And I will set my glory among the nations, and all the nations shall see my judgment which I have executed, and my hand which I have laid upon them.
The fall of Gog's invading army is not the end of the story. God uses it to show His glory to every nation, and the question is why the lesson has to come through judgment.
These armies are not the ones crushed at the Lord's appearing. Their attack comes later, against a people already settled in safety.
Ezekiel shows clearly what will happen in the coming days of peace and prosperity, after the gracious work of restoration recorded in the earlier chapters. Jehovah will bring great and powerful nations up against His people and their land. These nations lie outside the limits of the empires Daniel speaks of. They have already been met in the full gathering of their power at Har-Magedon (Rev. 16:12-16; Rev. 19:11-21). After that comes the judgment of the great host gathered to capture Jerusalem, at the Lord's appearing on Mount Olivet (Zech. 14:1-4). But Jehovah brings up Gog and his armies after these scenes of judgment, when Israel is living in safety. The purpose is to show all nations the absolute supremacy of Jehovah in all the earth.
God must set His glory among the nations for a reason. Among them His name had long counted for nothing.
Jehovah had humbled and struck Israel in judgment, using the nations as the rod of His anger. But those He used did not consider it. They mocked and boasted, and they blasphemed Jehovah's name. Surely He was of less account than their own idol-gods. He could not defend or save His professed people! They gloried in wasting the land and the people that bore that name. Israel had made Jehovah serve with their sins, so that His name was dishonoured among the Gentiles. The very judgments His holiness had to bring on His sinful people ended in His dishonour in the eyes of the nations. The overwhelming judgment of Gog will cause this reproach to pass away, for it will show His power over the mightiest of earth.
Darby marks off two ways God makes Himself known.
This is the way in which Jehovah reveals Himself. The Father reveals Himself to our souls by the gospel, by the spirit of adoption; but Jehovah makes Himself known by His judgments — by the exercise of His power on the earth.
Isaiah shows what this kind of sight teaches the world:
Isaiah 26:9-11 presents the same truth: the knowledge of Jehovah will spread as the effect of His judgment. It says, "When your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness." And it adds, "If favour is shown to the wicked, he does not learn righteousness." Grace does not produce the effect, but judgment.
The nations do not just watch. What they see carries a lesson, and the lesson runs back through Israel's whole sad history.
The gospel meanwhile, if believed, puts souls in association with Christ for heaven. The Lord will use the sight of the judgments to teach the nations righteousness on earth. Israel too need to learn, and they will, that He who deals in this way is Jehovah their God "from that day and forward." In that day it will be plain and undeniable that Israel went into captivity for nothing but their iniquity. For this alone did Jehovah withdraw His favour from them and give them up to the sword of their enemies. It is His retribution that explains their past history with all its sorrows.
That conclusion also clears God of the charge that He had failed:
Jehovah shows His glory in this way among the nations. From this day forward Israel will know that it is Jehovah Himself who is their God. And the nations will know that it was the iniquity of Israel that brought judgment upon them, and not that Jehovah had failed either in power or in the stability of His counsels.
One writer presses the same point about a dishonoured name on those who carry Christ's name today:
There is a voice in this for us. We too, individually or together, stand identified with the holy name of Christ. Is that name stained because of our failure? Do we commend Him before the eyes of the world? Or does our carelessness, our indifference, make Him serve with our sins in the world's eyes, because His name is named upon us? He is not visible; we are to be His living representatives, His ambassadors.
- Cause — the nations mocked God's name while His people lay under His own chastening. The fall of Gog wipes that reproach away.
- Act — God sets His glory in place, so His power over the mightiest of earth is beyond dispute.
- Reach — every nation sees it: the judgment He carried out, and the hand He laid on them.
- Result — the nations learn righteousness that grace had not taught them. Israel's long sorrow is explained at last: their own iniquity, not God's failure.
- Return — the same name is named on believers today, and the question is whether the world sees it honoured in them.
And the house of Israel shall know that I [am] Jehovah their God from that day and forward.
Ezekiel 39 ends the account of the invasion by Gog, a great power from the north. Verse 22 gives its lasting effect on Israel, and it raises three questions: what event fixes that day, how Israel comes to know God, and why this knowledge never fades.
Commentators tie "that day" to one event: the destruction of the vast northern power in chapters 38 and 39.
These next two chapters, Ezekiel 38 and 39, show that the huge empire of the north is certainly doomed. And when the children of Israel are gathered again as a nation, this vast multitude will come up against the mountains of Israel. Then chapter 39, running parallel with Revelation 19, describes the destruction of this immense host. This is how the Lord appears for His ancient people: "The house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God, from that day forward."
The writers below use God's name Jehovah, which this verse renders "the LORD." Israel comes to know Him by a route Christians do not take today, and one writer sets the two side by side.
This is the way in which Jehovah reveals Himself. The Father reveals Himself to our souls by the gospel, by the spirit of adoption. But Jehovah makes Himself known by His judgments — by the use of His power on the earth. I say that the Father reveals Himself by the gospel because the gospel is a system of pure grace. It teaches us to treat others on the principle of pure grace, just as the Father has treated us.
The two ways of knowing God do different work.
Meanwhile the gospel, when believed, puts souls in association with Christ for heaven. The Lord will use the sight of the judgments to teach the nations righteousness on earth.
