Ezekiel For Today
Chapters 19 to 24
Part 5 by Keith Hunt You peoples of the lands of Northwest Europe, the British Commonwealth, and the United Stated of America, are the very literal people of the ancient House of Israel, believe it or not! Dozens of booklets and whole books have been written by various persons over the last 200 years, proving that the Anglo-Saxon-Celtic peoples came from the area where the 10 tribed house of Israel was taken captive by the great Assyrian armies from 745 to 718 B.C. That captivity was the end result of decades of preaching by different prophets sent by the Eternal God of Israel to His people, telling them that if they did not TURN and REPENT from their wicked ways and seek Him with their whole heart and mind, He would bring the mighty Assyrian Empire against them who would carry them away into captivity and slavery. They did not heed the words of the prophets, and so the rest of the story came to pass as God promised. Yet the Lord also said through Amos that not one grain would fall, they would be sifted as through a sieve among the nations (Amos 9:9). God would lead them on and plant them in a new land as He promised to David (2 Samuel 7:10), and there He would comfort them, bless them, multiply them. There He would bring about the promises and the prophecies of Genesis 48, 49 and Deut. 33. Yet the Eternal knew also that in so restoring Israel to prosperity and greatness, they would over a period of time, once more turn away from Him and His word into sin and wickedness and idolatry. He knew that once more, just before the end of this present age and the return of the Messiah Christ Jesus back to this earth, He would again have to bring Israel to repentance by allowing a mighty nation and company of nations to subject them to death and captivity and slavery, as it was in the days when they were held under Egyptian bondage before God delivered them by the hand of Moses. The Almighty, knowing this had to be the way (because it would be unlikely Israel would repent without facing such punishment) He had Jeremiah and the other prophets WRITE down the words of their first preaching to Israel back in the 8th and 7th century B.C. for a time to come in the latter days (Jeremiah 30:2,3; Hosea 3). The time is at hand O peoples of Israel to see the works of the Lord upon you, to accomplish what is written, to bring to pass the many prophecies of old, and to deal with you in such a way as that you will never backslide again, never go after your lovers to make love to them and their carnal deceptive religions. The Eternal says Britain (Ephraim) has gone after Assyrian (the German peoples) when she saw her sickness, when she was named the sick nation of Europe, to seek help (Hosea 5), yet she will only eventually find a lion waiting to devour her. You together with the peoples of the house of Judah will be torn to pieces without rescue. The Lord will turn from you UNTIL you acknowledge your sins. You will be two full years (a day for a year principle in prophecy) in slavery. During the third year of Jacob's trouble (Jer.30:7) God will start to deliver you, give you some life and hope (Hosea 6). Why must this come upon you? Why will you have to die (two thirds and more of you according to Ezekiel)? Will you not see why O Israel, as you read the words of Hosea in his 8th chapter. "Set the trumpet to the mouth....because they have transgressed my COVENANT, and trespassed against my LAW....Israel has cast off the things that are GOOD: the enemy shall pursue him. They have SET UP KINGS, but NOT by me: they have made PRINCES, and I knew it NOT: of their SILVER and their GOLD have they made them IDOLS, that they may be CUT OFF....For they have sown the WIND, AND THEY SHALL REAP THE WHIRLWIND.... Israel is swallowed up: now shall they be among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein there is no pleasure. For they are gone up to Assyria (Germany) a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim has HIRED LOVERS....Because Ephraim has made altars to sin, altars shall be unto him to sin. I have written to him the GREAT things of my LAW, but they were counted as a strange thing....For Israel has forgotten his Maker, and builds temples: and Judah has multiplied fenced cities: but I will send a FIRE upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof." Notice Hosea chapter 9. "....Ephraim shall RETURN to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria....The days of visitation are come, the days of recompense are come, Israel shall know the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, for the multitude of their iniquity, and the great