The Messiah Prophecy: The War of Gog and Magog
Moses speaks to the children of Israel with these parting words before he dies.
For I know that after my death you will surely act corruptly and you will stray from the path that I have commanded you, and evil will befall you at the end of days. (Deuteronomy 31:29)
The evil mentioned by Moses is the War of Gog and Magog.
The Zohar speaks of the beginning of the War of Gog and Magog.
The children of Ishmael are destined to provoke great wars in the world. The children of Edom will gather together against them and challenge them. There will be one war on the sea, one on land, and one in the vicinity of Jerusalem. They [i.e. the children of Edom and the children of Ishamel] will alternate in dominating one another. But the Holy Land will not be given to the children of Edom. (Zohar Parashas Va'era 32a)
The Midrash Pirkei de Rebbi Eliezer also tells of this conflict in the Land, meaning in the Land of Israel.
The children of Ishmael are destined to start three chaotic wars in the Land at the End of Days, as it says,
They moved out because of swords. (Isaiah 21:15)
Swords connotes war. One [war] will take place in the forest in the evening as it says
Because of an outstretched sword (Isaiah 21:15)
There will be one on the sea, as it says,
And because of a taut bow. (Isaiah 21:15)
and one in the great metropolis belonging to Rome. It will be more severe than the other two. This is referred to by the phrase
And because of the severity of war (Isaiah 21:15)
From there, the son of David will emerge and view the destruction of the wicked. And from there he will come to the Land of Israel. (Pirkei de Rebbi Eliezer, ch. 30)
Our first table puts together the key words At the end of days, Gog, and Magog. With the expected number of ELSs set to 100, the probability that a text from the ELS random placement text population would have as small an area table as that produced by the Torah text is 14/10,000.
The time of Gog and Magog will be the time of the Messiah. We therefore use Gog, Magag, and The Messiah as key words. With expected number of ELSs set to 100, the probabilith that a text from the ELS random placement text population would produce as small an area table as that produced by the Torah text is 3.5/1,000.
There is an interesting table with a close meeting of Magog, Amalek, and Arab. With expected number of ELSs set to 10, the probability that a text from the ELS random placement text population would have as small an area table as that produced by the Torah text is 8/100,000.
The war of Gog and Magog comes about because the children of Israel stray from the path of the Torah. And to the degree that the children of Israel stray, will correspond the severity of the war of Gog and Magog as it effects Israel. But the war of Gog and Magog has another function. For in the same way that God hardened the heart of Pharaoh and had him chase after the children of Israel with all his chariots, both those above and below, only for them all to be destroyed by waters of the Reed Sea, so will it be with Gog and Magog. God will harden the heart of the prince the prophecy calls Gog and have him lead an army against Israel. But such a military campaign will fail. Listen to Isaiah.
Behold, I am against you Gog, the prince, leader of Meshech and Tubal. I will lead you astray, and I will place hooks into your cheeks and bring you out with your entire army, horses and riders, all of them clothed in splendor, a vast assembly with bukler and shield and helmet. Gomer and all her cohorts, the house of Togarmah in the uttermost parts of the north, and all its cohorts -- many peoples will be with you. (Ezekiel 38:1-6)
It is interesting to explore who might be these nations lead by Gog against Israel. It is clear that the nearby nations that are most hostile to Israel are Iran, Syria, and Philistia. Iran and Syria are sponsoring surrogates of Hamas and Hezzballah. And the surrogates support their terror tactics by their belief in Jihad. Egypt in an indirect way is working with Hamas. Therefore, we use key words: Magog, Syria, Egypt Philistia, Iran, and Jihad. With expected number of ELSs set to 75, the probability that a text from the ELS random placement text population would have as small an area table as that produced by the Torah text is 2.5/1,000. Because there are some choices for the whether the Hebrew we use for Syria and Iran is the modern spelling or the Biblical spelling, we have four choices. If we run the combined experiment which tests the Null hypothesis against the alternative that one of the four possibilities is encoded, the resulting p-level is 6/1,000.
This table has a remarkable development. Within the table itself is an ELS for Son of David and there is an ELS of Messiah just outside the table. This is shown in the next table.
There is a supporting parallel table to this one which has an ELS for Son of Jesse in place of the an ELS for Son of David, has the Biblical name Persia for the modern name Iran, and omits the key word Egypt. With the expected number of ELSs is set to 75, the probability that a text from the ELS random placement text population would produce as small an area table as that produced by the Torah text is 2.5/1,000.
There is another interesting table basically involving the same core group of countries with some additions. However this table instead of being organized around Magog is organized around Group of Gog. Other key words are The Jihad, Arab, Ishmael, Iran, Egypt, Philistines, and the biblical name rather than the modern name for Syria.
The prophet Zechariah tells us that in the war of Gog and Magog, Jerusalem will be captured.
I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem for the war; the city will be captured, the houses will be pillaged and the women will be violated; half of the city will go out in exile, but the rest of the poeple will not be eliminated from the city. Hashem will go out and wage war with those nations, as He wages war on the day of battle. His feet will stand on that day on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives will split open at its middle, east to west, [forming] a very wide valley; half of the mountain will move to the north and half of it to the south. (Zechariah 14:2-4)
The following table has for its principal key words Jerusalem (spelled as it is spelled in the Bible), Captured, along with the key words Messiah, Magog and the Biblical name for Syria.
Website content by: Rabbi Matityahu Glazerson and Professor Robert M. Haralick