Page 202 - NOTES ON EZEKIEL

19G NOTES ON EZEKIEL.

He will turn him back, put books in his jaws, and
cause him to go forth, him and all his host.
Then will it appear as a final lesson that no king is
saved by the multitude of his host, that a mighty man
is not delivered by much strength, and that a horse is a
vain thing for safety. Israel at length are poor in spirit;
and Jehovah brings the counsel of the heathen to nought,
whilst His counsel stands for ever. There they come
clothed to perfection, a great company, with shield and
buckler, all of them grasping swords; Persia too is
there, obliged to follow the train of the mighty northern
leader, Cush and Phut with them; Gomer, and all his
bands; the house of Thogarmah from the sides of the
north, and all his bands: many people indeed with Gog f
With grave irony he is told to be prepared and prepare
himself, and he and all his vast confederacy, and be their
guard—if he can !
Long, long ago had been the prophetic warning. No
great nation in the old world had been so slow to take up
the leadership of the populous East. But, delayed as it
might be, the epoch is seen vividly by the seer of the
Chebar. “ After many days thou wilt be mustered;
in the last of the years thou wilt come into the land” of
Israel, where they are then dwelling safely. As a storm
Gog comes, as a cloud he covers the land. But no
weapon formed against Israel shall prosper. Such is
their heritage, when their righteousness is of Jehovah.
They may as yet be few, their adversaries countless;
but what is this to the Lord but an opportunity for
shewing Himself the enemy of His people’s enemies ?
This Gog finds out, as we shall see, too late not only for
himself and his enormous following, but for those he had