Sermon given by Pastor Barry on 2025-10-05 (Sunday morning) (Transcript from audio-files produced by Audacity on the CCP local PC & OBS via MS-Teams) THE FIRST PART IS IN PLAIN PARAGRAPH FORM for reading alone (or whilst listenning to the audio). THE SECOND PART IS QUITE SMALL CHUNKS (8 to 10 words normally) with time indexing to enable quick location of that place in the audio file) NB: any section in chevrons, as: <<< abcd efghij >>> is an editor's note for helpful clarification or extra information. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX All right. Well, turn with me if you will to Ezekiel Chapter 4. That's where we're going to begin in just a moment. Just by way of introduction to this session, this teaching this morning, just to remind you that Ezekiel and his fellow Jews had settled next to the Chebar River. We think it was probably a canal off the Euphrates, for commerce, for trade, to allow easy access and delivery of goods and produce and so on. That's where the Jews had settled. The book of Ezekiel begins, and we started really into the text last week, five years into Ezekiel's time there and the Jews that were with him. There were some Jews who had gone before that. Ezekiel goes to the land in 597 BC. Daniel and his friends had gone some years earlier, about nine years earlier in 606 BC. This would be the age though for Ezekiel, that he would normally have entered the priesthood. This is the moment his service would have begun had he have been in Jerusalem. But of course, that wasn't going to happen now. It's one of those things, you look forward to something probably, as a Levite, all his life, who had been geared and getting ready for this opportunity to serve at the age of 30. Then suddenly taken away from his homeland, and he said five years to mull over and think that's not going to happen. Then God comes to Ezekiel with these visions, and Ezekiel is suddenly called into a ministry that he couldn't have imagined, and arguably greater than anything he would have done previously. You see, God calls him to become a prophet, and to take his message to the Jewish people that were captive in Babylon. As we saw last week, and this is one of the quotes again, Ezekiel excels all former prophets in point of skill, beauty, and perfection of treatment. That's quite a statement, whether you believe that or not. It underlines just the way he writes, the details, the incredible visions that he shares with us. kkkkkkk Keil (of "Keil and Delitzsch"(Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch), commentators on the Old Testament), wrote this: he said, the whole of Ezekiel's symbolism is derived from the Israelitish sanctuary. It is an outcome of Old Testament ideas and views. Everything that he brings in here, we will find back in the book of Exodus, as the details for the tabernacle was given, and then expounded, of course, in Leviticus and so on. Another commentator says, with divine authority, Ezekiel dispelled illusions, denounced false prophets, declared repentance, restoration, and renewal. That's an incredible thing. All the things that he did. He brought this message of God's impending judgment on the nation, and they were seeing it already. They were in Babylon, they were already part of that judgment, but there was more yet to come. This is what Ezekiel is bringing to his people, but he also brings hope. ZZZZZZZ Again, the rabbis argued that no one should study Ezekiel until he was at least 30 years of age. They thought this book was so deep, so intense, and it is, in a sense. We've already commented that a lot of people don't tend to study Ezekiel, because it's just one of those books that, you know, Isaiah, there's something about it, we're kind of drawn to it, Jeremiah's a great prophet to read. Ezekiel is like, oh, it's a bit tricky, it's a bit hard, there's lots of things here that take a bit of digging into. ZZZZZZZ And they also said that he who understood the winged chariot knew all the mysteries of creation. This is apparently what the rabbis said. Now, that's quite a statement, too. Makes us kind of want to go back and look at those creatures again, and look at this chariot that we saw, this image, this vision that Ezekiel sees in the first few chapters. Just to give you an overview of where we are, prophecies against Judah that were given before the fall of Jerusalem, which is in 597. That's in chapters, chapter 4 through to 24. And then that's broken down, we get the messages in the fifth year, that's where we are as the book starts. ZZZZZZZ And then there's four acted out prophecies in chapters 4 and 5, we're going to see if we can get through those this morning. And with the first of those, we see a picture of the siege of Jerusalem. And then he's going to lay on his left side and then his right side, symbolically bearing the iniquity of Israel and Judah. These are quite dramatic things. I mean, this is like walking down the high street on a busy Saturday afternoon and seeing somebody do something that seems so bizarre. It would just grab your attention. And yet, Ezekiel, no doubt, was well known. And so this has a real impact on the people that are watching, and that was the whole purpose of this. The third acted out prophecy is this coming famine. And then finally, it's the slaughter of the coming siege that is described. That then concludes chapter 5 with an exposition of the signs to explain what these are. The warning to the land itself is then given in chapter 6. And Ezekiel is speaking to the actual mountains and to the hills and the valleys and so on, as if it was a person or an entity that could hear and understand him. And we'll see that as we go through. We'll see if we get there this morning. So let's pick up chapter 4 and we'll go through. Thou also, Son of Man, take thee a tile and lay it before thee and portray upon it the city, even Jerusalem. All right, so some of you may be into building models. My dad has, well, we joke, we call it a train set. He says it's not a train set, it's a train layout, and they're very different. So apparently a train set is what children play with, but a train layout is what adults can play with. But it's a very big train layout that he has all around his loft. He used to have a big layout of the Somerset and Dorset Railway because he was born down in Dorset. And that was wonderful, kkkkkkk it was really good, with all the old steam engines and things. And then he's moved on now, he's now got these electric diesel engines and things, diesel engines and electric engines and so on, so he's modernised it. But it's great, he's got these little flashing lights for the signals and the lights will come on as they come into the station and he's got announcements that go on. Anyway, he spent a lot of time building his model. ZZZZZZZ Okay, the picture I'm painting is Ezekiel is doing just that. He's building a little model of Jerusalem so that people are going to come past and they're going to look at this. But this is the detail he's told, that God says to him, and lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast a mound against it, and set the camp also against it, that's the camp of the enemy surrounding it, and set battering rams against it round about. ZZZZZZZ Moreover, take thou unto thee an iron pan and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city, and set thy face against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shall lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel. This is going to be something very visual that's going to get their attention and help them to start to appreciate the message that Ezekiel is bringing. That's just an artist's impression. ZZZZZZZ Okay, but you get the kind of sense here, all the people looking on, watching what this young 30-year-old would-be priest is doing. Ezekiel, what are you doing? No doubt silently just carrying on, building these things, building a city, putting a mound against it, and all these kind of things. We read on, verse 4, this is the next part of it. Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it according to the number of the days that thou shall lie upon it. kkkkkkk It shall bear their iniquity. This is quite an interesting statement. For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity according to the number of the days. God is being very specific here. He says, 390 days, so shall thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. That's the first number that we're given. For 390 days, as Ezekiel would go on, scholars are divided as to how this worked, but probably just as the model of the siege would have been done in a public square or in a pathway where people would have been able to walk past, then seemingly what Ezekiel would have done every day, he would have gone out and he would have lain in the same way and laying on his left side to start with. ZZZZZZZ And the first day or so people would walk past, second day probably the same, but then after a few days, a week, 10 days, and then it gets to the point for 390 days, over a year, every day he's coming out and he's laying there on his left side. And people saying, Ezekiel, what are you doing? And when thou has accomplished them, lie again on thy right side. That's probably a bit of a relief to him after laying on your left side for that time. He now says to lie on his right side and thou shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah for 40 days. And then notice a really interesting statement. I have appointed thee each day for a year. All right, so we add this 40 days to the initial period of time that we just saw. So the iniquity of Israel is 390 days. The iniquity of Judah then is to be for 40 days. And then each of these together, they're gonna be each day represents a year in the judgment that God is pronouncing upon the nation of Israel. We add that together and we get a total of 430 years that God is pronouncing as judgment upon the nation. And we're gonna come back and look at detail of this, but we carry on, verse seven. Therefore thou shall set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem and thy arms shall be uncovered and thou shall prophesy against it. kkkkkkk And behold, I will lay bands upon thee and thou shall not turn thee from one side to another till thou has ended the days of thy siege. It seems to be from this verse or these verses that the model that he's built is still there and that he's gonna set his face towards this model, the siege of Jerusalem. It seems potentially or possibly to be what he's doing. Either way, it's attracting attention. Verse nine goes on. Take thou also unto thee wheats and barley and beans and lentils and millet and fidges and put them in one vessel and make thee bread thereof according to the number of the days thou shall lie upon thy side. 390 days shall thou eat thou of. So he's to have his food with him, he's to take a packed lunch if you like every day. And thy meat which thou shall eat shall be by the weight. ZZZZZZZ 20 shekels a day from time to time shall thou eat it. So every day he's to take this bit of food out with him, set them out each day. And thou shall drink also water by measure, the sixth part of a hymn, from time to time thou shall drink. And thou shall eat it as barley cakes and thou shall bake it with dung that cometh out of a man in their sight. That's not a pleasant thing, is it? But that's what he's instructed. And the Lord said, even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles where that I drive them. Now you understand, I'm sure, that dung, excrement, it can be used as a source of fuel. ZZZZZZZ And that's what God is saying to him to do, to use it as a fuel source to bake your cakes. Notice this. We'll go on and see what Ezekiel says to that next. But first of all, God says, and the Lord said, even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles. Really important detail. ZZZZZZZ God is saying that this period of judgment that he's acting out is to be done amongst, scattered amongst the Gentiles where that I will drive them. So God is giving this period of time that Israel is to be judged. Every day that Ezekiel is laying on his left side to start with, then his right side, is to represent a year. And these years are to be the judgment that God is pronouncing upon Israel and Judah where they will be scattered amongst the Gentiles. kkkkkkk So the scope of the prophecy has to do with Israel as a nation being scattered among the nations. Anyway, his response to this, Ezekiel says, then said, I, Lord God, behold, my soul has not been polluted. For from my youth, even up till now, have I not eaten of that which defiles itself or is torn in pieces. And there's lots of laws and rules in the Torah about what they could eat and when they could eat. ZZZZZZZ They couldn't eat roadkill, as we typically refer to it today. There were certain things they had to do in preparation of their food. He said, I have not eaten of that which dies of itself nor is torn in pieces, neither came their abominable flesh into my mouth. So he's saying, I followed the law in terms of the dietary restrictions and conditions. Then said, he answered me, lo, I have given thee cow's dung for man's dung. So God kind of gives him an option. He says, okay, well, rather than human waste, human excrement, you can use cow's dung as your fuel source to cook this food. And thou shall prepare thy bread therewith. ZZZZZZZ You get the idea. This is gonna attract attention. People are gonna see this. Moreover, he said unto me, son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem and they shall eat bread by weight. And with care, you see, the measuring out of his food and his drink was also symbolic of what was gonna take place in Jerusalem. And with care, and they shall drink water by measure and with astonishment, that they may want bread and water and be astonished one with another and consume away for their iniquity. That's verse 16 and 17. All right, let's just try and see if we can get our heads around this a little bit. So Ezekiel prophesied a total of 430 years because each day was to represent a year, it's very clearly stated, of the judgment that's gonna come against them as a nation and throughout which time they will be