INTRODUCTION
In Revelation 20:7-8 we read, “Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea.”
This passage has bewildered many students of the Bible. They understand that this portrays the world rebelling against the Messiah and his government at the end of the millennium. They understand that this rebellion is instigated by the devil who is released for a short while after the thousand years. What they don’t understand is the typology. Why Gog and Magog? Why not one of the classic illustrations of the ungodly world system that we are already familiar with from the pages of Scripture like Babylon or Egypt or Assyria? The answer to this question not only sheds light on the passage itself but on history and prophecy.
The use of Gog and Magog at the end of the millennium can only be understood when viewed against the backdrop of two important components of world history: God’s appointment of the world empires to exercise dominion over Israel and the known world and the long history of Magog’s resistance to this hegemony.
GOD’S APPOINTED SUPERPOWERS
The four empires of the times of the Gentiles—the Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, the Greek, and the Roman are detailed in the second chapter of Daniel where they are represented by the image which Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream. These nations were given exclusive empire authority over Israel and the known world. At the end of the chapter the rock not cut out by human hands strikes the image in the feet and completely destroys the entire image. This represents the destruction not only of the fourth beast but also the remnants of the earlier empires and the Babylonian spirit. None of them continue.
On the basis of the principle expressed in Daniel 4:17, “the Most High rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to whomsoever he wants,” we can also infer that the two major superpowers prior to the times of the Gentiles—I mean Assyria and Egypt—who alternately dominated Israel, were also in their position by the appointment of the Almighty God.
But of these six world superpowers, none are available to be exploited as the physical or spiritual vehicle for Satan’s last rebellion at the end of the thousand years. As mentioned above, the four empires of the times of the Gentiles, along with the Babylonian spirit which manifested itself in them, are absolutely obliterated. This means Babylon will not exist in the kingdom. Not as a political entity. Not as a political or religious or commercial spirit. And Egypt and Assyria will hold special places of blessing in the kingdom (Isaiah 19:23-25). With Israel they will form a triumvirate of nations that are especially dear to God. This implies that these nations are untouchable. They will be beyond the reach of Satan to exploit them for his final insurrection.
THE IMPLICATIONS OF MAGOG
To understand what God means with the reference to Gog and Magog in Revelation 20 at the end of the thousand years, we need to turn to Ezekiel 38-39 where we find these two engaged in the same kind of activity at the end of this age. This invasion is the precedent for the post-millennial invasion, and as such this passage is an exegetical goldmine which enables us to tap into the mind of God on the usage in Revelation 20.
In Ezekiel 38-39, we see Gog, the leader of the Scythian nation Magog, leading a coalition of other Scythian nations (Rosh, Meshech, Tubal), their German and Gallic cousins (Gomer and his bands), their Scandinavian cousins (Togarmah), and and a smattering of Mediterranean and Middle-Eastern nations that had been either planted or colonized by the Scythians and their cousins. The Scythian nations, for all practical purposes, with a significant influx of Scandinavian blood, have coalesced into modern Russia. This collection of northern nations and their southern counterparts march against Israel with an overwhelming force. The invasion is not merely a threat to Israel, it is a snubbing of the fractured Roman empire and her colonies, who theoretically have a protectorship over Israel. But the vaunted empire doesn’t rise to the occasion. She merely offers a feeble protest. This invasion is also a snubbing of God’s sovereignty and his right to set up over the kingdoms of men whomsoever he pleases. Needless to say, God doesn’t take this threat to his earthly people sitting down. We all know how this story ends. The imposing Russian-led juggernaut is completely destroyed.
MAGOG’S HISTORY OF OPPOSITION
With this context in mind, let’s step back into ancient history and get some perspective on Magog’s opposition to the God-ordained hegemony over Israel, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean.
From the earliest historical records after Babel, the Scythian nations and their northern cousins made continual incursions into Europe, Turkey, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Canaan, and Egypt. They wanted to dominate and colonize the superpowers and the lands they controlled. During the Silver Age, for instance, the North Sea peoples successfully invaded Egypt and ultimately became the Hyksos dynasty. While revisionist historians place the origin of these invaders in the Mediterranean, the Egyptians themselves claimed they were from the land of the ninth bow (the Arctic Circle). In the same era, the North Sea peoples colonized the native Libyans, an endeavor which ultimately blossomed into the Carthaginian empire. Likewise they colonized the Canaanites, establishing Tyre and Sidon as seafaring powers. [For more information on the North Sea peoples—from a source that trusts the ancient testimonies and resists revisionist theories—see Die Atlanter (English Atlantis of the North) and Die Philister by Jürgen Spanuth.] During the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, the Scythians invaded the Middle East numerous times, usually over the Caucusus Mountains, contending with the Assyrians, the Medes, the Persians, and the other peoples of the region.
