The War of Gog and Magog Explained - Rabbi Tovia Singer - Living Inspired

We can turn on the news. We can. And we know that at any moment everything is going to unfold. I want to say this to Candace Owens. I want to say this to Tucker Carlson. Who are the people Who are the modern Yes, who are Who are the descendants? So we know and I believe and I agree with you as a Christian that God promised this land from modern-day Iraq to modern-day Egypt to this people, the Jews. To Abraham's actually not to the to Abraham's descendants as it says in Genesis 15. Who are his descendants now and how do we know who they are? I want to say this to all those who think this is not talking about the Jews and the return of the Jewish people to their land. Because if you say that, if you claim that and your ridiculous claims in conversation with Huckabee and so on, this should like explode in your mind if you're paying attention. Let's go. Rabbi Singer, welcome to the program. Great joining you again. Yeah. Yes, great to be here with you. Um the US Army has assembled assets in the Middle East and the whole world has been waiting intense preparation for this war. So I wanted to ask you, what's your vision? What will What's the next step over here? Obviously through the eyes of the prophets Rabbi Singer, the floor is yours. Everything that is unfolding for the last essentially nearly a thousand days is in Tanakh explicitly and I want to uh I want the viewers to enjoy a piece of Tanakh. It's the only place in all of the Jewish scriptures where Gog is mentioned by name. This term comes from Ezekiel 38 and 39. Gog, as we've talked about before, just means a roof, people who trust in the reinforced roof. We've done shows on this. And what we're going to do now is explore history as the prophets taught it in a very strange way in that when they taught about Jewish history, they taught about a history that not only hadn't happened yet, but at the time when they articulated these oracles, these were the most unlikely things to have occurred. Well, we we it's important to to make this point in that Persia is the head of the snake and our implacable enemy at the end of days is would have been completely counterintuitive for um the ancient world, for the Jewish people of the ancient world. Uh so in in contrast to let's say I hear that New York just got busted with a massive snowstorm, right? But they were warned about it for days. And the meteorologists were not uh prophets, but what they were doing is they were looking at satellite images. I'm not an expert on this, but they were looking at information and they can extrapolate that New York City was going to get pounded with an unprecedented snowstorm, okay? So, therefore, you can look at something and then project that this is what is likely going to happen and everyone you know, I imagine, you know, we're in Arizona, so you know, it's just been a a nice breezy 55-60°, but there they got hit, they got smashed. Now, the prophets were not doing this in that the great men, the oracular prophets of the ancient world, there's nothing they could have looked at that would have indicated that Iran was modern-day Iran, but Persia would be our enemy. It's very important because Persia, of all the empires, was the most benign and benevolent toward the Jewish people. After all, Cyrus the Great is called the Messiah. He tells the Jews to return. Uh Israel has no border with Iran. This is very important to keep in mind. Modern Modern-day Iran, we don't have a border. We There are proxy wars between Israel and Iran. We had a 12-day war with Iran, but there's no land issue like we have with Syria, like we had with Egypt, and so on and so forth. So, this is very very critical that the prophets appoint to something which there is there's there's is nothing in their view that could have indicated to them that Iran's going to be a problem. Like, why? And they're not even Arabs. So, it's not like the Bene Ishmael, there's a tense relationship between Isaac and Ishmael, which is resolved at the end, but it's a a relationship doesn't go very well. But no, no, no, it's going to be Persia. So, So, why Persia? Yeah. Yeah, so this is very interesting. So, then that All right. So, first, let's look at the the facts on the ground of what's going on. He says, "Why Persia? We can posit the following." So, this part I have to speculate on. So, I get I do a lot of interviews, mostly now with people like you, but mostly with people who are not Jewish. I'm on a lot of Muslim shows, and I get a lot of emails and messages from people in the Islamic world, and there's not even close. I get far more emails saying, "I love Israel. I love the Jews." from Iran than I do from all other Muslim countries combined, and I get a lot of them. So, what's intriguing about Iran, modern-day Iran, is whereas