scattered amongst the Gentiles. Now, we know because of the context, we know where Ezekiel is, 70 years of this judgment are accounted for by the time they spend in Babylon. We know that Ezekiel, the nation was there for 70 years until finally the decree of Cyrus is given and the nation, the people are allowed to return home. ZZZZZZZ But that leaves us with 360 years that are seemingly unaccounted for. And this has been a question that scholars have pondered and looked at for many, many years. And there's no specific period of 360 years in Israel's history that fits this prophecy. We can't say, well, it didn't just follow on from that point and then you get to 360 years later, oh, that makes sense, something significant happened. There isn't. However, we're given a really significant clue in the book of Leviticus, in Leviticus chapter 26. And we read this. God says to the nation through Moses, and this is recorded in the Torah in the book of Leviticus, but if you will not hearken unto me, if you'll not listen, and will not do all these commandments, again, that's not just the 10 commandments, that's all the commandments of the law, ZZZZZZZ and if you will despise my statutes or if your soul abhor my judgments so that you will not do all my commandments but you break my covenant, I will also do this unto you. All right, we're gonna go on and look at that in a second. Just notice, first of all, it's but if. There was the option that they could have been obedient. They weren't. And if you despise, or if, again, God didn't want to bring judgment. God wanted them to walk in obedience, and yet he knew their hearts. kkkkkkk And God says, because of what you will do, I will also do this unto you. This is the spiritual law of sowing and reaping. Whatever you sow, that is what you're gonna reap. We find it in the natural, but it's true in the spiritual. In Hosea chapter eight, verse seven, we read, for they have sown the wind and they shall reap the whirlwind. Leviticus 26, 16, 17, we read on, and I will do this unto you. I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning argue. Don't know what that is. I'm not really sure I want to know. That shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart, and you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. And I will set my face against you, and you shall be slain before your enemies. They that hate you shall reign over you, and you shall flee when none pursues you. I mean, this, in a sense, is a summary of everything we read in Deuteronomy 28 regarding the future history of the nation, as Moses was presenting to them, prophesying over them. And so God is saying that if you obey, there'll be blessing, but if you don't obey, all of these things will come upon you. And then we go into verse 18, and if you will not yet for all of this hearken unto me. So God's gonna bring judgment, and then God says, and if after all of that you still don't obey me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. If after disobedient and the subsequent judgment you still don't obey, your punishment will be multiplied by seven. And that is reiterated four times in Leviticus 26. Verse 18, 21, 24, and 28 say the same thing. God is really making that point. As prophesied, as we said already, Israel were punished for their disobedience initially without 70 years in Babylon. They were forced out of their land, and forced to live amongst the Gentiles. But that still leaves this 360 years, as we said, unaccounted for. And although a remnant did return to the land after the 70 years, they still didn't hearken unto him. Yeah, we've got the likes of Ezra and Nehemiah, and they tried to call the people back to a godly life. But they ended up even rejecting their Messiah. And so according to Leviticus 26, we need to multiply the remaining, because 70 is already counted for, the punishment by seven times. Now if we multiply the remaining 360 years of this incredible prophecy, that Ezekiel's acting out in front of the people by seven times, we actually come to 2,520 years. That would be the remaining 360 years. Multiply that by seven times, and it gives us 2,520 years. But of course God is always precise. So let's ask the question, how many days would that be? Well in scripture, days prophetically are always reckoned as 360 days. Mark and I will happily talk you through some of the details of why we believe that is sometimes, if you want to know more. ZZZZZZZ But I'll just give you some examples. Genesis, Daniel, Revelation, you know, the servitude of the nation, the desolation of Jerusalem, all these things that we're talking about in prophesy, even this one we're looking at now. Every time we're looking at prophetic years, they are not 365 and a quarter days, they are 360 days. And there's some really interesting reasons why we believe God uses 360 days in his calendar. Of course it is the Lunar cycle, it's 30 days a month, and so on. So we've got a mathematical prophecy here. If we multiply that number of years, 2,520, by 360 days, we actually get, anybody already worked it out in your heads? That's not fair, is it? We get a potential of 907,200 days until Ezekiel's prophecy would be fulfilled, or this time of judgment on the nation would come to an end. Now look at this. The first siege of Jerusalem began, started in 606 BC. That's when Daniel was taken to Babylon. That's when the 70 years' captivity started. Interestingly enough, that was exactly 25,200 days. It was concluded by this decree of this Persian ruler, King Cyrus, in 537 BC. That's referred to as the servitude of the nation. The third siege, because there's three sieges in total, the second one is when Ezekiel was taken, the third one, when finally the temple was destroyed and Jerusalem was laid waste, by Nebuchadnezzar. The third siege was in 587 BC. ZZZZZZZ Again, a 70-year period applies to that too. And Jeremiah is the one that tells us that there are two separate periods of 70 years. One specifically applies to the nation, and one applies to the land. So we have the servitude of the nation, and then we have the desolations of Jerusalem. These are the two titles that scholars typically use, and that's because it's drawn from Jeremiah. Jeremiah says these things. So we have these two periods. Now, they kind of almost run at the same time, but they start 19 years apart. If we just take the first one, the top one for a second, the servitude of the nation, we've already said that 70 years is accounted for. But that leaves us the remaining 360 years multiplied by seven times, according to Ezekiel 4, Leviticus 26, as we've said. So we've got a potential of 907,200 days. Now, just out of curiosity, what would happen if we went from that decree of Cyrus in 537 BC, and we've got the details, the dates of these things, if we know, if we jump forward from that point, it brings us to the 14th of May, 1948, when Israel became a nation again in their own right, no longer under the bondage of the Gentile nations. They had their own land again. They became an identifiable people in their own place. Staggering. What happens if we do the same with the desolations of Jerusalem? So this is when the temple was finally destroyed, the third siege. We've got the 70 years are clearly given to us, that time in Babylon and so on. That ends actually with this decree of Darius in 518 BC. And if we go from that point, and we also add this period of 2,520 years or 907,200 days, what we come to the 7th of June, 1967. That's when Israel recaptured Jerusalem, the Six-Day War. I mean, this is staggering. This isn't something that we can make up. Let me show you, by the way, these 19-year gaps, I mean, obviously it's consistent throughout because they start and finish at the same point. ZZZZZZZ I bought a tool, a computer program called Redshift. You still get it, it's still available. It's not a Christian thing by any means. It's simply a tool that's been put together by astronomers which allows you to look at the way that stars move and so on. It's kind of a predictable way these things move. And it helps us to track dates and times and so on. And so you can look at any particular date. You could jump back a certain number of days and you could look on the program. The purpose of this is you could look back and see where the stars were at any particular time, just for astronomers for their interest. But what it does do is allows us to put in a particular date. We can also, as you can see at the bottom there, you can put in a time step and you can jump forward or backwards according to that specific number of days. And so I thought, well, let's just try this to see if it's actually the case. So we go from the 24th of July, 606 BC. That's in our calendar. Okay, this is when the siege of Jerusalem, this is when Nebuchadnezzar would have come and taken Daniel away and so on. And we jump forward 25,200 days. That comes to this one, 537. This is our 70, that's our 70 years. That's the first jump, exactly 70 years. kkkkkkk And it brings us to 537. Even if somebody's gonna be picky about the actual dates, and there are scholars that have got different views on the dates, not very far out by any means. But certainly without any question, without any debate, it's absolutely the same year. It's the year, so 606 BC, 70 years later, we come to 537 BC, but it is to the day. And then we do the same thing here. And now we jump the big jump. This is the Ezekiel 4 and Leviticus 26 prophecy, 907,200 days, and we jump forward that time frame. These are just screenshots I took off the computer. That brings us to the 14th of May, 1948. Okay. Staggering. And then exactly the same with the desolation of Jerusalem. We go from the 16th of August, 587. ZZZZZZZ Again, that's when the temple would have been destroyed. 25,200 days, the 70 years, brings us exactly to the 14th of August, 518 BC. That's when Darius would have given the decree. By the way, we'll later see that the date for these things is actually pinpointed by Haggai. He actually gives us the details of this so we can be sure of the details. 907,200 days, this is the big jump again, and that brings us to the 7th of June, 1967, when Israel became a nation again. If you want proof that the Bible is true and trustworthy and reliable and is the word of God, there's not many other places you could find details as staggering as this. Let's move on. Chapter five. And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp knife, take thee a barber's razor, and cause it to pass upon thine head and upon thy beard. Then take thee balances to weigh and divide the hair. He's been told to get a haircut, basically. But the Levitical law forbade priests from shaving their heads or trimming their beards in certain ways. And they were specifically commanded not to shave the head bald or to shave off the edges or the corners of their beards. Therefore, Levitical priests were not meant to be clean-shaven. kkkkkkk And yet, Ezekiel is being told to do exactly that. It was intended to be a shock to those who pass by, to attract attention, just as the other examples have been given. And then God says, this is what he should do with it. Thou shall burn with fire a third part of the hair that he's cut off his head and everything else, to burn a third of it in the midst of the city. When the days of the siege are fulfilled, and thou shall take a third part and smite about it with a knife, and a third part thou shall scatter in the wind, and thou will draw a sword after them. So a third of it is to be burnt, seemingly in this model that he's building on the ground. Third part is to be smite about it with a knife to chop it up, and the third part scattered in the wind. Again, all of this was to symbolize the judgment that was coming. It was a very clear object lesson. One commenter said, the reaction of the exiled Jews observing Ezekiel would have been a mix of shock, horror, and profound understanding of an impending catastrophe. ZZZZZZZ Ezekiel's symbolic acts were a deliberate and vivid violation of cultural and religious norms to communicate a powerful message of divine judgment. You see, there's a loss of dignity as well that's implied in this for Ezekiel. See, the beard in particular was a symbol of dignity and honor, not just in Israel, but culturally in that area of the world at that time. To have it forcibly removed in the sense as he's doing it, God giving him this clear instruction was a great dishonor. So Ezekiel's self-inflicted shaving would have been seen as a profound public act of shame, and that's the point. Because Ezekiel was undergoing this to be a witness to the people of their coming shame and humiliation as a nation. And symbolic also of destruction, the act itself, especially the command to use a sharp sword as a razor, clearly foreshadowed the violent military destruction and total severance of the people from their land. Ezekiel was acting out the future catastrophe that God would bring upon them through the Babylonian forces. Verse three, we carry on. Thou shalt also take thereof a few in number and bind them in thy skirts. Again, a little bit more of his hair. And take of them again and cast them into the midst of the fire and burn them in the fire. For thereof shall a fire come forth into all the house of Israel. Thus says the Lord God, this is Jerusalem. I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are around about her. This is interesting. He's saying of Jerusalem, you've been scattered amongst the nations and the countries that are around about you. They're not cutting, okay. That would distinguish them from the surrounding nations. This is why God had given the priests particularly this rule regarding their hair and so on. ZZZZZZZ And it was to maintain ritual purity. But in contrast, the cutting, what Ezekiel was being asked to do here was to show that they would be intermingled with the surrounding nations and that they were now impure. They were under God's judgment. Verse six, and she has changed my judgments, this is Israel, has changed God's judgments into wickedness more than the nations. And my statutes more than the countries that are around about her. ZZZZZZZ For they have refused my judgments and my statutes. They have not walked in them. