It is interesting that a similar salutation is used by Peter at the beginning of his epistles and also by Jude, as they add peace and mercy, or peace, mercy and grace be multiplied unto you, but it is a similar salutation. You would almost think that one of the New Testament writers was opening this salutation as the wish for peace to all of you.
Between chapters 2 and 3, there is probably an interval of time. Some commentators suggest as short as two years. Others suggest a time of maybe about eleven. About ten years after Nebuchadnezzar came into power there was a revolt against his reign, which he put down personally. And some believe that this event may have followed that revolt in that he was trying to reestablish himself as that power and that authority over the people, and thus this great celebration with this giant image of gold.
You remember that in chapter 1, Daniel was brought to Babylon as a captive, one of the princes of Israel, and he went through a three year grooming process to prepare him to be one of the king’s counselors. So, in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar the king it would mean that Daniel had now finished the preparation and was counted as one of the counselors or wise men in the court of Babylon. So, initiated now into his job, and it was quite an initiation at that.
The book of Daniel is one of the most exciting books of the Old Testament to me. I love the book of Daniel. We are going to go slow. We are just going to take one chapter at a time so you can fully absorb the marvelous prophecies of this book of Daniel. Like me, I trust that you will fall in love with this man of God who lived such a beautiful and exemplary life. I have come to just love Daniel as a person. He is one of those that I am looking forward to meeting when I get to heaven. I want to know what his feelings were when he was in the lion’s den. He is just an exciting, exciting man of God.
We are in Ezekiel right now, chapter forty six. Ezekiel pretty much concentrates on the future glory of Israel. This is not the church. The glory that we have as the church will even exceed that of Israel, for we are the bride of Christ, and we will be ruling and reigning with Him.
Now Israel will have to go through the great tribulation. A hundred and forty four thousand of them will be sealed by God, to help their survival in the great tribulation. They will live through the tribulation in their natural bodies, and on into this new era, the true “new age”.
Now Satan has a counterfeit for almost everything God does, and he’s got his counterfeit “new age” going already. But it is a counterfeit. There is a true new age coming, and that’s the kingdom age, the age of our Lord Jesus Christ, when He comes and reigns for a thousand years over the earth.
Let’s turn to Ezekiel chapter forty four, as we are coming to the close of the prophecy. Ezekiel had prophesied the fall of Jerusalem, and after Jerusalem fell, and word came, then the prophesies of Ezekiel went out towards the future. So the early part of the book of Ezekiel is filled with a lot of warnings, dire warnings of the dark times, of the difficult times. But then the prophesies after those difficult times came, and Jerusalem fell. Then the prophesies turned towards the future.
God never ends the story on a dark note. Sometimes we think that the story is going to end on a dark note. We get all fearful, and filled with anxiety, and we think, “Oh my what are we going to do?” But, it’s glorious to me to realize God never ends the story on a dark note. He always points out to the bright, and glorious future.
Now let me say that with all of these things there are various interpretations. This particular diagram has the gates rather broad, and narrow going in. It should be noted that there are some who believe that the gates will actually be rather deep. In other words, that they will, rather than broad, they will be deeper. So you’ll actually pass through the gate which would be quite a room. But as far as, I think to just sort of get the feeling, is that we ought to sort of come into the rebuilt temple, the new temple that will be in Jerusalem.
Now in the book of Revelation, John in chapter eleven, sees a temple and he is commanded to measure the temple even as Ezekiel measured this temple. The difference being, John was told not to measure the outer court, because it had been given to the Gentiles. So that leads to certain speculation. Is this temple in Ezekiel, the same temple that John saw in the book of Revelation, the temple that will exist, and will be built by the Jews, and will be existing during the great tribulation period.
The events of chapter thirty eight are twice declared to be in the last days. So that would preclude any historic interpretation of these passages. They are in the last days, and we will point that out as we get to those scriptures. Second, there are many who believe that the battle, and the, that is described here, is the battle of Armageddon.
I personally do not believe that it is the battle of Armageddon. These are the reasons why I do not believe that. First of all, the participants. The battle of Armageddon as I understand it, will be more or less a world wide war. The chief participants will be the Antichrist, and the western powers, versus the powers from the east that will come to fight against the Antichrist and the western powers.
Shall we turn to Ezekiel thirty seven, as we continue our journey through the Bible? God had predicted that when they turned away from God, and from His law, that they would be scattered in all the world, that they would lose that land that God had given to them, and that they would become a curse and a byword throughout all of the nations. They did forsake God, they did turn to idolatry, and as a consequence, the moral fiber of the nation was weakened, and they were defeated, and they were scattered into all the world. But God promised that a day would come when He would gather them again into the land, raise them, so to speak, as from the dead.
So in Ezekiel thirty seven, we have the prophesies of God’s restoration of the nation of Israel after they had been scattered, and as good as dead throughout the world. So…
Now mount Seir is south of the Dead sea, on the east side of the valley, down to the gulf of Aqabah It was at one time the home of the Edomites, a very powerful, and renowned civilization of people, who had really an advanced form of architecture. They were noted for their architectural genius. There was a very large, and vast number of people living in that area, because it is sort of climate wise similar to California in many ways. It is an excellent area for growing produce and all.
The prophecy against mount Seir was that God was going to make it a perpetual desolation. In spite of the fact that it does have beautiful, natural kind of conditions it is even to the present day a desolation. There are only three miserable villages in the whole area of mount Seir, connected only by paths that can be traversed only by donkey, or some areas four wheel drive vehicles. It’s very backward, very primitive. There are no real amenities like we have here. There are no you know, running waters in the faucets, or electricity, or things of that nature. It’s just an area that is desolate.
