Ezekiel Chapter 38: Bible Study by Atheists

[00:00:00] Welcome to Sacrilegious Discourse. For this is what the sovereign Lord says, Why do you need prophets to tell people who you are and what you want? If you can justify everything that the God of the Bible

[00:00:11] has done, then you can justify any of your behavior. A lot of this mentality is trickling into what is now mainstream right wing Christianity. I am capable of empathy greater than this God of the Bible.

[00:00:26] This is a Bible that they tell kids, this is the good Lord, this is the good book, this is He is fantasizing about murder, mass murder. And over to Sacrilegious Discourse.com right now I got a Halloween a surview or a sub-udus on Patreon.

[00:00:48] Wife! Do you remember what happened the day before yesterday and how we got here today? Well, the last time we did the episode which was not yesterday because we suck, but it was a Zeekeel chapter 37 and in that episode they had the God had a Zeekeel

[00:01:06] prophesized to some dry bones. Yes, in a valley of dry bones, yeah. Which sounds like a fucking excellent name for a YA novel. Right, right. And then we had what appeared to be a zombie apocalypse happening.

[00:01:20] And I freak the fuck out. Yeah, but it turns out it probably was more like a just a symbolism for Henry turning Israel from Babylon to Israel. It felt like an acid trip?

[00:01:34] Yeah, I mean it felt like what I imagined an acid trip would be. I mean that's a lot of Zeekeel stuff is very weird. So yeah definitely. I mean and who's to say that he didn't actually

[00:01:44] mean there's a zombie apocalypse, you know like he's really meant. Right, who could know? And you said that we miss yesterday because we suck and we didn't suck, you got stuck at work.

[00:01:53] I did. I did. Super late. Yeah, but I wasn't done with my description yet. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, zombie apocalypse. Yeah, they also rubbed two sticks together. Yes, they did. That was bad.

[00:02:10] It was God being the two tribes back together. I was like wait, but wait. I had I have it all said I was gonna be fun. Now it's you know now it's only funny because I had you wait for the two sticks.

[00:02:23] Now it's bullshit. So anyway that was a Zeekeel chapter 37. This is what was. And today we're gonna be reading. Zeekeel chapter 38. All right, let's do this. Okay, okay. All right, we are hopping into a Zeekeel chapter 38 where I like to call it easy Kyle. Right. Right. And

[00:02:56] I'm gonna read the first verse. Well, the first two verses, but then I'm gonna have to stop. Is the second verse the same as the first? It's the same but worse. Okay. All right. Yeah.

[00:03:09] Hey. Okay. The word of the Lord came to me. Did it is a heal to Zeekeel? Not not to you. Son of man. Yeah, mere human. You're fucking warm. Set your face against God of the land of Maga.

[00:03:24] That was gonna say God for a second. Oh, the land of Maga. Okay. The chief prince of Mishik and Tubal prophecy against him. Okay. Yeah. Now let's stop. You remember that whole God maga thing? I do vaguely right you know only because they have interesting names. Right exactly.

[00:03:46] Not really. So I was like hold on, hold on, hold on. Yeah, what's a God maga? Yeah. Yeah. That's exactly what I was like. So I was like, okay. Let me go look that shit up. Right. Okay.

[00:03:58] So I could have waited to cover this in a Q&A, but I feel like it's pertinent to read it as we're gonna read the chapter. Sure. Okay. All right. So this chapter is about

[00:04:12] God of Maga. Okay. Okay. All right. So God and Maga or your Jewish and Majuj, which is what they are in Arabic. Because that's even less clear. Yeah. I mean,

[00:04:27] yeah, God and Maga or your Jewish and Majuj. Right. Yeah. Uh huh. There are a pair of names that appear in the Bible and the Quran. Okay. Variously ascribed to individuals, tribes or lands.

[00:04:41] Got it. Okay. So in this chapter, it's God of Maga. Okay. But in other sources, it's God and Maga. Okay. Sure. So in a Zeekeel chapter 38, which is what we're reading today, God is an individual and Maga is his land by the time of the new Testaments revelation

[00:05:03] that final book. Yeah. Jewish tradition had long since changed Zeekeel's God from Maga into God and Maga. Oh. Yeah. Okay. So the story changed. The authors and the Jewish tradition versus the Christian church. Correct. Okay. Correct. That's interesting. The God prophecy, according

[00:05:27] to Jewish understanding, is meant to be fulfilled at the approach of what is called the end of days, but not necessarily the end of the world. Okay. Okay. So like not an apocalypse per se,

[00:05:40] but like in some real bad. Yeah. Like the world to come kind of thing. Okay. All right. Jewish tradition viewed Gog and Magag as enemies to be defeated by the Messiah, not Jesus.