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, because you multiplied more than the nations that are around about you and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept my judgments, neither have done according to the judgments of the nations that are around about you. Carry on that sentence in a second. But get this, that following God's command, Ezekiel was publicly defiling himself. The action symbolized the utter defilement and disgrace that was about to befall Jerusalem and the Jewish people. And it indicated that even their sacred priesthood and covenant status were being temporarily annulled by God's judgment. kkkkkkk Therefore, thus says the Lord God, behold, even I am against thee, and I will execute judgments in the midst of thee, in the sight of the nations. And I will do in thee that which I have not done, and whereunto I will not do any more the like because of all thy abominations. Therefore, the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers. And I will execute judgments in thee, and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter into all the winds. What an incredible prophecy of what has happened to the people of Israel. I saw something this week that just listed where the numbers of Jews living in each country around the world. ZZZZZZZ And it's staggering. The number of Jews that are scattered around the world in different countries. Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord God, surely because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things, and with all thine abominations, therefore will I also diminish thee. Neither shall mine eye spare, neither will I have any pity. Just as a little parenthesis here, let me just add that God inserts these comments about because the way you've defiled my sanctuary. It's very easy to look at these things and think, well, that's a bit harsh, isn't it, God? What you're doing? And God has to kind of remind them that it's because of what you've done. ZZZZZZZ And as you read back and you look at what happened during the time of kings like Manasseh, it's shocking, even to our ears today in the world that we live in. Verse 12 again, and a third part of thee shall die with the pestilence and with famine, and they shall be consumed in the midst of thee. And a third part shall fall by the sword round about thee, and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them. This is a chilling prophecy. kkkkkkk Thus shall mine anger be accomplished, and I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted, and they shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it in my zeal, when I have accomplished my fury in them. Moreover, I will make thee waste and a reproach among the nations that are round about thee in the sight of all that pass by. Let me just stop and ask you that question. Do you think that Israel have become a reproach amongst the nations where they are? I mean, isn't that what we've been seeing even this week? That wherever Israel are, can you think of any political leader on the world scene, with the possible exception of Donald Trump, that is saying good things about Israel? Isn't this, verse 14 of Ezekiel 5, a statement of exactly what we see, that Israel have become a reproach among the nations that are round about them, and in fact, around the whole world? The hair represents the people. The hair symbolized the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judah. The division of that represents judgment coming upon them, and that meticulous act of weighing, dividing the hair into these three parts, foreshadowed the exact judgment that God would dispense. One third, again, being burned in the city, that's death by famine, pestilence during the siege. A third struck with the sword around the city, killed in battle, and a third scattered to the wind in exile, dispersion, and so on. The Jews watching would have felt horror, and a terrifying certainty, as they realized their own fate was being meticulously weighed out, and dramatically enacted by their own priest prophet. ZZZZZZZ It was a terrifying visual sermon that they could not ignore. Verse 15, we carry on. So it shall be a reproach, and a taunt, an instruction, and an astonishment unto the nations that are round about thee, when I shall execute judgments in thee, in anger, and in fury, and in furious rebukes. I, the Lord, have spoken it, when I shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine, which shall be for their destruction, and which I will send to destroy you, and I will increase the famine upon you, and I will break your staff of bread. ZZZZZZZ So will I send upon you famine and evil beasts, and they shall bereave thee, and pestilence and blood shall pass through thee, and I will bring the sword upon thee. I, the Lord, have spoken it. Notice the ways that God speaks of this judgment coming. It's gonna be through war, famine, evil beasts, pestilence, and a specific mention of the sword here as well. Notice the parallel we have to what Jesus said in Matthew 24, and what's recorded in Revelation chapter six. Lots of similarities. Not saying it's the same thing, and different things, different times. But God works in the similar ways. kkkkkkk Ezekiel chapter six is a short chapter, so we'll just go through this. And this is the warning that is spoken to the land itself, to the land of Israel, to the mountains, to the hills. And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them, and say, you mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God. Thus says the Lord God to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, to the valleys, behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places. Those high places, by the way, have become pagan shrines. They've become places where they would go and sacrifice to foreign gods, not to our God. It's the same kind of thing that Ezekiel, sorry, it's the same kind of thing that Elijah encounters when he goes up against the prophets of Baal on top of Mount Carmel. ZZZZZZZ Verse four, and your altar shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken, and I will cast down your slain men before your idols, and I will lay the dead carcasses of the children of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter your bones round about your altars. In all your dwelling places, the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate, that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your images may be cut down, and your works may be abolished, and the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and you shall know that I am the Lord. Now, we see Jeremiah expound on some of these things, and he speaks about the iniquity and the way that Israel had moved away from worshipping God, and they were to go and get a tree and chop it down and carve it, and then they set it up and worship it as their God. And Jeremiah is kind of like, this is stupid. And yet we do the same kind of things. We make idols out of all sorts of things today. kkkkkkk And let me just say, if God brings this judgment and did and has, and we've seen it through history, brought this judgment on his people of Israel, do not think that the Gentiles are gonna be spared. God's judgment on the Gentiles is gonna be just as severe, and that's what we read about during the tribulation time, it's coming. Yet I will leave the remnant, oh, please notice that. So many churches will read the first part of this and they'll kind of understand that Israel had been judged for their iniquity and for following idols and so on, but they miss these incredibly important verses, and they are throughout the Old Testament. ZZZZZZZ Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and so on, and the minor prophets continually tell us this statement that God will leave a remnant. God will not completely destroy his people. Yet I will leave a remnant that you may have some that shall escape the sword among the nations when you shall be scattered through the countries. And they that escape of you <<< = “those of you who escape”>>> shall remember me among the nations whether they shall be carried captives. Let me just comment, back in 1867, Jews met together, Christian Jews met together in London, and they prayed that God would restore their land. In answer to that prayer, that set a whole chain of things in motion. kkkkkkk Within a matter of weeks, we had Charles Warren <<>> uncover the old city, and at the same time, Mark Twain had visited Jerusalem, Israel, and walked through the land, and just as Deuteronomy said, a stranger would come and would declare that this place is a barren wilderness, so that's what Mark Twain did. His words were published around the world. And very shortly afterwards, we find incredible things taking place. Israel was allowed to start buying land back from the Ottoman Turks who had the land at the time. They were in a financial crisis because of the Crimean War. And so they started selling land, and Jews started buying it up. And that led, of course, to 1948. ZZZZZZZ Incredible series of events, but God says here, verse nine, and they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whether they shall be carried captives. That's exactly what's happened. And that's not the only instance, but that's one of the most significant, prophetically. <<< verse 9-13 >>> Because I am broken with their whorish heart which has departed from me, and with their eyes which go a-whoring after their idols. And they shall loathe themselves for the evils which they have committed and all their abominations. ZZZZZZZ And they shall know that I am the Lord, and that I have not said in vain that I would do this evil unto them. Thus says the Lord God, smite with thine hand, stamp with thy foot, and say, alas for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel. For they shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence. He that is far off shall die of the pestilence, and he that is near shall fall by the sword. And he that remaineth and is besieged shall die by the famine. Thus I will accomplish my fury upon them. Then shall you know that I am the Lord. Notice that, that's the object, that's the purpose of this. That God wants to bring Israel back to him. He wants their hearts to be turned around. And unfortunately, it's taken this judgment for them to come to this place, or ultimately will. kkkkkkk They're still not there yet as a nation. Their eyes will be opened. They will recognize that they have sinned against Yahweh, their God, but they will also recognize Yeshua as their Messiah. <<>> Then shall you know that I am the Lord. When their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars upon every high hill and in the tops of the mountains and under every green tree and under every thick oak, the place where they did offer sweet savour to all their idols. So will I stretch out my hand upon them and make the land desolate, yea, more desolate than the wilderness toward Diblath and in all their habitations, and they shall know that I am the Lord. God promises to make the land desolate. That's exactly what happened. That's what Mark Twain commented on in 1867 as he passed through it. See, Ecclesiastes 1v9 tells us, the thing that has been is that which shall be, and that which is done is that which shall be done, and there is no new thing under the sun. Hegel put it this way. He said, if there's one thing that history teaches us is that man learns nothing from history. God has given us these examples, all the things that Israel did, the punishment he brought upon them, the judgment that brought upon them, and Israel are poised to go through a time even worse than what is being described here. Jeremiah calls it “The time of Jacob's trouble”. In Amos 3, verse seven, God, through Amos, says, "'Surely the Lord God will do nothing, "'but he reveals his secret unto his servants, the prophets.'" <<< i.e. “God does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.”>>>  We've got a blueprint, we've got a model of the way God has brought judgment in the past, that judgment will again come on Israel because of their disobedience as a nation, because of their rejection of their God, because of their rejection of their Messiah. Ultimately, though, their eyes will be opened, and as we go on through Ezekiel, we're gonna see judgments upon the other nations around them, but ultimately it will end with hope. +++++++++++++++++++++++ Let's bow our hearts. Father, we thank you for this time this morning. We thank you that we can see just how incredible and precise and accurate your word is. Father, we thank you too that we see that you are a just God. Oh Lord, you didn't want Israel to be disobedient. You didn't want to bring punishment and judgment upon them, but Lord, because of their iniquity, because of their sin, because they transgressed your holy laws, Lord, you brought that judgment as you said you would. Lord, you multiplied it by seven times because after the first period of judgment, they did not turn back, they did not repent. And Lord, we are seeing, even in our days, Lord, the fulfillment of these prophecies. Father, help us to trust your word. Help us to love your word, but also help us to pray continually for the peace of Jerusalem, to pray for your people Israel, to pray for that time when their eyes will be opened, when they will look upon the one whom they pierced and they will mourn. kkkkkkk And Lord, as Paul says, if the casting away of Israel has been a blessing to the world, how much more their fullness, how much more when their eyes are opened, well, how much more will that be a blessing to the whole earth? So we pray for your people Israel this morning, Lord. And we pray for us that we would take heed to these warnings and that we would consider our lives, our actions, our conduct, that we wouldn't allow idols to be set up in our own lives, but that we would serve you with pure hearts. We ask these things this morning in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, may God richly bless you. Let's spend some time fellowshipping over some teas and coffees. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Unedited transcript to give time-indexing =============================== 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.880 All right. Well, turn with me if you will to Ezekiel Chapter 4. 