Ezekiel 39

"Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, thus saith the Lord GOD: Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal.” (Verse 1) God is going back and saying it again. He started off the 38th Chapter that way and He wants to let you know it is God speaking, so it has be true. When that happens, it is direct prophecy. The Prophet is getting a direct prophecy and he is simply quoting the Words of God, in fact he is not even quoting, they are coming right through his mouth.

"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.” (Verse 2) What is the actual chronological order of this verse? He does not destroy Gog and Magog first before they come down for their invasion. "I will cause thee to come up from the North parts and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel", that's the actual first event in this verse. Then He says, "I will turn thee back and leave but the sixth part of thee."

God says that he has bringing Gog and Magog from the north parts. Russia is north of Israel. Russia is now the major power north of Syria, so Gog does not have very far to go from his homeland of Magog to get down into Israel. If you go straight north from Israel, the most direct route through Lebanon into Turkey, then you run into the Black Sea. For Gog to come this direction would require a lot of ships, although that would be the shortest route. The shortest route for Russia to come is from the border of Russia through a corner of Iran and across Iraq, the way that most of the famous old trade routes of the East and camel routes used to come.

This is a very strange verse. We know this has to be Armageddon because it says five-sixths of the armies of the Antichrist are going to be destroyed. That will mean tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands, depending on how large a force is in that last great invasion of Israel.

The battle of Armageddon begins with an invasion of Israel, the final invasion of Israel. By this time Israel has been invaded by Gog and Magog Antichrist forces how many times? Look back in Daniel at the first four wars of the Antichrist. Of course, he has more wars before that, it is kind of indefinite but understood, but how many of them are actual invasions of Israel? In the fourth one he has already occupied Israel and he has fighting the East. In that fourth war they apparently must be on his side and are helping him by that time. The Arabs, the Iranians, the Afghanis and all those Kings of the East, maybe even China, will be fighting on his side and helping him.

The first four wars of the antichrist are with Israel and her allies. The fifth war, which is Armageddon, is also with Israel and her allies all over again. Almost every single one of the them are invasions of Israel. Now you can go back and study it if you want to, we have studied it before in Daniel and here in Ezekiel. Russia fights Israel and her allies because Russia wants to do dominate the world.

The Antichrist as the World dictator, the World power, the ruler of the World, still has plenty of trouble with different countries in the world.. Like every great dictator or great Czar or great Caesar or great tyrant, all is not always peace, sweetness, roses, light and honey in their empires. Their history is almost one fight of continuous wars with this power and that power. That country rebels, another nation challenges and they have to keep fighting to stay at the top. So that is what the Antichrist and Russia do, they have to keep fighting war after war, and virtually all of them, in fact every one of them, with Israel and her friends!

This is the final invasion and this is going to be the last one. Well, really there is one more. Here Russia is coming down to invade Israel, they hope for the last time, and squelch that country once and for all and forever, probably planning to wipe out the Jews about like the Romans did, just slaughter them and wipe them out. Russia invades from the North, but there is another invasion. There is also something about an invasion from the East where some of his Eastern friends apparently give him trouble, but that's not clear. But the main invasion that occurs at the Battle of Armageddon is not the invasion of the Antichrist forces from the North.

The battle of Armageddon is not going to end with an invasion of thousands, not even hundreds of thousands. Two million horsemen are going to come from the East as apparently part of the battle.

The greatest force and the greatest invasion in this greatest battle the world has ever known at this time is going to come from heaven. Can you imagine an army charging out of Heaven? There are going to be multitudes coming back to Earth!

Can you imagine what a shock that is going to be to these armies fighting each other on earth when suddenly we appear out of the sky? The greatest invasion force the Earth has ever known, enough to wipe them all out. Actually, the Lord is not sending us down to wipe them all out, He has actually sending us down to save the forces that are fighting the Antichrist forces. This may be difficult to understand, but it sounds here like He has not going to actually wipe them all out, but He has going to leave a sixth part of them!

This is strange, because our usual picture from Revelation says "the rest were slain by the sword." Revelation the 19th Chapter pictures the Battle of Armageddon and it says "the remnant were slain with the sword" (Rev.19:21), and He invites the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air to come for a great feast upon the dead. To help God and to help the World get rid of all the dead corpses that stink up the Earth and are stacked like dung upon the Earth! The beasts of the field and the fowls of the air help to get rid of all those dead bodies that otherwise create disease and contamination and stench and rot and filth. The beasts of the field and the fowls of the air are the first ones to descend and start cleaning up the battlefield if the people can not get them hauled away and buried fast enough. They pick the flesh off the bones and leave the bones.