the government is set to attack Israel, and has been the basically the head of the snake of all its proxies, whether it's in the south, whether it's in north in Lebanon. Now, you can understand where Ezekiel's getting all these compass points from. Uh what's intriguing about it is that if the leadership of Iran is destroyed and the armies of Iran destroyed, the people of Iran would immediately do chuva and turn to the God of Israel and the people of Israel. That's why Iran is so strange here. This is not the case in Egypt, the largest Arab country in the world, where most of them don't like us. Iran is totally different. And that's why I believe God is using Iran because Iran you can destroy its armies, its leadership, but the people will then do what the nation is supposed to do in the Messianic age and say turn to the Jews. And we owe them a favor. After all, 2,500 years ago, Cyrus told the Jews to come back there to build the base on Migdash. We owe them one. So, this is really This is um prophetic poetry at its highest level. Now, I I want to just help you the viewer understand how to just read Tanakh. And it's a um a um a something that you're going to grasp immediately. In Tanakh, very frequently, we're first told how the whole thing ends up. And then Tanakh will then go, "Okay, let's back up and go through the details." Let me give you the the simplest example of this that everyone is familiar with, okay? Genesis chapter 1. Okay? Genesis chapter 1. Everyone knows that chapter. God is creating the world and the culmination of all of God's creation, the purpose of it, is man. So, God creates man on the on the sixth day. And then Genesis chapter 2, Shabbat starts, okay? We all know that. But then what happens, notice in Genesis chapter 2, verse 7, is it actually rewinds and says, "Okay, we need more detail on man." And then we have all this detail that I could work who um how does he make man what did he do in chapter one we just glossed over it so we took the the the the dust of the earth and he formed it in the shape of a man he blew into his nostrils uh the the nishmas chaim the spirit of god and it became Adam okay so that's a great example which is all over Tanakh okay it's really important for you to know Daniel 9 is that way Daniel 9 begins by saying Daniel made a mistake he didn't understand Jeremiah and then the whole chapter is now let's break down what really happened how the details okay that is exactly [snorts] what is occurring in these Ezekiel 37 through 39 okay this is going to be really important to us so Ezekiel 37 is entirely Messianic it begins with the vision of Israel being restored it it's a powerful numinous image of that Ezekiel encounters a valley of dried out bones there's no hope and then there's these bones uh gain flesh and sinews rise up a powerful army this is the people of Israel okay so I don't have to interpret it you don't need any commentary Ezekiel is very generous throughout 37 of explaining exactly everything that's happening and the the northern kingdom will restored which means the nine and a half tribes are lost and that's Ephraim the two sticks in hand restored you don't need any commentary to understand this it really is like as plain [snorts] as it could possibly be and then we're introduced to Mashiach you don't need a commentary on this this is Ezekiel uh 37 verse 24 and 25 Mashiach is called the nasi the prince he'll be called the prince throughout the end of Ezekiel. Remember I always told you Ezekiel, this chunk is all Messiah from 34 on. Although there's Messianic stuff earlier, but all of this everything here is Messianic. So just very quickly, Ezekiel 37:24 and 25 is Messiah himself. It's one of the rare places where the Messiah is discussed. The Jews will be keeping all the Torah and all the mitzvahs. That's 24 and 25. And then 26 and 27 and 28 is about the building of the base hamikdash, the building of the temple. You got it? So it's very important so see Ezekiel 37 as a very anybody can pick this chapter up. You really I know some people think this is heresy, but it isn't. You you can read it in in Hebrew, you can read it with a trans- it doesn't matter. It's very simply laid out. Just like Genesis 1. It doesn't mean you won't have questions, but you'll understand exactly what's going on. You don't need Tovia, you don't need any you don't need any thing is very simple. Just like Genesis 1 is simple. Questions maybe, but you understand exactly what's being conveyed. Now, what happens in Ezekiel 38 is now he's winding back like Genesis 2. He says, "Okay, let's examine the course of events that will occur in the end of days. How will it happen that the enemies of God will be destroyed and God's name will be raised up above every other name. After all, that's the goal of the Messianic age. So first, the Jewish people