00:00:07.880 --> 00:00:10.640 That's where we're going to begin in just a moment. 00:00:10.640 --> 00:00:15.760 Just by way of introduction to this session, 00:00:15.760 --> 00:00:17.040 this teaching this morning, 00:00:17.040 --> 00:00:24.040 just to remind you that Ezekiel and his fellow Jews had settled next to the Chiba River. 00:00:24.040 --> 00:00:28.200 We think it was probably a canal off the Euphrates, 00:00:28.200 --> 00:00:30.000 for commerce, for trade, 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:35.000 to allow easy access and delivery of goods and produce and so on. 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:37.320 That's where the Jews had settled. 00:00:37.320 --> 00:00:39.640 The book of Ezekiel begins, 00:00:39.640 --> 00:00:42.220 and we started really into the text last week, 00:00:42.220 --> 00:00:49.040 five years into Ezekiel's time there and the Jews that were with him. 00:00:49.040 --> 00:00:52.000 There were some Jews who had gone before that. 00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:57.180 Ezekiel goes to the land in 597 BC. 00:00:57.180 --> 00:01:00.180 Daniel and his friends had gone some years earlier, 00:01:00.180 --> 00:01:04.260 about nine years earlier in 606 BC. 00:01:05.340 --> 00:01:09.180 This would be the age though for Ezekiel, 00:01:09.180 --> 00:01:12.700 that he would normally have entered the priesthood. 00:01:12.700 --> 00:01:17.020 This is the moment his service would have begun had he have been in Jerusalem. 00:01:17.020 --> 00:01:19.460 But of course, that wasn't going to happen now. 00:01:19.460 --> 00:01:22.860 It's one of those things, you look forward to something probably, 00:01:22.860 --> 00:01:25.220 as a Levi, all his life, 00:01:25.220 --> 00:01:29.980 who had been geared and getting ready for this opportunity to serve at the age of 30. 00:01:29.980 --> 00:01:33.060 Then suddenly taken away from his homeland, 00:01:33.060 --> 00:01:38.260 and he said five years to mull over and think that's not going to happen. 00:01:39.020 --> 00:01:43.820 Then God comes to Ezekiel with these visions, 00:01:43.820 --> 00:01:49.220 and Ezekiel is suddenly called into a ministry that he couldn't have imagined, 00:01:49.220 --> 00:01:53.620 and arguably greater than anything he would have done previously. 00:01:53.940 --> 00:01:56.460 You see, God calls him to become a prophet, 00:01:56.460 --> 00:02:02.900 and to take his message to the Jewish people that were captive in Babylon. 00:02:03.500 --> 00:02:07.020 As we saw last week, and this is one of the quotes again, 00:02:07.020 --> 00:02:12.540 Ezekiel excels all former prophets in point of skill, beauty, 00:02:12.540 --> 00:02:14.540 and perfection of treatment. 00:02:14.540 --> 00:02:18.020 That's quite a statement, whether you believe that or not. 00:02:18.020 --> 00:02:22.380 It underlines just the way he writes, 00:02:22.420 --> 00:02:26.220 the details, the incredible visions that he shares with us. 00:02:26.220 --> 00:02:30.220 Kiel of Kiel and Delitzsch, commentators on the Old Testament, 00:02:30.220 --> 00:02:31.420 wrote this, he said, 00:02:31.420 --> 00:02:36.660 the whole of Ezekiel's symbolism is derived from the Israelitish sanctuary. 00:02:36.660 --> 00:02:40.700 It is an outcome of Old Testament ideas and views. 00:02:40.700 --> 00:02:43.180 Everything that he brings in here, 00:02:43.180 --> 00:02:46.540 we will find back in the book of Exodus, 00:02:46.540 --> 00:02:49.540 as the details for the tabernacle was given, 00:02:49.660 --> 00:02:52.620 and then expounded, of course, in Leviticus and so on. 00:02:53.820 --> 00:02:55.100 Another commentator says, 00:02:55.100 --> 00:02:58.700 with divine authority, Ezekiel dispelled delusions, 00:02:58.700 --> 00:03:03.980 denounced false prophets, declared repentance, restoration, and renewal. 00:03:03.980 --> 00:03:05.500 That's an incredible thing. 00:03:05.500 --> 00:03:06.899 All the things that he did. 00:03:06.899 --> 00:03:11.540 He brought this message of God's impending judgment on the nation, 00:03:11.540 --> 00:03:12.940 and they were seeing it already. 00:03:12.940 --> 00:03:15.340 They were in Babylon, they were already part of that judgment, 00:03:15.340 --> 00:03:16.899 but there was more yet to come. 00:03:16.899 --> 00:03:18.899 This is what Ezekiel is bringing to his people, 00:03:18.900 --> 00:03:20.460 but he also brings hope. 00:03:21.580 --> 00:03:25.820 Again, the rabbis argued that no one should study Ezekiel 00:03:25.820 --> 00:03:27.820 until he was at least 30 years of age. 00:03:27.820 --> 00:03:30.940 They thought this book was so deep, so intense, 00:03:30.940 --> 00:03:32.620 and it is, in a sense. 00:03:32.620 --> 00:03:36.140 We've already commented that a lot of people don't tend to study Ezekiel, 00:03:36.140 --> 00:03:38.300 because it's just one of those books that, 00:03:38.300 --> 00:03:39.780 you know, Isaiah, there's something about it, 00:03:39.780 --> 00:03:42.540 we're kind of drawn to it, Jeremiah's a great prophet to read. 00:03:42.540 --> 00:03:44.780 Ezekiel is like, oh, it's a bit tricky, it's a bit hard, 00:03:44.780 --> 00:03:47.620 there's lots of things here that take a bit of digging into. 00:03:48.940 --> 00:03:52.340 And they also said that he who understood the weaned chariot 00:03:52.340 --> 00:03:54.740 knew all the mysteries of creation. 00:03:54.740 --> 00:03:56.580 This is apparently what the rabbis said. 00:03:56.580 --> 00:03:58.700 Now, that's quite a statement, too. 00:03:58.700 --> 00:04:01.540 Makes us kind of want to go back and look at those creatures again, 00:04:01.540 --> 00:04:03.940 and look at this chariot that we saw, this image, 00:04:03.940 --> 00:04:06.740 this vision that Ezekiel sees in the first few chapters. 00:04:10.100 --> 00:04:11.660 Just to give you an overview of where we are, 00:04:11.660 --> 00:04:14.620 prophecies against Judah 00:04:14.620 --> 00:04:17.380 that were given before the fall of Jerusalem, 00:04:17.420 --> 00:04:19.779 which is in 597. 00:04:19.779 --> 00:04:23.340 That's in chapters, chapter 4 through to 24. 00:04:23.340 --> 00:04:24.740 And then that's broken down, 00:04:24.740 --> 00:04:26.540 we get the messages in the fifth year, 00:04:26.540 --> 00:04:29.420 that's where we are as the book starts. 00:04:29.420 --> 00:04:32.980 And then there's four acted out prophecies in chapters 4 and 5, 00:04:32.980 --> 00:04:35.300 we're going to see if we can get through those this morning. 00:04:35.300 --> 00:04:39.020 And with the first of those, we see a picture of the siege of Jerusalem. 00:04:39.020 --> 00:04:42.580 And then he's going to lay on his left side and then his right side, 00:04:42.580 --> 00:04:46.140 symbolically bearing the iniquity of Israel and Judah. 00:04:46.140 --> 00:04:48.460 These are quite dramatic things. 00:04:48.460 --> 00:04:50.419 I mean, this is like walking down the high street 00:04:50.419 --> 00:04:53.219 on a busy Saturday afternoon 00:04:53.219 --> 00:04:57.500 and seeing somebody do something that seems so bizarre. 00:04:57.500 --> 00:04:59.780 It would just grab your attention. 00:04:59.780 --> 00:05:02.740 And yet, Ezekiel, no doubt, was well known. 00:05:02.740 --> 00:05:05.659 And so this has a real impact on the people that are watching, 00:05:05.659 --> 00:05:07.219 and that was the whole purpose of this. 00:05:07.219 --> 00:05:12.900 The third acted out prophecy is this coming famine. 00:05:12.940 --> 00:05:19.060 And then finally, it's the slaughter of the coming siege that is described. 00:05:19.060 --> 00:05:22.419 That then concludes chapter 5 with an exposition of the signs 00:05:22.419 --> 00:05:26.500 to explain what these are. 00:05:26.500 --> 00:05:32.260 The warning to the land itself is then given in chapter 6. 00:05:32.260 --> 00:05:35.140 And Ezekiel is speaking to the actual mountains 00:05:35.140 --> 00:05:38.020 and to the hills and the valleys and so on, 00:05:38.260 --> 00:05:43.020 as if it was a person or an entity that could hear and understand him. 00:05:43.020 --> 00:05:44.460 And we'll see that as we go through. 00:05:44.460 --> 00:05:45.500 We'll see if we get there this morning. 00:05:45.500 --> 00:05:50.099 So let's pick up chapter 4 and we'll go through. 00:05:50.099 --> 00:05:55.780 Thou also, Son of Man, take thee a tile and lay it before thee 00:05:55.780 --> 00:06:01.260 and portray upon it the city, even Jerusalem. 00:06:01.260 --> 00:06:04.700 All right, so some of you may be into building models. 00:06:04.740 --> 00:06:08.659 My dad has, well, we joke, we call it a train set. 00:06:08.659 --> 00:06:13.219 He says it's not a train set, it's a train layout, and they're very different. 00:06:13.219 --> 00:06:15.340 So apparently a train set is what children play with, 00:06:15.340 --> 00:06:18.900 but a train layout is what adults can play with. 00:06:18.900 --> 00:06:22.460 But it's a very big train layout that he has all around his loft. 00:06:22.460 --> 00:06:26.500 He used to have a big layout of the Somerset and Dorset Railway 00:06:26.500 --> 00:06:28.300 because he was born down in Dorset. 00:06:28.300 --> 00:06:29.740 And that was wonderful, it was really good, 00:06:29.740 --> 00:06:31.539 with all the old steam engines and things. 00:06:31.580 --> 00:06:36.980 And then he's moved on now, he's now got these electric diesel engines and things, 00:06:36.980 --> 00:06:40.500 diesel engines and electric engines and so on, so he's modernised it. 00:06:40.500 --> 00:06:43.460 But it's great, he's got these little flashing lights for the signals 00:06:43.460 --> 00:06:45.540 and the lights will come on as they come into the station 00:06:45.540 --> 00:06:47.020 and he's got announcements that go on. 00:06:47.020 --> 00:06:49.180 Anyway, he spent a lot of time building his model. 00:06:49.180 --> 00:06:53.180 Okay, the picture I'm painting is Ezekiel is doing just that. 00:06:53.180 --> 00:06:56.500 He's building a little model of Jerusalem 00:06:56.500 --> 00:07:00.220 so that people are going to come past and they're going to look at this. 00:07:00.220 --> 00:07:02.140 But this is the detail he's told, the God says to him, 00:07:02.140 --> 00:07:06.020 and lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, 00:07:06.020 --> 00:07:10.060 and cast a mound against it, and set the camp also against it, 00:07:10.060 --> 00:07:12.300 that's the camp of the enemy surrounding it, 00:07:12.300 --> 00:07:15.180 and set battering rams against it round about. 00:07:15.180 --> 00:07:18.020 Moreover, take thou unto thee an iron pan 00:07:18.020 --> 00:07:21.100 and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city, 00:07:21.100 --> 00:07:24.900 and set thy face against it, and it shall be besieged, 00:07:24.900 --> 00:07:26.980 and thou shall lay siege against it. 00:07:26.980 --> 00:07:31.700 This shall be a sign to the house of Israel. 00:07:31.700 --> 00:07:34.620 This is going to be something very visual 00:07:34.620 --> 00:07:36.700 that's going to get their attention 00:07:36.700 --> 00:07:42.340 and help them to start to appreciate the message that Ezekiel is bringing. 00:07:42.340 --> 00:07:46.020 That's just an artist's impression. 00:07:46.020 --> 00:07:47.940 Okay, but you get the kind of sense here, 00:07:47.940 --> 00:07:52.380 all the people looking on, watching what this young 30-year-old 00:07:52.380 --> 00:07:55.420 would-be priest is doing. 00:07:55.420 --> 00:07:57.820 Ezekiel, what are you doing? 00:07:57.820 --> 00:08:00.140 No doubt silently just carrying on, building these things, 00:08:00.140 --> 00:08:01.980 building a city, putting a mound against it, 00:08:01.980 --> 00:08:03.540 and all these kind of things. 00:08:03.540 --> 00:08:09.060 We read on, verse 4, this is the next part of it. 00:08:09.060 --> 00:08:13.860 Lie thou also upon thy left side, 00:08:13.860 --> 00:08:16.580 and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it 00:08:16.580 --> 00:08:21.420 according to the number of the days that thou shall lie upon it. 00:08:21.420 --> 00:08:24.620 It shall bear their iniquity. 00:08:24.620 --> 00:08:27.540 This is quite an interesting statement. 00:08:27.540 --> 00:08:32.140 For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity 00:08:32.140 --> 00:08:35.179 according to the number of the days. 00:08:35.179 --> 00:08:38.500 God is being very specific here. 00:08:38.500 --> 00:08:41.860 He says, 390 days, 00:08:41.860 --> 00:08:47.580 so shall thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. 00:08:47.580 --> 00:08:50.060 That's the first number that we're given. 00:08:50.060 --> 00:08:53.460 For 390 days, as Ezekiel would go on, 00:08:53.460 --> 00:08:55.220 scholars are divided as to how this worked, 00:08:55.220 --> 00:08:59.340 but probably just as the model of the siege 00:08:59.340 --> 00:09:01.860 would have been done in a public square 00:09:01.860 --> 00:09:05.020 or in a pathway where people would have been able to walk past, 00:09:05.020 --> 00:09:07.540 then seemingly what Ezekiel would have done every day, 00:09:07.540 --> 00:09:09.900 he would have gone out and he would have lain in the same way 00:09:09.900 --> 00:09:12.540 and laying on his left side to start with. 00:09:12.540 --> 00:09:14.620 And the first day or so people would walk past, 00:09:14.620 --> 00:09:15.700 second day probably the same, 00:09:15.700 --> 00:09:19.860 but then after a few days, a week, 10 days, 00:09:19.860 --> 00:09:22.460 and then it gets to the point for 390 days, 00:09:22.460 --> 00:09:26.740 over a year, every day he's coming out 00:09:26.740 --> 00:09:29.620 and he's laying there on his left side. 00:09:29.620 --> 00:09:36.180 And people saying, Ezekiel, what are you doing? 00:09:36.180 --> 00:09:37.540 And when thou has accomplished them, 00:09:37.540 --> 00:09:42.020 lie again on thy right side. 00:09:42.020 --> 00:09:43.300 That's probably a bit of a relief to him 00:09:43.300 --> 00:09:44.740 after laying on your left side for that time. 00:09:44.740 --> 00:09:46.380 He now says to lie on his right side 00:09:46.380 --> 00:09:49.060 and thou shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah 00:09:49.099 --> 00:09:51.099 for 40 days. 00:09:51.099 --> 00:09:54.500 And then notice a really interesting statement. 