PROPHECY
Ezekiel's Message To Us
Part 3
FOR WHY WILL
YOU DIE, O HOUSE
OF ISRAEL?
by
Keith Hunt
Over and over again God shows through the prophets of the OT that when the time comes to send the Messiah (Christ Jesus) back to this earth in POWER and GLORY to establish the Kingdom of God on earth, the peoples of the House of Israel and the House of Judah (all 13 tribes of Jacob or Israel) have already gone into a three and one half year captivity, a scattering abroad into the land of their enemies, FROM WHICH they are DELIVERED by the Messiah, and returned to the land of Promise, the Holy land of Palestine, when they shall rest in peace, build the fallen cities, cultivate the land with such bounty that the seed planter and the reaper will overlap each other.
We see this foretold in the book and prophecy of AMOS.
Amos was sent to the House of Israel in the main, to warn them that if they did not REPENT and turn to worship the true God in spirit and in truth, they would be punished with destruction and captivity. THIS IS A PROPHECY FOR YOU, O PEOPLE OF THE CELTIC-ANGLO-SAXON NATIONS OF THE USA AND BRITISH COMMONWEALTH, AS WELL AS NATIONS OF NORTH-WEST EUROPE. IT IS A PROPHECY FOR THE END TIME, JUST BEFORE THE PLOWMAN OVERTAKES THE REAPER.
The prophecy is set just before the Lord sends you into captivity for ALL YOUR SINS. It takes us through the time of "Jacob's trouble" (as it was called by Jeremiah), a time such as NEVER BEFORE on this earth (see Jer. 30; 31; 32; 33), and into the restoration of Israel, into the ABUNDANCE of the reign of the Messiah on earth.
"BEHOLD, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the SINFUL kingdom (the people of Israel - that's most of you who are reading these messages), and I will DESTROY IT (the Kingdom, the power, the government) from OFF the face of the earth; SAVING I WILL NOT UTTERLY DESTROY THE HOUSE OF JACOB, says the Lord.” (the prophet said in chapter 5 that by the time it was all over only 10% of you would remain alive to return under the Messiah's hand).
“For, lo, I WILL COMMAND, and I will SIFT the House of Israel AMONG THE NATIONS, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, YET SHALL NOT THE LEAST GRAIN FALL UPON THE EARTH. ALL THE SINNERS OF MY PEOPLE SHALL DIE BY THE SWORD, which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us.” Many reading this will laugh at it, they will deny that the nations of North-West Europe, the British Commonwealth and the USA are the literal peoples of the house of Israel. Your leaders will deny it, your religious teachers will deny it. They will say "this evil will not come upon us." God says these and others are SINNERS, who will die by the sword. 90% of you shall perish, by the sword and by the famine and by the pestilence. Yet the 10% that remain shall be sifted through the nations, but shall live and the book of Revelation says that 144,000 shall find repentance and the first resurrection at the coming of the Messiah. The rest will live as human flesh and blood and be restored to the promised land where they shall learn the ways of the Lord and find rest and blessings beyond belief.
In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David this is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old (a fulfilment took place concerning this prophecy once in the days of the NT Church when the Gentiles were brought into the fold of God - see Acts 15 - but a larger, end time fulfilment is yet ahead, when after you have been restored to the Promised land, and are
the true light to the world that the Eternal chose you to be among the nations - see Deut. 4 - then the Gentiles from all nations shall want to learn from you and from the Almighty God that will be among you - see Isaiah 2; Micah 4).
“That they may posses the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, says the Lord that does this.
Behold, the DAYS COME(they have never yet ever been, not days like this that you are about to read) says the Lord, that the PLOWMAN SHALL OVERTAKE THE REAPER, AND THE TREADER OF GRAPES HIM THAT SOWS SEED; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.”
“AND (NOTICE IT, AT THIS TIME AS WHEN THE ABOVE IS TO TAKE PLACE) I WILL BRING AGAIN THE CAPTIVITY OF MY PEOPLE ISRAEL (bring once more FROM captivity as it was in the days of Moses when the Eternal brought Israel from the land of their captivity in Egypt), and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.
