Ezekiel – A Watchman for Israel

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Short Summary

The discourse primarily discusses the themes of prophecy and the role of Ezekiel as a watchman for Israel, emphasizing the importance of vigilance and personal responsibility in faith. It outlines four key responsibilities of a watchman, including watching for threats, warning the people, and the consequences for both the watchman and the people based on their actions. The speaker highlights various prophecies from Ezekiel regarding the restoration of Israel, the significance of the New Covenant, and the implications for both natural and spiritual Israel, urging listeners to engage with these themes in their own lives while considering the future fulfillment of these promises. **Keywords:** prophecy, Ezekiel, watchman, Israel, New Covenant, restoration, personal responsibility.

Long Summary

### Summary of the Discourse on Ezekiel Chapters 33 and 39

Purpose of Prophecy:
– Prophecy can build faith.
– It encourages deeper engagement with Scriptures.
– The speaker aims to provide highlights from Ezekiel chapters 33 and 39, acknowledging a fast-paced approach.

Role of Ezekiel:
– Ezekiel is appointed as a “watchman” for Israel (Ezekiel 33:7).
– This concept emphasizes vigilance and responsibility in warning the people against impending dangers.

Responsibilities of a Watchman:
1. Watch for Threats: Ezekiel 33:2 indicates the watchman must be alert to dangers (e.g., “a sword against the land”).
2. Warn the People: The watchman must blow the trumpet to alert those at risk (Ezekiel 33:3).
3. Accountability: If the watchman fails to warn, he bears the responsibility for any resulting harm (Ezekiel 33:6).
4. Personal Responsibility: Those who hear the warning must act; their inaction leads to their own demise (Ezekiel 33:4).

Themes of Ezekiel 33:
– God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked and desires repentance (Ezekiel 33:11).
– The righteous must maintain their righteousness; past deeds cannot absolve present sin (Ezekiel 33:12).
– The chapter underscores personal responsibility in spiritual matters.

Jerusalem’s Fall:
– Ezekiel warns the Israelites that their unrighteous practices lead to their downfall and exile.

Watchfulness in the New Testament:
– The New Testament also emphasizes the need for vigilance (e.g., “Watch and pray”).

Artistic Illustration:
– The speaker compares the diverse perspectives of Monet’s paintings of haystacks to the multifaceted prophecies concerning Israel.

Key Prophecies:
– The discourse outlines five prophecies related to natural Israel:
1. Shepherds of Israel: Critique of leaders who exploit their flock (Ezekiel 34).
2. Mountains of Israel: Promises related to the land (Ezekiel 36).
3. Valley of Dry Bones: Symbolizes the restoration of Israel (Ezekiel 37).
4. Two Sticks: Represents the unification of Israel (Ezekiel 37).
5. Gog and Magog: A prophecy concerning future conflicts (Ezekiel 38-39).

Shepherds of Israel (Ezekiel 34):
– God condemns the shepherds for failing to care for their flock, promising to remove them and appoint a new shepherd (David) in the future.
– This reflects both natural and spiritual applications, warning against exploitative leadership.

Mountains of Israel (Ezekiel 36):
– Prophecies of restoration and prosperity for the land, with a focus on future blessings under a new covenant (Ezekiel 36:25-28).

Valley of Dry Bones (Ezekiel 37):
– Represents the revival of the nation of Israel, with a process of restoration highlighted.
– The “breath” that gives life is associated with the pouring out of God’s Spirit (Ezekiel 37:13-14).

Two Sticks (Ezekiel 37):
– Symbolizes the reunification of Israel’s divided tribes, emphasizing future leadership under a Davidic king.

Gog and Magog (Ezekiel 38-39):
– Discusses a future invasion of Israel by nations from the north, with various speculated alliances.

Common Themes:
– The concept of the New Covenant appears repeatedly, with promises of restoration, peace, and a personal relationship with God (Jeremiah 31:31-34).

Concluding Thoughts:
– The speaker urges vigilance in personal spiritual life and an understanding of prophetic messages.
– Emphasizes the importance of character and preparation for future promises.

### Key Bible Verses Mentioned:
Ezekiel 33:7: “Son of Man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel.”
Ezekiel 33:11: “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live.”
Ezekiel 34:10: “I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock.”
Ezekiel 36:26-28: “I will give you a new heart… and I will be your God, and you will be my people.”
Jeremiah 31:31-34: The promise of a New Covenant with Israel.

Transcript

When we talk about prophecy, I think there is a couple things that can be accomplished. One, it can be faith building, and then two, it also hopefully inspires you to get into the Scriptures a bit in that section and look a little bit more now. You will notice that we are being probably a little too ambitious. It says highlights of Ezekiel chapters 33, 39. So join with me on the expressway as we go through, because we’re going to be moving a little bit fast and there’s probably.

There’s a lot of depth here, but we’re going to be talking, going through this pretty quickly. This is my disclaimer. I am not a prophet, but trying to be a student of prophecy. So you’re going to hear a lot of things from the opinion pocket in this talk, and so I got to try to make sure to separate the opinion pocket from the facts pocket.

