EZEKIEL
The Prophets:
Ezekiel
Ezekiel is America's prophet! What he said 2600 years ago, was not for his day, but our day, and especially the end times. He was made a watchman for the lost tribe of Israel. Ezekiel did not write his book for his time. His message is for our people today. Israel, in all its history, has not suffered in the way Ezekiel prophesied that it would. For example, great cities are to be left without inhabitants. Only a modern-day nuclear war could inflict such a dreadful outcome. You see, by the time that the Jewish prophet Ezekiel starting writing down these words of God, the nation of Israel had already been “lost” for some 150 years before! There was no way for those Israelites to ever hear the words of Ezekiel! These words have been saved by God in our Bible for the generation of Joseph's children that would be alive during the tribulation. Ezekiel is America's prophet! Do not forget this point when reading this book! Ezekiel was carried away to Babylon between the first and final deportation of Judah (2Ki 24.11-16).
The name Ezekiel means "(whom) God will strengthen"; or, "God will prevail" [Rosenmuller]. His father was Buzi (Eze 1:3), a priest, and he probably exercised the priestly office himself at Jerusalem, previous to his captivity, as appears from the matured priestly character to be seen in his prophecies, a circumstance which much increased his influence with his captive fellow countrymen at Babylon. Tradition represents Sarera as the land of his nativity. His call to prophesy was in the fifth year from the date of his being carried away with King Jehoiachin (see 2Ki 24:11-15) by Nebuchadnezzar, 599 B.C. The best portions of the people seem to have been among the first carried away (Eze 11:16; Jer 24:2-7, 8, 10). The ungodly were willing to do anything to remain in their native land; whereas the godly believed the prophets and obeyed the first summons to surrender, as the only path of safety. These latter, as adhering to the theocratic principle, were among the earliest to be removed by the Chaldeans, who believed that, if they were out of the way, the nation would fall to pieces of itself. They were despised by their brethren in the Holy Land not yet captives, as having no share in the temple sacrifices. Thus Ezekiel's sphere of labor was one happier and less impeded by his countrymen than that of Jeremiah at home. The vicinity of the river Chebar, which flows into the Euphrates near Circeslum, was the first scene of his prophecies (Eze 1:1). Tel-Abib there (now Thallaba) was his place of residence (Eze 3:15), where the elders used to come to inquire as to God's messages through him. They were eager to return to Jerusalem, but he taught them that they must first return to their GOD (Elohim-The family of God). He continued to prophesy for at least twenty-two years, that is, to the twenty-seventh year of the captivity (Eze 29:17), and probably remained with the captives by the Chebar the rest of his life. A treatise, falsely attributed to Epiphanius, states a tradition that he was killed at Babylon by a prince of his people whom he had reproved for idolatry. (Bob Barney)
Jamieson: He was contemporary with Jeremiah and Daniel. The former had prophesied for thirty-four years before Ezekiel, and continued to do so for six or seven years after him. The call of Ezekiel followed the very next year after the communication of Jeremiah's predictions to Babylon (Jer 51:59), and was divinely intended as a sequel to them. Daniel's predictions are mostly later than Ezekiel's but his piety and wisdom had become proverbial in the early part of Ezekiel's ministry (Eze 14:14, 16; 28:3). They much resemble one another, especially in the visions and grotesque images. It is a remarkable proof of genuineness that in Ezekiel no prophecies against Babylon occur among those directed against the enemies of the covenant-people. Probably he desired not to give needless offence to the government under which he lived. The effect of his labors is to be seen in the improved character of the people towards the close of the captivity, and their general cessation from idolatry and a return to the law. It was little more than thirty years after the close of his labors when the decree of the Jews' restoration was issued. His leading characteristic is realizing, determined energy; this admirably adapted him for opposing the "rebellious house" "of stubborn front and hard heart," and for maintaining the cause of God's Church among his countrymen in a foreign land, when the external framework had fallen to pieces. His style is plain and simple. His conceptions are definite, and the details even of the symbolical and enigmatical parts are given with lifelike minuteness. The obscurity lies in the substance, not in the form, of his communications. The priestly element predominates in his prophecies, arising from his previous training as a priest. He delights to linger about the temple and to find in its symbolical forms the imagery for conveying his instructions. This was divinely ordered to satisfy the spiritual want felt by the people in the absence of the outward temple and its sacrifices. In his images he is magnificent, though austere and somewhat harsh. He abounds in repetitions, not for ornament, but for force and weight. Poetical parallelism is not found except in a few portions, as in the seventh, twenty-first, twenty-seventh, twenty-eighth, twenty-ninth through thirty-first chapters. His great aim was to stimulate the dormant minds of the Jews. For this end nothing was better suited than the use of mysterious symbols expressed in the plainest words. The superficial, volatile, and wilfully unbelieving would thereby be left to judicial blindness (Isa 6:10; Mt 13:11-13, &c.); whereas the better-disposed would be awakened to a deeper search into the things of God by the very obscurity of the symbols. Inattention to this divine purpose has led the modern Jews so to magnify this obscurity as to ordain that no one shall read this book till he has passed his thirtieth year.
Rabbi Hananias is said to have satisfactorily solved the difficulties (Mischna) which were alleged against its canonicity. Ecclesiasticus 49:8 refers to it, and Josephus [Antiquities, 10.5.1]. It is mentioned as part of the canon in Melito's catalogue [Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, 4.26]; also in Origen, Jerome, and the Talmud. The oneness of tone throughout and the repetition of favorite expressions exclude the suspicion that separate portions are not genuine. The earlier portion, the first through the thirty-second chapters, which mainly treats of sin and judgment, is a key to interpret the latter portion, which is more hopeful and joyous, but remote in date. Thus a unity and an orderly progressive character are imparted to the whole. The particularity of details as to the temple and its offerings rather discountenances the view of this vision being only symbolical, and not at all literal. The event alone can clear it up. At all events it has not yet been fulfilled; it must be future. Ezekiel was the only prophet (in the strict sense) among the Jews at Babylon. Daniel was rather a seer than a prophet, for the spirit of prophecy was given him to qualify him, not for a spiritual office, but for disclosing future events. His position in a heathen king's palace fitted him for revelations of the outward relations of GOD (Elohim-The family of God)'s kingdom to the kingdoms of the world, so that his book is ranked by the Jews among the Hagiographa or "Sacred Writings," not among the prophetical Scriptures. On the other hand, Ezekiel was distinctively a prophet, and one who had to do with the inward concerns of the divine kingdom. As a priest, when sent into exile, his service was but transferred from the visible temple at Jerusalem to the spiritual temple in Chaldea.
The Prophets:
Ezekiel 1
1 On June 24th(5th day of 4th month) of my 13th year, while I was with the Judean exiles beside the Kebar River in Babylon, the heavens were opened to me, and I saw visions of GOD (Elohim-The family of God).
1 On June 24th(5th day of 4th month) of my 13th year, while I was with the Judean exiles beside the Kebar River in Babylon, the heavens were opened to me, and I saw visions of GOD (Elohim-The family of God).
13 is the number of Joseph's youngest son—The USA
2 This happened during the fifth year of King Jehoiachin's captivity.
3 The LORD(Jesus) spoke his word to me (the priest Ezekiel), son of Buzi, in Babylon by the Chebar River. The power of the LORD(Jesus) came over me(Ezekiel).
SEEING GOD as a TORNADO!
4 As I looked, I saw a tornado coming from the north. There was an immense cloud with flashing lightning surrounded by a bright light. The middle of the lightning looked like glowing metal.
5 In the center of the cloud I saw what looked like four living beings. They were shaped like humans,
6 but each of them had four faces and four wings.
Not only were there four distinct living creatures, but each of the four had four faces, making sixteen in all. The four living creatures of the cherubim answer by contrast to the four world monarchies represented by four beasts, Assyria, Persia, Greece, and Rome ( Daniel 7:1-28 ). The Fathers identified them with the four Gospels: Matthew the lion, Mark the ox, Luke the man, John the eagle. Two cherubim only stood over the ark in the temple; two more are now added, to imply that, while the law is retained as the basis, a new form is needed to be added to impart new life to it. The number four may have respect to the four quarters of the world, to imply that God's angels execute His commands everywhere. Each head in front had the face of a man as the primary and prominent one: on the right the face of a lion, on the left the face of an ox, above from behind the face of an eagle. The Mosaic cherubim were similar, only that the human faces were put looking towards each other, and towards the mercy seat between, being formed out of the same mass of pure gold as the latter ( Exodus 25:19 Exodus 25:20 ). In Isaiah 6:2 two wings are added to cover their countenances; because there they stand by the throne, here under the throne; there God deigns to consult them, and His condescension calls forth their humility, so that they veil their faces before Him; here they execute His commands. The face expresses their intelligence; the wings, their rapidity in fulfilling God's will. The Shekinah or flame, that signified God's presence, and the written name, JEHOVAH, occupied the intervening space between the cherubim Genesis 4:14 Genesis 4:16 , 3:24 ("placed"; properly, "to place in a tabernacle"), imply that the cherubim were appointed at the fall as symbols of God's presence in a consecrated place, and that man was to worship there. In the patriarchal dispensation when the flood had caused the removal of the cherubim from Eden, seraphim or teraphim (Chaldean dialect) were made as models of them for domestic use ( Genesis 31:19 , Margin; Genesis 31:30 ). The silence of the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth chapters of Exodus to their configuration, whereas everything else is minutely described, is because their form was so well-known already to Bezaleel and all Israel by tradition as to need no detailed description. Hence Ezekiel ( Ezekiel 10:20 ) at once knows them, for he had seen them repeatedly in the carved work of the outer sanctuary of Solomon's temple ( 1 Kings 6:23-29 ). He therefore consoles the exiles with the hope of having the same cherubim in the renovated temple which should be reared; and he assures them that the same God who dwelt between the cherubim of the temple would be still with His people by the Chebar. But they were not in Zerubbabel's temple; therefore Ezekiel's foretold temple, if literal, is yet future. The ox is selected as chief of the tame animals, the lion among the wild, the eagle among birds, and man the head of all, in his ideal, realized by the Lord Jesus, combining all the excellencies of the animal kingdom. The cherubim probably represent the ruling powers by which God acts in the natural and moral world. Hence they sometimes answer to the ministering angels; elsewhere, to the redeemed saints (the elect Church) through whom, as by the angels, God shall hereafter rule the world and proclaim the manifold wisdom of God ( Matthew 19:28 , 1 Corinthians 6:2 , Ephesians 3:10 , Revelation 3:21 , 4:6-8 ). The "lions" and "oxen," amidst "palms" and "open flowers" carved in the temple, were the four-faced cherubim which, being traced on a flat surface, presented only one aspect of the four. The human-headed winged bulls and eagle- headed gods found in Nineveh, sculptured amidst palms and tulip-shaped flowers, were borrowed by corrupted tradition from the cherubim placed in Eden near its fruits and flowers. So the Aaronic calf ( Exodus 32:4 Exodus 32:5 ) and Jeroboam's calves at Dan and Beth-el, a schismatic imitation of the sacred symbols in the temple at Jerusalem. So the ox figures of Apis on the sacred arks of Egypt.
7 Their legs were straight, their feet were like those of calves, and they shone like polished bronze.
8 They had human hands under their wings on each of their four sides. All four of them had faces and wings.
9 Their wings touched each other. The beings went straight ahead, and they did not turn as they moved.
10 Their faces looked like this: From the front, each being had the face of a human. From the right, each one had the face of a lion. From the left, each one had the face of a bull. And from the back, each one had the face of an eagle.
11 Each had two pairs of outstretched wings – one pair stretched out to touch the wings of the living beings on either side of it, and the other pair covered its body.
12 They went in whatever direction the Spirit(ruwach) chose, and they moved straight forward in all directions without having to turn around.
13 The living beings looked like burning coals and torches. Fire moved back and forth between them. The fire was bright, and lightning came out of the fire.
14 The living beings ran back and forth like lightning.
15 As I looked at them, I saw {what appeared to be a gyro} [wheel] on the ground beside each of them.
GOD AS A UFO!
16 The wheels sparkled as if made of beryl. All four wheels looked the same; each wheel had a second wheel turning crosswise within it, {like a gyroscope}.
17 Whenever they moved, they moved in any of the four directions without turning as they moved.
18 The rims of the wheels were large and frightening. They were covered with eyes.
19 When the four living beings moved, the {gyros}[wheels] moved with them. When the living beings rose from the earth, the wheels rose.
20 Wherever their Spirit(ruwach) wanted to go, the beings went. The wheels rose with them, because the spirit of the living beings was in the wheels.
21 So whenever the beings moved, the {gyros} moved. Whenever the beings stood still, the {gyros} stood still. And whenever the beings rose from the earth, the {gyros} rose with them, because the spirit of the living beings was in the {gyros}.
Wheels: gyros - When the heavens opened and the prophet Ezekiel saw visions of God, he saw four living beings, each with a wheel on the earth beside the beings (Ezek 1:15)—and the appearance of each wheel and their construction was as "a wheel within a wheel" (v. 16). Their construction were as gyroscopes used for navigation. And the texture of Scripture is as wheels within wheels, or as shadows in a hall of mirrors. It is this texture of Scripture that navigates disciples into the promised land of Christ’s rest.
22 There was a surface spread out above them like the sky. It sparkled like crystal.
23 Under the dome, each being had two wings that were stretched out straight, touching one another. Each being had two wings that covered its body.
24 When the beings moved, I heard the sound of their wings. The sound was like the noise of rushing water, like the thunder of the Almighty(Shaddai-Shadday), like the commotion in an army camp. When the beings stood still, they lowered their wings.
The Almighty God is Jesus! Jesus! See verse 28
25 A voice came from above the dome over their heads as they stood still with their wings lowered.
26 Above the dome over their heads was something that looked like a throne made of sapphire. On the throne was a figure that looked like a human.
The Godhead appears in the likeness of enthroned humanity, as in Exodus 24:10 . Besides the "paved work of a sapphire stone, as it were the body of heaven in clearness," there, we have here the "throne," and God "as a man," with the "appearance of fire round about." This last was a prelude of the incarnation of Messiah, but in His character as Saviour and as Judge ( Revelation 19:11-16 ). The azure sapphire answers to the color of the sky. As others are called "sons of God," but He "the Son of God," so others are called "sons of man" ( Ezekiel 2:1 Ezekiel 2:3 ), but He "the Son of man" ( Matthew 16:13 ), being the embodied representative of humanity and the whole human race; as, on the other hand, He is the representative of "the fulness of the Godhead" ( Colossians 2:9 ). While the cherubim are movable, the throne above, and Jehovah who moves them, are firmly fixed. It is good news to man, that the throne above is filled by One who even there appears as "a man." (Jamieson)
27 Then I saw what he looked like from the waist up. He looked like glowing bronze with fire all around it. From the waist down, he looked like fire. A bright light surrounded him.
Messiah is described here as in Daniel 10:5 Daniel 10:6 , Revelation 1:14 Revelation 1:15 .
