CONTINUED FROM PART I
Given these details, the question arises, who is this Gog, and how will he fit into this scenario?
The midrashim give some insight. They indicate that Gog will be the leader of the nation who eventually conquers the entire world. Many midrashic sources point to Persia as that nation. The Talmud, in discussing the end of days, provides more details,
“Rebi Eliezer said, “If Israel will repent then they will be redeemed, and if they will not, then they will not.” Rebi Yehoshua said to him, “If they do not repent they will not be redeemed?! Rather, The Holy One, Blessed is He, will cause to rise a king who will make decrees as difficult as Haman’s were and Israel will repent and return to the right path.” (Sanhedrin 97b)
In the biblical story of Purim, Haman was the enemy of the Jews, who plotted the genocide of the entire Jewish people. The above midrash indicates that Gog will have the same genocidal intentions towards Jews around the globe as Haman did. It is also important to note that Haman happened to be Persian (also interesting is that the name of Iran’s current leader, Khameini, when pronounced in Farsi, sounds very similar to the name “Haman”).
Among the nations, those who have aspired to convert and worship as Jews will be targeted.
“When the battle of Gog-Magog will come about they will be asked, ‘For what purpose have you come?’ and they will reply: ‘Against God and His Messiah…Then each of the proselytes will throw aside his religious token and get away.” (Avoda Zara 3b)
These converts will be threatened with death if they continue with their Jewish practices. Many it seems will deny their Jewish beliefs to save their lives.
There is a well known, often repeated tenet in radical Islam which states, “The Day of Judgement will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews, such that the trees and rocks will say there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.” This teaching has been quoted by many radicalized groups such as Hamas, as well as by the Palestinian Authority’s highest religious authority, the Mufti. This murderous ideology will likely have become widespread during this time, and the Jews may not even be given the choice to convert to some other religion. They will only face death.
One might wonder, how could a single nation take over the entire world with just nukes alone? Other countries have them as well. One possibility is a doomsday scenario which has been proposed in the past, in which a rogue nation would succeed in smuggling nuclear weapons into major cities across the globe. They would tell the world that if they did not surrender, they would set off these nukes one by one, until dozens of cities were destroyed. Any attempt to retaliate would only guarantee that the bombs go off.
Another possibility would be if radical Islam, now armed with nuclear weapons, became popular and widespread, gaining adherents and converts from peoples and religions around the globe, with the result being a worldwide army comprising millions and millions of would be suicide bombers. Countries would surrender or be conquered one by one. The continuous attacks would not stop until the entire world capitulated and converted to this radical version of Islam. Given these scenarios, it doesn’t seem impossible for a country whose leaders follow a radical interpretation of Islam, such as Iran, to one day attempt to take over the entire world.
So what about Israel? Well, Israel has one major difference from all other countries in the world. Other than the fact that it is right in the middle of the Muslim world and is viewed as a prize to be had by radical Islam, it also contains the Al-Aqsa mosque on the temple mount in Jerusalem, which is considered a holy site in Islam. For these radicals, it would be the greatest blasphemy to nuke this area, or risk any radioactive fall out. So it likely would have to be attacked by more conventional means.
The bible describes Gog’s army,
“And you will ascend; like mist you will come; like a cloud to cover the earth you will be; you and all your wings and many peoples with you.” (Ezekiel 38:9)
“I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem for war.” (Zechariah 14:2)
Commenting on this, the ancient book of Jewish mysticism, the Zohar, writes,
“At that time, the Ishmaelites will arouse all the nations of the earth to attack Jerusalem.” (Zohar Bereishis 119a)
It would seem that what we are seeing today in the United Nations, with the leaders of many Muslim nations doing all they can to rally the entire world against Israel, is only a precursor of what’s to come. Under this new extremist Iranian caliphate, all moderate voices in the Muslim world will be persecuted and stamped out.
The bible is telling us that Gog and his forces will first focus on conquering the globe. Only after achieving total domination, and forcing their radical theology on the rest of the world, will “all the nations” go to war against the Jewish state. Israel will likely be the last bastion of freedom on earth from this radical Islamic world order.
Jewish Prophecies 