Okay. But we’re going to talk a lot about some of our viewpoints. Just realize we’re trying to share what we see in the Scriptures and we’re going to try to back them up with the Scriptures, but we’re sharing our viewpoint from that standpoint. Ezekiel as a watchman for Israel. We want to start in Ezekiel 33.

And if you have your Bibles with you, it might be beneficial to just have them open to Ezekiel 33, and then as we work through each chapter, you can walk through each chapter with you. We’re going to read out different Scriptures as we go, but the one that stands out first is Ezekiel 33. Seven, Son of Man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel. So hear the word I speak and give them warning from me.

And, you know, at the beginning of this, Ezekiel is really asked to be a watchman for his people, and this is a renewal. Already earlier in Ezekiel, Ezekiel’s been asked to be a watchman, and this happens again, and I think it’s interesting as we go through this that this concept of a watchman starts this set of chapters.

And we’re going to see that there’s going to be, at least in some places, two applications that could be applied here. I think we’re going to focus on the natural application to Israel. I think that’s a lot of what’s going to happen through 33 through 39. But there’s also spiritual for spiritual Israel. A second application, we might touch on a couple of those, but most of it we’re going to be talking about natural Israel.

So I think Ezekiel served as a watchman in many ways for that.

Let’s talk about some of the things that are outlined as a responsibility for a watchman. We say there are at least four things that fall into responsibilities or sort of implications of responsibilities. 1. In Ezekiel 33:2, a watchman is to watch for threats. So if he’s on top of the tower looking out at what’s coming day and night, he’s to be looking for threats that are coming upon the scene.

That’s where it talks about there’s a sword against the land in Ezekiel 33:2, and then he has a responsibility to warn of these threats. So blows the trumpet to warn the people. That’s in Ezekiel 33, third verse, and then this is a responsibility of those that are inside the city.

If anyone hears a trumpet but does not listen, his death will be his own fault. That’s in verse four, and then in verse six it says, however, if the watchman does not warn and one is killed within the land for his sin, the watchman will be held responsible. So it’s a principle there, right? The watchman’s got to make sure to blow the trumpet, otherwise if he doesn’t, he’s at fault.

If he blows the trumpet and nobody does anything, okay, that’s on that person that decided to do nothing, right? If you hear the fire alarm going off and you roll back to go back to sleep, that’s kind of on you, right? That’s your self responsibility, right? But if you get up and go, okay, great, the morning’s done its work. So that’s an important, just important concepts there.

And when we talk about this in verse 7, it restates this call to be a watchman, and the following Scriptures outline the outcome of those who turn from unrighteousness and those that are righteous that fall into unrighteous practice. In both case men. The watchman has responsibility to warn to the wicked or unrighteous. It says God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked.

In verse 11 he desires them to turn from their ways. If they do not turn from sin, they will surely die. If they turn from sin, they will live. That’s in verses 14, 16. This would apply to the we see unconsecrated, seemingly especially during the millennial age.

Turn. Turning from sin to righteousness will mean everlasting life. Or to any unconsecrated now who would repent, consecrate and turn toward righteousness, there would be a path for life. Now there’s a warning to the righteous. It says, past righteousness will not save those who now disobey righteous actions.

In the past cannot absolve one from unrighteous practices now. So that’s in verse 12. It says the righteous man, if he sins, will not be allowed to live because of his former righteousness. This would seem to apply to the consecrated now. It directly contradicts the philosophy of once saved, always saved.

Don’t worry, I can rely on my past righteousness. I’m okay for the future. That’s not what the principle is setting forth about in this chapter about watchmen. So I think this really applies to those who have continued in the habit of unrighteousness that has become their character, and they willingly continue in their sin unrepentantly.

This isn’t just a one time choice. This is a path in life that’s been chosen. If somebody has consecrated and decides to forsake that, the end result would be second death. So we’re really talking about two extremes here, right? And the principles here at the beginning of chapter 33 and really is sobering to us to remind us of our responsibility and our consecration.

And as we were looking through different comments from different brethren over these chapters, one popped out that they quoted a comment that we’ve heard before. Sow a thought, reap an act, sow an act, reap a habit, sow a habit, reap a character. So a character, reap a destiny. I think when we’re thinking about this from the principle of the Watchman, right? Are we alert to those warnings?

When we have those warnings, do we, hey, do we take heed? Do we make that correction in our life? I think that’s one of the principles that we can take from being from the Watchman. But we can also, when we talk about as well, and we’ll see that the rest of the chapter and we won’t go too much into it, it talks about Jerusalem’s fall and it Ezekiel’s explaining it to the Israelites at that time and he’s being a watchman for them, saying, hey, your unrighteous practices are causing some challenges. You’re going to get thrown out of your city.

You’re going to get thrown out of your land.

