PROPHECY----- EZEKIEL'S MESSAGE #4

 PROPHECY——

Ezekiel's Message To Us

 Part 4

FOR WHY WILL                                                              YOU DIE, O HOUSE                                                                  OF ISRAEL?                                                                                                      by

                                                                          Keith Hunt

Over and over again in the pages of the Prophets of old, God

has stated WHY He must punish the whole peoples of the House 

of Israel and the House of Judah, with a punishment like no other 

in all recorded history - Jeremiah called it "Jacob's trouble"

(chap.30:7). Daniel talked about the same time of trouble, like

no other before or after. And it was at this time that the people

of God would be delivered (Dan.12). Dozens of passages teach 

that the peoples of the 13 tribes of Israel are in a captivity to

their enemies at the time of the end. Jesus comes again, and one

thing He immediately does is bring forth the remnant of Israelite

people out from the lands they have been scattered in, to restore

them to the land of Promise - the land of Palestine. 

     The punishment was needed to bring them to deep and true

REPENTANCE. One passage in the writings of Jeremiah gives 

the clear reason why the Eternal will have to lower the rod of

correction upon the Jewish people, and the people of the British

Commonwealth, USA, and nations of Northwest Europe. 

     " For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have

only done evil before me from their youth: for the children of

Israel have only provoked me to anger with the work of their

hands, says the Enteral........Because of the evil of the children 

of Israel and of the children of Judah, which they have done 

to provoke me to anger, they, their kings, their princes, their 

priests,  and their prophets, and the men of Judah, and the

inhabitants of Jerusalem.  And they have turned unto me their

BACK, and not their face: though I TAUGHT THEM, RISING 

UP EARLY AND TEACHING THEM( yes, God has always had 

His faithful true ministers proclaiming His truths to the nations 

of Israel, especially in the last days - Keith Hunt), YET THEY 

HAVE NOT HARKENED TO RECEIVE INSTRUCTION......" 

(Jeremiah 32:30-33).

     We have come to chapter nine in the book of Ezekiel, and 

the Lord is now ready to start to act upon what He has promised,

punishment and death, if the nations of Israel will not turn to

Him in repentance.  But the Lord is merciful to those that are

after His own heart. Remember when the Almighty with two 

angels came to destroy Sodom and Gomorah(Gen.18) and Abraham 

asked Him about the innocent?  The Eternal would have mercy for 

the innocent. You will remember Lot and some of his family were

spared death.

     This situation to befall Israel is not quite the same, for

they will be punished regardless of how many righteous are

within.  But we now see in Ezekiel nine, that the Lord is still

looking out for the righteous who dwell in the nations of Israel.

These righteous "sigh and cry for all the ABOMINATIONS" 

being committed (verse 4).  Please keep in mind that "the city"

(Jerusalem) and all that is to take place in her, is a TYPE of

all to come upon the whole 13 tribes of Israel and Judah. This 

we have seen in previous studies.

     These righteous have a mark set upon them. They are marked

as God's people.  The indications are that they will be protected

from the death when it starts, as those under the blood were

protected from death when God brought Israel out of Egypt 

under Moses (Ex. 12). This would seem to be the logical conclusion 

from the context of chapter nine. It could be that the righteous are

noted, God has them in His book of life, and that they will be a part 

of the first resurrection, those who will rise to meet Christ in the air, 

the clouds, and so ever be with Him.  

     The righteous marked here are so marked at the beginning, 

or just before the start of the announcement to slay the young and

the old.  They are spared from death as Jacob's trouble begins.

These marked here are not to be confused with the 144 thousand

of Revelation 7. Those in Rev.7 are brought to conversion just

before the great day of the wrath of God, after the heavenly

signs and killing of true saints during the great tribulation(see

the 5th and 6th seals of Rev.6 with Mat.24). Revelation 7 is a

later time frame from this prophecy of Ezekiel 9.

     We certainly do have very plain words about the death to

come for a great many of the inhabitants of the nations of

Israel, immediately after the marking of those who cry and sigh

for the abominations being committed.

     " ....Go you after him through the city, and SMITE: let not

your eye spare, neither have you pity: Slay utterly old and

young, both maids and little children, and women.....and BEGIN at

my SANCTUARY......and they went forth and slew in the city. And

it came to pass, while they were slaying them, and I was left,

that I fell upon my face and cried, and said, Ah Lord God! will

you destroy ALL THE RESIDUE OF ISRAEL in your pouring 

out of your fury upon Jerusalem?

     Then said He unto me, The iniquity of the HOUSE OF ISRAEL

and JUDAH is EXCEEDING GREAT, and the land is full of blood, 

and the city full of perverseness......And as for me also, mine eye

shall not spare, neither will I have PITY, BUT I WILL RECOMPENSE

THEIR WAY UPON THEIR HEAD....."