are come under attack. God literally in Ezekiel 38. So this is where we hear the word Gog. Now we've explained previous shows, but I want to 30 seconds. Gog in Hebrew is a simple word which means roof. That's all. So in the 30 seconds, the people of the roof, meaning they trust in the material um concrete steel reinforced concrete roof, go to war against the people who trust in God. Meaning, the people who trust in the clouds of heaven. That's why Daniel 7:13, the Mashiach comes with the clouds of heaven. That's why in Daniel Excuse me, in Zechariah 14:16, the nations celebrate Sukkot, celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles, which ordinarily non-Jews are not supposed to be celebrating Sukkot. There's the amazing thing cuz they the the righteous of the gentile nations trust in the clouds of heaven. So, they get the opportunity to join the Jews to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles. A massive chiddush. Some It's a massive issue. It's actually a massive issue in Jewish law, but we're going to move on from that cuz I This should like explode in your mind if you're paying attention. Look at Ezekiel 38:4. Very Kabbalistic, I'm just Literally, Hashem is going to bring the enemies of Israel out. He's going to draw them out. Literally, the text saying he's going to like hooks. Like if you wanted to grab an a reluctant Someone who should be reluctant, he's going to draw out the enemies of Israel, and he's going to draw them into war, which means if they had any brains, why would you go to war with Israel? That would be dumb. It doesn't make any sense. Like why why is Iran doing this? It just got It just got smacked up. Most people would walk away after a brawl like that. In Ezekiel 38:5, we're told explicitly that Persia is the chief of enemy adversary of Klal Yisrael by name. Persia is Iran. And it's interesting It's very interesting just historically of the entire region, Europe, Asia, Per- Persia has been uh in terms of its uh population, has been one of the most stable of all the nations. Uh it's like Europeans, tremendous wars, and people who were in Germany today likely were not in Germany a thousand years ago, but that can be said of Persia. It's I is their genetic stability is very striking. So, it means that there's a a considerable number of people living in Iran today who could go back genetically, that they have from the same people who uh who are the Persians from the ancient times. What happens? They co- they go up against all Israel. Now, another thing has to happen, and that's Ezekiel This is right there. I beg anyone to read it. Ezekiel it tells us, "The Jews will have returned." And and it's important to look inside. Ezekiel 38:8, "And after those days, what will happen? That the Jewish people, after recovering from war, they will return back to the land of Israel after it had long been desolate." I want everyone in Mea Shearim to hear this. I want everybody in Williamsburg and Kiryas Joel to read this. I know you weren't taught this in Beis Yaakov. I I don't mean this in a bad way, but I want to say this to the Shiva world, to my brothers and sisters. I asked the the Gedolei Torah, the leaders of Klal Yisrael, those who are in charge of the curriculum for yeshivas, do you think that when Yechezkel Hanavi Hakadosh Baruch Hu do you think when he wrote these holy words, if you would if we can go back 2 and 1/2 thousand years and ask him do you think our sons and daughters should read your safer, okay? If you answer that probably he would or almost certainly he would then what possible explanation could you have that this has not been taught in Ponevezh or in the mirror? There's a problem. I say this with all the love in my heart, but there's a very very big problem that these Nevi'im they're called the Oracular Nevi'im, meaning Nevi'im who went s- giving Oracles, meaning like Musar. That's what like an Oracle is like a word of knowledge. Uh like uh Daniel was not an Oracle Oracular Navi cuz he didn't go around telling the Jews how to behave, okay? So just So I hope I hope I hope and I speak to many Gedolei Torah and many Roshei Yeshiva and they all agree with me. But we need great voices in the Yeshiva world to say that now is the time if if Yechezkel wanted us learning Yechezkel, if if all of Chazal knew Tanakh backwards and forwards and I assure you they did so what shouldn't we imitate the ways of our great saints of the past? They did the Vilna Gaon knew Tanakh backwards and forwards and instructed us tell me them that they should teach their children Tanakh. So I'm I just put that in there with a big pleading this is the time we're in the time of Geulah. I'm not some weirdo saying this on the edge. We're not like some fringe group. Every giant that I know says that we are now in the time of the redemption. So if that's the