Sermon Ezekiel Ch 11 & 12
by Pastor Barry Forder
2025-10-26

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Okay, we are in the book of Ezekiel.
 What an incredible book this is.
 

Ezekiel was a Levite.
 He would have naturally become a priest at the age of 30 and entered into the ministry, serving in Jerusalem.
 But before that happens, he's taken captive to Babylon.
 Nebuchadnezzar had become the king, the ruler over this incredible, powerful Babylonian empire.
 And in 606 BC, Nebuchadnezzar had besieged Jerusalem and he'd taken away a number of the royal family and some of the key individuals.
 Captive Daniel, we know, was taken.
 Daniel's three friends, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael were taken.
 And then a few years later, there was another siege in 597 BC, and this time Ezekiel was taken.
 And him and his fellow Jews settled next to the Chebar River.
 We believe it was kind of a canal that was off the Euphrates.
 And it became home to them.
 They were actually well treated whilst they were there.
 And the book begins five years into Ezekiel's time in Babylon.
 Just as he would have been entering into the priesthood, God calls him into a different ministry.
 He calls him into this role of being a prophet.
 There was no way he was going to return to Jerusalem at this point.
 And God had decreed through Jeremiah that the time that Israel would spend in Babylon would be 70 years.
 And so Ezekiel is there and God now calls him to bring a message to his people.
 And we've tried to kind of lay the foundation.
 There had been roughly a 900 mile journey that Ezekiel and the other captives had to go through.
 And they thought that the prophets would have had to endure, going through pretty difficult terrain desert around the, what's known as the Fertile Crescent.
 You can see on the map, the green arrow, typically is the route they would have taken.
 We first of all see this vision that he sees.
 He records it for us and gives us this incredible picture of what seems to be a chariot.
 And on the chariot, one seated, who's clearly God.
 He goes on into the second and third chapters to describe the things that God was to ask him to do, telling him to do the commission in a sense that he's got.
 It's interesting, he's commanded to eat the scroll.
 That's a good thing for us to take on board.
 We don't just read this, we need to digest it.
 It needs to become part of us.
 And that's what Ezekiel's in a sense told to do.
 But God promises to equip him, give him everything he needs.
 And then he's taken in spirit to the camp of the captives.
 And he's looking over and seeing these things.
 And he's given various commissions, things to share with the people.
 He acts out a number of prophecies.
 First of all, he's going to build a model of a siege of Jerusalem.
 In front of everybody.
 They're walking past on the street looking at what he's doing.
 And Ezekiel, what are you up to? And he's just building this model of Jerusalem and laying a siege and a battering ram against it and so on.
 And then he's told to lay on his left side.
 A total of 430 years.
 His left side for a period of time and the right side.
 And we saw that's an incredible prophecy that deals with the future of the nation of Israel.
 It's the time that God will bring judgment upon the nation.
 And it plays right through into our days today.
 That period of time.
 That period of history.
 And seemingly what he was doing is every morning he'd be going out.
 And where the people were walking up and down, he'd be laying there on one side.
 And for the first day, it's like, oh, he's just having a break.
 And then the second day, it's like, that's a bit odd.
 And after a week, after a month, after a year of that, people are starting to think.
 What is this message that he's trying to communicate to us? And then we see these other things.
 The famine that God had decreed was going to come upon the people back in Jerusalem.
 And then the slaughter that again was prophesied.
 And then there's a kind of explanation, exposition of the signs.
 And then in chapter six, we get this kind of example of the land itself.
 As if the land is being spoken to, the mountains, the hills, the valleys, as if they were a person.
 And God speaks to them of the judgment that's coming.
 And then we saw in chapter seven, that God makes it really clear that they're not going to be able to dodge this.
 There's not going to be a way out.
 The land has been crossed and God's judgment is now coming.
 Again, there's more visions and so on that he gets.
 Chapter eight, we saw already that he looks at the idolatry taking place in the temple in Jerusalem.
 And at this point, we start to see an incredible parallel with the days in which we're living in.
 You know, so much of what was already, we've said in these first seven chapters, is analogous to the church today in this world.
 The way the church has allowed so much iniquity.
 So much compromise.
 Right across the spectrum.
 And we've seen today, or this week even, with our king, King Charles, going to the Vatican.
 What would all those saints who were martyred make of that? And then we've seen already, we showed you the pictures last week of this desecration that's taken place in Canterbury Cathedral.
 And we just said, you know, Ezekiel is told to look at the temple.
 He's kind of given his vision inside.
 He sees the writing on the things on the wall.
 The pictures they were putting there.
 The worship to Tammuz.
 This Babylonian deity and so on.
 And the way the nation just got brought up in this whole, just perverse idolatry.
 And we look at the church in this country and we go, you know what, it's the same.
 And just as God brought judgment upon Jerusalem, so God will bring judgment upon the church.
 And this is something that we've been saying for many years.
 And Peter says that the season of judgment is going to begin with the house of God.
 And we're seeing it.
 We're already seeing these things happen.
 Matthew 13 tells us that the wheat and the tares are growing together.
 The true church and those that look like the true church but are not.
 And they're going to grow together until the time of the harvest when they're going to be separated.
 And the tares are going to be separated.
 The tares are going to be gathered in bundles.
 That's what we're seeing.
 We're seeing the true church is being clearly singled out and separated.
 And not spoken very well of by the media.
 By many that want to tell us that we are, well they'll use all sorts of expressions.
 They'll talk about the way we speak and saying it's hate speech.
 Of course what they say apparently is not.
 You know we live in a world where everybody has to be tolerant.
 Unless of course it's to do with Christianity.
 And then there's no tolerance there whatsoever.
 And then in chapter 8 and 9 these visions we're seeing again.
 And then finally in chapter 10.
 Ezekiel sees coals kind of scattered over Jerusalem as if judgment is being poured out.
 Coming from the throne of God.
 God will bring judgment upon the apostate church.
 And we saw last time how the glory of God departs.
 And we'll talk a little bit more about that this morning.
 That Shekinah glory.
 We talked about a number of occasions in scripture where we see that glory departing.
 And it's always to do with sin and apostasy.
 God cannot tolerate, cannot stand sin in his presence.
 That's why the only way we can come before the throne is through the blood of Christ.
 So we're going to jump into chapter 11.
 And we're going to see now this judgment on Israel being declared.
 Just give you an introduction.
 The wicked rulers of Jerusalem are now denounced.
 But a sure promise of restoration is given.
 This is a wonderful chapter.
 We're going to look at some incredible things that are stated here.
 The men of Jerusalem thought they were favoured of God.
 By being left in the land.
 And that the exiles were cursed.
 That's interesting because the world is coming to a point.
 That's interesting because the world is coming to a point.
 Where the church, the true church will be raptured.
 Will be taken out of this world.
 And the narrative, the story is going to be that the troublemakers have been taken away.
 And that the right ones have been left.
 The good ones have been left.
 Of course it's exactly the reverse.
 Just as in this situation.
 There's all sorts of interesting things going on at the moment.
 People talking about UFOs and aliens.
 There's this thing even, I mean typical BBC.
 Of course you never trust anything they say.
 But the biased broadcasting corporation.
 But they put a thing out this week about a new planet that they've discovered.
 A new star.
 And they think that it could be the greatest chance of finding extraterrestrial life.
 There's all sorts of interesting things that are being spoken of at the moment.
 There's all sorts of talk I've heard about November being a time when we're going to have an alien invasion.
 Now of course a lot of this is conspiracy theory.
 And we don't want to get too worried about it.
 We don't need to be worried anyway.
 But you know, don't be surprised if sometime soon on the news you hear that we've discovered aliens.
 Don't be surprised at all at that.
 Because they've got to come up with an explanation as to why the church suddenly disappeared.
 There are people in positions of power that know very well what the Bible says.
 Now they don't believe it.
 But they're concerned enough about it to be putting plans in place.
 So when the church goes, there'll be all sorts of rumours spreading.
 One of them will certainly be that we've been abducted by aliens.
 Here, the men of Jerusalem.
 Again, they thought they were on the right side.
 And those that were taken were the baddies.
 It was completely the other way around.
 It was actually the exiles, the ones that God had removed, his own people that God always takes out before he brings judgment.
 It's a pattern all the way through scripture.
 We see it with Noah and the ark.
 We see it with Lot in Sodom and Gomorrah.
 So often we see God remove his people before he brings the judgment.
 

Let's look into the text.
 Verse 1 of Ezekiel 11.
 Moreover, the Spirit lifted me up.
 So straight away understand that this is a vision that he's seeing.
 He's seeing something that God is purposely showing to him.
 To be able to teach and show to the people that he's with in Babylon.
 He's in Babylon.
 But we get this.
 Moreover, the Spirit lifted me up and brought me unto the east gate of the Lord's house, which looked eastward.
 And behold, at the door of the gate five and twenty men, among whom I saw Jazaniah the son of Azur, and Pelletiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people.
 So we've got 25 individuals that he sees.
 And he singles out a couple of them.
 But these 25 are marked specifically.
 Read on.
 Then he said unto me, Son of man, these are the men that devise mischief and give wicked counsel in the city.
 Which say, it is not near.
 Let us build houses.
 This city is the cauldron and we be the flesh.
 Let me try and explain this.
 So what's happening is that we've got a small group of people that are influencing the city and ultimately the nation.
 Isn't that the way it is in the world today? We have a few people in positions of authority, positions of power.
 And they wield that power.
 And they try to make us all go along.
 And the problem is when we have media outlets like we have that are constantly spewing propaganda, everybody gets caught up in those things.
 How many people would have gone on the so-called pro-Palestinian marches if BBC had reported the truth? How much are BBC accountable? It's not just BBC.
 They're one example.
 But they have been so abhorrent in the things that they've put out.
 I mean it was exposed and we shared this some time ago, I think, that they'd actually sent an email to staff to say when they report on the war in Gaza, to make sure Israel are always blamed.
 It's an email sent to staff.
 They're supposed to be an unbiased organization.
 And the problem is because we have these individuals in the media.
 Individuals, these groups, these corporations and so on.
 It's a few individuals in control just like it was in the days of Ezekiel that are pulling the strings.
 Now everybody should be discerning enough to be able to go and search and find out the truth for themselves.
 But sadly most people don't.
 And this is what was happening.
 Notice what they say.
 They say here that this city is the cauldron and we be the flesh.
 Now you might think that implies that a cauldron is the flesh.
 You think of something where you typically put the flesh to boil it and so on.
 It's a hot place.
 It's not a good thing.
 But they were seeing it in a different way.
 The way they are using this is if to say that they were in a place of safety.
 The cauldron, if you like, was a shield around them.
 And they're saying that we're in Jerusalem.
 We're safe.
 And we're the flesh.
 We're inside the cauldron.
 So predators can't get to us.
 We're perfectly fine where we are.
 That was what they were saying.
 Interesting, isn't it? That we read in Thessalonians of the world in which we live.
 That there are coming these times.
 Paul says to the Thessalonian believers.
 But at the times and seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you.
 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.
 He's talking about the tribulation.
 For when they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape.
 You see, in Ezekiel's day, the people were saying, we're going to be fine.
 There'll be peace and safety.
 We can stay here.
 And I showed you a clip, that message we did a month or so ago, looking at what time it is.
 Of the number of times politicians and the United Nations and governments are saying peace and safety, peace and security.
 It's constantly being stated at the moment.
 That we're going to usher in a time of peace.
 And it's not just peace.
 It's security.
 And of course, scripture says that when they start saying these things, all of a sudden, destruction is going to come upon them.
 I know it's a kind of obvious statement.
 We are closer than we have ever been to these things.
 We are so close.
 Interestingly also, in 2 Peter 3, verses 3 and 4, it says, Knowing this first, that they shall come in the last days, scoffers walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? You see, what they're saying is, we don't need to worry.
 Judgment's not coming.
 Just as it was in Ezekiel's day.
 So again, the parallels between Ezekiel's time and what was going on, and the promises of the coming wrath, it's just the same as is in our day.
 And the same response is being given.
 Verse 4 goes on, Therefore prophesy against them, prophesy, O son of man.
 And the Spirit of the Lord fell upon me and said unto me, Speak thus, saith the Lord.
 Thus have you said, O house of Israel, for I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them.
 You have multiplied your slain in this city, and you have filled the streets thereof with the slain.
 Let me just pause at this point and underline, as we've said already, that God was just in bringing this judgment.
 We're not given all the sordid details, but it had become, a place of wickedness.
 People were being murdered, people were being killed.
 There was all sorts of atrocities being committed.
 And God is saying enough.
 Verse 7, Therefore thus says the Lord God, Your slain whom you have laid in the midst of it, they are the flesh, and this city is the cauldron.
 They're in a sense, they're dead, so they're now in a better place, is almost the implication here.
 But I will bring you forth out of the midst of it.
 You have feared the sword, and I will bring the sword upon you, says the Lord God.
 And I will bring you out of the midst thereof, and deliver you into the hands of strangers, and will execute judgments upon you.
 God turns their boast, as it were, around on them.
 They're saying, we're safe in the city.
 We're in this kind of cauldron, we've got this kind of wall around us, we're okay.
 And God says, no, I'm going to take you out of this.
 They're not as safe as they thought they were.
 Rather being in safety on the inside, they were going to be in peril on the outside.
 Verse 10 goes on, You shall fall by the sword, and I will judge you in the border of Israel.
 The implication here is that they're going to try and flee and escape the wrath of God, but they're not going to be able to escape.
 And you shall know that I am the Lord.
 This city shall not be your cauldron, neither shall you be the flesh in the midst of it.
 Pardon me.
 In the midst thereof.
 But I will judge you in the border of Israel.
 And you shall know that I am the Lord.
 For you have not walked in my statutes, neither executed my judgments, but have done after the manners of the heathen that are round about you.
 Now, if you know anything about the nations that surrounded Israel and the things they got up to, it's horrible.
 I mean, it's the kind of thing we don't really want to think about and dwell on, but they were wicked and perverse, pretty much like it is in the world today.
 I mean, we're hearing, aren't we, of all these gangs.
 A lot of them are the ones in the news at the moment, Pakistani men, particularly in some of the towns in northern England.
 But some of the atrocities being committed by some of the migrants that have come over.
 You know, and there are a lot of people that are feeling that it's not safe to go out any more.
 You know, I'm old enough and I'm sure some of you can remember that, you know, when I was young, I'd go out on my bike.
 I didn't have phones, it was lovely.
 It was great.
 And I'd just go out with my friends, we'd go on bike rides.
 And mum would just used to say, be home by whatever time.
 And we'd get home by that time, normally.
 And we were fine.
 I can't imagine letting my girls out now to go on bike rides.
 You know, it's a very different, scary world that we live in.
 The world is different.
 It's a different world.
 And it's changed so much, even just in the short time we've been here.
 

Again, it says here, notice verse 12, And you shall know that I am the Lord.
 Oh, sorry, let's go, just read verse 10 again, so we get the flow of this.
 If you shall fall by the sword, I will judge you in the border of Israel, and you shall know that I am the Lord.
 This city shall not be your quarter, and neither shall you be the flesh in the midst of the rod.
 But I will judge you in the border of Israel, and you shall know that I am the Lord.
 For you have not walked in my statutes, neither executed my judgments, but have done after the manners of the heathen that are round about you.
 This is why God was bringing judgment upon them.
 And it came to pass, when I prophesied that Bellatire, the son of Benaiah, died, this is one of the individuals that he mentioned at the beginning.
 Then I fell down upon my face and cried with an out-voiced and said, Oh, Lord God, will they make a full end of the remnant of Israel? Still seemingly in the vision that Ezekiel is having, he sees or foresees this individual dying.
 This is one of the 25 struck down that was responsible for the moral decline of the nation.
 But that causes Ezekiel to cry out and to say, Lord, hang on, if you're going to take away all the leadership, where are we going to be as a nation? What's going to happen? With the leaders destroyed, what's going to happen to the nation? What's going to happen to the nation? What's going to happen to the rest? Are you going to destroy everyone? Good question, Ezekiel.
 It's a great question.
 I'm so glad Ezekiel asked that question because the answer is wonderful.
 Verse 14, again, the word of the Lord came unto me saying, Son of man, thy brethren, even thy brethren, the men of thy kindred, and all the house of Israel, holy, are they unto whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, Get you far from the land.
 Unto us is this land given in possession.
 To get the answer that God's giving, he's saying, hang on, just pause and think for a second.
 Everybody has been caught up in this deception.
 The remnant that he's asking about, they're all brought into this lie.
 They all believed that they were untouchable.
 These were great days of deception.
 Again, just like the world we're living in right now.
 Therefore say, thus says the Lord God, although I have cast them far off among the heathen.
 So God is saying, look, they've all bought into this deception.
 God is going to bring the judgment on the leadership as he's already stated.
 Those that led them into this.
 But then he says, they've all been bought into this.
 So what's going to happen is they are going to be cast off amongst the heathen, scattered around the world.
 But then look at this.
 And although, I have scattered them among the countries, yet, what a wonderful word that is.
 Yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come.
 So as is prophesied in Deuteronomy 28, one of the most amazing chapters in the Bible, and many other places, Israel, we're told, will be scattered amongst the nations of this world.
 But all the while they are there in their place, where they've been scattered to, God would be their sanctuary.
 That expression, I will be to them a little sanctuary, the idea of sanctification or setting apart is implied in this.
 That they would be there because of God, they would remain set apart.
 That's exactly what's happened to the nation of Israel.
 I mean, all the other old ancient nations have all been lost in the sands of time.
 We don't bump into Hittites today or Amalekites or any of those.
 But Israel, they've survived.
 God has preserved them as an identifiable ethnic group of people to this day, despite all the attacks and persecutions.
 And God says that when they are in these places, God will be to them as a little sanctuary.
 They will be this setting apart of them.
 They won't be there.
 They will not be utterly forsaken.
 They would remain his people.
 I mean, this is exactly what Paul teaches us in Romans.
 I mean, Paul asks the question, as God's, you know, as he's speaking to the Romans, you know, has God cast away Israel whom he foreknew? What's Paul's answer? Certainly not.
 He makes the point that actually the situation currently is so that God can bring in the Gentiles.
 And then the fullness of the Gentiles are brought in.
 Well, then Israel will come back to him and they will know him as their Lord, as their Saviour.
 And they'll know Yeshua as their Messiah.
 Verse 17, Therefore say, Thus says the Lord God, I will even gather you from the people and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.
 This is just one of countless scriptures that promise a regathering of Israel.
 A regathering of Israel to their land.
 And it just blows my mind that we can have churches that preach replacement theology.
 That preach this idea that God has in some way finished with Israel.
 That he's done with them.
 I mean, the language we've seen, the tone of the judgment that was coming upon them is very clear.
 God's going to bring his wrath upon them because of their disobedience.
 Because of all the things they've done.
 Because they've allowed so much of the world around them to influence them and to affect the way they live their lives.
 And they were indulged in idolatry and all these pagan practices and so on.
 So God says, you will be judged.
 But God makes it really clear that God will not make a full end of Israel.
 But they will be scattered around the world.
 And for those that would try and say, oh yes, but this regathering was when they came back from Babylon.
 But Babylon's just one land.
 And this speaks to them being scattered around the world.
 And this is referring to them being gathered back from those countries where they've been scattered.
 God's hand has been on Israel the whole time.
 It clearly says that he will watch over them the entire time.
 And they will not be allowed to be absorbed into the nations.
 They will remain separate, sanctified, separated.
 Ezekiel's going to make more of that in the chapter to come.
 But we're living in the very days of this literal fulfilment.
 Because we've seen since 1948 Israel come back into their land.
 And because of the events of the last two years, more and more Jews now are returning to the land.
 I mean, this is a prophecy that's given in around about 600 B.C.
 If you take five years or so.
 God spoke through Ezekiel and these things have been recorded.
 And yet we are living now seeing the fulfilment of these things.
 Verse 18 goes on.
 And they shall come thither, and they shall take away.
 He's speaking of this time of repentance that's going to come.
 They're going to take away the detestable things thereof and all the abominations thereof from thence.
 And notice this.
 This is a wonderful thing.
 And I will give them one heart.
 We would use the expression kind of single-minded.
 They will be focused upon God.
 And I will put a new spirit within you.
 And will take the stony heart out of their flesh.
 And I will give them a heart of flesh.
 That they may walk in my statues and keep my ordinances and do them.
 They shall be my people and I will be their God.
 You should recognize that because that's what we read at the end of the book of Revelation.
 That's always been God's plan.
 It's what God started in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve.
 They walked with God in the call of the day.
 But that walk with God was broken on account of sin.
 Ultimately, God will have his people, both the Jews and Gentiles, all brought together in one in Christ.
 And he will be our God and we will be his people.
 And God makes his declaration to the nation of Israel here.
 That there's a time coming.
 That there will be this repentance.
 God's going to take out that stony heart and give them a new heart.
 We may use the expression legitimately, born again.
 Born again is not a New Testament idea.
 When Jesus spoke to Nicodemus, he was speaking about something that Nicodemus should have understood from these verses in Ezekiel.
 That God was talking about bringing life again to that which was dead.
 And that's what God's talking about.
 Removing that stony heart.
 Giving them a heart of flesh.
 Putting a new spirit within them.
 I mean, that's being born again, is it not? That's exactly what happens.
 When we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, we have a new spirit.
 Our heart is changed.
 Again, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my ordinances and do them.
 And they shall be my people and I will be their God.
 Now, Ezekiel is going on later.
 And when we get further down, we'll get to that.
 Further down the journey in Ezekiel.
 And we'll see that God will give us some of the details of how it's going to happen.
 But for now, this is a clear declaration that it will happen.
 Verse 21.
 But as for them whose heart walks after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, I will recompense their way upon their own heads, says the Lord God.
 And all in these verses, we see God's mercy, his grace, but also his judgment and justice.
 They're unmistakable.
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 And then verse 22.
 Then did the cherubim lift up their wings and the wheels beside them.
 And the glory of the God of Israel was over them above.
 And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city and stood upon the mountain, which is on the east side of the city.
 Let me just read this to you.
 This vision is no mean proof of the long suffering of God.
 I mean, this is a great example of the long suffering of God, is what it's saying.
 He did not abandon this people all at once.
 He departed little by little.
 First, he left the temple.
 We talked about that last week.
 Secondly, he stopped at the gate of the city.
 Thirdly, he departed entirely from the city and went to the Mount of Olives.
 That's what we've just seen described, which lay on the east side of the city.
 Having tarried there for some time to see it, they
 would repent and turn to him.
 God was giving them an opportunity to turn back.
 And then fourthly, he departed to heaven.
 That's for the Bible.
 That's from Adam Clark's commentary.
 Albert Barnes says this.
 The rabbis commenting on this passage said the Shekinah retired to this mountain, that's the Mount of Olives, and there for three years, this was what was passed down, this was what was believed, for three years he called in vain to the people with human voice that they should repent, human voice being Ezekiel, Jeremiah and so on.
 On that mountain Christ stood when he wept over the fair city.
 It's the same place that Jesus stood on the Mount of Olives, before he came down into Jerusalem, what we refer to as Palm Sunday.
 Again, wanting to see the nation repent, Jesus wept over Jerusalem.
 And again, soon to be utterly destroyed, Jesus knew what was coming in AD 70 with the Romans.
 And from that mountain he ascended amid loud hosannas to enter - sorry, he descended - amid loud hosannas to enter the city and temple as a judge.
 

