Referring to Ezekiel 38-39

I’ve heard people say that the Gog spoken of in Ezekiel’s prophecy of the end times refers to some part of Russia, but this time reading through those chapters my breath almost caught. That’s not just Russia, that lines up beautifully with the Scythians—or if not them, one of the related nomadic groups in that area that kept sweeping from East to West, filling the region of Central Asia from the steppes of Kazakhstan to the northern shores of the Black Sea.

• An army of horses and horsemen? The Scythian nomads rode, herded, drove, and ate horses.
• Chief prince over Meshech and Tubal, of whom the psalmist bemoaned living in their tents because they hated peace? The Scythians were a very warlike people, giving grief to such conquerors as Darius and Alexander. The king yearly honored those who had killed enemies and there was at least one Scythian group known for not letting its women marry until killing at least one man in battle.
• From the north? Yes.
• God will strike bow and arrows from their hands, their bows, arrows, spears, and shields will be used for fuel in Israel for years after that battle? Those were all common weapons of the Scythians, especially the bow. In fact, they had their own special type of case for it, from Scythia to Persia, called the gorytos. It hung from the hip like a sword sheath and held both the bow and quiver of arrows.

My first reaction was excitement at seeing a correlation from my personal Bible reading to historical research. An incongruity of names makes it difficult to hammer down an exact match. Names change over time, different groups can have more than one name or description, and sometimes one name will be used on both a small specific group and a larger group. (Judah was used for the son of Jacob, the tribe of Israel, and the Southern kingdom, for example.) Still, the passage matches well with the Scythians and Saka (the people I’m actually trying to research) and other nomadic peoples of the area.

After that I felt a little sad. This was a people group I want to write a story on because of where they were in relation to Persia, and to some extant, Babylon. Research had already been digging up some of the ways that this particular part of the world was bound in sin. Now here was a prophecy of doom to those same people.

Then I remembered Assyria. There was a fierce land full of wickedness. Sin abounded until God decided not to wait until the endtimes to bring their judgment. They only had forty days. But Assyria repented. God spared them—at least while the revival lasted. Eventually the time for their reckoning came, but not until years later, years of God’s graciousness shown to them. If Assyria could repent, why not a nation among the Scythians? In fact, wasn’t that what the story is going to be about, what if someone had listened to all those announcements in Daniel’s time about the Most High God?

No nation is beyond the hope of God’s blessing and forgiveness if it turns away from its sins and to God. On that same note, no amount of earlier blessings and favor from God can save a nation that rejects Him and chooses evil instead. Herein lies both great hope and terrible dread. The Scythians were a terror to those around them. Gog’s march of terror will meet a terrible end. But in the meantime, revival is not beyond the power of our great God.