case, then how can we not? Okay, let's go back to the text now cuz it's very very important. If you look at Ezekiel 38 38 verse 8 and 9, it literally says that the Jewish people will return from great wars and return back to the land of Israel. A land which had been desolate, a land which Jews had been expelled from, a land where the Jews weren't there. And if you go to chapter 39, it actually tells us why the Jews weren't there. It's going to tie it up that way. In fact, Ezekiel 39 ends starting in verse 23 tells us It can actually you can go back even a little bit earlier than that. You can go back to Ezekiel 38 verse 18 all the way 23 is an example. It says the Jews sinned. That's why they were expelled from the land. Like this is not a chapter that whitewashes anything. The chapter is explaining why is God doing this. So the chapter explains the Jews sinned. They were sent to exile. The land was basically without Jews, without anything. Nothing grew here. That's literally. But at the end, the Jews are coming back. And I want to say this to Candace Owens. I want to say this to Tucker Carlson. I want to say this to all those who think this is not talking about the Jews and the return of the the Jewish people to their land. Because if you say that, if you claim that and your ridiculous claims in conversation with Huckabee and so on, you have to answer the question. The text says that the Jews sinned. That means this text is not trying to exonerate the Jews or whitewash Tanakh is all every sin of everyone, including our leaders, is there for everyone to to see. Okay, let's go back from where we were. So the text is going to end that way, that the reason for this war is so that God's name will be Megala to the whole of the whole world will understand the truth. And this will trigger the world to understand what's happening. What occurs is the Jewish people return back to a land that they had been expelled from. Explicitly in Ezekiel 38:8-9. Now, next, Ezekiel 38:11. I'm skipping a little bit here just so you get it. I beg you to read it for yourself. What would go through the minds of the enemies of the Jewish people to attack us? So, it tells us what happened. It tells us that you will attack a part of Israel that was peaceful, a people that were peaceful, a people who live nearby you who didn't even have gates, who didn't have a worry, who were just a a tame people and you're going to invade them. And it's going to be a bloodbath. And then it will ignite my fierce anger with God as speaking, my fierce anger again against you. And he says, "Son of man, prophesy to God. This is what Hashem says." And then what will happen is Hashem will bring Israel to safety and destroy all the enemies. So, there's a a powerful attack against a tame people that triggers all of this. Now, the question is why is God doing this? And it's a question that could be asked about things that we took for granted since we were kids. So, God tells Moses, "Go to Pharaoh and tell him the God of Israel, you know, you tell him to let my people go." You know, and then Moses famously in this conversation in Exodus 3, you know, Moses, you know, turns to God and says like, "What? Like, how am I going to do that? Like, why would they listen to me?" He says, "Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh. I'm going to be with you." Verse 12, right? He says. And then famously says, "What should I tell them? Your name is like, who are you? And this is all So God says eh yesha eh ya My I am the one who's going to be with you. That's what you should tell you should tell them. The the conversation goes on. It goes on all the way through chapter six where Moses fighting not fighting but arguing with God of why he is not worthy of this task. Ending with his final argument of I can't even talk well. Okay, if you're looking for Jewish leadership and there's someone who's campaigning to be chief rabbi, he's not the fellow. This is very important to keep this in mind. If there are people running around saying make me the chief rabbi if you look at Tanakh, the people who are chosen by God are people who do not want the job, who don't think they're worthy job. So if you meet people who say I'm worthy of the job these are not That's not Jewish leadership. Jewish leaders do not want the job. That's what Aaron That's what Aaron said. Hashem said to Aaron Why are you embarrassed? You were chosen because you don't want the position. Yirmeyahu Yirmeyahu begins. You know, Isaiah is is so out of order that Isaiah 1 is not really the first event in Isaiah. >> Isaiah 6 good very good. God comes to that he says who'll go for me Isaiah And what's the prophecy end in Isaiah 6? He says don't say anything. That means He says the land will be desolate until the final word it rebirth. It's so again the exact same prophecies in Isaiah 6. The