And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, says the Lord your God" (Amos 9:8-15).
So, there is GOOD news and there is BAD news for you. Before you experience the GOOD news YOU WILL HAVE TO LEARN SOME MIGHTY BIG LESSONS! YOU WILL HAVE TO COME TO LOATHE YOUR SINS, YOUR WICKEDNESS, YOUR IDOLATRY, AND ALL YOUR PERVERSE WAYS WHEREIN YOU HAVE REBELLED AGAINST YOUR GOD AND SAVIOR!!
People of BRITAIN, head tribe of Israel, you who have such a long glorious history. You who have seen the hand of the Lord working with and for you so many times over the centuries. You who were blessed with greatness above your brethren. You have in these last days, the last years of this 20th century, increased in so much violent crime that a recent report now makes you as your brother the United States, that for so long a time stood alone in the western world where "blood touched blood." But you O people of Britain are now not far behind your brother. Daily your streets and towns are being filled with violent crime of every sort and evil.
The Lord God calls you by name in His prophetic word. He lays it open and squarely on your plate. He pulls no punches. He gives it to you right between the eyes. He first tells Israel you will be many days WITHOUT A KING, and without a PRINCE, the throne of Israel will not be as it is today, it will not function when in CAPTIVITY (Hosea 3:3-4). As before, the Eternal goes on to say that after all this punishment you SHALL RETURN AND SEEK the Lord, and even DAVID (who shall be resurrected at the return of the Messiah - see Jer. 30:9) and shall at last truly FEAR the Lord Almighty and His goodness. In the LATTER DAYS - the end time, this shall all come to pass (verse 5).
But as for YOU O nations of Britain, the lands of Ephraim. Here is what the Lord says, "EPHRAIM IS JOINT TO IDOLS: LET HIM ALONE! Their drink is SOUR: THEY HAVE COMMITTED WHOREDOM CONTINUALLY.........O EPHRAIM, YOU COMMIT WHOREDOM, AND ISRAEL IS DEFILED....therefore shall Israel and Ephraim FALL in their INIQUITY….EPHRAIM SHALL BE DESOLATE IN THE DAY OF REBUKE:
AMONG THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL HAVE I MADE KNOW THAT WHICH SHALL SURELY BE (THESE MESSAGES AND WHAT OTHERS WILL DO TO WARN YOU ARE PART OF THIS PROPHECY).......Ephraim is OPPRESSED and broken in JUDGMENT (you do not fear the Lord any more, only about 4% of you attend "church" on a regular basis. You have rejected the knowledge of the Lord and so He is going to reject you)......For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion......I will TEAR AND GO AWAY...I
will go and return to my place, TILL THEY ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR OFFENCE, AND SEEK MY FACE: in their AFFLICTION they WILL SEEK ME EARLY.” (THE NEXT VERSES OF THE FOLLOWING CHAPTER show it will be in the THIRD YEAR of captivity God will start to answer you - a day for a year principle of Bible prophecy) (sections from Hosea 4 and 5).
Those that will lift up their voice like a TRUMPET AND WHO SHOW the people their sins, do not have a pleasant task at times. It brings me no pleasure to have to expound to you the words of the Lord regarding this matter of WHAT IS GOING TO COME YOUR WAY
unless you as peoples will REPENT!
Listen to the voice of the Lord: "O Ephraim, what shall I do unto you......I have SLAIN THEM WITH THE WORDS OF MY MOUTH.......FOR I DESIRE MERCY, AND NOT SACRIFICE; AND THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD MORE THAN BURNT OFFERINGS. But they like men have transgressed the covenant: and have dealt treacherously against me......And as troops wait for a man, so the COMPANY OF PRIESTS MURDER IN THE WAY by consent: for they commit lewdness. I have seen a HORRIBLE THING in the house of Israel: there is the WHOREDOM of Ephraim, Israel is defiled....."
(Hosea 6: 4-10).