00:09:54.500 --> 00:09:59.260 I have appointed thee each day for a year. 00:09:59.260 --> 00:10:01.099 All right, so we add this 40 days 00:10:01.099 --> 00:10:04.540 to the initial period of time that we just saw. 00:10:04.540 --> 00:10:07.739 So the iniquity of Israel is 390 days. 00:10:07.739 --> 00:10:11.699 The iniquity of Judah then is to be for 40 days. 00:10:11.699 --> 00:10:13.459 And then each of these together, 00:10:13.459 --> 00:10:16.819 they're gonna be each day represents a year 00:10:16.860 --> 00:10:19.580 in the judgment that God is pronouncing 00:10:19.580 --> 00:10:21.940 upon the nation of Israel. 00:10:21.940 --> 00:10:26.660 We add that together and we get a total of 430 years 00:10:26.660 --> 00:10:31.020 that God is pronouncing as judgment upon the nation. 00:10:32.060 --> 00:10:34.300 And we're gonna come back and look at detail of this, 00:10:34.300 --> 00:10:36.380 but we carry on, verse seven. 00:10:36.380 --> 00:10:38.300 Therefore thou shall set thy face 00:10:38.300 --> 00:10:40.020 toward the siege of Jerusalem 00:10:41.100 --> 00:10:43.500 and thy arms shall be uncovered 00:10:43.500 --> 00:10:45.620 and thou shall prophesy against it. 00:10:46.580 --> 00:10:49.620 And behold, I will lay bands upon thee 00:10:49.620 --> 00:10:51.900 and thou shall not turn thee from one side to another 00:10:51.900 --> 00:10:54.820 till thou has ended the days of thy siege. 00:10:54.820 --> 00:10:57.980 It seems to be from this verse or these verses 00:10:57.980 --> 00:11:01.300 that the model that he's built is still there 00:11:01.300 --> 00:11:03.820 and that he's gonna set his face towards this model, 00:11:03.820 --> 00:11:04.980 the siege of Jerusalem. 00:11:07.540 --> 00:11:10.620 It seems potentially or possibly to be what he's doing. 00:11:10.620 --> 00:11:12.660 Either way, it's attracting attention. 00:11:13.580 --> 00:11:14.820 Verse nine goes on. 00:11:14.860 --> 00:11:17.460 Take thou also unto thee wheats and barley 00:11:17.460 --> 00:11:19.940 and beans and lentils and millet and fidges 00:11:19.940 --> 00:11:23.140 and put them in one vessel and make thee bread thereof 00:11:23.140 --> 00:11:25.500 according to the number of the days 00:11:25.500 --> 00:11:27.500 thou shall lie upon thy side. 00:11:27.500 --> 00:11:29.660 390 days shall thou eat thou of. 00:11:29.660 --> 00:11:30.740 So he's to have his food with him, 00:11:30.740 --> 00:11:33.100 he's to take a packed lunch if you like every day. 00:11:33.100 --> 00:11:36.460 And thy meat which thou shall eat shall be by the weight. 00:11:36.460 --> 00:11:40.620 20 shekels a day from time to time shall thou eat it. 00:11:40.620 --> 00:11:43.500 So every day he's to take this bit of food out with him, 00:11:43.500 --> 00:11:44.700 set them out each day. 00:11:46.100 --> 00:11:48.140 And thou shall drink also water by measure, 00:11:48.140 --> 00:11:49.500 the sixth part of a hymn, 00:11:49.500 --> 00:11:51.580 from time to time thou shall drink. 00:11:51.580 --> 00:11:54.620 And thou shall eat it as barley cakes 00:11:54.620 --> 00:11:56.140 and thou shall bake it with dung 00:11:56.140 --> 00:11:58.860 that cometh out of a man in their sight. 00:11:59.940 --> 00:12:01.340 That's not a pleasant thing, is it? 00:12:01.340 --> 00:12:03.540 But that's what he's instructed. 00:12:03.540 --> 00:12:06.100 And the Lord said, even thus shall the children of Israel 00:12:06.100 --> 00:12:09.060 eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles 00:12:09.060 --> 00:12:10.860 where that I drive them. 00:12:10.860 --> 00:12:14.700 Now you understand, I'm sure, that dung, excrement, 00:12:14.700 --> 00:12:17.220 it can be used as a source of fuel. 00:12:17.220 --> 00:12:19.220 And that's what God is saying to him to do, 00:12:19.220 --> 00:12:22.900 to use it as a fuel source to bake your cakes. 00:12:24.140 --> 00:12:25.420 Notice this. 00:12:25.420 --> 00:12:27.580 We'll go on and see what Ezekiel says to that next. 00:12:27.580 --> 00:12:29.940 But first of all, God says, and the Lord said, 00:12:29.940 --> 00:12:31.980 even thus shall the children of Israel 00:12:31.980 --> 00:12:35.620 eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles. 00:12:35.620 --> 00:12:37.620 Really important detail. 00:12:37.620 --> 00:12:39.740 God is saying that this period of judgment 00:12:39.740 --> 00:12:43.780 that he's acting out is to be done amongst, 00:12:43.780 --> 00:12:47.420 scattered amongst the Gentiles where that I will drive them. 00:12:47.420 --> 00:12:49.820 So God is giving this period of time 00:12:49.820 --> 00:12:51.340 that Israel is to be judged. 00:12:51.340 --> 00:12:53.660 Every day that Ezekiel is laying on his left side 00:12:53.660 --> 00:12:55.100 to start with, then his right side, 00:12:55.100 --> 00:12:57.420 is to represent a year. 00:12:57.420 --> 00:12:59.860 And these years are to be the judgment 00:12:59.860 --> 00:13:02.420 that God is pronouncing upon Israel and Judah 00:13:03.460 --> 00:13:05.980 where they will be scattered amongst the Gentiles. 00:13:06.980 --> 00:13:10.180 So the scope of the prophecy has to do with Israel 00:13:10.180 --> 00:13:15.020 as a nation being scattered among the nations. 00:13:15.020 --> 00:13:16.980 Anyway, his response to this, 00:13:16.980 --> 00:13:18.340 Ezekiel says, then said, 00:13:18.340 --> 00:13:22.940 I, Lord God, behold, my soul has not been polluted. 00:13:22.940 --> 00:13:24.660 For from my youth, even up till now, 00:13:24.660 --> 00:13:27.820 have I not eaten of that which defiles itself 00:13:27.820 --> 00:13:28.940 or is torn in pieces. 00:13:28.940 --> 00:13:31.460 And there's lots of laws and rules in the Torah 00:13:31.460 --> 00:13:33.300 about what they could eat and when they could eat. 00:13:33.300 --> 00:13:34.540 They couldn't eat roadkill, 00:13:34.819 --> 00:13:36.540 as we typically refer to it today. 00:13:37.500 --> 00:13:38.939 There were certain things they had to do 00:13:38.939 --> 00:13:40.740 in preparation of their food. 00:13:40.740 --> 00:13:42.939 He said, I have not eaten of that which dies of itself 00:13:42.939 --> 00:13:44.060 nor is torn in pieces, 00:13:44.060 --> 00:13:47.140 neither came their abominable flesh into my mouth. 00:13:47.140 --> 00:13:48.660 So he's saying, I followed the law 00:13:48.660 --> 00:13:52.140 in terms of the dietary restrictions and conditions. 00:13:52.980 --> 00:13:53.819 Then said, he answered me, 00:13:53.819 --> 00:13:56.339 lo, I have given thee cow's dung for man's dung. 00:13:56.339 --> 00:13:58.860 So God kind of gives him an option. 00:13:58.860 --> 00:14:01.339 He says, okay, well, rather than human waste, 00:14:01.339 --> 00:14:04.140 human excrement, you can use cow's dung 00:14:04.140 --> 00:14:06.860 as your fuel source to cook this food. 00:14:08.140 --> 00:14:10.500 And thou shall prepare thy bread therewith. 00:14:11.660 --> 00:14:12.660 You get the idea. 00:14:12.660 --> 00:14:14.140 This is gonna attract attention. 00:14:14.140 --> 00:14:16.100 People are gonna see this. 00:14:16.100 --> 00:14:17.340 Moreover, he said unto me, 00:14:17.340 --> 00:14:20.780 son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread 00:14:20.780 --> 00:14:24.340 in Jerusalem and they shall eat bread by weight. 00:14:24.340 --> 00:14:27.140 And with care, you see, the measuring out of his food 00:14:27.140 --> 00:14:29.540 and his drink was also symbolic 00:14:29.540 --> 00:14:32.460 of what was gonna take place in Jerusalem. 00:14:32.460 --> 00:14:35.180 And with care, and they shall drink water by measure 00:14:35.180 --> 00:14:38.580 and with astonishment, that they may want bread and water 00:14:38.580 --> 00:14:41.500 and be astonished one with another 00:14:41.500 --> 00:14:43.780 and consume away for their iniquity. 00:14:46.300 --> 00:14:48.540 That's verse 16 and 17. 00:14:48.540 --> 00:14:49.660 All right, let's just try and see 00:14:49.660 --> 00:14:52.420 if we can get our heads around this a little bit. 00:14:52.420 --> 00:14:56.100 So Ezekiel prophesied a total of 430 years 00:14:56.100 --> 00:14:58.260 because each day was to represent a year, 00:14:58.260 --> 00:15:00.140 it's very clearly stated, 00:15:00.140 --> 00:15:02.180 of the judgment that's gonna come against them 00:15:02.859 --> 00:15:05.060 as a nation and throughout which time 00:15:05.060 --> 00:15:08.339 they will be scattered amongst the Gentiles. 00:15:08.339 --> 00:15:10.900 Now, we know because of the context, 00:15:10.900 --> 00:15:12.140 we know where Ezekiel is, 00:15:12.140 --> 00:15:15.939 70 years of this judgment are accounted for 00:15:15.939 --> 00:15:18.420 by the time they spend in Babylon. 00:15:19.260 --> 00:15:22.260 We know that Ezekiel, the nation was there for 70 years 00:15:22.260 --> 00:15:25.979 until finally the decree of Cyrus is given 00:15:25.979 --> 00:15:28.900 and the nation, the people are allowed to return home. 00:15:29.900 --> 00:15:34.380 But that leaves us with 360 years 00:15:34.380 --> 00:15:36.699 that are seemingly unaccounted for. 00:15:36.699 --> 00:15:39.459 And this has been a question that scholars have pondered 00:15:39.459 --> 00:15:42.620 and looked at for many, many years. 00:15:42.620 --> 00:15:46.459 And there's no specific period of 360 years 00:15:46.459 --> 00:15:49.740 in Israel's history that fits this prophecy. 00:15:49.740 --> 00:15:52.980 We can't say, well, it didn't just follow on from that point 00:15:52.980 --> 00:15:54.500 and then you get to 360 years later, 00:15:54.500 --> 00:15:56.540 oh, that makes sense, something significant happened. 00:15:56.540 --> 00:15:57.380 There isn't. 00:15:58.340 --> 00:16:02.780 However, we're given a really significant clue 00:16:02.780 --> 00:16:06.820 in the book of Leviticus, in Leviticus chapter 26. 00:16:06.820 --> 00:16:07.939 And we read this. 00:16:08.980 --> 00:16:11.780 God says to the nation through Moses, 00:16:11.780 --> 00:16:14.740 and this is recorded in the Torah in the book of Leviticus, 00:16:14.740 --> 00:16:17.900 but if you will not hearken unto me, 00:16:17.900 --> 00:16:19.300 if you'll not listen, 00:16:19.300 --> 00:16:22.100 and will not do all these commandments, 00:16:22.100 --> 00:16:23.820 again, that's not just the 10 commandments, 00:16:23.820 --> 00:16:25.780 that's all the commandments of the law, 00:16:27.580 --> 00:16:30.020 and if you will despise my statutes 00:16:30.020 --> 00:16:32.460 or if your soul abhor my judgments 00:16:32.460 --> 00:16:36.060 so that you will not do all my commandments 00:16:36.060 --> 00:16:39.180 but you break my covenant, 00:16:39.180 --> 00:16:42.500 I will also do this unto you. 00:16:43.820 --> 00:16:45.460 All right, we're gonna go on and look at that in a second. 00:16:45.460 --> 00:16:48.100 Just notice, first of all, it's but if. 00:16:48.100 --> 00:16:50.500 There was the option that they could have been obedient. 00:16:50.500 --> 00:16:51.380 They weren't. 00:16:52.300 --> 00:16:57.100 And if you despise, or if, again, 00:16:57.980 --> 00:16:59.780 God didn't want to bring judgment. 00:16:59.780 --> 00:17:03.060 God wanted them to walk in obedience, 00:17:03.060 --> 00:17:05.260 and yet he knew their hearts. 00:17:05.260 --> 00:17:08.660 And God says, because of what you will do, 00:17:08.660 --> 00:17:11.220 I will also do this unto you. 00:17:11.220 --> 00:17:13.980 This is the spiritual law of sowing and reaping. 00:17:15.060 --> 00:17:16.980 Whatever you sow, that is what you're gonna reap. 00:17:16.980 --> 00:17:19.900 We find it in the natural, but it's true in the spiritual. 00:17:21.220 --> 00:17:24.220 In Hosea chapter eight, verse seven, 00:17:24.220 --> 00:17:26.220 we read, for they have sown the wind 00:17:26.220 --> 00:17:28.060 and they shall reap the whirlwind. 00:17:30.780 --> 00:17:33.700 Leviticus 26, 16, 17, we read on, 00:17:33.700 --> 00:17:36.380 and I will do this unto you. 00:17:36.380 --> 00:17:38.980 I will even appoint over you terror, 00:17:38.980 --> 00:17:41.700 consumption, and the burning argue. 00:17:41.700 --> 00:17:42.540 Don't know what that is. 00:17:42.540 --> 00:17:44.900 I'm not really sure I want to know. 00:17:44.900 --> 00:17:47.820 That shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart, 00:17:47.820 --> 00:17:50.140 and you shall sow your seed in vain, 00:17:50.140 --> 00:17:52.500 for your enemies shall eat it. 00:17:52.500 --> 00:17:54.900 And I will set my face against you, 00:17:54.900 --> 00:17:57.900 and you shall be slain before your enemies. 00:17:57.900 --> 00:18:00.700 They that hate you shall reign over you, 00:18:00.700 --> 00:18:04.060 and you shall flee when none pursues you. 00:18:04.060 --> 00:18:05.660 I mean, this, in a sense, is a summary 00:18:05.660 --> 00:18:07.580 of everything we read in Deuteronomy 28 00:18:07.580 --> 00:18:09.580 regarding the future history of the nation, 00:18:09.580 --> 00:18:12.660 as Moses was presenting to them, prophesying over them. 00:18:14.140 --> 00:18:16.140 And so God is saying that if you obey, 00:18:16.140 --> 00:18:18.660 there'll be blessing, but if you don't obey, 00:18:18.660 --> 00:18:20.460 all of these things will come upon you. 00:18:20.460 --> 00:18:22.420 And then we go into verse 18, 00:18:22.460 --> 00:18:26.100 and if you will not yet for all of this hearken unto me. 00:18:26.100 --> 00:18:29.100 So God's gonna bring judgment, and then God says, 00:18:29.100 --> 00:18:33.340 and if after all of that you still don't obey me, 00:18:33.340 --> 00:18:38.340 then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. 00:18:40.940 --> 00:18:45.500 If after disobedient and the subsequent judgment 00:18:45.500 --> 00:18:47.700 you still don't obey, 00:18:47.700 --> 00:18:51.540 your punishment will be multiplied by seven. 00:18:51.540 --> 00:18:56.540 And that is reiterated four times in Leviticus 26. 00:18:57.740 --> 00:19:01.220 Verse 18, 21, 24, and 28 say the same thing. 00:19:01.220 --> 00:19:02.899 God is really making that point. 00:19:05.940 --> 00:19:07.740 As prophesied, as we said already, 00:19:07.740 --> 00:19:09.580 Israel were punished for their disobedience 00:19:09.580 --> 00:19:12.379 initially without 70 years in Babylon. 