THE WARS of GOG and MAGOG

by Alexander Zephyr.

Part Five.
WHEN WILL THE WARS OF GOG AND MAGOG BEGIN EXACTLY?

BEFORE THE REUNIFICATION AND COMING OF THE MESSIAH OR AFTER IT?
Continued from Part Four.

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THE WARS of GOG
and MAGOG
 
by Alexander Zephyr.

Part 5.

WHEN WILL THE WARS OF GOG AND MAGOG   BEGIN EXACTLY?

BEFORE THE REUNIFICATION AND COMING OF THE MESSIAH OR AFTER IT?
 
        This is the question. Some believe that the attack of Gog will happen  'during the climatic years at the end of our current age before the Millennium/Messianic Age begins' (cf. S. Collins).
          We respectfully disagree with this opinion. The sequential time order of the prophetic events of Ezekiel 37-39 is directly connected and lies in the same Biblical Age of the 'Latter Years', just at the dawn of the Messianic Age. Many preceding chapters in the book of Ezekiel  lead and prepare the way for the 'opening graves' of the spiritual revival of the whole house of Israel whose 'dry bones' had lost hope and faith to survive the seemingly endless imprisonment of  Exile.  And, as we already pointed out, this 'opening of the graves', directly leads, in time sequence and subject matter, to the following events of: Reconciliation, Reunification, Advent of the Messiah son of  Joseph, and the beginning of the blessed Messianic Age with the Messiah, son of David).
          This scope of events and, particularly its timing,  also includes defeating the surrounding Arab and Muslim nations (Zechariah 12:6; Isaiah 11:13-14), restoration of the Holy Land to its Biblical borders, tremendous development of economy, commerce, agriculture and establishment of a safe and prosperous environment for all the people of Israel.
          And then, when all conditions of Ezekiel 37:8, 11-12 have been met, then and only then, the hordes of Gog and Magog will attack Israel!
Rambam (Maimonides), the greatest Sage of  Rabbinical Law and Tradion, was of the opinion that the plain meaning of the words of the prophets seems to indicate that the war of Gog and Magog will take place at the beginning of the Messianic Era. (1)
 
The Reunification of  all the Tribes of Israel (Judah and Ephraim) described in Ezekiel 37:15-28 is not one momentous event. It will not happened at once, but rather in a few stages, gradually. The same way as was the dispersion of  Israel and Judah in the ancient times: 741-721 BCE 597 BCE,  586 BCE, 70 CE, 135 CE.
          There is a solid Talmudic tradition that this period of time, preceding the coming of the Messiah, is expected to be that of  'Jacob's trouble' of Jeremiah 30:7. A number of Sages, as quoted in Sanhedrin 98b, prayed that they might be saved the terrible experience of great fear and pain, unparalleled distress of the nations, gloominess and darkness, bloody wars and destructions of those times.

'Alas! For that day is great, so that none like it; but Jacob shall be saved out of it' (Jeremiah 30:7).

          Our Sages have taught that the fulfillment of the prophecies of Ezekiel's 'two sticks' will be a slow process which they compare to the breaking of the day, when the dark long night slowly gives way to the morning light. The redemption will be realized in stages. At the beginning not all the peoples of Judah and Ephraim will be reunited. Before the coming of the Messiah Son of David, another Messiah, Son of Joseph, will appear among the Ten Tribes of Israel. He will be a forerunner and the representative of the Davidic Messiah (Succah 52b). It is his task to reunite the Israelite Tribes and bring them to the Promised Land. He will fight God's wars, secure Israelite independence in the newly reestablished Biblical borders of Greater Israel, rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem, resume the sacrifices and cleanse Israel. However, the rabbinical tradition says that this Messiah is destined to be killed in the battle (Zechariah 12:10-14),  and then, after forty years, Messiah son of David will arrive to complete the final stage of Redemption as Ezekiel described it in chapter 37:21-28.
Detailed discussions on these matters are to be found mainly in Kabalistic Literature such as the Zohar and in Midrashim (e.g. Pirkei Heichalos Rabbasi 39:1); Pirkei Mashiach (Beis HaMedrash, Part 3).
This information has also been given by R. Saadiah Gaon in his Emunos VeDeos [Beliefs and Principles] (8:2, 5) and Ramban (Nachmanides) in his commentary to Shir HaShirim [Song of Solomon] (8:13).
         