hatred....As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird....though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb. My God will CAST THEM AWAY, BECAUSE THEY DID NOT HARKEN UNTO HIM, AND THEY SHALL BE WANDERERS AMONG THE NATIONS" (various verses). You people of America, Britain and Northwest Europe, you have in your history always been a stiff-necked people, hard to deal with, rebellious in heart and mind, going away from the Eternal's laws and commandments when in the good times, the prosperous times. It was no different when God made Himself known to your fathers in the land of Egypt. Read about your history in Ezekiel chapter 20. God revealed and gave to you His laws, statutes, precepts, and His Sabbaths, as a sign so you would know the true and only God, but your fathers REBELLED and despised the judgments of the Eternal, they refused to walk in them. The Lord God asks if YOU are the same as your fathers were. It would seem the answer is a positive, YES! So, the Eternal will deal with you as to bring you to repentance and into His covenant. A FIRE will come upon you and those not burned up shall come forth to serve the Almighty in Spirit and in Truth. Notice the revealing prophecy in Ezekiel chapter 21 and verse 14. Two GREAT swords of war have come upon you already in the this 20th century. Both great wars stated by your old enemy the Assyrian - the German people. The sword was sharpened twice already, you have seen the enemy that shall again come upon you twice before. The THIRD TIME the sword is being sharpened in Europe. Yet this third time is and will be different than the previous two times. The battle will be from two directions, yet it will be one. The modern BABYLON of the Europe Empire now forming in the area of the old Roman Empire, together with the mighty German nation now united once more, will be the power and the end time Empire that God will use to strike the sword and kill you. This end time "religious" whore woman that will ride the beast of secular Europe, shall also come against your brothers of the house of Judah. You will both FALL TOGETHER (Hosea 5:5). Again, why will you fall from your power and might? Once more, like a broken record it would seem, God repeats again your sins in Ezekiel chapter 22. Will you not listen? Maybe, if repeated enough times some will listen and repent. "....Now, you son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city, yes, you shall show her ALL HER ABOMINATIONS... You have despised my holy things and have profaned my Sabbaths... And one has committed abomination with his neighbor's wife, and another has lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law, and another in you has humbled his sister (sexual immorality)....In you have they taken gifts(bribes) to shed blood ( the hired gun) you have taken usury and increase (your loan and banking system is not from God), and you have greedily gained of your neighbor by extortion ( low wages for some, exploiting the women and the needy), and you have FORGOTTEN me....Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become DROSS.....As they gather silver , and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin, into the midst of the furnace....so will I gather you in my anger, and in my fury, and I will leave you there, and melt you.... Her PRIESTS (RELIGIOUS LEADERS) have violated my LAW, and profaned my holy things: THEY HAVE PUT NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE HOLY AND THE PROFANE, NEITHER HAVE THEY SHOWED DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE UNCLEAN AND THE CLEAN, AND HAVE HID THEIR EYES FROM MY SABBATHS.... Her PRINCES (SECULAR LEADERS) IN THE MIDST THEREOF ARE LIKE WOLVES RAVENING FOR THE PREY, TO SHED BLOOD, AND TO DESTROY LIVES, TO GET DISHONEST GAIN. And her PROPHETS (RELIGIOUS FORECASTERS TO THE SECULAR LEADERS AND THE PEOPLE)....SEEING VANITY, AND DIVINING LIES UNTO THEM, SAYING, THUS SAYS THE LORD GOD, WHEN THE LORD HAS NOT SPOKEN. The PEOPLE of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and the needy: yes, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully (those in positions of power and able to employ others have taken advantage of the weak, the poor, the needy, the new immigrant, and the stranger among you)." NOW TAKE A GOOD LONG LOOK AT VERSE THIRTY!! Within the context of the whole Bible, this is not saying the Eternal does not have ANY true ministers of the Church of God doing His work in Israel and proclaiming His word faithfully. Jesus said He would build His Church and the gates of the grave would never prevail against it. So the Lord does have His servants on this earth and within the