Roar of the Lion
These are the Judgments
Now these are the [judgments] which you are to set before them. (Exodus 21:1)
Preachers commonly suggest that the Jewish people rejected Jesus as a candidate for Messiah because His generation looked for a warrior and political liberator, not a humble savior, meek-and-mild, born in a manger, who comes lowly and riding on a donkey with universal message of peace, love and forgiveness. "The Jewish people were anticipating a warrior king. That's why they didn't recognize Jesus." There might be some truth to that idea as regards the Zealots of His day, but overall, it is a false assessment of both Jesus and of Jewish expectations about the Messiah.
The idea falsely assesses Jesus. He was not meek and mild. Yes, He brought a message of love for God and love for one's neighbor, but He also said, "I have not come to bring peace but a sword." He warned of coming wrath and fury when the Son of Man comes in power and splendor at the head of an army of angels. He pointed His followers toward a day when the Messiah will flatten His enemies, reward the righteous, and punish the wicked.
The idea also falsely assesses Jewish expectations about the Messiah. Jewish eschatology looks not merely for a warrior but primarily for a second Moses: a redeemer, lawgiver, and teacher of Torah. Moreover, the Messiah must be a king like David who, in addition to being a warrior, loved the Torah, meditated on the Torah day and night, and ruled his kingdom according to the laws of the Torah. Yes, King David is remembered in the Bible as a battlefield hero, but Judaism reveres him as a Torah scholar.
Before all else, the Messiah must be a Jewish king. The Torah warns the king of Israel not to amass wives, wealth, or power like the kings of this world. Instead, the Jewish king makes a copy of the Torah, keeps it with him at all times, studies it continuously, and governs and administers his realm according to its laws (Deuteronomy 17). The king of Israel functions like the chief justice of the Supreme Court, deciding cases, resolving questions, settling disputes, and enforcing the law of God. The king has a role like that of Moses, seated in the seat of Moses, judging the cases presented before him.
Think of the story of King Solomon praying for wisdom so that he might be equipped to administer justice as the judge of Israel (I Kings 3). God answered Solomon's prayer. Filled with the spirit of wisdom, knowledge, and discernment, he applied himself to the law of God. The rabbis nominated King Solomon as the greatest Torah scholar of all time. As such, he proved himself a worthy son of David. Not because he was a warrior but because he was a man of Torah learning like his father.
The Jewish view of a godly king is a Torah scholar who teaches the Torah, interprets the Torah, and applies the Torah to establish justice and righteousness. This is also the Jewish expectation of the Messiah:
He will delight in the fear of the LORD, and He will not judge by what His eyes see, nor make a decision by what His ears hear; but with righteousness He will judge the poor, and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth. (Isaiah I1:3-4)
The prophecies say very little about the Messiah in His capacity as a warrior, but when they do, the weapons He employs are the words of His mouth (Isaiah II:4), i.e., words of Torah. (Notice the weapons with which Yeshua defeated Satan in the wilderness in Matthew 4:1-II.) The most important qualifications a candidate for Messiah must possess are Torah scholarship, Torah observance, and the leadership to return the Jewish people to the Torah. If such a person arises who then also goes on to defeat Gog and Magog, you may presume he is the Messiah:
This is the main thing: the laws of the Torah are eternal and enduring, and one must neither add to them nor subtract from them. If a king will arise from the house of David who delves deeply into the study of the Torah and, like David his forefather, observes its commandments as prescribed by the written Torah and the Oral Torah, and if he will prevail upon Israel to walk in the way of Torah, and repair its breaches, and if he fights the wars of the LORD, we may confidently consider him the Messiah. (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Melachim II:4)
The Torah of Messiah
Which you are to set before them. (Exodus 21:1)
The Messiah will be a teacher of the Torah. He will "repair its breaches" by correcting misunderstandings and misapplications. He will reinstate the law in accordance with its original intention. He will reconcile all the seeming discrepancies in the Torah, resolve all uncertainties regarding its application, and explain all of its hidden meanings. He will do so to such an extent that it will be as if He issues a whole new Torah (Isaiah 42:3, 5I:4). The sages call it the New Torah or the Torah of Messiah. It's not a different Torah. The Messiah does not abolish the Torah of Moses or replace it with a new law, but He does explain it and reveal its secrets.
