Middle East Meltdown 002 – Ezekiel 36

The Middle East Meltdown 002 – Ezekiel 36

By Dr Andy Woods – 01/09/2022

Ezekiel 36:1-11

Let’s take our Bibles and open them to the book of Ezekiel chapter 36 and let’s start with a word of prayer. Father, we all come to you today with different issues that cloud our thinking, a lot of times it’s a personal crisis of some kind or maybe it’s sin issues or whatever, but we just take it just a few moments Father, personally between me and us as individuals and you, me and you, so to speak. Just a pause for thirty seconds or so of silence, just to get right with you fellowship wise, before we start the study of your word. Father, we’re grateful for the promise of 1 John 1:9 that if we confess our sins, you’re faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness; and so we do pray Lord that the Holy Spirit will do His work today of illumination, both in Sunday school and the main service that follows, also in all of the children’s classes, youth group that’s meeting as we’re speaking and the fellowship lunch that follows and I just pray that we would leave here changed people. We would either get a correction of understanding that we need or maybe someone will become a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ for the first time or maybe there’s correction that you seek to do, but whatever you want to do Father we just ask you to have your way today at Sugar Land Bible Church and we’ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus’ name and God’s people said, Amen. 2:08

Well, welcome everybody, let me direct your attention to Ezekiel chapter 36 and as you know we’re in a new year and I thought would be a good time to start a new study. I wanted to keep the focus on prophecy because that seems to be what is a big interest today in the lives of people considering all the things happening in the world. We completed our study on the rapture and now we’re moving into a new series of studies called the Middle East Meltdown, which basically is a verse by verse study of Ezekiel, 36 through 39, which of all of the chapters in the Bible that I believe are in play right now prophetically, I would probably pick these chapters. It’s amazing how God is working constantly to set the stage for the fulfillment of these chapters; and so the last time I was with you, we started this with part one and we sort of gave an overview of the book of Ezekiel and I tried to show you where chapters 36 through 39 fit into the big picture of Ezekiel;

Ezekiel 33‒48

1. Ezekiel recommissioned (33)
2. False shepherds removed (34)
3. Edom destroyed  (35)
4. Israel’s restoration: physical & spiritual (36)
5. Israel’s restoration illustrated (37)
6. Means of restoration: Northern invasion (38)
7.  Results of the Northern invasion: conversion (39)
8. Millennial Temple (40‒46)
9. Tribal land allotment (47‒48)

and so now we’re going to start in verse 1 of chapter 36 (Ezek 36:1) and chapter 36 of all of the chapters in the Bible, it probably would be Ezekiel’s one of his most well-known chapters and it’s dealing with the physical and, don’t miss the second part, physical and spiritual restoration of Israel in her land after two thousand years of worldwide dispersion; and so we’re going to start inching our way into chapter 36 today and you can divide Ezekiel, 36 as follows:

Ezekiel 36

1. Israel to prosper again (Ezek 36:1-15)
2. Israel’s sins inhibiting prosperity (Ezek 36:16-21)
3. Israel to be restored: physically & spiritually (Ezek 36:22-38)

You have verses 1 through 15 (Ezek 36:1-15), which are predictions that God plans to prosper Israel again and you can see what that meant to Ezekiel, who was receiving these visions while he was in captivity in Babylon 350 miles to the east of Jerusalem, while Jerusalem had become desolate, almost desolate because of the Babylonian captivity and the deportation and Judah being removed from their land. So, God gives Ezekiel a glimpse that the land of Israel is going to prosper again verses 1 through 15 (Ezek 36:1-15), but there is a problem that is inhibiting God’s plan. There are sins inhibiting this prosperity, sins within the nation verses 16 through 21 (Ezek 36:19-21) and then you move into part three, where the time is going to come where God will deal with that sin issue and what’s holding things up; and in verses 22 through 38 (Ezek 36:22-38), he again reaffirms the fact that Israel, in the end, is going to be restored physically and spiritually. 5:38

So let’s pick this up, if we could, at verse 1 of Ezekiel chapter 36, and verse 1 (Ezek 36:1). Notice what it says there: And you, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel and say, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the LORD… Now, I have to be honest with you, I’ve been studying this chapter, Oh Gosh! Probably since I got interested in prophecy about 1989 and this expression “the mountains of Israel” has always just kind of flown right over my head. But as you move into this, you see that it’s not just a prophecy concerning Israel, it’s a prophecy concerning her mountains. If you drop down to verse 4 (Ezek 36:4) it says: Therefore, O mountains… I want you to become sensitive to this, you’ll see it over and over again the reference to the mountains. If you go down to verse 6 (Ezek 36:6), I believe it is, it says: …and say to the mountains… And if you go to verse 8 (Ezek 36:8), it says: …but you O mountains… So the mountains are, actually, a very big deal in this prophecy. When you go to Ezekiel, 39, and verse 2 (Ezek 39:2), it says: I will turn you around and drive you up from the remotest parts of the north and bring you against the mountains of Israel… So it keeps… and this is the part that I’ve missed as I’ve been studying it since 1989 roughly, 1990, it’s not just a prophecy about Israel, it’s a prophecy about Israel and her mountains, which to my mind, makes this passage very prophetically significant, because prior to 1967, you don’t have the mountains in the nation of Israel that we have today. So one of my favorite Bible prophecy teachers, Dr. Mark Hitchcock writes this:

Mountains of Israel? – Mark Hitchcock, The Amazing Claims of Bible Prophecy: What You Need to Know in These Uncertain Times (Harvest House: Eugene, OR, 2010), 211.

