Ezekiel 38 Devotional

Safe Without Walls

“I will magnify and sanctify Myself, and I will reveal Myself in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the LORD.”Ezekiel 38:23 (BSB)

Gog of the land of Magog comes at the head of a vast army, advancing like a storm cloud over the land (38:2-9). This happens after God's people have returned home and live safely in open villages with no walls or gates (38:8, 11). Gog sees easy plunder, and the plan to seize it arises in his own mind (38:10-13).

Yet from the start God is the one acting. He puts hooks in his jaws, and brings him out (38:4). He brings him against his land so that the nations will know him when he shows himself holy (38:16), and earthquake, hail, and fire fall on the invader (38:19-22). The chapter offers no timetable to decode. It shows who rules. Gog's evil plan is truly his own, yet it cannot step outside God's purpose. The early church saw this at the cross, where Herod and Pilate did only what God had decided beforehand (Acts 4:27-28). A people without walls are still safe when the LORD is their defense.

To think about: What threat feels largest to you right now, and how does knowing that no plan can step outside God's purpose steady you?