We pick up verse 24.
 Afterwards the Spirit took me up and brought me in the vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea.
 Okay, so now he's back to Babylon in the vision.
 To them of the captivity, so the vision that I had seen went up from me.
 And then this is the commission, all that we've just read.
 He says, then I spoke unto them of the captivity all the things that the Lord had showed me.
 So all that we've just seen was a vision that he'd got and now he gets back home as it were, and now he goes back home.
 And now he goes out and he tells everybody what he'd just seen.
 All right, so quick summary of the chapters 4 to 11.
 Ezekiel's task had been to show the necessity of Jerusalem's judgment because of her disobedience.
 He demonstrated the fact of the siege through these series of signs that he's acted out and then explained the reason for the siege through two messages and the extended vision.
 The next section that we're going to move into, the people were still not ready to accept the fact of Jerusalem's fall.
 They were still not ready to accept the fact of Jerusalem's fall.
 Therefore, Ezekiel gave a new series of signs and messages.
 Any optimism will be futile.
 Jerusalem's fate had been sealed.
 God had declared it.
 It was going to happen.
 And these messages were in the interval between the second, that's the siege when Ezekiel was taken away, and the final siege in 587 BC.
 Let's just see if we can run through chapter 12.
 He gives two symbolic representations of flight from the besieged city.
 He expostulates with the false prophets.
 He pictures Israel as a useless fire.
 These are in the coming chapters.
 We won't get through all of this now.
 And then allegorically recalls Israel's long history of unfaithfulness to her bridegroom in chapter 16.
 This is kind of where we're going.
 Chapter 17, it returns to the metaphor of the vine to emphasize Zedekiah.
 He was the final king.
 We'll talk about him in a moment, his disloyalty.
 And he answers objections in chapter 18 to the divine punishment by analysis of the divine punishment.
 He answers objections in chapter 18 to the divine punishment by analysis of individual responsibility.
 Chapter 19, he bursts forth into a dirge over the princes of Judah and over Judah itself.
 So let's jump into chapter 12.
 We'll just say some of the things that are coming in this next section.
 The word of the Lord also came unto me saying, and again five times in this chapter we're going to see the word of the Lord.
 This isn't his opinion.
 This wasn't something he was trying to get off his chest.
 This is the word that God was giving him to speak.
 
He's introducing 10 signs.
 We have that expression as well.
 The sermons, the Proverbs from chapter 12 through 19.
 Again, this is God speaking to the people.
 Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see and see not.
 They have ears to hear and hear not, for they are a rebellious house.
 See, God continues to warn of their closed eyes and ears.
 It's interesting that we live in a time that's very similar to this.
 It's interesting that we live in a time that's very similar to this.
 The result of perversity, not incapacity.
 They are wilfully blind and deaf.
 They've allowed other things to steal their hearts and their minds.
 They don't want to see the things of God, just like the world today.
 Once the Pharisees accused Jesus of working his miracles by the power of Satan, if you remember, and he began withholding his message from them from that point at the end of Matthew chapter 12.
 And that led to the seven kingdom parables in Matthew 13.
 And the disciples asked him, why are you speaking in parables? And he quotes this passage from Ezekiel.
 Because they don't want to hear, they don't want to see.
 So Jesus started to speak to the disciples in parables, things that only they would understand.
 And even then Jesus had to explain it to them.
 And it's the same cry that Jesus gives to the church in Revelation 2 and 3.
 Those who have ears to hear.
 So these cries should echo for us as well, because we're told not to listen, because we're told not to be haughty.
 Don't look at Israel and think, wow, how could they make it so bad? How could they get it so wrong? Because the church are also tarred with that same brush, if you may put it that way.
 Verse 3, Therefore thou son of man, prepare the stuff for removing, and remove by day in their sight, and thou shalt remove from thy place to another place in their sight.
 It may be they will consider, though they be a rebellious house.
 So what he's being asked to do now, here is basically, it's a relocation.
 It's not just, you know, pack all your stuff up, get ready to move.
 Some of you have moved houses.
 You know exactly what it's like.
 Then shall thou bring forth thy stuff by day in their sight, the stuff removing, and thou shalt go forth, and even in their sight as they that go forth into captivity.
 All right, they all know this.
 They've all seen this, because they've just recently been relocated from Israel to Babylon.
 And so now they're going to go, Ezekiel, what are you doing? Pack your stuff up.
 It's an object lesson to teach them what God is going to do, as you'll see.
 Again, this is to give a double emphasis.
 Ezekiel started moving in the morning, and then in the evening, still doing the same, still kind of finishing off his job.
 And maybe, I don't know this, and there's no commentator that said it specifically, but maybe at the times of the daily sacrifices, those times those things would have been happening in Jerusalem, just to emphasize the point.
 It was symbolic.
 It was to indicate that they were going to be fleeing the city, those in Jerusalem, to try and avoid capture.
 He was trying to separate them from their complacency, if you like.
 So this message isn't just for those in Babylon.
 This is for those back home as it were in Jerusalem.
 They knew their city was under vassal rule.
 That's the rule of the foreign power.
 The Babylonians were ruling over them, Nebuchadnezzar.
 But they had the attitude it was just temporary.
 Things were going to get better.
 And they weren't listening to the prophets, either Jeremiah before or Ezekiel now.
 And then Ezekiel is told this, Dig thou through the wall in their sight, and carry out thereby.
 I mean this is quite dramatic.
 Rather than just going through a gate or whatever, he's literally digging through a wall.
 And they're in their sight, they're seeing this.
 Because in their sight thou shalt bear it upon thy shoulders, and carry it forth in twilight.
 Thou shalt cover thy face, that thou shalt see not the ground.
 For I have set thee for a sign unto the house of Israel.
 So Ezekiel was to pretend as if he's been taken captive.
 To dig through the wall, carrying out his belongings on his shoulder.
 And I did so as I was commanded.
 I brought forth my stuff by day, I stuffed for captivity, and in the evening I dig through the wall with my hand, and I brought it forth in the twilight, and I bear it upon my shoulder in their sight.
 And in the morning came the word of the Lord unto me, saying, Son of man, hast not the house of Israel, the rebellious house, said unto thee, What doest thou? I'm sure there were many people saying, Ezekiel, what are you doing? Why, if you want to go, just use the door.
 No, this was an object lesson.
 He was making a point to them.
 Clearly they were interested in what he was saying.
 And once he had their attention, he could deliver the message, which is the whole point of this.
 So God says to Ezekiel, Say thou unto them, Thus says the Lord God.
 This burden concerns the prince in Jerusalem and all the house of Israel that are among them.
 There's going to be a play on words here.
 It implies that the biggest burden here is for the biggest ruler, the prince in Jerusalem that he's making reference to, which we know as Zedekiah.
 Interestingly, Ezekiel doesn't ever refer to Zedekiah as king.
 He doesn't give him that honour.
 Because he was king in that legal sense, but he was actually sitting there, he was under the authority of Babylon.
 
If you look at the final chapter, you'll see that it's a little bit different.
 If you look at the final kings of Judah, we've talked about this before, we have Josiah, he was a good king.
 He dies in this strange battle against Pharaonecho, some really interesting reasons to why that all seems to have taken place.
 Then on the way back from Carshamesh, Pharaonecho comes back down via Jerusalem and takes Jehoaz, his son, into captivity into Egypt.
 And so then he places Jehoiakim on the throne, who reigns for 11 years.
 And then when he dies, his son Jehoiachin, sits on the throne, but then Nebuchadnezzar takes him to Babylon and appoints Zedekiah, the other son of Josiah.
 And then he reigns for 11 years until the final siege in 587.
 So he is king of Jerusalem, but he's a king under the power and authority of Babylon.
 I just put this here because I had these slides from a previous session that I'd done many years ago.
 But it's just interesting to look at the chronology.
 We know that the first siege was 606.
 There's lots of dates that corroborate that historically.
 Nebuchadnezzar is made king.
 This was the first king of Jerusalem.
 The year that his father dies.
 And so this would be the first year of his reign, the way that the Babylonian kings were reigned.
 This was the Ascension year, and that was then the first legal year of his reign.
 And then we go through, we've got all the dates.
 Interestingly, there's so many scriptures that you can look at through Kings, through Chronicles, and everything ties together.
 Trying to get all these details to map perfectly would be really difficult, unless of course it's true.
 We're told that Jehoiachin was 25 years old when he began to reign.
 He reigned 11 years in Jerusalem.
 And we've got all the dates.
 They're all there.
 It was the third year, we're told, that was the first siege.
 And so that takes us to that point there.
 Then Zedekiah was 21 years old when he began to reign.
 He reigned 11 years in Jerusalem.
 So that's Zedekiah's first year.
 That's when he comes to the throne.
 And then we go through the reign up until the final siege.
 And then we're told in Jeremiah 52, Now in the fifth month, the tenth day of the month, which was the 19th year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came Nebuchadnezzar.
 And then the captain of the guard, which served the king of Babylon, entered Jerusalem and burned the house of the Lord and the king's house and all the houses of Jerusalem.
 So again, that's the final siege.
 And again, it's the 19th year.
 So you just look at this, you overlay that over top.
 So right from the first year, everything just ties together.
 There's so many details, complex details that are given to us in Chronicles.
 If you've ever read through Chronicles, you probably get a bit tied down with some of those details and those numbers.
 But they're there to prove the Bible is 100% accurate.
 We can rely on it.
 We can trust it.
 There's all been the slides that go up online.
 So if you want to see that again, it'll be there.
 So Judah's last king, this period of time from 597 to 587.
 He's the youngest son of Josiah, as we saw.
 The brother of Jehoiada, as we mentioned a moment ago.
 Ten years old when his father died, 21 when he became the king.
 Originally, his name was Mathaniah, but Nebuchadnezzar changes his name to Zedekiah.
 And he deposed Zedekiah.
 He's now Zechariah's nephew, Jehoiachin.
 And it proves that Nebuchadnezzar treated him well, as a good king.
 It says, allowing him to choose a new name.
 And the name, although it may seem as if it's a glorifying God, the name in Hebrew means righteousness of Yahweh.
 The suggestion is actually it was more to do with his allegiance that he sworn to Nebuchadnezzar.
 Had Zedekiah kept this oath of fealty, the treaty, this agreement, that he made with his father, that he made with the king of Babylon, with Nebuchadnezzar, he would have probably been safe, though dependent upon him.
 But he was weak.
 He listened to those around him that were giving him bad advice.
 He ends up rebelling, and on account of that, judgment comes.
 Nebuchadnezzar comes, the final siege, and so on.
 Let's pick up verse 11.
 Say, I am your sign, as I have done, so it shall be done unto them.
 They shall remove and go into captivity.
Ezekiel,in what he does is the presence of the exiles.
 He's expressing that which before long will come to pass in Jerusalem.
 This is all playing out.
 So he's trying to show them what is going to happen in Jerusalem.
 And the Prince that is among them.
 Notice that Prince that is again referenced the Zedekiah, doesn't call him king, and gives him that honour.
 That is among them shall bear upon His shoulder in the twilight.
 Again, just get the picture.

Ezekiel has just done this little act of going
 out, breaking through the wall digging through the wall escaping and he's now saying that's what's gonna happen to the king.
 Okay - again he's gonna bear upon his shoulder in the Twilight just as it was when Ezekiel had gone through the wall shall go forth and they shall dig through the wall to carry out thereby and shall cover his face that he shall not see the ground with his eyes again implying he's gonna disguise himself doesn't want to be seen doesn't recall maybe a sign of mourning he's gonna have covering over his head and he's gonna make this exit from the city and Jeremiah 39 again is a passage that speaks about this.
As because man goes forth out of the city by night verse 13 my net also will I spread upon him and he shall be taken in my sweat snare I will bring him to Babylon to the land of the Chaldeans yet shall he not see it though he shall die there.
 this is a verse that has caused some confusion because we're told as he was saying that he's not going to see Babylon you're not going to see Babylon you're not going to see Babylon you're not going to see Babylon and then he's saying but he's gonna die there so what does that mean is that a contradiction well Josephus the historian you probably heard the name Josephus he relates that Ezekiel sent this prophecy to Jerusalem and that Zedekiah believing Ezekiel's words were a contradiction to what Jeremiah had already spoken chose to ignore both all right Jeremiah had said you're gonna be taken to Babylon.

 Ezekiel says you're not gonna see Babylon and so this becomes a bit of a conundrum and a problem to the point that Zedekiah says well I can't trust any of you so he hardens himself from rebellion just as Pharaoh and many others have done in Scripture this is reaching from Jeremiah quickly Jeremiah 32 verse 4 and Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans but shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon and shall speak with him mouth to mouth and his eyes shall behold his eyes.

So he's gonna look into the eyes of the king of Babylon and he shall lead Zedekiah to Babylon
 There you have a clear statement

and there shall he be until I visit him, says The Lord

He's going to be taken to Babylon.
 I'll read to you what Josephus says in his commentary, the Antiquities of the Jews.
 Bear with me.
 Just follow this.
 This is what he says.
 Now Zedekiah was 21 years old when he took the government and had the same mother with his brother Jehoiachin.
 But he was a despiser of justice and of his duty, for truly those of the same age with him were wicked about him, and the whole multitude did what unjust and insolent things they pleased.
 I'm painting the picture we've already seen.
 

Such as they expected.
 Now, as to Zedekiah himself, while he heard the prophet speak, he believed him and agreed to everything as true and supposed it was for his vantage.
 But then, so when Jeremiah typically would go and speak to Zedekiah, he'd agree with him.
 But as soon as Jeremiah was out of his presence, then his friends perverted him and dissuaded him from what the prophet advised and obliged him to do what they pleased.
 Ezekiel also foretold in Babylon what calamities were coming upon the people.
 Which when he heard, he sent accounts of them unto Jerusalem.
 But Zedekiah did not believe their prophecies for the reason following.
 It happened that the two prophets agreed with one another in what they said, as in all other things, that the city should be taken and Zedekiah himself should be taken captive.
 But Ezekiel disagreed with him.
 This is with Jeremiah he's saying.
 And said that Zedekiah should not see Babylon while Jeremiah said to him that the king of Babylon should carry him away thither in bonds.
 So Josephus is highlighting this apparent contradiction.
 And because they did not both say the same thing as to the circumstance, he disbelieved what they both appeared to agree in and condemned them as not speaking truth therein.
 Although all the things foretold him did come to pass according to their prophecies, as we shall show upon a fitter opportunity.
 Now the city was taken on the ninth day of the fourth month in the eleventh year of the reign of Zedekiah.
 This is the final siege of Jerusalem he's talking about.
 And they were indeed, only generals of the king of Babylon to whom Nebuchadnezzar committed the care of the siege, for he abode himself in the city of Reba.
 If you remember that other brief quote we put up a moment ago, it was the generals of Nebuchadnezzar that came and did the final siege.
 Nebuchadnezzar didn't bother coming himself.
 The names of these generals who ravaged and subdued Jerusalem, if any desire to know them, are those.
 You can read them in your own time.
 And when the city was taken about midnight and the enemies generals were entered into the temple and when Ezekiel was sensible of it, he was willing to take the city, he was willing to take the city, he was willing to take the city, he was willing to take the city, he was aware of it, he took his wives and his children, his captains and friends with him and fled out of the city through the fortified ditch.
 He broke through the wall just as Ezekiel had acted out and through the desert.
 And when certain of the deserters had informed the Babylonians of this, at break of day they made haste to pursue after Zedekiah.
 He's got out of the city, he's escaping, and overtook him not far from Jericho and encompassed about him.
 But for those friends and captains of Zedekiah who had fled out of the city with him, when they saw their enemies near them, they left him and dispersed themselves.
 Great friends they were.
 Some went one way and some another and everyone resolved to save himself.
 So the enemy took Zedekiah alive.
 And when he was deserted by all but a few with his children and his wives and brought him to the king.
 So they're now bringing to Nebuchadnezzar.