In the kingdom, the nations will come to Zion to learn the Torah from King Messiah, and He will "judge between nations, and will render decisions for many peoples" so that the nations no longer need to employ violence or war to settle their disputes (Isaiah 2:4). "There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore" (Isaiah 9:7). Then "the Torah will go forth from Zion and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem" (Isaiah 2:3).
The Roar of the Lion
Does a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey? Does a young lion growl from his den unless he has captured something? (Amos 3:4)
Yeshua of Nazareth did not take up the weapons of war to battle with Rome. Instead, like the Messiah son of Joseph of the talmudic legend who perishes in the War of Gog and Magog, He was put to death by the imperial force occupying the land of Israel (i.e., Rome, the fourth beast). They hung Him up like a criminal on a Roman cross. "Having been offered once to bear the sins of many, [He] will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin" (Hebrews 9:28), not as a victim (like a Lamb that was slain) but as a warrior (like the Lion of the Tribe of Judah).
Before the utopian era of global peace begins and the Messiah's administration of righteousness and justice commences, the Messiah must conquer His enemies and subdue the nations. The Lion of Judah first tears and kills its victim, then it lies down in peaceful repose. Then the scepter shall not depart from Judah (Genesis 49:9-10).
The LORD laughs at the nations that defy His Messiah. He says, "I have installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain" (Psalm 2:6). To the Messiah, He says, "Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet" (Psalm II0:1). Then "the LORD saves His [Messiah]; He will answer him from His holy heaven with the saving strength of His right hand" (Psalm 20:6).
The Lion "roars from Zion and utters His voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth tremble" (Joel 3:16). The roar of the Lion brings an abrupt end to the advancing armies of Gog and Magog. The roar of the Lion issues a summons to the faithful, gathering them from all over the globe:
He will roar like a lion; indeed He will roar and His sons will come trembling from the west. They will come trembling like birds from Egypt and like doves from the land of Assyria; and I will settle them in their houses, declares the LORD. (Hosea II:I0-I1)
Shattering the World
You shall break them with a rod of iron, you shall shatter them like earthenware. (Psalm 2:9)
In that day, world leaders will be abashed. Their fiefdoms will collapse. The ivory towers of world sophistry will crumble. The criminal enterprise of political power will be exposed. The Messiah will "overthrow the thrones of kingdoms and destroy the power of the kingdoms of the nations" (Haggai 2:22). If the kings of the world do not "show discernment" and the "judges of the earth" do not "take warning" and "do homage to the Son, that He not become angry," they will perish in the way, and He will "break them with a rod of iron" and "shatter them like earthenware" (Psalm 2:9-I2).
The coming of the Messiah destroys every philosophical ideology and lofty system of thought "raised up against the knowledge of God." Every idea is taken "captive to the obedience of Messiah" (2 Corinthians 10:5). The theories of great political thinkers of the ages must be discarded. The philosophical models that currently govern higher education, social order, economic systems, political parties, public policy, international diplomacy, and administrative governance must be abandoned.
The shofar of Messiah announces the end of all human experiments: communism, socialism, capitalism, fascism, authoritarianism, totalitarianism, progressivism, nationalism, globalism, imperialism, populism, democracy, and every form of governance contrived to order human societies. The roar of the Lion brings an end to secularism, humanism, rationalism, naturalism, materialism, agnosticism, and atheism. Their systems of thought all die on the battlefield along with the soldiers of Gog and Magog. Likewise, the world's great religions, theologies, and spiritual enlightenments are exposed as empty and impotent-roads that lead to nowhere. Muhammed is humiliated. Krishna is exposed. Buddha achieves nothingness. Confucius is confounded. The false Messiah is cast down along with his image. "Those who make them will become like them. Everyone who trusts in them" (Psalm 115:8).
The Man From the Sea (2 Ezra 13)
I looked, and behold, this wind made something like the figure of a man come up out of the heart of the sea. (2 Ezra 13:3)
Before the Messiah can establish His kingdom, He must first topple the kingdoms of this world. Let's take a look at how it happens in the major apocalyptic texts of 2 Ezra, 1 Enoch, and 2 Baruch.
Apocryphal Ezra has a dream in which he sees the Messiah depicted as a lion. The lion rises from the forest to challenge the empire of the fourth beast (which he sees depicted as a three-headed eagle). The lion roars a mighty rebuke from its mouth, denouncing the world-government for its injustices, corruption, a wickedness. At the sound of the lion's roar, the last beast is destroyed (2 Ezra I1).
