Ezekiel 38 - Gog and Allies Attack Israel

 

Ezekiel 38 – Gog and Allies Attack Israel.

 

Ezekiel’s prophecy begins with a list of proper names. Many of these names Identify certain grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Noah who were the fathers of nations that for a time bore their names (Gen. 10). These nations which today no longer have those original names, will ultimately form a coalition that will march against Israel.

 

Gog, the leader of a massive confederation of pagan forces, sees Israel as a great undefended treasure to be taken by force. He thinks the invasion is his own idea, but in fact he acts according to the purposes of God, who will use Gog’s arrogance and defeat to glorify His own name in front of the whole world, much as He did with Pharaoh of the Exodus (Ex. 7:1-5; 14:4, 17,18).

 

The prophet tells us that the invasion of Israel will take place at a time when Israel is dwelling safely and in peace and not involved in conflict with other nations. When will there be such a time? The only period in Israel’s life likely to meet this requirement comes immediately following the Rapture of the church when the Antichrist makes a treaty with Israel to guarantee her peace and security.

 

God Himself will defeat the enemy with fire, earthquake, hailstones, and disease. The victory will be so complete, overwhelming, and so obviously supernatural that the remaining nations of the earth will recognize that God’s sovereign, omnipotent hand rests upon Israel for her blessing and protection.

 

Please read the chapter listed so that you can understand God’s Word better.

If you have missed any lessons, you can go to: God Plans For You at https://sherrysouthard.blogspot.com.

Nelson’s Quick Reference Commentary.

Dr. David Jeremiah Study Bible.

J. Vernon McGee Through the Bible

 

Ezekiel 37 - Dead Bones

 

Ezekiel 37 – Dead Bones

 

God gives to Ezekiel a real living parable and to do so He takes him to the valley of the dead bones. They were very dry and scattered. He is looking out on this valley filled with dead bones, and he’s to speak to them.

 

A preacher speaks to those who are saved and those who are unsaved. For any preacher who understands the real state and condition of those who are lost recognizes his own helplessness in speaking to them.

 

Ezekiel speaks to the bones and gradually they come together, and the sinews and flesh come upon them. They are no longer bones, but bodies with flesh upon them. Then God breathed life into them. The appearance of life is there, the promise of life is there, but life does not come until God Himself breathes His own life into them. These human beings were the house of Israel. The vision is given to them to let them know they have hope, and it is for the whole house of Israel.

 

The nation Israel was buried and scattered in the nations of the world, and was dead to God, dead to the things of God. They had all the material things, but not spiritual life.

 

In joining the two sticks, one labeled Judah and the other labeled Ephraim, into one stick, God was promising to gather His people back and join them into one nation, instead of two. There will be no more northern kingdom (Israel) and a southern kingdom (Judah), but one nation known as Israel.

 

He promises a new covenant with Israel and He does this so that “all the nations will know that I, the Lord, sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.”

 

Please read the chapter listed so that you can understand God’s Word better.

If you have missed any lessons, you can go to: God Plans For You at https://sherrysouthard.blogspot.com.

Nelson’s Quick Reference Commentary.

Dr. David Jeremiah Study Bible

Ezekiel 36 - Judged and Forgiven

 

Ezekiel 36 – Judged and Forgiven

 

Ezekiel focuses on reinhabiting the land, rebuilding the temple, and restoring the kingdom to the glory of God.

 

In His grace, God will bring the land from desolation to delight, and His people from dispersion to regathering and from defilement to cleansing. God will remove the disgrace of the people and bring great glory to His name. “I am for you!” says the Lord; and “if God is for us, who can be against us?” Rom. 8:31.

 

There is no future for those who persist in their sins, but those who confess and forsake their sins shall always find mercy with God. (Prov. 28:13).

 

The old covenant (Mosaic law) made demands on the people but did not empower them to obey God.  This new covenant would enable people to obey. (Jer. 31:31-33). It begins with forgiveness and cleansing as God transforms His people through the Holy Spirit.