 And when he was come, Nebuchadnezzar began to call him a wicked wretch and covenant breaker and one that had forgotten his former words when he promised to keep the country for him.
 So Nebuchadnezzar had set Zedekiah up as king and said, you rule over Jerusalem for me and you'll be okay.


 Of course, Zedekiah didn't.

 He rebels against Nebuchadnezzar and said, Nebuchadnezzar, quite rightly so, is angry with him.

 And they capture him.
 And now he is, as we've already seen, seeing him eye to eye, looking into his eyes.
 He also reproached him for his ingratitude that when he had received the kingdom from him, who had taken it from Jehoiachin and given it to him, he had made use of the power he gave him against him that gave it.
 In other words, he turned against Nebuchadnezzar.
 But, said he, God is great.
 This is Nebuchadnezzar, apparently according to Josephus.
 God is great, who hateth that conduct of thine and has brought thee under us.
 One incredible thing that a Gentile king, if this record of Josephus is right, is actually speaking words in righteousness, in a sense, saying, that God is good, but Zedekiah, who was supposed to be God's servant, is bad.
 And when he had used these words to Zedekiah, he commanded his sons and his friends to be slain, while Zedekiah and the rest of the captains looked on.
 So they literally kill all his sons and those who were with him before his eyes.
 And then look at this.
 After which he put out the eyes of Zedekiah.
 And bound him and carried him to Babylon.
 

And these things happened to him, as Jeremiah and Ezekiel had foretold to him, that he should be caught and brought before the king of Babylon.
 This was not in Babylon.
 And should speak to him face to face.
 And should see his eyes with his own eyes.
 And thus far did Jeremiah prophesy.
 But he also was made blind.
 And brought to Babylon.


 but did not see it according to the prediction of Ezekiel you see they were both right Ezekiel says you're not going to see Babylon Jeremiah says you're going to Babylon they were both right he did go to Babylon but he didn't see it because he had his eyes removed the terrible siege soon followed so that mothers boiled and ate the flesh of their own infants and the visage of their nobles was blacker than coal their skin 

clave to their bones and became withered on the night there the fourth month in the middle of July after a year and a half siege in the tenth month of the ninth year to the fourth month of the eleventh year of Zedekiah.

 about midnight a breach was made in the wall so the Babylonian princes took their seats and stayed in the middle gates up between the upper and lower city Zedekiah fled in the opposite direction again escaping through the wall and through the ???? Valley again just getting out of the city and this is where he's captured as we've already said.

 right okay
 Chuck Missler made the comment says “on deeper search apparent discrepancies in scripture proved to be hidden harmonies”.
 okay so we have what is apparently a contradiction what Zedekiah himself has thought to be a contradiction when you actually delve into scripture you find it's not a contradiction at all it just shows that God says what he means and means what he says God is literal in scripture the prophecies that we find are to be taken seriously we're told in Psalm 138 verse 2 that God places his word even above his name!
 when Daniel read Jeremiah who spoke of the 70 years of captivity Daniel took it literally didn't believe it to be allegorical or figurative or anything else every time Jesus quoted from the Old Testament he applied it literally every time you see the Word of God applied by another servant of God in scripture you see that the word of God is literally applied by another servant of God in scripture every time you see the word of God applied by another servant of God in scripture you see that the word of God is literally applied by another servant of God in scripture you always find that it's taken literally

 we are to believe the things in the Word of God and if you don't if you try allegorize you come up with some other explanation you're the one that is going to be humbled when you stumble across what is hidden in Scripture there are so many wonderful things in Scripture that may on the surface seem like a contradiction as you dig into it you find there's a wonderful truth there just as it is in this case I won't read through all of these this is just from 2nd Kings 2's

 all the way through the Bible that's what this is all about I won't read through all of these this is just from 2nd Kings 2's all the way through the Bible that's what this is all about

 you'll be in the slides if you want to read this is the account that we given in the book of 2nd Kings which basically takes us through exactly the same thing that we just talked about there Zedekiah was a deceptive wicked individual broke his treaty with Nebuchadnezzar and Nebuchadnezzar this pagan king is clearly more honourable than the man on Israel's throne Zedekiah for breaking his oath of allegiance was blinded and died in captivity in Babylon.

 we just go on to the end of the chapter:
 and I was scattered toward every wind all that are about him to help him and I was scattered toward every wind all that are about him to help him we just saw that we saw Josephus make reference to that and all his bands again that's the idea all his bands is referred to the number of men not that many of them but they were easily counted and they flee and I would draw out the sword after them and they should know that I am the Lord when I shall scatter them among the nations and disperse them in the countries but I will I will leave a few men of them from the sword from the famine from the pestilence and they that they may declare all their abominations among the 

heathen whether they come and they shall know that I am The Lord.
So The Lord has allowed some of them to survive
so that they would tell of what had happened
so God’s name would be glorified
that on account of Israel’s disobedience these things were taking place.
Verse 17: Moreover the word of The Lord came unto me saying “Son of man, ??? bread and drink thy ??? with trembling and with carefullness

like a pantomime is going to be played out here in a sense, a kind of symbolism

 And the emphasis was on the scarcity of food previously.
 There was a famine, but now what is facing them is so great that actually the lack of food is the least of their problems.
 And say unto the people of the land, Thus says the Lord God of the inhabitants of Jerusalem and of the land of Israel, They shall eat their bread with carefulness and drink their water with astonishment, that her land may be desolate from all that is therein, because of the violence of all them that dwell therein.
 Again, Ezekiel's pantomime is acting out.
 It was intended to frighten them and to warn them.
 We've got two lands, two peoples really being played out here.
 We've got the people of the land that were now in Babylon.
 So that's the Jews in the land of Chaldea.
 And they were looking at those back in Jerusalem thinking that they were blessed.
 They were fortunate.
 And there were the people in Jerusalem who looked at those in Babylon as if they were the ones accursed, as we said at the beginning.
 Actually, it was completely the other way around.
 Verse 20, And the cities that are inhabited shall be laid waste, and the land shall be desolate.
 And you shall know that I am the Lord.
 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, what is that proverb that you have in the land of Israel, saying, The days are prolonged and every vision fails? This is a little bit like we have today, where they're saying, Why should I believe the Bible? There's all these prophecies, but they don't come true, do they? This was kind of the kind of idea they were saying.
 Unbelieving will scoff at prophecy repeatedly.
 Again, let me just read this to you.
 It says, This is from Chuck Missler.
 He said, What Chuck Missler used to say often was, we're so used to things carrying on as they always do.
 You know, we expect tomorrow to be the same as today, next week to be the same as, last week.
 We're not used to sudden changes.
 Things like the Twin Towers, for example, 9-11, they are a big shock because we're not used to those kind of things.
 But just as the Lord was saying to Ezekiel, get ready, we need to be ready of all the things that are coming upon us as well.
 Tell them, therefore, thus says the Lord God, I will make this proverb to cease, and they shall no more use it as a proverb in Israel, but shall say unto them, The days are at hand and the effects of every vision.
 In other words, things are going to happen.
 And we need to be aware that we are living in the days of the fulfilment of so many prophecies.
 For there shall no more be any vision, nor flattering division within the house of Israel, or vain vision rather.
 Israel's time is up is basically what is being said here.
 Chapter 13 will take that further.
 For I am the Lord, I will speak, and the word that I shall speak shall come to pass.
 It shall be no more prolonged.
 For in your days a rebellious house, I will say the word and will perform it, says the Lord God.
 Again, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, behold, they of the house of Israel say, the vision that he sees is for many days to come.
 Many days to come.
 And he prophesies the times of the far off.

 Again, just as we are seeing people look at the Bible.
 They don't believe it's going to happen.
 They don't expect these things to happen.
 It is interesting even after all the kind of excitement in a sense about the possibility, the rapture on the Feast of Trumpets, the number of Christians and comments I saw, people saying, “See! See!”.
 What do you mean see? One of my favourite comments was from Brian.
 And Brian made a comment something about - to the effect of -” I feel closer to the Lord now”, I'm not sure than ever, but than for a long time.
 <<<It was actually “than a month ago”>>>.

 Because we are focusing on heaven.
 We're getting excited about heaven.
 Don't start getting into the mindset that the people in Jerusalem were where they think, oh, it's a long way away.
 We should be expecting these things because of all the things we see going on around us.
 The whole idea of imminency.
 Contemporary parallel indeed.
 

In other words, this now is going to happen.
 Again, false prophets have been contradicting God's true messages in both Jerusalem and Babylon.
 And their optimistic predictions would soon cease as God brings his word to pass.
 Many scriptures speak about the imminence and again, we read this scripture from Peter earlier.
 People will scoff.
 But there's a warning to us.
 They were scoffing at prophecy.
 Different ways to deny truth.
 One is to say that God didn't say it.
 We see that.
 Another is to claim that it's not what God meant.
 People trying to spiritualize it.
 The liberal interpretation.
 
One thing that's not obvious at first is the link between prophecy and creation.
 God has and will, intervene in man's history.
 We see that in what we've just looked at this morning.
 They didn't expect it, but God did it.
 The world is not expected for God to intervene, but God is already doing things and we will see even more in the days to come.
 Man's history didn't just come about as a random events of the cosmos.
 God engineered and did everything.
 A man's future is not going to be random.
 God will bring all things to pass in our day just as he did in Ezekiel.
 Let's bow our hearts.
 Father God, we just thank you for this journey.
 Lord, to be able to look at the things Ezekiel was commissioned to tell the people of his own nation.
 To warn them of the judgment that was coming upon them.
 To warn them, to give them the opportunity to turn and to repent, to seek you.
 Knowing, Lord, that there was hope for those that would be righteous.
 Lord, you promised not only protection for those who are in need, for those that were taken to Babylon, but ultimately you bring them back to their land in the fullness of time.
 Lord, help us not to be caught up with the lies that say that you are not working, you are not moving, you're not acting.
 Lord, any moment now we will see you step onto this world scene in working ways that have been prophesied for millennia.
 And we will see, Lord, nations in turmoil.
 But Lord, we know that we have a great hope.
 We have.
 Lord, the blessed hope of the church.
 Lord, may we live in these days with our eyes fixed on Jesus.
 We ask these things in his name.
 Amen.
 
Okay, sorry for the longer one this morning.
 May God richly bless you as we go and fellowship over some teas and coffees.
 
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Sermon Ezekiel Chapters 11 & 12 
by Pastor Barry Forder 
2025-10-26 

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Okay, we are in the book of Ezekiel. 

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What an incredible book this is. 

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Ezekiel was a Levite. 

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He would have naturally become a priest at the age of 30 

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and entered into the ministry, serving in Jerusalem. 

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But before that happens, he's taken captive to Babylon. 

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Nebuchadnezzar had become the king, the ruler over this incredible, powerful Babylonian empire. 

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And in 606 BC, Nebuchadnezzar had besieged Jerusalem 

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and he'd taken away a number of the royal family and some of the key individuals. 

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Captive Daniel, we know, was taken. 

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Daniel's three friends, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael were taken. 

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And then a few years later, 

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there was another siege in 597 BC, and this time Ezekiel was taken. 

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And him and his fellow Jews settled next to the Chebar River. 

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We believe it was kind of a canal that was off the Euphrates. 

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And it became home to them. 

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They were actually well treated whilst they were there. 

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And the book begins five years into Ezekiel's time in Babylon. 

00:01:20.180 --> 00:01:22.520 
Just as he would have been entering into the priesthood, 

00:01:23.160 --> 00:01:26.620 
God calls him into a different ministry. 

00:01:27.140 --> 00:01:29.940 
He calls him into this role of being a prophet. 

00:01:30.840 --> 00:01:34.360 
There was no way he was going to return to Jerusalem at this point. 

00:01:34.800 --> 00:01:39.900 
And God had decreed through Jeremiah that the time that Israel would spend in Babylon would be 70 years. 

00:01:40.700 --> 00:01:45.880 
And so Ezekiel is there and God now calls him to bring a message to his people. 

00:01:47.300 --> 00:01:50.020 
And we've tried to kind of lay the foundation. 

00:01:50.580 --> 00:01:53.060 
There had been roughly a 900 mile journey 

00:01:53.060 --> 00:01:57.120 
that Ezekiel and the other captives had to go through. 

00:01:57.140 --> 00:02:19.040 
And they thought that the 

00:02:19.040 --> 00:02:23.760 
prophets would have had to endure, going through pretty difficult terrain desert around the, 

00:02:23.760 --> 00:02:25.240 
what's known as the Fertile Crescent. 

00:02:25.240 --> 00:02:26.840 
You can see on the map, the green arrow, typically is the route they would have taken. 

00:02:26.840 --> 00:02:30.500 
We first of all see this vision that he sees. 

00:02:30.580 --> 00:02:35.340 
He records it for us and gives us this incredible picture of what seems to be a chariot. 

00:02:35.840 --> 00:02:40.040 
And on the chariot, one seated, who's clearly God. 

00:02:41.820 --> 00:02:48.980 
He goes on into the second and third chapters to describe the things that God was to ask him to do, 

00:02:48.980 --> 00:02:51.140 
telling him to do the commission in a sense that he's got. 

00:02:52.380 --> 00:02:55.080 
It's interesting, he's commanded to eat the scroll. 

00:02:55.080 --> 00:02:58.260 
That's a good thing for us to take on board. 

00:02:58.620 --> 00:03:01.320 
We don't just read this, we need to digest it. 

00:03:01.620 --> 00:03:03.180 
It needs to become part of us. 

00:03:03.660 --> 00:03:05.740 
And that's what Ezekiel's in a sense told to do. 

00:03:06.320 --> 00:03:08.660 
But God promises to equip him, give him everything he needs. 

00:03:09.100 --> 00:03:12.260 
And then he's taken in spirit to the camp of the captives. 

00:03:12.340 --> 00:03:14.180 
And he's looking over and seeing these things. 

00:03:14.180 --> 00:03:18.140 
And he's given various commissions, things to share with the people. 

00:03:18.820 --> 00:03:20.620 
He acts out a number of prophecies. 

00:03:21.360 --> 00:03:24.420 
First of all, he's going to build a model of a siege of Jerusalem. 

00:03:24.420 --> 00:03:25.420 
In front of everybody. 

00:03:25.420 --> 00:03:27.420 
They're walking past on the street looking at what he's doing. 

00:03:27.420 --> 00:03:29.420 
And Ezekiel, what are you up to? 

00:03:29.420 --> 00:03:34.420 
And he's just building this model of Jerusalem and laying a siege and a battering ram against it and so on. 

00:03:34.420 --> 00:03:37.420 
And then he's told to lay on his left side. 

00:03:37.420 --> 00:03:40.420 
A total of 430 years. 

00:03:40.420 --> 00:03:42.420 
His left side for a period of time and the right side. 

00:03:42.420 --> 00:03:48.420 
And we saw that's an incredible prophecy that deals with the future of the nation of Israel. 

00:03:48.420 --> 00:03:50.420 
It's the time that God will bring judgment upon the nation. 

00:03:50.420 --> 00:03:53.420 
And it plays right through into our days today. 

00:03:53.420 --> 00:03:54.420 
That period of time. 

00:03:54.420 --> 00:03:55.420 
That period of history. 

00:03:55.420 --> 00:03:58.420 
And seemingly what he was doing is every morning he'd be going out. 

00:03:58.420 --> 00:04:02.420 
And where the people were walking up and down, he'd be laying there on one side. 

00:04:02.420 --> 00:04:05.420 
And for the first day, it's like, oh, he's just having a break. 

00:04:05.420 --> 00:04:06.420 
And then the second day, it's like, that's a bit odd. 

00:04:06.420 --> 00:04:12.420 
And after a week, after a month, after a year of that, people are starting to think. 

00:04:12.420 --> 00:04:16.419 
What is this message that he's trying to communicate to us? 

00:04:16.419 --> 00:04:18.419 
And then we see these other things. 

00:04:18.419 --> 00:04:23.419 
The famine that God had decreed was going to come upon the people back in Jerusalem. 

00:04:23.420 --> 00:04:27.420 
And then the slaughter that again was prophesied. 

00:04:27.420 --> 00:04:30.420 
And then there's a kind of explanation, exposition of the signs. 

00:04:30.420 --> 00:04:37.420 
And then in chapter six, we get this kind of example of the land itself. 

00:04:37.420 --> 00:04:42.420 
As if the land is being spoken to, the mountains, the hills, the valleys, as if they were a person. 

00:04:42.420 --> 00:04:45.420 
And God speaks to them of the judgment that's coming. 

00:04:45.420 --> 00:04:50.420 
And then we saw in chapter seven, that God makes it really clear that they're not going to be able to dodge this. 

00:04:50.420 --> 00:04:52.420 
There's not going to be a way out. 

00:04:52.420 --> 00:04:55.420 
The land has been crossed and God's judgment is now coming. 

00:04:55.420 --> 00:04:58.420 
Again, there's more visions and so on that he gets. 

00:04:58.420 --> 00:05:05.420 
Chapter eight, we saw already that he looks at the idolatry taking place in the temple in Jerusalem. 

00:05:05.420 --> 00:05:11.420 
And at this point, we start to see an incredible parallel with the days in which we're living in. 

00:05:11.420 --> 00:05:19.420 
You know, so much of what was already, we've said in these first seven chapters, is analogous to the church today in this world. 

00:05:19.420 --> 00:05:21.420 
The way the church has allowed so much iniquity. 

00:05:21.420 --> 00:05:23.420 
So much compromise. 

00:05:23.420 --> 00:05:27.420 
Right across the spectrum. 

00:05:27.420 --> 00:05:35.420 
And we've seen today, or this week even, with our king, King Charles, going to the Vatican. 

00:05:35.420 --> 00:05:41.420 
What would all those saints who were martyred make of that? 

00:05:41.420 --> 00:05:50.420 
And then we've seen already, we showed you the pictures last week of this desecration that's taken place in Canterbury Cathedral. 

00:05:51.420 --> 00:05:55.420 
And we just said, you know, Ezekiel is told to look at the temple. 

00:05:55.420 --> 00:05:57.420 
He's kind of given his vision inside. 

00:05:57.420 --> 00:05:59.420 
He sees the writing on the things on the wall. 

00:05:59.420 --> 00:06:00.420 
The pictures they were putting there. 

00:06:00.420 --> 00:06:02.420 
The worship to Tammuz. 

00:06:02.420 --> 00:06:04.420 
This Babylonian deity and so on. 

00:06:04.420 --> 00:06:11.420 
And the way the nation just got brought up in this whole, just perverse idolatry. 

00:06:11.420 --> 00:06:15.420 
And we look at the church in this country and we go, you know what, it's the same. 

00:06:15.420 --> 00:06:19.420 
And just as God brought judgment upon Jerusalem, 

00:06:19.420 --> 00:06:22.420 
so God will bring judgment upon the church. 

00:06:22.420 --> 00:06:25.420 
And this is something that we've been saying for many years. 

00:06:25.420 --> 00:06:30.420 
And Peter says that the season of judgment is going to begin with the house of God. 

00:06:30.420 --> 00:06:32.420 
And we're seeing it. 

00:06:32.420 --> 00:06:34.420 
We're already seeing these things happen. 

00:06:34.420 --> 00:06:39.420 
Matthew 13 tells us that the wheat and the tares are growing together. 

00:06:39.420 --> 00:06:43.420 
The true church and those that look like the true church but are not. 

00:06:43.420 --> 00:06:48.420 
And they're going to grow together until the time of the harvest when they're going to be separated. 

