Dear Church, This will be the last Sermons and Slides for 2024. Please be in prayer about Hervey Bay Church of Christ throughout January.
I invite you to attend a day of dreaming on Saturday 8th February. We want to see people come to Christ and grow in Him. So how? What does our deeper shared life look like? Please be praying.
Our Christmas Day service will be 8am. If you can come to the Baptism of Arthur at 4pm at the 1st white stairs, near phone box, Scarness. Anyone wanting to may come back to the church for leftovers and games.
This Sunday is a 5th Sunday shared lunch together. Anne B. will host.
I hope and pray that you have found Revelation rich and encouraging. I know I have learnt a great deal in preparation. Anne asked a question on Sunday and Gog and Magog. I knew there was something more that my answer and there was, so here is a more complete answer:
Magog is identified in Genesis as son of Japheth grandson of Noah. Later Magog appears as a region or country in Asia Minor the very region where the 7 churches are located.
In Ezekiel 38-39 Ezekiel prophesied against Gog from Magog. This appears to be an individual but may be a people. If you read the passage it sounds quite like many dramatic parts of Revelation. One possibility is that Magog become the name of the nation, the name of the god of that land and Gog the name of the people. Many scholars have pointed out that Magog may be code for Babylon BBL read backwards becomes MGG.
If they were “Babylon” by code then they were the ones to invade and defeat Judah. Why then does anyone invade another’s lands? The answer is most often a thirst for power and a hunger for greed. You may argue that this invasion was God allowing it because of the people’s disobedience and you would be correct. But Babylon went far beyond what God wanted and were in turn judged for it. They weren’t motivated by obedience but by greed for land, power and money.
Over time Gog and Magog become synonymous for greed and making money. Any invading hordes or raiding parties were seen as Gog and Magog: Josephus believed that Gog and Magog were Scythians (who by then were a defeated empire centered around the Crimea); Vikings; Huns; any distant but blood thirsty greedy horde.
Sometimes Gog and Magog is used in literature to mean the greedy people and the greedy systems and/or spiritual power behind the system.
So what did John have in mind when he wrote about Gog and Magog? Maybe he had some specific people in mind. But most probably an alliance of evil, greedy hordes of people from all the distant parts of the world and the evil spiritual powers that supported them. But he was clearly tying it back to Ezekiel’s prophesy, Babylon code for Rome; Rome code for all the evil Empires that stand against God and his people.
At least that’s my best guess. I wonder what your thought’s are?
Have a joyous Christmas and blessed New Year.
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