28 The brightness all around him looked like a rainbow in the clouds. This was the way the glory of the LORD(Jesus) appeared to me. When I saw it, I fell face down in the dust, and I heard someone's voice speaking to me.
rainbow-the symbol of the sure covenant of mercy to God's children remembered amidst judgments on the wicked; as in the flood in Noah's days ( Revelation 4:3 ). "Like hanging out from the throne of the Eternal a fing of peace, assuring all that the purpose of Heaven was to preserve rather than to destroy. Even if the divine work should require a deluge of wrath, still the faithfulness of God would only shine forth the more brightly at last to the children of promise, in consequence of the tribulations needed to prepare for the ultimate good" [FAIRBAIRN].
Ezekiel 2
1 And He said to me, "Son of man, stand up, and I will speak to you."
Son of man--often applied to Ezekiel; once only to Daniel ( Daniel 8:17 ), and not to any other prophet except Jesus Himself.( Psalms 8:4-8 , Matthew 16:13 , 20:18 ; and on the other hand, Daniel 7:13 Daniel 7:14 , Matthew 26:64 , John 5:27 ).
3 He said to me: Son of man, I am sending you to the people of Israel. They are people from a nation that has rebelled against me. They and their ancestors have rebelled against me to this day.
The USA and British Peoples
4 I am sending you to these defiant and stubborn children. Tell them, 'This is what the LORD(Yahweh) GOD (Elohim-The family of God) says.'
I am sending = this book of Ezekiel! He never physically traveled to the lost tribes, but this book of his did.
5 Whether these rebellious people listen or not, they will realize that a prophet has been among them.
6 Son of man, do not fear them. Don't be afraid even though their threats are sharp as thorns and barbed like briers, and they sting like scorpions. Do not be dismayed by their dark scowls. For remember, they are rebels!
8 But you, son of man, listen to what I say. Don't be rebellious like those rebellious people. Open your mouth, and eat what I am giving to you.
10 He spread the scroll in front of me. There was writing on the front and back. There were funeral songs, songs of mourning, and horrible things written on it.
Ezekiel 3
EZEKIEL COMMISSIONED
1 The He said to me, "Son of man, eat what you find. Eat this scroll. Then speak {its message} to the people of Israel."
God's messenger must first inwardly appropriate God's truth himself, before he "speaks" it to others
2 So I opened my mouth, and He gave me the scroll to eat.
3 He said to me, "Son of man, eat this scroll I'm giving you, and fill your stomach with it." So I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth. Psalms 19:10 , 119:103 , Revelation 10:9
4 He said to me: Son of man, go to the people of Israel, and speak my words to them.
5 I am not sending you to people whose language is hard to understand or difficult to speak. I am sending you to Israel.
6 I am not sending you to nations whose language is hard to understand, difficult to speak, or whose words you cannot understand. If I send you to those nations, they will certainly listen to you.
7 But the people of Israel will refuse to listen to you because they refuse to listen to me. All the people of Israel are very stubborn and hardheaded. John 15:20
8 Yet, I will make you as stubborn and as hard as they are.
9 I will make you as hard as a diamond, harder than stone. Don't be afraid of them. Don't be terrified in their presence, even though they are rebellious people.
10 He also said to me, Son of man, let all my words sink deep into your own heart first. Listen to them carefully for yourself.
11 Then go to your people in exile and say to them, 'This is what the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God) says!' Do this whether they listen to you or not.
12 Then the Spirit(Ruwach) lifted me, and behind me I heard a loud thundering voice say, "Blessed is the LORD (JESUS)'s glory, which left this place." Acts 8:39
This is an angel and not Jesus speaking
13 I also heard the noise of the wings of the living beings touching one another and the noise of the {gyros}(wheels) beside them as well as a loud rumbling.
14 Then the Spirit(Ruwach) lifted me and took me away. I went away feeling bitter and angry. The strong power of the LORD (JESUS) came over me.
15 Then I came to the colony of Judean exiles in Tel-abib, beside the Kebar River. I sat there among them for seven days, overwhelmed.
16 After seven days the LORD (JESUS) spoke his word to me. He said,
17 Son of man, I have made you a watchman over the people of Israel. Listen to what I say, and warn them for me.
The WATCHMAN: Of the USA! See note in beginning of Ezekiel
18 If I warn the wicked, saying, 'You are under the penalty of death,' but you fail to deliver the warning, they will die in their sins. And I will hold you responsible, demanding your blood for theirs.
19 If you warn them and they keep on sinning and refuse to repent, they will die in their sins. But you will have saved your life because you did what you were told to do.
20 If righteous people turn from living the right way and do wrong, I will make them stumble, and they will die. If you don't warn them, they will die because of their sin, and the right things they did will not be remembered. I will hold you responsible for their deaths.
-not that God tempts to sin ( james 1:13 james 1:14 ), but God gives men over to judicial blindness, and to their own corruptions ( Psalms 9:16 Psalms 9:17 , 94:23 ) when they "like not to retain God in their knowledge" ( Romans 1:24 Romans 1:26 ); just as, on the contrary, God makes "the way of the righteous plain" ( Proverbs 4:11 Proverbs 4:12 , 15:19 ), so that they do "not stumble." CALVIN
21But if you warn them and they repent, they will live, and you will have saved your own life, too.
22 The power of the LORD (JESUS) came over me. He said, "Go out into the valley, and I will talk to you there."
23 I got up and went to the plain. The LORD (JESUS)'s glory was standing there like the glory I saw by the Chebar River, and I immediately bowed down.
24 Then the Spirit(Ruwach) entered me and stood me on my feet. He talked to me. He said, Go into your home, and shut yourself inside.
25 People will tie you up with ropes, son of man, so that you can't go outside.
26 And I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so you won't be able to pray for them, for they are rebellious.
27 But when I speak to you, I will open your mouth. You will tell them, 'This is what the Almighty LORD (JESUS) says.' Some will listen, and some will refuse to listen. They are rebellious people.
Ezekiel 4
1 {The LORD (JESUS) said,} Son of man, take a large brick and set it down in front of you. Then draw a map of the city of Jerusalem on it.
2 Lay siege against it, build a siege wall against it, have troops ready to attack it, and place battering rams all around it.
3 Then take an iron pan, and place it between you and the city. Turn toward it and demonstrate how the enemy will attack Jerusalem. This will be a warning to the house of Israel.
4 Then lie on your left side and place the sins of Israel on yourself. You are to bear their sins for the number of days you lie there on your side.
left side--referring to the position of the ten tribes, the northern kingdom, as Judah, the southern, answers to "the right side" ( Ezekiel 4:6 ). The Orientals facing the east in their mode, had the north on their left, and the south on their right ( Ezekiel 16:46 ). Also the right was more honorable than the left: so Judah as being the seat of the temple, was more so than Israel.
5 I have assigned to you one day for each year its punishment will last. You will bear Israel's sins for 390 days – one day for each year of their sin.
three hundred and ninety days--The three hundred ninety years of punishment appointed for Israel, and forty for Judah, cannot refer to the siege of Jerusalem. That siege is referred to in Ezekiel 4:1-3 , and in a sense restricted to the literal siege, but comprehending the whole train of punishment to be inflicted for their sin; therefore we read here merely of its sore pressure, not of its result. The sum of three hundred ninety and forty years is four hundred thirty, a period famous in the history of the covenant-people, being that of their sojourn in Egypt ( Exodus 12:40 Exodus 12:41 , Galatians 3:17 ). The forty alludes to the forty years in the wilderness. Elsewhere ( Deuteronomy 28:68 , Hosea 9:3 ), God threatened to bring them back to Egypt, which must mean, not Egypt literally, but a bondage as bad as that one in Egypt. So now God will reduce them to a kind of new Egyptian bondage to the world: Israel, the greater transgressor. for a longer period than Judah (compare Ezekiel 20:35-38 ). Not the whole of the four hundred thirty years of the Egypt state is appointed to Israel; but this shortened by the forty years of the wilderness sojourn, to imply, that a way is open to their return to life by their having the Egypt state merged into that of the wilderness; that is, by ceasing from idolatry and seeking in their sifting and sore troubles, through God's covenant, a restoration to righteousness and peace [FAIRBAIRN]. The three hundred ninety, in reference to the sin of Israel, was also literally true, being the years from the setting up of the calves by Jeroboam ( 1 Kings 12:20-33 ), that is, from 975 to 583 B.C.: about the year of the Babylonians captivity; and perhaps the forty of Judah refers to that part of Manasseh's fifty-five year's reign in which he had not repented, and which, we are expressly told, was the cause of God's removal of Judah, notwithstanding Josiah's reformation ( 1 Kings 21:10-16 , 2 Kings 23:26 2 Kings 23:27 ). (Jamieson)
6 When you finish this, you will lie down again, this time on your right side. You will bear the punishment for the sins of the nation of Judah for 40 days, one day for each year I have assigned to you.
each day for a year--literally, "a day for a year, a day for a year." Twice repeated, to mark more distinctly the reference to Numbers 14:34 . The picturing of the future under the image of the past, wherein the meaning was far from lying on the surface, was intended to arouse to a less superficial mode of thinking, just as the partial veiling of truth in Jesus' parables was designed to stimulate inquiry; also to remind men that God's dealings in the past are a key to the future, for He moves on the same everlasting principles, the forms alone being transitory.
7 Then turn your face toward the blockaded Jerusalem. Shake your fist and prophesy against it.
8 I will tie you up with ropes so that you will not be able to turn from one side to the other until you have finished attacking {Jerusalem}.
9 Now go and get some wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, and mix them together in a storage jar. Use this food to make bread for yourself during the 390 days you will be lying on your side.
So-called EZEKIEL BREAD, which is sold today!
10 The food that you eat should be weighed. Eat eight ounces of food every day at set times.
11 Measure out two-thirds of a quart of water, and drink it at set times.
12 Each day prepare your bread as you would barley cakes. While all the people are watching, bake it over a fire using dried human dung as fuel and then eat the bread.
13 Then the LORD (JESUS) said, "In the same way, the people of Israel will eat unclean bread among the nations where I scatter them."
Always a Clean Diet:
14 I answered, "Ah, LORD (JESUS) God(Elohim/Theos)! Indeed I have never defiled myself from my youth till now; From the time I was young until now, I have never eaten an animal that died by itself or was killed by other wild animals. No unclean meat has ever entered my mouth."
15 He said to me, "I will let you use cow manure in place of human excrement. Bake your bread over it."
This is quite humerous! This is remarkably close to Peter's vision in Acts 10:14! It was in violation of the law ( Deuteronomy 14:3 , 23:12-14 ) so Jesus never intended for him to do so!
Ezekiel, as a priest, had been accustomed to the strictest abstinence from everything legally impure. Peter felt the same scruple at a similar command ( Acts 10:14 ; compare Isaiah 65:4 ). Positive precepts, being dependent on a particular command can be set aside at the will of the divine ruler; but moral precepts are everlasting in their obligation because God cannot be inconsistent with His unchanging moral nature. (Jamieson)
16 He also said to me, Son of man, I am going to cut off the bread supply in Jerusalem. People will anxiously eat rationed bread and fearfully drink rationed water.
17 They will be shocked at the sight of each other because of the lack of food and water. They will waste away because of their sin.
Ezekiel 5
A PROPHECY CONCERNING MODERN ISRAEL (the USA):
1 {The LORD (JESUS) said,} Son of man, take a sharp sword and use it as a razor to shave your head and beard. Use a scale to weigh the hair into three equal parts.
2 Place a third of it at the center of your map of Jerusalem. After acting out the siege, burn it there. Scatter another third across your map and slash at it with a sword. Scatter the last third to the wind, for I will scatter my people with the sword.
Three classes are described. The sword was to destroy one third of the people; famine and plague another third ("fire" in Ezekiel 5:2 being explained in Ezekiel 5:12 to mean pestilence and famine); that which remained was to be scattered among the nations. A few only of the last portion were to escape, symbolized by the hairs bound in Ezekiel's skirts ( Ezekiel 5:3 , Jeremiah 40:6 , 52:16 ). Even of these some were to be thrown into the fiery ordeal again ( Ezekiel 5:4 , Jeremiah 41:1 Jeremiah 41:2 , &c. Jeremiah 44:14 , &c.). The "skirts" being able to contain but few express that extreme limit to which God's goodness can reach. (Jamieson)
3 Keep just a bit of the hair and tie it up in your robe.
4 Later, take a few of these hairs out and throw them into the fire, burning them up. A fire will then spread from this remnant and destroy all of Israel.
5 This is what the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God) says: This is an illustration of what will happen to ISRAEL(Jerusalem). I placed her at the center of the nations,
6 but she has rebelled against my regulations and has been even more wicked than the surrounding nations. She has refused to obey the laws I gave her to follow.
7 So this is what the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God) says: Since you have refused to obey my laws and regulations and have behaved even worse than your neighbors,
Therefore their punishment was the severest. So the position of the Christian professing Church now, if it be not a light to the heathen world, its condemnation will be sorer than theirs ( Matthew 5:13 , 11:21-24 , Hebrews 10:28 Hebrews 10:29 ).
-have not been as tenacious of the true religion as the nations have been of the false. The heathen "changed" not their gods, but the Jews changed Jehovah for idols (see Ezekiel 5:6 , "changed My judgments into wickedness," that is, idolatry, Jeremiah 2:11 ). The Chaldean version and the Masora support the negative. Others omit it (as it is omitted in Ezekiel 11:12 ), and translate, "but have done according to the judgments," &c. However, both Ezekiel 11:12 and also this verse are true. They in one sense "did according to the heathen," namely, in all that was bad; in another, namely, in that which was good, zeal for religion, they did not. Ezekiel 5:9 also proves the negative to be genuine; because in changing their religion, they have not done as the nations which have not changed theirs, "I (also) will do in thee that which I have not done."
(Jamieson)
8 I myself, the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God), am now your enemy. I will punish you publicly while all the nations watch.
worse than any former judgments ( Lamentations 4:6 , Daniel 9:12 ). The prophecy includes the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, and the final one by Antichrist ( Zechariah 13:8 Zechariah 13:9 , 14:2 ) The higher the privileges the greater the punishment in the case of abuse of them. When God's greatest favor, the gospel, was given, and was abused by them, then "the wrath was to come on them to the uttermost" ( 1 Thessalonians 2:16 ). (Jamieson)
9 And I will do among you what I have never done, and the like of which I will never do again, because of all your abominations.
10 Therefore fathers shall eat their sons, and children will eat their parents. I will punish you and scatter whoever is left to the wind.
11 Therefore, as I live,' says the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God), 'surely, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish you; I will not have compassion for you or feel sorry for you.
A THIRD TO DIE IN FAMINES-ANOTHER THIRD IN WAR AND A THIRD SCATTERED:
12 One-third of you will die in plagues and be devoured in famines. Another third will die in battles against those around you. I will scatter the remaining third to the wind, and I will pursue them with a sword.
13 Then at last my anger will be spent, and I will be satisfied. And when my fury against them has subsided, all Israel will know that I, the LORD (JESUS), have spoken to them in my jealous anger.
14 I will turn you into a wasteland and an object of ridicule among the nations around you and in the presence of everyone who passes by you.
