Visions of the Kingdom: Week 42

Ezekiel 39:1-29: The Disposal of Gog

• 39:3 "strike the bow from your left hand" - Upon seizing a fortress by the Oxus River, Alp Arslan condemned the governor who defended the fortress, Yussuf el-Harezmi, to death. Yussuf then rushed at Alp Arslan with a dagger. In pride, Alp Arslan motioned for his guards not to interfere. As the emperor drew his bow, his foot slipped, the arrow missed its target and Alp Arslan was stabbed in the chest. He died four days later and was taken to Merv to be buried in November of A.D. 1072.
• 39:9 "those who dwell in the cities of Israel" - confirming that these are not necessarily Israelis in this prophecy.
• 39:10 "weapons for fuel" - the land had been stripped of its scant timber by the crusaders to build seige engines and weapons. These were the only source of fuel for many years.
  "loot those who looted them" - the crusaders plundered the Turks as they had plundered the inhabitants of Israel.
• 39:11 "burial place in Israel" - this doesn't seem to fit the preterist view exactly. Alp Arslan was buried in Merv east of the Caspian sea, in a place called "valley of the travelers" or as we know it today the "silk road". His tomb continued to delay travelers in death. But the slain in battle 14 years later were dumped outside the city by Muslim conscripts. They counted 70000 dead. Maybe these were eventually carried easat of the Dead sea, but I didn't find a record, or a historical place called "Hammon-Gog".
• 39:17 "great feast" - those 70000 bodies were certainly a great feast for carrion animals.

Restoration of Israel

• 39:21 "I will" - is this jumping forward, or talking about the purpose of the previous battles?
• 39:22 "house of Israel" - now we seem to be talking about descendents of Israel.
• 39:29 "no long hide My face" - there will no longer be a "hardening in part", "and so all Israel will be saved" Romans 11:25,26.