occurs.

    Resources for the persecuted Jews will be at an all time low and this enables them to "get back on their feet" in an inexpensive way especially when various means of transport and farming equipment will be needed straight away, as well as lighting and heating.

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