Let's start with a word of prayer. Father, again, we find ourselves here by your grace and by your plan. And Father, we thank you for the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the work of the Holy Spirit. Father, you're calling us to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and these magnificent things, Father, that you have done and are going to do as you promised in your word. Fathers, we study the word. We ask that we might be built up by it. Father, that we might be encouraged by the wonderful things that are there, Father, for us. And we thank you for this time, in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, we're in Ezekiel chapter 37, and we're looking at a study of eschatology, future events as predicted, prophesied in the word of God. And many of those events have already taken place. The coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, His death, burial, and resurrection prophesied over and over again throughout the Old Testament. The people of Israel, the nation of Israel, and their expulsion from the land, and all kinds of things that have already been accomplished. But there are things that have not yet been accomplished. And so Second Advent, return of the Lord Jesus Christ, the taking up of the church to be with the Lord. And there's this passage, Ezekiel 38 and 39. I don't go there yet, but we're in 37, building up. 38 and 39 talk about this incredible invasion of Israel, that there is a time coming when the armies of the people over in that area, and we're gonna be looking at that, under the leadership of Russia, are going to invade Israel. And one of the things that sparked my interest in this, of course, is that there's so much going on right now over in that area, and Russia and Iran are two of the nations that are mentioned as being together in this invasion. And God says that he's gonna bring about an incredible judgment on those nations when they go into Israel. And they're going to be destroyed on the mountains of Israel in such a way that the nations of the world are going to know that God did it. And there's some people that think that this is going to be the thing. Now, it doesn't mean that everybody's going to turn to Christ or turn to the Lord, but they're going to all of a sudden have to pull back and say, whoa. things that have been prophesied did come true here. And one of the people that I have been reading is convinced that this is going to be a turning point and the end of radical Islam, which I thought was an interesting, because they're all of a sudden gonna see that with God intervening very, very clearly on behalf of Israel, that this mandate that they have to, wipe Israel out cannot be of God. So that's somewhat speculative. But the question that's been raised is, where do we put this? See, it's not on the chart I did, because I don't know where to put it. And I can't be sure I'm kind of sure about where it doesn't go in some cases, but I can't just put it in. There's always a question that needs to be answered that I can't answer if I put it in a certain place. So it's not on the chart, but we need to deal with it. And it is gonna happen. It's just a matter of when God's timing for that is. Okay, so I always feel funny not bringing everybody up to snuff, so to speak. Look, Ezekiel is a prophet, remember? And he's in the land of captivity. And the Jews have been taken just about entirely off the land of Israel that was promised to their forefathers. and they're in disarray. The temple's been destroyed, the whole worship system has been taken away, okay? And so the question for Daniel, who's over in the land of captivity, and the question for Ezekiel is, is God have a future for us or not? You know what? Did something happen where all of a sudden God just said, I'm not gonna deal with these people anymore. And so, it's somewhat like when you're walking with the Lord and things are going well, and then all of a sudden things just fall apart. And you start to say, what's going on here? You know? Where am I at with the Lord? How can he let this happen? And they're asking questions on the national level about that. So let's go to Ezekiel 37. Remember we dealt with this last time where the Lord tells Ezekiel to take two sticks and basically what he told them was write the name of the Northern Kingdom or the nickname of the Northern Kingdom on one stick and the nickname of the Southern Kingdom on the other stick, and then take those two sticks and squeeze them together in your hand so they look like one stick. And he said, here's what I mean by this, is that those nations, I'm sorry, the two nations of the Southern Kingdom and the Northern Kingdom in Israel, they're gonna be one. When all this happens, there's not gonna be this division anymore. There's not gonna be this two nations, okay? Remember the Northern Kingdom