Biblical Giants | Gog and Magog
Monday, August 31, 2015
We can learn the names of individual giants mentioned in the bible by referencing the known tribe of Giants. This series that will introduce us to each of the 22 individually named giants referenced in the Bible. According to the bible these giants once walked the earth and interacted with humans. Are they still around? Do they still interact with humans? Do we know them today as Sasquatch and Bigfoot.
In the Book of Ezekiel, Gog is the name of an individual and Magog the name of his land; in Genesis 10 Magog is a person, and in Revelation both Gog and Magog are nations. We are going to discuss Gog the individual as he is mentioned in Ezekial, but it is worthy to note the name appears again in the book of Revelations. In Revelations Gog is referenced as a land in the end times.
The Book of Ezekiel records a series of visions received by the 6th century BCE prophet Ezekiel, a former priest of the Temple in exile in Babylon. The exile, he tells his fellow captives, is God’s punishment on Israel for turning away from him, but God will restore them to Jerusalem when they return to him. After this message of reassurance, chapters 38–39, the Gog oracle, tell how Gog of Magog and his hordes will threaten the restored Israel but will be destroyed, after which God will establish a new Temple and dwell forever with his people (chapters 40-48).
Son of man, direct your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince, leader of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy concerning him. Say: Thus said the Lord: Behold, I am against you, Gog, the prince, leader of Meshech and Tubal…Persia, Cush and Put will be with you…also Gomer with all its troops, and Beth Togarmah from the far north with all its troops—the many nations with you.
In all the books of the Old Testament Gog appears only in these chapters. (The Gog son of Reuben in I Chronicles 5:4 is an Israelite, and can hardly be the same as the Gog of Ezekiel Of Gog’s allies, Meshech and Tubal were 7th-century kingdoms in central Anatolia to the north of Israel, Persia is located to Israel’s east, and Cush (Ethiopia) and Put (Libya) to the south; Gomer is the Cimmerians, a nomadic people north of the Black Sea, and Beth-Togarmah was on the border of Tubal. The confederation thus represents a world-wide alliance against Israel. “Why the prophet’s gaze should have focused on these particular nations is unclear,” but possibly their remoteness and reputation for violence and mystery “made Gog and his confederates’ perfect symbols of the archetypal enemy, rising against God and his people.” The theological message of the Gog oracle is that even Gog is under God’s will, and its placement before the Utopian future of chapters 40-48 (the restoration the Temple and God’s eternal presence with his people) emphasises the eschatological character of that event.
SRC: Learn more about Gog and Magog at: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gog_and_Magog