nations of Israel, telling it like it is. Why this message and my web page is just one small witness to this truth. What God is saying here is a GENERAL statement, and within the context of speaking to the SECULAR nations of Israel, it is a secular comment. The Almighty looks at the secular peoples of Israel and all their secular leaders, together with all the leaders of false Christian religions, and then He says HE CANNOT FIND ANY AMONG THEM TO MAKE UP THE HEDGE, TO STAND IN THE GAP, SO HE SHOULD NOT DESTROY MOST OF YOU AS A PEOPLE!! THEREFORE HE SAYS IN VERSE 31 HE WILL CONSUME YOU IN HIS WRATH AND BRING UPON YOU WHAT YOU HAVE SOWN BY YOUR SINS AND INIQUITIES! Chapter 23 of Ezekiel shows clearly that Israel and Judah are not the same people. It shows plainly they are at this time SISTERS, and separate KINGDOMS of people. Yet BOTH will face the same ENEMY! This did not happen the first time they went into captivity. The house of Israel were taken captive by the Assyrians, and the house of Judah by the Babylonians. The Eternal says there are TWO women, the daughters of one mother - they both come from the same origin and were one woman at the beginning. The books of Kings and Chronicles are devoted to the two separate Kingdoms of the house of Israel and the house of Judah. The house of Israel is AHOLAH, and the house of Judah represented by Jerusalem is AHOLIBAH (verse 4). Aholah played - past tense - the harlot. She went to Assyria and made love to her (verse 5). Then God says, "Wherefore I HAVE delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted. These discovered her nakedness, they took her sons and her daughters, and slew her with the sword...." (verses 9,10). Notice the PAST tense is used. When this message was given to Ezekiel, the house of Israel was already over 120 years in captivity to the Assyrians and actually most were moving away and entering eastern Europe. Not to be outdone, the house of Judah, after seeing all this, went one better and became even more corrupt than her sister (verses 11,12). Yet it was ultimately the Babylonians that Judah doted upon and loved (verses 17,18). Judah is warned that the Empire of Babylon will come upon her and discover her nakedness. Actually such had already taken place as Ezekiel was a captive. Most of Judah had already fallen, only the city of Jerusalem was yet to fall into the hands of the Babylonians (verses 22-35). The prophecy now comes to the end time captivity of Israel and Judah, starting in verse 36. BOTH Aholah and Aholibah are to be judged. THEIR sins are now listed. Some are the same as given before, a few basically the same but with a new twist, such as described in verses 40-45. The key is verse 46 and 47. A COMPANY OF NATIONS ARE TO COME AGAINST BOTH HOUSES OF THE PEOPLES OF JACOB - ISRAEL, AND BOTH ARE TO FALL TOGETHER! This is also given in Hosea 5:3. In the strict technical way, this did not happen back in the 7th and 6th century B.C. In that time frame there was over 120 years between the downfall of the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Judah. Yet there are a number of clear prophecies that plainly forecast there will be a destruction TOGETHER of both the house of Israel and the house of Judah BY a COMPANY of nations that include the Assyrians (German peoples) and the Babylonians (Italian peoples). Other prophecies call this end time empire - Babylon, or the daughter of Babylon (Isa.47). Compare Isaiah 47 with Revelation 18. The book of Revelation calls this end time power, the Beast! It is a ten nation (feet of Daniel's image - chapter 2 - ten toes). Ten kings/nations/secular powers will for a short time give their might and devotion to a king man, also called "beast" in the book of Revelation. He will be the secular political leader while the woman whore/religious part of this empire will have its man who can bring fire down from heaven and perform miracles. In the book of Revelation he is called "the false prophet." This great beast power will contain the Germans and the Italians - Assyrians and Babylonians. They will try to literally conquer the world, for God, as they will claim, to bring peace and establish, as they will further claim, the one true religion of God. They shall first begin their quest by conquering the "king of the south" (Daniel 11:40) who will push at them in some way not specifically revealed to us. They shall be victorious - the king of the north, this beast power, and shall proceed to enter the Holy Land, and Jerusalem (continue reading Daniel 11 to the end). It is at this time (proceeding to read into Daniel 12) that a time of trouble such as never before or ever will be again (Jeremiah calls it "Jacob's trouble" as we have seen) shall come upon the earth. It is at this time that the Beast power will head for second base in its quest to rule the world, by attacking and destroying the Jews and the house of Israel - you people of Northwest Europe, the British Commonwealth, and the United States of America. Jacob's trouble will have arrived. Along with all this there will come the time when the true people of the Church of God, who have the testimony of Jesus and who keep the commandments of God (Rev.12), coming under fire, under persecution, and many being put to death because they will not worship the false religious system of the Beast power. Some of God's people will find protection in the wilderness, yet many will suffer death as many did in past ages for the truth of the Lord. It is GOING TO HAPPEN (if national repentance is not forthcoming)! Mark my words well. Read my lips. A day of reckoning for all the sins of the nations of the West is coming. The Assyrian/Babylonian Beast power of Europe will rise - it will be the 7th resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire, and the Eternal has declared it will be His battle sword (Isa. 10) against His people of the whole 13 tribes of Israel, as well as the power to persecute the very Church of Jesus Christ. Ezekiel chapter 24. Remember, the city of Jerusalem is a type of the House of Israel, and in some cases all of Israel including the House of Judah (all 13 tribes). Here in chapter 24 we have the prophetic end time king (beast man) leading the end time Babylon of the European resurrected Holy Roman empire (the 7th and last resurrection) against the nations of Israel (typified by the city of Jerusalem in Ezekiel's day). The Eternal describes you Celtic-Anglo-Saxon nations to a huge boiling pot of death, your sins and iniquities boiling up as scum. You have not repented, your scum is yet within you. Once more the Lord God cries out to you: "She has wearied herself with lies, and her GREAT SCUM went not forth out of her: her scrum shall be in the FIRE. In your filthiness is lewdness: because I have purged you, and you were not purged, you shall not be purged from your filthiness any more, TILL I have caused my FURY to rest upon you. I THE ETERNAL HAVE SPOKEN IT: IT SHALL COME TO PASS, and I will do it; I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I repent; ACCORDING TO YOUR WAYS, and according to your doings, SHALL THEY JUDGE YOU, says the Lord God" (verses 12-14). Yes, it is written that we shall REAP what we SOW! Even if you do not want to believe you are the very people of literal physical Israel, you shall still die because of your sins and wickedness. The Eternal is no respecter of persons, and because you people of the Celtic-Anglo-Saxon race were given the words of the Almighty (the Bible) like as no other people in modern times, because at one time you founded your nations and culture upon those words of the Bible, because you proclaimed to be Christian nations, and because you have rejected that heritage, the Supreme One is going to reject you, and allow your lovers to come in and defile you, lay your shame open to all, and punish you till you so deeply repent and cry out to Him for mercy. The DEATH of Ezekiel's wife in one sudden stroke was also to be a sign to you the nations of Israel (verses 15-24), that your destruction will come quickly and not really expected. It will take many of you by complete surprise. The Lord does give and leave some hope. Those of you who live through Jacob's trouble in the end time, shall be able to find the truth of the Eternal through faithful servants of the Almighty like Ezekiel, in type. "Also, you son of man, shall it not be in the day when I take from them their strength, the joy of their glory, the desire of their eyes, and that whereupon they set their minds, their sons and their daughters. That he that escapes in that day shall come unto you, to cause you to hear it with your ears? In that day shall your mouth be opened to him which is escaped, and you shall speak, and be no more dumb: and you shall be a sign unto them; and they shall know that I am the Eternal" (verses 25-27). There follows a number of chapters dealing with some Gentile nations in the context of the last days and as it relates to the time when Israel and Judah will again experience death and captivity by the hands of the last days Assyrian/Babylonian Holy Roman empire. Those prophecies we shall look at next time in this series on the message of Ezekiel. ..................................... Written March 1998 To be continued |
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