God in the battle of Armageddon literally invites the birds of the air and the beasts of the field to come and have a feast! This feast is described in both this Chapter, Verse 4, and also in the 19th Chapter of Revelation, Verses 17 and 18, in which He invites them again: "And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God! That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great." When He says all men, it means all these men that are going to be killed and die in the battle of Armageddon.

The 20th verse of Revelation 19 says that at the end of this battle "the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the Mark of the Beast, and them that worshipped his Image. These both were cast alive into a Lake of Fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of Him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of His mouth." Now that is a strange picture it symbolizes the power of God just to speak the Word, the Sword of His Word, and slaughter them.

Revelation 19:21 says, "And the remnant were slain with the sword ... and all the fowls were filled with their flesh? The Beast and the False Prophet are the heads of the Antichrist forces. The remnant are their followers, those with the Mark of the Beast. They are slaughtered by the sword, they're slain, they're killed! The Antichrist and the False Prophet are cast immediately into Hell, but the followers are simply killed. Their spirits go to whatever they deserve for the time being

In Revelation it says the rest of them are killed, and the 39th chapter of Ezekiel says he is going to save or spare or leave "but the sixth part of thee." In one Chapter it sounds like they're all going to be killed, but apparently not all of them are going to be killed immediately, a few are going to be left. We are inclined to believe that of course all of these forces who are following the Beast and fighting in his army must all have the Mark of the Beast, but not necessarily. There may be some allies who join for this reason or that: "We refuse the Mark but we'll fight with you, we'll help you!" Possibly enemies of Israel who want to fight Israel anyhow, but maybe some of the people have even refused the Mark of the Beast. That is my theory. Because it says the rest are slain with the sword does not necessarily mean all of the rest. Because it says "all men small and great" are going to be devoured by the birds and the beasts etc., does not mean all the people on Earth! God says right here, one-sixth! One out of every six of the army of the Antichrist is going to be left, obviously it means alive.

I think it is possible the Antichrist might have a few allies who don't like the Jews and are willing to fight the Jews on his side, even if they're not willing to take his Mark. You can do with that what you may, but there is a possibility.

“And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand. Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured. Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD. (Verses 3-5)

Now bow and arrow does not necessarily mean they're going back to bows and arrows that is just all they had in the days when this was written. How could He possibly say guns and bullets? They never heard of guns and bullets, they had never seen guns and bullets. I think it is possible that some of those descriptions in Revelation where it says "their tails will sting with fire and they belch out smoke and fire out of their mouths" etc. could be describing modern warfare. The Prophet had never seen guns before, and even if he had saw them in a picture he would not have known what to call them. Maybe that will explain some of those things and monsters in Revelation. Maybe they are tanks or planes dropping bombs! (They could also possibly be unknown entities which we are yet to see.)

One possible theory is that the participants, especially Russia, realise that a lot of the guns are operated electronically by computers, most of them now except hand guns, etc. Planes, tanks, ships, big guns and bombs all have electronic circuitry which must operate in order for them to explode and shoot and operate. If they drop a sky-high bomb over the U.S. itself they say that it would knock out everything electronic in the whole country without even killing a single person or destroying a single building! What they call the Electromagnetic Pulse, the EMP, will knock out all the telephones, radios and all electronic circuits.

Perhaps what the Lord is talking about here is that they are actually going to revive some of those ancient wooden weapons. Horses are made of flesh. Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) will not affect horses and horsemen or spears, bows, arrows and shields if they are all made of wood. That is something to think about. I am not saying that that is it, but that is a theory advanced by some as to why there are so many horses in this last battle and so much is spoken of as using bows, arrows, shields, spears, swords, etc. Steel swords are not affected by Electromagnetic Pulse either, they don't have electronic circuits. They could still use swords, shields, bows and arrows even if every tank, every gun, every plane, every bomb and every missile is completely knocked out of operation.

Perhaps the antichrist is smart enough to know that is what is going to happen, so he prepares an army that can not be affected by that. Then when the enemy, totally dependent upon electronic circuitry, has all of its weapons completely knocked out, the hordes of the Antichrist can ride in triumphant with nothing but bows and arrows and swords and shields. I am not saying that that is definitely the answer, but that is one answer that some theoreticians have given, that is why the Bible speaks so much about horsemen, swords, shields, bows, arrows, spears etc. being used in this last battle. That could also explain why it takes them seven years to burn all their weapons and all those armaments. It is not too easy to burn a tank or a big gun or a metal plane, although they can be burned and they do catch fire and explode and burn sometimes. You can sure burn wooden weapons. So that is one explanation.

