The haftorah we read on Acharon Shel Pesach speaks of the neis that Chizkiyahu and his generation experienced. The army of the greatest superpower of the time, San’cheirv’s Ashur, was destroyed in one night by the walls of Yerushalayim. We read this haftorah read on this day because this neis is compared by the Novi to the neis of kri’as Yam Suf (Yeshaya 10:24 – see Rashi). Just as at kri’as Yam Suf, Hashem took the mightiest kingdom of the time and destroyed it in an open manifestation of Malchus Shamayim, so did it happen in the time of Chizkiyahu. The mightiest kingdom of the time was defeated by an open revelation of Malchus Shamayim.
Chazal tell us that Chizkiyahu could have been Moshiach. This means that the neis that Chizkiyahu experienced and the resultant Kiddush Hashem stands as a paradigm, as an example for what will happen in the times of Moshiach. At that time it will also happen that a representative of the powers of the nations, a mighty leader and his armies who embody the kingdom of the nations of the world, will be defeated by an open manifestation of Malchus Shamayim. This neis will be so great that all of mankind will come to recognize that there is no kingdom but the kingdom of Hashem. “V’haya Hashem l’Melech al kol ha’aretz” – Hashem will then be acknowledged as King over all of the earth.
It is brought down in the name of the Vilna Gaon that the nissim of the days of Moshiach will take place within the Torah (Oros Ha’Gra page 132). I do not understand the Gaon’s heilige words, but I propose the following explanation.
The struggle that takes place before the revelation of Malchus Shamayim is a struggle between the forces of the Yetzer Hara and the forces of kedusah. Moshe Rabbeinu and his generation represented kedusha (they had the arono shel Yosef with them) and Chizkiyahu and his generation represented the same kedusha. Par’oh and Sancheiriv embodied the power of the Yetzer Hara. In the times of Moshe and Chizkiyahu, it was the z’chuyos of the Tzaddikim that brought about the nissim. It was the kedusha that they generated with their avodas Hashem that brought about the great Kiddush Shem Shamayim that each of them witnessed.
In the generation of Moshiach we will also see the forces of the Yetzer Hara gathering power and threatening to engulf Klal Yisroel. But with Hashem’s help, Klal Yisroel will hold on to the Torah, they will live the Torah and they will learn the Torah. And the light of the Torah will destroy the darkness of the Yetzer Hara. This victory will be so obvious that all of the nations of the world will see it and turn their hearts to Hashem.
This battle need not take place on a physical battlefield. This battle is already happening in our own hearts and in the hearts of all mankind. Every bit of kedusha that we can muster is part and parcel of that final victory. May Hashem give us the strength, the courage and the wisdom that we need to maintain this battle. And let us keep on fighting until the dawn of the ge’ula shleima.