Be clear here, this is the fate of the USA in the end times!
15 The nations that are around you will ridicule you and laugh at you. When I punish you because of my anger, fury, and fierce revenge, you will become something ridiculed and something horrible. I, the LORD (JESUS), have spoken.
16 I will shower you with the deadly arrows of famine to destroy you. The famine will become more and more severe until every crumb of food is gone.
17 I will send famines and wild animals against you, and they will rob you of your children. I will send plagues, violence, and wars to kill you. I, the LORD (JESUS), have spoken.
Ezekiel 6
1 The LORD (JESUS) spoke his word to me. He said:
2 Son of man, look toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them.
3 And say, 'You mountains of Israel, listen to the word of the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God)! This is what the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God) says to the mountains and hills and to the ravines and valleys: I am going to attack you with a sword and destroy your worship sites.
4 Your altars will be destroyed, and your incense burners will be smashed. I will kill people in front of your idols.
5 I will lay the dead bodies of the people of Israel in front of your idols, and I will scatter their bones around your altars.
6 Wherever people live, the cities will be ruined, and the worship sites will be wrecked. Your altars will be ruined and demolished. Your idols will be smashed and completely destroyed. Your incense burners will be cut down, and everything you have done will be wiped out.
7 People will be killed, and they will fall among you. Then you will know that I am the LORD (JESUS).
8 But I will let some people live. Some people will escape the battle among the nations and be scattered throughout the countries.
9 Then those who escape will remember me among the nations where they are taken captive. I was hurt by their adulterous hearts, which turned away from me, and by their eyes, which lusted after idols. They will hate themselves for the evil and disgusting things that they have done.
10 Then you will know that I am the LORD (JESUS) and that the disaster I promised was not an empty threat.
11 This is what the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God) says: Clap your hands, stomp your feet, and say, "Oh no!" because the people of Israel have done evil and disgusting things. So they will die in wars, famines, and plagues.
12 Plagues will kill those who are far away. Those who are near will die in wars, and anyone who is left and has escaped will die in famines. This is how I will unleash my anger.
13 Then you will know that I am the LORD (JESUS). "'Those who are killed will lie beside the idols around their altars. They will lie on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, and under every large tree and every leafy oak. These are the places where they made offerings to their disgusting idols.
14 I will use my power against them and destroy the land, from the desert to Diblah. Then they will know that I am the LORD (JESUS).'
Ezekiel 7
LAMENTATION OVER THE COMING RUIN OF ISRAEL
1 Then this message came to me from the LORD (JESUS):
2 Son of man, this is what the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God) says to Israel: 'The end is here! Wherever you look – east, west, north, or south – your land is finished.
3 No hope remains, for I will unleash my anger against you. I will call you to account for all your disgusting behavior.
4 I will not have compassion for you or feel sorry for you. I will pay you back for the way you have lived and for the detestable things you have done. Then you will know that I am the LORD (JESUS).'
5 The LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God) says: One disaster after another is coming.
6 The end is coming. The end is coming. It is stirring itself up against you. It is coming!
7 Destruction is coming to you, inhabitants of the land. The time is coming. The day is near. There will be confusion. There will be no joy in the mountains.
8 Soon I will pour out my fury to complete your punishment for all your disgusting behavior.
9 I will neither spare nor pity you. I will repay you for all your detestable practices. Then you will know that it is I, the LORD (JESUS), who is striking the blow.
10 The day is near! It is coming! Destruction is coming! Wrongdoing has blossomed. Arrogance has flourished.
11 Their violence will fall back on them as punishment for their wickedness. None of these proud and wicked people will survive. All their wealth will be swept away.
12 The time has come, The day draws near. Let not the buyer rejoice, Nor the seller mourn, For wrath is on their whole multitude.
13 Sellers will not live long enough to buy back what they have sold. The visions against that crowd will not change. Because of their sins, none of the people will live.
14 They have blown a shofar [ram's horn], and everything is ready. But no one will go into battle, because my fury is against their whole crowd.
15 Any who leave the city walls will be killed by enemy swords. Those who stay inside will die of famine and disease.
16 Those who survive will escape to the mountains. They will moan like doves in the valleys. They will moan because of their sins.
17 Everyone's hands will be feeble; their knees will be as weak as water.
18 They will dress themselves in sackcloth; horror and shame will cover them. They will shave their heads in sorrow and remorse.
19 They will throw their money (silver and gold) into the streets like garbage. Their silver and gold won't be able to rescue them on the day of the LORD (JESUS)'s anger. It will no longer satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs. Their silver and gold caused them to fall into sin.
20 They were proud of their gold jewelry and used it to make vile and detestable idols. That is why I will make all their wealth disgusting to them.
21 I will hand their jewels over to foreigners as loot and to the most evil people on earth as prizes. These foreigners will dishonor the people of Israel.
22 I will turn my face away from the people of Israel, and foreigners will dishonor my treasured place. Robbers will go in and dishonor it.
23 Get the chains ready! The land is filled with murder, and the city is filled with violence.
24 So I will send the most evil nation, and it will take possession of people's houses. I will stop those who are strong from feeling proud, and their holy places will be dishonored.
25 Terror and trembling will overcome my people. They will look for peace but will not find it.
26 One disaster will happen after another. One rumor will follow another. People will ask for a vision from a prophet. The teachings of priests and the advice of leaders will disappear.
27 Kings will mourn, and princes will give up hope. The common people will lose their courage. I will give them what they deserve and judge them as they have judged others. Then they will know that I am the LORD (JESUS).
The abruptness of this prophecy, and the many repetitions, show that the prophet was deeply affected by the prospect of these calamities. Such will the destruction of sinners be; for none can avoid it. Oh that the wickedness of the wicked might end before it bring them to an end! Trouble is to the impenitent only an evil, it hardens their hearts, and stirs up their corruptions; but there are those to whom it is sanctified by the grace of God, and made a means of much good. The day of real trouble is near, not a mere echo or rumour of troubles. Whatever are the fruits of God's judgments, our sin is the root of them. These judgments shall be universal. And God will be glorified in all. Now is the day of the Lord's patience and mercy, but the time of the sinner's trouble is at hand. (Matthew Henry)
Ezekiel 8
EASTER SUNRISE CONDEMNED!
Nimrod, one of the great-grandsons of Noah, is accredited with being the originator of sun worship. Nimrod was a great leader, and he was the first empire builder. He was the founder of Babylon. According to history, his wife, Semiramis, was a very great and wicked queen; and through Semiramis we find the devil trying to counterfeit God's great, wonderful plan of salvation. She was the first deified queen of Babylon, and Nimrod was the first deified king. When Nimrod died, the people mourned. They said that he was a god. Semiramis, in order to elevate her own position, said to the people that she was the queen of heaven and that her spirit was that of the moon, and when she died she would dwell in the moon, even as Nimrod was already in the sun.
Every year, when the cold season began, the people believed their sun god was leaving them. They came to learn that his lowest dip on the horizon, about December 21, was followed by his gradual return, until in midsummer he was directly overhead at noonday. It was on the 25th of December that they began to notice this gradual return of the sun god. This day they called the birthday of the sun. Thus, the winter solstice came to be regarded as a time of great importance; and at the festival inaugurated, there was feasting and merriment in honor of the return of the all powerful sun god. It was their belief in the annual journey of their god that Elijah alluded to in his conflict with the priests of Baal, the Syro-Phoenician sun god. (1 Kings 18:27, if "he is a god; either...he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked").
Tammuz was hailed as the son of the sun. He was idolized and even worshipped. The first letter of his name became, in time, the symbol of sun worship. Human sacrifices to the sun god were offered on this initial letter made of wood, known as the cross "T." His birthday, December 25, was honored more and more. When Tammuz died, the pagans instituted forty days of weeping for him before the full moon, following the vernal equinox. This has become Lent.
In Ezekiel 8:1-18, God shows Ezekiel what Israel was committing – sun worship – a sin which never should have been. However, God allows no sin to go unpunished. Now notice carefully verse 16. Israel was doing the same thing that people today are doing, but they did not call it “Easter Sunrise Service.” It was sun worship according to heathen gods. We know this because the verses say that they were worshipping the sun, when it was in the east! When is the sun in the east? SUNRISE! That's why to this day, Christians practice all of the trapping of this pagan holiday, with Easter eggs (fertility), Easter Bunnies (fertility) and coloring eggs. Christ commands us to obseve PASSOVER and not Easter!
The Prophets
Ezekiel 8
EASTER
1 On August 22 (the fifth day of the sixth month) in the sixth year[592 BC], I was sitting in my home. Judah's leaders were sitting in front of me. The power of the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God) came over me.
2 As I looked, I saw something that looked like a man. From the waist down His body looked like fire, and from the waist up its body looked like glowing metal.
This is Yahweh-Jesus Christ! understand, "of a man," that is, of Messiah, the Angel of the covenant, in the person of whom alone God manifests Himself ( Ezekiel 1:26 , John 1:18 ). The "fire," from "His loins downward," betokens the vengeance of God kindled against the wicked Jews, while searching and purifying the remnant to be spared. The "brightness . . . upward" betokens His unapproachable majesty ( 1 Timothy 6:16 ). For Hebrew, eesh, "fire," the Septuagint, &c., read ish, "a man."
3 He put out what seemed to be a hand and took me by the hair. Then the Spirit lifted me up into the sky and transported me in a vision of God to Jerusalem. I was taken to the north gate of the inner courtyard of the Temple, where there is a large idol which caused {Him} to be angry.
Instead of prompting him to address directly the elders before him, the Spirit carried him away in vision (not in person bodily) to the temple at Jerusalem; he proceeds to report to them what he witnessed: his message thus falls into two parts: (1) The abominations reported in Ezekiel 8:1-18 . (2) The dealings of judgment and mercy to be adopted towards the impenitent and penitent Israelites respectively (Ezekiel 9:1- 11:25'). The exiles looked hopefully towards Jerusalem and, so far from believing things there to be on the verge of ruin, expected a return in peace; while those left in Jerusalem eyed the exiles with contempt, as if cast away from the Lord, whereas they themselves were near God and ensured in the possessions of the land ( Ezekiel 11:15 ). Hence the vision here of what affected those in Jerusalem immediately was a seasonable communication to the exiles away from it. Astarte, or Asheera (as the Hebrew for "grove" ought to be translated, 2 Kings 21:3 2 Kings 21:7 , 2 Kings 23:4 2 Kings 23:7 ), set up by Manasseh as a rival to Jehovah in His temple, and arresting the attention of all worshippers as they entered; it was the Syrian Venus, worshipped with licentious rites; the "queen of heaven," wife of Phoenician Baal. HAVERNICK thinks all the scenes of idolatry in the chapter are successive portions of the festival held in honor of Tammuz or Adonis ( Ezekiel 8:14 ).
4 There I saw the glory of the GOD (Elohim-The family of God) of Israel-as I did in the vision that I saw in the valley.
5 Then He said to me, "Son of man, lift your eyes now toward the north." So I lifted my eyes toward the north, and there, north of the altar gate, was this image of jealousy in the entrance.
6 Furthermore He said to me, "Son of man, do you see what they are doing? Do you see the great sins the people of Israel are doing to drive me from my Temple(sanctuary)? Now turn again, you will see greater abominations."
9 He said to me, "Go in, and see the wicked, disgusting things that the people of Israel are doing here."
10 So I went in and looked. I saw that the walls were covered with drawings of every kind of crawling [and unclean} creature, every kind of disgusting animal, and all the idols in the nation of Israel.
11 In front of these drawings stood 70 of Israel's leaders. Jaazaniah, son of Shaphan, was standing with the leaders. Each of them was holding an incense burner in his hand, and a cloud of incense went up.
seventy men--the seventy members composing the Sanhedrim, or great council of the nation, the origination of which we find in the seventy elders, representatives of the congregation, who went up with Moses to the mount to behold the glory of Jehovah, and to witness the secret transactions relating to the establishment of the covenant; also, in the seventy elders appointed to share the burden of the people with Moses. Here is the start of the corruption of this group, who would later condemn Jesus to die!
12 Then He asked me, "Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man with their idols in dark rooms? For they say, 'The LORD (JESUS) does not see us, the LORD (JESUS) has forsaken the land.'"
14 He brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the LORD (JESUS)'s Temple(house). Women were sitting there and crying for Tammuz.
16 Then he brought me into the inner courtyard of the LORD (JESUS)'s Temple. There at the entrance to the LORD (JESUS)'s Temple, between the entrance and the altar, were about 25 men who had their backs turned to the LORD (JESUS)'s temple. They were facing east and worshiping the rising sun.
SUN IN EAST = SUNRISE
17 He asked me: Son of man, do you see this? Isn't it bad enough that the people of Judah have done these disgusting things that you have seen here? Yet, they also fill the land with violence and continue to provoke me even more. Look how they insult me in the worst possible way.
God is very unhappy with EASTER!
18 Therefore, I will deal with them in fury. I will neither pity nor spare them. And though they scream for mercy, I will not listen."
Ezekiel 9
THE SEALING OF THE ELECT:
1 Then He called out with a loud voice. He said, "Come here, those who are going to punish this city. Each of you should bring your weapon with you."
2 And suddenly six men came from the direction of the upper gate, which faces north, each with his battle-ax in his hand. One man among them was dressed in a linen robe and had a writer's inkhorn at his side. They went in and stood beside the bronze altar.
Linnen robe-sign of purity and Heaven. Some think this is Michael, the great angel He appears as a "man," implying His incarnation; as "one" (compare 1 Timothy 2:5 ). Salvation is peculiarly assigned to Him, and so He bears the "inkhorn" in order to "mark" His elect ( Ezekiel 9:4 ; compare Exodus 12:7 , Revelation 7:3 , 9:4 , Revelation 13:16 Revelation 13:17 , 20:4 ), and to write their names in His book of life ( Revelation 13:8 ). As Oriental scribes suspend their inkhorn at their side in the present day, and as a "scribe of the host is found in Assyrian inscriptions accompanying the host" to number the heads of the slain, so He stands ready for the work before Him. "The higher gate" was probably where now the gate of Damascus is. The six with Him make up the sacred and perfect number, seven ( Zechariah 3:9 , Revelation 5:6 ). The executors of judgment on the wicked, in Scripture teaching, are good, not bad, angels; the bad have permitted to them the trial of the pious ( Job 1:12 , 2 Corinthians 12:7 ). The judgment is executed by Him ( Ezekiel 10:2 Ezekiel 10:7 , John 5:22 John 5:27 ) through the six ( Matthew 13:41 , 25:31 ); so beautifully does the Old Testament harmonize with the New Testament. The seven come "from the way of the north"; for it was there the idolatries were seen, and from the same quarter must proceed the judgment (Babylon lying northeast of Judea). So Matthew 24:28 . (Jamieson)
3 Then the glory of the GOD (Elohim-The family of God) of Israel went up from the cherubim [angels], where it had rested, and moved to the entrance of the Temple. And the LORD (JESUS) called to the man dressed in linen who was carrying the writer's case.