“According to Ezekiel 39:2, 4, Israel must possess the ‘mountains of Israel’ when this invasion occurs…The famous Six Day war in Israel in 1967 helped set the stage for this to be fulfilled. Before the Six Day War, all the mountains of Israel, with the exception of a small strip of west Jerusalem, were in the hands of the Jordanian Arabs. Only since 1967 have the mountains of Israel been in Israel, thus setting the stage for the fulfillment of this prophecy.”

According to Ezekiel, 39, verse 2 and verse 4 (Ezek 39:2-4), Israel must possess the ‘mountains of Israel’ when this invasion occurs… So it’s going to be a description in chapter 39, when we get there, of an end time invasion and specifically says, as I showed you earlier, that the invasion is coming against the mountains of Israel. So Mark Hitchcock goes on and he says: …The famous Six Day war in 1967 helped set the stage for this to be fulfilled. Before the Six Day War, all the mountains of Israel, with the exception of a small strip west Jerusalem, were in the hands of the Jordanian Arabs. Only since 1967 have the mountains of Israel been in Israel, thus setting the stage for the fulfillment of this prophecy… So when Israel came back into their land May 14th, 1948, they had a piece of property that was quite more narrow, if you can believe it, compared to what they have today; and the mountains, as Mark Hitchcock is explaining here, were not in Israel at that time. Then in 1967, there was the Six Day War, which essentially was a war of self-defense. Nobody ever bet that the Israelis would win in 1948 the war of independence and they certainly didn’t believe they would win in 1967 and when the smoke cleared, Israel was in control of the city of Jerusalem for the first time since their dispersion and they were in control of Judea and Samaria where these mountainous regions are. 9:54

So if I’m understanding this prophecy correctly, it’s almost time bound. This is not something that could have happened before 1948, because there was no Israel to invade and it really couldn’t have happened prior to 1967, because there were no mountains in Israel like we see them today; and usually when I go out on a limb on something like this, I try to make sure I’ve got not just at least one scholar on my side but two and I was at the Pre-trib study group meeting, December of last year, just a month ago and Arnold Fruchtenbaum gave a paper, entitled “The Modern State of Israel in Bible Prophecy” and he makes the exact same point concerning these mountains.

Dr. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum – THE MODERN STATE OF ISRAEL IN BIBLE PROPHECY

Paper presented to the PTSG on 12-7-21, pps. 18-19

“They are now referred to politically as the West Bank. In 1948, Jordanian forces took over these mountains and annexed them as part of Jordan. All Israel had was a small corridor leading west to Jerusalem. The border between Israel and Jordan ran down the foot of these mountains, then cut into the mountains, dividing Jerusalem in two, and then went out again and continued along the foot of these mountains. Israel had maybe five percent or less of the mountains, while the rest belonged to Jordan. Only since 1967 have the mountains of Israel been in Israel. Besides the Temple compound falling into Jewish hands, another by-product of the Six-Day War was that these mountains also fell under Israeli sovereignty. Therefore, not only could this prophecy not have been fulfilled before 1948, but it could also not have been fulfilled before 1967. The mountains of Israel (the West Bank) are yet to have a very important and relevant role in Bible prophecy. As for the present State of Israel, they became part of Israel in 1967. This is yet another way the modern Jewish State fits within Bible prophecy.”

He says: But where in the Land of Israel will the invading armies be destroyed? The exact location is revealed in Ezekiel, 39, verse 2 and verse 4 (Ezek 39:2-4): I will turn you about, and lead you on, and will cause you to come against… and will cause you to come up from the uttermost parts of the north. I will bring you upon the mountains of Israel. You shall fall upon the mountains of Israel… That’s what Ezekiel predicts. Fruchtenbaum says: “The mountains of Israel” refers to the central mountain ranges that make up the backbone of the country… And by the way, a lot of people have asked me about going to Israel and they want to go to Israel and can you suggest anybody to go with, assuming we are allowed to go at some point with all of these mandates that are being pushed in Israel, and my three favorite people I always give, because when you go to Israel you want to go with someone that really knows what they are doing. So my three favorites are my professor Dr. Charlie Dyer, Land of the Book Ministries. I’m a follower of his on Facebook and he was just over there and so I got to see all the pictures and videos and all the things he was doing, but he is probably one of the most knowledgeable people about Israel that you could ever go with and I guess a lot of these guys get a special credential from the nation as archeological guides, which is not easy to do. So Dr. Charlie Dyer is probably my favorite, along with Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum, if you can go with him, that would be worth your shekels, so to speak, and then my third favorite is Dr. Randall Price of World of the Bible Ministries. So Arnold Fruchtenbaum goes on and he says: …The phrase ‘the mountains of Israel’ refers to the central mountain ranges that make up the backbone of the country. In the Hebrew Scriptures, these mountains were known as the Hill Country of Ephraim and the Hill Country of Judah. Some of the famous biblical cities that lie within these mountains include Dothan, Shechem, Samaria… These are all names you’ll find in the Bible, by the way… Shiloh, Bethel, Ai, Ramah, Bethlehem, Hebron, Debir, and most importantly, Jerusalem, which seems to be the target of the invading army. However, from 1948 until the Six-Day War in 1967, these mountains were not in Israel, but in Jordan. They are now referred to politically as the West Bank… Lousy definition by the way, term, cause it’s not in the Bible. The Bible doesn’t use the expression “West Bank”, it uses the expression Judea and Samaria… In 1948, Jordanian forces took over these mountains and annexed them as part of Jordan. All Israel had… This is prior to 1967… was a small corridor leading west to Jerusalem. The border between Israel and Jordan ran down the foot of these mountains, then cut into the mountains, dividing Jerusalem in two, and then went out again and continued along the foot of these mountains. Israel had maybe five percent or less of the mountains, while the rest belonged to Jordan… So that was Israel’s condition prior to 1967 and you keep reading this in Ezekiel, 36, 39, it keeps talking about the mountains of Israel. So obviously, something had to change and what changed was the Six Day War. Arnold Fruchtenbaum goes on and he says: Only since 1967… This is exactly what Dr. Mark Hitchcock is saying… Only since 1967 have the mountains of Israel been in Israel. Besides the Temple compound falling into Jewish hands, another by-product of the Six-Day War was that these mountains also fell under Israeli sovereignty. Therefore, not only could this prophecy not have been fulfilled before 1948, but it could also not have been fulfilled before 1967… (Close quote) The mountains of Israel (the so-called West Bank) are yet to have a very important and relevant role in Bible prophecy. As for the present State of Israel, they became part of Israel in 1967. This is another way the modern Jewish State fits within Bible prophecy… (Close quote) 15:56