[00:05:55] The Jewish Messiah does. Yes. The Messiah to come. Right. Which would usher in the age of the Messiah. So these guys would be the two of them would be defeated by whatever this new Messiah is

[00:06:08] and that would usher in his age. Okay. Yeah. One view within Christianity is more starkly apocalyptic, okay? Which everything seems to be. Right. Yeah. Right. Making Gog and Magag here indicating nations rather than individuals allies of Satan against God at the end of the millennium

[00:06:32] as described in the book of Revelation. Okay. Okay. So this legend just got all kinds of twisted the fuck up and learns more credence to the fact that the Bible is a bunch of who he and legends.

[00:06:46] Right. Right. Yeah. A legend was attached to Gog and Magag by the time of the Roman period which you know that's the Jesus age. Yeah. That's right. That the gates of Alexander Alexander the

[00:07:01] great you know were erected by Alexander the Great to repel the tribe of Gog and Magag. Okay. Okay. So you know the Jewish people remember they had if you were following along our book club

[00:07:16] we covered Alexander the Great. We did and how they revered him oddly enough. Yeah. And one of the things that he is supposed to have done is to have erected these gates to hold back

[00:07:30] the words of Gog and Magag. Okay. The tribes of. Yeah. Okay. Right. So early Jewish historians knew them as the nation descended from Magag the Jepatite as in Genesis and explained them to be the

[00:07:46] Syrians. So I'm assuming that since we're making these stretches with regard to what's happening in the future in both Jewish and Christian traditions that this isn't necessarily a factual tribe that exists in the day that they're referring to with regard to this. That's what I think.

[00:08:03] Okay. I am a little I am. I mean I'm very curious about that. Well that's why there's all these stories because they're like we don't really know what this is because first it's a dude from a land

[00:08:13] then it's two dudes that like fight each other or fight Satan or fight Alexander. Like what the fuck? We don't even know. And then one of them has the same name as some dude that descended from

[00:08:29] some Genesis guy, you know. But to be fair it's you know, Zikil has been all over the fucking place. I mean we just raised an army of the dead. So who you can know? How are we supposed

[00:08:42] to believe what this is, you know like what's your we even take from it, you know? Who could even know? Like and I haven't even started actually reading this chapter yet. If anything we should be looking

[00:08:53] for descendants of Zikil to get us the good drugs. Oh my god yeah apparently we had them, you know. Like he knew the hook up. Yeah. I mean that makes me think that we should 23 and me him.

[00:09:05] Yeah for sure. So according to early Christian writers so this would be after Roman times. They became apocalyptic hordes. Okay. All right. And so you know they were like

[00:09:17] gag not a man but a hoard of dudes. Yeah. Mugag not a man or a land but another tribe of dudes. Got. Of course. Yeah throughout the middle ages they were very easily identified as the

[00:09:33] Vikings, the huns, the cazars, the Mongols or other nomads or even the 10 lost tribes of Israel. Hmm so just anybody that was like frighteningly on the outskirts up there exactly they're like there goes some gawgan magag up there or like things that mothers would tell their children like

[00:09:54] you better get yourself tucked in by bedtime or gawgan magag is going to get you right? They appear in the Korean like I said as Yajuj and Muj. Primitive and a moral tribes that were

[00:10:09] separated and buried off by do all carnane. He of the two horns. Okay. Who is mentioned in the Korean as a great righteous ruler and conqueror? Okay. Like weird, right? Yeah. So in Genesis chapter 10

[00:10:25] remember I said that the magag one is mentioned in Genesis. Right. He's magag is described as a son of J-Fath. Grantson of Noah although there was no mention there are other person named Gogg. So like we don't

[00:10:40] even know. Okay. And then there's this little treasure that I'm just going to drop and then we're going to go back to reading. Magag maybe code or safer for Babylon. Got it. That could make

[00:10:53] it. Which traps some sand like yes yeah. Right. Yeah. All right. So back to the chapters now. Okay. All right. So son of man, set your face against Gogg of the land of magag the chief prince of

[00:11:05] Meshak and Tubal. Prophecy against him and say him being Gogg of magag. Right. And in the Christian Bible. In right. Yeah. This is what the sovereign Lord says. I am against you Gogg chief prince of Meshak