 

The Lords blessings never comes because someone earns it, but because the Lord is gracious and generous and desires to show the whole world the bounties of His Love and grace. When God restores the Israelites to their land, He will do it for the sake of His name and glory so that He can bless all nations.

 

When God restores both the physical and spiritual fortunes of His people, He will do so not only to bless His redeemed sons and daughters, but also to show the nations that He is a gracious and loving God who always keeps His promises. God means for His glory to cover and bless the whole earth (Isa. 11:9), so that all creation will know and experience the splendor of His majesty (Rom. 8:19, Eph. 2:7, I Pet. 1:1).

 

Please read the chapter listed so that you can understand God’s Word better.

If you have missed any lessons, you can go to: God Plans For You at https://sherrysouthard.blogspot.com.

J. Vernon McGee Commentary and Nelson’s Quick Reference Commentary.

Dr. David Jeremiah

 

Ezekiel 35 -Judgment Against Edom (Esau)

 

Ezekiel 35 – Judgment Against Edom (Esau)

 

God announced blessing for Jacob, but He pronounced judgment on Edom the descendants of Jacob’s brother Esau. The Edomites were guilty of sins that are still practiced today.

 

Their grudge went all the way back to Genesis 27, and they would not forgive and forget.

 

When you hate others, you are envious of their blessings and angry when they succeed. The Edomites revealed their anger when they helped the Babylonians ravage Jerusalem (Obad. 10-14). If you are envious of others when they succeed and glad when they fall, then you may be carrying a grudge. The judgment you want to fall on your enemy may come around and fall on you.

 

The Edomites boasted of their great security in the rocks (Obad. 1-4), but God would bring them down in humiliation (Jer. 49). God still resists the proud, whether in nations or individuals, but gives grace to the humble (I Pet. 5:5).

 

The final straw against Edom took place when these relatives of the Israelites not only approved of the desolation inflicted on Judah by the Babylonians but rejoiced over their kinsman’s destruction and plotted to take control of the land and the resources. But the Lord made it clear that the land of Israel would belong to His people forever; once He returned the people to their homeland, He would make sure that the Edomites troubled them no more.

 

Edom represents the enemy of God in this world today, that enemy is going to rise against God in the last days under the Antichrist. God will judge the enemy. The people will be back in their land worshiping God and living in peace and blessing. What a glorious future is ahead for them!

 

Please read the chapter listed so that you can understand God’s Word better.

If you have missed any lessons, you can go to: God Plans For You at https://sherrysouthard.blogspot.com.

Nelson’s Quick Reference Commentary.

Dr. David Jeremiah Study Bible, J. Vernon McGee Through the Bible

 

Ezekiel 34 - Shepherds of Israel

 

Ezekiel 34 – Shepherds of Israel

 

For many decades, the shepherds of Israel, the nation’s leaders, both spiritual and governmental had failed to lead the people into godly ways of living. Even worse, they did not model how to enjoy a growing relationship with the living God. Instead, they acted to enrich themselves at the expense of others. The Babylonian conquest occurred because they failed to carry out their God-given duties. The nation collapsed and the people were scattered because its leaders failed.

 

The Lord removed the flock of Israel from the care of the nation’s spiritual and governmental leaders by eliminating those leaders through the Babylonian attack. While it is a great privilege to lead God’s people, its a privilege that comes with enormous responsibility (James 3:1).

 

Through Ezekiel, the Lord gives another promise that He will one day search for, seek out, and gather the people of Israel from all the places He has scattered them and bring them back to the Promised Land, where He will care for them and make them prosper. He will do for them what their failed shepherds refused to do. This prophecy began to be fulfilled when the good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, was born in Bethlehem (Matt. 2:6) and shepherds celebrated His arrival (Lue 2:8-14). As the Good Shepherd, Jesus ministered to the crowds, who were like sheep without a shepherd (Matt (:36).