One of the things to understand is that we are living in prophetically significant times, as it’s describing this invasion from the north against Israel, because there was no Israel in existence prior to 1948. So obviously, the invasion couldn’t have happened prior to 1948. What was there to invade? And then when you look at the details very carefully and that’s something you always study when you look at Bible prophecy, because most modern day scholars, they just sort of spiritualize the details or allegorize the details, that’s not the way to approach God’s word for the simple reason that all of the past prophecies of the Bible that have been fulfilled in history took place in exact precision. Christ’s hands and feet literally were pierced. Exactly what Psalm, 22, predicts. Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Ephrathah exactly what Micah, 5, verse 2 (Micah 5:2) predicts and the Holy Spirit does not switch horses in midstream. He doesn’t say, okay! The prophecies about the first advent, those were fulfilled literally but just do whatever you want with the prophecies of the second advent. That’s the duplicitous Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit doesn’t do that, he doesn’t switch horses in midstream and what it says here is mountains. Doesn’t just talk about an invasion into Israel it talks about the mountains; and so only post 1948, and then if Fruchtenbaum and Hitchcock write post 1967, do you even have a credible scenario in place for this invasion could occur, because post 1967 is when the vast mountains were now part of Israel. Very prophetically significant and then, Donald Trump comes along and you remember what he did with our embassy? How he moved it from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which basically was an acknowledgement that Jerusalem is the undivided capital of Israel going back three thousand years to the time of David. But he also did something else, he allowed the nation of Israel to have within its territory an area called the Golan Heights, because the international community looked at the Golan Heights, which is an area there in northern Israel, it’s sort of a buffer between Syria and the nation of Israel, it’s very strategic defense wise to the nation.

Prior to Donald Trump doing that, the Golan Heights was sort of looked at as, you know, international territory not within the borders of Israel and Donald Trump did something where he allowed the nation of Israel to claim the Golan Heights and guess what’s in the Golan Heights? More mountains, surprise! Surprise!

It’s a mountainous buffer zone up north between Syria and the nation of Israel. So as if the mountains in 1967 were not enough, Trump comes along and says, here have some more mountains! And so every time you read references in the newspaper to mountains in Israel, you should wake up and say, oh my goodness! That’s what God said would happen two thousand six hundred years ago, as Ezekiel’s being given this vision. 19:48

You move on to verse 2 (Ezek 36:2) and it says: Thus says the Lord GOD, Because the enemy has spoken against you, Aha! and, The everlasting heights have become our possession… So notice that as Israel is returning into her land she has enemies and as she’s going back into our land, the enemies are saying, Hey! You’re in our land, you are in our possession; and what you’ll see over and over again, as we go through Ezekiel, 36, is God says over and over again, it’s my land. Okay… it doesn’t belong to any people group other than God and God, as we’ve been studying Sunday mornings in the main service in the Abrahamic Covenant, Genesis, 15, we’re going to see more on that today, unconditionally bequeathed that land to the nation of Israel, but the enemies don’t like that and they say, no! It’s our possession and God is going to vindicate his name… He’s going to vindicate what He said He would do for the patriarch Abram, because that after all, is not our possession God says, it’s my possession. As you go down to verse 3 (Ezek 36:3), we get some more information on this, it says: Therefore prophesy and say, Thus says the Lord GOD, For good reason they have made you desolate and crushed you from every side, that you would become a possession of the rest of the nations and have been taken up in the talk and the whispering of the people… Notice “the whispering of the people”, these are the enemies. The enemies are whispering amongst themselves, as Israel goes back into that land, you know, psss, psss, psss, they still do it all the time on cable by the way. The talking amongst themselves, talking heads, saying that the Jews are in somebody else’s land. That’s the kind of whispering that God is referring to. In other words, as Israel comes back into the land that God gave them, the nations of the world, the world community have a different mindset, they’re saying, that’s our land and they’re whispering amongst themselves and they’re trying to develop policies and philosophies that want you to believe that Israel is occupying someone else’s land. So two thousand six hundred years ago, God predicted this whispering campaign would start. 22:40

One of the most compelling speakers that we’ve ever had in our pre-Trib study groups in the twenty plus years that I’ve been involved with that, is the gentleman on the right.