[00:11:24] and Tubal. I will turn you around put hooks in your jaws and bring you out with your whole army, your horses, your horsemen fully armed and a great hoard with large and small shields. All

[00:11:39] of them brandishing their swords. Pursa, Kush, and put will be with them all with shields and helmets. Also gomer with all its troops and Beth Tagarma from the far north with all its troops, the many nations with you. So he's like Gogg is leading all these other weird

[00:12:03] hordes of troops and God don't like it. So he's like, all you boogie men are fall under the Gogg of magag. Okay. And I don't like any of you and I don't want to get you because I'm God. Sure. Right. Uh huh.

[00:12:17] Get ready says God according to his E.G.O. Be prepared. You and all the hordes gathered about you and take command of them. After many days, you will be called to arms. In future

[00:12:31] years, you will invade a land that has recovered from war whose people were gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate. They had been brought out from

[00:12:43] the nations and now all of them live in safety. You and all your troops and the many nations with you will go up and dancing like a storm. Okay. You will be like a cloud covering the land.

[00:12:56] So this is interesting. Like this is God right prophesizing through Ezekiel to a tribe that he can't even talk to from what I understand because we don't even know who the fuck they are really. Exactly.

[00:13:07] And he's saying that you all Gogg of magag in all your hordes are going to, you're going to attack Israel. That's where we're at right now, right? Yes. That is correct. I'm just trying to clarify

[00:13:21] because it's an odd prophecy. It is. And I feel like this is gearing up to be them getting defeated if the gates of Israel probably. But I don't want to step there yet because I don't

[00:13:32] know for sure. But yeah, you have the right understanding of that. It's an interesting prophecy because we are now one step beyond them bringing like we're now we're just assuming they are back in

[00:13:42] Israel and now we're prophesizing about what's going to happen after that with regard to this other enemy. Yeah, so this undisclosed bookie man und identified enemy is very like out there, like ethereal. Like we're not sure some enemy. And I don't really know what happened with

[00:14:03] regard to the Romans but like I mean obviously Israel didn't stay you know on they didn't control themselves you know for a ram I think I didn't have the Babylonian excels so there were some

[00:14:14] problems with them being conquered I guess probably by other people. But we're going to assume that they didn't get conquered by anybody named Gog of Magog because we don't know that person so

[00:14:23] exactly, exactly. Interesting. Interesting. Yeah it is very interesting and I look I know I know the biblical perspective is going to be that it's much later this is something referring to yeah to common whatever revelation and a times it signifies something else. Right. I get it

[00:14:40] but it's still interesting. Yeah that's why I had to like dig in a little bit when I was doing notes I was like no no no no I'm not waiting till Saturday for this one. So this is what the

[00:14:51] sovereign Lord says on that day when you thought will come into your mind and you will devise an evil scheme you will say I'll invade a land of unwilled villages I will attack a peaceful and

[00:15:06] unsuspecting people all of them living without walls and without gates and bars I will plunder and loot and turn my hand against the resettled ruins and the people gathered from the

[00:15:18] nations rich in livestock and goods living at the center of the land because you know that's what bad guys do they go before you marched over to their city probably but I mean whatever evil for the

[00:15:32] sake of evil tools their mustache and reveals their evil plan. Yeah right yeah sheba and did Dan and the merchants of Tarshish and all her villages will say to you have you come to plunder

[00:15:44] have you gathered your hordes to loot to carry off silver and gold to take away livestock and goods and to seize much plunder therefore son of man. Yeah mere human. You're fucking warm

[00:15:58] prophecy and say to God so now God is telling a zikil according to a zikil to go talk to this God do. Sure. God give them a God and tell him this. This is what the sovereign Lord says.

[00:16:13] Okay. In that day when you have this thought and you think you're going to do this thing and people are like you going to do it right in that day when my people Israel are living in safety

[00:16:23] will you not take notice of it? You will come from your place in the far north you and many nations with you all of them riding on horses a great hoard a mighty army. You will advance against

[00:16:36] my people Israel like a cloud that covers the land in days to come, God I will bring you against my land so that the nations may know me when I improved holy through you before their eyes.