After he dreams of the lion's roar, apocryphal Ezra undertakes another seven days of prayer and fasting outdoors (2 Ezra 13). For the duration of the time, he eats only the flowers of the field. At the conclusion of the seven days, he has a troubling dream in which he sees the figure of a man rising from the heart of the sea like the four beasts who rose out of the sea in Daniel's vision (Daniel 7). The whole world trembles beneath the man's gaze, and those who hear his voice melt like wax before the flame.
The man flies atop a mountain carved out of the earth. An innumerable host of people gathers together from the four winds (i.e., from all directions) to fight the man. They are terrified of him, but they embolden one another to wage war against him. He takes up neither sword nor spear to defend himself. Instead, a stream of fire issues from his mouth, flaming breath from his lips, and fiery coals from his tongue. The fires consume the onrushing host.
The man descends from the mountain and summons another multitude of people. Some come rejoicing, others come in sorrow. Some are brought to him bound in chains and fetters, others are brought as gifts.
Ezra awakes from the vision in great fear. He implores the LORD for an explanation of the dream. The LORD explains that he has seen a vision of the Messiah. He rises from the sea because "just as no one can explore or know what is in the depths of the sea, so no one on earth can see my Son or those who are with him, except in the time of his day" (2 Ezra 13:52). The mountain on which he stood is Mount Zion, which "will come and be made manifest to all people, prepared and built ... carved out without hands" (2 Ezra 13:36). The fiery breath with which he destroys the hosts of the nations is the rebuke of his mouth and "the Torah which was symbolized by fire" (2 Ezra 13:38). The host summoned by the Messiah are the exiles of Israel, the ten tribes and those who dwell in the Diaspora, the remnant of Israel. Those brought bound seem to be their prisoners from the nations; those brought as gifts seem to be Jews proffered up from the nations.
Kings From the East (1 Enoch)
The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates; and its water was dried up, so that the way would be prepared for the kings from the east. (Revelation 16:12)
Imagery from the War of Gog and Magog is also strewn across the book of I Enoch. For example, the so-called Animal Apocalypse of 1 Enoch 85-90 allegorically depicts nations as different types of animals. The people of Israel are a flock of sheep, while the nations are wolves, lions, leopards, bears, wolves, and vultures (cf. Matthew 10:16). Under that thin veil of symbols, the allegory retells the story of the Bible up to the Maccabean wars, and then to the beginning of the Hasmonean Era. At that point, the allegory shifts from a historical recap to an end-times projection about the Day of the LORD. When the predators have taken too many of the sheep, the Lord of the Sheep directly intervenes. The predators gather to fight him, but he smites the earth with the rod of his wrath. The earth swallows all the predators.
Another significant passage from I Enoch provides literary context for the march of the "kings from the east" who cross the Euphrates to march against the land of Israel (Revelation I6:12). In this passage, the spirits of the fallen Watchers provoke the kings from the east to war. The nations come out against the Holy Land "like lions leaving their dens, like hungry wolves rushing into a flock":
In those days the [Watcher] angels will return and thrust themselves eastward upon the Parthians and the Medes. They will stir up the kings, filling them with a spirit of unrest. Those kings will be shaken from their thrones and will break out like lions leaving their dens, like hungry wolves rushing into a flock. They will march up and trample the land of His chosen people, and the land of His elect will become before them like a threshing floor and an open road.
But the city of my righteous ones will halt their horses. Then they will turn on one another. Their right hand will strike against themselves; a man will not recognize his brother, nor a son his father or mother. The number of their slain will be beyond counting, and their judgment will not be without purpose.
In those days Sheol will open its mouth wide, and they will be swallowed up. Their destruction will come to an end, for Sheol will consume the sinners right before the eyes of the elect. (I Enoch 56:5-8)
Apocryphal Ezra also sees a terrifying vision about the coming of kings from the east:
The nations of the dragons of Arabia shall come out with many chariots, and from the day that they set out, their hissing shall spread over the earth, so that all who hear them fear and tremble. (2 Ezra 15:28)
Black Waters (2 Baruch)
They will hate one another and provoke one another to war. (2 Baruch 70:3)
Not wanting to be left behind by I Enoch and 2 Ezra, scenes from the end of days and the last battles also play out in the visions of 2 Baruch. For example, the conflict between the vine and the great forest symbolizes the conflict between the Messiah's kingdom and Rome, the kingdom of this world (2 Baruch 36). In the vision, the vine spreads to overcome all the trees of the forest.