And so we see that throughout there and it’s recounted through the rest of the chapter all the different things that they had done wrong and why they were being thrown out. So this is all to me in preface to what we’re going to see over the next few chapters, and if we just, just real quick in case we forget that watchfulness is something that we’re supposed to be doing. Here’s just A list of some commands from Jesus where we’re supposed to be watching, right? Watch and pray.

Watch out for false prophets. Watch that no one deceives you keep watch because you do not know the day or the hour, right? So we’re supposed to be watching. That’s supposed to be our attitude and our mindset. All right, haystacks.

We had the opportunity to go down to the Chicago Art Institute on Thursday while we were visiting, and I pulled the boys and I said, look, here’s the haystacks, and Monet has some wonderful haystacks that you all have the privilege of having in your city, and, and they’re all there.

And Anna’s like, why are you interested in the haystacks? I said, I really, to me, they are a great object lesson. You can look at the. It’s just the paintings of two haystacks, okay? If you really took it simply, like, look at it.

I think in Chicago, there’s five of them, five separate paintings. You’re like, all right, it’s five paintings and two haystacks. Each one is different. Each one’s different because it offers a different perspective of light and time of the year, time of the day, right? And so as you look at these on the screen, there’s something different about each one of these pictures.

The subject’s the same. There’s a different perspective. Right. We’re just using that as an illustration of what we think is going to happen over the next few chapters here. There’s five prophecies that we’re going to talk about.

We think they all at least relate to natural Israel. We think there’s something about natural Israel in each one of these. You’ll see, I think now probably on your sheet, there’s some starting to get into parts where it’s like, what is it talking about on this sheet? What are the prophecies coming up? Shepherds of Israel.

We think that’s we’re going to be talking about the leadership of Israel, the mountains of Israel. Usually we think of mountains as, like, civil power. I think in this case, it’s land. The land of Israel, the land itself, the valley of dry bones. That one, I think, is very familiar to us.

I think that’s about the people of Israel. Two sticks. So I think that’s a perspective of looking at it from a political aspect of Israel, and then the chapters about Gog and Magog really think to us appeal sort of the security of Israel. So in some ways, as we go through this, just remember, I think these are different perspectives of Things happening all relatively within a similar time frame or around the same time.

They’re talking about restoration of Israel and what happens to Israel, but they’re all from different perspectives.

I want you also to note that I think there’s. I saw at least three common threads. One, we talked about natural Israel. We will mention there’s some times when we think there’s some overlap in terms of spiritual Israel as well. The second item that’s a common thread, and we sort of see this strung between all these different prophecies, is that it talks about the New Covenant.

We keep seeing these references to the New Covenant in our mind, appeals to us. It’s mentioned in each one of these prophecies, and then we’re going to talk a little bit about timing and what I called forever. I didn’t know a better term for them. So I called them forever promises, things that God will do forever or always.

And so we’ll try to highlight those as we get to them.

And then on your sheets, you’re going to. We put in there just five questions to answer. What’s the subject? We’ll talk about what the subject of the prophecy is. What occurs?

What does it represent? How is it related to the New Covenant? And then when, in our mind, our opinion, when does this prophecy occur? Is some of it in the past? Is it occurring now?

Is it sometime in the future? So let’s talk about Ezekiel 34. This is a prophecy against shepherds. You’re thinking, what have shepherds ever done wrong? What’s wrong with that man?

Why is there prophecy against shepherds? And in the second verse, it says, woe to you, shepherds of Israel, who only take care of yourselves. Should not shepherds take care of the flock? You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool, and slaughter the choice animals. But you do not take care of the flock.

And then you skip down to verse 10, and it says, this is what the Sovereign Lord says. I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths and it will no longer be food for them.

It’s interesting that at the beginning there, it’s saying, what have the shepherds done? Well, it says, woe to them, and from that side, this is a stark reminder to these shepherds. What were they doing? They were eating and clothing themselves with the sheep.

They were taking advantage of the sheep, and basically God is saying, I am going to rescue the flock. The shepherds are going to be removed, and then later on he talks about. Later on in the chapter, he talks about David will be their shepherd and a prince and there will be a covenant of peace.

So that’s what occurs throughout this chapter. So what does this represent? Well, we think there’s probably two applications here. One, there’s an application to spiritual Israel and then an application to natural Israel, and we’d say that really the application of spiritual Israel is addressing Christendom and the leaders that had been there throughout much of Christianity, did they take it.

There were opportunities where they took advantage of the flock, they fed themselves off of the people themselves. We have warnings throughout the New Testament to elders and deacons not to do this for filthy lucre. But if we go and look at some of the churches, if we have had a chance to visit in Europe, you look at what it’s adorned with. Incredible, beautiful edifices. Off of whose back were those edifices made?

So realize that I think there’s an application here from a spiritual standpoint. It should be a warning to us if we’re serving what’s the heart attitude that we have. Are we doing in the right way? Are we following the Scriptures from that side? So we see the shepherds being leaders.

Well, natural Israel had the same problem right at the time of Ezekiel. How good were the kings and the priests doing about leading the people? Not that great. Actually, it is not even not that great. It was horrible.