The Eternal has already SPOKEN IT! It has gone forth out of His mouth. DESTRUCTION is coming your way O nations of Israel. It is ONLY A MATTER OF TIME. And that time is in the hands of the Lord. Even if you were NOT Israel, you would still die in your sins because they are so heavy and so multiplied. All nations with such wickedness have finally DESTROYED THEMSELVES. So it was with the mighty Roman Empire, and so it shall be for you. It is only a matter of time, and time is marching on!
You will notice once more (God repeats it over and over again through the prophets) what the Eternal says about your MINISTERS, your PRIESTS, your leaders in religious worship. They are as a pack of hounds chasing the fox. As a troop of men waiting to beset and plunder the traveller. What they do SPIRITUALLY is as MURDER! So says the God of Israel. Their theology KILLS! They offer you LIBERTY but they themselves are the servants of CORRUPTION! They put no difference between that which is HOLY and that which is UN-holy. They have a FORM of religion, they have sacrifice, but they have no KNOWLEDGE - true knowledge - of the Lord God. They come in the name of Jesus, but they lead MANY astray. They are BLIND and they lead the blind, both they and their followers going into the ditch.
You have been TOLD! It is time to OPEN YOUR EYES, to search the Scriptures DAILY (Acts 17), to HUNGER AND THIRST after RIGHTEOUSNESS, to LOVE THE TRUTH, so some of you can escape from the fouler and find the TRUTH THAT SHALL SET YOU FREE!
EZEKIEL SPEAKS AGAIN
As nations you may be planning on sticking around for a while, planning on raising your children, seeing them off to College or University, looking forward to spending time with your grandchildren. And as nations you will plan and make sure you have a DEFENCE FORCE to protect your from the enemy without. You have Early Warning machines and computers incase an enemy should want to strike. You have secret spies and under-cover agents. You have indeed MADE READY, and the trumpet has been blown so can go to war if it is so determined by others who would have your wealth and lands. You are the "tops" in the world for military might and power, well for now you are, as I write these messages to you from Ezekiel, in the year of 1997/98. The future holds a different pattern of events that
will see your "lovers" in Europe, emerge as the number ONE super power in trade and commerce and military might. But for now, you are prepared, at least you think you are prepared, BUT THE ETERNAL SAYS DIFFERENTLY.
"Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Also, you son of man, thus says the Lord God unto the LAND OF ISRAEL; An end, the end, is come upon the four corners of the land. Now is the end come upon you, and I will send mine anger upon you, and will JUDGE YOU ACCORDING TO YOUR WAYS, and will recompense upon you all your ABOMINATIONS. And my eye will NOT SPARE you,
neither will I have pity......and you shall KNOW that I am the Eternal.......An end is come, THE end is come, it watches for you; behold, it is come.......Now will I SHORTLY pour out my fury upon you, and accomplish my anger upon you......Behold the day, behold, it is come......Violence is risen up into a rod of WICKEDNESS.......THEY HAVE BLOWN THE TRUMPET, EVEN TO MAKE ALL READY; but none goes to the battle, for my wrath is upon all the multitude thereof. The SWORD is WITHOUT, and the PESTILENCE and the FAMINE within: he that is in the field shall die with the sword; and he that is within the city, famine and pestilence shall devour him.
BUT they that ESCAPE of them escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them MOURNING, every one for his INIQUITY. All hands shall be feeble, and all knees shall be weak as water.......They shall cast their silver into the streets, and their gold shall be REMOVED: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord......because it is the STUMBLINGBLOCK of their INIQUITIES.......And I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil; and they shall pollute it (Now you stop and think, ask yourself this question: WHO, what people in this century could you classify have been the wicked of the world, that have brought more pain, suffering, and death on the world than any others? The Eternal will yet use those same people to bring you this time to DEFEAT and to your knees in humble repentance)......
