Mattot - The Battles of Messiah

In the Torah portion of Mattot, we learn about the miraculous victory that Israel had against the Midianites. Both the battle itself and the fact that Pinchas was a part of this war are pointers to the Messiah and the battles he will wage at the end of times.

It says in Numbers 31:6:

Targum Yonatan relates that the holy vessels Pinchas carried into battle were the high priest’s breastplate, with the Urim and the Thummim in them. This was so that the army could communicate with God on the field of battle. The Talmud relates that the “holy vessels” refers instead to “the ark with the tablets which were in it.” The ark points towards the presence of God on the battlefield. When the ark would set out, Moshe would say, in Numbers 10:35, “Rise up, O LORD! And let your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate You flee before You.” The men of Israel defeated the Midianites and put to death every man, but not a single man of Israel died on the battlefield.

After the victory of the battle, the men of Israel counted themselves, and found that not one person was missing. When they realized this, they took from the spoils of war and offered a portion up to God, as it says in Numbers 31:50, “to make atonement for ourselves before the LORD.”

Pinchas also carried “the trumpets for the alarm (teru’ah) in his hand.” The Talmud states that the trumpets were shofarot (ram’s horn trumpets). But this statement causes a direct conflict with the actual text. Numbers 31:6 says that Pinchas carried the chatzotzrot (חצצרות), not shofarot, into battle. Chatzotzrot are the silver trumpets, not trumpets made from ram’s horns, and are described in Numbers 10:1-9:

It says in the Talmud that Pinchas joined the battle against Midian because he wanted to avenge his ancestor Yosef, who was sold in Egypt by the Midianites. How was Pinchas a descendent of Yosef if he’s the son of a priest? He’s a descendant of Yosef through his mother’s side. Exodus 6:25 says, “Aaron’s son Eleazar married one of the daughters of Putiel, and she bore him Pinchas.” The Talmud claims that this daughter of Putiel was a descendant of Moshe’s father-in-law Jethro on one side of her family, and a descendent of Yosef on the other side.

The connection between Pinchas and the line of Joseph invokes obvious relation to Messiah son of Yosef. There is a Jewish belief that Messiah son of Yosef is the War Messiah. He has a similar role to Pinchas, in that he is also Anointed for War. The Talmud says that Messiah son of Yosef lead the people of Israel in the war against the forces of Gog and Magog. The Roman Empire was the Gog and Magog of the Second Temple Era. Yeshua took on the role of Messiah son of Yosef who would suffer and die leading his nation in battle. He waged a spiritual war, fighting not with physical weapons, but with the Ruach Hakodesh. The Roman army, Gog and Magog, were the ones who ultimatly killed him, but he triumphed against them, and rose from the dead. When Yeshua returns, he will again wage war on the behalf of God.

How come neither Moshe nor Yehoshua took part in the battle? Why was it Pinchas who was sent? There is a midrash cited in Torah Shelemah that addresses this issue: “Moshe said, ‘When my brother Aaron was alive, he would stand with me in prayer. Now that he is dead, Joshua will stand in his place with me in prayer.’” In each battle that Israel fought, Moshe helped his people in the same way: Through prayer. In the war with Amalek, it says in Exodus 17:11-12, “So it came about when Moses held his hand up, that Israel prevailed,” “Thus his hands were steady until the sun set.” In the battles with Sihon and Og, Moshe did the same thing; He prayed. It says in the Torah Shelemah:

It says in Numbers 31:8:

Balaam was the one who gave the Midianites the strategy to seduce Israel and invoke God’s wrath. Bil’am was served a fitting end at the hands of the Israelites. Targum Pseudo-Yonatan relates a Jewish folk-tale on this matter:

The folk-tale version of the story states that Balaam, Laban, Pharaoh’s astrologers, and the Amalekites were all the same person. This is obviously not true, but it still points to something deeper. This points towards the malicious anti-Semitism that has pursued Israel since its very beginnings. Laban, Pharaoh and his magicians, the Amalekites, and Balaam all all have the same satanic hatred for Israel. This is the spirit of Antichrist, as it says in 1 John 2:18: “Just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared.” Right before the coming of the Messiah, another anti-Semetic leader will arise. It says in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 that he will be “The man of lawlessness … the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.” It says in 2 Thessalonians 2:9 that his coming “is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders.” When this happens, The Messiah will come back, and he will slay him just as Bil’am was slain. It says in Isaiah 11:4, “He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his mouth he will destroy the wicked.”

In Mattot, we learn about the battle Israel fought against the Midianites, with Pinchas leading them physically, and Moshe leading them spiritually. We learn how all this points towards the battle to come, and the return of our Messiah.