His name is Jacques Gauthier, say that five times fast. He is a Canadian lawyer, international lawyer and he essentially decided to do a doctoral dissertation at the university of Geneva and the point of his doctoral dissertation is to prove that the existence of the land of Israel legally belongs to the Jews. That’s a pretty hot topic and it’s basically politically incorrect; and he talks about how he had on his readers, who are the ones who determine if you get your degree or not, every single one of them did not take his view on it. So he had to cross every t and dot every i to legally prove, going back to San Remo and the Bellflower declaration and all these kinds of things, that the Jews legally own that land under the United Nations, under all of the legal… forget the Bible, he’s not dealing with theology, he’s just dealing with the legal issues, and because his readers were hostile, he spent 20 years working on this and so finally, when they let him graduate, he produced a work in his dissertation, which is undeniable and it’s irrefutable and his conclusion is this: You can say whatever you want to say about the nation of Israel, politically, I agree with him being there, I don’t agree with them being there. You can say whatever you want policy wise about the nation of Israel, but here’s the one thing you cannot say: You cannot say that the Jews in the land today in the modern state of Israel are doing anything illegal. Everything that they’re doing is legal. They, with the current land that they have, are not required to give up a square inch of it, a square millimeter of it; and this is important to understand because as you watch the cable television shows, they say… They use this phrase all of the time “illegal occupation” or even they just use the word “occupiers”, indicating that somehow Israel over there right now, post 1948, post 1967, post 1973, they’re doing something illegal and as you know from the Nazi Era, and the brainwashing that went on there, under… What was his name? Goebbels, I guess is how you pronounce that, if you repeat a lie long enough and you just keep saying it over and over and over again people eventually believe it’s true; and so because this phrase “illegal occupation” is repeated over and over and over again and our average American is too busy, you know, making a living, dealing with the concerns of life and they don’t have any time to research it, they just absorb this expression “illegal occupation”, “illegal occupation” and so people start to believe the Jews over there must be doing something bad. They must be doing something wrong; and Jacques Gauthier, as I tried to explain, proves the exact opposite. 26:31

Another book you probably need to be aware of is a book by Joan Peters. She did her work earlier than Gauthier, her book is called “From Time Immemorial” and she was basically a leftist, a liberal, who went over to the land of Israel, the modern state of Israel, to do research.

To prove once and for all that the Jews were illegal occupiers and as she got into the research and she got into the details, she came to the same conclusion that Gauthier came to, that the Jews are not doing anything illegal and there wasn’t some civilization there “From Time Immemorial” that the nation of Israel illegally displaced. The whole thing is a myth. The whole thing is made up and she’s produced this very thick book, it’s not the easiest book in the world to read. But Joan Peters, just like Gauthier, is demonstrating that despite the propaganda that we hear constantly about Israel in the land today, you can think whatever you want about it politically. You can think whatever you want about it theologically, but here’s what you can’t say: You can’t say that it’s illegal, you can’t say that it’s violating some source of law and Joan Peters was one of these people that we would call an intellectually honest liberal and I respect people like this, because it’s hard to find people like this today. That are open minded enough to follow the evidence wherever it leads. Most people today, when they write books on sensitive subjects like this, have already decided a long time ago what they’re trying to prove. In other words, they do everything reversed, they get their conclusion first and then they try to work backwards and manipulate the data, so that it fits their conclusion. Joan Peters looked at all of the data and she says, oh my goodness! I’ve had it completely wrong; and so the product of her work, the fruit of her work, you’ll find it in that book there on the left “From Time Immemorial”. So in essence there’s going to be this whispering campaign among the nations of the earth, as the Jews are returning into their land, and we’re certainly seeing the fruits of that, a whispering campaign, as people say one lie after another about this and most of them have no idea what they’re talking about. These two people here and I wouldn’t waste your time with it if I didn’t feel this to be true, these two people here, Jacques Gauthier and Joan Peters, know what they’re talking about. So before you develop a perspective on this as part of your sources, you should at least consult these two individuals. 29:34

You’ll notice in verse 3 (Ezek 36:3) the word “desolate”. If you go down to verse 4 (Ezek 36:4) which we haven’t read yet, it says “desolate wastes” and that’s exactly what the nation of Israel was before the Jews went back into that land in 1948. It was a desolate wasteland and you don’t have to look far to see proof of this. I like to quote as proof, Mark Twain, who visited that land in 1867 and wrote about it in his book “Innocents Abroad”, in 1869 and notice how Mark Twain describes that land in 1867, long before the modern state of Israel was born.

Mark Twain – The Innocents Abroad, Complete, 1st ed. (A Public Domain Book, 1869), 267, 285, 302. These quotes can be found in chapters 47, 49, 52.

“… A desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds… a silent mournful expanse…. a desolation is here that not even imagination can grace with the pomp of life and action…. we never saw a human being on the whole route…. there was hardly a tree or shrub anywhere. Even the olive tree and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil, had almost deserted the country.”

