Reformational Commentary on Ezekiel 39:14

"And they shall sever out men of continual employment, passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search." (Ezekiel 39:14)

Ezekiel 39:14 continues the long statement opened in Ezekiel 39:12 concerning the burial of Gog's invasion force in a process lasting seven months, at the conclusion of which a final "fine tooth comb" search for any residual remains will take place.

This work is to be undertaken primarily by native Israelites according to verse 12, but now it is added that they will be aided by the contribution of "passengers", that is, either visiting workers from abroad or by Israelites from elsewhere in the country, or perhaps a combination of friendly foreigners, non-local Israelites, and foreign-resident Israelites; it may be the case that the work will not just be well-paying, but also seen as an honour to perform by all who love the Lord and His cause and who are delighted at the restoration of Israel to the Messianic fold and at God's great demonstration of His love toward them in delivering them.

One might speculate further and suggest that, with the collateral impact around the world from the destruction of the invading forces (especially the Russian and Chinese components thereof) and the demise therein of the wicked man Gog, Russia's self-aggrandising leader when this happens, there will be tremendous geopolitical ructions and tremors amidst which Israel's security, stability and peace will abide like an immovable rock, making it a veritable haven for faithful Christians, both Jew and Gentile alike.

However, it seems more probable in light of Ezekiel 39:6's assured global conflagration of "fire", which I take to refer to an East-versus-West nuclear exchange, that the terrible war of Revelation 16's seventh and final plague, styled as "the great hail", will ensue almost immediately upon Gog's demise in the "Valley of Decision" (to use Joel 3:14's terminology), in which case the mass and morass of human remains from the Gog-led invasion force lying scattered in northern Israel and stripped of flesh by the wild animals and vultures, etc., of Ezekiel 39:4 and Ezekiel 39:17 will lie exposed to the elements for some undeclared period before this work of disposing of them can get underway, it seeming untenable that such work could be conducted during the worst war mankind will experience.

The only other alternative would be that the global war outlined in verse 6 of this chapter would take place after the business of removing the remains of Gog's forces is completed, but that would be out of chronology of the events described in this chapter and places a long delay between the point of Gog's demise and the decision by his successor in Russia to go to war - again, see my commentary on verse 6 of this chapter for a likely scenario wherein Russia's residual leadership might respond self-destructively to the obliteration of its leader and forces.

I conclude, therefore, that the probable sequence of events shall be as follows:

1. Gog and his invading force are killed by direct Divine intervention, perhaps a tectonic or astronomic event (or combination of both to enhance the improbability of it being a purely natural spectacle and thereby make it plain that God Himself has supernaturally intervened).
2. Russia's remaining high command activates its strategic rocket forces in an act of despair and anger at the West, in keeping with their Götterdämmerung mentality of "if we go down, we take the world with us"; this will be met with a mutual response, ensuring the destruction of many if not all of the major cities of both East and West, in accordance with Ezekiel 39:6 and Revelation 16:19.
3. The governments and command-and-control infrastructure of the major nations are decapitated during what will be a nuclear war (the "great hail" of Revelation 16:21), leaving a power vacuum that will begin to be filled first in the United States of America and then other Anglo nations; this change of rulership from the ungodly to the godly is the fulfilment of Revelation 11:13's "great earthquake" (geopolitical transformation) and Daniel 2's "stone cut out without hands" dashing the western world order in pieces, and Daniel 7:27's transfer of temporal governance from the realm of the wicked into the hands of Christ's servants).

   "And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him." (Daniel 7:27)

4. Some months or perhaps even years after Gog's ruin, as godly government begins takes hold in first one then another western nation after another, in accordance with Daniel 2's happy outcome, the clear-up operation of Ezekiel 39:14 gets underway.