Reformational Commentary on Ezekiel 38:12

Gog's Primary Motive Revealed

Here in Ezekiel 38:12 is, at last, the most explicit description of the motive behind the "evil thought" (verse 10) of assaulting Israel:

Gog will desire a spoil from Israel.

And there appears in this verse to be an emphasis placed on a contrast, namely, the fact that the land of Israel, for centuries considered barren and undesirable in the sight of the resource-greedy in the world beyond, would be transformed by the industry of the returned Jews into a flourishing agricultural and developed country, a transformation that has already occurred, adding to the list of conditions that must be fulfilled in Ezekiel 38 before the Russian-led attack can take place.

But would Russia and its named allies in the prophecy really just be interested in seizing Israel's "cattle and goods", or is that term merely a metaphor for its entire economic capacity?

Given that the backdrop of the attack will consist of Russia and its allies trying to reboot their own economies that will have been devastated under the second of the Seven Last Plagues (in which "the sea" i.e., the nations of the East, turns to "thick clotted blood", i.e., a catastrophic loss of living standards due to economic collapse, perhaps caused by a stillborn BRICS monetary system) ¹, and that they will by then be extra keen to complete their preparations for the global war they have already committed themselves to², it seems much more probable that the actual objective for Russia and China will be to secure Israel's Leviathan gas field and any other hydrocarbon infrastructure within the country (the chief motivation for the Islamic rabble accompanying Russia on this raid would obviously consist of something else, i.e., the annihilation of Israel as a nation) - this is despite the fact that Israel currently imports much or even most of its crude oil from Russia³ (whom it has consequently refused to impose sanctions on over the Ukraine war).

Be it noted further, that the American action against oil-rich Venezuela in January 2026, in which the country's erstwhile president Nicolas Maduro was captured, has set a precedent that Russia will almost certainly invoke in justifying the coming move against Israel; if it is both needful and acceptable for America to seek to secure extra oil reserves and eject all traces of Russian and Chinese influence from its southern approaches, so Russia will likely argue it is both needful and acceptable for Russia to sanitise its southern approaches from western geopolitical influence and to secure for itself and its allies (especially China) their own source of additional pre-WW3 hydrocarbon reserves.