He describes it as a desolate country; this is exactly what Ezekiel says, right? Before the Jews go back into it, it will be desolate; he even uses the exact same words: A desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds… a silent mournful expanse…. a desolation is here that not even imagination can grace with the pomp of life and action…. Now, look at this… We never saw a human being on the whole route…. The PLO or the Palestinian authority or organization wants you to believe that Israel dispossessed a thriving population when they went back into that land. Mark Twain is writing about the land in 1867, there was no thriving population there at all. I mean, he toured the land and he says, we never even found a human being on the whole route. I think at one point, if I remember right, in his writings he was happy that they saw a goat and then he was trying to figure out, it must be a goat that eats rocks to live because there’s no vegetation out here… We never saw a human being on the whole route…. there was hardly a tree or shrub anywhere. Even the olive tree and the cactus, those fast friends of worthless soil, had almost deserted the country… Now one of the things I want you to understand is in God’s timing, God himself has designed the land only to prosper with Israel in it. When Israel is outside of the land, it will never prosper; and I found this verse here at Leviticus chapter 26, verse 43 (Lev 26:43), this goes all the way back to the time of Moses at Mount Sinai and this is what God says as He’s describing the cycles of discipline that the nation would go through because of disobedience. He says: The land will be abandoned by them and will make up for its sabbaths… In other words, the land was supposed to have a rest every seventh year, Leviticus, 26, earlier in the chapter talks about that and the Jews ignored God for seventy years and God says, okay! Then I’ll kick you out of the land for seventy years and the land is going to get its rest. That’s the whole basis of the seventy year captivity. For the land will be abandoned by them, and will make up for its sabbaths while it is made desolate without them. They, meanwhile, will be making amends for their iniquity, because they rejected My ordinances and their soul abhorred My statutes. So you’ll notice that what God says is every second of time that the Jews are outside of that land, it will be desolate. This is what Ezekiel is saying. This is what Mark Twain is seeing in 1867. So if that’s true, then the opposite is true. Once they go back into the land it will prosper again. So God providentially will not allow the land to be anything other than a barren expanse while Israel is not there. Ezekiel, 38, verse 8 (Ezek 38:8), which is one of the chapters we’ll be looking at in this series, says the exact same thing. It says: After many days you will be summoned… Israel… in the latter years you will come into the land that is restored from the sword, whose inhabitants have been gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel… Boy, Ezekiel sure wants us to pay attention to this expression “the mountains” as we said earlier… to the mountains of Israel which had been a continual waste; but its people were brought out from the nations, and they will be living securely, all of them (close quote)… In other words, don’t expect to find a prosperous, thriving economy while the Jews aren’t there and that’s exactly what happened. God kicked them out of the land, the land became desolate, the Jews come back into the land, 1948 and the land begins to prosper again and now the so-called Palestinian community says, that’s our land. No, it’s not your land, it’s God’s land and God gave it to the nation of Israel and God has designed it not to prosper unless the nation of Israel is in the land. 35:23

So these are all bound up, I think, in this expression “desolate waste”, “whispering campaign,” “enemies”; and take a look at verse 4 (Ezek 36:4): Therefore, O mountains of Israel, hear… and it’s like how did I miss this all of these years? I never saw the mountains there but it says it over and over again, mountains of Israel, mountains of Israel, therefore, O mountains of Israel hear the word of the Lord, thus says the Lord God to the mountains, to the hills, to the ravines and to the valleys and to the desolate wastes… That’s what God said would happen while Israel is out of the land, it would become desolate, Mark Twain confirmed that in 1867… and to the forsaken cities which have become a prey and a derision to the rest of the nations which are round about… Notice this expression “derision”, notice earlier the expression “whispering”. It, you know, it reminds me very much of what 2nd Peter, 3 talks about, how in the last days mockers will arise and say where is the promise of his coming? And you have to understand that the viewpoint that I’m giving here is just completely laughed at, it’s rejected, it’s ridiculed, not only in the secular world, not only in the world community, but very sadly in the theological world too, because most theologians following Augustine don’t take these prophecies literally and so I think, that expression “derision” or “ridicule” is appropriate. By the way, if people are mocking the scenario involving the soon return of Christ and they’re mocking the idea of the eventual fulfillment of Bible prophecy, then they themselves are fulfilling Bible prophecy, because Peter said prophetically people would mock the teaching concerning the return of Christ in the last days. 37:46

You’ll notice in verse 5 (Ezek 36:5) the expression “Edom”: Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, Surely in the fire of My jealousy I have spoken against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom, who appropriated… Whose land is it, verse 5?… My land for themselves as a possession with wholehearted joy and with the scorn of soul, to drive it out for a prey… Notice the reference here to Edom. Edom and the chapter involving the destruction of Edom in the prior chapter, chapter 35, which we’re not going to have a chance to cover in this series, seems out of place because as I tried to explain last week, chapters 33 through 48 are part of Ezekiel’s book that we call the restoration section.

Ezekiel 33‒48

1. Ezekiel recommissioned (33)
2. False shepherds removed (34)
3. Edom destroyed  (35)
4. Israel’s restoration: physical & spiritual (36)
5. Israel’s restoration illustrated (37)
6. Means of restoration: Northern invasion (38)
7.  Results of the Northern invasion: conversion (39)
8. Millennial Temple (40‒46)
9. Tribal land allotment (47‒48)

Where was Edom? It was adjacent to the land of Israel.