     Ezekiel is again lifted up by the Spirit and brought to the

Temple in Jerusalem, chapter 10:1.

     God here speaks to the princes of Israel. To the men who

give you advice and leadership. You receive BAD and

self-deceptive advice O nations and people of Israel.

They tell you to plan for the next century, way down the road,

for they tell you no evil will befall the might Western nations. 

You increase in crime overall (USA has declined in crime

recently, during the 90's, but Britain has greatly increased,

especially in violent crime. By the time God is going to punish,

crime will be out of sight in the nations of Israel).  

     The Eternal says you have feared the sword of war, and indeed 

the sword will come upon you. God will deliver you over to your

enemies and so execute judgment upon you. You shall fall by the

weapons of war, and when it happens the Almighty says you

will finally KNOW that He is the Eternal. He will so bring you 

to humble repentance, for He says you have not walked after His

statutes, and His judgments, but have done the manner of the

heathen around you.

     After all this has taken place, yet the Lord will not cast

you away. He will see your repentance. He will hear your cries

for mercy, and He will forgive, and love you. He will answer you. 

Oh, how wonderful and longsuffering is the Eternal.  The day is

coming when you will be given a new heart and a new life.  Will

you listen people of Israel and Judah to the good that your God

will yet perform towards you.

     " ....Although I have cast them far off among the heathen,

and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will

I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they

shall come.....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.  And they shall 

come hither, and they shall take away ......all the abominations...

And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within

you; and I will take away the stony heart out of their flesh, and

give them an heart of flesh: That they may walk in my statutes,

and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they SHALL BE MY

PEOPLE AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD....." (Ezek.11:16-21).

     The Eternal had Ezekiel act out a literal removal of himself

and his "stuff" of captivity in chapter 12, to teach the lesson

to Israel that they would indeed be removed. Again the emphasis

is placed on Israel that they are a REBELLIOUS household of

people, with eyes to see but will not see, with ears to hear but

will not hear.   God says He will leave A FEW IN NUMBER 

who shall escape the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, 

to declare  all the abominations that they will then fully recognize, 

among the nations where they shall come (verse16).

     There will be among you people and leaders who will laugh at

this warning, they will say the day of destruction for such great

and powerful nations as the British Commonwealth and the USA is

many many years away. But the Eternal says He is the Almighty,

and it WILL NOT BE PROLONGED, for He will say the word 

and it shall come to pass (verse 25-28).

     Listen O nations of Israel, you have famous religious preachers 

and prophets in your lands. But they teach and prophesy

"out of their own hearts." They talk out of their own spirit,

and God says they have SEEN NOTHING! (chapter 13:1-3).  

They come to you in the name of the Lord, but the Lord says He has 

NOT SENT THEM!  They have lulled you to sleep with a false grace 

and false hope. They have built up a false wall that looks strong and 

right but there is no true cement to hold the bricks, and the Eternal

will blow with His stormy wind upon it, until it and its builders are 

smashed (verses 6-16).

     Ah, the Lord also speaks to the women that now lead in your

nations in various influential positions of power and leadership

- spiritually(many are now ordained ministers of religion) and

physically(positions of power and influence in governments from

local to federal). Because in the main they have strengthened the

hands of the wicked and have not led the people to turn from

their evil ways, God will in the coming punishment return to them

their reward of sin and evil, and will deliver the people from their 

clutches of corruption (verses 17-23).

     We see in chapter 14 and verses one to eleven, a very

interesting principle of teaching.  If the attitude of the bulk

of the people is that they do not really want truth or

righteousness, that they have closed their hearts and minds to

hungering after righteousness,  if they have turned their minds

over to being deceived, and put whatever idols before their

minds(i.e. comfort, wealth, biblical laziness, overlooking sins,

corruptions, lies,  making the "church" into a social club) 

and still come in an outward form to the religious leaders to

supposedly ask about the things of God,  then we learn one 

BIG principle of truth here.  Under those circumstances, with 

that attitude prevailing, GOD WILL DECEIVE THE VERY 

RELIGIOUS LEADERS THE PEOPLE COME TO SEEK 

AFTER  FOR GOD'S WAY.

     This shows that the grass roots PEOPLE of the churches are

just as MUCH RESPONSIBLE FOR DECEPTION AND WILL 

BE PUNISHED AS MUCH AS THOSE THAT DECEIVE!

     The whole NT shows that religious deceivers WOULD COME, 

some would be FROM WITHIN THE VERY CHURCH OF JESUS 

CHRIST(i.e. Acts 20).  The whole NT declares every Christian is 

personally responsible for searching the Scriptures, proving all 

things, loving the truth, and trying the spirits to see they are from 

God.  

      This must always be the case throughout any Christian's life. 