4 The LORD (JESUS) said to him, "Go throughout the city, and put a mark on the foreheads of those who sigh and groan about all the disgusting things that are being done in the city."
The MARK: The Sabbath became a sign (mark) between God and Israel. Mark and Sign mean the same thing. The Mark of God=the Sabbath. The Mark of the Devil= Sunday worship! Exodus 31:13 “This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the LORD, who makes you holy.” In this case, EASTER (a Christian Sabbath) is the Mark of the Beast, and PASSOVER (God's true annual Sabbath is the Mark that the man in linen is giving to the true elect! Following Easter is not taken to lightly by Jesus here! NOTICE THE WORDS “ON THEIR FOREHEADS! Compare this with the MARK OF THE BEAST in Revelation 13:16! See that the same “mark” is being talked about! The mark of God = Sabbath days and Holy Days, the Mark of the Beast, Sunday's and pagan holy days! It is crystal clear.
a mark--literally, the Hebrew letter Tau, the last in the alphabet, used as a mark ("my sign," Job 31:35 , Margin)
5 To the others He said as I was listening, Follow him throughout the city and kill. Don't have any compassion, and don't feel sorry.
6 Kill old men, young men, old women, young women, and children. But don't come near anyone who has a mark on him. Start with my holy place. So they started with the old men in front of the Temple.
7 Then He said to them, "Defile the Temple, and fill the courts with the dead. Go out!" And they went out and killed in the city.
8 While they were carrying out their orders, I was all alone. I fell face down in the dust and cried out, and said, "Ah, LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God)! Will You destroy all the remnant of Israel in pouring out Your fury on Jerusalem?"
9 He answered me, The sins of the people of Israel and Judah are very great. The entire land is full of murder; the city is filled with injustice. They are saying, 'The LORD doesn't see it! The LORD has forsaken the land!'
10 So I will not spare them or have any pity on them. I will fully repay them for all they have done.
11 Just then, the man clothed with the linen robes, who had the inkhorn at his side, reported back and said, "I have done as You commanded me."
Ezekiel 10
1 And I looked, and there in the sky that was above the head of the cherubim, there appeared something like a sapphire stone, having the appearance of the likeness of a throne.
cherubim--in Ezekiel 1:5 , called "living creatures." The repetition of the vision implies that the judgments are approaching nearer and nearer. These two visions of Deity were granted in the beginning of Ezekiel's career, to qualify him for witnessing to God's glory amidst his God-forgetting people and to stamp truth on his announcements; also to signify the removal of God's manifestation from the visible temple ( Ezekiel 10:18 ) for a long period ( Ezekiel 43:2 ). The feature ( Ezekiel 10:12 ) mentioned as to the cherubim that they were "full of eyes," though omitted in the former vision, is not a difference, but a more specific detail observed by Ezekiel now on closer inspection. Also, here, there is no rainbow (the symbol of mercy after the flood of wrath) as in the former; for here judgment is the prominent thought, though the marking of the remnant in Ezekiel 9:4 Ezekiel 9:6 shows that there was mercy in the background. The cherubim, perhaps, represent redeemed humanity combining in and with itself the highest forms of subordinate creaturely life (compare Romans 8:20 ). Therefore they are associated with the twenty-four elders and are distinguished from the angels ( Revelation 5:1-14 ). They stand on the mercy seat of the ark, and on that ground become the habitation of God from which His glory is to shine upon the world. The different forms symbolize the different phases of the Church. So the quadriform Gospel, in which the incarnate Saviour has lodged the revelation of Himself in a fourfold aspect, and from which His glory shines on the Christian world, answers to the emblematic throne from which He shone on the Jewish Church. (Jamieson)
2 And He{Yahweh} spoke to the man in linen robes and said, "Go in between the whirling gyros beneath the cherubim, and take a handful of glowing coals and scatter them over the city." He did this as I watched.
3 The angels were standing on the south side of the Temple as the person went. A cloud filled the inner courtyard.
4 Then the glory of the LORD (JESUS) rose up from above the cherubim and went over to the door of the Temple. The Temple was filled with this cloud of glory, and the courtyard glowed brightly with the glory of the LORD (JESUS).
5 The sound of the angels' wings was heard as far as the outer courtyard. It was like the sound of the Almighty(Shaddai) God(El) when he speaks.
El Shaddai – The Almighty God
6 Then it happened, when He commanded the man clothed in linen, saying, "Take fire from among the gyros, from among the cherubim," So he went in and stood beside one of the gyros wheels.
7 Then one of the cherubim reached out his hand and took some live coals from the fire burning among them. He put the coals into the hands of the man in linen clothing, and the man took them and went out.
8 The angels(cherubim) appeared to have what looked like human hands under their wings.
9 Each of the four cherubim had a wheel beside him, and the wheels sparkled like chrysolite.
10 All four gyros looked the same. Each was like a wheel within a wheel [a gyroscope].
See notes for Ezekiel 1
11 They could move forward in any of the four directions they faced, without turning as they moved. They went straight in the direction in which their heads were turned, never turning aside.
12 Their whole bodies, their backs, hands, wings, and wheels were covered with eyes. Each of them had a gyro [wheel].
13 I heard someone refer to the wheels as "the whirling wheels [gyros]."
It is almost like these gyros create the “whirlwind” or “tornado” vortex that accompanies Jesus whenever His Glory is visible to the people. Like in the parting of the Red Sea, or the cloud and fire over the Tabernacle.
14 Each one had four faces: the first face was the face of a cherub, the second face the face of a man, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.
15 And the cherubim were lifted upward. This was the living creature I saw by the River Chebar.
16 When the cherubim moved, the gyros moved with them. When they rose into the air, the gyros stayed beside them, going with them as they flew.
17 When the cherubim stood still, the gyros also stopped, for the spirit of the living beings was in these wheels.
18 Then the glory of the LORD (JESUS) departed from the threshold of the Temple and stood over the cherubim.
19 And as I watched, the cherubim flew with their wheels to the east gate of the LORD (JESUS)'s Temple. And the glory of the God of Israel hovered above them.
20 hese were the same living beings I had seen beneath the GOD (Elohim-The family of God) of Israel when I was by the Kebar River. I knew they were cherubim,
21 for each had four faces and four wings and what looked like human hands under their wings.
22 Their faces looked exactly like the faces that I saw by the Chebar River. Each one went straight ahead.
Ezekiel 11
1 Then the Spirit lifted me and took me to the east gate of the LORD (JESUS)'s temple. (It's the gate that faces east.) Twenty-five men were at the entrance of the gate. I saw among them Azzur's son Jaazaniah and Benaiah's son Pelatiah. They were leaders of the people.
The same as the twenty-five (that is, twenty-four heads of courses, and the high priest) sun- worshippers seen in Ezekiel 8:16 .
2 Then He said to me, Son of man, these are the men who are responsible for the wicked counsel being given in this city.
3 They say to the people, 'Is it not a good time to build houses? Our city is like an iron pot. Inside it we will be like meat – safe from all harm. '
4 So prophesy against them. Prophesy, son of man.
5 Then the Spirit of the LORD (JESUS) fell upon me, and said to me, This is what the LORD (JESUS) says: You are saying these things, nation of Israel. But I know what's going through your mind.
The Spirit of the LORD, is THE LORD (JESUS)! Jesus, His essence!
6 You have killed many people in this city and have filled its streets with corpses.
7 Therefore this is what the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God) says: This city is an iron pot, but the victims of your injustice are the pieces of meat. And you are not safe, for I will soon drag you from the city.
8 You have feared death; and I will bring a sword upon you," says the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God).
9 I will force you out of the city. I will hand you over to foreigners, and I will punish you.
10 You will die in battle. I will judge you at Israel's borders. Then you will know that I am the LORD (JESUS).
11 This city will not be an iron pot for you, and you will not be the meat, safe inside. I will judge you even to the borders of Israel,
12 Then you will know that I am the LORD (JESUS). You haven't lived by my Law, and you haven't obeyed my rules. You have followed the standards set by the nations around you.
13 While I was prophesying, Benaiah's son Pelatiah died. I immediately bowed down and cried out, "O LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God), will you completely destroy all the remaining people in Israel?"
14 Again the LORD (JESUS) came to me. He said:
15 Son of man, the people who live in Jerusalem are talking about your own relatives and about the entire nation of Israel. The people who live in Jerusalem say, 'They are far away from the LORD (JESUS). This land has been given to us as our own property.'
16 So tell them, 'This is what the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God) says: Although I sent them far away among the nations and scattered them among the countries, I have been their sanctuary for a little while among the countries where they've gone.'
17 Therefore say, 'Thus says the LORD (JESUS) God(Elohim): "I will gather you from the peoples, assemble you from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel." '
18 They will come and remove all the disgusting and detestable things that are there.
19 And I will give them singleness of heart and put a new Spirit within them. I will take away their hearts of stone and give them tender hearts instead,
new spirit--( Psalms 51:10 , Jeremiah 31:33 ). Realized fully in the "new creature" of the New Testament ( 2 Corinthians 5:17 ); having new motives, new rules, new aims.
20 Then they will live by my Law and obey my rules. They will be my people, and I will be their GOD (Elohim-The family of God).
21 But as for those whose hearts follow the desire for their detestable things and their abominations, I will repay them fully for their sins, says the Lord God.
22 Then the cherubim lifted their wings and rose into the air with their wheels beside them, and the glory of the GOD (Elohim-The family of God) of Israel was above them.
23 Then the glory of the LORD (JESUS) went up from the city and stopped above the mountain to the east.
The glory now moves from the east gate ( Ezekiel 10:4 Ezekiel 10:19 ) to the Mount of Olives, altogether abandoning the temple. The mount was chosen as being the height whence the missiles of the foe were about to descend on the city. So it was from it that Jesus ascended to heaven when about to send His judgments on the Jews; and from it He predicted its overthrow before His crucifixion ( Matthew 24:3 ). It is also to be the scene of His return in person to deliver His people ( Zechariah 14:4 ), when He shall come by the same way as He went, "the way of the east" ( Ezekiel 43:2 ).
24 Then the Spirit took me up and brought me in a vision by the Spirit of GOD (Elohim-The family of God) into Babylonia, to those in captivity. And the vision that I had seen went up from me.
25 I told the exiles everything the LORD (JESUS) had shown me.
Ezekiel 12
1 Now the word of the LORD (JESUS) came to me, saying:
2 Son of man, you live in the midst of a rebellious house, which has eyes to see but does not see, and ears to hear but does not hear; for they are a rebellious house. Matthew 13:13
3 Therefore, son of man, prepare your belongings for captivity; Let the people see you leave in the daylight. March like a captive from your place to another place as they watch. Maybe they will understand, even though they are rebellious people.
4 Let them see you in the daylight. Bring out your bags as if you were going into exile. In the evening let them see you leave like a captive going into exile.
5 Dig a hole through the wall of your house, and leave through it.
6 Let them see you put your bags on your shoulders and carry them out in the dark. Cover your face so that you won't see the land. I've made you a sign to warn the nation of Israel.
7 I did what I was ordered to do. During the day I brought out bags as if I were going into exile. In the evening I dug a hole through the wall. I brought out my bags in the dark. I let the people see me as I carried my bags on my shoulders.
8 And in the morning the word of the LORD (JESUS) came to me:
9 Son of man, these rebels, the people of Israel, have asked you what all this means.
10 Say to them, 'Thus says the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God): These actions contain a message for Zedekiah in Jerusalem and for all the people of Israel.'
11 Then explain that your actions are a demonstration of what will soon happen to them, for they will be driven from their homes and sent away into exile.
12 The prince who is among you will put his bags on his shoulders in the dark and leave. People will dig holes in the wall to go through. The prince will cover his face so that he cannot see the land.
13 I will spread my net over him, and he will be caught in my net. I will bring him to Babylon, the land of the Babylonians, but he will not see it. And that's where he'll die.
14 I will scatter in every direction all those who are around him--his staff and all his troops. I will pursue them with my sword.
15 Then they will know that I am the LORD (JESUS), because I will scatter them among the nations and force them into other countries.
16 But I will spare a few of them from death by war, famine, or disease, so they can confess to their captors about how wicked they have been. Then they will know that I am the LORD (JESUS)!
17 The LORD (JESUS) spoke his word to me:
18 Son of man, tremble as you eat your food. Drink your water with fear, as if it were your last.
19 And say to the people of the land, 'Thus says the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God) to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the land of Israel: They will eat their food with trembling and sip their tiny portions of water in utter despair, because their land will be stripped bare on account of their violence.
20 The cities where people live will be destroyed, and the country will become a wasteland. Then they will know that I am the LORD (JESUS).'
21 The LORD (JESUS) spoke his word to me. He said:
22 Son of man, what is that proverb they quote in the land of Israel{the USA}: 'Time passes, making a liar of every prophet'? 2 Peter 3:4
“Nothing changes, GOD (Elohim-The family of God) doesn't do anything. There is no GOD (Elohim-The family of God),” and all of the rest of the things that godless people say to us who are warning the land of the coming judgement.
23 Tell them therefore, 'Thus says the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God): I will put an end to this proverb, and you will soon stop quoting it. Now give them this new proverb to replace the old one: 'The time has come for every prophecy to be fulfilled!'
24 Then you will see what becomes of all the false visions and misleading predictions about peace in Israel.
25 For I am the LORD (JESUS)! What I threaten always happens. There will be no more delays, you rebels of Israel! I will fulfill my threat of destruction in your own lifetime, says the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God)."
26 The LORD (JESUS) spoke his word to me:
27 Son of man, the people of Israel are saying, 'His visions won't come true for a long, long time.'
28 Tell them, 'This is what the Almighty LORD (JESUS) says: Everything that I say will no longer be delayed. Whatever I say will happen, declares the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God).'
Ezekiel 13
1 The Word of the LORD (JESUS) came to me. He said:
2 Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel. Tell those who make up their prophecies, 'Listen to the word of the LORD (JESUS).
3 Thus says the LORD (JESUS) God(Elohim/Theos): How horrible it will be for the false prophets who are following their own spirit and have seen nothing at all!
their own spirit--instead of the Spirit of God.
4 O Israel, these prophets of yours are like foxes in the deserts.
5 They have done nothing to strengthen the breaks in the walls around the nation. They have not helped it to stand firm in battle in the day of the LORD (JESUS).
in . . . day of . . . LORD—i.e The Second Coming of Christ
6 Instead, they have lied and said, 'My message is from the LORD (JESUS),' even though the LORD (JESUS) never sent them. And yet they expect him to fulfill their prophecies!
7 Can your visions be anything but false if you claim, 'This message is from the LORD (JESUS),' when I have not even spoken to you?
8 This is what the LORD (JESUS) God(Elohim/Theos) says: Your predictions are false, and your visions are lies. That is why I'm against you, says the LORD (JESUS) God(Elohim/Theos).
9 I will raise my fist against all the lying prophets, and they will be banished from the people of Israel.I will blot their names from Israel's record books, and they will never again see their own land. Then you will know that I am the LORD (JESUS) God(Elohim/Theos).
10 They have deceived my people by saying saying, 'Peace!' when there is no peace-When someone builds a flimsy wall, the prophets cover it up with paint.
