Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #9 of Revelation chapter 20 and we are continuing to look at Revelation 20:7-8:
And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
We were looking at the first part of this verse concerning the loosing of Satan and his renewed ability to deceive the nations. He had been able to do that until the cross for over 11,000 years of earth’s history, but then his ability to deceive was restrained by God when Christ bound him for a thousand years in order that God might establish the Gospel in the world. And this was done and the Gospel was established in the world and the Laws of God became familiar to mankind. As God the Holy Spirit constrained sin in the hearts of men and where the Gospel would come, there was a respect for Sunday as God’s Sabbath Day and there was a respect for the marriage relationship because the Bible established the institution of marriage. There was a respect for life and the commandments of God and it began to reform the barbarians and heathens of the world. Prior to that, they only had the witness of creation and the sun, moon and stars to declare the glory of God, but then came the written Word. The Word came to give them specific information and entire nations began to be transformed by it, as they established governments that would follow the dictates of the Bible in many ways. This happened as the churches came to the nations of the world and brought them out of the darkness and into the light. It did not necessarily result in salvation because God would save only a remnant, but He was instructing the unsaved people in the proper way to live. For instance, it is the Bible that teaches husbands to love their wives; it is the Bible that teaches wives to submit to their husbands; it is the Bible that teaches people to raise their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. The Bible brought tremendous blessing to the people of the nations.
But then came the time of the end and the time the Bible warned about, the time when judgment would begin at the house of God, the churches. It had been the churches that had been used by God to establish His Word and the Law of God within nations and now the churches had fallen away. The Spirit of God in the midst of the churches had departed out and Satan entered in, with renewed vigor, to rule in both the nations and the corporate church. He was loosed in order to deceive the nations all over the earth. It only took a few years and we find that man returned to “darkness” and returned to his heathen past in the things he did – in music, in the way he conducted himself in turning away from the Laws of God.
So, we find that the world, for the most part, has no concern for Sunday the Sabbath. The world, for the most part, does not uphold the marriage institution. You can do whatever you wish and you can marry two, five or seven times. If you are a man, you can marry another man and if you are a woman, you can marry another woman. It is all immaterial to mankind. They have lost their respect and honor for the commandments of God and, therefore, they are returning to their former condition and their deceitful practices.
You know, we are seeing this change right before our eyes and we are seeing that people have lost the ability to understand the truth of what is very plain to the child of God and what had been plain to the world for thousands of years. But now they cannot see it. They cannot understand morality and they cannot discern what is right from what is wrong and what is good from what is evil because God said He would give men up to these things. That coincided with the loosing of Satan and his renewed ability to deceive the nations.
Again, it says in Revelation 20:8:
And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth…
In other words, it is a world-wide phenomenon and there is not a part of the world unaffected by it. Then it goes on to say in Revelation 20:8:
…Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
First, let us take a look at the term “Gog and Magog.” The main place we read about this is in Ezekiel, chapters 38 and 39. God devotes two entire chapters to “Gog and Magog” and we wonder, “Who is this? What is the point God makes in referring to ‘Gog and Magog’ at the time when He speaks of Satan being loosed to deceive the nations?”
Let us read Ezekiel 38:1-6:
And the word of JEHOVAH came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, And say, Thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords: Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet: Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee.
I’ll stop reading at this point in verse 6, but let us first see where these names take us. We know that Hebrew names are words that have meaning, but we are not helped much with these particular names. Again, it says in Ezekiel 38:2:
Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal
It mentions the names again at the end of verse 3:
… the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:
When we search the Bible for these names, it leads us back to Genesis, chapter 10 and this is a chapter that is coming after the flood. It says in Genesis 10:1-2:
Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood. The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog…
Magog is a son of Japheth. Then it goes on to say in Genesis 10:2:
… and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras.
We also had “Tubal and “Meshech” mentioned in Ezekiel 38. Then it goes on to say in Genesis 10:3-4:
And the sons of Gomer; Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah. And the sons of Javan; Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim.
In Ezekiel 38 we also read of “Gomer” in verse 6, where it said, “Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah,” and in Genesis 10:2, it mentioned “Gomer” as a son of Japeth and in verse 3 it said the sons of Gomer were “Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah.”
So we have five names in Ezekiel 38 that are identified with “Gog and Magog” that are all found in Genesis, chapter 10: 1) Magog; 2) Meshech; 3) Tubal; 4) Gomer; and 5) Togarmah. There are five names that lead us to one chapter. That cannot be a coincidence. God is definitely directing us to Genesis, chapter 10 to understand a little bit better the names “Gog and Magog” through the names He gives us. Remember, “Gog” is the “chief prince of Meshech and Tubal.” But how does it relate?
Let us read one more verse in Genesis, chapter 10. It says in Genesis 10:5:
By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations.
