Context No. 3697 of 4322 · Ezekiel

Ezekiel 38:14-23: in context

14“Therefore, son of man, prophesy, and tell Gog, ‘The Lord GOD says: “In that day when my people Israel dwells securely, will you not know it? 15You will come from your place out of the uttermost parts of the north, you, and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great company and a mighty army. 16You will come up against my people Israel as a cloud to cover the land. It will happen in the latter days that I will bring you against my land, that the nations may know me when I am sanctified in you, Gog, before their eyes.” 17“‘The Lord GOD says: “Are you he of whom I spoke in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days for years that I would bring you against them? 18It will happen in that day, when Gog comes against the land of Israel,” says the Lord GOD, “that my wrath will come up into my nostrils. 19For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath I have spoken. Surely in that day there will be a great shaking in the land of Israel, 20so that the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the animals of the field, all creeping things who creep on the earth, and all the men who are on the surface of the earth will shake at my presence. Then the mountains will be thrown down, the steep places will fall, and every wall will fall to the ground. 21I will call for a sword against him to all my mountains,” says the Lord GOD. “Every man’s sword will be against his brother. 22I will enter into judgment with him with pestilence and with blood. I will rain on him, on his hordes, and on the many peoples who are with him, torrential rains with great hailstones, fire, and sulfur. 23I will magnify myself and sanctify myself, and I will make myself known in the eyes of many nations. Then they will know that I am the LORD.”’

This is a mysterious prophecy about Gog, a great hostile force that comes against God's people in the latter days. The imagery of judgment is fearsome, earthquake, sword, fire, and hail. But through the whole passage runs God's central purpose, stated again and again.

That the nations may know me; I will magnify myself and sanctify myself, and I will make myself known in the eyes of many nations; then they will know that I am the LORD. God allows even the assault of a great enemy in order, at last, to display his own holiness, so that the whole world comes to know him as the LORD. The point of this apocalyptic vision is not the enemy but God's glory. Behind the world's conflicts and God's judgments lies his purpose to make himself known, that all nations might recognize the one true God. Even the raging of the nations serves, in the end, God's revelation of himself. He is working, through all the tumult of history, toward the day when he is universally known as the LORD.

Do I trust that God is working through all of history's conflicts toward the revelation of his glory, that all nations may come to know him as the LORD?

Sources

Ezekiel 38:23: "I will magnify myself and sanctify myself, and I will make myself known in the eyes of many nations. Then they will know that I am the LORD."
Ezekiel 38:16: "That the nations may know me, when I am sanctified in you, Gog, before their eyes."
Ezekiel 38:19: "For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath I have spoken."