11 Tell these whitewashers that their wall will soon fall down. A heavy rainstorm will undermine it; great hailstones and mighty winds will knock it down.
12 When the wall falls down, people will ask them, "Where's the paint that you used to cover the wall?"
13 This is what the LORD (JESUS) God(Elohim/Theos) says: In my fury I'll cause a storm to break out. In my anger rain will pour down, and hailstones will destroy the wall.
14 I will break down your wall right to the foundation, and when it falls, it will crush you. Then you will know that I am the LORD (JESUS)!
15 I will unleash my fury on the wall and on those who covered it up with paint. "'Then I will say to you, "The wall is gone, and so are those who painted it.
16 They were lying prophets who claimed peace would come to Jerusalem when there was no peace, says the LORD (JESUS) God(Elohim/Theos).'
17 Now, son of man, also speak out against the women who prophesy from their own imaginations.
18 Say, 'Thus says the LORD (JESUS) God(Elohim/Theos): "Woe to the women who sew magic charms on their sleeves and make veils for the heads of people, both young and old alike. You tie magic charms on their wrists and furnish them with magic veils. Do you think you can trap others without bringing destruction on yourselves?
19 You dishonor Me in front of My people for a few handfuls of barley and a few pieces of bread. You kill people who shouldn't die, and you spare the lives of people who shouldn't live. You lie to My people who are willing to listen.
20 Therefore thus says the LORD (JESUS) God(Elohim/Theos): I am against all your magic charms, which you use to ensnare my people like birds. I will tear them from your arms, setting my people free like birds set free from a cage.
21 I will tear off your magic veils and rescue my people from your power so that they will no longer be under your control. Then you will know that I am the LORD (JESUS).
22 You have discouraged righteous people with your lies, even though I hadn't brought them any grief. You encouraged wicked people not to turn from their wicked ways to save their lives.
23 That is why you will no longer see false visions or make predictions. I will rescue my people from your power. Then you will know that I am the LORD (JESUS).'
The false prophetesses tried to make people secure, signified by laying them at ease, and to make them proud, signified by the finery laid on their heads. They shall be confounded in their attempts, and God's people shall be delivered out of their hands. It behoves Christians to keep close to the word of God, and in every thing to seek the teaching of the Holy Spirit. Let us so trust the promises of God as to keep his commandments.
Ezekiel 14
1 Now some of the elders of Israel came to me and sat before me.
elders--persons holding that dignity among the exiles at the Chebar. GROTIUS refers this to Seraiah and those sent with him from Judea ( Jeremiah 51:59 ). The prophet's reply, first, reflecting on the character of the inquirers, and, secondly, foretelling the calamities coming on Judea, may furnish an idea of the subject of their inquiry. (Jamieson)
2 Then the LORD (JESUS) spoke His Word to me:
3 Son of man, these people are devoted to their idols, and they are allowing themselves to fall into lawlessness. Should they be allowed to ask me for help?
4 Speak to them. Tell them, 'This is what the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God) says: Everyone of the house of Israel who is devoted to idols and allows himself to fall into sin. I, the LORD (JESUS), will give that Israelite an answer, the answer that his many idols deserve.
5 I will do this to recapture the hearts of the nation of Israel. They have deserted me because of their disgusting idols.'
6 Therefore say to the house of Israel, 'Thus says the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God): "Repent, turn away from your idols, and turn your faces away from all your abominations.
7 For anyone of the house of Israel, or alien who lives in Israel, who separates himself from Me and sets up idols in his heart and puts them first{in his heart} and causes him to stumble into iniquity, then a prophet comes to inquire of him concerning Me, I the LORD (JESUS) will answer him by Myself.
8 I will reject him, and I will make an example of him. I will exclude him from My people. Then you will know that I am the LORD (JESUS).
9 And if a prophet is deceived and gives a message anyway, it is because I, the LORD (JESUS), have deceived that prophet. I will stand against such prophets and cut them off from the church of Israel.
I the Lord have deceived that prophet--not directly, but through Satan and his ministers; not merely permissively, but by overruling their evil to serve the purposes of His righteous judgment, to be a touchstone to separate the precious from the vile, and to "prove" His people ( Deuteronomy 13:3 , 1 Kings 22:23 , Jeremiah 4:10 , 2 Thessalonians 2:11 2 Thessalonians 2:12 ). Evil comes not from God, though God overrules it to serve His will ( Job 12:16 , 1:3 ). This declaration of God is intended to answer their objection, "Jeremiah and Ezekiel are but two opposed to the many prophets who announce 'peace to us." "Nay, deceive not yourselves, those prophets of yours are deluding you, and I permit them to do so as a righteous judgment on your wilful blindness."
10 Both of you will suffer for your sins. The prophet will be as guilty as you are when you ask for his help.
11 The people of Israel will no longer wander away from me. They will no longer dishonor me with all their sins. Then they will be My people, and I will be their GOD (Elohim-The family of God), says the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God).'"
12 The LORD (JESUS) spoke his Word to me:
13 Son of man, when a land sins against Me by persistent unfaithfulness, I will stretch out My hand against it; cutting off their food supply and sending a famine to destroy both people and animals alike.
14 Even if these three men--Noah, Daniel, and Job--were in that country, they would, by their righteousness, rescue only themselves," declares the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God).
Noah, Daniel . . . Job--specified in particular as having been saved from overwhelming calamities for their personal righteousness. Noah had the members of his family alone given to him, amidst the general wreck. Daniel saved from the fury of the king of Babylon the three youths ( Daniel 2:17 Daniel 2:18 Daniel 2:48 Daniel 2:49 ). Though his prophecies mostly were later than those of Ezekiel, his fame for piety and wisdom was already established, and the events recorded in Daniel 1:1-2:49' had transpired. The Jews would naturally, in their fallen condition, pride themselves on one who reflected such glory on his nation at the heathen capital, and would build vain hopes (here set aside) on his influence in averting ruin from them. Thus the objection to the authenticity of Daniel from this passage vanishes. "Job" forms the climax (and is therefore put out of chronological order), having not even been left a son or a daughter, and having had himself to pass through an ordeal of suffering before his final deliverance, and therefore forming the most simple instance of the righteousness of God, which would save the righteous themselves alone in the nation, and that after an ordeal of suffering, but not spare even a son or daughter for their sake ( Ezekiel 14:16 Ezekiel 14:18 Ezekiel 14:20 ; compare Jeremiah 7:16 , 11:14 , 14:11 ).
15 Suppose I send wild animals through that country and they make it childless and turn it into such a wasteland that no one travels through it because of the animals.
16 As I live, declares the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God), not even Noah, Daniel, and Job could rescue their own sons or daughters. They could rescue only themselves. And the country would become a wasteland.
17 Or suppose I were to bring war against the land, and I told enemy armies to come and destroy everything.
18 As I live, declares the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God), not even Noah, Daniel, and Job could rescue their sons or daughters. They could rescue only themselves.
19 Suppose I send a plague into that country or pour out my fury on it by killing people and destroying animals.
20 As I live, declares the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God), not even Noah, Daniel, and Job could, by their righteousness, rescue their sons or daughters. They could rescue only themselves.
21 This is what the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God) says: I will surely send four terrible punishments against Jerusalem. I will send wars, famines, wild animals, and plagues. They will destroy people and animals alike.
22 But some people will survive. Some of your sons and daughters will be brought out. When they come out to you, you will see how they live. Then you will be comforted after the disasters that I will bring on Jerusalem, after every disaster that I will bring against it.
23 You will be comforted when you see how they live. Then you will know that everything I have done was done for a reason," declares the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God).
Ezekiel 15
1 Then the word of the LORD (JESUS) came to me, saying:
2 Son of man, how does a grapevine compare to a tree? Is a vine's wood as useful as the wood of a tree?
6 So this is what the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God) says: As a vine is taken from among the trees in the forest to be used to feed the fire, so I will take the people who live in Jerusalem to punish them.
7 I will turn against the people of Jerusalem. Even though they have escaped one fire, another fire will burn them. Then they will know that I am the LORD (JESUS), because I will turn against them.
8 I will turn the country into a wasteland because they have been unfaithful," declares the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God).
Jerusalem like an unfruitful vine. - If a vine be fruitful, it is valuable. But if not fruitful, it is worthless and useless, it is cast into the fire. Thus man is capable of yielding a precious fruit, in living to GOD (Elohim-The family of God); this is the sole end of his existence; and if he fails in this, he is of no use but to be destroyed. What blindness then attaches to those who live in the total neglect of GOD (Elohim-The family of God) and of true religion! This similitude is applied to Jerusalem. Let us beware of an unfruitful profession. Let us come to Christ, and seek to abide in him, and to have his words abide in us. (Matthew Henry)
Ezekiel 16
THE UNFAITHFUL WIFE – HOW WE HAVE ALL TREATED OUR GOD (Elohim-The family of God)!
1 The LORD (JESUS) spoke his word to me:
2 Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her loathsome sins.
3 Tell them, 'This is what the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God) says to the people of Jerusalem: Your birthplace and your ancestors were in the land of the Canaanites. Your father was an Amorite, and your mother was a Hittite.
4 When you were born, no one loved you. Your umbilical cord was left uncut, and you were never washed, rubbed with salt, and dressed in warm clothing.
5 No one who saw you felt sorry enough for you to do any of these things. But you were thrown into an open field. You were rejected when you were born.
6 Then I went by you and saw you kicking around in your own blood. I said to you, "Live."
7 I made you grow like a plant in the field. You grew up, matured, and became a beautiful young woman. Your breasts developed in fullness and beauty, and your hair grew. Yet, you were naked and bare.
8 And when I passed by and saw you again, you were old enough to be married. So I wrapped My cloak around you to cover your nakedness and declared my marriage vows with you. I made a covenant with you, says the the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God).
The Old Testament or “Covenant” A marriage is a covenant!
9 Then I bathed you and washed off your blood, and I rubbed fragrant oils into your skin.
10 I gave you expensive {dresses made of the finest} linen and silk. They were beautifully embroidered, and your sandals were made of fine leather.
11 I gave you lovely jewelry, bracelets, and beautiful necklaces,
12 I gave you a wedding ring, and earrings on your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head.
Literally a ring in your nose, I changed this for modernization
13 And so you were made beautiful with gold and silver. Your clothes were made of fine linen and were beautifully embroidered. You ate the finest foods – fine flour, honey, and olive oil – and became more beautiful than ever. You looked like a queen, and so you were!
14 You became famous in every nation because of your beauty. Your beauty was perfect because I gave you my glory, says the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God).
15 But you thought you could get along without Me, so you trusted instead in your fame and beauty. You gave yourself as a prostitute to every man who came along. Your beauty was theirs for the asking!
16 You used the lovely things I gave you to make shrines for idols, where you carried out your acts of prostitution. You are unbelievable! How could such a thing ever happen?
17 You took the very jewels and gold and silver ornaments I had given you and made statues of men and worshiped them, which is adultery against me.
18 You took off your embroidered clothes and covered the idols with them. You offered My olive oil and incense in their presence.
19 You used the beautifully embroidered clothes I gave you to cover your idols. Then you used my oil and incense to worship them.
20 The, you took your sons and daughters, who belonged to me, and you sacrificed them as food to idols. Wasn't your prostitution enough?
abortion
21 You slaughtered my children and presented them as burnt offerings {to idols}.
22 With all the disgusting things that you did and all your acts of prostitution, you didn't remember the time when you were young. You didn't remember when you were naked and bare, kicking around in your own blood.
23 Woe, woe to you! For it will be for you! declares the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God). After all your wickedness,
24 you built pagan shrines and put altars to idols in every town square.
Church steeples, and a host of other pagan worship practices
25 You also built pagan churches at every street corner. You used your beauty to seduce people there. You offered your body to everyone who passed by. You increased your acts of prostitution.
Think of the Catholic Church and their great wealth and beautiful buildings
26 You had sex with your lustful neighbors, the Egyptians whose genitals are as large as a donkeys! Your disgusting whoredoms makes Me furious.
27 That is why I struck you with my fist and reduced your boundaries. I handed you over to your enemies, the Philistines, and even they were shocked by your lewd conduct!
28 You had sex with the Assyrians because you weren't satisfied. You still weren't satisfied.
29 So you increased your acts of prostitution to include the land of the merchants, the Babylonians. Even after that, you weren't satisfied.
30 You have no will power! Says the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God). You do everything a shameless prostitute does.
31 You erected your shrines at every streetcorner and place your illegal churches in every square. Yet, you aren't like other prostitutes, because you don't want to be paid.
32 You are an adulterous wife who prefers strangers to her own husband.
33 All prostitutes get paid. But you give gifts to all your lovers and bribe them to come to you from all directions to have sex with you.
34 So you are the opposite of other prostitutes. No one pays you; instead, you pay them!
35 Now then, O whore, hear the word of the LORD (JESUS)!
36 This is what the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God) says: You exposed yourself and uncovered your naked body when you gave yourself to your lovers and to all your disgusting idols. You also killed your children and sacrificed their blood to these idols.
37 So this is what I am going to do. I will gather together all your allies – these lovers of yours of yours, both those you loved and those you hated – and I will strip you naked in front of them so they can stare at you.
38 I will punish you the same way that those who are guilty of prostitution and murder are punished. I will give you the death penalty in my fury and burning anger.
39 I will hand you over to your lovers. They will destroy your alters and tear down your pagan churches. They will tear off your clothes, take away your beautiful jewelry, and leave you naked and bare.
40 They will also bring a mob against you. They will stone you and cut you into pieces with their swords.
41 They will burn your homes and punish you in the presence of many women. I will put an end to your prostitution, and you will no longer pay others.
42 Then I will rest from my fury against you, and I will stop being angry. I will be at peace. I will no longer be angry.
43 But first, because you have not remembered your youth but have angered me by doing all these evil things, I will fully repay you for all of your sins, says the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God). For to all your disgusting sins, you have added these lewd acts.
44 Everyone who makes up proverbs will say of you, 'Like mother, like daughter.'
45 For your mother loathed her husband and her children, and so do you. And you are exactly like your sisters, for they despised their husbands and their children too. Truly your mother must have been a Hittite and your father an Amorite.
46 Your older sister was Samaria [Israel-The USA], who lived with her daughters in the north. Your younger sister was Sodom, who lived with her daughters in the south.
47 But you have not merely sinned as they did – no, that was nothing to you. In a very short time you far surpassed them!
48 As I live, declares the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God), your sister Sodom and her daughters never did what you and your daughters have done.
49 Sodom's sins were pride, laziness, and gluttony, while the poor and needy suffered outside her door.
50 She was arrogant and did disgusting things in front of Me. So I did away with them when I saw this.
51 Even Samaria(Israel) did not commit half your sins. You have done far more loathsome things than your sisters ever did. They seem righteous compared to you!
The Jews are actually worse than the Israelites!
52 You should be deeply ashamed because your sins are so terrible. In comparison, you make your sisters seem innocent!
53 But someday I will restore the fortunes of Sodom and Samaria, and I will restore you, too.
54 Then you will be truly ashamed of everything you have done, for your sins make them feel good in comparison.
55 When Sodom and her daughters and Samaria and her daughters return to what they once were, you and your daughters will return to what you once were.
