Thus saith the Lord Jehovah It shall even come to pass in that day that things shall come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought;
Ezekiel 38 pictures Israel back in their land: settled, wealthy, and living in villages with no walls. Verse 10 lets us read the thought as it forms in the mind of the enemy watching them. God records that plan centuries before the schemer is born.
Two things must be true before this thought can form. The whole nation is home, and the nation is at rest.
The prophecy then supposes that the whole people return to their land, not just a remnant, as after the Babylonian captivity. But there is more. It supposes a quiet no one would expect, unlike any period of Israel's history in the past. Of this Gog is to take advantage, but to his own ruin. He has no faith in God's love for His people. He never thinks that God will take His place among them to defend them from their enemies.
God speaks verse 10 about a mind that has not yet formed the thought. Nothing about the scheme is private.
Israel's villages have no walls, and her people have no practice in war. That will attract the envious eye of their ruthless enemy. Their great wealth will appear to be within easy reach of his greedy hand. But he forgets that the eyes of the Lord run to and fro in the earth. His eye is upon Gog; He notes the thoughts that arise in the heart, and the plans that result.
The plan is plunder. One writer identifies Gog with Russia and sees a deeper hatred working under the greed.
In the last days the land will be resting safely inside her borders, trusting the promise the nations have given her. But an evil thought will come into the mind of Gog. The defenceless condition of the country, its prosperous unwalled villages, and its wealth in cattle and goods will excite Russia's greed. Behind that greed, Satan's relentless hatred against God's people will be used to push on this deadly design.
The device looks shrewd because it leaves out the one factor that decides the outcome. The invader sees an easy target; he does not see who is standing in the middle of it.
Gog, not fearing Jehovah, seeks to take possession of the land. He has no thought that Jehovah is there. His pride blinds him.
The plan does not simply fail. God takes it up and uses it for the opposite of what Gog intended.
If Gog, who meant evil towards Israel, was determined to come against them, the Lord said: "I will bring you against My land, that the nations may know Me, when through you, O Gog, I vindicate My holiness before their eyes" (verse 16). Gog set out to enrich himself at the expense of God's land and God's people. Instead, he would be the means of displaying the glory of the God of Israel before the nations.
Kelly marks off this invasion from a later one that borrows its name:
But after all God alone governs, whatever the pride or greed or will of Gog: Jehovah brought him against Israel for his own destruction. After that there are no more fears for the land of Israel, and no need of fresh blows on the nations — at least till the gathering of the nations a thousand years later, which takes its name from this invasion. The one comes at the beginning of Messiah's reign, the other at the end.
The verse's words about an evil scheme also describe how sin starts in anyone, not only in a warlord.
Evil thoughts. These are the inward reasonings and debates of man's mind. Inside himself he thinks it over, he calculates, he plans his schemes of sinful pleasure or deliberate rebellion. "Things come into his mind, and he devises an evil device" (Ezek. 38:10; Micah 2:1-2)… His thoughts are hidden inside his heart. One of man's strange delusions is that this hides them from God, who knows everything. Yet it is written, "The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile" (1 Cor. 3:20).
Another writer names the one thing missing when a well-laid plan collapses:
How often some prized goal or self-willed plan seems within our grasp, and then sudden ruin comes. Instead of conquering, we are conquered. The self-chosen way or plan is suddenly turned into our destruction. Why? God has been left out of the carefully devised arrangements.
- Thought. The verse begins inside a mind. Thoughts arrive, and the mind shapes them into a scheme. God records it centuries before the schemer exists.
- Target. The thought fastens on a people at rest in villages with no walls. No past era of Israel's history has matched that security.
- Blindness. The plan looks safe only because God is left out of it. The invader never considers that the Lord is standing in the land he wants.
- Reversal. God says He will bring Gog against His land. The greedy device becomes the stage on which the nations see God's glory.
