⁶  And I will send fire on Magog and on those who live in security in the coastlands. Then they shall know that I am the LORD.

The Plan of God and Devotion to Nationhood

The above verse is from Ezekiel 39, one of the most apocalyptic chapters of a very apocalyptic book. In it the prophet describes “Gog” the leader of a land called “Magog” leading a multi-national force against Israel. God intervenes, and the campaign ends disastrously for the invaders. The rest of the book of Ezekiel is a detailed description of a restored temple, different from either Solomon's temple or the temple as it existed in the days of Jesus, and may be symbolic.

Returning to “Gog and Magog”; “Gog” means “leader”, and “Magog” was one of the sons Japheth, thus, a grandson of Noah (Genesis 10:2). His descendants formed a tribe that became the nation of Magog. The only other time Magog is mentioned in the Bible, other than Genesis and Ezekiel, is Revelation 20:8. There God and Magog arise to lead a multi-national invasion against Israel. Whether it is a second invasion or another depiction of the invasion prophesied in Ezekiel I do not know, but the end is also disastrous for Magog. Magog is mentioned elsewhere. Marco Polo, in his travels, wrote of Magog. In ancient maps it can be depicted as an empire north of the Caucasus Mountains. The “coastlands” can mean islands, but has not size limitations and can thus refer to very large land masses. Those are most of hints toward the identity of the nation or nations involved in Magog.

Of course Magog can be symbolic of nations assembled to stand against God, though it can be tempting to search for specific nations in the symbols. Perhaps for now we should consider that our God is above and over all the nations, and none of them will outlast God. There is plenty of room for a Christian to be patriotic yet put that patriotism in the context of devotion to the Lord of all nations, and that even a nation we love can be on the wrong side of God's plan. “America, right or wrong” is a dangerous position to hold. Devotion to our Lord Jesus must supersede even devotion to our country.

Question that was once posed to me: “If the Lord called you to work as a missionary in another country, and the only way to get there was to renounce your U.S. Citizenship, would you do it? Even it if meant that you could not return to your home country?”

Ezekiel 37:11 (NKJV)

¹¹Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say, ‘Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!’

Note: Here is the crux of the matter. The vision depicts the despair of the surviving Israelis in exile. While the promise of the vision includes the promise of the Resurrection, that God speaks life into dead situations prophetically and that the people of God will never die out; the context also tells us that the people in exile remained in exile for 70 years. Most of these people never saw their homeland again. While God is life-giving, prayer answering and death-destroying in my life, I must remember that He has promised to bring His dreams to pass, not necessarily mine, and that I should not be surprised to find my heart broken in this fallen world. Maybe some of my dreams are lost because I never should have embraced them in the first place. Perhaps hopes and dreams that I deem lesser dreams to what I've embrace are actually the greater dreams. My mistake is that I view them from my perspective than the Lord's.