I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore you shall hear a word from my mouth and warn them for me.
~ Ezekiel 33:7
The biblical narrative of Gog and Magog, as found in Genesis, 1 Chronicles and Ezekiel in the Old Testament and book of Revelation in the New Testament, has been interpreted in various ways. It often is shoehorned to fit popular exigencies of the time. While literal interpretations of the Gog and Magog texts abound, there exists as well symbolic interpretations that engender contemporary insight. In this piece, we shall examine all these accounts.
Recently, I’ve noticed on Substack and elsewhere frequent mentions of the enigmatic terms Gog and Magog. Especially interesting are the attempts to identify Gog, the leader of the lands called Magog, and locate Magog on modern maps. These speculations are both fascinating and worthy of consideration.
In the Hebrew Bible, Gog and Magog are mentioned in the book of Ezekiel, chapters 38 and 39. According to the prophecy, Gog, the leader of Magog, will lead this coalition of nations in a satanic attack against Israel. This attack will take place "in the latter days," a phrase interpreted to mean the ‘end times.’ According to the prophecy, God will intervene directly to defend Israel, resulting in a devastating defeat of Gog and his armies.
The prophetic context further suggests that God's intervention will be decisive and even miraculous.
Then I will knock the bow out of your left hand, and cause the arrows to fall out of your right hand. You shall fall upon the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops and the peoples who are with you; I will give you to birds of prey of every sort and to the beasts of the field to be devoured. You shall fall on the open field; for I have spoken, says the Lord God.
Ezekiel 39:3-5
In the New Testament, Gog and Magog appear in the book of Revelation, specifically chapter 20, verses 7–10. In this context, they are nations deceived by Satan to attack the "camp of the saints," but fire from heaven consumes them and Satan is then thrown into the lake of fire.
Eschatology is the branch of theology concerned with the end times in monotheistic religion. In Islam, Gog and Magog (known as Ya'juj and Ma'juj) are also apocalyptic references. They are described in Islamic tradition as barbaric tribes that will wreak havoc across the Earth in the end times. As in the Christian tradition, their advent is considered a sign of the end times.
Ya'juj and Ma'juj (Gog and Magog) are mentioned in the Quran in the chapter Al-Kahf (The Cave) and also appear in various Hadiths — the sayings and actions of the Prophet Muhammad.
But in any case, it is clear that anyone who ignores eschatology will not understand modern geopolitics. And not just in the Middle East, although it is most evident there.
Alexander Dugin (source)
Within Christian Premillennial Dispensationalism circles, the Gog and Magog prophecy is often understood in a very literal way. It's considered to be one of the significant end time events, predicted to occur either before or after the Rapture, and midway during the Tribulation period leading up to a thousand-year reign of Christ.
As Dugin noted, whether these concepts are interpreted literally or symbolically, they exert significant influence on current geopolitical analyses of the Middle East.
The Symbolic Realm
In the symbolic realm, Gog can be understood as those antichrist figures representing the enemies of God, who, through their disbelief, atheism, agnosticism or sheer indifference, set themselves against the Divine.
Rather than being an actual place name, Magog, continuing along this symbolic line of thought, encapsulates those persons, armies or countries who knowingly or unwittingly align themselves with the evil cohort led by Gog.
As we previously outlined in Spiritual Warfare: No Escape from Agonia:
Regardless of prior sins, recriminations, poor judgments or innumerable back stories from both sides [Israel and Hamas], which sow doubt and confusion, the 1987 Hamas charter, founding document of the group whose attack on Saturday October 7th plunged Israelis and Palestinians into their current inferno, made no attempt whatsoever to mitigate Hamas’ ultimate objective.
The Day of Judgment will not come about until Muslims fight Jews and kill them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: ‘O Moslem, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him.’ 1
We must acknowledge that the middle ground is both a dangerous illusion and unacceptable convenience. Apathy and indecision in matters spiritual put one in precarious company with unbelievers. We cannot opt out of this cosmic struggle: spiritual neutrality is an ill-afforded luxury.
Israel, far from simply being the Jewish homeland, symbolizes the multinational ‘People of God’ and therefore extends metaphysically to all people who believe in Judeo-Christian transcendent reality. To "stand with Israel and the Jewish people" is not merely a geopolitical slogan but a spiritual imperative for Christians. Standing with Israel is to “Stand with the Lord” of the Christians and Jews, and with the whole House of Israel.
As the Apostle Paul taught, Gentiles were grafted onto the vine that is spiritual Israel. This concept emphasizes the expansion of God's people beyond the Jewish community to include everyone aligned spiritually with Abrahamic tradition. God does not exclude Muslims, although they frequently exclude themselves.2
As the 'Age of the Gentiles' draws to a close and the ‘grafting-on’ is fulfilled, a new unity among those who acknowledge transcendent reality, regardless of religious or ethnic background, will be established. This could well implicate a new religion in the coming age.
If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, ‘Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.’ Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but tremble. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.
Romans 11:17-24
Ezekiel's Vision of Dry Bones
The imagery of Ezekiel's dry bones breathes life into our symbolic interpretation. As Ezekiel 37:11 states:
Then He said to me, ‘Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel; behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope has perished. We are completely cut off.’
These 'dry bones' can be interpreted as the spiritually dead or indifferent, although they can still be restored to life. This includes many residents of the state of Israel, which surprisingly is mostly secular (hilonim). The clarion call, therefore, is for these souls to awaken themselves and align (or realign) with God, however envisioned. Definitions are unimportant.
What is important, even crucial, is that we do not harden our hearts, rather that we rise above our petty biases and stubbornness. A holistic picture of the world requires viewing it first and foremost through a spiritual lens.
Will ‘Gog’ invade Israel from the north?
While it’s a good idea to exercise caution in linking scriptural prophecy directly to current events, it's unwise to ignore the theological underpinnings that inform many modern conflicts. As tensions in the current Middle East conflict escalate along Israel's northern border and off the Yemini coast, revisiting these ancient texts, which shape contemporary religious and political views, proves instructive.
The Gog-Magog prophecy:
You will come from your place in the far north, you and many nations with you, all of them riding on horses, a great horde, a mighty army. You will advance against my people Israel like a cloud that covers the land. In days to come, Gog, I will bring you against my land, so that the nations may know me when I am proved holy through you before their eyes.
Ezekiel 38:15,16
Here, the prophet speaks of a great satanic invasion by a coalition of nations led by the figure known as Gog, who hails from a northern land called Magog. It’s important to become familiar with these prophecies
Indeed, Paul reminds us to keep ourselves informed:
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.
1 Thessalonians 4:13
The prophet Ezekiel further states that God will allow this invasion to happen as a means to make himself known to lost souls — to those ‘dry bones’ noted in the previous section. The prophet’s call, consequently, is for a global spiritual awakening; for the dry bones of the spiritually vexed to return to life, sustained by a holy vision that surpasses sectarian and secular divides.
Ezekiel, my favorite Old Testament prophet, appears to have honed in on today’s world while held captive in Babylon over 2,500 years ago. His span of prophecies is calculated to have occurred over the course of ~22 years, beginning in 593 BCE.
Now that the previously presumed link between Magog and Russia has fallen out of favor among scholars, there is near unanimous agreement in scholarly Bible exegesis (and atlases) that in Ezekiel’s day, Magog, Meshech and Tubal were all located in what is now modern Turkey. The modern coalition of nations (Magog) to be led by Turkey against Israel is listed in the graphic below.
The Truth of Hamas in its Charter (article)