It has been rumoured that the Russians are expecting that, therefore they're reviving the Cossacks, the famous horsemen of Russia, and they're starting to train men to ride horses and all that sort of thing by the thousands over there.

It is pretty specific where this battle is going to occur. It is so specific it names the country, it names the valley, it names the main mountain, it names the city. It couldn't be more specific where this is going to be fought. The antichrist forces going to be slaughtered upon the mountains of Israel "Thou and all thy bands, and the people that is with thee."

"And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles." (Verse 6) It sounds like everybody's going to get it! There is probably a war going on around the World, another World War of some kind, and the Antichrist is having all kinds of trouble. The deeper he gets into the Tribulation the more troubles he has, the more wars he has, and when he gets into the Wrath of God, then he really has trouble and finally winds up in the Battle of Armageddon, his final trouble! God is going to send fire on Russia and it sounds like it is going to be pretty bad. We do not know whether God is going to send it by way of volcanoes or just fire straight out of the sky or atomic bombs or what, but whatever it is, is is of God.

"So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel." (Verse 7) God is going to let them know who is who. He will not let them defile or pollute His Name any more! What has become a favourite curse word? They do not hesitate to put it right in the movies now, "Jesus Christ”! They use it as a curse word, an anathema, deliberately supposedly doing it in blasphemy! They will be held accountable for it.

He says he is not going to let them pollute his holy name any more and the heathen shall also know that he is the lord. Usually when He says the heathen, He means the Gentiles, the foreigners, the invaders will know He's the Lord!

"Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken." (Verse 8) It sounds pretty important. The day of God's final judgements upon the Antichrist and his hordes.

“And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the handstaves, and the spears, and they shall burn them with fire seven years:” (Verse 9)

The Russian army and all those that came with him have been killed, now they “shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and the bucklers and the bows and the arrows and the handstaves and the spears, and they shall burn them with fire seven years." The beginning of the Millennium is going to be largely clean up.

“So that they shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forests; for they shall burn the weapons with fire: and they shall spoil those that spoiled them, and rob those that robbed them, saith the Lord GOD.” (Verse 10)

It sounds like wood if they can burn these things in their fireplaces instead of wood, instead of cutting down trees and logs and chopping wood out of the forest. That ought to please the ecologists and environmentalists. I think they are going to be very happy in that day for because man will not be tearing down the forest and denuding the landscape and wrecking the Earth, instead they will be wrecking the instruments of war.

“They shall spoil those that spoiled them, and rob those that robbed them, saith the lord God." The spoiling and robbing them is by taking their weapons. The nations of the Earth today spend more money on their weaponry and on wars than on anything else.

“And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea: and it shall stop the noses of the passengers: and there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude: and they shall call it The valley of Hamongog. (Verse 11)

What a mess to clean up, all those dead bodies, thousands and thousands of dead soldiers. Jeremiah says, "They shall be as dung on the face of the Earth, they shall not be lamented neither gathered nor buried," because they do not even have time! (Jer.25:33)

When the Bible talks about the sea it means the Mediterranean Sea. Not the Dead Sea, because it always specifies that if it means the Dead Sea. The Valley of Megiddo is it East of the Mediterranean Sea. Megiddo is just across from Mt. Carmel. The Bay of Haifa begins the Valley and if you're looking at the map this way, it runs Southeastward toward Jerusalem. It is East of the Mediterranean Sea.

The smell is going to be so bad they are going to hold their noses! "And there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude: and they shall call it The Valley of Hamon-gog." That literally means "the multitude of Gog," or Gog's army. They are all slaughtered there including Gog. Gog himself, the Antichrist himself is slain in this battle and is sent straight to the Lake of Fire, along with the False Prophet. They are going to have to bury all this army, this huge big army of thousands and thousands of people that were killed in this valley till the blood runs deep in the river Kishon.

“And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land. Yea, all the people of the land shall bury them; and it shall be to them a renown the day that I shall be glorified, saith the Lord GOD.” (Verses 12-13)

This is one hell of a mess, and hell made it, the antichrist and his followers. Everybody is going to be busy burying people for seven months. "And it shall be to them a renown the day that I shall be glorified, saith the Lord God." God is glorified because they know He is the Lord and He did it. It shows God's judgement upon the wicked, upon the Antichrist forces that are slaughtered here, those Antichrist forces that caused so much trouble during the Tribulation and who persecute the poor and persecute the Christians and persecute all the religious people and just wreak havoc on the Earth with all kinds of persecution, and here they are lying rotting in the fields of Israel. It is going to take seven months just to bury them.

