Reformational Commentary on Ezekiel 38:15
"And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army:" (Ezekiel 38:15)
Here in Ezekiel 38:15 we are reminded again that Gog, this dynamic leader of Russia
(see Ezekiel 38:2) and of the kings of the East, this initiative-taker and deal-maker
(see Ezekiel 38:14)
has his seat in "the north parts", i.e., Russia, not comparatively enfeebled and lead-following Turkey (for more on Turkey's lack of leadership
credentials,
see the commentary on Ezekiel 38:6).
Gog will descend upon Israel in vast numbers, that is, with armies hugely disproportionate to the scale of the intended task, perhaps borne out of his
"double" preparedness (see Ezekiel 38:7) as well out of the
longstanding
Russian military doctrine of attritional warfare, i.e., emphasis upon quantity of soldiers rather than quality of
soldiers1,
as seen both in the Red Army's modus
operandi in World War Two
and in Russia's "meat grinder" invasion of Ukraine this very decade, highlighting how the atheistic mindset of Russia's leadership (and no, Putin is not
a "Christian", despite what gullible western conservatives might wish to believe) has no regard for the lives of its own troops and how it favours the
attritional-and-overwhelming-force approach to warfare.
A Modern Army Riding upon Horses?
One of the great difficulties / tragedies in expounding Scripture to modern evangelicals is the propensity of many if not most of them to insist on
literal interpretations, as if that is safe or pleasing to God, despite the Bible containing many examples of figurative and hyperbolic speech.
A classic example from my personal experience was with a flat-earther hyper literalist; the exchange went along the following lines:
"The Lord's Word says the earth cannot be moved!", he told me firmly, referring to this psalm excerpt:
"Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever" (Psalm 104:5).
Upon that reference, he argued that the earth cannot be rotating and cannot be orbiting the sun, and that any contrary teaching was of the devil.
But he seems to not know the book of Isaiah very well:
"The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again" (Isaiah 24:19-20)
The central problem with people like that is their inability - or unwillingness - to perceive when the Word is using figurative speech; personally
I consider that to be, like all delusions when it comes to interpreting God's Word, a judgment from God upon people whose hearts are not right with
Him (see Isaiah 66:4), that is, religious unbelievers or else "novices in the faith" who are not yet sufficiently experienced and indoctrinated (i.e. well read and
having studied to show themselves approved unto God) to be confidently making strong assertions about the less prosaic matters mentioned in Scripture.
And here, in Ezekiel 38:15, the same considerations apply to the reference to Russia's leader and the vast armies rallied behind his leadership all
descending upon Israel whilst riding on horseback.
What it really means, therefore, is that contemporaneous means of military transport will be massed upon Israel.
That is to say, huge numbers of mechanised armoured equipment will be deployed in this venture, and be it noted that the nations of the East, even at
the height of the Cold War, maintained far larger quantities of tanks than the West did, a state of affairs that remains to this day.
FOOTNOTES
1. Russia's army lost some 20 million men in World War Two and yet ended the war strongly. Enormous loss of life is still seen by Russia's godless rulers as an acceptable means of securing victory.