Now let us return to the question: When will the attack of Gog begin?

Listen to what Prophecy says:

          'After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the Mountains of Israel, which have been always waste; but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safety all of them' (Ezekiel 38:8).

          The pivotal points here are:
1. They (Judah and Ephraim, commonly called 'Israel' after the Reunification) must live safely, in a secure environment, all of them;
2. The Mountains of Israel are positively, without any shed of the doubt, identified as the land of the Gog's attack;
3. The Israelites will have been brought back from the sword from the nations of their exile (Rashi explains that the Israelites will return from Exile into which they had been driven by the sword). The Jews, for instance, were rescued (some of them) from the 'sword' of the Holocaust during  WWII.
 

Point #1. Re #  The plain meaning of the words of the prophets seems to indicate that the war of Gog and Magog will take place at the beginning of the Messianic Era. # There is additional information given in Prophecy to supplement this point:      'I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go against them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling  without walls, and having neither bars, nor gates.' And more: 'You turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land' (Ezekiel 38:11-12).           Verses 8, 11 and 12 are self-explanatory. They do not need extra commentary.           So, we learn that the People of Israel (Judah and Joseph) are reunited, return to the Promised Land (under the leadership of Messiah son of Joseph) from their countries of exile, rebuilt the wasted cities, and make the desolate land blossom as the Garden of Eden. The fact that they will have cattle and goods, gold and silver means that they will have developed a very healthy economy and high class commerce; and on top of it, the Israelites will feel confident and secure. They will live in their Land without fear because all the surrounding aggressive enemies will have been defeated and the territory of Biblical Israel restored to its previous borders. Of the same events speaks Ezekiel in chapter 28:25-26:      'Thus saith the Lord God; when I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the nations, then they shall dwell safely therein, and shall build houses, and plant vineyards; yea, they shall dwell with confidence, when I have executed judgments upon all those that despise them round about them; and they shall know that I am the Lord their God.' There are striking similarities between these verses and the wording of Ezekiel 38:8, 11-12. In both chapters the prophet speaks of the same matters. The Tribes of Israel will return from their exile to the Promised Land ('open graves'), reunite ('two sticks'), build a sound economy and commerce. Together they will 'execute God's Judgments' on their enemies round about them. And together they shall live safely and with confidence, all of them. It will be a peaceful time. The Israelites will have no aggressive designs against any nation (Metzudos, Malbim). By the way, this is another point against the opinion that the war of Gog Ezekiel 38 and 39 is the same or parallel war of Zechariah 12 and 14. Our position is that the war of Zechariah12 will have finished much earlier. It will be before the war of Gog in Ezekiel 38 and 39 starts. The surrounding aggressive Arab nations will have been eliminated. That is why they are not mentioned in the Prophecy of Ezekiel as participants on either side of the War of Gog. Absolutely separate and not parallel wars are being considered. One possibly can make the parallels between the wars fought in Zechariah 12:6 and Isaiah 11:13-14 because they described the same events, destruction of the surrounding nations by the combined forces of Judah and Ephraim.           If all the above descriptions do not tell us that the prophet Ezekiel speaks of the Messianic Age, than what does? Some kind of peace treaty of the ongoing infamous Peace Process, post Cold War disarmament or aliens from out of space that somehow establish such a peaceful environment for the people of Israel? No. No one geopolitical action of  World Governments towards Israel could create such a peaceful situation as recorded in Ezekiel 38:8, 11-12.

HERE ARE OUR CONCLUSIONS:

The Reunited Tribes of Judah and Joseph will have been brought from the 'sword' of the exile ('open the graves' Ezekiel 37:1-14) under leadership of a Commander-in-Chief, the Messiah son of Joseph. They will join together with their brother Israelis, the present-day citizens of the State of Israel, the Jews (Isaiah 56:8), 'The Lord God which gathered the outcast of Israel saith, yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered unto him.'
Then those Israelites together will attack and defeat all the surrounding enemy-nations, mostly of Semitic stock, whose names are listed in Psalms 83:6, 7, 8: 'The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarens; Gebal and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre; Assur also is join with them.'