Later chapters depict generations of wickedness and apostasy as a series of storm clouds rising from the sea and pouring forth a deluge of black water over the land of Israel. This happens twelve times throughout the span of history. After each deluge, the black waters recede for a time. Then comes the last storm, a cloud of black water much darker than all that preceded it. It covers the land, but a crown of lightning atop the storm cloud seizes darkness, presses it down to the earth, and brings it to an end. The lightning heals the land where the black waters had brought destruction. The meaning of the last storm is explained. It symbolizes the conflict of the last generation, which culminates in the War of Gog and Magog. The Messiah is the crown of lightning that defeats the storm and heals the land (2 Baruch 70:6-71:1).
Under His Feet
They saw the God of Israel; and under His feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself. (Exodus 24:10)
At Mount Sinai, the elders of the children of Israel ascended the mountain and beheld a vision of the LORD of hosts. They ate and drank in His presence, sharing a meal with the God of Israel. What did they see? To them, it seemed as if the unseen God sat before them, His feet resting on the transparent sapphire pavement of heaven.
Since the day of His ascension into those heavens, the Messiah sits at the right hand of Glory (Psalm 110:1), but in the last days, He will rise to His feet. The many peoples will reproach His elect, and they will gather themselves against Him:
Remember, O Lord, the reproach of Your servants; how I bear in my bosom the reproach of all the many peoples, with which Your enemies have reproached, O LORD, with which they have reproached the footsteps of Your anointed. (Psalm 89:50-51)
On the day of salvation, "His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives" (Zechariah 14:4). He will crush the head of the serpent beneath His heel. The LORD makes His enemies into a footstool for His beautiful feet (Psalm II0:1). "How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news" (Isaiah 52:7). Then the redeemed will enter His presence to eat and drink like the elders of Israel at Mount Sinai.
Day of Trouble and Distress
Near is the great day of the LORD, near and coming very quickly; listen, the day of the LORD! In it the warrior cries out bitterly. (Zephaniah 1: 14)
The Prophet Zephaniah paints a grim picture of the Day of the LORD: a day of wrath, trouble and distress, destruction and desolation, darkness and gloom, clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet and battle cry (Zephaniah I: 15-17).
On the day that the Messiah stands on the Mount of Olives, He smites His enemies with the sword of His mouth, the breath of His lips, and the word of His tongue. He pronounces a sentence of death on the wicked who oppose Him; the word of His mouth unleashes a catastrophic tsunami of obliteration that radiates across the battlefield and extends to the whole world.
In the confusion and mayhem of that hour, the temporary alliance between the nations collapses. "The trumpet shall sound aloud, and when all hear it, they shall suddenly be terrified. At that time friends shall make war on friends like enemies" (2 Ezra 6:23-24). Their militaries open fire on one another in a final bloodletting. "A great panic from the LORD will fall on them; and they will seize one another's hand, and the hand of one will be lifted against the hand of another" (Zechariah I4:13). "Every man's sword will be against his brother" (Ezekiel 38:21).
Like one of the battlefield miracles from the days of kings and prophets, the enemies of Israel eliminate one another. Their armies clash until the blood rises "up to the horses' bridles," "as high as the horse's belly and a man's thigh and a camel's hock," "the horse will wade up to its chest in the blood of the wicked, and chariots will sink to their axles in it" (Revelation 14:20; 2 Ezra 15; 1 Enoch 100). It's "city against city, place against place, people against people, and kingdom against kingdom" (2 Ezra 13:33). "All those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword" (Matthew 26:52). It's as if World War in takes place in a single moment.
World War III
On the day of the LORD'S wrath; and all the earth will be devoured in the fire of His jealousy, for He will make a complete end, indeed a terrifying one, of all the inhabitants of the earth. (Zephaniah 1:18)
Messianic Jewish pioneer Abram Poljak lived through both World Wars. He and his wife escaped Nazi Germany only by a miracle. Poljak considered the two World Wars to be the first two stages of Gog and Magog. He predicted that the next World War would be the last. He anticipated that it would begin with nuclear weapons and conclude with the coming of the Messiah. He taught that the kingdom of the Messianic Era will be built atop the ruins of this world.
