Further Words to Gog.
God now, through Ezekiel, addresses further words to Gog. Gog is greedy for what he can extract from God's people. But he has reckoned without God.
“Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to Gog, Thus says the Lord Yahweh, In that day when my people Israel dwell securely, will you not know it? And 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 company and a mighty army, and you will come up against my people Israel, as a cloud to cover the land. It will come about in the latter days, that I will bring you against my land, that the nations may know me when I will be sanctified in you, O Gog, before their eyes.”
Gog is such that he is aware when God's people dwell securely and are complacent. It is then that he makes his devious attack, and there follows a summary of Gog's attack on God's people with his mighty apocalyptic forces. The ‘uttermost parts of the north' stresses the connection of Gog with the furthest north known to Ezekiel, the extremes of the world, and the north was where supernatural things could be found (Ezekiel 1:4; Isaiah 14:13). The far north is also regularly the source of great danger (Jeremiah 1:13-14; Jeremiah 4:6; Jeremiah 6:1; Jeremiah 6:22-24; Jeremiah 10:22; Joel 2:20 see also Jeremiah 25:32-33).
Once again his forces are said to come ‘like a cloud to cover the land' (compare Joel 2:2; Zephaniah 1:15; Jeremiah 4:13). Usually it is Yahweh Who comes with the clouds and covers things with a cloud (Ezekiel 1:4; Exodus 24:16; Exodus 40:34; Numbers 9:15-16; Psalms 97:2; Psalms 105:39). The idea may therefore be to indicate an other-worldly visitation of an imitative kind. We may see here a stress on spiritual warfare, intended by Ezekiel, but avoiding any thought of it connecting with the gods.
‘Riding on horses.' Compare Ezekiel 38:3. Such huge armies all on horseback would indeed have been a fearsome sight in those days, for most large armies were mainly on foot. This was an enemy indeed. In Revelation a great spiritual threat to mankind is likened to horses prepared for war (Revelation 9:7-11 compare Joel 2:4).
But whatever the visitors may be the comfort is that they are finally under Yahweh's control. It is He Who brings them against the land, even as He brought them forth with hooks in their jaws (Ezekiel 38:4) and mustered them (Ezekiel 38:8), even though they do not know it and would have loudly denied it. And through them He will reveal to the nations Who and What He is.