So why isn’t the destruction of Edom mentioned in chapters 25 through 32? Or why isn’t it placed back in chapters 25 to 32 where Ezekiel was talking about judgment upon the nations?

Source: Charles Dyer, Notes on Ezekiel

• Judgment upon Judah (1-24)
• Judgment upon the nations (25-32)
• Israel’s future restoration (33-48)

And as I tried to mention last week, the book of Ezekiel has three parts to it. Chapters 1 through 24, prophecies he received in Babylon concerning the destruction of Judah. He was dealing with people in the deportation that really thought they weren’t going to be there for seventy years. They thought they were going to be going right back to Jerusalem and Ezekiel says, no! You’re not, you might as well get comfortable because you’re going to be here for a while, we’re not going to have a new normal anytime soon. I know someone told you just, well, shut America down for two weeks to lower the curve, haha, just fooling, it’s really two years. Ezekiel’s audience had that mindset, they thought they were just going to go back to normal really quick and Ezekiel spends chapters 1 through 24 saying, you’re not going back pretty quick, you’re going to be here for seventy years, exactly what God says would happen because the nation of Israel, particularly Judah and Jerusalem, are guilty, chapters 1 through 24; and then Ezekiel gets word that Nebuchadnezzar is starting his final siege on Jerusalem and that shifts his ministry into chapters 25 through 32 where he’s dealing with judgment upon the nations. Then he gets word that Nebuchadnezzar has finished the job, the city is destroyed, the temple is destroyed, no doubt it’s at that time that Jeremiah is writing his book Lamentations, which is a lament concerning the destruction of the temple which the Jewish people never thought would ever happen, after all it was Solomon that built that temple all the way back in 966 BC and now the temple 586 BC has been destroyed. So that shifts Ezekiel into the third part of his ministry, chapters 33 through 48 where he’s dealing with a dejected group of people without hope and he’s saying, God’s mercies are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness, that’s the book of Lamentations. But it’s in that context, Ezekiel starts to receive all of these visions about the future and those are the scriptures that are in play now, as God is getting ready to fulfill those. 41:47

So you can sort of look at the whole picture of the book of Ezekiel by paying attention to this chart.

What happens in chapters 1 through 24 is counter balanced with what happens in chapters 33 through 48. In chapters 1 through 24, Ezekiel is commissioned, his mouth is closed and only opened when God allows it to preach judgment. In chapters 33 through 48, his mouth is open, he’s re commissioned to preach blessings. In the first part of the book, he sees the Shekinah glory of God departing from the temple. In the second part of the book, he sees the Shekinah glory of God returning to the millennial temple. So the two sections there, 1 through 24, counter balanced, you know, like a seesaw. In other words, what happens at the very end of the book is sort of a recapitulation opposite of what happened at the beginning of the book and the fulcrum, which balances those two parts of the seesaw is Ezekiel’s judgment on the nations, chapters 25 through 32. So why then is chapter 35 in the restoration section?

Ezekiel 33‒48

1. Ezekiel recommissioned (33)
2. False shepherds removed (34)
3. Edom destroyed  (35)
4. Israel’s restoration: physical & spiritual (36)
5. Israel’s restoration illustrated (37)
6. Means of restoration: Northern invasion (38)
7.  Results of the Northern invasion: conversion (39)
8. Millennial Temple (40‒46)
9. Tribal land allotment (47‒48)

Shouldn’t chapter 35, the destruction of Edom, be in the oracles concerning God’s judgment upon the nations? I mean, why does chapter 35 come before 36 and chapter 35 looks really misplaced? Because that’s not really dealing with the restoration of Israel, that’s dealing with God’s judgment on a nation, the nation of the Edom which was adjacent to Israel; and the answer to that is Edom was always in the way.

As Israel was moving from Sinai into their land, Edom was always an obstructionist and so God has to depose of Edom in order for Israel to enter her land. You can’t have Israel in her land without the destruction of Edom and once you understand that Edom is an obstructionist to Israel entering the land, then all of a sudden, it makes perfect sense why chapter 35 comes right before chapter 36. Chapter 35, God is removing the obstacle for the goal that’s described in chapter 36 and that’s why when you look at verse 35 you’ll see a reference there to Edom. 44:26

You’ll also notice there in verse 5 a reference to “My land”. One of those things you can’t emphasize this enough, because what people will tell you is why are you so hung up on land? I mean God doesn’t care about land and you hear people say these kinds of things, you know, when you bring up these types of scriptures, Oh! Well I’m a New Testament Christian. What they mean by that is their definition of Christ, I guess, cancels out everything that God said in the Old Testament. In fact, I was on an Israel trip and someone on the trip, low and behold, heard us conversing about land and Armageddon and she was like, why are you guys so focused on that? You know, why don’t you just study the sermon on the mount? You know, blessed are the peacemakers cause that’s really what’s important to God; and I’m thinking to myself, well, why are you on this Israel trip if you think so little about the land of Israel? I kept my mouth shut though. When you see this expression “my land”, what you start to see is God cares about the land and if you have a definition of Jesus that cancels out everything that God said in the Old Testament, that’s a God I really wouldn’t want to serve, because that God is a liar. That doctrine where the New Testament cancels the Old, that’s not a Christian doctrine. You find that in Islam, it’s called abrogation. When the Muslims are in the minority. They’re very, very nice. Once their population grows and they get the majority, then everything changes and they become oppressors and they will cite different parts of the Quran, depending on how much of a majority population they have in a particular country. So right now the Muslims are all quoting the parts of the Quran that are, you know, be nice, be sweet, all of that kind of stuff. But once they get the majority, they will quickly move to another part of the Quran where it’s… off with their heads and you say, well wait a minute, six months to a year ago, you were quoting all the nice verses from the Quran, what happened to those? Now you’re quoting all the harsh verses from the Quran; and this is what they’ll tell you. Those nicer verses are now abrogated, that’s their word for it, abrogation. In other words, one set of texts now cancels out another set of texts. So if you have a definition of Jesus that’s just this kind of this pie in the sky Jesus that doesn’t care about land, number one: You’ve turned God into a liar. Number two: You’re dealing with a doctrine of abrogation that does not have its roots in Christianity, it’s much more akin to Islam. 47:47

