Are Gog & Magog - Russia and Ukraine?

Simple Answer: No

Then who are Magogo & Gog and why are people saying it is Russia attacking Ukraine?

1. Magog [May-gog]

(Uncertain origin and meaning) (Genesis 10:2). Unspecified date. Magog was one of the sons of Japheth. His brothers were Gomer, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. The book of Revelation (Revelation 20:8) states that Magog, together with Gog and Satan, will be destroyed by fire from heaven while doing battle against God’s people.

The descendants of Magog (Ezek. 38:2), possibly a people who lived in northern Asia and Europe. The Jewish historian Josephus identified these people as the Scythians, known for their destructive warfare. 

Magog may be a comprehensive term meaning “northern barbarians.” The people of Magog are described as skilled horsemen (Ezek. 38:15) and experts in the use of the bow and arrow (Ezek. 39:3, 9). The Book of Revelation uses Ezekiel’s prophetic imagery to portray the final, apocalyptic encounter between good and evil at the end of this age. “Gog and Magog” (Rev. 20:8–9) symbolize the anti-Christian forces of the world.

2. GOG [gog] — the name of two men in the Bible:

1. A descendant of Joel, of the tribe of Reuben (1 Chr. 5:4).

2. The leader of a confederacy of armies that attacked the land of Israel. Described as “the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal,” Gog is also depicted as being “of the land of Magog” (Ezek. 38:2–3), a “place out of the far north” of Israel. Ezekiel prophetically describes Gog and his allies striking at Israel with a fierce and sudden invasion (Ezekiel 38–39). According to Ezekiel’s prophecy, Gog will be crushed on the mountains of Israel in a slaughter so great it will take seven months to bury the dead (Ezek. 39:12).

In the Book of Revelation, Gog and Magog reappear as symbols of the nations of the world that will march against God’s people in the end times (Rev. 20:7–8).

GOING DEEPER

Let's look at Rev 20:7–10 (which has two parallels in Rev 16:12–16 and 19:17–21 - it contains the following sequence of motifs:

      1.      The release of Satan (v 7).
         a.      He is released at the end of one thousand years.
         b.      Satan is loosed from his prison.

      2.      The mission of Satan (v 8).
         a.      He goes out to deceive the nations.
         b.      He assembles the nations for war.
            (1)      They are located at four corners of the earth.
            (2)      They are called Gog and Magog.
            (3)      The troops are innumerable.

      3.      The onslaught of the army (v 9a).
         a.      The assembled army marches over the broad earth.
         b.      The army surrounds the camp of the people of God.
         c.      The camp is the beloved city.

      4.      The divine destruction of the army (v 9b).
         a.      Fire falls from heaven.
         b.      They are incinerated.

      5.      The final punishment of the devil (v 10).
         a.      He had deceived the nations.
         b.      He is thrown into the lake of fire.
         c.      The beast and the false prophet are already there.
         d.      All three will be continually tormented forever.

WHEN DOES THIS HAPPEN?

John places this Final Battle as happening when the thousand years are over, and with this clause, all attempts to make things fit into an ordinary time frame seemed doomed from the start. 

What will have made such a “millennium” possible was the binding of Satan for that period; thus John narrates that at the end of it there will be a final display of intense evil unlike any before it, made possible because Satan will be released from his prison in order to launch the Final Battle, which in turn will lead to his own demise. 

All of this is portrayed with a rapid-fire narrative, which begins with Satan’s release and concludes with his ultimate, necessary demise, so that the future God has prepared for his own people may finally take place. Here seems to be a clear instance where one must take John for his ultimate intent, and not try to make his details “walk on all fours,” as it were.

Thus upon Satan’s “release from his prison,” he will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth, language used in 7:1 to represent the entire known world.” But the further identification of these “four corners” as Gog and Magog presents something of a puzzle. 

The language itself is taken from Ezekiel 38, where Magog is the chief priest of Meshek, who will come with many nations (“a great horde, a mighty army”) to punish Israel. Picking up on that prophecy, but now with all the godless nations in view, Satan will gather them for battle; and as with Ezekiel’s “great horde,” John prophesies that in number they are like the sand on the seashore. 

Still using the past tense, he notes next to that they marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people. But precisely because the latter is the city God loves, they will not be destroyed; so fire came down from heaven and devoured them (i.e., the “nations” arrayed against God’s people). 

Thus this great “battle” turns out to be no battle at all, but a divine victory over “the nations,” whom the devil deceived. So the final events of the great eschatological battle entail God’s complete victory over Satan, who was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had already been thrown (19:20). 

But their end is not to be annihilation, but eternal punishment: They will thus be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Nonetheless, the judgment of Satan is not the whole story; indeed it is not the primary concern of the story at all. Rather, John’s concern is with people; first with those who belong to Christ, and then with all the rest—those who have chosen to go the way of Satan. So the final event is the raising of the dead for judgment, an event that is narrated at this point so that John can be done altogether with the Evil One and his followers, and thus move on to narrate the story of the redeemed as the climax of the book.

Gog and Magog in Ezekiel

Ezekiel’s identification of Gog appears to be connected with the table of nations in Gen 10, as he associates Gog with Magog, Meshech, Tubal, and Gomer, all sons of Japheth. The description of Gog as an invading power follows standard prophetic themes, with multiple allusions to Isaiah (compare Ezek 38:8 with Isa 2:2–4, Ezek 38:10-12 with Isa 10:6). The notion that Yahweh will incite Gog to attack the people of Israel in service to His purposes—and later turn against the invader in wrath—is rooted in Isaiah’s theology of dual-agency (Isa 10:12).

Ezekiel may have been influenced by prophetic descriptions of an “enemy from the north” (Jer 1:13–15, 4:6) and perhaps has connected this prophecy with Gyges of Lydia, a renowned king from Anatolia. The cosmic disruption described in Ezek 38:19–23 is rooted in the “Day of the Lord” prophetic tradition, in which God appears as a warrior, judge, and king to defeat His enemies (e.g., Joel 2).

Gog and Magog in Later Traditions

Gog and Magog have been consistent features in apocalyptic rhetoric throughout history, a witness to the power of God to defeat His enemies and rescue faithful ones from oppression and violence. In describing Yahweh’s destruction of Gog’s army, Ezekiel established metaphorical patterns that became central in both Jewish and Christian apocalyptic traditions. 

• In the Qumran War Scroll, Gog appears as the recipient of God’s final judgment (1QM 11:16–17). In Revelation 20:8, Gog and Magog are two nations that fight on the side of Satan in the final battle against God. They are devoured by fire from heaven while the devil is cast into eternal torment in the lake of fire (Rev 20:9–10).

Jewish and Christian interpreters have long attempted to identify these elusive names and places. Gog and Magog were identified in early Judaism with the Scythians, and they appear in the later Jewish apocalyptic tradition (3 Enoch 45:5, Sibylline Oracles 3:319–322, and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan 11:26). 

Ancient Christian references include:

  •      Augustine’s interpretation that Gog and Magog represent those in whom the devil dwells and the devil himself (City of God 10.11)

  •      Theodoret’s identification of them with the Huns who threaten civilization (Ecclesiastical History 5.37.4).

  •      Christian apocalypticists have identified Gog as any number of historical enemies, from Rome and the Goths to the Mongols and the Russians.

Bibb, B. D. (2016). Gog and Magog. In J. D. Barry, D. Bomar, D. R. Brown, R. Klippenstein, D. Mangum, C. Sinclair Wolcott, L. Wentz, E. Ritzema, & W. Widder (Eds.), The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Lexham Press.