was taken off the land in 722 BC because of their sinfulness, and then the rest of the Jews called Judah in the Southern Kingdom, They weren't taken off by Nebuchadnezzar until 586 BC. And he did that in three different invasions. So, verse 21. and say to them, thus says the Lord God, behold, I will take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, okay? And we can see that some of that has already been done. For almost 2,000 years, Somewhat less, 1,000 to, anyway. When the Romans came in and destroyed Jerusalem and dispersed the Jews, killed a million Jews, by the way, when Titus came in. When that happened, they were allowed to kill a Jew if he was found in the vicinity of Israel. So they weren't allowed in there. And so we went century after century after century after century of Jews not being there. Then late 1800s, somewhere in there, they started coming back and then in my lifetime and a lot of your lifetimes, 1949, they're pronounced a nation. the UN, and they've been a nation ever since. But they weren't there all those years. And for a whole bunch of those years, what, from I should know this, 600, 700 AD on, the Muslims were there. And you always wonder why, you know, the Muslims say, it's our land. And the Jews said, no, we had it before you. God gave it to us, book of Genesis, Exodus, you know. So there's this argument, but we had it for over 1,000 years. We had it, is what the Muslims would say. It's our land. And so their whole thing is we're not gonna rest until Israel is driven into the sea, destroyed, and so on their maps, do you realize this? On those maps, the Muslim maps, they don't have Israel on the map. They're not even on there. Because they see it as their land. So this is a huge, huge issue, not one you just say, well, fix it, okay? Okay, all right. So verse 21, and say to them, thus says the Lord God, behold, I will take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land. Great news for Ezekiel. We're going back to the land. Sometime we're going back, okay? And then he says, and I will make them one nation in the land on the mountains of Israel. Now here's the thing, and one king, will be king for all of them. And they will no longer be two nations, and they will no longer be divided into two kingdoms. But now here's this interesting thing. As we try to understand this and fit it into our own day, there has not been a king in Israel. So this has to be talking about something future, because they haven't had a king. And I want to take you back to Ezekiel 21, very fascinating passage. And in Ezekiel 21, I want to go back to start in verse 18. OK, a little bit more background. Remember, three invasions by Nebuchadnezzar. The third one hasn't taken place. And so the question is, and some people are saying it's not gonna happen, all right? Even in the land of captivity, they're saying that the temple which had not yet been destroyed is not gonna be destroyed. And they had this little phrase, they'd say, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. In other words, God would never destroy his temple. Okay, so the question. I'm sorry, Jeremiah and Ezekiel are both saying, yeah, it's gonna happen and the temple's gonna be destroyed and there's gonna be a complete removal of the land, of the people off the land. All right, so that's the question that's being answered here. And the Lord, sorry, verse 18, and the word of the Lord came to me saying, as for you, son of man, make two ways for the sword of the king of Babylon to come. Both of them will go out of one land and make a signpost, make it at the head of the way to the city. Now, I realize that's probably somewhat confusing, but here's the thing. Early in the book of Ezekiel, God said this. He said, Ezekiel, I want you to get this what evidently had to be a pretty good size brick. And I want you to inscribe the whole city of Jerusalem on that brick. And then I want you to build walls around it or siege mounds around it. And he says, and then I want you to be the one that lays down on the ground for over a year and you are going to besiege that city. So here he is doing this in Babylon. He's got this thing all set up and he goes out probably every day and he lays down out there and he's tied up according to the scriptures and he besieges. He's like the army that's going against this. Okay, that's just a little background. He had to eat starvation rations and cook them over animal dung Not a pretty situation. Okay, so now the Lord tells him, add to your little mock thing of Jerusalem, I want you to put a sign out there. And the sign, let's just say it this way, the sign has an arrow, one arrow goes to Ammon, and the other arrow goes to Jerusalem, okay? Because Nebuchadnezzar hasn't come yet, And he's gonna destroy Ammon, and he's also gonna destroy Jerusalem. And so the Lord is saying, I want you to teach