Storm Clouds Rising, Part 4

Storm Clouds Rising

Setting the Stage for the Rise of Antichrist and the End of the Age

A new look at Ezekiel 38-39

The Chief Prince
               
One of the phrases that has sparked great interest from this passage is found in Ezekiel 38:2, which reads, “Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him” (NKJV). The inclusion of the name Rosh has caused many to say that this is a clear reference to the nation of Russia. Now, we have already seen that the ancient lineages do indeed indicate Russian involvement in Ezekiel’s prophesied war, but we need not grasp at transliterations to prove our point. Rosh is a Hebrew word that in most of the modern English translations has simply been inserted into the list of enemy nations, but the King James translators probably got it right when they rendered the verse this way: “Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him.” The Hebrew word Rosh should be translated chief or head, as in Rosh Hashana, the head of the year. Rosh is not in the genealogical tables of Genesis 10, so should best be understood as the adjective chief for the title prince.

That being said, who is Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal? Though many have tried to identify Gog as an individual, in the same way they try to decipher who Antichrist will be, I believe we need to take another look at the identification of Gog.

Let’s look at Daniel 10:12-13. In this passage, the prophet Daniel had been praying for twenty-one days for greater understanding of the visions God had given him. And on the twenty-first day, one believed to be the angelic messenger Gabriel appeared to him and said, “I have come because of your words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia.” And in verses 20-21, he continued, “And now I must return to fight with the prince of Persia; and when I have gone forth, indeed the prince of Greece will come…No one upholds me against these, except Michael your prince.”

Through Daniel’s conversation with the angel Gabriel, we gain insight into the way the spirit world influences the physical, and vice versa. While Daniel waited on answers from the Lord that would detail the destinies and fates of earthly kings and kingdoms, the demonic princes of those kingdoms wanted to prevent the message from being delivered. So the prince of Persia fought against Gabriel, and the prayers of Daniel brought Michael, the angelic prince of Israel, to do battle for the answer. Gabriel got through, but the battle was not completely over. He had to go back to the spiritual realm and fight until Persia was overthrown, and then he would have to fight the prince of Greece. Both of these spirit powers, it would seem, were bent on the destruction of Israel, God’s Chosen People. The angelic warfare was apparently what prevented the demon lords from accomplishing their wills through their minions in the physical world.

This may seem a little far out for some, but look at Paul’s treatise on spiritual warfare found in Ephesians 6:12. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. This would seem to indicate there is an organizational hierarchy in the spiritual realm that is opposed to Christians and their mission. In 2 Corinthians 10:3-4, Paul further writes, For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. It was this manner of warfare to which Paul referred in 1 Corinthians 15:32 when he said, if in the manner of men, I have fought with beasts at Ephesus.

There is a war going on in heavenly realms, a spiritual conflict that has raged since Lucifer led the rebellion before time began. We catch occasional glimpses of it in Scripture, such as in Jude 9, where Michael the archangel contends with the devil over the body of Moses, and again in Revelation 12 where Michael and his angels finally cast the dragon and his angels out of heaven for good. It will be at that time that Lucifer, the devil and dragon of old, joins himself possessively to Antichrist and gives him his power, throne and great authority. In this way, Lucifer will try to finish what he started in the beginning—thwart the plan of God by destroying the creation that was made in God’s own image.

What does this have to do with Gog? Look again at Ezekiel 38:2, this time in the King James: “Set your face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal.” Verse 3 actually records the words of God, “Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal.” This individual against whom Ezekiel is prophesying is not a man; Gog is an age-old enemy of the Lord of Heaven, either another name for Lucifer himself or one of the spiritual principalities under Lucifer’s control. Gog is a spirit.

This thought takes on even more meaning when considering another prophetic verse, Amos 7:1. In the NKJV, it read Thus the Lord God showed me: Behold, He formed locust swarms at the beginning of the late crop; indeed it was the late crop after the king’s mowings. This translation is based upon a reading from the Masoretic Text, a Hebrew translation rendered by Jewish scholars in the 7^th-10^th Centuries AD. However, the Greek translation of the Hebrew text known as the Septuagint and dating to the 2^nd Century BC gives the verse a slightly different interpretation: Thus the Lord showed me, and behold a swarm of locusts were coming, and behold, one of the youngest devastating locusts was Gog, the King. I think the Hebrew text needs to be most relied upon, as do most if not all modern translators of the Scriptures into English, but the Septuagint certainly makes an interesting connection in regards to Gog. According to Proverbs 30:27, locusts have no king, but Amos 7:1 is not the only allusion to a locust king. Revelation 9:11 says of a swarm of demon locusts And they had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon. Gog may be another name for Abaddon or Apollyon, both of which mean destruction, or another demonic entity altogether.

Extra-biblical sources state that there were seventy angels assigned as national principalities, Gog among them, and that they are all among the fallen with the exception of one—Michael the archangel assigned to Israel. It is interesting to note here the existence of legendary Arabic claims that the Great Wall of China, built to keep out northern invaders such as the Mongols and Siberian Russians, is also called the Wall of Magog. And there has been some modern speculation that the wall was not constructed as a physical barrier so much as a spiritual barrier. In this same sense, the River Euphrates has often been seen as a barrier in the spirit world to prevent the demons of the east to come against the nations west of it. This adds significance to two more apocalyptic references—Revelation 9:14, in which four angels are loosed from their prison at the great river Euphrates to lead a demon horde of 200 million horsemen to destroy a third of mankind; and Revelation 16:12, where the great river Euphrates is miraculously dried up to make way for the kings of the east, China and its allies.

If Gog is indeed a spirit, that would go far toward the explanation of why a rebellion of nations at the end of Christ’s Millennial Reign would be called by the same name. When Satan is released from his prison in the abyss, as foretold in Revelation 20:7-10, Gog and probably all of the demons and fallen angels are released with him, going out into the earth to deceive the nations that have not fully submitted themselves to the rule of Jesus Christ. This army of rebellious nations will come up against the saints gathered at Jerusalem, and there with a word from His mouth and fire from His presence, God will once and for all put an end to the rebellion of Lucifer and humanity. The nations will be consumed with fire and the devil who deceived them will be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone. Revelation 20 says this final conflict is followed by the Great White Throne Judgment, the event in which all those without Christ are judged and cast into the lake of fire. This is apparently the judgment of the fallen angels as well, because Death and Hades are the first to be banished, joining their master Lucifer in eternal damnation. Gog will be among them. And all of the souls of the people who refused to believe will be judged and cast into the lake of fire, thus ending the rebellion forever.