end of Isaiah 6 is the rebirth of the land and the desolate part of the land is also important. >> Right. That's that's pretty but because he tells Isaiah don't like first don't say anything they have to endure a lot. So it starts with chapter 1 because chapter 1 does end does have this great especially verse 27 that through sedaka and repentance that that you shall I move you even that sign will be forgiven which the church can't stand because what does that have to do with Christianity? What would happen to that? No, it's it's sedaka and repentance. So that's why chapter one is chapter one. However, however, however, Jeremiah runs in order in this part. Jeremiah is not in order. That means the Torah is I know all of those who went to Yeshiva are going I learned in Yeshiva that there isn't a chrono or necessary chronological order in the Torah. I know you learned that. What that means is it doesn't mean it isn't in order. It means that it's not necessarily in order and sometimes the Torah will to juxtapose two events, take something out of order. But the order is the default, okay? That is not the case with these prophets. It's just you need to know this that it is not even a sham of order in these prophets. However, that said, Jeremiah does the book of Jeremiah which is longer than Isaiah and Ezekiel even though it seems to have be shorter than Isaiah because it only has 52 chapters the chapters are huge. In any case, Jeremiah God comes to Jeremiah and says to him I need you to be the navi to go tell the Jews to do chuva. Jeremiah puts up a fight as we'd expect says I can't do it. And his argument that I'm a kid and he was he was only 15 years old. He was a kid. And Hashem said look, I literally created you from your mother's womb for this job. So you therefore you're people who go claim that's predestination. That's stupid. They they argue that uh predestination nonsense. That means that you should know that I created you with certain abilities that you can do it despite your youth. And he was only 15 years old. That was it. And he his prophetic career would go on for 41 years, the same length as Moshiach Bainu as the Ibn Ezra points out. The according to the Ibn Ezra, Jeremiah was the greatest prophet after Moshiach Bainu in terms of greatness, not in writing style, but in greatness. So it's unbelievable. Anyways, coming back over here, the key is in the is the the reason why Persia goes to war with its with it Now I want I want to get this word right. With its proxies. That's why we have the north. Like what's the north command? And the truth is that Chazal were like perplexed cuz they're talking about the people of the north, the people from the south. And what Then they really weren't sure. What is the like what is the north mean? And the Christians read this and go The north must be Soviet Union. It's Santa Claus. All right. I'm I'm training you. I'm not trying to be that. But now we actually know this is what the Rambam meant, that only the Dor Ha Gulah, the generation of the redemption, would know. So now we know the north is Lebanon and Syria, which are mamesh proxies of Iran. Now we know what the Houthis are in the south. Like now we know. That's why it's so important now, my brothers and sisters. So now when he says they come from the northland, cuz October 7th they hit us from the south. They hit an unwalled place, people peaceful peaceful people who were just singing and dancing in a Nova festival, who were just sitting in some little kibbutz that that that just sitting there. These are not, you know, people who were military They were not a kind of military thinking people. It's not like they went and attacked Godfrey Emmanuel or attacked, I don't know, Hebron with his like they're tougher. They These are people. And it literally says it. People who are just very peaceful are attacked. That's what triggers it all. The key is that they're going to be utterly destroyed. Utterly destroyed. In fact, I'll tell you this, in Ezekiel 39, it says that the the animals are going to have a picnic, that the birds are going to be feeding for years. They're going to be feeding off their corpses for years. They'll be They It'll take 7 years just to clean up the bodies from all from this. It's explicit in the text. And the end of it So, just And I again, I I can only beg you, the viewer, just read these chapters. They read It's very simple. And And then it ends with the explanation of like why is God doing this? He's doing this because this will be such a spectacle the whole world will see, which is also an intriguing thing. You know, in the ancient world, if there was a war, the world didn't really see cuz it had no access. Like it had no access to the Exodus. So, we we don't find like the Persians writing about it because it wasn't a Whereas, we find all cultures, conversely, write