“Make a chain: for the land is FULL of BLOODY CRIME, and the city (Jerusalem - the type here used to foretell what will come upon the House of Israel, as we saw earlier) is full of violence. Wherefore I will bring the WORST OF THE HEATHEN, and they shall posses their houses: I will also make the POMP of the STRONG to cease; and their holy places shall be defiled. DESTRUCTION COMES; AND THEY SHALL SEEK PEACE, AND THERE SHALL BE NONE!
“Mischief shall come upon mischief......then shall they SEEK a VISION of the PROPHET; but the LAW shall perish from the PRIEST, and COUNSEL from the ANCIENTS (Those who should KNOW the Lord and the true ways of righteousness, health, and safe-keeping, those ministers of yours who come in the name of the Lord and who say "thus says the Lord" when He HAS NOT SPOKEN TO THEM, they shall fail and fall. You shall then see them for what they have always been - false prophets and false deceivers).
“The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled: I will do unto them AFTER THEIR WAY, and according to their DESERT will I judge them; and they SHALL KNOW THAT I AM THE ETERNAL” (Various sections of Ezekiel chapter 7).
Paul, the great apostle of the NT church, was inspired to write that WHATSOEVER WE SLOW THAT SHALL WE REAP! The mighty Russian Empire stood strong and mighty after WW2, stood for a
while, forty years or so. But it sowed among its people that which finally brought it to collapse and disintegration. It sowed economical sins that now still hold its people in poverty and misery.
You also, peopleWest Europe, are sowing the sins of rejecting the ways and commandments of the Holy One, for the ways that seem right unto a man, but which end in dead. You have chosen to cast the Eternal and His Word out of the schools, by and large, out of the
court-rooms, by and large, out of your governments, both nationally and locally, by and large. In so doing it is only a matter of time before you also crumble and disintegrate as a people, ready to be taken over by the worst of the heathen, who will show no mercy, as they kill and force those left of you to serve them and the state religion of Babylon the Great, that they will put around your neck. To be sure, they will think they do
God a service, they will think they are acting righteously for their god whom they will believe is the true God.
It is at that time, when those left of you shall come to see WHO is the real true God, who are His real true servants, and WHAT real REPENTANCE is all about! But before that day arrives, the Almighty has more to say against you and your religious leaders and the false worship you extend towards Him.
In chapter 8 we find Ezekiel in his house, with some of the elders of Judah sitting around - he was still a captive by the river of Chebar. He had not be allowed to go to the peoples of Israel who were far from where he was a captive. More messages from the Lord concerning the sins of Israel were to be given him.
Ezekiel was lifted up in VISION and taken to the house of God in the city of Jerusalem. Taken to the very center of what was supposed to be the true pure religion of the true pure Almighty Eternal God of the people of Judah. Taken to the Temple or Tabernacle that King Solomon was allowed to build in honor of the God of his father David. It was David, the man after God's own heart that wanted to build the Temple, but he was not allowed to undertake the task because he was a "blood man" but the Lord did say his son would build it, and so it was.
Notice verse SIX! All that he saw in vision was to portray the ABOMINATIONS that were within the HOUSE OF ISRAEL'S RELIGIOUS WORSHIP TOWARDS THE ETERNAL! In vision he even saw seventy men of the house of Israel as if they were literally there acting out the worship of religion and believing that this false worship (which the context clearly shows it was) was acceptable to the true God (verses 10, 11).
They were so deceived they actually thought (and no doubt taught it to others of their flock who blindly followed them) IT MADE NO DIFFERENCE! That God did not see, did not take into account the false from the true. They thought and they taught that the Lord was not really concerned with those who worshipped Him on the earth, that He had left them to decide and figure out for themselves HOW TO WORSHIP HIM! They said God was FAR AWAY, with more important things on His mind than to be concerned with telling people on earth HOW to worship Him. They were teaching that the Eternal would ACCEPT EVERYONE, just as they were without searching to know and to practice the righteous ways of the Lord (verse 12).
