# Birds and beasts, feasting on human flesh - Ezekiel 39



## Tirian (Apr 16, 2014)

Eze 39:17 Speak to every sort of bird and to every beast of the field: ........ eating of flesh, blood & guts etc

Symbolic of the utter ruin of worldly thinking? I read Fairbairn on this but he didn't make comment specifically though I appreciated his comments on the whole of chapter.

Matty G


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## Jerusalem Blade (Apr 16, 2014)

Matt,

This is known as “God’s eschatological feast” (Stephen S. Smalley, _The Revelation to John_, p 496), depicting what might be called an archetypal image of the utter destruction of an army. Gog and Magog in Ezekiel 39 is itself an archetype of the vast array of God’s enemies, and the enemies of His people. This OT prophecy was never fulfilled of old, and John in Revelation 19:17-21 sees that this is to be applied to the final battle, called in Rev 16:16, Armageddon, where the unregenerate of earth – deceived, enraged, and driven by the loosed devil (Rev 20:3,7-9) – seek to destroy and fully eradicate the church on a global basis.

They – all those who received the mark of the beast – were actually assembled _by God_ for this showdown (Rev 16:14,16) that their true colors might be revealed – their hatred for Him and His beloved people – and in the midst of their carnage (for we continue to bear witness, loving not our lives unto the death, Rev 12:11) – the great King of kings appears in fiery vengeance to lay waste all those who hated His people and Himself; this also is the time, just previous to His coming, when He raises all who are His, both the living and the dead, unto Himself (Rev 11:11,12).

The gruesome “supper of the great God” (Rev 19:17) for the fowls of heaven (and the beasts, Ezek 39:17) is a fearsome warning to the world not to trifle with Him and His people, but rather to submit to Him and be saved. The words of _this_ King are not human bluster, but will come to pass. It is a figure for vast destruction, yet no doubt having some truth, as carrion birds and various beasts do feast on the unburied dead, as everyone knows.


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## Tirian (Apr 16, 2014)

So the beasts feasting on human flesh is a figure of those who oppose Christ being utterly brought low?


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## Tirian (Apr 16, 2014)

just so I'm clear we're not talking about actual bunny rabbits with blood soaked faces etc?


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## Jerusalem Blade (Apr 16, 2014)

Matt,

This was almost a standard threat in times of war; Goliath threatened David so:
And the Philistine said unto David, Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field (1 Sam 17:43,44).​ 
And David responded in kind:
Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hands (1 Sam 17:45-47).​ 
Goliath was filled with self-confidence, but David with the Spirit of the Almighty God.

As for “bunnies”, No, I don’t think herbivores would indulge in flesh; but if one observed a battlefield, either then or now, one would likely see birds of prey and meat-eating animals feeding on the corpses. 

God is saying in this context, All who oppose me, all who harm my people and repent not, shall end so, food for animals of prey – and then the Judgment.


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## VictorBravo (Apr 16, 2014)

Tirian said:


> just so I'm clear we're not talking about actual bunny rabbits with blood soaked faces etc?



Maybe not bunnies, but gophers could be involved.


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## Peairtach (Apr 16, 2014)

This is an image of total defeat in both Ezekiel and Revelation 19.

These battles are fundamentally spiritual battles, although the Battle of Gog and Magog ends with the Eschaton and the Second Advent.

Some conflate the Battle of Armageddon and the Battle of Gog and Magog because they see recurrence in Revelation.

I'm not persuaded of such recurrence, but, given the difficulties of the Book of Revelation, it's always possible.

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## Jerusalem Blade (Apr 17, 2014)

Hi Richard,

This is a serious problem today – that folks think the Book of Revelation is too difficult, when in truth it is not. Thinking so they are deterred from really getting into it. There is a place of simplicity and clarity for understanding it, with the right hermeneutic approach. To promote this is a task I have set for myself.


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## GloriousBoaz (Apr 18, 2014)

You must use the holy hand grenade of Antioch against the vicious blood thirsty rabbits!


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## Peairtach (Apr 19, 2014)

Jerusalem Blade said:


> Hi Richard,
> 
> This is a serious problem today – that folks think the Book of Revelation is too difficult, when in truth it is not. Thinking so they are deterred from really getting into it. There is a place of simplicity and clarity for understanding it, with the right hermeneutic approach. To promote this is a task I have set for myself.



Dispensationalism in particular has muddied the waters and made nonsense of God's Word. The book has been made much more difficult than it is by a literalistic, premillennial, dispensationalist hermeneutic being overlaid on it.

I wouldn't want to put any one, except the merest novice, off studying Revelation in-depth. There are many individual texts and passages in the book that are profitable for the youngest in the faith, even if they have no view on the overall scheme of the book.

Some postmil ( and maybe amils?) scholars take a much more linear approach to the seals, trumpets and plagues than others, thus the Battle of Armageddon isn't identified with Gog and Magog. These sometimes claim that their approach to the book is simple and straightforward too.

The subject of the approach to the seals, trumpets and plagues would be for another thread.

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## Tirian (Apr 20, 2014)

GloriousBoaz said:


> You must use the holy hand grenade of Antioch against the vicious blood thirsty rabbits!



that's what I was beginning to suspect!


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