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Ezekiel 38

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1 And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him.

3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD: Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:

4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thy army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armor, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:

5 Persia, Cush, and Phut with them; all of them with shield and helmet:

6 Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee.

7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled to thee, and be thou a guard to them.

8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall all dwell in safety.

9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.

10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:

11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,

12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thy hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.

13 Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all its young lions, shall say to thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?

14 Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to Gog, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it?

15 And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army:

16 And thou shalt come against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.

17 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days many years, that I would bring thee against them?

18 And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, that my fury shall come up in my face.

19 For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel.

20 So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping animals that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be overturned, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.

21 And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord GOD: every man's sword shall be against his brother.

22 And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.

23 Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the LORD.

   

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True Christianity # 689

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689. John's baptism prepared the way because, as shown above [677-678], it brought the baptized people into the Lord's church that was to come, and brought them into the company of those in heaven who were awaiting and desiring the Messiah. Therefore angels protected them by preventing devils from breaking out of hell and destroying them. This is why we read in Malachi, "Who can endure the day of his coming?" (Malachi 3:2), and "so that Jehovah will not come and strike the earth with a curse" (Malachi 4:6).

There are similar statements in Isaiah: "Behold, the cruel day of Jehovah has come, a day of indignation and wrath and anger. I will shake heaven, and the earth will quake out of its place in the day of the wrath of his anger" (Isaiah 13:9, 13; see also Isaiah 13:6; 22:5, 12).

In Jeremiah that day is called a day of devastation, vengeance, and disaster (Jeremiah 4:9; 7:32; 46:10, 21; 47:4; 49:8, 26). In Ezekiel it is called a day of anger, cloud, and darkness (Ezekiel 13:5; 30:2-3, 9; 34:11-12; 38:14, 16, 18-19). Amos, too, refers to it in similar terms (Amos 5:8, 18, 20; 8:3, 9, 13). We read in Joel: "Great and dreadful is the day of Jehovah. Who will endure it?" (Joel 2:11; see also Joel 2:1-2, 29, 31). Also in Zephaniah: "In that day there will be the sound of a cry. The great day of Jehovah is near. That day will be a day of wrath, a day of distress and repression, a day of devastation and desolation. In the day of Jehovah's wrath the whole earth will be consumed, and he will make an end of all the inhabitants of the earth" (Zephaniah 1:7-18). There are similar statements in other passages as well.

[2] These passages make it clear that if baptism had not prepared the way for Jehovah as he was coming down into the world - a baptism that had the effect in heaven of closing off the hells and protecting the Jews from total annihilation - [all people there, as stated above, would have been struck with a curse and would have perished]. Likewise Jehovah says to Moses, "If I rise up among you, I will consume the entire population in a single moment" (Exodus 33:5). This is further reinforced by what John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him: "Brood of vipers, who warned you to escape from the impending anger?" (Matthew 3:7; Luke 3:7). For references to John teaching about Christ and his Coming as he was baptizing, see Luke 3:16; , 31-33; 3:22 and following. All the passages just given clarify how John prepared the way.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for the permission to use this translation.