And this is precisely the state of YOUR religion in your nations today O House of Israel. You are being taught that GRACE, the grace and mercy of God through the blood of Christ Jesus frees us from all obligations to obey the laws and commandments of God. You are being taught that you can live ANY life-style you desire and it's okay with the Father in heaven. Why you were "born" that way, the Lord made you that way, many tell you. You were "born" a homosexual or lesbian, you were "born" a child molester, or spouse abuser, or addicted to alcohol, or gambling. You have churches that accept such people's styles of life and do not teach them to REPENT AND CHANGE! You have hundreds and thousands of ministers up and down your lands that claim they represent the true God but teach you He does not see, that it does not matter to Him, that you take false pagan traditions and customs from the darkness of the unconverted world, and ADOPT and ADAPT them to try to worship the ONE who says He will NOT ACCEPT such worship towards Him. For starters,
look up in your Encyclopedias the origin of HALLOWEEN! Many "church going" people and whole church congregations openly participate in this day or evening of "fun." Then after that little bit of investigation, you may like to continue with finding out the facts about Easter and Christmas, Valentines Day, January the first celebrations, and yes even "Thanksgiving Day."
Ah, and many of your leaders of religious matters work in darkness, behind closed doors, to practice their habitual sins, that seem to hold them in the grip of slavery. We have seen a number of them, well known evangelists, in the spotlight of your public media to reach the masses, fall in disgraceful ignominy. And to the shame of themselves and yourselves, some of them have refused to retire to the back seat of the church, as long as some will continue to give them acclaim and adoration. As shocking as it is, some of those preachers claim they are above the law of God, too important for the work of the Lord. They claim the Eternal does not see (verse 12).
The IMAGE of jealousy that stands in the door of your churches (verse 3), could be today any NUMBER of things, that will provoke the Lord to jealousy. I have mentioned a few above.
Certainly far too many of you give your allegiance to an organization, be it locally or nationally, or to the church building itself, or to the people in that building, so making them your "social club" from which you cannot pull away no matter how corrupt or false in doctrine they become. That also is an idol that will provoke the Supreme One to jealousy.
Then in verse 14 we have the persons who "weep for Tammuz." What on earth is this all about? Well it's quite a story, longer than we have time for here to cover in detail, but I will cover some of it.
Before we go back to the very beginning of the entrance of Tammuz on the earth and where he really came from, a little information about his celebration is educational for us as it pertains to the time of Ezekiel.
The word Tammuz is the Syriac for Adonis. Yes, the supposed handsome mystic fellow all the women swoon over and cry about with emotional butterflies in their stomach. He was, in the pagan world, the paramour of Venus, the sex goddess. These women at the Temple, instead of weeping over the SINS of the nation are crying over the idol Tammuz.
He was said to have been killed by a wild boar, and then permitted by the gods to spend half the year on the earth and then the other half in the lower world. An annual feast was celebrated to him in June at Byblos, when the Syrian women, in wild grief, tore off their hair, and gave their persons over to prostitution, consecrating the hire of their infamy to Venus; next followed the days of rejoicing for his return to the earth - the former feast being called "the disappearance of Adonis," the latter, "the finding of Adonis." See on this the Bible Commentary by Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Vol.2.
Now to the story of Tammuz as it was in the beginning. For this we must go back to NIMROD, mentioned in Genesis 10. He was a MIGHTY ONE, a MIGHTY HUNTER, and he was such it is written
BEFORE the Lord. He established a KINGDOM, the first so mentioned in the Bible. The JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA says: "he who made all the people REBELLIOUS against God." They have good reason to say this. The expression "a mighty one" has a hostile
meaning. The expression comes from the Hebrew word "gibor" which means TYRANT; while the very name Nimrod means "let us rebel." The Hebrew word "before" as in "before the Lord" also carries a hostile meaning - AGAINST!
Nimrod was AGAINST the Lord, the one who taught and led the people to REBEL against the Lord. He was a priest of DEVIL--worship. He was the priest-king of Babylon, his empire. Nimrod did die, for he was but human. The Babylonian religion which he founded CONTINUED on and DEVELOPED further under the leading of his WIFE.
