Be Mindful Gog of Magog, God is going to use you

 Today we are reading from Ezekiel 37:15-28. Last time we met we learned about One People, One Shepherd, One God. You can read more in my Ezekiel Studies here and here.

The Lord has a word against Gog, of the land of Magog today.   The Lord is against him. 
This is why: 
 You will come up against my people Israel, like a cloud covering the land. In the latter days I will bring you against my land, that the nations may know me, when through you, O Gog, I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.

It always strikes me as odd.   How God will use a nation against his people and then punish that nation afterwards.

Gog is living his life, with all his armies.  God will then muster Gog and his armies " I will turn you about and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out"


⁷ “Be ready and keep ready, you and all your hosts that are assembled about you, and be a guard for them.   God warns him.

God will muster Gog and his armies and his allies so well that they will be like a storm coming over the land of Israel, expecting to find a land of unwalled villages, in order to seize spoils and plunder the land.   In fact the nations surrounding will say:  Have you come to seize spoil? Have you assembled your hosts to carry off plunder, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to seize great spoil?’

And so Gog and his people will come with a heart to plunder a nation just gathered together and God will act.  He will show his holiness.   He will show his protection of his people.
 
¹⁴ “Therefore, son of man, prophesy, and say to Gog, Thus says the Lord God: On that day when my people Israel are dwelling securely, will you not know it? ¹⁵ You will come from your place out of the uttermost parts of the north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great host, a mighty army. ¹⁶ You will come up against my people Israel, like a cloud covering the land. In the latter days I will bring you against my land, that the nations may know me, when through you, O Gog, I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.

God's method of punishment?
He will use the land against Gog and his ilk.  The very land... an earthquake will shake the land, the mountains will quake around Gog and his armies.  Hail and torrential rains will fall about them.   Fire and sulfur will cover them.   (which makes me think volcano).

¹⁸ But on that day, the day that Gog shall come against the land of Israel, declares the Lord God, my wrath will be roused in my anger. ¹⁹ For in my jealousy and in my blazing wrath I declare, On that day there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. ²⁰ The fish of the sea and the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the field and all creeping things that creep on the ground, and all the people who are on the face of the earth, shall quake at my presence. And the mountains shall be thrown down, and the cliffs shall fall, and every wall shall tumble to the ground. ²¹ I will summon a sword against Gog on all my mountains, declares the Lord God. Every man's sword will be against his brother. ²² With pestilence and bloodshed I will enter into judgment with him, and I will rain upon him and his hordes and the many peoples who are with him torrential rains and hailstones, fire and sulfur. 

 23So I will show my greatness and my holiness and make myself known in the eyes of many nations. Then they will know that I am the Lord.

Can you imagine it?  Really? 
I've never been in a major earthquake... I experienced a small one when I went down to CA one time, but a major one where rocks are falling down, with sulfur and what not in the air.... 

You can't mistake such a thing as anything other than the Lord God at work.
You can't.
Not when it's directed at an invading army.

The nations surrounding the newly remade land of Israel would have been watching with avid interest... and to see Gog and his people destroyed in such a manner would have set their tongues a wagging.   

Can you picture it?

I think about this and how to apply it to my life and I keep being drawn back to how God so often uses another people group to discipline his people, or to show his greatness in regards to his care for his own people (and ergo his holiness) and I wonder... I wonder how God is using people TODAY how show his holiness and care of his people?

I don't see (in my personal life) God using people to help me mind him better.  
I know that peoples are persecuted throughout the world for loving God (but I don't always see God punishing those persecuted).   So sometimes I wonder if God still uses this method today.

And I wonder...what would happen if he did?
Would people see it for what it is?   God's greatness and holiness on display for the world to see.   Would it set tongues-a-wagging about the greatness of God?

What can I do to get people talking about the greatness of God?   Nothing compared to this for sure.  I can't make earthquakes.

hmm...