56 You didn't mention your sister Sodom when you were arrogant.
57 You didn't mention her before your wickedness was revealed. Now the daughters of Aram and their neighbors despise you. The daughters of the Philistines also despise you. Those around you hate you.
58 You must suffer because of all the crude and disgusting things you have done, says the LORD (JESUS).
59 This is what the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God) says: I will give you what you deserve. You despised your marriage vows and rejected my promise.
60 Yet I will remember the {marriage} covenant that I made with you when you were young, and I will make it a promise that will last forever.
61 Then you will remember with shame all the evil you have done. I will make your sisters, Samaria and Sodom, to be your daughters, even though they are not part of our covenant.
62 Then I will reaffirm my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the LORD (JESUS).
63 You will remember and be ashamed. You will never again open your mouth because of your disgrace when I forgive you for everything you did, says the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God).'"
This is the most moving statement of the heartache we have caused God to bare. God has the same feelings that we do! God hurts as we hurt when those we love prove unfaithful! God cries, God hurts, God can feel rejected. Christ on that cross was rejected by us all and we should never forget this! One can only have tears in their eyes when reading this chapter! And even after doing all of this to God, WE ARE FORGIVEN and taken back! (verse 62.)
Ezekiel 17
THE REPLANTING OF THE THRONE OF DAVID:
1 The LORD (JESUS) spoke his word to me:
2 Son of man, tell this story to the people of Israel.
3 Say, 'Thus says the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God): A large eagle came to Lebanon. It had large wings with long, colorful feathers. It took hold of the top of a cedar tree.
4 It broke off the highest twig and carried it to a country of merchants. It planted the twig in a city of merchants.
5 Then he planted one of its seedlings in fertile ground beside a broad river, where it would grow as quickly as a willow tree.
To better understand the symbolism here, Read Garner Ted Armstrong's “Europe and America in Prophecy”
6 It took root there and grew into a low, spreading vine. Its branches turned up toward the eagle, and its roots grew down beneath it. It soon produced strong branches and luxuriant leaves.
7 There was another large eagle {The USA} with large wings and many feathers. Now, the vine stretched its roots toward this eagle and sent its branches toward the eagle so that the eagle could water it. The vine turned away from the garden where it was planted.
8 It was planted in good soil beside plenty of water so that it could grow branches, bear fruit, and become a wonderful vine.'
9 Tell the nation of Israel{USA}, 'Thus says the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God): Will this vine live and grow? Won't the first eagle uproot it and tear off its fruit? Then it will wither. All the leaves on its branches will wither. It won't take much strength or many people to pull the vine up by its roots.
10 It might be planted again, but will it live and grow? It will wither completely when the east wind blows on it. It will certainly wither in the garden where it is growing.'"
11 The LORD (JESUS) spoke his word to me. He said:
12 Say to these rebellious people, 'Don't you know what this means?' Tell them, 'The king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and captured its king and its leaders. He brought them home with him to Babylon.
13 Then he took someone from the royal family, made a treaty with him, and made him promise to be loyal. He took away the leading citizens from Judah
14 so that it would remain a humiliated country and be unable to regain its power. The country could only survive by keeping the treaty.
15 But the king of Judah rebelled against the king of Babylon by sending his messengers to Egypt to get horses and many soldiers. Will the king of Judah succeed? Will anyone who does such things escape? He can't break a treaty and go unpunished.
16 As I live, declares the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God), the king of Judah will die in Babylonia. He will die in the country of the king who appointed him king of Judah. The king of Judah broke his promise and his treaty with the king of Babylon.
17 Even with a large army and many people, Pharaoh will not be able to help him in battle when the Babylonians put up dirt ramps and set up blockades to kill many people.
18 The king of Judah broke the promise and the treaty that he pledged to keep. He did all these things, and he can't go unpunished.
19 So this is what the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God) says: As I live, I will certainly punish you for rejecting my promise and hating my treaty.
20 I will spread my net over you to catch you in my trap. I will take you to Babylon and judge you there for rebelling against me.
21 The best of your troops will die in battle. Anyone who remains will be scattered in every direction that the wind blows. Then you will know that I, the LORD (JESUS), have spoken.
22 This is what the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God) says: I, too, will take hold of the top of a cedar tree. I will break off the highest twig and plant it on a high and lofty mountain.
This is God taking the branch of Joseph, planting them in America, and it grows into the greatest nation of all time!
23 I will plant it on a high mountain in Israel. It will grow branches and produce fruit. It will become a magnificent cedar tree. Every kind of bird will nest in it and find a home in the shelter of its branches.
24 Then all the trees [nations]in the field will know that I am the LORD (JESUS). I cut down tall trees[nations], and I make small trees grow tall. I dry up green trees, and I make dry trees grow. I, the LORD (JESUS), have spoken, and I will do it.'"
This is the promise of God, to replant Joseph and to make the United Kingdom and The United States of America, the two greatest nations of all time; full of blessings. It is also from these two nations that modern Christianity was saved from Roman Catholicism and gave the world an almost perfect Bible!
Ezekiel 18
SOULS DIE! NO IMMORTAL SOULS:
1 The LORD (JESUS) spoke his word to me, saying:
2 Why do you quote this proverb in the land of Israel: 'The parents have eaten sour grapes, but their children's mouths pucker at the taste'?
Their unbelieving calumnies on God's justice had become so common as to have assumed a proverbial form. The sin of Adam in eating the forbidden fruit, visited on his posterity, seems to have suggested the peculiar form; noticed also by Jeremiah ( Jeremiah 31:29 ); and explained in Lamentations 5:7 , "Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities." They mean by "the children," themselves, as though they were innocent, whereas they were far from being so. The partial reformation effected since Manasseh's wicked reign, especially among the exiles at Chebar, was their ground for thinking so; but the improvement was only superficial and only fostered their self-righteous spirit, which sought anywhere but in themselves the cause of their calamities; just as the modern Jews attribute their present dispersion, not to their own sins, but to those of their forefathers. It is a universal mark of corrupt nature to lay the blame, which belongs to ourselves, on others and to arraign the justice of God. Compare Genesis 3:12 , where Adam transfers the blame of his sin to Eve, and even to God, "The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat." (Jamieson)
3 As I live, says the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God), you will no longer use this proverb in Israel.
4 Behold, all souls are Mine; The soul of the father As well as the soul of the son is Mine; The soul that sins, it shall die.
Soul: Hebrew nephesh. Means a living being, not an immortal soul as so many claim. See note in Genesis 1 for more on this. See also Matthew 10:28
he soul that sinneth it shall die. As to eternity, every man was, is, and will be dealt with, as his conduct shows him to have been under the old covenant of works, or the new covenant of grace. Whatever outward sufferings come upon men through the sins of others, they deserve for their own sins all they suffer; and the Lord overrules every event for the eternal good of believers. All souls are in the hand of the great Creator: he will deal with them in justice or mercy; nor will any perish for the sins of another, who is not in some sense worthy of death for his own. We all have sinned, and our souls must be lost, if God deal with us according to his holy law; but we are invited to come to Christ. If a man who had shown his faith by his works, had a wicked son, whose character and conduct were the reverse of his parent's, could it be expected he should escape the Divine vengeance on account of his father's piety? Surely not. And should a wicked man have a son who walked before God as righteous, this man would not perish for his father's sins. If the son was not free from evils in this life, still he should be partaker of salvation. The question here is not about the meritorious ground of justification, but about the Lord's dealings with the righteous and the wicked. (Matthew Henry)
5 But if a man is just And does what is lawful and right;
6 If he doesn't eat {pagan sacrifices} at the illegal mountain churches or look for help from the idols of the nation of Israel. He doesn't dishonor his neighbor's wife or have sexual intercourse with a woman while she is having her period.
7 If he has not oppressed anyone, and returns what a borrower gives him as security for a loan. He doesn't rob anyone. He gives food to people who are hungry, and he gives clothes to those who are naked.
8 If he doesn't lend money for interest or make an excessive profit. He refuses to do evil things, and he judges everyone fairly.
The law forbade an Israelite to take interest from brethren but permitted him to do so from a foreigner ( Exodus 22:25 , Deuteronomy 23:19 Deuteronomy 23:20 , Nehemiah 5:7 , Psalms 15:5 ).
9 If he has walked in My statutes And kept My judgments faithfully-- He is just; He shall surely live!' Says the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God).
10 If this person has a son who grows up to be a robber or murderer and refuses to do what is right.
11 If he does all the evil things his father would never do – worships idols on the mountains, commits adultery,
12 oppresses the poor and helpless, steals from debtors by refusing to let them redeem what they have given in pledge, worships idols and takes part in loathsome practices,
13 and lends money at interest. Should such a sinful person live? No! He must die and his blood will be on his own head {not the father's}.
14 If, however, he has a son who sees all the sins which his father has done, And considers but decides against that kind of life of sin.
15 And he doesn't eat at the pagan mountain churches or look for help from the idols of the nation of Israel. He doesn't commit adultery,
16 and does not exploit the poor, but instead is fair to debtors and does not rob them. And suppose this son feeds the hungry, provides clothes for the needy,
17 helps the poor, does not lend money at interest, and obeys all My judgments And walked in My statutes-- He shall not die for the iniquity of his father; He shall surely live!
18 As for his father, Because he cruelly oppressed, Robbed his brother by violence, And did what is not good among his people, Behold, he shall die for his sins.
19 Yet you say, 'Why should the son not bear the guilt of the father?' It is because the son has done what is fair and right. He has kept all My statutes and observed them, he shall surely live.
20 The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.
SOULS DIE!!!!!!!
21 But if wicked people turn away from all their sins and begin to obey my laws and do what is just and right, they will surely live and not die.
22 None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him; because of the righteousness which he has done, he shall live.
23 I don't want wicked people to die." says the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God). "I want them to turn from their evil ways and live.
God DOES NOT WANT TO SEE ANY OF US DIE!
24 But when a righteous person turns away from doing right and he does evil things. He does all the disgusting things that the wicked person did. Will he live? All the right things that he has done will not be remembered because of his unfaithfulness and because of his sin. He will die because of them.
( 1 Timothy 2:4 , 2 Peter 3:9 ). If men perish, it is because they will not come to the Lord for salvation; not that the Lord is not willing to save them ( John 5:40 ). They trample on not merely justice, but mercy; what farther hope can there be for them, when even mercy is against them? ( Hebrews 10:26-29 ).
25 But you say, 'The LORD (JESUS)'s way is unfair.' Listen, nation of Israel, isn't My way fair? Isn't it your ways that are unfair?
26 When a righteous person turns away from doing right and does evil things, he will die. He will die because of the evil things he has done.
27 When a wicked person turns away from the wicked things that he has done and does what is fair and right, he will live.
28 They realized what they was doing and turned away from all the rebellious things that they had done. They will certainly live. That person will not die.
29 But the nation of Israel says, 'The LORD (JESUS)'s way is unfair.' Isn't my way fair, nation of Israel? Isn't it your ways that are unfair?
30 That is why I will judge each of you by what you have done, people of Israel, says the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God). Repent, and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be your ruin.
Repent--inward conversion ( Revelation 2:5 ). In the Hebrew there is a play of like sounds, "Turn ye and return."
31 Stop all the rebellious things that you are doing. Get yourselves a new heart and a new Spirit(ruwach). Why do you want to die, nation of Israel?
32 I don't want anyone to die," says the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God). "Change the way you think and live!
The wicked man would be saved, if he turned from his evil ways. The true penitent is a true believer. None of his former transgressions shall be mentioned unto him, but in the righteousness which he has done, as the fruit of faith and the effect of conversion, he shall surely live. The question is not whether the truly righteous ever become apostates. It is certain that many who for a time were thought to be righteous, do so, while ver. 26,27 speaks the fulness of pardoning mercy: when sin is forgiven, it is blotted out, it is remembered no more. In their righteousness they shall live; not for their righteousness, as if that were an atonement for their sins, but in their righteousness, which is one of the blessings purchased by the Mediator. What encouragement a repenting, returning sinner has to hope for pardon and life according to this promise! In verse 28 is the beginning and progress of repentance. True believers watch and pray, and continue to the end, and they are saved. In all our disputes with God, he is in the right, and we are in the wrong. (Matthew Henry)
Ezekiel 19
THE FALL OF DAVID'S HOUSE:
mother--the mother of Jehoiachin, the representative of David's line in exile with Ezekiel. The "mother" is Judea: "a lioness," as being fierce in catching prey ( Ezekiel 19:3 ), referring to her heathenish practices. Jerusalem was called Ariel (the lion of God) in a good sense ( Isaiah 29:1 ); and Judah "a lion's whelp . . . a lion . . . an old lion" ( Genesis 49:9 ), to which, as also to Numbers 23:24 , 24:9 , this passage alludes.
3 One of the cubs she raised became a young lion [the King]. He learned to catch and devour prey, and he became a man-eater.
The King taken prisioner
5 The lioness waited until she saw that there was no more hope. Then she took another one of her cubs and raised him into a young lion.
Another son (the king's brother) replaced him as a “phoney” king
6 He became a young lion, and he prowled among the lions. He learned to catch and devour prey, and he became a man-eater.
7 He destroyed forts and turned cities into wastelands. The land and everyone living in it were terrified by the sound of his roar.
8 The nations from every region came together against him. They spread their net over him and caught him in their pit.
The entire world has always been against Judah and Israel
9 With hooks they put him in a cage and brought him to the king of Babylon. They put him in prison so that his roar wouldn't be heard anymore on the mountains of Israel.
10 Your mother was like a grapevine that was planted near water. It had a lot of fruit and many branches because there was plenty of water.
11 Its branches were strong. They were used to make scepters for kings. It grew to be tall with many branches around it, and everyone saw it because of its many branches.
12 But in anger it was uprooted and thrown to the ground. The east wind dried up its fruit. Its strong branches broke off. They withered and were burned.
The king's daughters, “planted” by Jeremiah- at first to Egypt, then to Spain, then to Ireland
14 Fire has spread from the vine's main branch. Fire has destroyed its fruit. It no longer has any strong branches that could be used as a king's scepter. This is a funeral song. It is to be used as a funeral song.
This is symbolism of the weak monarchy that would end up ruling Israel in England
Ezekiel 20
THE SIGN (MARK) OF THE SABBATH:
1 On July 29th (the tenth day of the fifth month) in the seventh year [591 b.c], some of the leaders of Israel came to ask for the LORD (JESUS)'s help. They sat in front of me.
2 Then this message came to me from the LORD (JESUS):
3 Son of man, speak to the leaders of Israel. Tell them, 'This is what the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God) says: Are you coming to ask me for help? As I live, says the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God), you will not be allowed to ask me for help.'
4 Will you judge them, son of man, will you judge them? Then make known to them the abominations of their fathers.
5 Say to them, 'Thus says the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God): "On the day when I chose Israel and raised My hand in an oath to the descendants of the house of Jacob, and made Myself known to them in the land of Egypt, I raised My hand in an oath to them, saying, 'I am the LORD (JESUS) your GOD (Elohim-The family of God).'