"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 seven months they shall search." They will begin to have to look for whatever dead are left after they buried all the ones that were obvious and piled up. "Men of continual employment" including "the passengers.

The Valley of Megiddo is a main route between Jerusalem and Haifa, the principal port. People who travel on trains and buses and planes, etc., are all called passengers. They are going to conscript or draft even the people passing through, they are going to grab everybody they can to help them bury the dead.

“And the passengers that pass through the land, when any seeth a man's bone, then shall he set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the valley of Hamongog.” (Verse 15) At the end of seven months only the bones are left and they even bury the bones.

They have done that during some of the past wars of this World. After the battle is over special teams go out searching for the different dead ones, and when they find them they stick a little sign up over them to attract attention and then the teams that later come out with trucks to gather the dead can easily find them. "Till the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon-gog"--the multitude of Gog.

"And also the name of the city shall be Hamonah". (Verse 16) This literally means "the city of the multitude." "Thus shall they cleanse the land."

“And thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD; speak unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field: Assemble yourselves and come gather yourselves on every side to My sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh and drink blood." (Verse 17) These garbage men of God, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, are going to start cleaning up the mess by picking their bones clean until they are all buried.

"Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan." God is symbolising these great ones as bullocks, rams, mighty men. He is talking about the captains and the princes and the leaders of the hosts here, it is symbolising them. (Verse 18)

"And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you." He is talking to birds and the beasts.

"Thus ye shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord GOD." (Verse 20) That does not mean they are going to eat the chariots, but there are probably going to be lots of dead horses. There is another sign that they could be using old ancient weapons of wars. The destruction is complete and the beasts of the field and the birds clean up what's left.

"And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgement that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them.” (Verse 21) God going to glorified by manifesting His power in this battle to show what a great slaughter He has caused.

"So the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day and forward." (Verse 22) Not only are the heathen going to know God is God, but also Israel. They are going to find out they can not save themselves that God finally had to come down and have mercy on the remnant of them to save them. "Then they will know I am the Lord” Israel will know that Jesus is the Lord!

“And the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity: because they trespassed against me, therefore hid I my face from them, and gave them into the hand of their enemies: so fell they all by the sword.” (Verse 23)

Israel had all this trouble because of their iniquity. He gave the Jews into the hands of their enemies. "So fell they all by the sword."

"According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions have I done unto them, and hid my face from them." (Verse 24) God has hid his face from Israel because of their uncleanness and transgressions.

“Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name;” (Verse 25) This means release him from captivity. "And have mercy upon the whole house of Israel", that is, what is left." And will be jealous for My Holy Name;

“After that they have borne their shame, and all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against Me, when they dwelt safely in their land and none made them afraid." (Verse 26) Israel has not been perfectly safe all the time; they have had several wars, but most of the time they have been holding their own and dwelling pretty safely amongst all their enemies. They would have lost this one if it had not been for the forces of God, coming down to save them.

Jesus is not going to be saving the Jews alone, but a lot of other people who've been fighting the Antichrist, the Anti-Antichrists. It says we are going to be helping to save Jerusalem and the Jews.

“When I have brought them again from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies' lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations;” (Verse 27) Israel did not become a nation until 1948.

"And am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations." Sanctify means kosherise, it means made clean or made holy, in other words, glorified in the eyes of many nations. God is going to be glorified by what He does in this case. He not only slaughtered five-sixths of the Antichrist's forces, but He also slaughtered two-thirds of the Jews. “And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.” (Zech. 13:8) God is fair He doesn't take sides as though one side is entirely guiltless and holy and with no blame, He punishes both sides in this battle.

“Then shall they know that I am the LORD their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there.” He is talking about the Jews. "But I have gathered them unto their own land and have left none of them any more there." Exactly what that means, we do not know, whether that means He is going to gather all the Jews back to Israel. I do not see how He could, I do not think the land of Israel is big enough to hold them all, but at least certainly those that are there.

“Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.” (Verse 29) He has poured out His Spirit of judgement upon the House of Israel. He has poured out the fire and the wrath and the destruction and the death that God's Spirit can bring in judgement because of their sins.

Taken from the informal talks of David Brandt Berg

Edited by Almondtree Productions