this lesson that he's gonna come to Jerusalem first. Okay, and so he says, as for you, son of man, make two ways for the sword of the king of Babylon to come. Both of them will go out of one land and make a signpost. Make it at the head of the way to the city. you shall mark a way for the sword to come to Rabbah, which is Ammon, or the sons of Ammon, and to Judah into fortified Jerusalem. Then he does this prophetically. He says, for the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, So, what is he saying? He's saying, look, here's the king of Babylon, he's moving with his army, and he comes to this place where there actually is a road, if you go back into that land where this road is, and one way, he has to decide, who am I gonna capture and destroy next? And so, that's the question. And so, Notice how he's gonna decide. For the King of Babylon stands at the parting of the ways, at the head of the two ways, to use divination. He's gonna use satanic things, okay? Which are part of his religion. To use divination, he shakes the arrows. What does that mean? It means that he takes arrows in his hand and he shakes them around and he drops them on the ground and he gets some kind of a message from where they're pointing. The next thing he does is he consults the household idols. Scripture teaches that idols have a fallen angel or a demon behind them. And so he goes and he prays to an idol to find out which way he should go. And the last one is he looks at the liver. which means that he takes an animal that he sacrifices and he drops it a certain way on the ground, and I don't know whether they twisted it or whatever they did, but they, whether they flipped it like a coin or whatever, but the liver, you know, has a lobe or whatever, and if it's pointing, so he's doing all these things to determine how he's gonna get, where's he gonna go next, okay? And so then it says this. He looks at the liver. Into his right hand came the divination. In other words, his answer is this, Jerusalem. To set battering rams, to open the mouth for slaughter, to lift up the voice with a battle cry, to set battering rams against the gates, to cast up mounds, to build a siege wall. He's gonna do all this stuff, and he's going to Jerusalem first. Doesn't mean he's not gonna go to Ammon, because he is, but that's gonna be later. Then it says this. I don't know what to do with verse 23, but, and it will be to them like a false divination in their eyes, they have sworn Solomos, but he brings iniquity to remembrance that they may be seized. I think he's talking about the Jews aren't gonna believe this, but God is going to deal with them. But at any rate. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, because you have made your iniquity to be remembered in that your transgressions are uncovered, so that in all your deeds, your sins appear, because you have come to remembrance, you will be seized with the hand. In other words, God is gonna bring Nebuchadnezzar. But then he says this, and you, O slain wicked one, the prince of Israel, whose day has come in the time of the punishment of the end. In other words, of the end of this part of Israel's history. And the wicked slain one is generally understood to be Zedekiah. He's the last king to reign in Israel, okay? And he disobeyed the Lord multiple times. He would not listen to Jeremiah, who was his prophet and spoke to him there in the land of Judah. And so remember Zedekiah, he kept thinking he was gonna get away, had this escape route with the army and so forth. And when Nebuchadnezzar came in, they went out a certain way and they did get out and evidently on horseback. And they got a distance and then Nebuchadnezzar's army caught him. And Nebuchadnezzar took Zedekiah's sons and evidently lined him up in front of him and slaughtered his sons while he was watching, and then gouged his eyes out, gouged Zedekiah's eyes out. And then he went into captivity in the land of Babylon. Very, very, and Jeremiah warned him. Remember, Jeremiah, God had a wonderful promise to the Jews. He said, listen, all the surrounding nations and you yourselves are going to be put under the foot, on your neck of the King of Babylon. And God said this, I'll make you a promise. If you will desert to Nebuchadnezzar, I will guarantee you your life. He said, I'll give you your life, it's booty, you know, spoil. You wanna live? Then go over, now you got to picture what's going on. This is Jeremiah's message. He's preaching it to the army. You know, if you're military, I have had trouble with this. If you're military, and you always are ready to fight for your country, and here comes a preacher, and the preacher's saying what? Hey, you guys, lay down your weapons, you want your life? Go over to Nebuchadnezzar. He's besieging the city, comes three different times, just go out and say, we surrender, we're