00:19:12.379 --> 00:19:15.060 They were forced out of their land, 00:19:15.060 --> 00:19:17.060 and forced to live amongst the Gentiles. 00:19:18.220 --> 00:19:20.060 But that still leaves this 360 years, 00:19:20.060 --> 00:19:22.899 as we said, unaccounted for. 00:19:22.899 --> 00:19:25.620 And although a remnant did return to the land 00:19:25.620 --> 00:19:28.740 after the 70 years, they still didn't hearken unto him. 00:19:30.260 --> 00:19:32.580 Yeah, we've got the likes of Ezra and Nehemiah, 00:19:32.580 --> 00:19:36.300 and they tried to call the people back to a godly life. 00:19:38.139 --> 00:19:40.620 But they ended up even rejecting their Messiah. 00:19:41.580 --> 00:19:44.460 And so according to Leviticus 26, 00:19:44.460 --> 00:19:46.740 we need to multiply the remaining, 00:19:46.740 --> 00:19:48.940 because 70 is already counted for, 00:19:48.940 --> 00:19:51.220 the punishment by seven times. 00:19:53.100 --> 00:19:56.460 Now if we multiply the remaining 360 years 00:19:56.460 --> 00:19:58.340 of this incredible prophecy, 00:19:58.340 --> 00:20:00.380 that Ezekiel's acting out in front of the people 00:20:00.380 --> 00:20:05.380 by seven times, we actually come to 2,520 years. 00:20:07.220 --> 00:20:10.460 That would be the remaining 360 years. 00:20:10.460 --> 00:20:12.820 Multiply that by seven times, 00:20:12.820 --> 00:20:15.300 and it gives us 2,520 years. 00:20:15.300 --> 00:20:17.980 But of course God is always precise. 00:20:17.980 --> 00:20:21.460 So let's ask the question, how many days would that be? 00:20:22.300 --> 00:20:24.620 Well in scripture, days prophetically 00:20:24.620 --> 00:20:28.500 are always reckoned as 360 days. 00:20:29.780 --> 00:20:32.100 Mark and I will happily talk you through 00:20:32.100 --> 00:20:34.980 some of the details of why we believe that is sometimes, 00:20:34.980 --> 00:20:35.980 if you want to know more. 00:20:35.980 --> 00:20:38.020 But I'll just give you some examples. 00:20:38.020 --> 00:20:40.340 Genesis, Daniel, Revelation, 00:20:40.340 --> 00:20:41.620 you know, the servitude of the nation, 00:20:41.620 --> 00:20:42.460 the desolation of Jerusalem, 00:20:42.460 --> 00:20:43.940 all these things that we're talking about in prophesy, 00:20:43.940 --> 00:20:46.100 even this one we're looking at now. 00:20:46.100 --> 00:20:48.379 Every time we're looking at prophetic years, 00:20:48.379 --> 00:20:51.020 they are not 365 and a quarter days, 00:20:51.020 --> 00:20:53.300 they are 360 days. 00:20:53.300 --> 00:20:54.860 And there's some really interesting reasons 00:20:54.860 --> 00:20:59.219 why we believe God uses 360 days in his calendar. 00:20:59.219 --> 00:21:00.899 Of course it is the Luder cycle, 00:21:00.899 --> 00:21:03.260 it's 30 days a month, and so on. 00:21:05.419 --> 00:21:09.580 So we've got a mathematical prophecy here. 00:21:09.580 --> 00:21:12.980 If we multiply that number of years, 2,520, 00:21:12.980 --> 00:21:17.220 by 360 days, we actually get, 00:21:17.220 --> 00:21:19.220 anybody already worked it out in your heads? 00:21:19.220 --> 00:21:20.460 That's not fair, is it? 00:21:20.460 --> 00:21:24.380 We get a potential of 907,200 days 00:21:24.380 --> 00:21:26.700 until Ezekiel's prophecy would be fulfilled, 00:21:26.700 --> 00:21:30.380 or this time of judgment on the nation would come to an end. 00:21:31.540 --> 00:21:32.460 Now look at this. 00:21:34.700 --> 00:21:37.420 The first siege of Jerusalem began, 00:21:37.420 --> 00:21:39.900 started in 606 BC. 00:21:39.900 --> 00:21:42.340 That's when Daniel was taken to Babylon. 00:21:42.699 --> 00:21:47.500 That's when the 70 years' captivity started. 00:21:48.659 --> 00:21:53.540 Interestingly enough, that was exactly 25,200 days. 00:21:53.540 --> 00:21:56.179 It was concluded by this decree 00:21:56.179 --> 00:22:00.939 of this Persian ruler, King Cyrus, in 537 BC. 00:22:00.939 --> 00:22:04.179 That's referred to as the servitude of the nation. 00:22:05.220 --> 00:22:09.139 The third siege, because there's three sieges in total, 00:22:09.139 --> 00:22:11.100 the second one is when Ezekiel was taken, 00:22:11.139 --> 00:22:14.060 the third one, when finally the temple was destroyed 00:22:14.060 --> 00:22:17.860 and Jerusalem was laid waste, by Nebuchadnezzar. 00:22:17.860 --> 00:22:22.300 The third siege was in 587 BC. 00:22:22.300 --> 00:22:24.860 Again, a 70-year period applies to that too. 00:22:24.860 --> 00:22:27.219 And Jeremiah is the one that tells us 00:22:27.219 --> 00:22:29.899 that there are two separate periods of 70 years. 00:22:29.899 --> 00:22:33.459 One specifically applies to the nation, 00:22:33.459 --> 00:22:36.939 and one applies to the land. 00:22:36.939 --> 00:22:39.300 So we have the servitude of the nation, 00:22:39.300 --> 00:22:41.659 and then we have the desolations of Jerusalem. 00:22:41.659 --> 00:22:44.220 These are the two titles that scholars typically use, 00:22:44.220 --> 00:22:46.300 and that's because it's drawn from Jeremiah. 00:22:46.300 --> 00:22:47.659 Jeremiah says these things. 00:22:48.540 --> 00:22:50.659 So we have these two periods. 00:22:50.659 --> 00:22:53.620 Now, they kind of almost run at the same time, 00:22:53.620 --> 00:22:55.820 but they start 19 years apart. 00:22:57.780 --> 00:22:59.740 If we just take the first one, the top one for a second, 00:22:59.740 --> 00:23:00.780 the servitude of the nation, 00:23:00.780 --> 00:23:04.060 we've already said that 70 years is accounted for. 00:23:04.060 --> 00:23:08.139 But that leaves us the remaining 360 years 00:23:08.140 --> 00:23:10.300 multiplied by seven times, 00:23:10.300 --> 00:23:13.540 according to Ezekiel 4, Leviticus 26, as we've said. 00:23:13.540 --> 00:23:17.820 So we've got a potential of 907,200 days. 00:23:17.820 --> 00:23:20.660 Now, just out of curiosity, what would happen 00:23:20.660 --> 00:23:25.500 if we went from that decree of Cyrus in 537 BC, 00:23:25.500 --> 00:23:27.300 and we've got the details, the dates of these things, 00:23:27.300 --> 00:23:30.300 if we know, if we jump forward from that point, 00:23:30.300 --> 00:23:33.980 it brings us to the 14th of May, 1948, 00:23:33.980 --> 00:23:37.940 when Israel became a nation again 00:23:38.740 --> 00:23:39.580 in their own right, 00:23:39.580 --> 00:23:44.140 no longer under the bondage of the Gentile nations. 00:23:44.140 --> 00:23:46.780 They had their own land again. 00:23:46.780 --> 00:23:51.060 They became an identifiable people in their own place. 00:23:52.380 --> 00:23:53.220 Staggering. 00:23:59.460 --> 00:24:01.620 What happens if we do the same 00:24:01.620 --> 00:24:05.180 with the desolations of Jerusalem? 00:24:05.220 --> 00:24:08.340 So this is when the temple was finally destroyed, 00:24:08.340 --> 00:24:09.180 the third siege. 00:24:09.180 --> 00:24:12.660 We've got the 70 years are clearly given to us, 00:24:12.660 --> 00:24:14.460 that time in Babylon and so on. 00:24:14.460 --> 00:24:18.580 That ends actually with this decree of Darius in 518 BC. 00:24:18.580 --> 00:24:20.020 And if we go from that point, 00:24:20.020 --> 00:24:24.660 and we also add this period of 2,520 years 00:24:24.660 --> 00:24:27.660 or 907,200 days, 00:24:29.300 --> 00:24:33.460 what we come to the 7th of June, 1967. 00:24:34.460 --> 00:24:38.020 That's when Israel recaptured Jerusalem, 00:24:38.020 --> 00:24:39.100 the Six-Day War. 00:24:40.220 --> 00:24:41.700 I mean, this is staggering. 00:24:41.700 --> 00:24:45.180 This isn't something that we can make up. 00:24:45.180 --> 00:24:47.900 Let me show you, by the way, these 19-year gaps, 00:24:47.900 --> 00:24:49.140 I mean, obviously it's consistent throughout 00:24:49.140 --> 00:24:51.460 because they start and finish at the same point. 00:24:51.460 --> 00:24:55.820 I bought a tool, a computer program called Redshift. 00:24:55.820 --> 00:24:57.380 You still get it, it's still available. 00:24:57.380 --> 00:24:59.500 It's not a Christian thing by any means. 00:24:59.500 --> 00:25:02.220 It's simply a tool that's been put together by astronomers 00:25:02.220 --> 00:25:05.660 which allows you to look at the way that stars move 00:25:05.660 --> 00:25:06.500 and so on. 00:25:06.500 --> 00:25:08.620 It's kind of a predictable way these things move. 00:25:08.620 --> 00:25:11.620 And it helps us to track dates and times and so on. 00:25:11.620 --> 00:25:14.500 And so you can look at any particular date. 00:25:14.500 --> 00:25:16.940 You could jump back a certain number of days 00:25:16.940 --> 00:25:18.100 and you could look on the program. 00:25:18.100 --> 00:25:19.340 The purpose of this is you could look back 00:25:19.340 --> 00:25:21.660 and see where the stars were at any particular time, 00:25:21.660 --> 00:25:24.020 just for astronomers for their interest. 00:25:24.020 --> 00:25:26.020 But what it does do is allows us 00:25:26.020 --> 00:25:28.940 to put in a particular date. 00:25:28.940 --> 00:25:30.620 We can also, as you can see at the bottom there, 00:25:30.620 --> 00:25:32.939 you can put in a time step 00:25:32.939 --> 00:25:34.580 and you can jump forward or backwards 00:25:34.580 --> 00:25:36.979 according to that specific number of days. 00:25:36.979 --> 00:25:38.379 And so I thought, well, let's just try this 00:25:38.379 --> 00:25:39.580 to see if it's actually the case. 00:25:39.580 --> 00:25:43.780 So we go from the 24th of July, 606 BC. 00:25:43.780 --> 00:25:45.219 That's in our calendar. 00:25:46.100 --> 00:25:47.739 Okay, this is when the siege of Jerusalem, 00:25:47.739 --> 00:25:49.179 this is when Nebuchadnezzar would have come 00:25:49.179 --> 00:25:51.219 and taken Daniel away and so on. 00:25:51.219 --> 00:25:53.939 And we jump forward 25,200 days. 00:25:53.939 --> 00:25:57.340 That comes to this one, 537. 00:25:57.340 --> 00:26:00.340 This is our 70, that's our 70 years. 00:26:01.100 --> 00:26:02.540 That's the first jump, exactly 70 years. 00:26:02.540 --> 00:26:04.699 And it brings us to 537. 00:26:05.980 --> 00:26:09.220 Even if somebody's gonna be picky about the actual dates, 00:26:09.220 --> 00:26:10.260 and there are scholars that have got 00:26:10.260 --> 00:26:11.419 different views on the dates, 00:26:11.419 --> 00:26:13.340 not very far out by any means. 00:26:13.340 --> 00:26:15.100 But certainly without any question, 00:26:15.100 --> 00:26:18.459 without any debate, it's absolutely the same year. 00:26:18.459 --> 00:26:21.780 It's the year, so 606 BC, 70 years later, 00:26:21.780 --> 00:26:24.780 we come to 537 BC, but it is to the day. 00:26:24.780 --> 00:26:26.139 And then we do the same thing here. 00:26:26.139 --> 00:26:27.459 And now we jump the big jump. 00:26:27.460 --> 00:26:31.940 This is the Ezekiel 4 and Leviticus 26 prophecy, 00:26:31.940 --> 00:26:35.900 907,200 days, and we jump forward that time frame. 00:26:35.900 --> 00:26:37.940 These are just screenshots I took off the computer. 00:26:37.940 --> 00:26:41.340 That brings us to the 14th of May, 1948. 00:26:42.700 --> 00:26:43.540 Okay. 00:26:45.140 --> 00:26:46.020 Staggering. 00:26:46.020 --> 00:26:48.340 And then exactly the same with the desolation of Jerusalem. 00:26:48.340 --> 00:26:52.380 We go from the 16th of August, 587. 00:26:52.380 --> 00:26:55.220 Again, that's when the temple would have been destroyed. 00:26:56.220 --> 00:26:59.420 25,200 days, the 70 years, 00:26:59.420 --> 00:27:03.260 brings us exactly to the 14th of August, 518 BC. 00:27:03.260 --> 00:27:05.020 That's when Darius would have given the decree. 00:27:05.020 --> 00:27:09.180 By the way, we'll later see that the date for these things 00:27:09.180 --> 00:27:10.940 is actually pinpointed by Haggai. 00:27:10.940 --> 00:27:13.140 He actually gives us the details of this 00:27:13.140 --> 00:27:14.940 so we can be sure of the details. 00:27:14.940 --> 00:27:17.540 907,200 days, this is the big jump again, 00:27:17.540 --> 00:27:21.100 and that brings us to the 7th of June, 1967, 00:27:21.100 --> 00:27:23.260 when Israel became a nation again. 00:27:23.300 --> 00:27:25.340 If you want proof that the Bible is true 00:27:25.340 --> 00:27:29.060 and trustworthy and reliable and is the word of God, 00:27:29.060 --> 00:27:30.820 there's not many other places you could find details 00:27:30.820 --> 00:27:32.580 as staggering as this. 00:27:33.900 --> 00:27:35.100 Let's move on. 00:27:36.860 --> 00:27:37.700 Chapter five. 00:27:38.580 --> 00:27:41.540 And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp knife, 00:27:41.540 --> 00:27:43.140 take thee a barber's razor, 00:27:43.140 --> 00:27:46.500 and cause it to pass upon thine head and upon thy beard. 00:27:46.500 --> 00:27:50.460 Then take thee balances to weigh and divide the hair. 00:27:51.460 --> 00:27:54.660 He's been told to get a haircut, basically. 00:27:54.660 --> 00:27:57.300 But the Levitical law forbade priests 00:27:57.300 --> 00:27:59.340 from shaving their heads or trimming their beards 00:27:59.340 --> 00:28:00.260 in certain ways. 00:28:01.460 --> 00:28:05.180 And they were specifically commanded not to shave 00:28:05.180 --> 00:28:07.740 the head bald or to shave off the edges 00:28:07.740 --> 00:28:09.700 or the corners of their beards. 00:28:09.700 --> 00:28:11.540 Therefore, Levitical priests were not meant 00:28:11.540 --> 00:28:12.980 to be clean-shaven. 00:28:14.140 --> 00:28:16.660 And yet, Ezekiel is being told to do exactly that. 00:28:17.540 --> 00:28:21.900 It was intended to be a shock to those who pass by, 00:28:21.900 --> 00:28:23.100 to attract attention, 00:28:23.100 --> 00:28:25.180 just as the other examples have been given. 00:28:25.180 --> 00:28:26.940 And then God says, this is what he should do with it. 00:28:26.940 --> 00:28:30.140 Thou shall burn with fire a third part of the hair 00:28:30.140 --> 00:28:32.740 that he's cut off his head and everything else, 00:28:32.740 --> 00:28:35.980 to burn a third of it in the midst of the city. 00:28:38.620 --> 00:28:40.260 When the days of the siege are fulfilled, 00:28:40.260 --> 00:28:43.460 and thou shall take a third part and smite about it 00:28:43.700 --> 00:28:47.060 with a knife, and a third part thou shall scatter 00:28:47.060 --> 00:28:50.660 in the wind, and thou will draw a sword after them. 00:28:50.660 --> 00:28:53.700 So a third of it is to be burnt, seemingly in this model 00:28:53.700 --> 00:28:55.620 that he's building on the ground. 