The apocalyptic symbolism that depicts God's wrath as a consuming fire poured out on the nations seems all too descriptive of nuclear-war nightmares. "The day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze," the Prophet Malachi predicted (4:1, cf. 2 Peter 3:10).
During the War of Gog and Magog, the LORD "will send fire upon Magog and those who inhabit the coastlands in safety" (Ezekiel 39:6). The plague with which the Messiah strikes "all the peoples who have gone to war against Jerusalem" sounds like the horrifying effects of an atomic flash and radiation exposure: "Their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongue will rot in their mouth" (Zechariah 14:12).
In that day, when the sun darkens and the moon turns red, there will be "wonders in the sky and on the earth, blood, fire and columns of smoke" (oel 3:3 [2:30]). The Hebrew behind the term “columns of smoke” (timrat ashan, תִּימֲרוֹת עָשָׁן) could be translated as “palm trees of smoke,” evoking images of mushroom clouds ascending into the sky (Hajioff, The Future, Mosaica Press, 2018, 152).
Doomsday prophecies in apocalyptic sources are even more suggestive. For example, the Sibylline Oracles predict a barrage that, to modern ears, might sound like incoming ballistic missiles: "Fiery swords shall fall from heaven on earth, and mighty lights shall come down flaming in the midst of men" (Sibylline Oracles 3:800-801). The book of Revelation heightens the apprehension. Seven trumpets and the seven bowls of wrath visit devastations on the earth, which, to modern ears, sound suspiciously like the effects of thermonuclear war:
On that day that the Lord will hear [that Antichrist intends to slay the remnant of the faithful]. He commands the heaven and the earth with great wrath. And they will send for fire. And the fire will prevail over the earth seventy-two cubits. It will consume the sinners and the devils like stubble. A true judgment will occur. (Apocalypse of Elijah)
Before we start digging fallout shelters, let's take a few deep breaths. It's not good Bible exegesis to impose modern-world interpretations onto the symbolism of a first-century text or other pieces of biblical literature. The Apostle John certainly did not have atomic detonations in mind, nor did the original readers of his apocalypse. The plagues and tribulations that smite the earth are better understood as divine strokes of judgment, a heightening of the plagues God inflicted on Egypt. Unlike the indiscriminate blast of a hydrogen bomb, the judgment of the LORD punishes the wicked but spares the righteous.
Nevertheless, it's difficult for modern readers to avoid the eerie similarities to the effects of nuclear exchange. With the first trumpet, "a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up" (Revelation 8:7). The second trumpet throws "something like a great mountain burning with fire" into the sea, devastating a third of all sea life (Revelation 8:8). When the third trumpet sounds, a star called wormwood falls from the sky like a burning torch and poisons a third of the world's water supplies (Revelation 8:10). The fourth trumpet darkens the atmosphere like a nuclear winter, reducing the light of sun, moon, and stars by a third (Revelation 8:12). Likewise, the seven bowls of wrath evoke fears of nuclear fallout and radiation poisoning: malignant sores, death of sea life, pollution-choked viscous water courses, scorching burns, dark skies, fiery hail, and extreme drought (Revelation 16:1-12).
Sounds scary, doesn't it? It's supposed to be scary. Whether it's an atomic war or not, that day of terror is supposed to loom large in our minds and motivate us to embrace the good news. It's the reason Yeshua proclaimed the gospel message of repentance. It's also the reason the apostles felt convicted to warn the world to repent and take hold "of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" (I Peter I:5).
Salvation
But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness. (I Thessalonians 5:4-5)
The Apostle Paul dedicated his life to bringing the gospel message of that salvation to the nations so that, by all means, he might save some. He labored to turn them "from idols to serve a living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Yeshua, who rescues us from the wrath to come" (I Thessalonians I: 9-10). He warned them that the Messiah "will come just like a thief in the night" for "those who sleep" and "get drunk at night," but the believers do not need to fear the terrors of that dark night, "for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness." The Day of the LORD will not catch us off guard or overtake us like a thief striking in the night so long as "we are of the day," awake, alert, sober, and girded with faith, hope, and love (I Thessalonians 5:2-8):
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in the Messiah will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. (I Thessalonians 4:16-17)
Salvation is not merely about a heavenly Paradise after death; it's about being spared from the wrath to come in this world. Here's some good news: "God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Master Yeshua the Messiah" (I Thessalonians 5:9).