God removed them from the scene. That is how bad it had gotten. What about when they came back to the land under Cyrus and they rebuilt everything that seems to be good? Right. When we get back to Jesus time and when I hear woe unto the shepherds, that reminds me of the seven woes that Jesus gave to the Pharisees.

So even later on, their spiritual leaders and their temporal leaders were not the ones that were really leading them in the right direction, and so to me, this is sort of from a natural Israel side. This condemnation has occurred on them and their leaders throughout their past history. So the shepherds are the leaders, the flock and sheep are the Israelites, and the leaders took advantage of them and God had rejected them.

Right, and that’s where Jesus came and said, this has been left desolate unto you that had been removed from them a long time ago. But there’s a promise and there’s hope here in this chapter that God will regather Israel under a new leader. I think that’s the hopeful and promising side. So since God could not take care of his flock, God himself would serve his shepherd and regather the scattered sheep.

Again, this can be applied to the actual people of Israel and the little flock. Think about this from the spiritual side. The little flock was scattered during the gospel age, right? But really under God’s stewardship and Christ, they were regathered. Well, same with what happened to natural Israel.

Notice if we look through this chapter, the searching and regathering of the people begins prior to the blessing of the land and the people and the covenant of peace. So there’s work that happens in advance, but eventually, and if you look all the way down in chapter 34, verses 25 and verse 30, we’ll see that there is a. There’s a comment about a covenant of peace, and Ezekiel mentions this a few different times throughout these chapters. We just find this very interesting.

What is this covenant of peace? We think this is relating to the new covenant. It says in verse 25, I will make a covenant of peace with them and rid the land of savage beasts. Here’s some of the things he’ll do. I’ll send down showers, it’s season.

Showers of blessing. Trees will yield their fruit and ground will yield its crops. People will be secure in their land. They will know that I am the Lord. They will no longer be plundered by the nations.

No one will make them afraid. Then they will know that I, the Lord their God, am with them and that they are my people.

Those are pretty strong promises, and we’d say many of those promises to me seem to be in the future. So where are we talking about this prophecy? Well, we think what we just mentioned is in the future, this covenant of peace. But some things have been in progress, right?

We’re seeing or have seen regathering to the land. But also in the past, we’ve seen that condemnation of the people and the leadership. Let’s tie in the new covenant a little bit. Why do we think that when we’re talking about the covenant of peace, or throughout the rest of these chapters, why do we see the new covenant there? Well, when we turn to Jeremiah 31, 31, 33 and 34, we see basically five basic principles.

In the new covenant, it says the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah, I will put my law in their minds. So that’s one law in their minds, Right? But he’s also going to write it on their heart. So there’s going to be knowledge, but there’s also going to Be a heart attitude change. That’s the second one.

I will be their God and they will be my people. Number three, and they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. So there’s not going to be any doubt, right? Number four.

No doubt that the Lord is with them, and five, there’s a principle here for I will give or a concept that they need to realize. I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more. While we’re familiar with the new covenant, what about the timing of it? Israel we’re going to turn to Romans 11, 25, 27.

Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the number of Gentiles has come in as is written. The deliverer will come from Zion. We think that spiritual Israel and he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. We think Jacob is referring to natural Israel and this is my covenant with them. In Romans, Paul’s talking about the new covenant.

He quotes it directly. But let’s look at Isaiah 59, 21. We think this is also talking about that covenant. This is my covenant with them, says the lord. My spirit who is on you will not depart from you.

And my words I have put in your mouth will always be on your lips, on the lips of your children, and on the lips of their descendants from this time on and forever, says the Lord. So now there’s something tied in with this covenant and the pouring out of God’s Spirit on the people. To me those things are happening at a similar time frame, and then it says in Zechariah 12, 9, 10, I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. When does that happen?

On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem. So to it appeals to us that at the same time the new covenant is being established, that this is when this pouring out of the Spirit is occurring upon Israel.

Let’s jump into the next chapter. Ezekiel 36 is a prophecy that the mountains of Israel and we really think this is about the land.

Ezekiel chapter six seems to be an account of the prophecies against the mountains of Israel, and now all the way later in chapter 36, it seems to be a prophecy to the land promising a return to prosperity and a return to her people. Ezekiel 36:1 7 seems to recount the experiences the land of Israel had since the captivity and conquering of her people. First the Assyrians capturing the kingdom of Israel, then the Babylonians capturing the kingdom of Judah. It became the possession of other nations, scorned by others, plundered by others.

Some Jewish people did return under Cyrus in the Persian Empire, but subsequent empires mostly controlled the land from the time of the Babylonians onwards until after World War II.

But you mountains of Israel will produce branches and fruit for my people Israel, for they will soon come home, and then in verse 10, I will cause many people to live on you. Yes, all of Israel. Not some of Israel, all of Israel. I will settle people on you as in the past and will make you prosper more than before.

I will cause people, my people, Israel, to live on you. Listen for the forever promise. They will possess you and you will be their inheritance. You will never again deprive them of their children. That’s in verse 12.