Never going to sleep on this job.  If they do, then they are in the 

above attitude of mind, and what goes around will come around, 

deception leads to deception. Those that are deceivable will be 

deceived by those who are deceptive.  AND GOD SAYS BOTH

ARE JUST AS RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR DECEPTION - 

THEY SHALL BOTH BEAR THE PUNISHMENT OF THEIR 

INIQUITY.  YES, THE ETERNAL PULLS NO PUNCHES, 

HE CALLS THIS MIND-SET - INIQUITY (verse 10).  

     We notice also here that the Lord will GIVE YOU YOUR DESIRE. 

The one who WANTS to deceive, will be granted his wish, God will

allow him to do so. The one who has turned from seeking truth and

righteousness will also be led by God (for God will not step in

and prevent it) into the deception of the deceiver (verse 9). 

Yet, the ultimate free will to deceive or be deceived, is still

the responsibility of each individual. And they will personally

bear their punishment.

     The Lord goes on to show HOW PERSONAL this really is, in

verses 12 to 23.  When God does bring the promised destruction

upon your nations, only those who will see, acknowledge, and who

will be practicing righteousness will be spared from death.  

     No one will be able to deliver anyone else, no one will be able to

save anyone who is not in the righteous mind-set. Some will

already be in a state of righteousness as we have seen in chapter

9.  Some will come to deep repentance as all these four evils

come upon the lands of Israel (the sword, the famine, the beats,

the pestilence, verse 21).  A REMNANT will be spared.

     The first part of chapter 16 tells us in an analogy, how the

Almighty found and chose you peoples of Israel. 

     You mighty nations of Britain, USA, and Northwest Europe,

were not always powerful and great. Your beginnings as a people

goes back a very long way, and the Eternal says you were like a

helpless un-cared-for baby cast away in the field to die.  

     God passed by and saw you, had pity and compassion on you. 

He rescued you, washed, clothed, and fed you, until you increased 

and became great in the world. 

     The Lord goes on to tell you how He was the one who built

you up, made you into a fine lady, even a beauty queen dressed in

the best clothes and jewelry and ointments available. He says you

then became "exceeding beautiful, and you did prosper into a

kingdom" (verse 13).

     Your fame throughout the world for your beauty and wealth

and perfectness was known by all (verse 14).

     BUT, the Eternal goes on to say, starting in verse 15, that

all this fame, fortune, wealth, beauty, greatness, was your

downfall, were the things that led you to play the HARLOT!  

You have let your material wealth lead you to commit idolatry - 

you are a people engrossed in pleasures and materialism, with the

rich ever getting richer and the poor ever getting poorer (verses

16-19).

     In  turning your back on your God, in rejecting His ways, in

casting Him out of your schools and places of business, in

turning to the ways that seem right for man but which end in

death, you are destroying your children. You are raising a

generation that does not know, has never opened the pages of the

Bible, have never read one single word within its pages. Your

have broken homes, children with one parent, or no parents, or

children with two mothers and no father, or two father and no

mother, as you accept the life style of the homosexuals and grant

them family status. You have children being raised on crime and

violence as they watch all your violent TV shows. You have

children being raised on your "sick-cons" during prime time

hours, which portray sexual immorality, fornication, adultery,

homosexuality, as the normal thing, and that which is clean and

straight and moral as something to be laughed at. You have not

solved the "ghetto" problem, and with it today the problem of

hard drug use by an ever younger population of your children. 

You have an increase of children killing children.  The violence

among teenage girls is shooting off the charts.  There is an

epidemic is teen cigarette smoking.

     Surely you are, with your children, sacrificing them to be

devoured (verse 20). And the Lord asks you if you think this is a

small matter. You are reaping what you are sowing. Through the

prophet Amos God speaks to you: " Hear the word of the Lord,

you children of Israel: for the Lord has a controversy with the

inhabitants of the land, because there is NO TRUTH, NOR MERCY,

NOR KNOWLEDGE OF GOD in the land. By swearing, and lying, 

and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out,

and BLOOD TOUCHES BLOOD.......My people are DESTROYED 

for LACK of KNOWLEDGE: because you have REJECTED knowledge, 

I will also reject you......seeing you have FORGOTTEN THE LAW OF 

YOUR GOD, I WILL ALSO FORGET YOUR CHILDREN......

(Amos 4:1-6).

     The Eternal in this age, does not force anyone to learn and

to love His knowledge contained in His word. He does not at this

time force anyone to love and obey His laws, commandments,

statutes, and judgements.  You people of Israel, in the main,

have chosen to REJECT the word and laws of the Almighty God, 

and as He allows you this freedom, and as you then produce a

generation of children who do not know Him, who do not seek Him,

who do not want him in their lives, He then, not forcing them to

do differently, in human terms says to you, "I will forget your

children." God will keep hands off and allow you and your

children to reap the results of doing your own thing.  So today

we have an epidemic of children bashing and killing children,

children killing themselves, children and youths on an ever

increasing drug binge, more and more children running away from

home and living on the streets, and as Isaiah wrote, "And my people 

shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his 

neighbor: the CHILD shall behave himself proudly against the

ancient...As for my people, CHILDREN are their oppressors...they

which LEAD you cause you to err, and destroy the way of your

paths " (Isa. 3:5,12).

