“And I will turn you about, and put hooks in your jaws, and I will bring you forth, and all you army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed in full armour, a great company with buckler and shield, all of them handling swords. Persia, Cush and Put with them, all of them with shield and helmet, Gomer and all his hordes, the house of Togarmah in the uttermost parts of the north, and all his hordes, even many peoples with you.”
This vivid description reveals that Yahweh is at all times totally in control. At present all was under control under the hand of Babylon (who were also under Yahweh's control as we have seen), but Ezekiel foresees the time when Babylon will be no more, and when Yahweh will then allow these terrible, mysterious distant forces to be released against His people, and against His eternal inheritance. But it will still be under Yahweh's hand, for it is He Who will turn them about and put hooks in their jaws (compare Ezekiel 29:4 where it is treatment for one who made arrogant claims). The picture is drawn from hunting. They will act as captured wild beasts under His control, roaring lions waiting to devour. Notice how the might and remoteness of the forces are emphasised.
However, the fact that this is Yahweh's doing does not take away from the responsibility of the agents. They are free agents. They do what they will. It is just that Yahweh allows them to do so and uses it in His purposes. They do His will whether they want to or not. Man boasts in his freedom, but he is really subject to the will of the Almighty.
The fact of the universality of the forces and the fact that they come against an eternal kingdom (Ezekiel 37:26-28) may warn us not to take the whole picture too literally. This is no local invasion. It is a combination of ‘worldwide' forces from the far reaches of the world against the whole people of God (compare Revelation 20:9), pictured in the only way available to Ezekiel with his limited conceptions. (Such a force would hardly really be necessary for the invasion of a small country like Palestine with unwalled villages, without bars or gates. On the other hand with troubles in Egypt the Persians may well have amassed an army and called in on Israel and the surrounding nations so as to ensure their neutrality, on the way).
Note the stress on the fact that they are fully and powerfully armed, and the places where they come from. Persia, at the time of Ezekiel the rising power beyond Babylon; Cush and Put (Genesis 10:6), probably to be seen as representing Northern Sudan and Libya in North Africa in the extremes of the south; Gomer (possibly the Cimmerians from the Black Sea area) and Togarmah (possibly Tegarama, the capital of Kammanu) (Genesis 10:2-3), representing the other peoples of the north. They are the peoples who live at the extremes of Ezekiel's knowledge. Unless Magog is Babylon, Babylon and Egypt are deliberately ignored, which would stress the futuristic nature of the description. They were regular enemies. There was no mystery about them. But if Magog is Babylon, and the action takes place due to Egypt's rebellion, then their absence is explained.
The contrast is with the people of God, dwelling securely in unwalled villages, without walls, bars or gates (Ezekiel 38:10), in other words with no outward means of defence. This is a picture that is equally as extravagant as that of the huge armies. It is the seemingly totally defenceless against the greatest power that Ezekiel could conceive of once Babylon's empire had gone (and at this time Babylon was seen by Jeremiah and Ezekiel as a friendly power in God's purposes). It is hell let loose. And this is against the people of God described in Ezekiel 37:26-28 which as we have seen depicts the growth of the Kingly Rule of God and of the church of Christ, the new Israel who are the temple of God in the world, leading on to the eternal state.
Thus behind this picture, deliberately rooted to earth to prevent confusion with the gods, is the fact of the forces of darkness pitted against the people of God. But the latter needed to do nothing. They were under the protection of Yahweh. (It is possibly not without significance that the areas named have been the places where the people of God have suffered the greatest of persecutions since the Muslim expansion and conquests).