Ezekiel 37-40
Ezekiel 37
1 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones,
2 And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry.
The LORD gave Ezekiel a vision of old bones. Very dry bones indicated they had been dead for a long time.
3 And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest.
Ezekiel's answer of "thou knowest" was basically him saying, come on God, you know these bones can't live. You know they are really really dead.
4 Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.
Apparently some of the bones were the hammer, the anvil and the stirrup.
5 Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live:
God promises to bring the bones back to life.
6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
When bones get put back together, you know that it's the work of the LORD.
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.
8 And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them.
Well, you'll either know it's the LORD, or Pinhead, the leader of the Cenobites.
10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.
Praise Jesus.
11 Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.
12 Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.
It was all a symbolic show. Depicting Israel as a bunch of dead bones, that came back to life, just like Israel itself.
Then Ezekiel did some more performance art. In addition to a magic trick.
16 Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim and for all the house of Israel his companions:
17 And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand.
18 And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou not shew us what thou meanest by these?
Of course the people don't know what Ezekiel's art means, they never do. They always need some explaining.
So he tells them that the one stick is the northern kingdom, and the other is the southern kingdom, and that the kingdoms will be separate. There will no longer be Judah and Ephraim, they will be one tribe. Well, one tribe and the Levites.
Ezekiel 38
2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him,
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:
No one knows where Magog is, or who Gog is. So Ezekiel could have set his face anywhere. Some people think this Gog was Gyges, king of Lydia. Josephus said Magog was the Scythians. Old Jewish tradition says it's Germany. Others say its Iran. So, it could be either north, south, east or west.
4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
Oh, another Hellraiser reference.
5 Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee.
7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
Many people compare the Six-Day War of June 5-10, 1967 to this chapter. That was was Israel versus Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria also sent troops to fight against Israel.
8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
The people will return.
15 And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army:
16 And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.
Gog will come like a cloud.
In the 6 day war, Egypt had 240,000 troops; Syria, Jordan, and Iraq had 307,000. The Muslims had 957 aircraft and 2,504 tanks.
Israel had 50,000 main troops and 214,000 reserves. They had 300 aircraft and 800 tanks.
18 And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, that my fury shall come up in my face.
When it happens, God's going to be angry, and he's going to let his road rage out.
21 And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord GOD: every man's sword shall be against his brother.
22 And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.
The muslims lost between 11,000 and 22,000 people (no one really knows). Israel lost less than 1000 men.
When God decides his people are going to win, they normally do. Of course, he often lets them lose too.
Oddly, the muslims consider Ezekiel to be a prophet in their religion. They believe prophets can't lie. If they read the book of Ezekiel they'd know it's not possible for them to wipe out the Jews. Islam makes no sense. They take the Jewish prophets and make them their own prophets, even though those same prophets go around and pronounce all kinds of evil prophecies against lands that are Islamic, and then try to take over Israel. Stupid muslims.
Ezekiel 39
1 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:
More against Gog.
4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
They are going to be bird food.
9 And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the handstaves, and the spears, and they shall burn them with fire seven years:
There will be so many attackers that die, that their weapons will be able to be burned for 7 years, and the people won't have to collect any firewood during that time.
12 And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land.
It's going to take 7 months to bury all the dead.
14 And they shall sever out men of continual employment, passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search.
This is another example of how war stimulates the economy. Not only does it provide jobs for soldiers. It provides jobs for weapon makers. AND, it provides employment for people to bury the dead. This is part of God's Economic Recovery.
17 And, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD; Speak unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood.
That's some good sh
it talking. When you gather birds and dogs to go around to eat the dead, that's some pretty good smack.
19 And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.
The birds and dogs are going to have a good old time eating dead bodies.
23 And the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity: because they trespassed against me, therefore hid I my face from them, and gave them into the hand of their enemies: so fell they all by the sword.
Somehow, we are supposed to let this show us about the captivity. I don't quite get it, but if that's what we are to learn, it's an odd lesson plan.
28 Then shall they know that I am the LORD their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there.
29 Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.
You'll know that god led them to captivity, when he routes Gog.
Ezekiel 40
2 In the visions of God brought he me into the land of Israel, and set me upon a very high mountain, by which was as the frame of a city on the south.
3 And he brought me thither, and, behold, there was a man, whose appearance was like the appearance of brass, with a line of flax in his hand, and a measuring reed; and he stood in the gate.
Ezekiel had a vision.
There was a guy with a tape measure.
4 And the man said unto me, Son of man, behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears, and set thine heart upon all that I shall shew thee; for to the intent that I might shew them unto thee art thou brought hither: declare all that thou seest to the house of Israel.
He told Ezekiel to tell the people what he saw.
5 And behold a wall on the outside of the house round about, and in the man's hand a measuring reed of six cubits long by the cubit and an hand breadth: so he measured the breadth of the building, one reed; and the height, one reed.
The tape measure was six cubits long, and it was marked off by cubits, and by hand breadths. Then the dude goes around and measures EVERYTHING.
6 Then came he unto the gate which looketh toward the east, and went up the stairs thereof, and measured the threshold of the gate, which was one reed broad; and the other threshold of the gate, which was one reed broad.
Most of the places measured are 6 cubits by 6 cubits. They are pretty much cubes, since they are a cubit high too (usually).
This chapter is 49 verses long. Most of it is lengths.
Apparently it's a vision of the New Temple in Jerusalem.
Ezekiel apparently didn't have a view of the Dome of the Rock.
So what have we learned today?
1. Clive Barker liked the Book of Ezekiel.
2. The Six-day war may have been referenced in Ezekiel 38-39.
3. Ezekiel had a vision of the temple.
YIC
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