     Among all this whoredom, you have your "religion" - your

"churches" on every street corner. You have a form of religion,

an outward show of religion. You, the USA still print on your

dollar bills, "In God We Trust." You claim you are Christian

nations, yet as a prostitute you have sex with those who come to

you (verses 24-26) like the Egyptians. 

     You have gone to the Assyrian - the German nation - and the

rising mighty power of Europe, and played the harlot with them,

but still you could not be satisfied (verse 28).

     Then the Eternal says, you have not acted as a prostitute as

a prostitute acts and works. You have not taken gifts from your

lovers, but you have been like an adulterous wife, you have given

gifts to your lovers and you hire them to love you.  In this you

are truly unlike any whore of prostitution. You defeated Germany

and Europe in the Second great World War of 1939 to 1945, and

then immediately started to re-build her  and re-store her to

former glory and power. You have made your enemies into your

lovers, and you have given them presents for loving you. Those

very lovers will come against you to execute God's judgement upon

you.  Your lovers will form A COMPANY of nations to fight and

destroy you. Listen to what your God tells you will come to

pass(if you will not repent):

     " Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the Lord: thus says

the Eternal God; Because your filthiness was poured out, and your

nakedness discovered through your whoredoms with your lovers, and

with all the idols of your abominations, and by THE BLOOD OF YOUR

CHILDREN, which you did give unto them; Behold, therefore I will

gather all your LOVERS, with whom you have taken pleasure, and

all THEM THAT YOU HAVE LOVED, WITH all them that you HAVE 

HATED; I will even GATHER THEM ABOUT AGAINST YOU, 

and will discover your nakedness unto them, that they may see all 

your nakedness. And I will judge you as a woman that breaks wedlock 

and shed blood are judged; and I will GIVE YOU BLOOD IN FURY 

AND JEALOUSY.

     And I will also give you into their hand.......they shall strip you 

of your clothes, and shall take your fair jewels, and leave you naked 

and bear. 

     They shall also bring up a COMPANY against you, and they 

shall stone you with stones, and thrust you through with their

swords.....and execute JUDGMENT upon you.....and I will 

cause you to cease from playing the harlot....."(verses 35-41).

     In Ezekiel chapter 18 the Eternal shows that those who sin

and practice evil shall personally bear their punishment.

     Everyone will have to personally give account for their own

actions. The son will not be punished because his father did

wrong. The Mother will not be punished because her daughter did

evil. The soul that sins shall die, for his or her sins (verse

20).

     Once more the Lord cries out to you the people of the House

of Israel. He cries out for your people to REPENT! He shows you

that His way is JUST and EQUAL.  He does not want to have to

bring all these prophecies upon your lands and your people.

They do not have to come to pass. Will you not listen to what

your God proclaims to you?

     "But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he has

committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful

and right, he shall surely live, he SHALL NOT DIE. All his

transgressions that he has committed, shall not be mentioned

unto him: in his righteousness that he has done he SHALL LIVE. 

     HAVE I ANY PLEASURE AT ALL THAT THE WICKED 

SHOULD DIE? SAYS THE LORD GOD: AND NOT THAT 

HE SHOULD RETURN FROM HIS WAYS, AND LIVE?

     .....When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness,

and commits iniquity, and dies in them; for his iniquity that he

has done shall he die.  Again, when the wicked man turns away

from his wickedness that he has committed, and does that which 

is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive. Because he

CONSIDERS, and TURNS AWAY from all his transgressions 

that he has committed, he shall surely LIVE, he shall not die. 

     Yet says the house of Israel, The way of the Lord is not

equal. O house of Israel, are not my ways equal? Are not your

ways un-equal?

     Therefore I will JUDGE you, O house of Israel, EVERY ONE

ACCORDING TO HIS WAYS, says the Lord God, REPENT 

and TURN yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity 

shall not be your ruin.

     Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby you have

transgressed; and MAKE YOU A NEW HEART AND A NEW 

SPIRIT:  FOR WHY WILL YOU DIE O HOUSE OF ISRAEL? 

     For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dies, says

the Eternal God: WHEREFORE TURN YOURSELVES, 

AND LIVE YOU " (Ezekiel 18:21-32).

     May there be some of you out there in the lands of Israel who 

will not only listen to the words coming from your merciful

Everliving God, but may there be some of you who will act upon

those words. It is never too late to REPENT, TURN around, depart

from wickedness and do that which is righteousness, and to accept

Jesus Christ as your personal Savior.

                       To be continued

                    ....................

Written February 1998