After Nimrod's death, his wife, Queen SEMIRAMIS, claimed that he was now the SUN-god. And later, when this idolatrous woman gave birth to an illegitimate son, she claimed that this son, TAMMUZ by name, was Nimrod REBORN.
Now Satan knew the promise from the Lord that a "seed" would come from woman, that was to be the SAVIOR of the world, who would conquer sin, death, and Satan himself. Queen Semiramis, as an instrument in the hands of Satan, claimed that HER son was
supernaturally conceived (immaculate conception) and that HE was the PROMISED SEED, the "savior" of the world. This Babylonian religion went on to formulate that the MOTHER (Semiramis) was to be worshipped as much as the child, if not more than the child in certain respects.
The "golden calf" was a SYMBOL of Tammuz, son of the Sun-god Nimrod. This Nimrod-Sun-god was the Baal of the Scriptures, so often mentioned as the false god that your fathers O house of Israel worshipped time after time, until the True Lord had to send them into captive punishment, for their idolatry and Sabbath breaking.
This system of false TRINITY worship (Nimrod-Sun-god, Mother queen of heaven, and the child Tammuz) spread from Babylon to the nations of the world. We find evidence of this Babylonian religion - in one form or anther - in all the false religions of the earth and all nations upon it. As it spread, the names of the three principle characters often CHANGED and other rites added and expanded upon, but the basic form still remained in tact. It ALL started in BABYLON, under Nimrod, who was under the influence of Satan.
The whole system has many MYSTERIOUS parts to it, many mysterious patterns, rites, forms, symbols, feasts, codes of worship etc. In the book of Revelation it is called BABYLON MYSTERY RELIGION. It is symbolized by a WOMAN, a fallen woman. One who is drunk on the BLOOD of the SAINTS of God, whose history has been to persecute and kill the true children of the Almighty.
She rides a BEAST that does her bidding, a civil power that acts on her behalf. She is said to be a MOTHER, who had children born from out of her. They are called HARLOTS, for they also have many
of her character traits and ways and practices.
LISTEN ISRAEL! Many of your past theological scholars of the 16th to the 19th centuries KNEW WHO SHE WAS, AND BOLDLY PROCLAIMED IT TO ALL WHO WOULD READ THEIR BIBLE COMMENTARIES, which are still in print to this day and can still be purchased through the your Bible Book stores.
Tammuz was the false savior, being dressed up by Satan to deceive the world as the true Savior. The women weeping for Tammuz in this section of Ezekiel's message is to teach you that there is a FALSE EMOTIONAL RELIGION in your lands. A people that THINK they are worshipping the real SAVIOR of the world, but are in truth only following in a physical emotional way the FALSE savior of Satan. They may think they are worshipping Jesus Christ, but in reality they serve and worship Tammuz, the son of the Sun-god Nimrod, who taught the whole world to rebel against the one and only true Eternal Lord of the universe.
Now notice verses 15 and 16 of Ezekiel the 8th chapter. If all this was not enough, God says that an even GREATER ABOMINATION is going on in the sanctuary of the House of the Lord. TWENTY--FIVE men, representing the 25 courses or orders of the priests, 1 Chr. 24:18,19, with the high priest at their head, which in turn represents the WHOLE priesthood of your lands. These then are said to have their BACKS to the west
Pretty clear! God is telling you that your religious leaders AS A WHOLE are nothing but a group of PAGAN SUN WORSHIPPERS! O, they may come to you in the "name of the Lord" and say to you that "Jesus is the Christ" but as Jesus Himself said, they would and they do DECEIVE MANY! Read again Jesus' prophecy in Matthew 24.
What does the Eternal say to all this:
"Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they CRY unto me in mine ears with a LOUD VOICE, yet will I NOT HEAR THEM" (verse 18).
IS THERE NO HOPE, FOR AT LEAST SOME? WE SHALL SEE IF THERE IS NEXT TIME, AS WE CONTINUE WITH THE MESSAGE OF EZEKIEL.
.................................
Written December 1997
Permission is given to Copy, E-mail, Publish and distribute all articles and studies by Keith Hunt.
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