6 On that day I raised My hand in an oath to them, to bring them out of the land of Egypt into a land that I had searched out for them, 'flowing with milk and honey,' the glory of all lands.
7 Then I said to them, 'Each of you, get rid of your idols. Do not defile yourselves with the Egyptian idols, for I am the LORD (JESUS) your GOD (Elohim-The family of God).'
Moses gives no formal statement of idolatries practised by Israel in Egypt. But it is implied in their readiness to worship the golden calf (resembling the Egyptian ox, Apis) ( Exodus 32:4 ), which makes it likely they had worshipped such idols in Egypt. Also, in Leviticus 17:7 , "They shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils (literally, seirim, 'he-goats,' the symbol of the false god, Pan), after whom they have gone awhoring." The call of God by Moses was as much to them to separate from idols and follow Jehovah, as it was to Pharaoh to let them go forth. Exodus 6:6 Exodus 6:7 and Joshua 24:14 , expressly mention their idolatry "in Egypt." Hence the need of their being removed out of the contagion of Egyptian idolatries by the exodus. (Jamieson)
8 But they rebelled against Me and refused to listen to Me. Not one of them got rid of the detestable idols that they looked to for help. They didn't abandon the disgusting idols of Egypt. So I was going to pour out my fury on them and unleash My anger on them in Egypt.
9 But I acted so that My name would not be dishonored among the nations where they were living. While other nations were watching, I made myself known to them by bringing the Israelites out of Egypt.
10 So I brought my people out of Egypt and led them into the wilderness.
11 I gave them my laws and made my rules known to them. If people obey them they will live.
12 And I gave them my Sabbath days of rest as a sign between them and me. It was to remind them that I, the LORD, had set them apart to be holy, making them my special people.
The Sabbath as a sign – or MARK of God!-See Chapter 8
Not that the Sabbath was first instituted at Sinai, as if it were an exclusively Jewish ordinance ( Genesis 2:2 Genesis 2:3 ), but it was then more formally enacted, when, owing to the apostasy of the world from the original revelation, one people was called out ( Deuteronomy 5:15 ) to be the covenant-people of God. (Jamieson)
13 Yet the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness; they did not walk in My statutes; they despised My judgments, 'which, if a man does, he shall live by them'; and they greatly defiled My Sabbaths. Then I said I would pour out My fury on them in the desert and completely wipe them out.
14 But I acted so that my name would not be dishonored among the nations who had watched me bring the Israelites out [of Egypt].
15 I also swore an oath to them in the desert. I swore that I would not bring them into the land that I had promised to give them. This land is the most beautiful land, a land flowing with milk and honey.
16 They despised My judgments and did not walk in My statutes, but profaned My Sabbaths; for their heart went after their idols.
17 Nevertheless My eye spared them from destruction. I did not make an end of them in the wilderness.
18 I said to their children in the desert, "Don't live by the laws of your ancestors. Don't obey their rules or dishonor yourselves with their disgusting idols.
19 I am the LORD (JESUS) your GOD (Elohim-The family of God). Walk in My statutes, keep My judgments, and do them;
MARK OF THE SABBATH:
20 Hallow My Sabbaths, and they will be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am the LORD (JESUS) your GOD (Elohim-The family of God).'
21 But the children rebelled against Me; they did not walk in My statutes, and were not careful to observe My judgments, 'which, if a man does, he shall live by them'; but they profaned My Sabbaths. Then I said I would pour out My fury on them and fulfill My anger against them in the wilderness.
22 Nevertheless I withdrew My hand and acted for My name's sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the other countries, in whose sight I had brought them out.
23 I raised my hand and swore an oath to them in the desert. I promised to scatter them among the nations and force them into other countries.
24 They didn't follow My judgments, but had despised My statutes, profaned My Sabbaths, and their eyes were fixed on their fathers' idols.
25 I also allowed them to follow laws that were no good and rules by which they could not live.
The Godhead has given us free-will. We choose in which way we want to follow, and They will judge us on our choices! God has allowed us to have our own LAWS, our own GOVERNMENTS, and OUR OWN RELIGION! It is a shame that we put God's name into our religion, because what man has followed are false religions and even false Christianity!
26 and I pronounced them unclean because of their ritual gifts, in that they caused all their firstborn to pass through the fire, that I might make them desolate and that they might know that I am the LORD (JESUS).'
27 Speak to the nation of Israel, son of man. Tell them, 'Thus says the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God) says: Your ancestors insulted me again because they were unfaithful to Me.
28 I brought them to the land that I promised to give them. When they saw any high hill or any leafy tree, they made sacrifices and brought offerings there to make Me angry. There they offered their sacrifices and poured out their wine offerings.
29 Then I asked them, "What is this church you're going to?"' (So its name is called Bamah to this day.)
30 Therefore say to the house of Israel, 'Thus says the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God): Will you dishonor yourselves the way your ancestors did? Will you chase their detestable idols like a prostitute?
31 You offer your children as sacrifices by burning them alive. You dishonor yourselves with all your disgusting idols to this day. Should you be allowed to ask Me for help, nation of Israel? "'As I live, says the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God), you won't be allowed to ask Me for help.
When we go to false churches, God will not allow you to pray to Him!
32 What you have in mind will never happen. You think that you want to be like other nations, like the different people in other countries. You want to serve wood and stone.
33 As I live, says the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God), I will rule you with a mighty hand and a powerful arm, and I will pour out My fury.
34 I will bring you out from the nations and gather you from the countries where I have scattered you with My mighty hand and powerful arm. I will pour out My fury.
35 I will bring you into the desert of the nations. There I will judge you face to face.
36 I will put you on trial as I put your ancestors on trial in the desert of Egypt, says the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God).
37 Then I will make you suffer punishment and make you keep the terms of the promise.
38 I will get rid of rebels and those who do wrong against Me. I will bring you out of the land where you are living. You will never enter Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD (JESUS).
39 As for you, O house of Israel, this is what the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God) says: Serve your disgusting idols. But afterwards, you will listen to Me. You will no longer dishonor My holy name with your gifts and your disgusting idols.
40 For on My holy mountain, on the mountain height of Israel," says the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God), the people of Israel will someday worship Me, and I will accept them. There I will require that you bring Me all your offerings and choice gifts and sacrifices.
SACRIFICES TO COME AGAIN!
41 When I bring you home from exile, you will be as pleasing to Me as an offering of perfumed incense. And I will display My holiness in you as all the nations watch.
42 Then you will know that I am the LORD (JESUS), because I will bring you to the land of Israel, the land that I promised to give your ancestors.
43 There you will remember the way you lived and everything you did to dishonor yourselves. You will be disgusted by every wrong thing that you did.
44 Then you will know that I am the LORD (JESUS), because I will deal with you for the sake of My name. I will not deal with you based on the evil and corrupt things that you have done, nation of Israel, says the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God).'"
45 The LORD (JESUS) spoke his word to me. He said:
46 Son of man, turn to the south, preach against the south, and prophesy against the forest in the Negev.
47 Tell the forest in the Negev, 'Listen to the word of the LORD (JESUS). This is what the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God) says: I am about to set fire to you to destroy all your green trees and all your dry trees. The blazing fire will not be put out. It will burn the whole land from the south to the north.
48 Then everyone will know that I, the LORD (JESUS), started the fire. It will never be put out.'
49 Then I said, "Oh no! LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God), no! The people already say that I'm only telling stories."
The history of Israel in the wilderness is referred to in the new Testament as well as in the Old, for warning. God did great things for them. He gave them the law, and revived the ancient keeping of the sabbath day. Sabbaths are privileges; they are signs of our being his people. If we do the duty of the day, we shall find, to our comfort, it is the Lord that makes us holy, that is, truly happy, here; and prepares us to be happy, that is, perfectly holy, hereafter. The Israelites rebelled, and were left to the judgments they brought upon themselves. God sometimes makes sin to be its own punishment, yet he is not the Author of sin: there needs no more to make men miserable, than to give them up to their own evil desires and passions.
Ezekiel 21
1 The LORD (JESUS) spoke his word to me:
2 Son of man, turn to Jerusalem, preach against the holy places[churches]. Prophesy against the land of Israel {USA}.
3 Tell the land of Israel, 'This is what the LORD (JESUS) says: I am against you. I will take My sword out of its scabbard and kill the righteous people and the wicked people among you.
4 I'm going to kill the righteous people and the wicked people among you. That is why My sword will come out of its scabbard to be used against everyone from the south to the north.
5 Then everyone will know that I, the LORD (JESUS), have taken My sword from its scabbard, and I will not put it back again.'
6 So, son of man, groan with a breaking heart and with bitter crying while the people watch you.
7 When they ask you why, tell them, 'News has come that will discourage everyone. People's hands will hang limp, their hearts will lose courage, and their knees will become as weak as water. It's coming! It will surely take place!' says the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God).'
8 The LORD (JESUS) spoke his word to me. He said:
9 Son of man, give the people this message from the LORD (JESUS): A sword is being sharpened and polished.
10 It is being prepared for terrible slaughter; it will flash like lightning! Now will you laugh? Those far stronger than you have fallen beneath its power!
11 Yes, the sword is now being sharpened and polished; it is being prepared for the executioner!
12 Cry and mourn, son of man, because the sword will be used against My people and against all the princes of Israel. I will throw the princes and my people on the sword. So beat your breast, and grieve.
13 It will put them all to the test! What if you refuse to be disciplined again? Won't you be tested? says the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God).
14 So prophesy, son of man. Clap your hands! Let the sword strike again and again. It's the sword for killing. It's the sword for killing many people. It's the sword that surrounds them.
15 Let their hearts melt with terror, for the sword glitters at every gate. It flashes like lightning; it is polished for slaughter!
16 Sword, cut to the right. Cut to the left or wherever your blade is turned.
17 I will also clap my hands and rest from my fury. I, the LORD (JESUS), have spoken.'
18 The LORD (JESUS) spoke his word to me. He said:
19 Son of man, make a map and trace two routes on it for the sword of Babylon's king to follow. Put a signpost(mark) on the road that comes out of Babylon where the road forks into two –
20 one road going to Ammon and its capital, Rabbah, and the other to Judah and fortified Jerusalem.
21 The king of Babylon now stands at the fork, uncertain whether to attack Jerusalem or Rabbah. He will call his magicians to use divination. They will cast lots by shaking arrows from the quiver. They will inspect the livers of their animal sacrifices.
22 The omens will indicate that he should go to the right, to Jerusalem. So he will set up his battering rams there, give the order to kill, raise a battle cry, aim the battering rams against the city gates, put up ramps, and set up blockades.
23 The people won't believe this because they have made treaties with other nations. But the king of Babylon will remind them of their sins, and they will be captured.
24This is what the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God) says: You make people remember how sinful you are because you openly do wrong. You show your sins in everything you do. So you will be taken captive.
GOD HIMSELF OVERTHROWS THE BRITISH MONARCH ON HIS RETURN?
25 O you corrupt and wicked prince of Israel, the time for your final punishment has come.
IMPLIES that the Kings of England are either unfit, or imposters- See Hosea 8:4
26 This is what the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God) says: Take off your turban, and get rid of your crown. Things are going to change. Those who are unimportant will become important, and those who are important will become unimportant.
Take off the king's crown, for he isn't worthy to wear it. Jesus, on his return, will become King, and put David himself on this throne, which sits upon the stone of Jacob.
27 Overthrown, overthrown, I will make it overthrown! It shall be no longer, Until He comes whose right it is, And I will give it to Him."
Three times overthrown! The stone of Jacob was three times moved! 1) From Jerusalem to Ireland 2) to Scotland and 3) to England. It will end up back in Jerusalem. God the Father has given this kingdom to Christ! He is now LORD OF LORDS and KING OF KINGS!
28 Son of man, prophesy. Tell them, 'This is what the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God) says about the Ammonites and their insults: A sword, a sword is drawn ready to kill. It's polished to destroy and flash like lightning.
29 People see false visions about you and prophesy lies about you. The sword will be placed on the necks of dishonest, wicked people, for whom the time of final punishment has come.
30 Return your sword to its scabbard. In the place where you were created, in the land where you were born, there I will judge you.
31 I will pour out my fury on you and breathe on you with My fiery anger. I will hand you over to cruel people who are skilled in destruction.
32 You will be fuel for the fire. You will die in the land. You will no longer be remembered. I, the LORD (JESUS), have spoken.'
Ezekiel 22
1 The LORD (JESUS) spoke his word to me:
2 Son of man, are you ready to judge Jerusalem? Are you ready to judge this city of murderers? Denounce her terrible deeds in public,
3 Then say, 'Thus says the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God): O city of murderers, doomed and damned – city of idols, filthy and foul
4 You are guilty because of the people you have killed. You are dishonored because of the disgusting idols you have made. You have brought an end to your days, and you have come to the end of your years. That is why I will make you a disgrace to the nations and a joke in every land.
5 Those near and those far away will mock you.
6 Every leader in Israel who lives within your walls is bent on murder.
7 Fathers and mothers are ignored. Aliens living among you are forced to pay for protection. Orphans and widows are wronged and oppressed.
8 You have despised My holy things and profaned My Sabbaths.
9 People slander others. They want to kill others. Those who live in you eat food sacrificed to idols at the pagan churches on the hills, and they sin sexually.
10 Men have sex with their father's wives. They have sex with women when the women are having their periods and are unclean.
11 Men do perverted things with their neighbors' wives. Some men sexually dishonor their daughters-in-law. Others who live in you have sex with their sisters, their father's daughters.
12 Many take bribes to murder people. You collect interest and make excessive profits. You make profits by extortion. You have forgotten me, says the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God).
13 Behold, therefore, I beat My fists at the dishonest profit which you have made, and at the bloodshed which you have committed.
14 Will you still be brave? Will you remain strong when I deal with you? I, the LORD (JESUS), have spoken, and I will do it.
15 I will scatter you among the nations {around the world} and force you into other countries. I will put an end to your uncleanness.
16 You will be dishonored in the sight of the nations. Then you will know that I am the LORD (JESUS).'
17 Then the LORD (JESUS) spoke his word to me. He said:
18 Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to Me; have become worthless to me. All of them are like copper, tin, iron, and lead in a smelting furnace. They are like the impurities left from silver.
19 This is what the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God) says: All of you have become worthless. That is why I'm going to gather you in the midst Jerusalem.
20 As men gather silver, copper, iron, lead, and tin together in a smelting furnace to melt them with a fiery blast. In the same way, in My anger and fury I will gather you and put you in the city. I will melt you there.
21 Yes, I will gather you, breathe on you with My wrath, and melt you in the city.
22 You will be melted in the city like silver that is melted in a furnace. Then you will know that I, the LORD (JESUS), have poured out My fury on you."
23 The LORD (JESUS) spoke his word to me. He said:
24 Son of man, say to her[Israel]: 'You are a land that is not cleansed or rained on in the day of indignation. You have not been made clean.'
25 Your princes are like roaring lions who tear their prey into pieces. They eat people and take their treasures and precious belongings. They turn many women into widows.
