Sun 100404 pm Ez 37-39

Ezekiel 37
37.4  Come hear the Word of the Lord...  I really enjoy reading this chapter.  It is a great vision and speaks to how God can do the impossible.  The Cathedrals do a nice job with the song.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLg-v4CS4nQ&feature=related
.
Ezekiel 38
38.2  Gog...  The name of the leader of the hostile party described in Ezek. 38,39, as coming from the “north country” and assailing the people of Israel to their own destruction. This prophecy has been regarded as fulfilled in the conflicts of the Maccabees with Antiochus, the invasion and overthrow of the Chaldeans, and the temporary successes and destined overthrow of the Turks. But “all these interpretations are unsatisfactory and inadequate. The vision respecting Gog and Magog in the Apocalypse (Rev. 20:8) is in substance a reannouncement of this prophecy of Ezekiel. But while Ezekiel contemplates the great conflict in a more general light as what was certainly to be connected with the times of the Messiah, and should come then to its last decisive issues, John, on the other hand, writing from the commencement of the Messiah's times, describes there the last struggles and victories of the cause of Christ. In both cases alike the vision describes the final workings of the world's evil and its results in connection with the kingdom of God, only the starting-point is placed further in advance in the one case than in the other.”
http://christiananswers.net/dictionary/gog.html?zoom_highlight=gog
Magog...  Meaning: region of Gog; the place of Gog

   In Ezekiel (38:2, 39:6) Magog is a nation or region over which a man named Gog rules. There is a possibility that the people are descended from Japheth.

   The ancient Jewish historian Josephus identified the Magog as Scythians of the far North (Antiquities I, vi. 1).

   “The Latin father Jerome says that this word denotes 'Scythian nations, fierce and innumerable, who live beyond the Caucasus and the Lake Maeotis, and near the Caspian Sea, and spread out even onward to India.' Perhaps the name ‘represents the Assyrian Mat Gugi, or ‘country of Gugu,’ the Gyges of the Greeks’ (Sayce's Races, etc.).” (Matthew G. Easton)

   However, Dr. Henry M. Morris says “the place of Gog” may possibly be “now Georgia in the former U.S.S.R.” (The Defenders Study Bible, Notes for Gen. 10:2).

http://christiananswers.net/dictionary/magog.html?zoom_highlight=gog

Meshech...  Meaning: drawing out

   the sixth son of Japheth (Gen. 10:2), the founder of a tribe (1 Chr. 1:5; Ezek. 27:13; 38:2,3)

   They were in all probability the Moschi, a people inhabiting the Moschian Mountains, between the Black and the Caspian Seas. In Ps. 120:5 the name occurs as simply a synonym for foreigners or barbarians. “During the ascendency of the Babylonians and Persians in Western Asia, the Moschi were subdued; but it seems probable that a large number of them crossed the Caucasus range and spread over the northern steppes, mingling with the Scythians. There they became known as Muscovs, and gave that name to the Russian nation and its ancient capital by which they are still generally known throughout the East”

http://christiananswers.net/dictionary/meshech.html?zoom_highlight=meshech

37.3 Tubal...  A nation, probably descended from the son of Japheth. It is mentioned by Isaiah (66:19), along with Javan, and by Ezekiel (27:13), along with Meshech, among the traders with Tyre, also among the confederates of Gog (Ezek. 38:2, 3; 39:1), and with Meshech among the nations which were to be destroyed (32:26). This nation was probably the Tiberini of the Greek historian Herodotus, a people of the Asiatic highland west of the Upper Euphrates, the southern range of the Caucasus, on the east of the Black Sea.

http://christiananswers.net/dictionary/tubal.html?zoom_highlight=tubal

37.5  Cush...  Land of Cush — The term Cush is in the Old Testament generally applied to the countries south of the Israelites. It was the southern limit of Egypt (Ezek. 29:10, A.V. “Ethiopia,” Hebrew: Cush), with which it is generally associated (Ps. 68:31; Isa. 18:1; Jer. 46:9, etc.).

   It stands also associated with Elam (Isa. 11:11), with Persia (Ezek. 38:5), and with the Sabeans (Isa. 45:14).

   From these facts it has been inferred that Cush included Arabia and the country on the west coast of the Red Sea. Rawlinson takes it to be the country still known as Khuzi-stan, on the east side of the Lower Tigris. But there are intimations which warrant the conclusion that there was also a Cush in Africa, the Ethiopia (so called by the Greeks) of Africa.