Now Ezekiel prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem. He had a very unfortunate experience where his wife died suddenly. The Lord had told him that she would, and that he was not to mourn for her death, but he was to use it as an opportunity to let the people that, that city that they loved, the desire of their hearts, was going to fall. Even as he loved his wife, the desire of his heart, the Lord took her. The Lord said, “Don’t weep for her, don’t go through the rites of mourning, and you’re to tell the people that the desire of their hearts is gonna be taken from them. Jerusalem will fall.” Then, the Lord said that he would not be able to speak to the people of Israel again, until he received news of the fall of Jerusalem.
Here in the latter portion of chapter twenty four, the Lord told Ezekiel that his wife was going to die, but he was not to mourn for her death. He was to forbear crying, he was to go on as, as though he wasn’t going through grief or sorrow. That was a sign to the people that the joy of their lives, the city of Jerusalem, was going to be taken by the Babylonians. When the news came that Jerusalem had fallen, they were not to grieve or to mourn. It was God’s work of judgment because of the iniquities of Jerusalem.
So the Lord told Ezekiel in chapter twenty four, verse twenty seven, “In that day shall your mouth be opened to them which are escaped”, actually, he was, he wasn’t gonna be able, he wasn’t to speak until the news came of the fall of Jerusalem. Now this was about two years before the fall of Jerusalem, and he was not to speak again until they received news of the fall of Jerusalem. “In that day, your mouth will be opened to those that have escaped, and you will speak, and you will no longer be mute. But you shall be a sign to them, and they shall know that I am the Lord.”
Let’s turn in our Bibles now to Ezekiel, chapter thirty one, as we continue our journey through the scriptures. Let me just say that you that have hung on through these middle chapters of Ezekiel, a special blessing for you. It’s not always easy to relate to these things in the past. However there are certain eternal principles that are involved in these things. To learn those principles has tremendous value.
However, good news! Starting next week, as we move into chapter thirty three, thirty four, and then the following weeks, thirty five, thirty six, thirty…, we’re getting into some exciting stuff! As we move on into Ezekiel, it becomes a very relevant and exciting book as Ezekiel’s prophesies go out beyond the contemporary period, and on into the future, as Ezekiel begins to prophesy of those things that are not yet fulfilled. But it would appear that we are on the verge of seeing the fulfillment of some of these later chapters.
When our body does die, our spirit will immediately depart this temporary dwelling, and be present with the Lord in heaven. There is no delay, whereby our spirit will remain here on earth. There will be no “soul sleep”, as our soul lies in a state of suspension. The spirit that lives inside our body is eternal. At the moment of death, the spirit leaves the body. If we have placed our life in Jesus Christ, and we die trusting in Him, then our spirit will immediately be “present with the Lord”, in heaven. If we rejected the salvation that Jesus has offered us all throughout our earthly life, then our spirit will depart our body to descend into hell, were it will remain until the final judgement of all things
This would be the tenth year of the reign of Zedekiah the king, and the tenth month. This would be the month of January. This is the time when in Israel the siege of Jerusalem had begun by Nebuchadnezzar. At this point, they were still hoping for help from the Pharaoh of Egypt. They were still looking to him to come with his army, and deliver them from the hands of the Babylonian king.
So it’s interesting that here is Ezekiel some four hundred and fifty miles away from the scene of Jerusalem, and yet he is like a reporter, reporting things that are taking place down in that area, though he was months away from hearing about those things. Communication was by word of mouth, and by posts, you know, or messengers who would come. But it was always a month or so later that they would hear about these things. But here was Ezekiel in Babylon, circling dates on the calendar, said, “This is the day that the siege began!” “Well how could he know that?”
Chapter twenty seven, and notice again how over, and over, and over Ezekiel is claiming that the word that he is speaking is of the Lord. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God.” We read that, “Holy men of old wrote as they were inspired by the Holy Spirit.” Peter in referring to one of the Psalms of David said, “David, by the mouth of the Holy Spirit spake, saying…”. One thing you may challenge, but you cannot deny, and that is that the Bible asserts that it is the word of God.
Now that is a proposition that you either accept or reject. You should accept it or reject it on the basis of careful study. Because the claims that the Bible makes of being God’s word to man, if it indeed is that, then we had better pay attention to it! Because our eternal destiny then rests upon what God has said. Thus it is of vital importance that you not just take someone else’s word, but that you, for yourself examine, prove whether or not this indeed is the word of God. Study the evidences for internal inspiration. Then, don’t just pass it off and say, “Well it’s full of errors!” Find the errors! Don’t just say, “Well it’s full of contradictions!” Find the contradictions if there be any! I’ve read it I guess as much as anybody. I haven’t found any contradictions or errors yet, so maybe you can find something that I haven’t.
As you remember at the end of chapter twenty four, Ezekiel was not to prophesy to the people again, until the word had come of the fall of Jerusalem. It was more or less, God, having given His final word, His final warnings, the declaration that Jerusalem was going to fall to Babylon. In fact, you remember Ezekiel marked the date on the calendar, and told the people, “This is the day the city has fallen”, or, “the siege has begun”. He marked the day of the beginning of the siege. He wasn’t to prophesy to the Jews until the news had come that Jerusalem had fallen to the Babylonian troops
God looked at His relationship to Israel much as a Husband- wife, relationship. God had made a covenant of marriage to them. He had committed Himself to them. In like manner, He desired that they commit themselves to Him, as in a marriage, holy unto the Lord, completely His, as He gave Himself for and to them, to be their God. Thus any deviation in their part, in the worship of other gods, or in the mingling with other nations and their gods, it constituted a spiritual kind of adultery. Their, their joining themselves to other gods, other forms of worship, was looked upon by God as spiritual adultery. Thus He calls them, “the adulteresses”. He accuses them of whoredom when they turn from Him, and they are worshiping other gods. They were to be exclusively God’s, they were to be His people.