00:06:48.420 --> 00:06:49.420 
And the tares are going to be separated. 

00:06:49.420 --> 00:06:51.420 
The tares are going to be gathered in bundles. 

00:06:51.420 --> 00:06:54.420 
That's what we're seeing. 

00:06:54.420 --> 00:07:02.420 
We're seeing the true church is being clearly singled out and separated. 

00:07:02.420 --> 00:07:06.420 
And not spoken very well of by the media. 

00:07:06.420 --> 00:07:11.420 
By many that want to tell us that we are, 

00:07:11.420 --> 00:07:13.420 
well they'll use all sorts of expressions. 

00:07:13.420 --> 00:07:15.420 
They'll talk about the way we speak and saying it's hate speech. 

00:07:15.420 --> 00:07:18.420 
Of course what they say apparently is not. 

00:07:19.420 --> 00:07:22.420 
You know we live in a world where everybody has to be tolerant. 

00:07:22.420 --> 00:07:24.420 
Unless of course it's to do with Christianity. 

00:07:24.420 --> 00:07:28.420 
And then there's no tolerance there whatsoever. 

00:07:28.420 --> 00:07:33.420 
And then in chapter 8 and 9 these visions we're seeing again. 

00:07:33.420 --> 00:07:35.420 
And then finally in chapter 10. 

00:07:35.420 --> 00:07:40.420 
Ezekiel sees coals kind of scattered over Jerusalem as if judgment is being poured out. 

00:07:40.420 --> 00:07:43.420 
Coming from the throne of God. 

00:07:43.420 --> 00:07:48.420 
God will bring judgment upon the apostate church. 

00:07:48.420 --> 00:07:53.420 
And we saw last time how the glory of God departs. 

00:07:53.420 --> 00:07:56.420 
And we'll talk a little bit more about that this morning. 

00:07:56.420 --> 00:07:58.420 
That Shekinah glory. 

00:07:58.420 --> 00:08:02.420 
We talked about a number of occasions in scripture where we see that glory departing. 

00:08:02.420 --> 00:08:07.420 
And it's always to do with sin and apostasy. 

00:08:07.420 --> 00:08:11.420 
God cannot tolerate, cannot stand sin in his presence. 

00:08:11.420 --> 00:08:17.420 
That's why the only way we can come before the throne is through the blood of Christ. 

00:08:17.420 --> 00:08:19.420 
So we're going to jump into chapter 11. 

00:08:19.420 --> 00:08:23.420 
And we're going to see now this judgment on Israel being declared. 

00:08:23.420 --> 00:08:24.420 
Just give you an introduction. 

00:08:24.420 --> 00:08:27.420 
The wicked rulers of Jerusalem are now denounced. 

00:08:27.420 --> 00:08:30.420 
But a sure promise of restoration is given. 

00:08:30.420 --> 00:08:32.420 
This is a wonderful chapter. 

00:08:32.420 --> 00:08:35.420 
We're going to look at some incredible things that are stated here. 

00:08:35.420 --> 00:08:39.420 
The men of Jerusalem thought they were favoured of God. 

00:08:39.420 --> 00:08:42.420 
By being left in the land. 

00:08:42.420 --> 00:08:44.420 
And that the exiles were cursed. 

00:08:44.420 --> 00:08:46.420 
That's interesting because the world is coming to a point. 

00:08:46.420 --> 00:08:47.420 
That's interesting because the world is coming to a point. 

00:08:47.420 --> 00:08:50.420 
Where the church, the true church will be raptured. 

00:08:50.420 --> 00:08:52.420 
Will be taken out of this world. 

00:08:52.420 --> 00:08:58.420 
And the narrative, the story is going to be that the troublemakers have been taken away. 

00:08:58.420 --> 00:09:01.420 
And that the right ones have been left. 

00:09:01.420 --> 00:09:02.420 
The good ones have been left. 

00:09:02.420 --> 00:09:04.420 
Of course it's exactly the reverse. 

00:09:04.420 --> 00:09:06.420 
Just as in this situation. 

00:09:06.420 --> 00:09:08.420 
There's all sorts of interesting things going on at the moment. 

00:09:08.420 --> 00:09:11.420 
People talking about UFOs and aliens. 

00:09:11.420 --> 00:09:13.420 
There's this thing even, I mean typical BBC. 

00:09:13.420 --> 00:09:15.420 
Of course you never trust anything they say. 

00:09:15.420 --> 00:09:16.420 
But the biased broadcasting corporation. 

00:09:16.420 --> 00:09:21.420 
But they put a thing out this week about a new planet that they've discovered. 

00:09:21.420 --> 00:09:22.420 
A new star. 

00:09:22.420 --> 00:09:28.420 
And they think that it could be the greatest chance of finding extraterrestrial life. 

00:09:28.420 --> 00:09:33.420 
There's all sorts of interesting things that are being spoken of at the moment. 

00:09:33.420 --> 00:09:39.420 
There's all sorts of talk I've heard about November being a time when we're going to have an alien invasion. 

00:09:39.420 --> 00:09:41.420 
Now of course a lot of this is conspiracy theory. 

00:09:41.420 --> 00:09:43.420 
And we don't want to get too worried about it. 

00:09:43.420 --> 00:09:45.420 
We don't need to be worried anyway. 

00:09:45.420 --> 00:09:55.420 
But you know, don't be surprised if sometime soon on the news you hear that we've discovered aliens. 

00:09:55.420 --> 00:09:57.420 
Don't be surprised at all at that. 

00:09:57.420 --> 00:10:04.420 
Because they've got to come up with an explanation as to why the church suddenly disappeared. 

00:10:04.420 --> 00:10:10.420 
There are people in positions of power that know very well what the Bible says. 

00:10:10.420 --> 00:10:12.420 
Now they don't believe it. 

00:10:12.420 --> 00:10:14.420 
But they're concerned enough about it to be putting plans in place. 

00:10:15.420 --> 00:10:19.420 
So when the church goes, there'll be all sorts of rumours spreading. 

00:10:19.420 --> 00:10:25.420 
One of them will certainly be that we've been abducted by aliens. 

00:10:25.420 --> 00:10:27.420 
Here, the men of Jerusalem. 

00:10:27.420 --> 00:10:29.420 
Again, they thought they were on the right side. 

00:10:29.420 --> 00:10:32.420 
And those that were taken were the baddies. 

00:10:32.420 --> 00:10:34.420 
It was completely the other way around. 

00:10:34.420 --> 00:10:41.420 
It was actually the exiles, the ones that God had removed, his own people that God always takes out before he brings judgment. 

00:10:41.420 --> 00:10:43.420 
It's a pattern all the way through scripture. 

00:10:43.420 --> 00:10:44.420 
We see it with Noah and the ark. 

00:10:44.420 --> 00:10:47.420 
We see it with Lot in Sodom and Gomorrah. 

00:10:47.420 --> 00:10:53.420 
So often we see God remove his people before he brings the judgment. 

00:10:56.420 --> 00:10:57.420 
Let's look into the text. 

00:10:57.420 --> 00:10:59.420 
Verse 1 of Ezekiel 11. 

00:10:59.420 --> 00:11:02.420 
Moreover, the Spirit lifted me up. 

00:11:02.420 --> 00:11:06.420 
So straight away understand that this is a vision that he's seeing. 

00:11:06.420 --> 00:11:10.420 
He's seeing something that God is purposely showing to him. 

00:11:10.420 --> 00:11:14.420 
To be able to teach and show to the people that he's with in Babylon. 

00:11:14.420 --> 00:11:16.420 
He's in Babylon. 

00:11:16.420 --> 00:11:17.420 
But we get this. 

00:11:17.420 --> 00:11:23.420 
Moreover, the Spirit lifted me up and brought me unto the east gate of the Lord's house, which looked eastward. 

00:11:23.420 --> 00:11:35.420 
And behold, at the door of the gate five and twenty men, among whom I saw Jazaniah the son of Azur, and Pelletiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people. 

00:11:35.420 --> 00:11:38.420 
So we've got 25 individuals that he sees. 

00:11:38.420 --> 00:11:40.420 
And he singles out a couple of them. 

00:11:40.420 --> 00:11:43.420 
But these 25 are marked specifically. 

00:11:43.420 --> 00:11:44.420 
Read on. 

00:11:44.420 --> 00:11:50.420 
Then he said unto me, Son of man, these are the men that devise mischief and give wicked counsel in the city. 

00:11:50.420 --> 00:11:52.420 
Which say, it is not near. 

00:11:52.420 --> 00:11:53.420 
Let us build houses. 

00:11:53.420 --> 00:11:56.420 
This city is the cauldron and we be the flesh. 

00:11:56.420 --> 00:11:57.420 
Let me try and explain this. 

00:11:57.420 --> 00:12:05.420 
So what's happening is that we've got a small group of people that are influencing the city and ultimately the nation. 

00:12:05.420 --> 00:12:08.420 
Isn't that the way it is in the world today? 

00:12:08.420 --> 00:12:12.420 
We have a few people in positions of authority, positions of power. 

00:12:13.420 --> 00:12:15.420 
And they wield that power. 

00:12:15.420 --> 00:12:17.420 
And they try to make us all go along. 

00:12:17.420 --> 00:12:30.420 
And the problem is when we have media outlets like we have that are constantly spewing propaganda, everybody gets caught up in those things. 

00:12:30.420 --> 00:12:37.420 
How many people would have gone on the so-called pro-Palestinian marches if BBC had reported the truth? 

00:12:37.420 --> 00:12:39.420 
How much are BBC accountable? 

00:12:39.420 --> 00:12:40.420 
It's not just BBC. 

00:12:40.420 --> 00:12:41.420 
They're one example. 

00:12:41.420 --> 00:12:45.420 
But they have been so abhorrent in the things that they've put out. 

00:12:45.420 --> 00:13:00.420 
I mean it was exposed and we shared this some time ago, I think, that they'd actually sent an email to staff to say when they report on the war in Gaza, to make sure Israel are always blamed. 

00:13:00.420 --> 00:13:02.420 
It's an email sent to staff. 

00:13:02.420 --> 00:13:06.420 
They're supposed to be an unbiased organization. 

00:13:06.420 --> 00:13:10.420 
And the problem is because we have these individuals in the media. 

00:13:10.420 --> 00:13:14.420 
Individuals, these groups, these corporations and so on. 

00:13:14.420 --> 00:13:21.420 
It's a few individuals in control just like it was in the days of Ezekiel that are pulling the strings. 

00:13:21.420 --> 00:13:26.420 
Now everybody should be discerning enough to be able to go and search and find out the truth for themselves. 

00:13:26.420 --> 00:13:29.420 
But sadly most people don't. 

00:13:29.420 --> 00:13:31.420 
And this is what was happening. 

00:13:31.420 --> 00:13:34.420 
Notice what they say. 

00:13:34.420 --> 00:13:38.420 
They say here that this city is the cauldron and we be the flesh. 

00:13:38.420 --> 00:13:39.420 
Now you might think that implies that a cauldron is the flesh. 

00:13:39.420 --> 00:13:43.420 
You think of something where you typically put the flesh to boil it and so on. 

00:13:43.420 --> 00:13:44.420 
It's a hot place. 

00:13:44.420 --> 00:13:45.420 
It's not a good thing. 

00:13:45.420 --> 00:13:46.420 
But they were seeing it in a different way. 

00:13:46.420 --> 00:13:51.420 
The way they are using this is if to say that they were in a place of safety. 

00:13:51.420 --> 00:13:55.420 
The cauldron, if you like, was a shield around them. 

00:13:55.420 --> 00:13:56.420 
And they're saying that we're in Jerusalem. 

00:13:56.420 --> 00:13:58.420 
We're safe. 

00:13:58.420 --> 00:13:59.420 
And we're the flesh. 

00:13:59.420 --> 00:14:00.420 
We're inside the cauldron. 

00:14:00.420 --> 00:14:02.420 
So predators can't get to us. 

00:14:02.420 --> 00:14:04.420 
We're perfectly fine where we are. 

00:14:04.420 --> 00:14:07.420 
That was what they were saying. 

00:14:07.420 --> 00:14:08.420 
Interesting, isn't it? 

00:14:08.420 --> 00:14:12.420 
That we read in Thessalonians of the world in which we live. 

00:14:12.420 --> 00:14:14.420 
That there are coming these times. 

00:14:14.420 --> 00:14:16.420 
Paul says to the Thessalonian believers. 

00:14:16.420 --> 00:14:19.420 
But at the times and seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you. 

00:14:19.420 --> 00:14:23.420 
For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. 

00:14:23.420 --> 00:14:26.420 
He's talking about the tribulation. 

00:14:26.420 --> 00:14:30.420 
For when they shall say peace and safety, 

00:14:30.420 --> 00:14:34.420 
then sudden destruction comes upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. 

00:14:34.420 --> 00:14:36.420 
You see, in Ezekiel's day, 

00:14:36.420 --> 00:14:39.420 
the people were saying, we're going to be fine. 

00:14:39.420 --> 00:14:40.420 
There'll be peace and safety. 

00:14:40.420 --> 00:14:42.420 
We can stay here. 

00:14:42.420 --> 00:14:49.420 
And I showed you a clip, that message we did a month or so ago, looking at what time it is. 

00:14:49.420 --> 00:14:57.420 
Of the number of times politicians and the United Nations and governments are saying peace and safety, peace and security. 

00:14:57.420 --> 00:15:00.420 
It's constantly being stated at the moment. 

00:15:00.420 --> 00:15:03.420 
That we're going to usher in a time of peace. 

00:15:03.420 --> 00:15:04.420 
And it's not just peace. 

00:15:04.420 --> 00:15:05.420 
It's security. 

00:15:06.420 --> 00:15:10.420 
And of course, scripture says that when they start saying these things, 

00:15:10.420 --> 00:15:15.420 
all of a sudden, destruction is going to come upon them. 

00:15:15.420 --> 00:15:17.420 
I know it's a kind of obvious statement. 

00:15:17.420 --> 00:15:20.420 
We are closer than we have ever been to these things. 

00:15:20.420 --> 00:15:25.420 
We are so close. 

00:15:25.420 --> 00:15:30.420 
Interestingly also, in 2 Peter 3, verses 3 and 4, it says, 

00:15:30.420 --> 00:15:34.420 
Knowing this first, that they shall come in the last days, scoffers walking after their own lusts, and saying, 

00:15:34.420 --> 00:15:37.420 
Where is the promise of his coming? 

00:15:37.420 --> 00:15:40.420 
You see, what they're saying is, we don't need to worry. 

00:15:40.420 --> 00:15:41.420 
Judgment's not coming. 

00:15:41.420 --> 00:15:43.420 
Just as it was in Ezekiel's day. 

00:15:43.420 --> 00:15:51.420 
So again, the parallels between Ezekiel's time and what was going on, and the promises of the coming wrath, 

00:15:51.420 --> 00:15:53.420 
it's just the same as is in our day. 

00:15:53.420 --> 00:15:55.420 
And the same response is being given. 

00:15:55.420 --> 00:15:56.420 
Verse 4 goes on, 

00:15:56.420 --> 00:15:59.420 
Therefore prophesy against them, prophesy, O son of man. 

00:15:59.420 --> 00:16:03.420 
And the Spirit of the Lord fell upon me and said unto me, 

00:16:03.420 --> 00:16:06.420 
Speak thus, saith the Lord. 

00:16:06.420 --> 00:16:09.420 
Thus have you said, O house of Israel, 

00:16:09.420 --> 00:16:12.420 
for I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them. 

00:16:12.420 --> 00:16:15.420 
You have multiplied your slain in this city, 

00:16:15.420 --> 00:16:19.420 
and you have filled the streets thereof with the slain. 

00:16:19.420 --> 00:16:24.420 
Let me just pause at this point and underline, as we've said already, 

00:16:24.420 --> 00:16:28.420 
that God was just in bringing this judgment. 

00:16:28.420 --> 00:16:31.420 
We're not given all the sordid details, 

00:16:31.420 --> 00:16:33.420 
but it had become, 

00:16:33.420 --> 00:16:36.420 
a place of wickedness. 

00:16:36.420 --> 00:16:38.420 
People were being murdered, people were being killed. 

00:16:38.420 --> 00:16:41.420 
There was all sorts of atrocities being committed. 

00:16:41.420 --> 00:16:46.420 
And God is saying enough. 

00:16:46.420 --> 00:16:47.420 
Verse 7, 

00:16:47.420 --> 00:16:49.420 
Therefore thus says the Lord God, 

00:16:49.420 --> 00:16:52.420 
Your slain whom you have laid in the midst of it, 

00:16:52.420 --> 00:16:55.420 
they are the flesh, 

00:16:55.420 --> 00:16:58.420 
and this city is the cauldron. 

00:16:58.420 --> 00:17:02.420 
They're in a sense, they're dead, so they're now in a better place, 

00:17:02.420 --> 00:17:04.420 
is almost the implication here. 

00:17:04.420 --> 00:17:07.420 
But I will bring you forth out of the midst of it. 

00:17:07.420 --> 00:17:09.420 
You have feared the sword, 

00:17:09.420 --> 00:17:12.420 
and I will bring the sword upon you, says the Lord God. 

00:17:12.420 --> 00:17:15.420 
And I will bring you out of the midst thereof, 

00:17:15.420 --> 00:17:17.420 
and deliver you into the hands of strangers, 

00:17:17.420 --> 00:17:20.420 
and will execute judgments upon you. 

00:17:20.420 --> 00:17:22.420 
God turns their boast, as it were, around on them. 

00:17:22.420 --> 00:17:25.420 
They're saying, we're safe in the city. 

00:17:25.420 --> 00:17:29.420 
We're in this kind of cauldron, we've got this kind of wall around us, we're okay. 

00:17:29.420 --> 00:17:31.420 
And God says, no, I'm going to take you out of this. 

00:17:32.420 --> 00:17:35.420 
They're not as safe as they thought they were. 

00:17:35.420 --> 00:17:41.420 
Rather being in safety on the inside, they were going to be in peril on the outside. 

00:17:41.420 --> 00:17:42.420 
Verse 10 goes on, 

00:17:42.420 --> 00:17:46.420 
You shall fall by the sword, and I will judge you in the border of Israel. 

00:17:46.420 --> 00:17:52.420 
The implication here is that they're going to try and flee and escape the wrath of God, 

00:17:52.420 --> 00:17:54.420 
but they're not going to be able to escape. 

00:17:54.420 --> 00:17:57.420 
And you shall know that I am the Lord. 

00:17:57.420 --> 00:17:59.420 
This city shall not be your cauldron, 

00:17:59.420 --> 00:18:01.420 
neither shall you be the flesh in the midst of it. 

00:18:01.420 --> 00:18:02.420 
Pardon me. 

00:18:02.420 --> 00:18:03.420 
In the midst thereof. 

00:18:03.420 --> 00:18:05.420 
But I will judge you in the border of Israel. 

00:18:05.420 --> 00:18:07.420 
And you shall know that I am the Lord. 

00:18:07.420 --> 00:18:09.420 
For you have not walked in my statutes, 

00:18:09.420 --> 00:18:11.420 
neither executed my judgments, 

00:18:11.420 --> 00:18:15.420 
but have done after the manners of the heathen that are round about you. 

00:18:15.420 --> 00:18:18.420 
Now, if you know anything about the nations that surrounded Israel 

00:18:18.420 --> 00:18:21.420 
and the things they got up to, 

00:18:21.420 --> 00:18:24.420 
it's horrible. 