[The identity and the role of Assur in future eschatological events will be the subject of a separate discussion later. ]

          The beauty of the Scripture is that any verse of a particular prophet in question can find an additional explanation and be supplemented with detailed commentaries  from other verses penned by different prophets in elsewhere.

The prophesied events of the 'dry bones' and the 'two sticks' of Ezekiel 37 are also reflected in the prophecies of Isaiah 11, where the reconciliation and reunification of Judah and Ephraim are described from different perspectives. Both prophets speak of the same events at the end of our age. As a matter of fact, the prophet Isaiah reveals that after the Tribes of Judah and Ephraim make peace and reunite, together they will defeat all surrounding Arab and Muslim enemy-nations and 'there shall be an highway for the remnants of His people, like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt' (Isaiah 11:16).
Here again we find confirmation for our understanding of the eschatological events of the Latter Days. After defeating their enemies, the Israelites will restore the Promised Land to its Biblical borders and divide it by lot for inheritance among the twelve Tribes. We are not going to repeat the story of how the Messianic Age started; but the description in Isaiah 11:1-10  should satisfy any curious reader.
 
'And He shall assemble the outcast of Israel and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth ('open the graves' of the exile). The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the enemies of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.' (Isaiah 11:12-13).

No one Semitic nation is mentioned by Ezekiel 38 and 39.
The Arab nations, the ancient sworn enemies of Israel, will not be able to take any side in the wars of Gog and Magog because they will have been soundly defeated. Their lands will have been repossessed by the combined forces of Judah and Ephraim under the brilliant leadership of Messiah son of Joseph. This will be before Gog attacks Israel.
'They shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand (west: the Philistines) and on the left hand' (east: Edom, Moab, Ammon and others) (Zechariah 12:6).
The same theme of the same story is recorded in another prophecy of Isaiah 11:14:
'They shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; together they (Judah and Ephraim or 'Israel') plunder people of the east: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them'.
In our view the wars of Zechariah 12:6 and Isaiah 11:13-14 are very much connected to Psalms 83:4-8 where Scripture describes the destruction of the same nations in the region surrounding Israel. The same tragic fate of these nations is expressed in the prophecies of Isaiah 17:1; 34:5, 8; Obadiah 1:18; Ezekiel 25:12-13,15, 17; Jeremiah 48-all; 49:24, 26, 27; Zephaniah 2:8-11; Zechariah 9:5-6.
The prophesied events of Isaiah 11:12-14 would not be possible without the Divine Decree to end the Exile and the spiritual revival of the 'open graves' and reunification of the Tribes of Israel of the 'two sticks' prophecies of Ezekiel 37.

FINAL CONCLUSION:

The armies of Gog and Magog will attack Israel right at the beginning of the Messianic Age! The other attempts to place this attack prior to the Messianic Age or after it, find no validity in Hebrew Scriptures.
 
We were pleasantly shocked to discover a confirmation of our position on this very subject from the writings of the founder of the Brit-Am organization and popular author and expert on the Movement of the Ten Tribes of Israel, Yair Davidiy from Jerusalem. He, basically, said that:

 'Before the hordes of German, Slavic, and Asiatic people of Gog's alliance will come pouring down out of the north in an attempt to conquer and destroy Israel, the twelve tribes of Judah and Joseph will have already been reconciliated and reunited, due to the combined actions of Messiah son of Joseph (head of the Ten Tribes) and Messiah son of David. Prior to the attack of Gog and Magog it appears that the land of Israel will have been restored to the Biblical borders from the Nile to the Euphrates and divided among the Tribes. The Ishmaelites (Arabs) and Edomites (parts of Europe) will already have been defeated and placated. All these events concern the End Times. The above explanation is based on Biblical and Rabbinical sources. The actual chronological order in reality may be different but this is the way it seems to us according to our system of analysis which seeks to encompass and reconcile all relevant sources.'

See:
Brit-Am Now no. 1633
#2. Brit-Am Scenario for the End Times.
http://britam.org/now2/1633Now.html#Brit

Brit-Am Commentary to [Ezekiel 38:15],
 http://britam.org/ezekiel/chapter38.html

List of Contents Concerning,
The Wars of Gog and Magog by Alexander Zephyr.
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Questions and Answers about Gog and Magog.