Paul wrote about the Day of the LORD not to frighten his readers but to comfort them: "Therefore comfort one another with these words" (I Thessalonians 4:18). It's good to know that God judges evil, but it's even better to know of His infinite concern for His children. The natural man responds to fear, but the spiritual man responds to hope. Hope builds better than fear. "Everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure" (I John 3:3).
Just a Few Being Saved
"Lord, are there just a few who are being saved?" And He said to them, "Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able." (Luke 13:23-24)
The prophets speak frequently of future devastations. Gloomy predictions about the aftermath of the Day of the LORD appear across the literature. Sometimes those predictions take on a global scale. For example, Zephaniah opens his oracles with a frightening prophecy of total annihilation and mass extinction (Zephaniah I:1-3).
The Talmud preserves conflicting opinions about the aftermath of the Day of the LORD (b.Sanhedrin 97a). One rabbi predicts that the earth will lie fallow, desolate and uninhabited for one thousand years, as it says in Isaiah, "The LORD alone will be exalted in that day" (Isaiah 2:17). Another opinion says, "The earth will be desolate for two thousand years, as it says, "After two days; He will raise us up" (Hosea 6:2). That type of global extinction talk becomes a real-world possibility under the threat of nuclear war.
These grim projections, however, are the outliers. The sources more commonly prefer to understand the thousand years of the Day of the LORD as the Days of the Messiah, that is, the Messianic Era. The preponderance of biblical prophecy envisions a bright future during which humanity thrives and flourishes under the righteous administration of King Messiah. The prophets anticipate an era of miraculous fertility, abundance, and prosperity. Rather than the desolate, radiation-soaked desert landscapes of Cold War-era, post-apocalyptic Hollywood movies, the earth teems with life. The coming of the Messiah transforms and restores the planet into an Edenic paradise:
It shall be that whoever remains after all that I have foretold to you shall himself be saved and shall see my salvation and the end of my world. (2 Ezra 6:25)
Nevertheless, the first generation of mortal survivors who enter the Messianic Era will be few. With or without the extinction-level event of full-scale nuclear exchange, the global travails of the last days significantly cull the population:
On that day, the mountains and the earth will utter speech. The byways will speak with one another, saying, "Have you heard today the voice of a human being who walks [on earth] who has not come to the judgment of the Son of God?" (Apocalypse of Elijah 5)
A haunting passage near the conclusion of 2 Ezra predicts a world mostly bereft of human population. The snapshot it offers us of the world on the day after the War of Gog and Magog makes it worth quoting in full:
For the earth shall be left desolate, and its cities shall be demolished. No one shall be left to cultivate the earth or to sow it. The trees shall bear fruit, and who will gather it? The grapes shall ripen, and who will tread them? For in all places there shall be great solitude; one person will long to see another or even to hear his voice. For out of a city, ten shall be left; and out of a field, two who have hidden themselves in thick groves and clefts in the rocks. As in an olive orchard three or four olives may be left on every tree, or as when a vineyard is gathered some clusters may be left by those who search carefully through the vineyard, so in those days three or four shall be left by those who search their houses with the sword. And the earth shall be left desolate, and its fields shall be for thornbushes, and its roads and all its paths shall bring forth thorns, because no sheep will go among them.
Virgins shall mourn because they have no bridegrooms; women shall mourn because they have no husbands; their daughters shall mourn because they have no helpers. Their bridegrooms shall be killed in war, and their husbands shall perish of famine. (2 Ezra 16:23-34)
Within the land of Israel, "two parts [of the population] will be cut off and perish, but the third will be left in it," and the surviving third will be "brought through the fire" as silver is refined and gold is tested (Zechariah 13:8-9). The Talmud extends Zechariah's depopulation projections out to "all the sons of Noah," suggesting that only a third of the globe's population will survive the calamities of the Day of the LORD to enter the kingdom (b.Sanhedrin IIIa).
In the days, weeks, and months after the big event, the devastated populations of the nations, wandering in darkness, begin to receive reports from the land of Israel. There are rumors of prosperity, well-being, and order. A righteous king rules from Jerusalem. Hope and light pour forth from Zion: "Her salvation like a torch that is burning. The nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory" (Isaiah 62:1-2).