00:18:24.420 --> 00:18:27.420 
I mean, it's the kind of thing we don't really want to think about and dwell on, 

00:18:27.420 --> 00:18:29.420 
but they were wicked and perverse, 

00:18:29.420 --> 00:18:31.420 
pretty much like it is in the world today. 

00:18:32.420 --> 00:18:37.420 
I mean, we're hearing, aren't we, of all these gangs. 

00:18:37.420 --> 00:18:41.420 
A lot of them are the ones in the news at the moment, 

00:18:41.420 --> 00:18:45.420 
Pakistani men, particularly in some of the towns in northern England. 

00:18:45.420 --> 00:18:50.420 
But some of the atrocities being committed by some of the migrants that have come over. 

00:18:50.420 --> 00:18:56.420 
You know, and there are a lot of people that are feeling that it's not safe to go out anymore. 

00:18:56.420 --> 00:19:01.420 
You know, I'm old enough and I'm sure some of you can remember that, you know, when I was young, 

00:19:01.420 --> 00:19:03.420 
I'd go out on my bike. 

00:19:03.420 --> 00:19:05.420 
I didn't have phones, it was lovely. 

00:19:05.420 --> 00:19:06.420 
It was great. 

00:19:06.420 --> 00:19:09.420 
And I'd just go out with my friends, we'd go on bike rides. 

00:19:09.420 --> 00:19:13.420 
And mum would just used to say, be home by whatever time. 

00:19:13.420 --> 00:19:17.420 
And we'd get home by that time, normally. 

00:19:17.420 --> 00:19:19.420 
And we were fine. 

00:19:19.420 --> 00:19:26.420 
I can't imagine letting my girls out now to go on bike rides. 

00:19:26.420 --> 00:19:29.420 
You know, it's a very different, scary world that we live in. 

00:19:29.420 --> 00:19:30.420 
The world is different. 

00:19:30.420 --> 00:19:31.420 
It's a different world. 

00:19:31.420 --> 00:19:35.420 
And it's changed so much, even just in the short time we've been here. 

00:19:39.420 --> 00:19:44.420 
Again, it says here, notice verse 12, 

00:19:44.420 --> 00:19:47.420 
And you shall know that I am the Lord. 

00:19:47.420 --> 00:19:50.420 
Oh, sorry, let's go, just read verse 10 again, so we get the flow of this. 

00:19:50.420 --> 00:19:53.420 
If you shall fall by the sword, I will judge you in the border of Israel, 

00:19:53.420 --> 00:19:54.420 
and you shall know that I am the Lord. 

00:19:54.420 --> 00:19:58.420 
This city shall not be your quarter, and neither shall you be the flesh in the midst of the rod. 

00:19:58.420 --> 00:20:00.420 
But I will judge you in the border of Israel, 

00:20:00.420 --> 00:20:01.420 
and you shall know that I am the Lord. 

00:20:01.420 --> 00:20:04.420 
For you have not walked in my statutes, neither executed my judgments, 

00:20:04.420 --> 00:20:08.420 
but have done after the manners of the heathen that are round about you. 

00:20:08.420 --> 00:20:11.420 
This is why God was bringing judgment upon them. 

00:20:11.420 --> 00:20:17.420 
And it came to pass, when I prophesied that Bellatire, the son of Benaiah, died, 

00:20:17.420 --> 00:20:20.420 
this is one of the individuals that he mentioned at the beginning. 

00:20:20.420 --> 00:20:24.420 
Then I fell down upon my face and cried with an out-voiced and said, 

00:20:24.420 --> 00:20:28.420 
Oh, Lord God, will they make a full end of the remnant of Israel? 

00:20:28.420 --> 00:20:31.420 
Still seemingly in the vision that Ezekiel is having, 

00:20:31.420 --> 00:20:35.420 
he sees or foresees this individual dying. 

00:20:35.420 --> 00:20:44.420 
This is one of the 25 struck down that was responsible for the moral decline of the nation. 

00:20:44.420 --> 00:20:48.420 
But that causes Ezekiel to cry out and to say, 

00:20:48.420 --> 00:20:52.420 
Lord, hang on, if you're going to take away all the leadership, 

00:20:52.420 --> 00:20:54.420 
where are we going to be as a nation? 

00:20:54.420 --> 00:20:56.420 
What's going to happen? 

00:20:56.420 --> 00:20:57.420 
With the leaders destroyed, what's going to happen to the nation? 

00:20:57.420 --> 00:20:58.420 
What's going to happen to the nation? 

00:20:58.420 --> 00:20:59.420 
What's going to happen to the rest? 

00:20:59.420 --> 00:21:01.420 
Are you going to destroy everyone? 

00:21:01.420 --> 00:21:03.420 
Good question, Ezekiel. 

00:21:03.420 --> 00:21:04.420 
It's a great question. 

00:21:04.420 --> 00:21:10.420 
I'm so glad Ezekiel asked that question because the answer is wonderful. 

00:21:10.420 --> 00:21:13.420 
Verse 14, again, the word of the Lord came unto me saying, 

00:21:13.420 --> 00:21:19.420 
Son of man, thy brethren, even thy brethren, the men of thy kindred, 

00:21:19.420 --> 00:21:23.420 
and all the house of Israel, holy, 

00:21:23.420 --> 00:21:27.420 
are they unto whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, 

00:21:27.420 --> 00:21:30.420 
Get you far from the land. 

00:21:30.420 --> 00:21:33.420 
Unto us is this land given in possession. 

00:21:33.420 --> 00:21:36.420 
To get the answer that God's giving, he's saying, 

00:21:36.420 --> 00:21:39.420 
hang on, just pause and think for a second. 

00:21:39.420 --> 00:21:43.420 
Everybody has been caught up in this deception. 

00:21:43.420 --> 00:21:48.420 
The remnant that he's asking about, they're all brought into this lie. 

00:21:48.420 --> 00:21:51.420 
They all believed that they were untouchable. 

00:21:51.420 --> 00:21:53.420 
These were great days of deception. 

00:21:53.420 --> 00:21:55.420 
Again, just like the world we're living in right now. 

00:21:55.420 --> 00:21:58.420 
Therefore say, thus says the Lord God, 

00:21:58.420 --> 00:22:02.420 
although I have cast them far off among the heathen. 

00:22:02.420 --> 00:22:06.420 
So God is saying, look, they've all bought into this deception. 

00:22:06.420 --> 00:22:10.420 
God is going to bring the judgment on the leadership as he's already stated. 

00:22:10.420 --> 00:22:12.420 
Those that led them into this. 

00:22:12.420 --> 00:22:15.420 
But then he says, they've all been bought into this. 

00:22:15.420 --> 00:22:19.420 
So what's going to happen is they are going to be cast off amongst the heathen, 

00:22:19.420 --> 00:22:21.420 
scattered around the world. 

00:22:21.420 --> 00:22:23.420 
But then look at this. 

00:22:23.420 --> 00:22:24.420 
And although, 

00:22:24.420 --> 00:22:29.420 
I have scattered them among the countries, yet, 

00:22:29.420 --> 00:22:31.420 
what a wonderful word that is. 

00:22:31.420 --> 00:22:39.420 
Yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come. 

00:22:39.420 --> 00:22:44.420 
So as is prophesied in Deuteronomy 28, one of the most amazing chapters in the Bible, 

00:22:44.420 --> 00:22:46.420 
and many other places, 

00:22:46.420 --> 00:22:51.420 
Israel, we're told, will be scattered amongst the nations of this world. 

00:22:51.420 --> 00:22:53.420 
But all the while they are there in their place, 

00:22:53.420 --> 00:22:55.420 
where they've been scattered to, 

00:22:55.420 --> 00:22:58.420 
God would be their sanctuary. 

00:22:58.420 --> 00:23:02.420 
That expression, I will be to them a little sanctuary, 

00:23:02.420 --> 00:23:08.420 
the idea of sanctification or setting apart is implied in this. 

00:23:08.420 --> 00:23:13.420 
That they would be there because of God, they would remain set apart. 

00:23:13.420 --> 00:23:16.420 
That's exactly what's happened to the nation of Israel. 

00:23:16.420 --> 00:23:22.420 
I mean, all the other old ancient nations have all been lost in the sands of time. 

00:23:22.420 --> 00:23:27.420 
We don't bump into Hittites today or Amalekites or any of those. 

00:23:27.420 --> 00:23:30.420 
But Israel, they've survived. 

00:23:30.420 --> 00:23:34.420 
God has preserved them as an identifiable ethnic group of people to this day, 

00:23:34.420 --> 00:23:42.420 
despite all the attacks and persecutions. 

00:23:42.420 --> 00:23:46.420 
And God says that when they are in these places, 

00:23:46.420 --> 00:23:48.420 
God will be to them as a little sanctuary. 

00:23:48.420 --> 00:23:51.420 
They will be this setting apart of them. 

00:23:51.420 --> 00:23:52.420 
They won't be there. 

00:23:52.420 --> 00:23:54.420 
They will not be utterly forsaken. 

00:23:54.420 --> 00:23:57.420 
They would remain his people. 

00:23:57.420 --> 00:24:02.420 
I mean, this is exactly what Paul teaches us in Romans. 

00:24:02.420 --> 00:24:04.420 
I mean, Paul asks the question, as God's, you know, 

00:24:04.420 --> 00:24:06.420 
as he's speaking to the Romans, you know, 

00:24:06.420 --> 00:24:09.420 
has God cast away Israel whom he foreknew? 

00:24:09.420 --> 00:24:10.420 
What's Paul's answer? 

00:24:10.420 --> 00:24:13.420 
Certainly not. 

00:24:13.420 --> 00:24:21.420 
He makes the point that actually the situation currently is so that God can bring in the Gentiles. 

00:24:21.420 --> 00:24:24.420 
And then the fullness of the Gentiles are brought in. 

00:24:24.420 --> 00:24:29.420 
Well, then Israel will come back to him and they will know him as their Lord, as their Saviour. 

00:24:29.420 --> 00:24:32.420 
And they'll know Yeshua as their Messiah. 

00:24:32.420 --> 00:24:33.420 
Verse 17, 

00:24:33.420 --> 00:24:35.420 
Therefore say, Thus says the Lord God, 

00:24:35.420 --> 00:24:43.420 
I will even gather you from the people and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, 

00:24:43.420 --> 00:24:47.420 
and I will give you the land of Israel. 

00:24:47.420 --> 00:24:50.420 
This is just one of countless scriptures that promise a regathering of Israel. 

00:24:50.420 --> 00:24:54.420 
A regathering of Israel to their land. 

00:24:54.420 --> 00:25:05.420 
And it just blows my mind that we can have churches that preach replacement theology. 

00:25:05.420 --> 00:25:10.420 
That preach this idea that God has in some way finished with Israel. 

00:25:10.420 --> 00:25:11.420 
That he's done with them. 

00:25:11.420 --> 00:25:19.420 
I mean, the language we've seen, the tone of the judgment that was coming upon them is very clear. 

00:25:19.420 --> 00:25:22.420 
God's going to bring his wrath upon them because of their disobedience. 

00:25:22.420 --> 00:25:24.420 
Because of all the things they've done. 

00:25:24.420 --> 00:25:30.420 
Because they've allowed so much of the world around them to influence them and to affect the way they live their lives. 

00:25:30.420 --> 00:25:34.420 
And they were indulged in idolatry and all these pagan practices and so on. 

00:25:34.420 --> 00:25:35.420 
So God says, you will be judged. 

00:25:35.420 --> 00:25:40.420 
But God makes it really clear that God will not make a full end of Israel. 

00:25:40.420 --> 00:25:42.420 
But they will be scattered around the world. 

00:25:42.420 --> 00:25:47.420 
And for those that would try and say, oh yes, but this regathering was when they came back from Babylon. 

00:25:47.420 --> 00:25:50.420 
But Babylon's just one land. 

00:25:50.420 --> 00:25:55.420 
And this speaks to them being scattered around the world. 

00:25:55.420 --> 00:26:02.420 
And this is referring to them being gathered back from those countries where they've been scattered. 

00:26:02.420 --> 00:26:06.420 
God's hand has been on Israel the whole time. 

00:26:06.420 --> 00:26:09.420 
It clearly says that he will watch over them the entire time. 

00:26:09.420 --> 00:26:13.420 
And they will not be allowed to be absorbed into the nations. 

00:26:13.420 --> 00:26:16.420 
They will remain separate, sanctified, separated. 

00:26:17.420 --> 00:26:20.420 
Ezekiel's going to make more of that in the chapter to come. 

00:26:20.420 --> 00:26:25.420 
But we're living in the very days of this literal fulfilment. 

00:26:25.420 --> 00:26:31.420 
Because we've seen since 1948 Israel come back into their land. 

00:26:31.420 --> 00:26:39.420 
And because of the events of the last two years, more and more Jews now are returning to the land. 

00:26:39.420 --> 00:26:46.420 
I mean, this is a prophecy that's given in around about 600 B.C. 

00:26:46.420 --> 00:26:49.420 
If you take five years or so. 

00:26:49.420 --> 00:26:55.420 
God spoke through Ezekiel and these things have been recorded. 

00:26:55.420 --> 00:26:59.420 
And yet we are living now seeing the fulfilment. of these things. 

00:26:59.420 --> 00:27:01.420 
Verse 18 goes on. 

00:27:01.420 --> 00:27:04.420 
And they shall come thither, and they shall take away. 

00:27:04.420 --> 00:27:09.420 
He's speaking of this time of repentance that's going to come. 

00:27:09.420 --> 00:27:14.420 
They're going to take away the detestable things thereof and all the abominations thereof from thence. 

00:27:14.420 --> 00:27:15.420 
And notice this. 

00:27:15.420 --> 00:27:17.420 
This is a wonderful thing. 

00:27:17.420 --> 00:27:21.420 
And I will give them one heart. 

00:27:21.420 --> 00:27:24.420 
We would use the expression kind of single-minded. 

00:27:24.420 --> 00:27:27.420 
They will be focused upon God. 

00:27:27.420 --> 00:27:30.420 
And I will put a new spirit within you. 

00:27:30.420 --> 00:27:34.420 
And will take the stony heart out of their flesh. 

00:27:34.420 --> 00:27:36.420 
And I will give them a heart of flesh. 

00:27:36.420 --> 00:27:39.420 
That they may walk in my statues and keep my ordinances and do them. 

00:27:39.420 --> 00:27:42.420 
They shall be my people and I will be their God. 

00:27:42.420 --> 00:27:44.420 
You should recognize that because that's what we read at the end of the book of Revelation. 

00:27:45.420 --> 00:27:48.420 
That's always been God's plan. 

00:27:48.420 --> 00:27:51.420 
It's what God started in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. 

00:27:51.420 --> 00:27:54.420 
They walked with God in the call of the day. 

00:27:54.420 --> 00:27:58.420 
But that walk with God was broken on account of sin. 

00:27:58.420 --> 00:28:05.420 
Ultimately, God will have his people, both the Jews and Gentiles, all brought together in one in Christ. 

00:28:05.420 --> 00:28:08.420 
And he will be our God and we will be his people. 

00:28:08.420 --> 00:28:11.420 
And God makes his declaration to the nation of Israel here. 

00:28:11.420 --> 00:28:13.420 
That there's a time coming. 

00:28:13.420 --> 00:28:15.420 
That there will be this repentance. 

00:28:15.420 --> 00:28:19.420 
God's going to take out that stony heart and give them a new heart. 

00:28:19.420 --> 00:28:24.420 
We may use the expression legitimately, born again. 

00:28:24.420 --> 00:28:27.420 
Born again is not a New Testament idea. 

00:28:27.420 --> 00:28:35.420 
When Jesus spoke to Nicodemus, he was speaking about something that Nicodemus should have understood from these verses in Ezekiel. 

00:28:35.420 --> 00:28:41.420 
That God was talking about bringing life again to that which was dead. 

00:28:41.420 --> 00:28:42.420 
And that's what God's talking about. 

00:28:43.420 --> 00:28:45.420 
Removing that stony heart. 

00:28:45.420 --> 00:28:48.420 
Giving them a heart of flesh. 

00:28:48.420 --> 00:28:50.420 
Putting a new spirit within them. 

00:28:50.420 --> 00:28:52.420 
I mean, that's being born again, is it not? 

00:28:52.420 --> 00:28:54.420 
That's exactly what happens. 

00:28:54.420 --> 00:28:59.420 
When we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, we have a new spirit. 

00:28:59.420 --> 00:29:03.420 
Our heart is changed. 

00:29:03.420 --> 00:29:08.420 
Again, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my ordinances and do them. 

00:29:08.420 --> 00:29:10.420 
And they shall be my people and I will be their God. 

00:29:10.420 --> 00:29:11.420 
Now, Ezekiel is going on later. 

00:29:11.420 --> 00:29:12.420 
And when we get further down, we'll get to that. 

00:29:12.420 --> 00:29:15.420 
Further down the journey in Ezekiel. 

00:29:15.420 --> 00:29:19.420 
And we'll see that God will give us some of the details of how it's going to happen. 

00:29:19.420 --> 00:29:23.420 
But for now, this is a clear declaration that it will happen. 

00:29:23.420 --> 00:29:24.420 
Verse 21. 

00:29:24.420 --> 00:29:29.420 
But as for them whose heart walks after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, 

00:29:29.420 --> 00:29:34.420 
I will recompense their way upon their own heads, says the Lord God. 

00:29:34.420 --> 00:29:39.420 
And all in these verses, we see God's mercy, his grace, but also his judgment and justice. 

00:29:39.420 --> 00:29:40.420 
They're unmistakable. 

00:29:40.420 --> 00:29:41.420 
???????. 

00:29:41.420 --> 00:29:42.420 
And then verse 22. 

00:29:42.420 --> 00:29:47.420 
Then did the cherubim lift up their wings and the wheels beside them. 

00:29:47.420 --> 00:29:51.420 
And the glory of the God of Israel was over them above. 

00:29:51.420 --> 00:29:55.420 
And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city and stood upon the mountain, 

00:29:55.420 --> 00:29:57.420 
which is on the east side of the city. 

00:29:57.420 --> 00:29:59.420 
Let me just read this to you. 

00:29:59.420 --> 00:30:04.420 
This vision is no mean proof of the long suffering of God. 

00:30:04.420 --> 00:30:08.420 
I mean, this is a great example of the long suffering of God, is what it's saying. 

00:30:08.420 --> 00:30:10.420 
He did not abandon this people all at once. 

00:30:10.420 --> 00:30:12.420 
He departed little by little. 

00:30:12.420 --> 00:30:14.420 
First, he left the temple. 

00:30:14.420 --> 00:30:16.420 
We talked about that last week. 

00:30:16.420 --> 00:30:19.420 
Secondly, he stopped at the gate of the city. 

00:30:19.420 --> 00:30:23.420 
Thirdly, he departed entirely from the city and went to the Mount of Olives. 

00:30:23.420 --> 00:30:27.420 
That's what we've just seen described, which lay on the east side of the city. 

00:30:27.420 --> 00:30:32.420 
Having tarried there for some time to see it, they would repent and turn to him. 

00:30:32.420 --> 00:30:35.420 
God was giving them an opportunity to turn back. 

00:30:35.420 --> 00:30:38.420 
And then fourthly, he departed to heaven. 

00:30:38.420 --> 00:30:39.420 
That's for the Bible. 

00:30:39.420 --> 00:30:42.420 
That's from Adam Clark's commentary. 

00:30:42.420 --> 00:30:45.420 
Albert Barnes says this. 