00:28:55.620 --> 00:29:00.620 Third part is to be smite about it with a knife 00:29:00.620 --> 00:29:03.820 to chop it up, and the third part scattered in the wind. 00:29:03.820 --> 00:29:06.540 Again, all of this was to symbolize the judgment 00:29:06.540 --> 00:29:07.380 that was coming. 00:29:07.380 --> 00:29:08.700 It was a very clear object lesson. 00:29:08.700 --> 00:29:11.380 One commenter said, the reaction of the exiled Jews 00:29:11.420 --> 00:29:13.940 observing Ezekiel would have been a mix of shock, 00:29:13.940 --> 00:29:16.300 horror, and profound understanding 00:29:16.300 --> 00:29:18.780 of an impending catastrophe. 00:29:18.780 --> 00:29:22.500 Ezekiel's symbolic acts were a deliberate and vivid 00:29:22.500 --> 00:29:24.860 violation of cultural and religious norms 00:29:24.860 --> 00:29:28.500 to communicate a powerful message of divine judgment. 00:29:29.660 --> 00:29:31.420 You see, there's a loss of dignity as well 00:29:31.420 --> 00:29:33.180 that's implied in this for Ezekiel. 00:29:33.180 --> 00:29:36.060 See, the beard in particular was a symbol of dignity 00:29:36.060 --> 00:29:38.140 and honor, not just in Israel, but culturally 00:29:38.140 --> 00:29:40.580 in that area of the world at that time. 00:29:40.580 --> 00:29:43.179 To have it forcibly removed in the sense as he's doing it, 00:29:43.179 --> 00:29:45.020 God giving him this clear instruction 00:29:45.020 --> 00:29:46.899 was a great dishonor. 00:29:46.899 --> 00:29:51.500 So Ezekiel's self-inflicted shaving would have been seen 00:29:51.500 --> 00:29:55.500 as a profound public act of shame, and that's the point. 00:29:56.580 --> 00:30:00.820 Because Ezekiel was undergoing this to be a witness 00:30:00.820 --> 00:30:04.379 to the people of their coming shame 00:30:04.379 --> 00:30:07.340 and humiliation as a nation. 00:30:07.340 --> 00:30:09.860 And symbolic also of destruction, the act itself, 00:30:09.860 --> 00:30:13.179 especially the command to use a sharp sword as a razor, 00:30:13.179 --> 00:30:17.100 clearly foreshadowed the violent military destruction 00:30:17.100 --> 00:30:20.139 and total severance of the people from their land. 00:30:22.300 --> 00:30:25.620 Ezekiel was acting out the future catastrophe 00:30:25.620 --> 00:30:27.260 that God would bring upon them 00:30:27.260 --> 00:30:29.260 through the Babylonian forces. 00:30:31.300 --> 00:30:32.340 Verse three, we carry on. 00:30:32.340 --> 00:30:35.740 Thou shalt also take thereof a few in number 00:30:35.740 --> 00:30:37.419 and bind them in thy skirts. 00:30:37.460 --> 00:30:39.820 Again, a little bit more of his hair. 00:30:39.820 --> 00:30:42.380 And take of them again and cast them 00:30:42.380 --> 00:30:45.700 into the midst of the fire and burn them in the fire. 00:30:45.700 --> 00:30:47.980 For thereof shall a fire come forth 00:30:47.980 --> 00:30:49.820 into all the house of Israel. 00:30:49.820 --> 00:30:52.220 Thus says the Lord God, this is Jerusalem. 00:30:52.220 --> 00:30:55.140 I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries 00:30:55.140 --> 00:30:57.900 that are around about her. 00:30:57.900 --> 00:30:59.100 This is interesting. 00:30:59.100 --> 00:31:02.460 He's saying of Jerusalem, you've been scattered 00:31:02.460 --> 00:31:04.780 amongst the nations and the countries 00:31:04.780 --> 00:31:06.580 that are around about you. 00:31:06.780 --> 00:31:08.220 They're not cutting, okay. 00:31:08.220 --> 00:31:11.699 That would distinguish them from the surrounding nations. 00:31:11.699 --> 00:31:14.460 This is why God had given the priests particularly 00:31:14.460 --> 00:31:17.100 this rule regarding their hair and so on. 00:31:17.100 --> 00:31:19.659 And it was to maintain ritual purity. 00:31:19.659 --> 00:31:21.540 But in contrast, the cutting, 00:31:21.540 --> 00:31:23.699 what Ezekiel was being asked to do here 00:31:23.699 --> 00:31:26.220 was to show that they would be intermingled 00:31:26.220 --> 00:31:27.379 with the surrounding nations 00:31:27.379 --> 00:31:29.460 and that they were now impure. 00:31:29.460 --> 00:31:31.020 They were under God's judgment. 00:31:32.020 --> 00:31:35.379 Verse six, and she has changed my judgments, 00:31:35.379 --> 00:31:37.060 this is Israel, has changed God's judgments 00:31:37.060 --> 00:31:39.980 into wickedness more than the nations. 00:31:39.980 --> 00:31:41.860 And my statutes more than the countries 00:31:41.860 --> 00:31:43.220 that are around about her. 00:31:43.220 --> 00:31:45.340 For they have refused my judgments and my statutes. 00:31:45.340 --> 00:31:46.540 They have not walked in them. 00:31:46.540 --> 00:31:48.379 Therefore, thus says the Lord God, 00:31:48.379 --> 00:31:51.460 because you multiplied more than the nations 00:31:51.460 --> 00:31:53.980 that are around about you and have not walked in my statutes, 00:31:53.980 --> 00:31:55.460 neither have kept my judgments, 00:31:55.460 --> 00:31:57.700 neither have done according to the judgments 00:31:57.700 --> 00:31:59.740 of the nations that are around about you. 00:32:00.740 --> 00:32:02.820 Carry on that sentence in a second. 00:32:02.820 --> 00:32:05.260 But get this, that following God's command, 00:32:05.260 --> 00:32:09.140 Ezekiel was publicly defiling himself. 00:32:09.140 --> 00:32:12.980 The action symbolized the utter defilement and disgrace 00:32:12.980 --> 00:32:16.060 that was about to befall Jerusalem and the Jewish people. 00:32:16.060 --> 00:32:19.340 And it indicated that even their sacred priesthood 00:32:19.340 --> 00:32:22.380 and covenant status were being temporarily 00:32:22.380 --> 00:32:24.340 annulled by God's judgment. 00:32:26.260 --> 00:32:27.980 Therefore, thus says the Lord God, 00:32:27.980 --> 00:32:30.300 behold, even I am against thee, 00:32:30.300 --> 00:32:32.900 and I will execute judgments in the midst of thee, 00:32:32.900 --> 00:32:34.700 in the sight of the nations. 00:32:34.700 --> 00:32:37.420 And I will do in thee that which I have not done, 00:32:37.420 --> 00:32:40.220 and whereunto I will not do any more the like 00:32:40.220 --> 00:32:42.940 because of all thy abominations. 00:32:42.940 --> 00:32:45.180 Therefore, the fathers shall eat the sons 00:32:45.180 --> 00:32:46.020 in the midst of thee, 00:32:46.020 --> 00:32:47.700 and the sons shall eat their fathers. 00:32:47.700 --> 00:32:49.420 And I will execute judgments in thee, 00:32:49.420 --> 00:32:51.060 and the whole remnant of thee 00:32:51.060 --> 00:32:53.980 will I scatter into all the winds. 00:32:54.020 --> 00:32:57.300 What an incredible prophecy 00:32:57.300 --> 00:32:59.540 of what has happened to the people of Israel. 00:33:00.860 --> 00:33:03.140 I saw something this week that just listed 00:33:03.140 --> 00:33:06.420 where the numbers of Jews living 00:33:06.420 --> 00:33:08.540 in each country around the world. 00:33:08.540 --> 00:33:09.540 And it's staggering. 00:33:10.420 --> 00:33:13.700 The number of Jews that are scattered around the world 00:33:13.700 --> 00:33:15.020 in different countries. 00:33:16.740 --> 00:33:18.860 Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord God, 00:33:18.860 --> 00:33:21.420 surely because thou hast defiled my sanctuary 00:33:21.420 --> 00:33:23.180 with all thy detestable things, 00:33:23.180 --> 00:33:24.660 and with all thine abominations, 00:33:24.660 --> 00:33:27.180 therefore will I also diminish thee. 00:33:27.180 --> 00:33:28.740 Neither shall mine eye spare, 00:33:28.740 --> 00:33:31.020 neither will I have any pity. 00:33:31.020 --> 00:33:34.300 Just as a little parenthesis here, 00:33:34.300 --> 00:33:37.540 let me just add that God inserts these comments 00:33:37.540 --> 00:33:40.260 about because the way you've defiled my sanctuary. 00:33:40.260 --> 00:33:42.060 It's very easy to look at these things and think, 00:33:42.060 --> 00:33:44.100 well, that's a bit harsh, isn't it, God? 00:33:44.100 --> 00:33:45.460 What you're doing? 00:33:45.460 --> 00:33:46.900 And God has to kind of remind them 00:33:46.900 --> 00:33:48.700 that it's because of what you've done. 00:33:48.700 --> 00:33:50.820 And as you read back and you look at what happened 00:33:50.860 --> 00:33:53.620 during the time of kings like Manasseh, 00:33:53.620 --> 00:33:56.500 it's shocking, even to our ears today 00:33:56.500 --> 00:33:58.700 in the world that we live in. 00:33:58.700 --> 00:34:00.300 Verse 12 again, and a third part of thee 00:34:00.300 --> 00:34:03.300 shall die with the pestilence and with famine, 00:34:03.300 --> 00:34:05.300 and they shall be consumed in the midst of thee. 00:34:05.300 --> 00:34:08.540 And a third part shall fall by the sword round about thee, 00:34:08.540 --> 00:34:11.819 and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, 00:34:11.819 --> 00:34:14.060 and I will draw out a sword after them. 00:34:15.219 --> 00:34:18.540 This is a chilling prophecy. 00:34:19.380 --> 00:34:21.020 Thus shall mine anger be accomplished, 00:34:21.020 --> 00:34:23.219 and I will cause my fury to rest upon them, 00:34:23.219 --> 00:34:25.139 and I will be comforted, and they shall know 00:34:25.139 --> 00:34:28.139 that I, the Lord, have spoken it in my zeal, 00:34:28.139 --> 00:34:30.659 when I have accomplished my fury in them. 00:34:30.659 --> 00:34:33.060 Moreover, I will make thee waste and a reproach 00:34:33.060 --> 00:34:35.620 among the nations that are round about thee 00:34:35.620 --> 00:34:37.940 in the sight of all that pass by. 00:34:37.940 --> 00:34:39.580 Let me just stop and ask you that question. 00:34:39.580 --> 00:34:41.940 Do you think that Israel have become a reproach 00:34:41.940 --> 00:34:44.460 amongst the nations where they are? 00:34:44.460 --> 00:34:47.699 I mean, isn't that what we've been seeing even this week? 00:34:47.699 --> 00:34:50.659 That wherever Israel are, can you think of any 00:34:50.659 --> 00:34:52.540 political leader on the world scene, 00:34:52.540 --> 00:34:54.819 with the possible exception of Donald Trump, 00:34:54.819 --> 00:34:57.020 that is saying good things about Israel? 00:35:00.140 --> 00:35:03.419 Isn't this, verse 14 of Ezekiel 5, 00:35:03.419 --> 00:35:06.020 a statement of exactly what we see, 00:35:06.020 --> 00:35:11.020 that Israel have become a reproach among the nations 00:35:11.500 --> 00:35:12.779 that are round about them, 00:35:13.740 --> 00:35:15.540 and in fact, around the whole world? 00:35:18.660 --> 00:35:21.379 The hair represents the people. 00:35:22.580 --> 00:35:26.460 The hair symbolized the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judah. 00:35:26.460 --> 00:35:29.299 The division of that represents judgment coming upon them, 00:35:29.299 --> 00:35:30.939 and that meticulous act of weighing, 00:35:30.939 --> 00:35:32.980 dividing the hair into these three parts, 00:35:32.980 --> 00:35:36.779 foreshadowed the exact judgment that God would dispense. 00:35:36.779 --> 00:35:39.740 One third, again, being burned in the city, 00:35:39.740 --> 00:35:42.460 that's death by famine, pestilence during the siege. 00:35:42.460 --> 00:35:44.540 A third struck with the sword around the city, 00:35:44.540 --> 00:35:47.460 killed in battle, and a third scattered to the wind 00:35:48.140 --> 00:35:49.780 in exile, dispersion, and so on. 00:35:50.980 --> 00:35:53.500 The Jews watching would have felt horror, 00:35:54.500 --> 00:35:55.940 and a terrifying certainty, 00:35:55.940 --> 00:35:57.380 as they realized their own fate 00:35:57.380 --> 00:35:59.180 was being meticulously weighed out, 00:35:59.180 --> 00:36:02.700 and dramatically enacted by their own priest prophet. 00:36:02.700 --> 00:36:07.180 It was a terrifying visual sermon that they could not ignore. 00:36:08.300 --> 00:36:09.820 Verse 15, we carry on. 00:36:09.820 --> 00:36:12.020 So it shall be a reproach, and a taunt, 00:36:12.020 --> 00:36:13.500 an instruction, and an astonishment 00:36:13.500 --> 00:36:15.460 unto the nations that are round about thee, 00:36:15.500 --> 00:36:18.260 when I shall execute judgments in thee, 00:36:18.260 --> 00:36:21.420 in anger, and in fury, and in furious rebukes. 00:36:21.420 --> 00:36:23.500 I, the Lord, have spoken it, 00:36:23.500 --> 00:36:26.980 when I shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine, 00:36:26.980 --> 00:36:29.420 which shall be for their destruction, 00:36:29.420 --> 00:36:31.500 and which I will send to destroy you, 00:36:31.500 --> 00:36:33.620 and I will increase the famine upon you, 00:36:33.620 --> 00:36:36.140 and I will break your staff of bread. 00:36:36.140 --> 00:36:38.980 So will I send upon you famine and evil beasts, 00:36:38.980 --> 00:36:41.060 and they shall bereave thee, 00:36:41.060 --> 00:36:43.300 and pestilence and blood shall pass through thee, 00:36:43.300 --> 00:36:45.140 and I will bring the sword upon thee. 00:36:45.140 --> 00:36:47.100 I, the Lord, have spoken it. 00:36:48.100 --> 00:36:52.620 Notice the ways that God speaks of this judgment coming. 00:36:52.620 --> 00:36:57.020 It's gonna be through war, famine, evil beasts, 00:36:57.020 --> 00:36:59.380 pestilence, and a specific mention 00:36:59.380 --> 00:37:01.180 of the sword here as well. 00:37:01.180 --> 00:37:03.980 Notice the parallel we have to what Jesus said 00:37:03.980 --> 00:37:08.060 in Matthew 24, and what's recorded in Revelation chapter six. 00:37:08.060 --> 00:37:09.460 Lots of similarities. 00:37:09.460 --> 00:37:10.420 Not saying it's the same thing, 00:37:10.420 --> 00:37:12.220 and different things, different times. 00:37:12.259 --> 00:37:15.580 But God works in the similar ways. 00:37:15.580 --> 00:37:17.379 Ezekiel chapter six is a short chapter, 00:37:17.379 --> 00:37:18.700 so we'll just go through this. 00:37:18.700 --> 00:37:23.140 And this is the warning that is spoken to the land itself, 00:37:23.140 --> 00:37:25.700 to the land of Israel, to the mountains, to the hills. 00:37:25.700 --> 00:37:27.020 And the word of the Lord came unto me, 00:37:27.020 --> 00:37:28.660 saying, Son of man, set thy face 00:37:28.660 --> 00:37:30.220 toward the mountains of Israel, 00:37:30.220 --> 00:37:32.100 and prophesy against them, and say, 00:37:32.100 --> 00:37:35.299 you mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God. 00:37:35.299 --> 00:37:37.299 Thus says the Lord God to the mountains, 00:37:37.299 --> 00:37:39.459 and to the hills, to the rivers, to the valleys, 00:37:39.460 --> 00:37:42.940 behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, 00:37:42.940 --> 00:37:45.500 and I will destroy your high places. 