2.1 Ezekiel 38: Gog as Assyria
This chapter speaks of an invasion of Israel at some point after the Jews have returned to their land (Ezekiel 37) and before the establishment of God’s kingdom on earth (Ezekiel 39,40). This latter day invader will be destroyed by Divine intervention. The language is clearly based upon the historical Assyrian:
Ez. 38 / Gog
Assyria (Isaiah)
:4 I will turn you around, put hooks into your jaws, and will bring you out with all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed in full armour, a great company with buckler and shield, all of them handling swords;
37:29 Because of your raging against Me, and because your arrogance has come up into My ears, therefore will I put My hook in your nose and My bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by which you came.
:7 Be prepared, yes, prepare yourself, you, and all your companies who are assembled to you, and be a guard to them.
8:7
:8 After many days you shall be visited. In the latter years you shall come into the land that is brought back from the sword, that is gathered out of many peoples, on the mountains of Israel, which have been a continual waste; but it is brought forth out of the peoples, and they shall dwell securely all of them.
8:8; 10:3 “the day of visitation” upon Assyria.
:9 You shall ascend, you shall come like a storm, you shall be like a cloud to cover the land, you, and all your hordes, and many peoples with you.
:10 You shall consider / it will come into your mind
28:2; 8:9,21; the Assyrian “strong one” of Is. 28:2 is the ‘Gog’ figure “Behold, the Lord has a mighty and strong one; like a storm of hail, a destroying storm, and like a storm of mighty waters overflowing, He will cast them down to the earth with His hand”. The Assyrian invasion was a “storm” covering the land (10:3).
Is. 10:7
:11 You shall say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to those who are at rest, who dwell securely, all of them dwelling without walls and having neither bars nor gates;
37:24 With the multitude of my chariots I have come up to the height of the mountains, to the innermost parts of Lebanon. I will cut down its tall cedars and its choice fir trees. I will enter into its farthest height, the forest of its fruitful field.
:12 to take the spoil and to take the wealth; to turn your hand against the waste places that are now inhabited, and against the people who are gathered out of the nations, who have gotten livestock and goods, who dwell in the middle of the land.
Is. 10:6 I will send him against a profane nation, and against the people who anger Me will I give him a command to take the spoil and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets”. Prey and spoil are mentioned repeatedly as being taken from Judah by Assyria (Is. 8:4; 10:6; 33:4).
:19 For in My anger and in the fire of My wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel;
30:27 Behold, the name of Yahweh comes from far away, burning with His anger, and in thick rising smoke. His lips are full of indignation, and His tongue is as a devouring fire.
:22 With pestilence and with blood will I enter into judgment with him; and I will rain on him and on his hordes and on the many peoples who are with him, an overflowing shower, and great hailstones, fire, and sulphur.
29:6 RV; 30:30 Yahweh will cause His glorious voice to be heard, and will show the descent of His arm, with the indignation of His anger, and the flame of a devouring fire, with a blast, storm, and hailstones… She will be visited by Yahweh of Armies with thunder, with earthquake, with great noise, with whirlwind and storm, and with the flame of a devouring fire.
:19,20 For in My anger and in the fire of My wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel;
Eze 38:20 so that the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the animals of the field and all creeping things which creep on the earth, and all the men who are on the surface of the earth, shall shake at My presence. The mountains shall be thrown down, the steep places shall fall and every wall shall fall to the ground.
:23 I will magnify Myself [against Gog]
29:6; 30:25 There shall be brooks and streams of water on every lofty mountain and on every high hill in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.
10:15 I will magnify Myself [against Assyria]
39:10 They shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forests; for they shall make fires of the weapons; and they shall plunder those who plundered them, and rob those who robbed them, says the Lord Yahweh.
33:1 Woe to you who destroy, but you weren’t destroyed; and who betray, but nobody betrayed you. When you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed; and when you have made an end of betrayal, you will be betrayed.
Ez. 39:3 stresses how Gog will rely on his archery to terrorize Israel in the last days: "I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand". Assyrian bas-reliefs frequently show them posing with their bows. This is another Assyrian allusion. Ez. 38:17 says that this invader was repeatedly spoken of by the prophets- it can’t refer therefore to Russia but to Assyria / Babylon, of whom the prophets repeatedly speak. And yet the invasion is clearly in the last days. Assyria, therefore, must be revived in some way.
Ez. 38:9 says that Gog comes as a storm to cover the land. This is the very language and Hebrew word shoa used of the Assyrian invasion in Is. 10:3. And of course the shoa is the term used by Jews today to describe the Nazi holocaust. That is to come again- but in "the land" promised to Abraham.
Hooks in the Jaws
Gog is manipulated with hooks in his jaws (Ez. 38:4-6). This alludes to how the Assyrians presented themselves in steles and other art forms as putting hooks in the mouths of those they conquered. The Zincirli Stele pictures Esarhaddon holding Egypt and Tyre by hooks in their jaws; Assyria "took Manasseh captive in hooks" (2 Chron. 33:11 Heb.). The point is, that what Assyria did to others is effectively being done to the latter day Assyrian by God. This is the very picture of Rev. 13:10- the beast who led God’s people into captivity shall be taken into captivity by God at the last day, and hooks being put in the jaw is the very picture of captivity. Gog and his entity is the beast of Revelation. Indeed, the whole language of putting hooks in the jaws is based upon God’s word to Assyria, that He would put hooks in their jaws and a bridle in their mouth (Is. 37:29)- as if they were an aggressive beast.
The idea is found far back in Gen. 27:40, where Jacob made a promise about the relationship between Jacob (Israel) and Esau (forefather of many of the nations living in the land promised to Abraham). Jacob predicted that although Esau would be beneath Jacob, there would come a time “when you shall have dominion [Heb. ‘to trample down’, which will happen when Israel and Jerusalem are trodden down by Esau’s invasion of the last days, and will rule or have dominion over Jacob]; and you [Esau] shall break his [Jacob’s] yoke from off your neck”. This suggests that the families of Esau are again presented as a beast that must be controlled. Jacob’s words have so far had no significant fulfilment; but they will do, however briefly, when the beast of Esau takes over Israel and dominates the Jews.