Never again. So what had occurred? Enemies had possessed the land of Israel. We know that that’s the history of Israel, and then it’s promised that in this prophecy the land will produce to support its returning people.

And then it recounts Israel’s sins, and then God re establishes a relationship with Israel in this chapter. But what’s interesting is that he re establishes a relationship with that, but he’s really talking about the land in this. Verses 8 through 12 seem to have a mixture of items that may be in progress for the land and others that are in the future. In verse 8, it produces branch and fruit for my people.

And Israeli agriculture has seen significant increases in productivity over the last 80 years. It says you’ll be plowed and sown. Yes, farming the land has been a large focus of the modern establishment of Israel. I will cause my people to live on you. Yes, this has started.

Yes, all of Israel. Well, wait a minute. Is all of Israel yet back in the land of Israel? No, not yet. We don’t see that part as being completed.

So we sort of see that part is in progress. There are still many Jews outside of Israel.

But at some point in the future, it will occur that. That never again promise that saying never again that forever promise will occur. That was in verse 12. You will never again deprive them of their children. So we think this chapter specifically is applied to the land, to natural Israel, a land that will begin to produce again.

But much of this may still be in the future when Israel is under the new covenant. The land will produce even more, enough to support all Israelites from all nations. That is what is promised here in this chapter. We think that started. We think we see a large portion of that happening now, but we know it will happen where never again.

That land will be deprived of their people.

How does it relate to the New Covenant? We look at verses 25 through 28 in this 36th chapter. It says, I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you.

I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors. You will be my people and I will be your God.

We have the points up there. They are cleansed of their impurities. They are given a heart of flesh, a new spirit. Remember how we tied that spirit to the time of when the new Covenant is poured out or new covenant is given and God will be their God. We think those things are in the future.

We don’t see Israel having turned yet to recognize God. Why is he doing this? In verse 32 of the 36th chapter, God says this. I want you to know that I am not doing this for your sake, declares the Sovereign Lord. Be ashamed and disgraced for your conduct, people of Israel.

This is a common refrain throughout these chapters that because they had been profane the name of God. He wasn’t doing this for the sake of Israel. He was doing it for his sake. He was doing it for the glory and honor of our heavenly Father. I think that’s a really important thing to recognize when Israel is being restored.

It wasn’t because of past actions that they were being restored to show the greatness and holiness of our heavenly Father. That’s the purpose of the restoration of Israel from that perspective, so that his name will not be profane.

So where are we in this prophecy? Well, we think some of it’s in progress, right? We see incredible things that have happened in the land of Israel. I think it would take somebody maybe blind to the facts to not see that. Right?

It’s incredible. But there’s parts of this promise that are still well in the future. How will all of Israel come back? Do they yet have all of their land that they’ve had previously under the. Think about Solomon, you see the maps of what the land has been promised under them at different points.

They don’t have that full extent of the land and it’s going to somehow support all of Israel. How’s that going to work? Just quickly, it’s interesting to note, this was pulled from the Blair Institute for global change in 2019, and just to give you an idea, Israel is leaders in cow milk production, citrus per hectare, tomato yields highest in the world. The amount of water they use is the same they used in 2008 was the same they used in 1986 to produce 40% more crops.

Israelis are really good at agriculture. They’re really good at this. So we’re not denying any of that. They’re very good at this. What’s interesting too though is that this is from the United States International Trade Administration.

We pulled this from report in 2023. Israel is not self sufficient in agriculture and is dependent on imports. So Israel is still a net importer of food. I think that’s just an interesting thing to see because we see the blessings being given, but at the same time we know there’s more work to do, and how do we.

Well, how do we harmonize that? I think it’s okay. It’s saying here in Ezekiel 36, there’s going to be more that’s coming, right? There’s got to be more that’s being gotten ready for. All right, next, the prophecy of the valley of dry bones.

I think this one is familiar to us in a lot of ways.

Ezekiel sees a valley of dry bones, and we see this in verse five. It says, this is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones. I will make breath enter you and will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin. I will put breath in you and you will come to life.

Then you will know that I am the Lord.

This clearly outlines a process for creating a body during Ezekiel’s vision. We don’t think this is discussing an actual resurrection of the dead, but instead the bringing back to the life of the nation of Israel. Later on, God tells Ezekiel, these bones are the nation of Israel.

Also note the process. We just read this in verses 5 and 6, but the process is slightly different than what occurs that’s mentioned in 5 and 6 than the process of how he actually prophesied to these in verses 7 and 8.

So here in 5 and 6 it discusses the breath entering the body once at the beginning and at the end. But listen closely in verses seven and eight, when it’s actually occurring, says, this is what Ezekiel says. So I prophesied as I was commanded, and as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked and the tendons and flesh appeared to them and skin covered them. But there Was no breath in them.

Notice that the body is all being reassembled. But there is no breath in the body. Yet when he is actually prophesying, that is the order and sequence in which it occurs.

Well, we see the bones as we mentioned as the people of Israel. Why were they dried bones? This was the dried up hopes of Israel in the diaspora. Now we talked about how they had been in captivity. They had been spread all across the world at different points.