00:37:45.500 --> 00:37:49.060 Those high places, by the way, have become pagan shrines. 00:37:49.060 --> 00:37:50.980 They've become places where they would go 00:37:50.980 --> 00:37:54.660 and sacrifice to foreign gods, not to our God. 00:37:54.660 --> 00:37:57.020 It's the same kind of thing that Ezekiel, 00:37:57.020 --> 00:38:00.280 sorry, it's the same kind of thing that Elijah encounters 00:38:00.280 --> 00:38:02.060 when he goes up against the prophets of Baal 00:38:02.060 --> 00:38:03.260 on top of Mount Carmel. 00:38:04.760 --> 00:38:06.420 Verse four, and your altar shall be desolate, 00:38:06.420 --> 00:38:07.780 and your images shall be broken, 00:38:07.780 --> 00:38:11.100 and I will cast down your slain men before your idols, 00:38:11.100 --> 00:38:13.860 and I will lay the dead carcasses of the children of Israel 00:38:13.860 --> 00:38:16.500 before their idols, and I will scatter your bones 00:38:16.500 --> 00:38:18.320 round about your altars. 00:38:19.580 --> 00:38:22.460 In all your dwelling places, the cities shall be laid waste, 00:38:22.460 --> 00:38:24.140 and the high places shall be desolate, 00:38:24.140 --> 00:38:26.820 that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, 00:38:26.820 --> 00:38:29.500 and your idols may be broken and cease, 00:38:29.500 --> 00:38:31.580 and your images may be cut down, 00:38:31.580 --> 00:38:33.580 and your works may be abolished, 00:38:33.580 --> 00:38:35.740 and the slain shall fall in the midst of you, 00:38:35.740 --> 00:38:38.060 and you shall know that I am the Lord. 00:38:38.060 --> 00:38:42.339 Now, we see Jeremiah expound on some of these things, 00:38:42.339 --> 00:38:44.700 and he speaks about the iniquity and the way 00:38:44.700 --> 00:38:47.339 that Israel had moved away from worshipping God, 00:38:47.339 --> 00:38:51.580 and they were to go and get a tree and chop it down 00:38:51.580 --> 00:38:53.259 and carve it, and then they set it up 00:38:53.259 --> 00:38:55.500 and worship it as their God. 00:38:55.500 --> 00:38:58.419 And Jeremiah is kind of like, this is stupid. 00:38:59.459 --> 00:39:01.060 And yet we do the same kind of things. 00:39:01.060 --> 00:39:04.020 We make idols out of all sorts of things today. 00:39:04.060 --> 00:39:06.980 And let me just say, if God brings this judgment 00:39:06.980 --> 00:39:09.180 and did and has, and we've seen it through history, 00:39:09.180 --> 00:39:11.380 brought this judgment on his people of Israel, 00:39:11.380 --> 00:39:14.940 do not think that the Gentiles are gonna be spared. 00:39:14.940 --> 00:39:19.300 God's judgment on the Gentiles is gonna be just as severe, 00:39:19.300 --> 00:39:20.500 and that's what we read about 00:39:20.500 --> 00:39:22.880 during the tribulation time, it's coming. 00:39:24.620 --> 00:39:28.340 Yet I will leave the remnant, oh, please notice that. 00:39:28.340 --> 00:39:31.140 So many churches will read the first part of this 00:39:31.140 --> 00:39:32.700 and they'll kind of understand that Israel 00:39:32.700 --> 00:39:34.180 had been judged for their iniquity 00:39:34.180 --> 00:39:36.540 and for following idols and so on, 00:39:36.540 --> 00:39:39.379 but they miss these incredibly important verses, 00:39:39.379 --> 00:39:42.100 and they are throughout the Old Testament. 00:39:42.100 --> 00:39:44.620 Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and so on, 00:39:44.620 --> 00:39:48.259 and the minor prophets continually tell us this statement 00:39:48.259 --> 00:39:49.939 that God will leave a remnant. 00:39:49.939 --> 00:39:53.060 God will not completely destroy his people. 00:39:53.060 --> 00:39:55.500 Yet I will leave a remnant that you may have some 00:39:55.500 --> 00:39:57.700 that shall escape the sword among the nations 00:39:57.700 --> 00:40:00.740 when you shall be scattered through the countries. 00:40:00.779 --> 00:40:03.740 And they that escape of you shall remember me 00:40:03.740 --> 00:40:07.740 among the nations whether they shall be carried captives. 00:40:07.740 --> 00:40:10.700 Let me just comment, back in 1867, 00:40:11.540 --> 00:40:15.939 Jews met together, Christian Jews met together in London, 00:40:15.939 --> 00:40:20.419 and they prayed that God would restore their land. 00:40:20.419 --> 00:40:21.700 In answer to that prayer, 00:40:21.700 --> 00:40:24.259 that set a whole chain of things in motion. 00:40:24.259 --> 00:40:26.220 Within a matter of weeks, 00:40:27.220 --> 00:40:30.819 we had Charles Warren uncover the old city, 00:40:32.859 --> 00:40:36.220 and at the same time, Mark Twain had visited Jerusalem, 00:40:36.220 --> 00:40:37.939 Israel, and walked through the land, 00:40:37.939 --> 00:40:40.939 and just as Deuteronomy said, a stranger would come 00:40:40.939 --> 00:40:43.259 and would declare that this place is a barren wilderness, 00:40:43.259 --> 00:40:45.700 so that's what Mark Twain did. 00:40:45.700 --> 00:40:49.220 His words were published around the world. 00:40:49.220 --> 00:40:51.180 And very shortly afterwards, 00:40:51.180 --> 00:40:53.939 we find incredible things taking place. 00:40:54.380 --> 00:40:57.460 Israel was allowed to start buying land back 00:40:57.460 --> 00:40:59.900 from the Ottoman Turks who had the land at the time. 00:40:59.900 --> 00:41:01.420 They were in a financial crisis 00:41:01.420 --> 00:41:03.980 because of the Crimean War. 00:41:03.980 --> 00:41:05.300 And so they started selling land, 00:41:05.300 --> 00:41:07.380 and Jews started buying it up. 00:41:07.380 --> 00:41:10.860 And that led, of course, to 1948. 00:41:10.860 --> 00:41:14.740 Incredible series of events, but God says here, verse nine, 00:41:14.740 --> 00:41:17.820 and they that escape of you shall remember me 00:41:17.820 --> 00:41:20.420 among the nations whether they shall be carried captives. 00:41:20.420 --> 00:41:22.500 That's exactly what's happened. 00:41:22.500 --> 00:41:23.820 And that's not the only instance, 00:41:24.700 --> 00:41:26.380 but that's one of the most significant, prophetically. 00:41:26.380 --> 00:41:29.780 Because I am broken with their whorish heart 00:41:29.780 --> 00:41:31.020 which has departed from me, 00:41:31.020 --> 00:41:35.620 and with their eyes which go a-whoring after their idols. 00:41:35.620 --> 00:41:37.940 And they shall loathe themselves 00:41:37.940 --> 00:41:39.620 for the evils which they have committed 00:41:39.620 --> 00:41:41.660 and all their abominations. 00:41:41.660 --> 00:41:43.500 And they shall know that I am the Lord, 00:41:43.500 --> 00:41:44.820 and that I have not said in vain 00:41:44.820 --> 00:41:47.020 that I would do this evil unto them. 00:41:47.020 --> 00:41:51.580 Thus says the Lord God, smite with thine hand, 00:41:51.580 --> 00:41:52.900 stamp with thy foot, and say, 00:41:52.940 --> 00:41:56.300 alas for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel. 00:41:56.300 --> 00:41:57.780 For they shall fall by the sword, 00:41:57.780 --> 00:41:59.940 by the famine, and by the pestilence. 00:41:59.940 --> 00:42:02.540 He that is far off shall die of the pestilence, 00:42:02.540 --> 00:42:04.780 and he that is near shall fall by the sword. 00:42:04.780 --> 00:42:06.620 And he that remaineth and is besieged 00:42:06.620 --> 00:42:07.860 shall die by the famine. 00:42:07.860 --> 00:42:11.300 Thus I will accomplish my fury upon them. 00:42:11.300 --> 00:42:13.820 Then shall you know that I am the Lord. 00:42:13.820 --> 00:42:17.380 Notice that, that's the object, that's the purpose of this. 00:42:17.380 --> 00:42:20.740 That God wants to bring Israel back to him. 00:42:20.779 --> 00:42:23.580 He wants their hearts to be turned around. 00:42:23.580 --> 00:42:25.740 And unfortunately, it's taken this judgment 00:42:25.740 --> 00:42:28.020 for them to come to this place, or ultimately will. 00:42:28.020 --> 00:42:30.180 They're still not there yet as a nation. 00:42:30.180 --> 00:42:31.540 Their eyes will be opened. 00:42:31.540 --> 00:42:36.180 They will recognize that they have sinned against Yahweh, 00:42:36.180 --> 00:42:39.500 their God, but they will also recognize Yeshua 00:42:39.500 --> 00:42:40.540 as their Messiah. 00:42:41.779 --> 00:42:43.580 Then shall you know that I am the Lord. 00:42:43.580 --> 00:42:46.100 When their slain men shall be among their idols 00:42:46.100 --> 00:42:48.259 round about their altars upon every high hill 00:42:48.259 --> 00:42:49.939 and in the tops of the mountains 00:42:49.980 --> 00:42:53.260 and under every green tree and under every thick oak, 00:42:53.260 --> 00:42:55.500 the place where they did offer sweet savor 00:42:55.500 --> 00:42:56.620 to all their idols. 00:42:56.620 --> 00:42:58.860 So will I stretch out my hand upon them 00:42:58.860 --> 00:43:00.500 and make the land desolate, 00:43:00.500 --> 00:43:04.220 yea, more desolate than the wilderness toward Diblath 00:43:04.220 --> 00:43:05.540 and all their inhabitations, 00:43:05.540 --> 00:43:07.740 and they shall know that I am the Lord. 00:43:07.740 --> 00:43:10.820 God promises to make the land desolate. 00:43:10.820 --> 00:43:12.380 That's exactly what happened. 00:43:12.380 --> 00:43:15.180 That's what Mark Twain commented on in 1867 00:43:15.180 --> 00:43:16.380 as he passed through it. 00:43:16.900 --> 00:43:19.980 See, Ecclesiastes 1.9 tells us, 00:43:19.980 --> 00:43:22.740 the thing that has been is that which shall be, 00:43:22.740 --> 00:43:24.980 and that which is done is that which shall be done, 00:43:24.980 --> 00:43:27.500 and there is no new thing under the sun. 00:43:28.540 --> 00:43:29.380 Hegel put it this way. 00:43:29.380 --> 00:43:31.340 He said, if there's one thing that history teaches us 00:43:31.340 --> 00:43:33.340 is that man learns nothing from history. 00:43:36.180 --> 00:43:38.340 God has given us these examples, 00:43:38.340 --> 00:43:39.700 all the things that Israel did, 00:43:39.700 --> 00:43:40.860 the punishment he brought upon them, 00:43:40.860 --> 00:43:42.340 the judgment that brought upon them, 00:43:42.340 --> 00:43:44.940 and Israel are poised to go through 00:43:45.900 --> 00:43:51.060 a time even worse than what is being described here. 00:43:51.060 --> 00:43:54.380 Jeremiah calls it the time of Jacob's trouble. 00:43:55.620 --> 00:43:59.780 In Amos 3, verse seven, God, through Amos, says, 00:43:59.780 --> 00:44:02.340 "'Surely the Lord God will do nothing, 00:44:02.340 --> 00:44:05.580 "'but he reveals his secret unto his servants, the prophets.'" 00:44:05.580 --> 00:44:07.340 We've got a blueprint, we've got a model 00:44:07.340 --> 00:44:09.980 of the way God has brought judgment in the past, 00:44:09.980 --> 00:44:12.620 that judgment will again come on Israel 00:44:12.620 --> 00:44:14.740 because of their disobedience as a nation, 00:44:15.540 --> 00:44:16.819 because of their rejection of their God, 00:44:16.819 --> 00:44:19.419 because of their rejection of their Messiah. 00:44:19.419 --> 00:44:22.259 Ultimately, though, their eyes will be opened, 00:44:22.259 --> 00:44:23.819 and as we go on through Ezekiel, 00:44:23.819 --> 00:44:25.459 we're gonna see judgments upon 00:44:25.459 --> 00:44:27.620 the other nations around them, 00:44:27.620 --> 00:44:30.100 but ultimately it will end with hope. 00:44:30.100 --> 00:44:31.339 Let's bow our hearts. 00:44:31.339 --> 00:44:32.899 Father, we thank you for this time this morning. 00:44:32.899 --> 00:44:34.540 We thank you that we can see 00:44:34.540 --> 00:44:38.339 just how incredible and precise and accurate your word is. 00:44:38.339 --> 00:44:40.779 Father, we thank you too that we see 00:44:40.779 --> 00:44:42.660 that you are a just God. 00:44:42.660 --> 00:44:45.299 Oh Lord, you didn't want Israel to be disobedient. 00:44:45.299 --> 00:44:48.980 You didn't want to bring punishment and judgment upon them, 00:44:48.980 --> 00:44:51.700 but Lord, because of their iniquity, because of their sin, 00:44:51.700 --> 00:44:54.460 because they transgressed your holy laws, 00:44:54.460 --> 00:44:57.339 Lord, you brought that judgment as you said you would. 00:44:57.339 --> 00:44:59.220 Lord, you multiplied it by seven times 00:44:59.220 --> 00:45:01.460 because after the first period of judgment, 00:45:01.460 --> 00:45:03.819 they did not turn back, they did not repent. 00:45:04.740 --> 00:45:07.819 And Lord, we are seeing, even in our days, Lord, 00:45:07.819 --> 00:45:10.020 the fulfillment of these prophecies. 00:45:10.940 --> 00:45:12.420 Father, help us to trust your word. 00:45:13.180 --> 00:45:14.020 Help us to love your word, 00:45:14.020 --> 00:45:15.540 but also help us to pray continually 00:45:15.540 --> 00:45:16.580 for the peace of Jerusalem, 00:45:16.580 --> 00:45:18.100 to pray for your people Israel, 00:45:18.100 --> 00:45:20.860 to pray for that time when their eyes will be opened, 00:45:20.860 --> 00:45:22.740 when they will look upon the one whom they pierced 00:45:22.740 --> 00:45:23.900 and they will mourn. 00:45:23.900 --> 00:45:25.380 And Lord, as Paul says, 00:45:25.380 --> 00:45:27.260 if the casting away of Israel 00:45:27.260 --> 00:45:28.780 has been a blessing to the world, 00:45:28.780 --> 00:45:30.060 how much more their fullness, 00:45:30.060 --> 00:45:32.340 how much more when their eyes are opened, 00:45:32.340 --> 00:45:34.380 well, how much more will that be a blessing 00:45:34.380 --> 00:45:35.500 to the whole earth? 00:45:35.500 --> 00:45:38.140 So we pray for your people Israel this morning, Lord. 00:45:38.140 --> 00:45:41.420 And we pray for us that we would take heed to these warnings 00:45:41.420 --> 00:45:43.020 and that we would consider our lives, 00:45:43.020 --> 00:45:44.700 our actions, our conduct, 00:45:44.700 --> 00:45:47.780 that we wouldn't allow idols to be set up in our own lives, 00:45:47.780 --> 00:45:50.700 but that we would serve you with pure hearts. 00:45:50.700 --> 00:45:54.100 We ask these things this morning in Jesus' name, amen. 00:45:55.900 --> 00:45:57.100 Okay, may God richly bless you. 00:45:57.100 --> 00:45:58.300 Let's spend some time fellowshipping 00:45:58.300 --> 00:45:59.700 over some teas and coffees.