26 Your priests violated My law and profaned My holy things; they have not distinguished between the holy and unholy, nor have they made known the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they have hidden their eyes from My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.
27 Her princes in her midst are like wolves tearing the prey, to shed blood, to destroy people, and to get dishonest profits.
28 Your prophets cover up these things by seeing false visions and by prophesying lies. They say, "This is what the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God) says." Yet, the LORD (JESUS) hasn't spoken.
29 The people of the land have used oppressions, committed robbery, and mistreated the poor and needy; They oppress foreigners for no reason.
30 So I sought for a man among them who could build walls or stand in front of me by the gaps in the walls to defend the land and keep it from being destroyed. But I couldn't find anyone.
31 So I will pour out my anger on you, and with my fiery anger I will consume you. This is because of all the things you have done,' says the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God).
Ezekiel 23
THE TWO SISTERS—The two wives:
1 The LORD (JESUS) spoke his word to me:
2 Son of man, there were once two women, daughters of the same mother.
-Israel and Judah, one nation by birth from the same ancestress, Sarah.
3 They committed adultery and became sexual whores in Egypt when they were young. There they allowed men to fondle and caress their breasts.
4 The older girl was named Oholah, and the younger girl was named Oholibah. I married them, and they gave birth to sons and daughters. Oholah represents Samaria, and Oholibah represents Jerusalem.
Oholah – Israel or Samaria as an adulteress with Assyria
Oholibah- Judah, the Jews
Oholah that is, "Her tent" (put for worship, as the first worship of God in Israel was in a tent or tabernacle), as contrasted with Aholibah, that is, "My tent in her." The Beth-el worship of Samaria was of her own devising, not of God's appointment; the temple-worship of Jerusalem was expressly appointed by Jehovah, who "dwelt" there, "setting up His tabernacle among the people as His" ( Exodus 25:8 , Leviticus 26:11 Leviticus 26:12 , Joshua 22:19 , Psalms 76:2 ).
5 Oholah acted like a loose whore, although she was My wife. She lusted after her Assyrian lovers who lived nearby.
My--literally, "under Me," that is, subject to Me as her lawful husband.
6 They were governors and commanders clothed in purple. They were all handsome young men who rode on horses.
7 She became a prostitute for all the important men in Assyria. She dishonored herself with the idols of all those with whom she fell in love.
8 She continued her adultery that she started in Egypt. When she was young, men went to bed and had sex with her, fondled her breasts, and treated her like a prostitute.
the calves set up in Dan and Beth-el by Jeroboam, answering to the Egyptian bull-formed idol Apis. Her alliances with Egypt politically are also meant ( Isaiah 30:2 Isaiah 30:3 , 31:1 ). The ten tribes probably resumed the Egyptian rites, in order to enlist the Egyptians against Judah ( 2 Chronicles 12:2-4 ).
9 That is why I handed her over to her lovers, to the Assyrians whom she lusted after.
They are Germans today
10 They stripped her naked, took away her sons and daughters, and killed them with a sword. Women gossiped about how she was punished.
11 Yet even though Oholibah saw what had happened to Oholah, her sister, she followed right in her footsteps. And she became even more depraved, abandoning herself to her lust and whoring.
12 She lusted after the Assyrians who were nearby. They were governors and commanders in full dress. They were mounted horsemen, all of them desirable young men.
13 I saw that she was defiling herself. Both sisters acted the same shameful way.
14 Yet, she carried her prostitution even further. She saw pictures of men carved on walls. They were figures of Babylonian men, painted in vermilion.
vermilion--the peculiar color of the Babylon, as purple was of the Assyrians. In striking agreement with this verse is the fact that the Assyrian sculptures lately discovered have painted and colored bas-reliefs in red, blue, and black. The Jews (for instance Jehoiakim, Jeremiah 22:14 ) copied these (compare Ezekiel 8:10 ). Compare this to modern Babylon (the Catholic Church) and the color of the cardinals robes.
15 The men had belts around their waists and flowing turbans on their heads. All of them looked like Babylonian officers who were born in Babylon.
16 She fell in love with them at first sight and longed to give herself to them, and sent messengers to them in Babylonia.
17 So they came and committed adultery with her, defiling her in the bed of love. But later, she became disgusted with them and broke off their relationship.
18 She carried out her prostitution openly, and she lay around naked. I turned away from her in disgust as I had turned away from her sister.
19 This didn't bother her. She remembered unshamefully how she had been a prostitute in Egypt when she was young. {She longed for those days} So she took part in even more adultery.
20 She lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were as large as those of donkeys and whose semen was as much of a horse!
21 So she longed to do the sinful things she did when she was young in Egypt, when young men caressed and sucked her breasts.
22 Oholibah, this is what the LORD (JESUS) God(Elohim/Theos) says: I'm going to stir up your lovers against you. They are the lovers you turned away from in disgust. I will bring them against you from every side.
Illicit love, soon or later, ends in open hatred!!! ( 2 Samuel 13:15 ). The Babylonians, the objects formerly of their God-forgetting love, but now, with characteristic fickleness, objects of their hatred, shall be made by God the instruments of their punishment.
23 I will bring men from Babylon and from all Babylonia, men from Pekod, Shoa, and Koa, as well as all the Assyrians. They are desirable young men, governors and commanders, military officers and important men. All of them ride on horses.
24 They will attack you from the north, with armaments and wagons and with a large number of troops. They will attack you from all around with small and large shields and with helmets. I have handed you over to them for punishment. They will punish you with their own kind of punishment.
25 I will direct my burning anger against you so that they will deal with you in anger. They will cut off your nose and ears and kill everyone who remains. They will take your sons and your daughters and burn down whatever is left.
26 They will rip off your clothes and steal your beautiful jewels.
27 I will put a stop to your sinning and to your prostitution, which you began in Egypt. You won't desire these things anymore or remember Egypt anymore.
28 This is what the LORD (JESUS) God(Elohim/Theos) says: I'm going to hand you over to those you hate and to those you turned away from in disgust.
29 They will treat you hatefully and take away everything that you have worked for. They will rape you and leave you naked and bare. The shame of your prostitution will be revealed.
30 Your sinning and your prostitution have done this to you, because you lusted after the nations and dishonored yourself with their idols.
31 You've acted the same way as your sister. That is why I will put her cup in your hand.
32 This is what the LORD (JESUS) God(Elohim/Theos) says: You will drink from your sister's cup {of horrors}, a cup that is deep and wide. You will be scorned and mocked, because this cup holds so much.
33 The cup of your sister Samaria will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow.
34 In deep anguish you will drain that cup of terror to the very bottom. Then you will smash it to pieces and beat your breast in anguish. For I, the LORD (JESUS) God(Elohim/Theos) have spoken it.
35 And because you have forgotten me and turned your back on me, says the LORD (JESUS) God(Elohim/Theos); So you will be punished for your sinning and adulteries.
36 The LORD (JESUS) said to me, "Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah and tell them about their disgusting practices?
37 They have committed adultery against Me. Their hands are covered with blood. They commit adultery with their idols. They have sacrificed the children they gave birth to for me as burnt offerings to idols.
38 They have also done this to me: They have polluted my holy places when they do these things and dishonored the days to worship me.
39 When they sacrificed their children to their idols, they came into my most Holy Place and dishonored it. That is what they've done in my Temple.
40 They even sent messengers to invite men to come from far away. When the men arrived, they washed themselves for the men, painted their eyes, and put on their jewels.
41 They sat with them on a beautifully embroidered couch and put my incense and my oil on a table that was spread before you.
42 From your room came the sound of many men carousing. They were lustful men and drunkards from the wilderness, who put bracelets on your wrists and beautiful crowns on your heads.
43 Then I said, 'She is worn out from her acts of adultery.' Yet, men continued to have sex with her.
44 Men slept with her. They slept with those sinful women, Oholah and Oholibah just as they slept with a prostitute.
45 Righteous people will punish these women for adultery and for murder, because these women have committed adultery and their hands are covered with blood.
46 This is what the LORD (JESUS) God(Elohim/Theos) says: Bring an army against them and hand them over to be terrorized and plundered.
47 Then the mob will stone them and kill them with swords. The mob will kill their sons and daughters and burn their homes.
48 So I will put a stop to the sinning in the land, and all the women will be warned not to sin as they do.
49 They will be punished for their sins, and they will pay for their sin of idolatry. Then they will know that I am the LORD (JESUS) God(Elohim/Theos)."
This is one of the most shocking and frankly one of the saddest chapters in all of the Bible. Any man or woman whose spouse has committed adultery and whored around with another or other persons knows the knot, the pain in their stomachs and hearts over loving a person who has treated them so shamefully. God used this personal “human” adulterous story to show us, in ways we can comprehend, just what we have all done to our God, our Father and our Savior when we willfully disobey their Laws, but even more importantly refuse to honor their holidays. When we celebrate EASTER or CHRISTMAS or refuse to honor God on the Sabbath and instead go to paganized churches on Sunday-- we make our God feel like this! What most of us can not comprehend is that we are made in God's image and that every emotion we feel, GOD FEELS! Yes, we can and do hurt God's feelings when we do these things. We make God feel like the spouse whose mate has gone a whoring after other lovers! It's a lost and totally disparaging feeling that we leave God in.... Think about this when we say, “What's wrong with Christmas? I don't care if it came from paganism, I really don't care what God thinks about it, I see nothing wrong with.” Do such people deserve God's love?
Ezekiel 24
EZEKIEL'S WIFE DIES:
1 On December 24th (the tenth day of the tenth month) in the ninth year (588 BC), the LORD (JESUS) spoke his word to me. He said:
2 Son of man, write down today's date. The king of Babylon has surrounded Jerusalem this very day.
Ironically the date is what we would call Christmas Eve, or possibly Christmas day!
3 Tell these rebellious people a story. Tell them, 'Thus says the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God): Put the pot on the fire; put it on. Pour water in it.
4 Cut pieces of meat in it, Every good piece, The thigh and the shoulder. Fill it with choice cuts;
5 Use only the best sheep from the flock and heap fuel on the fire beneath the pot. Bring the pot to a boil, and cook the bones along with the meat.
6 Therefore this is what the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God) says: Woe to that city of murderers, for that tarnished pot. Its tarnish will not come off. Empty the meat out of it piece by piece without choosing any particular piece.
7 Blood is still in that city. The blood was poured on a bare rock. It wasn't poured on the ground where dust would cover it.
8 In order to raise up My fury and take vengeance, I have set her blood on top of a rock. Now that blood can't be covered.
9 This is what the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God) says:Woe to the bloody city! I, too, will pile the wood high.
10 Heap on the wood, Kindle the fire; Cook the meat well, Mix in the spices, And let the cuts be burned up.
11 Then set the empty pot on the coals so that it gets hot and its copper glows. Its impurities will melt away, and its tarnish will burn off.
12 She has grown weary with lies, but it's hopeless; the corruption remains. So throw it into the fire!
13 It is the filth and corruption of your lewdness and idolatry. And now, because I tried to cleanse you but you refused, you will remain filthy until my fury against you has been satisfied.
14 I, the LORD (JESUS), have spoken. It will happen, and I will do it. I will not ignore you, pity you, or change my plans. I will punish you because of the way you lived and because of everything you have done,'" declares the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God).
15 Then the LORD (JESUS) spoke his word to me. He said:
16 Son of man, I am going to take away your dearest treasure {your wife}. Suddenly she will die. Yet you must not show any sorrow. Do not weep; let there be no tears.
17 You may sigh but only quietly. Let there be no wailing at her grave. Do not uncover your head or take off your sandals. Do not perform the rituals of mourning or accept any food brought to you by consoling friends.
A very sad story here, Ezekiel must face the death of his wife, who was obviously very important to him. It is hard being a prophet! He was not even allowed to show sadness! Think how hard that must have been!
18 So I spoke to the people in the morning, and in the evening my wife died. The next morning I did as I was ordered.
19 The people asked me, "Tell us, what do these things that you are doing mean to us?"
20 I told them, "The LORD (JESUS) spoke his word to me. He said:
21 'Tell the nation of Israel, "This is what the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God) says: I'm going to dishonor my holy Temple. You brag that my Temple gives you strength. It's the thing you love the most. It's your hearts' desire. So the sons and daughters that you left behind will die in battle.
22 Then you must do as I did. Don't cover your faces or eat the food that mourners eat.
23 Leave your turbans on your heads and your sandals on your feet. Don't grieve or cry! You will waste away because of your guilt and groan to one another.
24 Ezekiel is a sign to you. You will do everything he has done. Then you will know that I am the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God).'
25 Son of man, on that day I will take their stronghold away from them. It makes them happy and proud. It is their hearts' desire and the thing they love the most. I will also take away their sons and daughters.
26 On that day a refugee will come to you to tell you the news.
27 On that very day your mouth will be opened, and you will talk to the refugee. You will speak and not be silent anymore. You will be a sign to them. Then they will know that I am the LORD (JESUS).
Ezekiel 25
1 The LORD (JESUS) spoke his word to me. He said:
2 Son of man, turn to the Ammonites and prophesy against them.
3 Tell the Ammonites, 'Listen to the word of the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God). This is what the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God) says: You were glad when my Temple was dishonored, when the land of Israel was ruined, and when the nation of Judah went into exile.
4 That is why I'm going to hand you over to the people in the east. They will possess your land. They will set up their camps and pitch their tents among you. They will eat your crops and drink your milk.
5 I will turn Rabbah into a pasture for camels, and I will turn Ammon into a resting place for sheep. Then you will know that I am the LORD (JESUS).'
6 This is what the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God) says: 'You clapped your hands and stomped your feet. You rejoiced and felt contempt for the land of Israel.
7 That is why I will use my power against you and hand you over to the nations as loot. I will wipe you out from among the nations, make you disappear, and destroy you. Then you will know that I am the LORD (JESUS).'
8 This is what the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God) says: Moab and Seir said, 'The nation of Judah is like all the other nations.
9 That is why I'm going to open up the cities that protect Moab's borders. They are the beautiful cities of Beth Jeshimoth, Baal Meon, and Kiriathaim.
10 I will hand the Moabites and the Ammonites over to the people in the east. So the Ammonites will no longer be remembered among the nations.
11 I will punish Moab. Then they will know that I am the LORD (JESUS).'
12 This is what the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God) says: Edom took revenge on the nation of Judah and became guilty because of it.
13 So this is what the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God) says: I will use my power against Edom. I will wipe out people and animals. I will turn the land into ruins from Teman to Dedan. People will die in battle.
14 I will use my people Israel to take revenge on Edom. My people will deal with Edom based on my anger and my fury. Then the Edomites will know my revenge, declares the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God).
15 This is what the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God) says: The Philistines have taken revenge with spiteful hearts. They have tried to destroy their long-time enemies.
16 So this is what the LORD (JESUS) GOD (Elohim-The family of God) says: I'm going to use my power against the Philistines, cut off the Cherethites, and destroy the people that are left on the coast.
17 I will take fierce revenge on them and punish them with fury. I will take revenge on them. Then they will know that I am the LORD (JESUS).