00:30:45.420 --> 00:30:49.420 
The rabbis commenting on this passage said the Shekinah retired to this mountain, 

00:30:49.420 --> 00:30:52.420 
that's the Mount of Olives, and there for three years, 

00:30:52.420 --> 00:30:55.420 
this was what was passed down, this was what was believed, 

00:30:55.420 --> 00:30:59.420 
for three years he called in vain to the people with human voice that they should repent, 

00:30:59.420 --> 00:31:02.420 
human voice being Ezekiel, Jeremiah and so on. 

00:31:02.420 --> 00:31:06.420 
On that mountain Christ stood when he wept over the fair city. 

00:31:06.420 --> 00:31:08.420 
It's the same place that Jesus stood on the Mount of Olives, 

00:31:08.420 --> 00:31:13.420 
before he came down into Jerusalem, what we refer to as Palm Sunday. 

00:31:13.420 --> 00:31:20.420 
Again, wanting to see the nation repent, Jesus wept over Jerusalem. 

00:31:20.420 --> 00:31:25.420 
And again, soon to be utterly destroyed, Jesus knew what was coming in AD 70 with the Romans. 

00:31:25.420 --> 00:31:29.420 
And from that mountain he ascended amid loud hosannas to enter, 

00:31:29.420 --> 00:31:35.420 
sorry, he descended amid loud hosannas to enter the city and temple as a judge. 

00:31:38.420 --> 00:31:39.420 
We pick up verse 24. 

00:31:39.420 --> 00:31:44.420 
Afterwards the Spirit took me up and brought me in the vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea. 

00:31:44.420 --> 00:31:48.420 
Okay, so now he's back to Babylon in the vision. 

00:31:48.420 --> 00:31:54.420 
To them of the captivity, so the vision that I had seen went up from me. 

00:31:54.420 --> 00:31:57.420 
And then this is the commission, all that we've just read. 

00:31:57.420 --> 00:32:02.420 
He says, then I spoke unto them of the captivity all the things that the Lord had showed me. 

00:32:02.420 --> 00:32:06.420 
So all that we've just seen was a vision that he'd got and now he gets back home as it were, 

00:32:06.420 --> 00:32:07.420 
and now he goes back home. 

00:32:07.420 --> 00:32:11.420 
And now he goes out and he tells everybody what he'd just seen. 

00:32:11.420 --> 00:32:15.420 
All right, so quick summary of the chapters 4 to 11. 

00:32:15.420 --> 00:32:20.420 
Ezekiel's task had been to show the necessity of Jerusalem's judgment because of her disobedience. 

00:32:20.420 --> 00:32:24.420 
He demonstrated the fact of the siege through these series of signs that he's acted out 

00:32:24.420 --> 00:32:29.420 
and then explained the reason for the siege through two messages and the extended vision. 

00:32:29.420 --> 00:32:32.420 
The next section that we're going to move into, 

00:32:32.420 --> 00:32:36.420 
the people were still not ready to accept the fact of Jerusalem's fall. 

00:32:36.420 --> 00:32:37.420 
They were still not ready to accept the fact of Jerusalem's fall. 

00:32:37.420 --> 00:32:41.420 
Therefore, Ezekiel gave a new series of signs and messages. 

00:32:41.420 --> 00:32:43.420 
Any optimism will be futile. 

00:32:43.420 --> 00:32:45.420 
Jerusalem's fate had been sealed. 

00:32:45.420 --> 00:32:46.420 
God had declared it. 

00:32:46.420 --> 00:32:47.420 
It was going to happen. 

00:32:47.420 --> 00:32:51.420 
And these messages were in the interval between the second, 

00:32:51.420 --> 00:32:53.420 
that's the siege when Ezekiel was taken away, 

00:32:53.420 --> 00:32:57.420 
and the final siege in 587 BC. 

00:32:57.420 --> 00:33:00.420 
Let's just see if we can run through chapter 12. 

00:33:00.420 --> 00:33:06.420 
He gives two symbolic representations of flight from the besieged city. 

00:33:06.420 --> 00:33:10.420 
He expostulates with the false prophets. 

00:33:10.420 --> 00:33:12.420 
He pictures Israel as a useless fire. 

00:33:12.420 --> 00:33:13.420 
These are in the coming chapters. 

00:33:13.420 --> 00:33:15.420 
We won't get through all of this now. 

00:33:15.420 --> 00:33:20.420 
And then allegorically recalls Israel's long history of unfaithfulness to her bridegroom in chapter 16. 

00:33:20.420 --> 00:33:22.420 
This is kind of where we're going. 

00:33:22.420 --> 00:33:27.420 
Chapter 17, it returns to the metaphor of the vine to emphasize Zedekiah. 

00:33:27.420 --> 00:33:28.420 
He was the final king. 

00:33:28.420 --> 00:33:31.420 
We'll talk about him in a moment, his disloyalty. 

00:33:31.420 --> 00:33:34.420 
And he answers objections in chapter 18 to the divine punishment 

00:33:34.420 --> 00:33:35.420 
by analysis of the divine punishment. 

00:33:35.420 --> 00:33:38.420 
He answers objections in chapter 18 to the divine punishment by analysis of individual responsibility. 

00:33:38.420 --> 00:33:45.420 
Chapter 19, he bursts forth into a dirge over the princes of Judah and over Judah itself. 

00:33:45.420 --> 00:33:47.420 
So let's jump into chapter 12. 

00:33:47.420 --> 00:33:50.420 
We'll just say some of the things that are coming in this next section. 

00:33:50.420 --> 00:33:53.420 
The word of the Lord also came unto me saying, 

00:33:53.420 --> 00:33:57.420 
and again five times in this chapter we're going to see the word of the Lord. 

00:33:57.420 --> 00:33:58.420 
This isn't his opinion. 

00:33:58.420 --> 00:34:00.420 
This wasn't something he was trying to get off his chest. 

00:34:00.420 --> 00:34:03.420 
This is the word that God was giving him to speak. 

00:34:05.420 --> 00:34:07.420 
He's introducing 10 signs. 

00:34:07.420 --> 00:34:09.420 
We have that expression as well. 

00:34:09.420 --> 00:34:12.420 
The sermons, the Proverbs from chapter 12 through 19. 

00:34:12.420 --> 00:34:14.420 
Again, this is God speaking to the people. 

00:34:14.420 --> 00:34:17.420 
Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, 

00:34:17.420 --> 00:34:19.420 
which have eyes to see and see not. 

00:34:19.420 --> 00:34:22.420 
They have ears to hear and hear not, 

00:34:22.420 --> 00:34:25.420 
for they are a rebellious house. 

00:34:25.420 --> 00:34:31.420 
See, God continues to warn of their closed eyes and ears. 

00:34:31.420 --> 00:34:33.420 
It's interesting that we live in a time that's very similar to this. 

00:34:33.420 --> 00:34:34.420 
It's interesting that we live in a time that's very similar to this. 

00:34:35.420 --> 00:34:39.420 
The result of perversity, not incapacity. 

00:34:39.420 --> 00:34:42.420 
They are wilfully blind and deaf. 

00:34:42.420 --> 00:34:45.420 
They've allowed other things to steal their hearts and their minds. 

00:34:45.420 --> 00:34:49.420 
They don't want to see the things of God, just like the world today. 

00:34:49.420 --> 00:34:54.420 
Once the Pharisees accused Jesus of working his miracles by the power of Satan, 

00:34:54.420 --> 00:34:58.420 
if you remember, and he began withholding his message from them 

00:34:58.420 --> 00:35:00.420 
from that point at the end of Matthew chapter 12. 

00:35:00.420 --> 00:35:03.420 
And that led to the seven kingdom parables in Matthew 13. 

00:35:03.420 --> 00:35:04.420 
And the disciples asked him, 

00:35:04.420 --> 00:35:06.420 
why are you speaking in parables? 

00:35:06.420 --> 00:35:10.420 
And he quotes this passage from Ezekiel. 

00:35:10.420 --> 00:35:13.420 
Because they don't want to hear, they don't want to see. 

00:35:13.420 --> 00:35:16.420 
So Jesus started to speak to the disciples in parables, 

00:35:16.420 --> 00:35:18.420 
things that only they would understand. 

00:35:18.420 --> 00:35:21.420 
And even then Jesus had to explain it to them. 

00:35:21.420 --> 00:35:27.420 
And it's the same cry that Jesus gives to the church in Revelation 2 and 3. 

00:35:27.420 --> 00:35:30.420 
Those who have ears to hear. 

00:35:30.420 --> 00:35:32.420 
So these cries should echo for us as well, 

00:35:32.420 --> 00:35:33.420 
because we're told not to listen, 

00:35:33.420 --> 00:35:35.420 
because we're told not to be haughty. 

00:35:35.420 --> 00:35:36.420 
Don't look at Israel and think, 

00:35:36.420 --> 00:35:38.420 
wow, how could they make it so bad? 

00:35:38.420 --> 00:35:40.420 
How could they get it so wrong? 

00:35:40.420 --> 00:35:43.420 
Because the church are also tarred with that same brush, 

00:35:43.420 --> 00:35:45.420 
if you may put it that way. 

00:35:45.420 --> 00:35:46.420 
Verse 3, 

00:35:46.420 --> 00:35:49.420 
Therefore thou son of man, prepare the stuff for removing, 

00:35:49.420 --> 00:35:51.420 
and remove by day in their sight, 

00:35:51.420 --> 00:35:55.420 
and thou shalt remove from thy place to another place in their sight. 

00:35:55.420 --> 00:35:59.420 
It may be they will consider, though they be a rebellious house. 

00:35:59.420 --> 00:36:01.420 
So what he's being asked to do now, 

00:36:01.420 --> 00:36:03.420 
here is basically, it's a relocation. 

00:36:03.420 --> 00:36:06.420 
It's not just, you know, pack all your stuff up, 

00:36:06.420 --> 00:36:08.420 
get ready to move. 

00:36:08.420 --> 00:36:10.420 
Some of you have moved houses. 

00:36:10.420 --> 00:36:12.420 
You know exactly what it's like. 

00:36:12.420 --> 00:36:15.420 
Then shall thou bring forth thy stuff by day in their sight, 

00:36:15.420 --> 00:36:17.420 
the stuff removing, and thou shalt go forth, 

00:36:17.420 --> 00:36:21.420 
and even in their sight as they that go forth into captivity. 

00:36:21.420 --> 00:36:22.420 
All right, they all know this. 

00:36:22.420 --> 00:36:23.420 
They've all seen this, 

00:36:23.420 --> 00:36:28.420 
because they've just recently been relocated from Israel to Babylon. 

00:36:28.420 --> 00:36:30.420 
And so now they're going to go, Ezekiel, what are you doing? 

00:36:30.420 --> 00:36:32.420 
Pack your stuff up. 

00:36:32.420 --> 00:36:36.420 
It's an object lesson to teach them what God is going to do, as you'll see. 

00:36:36.420 --> 00:36:38.420 
Again, this is to give a double emphasis. 

00:36:38.420 --> 00:36:40.420 
Ezekiel started moving in the morning, 

00:36:40.420 --> 00:36:43.420 
and then in the evening, still doing the same, 

00:36:43.420 --> 00:36:45.420 
still kind of finishing off his job. 

00:36:45.420 --> 00:36:46.420 
And maybe, I don't know this, 

00:36:46.420 --> 00:36:48.420 
and there's no commentator that said it specifically, 

00:36:48.420 --> 00:36:50.420 
but maybe at the times of the daily sacrifices, 

00:36:50.420 --> 00:36:53.420 
those times those things would have been happening in Jerusalem, 

00:36:53.420 --> 00:36:56.420 
just to emphasize the point. 

00:36:56.420 --> 00:36:57.420 
It was symbolic. 

00:36:57.420 --> 00:37:00.420 
It was to indicate that they were going to be fleeing the city, 

00:37:00.420 --> 00:37:04.420 
those in Jerusalem, to try and avoid capture. 

00:37:04.420 --> 00:37:08.420 
He was trying to separate them from their complacency, if you like. 

00:37:08.420 --> 00:37:11.420 
So this message isn't just for those in Babylon. 

00:37:11.420 --> 00:37:14.420 
This is for those back home as it were in Jerusalem. 

00:37:14.420 --> 00:37:16.420 
They knew their city was under vassal rule. 

00:37:16.420 --> 00:37:18.420 
That's the rule of the foreign power. 

00:37:18.420 --> 00:37:21.420 
The Babylonians were ruling over them, Nebuchadnezzar. 

00:37:21.420 --> 00:37:23.420 
But they had the attitude it was just temporary. 

00:37:23.420 --> 00:37:24.420 
Things were going to get better. 

00:37:24.420 --> 00:37:26.420 
And they weren't listening to the prophets, 

00:37:26.420 --> 00:37:29.420 
either Jeremiah before or Ezekiel now. 

00:37:29.420 --> 00:37:31.420 
And then Ezekiel is told this, 

00:37:31.420 --> 00:37:33.420 
Dig thou through the wall in their sight, 

00:37:33.420 --> 00:37:35.420 
and carry out thereby. 

00:37:35.420 --> 00:37:37.420 
I mean this is quite dramatic. 

00:37:37.420 --> 00:37:39.420 
Rather than just going through a gate or whatever, 

00:37:39.420 --> 00:37:41.420 
he's literally digging through a wall. 

00:37:41.420 --> 00:37:43.420 
And they're in their sight, they're seeing this. 

00:37:43.420 --> 00:37:46.420 
Because in their sight thou shalt bear it upon thy shoulders, 

00:37:46.420 --> 00:37:48.420 
and carry it forth in twilight. 

00:37:48.420 --> 00:37:50.420 
Thou shalt cover thy face, 

00:37:50.420 --> 00:37:52.420 
that thou shalt see not the ground. 

00:37:52.420 --> 00:37:55.420 
For I have set thee for a sign unto the house of Israel. 

00:37:55.420 --> 00:37:58.420 
So Ezekiel was to pretend as if he's been taken captive. 

00:37:58.420 --> 00:38:00.420 
To dig through the wall, 

00:38:00.420 --> 00:38:02.420 
carrying out his belongings on his shoulder. 

00:38:02.420 --> 00:38:05.420 
And I did so as I was commanded. 

00:38:05.420 --> 00:38:07.420 
I brought forth my stuff by day, 

00:38:07.420 --> 00:38:09.420 
I stuffed for captivity, 

00:38:09.420 --> 00:38:11.420 
and in the evening I dig through the wall with my hand, 

00:38:11.420 --> 00:38:13.420 
and I brought it forth in the twilight, 

00:38:13.420 --> 00:38:15.420 
and I bear it upon my shoulder in their sight. 

00:38:15.420 --> 00:38:19.420 
And in the morning came the word of the Lord unto me, saying, 

00:38:19.420 --> 00:38:21.420 
Son of man, hast not the house of Israel, 

00:38:21.420 --> 00:38:23.420 
the rebellious house, said unto thee, 

00:38:23.420 --> 00:38:24.420 
What doest thou? 

00:38:24.420 --> 00:38:26.420 
I'm sure there were many people saying, 

00:38:26.420 --> 00:38:27.420 
Ezekiel, what are you doing? 

00:38:27.420 --> 00:38:29.420 
Why, if you want to go, just use the door. 

00:38:29.420 --> 00:38:31.420 
No, this was an object lesson. 

00:38:31.420 --> 00:38:33.420 
He was making a point to them. 

00:38:33.420 --> 00:38:36.420 
Clearly they were interested in what he was saying. 

00:38:36.420 --> 00:38:38.420 
And once he had their attention, 

00:38:38.420 --> 00:38:39.420 
he could deliver the message, 

00:38:39.420 --> 00:38:41.420 
which is the whole point of this. 

00:38:41.420 --> 00:38:43.420 
So God says to Ezekiel, 

00:38:43.420 --> 00:38:44.420 
Say thou unto them, 

00:38:44.420 --> 00:38:46.420 
Thus says the Lord God. 

00:38:46.420 --> 00:38:49.420 
This burden concerns the prince in Jerusalem 

00:38:49.420 --> 00:38:52.420 
and all the house of Israel that are among them. 

00:38:52.420 --> 00:38:55.420 
There's going to be a play on words here. 

00:38:55.420 --> 00:38:58.420 
It implies that the biggest burden here is for the biggest ruler, 

00:38:58.420 --> 00:39:00.420 
the prince in Jerusalem that he's making reference to, 

00:39:00.420 --> 00:39:02.420 
which we know as Zedekiah. 

00:39:02.420 --> 00:39:07.420 
Interestingly, Ezekiel doesn't ever refer to Zedekiah as king. 

00:39:07.420 --> 00:39:09.420 
He doesn't give him that honour. 

00:39:09.420 --> 00:39:13.420 
Because he was king in that legal sense, 

00:39:13.420 --> 00:39:16.420 
but he was actually sitting there, 

00:39:16.420 --> 00:39:19.420 
he was under the authority of Babylon. 

00:39:21.420 --> 00:39:23.420 
If you look at the final chapter, 

00:39:23.420 --> 00:39:24.420 
you'll see that it's a little bit different. 

00:39:24.420 --> 00:39:27.420 
If you look at the final kings of Judah, 

00:39:27.420 --> 00:39:29.420 
we've talked about this before, 

00:39:29.420 --> 00:39:31.420 
we have Josiah, he was a good king. 

00:39:31.420 --> 00:39:34.420 
He dies in this strange battle against Pharaonecho, 

00:39:34.420 --> 00:39:37.420 
some really interesting reasons to why that all seems to have taken place. 

00:39:37.420 --> 00:39:39.420 
Then on the way back from Carshamesh, 

00:39:39.420 --> 00:39:42.420 
Pharaonecho comes back down via Jerusalem 

00:39:42.420 --> 00:39:46.420 
and takes Jehoaz, his son, into captivity into Egypt. 

00:39:46.420 --> 00:39:49.420 
And so then he places Jehoiakim on the throne, 

00:39:49.420 --> 00:39:51.420 
who reigns for 11 years. 

00:39:51.420 --> 00:39:53.420 
And then when he dies, his son Jehoiachin, 

00:39:53.420 --> 00:39:54.420 
sits on the throne, 

00:39:54.420 --> 00:39:56.420 
but then Nebuchadnezzar takes him to Babylon 

00:39:56.420 --> 00:40:00.420 
and appoints Zedekiah, the other son of Josiah. 

00:40:00.420 --> 00:40:04.420 
And then he reigns for 11 years until the final siege in 587. 

00:40:04.420 --> 00:40:06.420 
So he is king of Jerusalem, 

00:40:06.420 --> 00:40:09.420 
but he's a king under the power and authority of Babylon. 

00:40:09.420 --> 00:40:12.420 
I just put this here because I had these slides from a previous session 

00:40:12.420 --> 00:40:14.420 
that I'd done many years ago. 

00:40:14.420 --> 00:40:16.420 
But it's just interesting to look at the chronology. 

00:40:16.420 --> 00:40:18.420 
We know that the first siege was 606. 

00:40:18.420 --> 00:40:20.420 
There's lots of dates that corroborate that historically. 

00:40:20.420 --> 00:40:21.420 
Nebuchadnezzar is made king. 

00:40:21.420 --> 00:40:22.420 
This was the first king of Jerusalem. 

00:40:23.420 --> 00:40:25.420 
The year that his father dies. 

00:40:25.420 --> 00:40:27.420 
And so this would be the first year of his reign, 

00:40:27.420 --> 00:40:29.420 
the way that the Babylonian kings were reigned. 

00:40:29.420 --> 00:40:31.420 
This was the Ascension year, 

00:40:31.420 --> 00:40:33.420 
and that was then the first legal year of his reign. 

00:40:33.420 --> 00:40:35.420 
And then we go through, we've got all the dates. 

