38:19 fire of my wrath. God has long been patient with the Muslim nations, who have rejected His Son as Savior, while professing to believe in God as Creator, and the Marxist/atheist nations, who have rejected Him as both Creator and Savior. But His wrath can be restrained no longer when these all collaborate in an effort to annihilate His chosen people.

38:19 great shaking. Israel will be saved not by military might, but by a tremendous earthquake. There will also be “an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone” (Ezekiel 38:22). The gigantic convulsions of nature will affect not only the armies of Gog, but also the whole world.

38:20 shake at my presence. The entire world and all its creatures will be affected by this convulsion of nature, the greatest since the global deluge of Noah’s day. Yet this will only be a precursor of the still greater global earthquakes described during the coming tribulation period (Revelation 6:12-14; 16:18-20).

38:23 many nations. The great global convulsion will save Israel and destroy five-sixths of the armies of Gog (Ezekiel 39:2), so many that it will take seven months for their burial (Ezekiel 39:12-14). The nations of the world will be forced to recognize that this is an “act of God”—not merely in the legal sense, but as a very real case of direct intervention in the affairs of men by the God of creation. Most men will still reject Christ as personal Savior, but they will all “know that I am the LORD,” says God. Pure atheism will no longer be an option.