   Ezekiel speaks (29:10; compare 30:4-6) of it as lying south of Egypt. It was the country now known to us as Nubia and Abyssinia (Isa. 18:1; Zeph. 3:10, Hebrew: Cush). In ancient Egyptian inscriptions Ethiopia is termed Kesh.

   The Cushites appear to have spread along extensive tracts, stretching from the Upper Nile to the Euphrates and Tigris. At an early period there was a stream of migration of Cushites “from Ethiopia, properly so called, through Arabia, Babylonia, and Persia, to Western India.”

   The Hamite races, soon after their arrival in Africa, began to spread north, east, and west. Three branches of the Cushite or Ethiopian stock, moving from Western Asia, settled in the regions contiguous to the Persian Gulf. One branch, called the Cossaeans, settled in the mountainous district on the east of the Tigris, known afterwards as Susiana; another occupied the lower regions of the Euphrates and the Tigris; while a third colonized the southern shores and islands of the gulf, whence they afterwards emigrated to the Mediterranean and settled on the coast of Palestine as the Phoenicians.

http://christiananswers.net/dictionary/cush.html?zoom_highlight=cush

Put (Phut)...  A land or people from among whom came a portion of the mercenary troops of Egypt, Jer. 46:9 (A.V., “Libyans,” but correctly, R.V., “Put”); Ezek. 27:10; 30:5 (A.V., "Libya;" R.V., “Put”); 38:5; Nahum 3:9.

http://christiananswers.net/dictionary/putphut.html?zoom_highlight=put

37.6  Gomer...  Meaning: complete; vanishing

   The eldest son of Japheth, and father of Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah (Gen. 10:2, 3), whose descendants formed the principal branch of the population of Southeastern Europe. He is generally regarded as the ancestor of the Celtae and the Cimmerii, who in early times settled to the north of the Black Sea, and gave their name to the Crimea, the ancient Chersonesus Taurica. Traces of their presence are found in the names Cimmerian Bosphorus, Cimmerian Isthmus, etc. In the seventh century B.C. they were driven out of their original seat by the Scythians, and overran western Asia Minor, whence they were afterwards expelled. They subsequently reappear in the times of the Romans as the Cimbri of the north and west of Europe, whence they crossed to the British Isles, where their descendants are still found in the Gaels and Cymry. Thus the whole Celtic race may be regarded as descended from Gomer.

http://christiananswers.net/dictionary/gomer.html?zoom_highlight=gomer

37.13  Sheba...  Hebrew: id. A kingdom in Arabia Felix. Sheba, in fact, was Saba in Southern Arabia, the Sabaeans of classical geography, who carried on the trade in spices with the other peoples of the ancient world. They were Semites, speaking one of the two main dialects of Himyaritic or South Arabic. Sheba had become a monarchy before the days of Solomon. Its queen brought him gold, spices, and precious stones (1 Kings 10:1-13). She is called by our Lord the “queen of the south” (Matt. 12:42).

http://christiananswers.net/dictionary/sheba.html?zoom_highlight=sheba

Dedan...  Meaning: low ground

   A son of Raamah (Gen. 10:7). His descendants are mentioned in Isa. 21:13, and Ezek. 27:15. They probably settled among the sons of Cush, on the northwest coast of the Persian Gulf.

http://christiananswers.net/dictionary/dedan.html?zoom_highlight=dedan

37.23  I will show my greatness and my holiness...  Now I don't think that I have seen many lists of attributes include greatness.  I probably would not include it either, but it seems to be a point that God seems keen on proving without a doubt.

.

Ezekiel 39

39.11  Valley of the Travelers...  The Israelites would also bury Gog and his soldiers in a valley east of the Mediterranean Sea. This probably means that multitudes of the enemy would be buried there, not necessarily Gog personally (cf. Rev. 19:20-21;20:10). The slaughter would be so great that it would take a large valley to accommodate all the corpses. This valley would become known as "TheValley of the Multitude of Gog." This cemetery would be so large that travelers would not be able to pass through that part of the land. Probably the Esdraelon Valley is in view since it is east of the Mediterranean Sea and since many travelers normally passed and still pass through it. Furthermore it is the only major east west valley in Israel. Some commentators argued for the valley being east of the Dead Sea, but that location seems unlikely.
http://www.soniclight.com/constable/notes/pdf/ezekiel.pdf39.19  the sacrificial feast...  This is an interesting way to refer to the dead that God had judged.

39.26  The shall forget their shame...  What a sweet thought.  I am ready for the time that sin is but a distant memory.