Gog of the land of Magog (Revelation 20:8) represents those who were deceived by the dragon, who had been released from his prison (Revelation 20:2-3, 7). So, Gog went up to the beloved city along the breadth of the land in order to surround the camp of the saints (Revelation 20:9). According to Ezekiel 38:11, at the time of the war of Revelation 20:8 the camp of the saints was unprotected.[1] In other words, their cities had no walls or gates. They dwelt safely in that their confidence lay not in the strength of man but in the Lord. It was against these people that Gog, the prince of Magog (Ezekiel 38:2-3) arose to slaughter (Revelation 20:9) in order to take a spoil (Ezekiel 38:8-12).
Who, then, is Gog, and where is the land of Magog? Of course, there are many opinions of who this prince is. Some say he is the so-called Antichrist! Josephus identifies the people of Magog as Scythians,[2] but in rabbinical writings Gog and the people of Magog represent the enemies of the Messiah.[3] So, are Gog and the people of Magog folks who inhabit a specific place on a world map or do they have a spiritual connotation, referring simply to the enemies of the Messiah?
There is an interesting comparison of the fate of Gog and the people of Magog and the fate of Babylon the Great in Revelation 16. First of all, Ezekiel tells us that Gog, together with a great company and mighty army, would come against the Lord’s servants in the latter days (Ezekiel 38:15-16). In the Apocalypse, John tells us that the dragon, the beast and the false prophet would bring the people together for the War of the Great Day of God Almighty (Revelation 16:13-14). Ezekiel speaks of the Lord’s people dwelling without walls when they are attacked (Ezekiel 38:11), and the Apocalypse shows the war is waged in the form of persecution, drying up the Euphrates (the Gospel) by killing the Lord’s witnesses (Revelation 16:12).[4] It is because of this evil that the Lord calls for the sword against Gog and his armies (Ezekiel 38:21) in what the Apocalypse calls the War of the Great Day of God Almighty (Revelation 16:14, 16), or the War of Gog of the land of Magog (Revelation 20:8).
Notice that the prophet, Ezekiel, claimed there would be “a great shaking” in which every living thing would be shaken and the mountains would be cast down (Ezekiel 38:19-20). In Revelation 16:20 John records there would be a great earthquake at the pouring out of the seventh bowl, and earthquake was “such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great” (Revelation 16:18). Finally, Ezekiel calls for great hailstones (Ezekiel 38:22), each of which the Apocalypse claimed weighed a talent (i.e. 100 lbs.), and all this is summed up in Revelation 20:8 with the words: “fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.”
Thus, it seems very clear that the War of Gog of the Land of Magog (Ezekiel 38:15-16, 21; Revelation 20:8) is the same as the War of the Great Day of God Almighty (Revelation 16:14), both of which occurs in the latter days, and, if this is logically so, it stands to reason that the land of Magog is apocalyptic language (or spiritual language) for Babylon the Great, which we have already seen is spiritual language for Jerusalem. Gog would then refer to the Jewish authorities who were responsible not only for the persecution of God’s people, but also for the outbreak of the war between Rome and Jerusalem.
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[1] Remember, the physical city of Jerusalem did have walls and gates, so the prophet couldn’t have been referring to it.
[2] See Antiquities of the Jews 1.6.1 (123).
[3] See the Babylonians Talmud, Sanhedrin 17a.
[4] See my previous studies on Revelation 16: The Sixth Bowl and the Three Unclean Spirits and The Sixth Bowl and the Euphrates. Relevant to these studies is my study in Revelation 11, Who Are the Two Witnesses?
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