about the flood. Virtually every culture that has an ancient history, the Chinese, every They all wrote about a worldwide flood and a boat which saves a family. And then they You know, there are some difference in the Torah, but what would you expect if in fact the flood, which I think 1656 after creation, I think, 1656 after creation, but the key is because it affected everyone, so everyone wrote about it. But in the ancient world, when Ezekiel's saying that the whole world's going to see this spectacle, what were they thinking? Because in the ancient world, if there was a war going on, I don't know, somewhere in Asia or whatever, well, of in the west didn't get to see it because there was no internet, there was no television, there was nothing. But we're living in a time now that mamesh the whole world can see it instantaneously. Like on 9/11, a great tragedy on that horrible Tuesday morning, everybody saw it. I saw it. I was shocked. I had a flight that day. The key is that it's very critical that Yehezkel I want to just I want to um clue you in that it's very important that the text is saying that when it happens, the whole world will see the utter destruction, utter destruction of the enemies of Israel. And this will cause all the nations to do teshuvah. And this will trigger everyone to turn back to the God of Israel. And and again, I want to just speak to the the Christians, the people who are not fond of Israel with this, who say that the church knew Israel. I don't mean this is an anti-Christian thing at all. But it's very very important because this has come up, this replacement theology concept that when it talks about Israel and the restoration this really referring to the church, and this should be spiritualized, and it doesn't mean literally Israel, doesn't mean literally return to it. It's not true. And if you're a person who really seeks after truth, and you believe these things that are unflattering of the Jewish people, I I haven't given up on you. I I want to talk to you, okay? I want to reason this through with you. I I please read Ezekiel 39. Read verse 18 through the end. Cuz it actually speaks about Israel unflatteringly. It It says, "Look, the Jews, because of their unbelief, because of their sins, were sent to exile. And that's why the the land had no Jews in it." I mean, there always were technically there were always Jews in Israel, always. But that's why the Jews were sent to exile, right? So you I want I'm just I to talk to those Christians for a moment who like Tucker Carlson, who like this, listen carefully. It's so It's like easy you put this in there for those who don't like the Jews, so you would know. So, it's It starts with my saying it's true, the Jews were sent to exile because of their sins, because they turned away from me. But then the text says, "But at the end" Just read it straight through. He says, "But at the end, once their sins have been taken care of" And we see in Isaiah how the sins of Israel be forgiven through repentance, through justice, and by destroying the idolatry of the nations. I'm not getting it's in Isaiah that the Jews would return back to the land, and then God's name will be glorified and raised up above every other name, and the nations of the world will know that I am Lord. So, that's why all this is happening. And you know, you and I are here talking on air, and we know in very real terms. This is We're not I'm not We're not trying to get likes. Although, please, if you watch our channels, please do like these shows. It's important if you think this message to get out. It's very important to subscribe and like them if you But that's why it's so intriguing that we can do this, that these events could happen, and then the whole world instantly can know. And we know this is talking about Israel because it's criticizing all those people. Everyone has to know that these texts are not whitewashing the Jewish people, but saying that Hashem's name will be glorified when the enemies of Israel, like Egypt, were utterly eviscerated. And we know that when when this show is over, I mean, we can turn on the news. We can. And we know that at any moment everything is going to unfold. I'm not going to pretend None of us are going to pretend to know exactly. but here we are. We're in Adar. It's the time it's that month, the last month of the calendar where um venahapochu, everything is turned around. And Nissan, the month of the redemption, is right ahead of us. So, we're literally there. We're there. We're where our great-grandparents could not imagine could not imagine their wildest dreams, and we're here and there now. May we be zocheh, we merit to see the coming of the true Mashiach very, very quickly in our time. Amen. Thank you very much, Rabbi Singer. Um we should do this again. Um yasher koach. Always. >> [music]