Reformational Commentary on Ezekiel 39:2
"And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel" (Ezekiel 39:2)
"And I will turn thee back..." (Ezekiel 38:4)
Ezekiel 39:2's repetition of Ezekiel 38:4 is to emphasise once more the irresistible compulsion Gog will feel to move against Israel, an urge ordained and orchestrated by the Lord, reminding us again of the impossibility of resisting His will and purpose:
"Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me. Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure." (Isaiah 46:9-10)
The Lord asserts here that all temporal events - including your present reading of these very words - are not simply foreseen of Him "declaring the end from the beginning", but veritably pre-ordained of Him as his "counsel" that "shall stand".)
Here in Ezekiel 39:2 are some added details that help us further confirm the identity of the nation that this wicked man, Gog, is leader of,
that nation being the ringleader of the
barbarian "sea" (Revelation's term for the non-western world at this "latter day" age).
That nation is, of course, Russia as demonstrated in the commenatry on Ezekiel 38:2.
Russia's heartland is in aspect to the far north of Israel and no other nation of the barbarian hordes fits the criteria laid out in Ezekiel 38-39;
not Turkey, since the Turks lack widespread influence over the nations of the East and have never come close to regaining their Ottoman ascendancy
(during which they literally occupied what is modern-day Israel); nor China, despite all its ambitions and aspirations to domination, since it is
not to Israel’s north and, despite its expansive military,
has a small nuclear arsenal compared to Russia; nor Iran, for the same reasons disqualifying both Turkey and China.
Russia alone meets the full criteria as the land of Magog, and its leader at the time of the fulfilment of this prophecy will be Gog,
which, derived from the timing outlined in Revelation 11’s killing and restoration of the two witnesses, will probably become clear in the latter years
of the present decade.
"...leave but the sixth part of thee"
It may be that Gog will be so prepared, that is, doubly prepared (Ezekiel 38:7), as to
reserve - at God's ordained decree - only
one sixth of his armed forces from this megalomaniacal expedition against the land of Israel, since the Lord will
"leave [either preserve in the battle, or detain in Russia] but the sixth part of thee",
and if detained in Russia, that sixth part presumably to guard its western flank as described in my notes on Ezekiel 38:7, or to tie down
western forces in eastern Europe
fixated on preventing1 a Russian “Drang nach
Westen”2 (surge to the West).
As an interesting alternative interpretation (or co-interpretation) of the sixth part left behind, it is noteworthy that Russia divides its
armed forces into six elements:
- Ground forces (i.e. the regular army).
- Navy.
- Aerospace forces (i.e. the air force).
- Airborne forces (i.e. paratroopers).
- Special operations forces (i.e. elite units (Spetznaz).)
- Strategic rocket forces (i.e. nuclear missile forces).
Of those six parts, only the strategic rocket forces are unlikely to be involved in the assault on Israel, but conversely, it is those very
strategic rocket forces that will be critical to the fulfilment of the terrible prophecy in
Ezekiel 39:6 and therefore must remain wholly unscathed
by those acts of God that will devastate the invaders.3
And the Lord reiterates also, that Gog and his forces will spill so far south as to encroach on the mountains of Israel, it being a hilly country
from the territory north of Galilee right down through the West Bank to Jerusalem itself, which seems to be the location where the invaders shall
probe the
furthest southward, before becoming undone by a judgmental, miraculous act of God – see Zechariah 12:9 and Zechariah 14:2.
FOOTNOTES
1. Russian propaganda goes to great lengths to show all the US military bases around the Eurasian landmass and is given to
level accusations of “encirclement”, which would hold merit at first consideration but for the fact the US only has ten army divisions and
therefore is incapable of invading Russia, never mind Russia plus China plus North Korea, etc.
The reality is that the West has been playing
a game of deterrent through containment since WW2, under the military doctrines of the likes of General Douglas MacArthur, who felt that the
First Island Chain in the Pacific (i.e. Japan, Philippines, Taiwan, etc.) should form America’s outer line of defence against a future
Chinese breakout.
I suspect that this containment will fail under the conditions that bring about the metaphorical drying up of the Great River Euphrates
under the sixth of the Seven Last Plagues of Revelation 16:12 (i.e. the removal of western constraining influences holding Russia and its
allies at bay in the Middle East).
Meanwhile, the European governments are increasingly anxious to build up a credible deterrent to a Russian breakout in eastern Europe, with France
and Britain forming a
"Coalition of the WIlling"
under July 2025's
Northwood Declaration,
which includes the formation of the Anglo-French
"Multinational Force for Ukraine",
the objective of which is to provide troops for placement within western Ukraine with a view to containing Russian expansion in eastern Europe.
Likewise, Finland and Poland have been building layered defensive lines with anti-tank measures along their eastern frontiers, and are discussing
artificially flooding vast tracts of land
to make it impassable.
2. This is a play on the classic German term, Drang nach Osten ("push towards the east").
3. Of the remaining five branches of Russia's military that will be deployed to the expedition against Israel,
it is reasonable to presume
a minority element of each left behind for conventional defence of Russian territory, but this in turn is very suggestive of a near-term great
Russian success in eastern Europe (that would consolidate Gog’s confidence for the campaign) and/or very severe problems within NATO hampering
its mobilisation capabilities, which of course is to be expected from the 3rd, 4th and 5th of the Seven Last Plagues preceding the 6th plague,
which is the one under which this Russian move in the Levant will take place, the way through for the kings of the East having been made
(Revelation 16:12).