We know this from history. They really didn’t have a hope of any type of return until the late 1800s, and there was a rattling of bones that come together. There were events that started stirring the Israelites to return to Israel. Sinews and flesh.

Could this be Zionism? The settlements that started occurring institutions bringing about the settlement of the land skin. Is this the nationhood that occurred in 1948?

Let’s get to the next verse. In verse nine he says then he said to me, prophesy to the breath, Prophesy son of man, and say to it, this is what the Sovereign Lord come, breath from the four winds and breathe into these slain that they may live.

Isn’t that interesting? The breath doesn’t come in until it comes from these four winds. We’ll get to that in a minute, but I want you to keep that in your memory. So I prophesied as he commanded me and breath entered them and they came to life and stood upon their feet a vast army. So we think this breath is the life given to the nation under God’s direction.

We think the four winds are a climactic end of this age. We think our opinion that attunes to when Jacob’s trouble occurs.

Just for our memory, a little bit on history of Israel and its resettlement. 1878 Jews could buy land in Ottoman Palestine. Petitikva was founded 1896. Theodor Herzl publishes Der Judenstadt. In 1897 the first Zionist Congress occurs.

So we see some rattling of bones. We see things starting to tie together. Maybe some hopes coming about. 1917 Balfour Declaration Britain is the first great power calling for a Jewish state in Palestine. 1948 we know as the state of Israel being founded.

Israel attacked by surrounding neighbors and gains greater amounts of land than they had before. All these things are coming about. All these bones are being put together. We see his muscle tendons coming across that and then a skin over it. But why in the prophecy does it say the breath is in the body?

Get to them. Are there any verses that relate to the new Covenant in this prophecy? We think in Ezekiel 37, 13, 14:1, it talks about my spirit being in you.

Then my people will know, and this is verse 13, that I am the Lord. When I open your graves and bring you up from them, then in 14 I will put my spirit in you and you will live. I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord have spoken and I have done it, declares the Lord. I think that is going back to that hint of There is another hint about something about the New Covenant.

Remember we talked about the Spirit being poured out and its relationship to the New Covenant. We see that tie in again.

When is this prophecy? Well, we think a lot of it’s in progress. We’ve seen a lot of it. Maybe we could now at this point, maybe the 20th. A lot of things we mentioned are 20th century, right?

So I guess we can say the past. I don’t know. I was born in the 20th century, so I still like to say it’s been in near history.

But let’s talk about those four winds, and on the screen you see two different storms. One that’s familiar to Floridians, the hurricane, and then one that you guys had a tornado warning here in Chicago area on Wednesday when we were arriving, the tornado. So we’re both familiar with these, aren’t we? I think they’re great examples of four winds, and I think there’s references to them in the scriptures.

Notice that the breath was held back until the four winds were released.

So when it says come breath from the four winds, the breath does not arrive until the time of the four winds. I believe that these four winds are the same that are those found in Revelation 7:1.

And after this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or the sea or any tree. It says, do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God. We have got four winds here in Revelation 7:1 we have four winds in Ezekiel 37. Then we have in Elijah, in 2 Kings 2:11, a whirlwind that takes up Elijah, and then in Jeremiah 30:23 we have a whirlwind that is in the same chapter as Jacob’s trouble.

Why do we think Whirlwind and these four winds might be associated? Whirlwind is a Hebrew word, 5591 and strong and signifying in one of the translations, maybe a hurricane and we think it’s a feature that connects these passages together. Think about. I use brother Adam Goodman, my brother in law’s example. When the hurricane comes through, he’ll look at the track and he’ll say, jay, look, we’re going to be on first.

We’re going to get winds out of the east first, and then we’re going to get winds out of the north, right? And the way a hurricane tracks, it’s easy to follow along. The nice thing is they put a nice big track and all the TVs are blaring and you’re just following it along. Right? But at some point, at least in Florida, if it goes across the peninsula, our peninsula is going to get wind from four different directions and it just blows for a long time.

You’ll be sitting in the house and you’ll just feel. You’ll just see the fence getting blown from this side, and now it’s shifted. The eye of the storm shifted past you. Now you’re getting blown from this side right at you.

What about tornado? When it passes by, it’s like this. But there was one that just passed by our house a couple weeks ago, maybe a mile or two north of us, and somebody had their ring video cam and they were saying they saw it come through. All the debris went this way, winds were going this way, and then all of a sudden, like that, it switched.

And there’s just debris was just like exploding back the other way. Because you’re in a stationary position, you’re going to get two effects of the wind. But really what’s happening during that whirlwind, there’s four different sides, four different directions to that circular motion that’s occurring, and we think that’s what ties together with the four winds. Think about those winds coming from north, south, east, and west.

Exactly what happens during a hurricane, it’s in a microcosm of what’s happening during a tornado. So when we see Elijah talking about being caught up in the whirlwind, when we see the four winds in Ezekiel, when we see the four winds in Revelation, we think that is all tying and pointing to the similar time, and what was interesting to us was to find it at the end of Jacob’s trouble, that there, it talks about a storm and a whirlwind there. So we think those things are helping to link those together. But notice, when it happens in Revelation, do not harm the land or the sea until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.