Although "darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples," the glory of the LORD will shine forth from Zion. Then "nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising" (Isaiah 60:2-3).
The people of the nations send embassies to meet with representatives of the King of Jerusalem. The king offers them terms of surrender. They swear their fealty to the King. "They all gather together, they come to you" (Isaiah 60:4). The King of Jerusalem annexes the nations, one at a time, into a global kingdom. He extends His authority and His beneficence out to their lands.
Salvation of Zion (Isaiah 66)
Yet He did not stretch out His hand against the nobles of the sons of Israel. (Exodus 24:11)
At Mount Sinai, the LORD "did not stretch out His hand against the nobles of the sons of Israel." At Mount Zion, "the hand of the LORD will be made known to His servants, but He will be indignant toward His enemies" (Isaiah 66:14).
One of the earliest prophecies we have about the final end-times battle appears in the closing chapter of the book of Isaiah. Themes that later receive development in Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah, 1 Enoch, 2 Ezra, 2 Baruch, and Revelation appear first in Isaiah 66. The chapter describes a dramatic confrontation with the nations. The LORD declares that He intends to judge humanity. He says, "I know their works and their thoughts; the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and see My glory" (Isaiah 66:18).
The Jewish people anticipate a long season of trauma like that of a woman entering the travail of birth pains, but the labor pains are cut unexpectedly short. Before the height of travail, Zion "brought forth, before her pain came, she gave birth to a boy" (Isaiah 66:7). Her child can certainly be understood as the Messiah, but in Isaiah's prophecy, the child to whom she gives birth is better understood as the rebirth of the nation through a sudden, unanticipated act of redemption. Here's how it happens.
"All nations and tongues" have gathered against Zion. The LORD arrives to the battle as a divine warrior "in fire and His chariots like the whirlwind, to render His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire" (Isaiah 66:15). There is a calamitous sound from within Jerusalem and from inside the Temple, the sound of "the voice of the LORD who is rendering recompense to His enemies" (Isaiah 66:6). "Those slain by the LORD will be many" (Isaiah 66:16). His victims are people from the nations who engage in heathen rituals and "eat swine's flesh, detestable things and mice" (Isaiah 66:17). "The LORD will execute judgment by fire and by His sword on all flesh" (Isaiah 16:16). Their corpses are heaped into a mass pyre that continually burns but is not consumed, swarmed by worms that never die (Isaiah 66:24).
The wicked "will come to an end altogether" (Isaiah 66:17); however, not all the soldiers of the invading armies will perish. Those who surrender are sent back to their homes to report on everything they have seen and heard in the Holy Land. They serve as emissaries to the nations "that have neither heard My fame nor seen My glory" (Isaiah 66:19). The battlefield survivors return to their homes to testify about the glory of the LORD. "They will declare My glory among the nations" (Isaiah 66:19). Isaiah's prophecy specifically mentions "Tarshish, Put, Lud, Meshech, Rosh, Tubal and Javan" as examples of nations that sponsored the war. Genesis 10:2 links those names with Magog, and Ezekiel refers to Gog as the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal (Ezekiel 38:3).
Those who loved Jerusalem and mourned over her desolation are now invited to rejoice with her in her exaltation (Isaiah 66:10). Zion is likened to a mother who, having just given birth to the nation, now nurses her children, and her children are comforted in the arms of her plenty (Isaiah 66:11). The LORD Himself comforts the survivors in Jerusalem "as one whom his mother comforts" (Isaiah 66:13).
The LORD sets a sign among the nations (Isaiah 66:19). No longer hostile, the peoples flow to Jerusalem like a river of peace. They bring an abundance of tribute to Zion like the waters of a flash flood overflowing the banks of its streambed (Isaiah 66:12). They carry along with them the exiles of Israel who have been captives and sojourners in their lands. During the course of the pilgrimage, the nations protect the Jewish people under their care as parents protect and care for their infant children: "You will be nursed, you will be carried on the hip and fondled on the knees" (Isaiah 66:12):
"Then they shall bring all your brethren from all the nations as a grain offering to the LORD, on horses, in chariots, in litters, on mules and on camels, to My holy mountain Jerusalem," says the LORD, "just as the sons of Israel bring their grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of the LORD." (Isaiah 66:20)
In those days, Jerusalem becomes the capital city of the world. All human beings make pilgrimage to Jerusalem to worship the LORD. All nations observe the biblical calendar and worship the LORD along with the Jewish people "from new moon to new moon and from sabbath to sabbath" (Isaiah 66:23).