This pattern continued during the times of the Gentiles. But this time around the transgressions of the Scythians and their northern cousins were even more culpable for they were directed against God’s expressly-ordained hegemony over Israel, the Middle East, and the eastern Mediterranean. They tangled with the Babylonians, the Medo-Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans on various occasions. Rome itself was sacked four times by the northern hordes: the Gauls in 387 BC, the Visigoths in 410 AD, the Vandals in 455 AD, and the Ostrogoths in the late 5th century.
But the enemy never sleeps. He ceaselessly stirs up opposition to every institution of God, and the powers of the times of the Gentiles are no exception. And so his efforts through the northern hordes to usurp the power, position, and possessions of the God-ordained empires of the times of the Gentiles have continued to the present day. The Roman empire was significantly usurped by Germany in 962 when Otto I was crowned emperor of the Roman empire, presenting himself as the successor of Charlemagne (Charles the Great). This kingdom eventually came to be known as the Holy Roman empire, and in this kingdom Germany enjoyed various degrees of success in its efforts to dominate Europe, particularly Italy and Rome. The Holy Roman empire was dissolved in 1806 during the Napoleanic Wars.
In more recent times, Hitler’s effort to establish the Third Reich gobbled up much of the fractured Roman empire, conquering many nations and engineering dominant alliances with others. But this effort was defeated and the Nazi horde was pushed back inside the German borders. Likewise, the Soviet Union extended itself widely in the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe before it was economically broken, collapsed, and forced to retreat from most of her territories. Russia has now taken up this expansionist vision once again and is attempting to expand her footprint in a region which God has given to the Roman empire. This effort too will end in utter failure, this time by the direct hand of God, and not through human agency. God will in one fell swoop baptize Israel by fire, destroy the northern horde, and glorify his name.
FINAL REBELLION
As the domination of the world and hegemony over Israel was given by God to the four empires of the times of the Gentiles, so during the kingdom the government of the world and Israel is given by God to Christ. And as the northern peoples have continually challenged God’s established the Gentile superpowers from the Babylonian empire to the present day, trying to sieze their lands and authority, so at the end of the kingdom they will challenge the Messiah’s world dominion. When Satan is released from the Abyss, he will exploit the pride and spirit of the Magogian horde, likely using these very peoples to rile up the entire world in rebellion against the Messiah and his suppressive, legalistic kingdom. Satan has always been jealous of the throne of God, and he has often expressed this envy by warring through the northern hordes against the God-ordained superpowers down here on earth. Hitler and the Soviet Union were recent examples of this. This game will play out one more time at the end of the millennium—with an ultimate and eternal finality. But in this final episode, the spirit of Gog and Magog won’t merely gather a northern horde, it will gather the entire world.
SPIRIT OF GOG AND MAGOG
Gog and Magog in Revelation 20 bear a similar spiritual force as Babylon does in Revelation 17-18. The Babylonian spirit first arose at the time of Babel, passed down through all the Gentile superpowers, and will be alive and well in the political, religious, and commercial systems of the revitalized Roman empire in the last days that dominates the entire world. In similar fashion, the Magogian spirit seen in Ezekiel 38-39, whose roots trace back to the earliest days, will rear its ugly head at the end of the thousand years and once again attempt to usurp the God-ordained government over the known world. The gathered nations have Gog and Magog invoked over them in the same way that the Roman empire of the last days evokes Mystery Babylon.
It should be pointed out that in Ezekiel 38-39, Gog and Magog refer to the prince and the nation that lead the unified horde. There is no reason to not uphold this distinction in Revelation 20. Gog will be the human leader of the rebellion. He will be like the antichrist revisited except that he will be opposing the Christ seated on earth not the Christ seated in heaven. As the antichrist will be a former Roman emperor raised from the dead, perhaps Gog will be the Gog of Ezekiel 38-39 raised from the dead. But perhaps he will simply be a man born during the thousand year reign who is his namesake.
At any rate, Gog will resist the glorious grace and light of the Messiah King. He will refuse to believe on him. Here is proof positive that faith is a heart issue, not a light or knowledge issue. In this wicked rejection of light and manifest goodness, Gog is even more like Satan than the antichrist. As Satan had been in the presence of God and had seen as much light as there was to see and yet rebelled, so this malevolent son of the devil will have been in the presence of God manifest in flesh and will have seen the goodness of God. He will have enjoyed the privileges of living in the utopian kingdom of God with Christ on the throne. Yet he still resists Christ and refuses to believe.
CONCLUSION
Gog and Magog in Revelation 20 is not, and never was intended to be, a mysterious passage beyond the ken of mortal man. Indeed, there is no passage in the Bible beyond human understanding if we let God explain what he means and trust his illuminating testimony in his word on the subject. The truth is, God gives us a broad and deep precedent in Ezekiel 38-39 as to what he means by Gog and Magog in both its spirit and its associations, so we can know with absolute certainty the general drift of Gog and Magog in Revelation 20:7-8. And if we add a little historical research on Magog and its associations, then we can flesh the passage out quite handsomely.
“Eyes wide open, brain engaged, heart on fire”
Lee W. Brainard
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