- Mirror. The same words describe ordinary sin: inward reasoning and quiet scheming. The eye that read Gog's mind reads ours.
and thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will come to them that are in quiet, that dwell in safety, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
Gog says his plan out loud before he acts on it: a land with no walls, bars or gates looks like easy money. But when was Israel ever this defenceless, why would they live that way, and who is driving the march?
The description of a people at rest rules out any moment in Israel's troubled past. One writer dates both the march and the judgment that ends it.
This northern alliance's invasion, and the terrible judgment that falls on it, both come after Israel's return and their peaceful settlement in the land. By then they are under the protection of their Messiah, with God's smile and approval.
The detail of the missing gates is itself a clue to the calendar.
There is not a sign of the expectation of conflict, and not a trace of preparation for defence. All this shows that time has passed. The kings of the south and north have already invaded, and the forces of the west have already fallen at Armageddon.
A city without walls sounds like carelessness. Commentators read it instead as trust that has finally found its proper object.
Walls will be unnecessary. The Lord Himself will be a wall of fire around the city, and also "the glory in her midst." This will be true when Israel is at last broken down in repentance and faith to receive the Messiah they once despised and rejected. Then, in simple and unquestioning faith, they will depend on their blessed Redeemer. His faithfulness is proven, and He cannot fail them. Their walls, gates and bars will go (Ezek. 38:10-11): the Lord alone will defend them. This should be a clear, ringing testimony to the Church of God today. Too often we have turned to people and organisations for protection, and for help in bearing witness for Christ before the world. Can we not depend on the Lord alone as fully as Israel will do once they have received Him?
Gog looks at the land and sees an easy prize. One writer names the invader, and points to the hatred at work behind the greed.
At the end, Palestine will be resting securely within her borders, relying on the promised word of the nations. But an evil thought will come into Gog's mind. The defenceless state of the country, its prosperous unwalled villages, its wealth in cattle and goods, will stir Russia's greed. Behind that, Satan's relentless hatred of God's people will be used to push this cruel scheme forward.
Gog thinks he is choosing his moment. Yet the chapter records his private plan centuries before he makes it.
The time of this invasion is clearly marked (vv. 8, 11, 12). It is when the land's ruined condition is past, and the regathered people are dwelling securely in peace. His coming is like a dark thunder-cloud spreading over the land, rising from the north parts onto the mountains of Israel. In all this Jehovah shows Himself not only as foreknowing and foretelling, but also as the Searcher of hearts. The mind of the enemy is an open book to Him. We learn this, and we also learn that He is putting hooks into the jaws of this mighty host. He is bringing them out to meet Himself, so that all nations may know Him, the Holy One of Israel.
The whole invasion rests on one wrong reading of what he sees. Defenceless is not the same as unprotected.
Gog calculates on finding easy prey in a people who look so exposed and powerless. He little thinks that on those heights of Israel he and his huge army are about to perish at the hand of Jehovah, if not by each other. It is not only that the actual fighters are caught in their own trap. Those who watch also have to learn that He whose name alone is Jehovah is the Most High over all the earth.
The reversal is exact, and the lesson reaches past Gog.
Gog is allowed to reach the mountains he has craved, only to be handed over as food to the birds and beasts of prey. "Desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death" (James 1:15). How often the grave is the answer to the heart's folly! Instead of taking a spoil, proud Gog becomes the prey.
- Rest first. The unwalled land comes only after Israel returns and settles in peace under their Messiah. No one expects war; no one prepares a defence.
- Walls gone. The missing bars and gates are not neglect but dependence. The Lord Himself is their wall of fire — and a challenge to the Church today, which too often leans on people and organisations.
- Greed sees. Prosperous villages, cattle and goods, no gates — the sight stirs an evil thought in Gog. Satan's hatred of God's people is behind it.
- God knows. The enemy's mind is an open book to the Searcher of hearts, who puts hooks in his jaws and draws him out to meet Himself.
- Prey caught. The one who came to take a spoil becomes the spoil. Watching nations learn that Jehovah is Most High over all the earth.