By these sons of Japheth God says the isles of the Gentiles were divided in their lands. The “isles of the Gentiles” is another way to refer to the continents. When we read of “isles” in the Bible it often points to continents because continents are surrounded by water and are just very large islands, so God refers to the continents or the earth as “isles” in some verses. So the “isles of the Gentiles” or the nations were divided by these men. God is linking the sons of Japheth (Magog, Meshech, Tubal Gomer and Togarmah) to the nations or the Gentiles. The words “nations” and “Gentiles” are the same Hebrew word in the Old Testament. That is what is in view when it says in our verse in Revelation 20:8:
And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog…
“Gog and Magog” are a reference to the sons of Japeth, which God had said, “By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands,” or the four quarters of the earth – it is all the nations of the world or all the unsaved inhabitants of the earth that are part of “Gog and Magog.”
Ezekiel chapter 39 is a chapter in which the Lord describes the defeat of “Gog and Magog,” and He says in Ezekiel 39:6:
And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am JEHOVAH.
Here, there is a reference to the “isles,” just as it said in Genesis 10:5: “By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands.” Here, God says He will “send a fire on Magog,” which means that Judgment Day will come upon the nations of the world because they are dwelling carelessly in the isles or continents of the earth. Then He goes on to say, “And they shall know that I am JEHOVAH.” There is that phrase we looked at some time ago regarding, “Of that day knoweth no man,” because man had not yet experienced Judgment Day, but when Judgment Day comes and they experienced it, then Gog and Magog (the inhabitants of the isles) shall know that God is JEHOVAH through the actual experiencing of His wrath in the Day of Judgment. So this is what is actually in view with the reference to “Gog and Magog.”
Satan himself is typified by “Gog, while “Magog” is all the Gentiles or all the unsaved inhabitants of the earth. It is a similar picture to Pharaoh and the Egyptians or the King of Babylon and the Babylonians or the King of Assyria and the Assyrians. They are all types or figures of Satan and his forces, all those within the kingdom of darkness.
One other thing I would like to look at is in Ezekiel 38:3-4:
And say, Thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
God is speaking to Satan as represented by the “chief prince of Meshech and Tubal.” God is telling Satan that he will be turned back when “hooks” are put into his jaws. The word “hooks” leads us to Ezekiel 29:2:
Son of man, set thy face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him, and against all Egypt:
Here, God is speaking to Pharaoh and we know that Pharaoh is often used in the Bible as a type and figure of Satan. It says in Ezekiel 29:3:
Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH; Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers…
Satan is called a “dragon” in Revelation 20, so we are on safe ground understanding that Pharaoh is being used here as a picture of Satan.
Then it says in Ezekiel 29:3-4:
…which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself. But I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales, and I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick unto thy scales.
Once the Lord put hooks in Pharaoh’s jaws and pulls him out of the river, it not only includes Pharaoh but it includes the fish of the rivers. That is just like it says in Ezekiel 38:4: “And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army.” It was “Gog and Magog” that was hooked and will be turned back by God.
It goes on to say in Ezekiel 29:5:
And I will leave thee thrown into the wilderness, thee and all the fish of thy rivers: thou shalt fall upon the open fields; thou shalt not be brought together, nor gathered: I have given thee for meat to the beasts of the field and to the fowls of the heaven.
If we would continue reading into chapter 39 of Ezekiel, once Gog and Magog are defeated they are given to the fowls of the heaven, so it is very similar. We find the same reference to God putting hooks in the jaws of Pharaoh or in the jaws of Gog.
There is another reference to this same Hebrew word in 2Kings 19:20:
Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith JEHOVAH God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.
The situation here is that the Syrians, under King Sennacherib, are coming against Judah and Jerusalem where good king Hezekiah was found. The Assyrians had already destroyed Samaria, the rebellious people of God in the North, and now they are coming against the people of Judah. Yet, God resisted Sennacherib because Hezekiah is a type of Christ and the Jews, in this case, are a picture of God’s elect, whereas Samaria was a picture of the corporate church. Then it says in 2 Kings 19:27:
But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me.
God is addressing the Assyrians and their king and that is a picture of Satan. And Satan certainly has a rage against God. Then it says in 2Kings 19:28:
Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.
God did turn them back. They woke up the next day and there were 185,000 dead Assyrians. The army of Assyria was destroyed and they were all “dead corpses” and the king of Assyria had to return to his own land where he was assassinated by his own sons. It is a spiritual picture of God turning back Satan. How does that relate to what is going on in Ezekiel 38 concerning Gog and Magog? Remember, Gog and Magog, according to Revelation 20, identify with Satan’s loosing and the gathering of the Gentiles. And what happened when Satan was loosed? He came against the camp of the saints. He came against the churches and congregations of the world and he was victorious, just like Sennacherib was victorious over Samaria. But then Sennacherib went too far. He thought that since he had defeated Samaria that had the same God as Judah he could come against Jerusalem, also, but God made a point of distinguishing between Jerusalem under Hezekiah and Samaria and God defended His city and turned back the king of Assyria.
Likewise, Satan was loosed and overcame the corporate church, but when he tried to come against the elect people of God, God turned him back and that would have been on the Day of Judgment (May 21, 2011) and the prolonged period of judgment in which we now live.