00:40:35.420 --> 00:40:37.420 
Interestingly, there's so many scriptures that you can look at 

00:40:37.420 --> 00:40:39.420 
through Kings, through Chronicles, 

00:40:39.420 --> 00:40:41.420 
and everything ties together. 

00:40:41.420 --> 00:40:43.420 
Trying to get all these details to map perfectly 

00:40:43.420 --> 00:40:46.420 
would be really difficult, unless of course it's true. 

00:40:46.420 --> 00:40:49.420 
We're told that Jehoiachin was 25 years old when he began to reign. 

00:40:49.420 --> 00:40:51.420 
He reigned 11 years in Jerusalem. 

00:40:51.420 --> 00:40:53.420 
And we've got all the dates. 

00:40:53.420 --> 00:40:55.420 
They're all there. 

00:40:55.420 --> 00:40:58.420 
It was the third year, we're told, that was the first siege. 

00:40:58.420 --> 00:41:01.420 
And so that takes us to that point there. 

00:41:01.420 --> 00:41:04.420 
Then Zedekiah was 21 years old when he began to reign. 

00:41:04.420 --> 00:41:06.420 
He reigned 11 years in Jerusalem. 

00:41:06.420 --> 00:41:07.420 
So that's Zedekiah's first year. 

00:41:07.420 --> 00:41:09.420 
That's when he comes to the throne. 

00:41:09.420 --> 00:41:13.420 
And then we go through the reign up until the final siege. 

00:41:13.420 --> 00:41:16.420 
And then we're told in Jeremiah 52, 

00:41:16.420 --> 00:41:18.420 
Now in the fifth month, the tenth day of the month, 

00:41:18.420 --> 00:41:21.420 
which was the 19th year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, 

00:41:21.420 --> 00:41:23.420 
came Nebuchadnezzar. 

00:41:23.420 --> 00:41:25.420 
And then the captain of the guard, which served the king of Babylon, 

00:41:25.420 --> 00:41:28.420 
entered Jerusalem and burned the house of the Lord and the king's house 

00:41:28.420 --> 00:41:30.420 
and all the houses of Jerusalem. 

00:41:30.420 --> 00:41:32.420 
So again, that's the final siege. 

00:41:32.420 --> 00:41:34.420 
And again, it's the 19th year. 

00:41:34.420 --> 00:41:37.420 
So you just look at this, you overlay that over top. 

00:41:37.420 --> 00:41:40.420 
So right from the first year, everything just ties together. 

00:41:40.420 --> 00:41:44.420 
There's so many details, complex details that are given to us in Chronicles. 

00:41:44.420 --> 00:41:46.420 
If you've ever read through Chronicles, 

00:41:46.420 --> 00:41:49.420 
you probably get a bit tied down with some of those details and those numbers. 

00:41:49.420 --> 00:41:52.420 
But they're there to prove the Bible is 100% accurate. 

00:41:52.420 --> 00:41:54.420 
We can rely on it. We can trust it. 

00:41:54.420 --> 00:41:56.420 
There's all been the slides that go up online. 

00:41:56.420 --> 00:41:59.420 
So if you want to see that again, it'll be there. 

00:41:59.420 --> 00:42:05.420 
So Judah's last king, this period of time from 597 to 587. 

00:42:05.420 --> 00:42:09.420 
He's the youngest son of Josiah, as we saw. 

00:42:09.420 --> 00:42:12.420 
The brother of Jehoiada, as we mentioned a moment ago. 

00:42:12.420 --> 00:42:16.420 
Ten years old when his father died, 21 when he became the king. 

00:42:16.420 --> 00:42:18.420 
Originally, his name was Mathaniah, 

00:42:18.420 --> 00:42:20.420 
but Nebuchadnezzar changes his name to Zedekiah. 

00:42:20.420 --> 00:42:22.420 
And he deposed Zedekiah. 

00:42:22.420 --> 00:42:25.420 
He's now Zechariah's nephew, Jehoiachin. 

00:42:25.420 --> 00:42:29.420 
And it proves that Nebuchadnezzar treated him well, as a good king. 

00:42:29.420 --> 00:42:31.420 
It says, allowing him to choose a new name. 

00:42:31.420 --> 00:42:35.420 
And the name, although it may seem as if it's a glorifying God, 

00:42:35.420 --> 00:42:38.420 
the name in Hebrew means righteousness of Yahweh. 

00:42:38.420 --> 00:42:41.420 
The suggestion is actually it was more to do with his allegiance 

00:42:41.420 --> 00:42:44.420 
that he sworn to Nebuchadnezzar. 

00:42:44.420 --> 00:42:50.420 
Had Zedekiah kept this oath of fealty, the treaty, this agreement, 

00:42:50.420 --> 00:42:52.420 
that he made with his father, 

00:42:52.420 --> 00:42:55.420 
that he made with the king of Babylon, with Nebuchadnezzar, 

00:42:55.420 --> 00:42:58.420 
he would have probably been safe, though dependent upon him. 

00:42:58.420 --> 00:42:59.420 
But he was weak. 

00:42:59.420 --> 00:43:02.420 
He listened to those around him that were giving him bad advice. 

00:43:02.420 --> 00:43:05.420 
He ends up rebelling, and on account of that, judgment comes. 

00:43:05.420 --> 00:43:10.420 
Nebuchadnezzar comes, the final siege, and so on. 

00:43:10.420 --> 00:43:11.420 
Let's pick up verse 11. 

00:43:11.420 --> 00:43:16.420 
Say, I am your sign, as I have done, so it shall be done unto them. 

00:43:16.420 --> 00:43:20.420 
They shall remove and go into captivity. 

00:43:20.420 --> 00:43:25.420 
Ezekiel,  

00:43:26.420 --> 00:43:31.420 
In what he does is the presence of the exiles. 

00:43:31.420 --> 00:43:34.420 
He's expressing that which before long will come to pass in Jerusalem. 

00:43:34.420 --> 00:43:35.420 
This is all playing out. 

00:43:35.420 --> 00:43:39.420 
So he's trying to show them what is going to happen in Jerusalem. 

00:43:39.420 --> 00:43:40.420 
And the Prince that is among them. 

00:43:40.420 --> 00:43:43.420 
Notice that Prince that is again referenced the Zedekiah, 

00:43:43.420 --> 00:43:45.420 
doesn't call him king, and gives him that honour. 

00:43:45.420 --> 00:43:48.420 
That is among them shall bear upon His shoulder in the twilight. 

00:43:48.420 --> 00:43:49.420 
Again, just get the picture. Ezekiel has just done this little act of going 

00:43:49.420 --> 00:43:53.140 
out breaking through the wall digging through the wall escaping and he's now 

00:43:53.140 --> 00:43:58.040 
saying that's what's gonna happen to the king. okay again he's gonna bear upon his 

00:43:58.040 --> 00:44:00.820 
shoulder in the Twilight just as it was when Ezekiel had gone through the wall 

00:44:00.820 --> 00:44:04.060 
shall go forth and they shall dig through the wall to carry out thereby 

00:44:04.060 --> 00:44:09.420 
and shall cover his face that he shall not see the ground with his eyes again 

00:44:09.420 --> 00:44:13.120 
implying he's gonna disguise himself doesn't want to be seen doesn't recall 

00:44:13.120 --> 00:44:17.260 
maybe a sign of mourning he's gonna have covering over his head and he's gonna 

00:44:17.260 --> 00:44:22.360 
make this exit from the city and Jeremiah 39 again is a passage that 

00:44:22.360 --> 00:44:27.660 
speaks about this. As because man goes forth out of the city by night verse 13 

00:44:27.660 --> 00:44:32.440 
my net also will I spread upon him and he shall be taken in my sweat snare I 

00:44:32.440 --> 00:44:37.240 
will bring him to Babylon to the land of the Chaldeans yet shall he not see it 

00:44:37.240 --> 00:44:42.140 
though he shall die there this is a verse that has caused some confusion 

00:44:42.140 --> 00:44:47.020 
because we're told as he was saying that he's not going to see Babylon 

00:44:47.020 --> 00:44:47.240 
you're not going to see Babylon you're not going to see Babylon you're not going to see Babylon 

00:44:47.240 --> 00:44:51.799 
and then he's saying but he's gonna die there so what does that mean is that a 

00:44:51.799 --> 00:44:57.020 
contradiction well Josephus the historian you probably heard the name 

00:44:57.020 --> 00:45:01.700 
Josephus he relates that Ezekiel sent this prophecy to Jerusalem and that 

00:45:01.700 --> 00:45:07.040 
Zedekiah believing Ezekiel's words were a contradiction to what Jeremiah had 

00:45:07.040 --> 00:45:12.259 
already spoken chose to ignore both all right Jeremiah had said you're gonna be 

00:45:12.259 --> 00:45:17.000 
taken to Babylon Ezekiel says you're not gonna see Babylon and so this becomes 

00:45:17.000 --> 00:45:20.300 
a bit of a conundrum and a problem to the point that Zedekiah says well I can't 

00:45:20.300 --> 00:45:24.380 
trust any of you so he hardens himself from rebellion just as Pharaoh and many 

00:45:24.380 --> 00:45:29.060 
others have done in Scripture this is reaching from Jeremiah quickly Jeremiah 

00:45:29.060 --> 00:45:33.480 
32 verse 4 and Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the 

00:45:33.480 --> 00:45:37.240 
Chaldeans but shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon and 

00:45:37.240 --> 00:45:41.760 
shall speak with him mouth to mouth and his eyes shall behold his eyes so he's 

00:45:41.760 --> 00:45:46.760 
gonna look into the eyes of the king of Babylon and he shall lead Zedekiah to Babylon. There you have a clear statement 

00:45:47.000 --> 00:45:54.820 
and there shall he be until I visit him, says The Lord 

<<<<<<<<<<< 
00:46:16.820 --> 00:46:17.920 
He's going to be taken to Babylon. 

00:46:19.500 --> 00:46:23.340 
I'll read to you what Josephus says in his commentary, 

00:46:23.440 --> 00:46:24.540 
the Antiquities of the Jews. 

00:46:24.900 --> 00:46:25.520 
Bear with me. 

00:46:25.580 --> 00:46:26.120 
Just follow this. 

00:46:27.280 --> 00:46:27.940 
This is what he says. 

00:46:27.980 --> 00:46:30.680 
Now Zedekiah was 21 years old when he took the government 

00:46:30.680 --> 00:46:34.060 
and had the same mother with his brother Jehoiachin. 

00:46:34.800 --> 00:46:37.140 
But he was a despiser of justice and of his duty, 

00:46:37.200 --> 00:46:40.960 
for truly those of the same age with him were wicked about him, 

00:46:40.960 --> 00:46:44.800 
and the whole multitude did what unjust and insolent things they pleased. 

00:46:44.800 --> 00:46:47.220 
I'm painting the picture we've already seen. 

00:47:14.800 --> 00:47:16.020 
Such as they expected. 

00:47:17.240 --> 00:47:21.000 
Now, as to Zedekiah himself, while he heard the prophet speak, 

00:47:21.080 --> 00:47:23.600 
he believed him and agreed to everything as true 

00:47:23.600 --> 00:47:25.400 
and supposed it was for his vantage. 

00:47:25.560 --> 00:47:29.000 
But then, so when Jeremiah typically would go and speak to Zedekiah, 

00:47:29.360 --> 00:47:30.060 
he'd agree with him. 

00:47:30.840 --> 00:47:33.020 
But as soon as Jeremiah was out of his presence, 

00:47:33.520 --> 00:47:36.480 
then his friends perverted him and dissuaded him 

00:47:36.480 --> 00:47:40.340 
from what the prophet advised and obliged him to do what they pleased. 

00:47:41.580 --> 00:47:42.860 
Ezekiel also foretold in Babylon 

00:47:42.860 --> 00:47:44.780 
what calamities were coming upon the people. 

00:47:44.800 --> 00:47:48.680 
Which when he heard, he sent accounts of them unto Jerusalem. 

00:47:49.520 --> 00:47:52.460 
But Zedekiah did not believe their prophecies for the reason following. 

00:47:52.760 --> 00:47:55.780 
It happened that the two prophets agreed with one another 

00:47:55.780 --> 00:47:58.640 
in what they said, as in all other things, 

00:47:58.860 --> 00:48:01.860 
that the city should be taken and Zedekiah himself should be taken captive. 

00:48:02.300 --> 00:48:04.660 
But Ezekiel disagreed with him. 

00:48:05.140 --> 00:48:06.860 
This is with Jeremiah he's saying. 

00:48:07.320 --> 00:48:09.640 
And said that Zedekiah should not see Babylon 

00:48:09.640 --> 00:48:12.580 
while Jeremiah said to him that the king of Babylon 

00:48:12.580 --> 00:48:14.600 
should carry him away thither in bonds. 

00:48:14.800 --> 00:48:18.120 
So Josephus is highlighting this apparent contradiction. 

00:48:18.120 --> 00:48:20.800 
And because they did not both say the same thing 

00:48:20.800 --> 00:48:25.120 
as to the circumstance, he disbelieved what they both appeared to agree in 

00:48:25.120 --> 00:48:27.600 
and condemned them as not speaking truth therein. 

00:48:27.600 --> 00:48:30.400 
Although all the things foretold him did come to pass 

00:48:30.400 --> 00:48:34.240 
according to their prophecies, as we shall show upon a fitter opportunity. 

00:48:35.120 --> 00:48:38.480 
Now the city was taken on the ninth day of the fourth month 

00:48:38.480 --> 00:48:40.800 
in the eleventh year of the reign of Zedekiah. 

00:48:40.800 --> 00:48:43.360 
This is the final siege of Jerusalem he's talking about. 

00:48:43.360 --> 00:48:44.560 
And they were indeed, 

00:48:44.560 --> 00:48:48.560 
only generals of the king of Babylon to whom Nebuchadnezzar committed the care of the siege, 

00:48:48.560 --> 00:48:50.880 
for he abode himself in the city of Reba. 

00:48:50.880 --> 00:48:53.680 
If you remember that other brief quote we put up a moment ago, 

00:48:53.680 --> 00:48:56.560 
it was the generals of Nebuchadnezzar that came and did the final siege. 

00:48:56.560 --> 00:48:58.080 
Nebuchadnezzar didn't bother coming himself. 

00:48:58.799 --> 00:49:01.440 
The names of these generals who ravaged and subdued Jerusalem, 

00:49:02.160 --> 00:49:04.400 
if any desire to know them, are those. 

00:49:05.440 --> 00:49:06.480 
You can read them in your own time. 

00:49:07.600 --> 00:49:09.600 
And when the city was taken about midnight 

00:49:09.600 --> 00:49:12.080 
and the enemies generals were entered into the temple 

00:49:12.080 --> 00:49:14.240 
and when Ezekiel was sensible of it, 

00:49:14.240 --> 00:49:14.400 
he was willing to take the city, he was willing to take the city, 

00:49:14.400 --> 00:49:14.480 
he was willing to take the city, he was willing to take the city, 

00:49:14.480 --> 00:49:15.200 
he was aware of it, 

00:49:15.200 --> 00:49:18.400 
he took his wives and his children, his captains and friends with him 

00:49:18.400 --> 00:49:22.240 
and fled out of the city through the fortified ditch. 

00:49:22.240 --> 00:49:25.280 
He broke through the wall just as Ezekiel had acted out and through the desert. 

00:49:26.480 --> 00:49:30.320 
And when certain of the deserters had informed the Babylonians of this, 

00:49:30.320 --> 00:49:33.600 
at break of day they made haste to pursue after Zedekiah. 

00:49:33.600 --> 00:49:35.440 
He's got out of the city, he's escaping, 

00:49:35.440 --> 00:49:39.360 
and overtook him not far from Jericho and encompassed about him. 

00:49:39.360 --> 00:49:43.360 
But for those friends and captains of Zedekiah who had fled out of the city with him, 

00:49:43.360 --> 00:49:44.320 
when they saw 

00:49:44.320 --> 00:49:47.680 
their enemies near them, they left him and dispersed themselves. 

00:49:47.680 --> 00:49:48.480 
Great friends they were. 

00:49:49.040 --> 00:49:52.160 
Some went one way and some another and everyone resolved to save himself. 

00:49:53.360 --> 00:49:55.920 
So the enemy took Zedekiah alive. 

00:49:56.720 --> 00:50:00.640 
And when he was deserted by all but a few with his children and his wives 

00:50:01.360 --> 00:50:02.720 
and brought him to the king. 

00:50:02.720 --> 00:50:04.400 
So they're now bringing to Nebuchadnezzar. 

00:50:04.400 --> 00:50:09.440 
And when he was come, Nebuchadnezzar began to call him a wicked wretch and covenant breaker 

00:50:09.440 --> 00:50:13.520 
and one that had forgotten his former words when he promised to keep the country for him. 

00:50:13.520 --> 00:50:14.000 
So Nebuchadnezzar 

00:50:14.879 --> 00:50:20.799 
had set Zedekiah up as king and said, you rule over Jerusalem for me and you'll be okay. 

00:50:20.799 --> 00:50:22.000 
Of course, Zedekiah didn't. 

00:50:22.000 --> 00:50:26.960 
He rebels against Nebuchadnezzar and said, Nebuchadnezzar, quite rightly so, is angry with him. 

00:50:26.960 --> 00:50:28.000 
And they capture him. 

00:50:28.000 --> 00:50:32.560 
And now he is, as we've already seen, seeing him eye to eye, looking into his eyes. 

00:50:33.440 --> 00:50:37.920 
He also reproached him for his ingratitude that when he had received the kingdom from him, 

00:50:37.920 --> 00:50:43.280 
who had taken it from Jehoiachin and given it to him, he had made use of the power 

00:50:44.320 --> 00:50:46.160 
he gave him against him that gave it. 

00:50:46.160 --> 00:50:48.720 
In other words, he turned against Nebuchadnezzar. 

00:50:48.720 --> 00:50:50.640 
But, said he, God is great. 

00:50:50.640 --> 00:50:53.200 
This is Nebuchadnezzar, apparently according to Josephus. 

00:50:53.200 --> 00:50:57.520 
God is great, who hateth that conduct of thine and has brought thee under us. 

00:50:57.520 --> 00:51:02.800 
One incredible thing that a Gentile king, if this record of Josephus is right, 

00:51:03.360 --> 00:51:07.440 
is actually speaking words in righteousness, in a sense, 

00:51:07.440 --> 00:51:07.840 
saying, 

00:51:07.840 --> 00:51:13.440 
that God is good, but Zedekiah, who was supposed to be God's servant, is bad. 

00:51:14.240 --> 00:51:21.040 
And when he had used these words to Zedekiah, he commanded his sons and his friends to be slain, 

00:51:22.560 --> 00:51:26.160 
while Zedekiah and the rest of the captains looked on. 

00:51:27.360 --> 00:51:31.440 
So they literally kill all his sons and those who were with him before his eyes. 

00:51:32.000 --> 00:51:32.880 
And then look at this. 

00:51:33.840 --> 00:51:37.360 
After which he put out the eyes of Zedekiah. 

00:51:37.360 --> 00:51:39.600 
And bound him and carried him to Babylon. 

00:51:43.200 --> 00:51:48.240 
And these things happened to him, as Jeremiah and Ezekiel had foretold to him, 

00:51:48.240 --> 00:51:52.080 
that he should be caught and brought before the king of Babylon. 

00:51:52.800 --> 00:51:54.000 
This was not in Babylon. 

00:51:54.960 --> 00:51:57.200 
And should speak to him face to face. 

00:51:57.840 --> 00:52:00.640 
And should see his eyes with his own eyes. 