So God cares about land, God cares about the land that He owns and who He gave it to. That’s why He keeps saying “My land”. Jot this passage down, cause you’ll need this at some point. It’s Deuteronomy chapter 11, verse 12 (Deut 11:12). This is what God says about this land that we’re talking about. a land for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes of the LORD your God  continually are on it… On what? On the land. What land? The track of the real estate that He gave to Abram… The eyes of the Lord your God are continually on it from the beginning even to the end of the year… So if you ever start to think that, Oh! Jesus of the New Testament doesn’t care about land, just go back and read Deuteronomy, 11, verse 12 (Deut 11:12), you’ll see God cares about the land, God owns the land, God gave the land to a specific group of people, He watches over it continually, His eyes are always on it even in all of those years of Israeli absence and desolation God was always concerned about looking at that land, because it’s his land. Leviticus chapter 25, and verse 23 (Lev 25:23), it says: The land moreover shall not be sold permanently because the land is mine. For you are only strangers and residents within me… God says the land is mine. It doesn’t even belong to Israel, it belongs to God ultimately. Israel has ownership of it because God gave it to the nation of Israel in what is called the Abrahamic Covenant, which if you’ve been attending our Sunday services hopefully you’re familiar with this and if you come back today, you’re going to be more familiar with it.

It’s a track of real estate that goes all the way up to the Euphrates and probably down somewhere in the Nile area, probably the eastern branch of the Nile delta, as I’ll try to explain today. Modern day Egypt to modern day Iraq, God says that’s my land and in the Abrahamic Covenant, I gave it to the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and I will work in history to make sure that that promise, which by the way is not just a promise but a what? Covenant, which is not conditional but is what? Unconditional, I will work in history to make sure every aspect of that promise is fulfilled; and if you think God broke His word there, then you might as well take your promises as a New Testament Christian and tear them up, because they don’t mean anything. If God can vitiate what He has spoken in the Abrahamic Covenant, then every single promise He’s given to us as Gentile church age believers, don’t mean anything because God is like the God of Islam, He’s a deceiver, He can say one thing and then abrogate what He said later. That’s why Romans, 9, 10 and 11 which concerns Israel, follows Romans, 8. I don’t know how many Bible studies I’ve been involved in where the teacher will teach Romans, 1 through 8 but they don’t have no idea what to do with Romans, 9, 10 and 11. We all know Romans, 8: Nothing can separate us from the love of God… All of these tremendous promises and then all of a sudden Paul gets Jewish. Romans, 9, Israel in the past elected, Romans, 10, Israel in the present rejected, Romans, 11, Israel in the future accepted. Why would Paul go on this rabbit trail into Israel? In Romans, 9, 10, 11? The answer is this is not a rabbit trail. It’s a vital part of his argument and what he’s demonstrating is the promises of God in Romans, 8 mean nothing if God can’t keep His word to Israel. So Paul spends three chapters explaining God is going to keep His promise to Israel. So if He’s going to keep His promises to the Jews, you Gentiles at Rome, He’s going to keep His promises to you. That’s why this issue of Israel is a big, big deal, because it relates to the character of God. 53:44