 

Faithful shepherds of God’s flock pay special attention to the weak sheep among them and so take appropriate action to tend to their unique need. We are to “comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all” (I Thess. 5:14).

 

Please read the chapter listed so that you can understand God’s Word better.

If you have missed any lessons, you can go to: God Plans For You at https://sherrysouthard.blogspot.com.

Nelson’s Quick Reference Commentary.

Dr. David Jeremiah Study Bible. J. Vernon McGee Through the Bible

 

 

Ezekiel 32,33 Egypt Headed to Sheol

 

Ezekiel 32 – Egypt Headed to Sheol

 

The Egyptians worshiped both the lion and the crocodile, and the Old Pharaoh was muddying the water. God was basically telling the Pharaoh that He was going to pull him out and move him to a place where he will no longer live in a palace. He will find himself on the same level as his subjects.

 

Ezekiel compares Egypt to all the other proud nations that struck fear into the region’s population: Assyria, Elam, Meshach, and tubal Edom and the Sidonians. All of them had gone down to defeat and now lay in the pit, the place of the dead. (Isa. 18:6). Pharaoh will meet them there in Sheol. Jesus called it the place of torment for those who are lost.

 

God is the King and rules among the nations as He pleases. What He does has one grand purpose: that the nations may know He is the Lord. When nations and rulers start to think they are gods, God must remind them that He alone is the God of all earth. Nebuchadnezzar himself had to learn that lesson (Daniel 4).

 

Ezekiel 33 Ezekiel the Watchman

 

God had ordained Ezekiel to be a watchman, but now the people were to rodain their own watchman in each territory. When you see the sword coming, blow the trupet and warn the people; otherwise, their blood will be on your hands (Acts 20:26-27).

 

We must plea for repentance, for God wants each of us to have a broken and contrite heart (Ps. 51:17). We should not judge God but allow Him to judge us. Heb. 10:11-18.

 

They did not take God’s Word seriously; if they had, they would have obeyed it (James 1:21-27)

 

Please read the chapter listed so that you can understand God’s Word better.

If you have missed any lessons, you can go to: God Plans For You at https://sherrysouthard.blogspot.com.

Nelson’s Quick Reference Commentary.

Dr. David Jeremiah Study Bible and J. Vernon McGee Through the Bible

 

 

Ezekiel 29-31- Prophecy Against Egypt

 

Ezekiel 29-31 – Prophecy Against Egypt

 

Egypt was a great nation, and it had not been destroyed. It had maintained its integrity down through the centuries. It was one of the most ancient nations. There was only one entrance, and that was through the Nile River valley.

 

Now God says that the Egyptians will go into captivity for forty years. Egypt had been a thorn in the flesh of Israel for years, yet Israel was constantly running to Egypt for help. Kings Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah all turned to Pharaoh Hophra when Jerusalem was besieged.

 

The king of Egypt thought he was a great monster; guarding his royal river; but God said he was only a weak reed in the river. God would capture the monster and show Pharaoh that He owned the Nile River and could do with it what He please. The Babylonians would come and plunder Egypt, and Pharaoh would not be able to stop them.

 

Egypt was destroyed seventeen years later as God had said it would be.

 

Ezekiel 30

 

God would break Pharaoh’s arm and not allow it to heal, but He would strengthen Nebuchadnezzar’s arms and give him victory over Egypt and her many allies. No more would God’s people turn to Egypt for help.

 

Ezekiel 31

 

The message was for Pharaoh, who thought his nation was indestructible. Assyria once had the same idea, but look what God did to her. God would rebuke Pharaoh’s pride, cut down his nation, and cast it into hell.

 

 

If you have missed any lessons, you can go to: God Plans For You at https://sherrysouthard.blogspot.com.

Nelson’s Quick Reference Commentary.

Dr. David Jeremiah Study Bible. J. Vernon McGee Through the Bible