In that same part, just right below it Says, then I heard the number of those who were sealed. How many were there? 144,000. What does that sealing mean? You know, if we look at a lot of Brother Russell’s statements in the volumes, it’s a.

Is that ceiling? A ceiling. An intellectual ceiling. For a while I was thinking that was all that Brother Russell was saying about that. But if you look at reprint 3991, reprint 3991 in question book 738, I think that sealing is both of knowledge, or he’s saying of knowledge and of character.

And the character part appeals to me very much because I think that for us to make our calling and election, sure. What do we have to be like? We have to be like Jesus. We have to make it here in our heart to be like Jesus, and the church cannot be completed until we have made our walk complete by doing that.

So what are the four winds being held up until? Till the completion, in my opinion of the church. So it helps us a little bit of the timing of when this breath will come into the body of these dry bones. That’s my thinking on it, and it appeals to me that these four winds is.

That’s when that’s occurring. So we wanted to stop and just focus in on that for a moment. Later on, let’s move on to the next prophecy in Ezekiel 37, the prophecy of two sticks. We don’t talk about the prophecy of two sticks very often. What do you do with two sticks?

You got one stick here, one stick here. Makes me think of playing with sticks as a boy. For whatever reason, God said, ezekiel, go take these two sticks and hold them up and take two sticks and put them in one hand. So now that you have one stick and call one of those sticks Judah and the other stick, call it Joseph or Ephraim. He says, God will regather Israelites as one nation.

And then there is a promise in later portion of the prophecy. David will be their king over them and a covenant of peace again. That covenant of peace pops up, will be established. All right, two sticks. Judah, the southern tribes, Judah and Benjamin, ephraim, the northern 10 tribes.

Right? Two different tribes. Now, one we think this is about. We think of a little bit of. This is like from the perspective of political entity.

This is talking about the politics. At some point in the future, David will be their prince. All right, well, that makes sense to us. We know about the ancient worthies, but what about David? What about that being a picture of Messiah?

But what about now? In the past, in the past, they were divided nations. They were taken off by separate empires at different times when they returned and since their return, I think in sort of partial fulfillment, they tended to be a singular entity at different points over time. But it has never lasted long. Now as their re establishment as a Nation now since 1948, it is one nation.

So it is interesting as a political entity that they have come together. They have come together as one nation.

Let us move on a little bit on that, and this is. Sorry, we should have put this up while we are talking about this, right. Judah, we talked about kingdom of Judah, and then the northern tribes, that’s the Joseph stick, they’re combined.

We have this promise, David will be king or Christ as their ruler. We’d cite Isaiah 9, 7, Isaiah 55, 3 and Luke 1, 30, 33, and where will this occur? It will occur in the land of Jacob. Well, that was the land promised to natural Israel, the land I gave to my servant Jacob.

It indicates this prophecy of the two sticks is to natural Israel. The dream that Jacob’s ladder promised the land to Jacob’s descendants, and notice that his promise is only that of the dust of the earth. So if we look Back to Genesis 28, 13, 15, remember that scene of Jacob’s ladder? He said at the bottom, he finally gets that promise given to him.

But it doesn’t talk about the stars of heaven, it only talks about the dust of the earth. So when we think about this being that reference to Jacob and to my servant Jacob, that’s why we’re tying it to what we think is an earthly promise for the natural Israel.

Here are some other things that are interesting about this chapter, verse 24. My servant David will be king over them, and they will have one shepherd again, a singular shepherd.

They and their children and their children’s children will live there forever. That’s in verse 25, another forever promise, and in 26 it says, I will make a covenant of peace with them. It will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and increase their numbers, and I will put my sanctuary among them forever.

My dwelling place will be with them. I will be their God and they will be my people. Two forever promises saying that he will be with them forever. How powerful is it that as he regathers them and creates a new political entity, that he is saying, I will never leave them again?

You know, when we look also at that covenant of peace to us, that’s again another reference to this new. This is the new covenant which will not be applied to natural Edel. Until the church is complete. So that’s the part where we think that those portions are future and my sanctuary among them forever. This is another forever promise.

You know, all prior temples built in Jerusalem by the Jews up to this point have been torn down. It’s not clear to me if the temple in Ezekiel 40, 48 will be physically built. But we know in Revelation 21:2, 4 that the sanctuary or tabernacle of the Christ will be with them forever.

We tied in the covenant of peace, and we know as well from Jeremiah 31. Right. We see it referenced here in Ezekiel 37, 26, 27, that I will be their God and they will be my people. We see that pulled out yet again.

So again we see this tying between the new covenant and this prophecy. When do we think this is going to happen? We think most of this is in the future, especially most of the political portion of it. As a political entity. Yes, they are a singular political entity.