I do recall the movement promise keepers, remember that? I mean, just took even evangelicalism by storm, promise keepers. The truth to the matter is there is only one promise keeper. That’s God Himself. God is a God whose word can be trusted, because He’s going to work in history to make sure that what He said Israel will be fulfilled and that’s the significance of Ezekiel, 36. You move down into verses 6 and 7 (Ezek 36:6-7) and it says: Therefore prophesy concerning the land of Israel and say to the mountains… Here is again, look at the mountains… and to the hills, to the ravines and to the valleys, Thus says the Lord GOD, Behold, I have spoken in My jealousy and in My wrath because you have endured the insults of the nations… Verse 7: Thus says the Lord GOD, I have sworn that surely the nations which are around you will themselves endure their insults… Notice the insults that God’s people are experiencing as they are going back into the land, as the world community is saying, it’s not your land, the whispering campaign, and God says, every insult that my people endured from this whispering campaign, I’m going to pour out on the nations that insulted my people. It’s interesting how God looks at this mindset that the Jews don’t belong in the land as a personal insult. You know why it’s an insult? It’s an insult because what they’re basically saying is God doesn’t tell the truth. God takes it, as you’re attacking my character. You’re not telling the truth. In other words, when you try to drive a wedge between the Jews and the land that I’ve given them, you’re calling Me a liar. That’s an insult, that’s an insult to God, that’s an insult to the people that God made these promises to, because it’s an attack on God’s character who cannot lie. Numbers, 23:19 (Num 23:19): God is not a man that He should lie… Titus, 1, verse 2 (Titus 1:2): God who cannot lie… Hebrews, 6, verse 18 (Heb 6:18): It is impossible for God to lie… Hey!! That’s why one of the ten commandments is thou shalt not bear what? False witness, cause we’re supposed to be like God in His character, right? So God has a very high priority on us being honest and us being truth tellers, because if we are His children, we should imitate His character and that’s how He is, He doesn’t lie. Now in Islam, the god, little g, lies. He’s called “the deceiver”, that’s why Muslims today don’t even know of their ultimate assurance of salvation, because in their theology, the good has to outweigh the bad in their personal lives by way of works and at the end of the day, they’ve got a god who is a deceiver, who abrogates what he says. So you might get before Allah, in the final day of judgment, having lived a devout Muslim life and Allah has every right to say, Ah! Just fooling, you’re not in. He’s capricious. Unlike Islam, in the Bible, God is a truth teller, that’s why we should be truth tellers. That’s why in Islam, I hope you understand this, you’re allowed to lie, to advance your cause. It’s called Taqiyya. That’s why all of this stuff that evangelicals are getting involved in, interfaith dialogue with Muslims, they don’t even understand that they’re sitting down to a rigged game, because you, as a Christian, have to operate by one set of rules. You can’t lie or you’re not supposed to cause your God is a truth teller whereas they can sit on the other end of the table and lie right through their teeth and be theologically consistent in doing so cause their god is a deceiver. 57:23

So God takes it then as an insult, that this whispering campaign is going on saying, the Jews really don’t belong there; and then you move down to verse… Verse 8 (Ezek 36:8) and it says: But you, O… what?… O mountains of Israel… I think I’m seeing a pattern here… But you, O mountains of Israel, will you put forth your branches and bear your fruit for My people Israel; for they will soon come. Now this is a prophecy, as we’re going to see, about the fact that once Israel goes back into the land, it will become agriculturally productive again. In fact, obviously we’re not going to get there today but if you drop down to verse 35… Excuse me, yeah, verse 35 (Ezek 36:35) it says there, God is going to make that land like the garden of Eden: They will say, This desolate land has become like the garden of Eden; and the waste, desolate, and ruined cities are fortified and inhabited… You look back at verse 8 (Ezek 36:8) and what follows after verse 8, a little bit into verse 8 is agricultural prosperity coming into the land; but there’s no point in prospering the land without the people being in it. I mean, a prosperous land without his people in it to enjoy it, what good is there in that? That’s why the return of the Jews to the land goes hand in hand with the prosperity that God is going to introduce  to the land. If you look at verse 9 (Ezek 36:9) you’ll see more description of this agricultural prosperity: For, behold, I am for you, and I will return to you, and you will be cultivated and sown… So language cultivated and sown is agricultural prosperity coming to the land of Israel to accompany its repopulation by the Jewish people and boy! I sure love verse 9 (Ezek 36:9): For, behold, I am for you… I mean, if God is on your side in this, then the whispering of the nations really doesn’t matter, does it? And you need to understand this as a Christian, cause I realize that many of you right now are walking through some deep waters. You may not feel like God is on your side but God is on your side. I don’t know how everything is going to work out in every circumstance in people’s life. But the same God that’s with Israel in their return to the land, in the midst of a whispering campaign and the obstructionist Edom, is the same God that’s with you. God’s character has not changed. In fact, it’s impossible for God’s character to change. He is a promise keeping, covenant keeping God. Verse 10 (Ezek 36:10): I will multiply men on you, all the houses of Israel, all of it; and the cities will be inhabited and the waste places… So the cities are going to be reinhabited, the waste places are going to be rebuilt and then He specifically says there in verse 10 (Ezek 36:10), I’m going to multiply men, that’s a population growth in Israel. Now, remember what God promised to the patriarch Abram? He would have descendants as numerous as the sand on the seashore, that’s image one. He would have descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven, that’s image two. He would have descendants as numerous as the dust of the earth, that’s image three. You take all three of those images, sand, stars, dust. It’s a multiplication of the population and that’s what you see happening here. 1:01:59

Verse 11 (Ezek 36:11) and with this we’ll stop: I will multiply on you man and beast; they will increase and be fruitful; I will cause you to be inhabited as you were formerly and will treat you better than at the first… Now look at this next expression here… Thus you will know that I am the LORD… According to my friend David Hawking, this expression “Thus you will know I am the Lord” is used a total of seventy times in the book of Ezekiel. God says, you Israel, who you rejected through these many centuries, are going to understand who I am when I do this miracle. What miracle? I’m going to bring you back into the same land that you were thrown out two thousand years earlier and I’m going to take a barren expanse and I’m going to bring tremendous agricultural prosperity to it and I was going to read verse 12, but I said I would end at verse 11, didn’t I? And I just got finished saying we need to be truth tellers (laughs).

So, let’s pray. Father, we are grateful for your word, we are grateful for your truth and help us to take these verses to heart in this series and use this to build our faith and our understanding of what you’re doing in these last days. We’ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus’ name and God’s people said, Amen.

Happy intermission…