00:52:00.640 --> 00:52:02.480 
And thus far did Jeremiah prophesy. 

00:52:03.760 --> 00:52:05.280 
But he also was made blind. 

00:52:06.080 --> 00:52:07.120 
And brought to Babylon. 

00:52:07.360 --> 00:52:13.420 
but did not see it according to the prediction of Ezekiel you see they were 

00:52:13.420 --> 00:52:23.000 
both right Ezekiel says you're not going to see Babylon Jeremiah says you're going 

00:52:23.000 --> 00:52:27.460 
to Babylon they were both right he did go to Babylon but he didn't see it 

00:52:27.460 --> 00:52:34.240 
because he had his eyes removed the terrible siege soon followed so that 

00:52:34.240 --> 00:52:37.439 
mothers boiled and ate the flesh of their own infants and the visage of their 

00:52:37.439 --> 00:52:41.680 
nobles was blacker than coal their skin clave to their bones and became withered 

00:52:41.680 --> 00:52:44.859 
on the night there the fourth month in the middle of July after a year and a 

00:52:44.859 --> 00:52:48.759 
half siege in the tenth month of the ninth year to the fourth month of the 

00:52:48.759 --> 00:52:52.240 
eleventh year of Zedekiah about midnight a breach was made in the wall 

00:52:52.240 --> 00:52:57.819 
so the Babylonian princes took their seats and stayed in the middle gates up 

00:52:57.819 --> 00:53:00.459 
between the upper and lower city and Zedekiah fled in the opposite 

00:53:00.459 --> 00:53:04.120 
direction again escaping through the wall 

00:53:04.120 --> 00:53:04.240 
and 

00:53:04.240 --> 00:53:07.899 
through the ????? Valley again just getting out of the city and this is 

00:53:07.899 --> 00:53:11.479 
where he's captured as we've already said right okay 

00:53:11.479 --> 00:53:17.379 
Chuck Missler made the comment says on deeper search apparent discrepancies in 

00:53:17.379 --> 00:53:21.959 
scripture proved to be hidden harmonies okay so we have what is apparently a 

00:53:21.959 --> 00:53:25.839 
contradiction what Zedekiah himself has thought to be a contradiction when you 

00:53:25.839 --> 00:53:29.899 
actually delve into scripture you find it's not a contradiction at all it just 

00:53:29.899 --> 00:53:34.040 
shows that God says what he means and means what he says God is literal in 

00:53:34.040 --> 00:53:38.660 
scripture the prophecies that we find are to be taken seriously we're told in 

00:53:38.660 --> 00:53:44.700 
Psalm 138 verse 2 that God places his word even above his name! when Daniel 

00:53:44.700 --> 00:53:51.500 
read Jeremiah who spoke of the 70 years of captivity Daniel took it literally 

00:53:51.500 --> 00:53:56.180 
didn't believe it to be allegorical or figurative or anything else every time 

00:53:56.180 --> 00:54:01.540 
Jesus quoted from the Old Testament he applied it literally every time you see 

00:54:01.540 --> 00:54:02.040 
the Word of God applied by another servant of God in scripture you see that 

00:54:02.040 --> 00:54:02.140 
the word of God is literally applied by another servant of God in scripture 

00:54:02.140 --> 00:54:02.720 
every time you see the word of God applied by another servant of God in 

00:54:02.720 --> 00:54:03.920 
scripture you see that the word of God is literally applied by another servant of God in 

00:54:03.920 --> 00:54:08.860 
scripture you always find that it's taken literally we are to believe the 

00:54:08.860 --> 00:54:12.540 
things in the Word of God and if you don't if you try allegorize you come up 

00:54:12.540 --> 00:54:17.080 
with some other explanation you're the one that is going to be humbled when you 

00:54:17.080 --> 00:54:20.200 
stumble across what is hidden in Scripture there are so many wonderful 

00:54:20.200 --> 00:54:24.880 
things in Scripture that may on the surface seem like a contradiction as you 

00:54:24.880 --> 00:54:30.400 
dig into it you find there's a wonderful truth there just as it is in this case I 

00:54:30.400 --> 00:54:32.020 
won't read through all of these this is just from 2nd Kings 2's all the way through the Bible that's what this is all about 

00:54:32.020 --> 00:54:33.520 
I won't read through all of these this is just from 2nd Kings 2's all the way through the Bible that's what this is all about 

00:54:33.920 --> 00:54:36.660 
you'll be in the slides if you want to read this is the account that we given 

00:54:36.660 --> 00:54:40.260 
in the book of 2nd Kings which basically takes us through exactly the same thing 

00:54:40.260 --> 00:54:45.620 
that we just talked about there Zedekiah was a deceptive wicked individual broke 

00:54:45.620 --> 00:54:49.820 
his treaty with Nebuchadnezzar and Nebuchadnezzar this pagan king is clearly 

00:54:49.820 --> 00:54:55.000 
more honourable than the man on Israel's throne Zedekiah for breaking his oath of 

00:54:55.000 --> 00:54:59.400 
allegiance was blinded and died in captivity in Babylon we just go on to 

00:54:59.400 --> 00:55:02.920 
the end of the chapter and I was scattered toward every wind all that are 

00:55:02.920 --> 00:55:03.840 
about him to help him 

00:55:03.840 --> 00:55:03.900 
and I was scattered toward every wind all that are about him to help him 

00:55:03.920 --> 00:55:07.580 
we just saw that we saw Josephus make reference to that and all his bands 

00:55:07.580 --> 00:55:12.480 
again that's the idea all his bands is referred to the number of men not that 

00:55:12.480 --> 00:55:16.000 
many of them but they were easily counted and they flee and I would draw 

00:55:16.000 --> 00:55:19.500 
out the sword after them and they should know that I am the Lord when I shall 

00:55:19.500 --> 00:55:24.100 
scatter them among the nations and disperse them in the countries but I 

00:55:24.100 --> 00:55:28.140 
will I will leave a few men of them from the sword from the famine from the 

00:55:28.140 --> 00:55:32.780 
pestilence and they that they may declare all their abominations among the 


heathen whether they come and they shall know that I am The Lord. 
So The Lord has allowed some of them to survive 
so that they would tell of what had happened 
so Gods name would be glorified 
that on account of Israels disobedience these things were taking place. 
Verse 17: Moreover the word of The Lord came unto me saying Son of man, ??? bread and drink thy ??? with trembling and with carefullness 

like a pantomime is going to be played out here in a sense, a kind of symbolism 


>>>>>>>>>>  TIME IS RIGHT HERE, FOR THIS TEXT! 
00:56:01.500 --> 00:56:05.240 
And the emphasis was on the scarcity of food previously. 

00:56:06.040 --> 00:56:10.300 
There was a famine, but now what is facing them is so great 

00:56:10.300 --> 00:56:12.480 
that actually the lack of food is the least of their problems. 

00:56:13.460 --> 00:56:14.760 
And say unto the people of the land, 

00:56:14.880 --> 00:56:19.040 
Thus says the Lord God of the inhabitants of Jerusalem and of the land of Israel, 

00:56:19.440 --> 00:56:22.940 
They shall eat their bread with carefulness and drink their water with astonishment, 

00:56:23.500 --> 00:56:26.820 
that her land may be desolate from all that is therein, 

00:56:26.820 --> 00:56:30.680 
because of the violence of all them that dwell therein. 

00:56:30.680 --> 00:56:33.379 
Again, Ezekiel's pantomime is acting out. 

00:56:33.700 --> 00:56:35.819 
It was intended to frighten them and to warn them. 

00:56:37.140 --> 00:56:40.180 
We've got two lands, two peoples really being played out here. 

00:56:40.220 --> 00:56:42.279 
We've got the people of the land that were now in Babylon. 

00:56:43.359 --> 00:56:45.399 
So that's the Jews in the land of Chaldea. 

00:56:45.480 --> 00:56:48.180 
And they were looking at those back in Jerusalem thinking that they were blessed. 

00:56:48.259 --> 00:56:48.859 
They were fortunate. 

00:56:49.440 --> 00:56:52.580 
And there were the people in Jerusalem who looked at those in Babylon 

00:56:52.580 --> 00:56:54.480 
as if they were the ones accursed, as we said at the beginning. 

00:56:55.020 --> 00:56:56.799 
Actually, it was completely the other way around. 

00:56:57.339 --> 00:56:57.879 
Verse 20, 

00:56:57.879 --> 00:56:59.919 
And the cities that are inhabited shall be laid waste, 

00:57:00.040 --> 00:57:00.660 
and the land shall be desolate. 

00:57:00.680 --> 00:57:03.220 
And you shall know that I am the Lord. 

00:57:03.859 --> 00:57:05.520 
And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 

00:57:05.640 --> 00:57:10.060 
Son of man, what is that proverb that you have in the land of Israel, 

00:57:10.200 --> 00:57:13.240 
saying, The days are prolonged and every vision fails? 

00:57:13.759 --> 00:57:15.940 
This is a little bit like we have today, where they're saying, 

00:57:16.339 --> 00:57:17.720 
Why should I believe the Bible? 

00:57:18.980 --> 00:57:21.259 
There's all these prophecies, but they don't come true, do they? 

00:57:21.580 --> 00:57:23.799 
This was kind of the kind of idea they were saying. 

00:57:25.560 --> 00:57:28.180 
Unbelieving will scoff at prophecy repeatedly. 

00:57:29.359 --> 00:57:30.560 
Again, let me just read this to you. 

IT SHALL AGAIN BE THE CHARACTERISTIC of the last times 


00:57:30.680 --> 00:57:31.680 
It says, 


00:57:31.680 --> 00:57:34.180 
This is from Chuck Missler. 

When faith shall be regarded as an antiquated thing 

seeing that it remains stationary whereas world, arts and sciences 
progress, and when the continues of all things in creation will be an argument 
against the possibility of suddenly being brought to a standstill 
by the coming of The Lord 


00:57:34.759 --> 00:57:52.279 
What Chuck Missler used to say often was, 

00:57:52.279 --> 00:57:55.359 
we're so used to things carrying on as they always do. 

00:57:56.440 --> 00:57:58.740 
You know, we expect tomorrow to be the same as today, 

00:57:59.299 --> 00:58:00.560 
next week to be the same as, 

00:58:00.560 --> 00:58:00.980 
last week. 

00:58:01.000 --> 00:58:02.440 
We're not used to sudden changes. 

00:58:02.840 --> 00:58:05.140 
Things like the Twin Towers, for example, 9-11, 

00:58:05.580 --> 00:58:08.960 
they are a big shock because we're not used to those kind of things. 

00:58:09.920 --> 00:58:12.100 
But just as the Lord was saying to Ezekiel, 

00:58:12.560 --> 00:58:16.480 
get ready, we need to be ready of all the things that are coming upon us as well. 

00:58:18.240 --> 00:58:19.940 
Tell them, therefore, thus says the Lord God, 

00:58:20.000 --> 00:58:21.480 
I will make this proverb to cease, 

00:58:21.840 --> 00:58:23.860 
and they shall no more use it as a proverb in Israel, 

00:58:24.240 --> 00:58:25.180 
but shall say unto them, 

00:58:25.320 --> 00:58:28.759 
The days are at hand and the effects of every vision. 

00:58:28.759 --> 00:58:30.540 
In other words, things are going to happen. 

00:58:30.980 --> 00:58:36.340 
And we need to be aware that we are living in the days of the fulfilment. of so many prophecies. 

00:58:37.240 --> 00:58:39.380 
For there shall no more be any vision, 

00:58:39.600 --> 00:58:42.299 
nor flattering division within the house of Israel, 

00:58:42.420 --> 00:58:43.279 
or vain vision rather. 

00:58:44.020 --> 00:58:46.160 
Israel's time is up is basically what is being said here. 

00:58:46.580 --> 00:58:48.020 
Chapter 13 will take that further. 

00:58:48.600 --> 00:58:49.779 
For I am the Lord, I will speak, 

00:58:49.860 --> 00:58:51.840 
and the word that I shall speak shall come to pass. 

00:58:51.920 --> 00:58:54.540 
It shall be no more prolonged. 

00:58:54.700 --> 00:58:56.299 
For in your days a rebellious house, 

00:58:56.500 --> 00:58:58.299 
I will say the word and will perform it, 

00:58:58.620 --> 00:58:59.820 
says the Lord God. 

00:59:00.560 --> 00:59:02.860 
Again, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 

00:59:02.940 --> 00:59:05.299 
Son of man, behold, they of the house of Israel say, 

00:59:05.380 --> 00:59:07.720 
the vision that he sees is for many days to come. 

00:59:07.880 --> 00:59:09.680 
Many days to come. 

00:59:09.779 --> 00:59:11.799 
And he prophesies the times of the far off. 

00:59:11.880 --> 00:59:15.120 
Again, just as we are seeing people look at the Bible. 

00:59:15.200 --> 00:59:16.740 
They don't believe it's going to happen. 

00:59:16.820 --> 00:59:18.720 
They don't expect these things to happen. 

00:59:18.799 --> 00:59:22.940 
It is interesting even after all the kind of excitement in a sense 

00:59:23.020 --> 00:59:25.860 
about the possibility, the rapture on the Feast of Trumpets, 

00:59:25.940 --> 00:59:28.980 
the number of Christians and comments I saw, people saying, See! 

00:59:29.100 --> 00:59:29.759 
See!. 

00:59:30.560 --> 00:59:31.180 
What do you mean See!? 

00:59:33.060 --> 00:59:35.140 
One of my favourite comments was from Brian. 

00:59:35.820 --> 00:59:37.320 
And Brian made a comment something about 

00:59:37.320 --> 00:59:38.520 
to the effect of, 

00:59:38.799 --> 00:59:40.400 
I feel closer to the Lord now, 

00:59:40.860 --> 00:59:42.040 
I'm not sure than ever, 

00:59:42.220 --> 00:59:43.900 
but than for a long time. 

00:59:44.040 --> 00:59:45.520 
Because we are focusing on heaven. 

00:59:45.620 --> 00:59:46.820 
We're getting excited about heaven. 

00:59:47.320 --> 00:59:48.940 
Don't start getting into the mindset 

00:59:48.940 --> 00:59:50.560 
that the people in Jerusalem were 

00:59:50.560 --> 00:59:51.620 
where they think, 

00:59:51.680 --> 00:59:52.900 
oh, it's a long way away. 

00:59:53.720 --> 00:59:55.560 
We should be expecting these things 

00:59:55.560 --> 00:59:58.380 
because of all the things we see going on around us. 

00:59:58.380 --> 01:00:01.220 
The whole idea of imminency. 

01:00:02.280 --> 01:00:03.700 
Contemporary parallel indeed. 

01:00:12.520 --> 01:00:13.160 
In other words, 

01:00:13.460 --> 01:00:14.800 
this now is going to happen. 

01:00:15.740 --> 01:00:17.620 
Again, false prophets have been contradicting 

01:00:17.620 --> 01:00:20.360 
God's true messages in both Jerusalem and Babylon. 

01:00:21.100 --> 01:00:23.460 
And their optimistic predictions would soon cease 

01:00:23.460 --> 01:00:25.800 
as God brings his word to pass. 

01:00:26.380 --> 01:00:28.240 
Many scriptures speak about the imminence 

01:00:28.240 --> 01:00:30.500 
and again, we read this scripture from Peter earlier. 

01:00:31.060 --> 01:00:31.779 
People will scoff. 

01:00:32.120 --> 01:00:33.240 
But there's a warning to us. 

01:00:33.439 --> 01:00:34.500 
They were scoffing at prophecy. 

01:00:35.560 --> 01:00:37.620 
Different ways to deny truth. 

01:00:37.759 --> 01:00:39.339 
One is to say that God didn't say it. 

01:00:39.419 --> 01:00:39.959 
We see that. 

01:00:40.459 --> 01:00:42.419 
Another is to claim that it's not what God meant. 

01:00:42.520 --> 01:00:44.399 
People trying to spiritualize it. 

01:00:44.399 --> 01:00:46.240 
The liberal interpretation. 

01:00:50.299 --> 01:00:52.279 
One thing that's not obvious at first 

01:00:52.279 --> 01:00:54.700 
is the link between prophecy and creation. 

01:00:55.919 --> 01:00:57.759 
God has and will, 

01:00:58.240 --> 01:00:59.540 
intervene in man's history. 

01:01:00.540 --> 01:01:02.640 
We see that in what we've just looked at this morning. 

01:01:03.220 --> 01:01:05.160 
They didn't expect it, but God did it. 

01:01:06.000 --> 01:01:09.220 
The world is not expected for God to intervene, 

01:01:09.779 --> 01:01:11.459 
but God is already doing things 

01:01:11.459 --> 01:01:13.819 
and we will see even more in the days to come. 

01:01:14.879 --> 01:01:16.899 
Man's history didn't just come about 

01:01:16.899 --> 01:01:19.160 
as a random events of the cosmos. 

01:01:20.500 --> 01:01:22.279 
God engineered and did everything. 

01:01:22.419 --> 01:01:23.979 
A man's future is not going to be random. 

01:01:23.979 --> 01:01:26.620 
God will bring all things to pass in our day 

01:01:26.620 --> 01:01:27.979 
just as he did in Ezekiel. 

01:01:28.240 --> 01:01:29.140 
Let's bow our hearts. 

01:01:30.520 --> 01:01:33.520 
Father God, we just thank you for this journey. 

01:01:34.240 --> 01:01:37.500 
Lord, to be able to look at the things Ezekiel 

01:01:37.500 --> 01:01:41.959 
was commissioned to tell the people of his own nation. 

01:01:42.399 --> 01:01:45.899 
To warn them of the judgment that was coming upon them. 

01:01:46.399 --> 01:01:48.180 
To warn them, to give them the opportunity 

01:01:48.180 --> 01:01:50.299 
to turn and to repent, to seek you. 

01:01:51.339 --> 01:01:52.600 
Knowing, Lord, that there was hope 

01:01:52.600 --> 01:01:54.240 
for those that would be righteous. 

01:01:55.000 --> 01:01:56.939 
Lord, you promised not only protection 

01:01:56.939 --> 01:01:58.220 
for those who are in need, 

01:01:58.220 --> 01:01:59.520 
for those that were taken to Babylon, 

01:01:59.520 --> 01:02:02.020 
but ultimately you bring them back to their land 

01:02:02.020 --> 01:02:03.640 
in the fullness of time. 

01:02:03.640 --> 01:02:07.319 
Lord, help us not to be caught up with the lies 

01:02:07.319 --> 01:02:08.819 
that say that you are not working, 

01:02:08.819 --> 01:02:10.620 
you are not moving, you're not acting. 

01:02:11.459 --> 01:02:16.100 
Lord, any moment now we will see you step onto this world scene 

01:02:16.100 --> 01:02:19.899 
in working ways that have been prophesied for millennia. 

01:02:19.899 --> 01:02:22.339 
And we will see, Lord, nations in turmoil. 

01:02:23.660 --> 01:02:25.759 
But Lord, we know that we have a great hope. 

01:02:26.819 --> 01:02:27.560 
We have. 

01:02:27.560 --> 01:02:30.220 
Lord, the blessed hope of the church. 

01:02:31.040 --> 01:02:34.440 
Lord, may we live in these days with our eyes fixed on Jesus. 

01:02:35.420 --> 01:02:37.020 
We ask these things in his name. 

01:02:37.360 --> 01:02:37.620 
Amen. 

01:02:39.799 --> 01:02:41.640 
Okay, sorry for the longer one this morning. 

01:02:41.740 --> 01:02:44.799 
May God richly bless you as we go and fellowship over some teas and coffees.