So some of that might be in progress. But this is from the last, I believe from the last election. This is how the parliament is broken down. Doesn’t seem super unified, does it? And if anybody’s been following Israeli politics for the last, I don’t know how many decades, it’s not been super unified.

There’s a lot of division within the land, within the people, from a political side. So yes, as a political entity to the outward facing world. They are one nation. Inside there’s a lot of differences. So just I think that’s something to keep in mind.

Right. As we see this. This is my reminder of like, I don’t think to me, I’m like to me, we’re not there yet. There’s a lot of work still to do. Makes sense if still the Spirit needs to be poured out upon them.

The goal is as David as their king. We think that’s pointing to a picture of Messiah as their king. All right. I think Brother Rich is going to get up here pretty soon. So we’re going to do prophecy against Gog and Magog in about three minutes.

That’s ambitious. I was having a talk with Brother Jeff Mezra yesterday and I said I think I’m mostly going to talk about chapter 38. So I don’t even know that we’ll get to talk very much about 38.

What I want you to know about this and I’m going to skip ahead.

We think most of this appeals to us in the future. There are nations that are in Ezekiel 38, and I have a lot of question marks up Here I know brethren have done a lot of study to determine different things. I am putting question marks because they are guesses that I am putting on there. I am going to call them guesses because I want to say I want to do a lot more research on them. The alliance that comes against Israel is Gog of Magog and it says it is from the far north.

If you look at it geographically, there are the nations that touch Israel right directly north of it now, but really far north. Turkey, Russia, Ukraine. That’s interesting. Those are in the news. That’s what’s north of Israel from the far north.

They’re aligned with Persia, all of them. I feel the most comfortable saying Persia is Iran. Kush, maybe Horn of Africa, Ethiopia, Sudan, Put Libya or North Africa. Gomer, is that a European nation? Togarmah, is that Turkey?

And then as they come up, they’re looking to take a spoil and there’s opposition to that, and some of those, Sheba and Dedan, could those be different parts of Arabia? Merchants of Tarshish, could that be Britain? Some of the western nations, maybe some of the former colonies of Britain. But when there’s conditions that we see in Ezekiel 38 of Israel, conditions of Israel from the perspective of GOG1, Israel’s been recovered from war.

Have they recovered from war yet? I don’t think so. I don’t see that they’re in a war right now. So I don’t see that as having. That’s my opinion.

I don’t see that occurring. So one of the things is that they’ve recovered from war. People have gathered from many nations back to Israel. Yeah, that’s been occurring. We see that.

I don’t think we’ll see a full regathering of everyone before this time. Of Gog, mountains of Israel. They have long been desolate, indicating that they are no longer desolate. Well, we just talked earlier about the agriculture, how really the Israeli land has started to thrive. They live in safety.

At least from the perspective of Gog, that they don’t have that there’s no more walls or there’s no more bars. What does that mean? I think that’s from the perspective of Gog, that they live in safety. Is that perceived safety? What does that mean?

But from Gog’s perspective, that they’re in safety, that they’re peaceful and unsuspecting? I’d say not right now. I think they’re about as on alert as they’ve ever been before, watching for threats everywhere from every enemy. So we talked about without walls or gates or bars. Somebody asked me this yesterday.

What does that mean, Roger? I said, that’s a good question. What does it mean? We see literal walls today, right? There are literal walls separating Israel from the West Bank.

Is that what it means? Is it literal from that side? Again, is it perspective of Gog that maybe the Iron Dome isn’t as powerful as it is just against Hamas and Hezbollah? What about a nation state’s array of military power? Does it seem like it can be penetrated?

I don’t know, but I don’t think they’re there. I don’t think anybody right now sees them without walls and gates. I think they see them as heavily armed, and then what does this plunderer loot? And to me, that’s one of the big question marks.

What does Gog go to plunder and loot? What does Gog see as something so valuable that they would invade the land? So those are things I look at from my perspective. So where are we? Some things are started, right?

But some things, to me, I’m like, I don’t know if we’re there yet. I don’t know if we’re there yet.

I’ll throw this up here real quick. This is just us trying to summarize everything in one slide. Just a high level. If we had a chance to draw a line and say, I think we’re about here.

This is where we take it. We think Jacob’s trouble is future. We think that is associated with the four winds. We think that’s associated with Gog of Magog invasion, and then we think the promise of the mediatorial kingdom, that covenant of peace, David as their shepherd, them cleansed from all impurities, breath given to Israel, God’s spirit poured out on them.

Jacob being restored. We think that time is coming and what a wonderful hope we have.

What are lessons for us? Watch especially our characters in avoiding sin. What was that very first part of the lesson? There’s a warning about the Watchmen. We had warnings for the shepherds.

Are we watching our own characters and making sure we’re avoiding sin? Watch the prophecies, read through them, grasp them, help build your faith with them, and then I think, most importantly, make the sealing of Christ’s character in us our primary goal. What held back the four winds? It was until the sealing was complete.

Finally provide a message of comfort to Israel. These are wonderful promises that we can give them of what they have in store for their future. May the Lord add his blessing.

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