[00:16:51] Because he's going to stop them. We're not there yet. I don't know he's just saying you're going to come but you're going to think it's you but I'm the one doing it for whatever reason. Right

[00:17:01] which he claims that all the things claims that he brought Babylon down to whatever he claims ownership of all things because if he didn't he's not really God so here's my thing this is after your people are back and they're yours and they're good and everything is

[00:17:17] bruises and lollipops. Hey God why are you bringing an army against your people now? You have care bears now. I mean I'm sure that people would say that it's just a prove his

[00:17:29] might to prove his ability to be God like right but what if you just don't though. Right and moreover like you know if you if you really did like we talked about how he was going to

[00:17:40] reinstall them with all the good feelings towards God right? So if he did that there should be no need for this. That's what I'm saying yeah and that's where this loses his thread a little bit.

[00:17:53] Yeah this is what Solomon Lord says you are the one I spoke of in former days by my servants the prophets of Israel at that time they profited for years that I would bring you against them.

[00:18:07] This is what will happen in that day when Gorg attacks the land of Israel my hot anger will be aroused. Yeah will. Okay. Declare as the sovereign Lord. Yeah. In my zeal and fiery wrath

[00:18:23] I declare that at that time there shall be a great fucking earthquake in the land of Israel. The fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the beasts of the field. Every creature that moves

[00:18:37] along the earth and all the people on the face of the earth will tremble at my presence. Okay. I might earth you mean just that place over there in that area?

[00:18:47] We're yeah I mean because it's kind of a very local ice thing. We're doing the actual planet like I tend to think God that you are very localized and you don't mean that the whole fucking planet

[00:18:59] will tremble. Right. But I do the it's interesting the wording they're using here because it feels very Genesis like the you know how they say that furry animals is great. Yeah, you know earth or whatever

[00:19:10] yeah. Like there's some similar wording here that feels like it's almost kind of out of Genesis which I know it's not but it sounds like somebody was reading Genesis before they wrote this. Yeah. So

[00:19:19] and then also like took some I don't know maybe they maybe the New Testament had been written at this point and they were like let's throw some revelation in there. Yeah that could be that could be.

[00:19:32] I have no idea when all this was especially for reading the version of this that is going to be not the Jewish version of this so like there's probably definitely some revision I would imagine in

[00:19:41] this chapter. I have no idea but I don't like it. Yeah. The mountains continues God according to his E.K. Oh, we'll be overturned the cliffs will crumble and every wall will fall to the ground.

[00:19:52] This is some earthquake. Yeah. I will summon a sword against Gog on all my mountains to Claire's the sovereign Lord. Every man's sword will be against his brother. I will execute judgment on him with plague and bloodshed. I will pour down torrents of rain, hailstones and burning

[00:20:13] sulfur on him and in on his troops and on the many nations with him. Burning sulfur? Yeah. But to that come from. I don't know the sky. Gog gonna pour it on you. Was that a common occur?

[00:20:25] Like how do they know about burning sulfur? Right and that's an odd thing to throw in that mix. They were watching too much supernatural and so I will show my greatness and my holiness.

[00:20:37] We and I will make myself known inside of many nations then they will know that on the Lord. La la la la la la the end. Okay, that was an odd section. Yes. Because we have nothing to really

[00:20:51] base what that is referring to on. Right and the direction with which that prophecy happened was not aimed at the normal sword. Right? Like you normally you're he's he's he's he's he's he's been aiming

[00:21:05] his prophecies ad is real or is real neighbors people who already done fucked up not people who we haven't even been introduced to who have not yet done anything. Right? Yeah. This doesn't really track it's weird.

[00:21:23] So I just I did a quick search because I was very curious about it while we were sitting here about burning sulfur but it was very common back in those times. They use it for purification

[00:21:34] and they used it for special offerings and different things like that and there were some practical uses with regard to medicine and bleaching and things like that. So it was a common thing that they used back then

[00:21:44] apparently. Okay. I just wonder because I'm like how does that make the mix of rain, earthquake and then burning sulfur? Right. They weren't exactly chemists back then. Yeah. So it bothered me just a

[00:21:56] little bit to where I needed to do a quick search. Got it. Do you have anything else to add with regard to notes or thoughts? This section with Gogg of Magog will be continued tomorrow into

[00:22:09] tomorrow's episode. Okay. So we're not done with this guy. Got it. And I will see what else I can find about him because I'm just very intrigued. Yeah. Yeah. No. I agree. And we should be hypothetically,

[00:22:25] we should be back on track by tomorrow morning. So we will be doing so we just finished as he killed chapter 38. And that means we'll be back tomorrow with. The Ziki will chapter 39. All right. We'll see you guys then. Bye.