When the Jewish people see the salvation of Jerusalem, the defeat of Gog and Magog, the ingathering of the exiles, and the tribute of the nations, they are glad of heart. Even the dead are revived: Their "bones will flourish like the new grass" (Isaiah 66:14). The children of Zion and the name of Israel will never be erased. They endure before the LORD eternally, even into the World to Come, "just as the new heavens and the new earth which I make will endure before Me" (Isaiah 66:22).
Hallowed Be Thy Name
Pray, then, in this way: "Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name." (Matthew 6:9)
Yeshua taught His disciples to pray for the day when God will sanctify His name among the nations: "Hallowed be Your name" (Matthew 6:9). It's not a statement about the holiness of God's name; it's a petition asking God to sanctify His name so that others will realize He is holy. The antiquated English word "hallowed" means to make holy or to sanctify. The Kaddish prayer, a recurring unit of Jewish liturgy, echoes the same sentiment:
May His name be magnified and sanctified in the world that He created as He willed. May He cause His kingdom to reign, and may He cause His deliverance to sprout forth, and may He bring near His Messiah. (Kaddish)
Why did Yeshua want His disciples to ask God to sanctify His name? Isn't God's name already holy? Ezekiel explains that so long as God's people remain in exile, subject to the power of foreign nations, God's name is profaned among the nations. So long as His house is desecrated and in ruins, His name is profaned. God wants to sanctify His name by redeeming the people of Israel and returning them to His land. His name will be sanctified only when He liberates His people, brings them back to His land, installs His King over them, and rebuilds His Sanctuary in their midst. Then the nations will know that He is the LORD. Then His name will be sanctified among them (Ezekiel 36-37).
Therefore, when we pray, "Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come," we are asking God to accomplish all of those things (Matthew 6:9-10). We are also asking Him to bring the victory of the War of Gog and Magog.
God's concern for His reputation punctuates Ezekiel's prophecies about the War of Gog and Magog. Some variation on the phrase, "then they will know that I am the LORD," or "then they will know that I am God," occurs seven times in Ezekiel 38-39. The LORD tells Gog that He brings him and his armies against His land "so that the nations may know Me when 1 am sanctified through you before their eyes, O Gog" (Ezekiel 38:16). He will rain down fire upon the land of Magog so that "they will know that 1 am the LORD" (Ezekiel 39:6). Then He will make His holy name "known in the midst of Israel" and all "the nations will know" that He is the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and He will no longer permit His holy name to be profaned (Ezekiel 39:7). When He defeats Gog, "the house of Israel will know that [He] is the LORD their God from that day onward" (Ezekiel 39:22). "The nations will know" that Israel's exile resulted as a punishment for sin, not because He was unable to save them (Ezekiel 39:23).
The final redemption will dispel all doubts. The LORD says, "Then they will know that 1 am the LORD their God because I made them go into exile among the nations, and then gathered them again to their own land; and I will leave none of them there any longer" (Ezekiel 39:28).
Each of these "then they will know" statements throughout Ezekiel's prophecies alludes to the story of the exodus from Egypt. They invite comparison between that first redemption and the final redemption (cf. Exodus 6:7, 7:5, 17, 8:10, 22, 9:29). Moreover, each of them comes as an answer to the prayer our Master taught us to pray, "Hallowed be Your name."
Forgive Us Our Debts
Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. (Matthew 6:12)
The disciple of Yeshua does not anticipate the punishment of the wicked with any relish. Instead, we ask God to forgive the wicked, as He has forgiven us. The coming Day of the LORD spurs us to pray for the world the way Abraham attempted to intercede for Sodom and Gomorrah. The travails of the end times inspire us to escalate acts of love and kindness toward our fellow human beings, knowing that we must all stand before the judgment seat.
If the kingdom really is at hand, we urge people to take hold of the message of repentance before it's too late. We need not accept visions of a future doomsday as an inevitable outcome. If we have learned anything in our studies so far, it is that there is more than one way history might yet play out. As disciples of Yeshua, we proclaim the good news as good news, not a message of condemnation or fatalism. Rather than living in fear of the future, we anticipate the day when God's all-encompassing love permeates the entire world.