giving you, and anybody can do that. Anybody, and God says, I promise you, I will protect you and you'll have your life. Yes, you'll go into captivity and so forth, but you will have your life. So, at any rate, Zedekiah didn't do that. Zedekiah paid dearly. His sons paid dearly. All right, now here's a key verse, verse 26. Thus says the Lord God, remove the turban, if you go through the Old Testament, the turban is that head dress or hat, I don't like that word, that is only for the priesthood, the high priest, okay? He wears the turban. So the Lord says, Now picture what he's talking about. He's talking about when Nebuchadnezzar comes and all of these things happen, he says, turban's gonna be removed. The priesthood, not gonna be able to function the way it did because the Ark of the Covenant, the Ark of the Covenant, when Nebuchadnezzar comes, disappears. We never, we never see the Ark of the Covenant again in scripture, as far as, We don't know where it is, okay? We don't know whether Nebuchadnezzar took it apart, whether it's hidden somewhere. There's all kinds of theories in Jerusalem today that it's hidden under a certain part of the city where the priests put it when they knew they were gonna be attacked and, you know, I don't know, okay? But with that not there, then you don't have the Ark of the Covenant, you don't have the place where you bring the sacrificial blood in on the day of atonement, the mercy seat, you don't have any of that. So the Lord says, remove the turban, and then it says this, and take off the crown. Wow. Historically, we know the crown in Israel ended with Zedekiah. Okay, no question. When the new nation came back, they don't have a king. All right, and then it says this. Remove the turban, take off the crown, this will be no more the same. It's not gonna be the way it was, okay? And then I think this is interesting. Exalt that which is low and abase that which is high. It seems like that's a motto from time to time in history, isn't it? Where you build up what shouldn't be built up and you tear down what, shouldn't be torn down. At any rate, and then the Lord says this, a ruin, a ruin, a ruin, I shall make it. I'm going to make Jerusalem And most specifically, because this would seem to correspond to the words of the Jews, whenever Jeremiah or certainly Ezekiel would preach about the destruction of the temple, their words to him were, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. In other words, God will not destroy the place where he dwells. And if I had time, and I don't, but if I had time, I'd take you to the opening of, and those opening chapters of the book of Ezekiel, where God describes his leaving the temple. Amazing. He goes up over the Ark of the Covenant, then he goes out over the threshold, then he goes out over the eastern part of the city, and he leaves. And if they had been paying attention to Ezekiel, they would know now it's just a what? It's just a building. It's not a place where God dwells. He left. He's not there over the mercy seat the way he was. And so now you think about this. If he didn't do that, certainly every person that would invade the invading army going into the Holy of Holies. Can you imagine walking with a sword into your hand in the presence of the God of Israel? I mean, it's not gonna happen. And so God left his dwelling place and now he says here in this verse, a ruin, a ruin, a ruin, because that's to counter the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, okay? And then he says, a ruin, a ruin, a ruin, I shall make it. This also will be no more. Is there a temple in Israel now? No, all this time, the priesthood is not operating the way it was supposed to. There's no king and there's no temple. There was a rebuilt temple, but there's no temple today. Okay, here we go. But here's this great verse. A ruin, a ruin, a ruin, I shall make it. This also will be no more, and then notice, until he comes whose right it is, and I shall give it to him. I'm talking about Jesus Christ. He's the great high priest, and he's the king of kings. And when he comes, it's his right. There is going to be a king in Israel again, okay? And there is going to be Jesus Christ as the great high priest, okay? And that's going to take place. But, all right. Now, Okay, here's what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna stop right here. Just because it's the perfect place to stop. If I don't, we won't do communion when we're supposed to. Okay, Father. What an amazing thing you have done in laying out for us these events. Some of them have already taken place. Some of them have not, Father. But where else could we have an understanding of the turmoil that's in our own world and the events that are shaping up and the things that are going on? The revelation of your word is awesome. We thank you for it. In Jesus' name, amen.