Lesson 7 Overview

Ezekiel 38: A Study of Gog and Magog with Dr. Andy Woods

This lesson finishes the “what” question (the outcome of the battle) and begins the “how” question (how the world stage is being set for these events). Use this overview to review the key points after watching the full video.

The Outcome: The Coalition Is Destroyed

Dr. Woods explains that the most significant result of the invasion is that God Himself annihilates the coalition (Ezekiel 38:19-22). This comes through a great earthquake, disease, torrential rain, hailstones, fire, and burning sulfur, echoing the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. God also turns the invaders against one another, “every man’s sword against his brother” (Ezekiel 38:21), the same way He defeated the Midianites in Gideon’s day. God gets the credit, and He shows up for Israel when she has no other friend. Afterward, birds and beasts feast on the dead (Ezekiel 39:4-5), it takes seven months to bury the dead (Ezekiel 39:12), and seven years to burn the weapons (Ezekiel 39:9).

Can Weapons Burn in the Millennial Kingdom?

The seven-year burning of weapons is often used to argue the battle must occur before the tribulation, so that the burning does not spill into the millennial kingdom. Dr. Woods answers, in effect, “what is the big deal?” He points out that Babylon burns throughout the millennium as a testimony to her defeat (Revelation 19:2-3), so weapons burning for seven years is no problem.

He argues the real confusion is failing to distinguish the millennial kingdom from the eternal state. In the millennium, sin, the curse, and death are restrained but still present, mortals and resurrected people live together, evangelism is still needed, and the earth is a renovated creation. In the eternal state, sin, the curse, and death are gone, only resurrected people remain, and the earth is a brand new creation made from nothing (2 Peter 3:10; Revelation 21). Burning weapons would be unthinkable in a brand new creation, but not in a renovated one. So there is no need to push the battle before the tribulation.

The Real Point: A Converted Israel

Dr. Woods stresses that the most important outcome is spiritual. Through this cataclysmic battle, Israel realizes she has no friend but God, trusts in Him, and is regenerated (Ezekiel 39:22 and 39:29). He compares this to how God often brings people to a point of crisis where they have no one to trust but Him. This is why the battle sits within the restoration section of Ezekiel (chapters 33 to 48), alongside the rebuilt temple, the revived Dead Sea, and the divided land. The Gog and Magog battle is the catalyst God uses to bring Israel to faith in her Messiah.

He underscores that Israel’s future is certain because of God’s unconditional covenants (the Abrahamic, land, Davidic, and new covenants). Jeremiah 31:35-37 says Israel will remain a nation before God as long as the sun, moon, and stars endure, so she must one day come to faith.

Beginning the “How” Question

Dr. Woods then turns to how the stage is being set, saying three strategic trends must be in place. The first is that Israel must be regathered in unbelief, since the nations cannot come against Israel unless the Jewish people are back in the land (Ezekiel 38:8). This regathering has already happened.

He calls it a sociological miracle: after being scattered in AD 70, the Jewish people returned 2,000 years later to the same land with their language, culture, and religion intact, something no other displaced people group has done (the Amalekites, Jebusites, and others assimilated and vanished). He answers the objection that Israel is in unbelief by noting that God works in people before they are saved, just as He did in every believer’s life. He also observes that Israel needed the “mountains of Israel” (Ezekiel 38:8), which only came back into Israeli control after the 1967 war (Judea and Samaria), so this prophecy could not have been fulfilled before then.