Part of what Israel learns is about its own past. The long exile at last gets its explanation.
Israel too need to learn, and so they will, that He who deals in this way is Jehovah their God "from that day forward." In that day it will be plain and undeniable that Israel went into captivity for nothing but their iniquity. For this alone Jehovah withdrew His favour from them and gave them up to the sword of their enemies. It is His retribution that explains their past history with all its sorrows.
The lesson is not private. Israel's long humiliation had made outsiders think her God was weak, and that day answers them.
Jehovah shows His glory in this way among the nations. So Israel from this day forward shall know that it is Jehovah Himself who is their God. And the nations shall know that it was the iniquity of Israel that brought judgment upon them, not that Jehovah had failed either in power or in the stability of His purposes. In a word, Jehovah and His government would be fully known in Israel, and through this people known in the world.
The phrase marks a start with no end. Behind it stands God's care for His own name.
First, the work of judgment confirms Israel beyond all question in the knowledge of Jehovah as their God. Second, it settles every question people raise to dishonour Jehovah's name because of Israel's wretched condition through the centuries of her scattering. It was not because He was weak and unable to save, though it might look that way to the mocking eyes of unbelief. It was because He was holy, and had to hide His face from them because of their iniquity… It also becomes the lesson book for the restored nation. No one will be left out of blessing, and God will never hide His face from them again… God is jealous of His holy name. He acts to vindicate it, and in this His people get their full blessing.
- Day. The clock starts at one event. God destroys the northern host that comes up against a regathered Israel, in Ezekiel 38 and 39.
- Means. On that day God makes Himself known by judgment, not by the gospel. The gospel reveals the Father and puts souls with Christ for heaven. The judgments reveal Jehovah and teach the nations righteousness on earth.
- Lesson. Israel first learns about itself. It went into captivity for its own iniquity alone, and that retribution explains every sorrow in its past.
- Reach. The nations learn it too. God was not too weak to save His people. He hid His face because He was holy.
- Forever. "From that day forward" has no end date. God has cleared His holy name, so the knowledge stands, becomes the nation's lesson book, and He never hides His face again.
And the nations shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity, because they were unfaithful against me; and I hid my face from them, and gave them into the hand of their enemies, so that they fell all of them by the sword.
Gog's army has just fallen on the mountains of Israel, and God now tells a watching world what Israel's long defeat meant. For centuries the nations had read Israel's ruin as proof that their God was too weak to save.
This verse draws its conclusion from the judgment God has just carried out. The fall of Gog teaches the nations, and it teaches Israel too.
The Lord will use the sight of these judgments to teach the nations righteousness on earth. Israel too needs to learn, and will learn, that the One who acts in this way is Jehovah their God "from that day and forward." In that day it will be plain and undeniable that Israel went into captivity for nothing but their iniquity. That was the only reason Jehovah withdrew His favour from them and gave them up to the sword of their enemies. It is His retribution that explains their past history with all its sorrows.
Israel's long scattering looked like proof that their God could not save. The true reason lay elsewhere.
It gives a complete answer to every question raised to dishonour Jehovah's name because of Israel's wretched condition through the centuries of her scattering. It was not because He was weak, unable to save, though it might look that way to the mocking eyes of unbelief. It was because He was holy, and had to hide His face from them because of their iniquity. So He gave them into the hands of their adversaries; otherwise these could have had no power over them. This history, read in the light of Gog's judgment, will bear witness to the righteousness and holiness of Jehovah, before whom all the earth must now bow.
So the enemy's power was never their own. Israel fell only because God handed them over.
The lesson does not stop with Israel. Through this one nation the whole world learns how God governs.
The nations shall know that it was Israel's own iniquity that brought judgment on them. Jehovah had not failed — not in His power, and not in the firmness of His purposes. In short, Israel would fully know Jehovah and His government, and through this people the world would know them too. From that time on God would no longer hide His face from them. He would pour out His Spirit on His people.
Hiding the face was not a vague mood. Under the covenant with Israel it was a stated consequence, and it led straight to what the verse says next: God gave them into enemy hands.
For Jehovah to hide His face from His people under the old covenant was in full keeping with the terms of that covenant. Their disobedience would provoke His anger. The effect would be a course of discipline. Its sharpest point was that He took away the favour He had shown them, and without that favour they were defenceless prey before their enemies.
Israel's discipline was never a licence for other nations to do as they pleased with them.
The nations, too, will then learn their lesson: Jehovah will not let others meddle with Israel. He will deal with them Himself in His righteousness, so that their evil may be purged away and they may receive His lasting blessing.
This has not happened yet. God's face is still hidden today.
Clearly the time spoken of here has not yet come. When it does, God "will not hide His face any more from them," as He is doing at the present time. He will gather them "into their own land," and will leave none of them among the nations.
So the hidden face in this verse describes a state with an end. The God who withdrew because of sin promises never to withdraw again.
- Cause — one thing sent Israel into captivity: their own iniquity brought God's chastening on them.
- Not weakness — the nations read Israel's ruin as proof that their God could not save. He was holy, and had to hide His face.
- Hidden face — God withdrew the favour He had shown them. Without it, Israel lay defenceless before their enemies.
- Cleared name — the judgment on Gog clears God's government. His power never failed, and His purposes never slipped.
- Restored face — God Himself ends this condition. He gathers His people home and hides His face no more.