Rabbis in Israel are agreeing with Christian scholars that the events unfolding in the Middle East are looking like those foretold 2,500 years ago in the Bible’s book of Ezekiel.
The Jerusalem Post reported in mid-June, “Amid the escalating Israel-Hamas conflict, many Religious leaders have been asking: Are we witnessing the biblical prophecy of the war of Gog and Magog?
“This ancient prediction from the Book of Ezekiel has captivated religious scholars and believers for centuries, forecasting a cataclysmic battle preceding the Messianic era. As the conflict in Israel intensifies, this question gains urgency and relevance.”
In Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39 in the Bible’s Old Testament, the prophet Ezekiel wrote about an end-times battle involving a coalition of nations including Persia (Iran) and others, among them present-day Russia and Turkey, invading Israel from the north.
Texas-based Christian pastor Jimmy Evans — founder of Endtimes.com and host of the “Tipping Point” podcast — told CBN News in an interview earlier this year that the nations Ezekiel wrote about around 575 B.C. now appear to be aligning just as he predicted.
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“They’re all present and accounted for and Gog and Magog is unfolding right before our very eyes,” he said.
Until recent years, Turkey and Russia had good relations with Israel, but they have increasingly sided with Hamas and the Palestinians against Israel. This trend has only accelerated since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks from the Gaza Strip followed by Israel’s military response.
The Post reported that many Jewish rabbis have been discussing the Magog prophecy issue since Oct. 7.
“Rabbi Yosef Tzvi Rimon, an influential Jewish educator, and scholar known for his profound insights into Jewish law and eschatology, has provided a detailed interpretation of the recent conflict through the lens of the Gog and Magog prophecy. Rimon noted that the recent escalation coinciding with the Jewish holidays, particularly Sukkot, is significant,” the news outlet said.
The Hamas attacks came following the final day of the week-long festival of Sukkot, also known as the Feast of Tabernacles, which commemorates God’s protection of the children of Israel when he freed them from Egyptian bondage. The Jews build temporary shelters, or sukkahs, to recall how their ancestors lived in the Sinai desert following their release.
We will be celebrating Shabbat this time outside in our Sukkahs. We hope you’ll have a great time with your family and friends.
Chag Sameach, Moadim L’Simcha, and Shabbat Shalom! #ShabbatShalom #ChagSameach #CholHaMoedShabbat pic.twitter.com/okAsvj2pbk— Israel Forever Foundation (@Isrl4Evr) September 24, 2021
The Associated Press reported that Oct. 7 last year was Simchat Torah, “which marks the beginning of a new annual cycle of the reading of the scrolls.”
Rimon said that Jewish tradition teaches that the battle of Gog and Magog will begin around this time of year, in the month of Tishri on the Jewish calendar (September – October).
The rabbi “further highlighted the symbolic importance of the holiday readings, which include passages from Ezekiel that discuss the Gog and Magog wars, reinforcing the connection between these events and the prophecy,” according to the Post.
Rabbi Pinchas Winston, an author and speaker concerning end-times prophecies told the news outlet, “The world is polarized like never before on every issue, divided essentially between the forces of good and the forces of evil. That is what the War of Gog and Magog is supposed to do; have people self-identify whether they are for God or against God.”
Ezekiel wrote concerning God’s message to the nations that will array against Israel at that time, “I will turn you about and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out, and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed in full armor, a great host, all of them with buckler and shield, wielding swords.”
“You will come up against my people Israel, like a cloud covering the land. In the latter days I will bring you against my land, that the nations may know me, when through you, O Gog, I vindicate my holiness before their eyes,” he added.
God will then intervene on behalf of Israel, causing a massive earthquake, pestilence, torrential rains and flooding, hailstones and fire to decimate the enemy forces.
“So I will show my greatness and my holiness and make myself known in the eyes of many nations. Then they will know that I am the Lord,” God told Ezekiel.
The prophet’s credibility is strengthened by what he wrote about in chapter 37 of his book. Ezekiel foresaw a time — under divine inspiration, according to his account — when the Jews would spread throughout the nations of the earth, which certainly happened starting in the first century A.D.
Their exile would last until the latter days, when they would return to Israel and be a nation again, which is what happened in May 1948.
Rabbi Eliyahu Amar, a well-known lecturer on Jewish eschatology and end-time prophecies, told the Post that the result of the Magog battle will be “a process towards the coming of the Messiah, where God will come and reveal His kingdom over Israel.”
Lee Cummings — Christian author of the book “Take Heed, Watch & Pray: Overcoming Deception in the Last Days” — said on Wednesday’s “Tipping Point” podcast that what the Post’s reporting indicates is “that in the land of Israel, we have rabbis who are taking a look at what took place on Oct. 7 and the war that has resulted and is increasing. We think it’s going away. Make no mistake about it, this war is going to have several different rises and falls, but it’s leading somewhere.”
“And now the rabbis in Israel are recognizing it. They’re looking at this through the lens of biblical prophecy and saying, ‘Could this be war that Ezekiel prophesied, of Gog and Magog?” Cummings added.
He noted how the strikes against Israel are now coming more intensely from Iranian-backed Hezbollah in the north, which is where Ezekiel wrote the invasion would originate.
Cummings further pointed out that Iran itself attacked Israel with drone and missile strikes in April.
Bill Salus, author of “The Future War Prophecies,” told Evans on his “Tipping Point” show earlier this year that he believes the current war Israel is fighting with Hamas and Hezbollah is the beginning of the war described in Psalm 83, which is a precursor to the Magog battle.
He listed Lebanon (where Hezbollah is located), Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinians, among others, as members of the Psalm 83 confederacy that will attack Israel.
Israel will win the war and will then dwell securely in its land, as Ezekiel describes, according to Salus. But the Magog battle will follow sometime thereafter, and further down the line the Battle of Armageddon, when nations from around the world, led by the Antichrist, gather to attack Israel.
Billy Hallowell, with CBN’s Faithwire.com, highlighted last year how astounding it is that events in the Middle East appear to be playing out just as the Bible predicted.
“If I were an atheist, I’d be looking at this and saying, ‘OK, it’s a little weird that all these things in Ezekiel, all these places that he’s talking about, thousands of years later are … the centerpiece of what we are talking about right now globally.’”
